I heard from HF. She is doing well. There was a little drama in her life involving one of several jobs. She has been pulling a lot of double shifts in one of the others and has been understandably swamped. I hope things are working out better for her now.

I'm noticing a little pattern with Mrs. In particular, one involving a) her friends, and b) alcohol. The other night, she went out with all the girls for their annual girls only Christmas dinner. She came home a little bit buzzed. I was already in bed reading. Without a word, she walked to my side of the bed, threw back the covers, and without even taking her jacket off attacked my cock with her mouth.

I'm sure as hell not complaining. In fact, I'd love it if the girls went out more often :)

I'm off for the remainder of the year. As part of our "conversion" from private company to employees of the institution I work for, we are allowed to cash out up to XX hours of vacation. We have the option to roll it over, but there is a weird little discrepancy in pay schedules that will basically have me going the whole month of January without a pay check. I planned my leave very carefully so that I take basically the last 2 weeks off in the year and still carry the full XX hours to cash out. Of course, cough cough... I've come down with a case of... cough cough (wink)... e-coli from Taco Bell that is lasting exactly 16 work hours... I know "cough cough" isn't exactly the appropriate sound for e-coli, but I thought I'd end the year without being disgusting... for once. Anyway, usually I don't use my sick leave. I kinda use it when I need it and don't worry about it other wise. I know a lot of people treat sick leave like vacation. This year however, considering how the company jerked us around and used our misery as a bargaining tool, I plan to use everything I'm entitled to before the "conversion". Now if only our stock options were worth anything. :/

Anyway, posting will be more sporadic than normal. We are heading to my Mom's city next week to spend some time with her. So if I get a change to post until next year...

Merry Christmas
Happy {insert holiday here}
Happy New Year!!

Pluff

Hmph!! I guess I don't rate anymore. I haven't heard a peep from HF in a couple of weeks. Oh well..

My Mom invited Mrs, C, and I to go with her to tour a famous historical site in reasonable proximity to our hometown. They hold a huge christmas event every year which includes a dinner at the restaurant attached to the site. We all travelled to my Grandfather's house in hometown and spent some time with him. Then the whole brood caravaned up to the mountains for the tour and dinner. It was one of those weekends I will remember for a long time. I don't know how much longer my Grandfather will be with us. He looked great. In past years he has had a plethora of health problems and for a while and looked horrible. It was good to see him looking much stronger. He has trouble standing for extended periods of time. We took a wheel chair so he didn't have to walk for the whole tour. I had the duty of pushing him. For me, at least, it was kinda nice. He has done so much for me... paid for my college... took care of my first wedding... I always feel little things like this are the least I can do. I always leave his house wondering if it will be the last time I see him. If this was it, it was a fine one.

Elsewhere in pluffland, I just realized I passed the 3 year birthday of Pluff in Pluffland. Woohoo and stuff.

And lastly, I found out some more interesting information about the people I mentioned in this post. For a quick refresher, I shoot competitively. I have noticed the regulars at the local matches have... interesting relationships. For a while I thought there was this whole wife/girlfriend swapping thing going on as I stated in the aformentioned post. Since that post, I did travel with them all to mid-state-city to compete. I got to spend a lot of time with the older sister, A. Things aren't nearly so salacious as they initially appeared. And, she's a tiny bit of a prude. Her sister S, however, is pretty much sticking to her modus operandi and seems to be the wild child of the bunch. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time talking to her while at the match.

Having said that, Work C went to another match in mid-state-city last week. I didn't get to go... damnit! He learned both sisters will be attending a class in January in mid-state-city. I have also sent my application for the class. Work C says he's going to go, but the application has been on his desk for several weeks. To me, this is going to fall in the believe it when I see it category. However, as it pertains to the sisters, he was telling S we (him and myself) are planning to attend the class. Some shit talking ensued. Somewhere along the way, S told Work C she wanted a threesome with her, myself, and Work C. rrRRRRRIIIPPPP (needle skipping off record)!!!!! WHAT?!?! Of course, this is heresay via Work C. I would never in a million years ask HIM what she said because he would remember that and make some comment in the future. So I have no idea whether it was playful banter. But the way he said it, oh yeah, and in front of colleagues too, implied she was serious.

I'm not necessarily averse to threesomes... just not with another guy... and DAMN sure not Work C. So here's hoping a) Work C doesn't bother to send in his application and b) she's serious. At the moment, considering how HF is completely off the radar, this is my only prospect. :(

"Only double A... thinkin triple X" - Peaches

No jury duty. Or rather, it was a bust. Sat through the whole qualification deal only to be told the only day we may have a case to try is today (Wed). I called to check this morning. We have been excused. Scratch my name for the next few years please. Thank you.

HF and I talked about going out and doing something during the week. Unfortunately, my Mom came to town to work with a client she has here. I was expecting her late in the week. Instead, she showed up Mon night and is here for the whole week. Sorry HF. Maybe next week.

I got Lost in Translation whenever it came out on DVD... last year or so. Maybe before. When I watch movies I usually don't pay close attention to the sound track. It blends into the whole "experience". Occasionally though, one song or theme in particular sticks in my head. In this movie, it's the scene where Bill Murray's character goes to meet some friends of the Scarlet Johansen character. They start off at a strip club. In the scene, there is a particularly attractive specimen of the polus dancerous grinding to "Suckin on my titties like you wanted me calling me all the time..." That particular song has been stuck in my head off and on ever since. I never bothered to take the time to look up who the artist was. Yesterday, while browsing through my blogroll... I saw that very song quoted over at Naked Loft Party. "Ah HA!!" I thought to myself. "Peaches!!" So I downloaded the whole album and have been pouring over it all morning. I have to say, if I could make a sound track for Pluff Mud Musings, I think it would be pretty much every song off this album. "Cum undum"... "Diddle my skittle".. Awesome!!

Jury Duty... blech!! I have it this week. Actually, I find serving on juries somewhat entertaining. Witnessing our legal system in action and all. It's all the other hours of mindless sitting and waiting while they either a) qualify you for a jury or b) decide whether or not to even go to an actual trial at all. I have spent more time sitting and waiting only for a judge to turn to us and say "Well, they decided they didn't want to stand before you after all. The defendant decided to plea instead".

Anyway, posting will be lighter than usual this week.

It's official. I'm not nearly so much a pussy. After karate tonight (I must be a glutton going right back after a test like last night's), our instructor was talking about some of things we did in class. One of the drills in particular had some people stymied. He said, "Sensei actually made one guy do nothing but that drill for his black belt test". He went on to say how sensei likes to throw different things in a test to see how you handle it. He added, "For example, Mr can tell you, the test last night was the longest I've ever seen sensei hold anyone in stance". I could feel the pride swelling in my chest. Hell yeah!! The longest... and I DID IT!! :)

Now... I'm going to go curl up in fetal position and cry for a couple of hours...

Brutal. The test that is.

The last time I took a belt test, I got confused as to whether I was supposed to be doing the advanced stuff or not (I tested for 2 belts at the same time and I wasn't clear about my status). So I went ahead and did them. I went into this test expecting the same thing. I figured, I already did it once so I know I can do it. Boy was I wrong. The toughest part is you have to do a portion of the test down in a... basically it's a horse stance. Legs little more than shoulder width apart, knees bent so you can't see your toes. In the last test, we were down in this stance for around 3 minutes (that's the 'stated' standard). If you come out of the stance, you fail. This time, I'm pretty sure we were down in stance for around 30 minutes. A quick calculation of the repetitions was somewhere in the 1,000 range. The test lasted for 1.5 hours. We did the whole series of kicks, punches, blocks etc. from that stance. That portion is about 1/3 of the test. So I'm conservatively estimating 30 minutes. I kept thinking, we're almost done, just 1 more set of repetitions. Then the sensei would call out a new set of kicks or punches. We did a couple of things from stance I have never done before. Later, I found out he likes to throw things at you to see how well you adapt under pressure. We threw the last thing I needed to know for my "knowledge" part. I thought, "Ok, NOW we're done" Wrong!!! The sensei started over at the beginning again. We do everything in sets, and in progression. I.e. we always start with blocks, then we go to punches etc. When running through blocks, you always start high, then outside, then inside, then low. Same thing with punches and kicks, punches start middle, then double middle, then low high, then low, high, low etc. etc.. You kinda know where you are in the progression because we always do them the same way. When he started over with the blocks, I started calculating all of the things we did before, blocks (all of them in multiple sets), then punches so on and so on, and how much there was to do.. again. I tried to extrapolate the remaining number of reps and whether or not my legs, lungs, and heart would hold out. My body was sort of on autopilot at this point. I was just trying to throw out whatever was called and to hell with technique. In my head I was thinking, "make it through this set and if he calls more... either dig deep or walk off". We got to the last set of blocks in the progression and I was thinking "this is it... if he moves on to punches, I'm done. I don't think I have enough left to finish". The sensei shouted "And finally... " and I knew I could make it. We threw the last set and he finally let us up out of the stance.

Unfortunately, we went right into katas. Which, if you don't know, is kinda like a dance. The most basic has about 20 moves. I think when you get to the upper belts you're up to around 60 moves. It's supposed to demostrate technique for a given skill level. The first move? A deep stance and block just like we got out of. It was weird, I remember thinking "I hope I stop in stance instead of falling through it on down to the floor" in slow motion as I turned and snapped into the stance. Fortunately, my legs held.

The rest of the test went pretty much like the last one I took. Repetitions of each kata until the sensei was satisfied the instructors had seen enough to grade... then onto the next. I only had to do two. After 5 or 10 reps collectively, I got to sit down while the upper belts continued with theirs (thankfully). Then we went to sparring. I was dissapointed we didn't free spar. But evidently it will be a while, several more belts in fact, before I test for that. As a matter of fact, there were only two people out of the 25 testing who did free spar. In all honesty though, I was grateful. I don't think I would've been able to go full tilt at that point.

After sparring, the sensei had us back in lines. I remembered one of the guys who took the test on Sat telling me they ended with 30 pushups and situps to "cool down"... right. While we may do 100 or more in any given class. We usually do them 15 at a time. I thought, "30, it's twice what we usually do for a set but no problem". We went to pushup position. The sensei started counting... 10... 20... 30... 31... 32 (wait a minute... this is more than 30?!?!) 33... I started thinking.. "Oh shit... can I do this NOW? After everything?"... I lost count, but I think we did 45 or so. Somewhere close to the end he shouted "When we finish, I want everyone on their back AS FAST AS POSSIBLE for situps". We finished and I flipped over. We started situps. Again, I lost count around 35 or so. We did WAY more situps than pushups. A few times my body stopped on the floor like I couldn't get started back to the "up" position. In my head I was screaming at myself to keep going. I never missed more than a heartbeat and did all of the situps. But when that started happening I was seriously worried. Eventually we stopped. And that was that. Test over.

In the end I passed. The instructor grading me had mostly positive things to say. He recognized I was close to giving up and said I did a good job of digging deep. I walked out of the dojo completely spent. When I got home, my hands were shaking so bad when I tried to get a cup of water, Mrs had to get it for me. [sarcastic on] I can't WAIT for the next test to roll around!! [sarcastic off]. I guess if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. So I have three more months to prepare, dread, fear, the next one.

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I hate being sick blech!! I felt it start deep in the recesses of my sinuses. That tingle that reminds me of getting snoutfulls of water up my nose when I was a kid at the pool. By the time I went to bed friday night I was in full on, snot running out of every orafice, joint aching, curl up and wanna cry for your mama sick. I almost stayed at home today, but a) I'm on-call b) my belt test is looming before me Wed night (I HAVE to exercise so it won't kick my ass. Kinda hard to call-in sick then go run no matter how painful it really is), and c) I need my sick time for Christmas. So I'll just sit here and whine thank you!

Am I the only guy to experience this? There is something about being miserably sick that makes me horny as hell. I woke up Saturday morning, after tossing and turning all night, feeling like someone put my head in a vice, my joints all aching, with a raging boner. I lay in bed praying for someone to just go ahead and put a gun to my head, but only after a blow job. Mrs and I ended up having sex (how romantic... me pausing constantly to wipe my nose). Is this some kind of weird sickness fetish I have? Or is this a general guy thing? To be really horny while sick?

You should see the other guy!!

We had our annual network vs. sys admins team shootout yesterday. These are 2 of 4 whelps on my back. One you can't see is around the love handle area. That one is from my own guy hitting me as I performed what I like to call a "tactical retreat". For a multitude of reasons, that hit hurt more than the others. My team had an overwhelming lead when the manager of the other team started whining about most of the people on our team having "custom guns". Over and over we tried to get it through to him it is superior tactics, not the equipment that makes the difference. I mean, in one game I ran to the far flank. Everyone on the other team sat with their asses hanging out of bunkers in plain view of my position. No amount of equipment could've saved them from that exposure. Additionally, one of their players, in a beautiful move, made it the entire length of the field to surrender me (he stuck his barrel in my back) out of our back bunker. With a rental gun I might add. Anyway, eventually we caved and split the teams up to shut him up. As result, I couldn't say what the overall outcome was. But I think it is generally accepted that the admins kicked the networks guys asses up to that point.



I was supposed to take my belt test today. But I actually have multiple conflicts. I am scheduled to take it on the "make up" test day this coming Wed. Good thing. Thursday night we spent a fair amount of time working the bags. These are freestanding. They have a hard platic column in the middle providing support of the bag from the base. Over time the padding has broken down making it pretty easy to punch through to the column. I left karate Thurs night with bruised knuckles on my right hand from hitting that column over and over. Then, wouldn't you know it, I took a hit right on the knuckles of my right hand yesterday. Though it technically didn't count (only hits above the elbow or knees count), it hurt so bad I called myself out immediately. Today, I have a nice hematoma in the shape of a paintball right on my knuckles on that hand. There is no way I'd me able to hit someone during the spar portion of the test. Even a light tap lights that hand up.