Overweight Popped

Thursday morning before workI took Yoshi for a walk at Macaulay Point. As we rounded a corner, I could see two other people walking dogs, one coming toward me, the other away.

The one walking away had a rather rotund mix breed that seemed interested in the other dogs. The owner was screaming at his dog to come (it was about 4 feet away). The lady walking toward me muttered something about maybe the dog would follow if it weren’t so overweight.

As I got passed the lady, the man was still yelling at his dog. I couldn’t help but think that if I was the dog I wouldn’t want to come to him either. The man backtracked and put the leash on the dog. As Yoshi and I got close the dog put on the brakes wanting to see Yoshi. The man tried to keep walking, clearly exasperated at his dog. As he tried to drag his dog, the collar popped over the dogs head.

I stopped and waited for the man to retrieve his dog. I actually crouched down and the dog came up to say hi. The owner never said a word to me even when I said Hi to him. With the dog on leash, Yoshi and I continued on our way, happy to be past that miserable man.

Backup Expires

I bought a Western Digital My Book from Costco a while ago. We originally bought the 500 GB version, but before opening it, I returned it and upgraded to the 1TB version.

Today I finally got around to unboxing it. The packaging was very easy to open and everything inside was neat and tidy. I plugged in the drive, and when it powered up, it asked if I wanted to install the software. I said yes, after unchecking the crapware that it would have installed by default.

The backup software installed without a hitch.

The first hitch occurred when I ran the backup software. It was trial ware, and I could buy it now, or try it out for 30 days. Uh, 30 days? That seems like an odd trial period for back up software. I plan to backup once a month. That means I get to try their software once, maybe twice, before it expires.

I’ve been looking at open source versions of backup software, so I think I will try them out next time.

Dialing Implemented

10 Digit local dialing has finally been introduced into the rest of BC. The lower mainland has been 10 digit for a while now.

As dial10.ca points out, the explosion of cell phones and people in BC means we were running out of numbers. CBC and other news organizations reported on this a while ago.

This plan has been in the works for a long time. It isn’t something that is cooked up and implemented in a couple months. I know a little bit about this technology since I worked in telecommunications for close to 10 years.

My question is this: why does our phone book only have 7 digits? Why does the 2008-2009 Telus branded Yellow pages not have an information page about the upcoming change?

Someone wasn’t thinking, or perhaps the right hand and left hand weren’t communicating very well.

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.