My YOGA life

This is a life style choice... 

It is what you might think it is...

It is Meditation... It is Strength... It is Inner Beauty... It is Relaxation... It is Solace... It is Flexibility... 

It is Beautiful...

It is Being!

My Wife and I were lucky enough to join a wonderful world of friends and family that enjoy the life of Yoga. It doesn't mean you have to change your life to look like a yoggi but i promise it will change your life.  It is an internal change and one I dare suggest you not miss out on.

Why this blog? 

I was given an avenue to express my love for Yoga by 3B Yoga located in the Riverwoods in Provo Ut.  They asked me if I would be willing to be part of their photo shoot highlighting some of the great clothes they offer in their boutique, and write about it.  That's an easy yes for me. I have been hinting to my wife for the past few months about some new yoga clothes.  

I figured that if I could get a professional photographer to make me look as good as the clothes do, I might have a chance.  Kiera Haddock did just that.  I mean check me out!

 I can wear clothes upside down!
Do you know how hard it is to do that?
OK, its not that hard but its hard to look good doing it and Kiera made it happen.
I have done my fair share of modeling and this was by far my favorite experience.
The ease of the day was somewhat odd, I say this because it always seems on photo shoots there is some dramatic catastrophic dilemma brewing. Not with this one. It was just easy and as I've been able to see the results done amazingly well.
If you need any photos taken, you know, for headshots, Christmas cards, family photos, Kiera has got the eye and the ease.

Kiera Haddock

www.kieraeve.com

Let me tell you about 3B Yoga: www.3byoga.com

This place is awesome! The friendliest bunch of people I've met in a long time.

They just want people to experience Yoga. 

They want you to have a good time and feel comfortable.

There is no you're doing bad Yoga at this place, its catered to you and where you are in your own practice. that is right, this is just practice. There are no games, tests, boards... its just you and someone guiding you in your own practice.

What is fun for me is everyone there doing the same thing differently. And that being OK. What is even more cool is the connection with the others practicing along side you and the becoming one whole.

Plus it super cool to do with my wife.
We get to do some fun couples poses.

There is a good reason to read to the bottom of the page.
3B Yoga has authorized me to give a 25% off coupon to my readers.

That means you!
Seriously, the clothes feel so good and are super good looking its worth it to just drop by the Riverwoods and check out there place.
It is located in the south east corner area across from the Rocky Mt. Chocolate factory. Believe it or not, the Yoga is more satisfying. And slimming.

Life
is
just
better
with
Yoga

As the shirt says

"I bow to you"

Down at the ranch

A weekend love affair.... with fire and food... and doing nothing. (except getting that Damn Christmas Tree) <<<-

We've been eating good in this neighborhood, which consists of like three families.  all living over a mile away. so its just been us making good food and eating it. The problem is we planned on twice as many people and we keep making food to feed twice as many people and we keep eating food for twice as many people. like bread..

Three hot loaves...

Yeah, that is too much to handle... but ohhh does it taste good... for those who want to know how to make a cool loaf like this:

I double this and add way too much salt, but that makes it better. smiley face

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

let cool to room temp... you will kill the best part of the flavor if you cut into it too soon. 

you can leave these out of the bag for a couple of days as long as you leave the bread cut side down on the cutting board.

now for my treat... my sister made Aranchini...

rizzoto rice balls with oooie gooie cheese deep fried love

I mean really, 45 of these things for 7 adults and 5 kids... as the appetizer...

Three main dishes and 4 sides... and whats for dessert... well, nothing yet but im sure they will be calling soon... Bobby... come eat something sweet..... then i'll have to make it to eat it.  

So, the tree.. let me tell you about the tree, or trees.  we got two permits, we left them at the ranch... no big deal, we'll just cut them, take them home and wrap the tags then. Here comes the Ranger!  He was like oh you left them 20 miles back down the road, that sucks.  but then he was cool and was like just cut them and email me a pic of your tags.  that was cool.

Time for the hunt...

I brought 4 pair of snowshoes and as we were leaving the ranch i thought maybe we wont need them, its been pretty warm but I took them anyway.  Glad I did! The snow was almost 4 feet deep in spots and was atleast 2 feet everywhere else.

We were at roughly 9572 feet above sea level and my lungs were lets say a little bit angry and a little bit happy to be pushing it so hard.  

I had the Chain Saw and that thing gets heavy. but i would hate to do it with out one.  

There it was, something out of the Griswold Family Christmas, the perfect tree.  50 feet tall and 25 feet across... so we cut the one next to it...for us... 20 feet tall and pretty cool.  Man was it heavy. Cody, my Brother, and I carried it half way up to the trucks before we about died. Then we went to cut his tree. I was a bit further down the mountain and oh boy did it make my tree feel like balsa wood.  i mean we spent over an hour getting it to the truck and we fell over once or twice.  This is funny... Cody was taking the lead on spinning the tree so it was going in the right direction and I caught a rock... down i went. We switch ends and he catches a rock... Whoops a daisy... we switch again and now he goes down in front... it was a rough trail.  

pictures to come 

little full, lotta sap

I have now heard the call...

gotta get somthin sweet...

The Rut

The Halloween Cross

NOT like a satanic religious cross but the Cross of the CYCLEcross type..
So the day started out crisp and cold and got colder and even colder which was fine because I was in full costume.

the layers of shirt vest tie and jacket made the day warm up quite a bit.

the race was fun and hard. I just dont have the lungs to keep up. I really should race in Cat C but the B's start at such a good time that i will continue to race with em, i hope not to DFL every time.

So here are some photos:

at the 3rd turn i am 3rd to last

doing better here, i moved up 2 places

all alone

following the Gilly... picking up loose $

brutal up hill

hate this tree!!!

 

 

Well, the story is about the same as the last one...
The thing is there was a costume contest and i was saving this blog to let youall know that i won... well, no one knows who won because Utah Cyclocross hasn't posted anything yet. LAME!!!

Cyclocross

The day comes when you have to just man up and race in a harder division... or you do it because it starts 2 hours later and you want to sleep in... that is me, the sleeper-iner.

I found that I am a back row starter and a back row finisher but boy is the journey fun. I mean painful fun.  Every part of my body hurt, mostly my lungs but my quads were right up there. my back was like ouch and i wish i had more to eat because my tummy ached for anything to be in there.

The Gilly

The day was hot and the water was...n't flowing, but the air was crisp and the dollar bills raining... really, htey hand out money and beer(if they dont get caught). the money is no problem.... the thing is, i was so tired that it was too hard to grab the $$$$ like im really that tired... at first I was too tired to notice it.. it was breath hard and ride... then i got going and  it was breath harder and ride harder and then it was breath super hard and try not to fall off the bike due to this asthmatic situation you find yourself in at the half way mark of the first lap.  FOUR MORE to go... in the the awe inspiring words of the Gilly.. YYAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!.


So, out of breath and legs a hurtin...i pressed on. and on, and On.  really it gets frustrating when people kinda keep passing you on the long flats that come up after the super technical stuff you were just gaping them on... I GOT NO LEGS AND NOOOO LUNGS!!  guess it might help if i trained at all right... riding once a week (the race) might not be the best way to improve.

The picture to the left is the Run Up which at this race came after the barriers: they are a 10 inch or so tall wall that you have to get over any way you can.. they usually put enough of them together to make sure you can not bunny hop them, so you dis mount... this is a skill that i am acquiring a taste for. It is fun!.. the re mount is super cool if done right... its like Superman jumping on a bike... for me its like Superman jumping on a bike made of Kryptonite.. NOT pretty. more of a dude, is he gonna be able to have kids? type of thing.









At the end of the race I didnt come in last... there were like 3 behind me... actually 5 but i got lucky. 

Cyclocross is RAD!   you should try it.

Why do good things turn bad

like today for instance... having a great day then pow... now it sucks.


Don't read this, its depressing and lame. 


Really this is about the bike and the cyclocross season.

I get into Cyclocross by helping build a track for SBR Utah and am so stoked to race, I even ordered a new cyclocross bike... it didnt get here until the third race... no worries, i was ready to race it now.  I had raced the first two on the mt bike and that was fine but i wanted a new experience... i did a pre ride a few days before on the new bike. I liked it. a lot.

Tuesday roles around and it is race day!!! that course is all set up and i take my warm up laps.. i flat.. well, i had cafe latex in the tubes, i should be fine.... well, Cafe latex works like pissing in your tire, you feel good while doing it and thats about it. NO RACE FOR ME!!!
now the next week rolls around and i have ridden the bike on some mt trails and i love it. A LOT!!!  so i am all sorts of stoked on racing, just some things to clean up at work before the whole shebang that goes along with setting up the race and racing... #$&*$! #$%^  %$@&$$! &#**! I hurt my knee digging a trench. lame!
it hurts a lot, but i am not going to let that keep me from racing. I race. I race good. I get the lead into the Dirty South (trust me this is the best thing you can do if you want to see and not breath in the toxic waste of moondust that was deposited there by Sadam himself). I get passed in far east but i am not too worried, i turn it on in the end more than up front, something about never warming up. I am feeling great, breathing is fine, legs are strong and my knee is in no pain... hell yes!
2nd place into the Run up... i dismount and there it is... the knee, the start of the end, the everything going great... now it sucks!
I get to the top and see 6 racers off and riding. i catch three of them, I still feel great. the knee doesnt hurt on the bike... the run up... the WALK up...the CRAWL UP...  it just kept getting worse. I continued to catch peeps on the bike and then get passed right back on the F$%* up.

To my knee, i love you! now stop hurting!

over all I have been in great shape and now that I am so excited about Cross i cant even put up a fight. I cant even ride for fun. overall fitness going down the toilet.
It was good, now it sucks!
did i mention i am dealing with a kidney stone that has been plaguing me since july and the PC 50. The kidney Stone was never Great... it has always just sucked.

Its my moms birthday and Saturday. yup Oct 1... She was GREAT!!!! She passed away July 25 2006 from Cancer. Mom, i love and miss you. CANCER I hate you!

I dont do this much... Blog that is...

last time you saw me here i had run a 9 mile run with e wife in February... that was soo cool right, well, I did a monster trail run in may, it was a half marathon and it was 90% up hill. I did it well until the 10% down hill then it was hell.  i cant run downhill. Thanks Coach Shaun for the chance to run your TIMP TRAIL MARATHON and HALF MARATHON.  the next week i ran the draper days trail run... they had a 3 6 10 and 13 mile category. i chose to only run the 10 mile, needed my legs to chill out. i did better this week than the last and I felt great until the next ttime i went running and my left knee started to klunk. that sucked... so it was biking for me for the rest of the summer. mostly road biking...

Devils Kitchen of Nebo

The best place to sleep in Manti...

My Road Bike Summer...  bla bla bla, i road a lot of road bike this summer, I did Mt Nebo like 4 times in 8 days and road to Manti with my hot ass wife twice. it seemed i would only go on a ride if it was 100+ miles. i dont like the shorty stuff, im too cool.          

Jeff And I over Nebo

This is an awesome light at the end of the 111 mile wind tunnel

Now it has come to fall, I Helped build the SBR Cyclocross Race Course... and it is time to ride...

 oh yeah... i did some mt biking too... PC 50 and ... ... ... a couple of Biathlon races at Soldier Hollow.... all three, heeelllllllllll of Fu-un.....

12 hours Sundance.... here i come.

9 MILES

so i ran my first nine miles today... hurt!  well, we head out and its all down hill..... til we turn around....  the way back just gets harder and harder.
I actually ran 10 miles but the 1st is that warmup mile that doesn't count for much.

I have some cool pictures but i cant work my wifes mac... i thought these were supposed to be media friendly... i hate this thing!

well, the run was great and we found this new trail and it was super cool to run on and longer and better than the other ones that we've been doing over and over and over and over and over and over and ok i'll stop. 
What sucks is that the poor dog (see previous post) is still hurting and we cant let him run so it hurts to leave him behind.  hope he gets better soon.

So, on a different note... I am so HAPPY for my wifey poopikins and all the greatt things that are happening for her. see erincollinsswenson.blogspot.com The Life Time(trials) of Erin... i'm sure she will let you all know soon enough about the coolness.

COOLBEANS

Lots of Life

We've had so much happen these last few weeks....
From New Years winter wonderland

to California funerals

 (i know... we look good)

and a ranch trip canceled because my lil boy got hurt.

 true this is an old picture

Really there has been lots of life going on these last few weeks. 

MLK day we spent up at the Sundance

So, that has been the last few weeks. 

Now its time to get the dog feeling better, get back to work and get the Hairspray out... 

that's right, I have to build this massive show in the next three weeks... if I get started now and push it i should be just fine.  Its gonna be fun.

I'll tell ya'll more later.

My Dog is a hurt boy

We snuck out of the house this morning to get a run in without the dog.  you see, he has been a bit limpy ever since our New Years snow shoe but it seemed to be just a little thing that once he got moving went away.

He was getting better and there seemed to be no limp at all as we journeyed to California for memorial service for Erin's Grandma.  We left him with our wonderful cousins that watch him more often than they should because we leave out of town too much and they are too nice and so we take advantage of them. We do love them and Fletcher seems to have the best time there with Pepper their English Mastiff.

We got home and the boy had his limp back, surely played too hard with Pepper, no big deal, it was very faint and each day was less and less.

We got home friday night, Fletcher was a bundle of energy, oh, it was good to see him too.

Saturday we went to the Sundance and had ourselves a little ski and party at a cabin up the canyon. He was a wild dog, jumping up and through the snow banks and all around like a crazed beast. He is so sweet that way.

Sunday was a day of rest...

Monday, we were back at the Sundance.

Well, wouldnt you know it but there was an avalanch that closed off the road, so, back to the cabin.

It was like saturday all over with this dog. He jumped and played and begged for food. no signs of limp or distress, what a wonderful day we had.

We returned home to a wonderful night and a good nights sleep.

We snuck out of the house this morning to take a run without Fletcher. I planned to take him to the ranch for the rest of the week, his own world of joy. No neighbors, No cars, just bunnies and things to chase all around, up and down and oh the belly rubs he would get just for being the cute mutt he is.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than your unbreakable powerful comicozi beast brought down to tears and whimpers and a leg that he wont even put a nimphs weight of pressure on.

I cried.

We have enough drugs to keep a 24 year old Robert Downey Jr happy and it seems like we should be doing more for him. I have iced his leg and i will again as much as is needed to help him recover.

He is bed ridden, confined by his own instinct at this point but soon he will feel better and it is up to us to keep him on bed rest for up to 4 weeks with a 2 week mandatory stint.

It is hard to be out of control.

Please send love and positive chi to my loving Fletcher.

Woof!

I am old

really, its not so true but the fact is yes, i am one year older. me like Elguapo turned 33 years old.

its my Jesus year, I must become remarkable, i must do the things that are better than the 32 year old me.

why must i be better you may ask, why not?

i think everyone should try to be better and I'm here to tell you why...
its our mandate to better ourselves.
if we are not moving forward we are not moving.
OK we could be moving backward and most people suggest that is a bad thing, I might say its a good thing.  I for one feel if one can not move backward they are not looking at themselves in a true light.

It is my past that defines me.
it is what I've done and who I've met that sculpts me into who i am and who i want to be. 
you will make me a better person.
I thank you for it. 

i got a better phone today, it is my inspiration.

the addiction

I love to fall out of my world and into another. I am a movieholic and will at any given chance let go today's troubles to find solace in the world others create.

It has been this way for years and years and is a trait passed down to me through my mother. Many a day we went to the matinee and freedom commenced, if only for a few hours, it was enough to reset and surge ahead.

I am on an addiction now that has sent my world into new arenas. I watched them each as they came out into the theaters and enjoyed them fully but as this new movie came out in November I was held back from seeing it as Erin wanted to reread the series.
I was upset.
It did however spark my interest in the books and that is where the addiction landed heavily on my chest as if it were a Blast Ended Skrewt full grown.
If you don't know what I am talking about I pity you.

I read the first as a way to appease the wife and then it happened, first time is free! I am no longer free. I am swallowed in all consuming mysticism. I am a puppet like so many before me and now I find the next book a mear skeleton of the full bodied friendship I had cultivated. The movies are rubbish, hollow forms of a world i long to know.

I am trapped with only the glimmering hope of reprieve... will there be more, I doubt it though i can make believe the new stories. A world of opportunity is out there for the new crimes and the same old hero to intervene.  He still has his friends and so much more to fight for.

Give me a new villain, one that is of new blood one that needs revenge on being born.

my addiction has soured the world of anything sweet, for it's sweetness has become the engulfing wave that crashes over you and sends you out to sea with only the slight promise of breath.

those who know, do just that.
you feel for me as I do you.

I am powerless.

This is me, well, not really me but the embodiment of me. I'm a howlin little dog ready to pounce at a moments notice. pounce on what you ask? life damn it, life.
And why not pounce on life, its the last year of it right, there is only two things to do; eat drink and be merry and repent of all your sins.
I know most people would say those two are at odds but I say it can be done, and done well.
This is my choice and I chose to choose it.
I am a dog ready to pounce.