Future competitive eater

Life after Harvey

Did you know that it was Labor Day weekend? For people affected by Hurricane Harvey, probably not. At times I had to think about what day it was since everyday felt the same. The kids have been off for over a week but it's definitely not a vacation break. We took in the nephews so their parents could cleanup their flooded home. We didn't really go anywhere during the time off since most places were either closed or had odd hours. Besides, we didn't have a car to transport eight people.

Hurricane Harvey

Holy shit. The entire city is under water. And we're still not done yet. It all began Friday when school was canceled for the pending arrival of Hurricane Harvey. That night, the storm made landfall south of us (around Corpus Christi) and on the next day, all was calm. Besides the early morning showers, it didn't really rain all day. A few light sprinkles here and there but that was it. Why was everyone getting so hyped up for this storm? I thought this was a bullshit hurricane and I wasn't the only one with that opinion. And that's when Harvey said fuck you and raped us in the ass... over and over again.

Crazy first day of school

Birthday week (San Diego, CA)

It's been four years and three kids ago since we last visited California. Now with the new addition, we had to go back before it got more expensive, i.e. Elliot turning two. And this time, we spent the whole week in San Diego... forget LA and Disneyland and all that nasty traffic. This would be our preview of life in San Diego should we decide to make the move here.

Life flashing before your eyes

Belt promotion!

BJJ competition (Austin, TX)

Last weekend I participated in my first ever BJJ competition, the IBJJF Austin Open. If you want to compete, IBJJF tournaments are the ones you want to do. It's bigger and more organized. The way it works is that you compete against someone of similar rank (white belt), weight (light-feather division), and age (36-40 years old). This was the first fair fight in a long time since I'm always up against giant monsters during training.

My dad's birthday

The summer birthdays continue with my dad turning 68 this weekend.

Amazon Prime Day

Today was Prime Day, Amazon's own version of Black Friday. Needless to say, I made some impulsive purchases. :(

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July! It kinda sucks that it's on a random Tuesday but hey, what are you gonna do? Anyway, I've been eating clean lately but today was my "cheat day" and boy did I cheat. There was too much good food. And I didn't even touch the brisket I spent all day smoking... I was overly stuffed. :(

My mom's birthday

We ❤ bà nội (grandma).

Father's Day weekend

All my children.

Weight cutting for BJJ

I've been training BJJ for about a year now with a bunch of gaps in between due to various injuries, sickness, busy with the kids, etc... but it's been a year. So am I any good? I'm definitely better than a random guy off the street who knows zero martial arts but against someone who trains, that's debatable.

Big Bend Country (West Texas)

Summer vacation started immediately with our family as the kids' last day of school was on Friday and we were off on a road trip the following day, which also happened to be Memorial Day weekend.