Later Disappointed

Tonight was the latest Ulti game. In typical Ulti fashion the game started late. I rode to the game which gave my legs a chance to warm up. Throwing with the team, then a little stretching, and I was feeling pretty good.

We started the game off alright. I was a mid in the horizontal stack (which I still don’t totally like) and I was doing pretty good there. I was getting free and making a few good catches.

I was only on for about four point when I started to feel something funny in my right quad. I tried to take it a little easier for the rest of the point, but my guy got a break on me so I pushed a little bit and I felt a small twinge. I backed off right away and when the point was over took a break on the sideline.

I came back for a point later but I could not run fast, and I could not cut. Pretty useless.

Instead I stayed on the sidelines getting to know my team and offering advice to some of the new people.

In all I was very disappointed with tonight’s game.

Waffle Shopping

Today is Mothers day and I didn’t really plan much. I did let Sox sleep in though, and when Amy woke up at 6:30 we got up and I made some waffles for breakfast. Elliot got up around 7, ate breakfast then the three of us played for a bit. Sox got up around 8 so I made her waffle and some tea.

The kids gave her their presents they made at daycare, then ate Sox’s chocolates that came with Amy’s gift 🙂

After this we got packed up and headed to Esquimalt Lagoon for some beach time. It is pretty sunny today, but not exactly warm. It was windy down at the beach, but we had fun anyway playing in the sand and eating snack.

On the way back into town we stopped off at a Park and Ride where a regular group has RC car racing in a parking lot. We watched that for a bit then came home. The racing was a lot of fun to watch and I think the kids and I will go see it again.

This afternoon Sox is out doing a bit of plant shopping then when she gets home will spend some time outside gardening. Wonderful day really.

Torpedo Road

Yesterday was the perfect day for riding. Warm, sunny, not windy. I met a friend out at the trails and off we rode. It was great to catch up with him and to get out and ride.

We took some very familiar trails and rode up to one of the highest points. Along the way we checked out a reworked torpedo run. That looks like a fun A line style trail that is nowhere near as big as A line. We ran across one guy who was on his fifth lap of it. The nice thing is that SIMBS has provided a walk up for the trail so that riders can easily lap it. Apparently the trail is fun, but still has a couple issues with flow.

D and I took Snakes and Ladders down. I still want to know what SIMBS was thinking with their rework of that trail. They absolutely wrecked it. The first three or four turns are lots of fun, but then the re-route starts. The new section feels nothing like what Snakes and Ladders used to feel like. No meandering down the hillside. Extra jumps. Less flow. I am decidedly not a fan of the new trail.

The ride was a lot of fun and a little under two hours. It did highlight I need to ride more though for me to really have lots of fun. With Ulti started for the summer I hope to ride more. Road biking during the week and maybe more mountain biking on the weekends.

Game Throws

Last night was the first game of the Ultimate Summer league. I met up with my team early and got to know some names. As we went around the circle we all said who we were and approximately how long we had been playing for.

Wow, our team has some experience. The least experienced person had played one season already. We didn’t have any complete newbies. Bonus.

The first game didn’t count towards the season, so we went out to have some fun. I am definitely not in shape for running, but I was amazed at how quickly my throws came back. Backhands, forehands, and even a hammer.

My cuts felt pretty strong and I didn’t really ever feel like I was in the wrong place so that was a bonus. I threw pretty well in the game even though I was never called on to be a handler. Previous seasons I was often a handler which meant I didn’t run as much as I wanted. Maybe this season will be different.

In the end our team even won the game which was a bonus. The team got along well, played well, and had fun. This looks to be a good season.

As a super bonus for me, when I was getting my cleats on I felt something in my right shoe. I pulled out my pair of riding glasses that I have been looking for. I thought I lost them when I was in Nelson last summer. Now I remember that at the end of the last summer league season I was wearing them. Woohoo!

Shoved Bluffing

Last night was my first poker game in a while. I don’t feel like I played all that well all night. There were definitely quite a lot of mistakes that I made that cost me dearly. I MUST MUST MUST keep looking at the board and thinking about what possible hands my opponents might have. All too often I get fixated on my hand and don’t think about other hands that will beat me.

I got lucky a few times too. There was one pot where I was dealt pocket 8’s. Not a stellar hand, but I had a decent enough position to put out a strong bet and got a lot of folds. One person stayed in. After the flop, nothing helped so another strong bet to try and scare him off. He came over the top enough that if I just called I would have been left with only a few big blinds, so I shoved all in. He called and when we showed our cards, he had pocket 9’s. I sucked out on the river though and got another 8 to beat him.

Something similar happened when I was dealt something like an A10 hand. Me and one other in the pot, and on the flop I paired my A and won.

One hand I felt like I played well, I was dealt pocket 9’s. I made a set on the flop, and only one other was in the pot still. On the turn I ended up with a full house, 9’s over 3’s. I looked carefully at the board. No flush was possible, and no straight was possible so I knew I was in the clear of a straight flush. My goal was to get as many chips into the pot as possible, and I felt like I did that well.

Over the rest of my night I kept getting hands like K2, A6, J4. Very frustrating. What closed out my night was a flush though. I made a flush, and on the board was a J and an A. There was only 2 cards to beat my 10 and my opponent had one of them when I was all in. I honestly contemplated whether he had the Q or K, then decided to gamble that he was bluffing. The person I was up against is a very good player and rarely can I beat him in a hand. His reads are so good that when I bluff he calls, and when I have something he folds. Sometimes though I just wonder if he is bluffing. I took the chance and lost.

Fetch Spin

It’s been a couple weeks, and I still think about Yoshi a lot. This is going to be my first of many posts about funny/interesting stories about Yoshi.

One thing that most people know about him is that he loved to play fetch. He was pretty good at it too, and was fast. He was obsessive about playing fetch too.

This story isn’t about me playing fetch with him (though there will be a few of those), but rather about Yoshi playing with other people.

Whenever Yoshi saw a Chuck-It he would get excited. Quite often he would race over to whomever was playing fetch with their dog and join in. Yoshi was good though, and would actually return to the thrower with their ball, and not bring it back to me.

More than one person was impressed with this.

The only time it became a problem was if Yoshi didn’t get the ball. He would get all excited and do his spin around, annoying whiney actions. It was usually at this point that I would head over and retrieve him. Calling him never did any good, it was always necessary to walk over and put a leash on him.

He always loved a good session of fetch.

Young Refreshments

Tonight I had donation 46 at Canadian Blood Services. One of the volunteers commented that I must have started donating as a young child. 🙂

Getting to the donation was pretty easy, as was making the donation. Afterwards, the stopping of the bleeding was the hard part. This had never happened to me before, but my arm did not want to stop. They iced me up, bandaged me up, and taped me down. Eventually I had stopped enough to let me head over to the refreshments.

Drink boxes? Really? What about the environment? Please let’s get back to the containers of juice.

If I keep to my schedule, I could hit 50 donations this year. 47 in June, 48 in August, 49 in October, and 50 in December.

When I got home Sprout was asking me questions about my bandages. I took the opportunity to tell him about what I do, and why I do it.

Storm Bunny

On the weekend we had a huge wind storm that wreaked havoc with some travellers. Thankfully Sox’s family was able to all make it to the Island without incident. Although, one plane trip almost turned around after attempting to land at the Victoria airport.

Saturday I was looking out into the back yard and saw that a huge branch had broken off the cherry tree. Thankfully Sox’s dad was in town visiting. He borrowed our neighbours chainsaw and cleaned up the mess (sort of). He took down the hanging branch, bucked up the bigger pieces, and lopped all the branches into small pieces. Those small pieces still need to be hauled away.

Meanwhile my son grabbed a couple branches and walked around like this for a while saying “I’m an Easter Bunny”. 🙂 Priceless.


RIP Yoshi 1998 – 2010

I am still torn up about this but on Monday morning Yoshi passed away. The last couple weeks his condition had been deteriorating. Over this past weekend he began getting very crippled, very quickly and on Sunday Sue and I booked an appointment with a vet to come to our house on Monday afternoon. Early Monday morning it was apparent to us Yoshi could not wait, so we met with a veterinarian at their office and we said our goodbye.

We love Yoshi a lot and miss him terribly. There are noises I hear that remind me of him. When I walk into the kitchen I still look over to where his bed used to be to see if he is watching me. I know these will fade, but they still hurt now.

I don’t want this to be a depressing post though. I want to remember Yoshi as the happy, athletic, and energetic dog he used to be. When I am up to it I will be posting some of my fond memories of Yoshi. For now a few pictures.

We’ve had these antlers for a while and Yoshi actually didn’t mind wearing them. He got a great reaction wherever we went with them.

Yoshi loved to have a toy in his mouth. Rope toys, balls, chew toys. Quite often when we got home he would rush to the door to say hi, then we could see him looking about trying to find something for his mouth.

Running “all out” at Macaulay Point Park. His ears really flapped a lot as he ran. Very endearing.

He was quite a handsome dog. We took part in the SPCA Paws for a Cause several times and this was taken at one of them when it was down by the breakwater.

Running at a dog park with one of his buddies.

Taking a break at Macaulay Point Park. This was a great park we frequented a lot when we lived closer to it.

Galloping up the trail at Thetis Lake.

Yoshi loved sleeping in sunbeams. Even better was full on flaking out in the sun. At our old house he loved the sun deck because it got so hot. At our current house he loved to lay out back on the cement pad. Not quite as hot, but it did the trick.