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Hey!  Lots going on in Paradise…most of it happening out of town!

Just after Labor Day, Karen, Paris and I ventured up to Annapolis to see our favorite midshipman for Parents’ Weekend 2010.  This is a “once-a-career” opportunity for parents to attend classes with their mids, check out their rooms in Bancroft Hall (world’s largest dormitory under one roof with over five miles of hallways), eat in King Hall (seats just under 5,000), and otherwise get a glimpse of mid life.  We didn’t get a lot of pictures because we were busy…do you have any idea how difficult it is to follow along in a radar lab?  Yeah, that was one of the classes we attended.  Ask me how multiple aircraft can form up to appear as one on a radar screen…I can explain it to you now.  But Mark can do the math in his head to figure out how to defeat the plan…amazing stuff!  The future leaders of our military services (even those lost souls at West Point) are an impressive bunch!

We got to spend time with Cameron, we caught a football game (Navy wins!), Paris loved the flyover, and Mark even promised to do everything in his power to lead a flyover at Paris’s High School graduation if the Navy agrees that Flight School is in everyone’s best interests.  It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened, so don’t be surprised if I have video in ten years of Navy jets screaming over Paris’s graduating class!

We flew back from Annapolis only to head out to Austin, Texas for a visit to a Punch Kettlebell Gym run by our new friend Chris Huppee.  Punch Sarasota is almost a reality!  For those of you that I haven’t briefed, Karen and I are opening a Punch Kettlebell Gym here in Paradise.  Renovations are almost complete, equipment is on a truck and on its way right now, and we should be ready to open the doors within the next few days.

Chris shared a lot of insight with us, let us observe and participate in her client sessions and classes, and even had Karen run an early morning class that ended with gallons of client sweat on the floor.  Chris also took a few pix of us playing around, and she threatened my life if I didn’t get them posted.  (And she’s one strong girl…)  So here goes…

Here’s the Queen tossing around 50 pounds on the top side while hanging 35 pounds on the bottom.  Not bad, huh?

And then there’s this nonsense…

Punch Gyms are big on unorthodox tools.  Obviously we use kettlenells, but we also use “vintage” equipment (like that pink barbell Karen is tossing like a twig), we use ropes, Indian Clubs, logs, medicine balls, and…stones.  Sometimes we use use rocks you find outside (trying doing any “traditional” exercise of your choice with an irregular shaped big rock…see the challenge?)  Sometimes we use very uniform, very big, very heavy Atlas Stones.

As Atlas Stones go, this one is a baby.  And if you talk to someone off camera long enough, you can try to avoid picking it up.

Then, if you actually talk to the stone long enough, you can also buy more time before you gotta pick the damn thing up —

Then…and here’s the clever part…you use your bald-ass head to confuse everyone…my head looks just like that 120 pound hunk of cement, right?  Everyone gets mesmerized…is he picking it up or am I being blinded by his damn skull?

And then?  While everyone is blinded by the light reflecting off your bald head…then…then you pretend you picked it up all by yourself when in fact you had three big strong guys put it on your shoulder for you…

Okay, okay, all kidding aside, I did manage this thing on my own.  But then one of Chris’s trainers (Henry — The Man) tried to convince me to try the 185 pound version.  I passed, thank you.

So he made me clean up.  Remember the log I mentioned?  Here’s one —

I do as I’m told.

We’ll have these same kinds of fun toys in our gym here.  We’ll keep you posted on our progress towards opening, and if anyone cares to visit soon, we’ll have you over for some fun and games!

Get ready!