Tag: Cake Boss

Light Pole Work

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For what looked to be a rainy morning the night before, I was pleased to see we would have a dry morning, except for the sweat from the less than moderate work I had planned.  Ballroom is a great AO and is also moderate.  The workout allowed everyone the opportunity to push themselves.  As cars rolled in a great group of 25 PAX assembled and the mumble-chatter started immediately.  After a short disclaimer we moseyed around the parking lot and stopped at the far side for warm-up

  • SSH
  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walker
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Merkin
  • Mountain Climber
  • MNC – correct arm movement

Mosey to the entrance road for the light pole work to begin.  Begin at 1st light pole with exercise, run to the 2nd and complete exercise.  Come back to 1st and complete exercise and go to 2nd then 3rd and then back to 1st.  Continue this until complete all 5 light poles. (Mumble-chatter had dropped to a low level), catching your breath was more important.  Light poles were spaced out along front entrance and every other pole had designated exercise.  Exercises:

  1. 10 Merkins
  2. 15 CDD
  3. 20 Dips
  4. 25 Monkey Humpers
  5. 30 Squats

Once completed and six was in we moseyed to the grass/mud hill on the side of the school.  Set out for a series of 12’s.  Bottom of hill dips and the top of the hill squats. 1 at bottom & 11 at top of hill – 2/10, 3/9…..

Moseyed back to front parking lot for a little Mary.  Opportunity for some of the Pax that had not Q’d before to lead an exercise of Mary.  Good job Arrowhead, Dungaree and Wide Right.

Moleskin:

We have almost completed 60 days of focus on impact.  I shared with the group that as I have thought about impact in my life, I have thought about the people in my life that have impacted me.  Most of the time they probably didn’t know the impact they made but more importantly their impact was made by how they lived their life.  As I shared that in our family, work, social and community, it may not be the words we speak but the daily actions we live that can impact someone.  I also shared Dabo’s response he had at the ACC media day, when asked about his faith.  “If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present”.  Take 3 minutes and watch the video of his response.  We are all blessed and have different opportunities in the present.  Let your actions speak loudly!!

Thanks Short Sale for the opportunity to Q.

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Beyond Adversity

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Adversity: A state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune  through showing COURAGE in the face of adversity. 

The Beyond workouts have been influential in pushing us all beyond our normal tendencies. As each of the Q’s created hard, meaningful, powerful workouts, the messages have been even more impactful. I dug deep into why F3 has been so impactful to me for the past 5 ½ years and realized that if I wasn’t Headlocked by Sen Tressel and Decible, I would never have found the reason why I am who I am, nor stepped outside of my comfort zone. As many know, I am not one to speak messages or bring attention to my birth defect. Yes I love to rattle the Q’s and bring sarcasm – but that is to hide my anxiety and self-awareness. Growing up with a birth defect being extremely skinny and frail had a huge negative impact on me: from being prohibited from playing organized sports, to ridicule, to hash words, to being left out. Growing up I became extremely self-aware of  how I was different, how I looked, and how people looked at me. Up until college, I had no self-esteem. I was shy and timid. A college roommate encouraged me to hit the gym with him and from that point on, I became a gym rat for the sole reason to make my body look normal. That never happened, and I knew it wouldn’t. But I had to find a reason – COURAGE – to face Adversity. When Sen Tressel approached me about F3, he knew that I worked out religiously, but I bet he knew I was missing something. That was the fellowship and faith aspect of my life. Don’t get me wrong, my wife is my treasure, and she see’s through all my fallacies and understands the importance of my working out. Adversity has smacked me right in the face more often than not, and without the courage of my F3 brothers, pushing me, encouraging me, accepting me, I would not be a better man, husband, nor father. If you asked me 20 or 25 years ago to participate in a GoRuck Tough, a Mudrun, a 5k, a CSUAP, I would have said something that is not print worthy. We all deal with Adversity, we deal with it differently, but courage is the root of the means to fight adversity. I will never be normal, I will never be as strong as Maximus or as fast as Sen Tressel or courageous as Dark Helmet, or a leader like CSPAN, but without F3 and our brothers locking shields together, adversity would overrule our lives and we would not find the courage to push each of us through the hard time.

So the Thang represents one of the hardest WO’s F3 experiences. I thank Jekyll for introducing the board of pain many years ago. But I wanted to put a twist on it – different exercises and a little more running. I wanted each of us at Beyond to encourage each other to push through the adversity that the box of pain presented.

Ran ½ mile to the FMHS ROTC pull up bars. Conduct each exercise listed on box of pain, then run around the parking lot (approximately 0.3 miles). Complete as many as you can until Q halts WO.

100 LBCs

50 Burpees

25 Pull Ups

100 Big Boy Sit Ups

150 Squats

100 Merkins

100 Mountain Climbers

Wrap up with round of 10 count Abs:

A = American Hammers

D = Dying Cockroaches

V = V-ups

E = E2K (oblique crunch with RL on L knee then switch

R = Rosalitia

S = Sit ups

I = Imperial Walker on your back (bicycle)

T = Tummy Tuck (LBC)

Y = Yo Rosalitia this is Dolly (Start in Hello Dolly brings legs together then bring legs up)

Run back to COT

Thank you Maximus for allowing me to Q Beyond and for us all to find Courage to fight through Adversity everyday. F3 is a conduit to each PAX finding the courage and accountability to get through whatever Adversity your are dealing with, and F3 brothers are the foundation to help each of us through adversity.

Trucker

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A Respectable Day at WEP

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June 2 marked the official start to summer at The Fort, and 13 men met at WEP to get after it.  The mumble chatter started early and continued through the workout (well most of it, anyway).  Here is what happened:

The Thang:

Mosey from the parking lot, through the wooded trail,  and out to the main road.  Head to the Springs lot for COP:

All in Cadence:

SSH x40, Windmill x 15, CDD x 20, Squat x 20, Mountain Climber x20/hold/Peter Parker Peter x 15/hold/mountain climber x 20, Boat and canoe x 4, Monkey humper x 15

Mosey to the narrow parking lot by the Springs building and pair up.

  1.  Partner 1 does Freddie Merc’s while partner 2 runs the full length of the lot and back.  Flapjack
  2. Partner 2 does Sumo squats while partner 2 runs the full length of the lot and back.  Flap jack

Take a short mosey to the  awning over the sidewalk

3.  Partner 1 does wall pull ups while partner 2 crabwalks the width of the parking lot and back.  Flapjack.

Since this was the first week that The Fort started at the earlier time of 6:30, we moseyed back to the park thinking there might be some Pax who didn’t get the message.  Sure enough, Weezer and Drop Thrill were in the parking lot waiting for the workout to start.  We picked them up, did a short mosey to the field and I handed off to Walker

Line up for 11’s:  10 burpees at the start, run about 20 yards, do 1 LBC, run back.  Continue decreasing the bupees by 1, while increasing the LBC’s by 1 until you complete 1 burpee and 10 LBC’s.  Plank for the 6.

Walker then led the group through a series of upper body and ab exercises:

20 merkins (double count in cadence)

20 diamond merkins – oyo

10 plyometric merkins (hand clamp or full body jump) – oyo

10 prison cell merkins – oyo

50 flutters in cadence (crowd pleaser)

40 Freddie Mercs in cadence

20 regular merkins in cadence

10 merkins with left palm facing the sky, right regular, 10 opposite (impossible, except for the Q!)

Hold feet 6″ off the ground for 90 secs

30 flutter kicks in cadence (ugh!)

COT

Moleskin:

Walker and I had a Q planned for Alcatraz about a year ago, but a scheduling conflict prevented it from happening.  So, I was pretty psyched when Bonsai told me I was paired with Walker for today.    Walker is all business and always pushes the Pax.   I like that.

There was plenty of mumble chatter from the get go.  I called out the 60 sec warning before the start of the workout, but I don’t think anyone noticed as everyone continued to talk.  I had to yell slightly to get everyone’s attention when we were starting the workout.    The chatter continued on the trek through the woods and during COP.   People just wouldn’t shut up this morning – it was great.     It’s good to be the Q when that is happening.

Walker took some time to remind the Pax about good form on merkins (to prevent shoulder injuries) and LBC’s (for better results).    Slow down the pace and do the exercises properly.   It’s good advice for guys who workout several days a week.  He called out some pretty tough merkins (plyometric) and some done on the  back of your hand (try that sometime).

We had a lively group today and it was truly a pleasure and a privilege to lead them with my friend and co-respect, Walker.

Announcements:  F3 Dads starts today and goes throughout the summer.  Contact Change Order for more details or if you’d like to Q.

Read your newsletter for everything else!

Prayers/Praises

Continued prayers for the Giesler family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Find accountability in your life

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YHC was called out of the bullpen to assist the originally scheduled Q – Crab Cakes since he was bi-coastal. Leading up to the morning WO, YHC struggled to figure out what to include in the weinke. The only thing that was a requirement was rugby sprints in honor of Crab Cakes. As I was pulling out the garage,  it dawned on me that each of the student parking rows at FMHS had numbers at the beginning identifying the row number. I couldn’t recall a WO utilizing those row numbers, so grabbed some chalk on the way out. However, as I was sitting in the car at the AO formulating the weinke, I found a deck of cards in the console and thought of Maximus’s infamous WOs. But I realized I should stick to the plan and be accountable for what I planned for. As we were all gathering around for the start, someone mentioned the pull up bars on site and Deacon said “there’s pulll up bars here?” Of course this peaked my interest (Shocker) and so I had to show the newbies the location. Even though the weinke was modified, accountability had a theme for today since it is the last day of the month and the monthly word (read end of backblast for more on this theme)

Mossy to the band field for some warm ups. Mossy towards location of pull ups, halfway there, stop for 20 squats. At pull ups, max out on pull ups, then do 25 LBCs; rinse and repeat 3xs.

Mossy back to band field for 4x4s. 1 burpee with 4 merkins. 10 OYO.

Line up at goal line, conduct 4 rounds of Rugby Sprints.

Mossy to parking lot:

Row 1: 1 Burpee – run to other end of parking lot and back to next odd number row

Row 3: 3 CCD – rinse repeat run through 13 rows

Row 5: 5 Squats

Row 7: 7 merkins

Row 9: SSH

Row 11: LBCs

Row 13: Flutters

Mossy to COT for 3 minutes of Abs: Big Boy Sit Ups, Big Boy Sit Ups with one leg extended out 6 inches from ground – switch legs, flutters, american hammers, dying cockroach.

COT: Today is the last day for May’s word of the month theme of accountability, with June’s word of the month being Impact. As Chickenhawk wrapped up discussing accountability with a Whetstone partner, I wanted to piggy back on that. Yesterday was a hard and sad day for my M. 1 year ago she lost her mom. As I come home from work she was sitting on the couch with teary eyes and a sad look. Before I could ask whats wrong she said “do you know what today is?” Of course I’m thinking “Crap, its not her birthday, its not our anniversary, what am I missing??” She then responds that her mom passed away 1 year ago that day. I of course being a selfish husband said “I’m sorry” and didnt even go over and give her a hug and kiss, nor comfort her. My response was “I need to get my 2.0 to baseball practice” When we got home, I failed again as we sat quietly on the couches watching meaningless TV. As we went to bed, all I did was give her a hug and said stay strong. As I write this, I sure look like a loser! So be accountable to your M each and every day. Show her love and be impactful to her. Support her without being asked to, love her, comfort her, don’t be ignorant and selfish, be accountable in her life by being her rock. We don’t have many days on this life, we need to make the best of every single day as a husband, father, leader…this has been a tough month, one that has shown the importance of being accountable to your family and friends, to be impactful to them as well. Let’s not forget this each and every day.

Trucker

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Choosing Not to Cheat – Ballroom Style

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Honestly, YHC was stoked to Q the Ballroom this week. First, I had not visited the new site since moving from PKES. Second, I had not seen a lot of the Pax at this site and third the weather was perfect with a mild 60 degrees at launch.

I have struggled with moderate workouts for many years because I don’t view these men as “moderate”. If you define men who get up around 4:45 to post in any weather conditions and workout for 45 minutes while sharing fellowship and faith throughout as moderate, then so be it.

I recently spent some time in fellowship with other Pax and was reminded of the book by Andy Stanley, Choosing to Cheat. The gist of the book is that we are all cheaters. We cheat on our work by spending time with our wife. We cheat on our wife by spending time with our kids and so on. This book hits home for me. While work/life balance is unattainable and a #Oprahbomb, I find that I get the validation that I so desire from work and gravitate to working harder for more validation. I asked the Pax who posted to choose not to cheat for the next 45 minutes on their workout and to hold each other accountable in doing so.

The Thang

Mosey to football field

COP

SSH x 30

Windmills x 15

IW x 15

CDD x 20

Plank Jacks x 20

Night Clubs x 25

Mosey to 50 yard line

Burpee Ladder Starfish

2 Burpees in middle

Sprint to corner

20 Mtn Climbers

4 Burpees in middle

Sprint to corner

10 merkins in cadence

6 Burpees in middle

Sprint to corner

20 Squats in cadence

8 Burpees

Sprint to corner

20 Bomb jacks

10 Burpees

Ladder back down

Partner up for Ab Ladder

5 Situps

Sprint

5 Situps plus 10 flutters

Sprint…you get the idea

Finished with 5 sit-ups, 10 flutters, 15 Freddy, 20 LBC, 25 American Hammer

Random ladder of burpees and abs to finish…lots of complaining here

 

Moleskin

  • Prayers for Badger and Bullwinkles Dad
  • Lots of upcoming events…read your newsletter
  • Praise for Barney Fife and Boogie Down

Thanks to Short Sale for the opportunity. Love what you have done at the Ballroom!

Pusher out!

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WHETSTONE…Relaunches at THE FORT

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Several weeks ago, it was announced that our region, THE FORT, would be closing all Saturday AO’s and holding a convergence at FMHS to get the PAX together as we thank Rebel for his leadership of Whetstone and relaunch it under Repeat and World Wide Leader (WWL). I was excited to hear we’d be getting many of the region together but I wasn’t expecting what came next. It was a text asking if I’d Q the workout.

Q, like part of it, half of it or …? The response was, THE WHOLE THING. I love to Q every chance I get but to do so on a day like this, well, I better make sure it includes a little something for everyone. Or, almost everyone.

————————————————————————————————————–

And this is where I let life get the better of me. I try to follow the 48hr rule on posting a BACKBLAST, especially when they’re significant but I let life and travel get in the way. It is now Saturday, one week later, and I’m just finishing this BB. Life can get challenging, it can get stressful, it can get you riding the highs or down in the lows. And this past week, our family has experienced some of each. Maybe this was the week where I really came to realize how valuable having a Whetstone partner can be. Someone that I can share the highs with and someone to help get me out of the lows; or to keep me honest when it’s my own doing that has me on the outside looking in on the joys of life.

That said, I’ll take you back to last Saturday, April 21 where we had a a few pre-ruckers and a total of 58 PAX converge to re-kick off this critical program.

We got ourselves into an odd-shaped kidney-like shape for the disclaimer, the announcement of why we were there this beautiful morning and to acknowledge our 2 FNG’s in the PAX. We counted off in 4’s then took off toward the big parking lot for a warm up jog in 4 lines. This jog included some karaoke’s and 4 lines doing an indian run which was way harder than it appeared on paper.

In these last 2 years, Whetstone has brought together some extremely HIM. One of those men has gone through a tough 18mos and he was gracious enough to share some of his story to include the impact Whetstone had on his life as we circled up to hear his words. I know he wouldn’t endorse this comment but anytime Mr. Clean wants to share experience or wisdom, the PAX listens. And listen we did.

After backing the group back out to a circle-like shape, I was giddy to honor Santini in the only way I knew how…with a deck of cards. However, on this day we utilized 1/2 the deck and considered it our warm up:

Hearts = Side Straddle Hops

Diamonds = Carolina Dry Docks

Spades = Squats

Clubs = Merkins

Then a little action from the Burp-Merk: Standing, we then dropped to a plank, did 5 merkins then jumped up. That equals 1 and we did 5 total.

This was when we got to listen to our very own Nantaan, Cake Boss, as he shared the impact Whetstone has had on him. Yet again, another powerful testimony.

Then off to do 4 corners in the lot with:

Corner 1 = Dancing Crabs x 15ea and Dips x 20

Corner 2 = Dying Cockroach x 15ea and Flutters x 20ea

Corner 3 = Burpees x 10 and Jump Squats x 10

Corner 4 = American Hammers x 25 and Freddie Mercury x 20ea

Mosey over to the wall for B2W while doing 5 “push ups” followed by 15 calf raises. We did this 3 times.

To close out our testimonies, my man Chicken Hawk laid it down for us. He shared the impact Whetstone has had on him, his marriage, his family…his life. Life isn’t meant to be traveled alone. Well said brother.

6ct Burpee which I needed a little help from the Helmet of Darkness to remind me the steps. Remember the line, “If you can’t Q it, don’t do it?” Yeah, me too but I obviously didn’t follow that too closely here.

This is where the cat-herding became evident. The PAX exhibited patience with me as we attempted a modified DORA series consisting of:

50 Flying Squirrels, 50 Diamond Merkins and 50+ Flutters

We then took off for the main entrance to the football stadium and lined up in 4 lines facing down the hill. Once everyone readjusted, it was 15 American Hammers, 15 Flutters and 15 Hello Dollies. This was done several more times.

Well, that put a bow on the workout portion of this convergence and after the COT, FNG naming of RBG and Whiskers, we then handed it off to World Wide Leader and Repeat to lead the Whetstone discussion.

Announcements: The relaunch of Whetstone. Thanks to Rebel for getting this off the ground 2 years ago and to Repeat / World Wide Leader for taking the reigns.

Prayer Requests: Badger. Camp Care 5K. Jennings Palmer’s transplant. Olive’s 8K in memory of Sweet Tooth. Elmer.

Honored and appreciative of your patience.

Maximus

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Moderately Crabby

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Thanks to Smithers for allowing me to lead this morning.  23 HIMs started with the disclaimer and then took a little twist on the mosey down the hill to the back side of Lowes for the warm-up and beat down. Two lines formed up at the shovel flag and proceeded to Blacksnake all the way to the warm-up.  It was noted that surprisingly no one was injured bobbing and weaving while running in a line.

The Warm-Up was short and sweet to get the muscles ready and not tired.

  • Brisk 25 SSH
  • 25 Moroccan Night Club
  • 20 Imperial Walkers

The familiar Burpees that are often limited or lost at Slow Burn were tweaked slightly to provide a little 4×4 action!

Immediately following the 4x4s, we jumped right into a round Batwings.  All to a 4-count cadence:

  • 20 Forward Arm Circles
  • 20 Reverse Arm Circles
  • 20 Seal Claps
  • 20 Overhead Claps

After the shoulders were smoked, we met up along the wall of Lowes facing the side parking lot.  Everyone partnered up for some 123’s with a rotating exercise for the traveling partner. The partners completed their 100 Merkins, 200 LBC’s and 300 Squats while crossing the parking lot performing either Bear Crawls, Crab Walks, Lunge Walks, or Toe-Walks.  The parking lot had 3 distinct rows of spaces along each PAX to determine the length of their crawls or walks.

Following the 123’s we circled up for a bit of core work; Abs and Back.  I thought it was important to incorporate the most often forgotten part of the core.  This is where the real “crabbing” started among the PAX.  All exercises done in cadence:

  • 20 Crab Cake
  • 20 Crunchy Frog
  • 20 Crab Humpers
  • 20 American Hammers
  • 20 Crab Jacks
  • 20 Big Boy Sit Ups
  • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • 15 Merkins done with several pauses at 6″

The PAX moseyed its way back up to the top at their own pace in preparation for COT

At COT, the origin stories for  a couple of PAX were shared so that we can all get to know one another a little better.

Great work from all the HIMs who pushed through some serious shoulder exercises and goofy crab work.

 

MOAB…out

 

 

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Tires, sledgehammers, dumbbells and ropes

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I saw that Royale was on Q once again so I decided to step up and steal the Q from him, great opportunity to lead a group of 19 PAX that decided to get better. Jedi, Olaf and Cha-Ching went for a pre run unaware of the beat down that was planned staring at 5:15.

Quick disclaimer  and welcomed one FNG (Hawkeye)

We started the warm up with a 2 minute run around the parking lot and then circled up for the following:

20 Windmills

20 LBC’s

20 side straddle hops

10 worst merkin ever, non stop from werkin to merkin to derkin

We moseyed to the boat-trailer parking lot  for the real thing, quick explanation of the workout, we had 4 station/corner setup,  we split into groups 1 to 4 and one group went to each corner, from station  1 to 2 and 3 to 4 we run, from station 2 to 3 and 4 to 1 we bear crawled, exercises were listed as follow:

STATION 1

-> 15 big boy sit ups

-> 20 rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings (15 each side)

-> 30 Heel Touches SC

-> 30 Dying Cockroach SC

STATION 2

-> 10 two hand triceps ext

-> 15 two hand biceps curls

-> 25 dumbbell swing

-> 30 Makhtar N’Diayes

-> 50 Carolina drydocks

STATION 3

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 15  Low slow squats IC

-> 20 lateral lunges  (10 each side)

-> 30 jump squats

-> 50 calf raises

STATION 4

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 15 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 plank jacks

-> 50 Shoulder taps

Each group was able to complete 7 stations (one full round of all 4 station plus 3 stations depending on the order each group started), timing was of the essence, first full round was completed in about 17 minutes (26 minutes into the workout) but exhaustion sat in and second round took longer, everyone pushed themselves hard and that “extra 40%” effort was burned during the second round.

With 2 minutes to spare we sprint back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Welcome back Brickhouse and FNG Hawkeye!!

Tinsel out…

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10

4 Corners . . . with some “Elders”

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I will keep this backblast shorter, but I will say it was a lot of fun today at the Pantheon! Thanks to Fishsticks for letting me Q.

Some Pre-work:

1 group of runners headed out to who knows where at 4:45.

Fishsticks and I did some extra ab work that I call high octane abs. It hurt.

Disclosure given. Lots and lots and lots of chatter. Completely dark. Did I mention there was lots of chatter?

Short mosey to the lighted area for a different dynamic stretching workout after some high knees and butt kickers.

Some confused minds about what we were doing since very few had done this style of warm-up before (~8 exercises). Eventually I shifted to some traditional SSHs and the crowd went wild. It was like the PAXs’ bodies woke up.

At this point I inconveniently forgot a few demos of a few of the exercises to come for the main event.

The Thang:

We broke up into 4 teams of 5 and went to each respective corner on the soccer field. Fortunately, it was not very muddy.

I’d tell you the 20 different (and difficult) exercises that we did, but  . . . that means I’d have to type them out right now and I feel lazy after a long day of work. So if you are reading this, feel free to retweet it and comment what your favorite one was even if you don’t know the name of it. We did do Tunnel of Love and People’s Carry between cones.

I had a second round prepared, but, oh well, . . . time slipped away from us. Beware of next time. Round 2 was scheduled to be harder.

COT: Main Announcements: Convergence coming up; Praises: Lutefish’s daughter rocked it; Prayer: let’s continue to pray for children going through difficult times and Badger and his family.

Thanks to everyone, including the “Elders” for their hard work today!

Lastly, I think I missed one of you on the list. So sorry. My memory can only remember 19 out of 20 without a recording. Feel free to identify yourself.

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