WEC this Sunday...

This Sunday on the Versus channel the WEC is having some fights.

But not just any fights, ... there are 3 title fights that night! The WEC is not as well known as the UFC (no other MMA promotion is for that matter), but the WEC is owned by Zuffa, and Zuffa owns the UFC. The production value, and quality of coverage is the same as the UFC, so you know it'll be a good show.

I'm somewhat familiar with the Champs in the WEC, and they are great fighters to watch.

Brian Stann is the light heavyweight champ. He's still undefeated! That's almost unheard of in pro MMA. He's a former marine, and has even served a tour in Iraq before becoming a pro fighter. This will be his first title defence.

Carlos Condit is freaky in his abilities in MMA. He's not "the natural born killer" for nothing. He's the welterweight champ (170). This guy is amazing to watch. His ground game is top notch. I'm pretty sure he'll win in the first round.

Jaime Varner is the new lightweight champ in the WEC. He beat up the former champ quite handily, and was quite impressive in that fight. He'll have his hands full, but I think he'll be able to pick apart his opponent and get the "W".

Other notable fighters on the card are Damacio Page (a featured fighter in last season's TapouT show), Brock Larson is quite good, Micah Miller is a good fighter and freakishly tall for his weight class, then Blas Avena Vs. Dave Terrel should be a very exciting fight. For the full fight card you can go here.

It should be good.

Where were you?

If you live in southern California, you probably felt today's eathquake.

Where were you?

I was at the 99 cent store in Redlands, in the detergent/soap isle. By the time the earthquake got to Redlands, it was more of a rolling than jolting movement. I saw a few items of soap teeter in their places, and the signage above was slightly swaying. A lot of people "froze" in their tracks, while others had no idea there was just an earthquake. No one's cell phone worked. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how calm everyone was and remained.

But I did decide quite quickly that I was done shopping, and made my way to a checkout stand. I figured I didn't want to be in there if another fault slipped due to the pressure release of the one that just passed.

Good times.

BTW- Anna's been on cloud nine since the quake. She's been to a bunch of websites, watched a press conference, received numerous phone calls, made numerous phone calls, etc. She's having a great day. Earthquakes are like Christmas to Geologists!

Our pioneer day...

Our ward had a pioneer day activity last Saturday. We had a good time. It was quite sunny. Some relatives of people in our ward have a covered wagon, and horses, and brought them for the ward to ride on. There were also games and other activities available on the field as well.

The first couple pictures are of me helping Duncan to get a kite up in the air. It wasn't very windy, but with a shortened string, as Duncan ran, the kite would get airborne. Then a small breeze started to pass through, and we were able to let out some string for the kite. Liam enjoyed running with the kite too.






Here are some pictures of the kids in the covered wagon. They ran the wagon around the ball field, so it was a pretty good sized loop. The kids liked the wagon, and rode a few times.

Other than the horses pulling the wagon, they also had a "pony" for the kids to ride. Duncan was in line pretty quick to ride the horse and loved it. Liam was a little further back in line, but waited very patiently and looks like he snuck a little pet on the mane either before or after his ride.

The activity wasn't hugely attended. It was the usual crowd of very ward active people. The nice thing about that is we all get to hang out and have a good time pretty regularly, and if the rest of the ward shows up, that's great, but if it's most of the usuals, we still have a fun time. There was also a ton of food, so that helps any get together be a successful one.

Speaking of food. The activity had hot dogs, so that works for us. The kids just don't have the bun (though Duncan did want one, but he understands), and there was jello which they can have, and watermelon, and potato and corn chips, so the only thing we really had to bring from home was some cookies. Liam also got a little sad that he couldn't have cheetos. He saw other kids eating them, and that's always tough to tell them they can't have it when it's so close and other kids are eating them. So it was ultimately good for all of us because they're learning that even if it's right there, they still have to refrain, and it was good for us to deal with that. It may sound funny, but the more practice we get in those types of situations, the better we'll all be at handling them.

Anyway, yeah, a fun time. Later that day we went to my nephew Andrew's 1st birthday party at the Foutz compound, and had a great time there as well.

But what about your family?

I guess it's been a while since I put anything up here about the family, so here's a quick update...

The kids...

There's been a lot of bumps and bruises lately. And unfortunately, I haven't taken any pictures of them, sorry. A little over a week ago, Duncan found out the hard way why it's important to not run int he church; especially around those really heavy doors. He was trying to out run Liam into a room, and caught the edge of one of the doors just under his right eyebrow on the outer edge. It peeled back a tiny layer of skin, and left a small bruise. After a day or two it developed a solid scab. By now the scab has either fallen off, or been picked off, and he's got the newer pink skin in that spot.

Liam, the other day, walked into the edge of one of the buildings at school. I guess he wasn't looking where he was going, and as he turned his head, there was the stucco wall. It left a bit of an impression on Liam's forehead.

Tegan just yesterday went to bend over to pick something up next to the computer desk chair, and miss judged where the knob to adjust the seat was and strait head-butted it with full force, right in the center of her forehead. It turned a blueish color right away, and swelled about 1/4 inch out. The swelling went down before the end of the day, but the bruising is still there.

I can't remember if Jennan's done anything like that recently. She's usually our clumsy one, so it's just a matter of time till she's got a new bump or bruise. I'll try to keep you posted.

Other than that, things are going pretty well.

Duncan and Liam will be off track soon. Their last day is Aug. 1st, then they don't go back till after Labor Day. So that will be cool.

Jennan has been all about pretend play the past few weeks. She has a load of beany baby animals that she plays with. Particularly her two cats, Spots and Fur, they pretty much go everywhere with her. And she's getting to where she's wiping her own bottom after going poop, so that's very cool. Now we need to work on her putting her underwear and shorts back on when she's done using the toilet.

Tegan is walking more and more. If she wants to get somewhere quick, she'll plop down to her hands and knees and take off, but otherwise, she's walking to get where she wants to go. It may take her a little longer that way, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Anna is enjoying her time off from work. She's very dedicated to the kids' diet and learning as much as she can about biomedical treatments for ASD, as well as alternate vaccination time lines, and the use of "organic" products vs. regular products. If you have any questions about any of that stuff Anna would LOVE to share what she's learned. She's become quite passionate about those subjects.

As for me, I'm enjoying sleeping till 8am most days. Anna usually gets the kids up and ready for their day. I've committed to doing my calling as scoutmaster to the best of my ability, so that tends to take up some of each day. Anna's been good about not overwhelming me with "to do" lists, but I do have things that need to get done, and she's good about reminding me.

So that's it for this update. I'll try to put more stuff up here about the family more often.

MMA stuff...

If you're looking to get an MMA fix this weekend, you're in luck. There are two places to go on Saturday night for some MMA action.

If you have cable or satelite, Spike TV is airing UFC 84 Saturday night 9pm ET/PT (I have DirecTV, and for some reason, I get the Eastern feed for Spike TV shows, so for me it'll start at 6pm. Check your local listing to make sure what time it's on in your area.). UFC 84 features the main event of BJ Penn fighting Sean Sherk for the Lightweight Title (unofficially the undisputed lightweight title). You can read my take on the fights here. And when you're done watching the fights, you can check out my post fight comments here.

The other MMA fights happening are on CBS. It's their second EliteXC show, and the main event is a rematch from their first show on CBS, between Robbie Lawler (the champ) vs. Scott Smith. Their first fight ended early due to a finger in the eye of Lawler from Smith. I don't remember if it was deemed a "no contest", or if they disqualified Smith, or what ever. But this is their "unfinished business" rematch. That's really the only fight of note on that card. There is a female MMA fight on the card though, so if you'd like to get familliar with female MMA, you might want to check it out. Oh yeah, and also Nick Diaz is fighting too. I'm looking forward to seeing him fight again. His younger brother Nate is awesome, so I hope Nick does well.

In other MMA stuff, I've recently began frequenting an MMA blog called cagepotato.com. They cover all sorts of MMA related news and information. I've been learning a lot about the MMA world outside of just the UFC, and it's pretty cool. If you're interested in going a little deeper into the MMA world, you might want to check them out.

That was all, carry on.

Will need one soon...

Carl's Jr. is promoting a new breakfast sandwich. It's called "The Monster Breakfast Sandwich". (Oh no, not another Carl's Jr. post!)

It's so big, it doesn't even fit in the picture!

I think I'm going to need to eat one of these soon. Luckily for me there's a coupon for $1.00 off. (There is a coffee purchase required for the coupon, but I'm sure there's an allowable substitution.)


Carl's Jr. also has a new hand scooped shake flavor... Banana Cream! Not only do they put a banana cream flavored syrup in the shake, they also blend in real Nilla wafers! There's also a coupon for $1.00 off one of these as well. ( I wonder if they'll let me use both coupons together?)

I'm wondering if all the GFCF food that's taken over our kitchen is why I'm so drawn to so much "outside" food? The GFCF food is a bit more expensive than what we used to buy,and therefor it tends to be all we buy, and then Anna and I feel guilty for eating it because it's for the kids, and it would last longer if we weren't eating it as well. But we haven't been too good about buying groceries for ourselves and we've become a bit scavengeristic in our eating habits, and also find ourselves looking "outside" for food, which in the long run, isn't a cheap habit to get into, or ultimately a healthy one. Though we're willing to sacrifice what we need to to benefit the kids. I think it comes down to Anna and I feeling that having "regular" food in the house would be a strong temptation for the boys, and pull them away from the food they're suppose to eat.

Well, I didn't mean for this post to get all feelings and stuff, so yeah... Monster Breakfast sandwiches and Banana shakes! When you try them, come back and leave a comment on what you thought.

UFC FN recap...

Here's my UFC Fight Night Recap...

I'll start with the main event. The highly anticipated debut of Anderson Silva, the current middleweight champ (185 lbs.), fighting as a light heavyweight (205 lbs.). Taking on knockout artist James Irvin. The build up hype, the elongated entries, the overly emphasised introductions from the ring announcer, the referee instructions in the center of the octagon, last about a thousand times longer than James Irvin did in the fight! They came out and sized each other up for a few seconds. Silva lands a big leg kick, and Irvin tries to answer it. They "dance" again for a moment or two, another kick from Silva, maybe a fake jab or two are thrown, and Irvin loads up for a body kick. Silva catches Irvin's leg, and throws a straight right that lands right on the jaw of Irvin. Silva continues to hold the leg, and Irvin lands on his back and immediately goes into fetal position. Silva stands over Irvin and unloads a barrage of rights onto the side of Irvin's head. They seem to be doing little damage, so Silva changes his punch angle and lands two other punches right on the button, and sends Irvin to la la land. This all happened in 61 seconds. Awesome! Silva is indeed, the pound for pound, greatest fighter in the UFC today.

Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy. I was really hoping to see the Brandon Vera of a few years ago. Coming out strong and aggressive and finishing his fight. That wasn't the case. He gave a lot of "respect" to Reese, and by the second round they were both pretty gassed. Brandon was able to remain busier, and out work Reese, but it was a pretty uneventful fight. Brandon won by unanimous decision. I hope as he becomes accustom to fighting at 205, he'll be back to his old winning ways.

Hermes Franca vs. Frank Edgar. The 155 pound weight division is always exciting, and this was no different. Both guys came out and fought at a blistering pace. Hermes was looking for that big punch to land, and Frank was looking to take the fight to the ground. For the most part, frank was able to avoid any major punches, and was also able to take Hermes down to the mat quite often. Once on the mat, Frank was able to land a lot of damage; punches, elbows, hammer fists, etc. Hermes is world class in ju jitsu, but Frank was able to pull out of the numerous submission attempts. Only by the very end of the 3rd round was Hermes finally able to land those big shots he had been looking for the whole fight, and if Frank wasn't careful, he was going to be looking up at the ceiling lights asking "what happened?", but time ran out and the fight was over. Frank won by unanimous decision.

Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O'brien. These heavyweights came to fight! They both came out aggressive, but it was Cain that was able to get the upper hand early, and put himself on top of Jake's chest with both of Jake's arms pinned down. Jake's left arm was trapped between Cain's legs, and the right was pinned down by Cain's head, which allowed Cain to wail on Jake's huge head undefended for what seemed like a really long time. Jake tried to buck him off, and get his arms free, but he couldn't get out, and the ref had to stop it. That fight lasted a little over 2 minutes, but it had a ton of action. Cain will find himself a contender for the heavyweight belt before he knows it if he keeps it up.

Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns. Anthony likes to knock guys out, but Kevin was able to withstand any punches, and was able to land quite a number of his own shots on Anthony. You could tell early that Anthony was getting frustrated. Anthony was complaining about getting fingers close to his eyes during the fight. Kevin even got a warning about having his fingers out in his jab. Kevin was able to take Anthony down, and work on him from that position. Kevin looked like he was winning the fight. He kept Anthony on the defensive for most of the fight. In the 3rd round, about halfway through, Kevin throws a jab, and one of his fingers goes into Anthony's right eye. Anthony lets out a yell and falls to the ground. The ref ends the fight. Most people are figuring that Kevin just lost by disqualification due to the warning he got earlier about fingers in the eye. After a commercial break, we find out the official decision... Kevin wins by TKO? That was a surprise. Not that Kevin didn't earn it per say, he was winning the fight, but he did inadvertently put a finger in Anthony's eye. During the post fight interview, we learn that Kevin in unable to throw a regular left punch due to constantly breaking his hand doing so, so he has to throw a palm strike. The crowd was unimpressed with his apology and explanation. In a real show of class, Anthony tells the crowd not to boo Kevin, he fought a great fight, and didn't deserve the boos. It was still an unfortunate way to have a fight end though.

Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway. For some reason, I don't remember a whole lot about this fight. I must have been distracted by the kids or Anna or something. What I do remember though is the sweet submission CB used to win the fight. CB was in a side control position with Jesse's elbows and knees on the mat. CB reach over Jesse's shoulder and under his other arm. Then CB put his leg over Jesse's head while cranking on his neck from his overunder grip, and Jesse had to tap. It's a choke submission called a "Peruvian necktie". Nice.

The last fight we got to see was between Rory Markham and Brodie Farber. Both guys looked to stand and trade punched in the opening moments, and it doesn't take long for Brodie to land the better punches and start rocking Rory. Rory does his best to answer the punches, but only ends up getting punched more. He's got a good chin because he's taking some pretty clean shots. Rory starts to circle out to avoid the bigger shots, and Brodie follows him with more punches. Rory was able to create a slight distance between himself and Brodie while he circles out, and as Brodie winds up for another punch, his hands are slightly down, and Rory shoots off a high kick that lands cleanly on Brodies head, and knocks him out instantly! Brodie hits the mat like a corpse. Yikes! Brodie came to a few moments later, but Rory definitely put the stamp on that fight. We'll be seeing that on highlight reels for years to come.

An excellent night of fights. The one thing I noticed with watching the fights on Spike was the ratio of fights to everything else (the hype, the introductions, the commercials, the entrances, etc.) is actually pretty low. Luckily I was watching the fights a little later in the evening so I was able to fast forward through most of the non-fight stuff. BUT if all I have to do is wade through that stuff to get free fights... I'll do it. It sure beat having to fork out money to see the same quality of fights.

"But Ken, how did you do with your picks?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Of all the fights I had an opinion on, the only one I didn't pick correctly was CB Dollaway winning over Jesse Taylor. There are even a few fights that I picked the correct method of winning. But I won't pat myself on the back too much, the next UFC PPV is August 9th, and in MMA, anyone can win at any moment, so I'll make some picks, and we'll see how I do with that one.