Happy New Year!
As most of you know, we spent most of “the Holidays” in the New York area. It was great seeing family and friends, but as always, we didn’t have enough time. We did a lot, but we would have liked to do (and see) more.
I don’t have a lot of pictures from our trip. It was just that kind of time…we enjoyed everyone’s company, we had a great Christmas, but we were fairly “relaxed” when it came to pictures. So I’m not going to include any here.
Quickly: the kids (in order) –
Mark continues to excel at USNA. Out of modesty (on his behalf…certainly not mine), I won’t mention his exact Order of Merit (class rank — the all-important number) , but let’s just say he’s in the top 100 out of about 1,250. The top 90 even. Did I say top 80? Okay, we’ll stop there…
Kristin…Kristin! Oh my God Kristin! Kristin just finished her first semester at William Patterson. She did well. Okay, she did very well. How should I put it…umm….she kicked ass! Everyone getting a visual? Kick, kick, kick! I’ve got a number in mind…hmmm…does something around 3.5 sound right? Yeah…that sounds about right. Nice!
Cameron…oh Cameron…
Cameron’s big hurdle this past semester involved surgery. He managed to finally get one of his knees to go in a direction it wasn’t designed to go in. Everything took a back seat to pain, surgery, and recovery. But he’s going to bounce back this marking period, and his Fencing team is dying without him. They send me notes telling me so…
Paris: the youngest of the four that benefits greatly from the experience of her siblings. They treat her like gold, and she worships the very ground they walk upon. Watching Mark, Kristin or Cameron with Paris is like watching magic — it never stops amazing you. Mark and Kristin were each here (separately) after Christmas (Cameron was practicing his limp), and Paris loved every minute of it!
Like her oldest siblings, she is an academic wonder. She’s a first grader reading on a fifth grade level now, and she’s just wrapping up third grade math. She reads encyclopedias for fun (I’m not making that up). She can tell you more about how the human body functions than most adults can. She explains planetary movement to me. On the way to the bus stop this morning, I got a lesson on the North and South Poles and why they’re so cold (and how that relates to the cold spell we’ve been suffering). She is something…
Anyone get the idea that I’m proud of my kids? Amazing…all of ‘em.
Speaking of “cold”, wanna see what happens when you combine Floridians with water and cold? This looks like a gardening experiment gone awry…
I have no idea what someone was thinking here, but it involved running water when it shouldn’t have…
Okay! This next chunk is about boxing. For those of you not interested, please stop here.
A little background:
As usual, Mark worked out with Aaron Jaco while he was here, and we’ve got some video. Mark asked me to get him the video for review, and the easiest way to do that is here on the site.
This is not a “normal” video. I didn’t edit anything — I simply slapped together raw footage with a few explanatory comments. No cool soundtrack. This wasn’t intended for regular public consumption — it was simply a learning tool for Mark. But since it’s here, we might as well explain it.
(By the way, Kristin enjoyed a session at Aaron’s gym too. Yeee haaaaaaa! Isn’t life great, Kristin? Kristin?)
Okay, everyone remembers Aaron, right?
Yeah…he’s a hard guy to forget. If anyone new wants more info on him, get it here and here.
Aaron has a twin brother — Adam. Adam is also a professional boxer. This is Adam’s promo shot:
This is Adam recently destroying an opponent and being awarded the victory:
(That might have been the only shot Adam’s opponent scored…who’s bleeding?)
Another one for the ‘W’ column
So! Adam is a great guy outside of the ring, and at Aaron’s request, he gladly agreed to let Mark come over to his (Adam’s) gym to work out. Adam is getting ready for another pro fight on January 22nd, so this was no small deal. We really, really appreciate him making the time for Mark.
In a little “kill two birds with one stone” action, after some warm up, Aaron decided that Adam was going to spar some four minute rounds. (That’s a one minute “bonus” for those of you unfamiliar with boxing.) The format was straight forward: Mark and another young guy would take turns going one minute each with Adam. That means the young guys get to rest so Adam gets a relatively “fresh” opponent every minute. Oh, and Aaron would set new “rules” for each minute: “Adam, left hand only!” “Adam, you can’t hit him! Slip and move only!” “Adam, body shots only!” You get the picture. Adam was put at a distinct (and new) disadvantage every minute. Like it mattered…
As you’ll see, Adam is going at about half speed. I’ve seen this guy fight. He’s a pit bull. No mercy. If his opponent slows down or drops his hands, the opponent is dead. He was gracious in allowing Mark to work at “learning” speed…
The video is below. You’ll need Quicktime to see it. If you don’t have Quicktime, a link should appear that takes you to a download site (it’s free). There’s a control panel on the bottom of the video, but if all you see is a black box, double click on the box to start and single click to stop the video.
Mark has improved a lot since the last video we posted of his sparring sessions with Aaron. Some of that comes from boxing with the team at Navy. But a lot of it comes from the time Aaron made for him while Mark was here. Aaron went all out to be available for Mark over a whole bunch of hours while Mark was here (and we appreciate it!).
Oh, and Kristin will confirm…this shit will tire you out! Enjoy!