Erin Hughes.com

Man I have been so busy lately I have some pics that go with some of the stories below but between servers blowing up and the 30 + unread mails in my personal inbox and the 50 or more in my work inbox. PLUS trying to get ready for my dad to come here. I am a little short on time. Sorry if I haven't gotten back to you.... I will. Some of these things posted today are pretty old but I had 10 minutes of time so I blasted them out as quick as I could. E./

We have had practice 2 weeks in a row. The next 5 weeks will be games. This was also our last practice with Joe as the coach and after doing so well in the 100 meter sprints I was looking forward to showing off a bit more. Of course always what I want and what ends up happening is different. We started with a quick game of soccer and I could feel that I was not warmed up enough to play and after a intense chest trap and left footed shot that JUUUUUUST went wide I felt every muscle in both legs just clamp shut. It was a pretty intense crapping type of pain that stayed with me the rest of practice. I was very disappointed as we did our 20 X 50 meter sprints only to be beaten 1/2 the time by my 5 year old son. Let alone being able to beat anyone else who I had beaten last week. I was not alone others felt similar affects as the practice got on. We did some Line out drills and rucking and mauling and it would have been allot better if more that 2 of the tight 5 and 3 of the loose forwards had shown. I understand that people have other commitments, but I know all these guys will be there next week to play, and I will not get to play more than 20 minutes. We did a team run and again I spent more time in the way then anything. I was not only in the wrong place more than twice but I was standing flat or not in the right position to receive the ball when I did. Later Joffa and Dave, Chris and Pallo pulled me aside and explained that; 1. I do not have to ruck over every single ruck or maul 2. I should run in a kinda lazy L pattern 3. I should if I can not make it into the ruck and the half back is already there be ready and moving behind the 5/8 and be ready to do a forward crash run and or pull defenders away from the ball as a dummy runner.

10 years is a long time. So I have been married to my wife, Satomi for 10 years. I do not know what to say. Yesterday for our anniversary we had a small lunch and then went to look at a potential school for Eric, a couple of beers. Then back to our everyday life. I picked up Eric and she went grocery shopping. No big presents no promising for another 10 years, just back to our life's. One thing I do remember was 10 years ago I wanted alot of stuff, maybe cause at 25 I had nothing still. Seemed like we were always spending money on shit I wanted but did not need. Now I want less of everything, and more time. I also remember how I said I would make a certain amount of money by a certain age. I did that. How I did not know anything about computers 10 years ago compared to now, and how when I got out of the Marines 10 years ago...... I had no idea what I was gonna do or how. Over time I changed allot, I learned allot and I accomplished more than most people would have thought I was capable of, and I am still going for more. That is me, the outside has changed a bunch, but the inside is still basically the same.

Kodomo Sumo in Tokyo Last year Eric and I went to the local kids sumo tournament and Eric did really well. This year we went to a local kodomo sumo tournament here in Tokyo. It was a lot different, well organized with stands selling Japanese food, and places to set up if you want to sell stuff. At noon we got in line to sign up. There were about 50 kids for Erics age group. I paid my 200 yen and then Eric was in. Special thanks to Momo-chan and her mom for coming to make sure that Eric and I got signed up correctly and cheer Eric on. After a group of young girls did a Hawaiian dance routine Eric and all the other kids in his age group got up on the stage and they grouped them from biggest to smallest. Eric being 4 feet tall at almost 6 years old was one of the tallest so he was put in towards the end. At Eric's age group they didn't appear to take it as serious as they took they other kids. They just paired them up, put them in the ring and said Go and then declared a winner. The kids were then hustled off the mat and each given a bag of small consolation prizes. Eric lost his first match to a hip toss from his opponent. Luckily he was towards the end and there was a uneven number of kids so they asked him if wanted to wrestle again and he said yes, the 2 other kids they asked said no probably because the other kid was the same height as Eric but had him by at least 10-15 kilos. Eric got in the ring again and went right at it with the bigger kid. I was yelling and screaming so hysterically that I did not even see who won. Eric said he did but I thought I saw his knee on the ground before he pushed the kid out of the ring. Either way it was a good hard fought match by my boy so I rewarded him with a puzzle that he saw that some one was selling.