Granny Nogg's Safari Adventure

[Granny Nogg]

 

 

 

"A safari /səˈfɑːri/ is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. In the past, the trip was often a big-game hunt, but today, safari often refers to trips to observe and photograph wildlife—or hiking and sight-seeing as well."  

"Hatari! (pronounced [hɑtɑri], Swahili for "Danger!") is a 1962 American action/adventure romantic drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne. It portrays a group of professional wildlife catchers in Africa. The film includes dramatic wildlife chases and the scenic backdrop of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano." [credits: wikipedia]

 

Hatari! is one of my favorite John Wayne movies. In the movie, the wildlife catchers are collecting animals for zoos around the world, caring for the animals and having some pretty ingenious ways of capturing them. In this challenge, I'll be setting my sights on the "animals" I want to "collect" for my imaginary zoo.  Each element of my challenge will have an associated animal to capture by the end of the challenge.  

 

But there's also another Safari in my life:  a disc golf one.  "Safari Golf – [slang term] This is when players create a new route through an established course. For example: instead of playing the holes in order, players may choose to use the tee from hole one to throw towards hole 6. (Reference: Gypsy Golf) [credit: disctroy]

 

Here's the disc golf safari in my life: 

 

 

 

Allen (hubby) and I are running this tournament together and playing in the Mixed Doubles division.  I have alot of responsibilities for helping organize, plan, and run the event, which is on the last day of the challenge.  I also need to work on my game, which is a little rusty after not playing all winter.  

 

If you're unfamiliar with disc golf, here you go in a nutshell.  It's one of the fastest growing pro/am sports worldwide.

 

 

So onto my challenge goals, the animals I want to collect for my imaginary zoo: 

 

 

Main quest: Rhino

 

My Rhino is the disc golf safari tournament.  I have a lot to do:

--Upload regular photos/updates to the Peoria Frisbee Club & Celebrate Recovery Facebook pages

--Photograph and edit pics of all the donated raffle prizes and players' packs

--Keep track of all event volunteers [and gain said volunteers in the first place]

--Keep the CR leadership/PFC leadership up to date on all progress for the event

--Produce handouts/fundraising packets/powerpoint slides for CR and keep them up to date and have plenty on hand of the consumables

--work on my game (play as many rounds as possible, practice my putts on workout days, get in as much field work as I can)

 

Second Quest: Zebra

 

My Zebra is time management.  I need to: 

--Work on all of my zoo animals in a timely manner and not procrastinate or the fast-moving horse-like thingy will get away from me. 

--Use a calendar to schedule when I work on things.

--Practice the presence of "no".  No new projects, no spur-of-the-moment side adventures. I have alot on my plate in April and don't have time to get distracted.

 

Quest 3: Giraffe

 

My Giraffe is my yard.  April is when things spring into action and everything is tall and needs to be corralled.  My trees, my bushes, my grass.  

--Get Trimline to either commit to mowing my grass or find someone else.  I'm tired of their lackadaisical attitude.

--Get out there today, do a review of the yard and what needs to get done, in what order and under what schedule.

--Talk with Allen about where we're going with the landscaping and make it a joint effort (I'm tired of doing all the yardwork myself...)

--Get the house perimeter sprayed

 

Quest 4:  Buffalo

 

My Buffalo is continuing my strength training.  I made tremendous noob gainz last month, and I'm going to continue working at it. But, somehow I messed up my right MCL, so I'm backing down on the weight until it heals.  

 

I.) work out 3x a week (disc golf is bonus)

Each of these exercises is done between 3-5 sets per workout, depending on how I feel

--Squats: bodyweight until MCL heals

--Push Ups:  Wall push ups, working on wrist strength and mobility

--Lunges: bodyweight static lunges until MCL heals

--Dumbbell Rows: currently 10|30#

--Elbow Planks:  currently 40 seconds

--Disc Golf Putts:  currently averaging 7|10 putts from 15 foot distance

--Bicep Curls: currently 5|30#, 2|35#MR

--Triceps Kick-Back:  thinking of starting these again because I know my triceps are weak.  I'd been able to do 3 x 7.5# a year ago. So I'll start there. 

 

2.) Weight and measurement baseline for April:

Age: 50.  Height: 5'8"

--Weight: 175.8

--Underbust measurement: 32"

--Waist measurement: 30.8"

--Hip measurement: 37.2"

--Thigh measurement: 23.8"

 

3.) Track all my food, continuing a +/- 1700 calorie goal.  Macro goals:

--Protein: 106g

--Fat: 76g

--Carbs: 149g

--Fiber: 25g

 

Quest 5:  Monkeys

 

In the movie, they need to catch some Vervet monkeys, and because those monkeys bite, claw, scratch and otherwise cause mayhem, the team has to protect themselves while at the same time capturing the monkeys without harming them.  My Monkeys are my social skills.

--I will remember my slogan: 'not my monkeys.'  As in, 'not my circus, not my monkeys'.  I remind myself that other people's monkeys are their issues and their responsibility, not mine.  I'm not responsible for fixing people or for being the peacemaker when that means being codependent. 

--I should keep my own monkeys in check and not let them fling poo at others, especially when I'm under alot of stress like April looks to be.  In other words, I will use the relational tools available to me to respond appropriately to people and situations mindfully, rather than knee-jerk reacting.

--I will remind myself to not take things personally, and I don't need to act as if every person I come across must like me.  Sometimes personalities clash.  Sometimes it my monkeys; sometimes it's theirs, sometimes it's both.  Live at peace with one another as much as it depends on you;  but sometimes it doesn't depend on you.

--I will work on prayerfully saying the Serenity Prayer like I used to do, which was a good centering practice. 

 

 

 

[stepping_out]

Following, because epic.

[Granny Nogg]

11 minutes ago, evabo said:

Following, because epic.

 

Hahahah.  Thank you for saying Epic. 

[elvenengineer]

Very nice challenge! I love how organized and well thought out it is!

[Mark D]

Following along!

 

The version I heard of safaris is that they were originally journeys of exploration in Africa.  The hunting was a way to keep everyone (including the locals hired as porters) fed.

[RedStone]

Epic indeed! follow follow follow

[Broba Fett]

Following along.

 

I've always thought disc golf looked interesting.  I work across from Shore Acres Park in Chilli and I believe they have a course but I've never invested the time to go and play.  That might be a good choice of activity if we end up doing a Central IL NF meetup in May.

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

Following, of COURSE! 

Plus this challenge looks hugely fun!

[wildross]

That's an amazing challenge.  Good luck!

[SevenofSeven]

Granny Nogg, you are brilliant. Love your Challenge/Safari!

Following for epicness!

[Rebe_J]

Very clever. Good luck!

[Granny Nogg]

On 3/30/2016 at 0:11 PM, elvenengineer said:

Very nice challenge! I love how organized and well thought out it is!

 

I'm glad it comes across as organized.  With the layers of meaning in the safari theme, I needed to add context; I didn't want people to think.... "huh???"

 

On 3/30/2016 at 0:21 PM, Mark D said:

Following along!

 

The version I heard of safaris is that they were originally journeys of exploration in Africa.  The hunting was a way to keep everyone (including the locals hired as porters) fed.

 

I'd heard that, too, and in the movie I think they allude to hunting for food but not for sport.  In fact, they touch on conservation quite a bit in the movie, which is unique for it's day.  In one scene, an uninformed guest takes 3 baby elephants down to a watering hole to get a bath.  A big matriarch cow elephant sees this and starts getting really threatening and aggressive from across the watering hole.  John Wayne's character shows up and shoots at the pond in front of the cow, and scares her off, then he lights into the guest for going to the watering hole without an armed escort.  He's got no illusions about the danger, but neither did he like the idea of being forced to scare the elephant away.  Offhand he says that the cow probably saw her with the three babies and thought she was going to steal the cow's baby, too!

 

On 3/30/2016 at 0:46 PM, ~RedStone~ said:

Epic indeed! follow follow follow

 

 

On 3/30/2016 at 1:02 PM, Broba Fett said:

Following along.

 

I've always thought disc golf looked interesting.  I work across from Shore Acres Park in Chilli and I believe they have a course but I've never invested the time to go and play.  That might be a good choice of activity if we end up doing a Central IL NF meetup in May.

 

Yes, the course at Shore Acres is actually a great course and we like taking beginners there.  It's mostly very flat, there's one dip in the course but otherwise not much.  It's nice and shady in the summer, the holes aren't too long or too challenging that it gets discouraging, and they have one of the cleanest porta-potties I've ever seen in my life.  Sorry if that's TMI, but when you do alot of disc golf, you see all kinds.  (Side note:  Washington's porta-potty is gross.  Always.)

 

Yeah I think that would be a great Central IL NF Meetup idea!  Shore acres has alot to offer, what with swimming, fishing, barbecuing, softball, and disc golf.  We can keep that in mind.  

 

On 3/30/2016 at 1:04 PM, Emerald_Dragonfly said:

Following, of COURSE! 

Plus this challenge looks hugely fun!

 

Woot woot, glad to have you along, Em!

 

23 hours ago, wildross said:

That's an amazing challenge.  Good luck!

 

Thanks, Wildross!  Best of luck to both of us. 

 

20 hours ago, SevenofSeven said:

Granny Nogg, you are brilliant. Love your Challenge/Safari!

Following for epicness!

 

Thanks, Seven!

 

20 hours ago, Rebe_J said:

Very clever. Good luck!

 

Thanks my dear!  Glad to see you.  *hugs*

[Granny Nogg]

Sharing a little about my day today. I've got two grand-toddlers showing up in a few minutes, so I've gated off the kitchen.

I'm cooking lasagne and doing the dishes and spoiling them rotten, as is my solemn duty.

Then after naps I'll take my grandson to Costco to do the shopping. I have him all day today and tomorrow, as his parents work for the company that owns the Midwest Professional Basketball Association (thempba.com if you like Bball) and they're having the league championships in Pontiac, IL.

Tomorrow is international autism awareness day, and here's a reminder to wear blue.

....*sent from my tiny particle accelerator*....

[Broba Fett]

9 hours ago, Granny Nogg said:

spoiling them rotten, as is my solemn duty.

As any good grandma should!  Well done.

 

9 hours ago, Granny Nogg said:

Tomorrow is international autism awareness day, and here's a reminder to wear blue.

My younger brother is autistic so I shall most definitely be blue tomorrow. 

[Granny Nogg]

My younger brother is autistic so I shall most definitely be blue tomorrow.  [emoji3]

If you do, take a photo and post it to their fb page, you could win a Blue Power tshirt.

....*sent from my tiny particle accelerator*....

[laughingwarlock]

[SevenofSeven]

Hey, hey, so cute the Grandies!

 

Mum to 1 Autistic and 1 Aspergers. Both high functioning and quirky , unfortunately can't do the FB thingy, not on FB! 

 

Son1 and Fiancé are picking up their new baby when he comes home, a boxer called Winston. 

[Granny Nogg]

On 4/2/2016 at 7:37 PM, laughingwarlock said:

 

I had to look up what Ganbatte meant.  I loved it, thank you very much.  Gave me a big smile.  

 

On 4/2/2016 at 7:37 PM, laughingwarlock said:

 

 

On 4/2/2016 at 0:38 AM, SevenofSeven said:

Hey, hey, so cute the Grandies!

 

Mum to 1 Autistic and 1 Aspergers. Both high functioning and quirky , unfortunately can't do the FB thingy, not on FB! 

 

Son1 and Fiancé are picking up their new baby when he comes home, a boxer called Winston. 

 

Big welcome to Winston!  I would of course love to see pics of your new grand-puppy.  

And a Blue Power salute to you, with as much as you have going on, to also have a kiddo with Autism and a kiddo with Asperger's.  Never a dull moment around your house!!!

[SevenofSeven]

Definitely had some interesting and intense times over the years! Wouldn't change it for the world. 

[Granny Nogg]

This was my kitchen after having toddlers at my house every day for the last 4 days.... In this scene from Hatari!, the baby Elephant, Timbo, has caught scent of his human "mama" and is taking the most direct route to her, through a market in Mumbasa.  Kurt, Pockets, and Luis are trying to catch Timbo before he can do any more damage but it seems like they make more of a mess than Timbo does. 

 

 

I played disc golf on Sunday, and while it was really windy, I didn't do too bad.  We played at the course at the local community college, which is what they'd call a "precision course".  It challenges your ability to throw down narrow corridors in the woods, and those woods get pretty thick with brush.  Kinda like this:  

 

 

I played a putter-only game, meaning I used one disc the whole time.  The reason is that putters are generally the most stable disc in your bag.  I was happy with how it went, especially given the wind gusts of 30mph, playing against men, and me playing with only one disc in comparison to them using any disc in their whole bag.  My handicap at that course is +24, and I played just under it at +22, so I end up with a par score of 54.  The only person who beat me was my oldest son, by two strokes.  They hate it when I use my handicap! But it's the only way to level the playing field.  The pro women can compete evenly without handicaps against most amateur men, but that's because she's practicing 6 hours a day every day, and they aren't.  Once you get to the level of pro men...she'll never beat them.  It's why we have women's divisions.  It's more about body mechanics than prejudice.  

 

Workout log:

On Saturday I didn't do my workout, because I'm having some pain in my MCL in my right knee.  I *think* it's because my form is suffering when I squat and lunge at my heaviest weights.  I moved into my heaviest 1-2 rep max weights maybe too quickly?  Either way, I'm feeling pain in that knee whenever I bend it to sit or kneel or walk down stairs.  Not good.  So this morning when I did my workout, I was VERY gentle, backed almost completely off on the weight, and was really focused with the form.  

 

Squats - 10 at bodyweight, 10 goblet squats at 7#, and 10 goblet at 8.25#.  I did feel a little twinge, but it was more stress than sharp pain.  So I think it was okay.  Made sure I didn't allow my knees to creep inward as I stood into the upward movement.

 

Push ups - still trying to figure out what to do here.  Last week I tried just doing negative ones, but I couldn't keep my lower back from dipping when i broke my elbow lock.  So that means not only do my triceps need strengthening but also the lower back.  Given that experience last Thursday, today I did wall push ups again.  It felt okay, I did 3 sets of 10, and I did have my feet the full 3-feet away from the wall.  but it sure puts alot of stress on my wrists, and I'm wondering if I'm ever going to be able to do a full, real floor push up.  Kinda feeling a little defeated about this exercise.  

 

Lunges - I did very careful static lunges today.  Noticed that a really long lunge was helpful, which made me wonder if it was the lunges before that caused the injury, from not taking a long enough stride, and then putting too much stress on the knee because of it.  I did 10 slow static lunges per set (5 per leg) and was very careful about not letting my upright leg break 90 degrees at the calf, so that my knee wouldn't go out past my toes but everything stayed in line.  These didn't feel bad and no twinges.

 

Dumbbell Rows - these I'm not having any difficulty with, I did 3 sets of 10 at 30 pounds.  Felt normal.  

 

Planks - In anticipation of trying to do floor push ups, I'm doing the extended arm planks today instead of the elbow ones.  So they felt okay except for my wrists.  Just really uncomfortable, and I'm thinking I am not going to be able to put that much strain on them.  Frustrated.  3 sets of 40 seconds each.

 

Disc Golf Putts - my frustration carried over a little bit to my putting this morning; I didn't do very well.  4 out of 10, and two 5 out of 10s.  I was having trouble slowing down and getting my head into the form.  I'd find it then lose it then find it, that kind of thing.  

 

Bicep Curls - I do like using my barbell instead of my ez-curl bar for these, at least right now.  I closed my grip distance just a little bit so that my hands are just inside the knurling.  That seemed to help keep my elbows from moving as much and holding my upper arms in place.  I also lightened the weight and went for sets of 10 instead of seeing how many reps I could do at the higher weight.  10 at 20# and 2 sets of 10 at 25#.  

 

Triceps Extensions - this is new, and borne out of that need to work on the weakness in push ups.  I did 3 sets of 10 extensions, the first set at 7#, then the last two sets at 8.25#.

 

 

The only other thing of interest this past weekend was cooking.  On Sunday at disc golf we'd gone into a discussion about ramen.  Not the little packets of crap that you ate in college kind of ramen, but the kind that is showing up in ramen-ya (ramen shops) that have sprouted up all over the major metropolitan cities in the US.  Two of our sons are really crazy about it and there's a place in Chicago that our oldest son wants to take us.  Well that led to talking about a movie Allen had watched, "Ramen Girl".  I hadn't seen it, so we watched it that night.  I was surprised to find out that the dish isn't nearly as nutritionally imbalanced as I thought it would be.  Combine the protein in the broth plus an egg plus a piece of pork, and it's not the carb-dominant thing I expected.  As I watched the movie, I was also thinking to myself that I'm all into making long, slow bone broths and it's not much of a leap to turn that into making ramen broth, eh?

 

So yesterday I made what I'd consider a quick light broth (because it only boiled on the stove for 5 hours, instead of on low in a crock pot for 24-36).  This was for shio (salty) ramen, one of the more common styles.  However, since I was making this for the first time, I didn't salt the broth in the pot except for a little fish sauce; I left the salting up to the individual, and they could do salt, soy sauce, or Marmite.    My broth was made out of 5 pounds of chicken thighs, half a pound of chicken feet, and half a pound of pork neck bones.  I also learned how to make the marinated eggs ( ajtsuke tomago).  I didn't have time to make the rolled pork belly (chashu), but I did buy some pork steak, broil it with some of the egg marinade, and then cut it into bite size pieces for the soup.  Here's what my ramen bowl came out like:  

 

 

It had Napa cabbage, fresh baby spinach, shitake mushroom, fried shallots, and spring onions in it.  We had the Craft Night girls over, and everyone seemed to really like it. Everyone had seconds and I think the guys had thirds.My oldest DIL took some home to my son, who's had experience with ramen-ya in Chicago, and he said it was really good for a first try.  YES!!!  I've already bought all the ingredients to make the pork ramen broth (tonkotsu) later this week. This was an excellent dish, had about 15 grams of protein per bowl (depending on whether you had one or two egg halves, and how much meat you put in your bowl).  The broth itself has about 6 grams of protein per cup, so if you have two good sized servings for your meal, you're getting about 30-40 grams of protein and about that same amount for the ramen (unless you go crazy with the noodles).  Not bad for chicken noodle soup!

 

 

[CourtnieMarie]

That ramen looks amazing!! Well done! Is ramen essentially the same as pho?

Don't be too hard on yourself on the pushups. I too thought I'd never get to the floor- but I did and I still can't do more than a few in a row!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Granny Nogg]

44 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

That ramen looks amazing!! Well done! Is ramen essentially the same as pho?

Don't be too hard on yourself on the pushups. I too thought I'd never get to the floor- but I did and I still can't do more than a few in a row!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I asked about the difference between ramen and pho, and no they aren't the same thing but they are very similar.  I guess pho is the Vietnamese version.  The biggest difference seems to be that ramen can vary wildly in what is included in the bowl, but pho has kinda standardized versions.  That's the best I could get.  

 

Thanks for encouragement about the push ups, it's good to know I'm not the only one, and that someone young like you even struggled to get there, and still can only get a few.  Thankyou!

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

That ramen looks beautiful. 

[RedStone]

So third on that ramen! I bet Adam would love it if I could pull iff a vegetarian version for him. (I'd prefer chicken of course, ah well!)

 

I feel like I'm learning so much about disc golf by reading your threads - I found myself browsing the different types at the sporting goods store yesterday!

 

Pushups were one of the hardest things to get back into for me after PT. I stuck with the on the knee type for awhile (couldn't do more than 5 at first!), now I'm able to get about 10 standard ones in, all the way to the floor! Took awhile tho for sure.

 

[SevenofSeven]

Who would have thunk, ramen could be so...........versatile. Might have to show the Lads!

 

Keep going with the push ups, you will get there. For the wrists have you considered strapping? For a while I used lifting gloves with the straps around the wrists to help. I can still only do sets of 5.