I am cute even at 4:35 a.m.

Merry Christmas

It's Almost Christmas

Cody's Fighter Quest - Final 2008 Installment

This week I had business in Fort Lauderdale and took some time to visit American Top Team. Not only did I get pics with a couple of the ATT guys, but I was lucky enough to get pictures with some big names who just happened to be in town.

Yves Edwards

Thiago Silva

In from Team Quest, Matt Horwich and Matt Lindland

I saw Jeff Monson lift weights last night. There is a reason his arms are 5x the size of mine.

Gleison Tibau

In from The Pit, Chuck Liddell!

These are from last week in Vegas.

Gray Maynard

Martin Kampmann

Mac Danzig

Christmas Cookie Decorating...

Noelle really likes her friends from school.

We had ten kids over 

to decorate Christmas Cookies

on Saturday.

Grace and Sam

Megan (and her sister Sara, 

who I didn't get a picture of).

Olivia

Brooke

Hannah T.

James and Logan

I think they all had a great time!

Thanks for making the cookies, Grandma Jane!

Dancing

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pictures from this morning

Paul as Santa

James and Noelle

(they were deocorating the

Christmas Tree in their PJ's)

That IS a bear.  

Cody's bear 

from last fall is coming 

to live with us.

Rolling Over!

I can do it!

(and now I do it all the time).

First tooth!

Paul has his first tooth!

Grandma Jane felt it poking through

last night...

and sure enough it is there this morning!

He also is big enough to 

hang out in the exersaucer.

Pictures

Noelle was unusually quiet 

in the back of the van on the way to school.

What are you doing back there, Noelle?

"These pictures are just so darn cute, I can't stop looking at them." 

Noelle finally said.

What are you looking at, a book?

"No Mom, it's these"

Noelle said as she held up the package 

of school pictures -

2 dozen of the same picture of her.

Perspective

This One's for Kelly

BJ Penn is the current UFC Lightweight Champion, the #1 UFC Welterweight Contender, and arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world. BJ is Kelly's favorite fighter and after every fighter encounter she asks, "so how are you going to get BJ's photo?" BJ trains in Hawaii, so it's not an easy gym to frequent.

Paco, a colleague of mine, and I headed to the MGM Grand for dinner tonight. On our way in, I saw BJ and quickly said hello. I was of course kicking myself for being unprepared and not having my camera with me. Paco and I ate dinner and I took Paco to the airport. Afterwards, I went back to the MGM and camped out in a bar with the sole purpose of consuming a few Guinness to help me sleep on my redeye tonight. Halfway through my third beer, I saw BJ walk by and grabbed a picture with him - further proof that the MMA Gods really do like me.

The MMA Gods Love Me!

The reason I'm in Vegas this week is that Sonic Foundry is webcasting a sales conference for Hewlett Packard. As it turns out, HP paid Frank Mir, Wanderlei Silva, and Bruce Buffer to appear at one of their general sessions.

After their appearance, I snuck backstage and got some photos for my collection.

Wanderlei (left) is a former Pride champion and one of the top UFC 205 lbs. fighters. He squares off against Rampage Jackson at UFC 92. Frank is the former UFC heavyweight champion, current coach on "The Ultimate Fighter 8" and is also on the UFC 92 fight card. You'll also notice in my previous blog post that Frank Mir is one of the commentators in the ESPN video filmed last night at the UFC Training Center.

"Veteran Voice of the Octogon" Bruce Buffer (see my post on UFC 90)

UFC 91 ESPN VIdeo

This is the video that was filmed last night. When I arrived at Extreme Couture, the film crew was just leaving (note that the shirt Randy Couture is wearing is the same one that he has on in my picture with him). The video with Brock is at the UFC Training Center and filmed shortly after I had my picture taken with him.

Las Vegas - The Fight Capitol of the World

This Saturday, the UFC is promoting what it calls the biggest fight in UFC history. It's the heavyweight showdown between Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture for the Heavyweight Championship. At 45 years old, he is the oldest UFC champion in history. Despite his age, he continues to upset challengers and makes up for his age by always having a very meticulously planned and practiced strategy for breaking down his opponents. His challenger is often called a "genetic freak." Brock Lesnar is an absolute beast and will have 10 years and approximately 50 lbs. on Couture.

After a long day of work (8:30pm), I headed to Xtreme Couture to see if I could catch Randy Couture in the final days before the fight. In the days leading up to the fight, fighters train at night so their body is used to exerting itself at the approximate time in the day that the fight is scheduled to happen. I told Randy I enjoyed his recently released autobiography and that I'll be cheering for him on Saturday night.

After leaving Xtreme Couture, I decided I would see if I could find where the reality television show, "The Ultimate Fighter" is filmed.  This is a show where the UFC finds up-and-coming fighters to participate in an elimination tournament. The winner and top few fighters earn UFC contracts. When I pulled up to the location, I noticed there was a film crew there setting up lights and miscellaneous gear.

As I was headed back to my car, a woman came out of the building to have a smoke. I started to ask her some questions and she noted that she was a freelance video technician, working for the UFC and that ESPN was there to film some video. After I ran out of things to talk to her about I started to head to my car and noticed a white van pulling up that looked suspiciously like the white vans the UFC uses to transport fighters during the filming of "The Ultimate Fighter." When the van pulled to a stop, out came Brock Lesnar. The woman I was talking to yelled out "hey Baby," and Brock made his way over. I introduced myself and had the woman take a picture. Within a half an hour I had my picture taken with 2 of the biggest UFC stars only a few days before they go head-to-head in what is billed as the biggest fight in UFC history. For a big fight fan, it really doesn't get any better.

The day prior, I made a stop at Xtreme Couture and got pictures with:

"The Ultimate Fighter 8" cast member Vinny Magalhaes - Tune into Spike TV Wednesday nights to see Vinny.

"The Ultimate Fighter 8" cast member Junie Browning - Junie can also be seen on Wednesday nights.

Frank Trigg who has fought some of the best 170 lbs. fighters in the world

Kim Couture - Wife of Randy who makes her Strikeforce debut on November 21st.