Be Gentle, Kind and Beautiful...

... yet firm and strong, both mentally and physically.

The following is an article from on-line Shine from yahoo!

Is earning a black belt on your life list? Then this elderly woman in San Francisco just might be your ultimate hero.

Just two years before her 100th birthday, Sensei Keiko Fukuda has become the first woman to achieve a tenth-degree black belt—the highest rank in the martial art and combat sport Judo. Fukuda is now one of only four living people who've earned the tenth-degree (or dan) black belt. To put the accomplishment into better perspective, throughout history, only sixteen people have ever achieved this honor.

Fukuda began practicing Judo in 1935 and is the sole surviving student of its founder, Kano Jiguro. At her teacher's urging, she learned English to help spread Judo internationally.

During a time when getting married, building a family, and becoming a housewife was the norm, Fukudo bucked tradition, opting out of marriage to pursue the martial art.

"All I did was Judo...this was my marriage," Fukudo reflected tearfully to the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is when my life destiny was set. I just never imagined how long this road would be."

She described the Jiguro’s school, known as the Kodokan, as "old-fashioned and sexist about belts and ranks." In fact, an edict that prevented women from achieving any higher than a fifth-degree black belt kept Fukuda at that level for thirty years. She was finally elevated to sixth dan in 1972 when a woman's division was created.

Fukodo said she approached Judo and her life with the intent to "be gentle, kind and beautiful, yet firm and strong, both mentally and physically." Fukuda says this kind of beauty is decidedly not external. "A compassionate soul is inner beauty," she explained to the paper. "I believe this is true beauty...All my life this has been my dream."

Dream realized, the 98-year-old Sensei Keiko Fukuda continues to teach Judo three times a week at a woman's dojo.

Before You Move to Seattle or If You Already Live There

For those of you thinking about moving to Seattle or already living there check out this link.

Aaargghhhhhhhh!

Ethan: Here's what I look like when I have a bad hair day!

Ethan: Here's my surprised look!

Nuttin' but the best...

We had a simple birthday celebration for Naomi. This is the way it is when you have a good swim birthday.

With swimming into its final stretch with league and city championship meets going on, there's very little time for anything else including birthday celebrations. We'll do something more substantial for Naomi later.

Here's a short video from part of our celebration.

One Year Later...

It has been exactly one year today now since our dear friend John Komaru passed on. Life has gone on, but certainly it has been different without him. We still think about him often and from time-to-time his name will come up in conversation.

One of his colleagues yesterday at John's former engineering firm sent out a very nice email. The email simply stated "All – just take a moment today to remember John Komaru. His unfortunate death a year ago tomorrow was a shock to us all. I still think about the good times we had on the 237/880 project and how John brought so much to our team. He was a good friend to us all and a skilled professional." ~ Jack Tone

In another recent conversation, we were talking about our backgrounds. One person mentioned that she is now a chief deputy in her agency but does not have a college degree. She was able to get to where she is because of a unique state program to train people who have no formal engineering education to become engineers. I shared John's story with the group. His undergraduate degree was also not engineering related, but he did graduate work in an engineering field. John persisted to pass the Engineer-in-Training test, which admittedly is probably the harder exam because it covers subjects spanning a wider range. Following this he sat for and passed the professional civil engineers exam. I always greatly admired John for this achievement.

I understand that John was also remembered at the Institute of Transportation Engineers conference that was held last week in Anchorage, Alaska.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we were able to visit John at his resting place. Here are a few photos from our visit.











The following are places where donations can be made in John's memory:

Cal Opportunity Scholarship
http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/home/donate.htm

Friends of Rollo
http://www.friendsofrollo.com/

American Heart Association
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/

As Good As a Golden Goal

This goal was not the game winner, but it was as good as a golden goal.

Snow in Late June?

On where, on where can this be? Check it out! This is a snow drift almost as high as the building. The picture was taken on our recent road trip.



Take a guess! We'll post the answer in a future entry.

Clover's Home

Clover will be three years old this fall. For those of you who have never seen her home, here are a couple of photos.

She's upgraded her home once courtesy of Dorothy's ingenuity, She definitely has plenty of room in her current digs.

Here's an aerial view of her palatial home.


Here's a close up of Clover in her sleeping room.

Debris from Japanese Earthquake Tsunamis to Hit West Coast

The experts are saying that debris from the Japanese earthquake tsunamis will eventually hit the west coast of the U.S. It's just a matter of time. We've bookmarked a site called "Beachcombers' Alert!" that can be found under our Links that has information on this subject. Check it out.

One of Us

Traffic

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

We Was Flocked!

We awoke to a flock of flamingos on our lawn one morning.



They were everywhere!



Yes, that's right. We had been flocked! This is a school fundraiser.

Drug Relapse

Edgar Hansen on the Northwestern talks about a close friend and crew mate who missed "shove off" due to a drug relapse:

Shame
Guilt
No Dignity
Remorse
Lost
Sounds like someone coming off a relapse

Cal Bears Baseball - Team of Fate?

Cal Bears baseball was on life support earlier this season due to the university budget cuts. Although the program has been reinstated because of fundraising and generous gifts from alumni, it seems that the team is still playing as if these are their last games.

The Bears don't seem to care to do things the easy way. In the regionals at Rice University this past weekend, the Bears promptly lost their first game to Baylor with their ace pitching. This meant that to advance to the super regionals, the Bears would have to play their way out of the losers' bracket in the double elimination format. They proceeded to advance by beating Alcorn State and Rice only to find the undefeated Baylor Bears waiting for them. In this double elimination format, the Cal Bears would have to beat their brethren Bears from Baylor twice to advance.

The Bears won the first game 8-0, a game that was not a must win game for Baylor. In the nightcap game for all the marbles, the Bears again with their ace on the mound promptly worked themselves into a 7-1 hole. The sun seemed to be setting on the Bears' season. No amount of fundraising would help them this time.

But due to a series of fated, fortuitous events that included...

1. With the Bears still down 7-3 to start the 8th inning, the first Bears quietly were retired, arguably two of the Bears' better hitters.
2. That's when the Bears sprang for a single and a home run to quickly make it 7-5.
3. But in the top of the 9th, due to 2 errors on one grounder, Baylor gets one run back to make it 8-5.
4. In the bottom of the inning the Bears get a lead-off single, a crack in the door.
5. The next Cal player hits a perfect double play grounder that goes through the legs of the Baylor infielder. More fate?
6. Now the Bears have runners on 1st and 3rd.
7. Next batter hits another ball that has double play written all over it.
8. To start the double play, Baylor throws to 2nd base for the first out; but as Baylor starts the second throw to 1st for the double play, the Cal runner on 3rd breaks for home.
9. Baylor catches this and charges the runner headed for home to get him into a rundown. Being that Baylor was up 3, the correct play for them would've been to complete the double play and let the Bears score their one run.
10. So the rundown ensues, but Baylor makes another error by forgetting to cover home plate. Cal gets a gift without getting the 2nd out recorded against them. Still 8-6 Baylor.
11. Cal scores another run to get to within one run.

The Bears find themselves in the situation in this video:

Weeds Rule!

Yes, Ryan played a weed in the first grade school play. He wanted to be a weed and his wish came true. One of the rules was that the kids could not ask for a part. The teachers decided who was going to play which part.

The play "How Does Your Garden Grow" is a play that the first grade class does each year at our school. The weeds are always boys. Probably not too many girls if any at all who want to play the part of a weed. But the weeds usually steal the show because they get to do a rap song during the play.



Ryan played the role of the stubborn weed.

Uncle Chee's 70th!

Happy Birthday Uncle Chee!

Ryan: Who's Uncle Chee?

Me: One of Mom's uncles.

Ryan: Oh...

Me: Remember Tyler? He's Tyler's Ojiichan.

Ryan: I think I remember Tyler.

Me: I think when you see him you'll remember who he is.

One More Human Totem Pole

Here's a silly human totem pole!

Human Totem Pole!

In the day time and at night!

Who Can Go Higher Ojiichan?

A once in a lifetime photo?

Ryan: I wonder how high I can get in this swing?

Ojiichan: Watch how high I can get!

Ryan's Family Circus Trip Through Lawton Park

Ryan scooters down a path....
.....up the path.....then down a path...whoa, that was too fast....have....to....bail out!
Push the scooter over to the playground....
.....drop scooter and helmet.....and run up the slide!
Scoot through the play set over to the climbing ropes....bounce, bounce, bounce.....
.....keep talking to oneself....and hop, hop, hop.....
......through the second play structure to jump off....ooofffff.........
.....Mom, I'm thirsty!