Saw WALL-E today. Very good movie indeed, it was everything and better than I expectid ^_^

WALL-E’s about this robot who is apart of this huge robot job to clean up the earth. There’s junk and shit every where. If you took one step you’ed step in something. Well theres this one robot WAAAALL-E(prolong the A), as I could see so far was the only robot still working. Well WALL-E had a personality, he was a colecter. Any cool garbage he finds, takes, and puts it in his colection. One day a ship comes and drops off this strange other robot (as seen in the trailer) this robot is looking for something. WaLL-E of course falls for her ^_^. When some funny and cool things happen, you know boring robot stuff ^_^. WALL-E shows her this plant that he found. She sucks it inside her and than just.. goes to sleep. The ship that droped her off comes back and picks her up. Since WALL-E likes her, and doesn’t know whats happening, grabs on and flys into space with her. They get to this space ship that is carrying people. These robots check her and run to the capitan. The plant that she took is a sign of life, so the capitan sounds the (very silent) alrm and gets the manual to when this happens; They’ve been on this ship for 700 years. The plant is gone though. So theres this whole trying to get the plant back from the mutaning bots and in the end (humans won) they go back to earth and help clean it up themselves too.

For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E

Cool negative/positive graffiti effect on San Francisco’s Broadway Tunnel. “Kitchen porter” runs with the idea of cleaning grime from a kitchen. The graffiti is supposed to be of indigenous plants that lived where the tunnel is now and, of course, has an environmental message. Of course. Cool effort, though.

I was surprised to learn that Golden Gate Park was once just dunes of sand and known as “The Great Sand Bank.” There is something to be said about terraforming, introducing non-indigenous plants and biodiversity.

Ssssout.

I’ve been working on our outdoor kitchen Thursday and Friday, which happened to coincide with ETK’s variety day and off day.  This is my last week on vacation (back to work July 1st) and I’m trying to maximize the time I spend on my house remodeling projects.

My kettlebells and free weights sit in and next to my garage, which also happens to be where the boxes full of my Ikea kitchen cabinets are stacked.

So in order to keep a little variety in my days off, I did a few sets of deadlifts and cleans as I went into the garage to get my tools and supplies throughout the day.

On Thursday, I deadlifted.  I use a traditional stance, modified a bit to keep my knees from hurting too much (2 surgeries on the left knee - ACL tear and reconstruction, and impending doom on the right knee).  I keep my grip overhand, with my pinky fingers on the knurling and my shins on the bar, outside my arms.  It’s kind of a close-stance sumo, sorta, kinda. 

Any-who, I pulled a couple triples with 135 to get in the groove.  Then I put 225 on the bar (the rust made them stick a little) and grabbed 3 sets of 3 over the course of an hour.  It’s not a lot of weight, I know, but it’s variety day and I’m not going to kill myself before our heavy day on Saturday.  I just wanted to get back into the groove of deadlifting, as I’m giving serious thought to entering the Tactical Strength Challenge this September, which would give me another goal to meet as well as something else to write about and thereby stay motivated (and honest!).  Check it out www.tacticalstrengthchallenge.com.

Oh yeah.  When I finished deadlifting, I grabbed the 16 kg bell and did windmills for 5 reps each side, nice and slow.

On Friday, I was putting cabinets together again, and as I went in the garage, saw my pair of Ader 32 kg bells there on the floor.  Ordinarily, I use those big bells to keep my feet in position while I do my Janda sit-ups after my ETK workouts.  As they looked kind of lonely, I decided to use them for more than paper weights.  I started out by grabbing a pair of 24 kg kettlebells and cleaned them for 5 reps.  I dropped them, grabbed what I went in there for and left.

About 30 minutes later, I went back in, grabbed those 32s off the floor and did 7 cleans until my right knee started to complain. 

1. Rule number 1:  Never contest space with your kettlebells!
2. Rule number 2:  Stop if you feel pain!

So, 1) I didn’t; and 2)  I did!

This has happened to me before when I’ve used double kettlebells for drills (like you’ll find on the Aggressive Strength page, above).  I get a sudden sharp pain when my knee goes from flexed to straight. 

Usually all I have to do is widen my stance a bit and point my feet further out (close to a 45 degree angle)and the pain goes away.

I grabbed my stuff and didn’t go back until about a half hour later.  When I went in, I grabbed the bells, adjusted my stance and got 10 cleans.  Those felt good.

Back out to the patio for my “real” work and then back into the garage about 20 minutes later for 10 more double cleans.

And that’s it!  Friday’s my off day, remember?

Remember that you don’t always have to do a full programmed workout.  Sometimes it’s fun to just go out and throw heavy things around for a bit.  Just make sure your form is correct and have a good time!