bocce 2008

it's time once again for the company bocce charity challenge. for the third year in a row we will be changing one player. this year jon is the lucky rookie and our team name is wombat flugtag.

we had a very slow start in the first match against the fried chicks, at one point down 11-3, but we managed to come back and eke out a 21-17 victory.

the next match was played under inclement conditions. i was freezing! it didn't help my sinus infection any, especially since i forgot my hat. this match was a see-saw battle through the halfway point until we finally got some momentum. we beat balls of fury 21-14.

our third opponent was crouching bocce, hidden ewald. movie title names are quite popular this year, with entries including no bocce for old men, and there will be bocce. it makes a nice diversion from the endless testicular references.

onto the match. it was a hard fought contest, with mutual commiseration over the poor court condition. there was also a lot of laughter even between teams, which is nice because some teams take this tournament waaaaay too seriously.

it's for fun and charity, people. (and for getting out of the cubicle for an hour and a half.) ultimately, we won 21-17, helped in large part by a round where we actually scored 4 points (the maximum). that never happens.

so we head into the weekend feeling pretty good and looking to rest up for the second half of the tourney. it's only gonna get tougher from here.

family fitness night

last saturday, pooka attended a birthday party at a gymnastics facility. it was pretty cool, she got to walk the balance beam, swing on the rings, tumble, jump on a trampoline, etc. she said there wasn't one activity she didn't enjoy.

naturally at the end of this event, the facility handed out schedules and registration forms along with a $10 coupon. since pooka had such a good time, i thought we might look into signing her up. she is still doing ballet, but i just don't see that giving her enough of an exercise load to keep her fit and work off the steroids. since gym class is only two days a week, i feel she needs more activity. of course, we don't have a lot of free time to get involved in too much (especially not gymnastic competition) so we need to keep that in mind, also.

kisu would love to take martial arts as a family, but pooka is just so resistant. and of course, bug is not old enough. awhile back pooka had agreed to let me home-school her in 'karate' (it's faster to say than tae kwon do, and she doesn't understand the distinction yet, anyway) but i just haven't gotten around to it.

so combining all of these thoughts i came up with the idea for family fitness night. why pay someone to work my kid out when i can do it just as easily at home? we can do basic exercising and i can also teach her the fundamentals of tae kwon do. a collateral benefit to this would be, hello!, the family part. granted we would have to do this after bug is in bed, but 3 out of 4 isn't bad.

tonight was our first attempt, although kisu was called away to fix a computer. pooka was very excited about it, even though she had no idea what i was going to put her through.

we started with some jumping jacks, and jogging in place. we moved on to stretching, with which she was familiar thanks to dance class. i then began to teach her a basic middle punch. this was the most time consuming segment, because i had to get her into the correct stance and show her how to make a proper fist. after demonstrating (i can still make sleeves snap--even short ones!) i let her target my hand and give it a go. i was impressed with how quickly she started to get it right. she really enjoyed putting some power behind it and hearing that satisfying distinctive sound of fist meeting flesh. (yeah, we're not aggressive in this family.)

after the punching, we moved on to some calisthenics. i was surprised (and quite disappointed) to find out that pooka can not do a single sit-up. is this common in kids? am i explaining it wrong? (telling her to clench her stomach muscles like she was pooping didn't seem to help.)

nor could she properly do a push-up (not even on her knees). we've gone over this before, but she has trouble keeping her body straight from shoulders to knees. so we worked on that first, which also showed her how to clench her stomach muscles. we then did squats, which she could do and do well. and we finished up with calf raises. she did those well and easily, so i am a little bit suspicious that something wasn't quite right. she didn't have any muscle fatigue climbing the stairs afterward. maybe she just needs to do more of those, she does have some pretty impressive calves.

overall, she had a great time and is already looking forward to the next night. i thought once a week would be sufficient, but maybe we can do it more often. the only detraction is the time. she ended up going to bed an hour past bedtime, but as she gets more familiar with the activities it should go faster since i'll be spending less time on explanations.

i'm very glad she is excited about getting fit.

on the lake

so there we were: (forgotten name) lake in hillsdale, bathing suits, fishing poles, 75 degrees, sunshine, and a giant tupperware full of oblatney to share.

at the end of the day we had accomplished: bug swimming nude in a diaper instead of the swimmers i bought specifically for this weekend; pooka wading up to her neck knees in the lake while constantly being yelled at to keep her chest dry; catching 2 fish (pooka), feeding the fish (me); futilely pedaling a boat in circles due to a broken rudder; eating disgusting amounts of food, including most of my own treats.

in a word: success.

oh, and i totally did two L-seats on the swingset still rings.

Stanley Party

Woohoo! Red Wings bring home 4th cup in 11 years. Suh-weet. they sure made it exciting, though, right down to the wire.

Best quotes from post-game interviews:

Chris Osgood: "I'm gonna smack Hudler upside the head when i see him for taking that penalty."

no kidding; bad penalties late in the game, two games in a row!

Tomas Holmstrom, on the injury that kept him out of game 4: "everything was wrong, my hamstring, sports hernia....i'm a bad skater, i don't need this shit." network censors missed that bleep.

the parade will be friday morning, too bad i gotta work. but kisu is off....

grads and goals

last night was pooka's kindergarten graduation/spring musicale. i'm proud of the fact that i didn't actually cry, although i did tear up during the patriotism segment. the star-spangled banner, God bless america, something about the army (one little girl started bawling during this one, maybe because her dad's in the air force?)

the most entertaining part of the show was watching the little ones and how they react to being on 'stage'. some take off back down the aisle to find their parents; some stand like a statue, frozen with fear; some follow their own routine, gyrating on the floor in front of the risers; some use this time as their personal photo shoot and proudly give their cheesiest grin and fonziest thumbs-up for the cameras; while others just...sing. it's ironic that the ones behaving the oddest are usually the teachers' kids.

after the performance, they supplied the children with a wide selection of sugar in lieu of real dinner. it was so hot in that place, that we just wanted to leave. we opted not to go out so that we could have the girls fed, bathed, and in bed by game time.

as we pulled in the garage, we realized that we left pooka's gear at school. it wasn't crucial, so there was no problem getting it the next day, but pooka was very upset. she ended up sulking in the truck for 20 or 30 minutes. when she finally decided to come in, whining the whole way, i rushed her into the shower (bug was already done and in bed) with a short time limit to discourage dallying. that only caused more drama, so an executive decision to withold dinner was made. (hey, she had a bowl of ice cream already--that's plenty of calories to get her through the night.)

pooka went to bed, howling, and we went downstairs to watch the red wings.

i think we made the wrong decision--not for pooka, but for the wings--pooka watched the first period of both games 1 and 2, which resulted in spectacular shutouts for us. last night we lost.

as far as pooka's result, the lack of dinner actually made her MORE agreeable in the morning. she was more awake, helpful, and motivated and less whiny than she's been for the last 2 weeks. i thought it might have had something to do with actually getting to bed early, but she sat up complaining for at least an hour before falling asleep. it must have been the lack of dinner. who knew that less food could equal better behavior?

Camp Q Family Weekend

CMU is awesome. the people have been great, but the primary feeling is: "man, maybe i should have gone to a state university."

the cafeteria with the cereal bank, salad bars, juices. the activity center with 2 pools, a dozen racquetball courts, basketball, volleyball, floor hockey, pool, ping-pong, bowling!, weight room. the computer center with all the major gaming systems, several macs and pcs, 42" plasmas to watch movies. suh-weet. i guess these are the goodies you get in exchange for becoming a numbered cog in the system.

nah, i enjoyed the sense of community, the getting anywhere on campus in 5 minutes or less, the one on one relationships with professors.

anyway, the camp q stuff:
we started out friday night (after a 2.5 hour drive) with cake and ice cream made with liquid nitrogen. ultra cool. it was fairly bland, though, and melted almost immediately once the vapors disappeared.

then right off the bat we were introduced to the computer center/game room. i can't believe pooka stayed up until midnight playing weeee. i also can't believe she played before i ever did. kisu will be similarly bummed, i suppose. she was playing olympic events with some other girls, specifically swimming, when i wanted to take a turn. it's a lot harder than it looks. i actually did not do as well as she had done. maybe it's a generational thing.

this morning, after waking waaay too early, we experience the cafeteria. pooka wasn't interested in the special tour of the zibiiwing native american center and i was too tired to fight her, so we just hung out in the suite until it was time to find the horse ranch. pooka was led around the corral on two separate trips and i even got a ride. we also saw the miniature horses, the goats, and the rabbits. they had a monstrous rabbit named 'moose'. i think the rabbit was as big as bug.

we ate our sack lunches and then headed back to the dorm. what had started out as a nice sunny morning turned into an overcast, windy noontime. bug fell asleep on the way back to campus and i convinced pooka to let me catch a catnap in the parking lot. finally, we got our suits and went swimming. they can raise and lower the floor of the pool!! it's normally 4 feet deep, but today it was only about 2. bug could just barely stand, but any waves made her drink, so i ended up sitting and having her stand in my lap. that worked out well until her lips were purple and we had to get out. then we moved to the not-so-hot tub until the lifeguard pointed out that kids under 6 were not allowed. bummer. by then pooka was done, so we got changed. we tried our hands at pool and ping-pong, too, before coming back for dinner.

after dinner, there was a group bowling event. i sucked bad the first game. in the 7th frame, though, i finally got used to how slippery the shoes were and i started scoring. the second game started out awesome, but they had to shut the lanes down before we could finish it. we came back to the game room for a pinata, games, and movies. and blogging. i am beat and pooka wants me to go play yahtzee. i want to play snoozeee.

day 3: boating on land

having decided not to tempt the sharks or the rip currents by surfing, we went for an early morning walk and did some grocery shopping before we went looking for an airboat ride.

i found a place online, but a phone call landed me with voicemail. since the website said he worked 7 days, i didn't bother to leave a message. silly me.

we headed out (every place down there feels like a long drive to me. must be the acres of wildlife instead of urban sprawl.) wouldn't you know, when we arrived, the airboat man was nowhere in sight. the wait staff at the jolly gator fish camp said they hadn't seen captain bruce all day. pam called and actually left a voicemail for the captain. we had no other plans (except an appointment at the wallymart picture studio) so we were willing to wait for an answer. we sat for about 15 minutes, which was enough time for my alabaster legs to attain some color, namely: pink.

we decided to spend our wait at the daylilly farm we had passed (did i mention that my sister is a hortiphile?) but a woman informed us that there was another place to get airboat rides further down the road--away from the nursery. we figured we could get the flowers on the way home.

at loughman lake, the captain was on duty, but out on a tour. the price was higher and the wait was longer, but we weren't worried about the pictures. if they could blow off a day, so could we. we killed time playing pool, horseshoes, and walking along the beachy promontory. just casual fun. about an hour later, we were blowing our way across the st. johns river and its various marshes.

we saw a million birds and, as promised, gators. pam lost count of how many we saw. it was a bit different from the canoe trip. it was a surreal feeling to be in a boat traveling over land. when we made the transitions from water to land, we anticipated a thump and a stranding. instead, we floated smoothly over everything, including the wildlife. i think the captain intentionally aimed directly for any animals in our way. i'm used to being in boats with submerged propellers, so i felt bad for all of the gators that we ploughed over. we lost many races with fleeing birds. a few times i flinched when it looked like we might actually overtake one or one would cut across our path.

the airboat was one of our backup activities, in case the primaries didn't work out. it was fortunate that we had so many things planned, overbooked, as it were, because several activities did fall through, like the surfing and the horseback riding. the boat ride turned out to be one of the absolute highlights of the trip. we saw awesome sights, the weather was beautiful, and it played to a family hobby: riding a fast-moving vehicle. all around it was an excellent time.

pam didn't forget about the damn flowers, though. burned, hungry, and tired, she dragged us to the nursery to stand in the sun while she debated which one of a thousand varieties she was going to take home. jess and i quickly got bored with that and went to sit in the shade with the cats.

*****

fulfilling as the boat ride was, the day was not done. after scarfing dinner (pam's infamous chicken soup) we grabbed the other kids and headed for the open gym and volleyball!

when i requested this activity, i was thinking more along the lines of wallyball with just the family. friendly, perhaps awkward, but somewhat private. what i got was competitive community volleyball, with aggressive adults and cocky teens. i haven't played in years, to say that i was a little apprehensive would be an understatement. i was more nervous about looking like a buffoon that i was about jumping out of an airplane.

after warming up i felt a little bit better, and a little bit worse. i remembered how to play (duh!) but i had also seen more of my competition--and my teammates. yikes! we were all rusty. (love you guys!)

it didn't take long to exorcise the jitters, though. getting six-packed on the first play helped me loosen up. it can't get worse than that, right? it turned out not to be a severe injury, although i gave pam a hard time about it, and lamented the fact that we had (still) not gotten those pictures taken. i figured i'd have a shiner by morning. my serves were still fast (and inbounds), my setting wasn't horrific, and i had a successful block or two. not bad for an gray-haired lady.

it was such a rush playing again. i never was a top tier player, but i was good enough for community play, or so i thought. pam said that a lot of people left early that night because our team was not up to their level. oh, well, more fun for those of us who did stay. it really made me want to find an outlet up here; i know kisu would love to play, too.

food hoops madness

my company so rocks.

they are hosting a bracket challenge for the basketball tournament. not only that, they are providing food AND showing the games in the conference rooms this afternoon. not just any food: subs, wings, and nachos.

i made out my bracket based on whimsy--except i picked michigan state to win it all, since michigan's not playing--i have no idea what i'm doing. (shhhh, don't tell anyone: i don't even care about college basketball.)

this is a company-wide event. did i mention there was beer? no work is getting done today. or, really creative work is getting done today.

i gorged myself like an idiot. so much for thrive. (this company sends some seriously mixed signals, though, doesn't it?)

no, it's ok. one cheat day is actually advisable. it prevents the body from thinking that it's starving. all i have to do is not stuff myself on Easter (oh man, homemade pierogies, kielbasa, boiled eggs!)

i can do this. i have been seeing a steady, albeit slow, change in my weight and in my contours. i'm quite pleased, actually, with my progress. i should be in great shape for my trip.

i'm gonna go watch some hoops. the office is closed tomorrow, so today definitely has a friday atmosphere. i love my job!

HAPPY EASTER!

super-de-duper

kisu was all about the pats perfection. in my heart of hearts i guess i was rooting for the giants.

i'm just tired of hearing about new england; the video-taping issues left a bad taste in my mouth. and also, i'm an underdog kid of girl.

i think it's interesting that the mannings have won back to back titles. next thing you know, ol' archie's gonna come out of retirement and get him a ring, too.

pooka didn't know who to root for. somehow, although i never said a word, she thought we were rooting for the giants, so she made a sorta-bet with granny. once kisu explained that he was rooting for the patriots, he talked her out of canceling the bet. too bad, she would have taken granny's dollar.

ultimately, since neither the bills nor the lions played (nor the cowboys) i didn't really care who won (or lost, in the case of the cowpats), and it was a pretty good game overall.

he's only human

so my dad took me to the wings game for my birthday. that's always cool, even though i have watched about 30 minutes of hockey all season so far. i can't believe it after being so engrossed last season.

going to a live game is a treat, and then i remembered that they were playing the capitals. that means seeing alex the great! live! and in person!

you know what? i wasn't blown away. he's a good player, but it's not like he skated rings around people. i saw him make several simple mistakes, including some that wasted precious power play time for his team.

sure, sure, like my illustrious career had no mistakes? what? i never played pro hockey? oh, well, i'm just saying.

and there was another special facet to the night. gordie was there, signing copies of his new book. i thought i'd mosey on down to see how long the line was and if i could buy a copy. well, the line wasn't bad, but a signed copy was a little out of my discretionary price range right now. nevertheless, i managed to get within 6 feet of him and pulled out my trusty camera phone. so i got that, at least.

but the bestest part of it all was spending time with my dad, whom i hardly see, even though he only lives 20 minutes from me. and despite the fact that we didn't talk all that much (stadia aren't known for their intimate, conversational atmospheres. besides, neither of us is what you'd call a chatterbox), i had a great time being with him.

thanks, daddy. i love you.

bitter bettys

man, football this weekend sucked.

the lions lost a winnable game. the qb was consistently throwing too high.

the bills played new england. 'nuff said.

michigan lost to osu. the senior class is winless against the buckeyes for their career. bye-bye coach carr.

to make matters worse, monday all the michigan state fans at work were cheering on osu for beating michigan. what cry-babies.

kisu and i root for michigan and michigan state, unless they're playing each other. but under only the rarest circumstances would we ever cheer for ohio state.

make your peace

call all your loved ones, used-to-love ones, wish-you-loved ones. restate your devotion, reconcile your differences, confess your passion.

there's not a moment to lose. armageddon's on it's way.

the lions are 6-2. and got that way by absolutely slaughtering the broncos.

surely it's a harbinger of the end of days.


in other scores, michigan beat michigan state. so nothing new there.

i'm a good luck charm

so says myself.

we went to the lions game today. with dad and tina, who were decked out in bucs gear. coincidentally, there was a pocket of bucs fans where we were seated.

upon entering, the security guys check all bags. i brought my pump with me again. last time, i got no comments. this time, the guy asked if i had a baby with me.

i said, "no, that's why i have the breastpump."

he said, "then why do you have all this baby stuff with you?"

i said, "if i had the baby, i wouldn't need the breastpump!"

"oh." he was an "older" man, and i don't think he even knows what a breastpump is.

there were a few drunk people seated around us, which made for bonus entertainment, until one in particular got stupid in addition to silly and started calling the bucs fans losers and betches, etc. (some of these opposing fans were minors.) he got hauled away sometime in the second half, but then must have convinced his babysitters that he sobered up because he returned with about 5 minutes left in the game. he wasn't sobered up. there was some kind of altercation in the section next to us. although many people in our area stood up to ogle, we never did find out what happened. i don't understand why people feel it necessary to attack fans of the opponent. cheer your team and get on with it. live and let live.

anyway, the lions won, but it wasn't very pretty. tampa made a lot of errors although they did have some steady play. they had one drive that took 16 plays. the crowd was very much into the spirit and caused several false starts and time-outs. (my throat hurts now from cheering.)

at first, dad and tina were talking a little smack, but they soon quieted down. i felt bad for them.

on the walk back to the truck we decided to stop and eat dinner. surprisingly, we were seated immediately. dinner was great, and afterwards we walked to the ice cream place, and then finally to the truck, where dad managed to find some more displaced bucs fans, from canada, no less!

and on top of that lovely afternoon, the bills won, too! kisu and i watched scores all day to keep tabs on our pool picks. he went against buffalo, the fool. i did not. never pick against your home team-unless they're playing the patriots.

2007 Bocce Charity Challenge Champions

are not us.

i am taking this very badly. i had such high hopes.

in reality, it was a huge accomplishment to make it to the finals out of 44 teams.

but i'm thinking about those shots i made that went completely off course. the shots i made that were right on target, but short on speed.

that's typical me. my own worst critic. never good enough. (i made some crucial point-winning shots, too.) props to the other team. they used the backhanded technique that can be deadly accurate.

honestly? i had a blast. how many companies would let you waste up to 10 hours, paid, to goof around on the grass? and serve beer to you and your throngs of adoring fans coworkers while you play? and give you a free t-shirt with which to boast about your truancy?

the bottom line is some deserving charities are going to be the recipients of a small pot of gold. good for them.

next season? totally doing two-a-days.

semi-finals

after our last dismal outing, we were rescued by a call from HR informing us that we won a wildcard spot in the next round. (the secretary drew our name from a pool of this round's losing teams.) hallelujah! a chance for redemption.

the next match was scheduled for monday, so i called a team practice friday at noon. we scouted our designated court and practiced specific scenarios. we also had a chance to talk out some strategy and set our bowling order.

monday it rained like the dickens, so i called our opponents (the same team we had just lost to, by the way. crazy bracket.) and we rescheduled for tuesday. tuesday came around and they left a message to say they had client meetings all day. i wanted to call that a forfeit since they bailed on a mutually agreed upon time. HR said that we had until wednesday noon to play our match or one of us would have to forfeit. the finals are scheduled for thursday and there were special preparations to be made beforehand, hence the deadline. we rescheduled for today noon.

the weather held out and both teams showed. we quickly fell behind 3-0, but turned it around and never looked back. apparently, the extra practice session was beneficial, as we won handily, 21-8.

there is going to be a grand presentation and pizza luncheon for the company during tomorrow's championship matches. the winners get trophies and champagne, and of course the money for their charity. we're all very excited, but kind of nervous having a large audience. hopefully we can keep it together and bring it home for clf.

bocce bomb

we lost our tri-final match. to a wildcard team.

boo hoo.

although we were back on the court that loved us so well in our first match, we were unable to consistently deliver points. it was pretty disappointing, considering that the other team made it by virtue of the wildcard allowance. (i have no idea how they were chosen.) they didn't have any strategy at all! they simply walked up to the line and chucked a ball.

what a disgrace.

sorry clf, you were our designated charity.

i'm obviously going to have to institute an off-season training regimen.

octofinals

i didn't even know that was a word. cool.

our third match was against a team called 3 Citizens and a Brit. we thought about crying foul on a technicality, since their Brit didn't make the start of the match, but he eventually showed up claiming he had been at a client meeting. whatever. with a $500 pot on the line, you have to get your priorities straight.

We got off to a rough start, quickly falling behind 5-0. We struggled throughout the match to regain the sure-handedness that had steered us so finely through our previous games. The course was wet and played to our opponents’ style of play: backhanded bombs that soar and then plummet to an exact location. Our team uses a bowling technique that relies on predictable dry ground.

It was a see-saw battle, with neither team being able to score max points in any end. We eked out a measly single point almost every time.

Finally, our luck seemed to change. With the score sitting at 18-12, we went on a crawl run that culminated in our eventual victory. I had joked that as soon as we took a lead, however small, we would conveniently call the game due to time limit. That turned out to be unnecessary.

I felt greatly redeemed for my abysmal play when I was able to secure the winning point. It was my turn to throw the pallina (?) and then the first bocce. The other team was unable to land any closer than I had, and so my teammates didn’t even have to throw.

Phew. What a nail-biter.

roll the balls

our company is having their second annual bocce charity challenge.

last year i participated but my team didn't do very well. none of us were very experienced, in fact, 2 of us had never played before. then one of our team members went on vacation the week of the tournament and we had to use an alternate. although we only won one match, we had a great time.

this year, we tried to go with the same team, but again had a personnel issue. our alternate from last year had an injury, so we had to get an alternate-alternate. (the guy we originally tried to use last year was on vacation again.) i talked to one person, another team mate recruited a different person. even though i'm the captain, i deferred to the other choice because he's a higher ranking person in the company. when we left for our first match, he got called back by his boss, so we went with my choice anyway.

our first match was a cake walk. even though we were rusty, we came out with some good plays. the other team clearly was not taking this match seriously. they were out to have a good time away from their desks. we got out to an early lead and never looked back. we won 21-5.

our next match was the following day. it was a bit of a grudge match against another team from our floor. normally we'd be friends with these guys, but this is a competition. we played it cool, very nonchalant, while they were comically aggressive, performing leaping chest bumps in an asinine display of testosterone. it was a see-saw battle all the way through but we finally pulled it out at the end of a sweltering hour. 21-19 was the final score.

dark portent?

what is this world coming to? the lions are 2-0. according to history, they now have a 67% chance of making the playoffs. gadzooks.

and the bills are 0-2. pfft.

blue over green

michigan kicked some serious leprechaun butt yesterday. GO BLUE!

it's about time. now kisu might finally stop pouting. he's still begging for bill cowher to coach next year, though.