Throughout the game there was lots of checking on rules causing stoppages in the play. This made for a game that didn’t flow very well, and really wasn’t very much fun. The rules are important, but so is the spirit of the game.
On the field I felt pretty good, barring my stomach. That felt like a shrunken pit that bounced around inside me. Not sure what was happening there. Throwing was pretty good for me, and I made a couple nice catches.
One point I was chasing down a disc in the end zone with my check right on my tail. I mistimed my approach to the disc and got there too early and had to stop and wait. This allowed my check to catch up. He and I jumped for the disc and he swatted it, tipping it a little. Somehow I was right there as it came off his finger and grabbed it. Lucky, lucky moment for me.
During the final point of the night we had another rule stoppage. Some of us were getting cranky and wanted the game to be over. We neared the other teams end zone and a foul was called. My team still had the disc and when the play resumed I made a break for the end zone. The handler threw the disc to me, but the throw was behind me, and away from the direction I was travelling. I put on the brakes and reached backward and snagged it for the final point. True to form someone called “not in”. I immediately checked, saw I was in, so I tapped the disc to the ground and the game was done.
I hope next week’s game goes a little smoother.
I really feel like I am coming into my own as a handler too. I am very comfortable catching and throwing in any sorts of conditions. I still make mistakes like everyone else, but I don’t dwell on those.
One play there was a long bomb to me striking in the end zone. I broke away from my check and raced after it. Unfortunately the disc hung in the air right in the end zone and I got there too early and had to wait. I stopped right where the disc was coming down and could hear my check racing in after me. I boxed him out, protecting my space, and when the time was perfect he and I both jumped up for the disc. Luckily I came down with it. We both congratulated each other on a good play.
Another strike I had one of my team members tossed another long bomb on a set play. I was only about mid way down the field when I started breaking for the end zone. For a moment or two I had doubts I would be able to track it down, but I noticed I was gaining on the disc while it was still climbing. Sure enough I caught it for a point.
Both games were a lot of fun, but the only downside was that I missed out on beer. 🙁
I don’t mind the separation, and I don’t mind the mixing. What I do mind is the spillage that results because the jar is too small. Mixing a full jar of peanut butter and not spilling some of the peanut oil over the side is impossible. A forever oily jar is a pain too. Surely it can’t cost that much to make the jar a tiny bit taller to aid in the mixing?
The first game the other team had no subs, and only 2 women. They ran out asses off. Holy smokes did they ever work hard. It threw us off our game for a while. The breeze was slight last night which made throwing pretty easy, but the other team thew on the zone quite a bit. I chose to play a handling role for the first game and quote enjoyed it. Their cup was doing a good job, but then we started working them hard. On one particular point their pull was perfect enough to put us in the back corner of our end zone. The pull was so good though that the cup almost made it to me by the time the disc landed. I made a quick swing pass, then there was a forward pass. The three handlers, and a couple of our mids then marched up the field with the disc. Dump, swing, look for a mid, dump swing, forward. We got to their end zone line pretty easily and their cup was getting worked hard. We got that point and we made it look good too.
They played zone a few more points, but we worked them so hard they reverted to man coverage. Once they went man, they actually shut us down pretty well. Some of the points were pretty long and both teams were feeling it. On one point the disc was tossed to the end zone and my mark and I were chasing it down. I was trying to grab it or block it and he was trying to score a point. I looked over my left shoulder and spotted the disc going right. As I swung my head around I got a little disoriented, and ended up tripping over my own feet. As I stumbled I tried to stay vertical but that was to no avail. Down I went onto the hard ground, and off my mark raced to catch the disc for a point. He was only 5 feet away from me, and if I hadn’t tripped I know I could have prevented the point.
Nearing the end of the time slot the captains called a cap and we had two more points to play. We ended up splitting those and instead of settling for the tie, we played a universe point. We lost 🙁 It was a fun, hard fought game and I did enjoy it.
The second was vastly different. The other team didn’t have enough people and forfeited. We split up the people and played a game for fun. It wasn’t all that fun. Many people weren’t playing hard since the game didn’t matter. I felt like the team I was on was looking me off for passes quite a bit. I felt like I barely touched the disc at all.
To top it off I had a crappy interaction with one of my team members who was on the other team, let’s call him D. For two plays D was handling close to my end zone and was looking to score. For both those plays my check broke away from me and was open for a short pass when the stall count was above 5. Both times D looked him off, and instead tried to score. His flick was bad and he ended up throwing it high, resulting in a blade that nobody could catch. I brought it up with him and mentioned that next time it would be a good idea for the short, safe pass to reset the count. I was trying to be helpful.
Instead he got all pissed off, and got in my face. He yelled “Are you criticizing my play?”. I was taken aback at how quick his demeanor changed and replied that I was trying to be helpful. That incident put a damper on the rest of the game. At the end of the night I was tired and sore, and none too happy. Not how I like Ulti nights to end.
Thankfully I had a 2 hour nap this afternoon that was quite refreshing.
I pay $30 a month for 1GB of data for my smartphone.
I also pay $7 a month for caller id.
The data transfer for caller id is absolutely negligible for Telus, yet they charge me 1/4 the price of a GB of data? That doesn’t make any sense. I also know it is not difficult for them to turn on caller id. It took the guy 30 seconds to add it to my account and it was active immediately.
I guess the differential is due to the value of the service, but this seems a little ridiculous to me.
Instead, when we heard David Usher was coming to Vancouver, we booked a trip to Vancouver and arranged my Mom to watch the kids. The concert then got cancelled, but we chose to go anyway.
We headed over on Thursday afternoon. The ferry ride was interesting too since it was full of people heading over for an Iron Maiden concert. Great people watching on that boat. In Van we checked in at the Metropolitan and figured out what we wanted to do.
Thursday night we headed out for all you can eat sushi at Shabusen. It was a cool restaurant that also does Korean BBQ. You actually cook it yourself at your own table. Each table had a mini BBQ pit set into it. The sushi was good and we definitely ate our fill. After dinner we walked for a bit, then took in a movie (Iron Man 2).
Friday we had a quick bite of breakfast then wandered around doing some clothes shopping. Sox had more luck than I, but I still managed a few new pairs of shorts, and some shirts.
Lunch was some awesome panini’s at a coffee shop close to the hotel. An afternoon swim and then it was dinner. We walked down to Gastown and had dinner at Steamworks. We had the fish tacos appy that was amazing, and my burger was excellent. Lots of cheese, sauce, and toppings. We walked a little in Gastown then went back to the hotel Later in the evening we went down to the hotel restaurant for dessert. Wow, it was awesome.
Saturday we packed up and went down to Granville Island for breakfast and some more shopping. Then it was off to the ferry and a return home.
The great thing about going when we did was that today felt like a bonus day on the weekend. We had a weekend in Vancouver, but one more additional day before work was perfect.
Having Digger around is causing me to think about Yoshi a lot. I am missing him so much these days. The more reminders, the more I think about him. No reminders and it is one of those out of sight out of mind.
Seeing Digger on the beach today reminded me of some of the great times Yoshi had on the beach. Long Beach was a favourite of Yoshi’s. He could run and run and run with no boundaries and the most perfect sand ever. Running with his tongue flapping about is such a great memory of Yoshi. He always seemed happiest when he could get out and run like crazy.
When KaptainK (Diggers owner) got married, it was a surprise wedding. Her daughter, and her fiance’s kids were there, and so were Sox and I (before we had kids). The wedding was gorgeous. It was supposed to be on the beach, but we ended up at a house overlooking the ocean in Ucluelet. We were camping that weekend and were leaving the day of the wedding. We packed the truck up and drove to Ucluelet for the wedding. We left Yoshi in the truck with the rear slider window open. After the wedding we were going to head to the location for the pictures, and as I opened the front door, there was Yoshi. For the first time ever he had got himself out the rear window. Not only that, but then he walked across all our camping gear and jumped out of the truck! Thankfully he hadn’t gone far.
The day wasn’t done for him though. It turned out to be a sunny day and the pictures were being taken down on one of the beaches. The beach was a couple minute walk from the parking lot and we couldn’t leave Yoshi in the truck, especially after he escaped from the truck once. We took him on his flippy leash down to the beach and tied him up to a log. We left him in the shade and walked a ways away to have some pictures taken.
A short while later Yoshi broke his leash and came running at us in full gallop with a huge smile on his face. I could just that he was thinking “I’m free, I’m free” and he galloped at full speed with his tongue flapping around. As mad as I was, I could see how happy he was to be free.
I love these memories.