Transfered Inches

Last night was our second double header ulti night. I was pretty pumped to do better than last week. This week we were at Central, and wow, the grass was lush and green meaning the ground was the perfect softness for some hard cutting action. I learned pre-game that a player from last weeks first game asked to be transfered to our team. We had ourselves a real speedy guy who can handle. Woohoo.

Then, a few minutes before the game the team was passing the disk and I was goofing around and tried to intercept it. The high speed pass hit the end of my thumb, jamming it pretty bad. It went numb for a few minutes, then just ached the rest of the night. Even today it is still sore, and I wonder if I sprained it a little.

Game 1
Our team played great and actually won the game on points, but defaulted due to not enough women. Bummer. The other team loaned us a couple women so we could play a real game.

They had lots of great plays, tried the zone, but mostly stuck to man coverage. I am not sure why, but they struck me as an experienced team and I was sure they were going to cream us.

As it was our handling was good, lots of the team was making excellent cuts and were getting open, and catches were made. We were also full of spirit.

I was having a great game. Handling I was doing really well. I felt loose, comfortable, and best of all, I felt fast. The new guy and I were hooking up passes very well. He threw to me in the end zone many times. A few of those passes were thrown as I was cutting, and I was cutting the wrong way. Luckily I recovered enough to make the catches.

My favorite play of the night was a perfect catch. I was running hard, and the disk was thrown out of bounds, and was arcing back to the end zone. I stopped just inside the zone, checked my feet to make sure I was inbounds, then had to strech out of bounds to catch the disk. Such a awesome feeling.

Another potential point I was chasing the disk down through the end zone. My check was beaten and trailing me. The disk was just floating too much. As the disk came down I reached out and caught it, then looked down. My right foot was just outside. I was inches close, but I called myself out. I had the best view, so I made the call. I am still not sure if it was the right call or not.

The only downside of the game was that on one play a guy on the other team caught the disk pretty close to the sideline. I wasn’t in the right position to make a call, and I prefer the player makes the call themself. I simply asked him to check feet. When the play was over he came up to me and basically chastised me. He went off on how there is no rule to get someone to check feet and that if he was out I should have called it. It was odd, but for some reason it still rubs me the wrong way.

Game 2
The other team chose to play even though we were short on women. They also started the game quickly so there was no time to cool down.

I don’t really know what happened, but they utterly overwhelmed us. We couldn’t make our plays. The threw on the zone, and it was strong. Their cup was fast, very effective, and shut us down.

I was still running hard, and my throwing felt good, but I felt slow and a little sluggish. Maybe that was fatigue setting in.

The only way we could break the zone was to really tire them out. Swing from one side to the other until we can hook the swing pass to a strong cut.

We had lost out mojo and it was getting increasingly difficult to score points.

In the end, we lost the game, but scored more points that game than both games of last week.

Next week the playoffs start. Apparently we will get 2 weeks of playoffs then the third week is the finals. Somehow I think we only have 2 nights left in our season 😉 It’s been a blast though.

Neighborhood Push Ups

There is this guy that lives in our neighborhood that I’ve seen a few times. He likes to do push ups. In the middle of the sidewalk, blocking the entire sidewalk. The first time I saw him he was at a bus stop, but tonight I saw him again. This time he was just down on the ground, feet should width apart, pumping out the push ups. Then he was done, popped up and walked away like nothing happened.

Forestry Pictures

During May we also made a trip to the BC Forestry Museum in Duncan. We thought Sprout would love the train ride. He didn’t love it as much as we thought, but he certainly did enjoy it. As usual, put me in a place with old stuff, and I could spend hours there. I managed to shoot off a few pictures in between chasing the boy, riding the train, eating popcorn, and exploring trails.

This little lady bug tried to hitch a ride with me. It might have worked if it wasn’t so tickly for me.

Paddle Exception

I think these next two pictures from from another Yoshi walk, perhaps at Thetis Lake.

I took Sprout to the Kinsmen Gorge playground for some play time. We had a blast, and I think the highlight for Sprout was watching the kayakers launch and paddle away. We also had some snacks while resting.

You can’t see Beet in these pictures, but I assure you she was around. The last few pics here are from some visiting relatives. Sprout loves the beach, and this trip was no exception. We hadn’t brought the most appropriate clothes, but that didn’t stop him.

Mmmm, family lunch at Pluto’s. Yummy!

May Snacks

I walked Yoshi many times during May, and this walk was at Colquitz Park. I am beginning to like that park more and more. Perhaps because it is still new compared to Macaulay.

We planted a Clematis late last year and this year it bloomed some gorgeous flowers.

We met with some friends at a playground in Langford. It was so, so cold that morning. None of the adults really dressed properly. It seemed warm at our house when we left, but the temp dropped a couple degrees by the time we got there. We went to a coffee shop afterwards to warm up and get some snacks in the boys.

Dark Plot

Sox and I got out to see the Dark Knight. We enjoyed it, but both felt it was too long. I thought there was a great place to end the movie, before Harvey Dent became Two Face. The effects were good, but some of the gadgets a little too over the top.

One of the reasons I liked the Batman Begins was that the gadgets weren’t too over the top, and they were generally introduced well. This time they were glitzy gadgets made to fit the plot.

Heath Ledger was an amazing Joker. He made the movie. Without that character he created it would have been pretty dull.

This was also a fun time out for Sox and I, and it would have been better if the family behind us hadn’t brought their kids (ages approx 4 and 6). The 8pm showing of this movie is not for kids. They were tired and at one point the daughter said “I want to go home”. They stayed and the parents seemed mad at the kids. This made me angry. The kids were taken out to the lobby and the parents took turns watching the movie. Not the right move if you ask me.

Destruction Drivers

I was out at Western Speedway’s Eve of Destruction this past Saturday night. The event writeup read like this:

DEMO CARS “EVE OF DESTRUCTION”, CRAZY CANUCK CAR JUMP, DEMO TRUCKS, MINI FIGURE 8’s, MINI VANS, BUS JUMP, TOTAL DESTRUCTION DERBY and FIREWORKS

Basically a hit to pass night on steroids. Man was it a hoot! The demo cars and trucks were awesome and loud! Lots of tight racing action and lots of good spinouts. The mini figure 8 drivers are still crazy, but intensely entertaining. The minivan class is just getting going and they really need more vans out there. The small group they had were good though. Hit to pass, with a ridiculously bad turning radius meant the drivers were trying everything to get their vehicles sideways around the corner. So many times the vans were up on three wheels.

They played a trick on the crowd and made us believe this van was owned by someone. They picked it up, drove it down the front stretch, lifted it up high in the air and dropped it!

The Crazy Canuck did his car jump, and I was too busy watching to get a good movie. I forgot to start recording! Doh! I got something though.

Then it was time for the bus jump. They drove a bus off a jump into the cars. The first attempt (got a good movie this time), was hilariously unimpressive. He tried to drive it away and got it really stuck. They brought in the big loader, pulled him off, and he drove the bus back for another shot. The second jump was much more impressive and had the crowd on their feet cheering for a long time. Same problem where I forgot to start recording.

The final race of the night was the boat race. All the cars, trucks and vans had a boat chained to their vehicle. When the light went green they took off. At the end of a predetermined time, the driver with the most boat left attached won. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. There was so much chaos and destruction. Before the first turn several boats had been ripped from their chains. Next time around they gunned for the boats.

One driver ended up with his chain wrapped around his wheel. As he drove the chain shortened until he stripped his own boat off. McFly 33 below was the winner by a long shot. He dragged the shell around for a long time and kept slowing down so people could hit the boat. One car got lodged in the boat and dragged a little ways. Another truck took a good run at the boat and ended up launching into the air.

The fireworks show ended the night. I was prepared for something a little lame, but they put on an excellent show that was quite impressive.

All in all a most entertaining evening, and all for $18. Can’t beat that.