Atom Smasher

Not sure what I think of these caps. They are kind of cool, but I wasn't there. Obviously I'm not one of the "Best Players". (Especially since in 2004 I couldn't even do Brain Twister.)

Atom Smasher seems more interesting free hand. I've done it succesfully about 4 times in a row, then failed to do it since. I can almost do left handed windmills. I can do a right handed windmill to trapeze, then left handed windmill, but usually fail to give enough momentum for the trapeze. But, I'm landing the trapezes 40% of the way along the string now, instead of the 15-20% of the way along like I was before. It looks a lot better, and I'm getting better at aiming left handed. I think I usually land (Old Man and his) Brother closer to 25%, so maybe I'll get better at that trick too? (Maybe not, the sister string, or double extra string for Double Brother get in the way.)

I practiced Spirit Bomb for a while last night and this morning. I figured out what I was doing wrong, but I keep landing the final pop on the inside of the triangle. I was doing something funky with my left hand to get the strings out of the way to allow me to land it, guess I need more practice. I honestly don't know if my last successful attempt (first time I tried on my KOS a month ago) was before or after I started doing the funky thing, hopefully before.

I have bad slack on Boomerang, so it snags with the stock Free Hand Zeros. I can feel the slack on my responsive Hitman, but it is not responsive enough to care. Need to be smoother!

Freehand Day 2

I have gotten a lot better at trapezes, and I have started practicing Windmill. I have managed to do a few consecutive windmills, but usually I have trouble just doing one. For some reason I want to throw the counterweight around too soon. Seems pretty easy though, easier than learning to juggle the windmill. I practiced Aerials for a bit, but I can't manage to do one after anything but a pinwheel or around the world. I still can't bind left handed, but I practiced a normal bind for a while, and I get cleaner binds with that than I used to. Half the time it just slips, but I remember when I got a knot 50% of the time, so that is an improvement!

After managing to knock the cap out of this pretty yoyo, I threw a blue Duncan die on my Lyn Fury. The Lyn Fury is my least favorite yoyo. I used to think it was the color (yellow and black), but I love my KOS and it is the same color. Still I might throw a half Lime Green Lyn Fury into my cart next time I order from yoyonation. I'm not worried about dropping my Lyn Fury. Currently it has no shims and is double recessed silicon. I'm tempted to add some thin lube, but I like that it is easy to bind right now.

John Higby e-mailed me back, the fabulous string on Dawn's FH0 is gString. I just e-mailed an order off for some Regular Lemon Aid and Orange Soda and SSE Aquamarina (figure it will match my 888).

Learning Freehand

Here is the auction picture of my new John Higby painted Takeshi Modded Freehand2. I will get a few better images once I have time to upload some images to flickr. This yoyo looks Zsweet when spinning. The red and yellow mix into the perfect yellow/orange blur. The yoyo feels much more solid than my takeshi mod FHZ. The side caps look kind of silly, but they feel much nicer than the paper caps normally on a FH2.

I decided to document my Freehand en devours more than I did (re)learning to yoyo the last four months. My entire documentation of my yoyo progress is a note made in early March that I finally learned to do Atom Smasher, and I can do Split the Atom every time.

I just got 6 shiny new John Higby painted yoyos. Three of them came with cool bouncy ball counterweights. Since I now have 6 counterweights (three came with my Takeshi modded FH0 I got a couple months ago), I thought I would give 5A yoyoing (Freehand) a try.

Today I learned to hold the yoyo in each hand. And I am able to do alternating trapezes a few times each time I throw. I can't really throw straight with my left hand, or bind the yoyo back left handed. I also tried a few tosses of the yoyo and counterweight, and managed to catch the string a few times, but end the end I did a run away dog down the hall. Once I got home, I practiced a while more, and found that grass is great since it both cushions the fall, and keeps the yoyo from running away.

I find that I feel like I have a club left hand, much like trying to juggle 3 balls in my left hand. I'm wondering if I should learn some more basic 1A tricks left handed to help with 5A? I've been planning to learn some 2A, so maybe that will help. I actually can get my first loop right on my left hand more often than my right; however, I can loop dozens of times right handed, but the yoyo quickly goes out of control left handed.

Not sure what this has to do with chilis, but obviously I'm not blogging about food so maybe this will motivate me more. ^_^

Cholesterol 2007

Well, I'm not using this blog for anything else... so I might as well put SOMETHING here...

I got my cholesterol results back from May 22, 2007. I've been eating pretty badly of late, I have been eating lots of chicken wings and oatmeal cookies. BUT, I've been juggling, yoyoing, footbagging, and joggling enough to cancel it all out I guess:

Total Cholesterol=137
Triglycerides=91
HDL=34
LDL=85


Two years ago my Triglycerides were up over 300, so that's a good improvement.

Must be all the chilies and Oatmeal I'm eating.

Hot Hatch Chili Stew

Well, it is Hatch Chili Peeling Time again! First thing we (Hatch Chili Mommy actually) did was whip up a batch of Green Chili Stew! Yummy! It is really good! Hatch Chili Mommy didn't eat more than a bite, because the Chilies we got this year are really hot!!! Flavor: 7 I really do prefer the less healthy chili items... at least for flavor. This is really good, but it just tasted a bit too healthy! Needs Lard! Hotness: 11 I can admit it. The chilies are too hot this year. Still, not much too hot. ^_^ Saltiness: 3 See Flavor. Hatchness: 10 These are pure hatch chilies here! No jalepenos or Pueblo chilies hear!

Dawn's Chili Pizzaroo

This is yummy pizza. It is made using a secret crust (Hee Hee) topped with Newman's Own Spegetti Sause, Tofu Pepper Jack cheese, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, dead animal flesh (I think turkey this time around), and several hatch chilis.


This was really tasty, and I am not sure when I've had Pizza better. Realizing I have an alergy to cow's milk may lend some credibility to the previous sentence...


Anyway, this was a darn good pizza:

Flavor: 7 This may be the best pizza I've had in a long time, but I would prefer something a bit less fatty. If this had had a few more veggies instead of the turkey... it might have scored higher (or maybe not, I'm not a big Pizza fan).

Hotness: 3 Come on, there are like 3 hot hatch chilis on my half. Had the seeds been mixed in the sause...

Saltiness: 5 I think this is fairly low in sodium... but it still could raise your blood pressure a few points.

Hatchness: 5. See Hotness. Replace red peppers with fresh hatch chilis and mix in some hatch chili powder into Newman's Own for a perfect 10. 

Chili Trees

I bought 3 pepper plants at the farmer's market last week. They seemed to be doing rather poorly inside (UV tinted glass?) so I put them outside on the porch and they seem happier today.

2 are Big Jim and 1 is a from hatch NM, but it really isn't a hatch chili unless it is grown in hatch soil and sun.

Maybe I'll get some dirt this year or next time I'm at the Chili Festival.