Registration Update

According to Bodybuilder Hubby, as of last night we had 61 competitors registered for this year's contest, which is now just two weeks away. Last year at this time we had 56.

So, since registration usually doubles during the last two weeks, we're on track for another Biggest Show Ever.

So, here's my annual plea to those of you who are planning to register but haven't yet actually done so.

Please, please, please register soon. Like now, preferably.

I'll be spending the better part of next week working on the contest program, including the list of competitor names that will be included. If you're not registered by next weekend, your name will not be included, even if you call Bodybuilder Hubby at 11pm two nights before the contest and beg.

So register now! Or at least this weekend. Especially since late fees kick in next Tuesday, April 17!

T-shirts and Programs and Posters, Oh My!

I’m a really good planner.

After the first contest year, when so much of what had to be done came down to the last minute, I came up with a list of tasks and assigned due dates so that the work would be nice and spread out, done a little bit at a time, in a logical, efficient matter.

It was a really great plan.

Unfortunately, I’m not so good at actually following through with the plans I put together.

So, with less than four weeks to go until the contest, and that bit of panic setting in, it’s time to actually get some things done.

This week: The Contest T-shirt Design

I’m taking a different approach this time around. I’ve found a couple amazing websites that offer a huge variety of graphic designs created by random people. Most of the time, graphics available online have all sorts of copyrights attached. Some can be used for personal use only. Some require that the designers’ logo or copyright line is included in the final image. But, I think as more people learn to create digital designs, just for fun or practice, there are more and more designs that are available with no restrictions. So I can take a great image someone else made, make some tweaks, and end up with something original and interesting for the contest. Perfect.

After that, I’ll start work on the program, though Bodybuilder Hubby hasn’t gotten any of the ads from sponsors yet. The program is one project that always seems to come down to that last week.

Bodybuilder Hubby finished getting the sponsor logos on the poster and has had a lot of requests for copies, which is great. He was up late last night assembling packing boxes, addressing labels and getting more posters ready to send off. He told me this morning that he’d run out and had to get more printed, which is the kind of added task that’s welcome.

Ticket sales and competitor registration always come down to the last couple weeks, so we’re looking forward to seeing how many people will be involved this year. Can’t even really guess at this point, though it’s looking good.

The area’s NGA season starts this coming weekend with the NGA Grand Teton competition. Our contest registrations always jump after the other contests start. Maybe competitors want to see how they do on stage before committing to another show, or maybe they just focus on one competition at a time.

Whatever it is, best of luck to those of you competing this weekend, and we hope to see you on our stage in less than four weeks!

Here We Go Again!

Only six weeks left until the 2012 spring competition!

We’ve gotten off to a bit of a late start this year. We didn’t have a venue until about a month ago. After some “issues” last year, we didn’t think we’d be able to use the same place again, but Bodybuilder Hubby worked it all out, and now we’re ready to go.

This will be the fourth time that Bodybuilder Hubby (with my help, of course) has run this show. It’s a bit amazing to look back and see how much has changed.

 In 2009 there were 84 competitors. Last year we had 116, with more expected this year.

 In 2009 we had a one day event. This will be our second year with a two-day event:  Amateur Figure on Friday night and everyone else on Saturday.

 We added Bikini in 2011. Probably my least favorite category, but it did give a large new group of competitors a chance to get on stage. Bikini is back for 2012.

We’ve added a Figure Novice category, and - after a year with 17 competitors in one Figure division (I promise that will not happen again!) - we now won’t decide on the Figure divisions (which are determined by height) until right before the competition. That way we can make sure the groups are fairly equal and not too big. More groups means more first place trophies and a better battle for Overall!

In 2009 we had two toddlers and I was working multiple part-time jobs from home with the kiddos here with me. Now I work full time while they are at school all day. 2009 was Barney and diapers. Thankfully, 2012 means both of those things are distant memories. If nothing else, I’ll look at least a little less sleep deprived at this year’s contest.

 Another change for this year is that Bodybuilder Hubby is helping with some of the graphics. I put together the design for this year’s poster (Flames! I can make flames in Photoshop!) but he’s taken it and added in logos for all 24 sponsors that we now have.

 We’re off to a good start.

Websites and Memory Lane

For most of the competitors from last weekend’s show, the work they put into the show was over sometime Saturday evening.

For me, the work ended about ten minutes ago.

I took over the contest website almost a year ago. Initially I changed and updated only the pages related to the upcoming contest and left the rest alone. My plan was that someday, when I had time, I’d get the older pages updated too.

But, as those of you with jobs and kids know, there is no time. So when I went to add the scoresheets for the Fall Show (currently posted on www.ngaidaho.com) I decided I might as well take the time to update the older scoresheet pages as well, so that the pages would be more alike and easier to update in the future.

I took a lot longer than I expected, as most projects do, but looking back at (and in some cases typing) the names of the former competitors brought back a lot of memories of those shows.

It’s interesting to see how many people compete almost every year.  And it’s interesting to see how competitors’ placings change from year to year. Like the figure competitor who had 5^th place one year, 1^st the next, and competed as a Pro the year after that.  There’s a story there.

There are competitors who were last one year and first the next, and vice versa. One of the things I like about these contests is that, while there are winners who have a streak of several years of 1^st places, no one wins every time. The rankings change, sometimes quite significantly from year to year.  There are stories there too.

I remembered the year that Bodybuilder Hubby won his Pro card, read back over the names of the others who competed that day.  That was an amazing night. He won his weight class and then was back on stage for the Overall at the end of the show – 17 minutes on stage, guys dripping sweat under those spotlights, showing off for the judges.  In the video that I took of that time, you can hear me occasionally yelling encouragement and a good friend of mine – who was watching a bodybuilding contest for the first time – yelling too.  Then they announced his name, and all you can hear is us screaming like crazy people, and you can’t see anything because I was waving the camera around, also like a crazy person. Even now when I watch it I get a little choked up and feel so much pride in what Bodybuilder Hubby accomplished.

I was also reminded of the show two years later – Bodybuilder Hubby’s first as a Pro.  We had a baby girl, just six months old, our first.  That spring I was back at work full-time (which was really hard for me – I hated being away from her during the day), and she was going through this spurt when she never slept for more than 3 hours at a time.  I was so exhausted that at one point I dozed off standing in front of a soda machine trying to decide which can of caffeine to buy. I wanted very much to be at the show to support Bodybuilder Hubby, but the Pros went on last. It was such an incredibly long day. Hours of pacing the hallway with the baby, trying to find quiet places where she could nap.  Eventually I ended up sitting in the very back of the auditorium, holding a sleeping baby with her ears covered so the audience screaming wouldn’t wake her up. I even dozed off for a bit myself sitting back there.  Fortunately, I woke up in time to see Bodybuilder Hubby win 3^rd place. Not bad at all for his first Pro show!

There will be new names added next spring, new memories made. The spring competition is tentatively scheduled for April 21, 2012, which – according to the newly updated website countdown – is only 184 days away!

Two Days!!!

Our "Fall Show" bodybuilding competition is in two days!  Two days!!!

As I'm typing this, our living room looks like a bodybuilding contest exploded all over it.  Bodybuilder Hubby has been home all day organizing the contest t-shirts (which turned out half-way decent, if I do say so myself), filling competitor goodie bags and fielding phone call after phone call about the show.

In our garage are eleven boxes of trophies, which were, of course, dropped off on our driveway by a not-very-helpful FedEx lady on a weekend when Bodybuilder Hubby was out of town.  I got my workout for that day by lifting and carrying those boxes into the safety of our garage. Because you never know when someone might come by and want to steal a box full of bodybuilding trophies.

We have about 45 people competiting, which I think is great.  More than I expected.  And we've had two people call this week asking to be added to the list.  This is good because we want more people to be involved, but it's mildly annoying because we've already sent the programs to be printed so they won't be in there, and we'll have to add their names to the lists and judges' score sheets that we prepared. Oh, well. The more the merrier, right?

Must be something about spending so much time doing work for a contest that features people who have been dieting for months. I am totally craving a cinnamon roll right now. And I don't even normally like cinnamon rolls.

We'll be ready for Saturday morning when the competitors show up.  I hope that we have a good crowd. The show is so much more fun when there's a lot of people and energy in the room.

If you're not competiting this weekend and you haven't bought your tickets yet, why not?  It's cheaper if you buy them ahead and you'll have more open seats to choose from.  Tickets are on sale now at http://www.idahotickets.com/.  You can also buy the tickets at the door on Saturday from yours truly, but you'll save me a bit of work if you get them ahead of time.  :)

Oh, and somebody please remind me to get a hand stamp!

The Fall Show is Coming!!!

The Fall Show is coming.

Soon.

It will be on Saturday, October 15 at Borah High School.  Registration is open on the www.ngaidaho.com website, and tickets are on sale now at www.idahotickets.com and Select-a-Seat outlets.

The Fall Show feels like it has sort of snuck up on us.  This is the first time we’ve done a contest in the fall.  For the Spring show, we spend months getting ready.  But for the fall, everything has come down to these last few weeks.

The biggest reason for the delay was truly out of our hands – We didn’t know where the contest would be held until just a few weeks ago.

At the competition last spring, some of the competitors violated the rules of the school where the contest was held.  Because of that, we lost the use of that school, which is a huge bummer, created a lot of work for Bodybuilder Hubby, and was generally a really stupid thing for those particular competitors to do.

(You may notice some changes to the competitor waiver this time around. That particular "issue" will not happen again.)

But after a series of meetings and a lot of waiting for a decision, we got access to the new auditorium at a different high school for the Fall Show.

Actually, I’m kind of looking forward to poking around that particular high school – both Bodybuilder Hubby and I graduated from that school, though we weren’t there at the same time and didn’t meet until years later.

I wonder if the hallways smell the same?

We will be ready.  Today Bodybuilder Hubby purchased 1000 sets of parts to make the competitor number badges.

1000.

If that doesn’t indicate that we’re in this for the long haul, I don’t know what does.

See you at the show!

People I "Know"

Only two days until the contest! Anyone else getting excited?   J

The thing I’m looking forward to most is just having the chance to reconnect with people.  Generally, the competitors and others involved are hard-working, dedicated, goal-oriented, competitive-in-a-friendly way kind of people.  I’m looking forward to cheering for many of them.

But this year, as I was going over the list of applicants, there were three names in particular that got my attention.

I was born and raised in this area, so I’ve seen first-hand how much things have grown and changed.  20 years ago, if I went to the grocery store or to see a movie, it was pretty much a guarantee that I’d see people I know. 

This is no longer the case.  So many people have moved here that being a native makes me something of a rarity.  (Bodybuilder Hubby is a native too.  He and I were born in the same hospital where his dad and our kids were also born.  He and I went to the same high school too, though he graduated before I got there so we didn’t meet until years later.)

The town where we live now is practically a suburb of the bigger city.  (I still hesitate to use the word “city,” since it’s never going to be that big, but we are finally getting a Nordstrom’s Rack, which totally counts for something!)

But the area where we live now used to be really rural, surrounded by farmland.  I had a friend in grade school who lived here, and we didn’t like having slumber parties at her house because it was too far out to get a pizza delivered.

Things have changed.

But some things haven’t.

Three of the competitors new this year are people who I’ve either known since they were little or whose families I have some connection with, going back to those more-like-a-small-town days.

#1 – There is a Figure competitor who is married to a guy I’ve known since he was five.  He was in the same frat as my brother in college.  And his older brother, the competitor’s brother-in-law, was my first “boyfriend” when I was 7.  We even held hands one time.

#2 – One of the Bikini competitors comes from a family I’ve known for a long time.  Her dad ran the sound booth at the church for Bodybuilder Hubby's and my wedding.   Her mom is (was?) a teacher I worked with several times.  And her brother was one of my fifth grade students back when I was a 22-year-old, just-starting-out teacher.  Her mom was always really pretty, so it fits that the daughter is now a Bikini competitor.

#3 – There is a new bodybuilder who I have known since he was a toddler.  His brother and my brother were good friends in grade school – in the same class, on the same little league team, if I remember correctly.   Being the mature older sister, I was asked on several occasions to babysit for the now-competitor and his brother.  I remember making a fort in their living room out of blankets. 

He’s the one I think I’m least likely to recognize.  It’s hard enough to recognize someone you only knew as a small child two decades ago.  It’s harder still to recognize anyone when his or her face is covered in Dream Tan.

(On the flip side, there are a bunch of competitors I only know from contests.  If I ever saw them without the fake tan stuff, and wearing normal clothes, I’d probably walk right by and not have a clue who they were!)

But with this competitor, if I do recognize him, I’m pretty sure I’m going to greet him by saying something like, “Hi, you probably don’t remember me, but I used to change your diapers.”

Yup.  This is going to be fun. 

Here We Go!

Well, the on-line application went live about three minutes ago.   Bodybuilder Hubby's contest is officially open for competitors.

I'll admit that for some reason I'm feeling a little nervous.  I've spent the morning feeling frantic, alternately trying to go over the last-minute checklist for the application and updating the contest website with the new info and links while also trying to keep my kids well enough entertained that they'd give me more than two minutes at a time to concentrate on what I was doing.  Thank goodness for Netflix Instant Streaming and endless episodes of "Go, Diego, Go!"

But now the application is live.  We'll have a pretty good idea soon if all the work we've put in will pay off.  And, really, there's no doubt in my mind that it will. 

This year's contest will be the best one yet.  Hopefully it will also have a record number of competitors.  We're ready. 

Time to start working on t-shirt designs...

On-line Application

Bodybuilder Hubby's bodybuilding contest has had an on-line application for the last couple of years.  Through a form on the website, the competitor's information was e-mailed to us, but the information wasn't saved in a database or anything like that.  So we'd copy and paste from the e-mail into Excel so we could sort and organize and make the forms and labels we needed.

But there were lots of problems.  If a competitor skipped a question, a line would be missing from his/her data, which threw off the rows in Excel.  A minor thing, but a major pain.  The most commonly skipped question was "T-shirt Size" which is why this year's competitors will discover that the new application for this year won't even allow them to submit the application without answering that question.

We're trying something new with this year's application that gives us nice options like required answers.  It will save Bodybuilder Hubby and me approximately thirty kajillion hours of copying, pasting, sorting and error-correcting.  It should also cut down on mistakes; with the new application, the only way a competitor's name will end up spelled incorrectly on the program is if the competitor spells his or her own name wrong on the application.  Which I have seen happen, actually.

The new on-line application will have lots of advantages for the competitors, too.  It will allow them to create a password so that they can come back and make changes to their application anytime before the contest.  For example, if a bodybuilder wants to change weight classes, he or she can re-open his/her application and make the change.  I expect the most changes will be made to the Competitor Bios, the information that the MC will read at the evening show as each competitor is introduced.  In past years Bodybuilder Hubby would get lots of e-mails right before the contest because a competitor would realize he/she forgot to include a "thank you" in the bio to a trainer or a spouse or something like that.  Now the competitors can change the bios themselves as often as they want right up until a day or two before the contest, when I'll be printing everything out for the MC to read.

I think it will really be a good thing for everybody, easier for everybody.

Now we just need to get it live, which could happen as early as this week!  Bodybuilder Hubby's been getting lots of questions about when the application will be available.  I think the background work on it will be done today.  I'm looking forward to seeing how many competitors we'll have this year.  Last year's total was 106.  Think we'll get more this year?

Whistle While I Work...

For the last two weeks I've been working on a reorganization of the website for Bodybuilder Hubby's bodybuilding contest (http://www.ngaidaho.com/).  There's a new division being added ("Bikini" - more on that later) and a few other changes that I wanted to have finished before the on-line application goes live.  Which should happen the middle of next week.  Hopefully.

A friend suggested that I start keeping track of the hours that I spend working on various stuff for Bodybuilder Hubby's contest and small business.  I'm the webmaster, copy writer, copy editor, graphic designer, social media manager, and random task completer for both.

I often think I should make up some business cards with that listed as my job title.

Since I started keeping track 11 days ago, I've put in 26 hours on the contest website (and 7 more on the contest itself).  I don't know if that sounds like much, but consider that the vast majority of that time has been at night after our kids are asleep. 

Last night I got to see snow falling outside my office window at 1am, because I happened to still be working there at the time.

Also last night, and for reasons I cannot explain (I blame sleep deprivation), I ended up picking "High School Musical" to listen to on Netflix Instant Streaming to help me stay awake while I worked.  I haven't been able to get those songs out of my head all day.  It's making me a little crazy.

But now it's done.  The updated website is live, and I've corrected all of the errors that I found.  I'm sure there will be other things - a misspelled word here or a funky graphic there, but hopefully not.  It just looks so unprofessional to see spelling and grammar errors on a business website.  According to me, a former classroom teacher.

I'm hoping to get some feedback, but really what I think will happen is that no one will notice.  People will get on the site, they'll quickly and easily find what they need, and they won't think any more of it.  I think that's good web design, when it just works and makes sense to most people.  (There are always those few...)

But I'm pleased with it, and already planning the next revision...

Let the Dieting Begin!

Earlier this month a friend came over to visit.  She told me that normally she would have brought a baked good, but that, “after all, it is January.”

The Season of the Diet.

Losing weight is surely one of the most common New Year’s Resolutions.  Every year in the weeks after Christmas, TV commercials and newspaper advertising shift from the gifts you were supposed to want to buy to the weight you’re supposed to want to lose: pills to take, programs to follow, gyms to join.

For Bodybuilder Hubby and many other bodybuilding and figure competitors in our area, January is the beginning of contest training season.

I’ve always thought the local contest timing was the best possible.  The biggest contest in our area is usually in April or May.   Competitors can enjoy the holidays like fairly normal people and then start their diets in earnest in January (again, like normal people – only more serious and probably with more success.)

So the competitors get to be in their best physical shape by mid-spring and then spend the entire summer looking hot in a swimsuit.   Then in the fall, they can eat more (as most of us do when the weather gets cooler) and enjoy the holiday meals and treats again.  Perfect.

Except that I know that their diet is pretty extreme.  I’ve seen what my hubby eats.  Lots of real, natural foods – huge salads, chicken, ground turkey, oatmeal.  Very little sugar, salt, fat or other things with flavor.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Bodybuilder Hubby complain about being hungry when he’s dieting down.  Usually, in fact, he complains because he’s “behind on a meal” and hasn’t had time to eat as much as he’s intended to on any given day. 

What I do notice are the low-carb days.  Bodybuilder Hubby has this pattern of a certain number of low, medium and high-carb days.  On high-carb days it seems as though he could polish off the contents of the fridge.  Low-carb days often mean lower energy, and, on occasion, a Grumpy Hubby.

Last year I overheard a conversation between two female competitors.  One of them was complaining about how no one at her work understood how hard it was to be on her diet, how they just complained about how grouchy she was all the time.

Of course they don’t understand. How could they?

Really, no one knows how you feel except you, and it’s unfair to everyone around you (family, friends, coworkers, etc.) if you expect them be sympathetic because of a diet you’ve chosen to put yourself on.  Give them a break.  You might feel like you’re suffering, but that doesn’t mean everyone around you should too.  Really.

That’s what I wanted to say.  If I had said anything.

It’s hard to be on a diet, hard to get to the gym all the time.  That’s why it’s worth celebrating and cheering for the people who are successful.  When you get up on the stage – or take pictures from the contest to show your coworkers – you can be extremely proud of what you’ve been able to do.

So, to all of you who are competing, here are my two pieces of advice, from the outside looking in:

1) Connect with other people who are competing and who do understand what you’re doing.   You need to be able to gripe and complain on occasion with people who know why it’s all worth it.

2) Keep in mind that every person – every competitor – is different and unique.  Following the exact same diet as someone else does not necessarily mean that you’ll get the exact same results.  Talk with people who know – former competitors, trainers with an understanding of nutrition.  The more information you have, the better you’ll be able to pick out what you think will work best for you.

Good luck!

Button Badges - The Big Finish

They’re done!  155 badges, numbered and ready to be assigned to competitors in April.

And it only took a total of about 3 1/2 hours to complete.

My hand hurts.

Button Badges - The Beginning

2009 was the first year that Bodybuilder Hubby ran the local bodybuilding contest.  It was definitely a learn-as-you-go kind of experience.  So many things came down to that last two weeks – lots of late nights.  I finished stuffing the competitors' goodie bags at 3am the morning of the contest.  I got an hour of sleep before having to leave for the contest venue.

My big goal for the day of that contest was not to burst into tears of exhaustion in front of anyone.  And I succeeded at that goal.  Yeah, me!

One of the tasks I had taken on was making the badges for the competitors.  The competitors wear a pin with a number on it while they are on stage; the number is how the judges identify the competitors on the score sheets.

I remembered making badges at a summer camp in junior high.  It had been really fun to do.  So I thought, wouldn’t it be nice and look more professional if I could make a badge like that for each competitor, instead of using those plastic name tag holders with hand-written numbers.

So, three weeks before the contest, I did an on-line search and found Badge-a-Minit, a company that sells the parts and equipment needed to make the badges.  I ordered a hand-press machine and parts to make 100 badges.

While I waited for the materials to arrive, I made the numbers.  I printed out numbers in several different fonts to figure out which was easiest to read from a distance.  I taped the printed page to a kitchen cabinet so Bodybuilder Hubby could tell me which was best.  His eyesight is amazing; mine… well, let’s just say that I live in a world with slightly fuzzy edges.

I had the numbers printed and cut out by the time the box arrived from Badge-a-Minit a week before the contest.   But when I opened the box, the back pieces of the badges – the part with the pin on it – was missing.

I called the company in a panic and spoke with the nicest-ever customer service lady.   She made me think of down-home, mid-west America; I pictured her sitting at an old metal desk with a rotary phone decked out in a cardigan sweater and curly grey hair.  She promised me the pin backs would be shipped that day.

They arrived the following Wednesday, three days before the contest.

Each badge starts with four parts: the pin back, a metal disk backing, the paper circle with the image (in this case a number), and a clear plastic circle that covers the front.  So you start by stacking a metal back, a paper circle, and a plastic circle.  Then you line up the top center with a little triangle on the blue circular frame.  The yellow circle part fits inside this one, twisting on to hold everything in place.  Then you flip it over.  The purple circle fits inside the blue one, and the green circle stacks on top.  Then you use the heels of both hands to push down – THUNK! – until they snap together.  Then you take off the purple and green circles and flip the blue frame over.  The red circle fits on top of the front of the badge inside the blue frame.  Next you push down on the red circle. Then you flip it over again and use the tip of a fingernail to make sure the edges of the plastic and paper circles are folded under neatly.  Next you put in the pin back, line it up, stack the green circle on that.  The whole thing fits inside the press.  Line it up and squeeze like crazy.  Then take it all apart.

That makes one badge.

I finished the 100^th badge at 2am Friday morning, the day before the contest. 

And I made a promise to myself that I would never wait until the last minute again.

For the 2010 contest, I started a couple months ahead and completed 150 badges in five hours with the help of a friend.

For the 2011 contest, I’m starting in November.  The sooner those badges are done, the better.

I’ll make enough again to have a total of 150, but we have some left over from last year, so there’s only 113 that I’ll actually have to do.   The junior high camper somewhere inside me thinks it will be lots of fun.