thanksgiving

got up and went to the farm in my orange hat
arrived just after one of my uncles got the first rabbit
grabbed my shotgun and a cigar and joined my uncles beating the brush
we ended up getting another rabbit across the creek and then (after about half of them left) we strolled up to the north woods and started looking for squirrel
we almost got to the end without seeing any when someone spotted one in a tree, we started moving around the tree to get a shot, when i spotted another one running in a nearby tree, and then all hell broke loose
a couple shots went off and there were suddenly squirrels EVERYWHERE
at least 7 of them running all around us and people shooting all over the place (mostly missing) and it was hard to see where they even were, and the worst part, i only had one shell left, and shot one immediately after my uncle kim got it (so it was his kill) so i was standing around looking dumb while there are frickin squirrels all over the place that i had a shot at a few of (and would have hit)
by the time i got more shells from my dad there was only one left, and by the time i got over to it, it had made it up into its nest, so that sucked
but we ended up with 2 rabbits and 3 squirrels total so that wasn't bad
then we went to my uncle kim's for dinner (after showers) and had a good time eating and lounging outside (because it was a ridiculously nice day)
later that night luke, leah, julia and i saw borat, which was funny, but not Great, and the very large naked man wrestling with the skinny naked man for 5 minutes really didn't do it for me as it turns out...
saturday i watched 'the fountain' with john
i liked it, but i think i'm going to have to see it again to really absorb it
it was a lot better than requiem for a dream (which i didn't like) but not Quite as good as pi (which i loved), so aronofsky is doing pretty well for my taste

beginner tournament

had the beginner tournament for lawrence county fencing last night
once all four kids showed up i introduced everyone to tournament formats and told the parents about some of the things they should look for
then we did pools, which went fairly well
the first DE was fairly quick and clean, but the second took Forever, they actually used every last second to finish it and were pretty exhausted by the end, so after a break the final bout was julia (my cousin) against gabrielle
julia ended up winning (which was kinda cool) so i announced the places and gave them all certificates (that i think they appreciated) and told them i'd let them know when the next lessons will be
so it's official
i have taken a project from start to finish
pretty amazing
i might do it again
and hopefully i'll be able to offer classes again in the spring, and expand to allow adults too

bourbon open and lexington

went to the bourbon open (hosted by the KY division even though it took place in jeffersonville IN) and fenced foil and sabre
it wasn't run terribly well, they definately had some major problems with directors, and some of the timing wasn't great for people fencing multiple weapons (but there isn't a whole lot you can do about that)
i ended up seeded 2nd of 8 for the DEs in sabre, so i had a bye for the first round, during which they had me direct some foil (what!?) and i got most of my foil pool bouts out of the way (by fencing them all in a row, not so good for my performance)
then i faced a woman from one of the louisville clubs, she was vicious, in sabre, some people have a tendency to try to swing hard as a substitute for outsmarting their opponent, they can get touches by intimidating people (from hitting them hard, repeatedly, even when they don't actually score), and by breaking through parries, the problem is, they aren't usually able to advance past a certain level because people with better footwork than them will be able to either make them miss and be off balance, or make it so the touches they hit aren't in-time
i was better than her, and i won, but i paid for it with some very large bruises
after that i finished up my foil pools and faced the D sabreist (B epee, C foil) that i beat in the pools, but this time he was able to get me 10-15, so i ended up 3rd (but if i had let him win in the pools i would have probably been in second, hmmm)
i asked for my foil DE to be as soon as possible because i wanted to get done, so i was able to do that fairly quickly and lose fairly quickly (7th seed vs 8th seed) though i did get some nice touches in and i'm starting to learn the distance for foil a little better
then i went over to lexington to hang out with brittany
we went to dinner at a cajun place down there that was pretty good (and their sauce was excellent) and watched the disappointing ohio state victory (we were rooting for the lesser of two evils) and reveled in the glorious triumph of our great school over the nasty redcoats from down south (or north of me now, but whatever)
then we went over to her friend whitley's and watched 'billy elliot', which is Fantastic, and ate cookies
sunday we watched 'amelie' and ate panara and i drove back

purdue fall open

went to purdue for the fall open
hung out with zak (john's roomie) for awhile and chatted and whatnot
fenced foil and sabre on saturday, so i was pretty tired by the end of it
i finished right in the middle for foil (which i've been doing at all the larger tournaments i've done) but hopefully now that i've actually been working on my form i'll start improving a little
i was seeded first in sabre, but then lindon showed up and we convinced him to fence so i was seeded second
there were only 8 people there so i got to face lindon in the pools and actually ended up beating him 5-4 so that was kinda cool, but it also meant that i had a bye the first round (boo, less fencing)
then for the DE i beat my first person (although he was having connectivity issues with his mask) and ended up facing lindon again for the finals, where we pretty much degraded to a kind of goof-off fencing that always seems to happen when we go against each other, it's kinda weird, and as usually happens when we do that, he beat me 15-10
though i did get in a fantastic touch where i leapt up, feinted to the head, and did a chest cut, his eyes about popped out of his head, it was pretty funny, and the director was laughing and said i need to go forward, not up, but that it was graceful, ahhh good times
so then i went back, grabbed a shower and some dinner, alone because ellie had a date and everyone else was busy or gone, but when i got down to moe's for some fat sam action, there she and her date were, waiting in line right in front of me
so we all sat down and she was talking about how whenever she tries to go on a date with john, Everyone always shows up
i was sitting there thinking to myself "oh yeah... if that's the case, where's matty d!?"
about 3 seconds later, i feel a hand on my shoulder, look back, and there he stands...
weird...
so after all that i went to lindon's for his party
we broke a door (because SOMEONE didn't plan ahead very well and didn't have a good surface for playing beer pong OR A PING PONG BALL, and we ended up ripping the handle out of a door to use)
so after some (yuck) beer and some screwdriver (hooray flasks of skyy) and some jello shots, i went to Windows (martini bar above capp & ginos) to meet up with ellie and joel and watch joe work his magic
it's actually a pretty neat place, and i'll definitely go back
i had a bloody brain (shot) and a caramel(something), which was good, and a mango(something) martini which was excellent, and then got back to john's room where i chatted with zak for another couple hours before crashing
the next day after hanging out with john and zak i drove down to indy for the first meeting of the 'indy objectivists'
it was interesting...
then i went home and that's about it