What do you get when you combine a weekend out of town, birthday festivities, fighting in a tournament and a couple crazy days of solving people's technical problems? An unintentional 5-day break from STEEM!

The Weekly Zekely is all about catching up on a busy week, reliving some of the adventures, and checking out some of the silly stuff that makes itself into the camera roll on my phone. This week, it is getting back to it on STEEM after a crazy week heading into December and Christmas season.

Strap on your drinkin' socks and lets do this!

First things first. I may have been AFK on December 1st and late to the party but I will be damned if I miss SPUD day! I have powered up every STEEM earned in my years here and have only purchased like $5 worth of STEEM on the open market. So, #SPUD is nothing new to me. This is my biggest SPUD to date though and I am excited to be packing it into vesting and locked into the blockchain for now and when the value jumps. I can't wait til my upvotes are worth 10x and my curation can make a bigger difference in people's lives and blogs.

Congrats to @streetstyle on championing the movement and all the spudders and winners. https://steemit.com/spud/@streetstyle/spud8-the-official-winner-s-list-steem-blockchain-community

To start my huge weekend, I got to hang out with brothers and even hit a brewery/alehouse I have not yet visited or reviewed. So, I will have a @tasteem review and a legit entry for #beersaturday this weekend. Great pizza, IPA and a strange new beer were had and STEEM beer blogging has its benefits!

That night was not over yet as there was a rock show to attend. I have real and figurative brothers as members of Wasaga https://wasaga.bandcamp.com/ They have new songs on the bandcamp site and I may just help them by publishing them on the blockchain for them. I will also put together a Catch a Concert with Zeke with some more images and a video of one of their live songs. We had a few splashes that night for sure. They had ways of making us rock.

It is a birthday miracle that we didn't misbehave so much the night before this tournament. It would have made for a long and potentially painful day had I showed up too hungover for the Jiu Jitsu tournament. As it turned out, I was able to help coach some team mates, see some old friends and take home a little hardware for my fights. I ended up losing in the gold medal match in a fight I could have won. You win or you learn though and my bad shoulder got caught in a bad spot and I had to tap to avoid reinjury and inevitable surgery.

So, not the optimal result but a good day nonetheless and a silver medal. Back to the mats!

Part of the tournament is the promotions of students from all the academies. A whole new crop of Blue, Purple, Brown and even Black belts were born. One of the guys I fought in tournaments past received his black belt which is awesome. It will be many years yet, if I can survive them, for me and I am happy to just train causally, stay healthy and take my time on that path.

This event was a 3-for-1 for me as my little one also competed. To see her train all year, more than I did, and prepare for this tourney was special. To see her struggle with nerves and anticipation was a challenge but I know it is the practice in handling the emotions and charging into the face of danger that makes you even stronger. Such a proud dad moment when she had to fight 2 boys on the way to a bronze medal. She is going to be a killer if she continues to train and progress! Much better prepared for highschool than I was.

We celebrated the great day by heading to a Thai Restaurant I used to love to go to when I lived in the big city. That is one thing about the small town I miss is the superior Thai food. This particular restaurant will find its way onto @tasteem as well but here is a sneak peak. This is Crispy Tamarind Beef and it is glorious. Such a great combination of sweet, spicy and rich that even my patented Extreme Closeup shot may not even do justice. Makes me hungry looking back on that pick. So yummy.

Returning to Reality after a great weekend of fun capped off by 6 hours in the studio singing karaoke with the boys, drinkin beer and singing songs to @davedickeyyall, was tough. I returned home through an ice storm and the internet was out at home. Apparently my troubles were not isolated as I discovered the next day that a big client of ours was without internet and having phone problems. I slipped into technician mode and had to untangle quite the mess with a good friend. I spent too many hours in this tight closet for my liking but we managed to stand them up again.

Amazing how much businesses depend on internet and how a $200 piece of equipment can grind you to a halt.

It was a celebreation weekend so there was definitely lots of beer. One of them was a collab between Abe Erb http://abeerb.com/and Elora Brewing https://www.elorabrewingcompany.ca/ that was on the house in exchange for my consultation. So, it was 2 of my 3 favourite beers in one. Free and IPA. The first is lots but there was lots on the weekend anyhow.

The biggest treat was a surprise visit from probably my oldest friend who live half a continent away. He was working for a day in a town not far away and just walked in my front door on my birthday. To be able to catch up in person and shoot the shit over a couple pints and a hockey game really was something special, and completely out of the blue. We caught up and made plans as if there weren't a thousand miles and busy lives between us. It is these moments that make life pretty special. Perhaps the ugliest birthday present I have ever received but definitely one of my favourites of all time.

So, I am back and happy about it. Rather than the typical review, this is more like a preview post for all the good stuff I have to put together over the coming days. Thanks for hanging with me and catching up. It is going to be a great week!

Proud Manual Curator for:

Any cool adventures in your neck of the woods this week? Link 'em so I can curate 'em!

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