casual ultimate » 2006 » October

Due to the number and magnitude of events, this is going to have to be a post in two parts.

* ULTIMATE *

If you really wanted the play by play you’d have read it on the UPA’s championship site by now, so I’ll give a quick overview. Briefcase was glad to establish regional dominance (asterix) by beating Moe on Thursday, and of course it was fun to play Chucktown’s new team. I think their name is copper orangutan, i’m not sure, we called them Chuck’s Team. Deliverance brought the pain and the dueling banjos. Luckily mr. town was close at hand with his fiddle to defend our honor. After a relatively quiet night at the condos, we won a couple outside the region by beating hooray! and bad larry. We had to add a period after Mr. Briefcase. on the scoreboard to even the punctuational tables before playing Hooray!. Bad Larry was a fun, fun game, with some our lady alums on the other team to liven things up. We were psyched to go into the quarters play-in game that afternoon against Amp….unfortunately we lost. The wind picked up but our energy level didn’t; surprising the donuts Lauren brought to the breakroom didn’t do the job. Intense game, case.

Friday night put a starving Briefcase squad huddled around the bar at Daquiri Deck, thanks to the masters team that stole our table. Apparently they serve the blue plate special under an 8 o’clock reservation for “mr. briefcase.” We showed them who’s boss by playing flippy cup while waiting for the main course; keep it classy, chicago. And of course the osprey house drowned its pre-quarters sorrows in the pool and hot tub. Curry ref’d volleyball until everyone realized the that it was folly to challenge a team with Ness on it. Steve-o, remember when you whiffed that jump shot off the steps? Best play of the weekend.

A sleepy and ambivalent Briefcase awoke Saturday morning to find themselves pitted against an NYC team stacked with two 2005 BC interns. I wish we had beaten their asses, if only to punish them for going to work for the competition. We kind of got back at them by forcing one of their handlers to huck a disc into a bystander’s face - his girlfriend’s - at point-blank range. I’m sure she took the vacation days and made the trip all the way down to Florida for that. Our next game vs. Montana….well, Lainers brought us cookies. Here we are in the picture that’s going on the xmas card this year. Thanks for making the trip, quaddie!

We watched some fantastic finals games in the sun with our other Chicago friends on Sunday. Dubes won the spirit award for Briefcase, and Akira won by Machine - who won for Nemesis? Send us a picture of you in yourr fuzzy 5 ultimate hat.

All in all, the ultimate was hott and so was the team. It was a sad plane ride home. Ms. ulty and miss casual had so much fun formatting your TPS reports this year. This team went through a major overhaul in Q2’06, in both the roster and style of practice and play. The results would suggest our execs delivered for the shareholders. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic season - I can’t wait for next year! I think we’re going to come back better than ever.

play ultimate. stay casual.

ah, Monday after nattys. The skies are blue in Chicago, but it’s about 40 degrees colder than Sarasota. I wish my Briefcase colleagues could be my real colleagues. The water cooler downtown just isn’t the same - I wonder if my boss would let me wear my fresh baby blue hat to keep the dream alive. Unfortunately my real job is going to keep me from giving the lowdown w/ pictures on weekend games and fun until tonight. This is everyone’s warning to let us know if you don’t want the world to see your halloween costumes - C(b)R, you should probably email me. - ms. u.

thanks to our war room phone (its red) that connects miss casual at home base directly to mr briefcase we have some information from pool play at nationals.

briefcase lost two yesterday, one to their former colleague chucktown and his team brass monkey, but made it into a quarters play-in game with AMP this afternoon. unfortunately they lost but they had a good day overall, beating bad larry and flaming moe.

according to bk, our correspondant in the field, machine was in a similar position to briefcase, upsetting condors early but losing their play-in game to ring 12-15.

nemesis is in a similar position playing for placement tomorrow after losing a tight game to slowdown out of texas.

brass monkey won all their games and are headed to quarters in the morning along with becky and her ladies on backhoe.

well try and keep you posted as the weekend moves along and look for a big ol post monday from ms. ulty herself.

thanks to our new friend bil at ultimatephotography@gmail.com for the photos. we owe you some good old fashioned chitown hospitality (read: pbr) if you ever make it over this way.

any good birthday lasts a whole month and in the interest of continuing the revelry last night miss casual went out for another in a series of birthday dinners to celebrate with her chitown peoples. marya and the birthday girl did a little networking at parlor before heading to club lucky to meet c(b)r and tbrizzle, our casual brothers from another mother. tbr didnt have to teach last night becuase of this fire at left. with forces of nature aligning to get everyone together the night was sure to be a success.

tbr also brought the birthday girl a barbie tiara which she wore faithfully throughout dinner. it made it easy for ms. ulty to find us when she rolled up on her way home from a trip for work. it was nice to see everyone and catch up before the exodus to sarasota happens this evening. the fans are waiting on pins and needles to see what happens when brass monkey and mr. briefcase go head to head tomorrow. will chucktown be playing? will anyone be able to stop him if he is? will mama town bring her accordion to the field? will briefcase come up with a cheer befitting one of their former colleagues? who will come out on top? stay tuned. good luck to all our people headed to florida. reprazent for the chi-tizzle.

while ms. ulty was holding it down in the chi, miss casual was celebrating her birthday with brooke (also known as ‘plan A’) and the boss, who some of you might remember as adam from our happy hour at black beetle. the weekend was a whirlwind of shopping, art, and most importantly, eating like champions and drinking really expensive cocktails. remember our 10$ rounds at chipp inn? try an 80$ round at a place called the pegu club. it seems pricey but they put magic in the cocktails with these little eyedroppers at the left. the drinking went to the boss’s head obviously becuase here he is trying to proposition the birthday girl.

brunch is serious in new york. in brooklyn the girls wear shirts cut down to their navels and on the lower east side we saw a girl in purple eyeshadow up to her brows. as brooke noted, ‘thats a lot of eyeshadow for 1130.’ totes.

we held our own at teany, moby’s teahouse. after hearing that they were out of cupcakes, yours truly told our waiter that he, personally, was ruining my birthday. he made it up to us by bringing me a life changing scone and we were off to shopping followed by 11-sies, which actually ended up being guacamole and margaritas at 3:30. (if miss casual was a superhero her fatal weakness would be the salt rimmed glass and salsa.)

then we went to dinner, which was lovely. the boss broke out a bottle of some swanky bubbly and we toasted rambo and the boss moving to brooklyn and miss casual turning 28 again. (doesnt 28 sound better than 29? i like the even years. i especially like the 2’s and 8’s so im gonna stay 28 for another round and then turn 30.) best birthday in memory for sure. here are the perpetrators looking casual after our bachanalia of a day. thanks for the memories people. the dirty mistress signing off….

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130 amendment

in case you missed it in the comment thread from last week, ea was nice enough to set us up with a flicker pool. you can find it here. also we updated the ‘who is cu’ page and if youre reading this you might be on it so check it out

Chicago had it easy this weekend, as miss casual was off living the good life in NYC for her b-day. She’ll fill you in on her adventures upon her return. Of course there was another birthday this weekend, the big 3-0 for one of the senior staffers on Briefcase. It meant dance-offs and trouble (apparently there’s a good chance that one out of every four people on the street can do the worm). Word to the wise: you can’t win an ultimate dance-off with the same moves you used in the middle of the dance circle in junior high. I’m practicing my steps for the next competition.

This is a pic of Kreece teaching those unlucky souls who didn’t get to go to Notre Dame the “beer dance” (subtitle: Briefcase and Machine prepare for Nationals with early Sunday morning plyos). Look at that coordination. C.U. is wondering when we get our honorary fighting irish alumni t-shirts, given how many traditions we now know and pointy soccer games we’ve been subjected to, I mean, seen. Speaking of which - if you caught the game on Saturday you might have seen our very own mini researching like a champion in the halftime ad. He’s an inspiration to us all. All in all, the party was a blast and only one person didn’t make it to practice the next day….and he’s a guidance counselor, people.

Sunday was the marathon, which kicked ass. Not like we ran, but the people who did deserve mad props. The city was swarming with runners and fans; the energy definitely made me psyched about nationals this week. as did the incredible steak that tones made for dinner, althoug all my clothes smell like meaty smoke now. mmmm…meaty smoke. Slider’s looking forward to nattys too, because once it’s done the BRs’ attention will be turned to fattening him up for the winter. We hope this undertaking also involves more cookie crumble sundaes for C.U. staff.

I had a frisbee dream last night but this one was different in that it involved….an extremely talented classical-music-playing marching band. That’s right. And also the game might have been played in a gym….I feel like I remember a ground surface somewhere between freshly finished basketball court and sweet sweet polo fields. I think most of the gang was there – fall leaguers, briefcase coworkers, a few random people. Some of them were playing in the band/orchestra. The band was clearly supporting my team over the opponent. Whenever we turned it over, got scored on, etc. they would start playing in a minor key and slow down the tempo. Then when we played well the tempo would pick up and the music would get happier.

It was weird, but awesome. Maybe it’s related to Sarasota, or the spicy drunken chicken I had too close to bedtime. I wonder what it means.

since this will be our first official post on the new site i thought id tell the story of how cu got started.

we owe this strange and wonderful blog adventure to our dear friend tbrizzle. one night early in the summer over beers at bucktown pub, we got to talking about beach. faithful readers will realize that thursday night is c.u.’s favorite night of the week when the weather is warm and the sun stays out til late in the evening because of our game at the beach. no one loves to get sand in her ears more than miss casual. plus it gives us an excuse to drink lots of beer afterwards.

but the responsibility for the beach field lies with the BR’s… usually tbr. he was confessing that work was really busy and that he was worried that he was goign to have problems leaving vessel early enough on thursdays to set up the lines. in an attempt to suggest a solution to this problem miss casual suggested that we play with cones instead of lines.

this suggestion was met with some… criticism you could say. you could also say tbr wheeled around and very quickly attacked the idea of playing with no lines like a fat kid attacks cake. ’sure jess why dont we just play with no rules at all then? id rather just toss than play with no lines. im done with casual ultimate.’

and so the blog was born out of a desire to play ultimate, and stay casual (natch). so if you dont know, now you know. thanks to tbr for his never ending inspiration and welcome to the new phase of cu.

no that’s not lindsey lohan and paris hilton on the way to the grocery store. its casual ultimate on the way to fall league saturday morning. with a tennis skirt, leggings, and carlo’s sweatshirt, and ea’s cu hat, prada sunglasses, and valour pants respectively, we set out for chilly fall ultimate. we had a devastating loss to rob and his syndicate but played some very casual ultimate and won our second game of the morning. ms. ulty cheered the public news team on our pledge drive with a cry of ‘next d gets a canvas tote bag.’ even though miss casual broke every fingernail she had it was lots of fun and rick buying us hot chocolate capped off the afternoon just right.

friday night was spent at happy hour with cbr, pfil, bjorn, and ‘where’s my michael’ denardis. we were exchanging parent stories when mike d. made the mistake of telling us about a time when his mom smoked pot with his brother, got paranoid about the baby of the family being in trouble, and ran into a screen door yelling ‘where’s my micheal?’ and we know where he was friday. he was putting hanson on the jukebox at the chipp inn.

the diverse (read: creepy) crowd loved our punishing 80’s string of song selections, from mariah carey to hanson to n’sync. who knew bjorn could sing all the words to an n’sync song? cu is considering forming a boy band which we could manage and now we have a lead vocalist. here’s our future star with lucas in his halloween costume at treem and aaron’s. notice the remarkable hair style similarity.

what could end such a blissful weekend? the ambrosia of brisket at RWIP last night. ea was in attendance which is always a special added bonus and he brought us some rubber lance type cu bracelets. youll have to work for them, but maybe theyll get you a pass to skip in line for the wave pool at great wolf this year. bryan’s cooking was magic and another in a series of marriage proposals from miss casual almost followed the revelation that there was indeed cookie dough in the brownies somehow.

last night all the usual casual suspects converged on our favorite pizza pit to celebrate sally’s birthday. of course tbr and monica are out somewhere fending off bears and hypothermia in the wilderness and ay is jetsetting but the rest of us showed up to toast the new lawyer who is another year older and wiser. next year we are going to have to plan better and have a big libra birthday party since miss casual is getting older (although wiser is still a question mark) next week too.

after gossiping about nationals and who’s staying in the best party house (’outdoor kitchen and ‘hottub overflowing into swimming pool’ had a throwdown…i think hottub won) the casual ladies and the birthday girl made a weak attempt at getting bk to cook us dinner sunday night. ‘hey bryan, what are you doing sunday?’ ‘i dont know, why?’ (he knows us too well….) ‘wanna cook us dinner and watch v for vendetta?’ ‘no’. ms ultimate offered to make a dish for dinner and bring it up to the RWIP house when bk lashed back. ‘i dont need my dinner watered down with pedestrian fare.’ giiirrrrl… ms. ultimate was all up in his grill before you could say ‘girl i know he aint call you pedestrian…’

i have a picture of the throwdown and the birthday girl but they are on my camera at home. ill throw em up tonight. but not til after happy hour which you should all attend. tonight 6ish roll out to the chipp in with casual ultimate. everyones invited. if cho doesn’t come out were going to cry. we promise. tomorrow is rumble in the jungle with the public news team and the dreaded syndicate. well keep you posted on the carnage. happy friday.

this will be way more fun if you guys post comments to fill in the some of the blanks. so here goes.

yesterday miss causal and ms. utlimate hightailed it out of work and then _______. it had been a ________ day. once the cu ladies were back in wicker park we ________ before we ran into cho and bk. we all got dinner and cho turned to the girl next to him and said _________. he didnt realize it was roadhouse. the cu ladies were all giggles when pfil and bg showed up and said ‘cu is so _________.’ of course the BRs were no far behind. tbr had bought a new ________ and cbr was obvioulsy uncomfortable with the ________. after more _________ and ice cream after that, we all biked up to _________. who knew that wed meet ferrari and akira? a spontaneous game of ________ ensued and we played until it was time for _________ . quite a fun night in the __________ of the casual ultimate universe.

we know you all missed the CRAFT club and since we have so many reasons to celebrate this week we are bringing it back at the chipp inn friday afterwork. the post happy hour after hours late night post party will be hosted by treem and aaron who you might remember from such posts as ‘miss casual gets assaulted times deux’ and ‘que buena! mas mojitos!’

last night with the afterglow of a nationals bid in her eyes, ms. ulty came by and we went out with treem and aaron to toast mr. briefcase and the rest of chicago ultimate. we realized that chipp inn, which is located at the corner of happiness and awesometown, was the perfect spot for happy hour, with its schizophrenic jukebox, golden tee, and cheap beer. if you go to google maps and cant find this intersection, try heading up honorary harriett levitt de la rosa blvd. then when you see the wobbly senior citizen crossing sign you’re there. and in the immortal words of fitty cent, you can find us in the club. or in this case the chipp inn. friday. 530-6 ish. be there or… we’ll be talking about you. or something.

also we are actively looking for a logo for casual ultimate. and by ‘actively looking’ i mean ‘pestering tbrizzle every other day or so with some kind of guilt ridden email’. but hey our other casual brothers and sisters may have mad graphic skillz so if you have an idea holler… or ‘jauler’. it might be a soft j.

If you know anyone who has to fly out of Chicago to southern Florida on the evening of the 25th, you should call right now and tell them to book tickets, because all flights are about to be overtaken by hot ultimate players. Unless….are there enough to make a chartered plane worthwhile?

Chicago rocked Regionals this weekend, with Nemesis coming in first in the women’s division, Briefcase coming in second in mixed and Machine taking the third bid for the gents; Real Huck, the Masters team, won their game to go. From Saturday morning domination in bracket play to the last catch of the day landing in Ferrari’s hands in the Machine endzone, Chi-town/the‘ville represented for our visitors.

As far as final standings, Nemesis beat Bait to clinch the championship. Mojo came in second. Briefcase played an intense but high-spirited game with with Flaming Moe for second place, owing to the fact that both teams were guaranteed bids and were playing for seed. CLX won the mixed division, but turned down the bid due to the fact that they’ll be representing Midwest ultimate to the world and throwing some shrimp on the barby in Australia later this fall; thus, Briefcase ends up the #1 seed coming out of the region. Carleton alums, aka ¡Salsa Police!, finished fourth and got bumped up to take the third bid. Machine beat Madison for their bid. Sub Zero took first in the open division, and Big Ass Truck took second. Real Huck beat Chico’s Bail Bonds in the game to go; Twin Cities’Surly came in first.

It was perfect out for ultimate, not windy but just enough to keep things interesting, and the bluest skies for this weekend in recent memory. Briefcase will be seeing several 2005 season alums down in Florida: Brass Monkey won the Northwest, and we’re hoping Chuck will be in playing form by the end of the month. Justin and Carrie qualified with Puppet Regime, which came in second to Slow White in the Northeast. And, of course, Sals with Nemesis.

So, does anyone know what other co-ed teams might be skipping Nationals for Worlds? And does this mean that rightful 2006 mixed division title will be won down under rather than just down south? Rumor had it that Bad Larry would be foregoing their Nationals bid too, but they’re listed among the 16 on the Championship site.

Don’t put the sunglasses away for the summer, because you’re going to need them in a few weeks.

Early in the afternoon last Monday, September 25, A. V. reportedly gave birth to a baby girl, Maxine. While the V’s are supposedly happy, healthy and at home, neither A not the baby has made a public appearance since the Sectionals tournament, just one days before the “birth.” A’s new secluded lifestyle and the lack of any baby pictures or eyewitnesses has led some to question the baby’s existence. C.U. has obtained these satellite images of baby Maxine, although picturologists are not able to positively identify the images as a human child.

The birth was without complication and drug-free. It has been alleged that the V’s decision to choose this method may have been spiritual. While this was apparently not a “silent” birth, it should be noted that the Church of Scientology does in fact ban the use of pain relief drugs during childbirth. A. has stated that “Maxine” is a family name, but others have noted that the baby may be named after the quirky principle character in the 1999 film Being John Malkovich, or that the name may be a derivation of the French men’s name Maximillen, meaning “the greatest.” Disgruntled teammates have suggested the name may be a reference to A and N’s combined ultimate skills, and their hope that young Maxine will indeed be the greatest player ever to grace the sport.

A typically joins N at Briefcase practice, cheering from the sideline - this past Sunday she was nowhere to be seen, although Nate insisted she was at home resting. A source close to the V’s told C.U. reporters, “she loves going to Briefcase practice and sitting on the pregnant line, and normally clears her schedule to make time. I’m really surprised that she’s not out here with N and the rest of the team.”
Several days before the noted absence at practice, N had sent an email to the team informing them of Maxine’s arrival. It was a terse, text-only document and N declined to provide pictures upon request. First the email, then A’s curious absence from the sidelines, have made friends of the V’s wonder whether the birth took place at all.

When I think about it, A’s stomach kept getting bigger and bigger but she didn’t gain weight anywhere else,” said a former teammate who asked that her identity not be revealed. “She look great. And she ate an astounding amount but, you know, that’s what the V’s do. It’s strange that it was pasta salad instead of ham sandwiches, though.”

“A has been in a great mood for the last nine months, and I’ve heard that pregnant women can get cranky sometimes,” said a regular fan of the V’s style of play. “I guess it’s possible that she just got a huge beer belly not playing ultimate. It happens.”

When asked about A’s extended absence from the ultimate scene, friends and teammates say they miss her and want to see the baby. Many have also offered the fact that, while A certainly appeared to be great with child and N was seen doting on her even more than usual, no one ever actually saw her stomach.

“She would wear N’s jersey, because it was bigger, and was definitely rocking the stretchy pants,” one beach player said. “But, no - come to think of it I never actually saw the stomach. She let me feel the baby kick once but, to be honest, I didn’t feel anything. And her stomach felt exactly like a gel bike seat.”

Only one acquaintance of the V’s, tbrizzle, has come forth and said that he has seen baby Maxine. Tbrizzle allegedly visited A in the hospital just days after the birth. When asked to provide evidence of the Maxine sighting, however, tbrizzle failed to produce anything substantial.

“I saw the baby in the hospital,” said tbrizzle. “She is the cutest baby in the world!!! It’s no surprise with such fantastic parents, but this baby is amazing - amazing, I’m telling you!! And she got A’s hair, which is a plus. She actually has an amazing amount of hair for a newborn baby.”

Friends and teammates continue to wonder, will they ever see baby Maxine? Will a picture of the little cutie-pie be brought to Regionals and passed around? Can the baby paparazzi satisfy the needs of the demanding Chicago ultimate public? How long will A “resting at home,” as N insists she has been doing for over one full week? Will Maxine herself show up at Regionals this weekend, and will she be wearing a tie? The world will wait and watch.

friday night we went to wish that guy rob bon voyage and good luck in nyc for just long enough to get stuck in the rain on our bikes on the way to piece. after sending a blank text to a bunch of people and then texting the wrong rob, we destroyed some pizza with cho, bk, pfil, treem and henderson et al. it was a revolving door of people and food which was not happy news for our waitress, who was surly at best, and hated us with a passion at worst.

saturday was fall league, shopping, and the family guy movie… which was lovely. yesterday i switched my bike to the fixed gear side for the first time and rode around very slowly, with a hemet on, trying out my new hardcore-ness before i spent my rent on a pair of boots. then last night i went over to see the BRs and watch the bears game with them and the russells and pfil. the highlight for me (aside from the bears stomping the competition) was watching the simpsons at half time and eating ice cream with monica’s killer pecan pie. rod and tod flanders played christian clue (”it was the secular humanist, in the schoolhouse, with misinformation”) and madden dubbed michigan avenue the best avenue in the universe. now the weekend is a sweet memory but fear not… the casual continues this week with casual dining wednesday (La Scarola), dinner with the towns, and hopefully a baby sighting before regionals. stay tuned…