casual ultimate » 2007 » April

this weekend was so much fun. thank heaven for sunshine and blue skies. we thought the summer of 2006 was the best it can get, but 2007 is shaping up to be fantastic.

friday night worlds collided at happy hour (hereafter to be known as h60), where bike and ultimate friends drank beer and discussed the land ethic in harmony. everyone was laughing, having fun and the bartender even poured the c.u. staff a couple of beers on the house, but a shadow was cast over the evening when we learned of a death in the family. The death of ameri-can, that is. Lemmings has *stopped serving American beer*. You heard it here first. The replacement is milwaukee’s best. Replacing American with the beast is like replacing ultimate with freestyle. If freestyle tasted like water and hated democracy, that is.

saturday was spring league, and we went 1-1. we’re still not sure what’s up with teamocil; even a saturday night viewing of “switch hitter,” our inspiration, didn’t provide any usable strategy tips. (other than sending miss casual to work for the competition for a week.) regardless of a frustrating loss, we had a ton of fun. rory showed up, finally, and turned out to be at least six inches taller than you might think at first look. baker and casual did their best chicken dance impressions; we’ll see if we can get the video up later. in the end, though, miss casual’s threat of “no burritos for losers” didn’t inspire the masses in that first game, although we rallied for the second. the c.u. staff, dp and hendude still went for burritos after the game, though. note: lemming’s may be out of american, but the margaritas at chipotle aren’t half bad. new h60 venue?

by nighttime we were too pooped from daytime fun to do anything crazy, so it was packing and a.d. for old time’s sake. it’s sad that c.u. HQ will no longer be the 1200-1400 blocks of paulina, but miss casual’s in a better place. the set-up at the former br ranch (the k-br ranch now?) is awesome, and slider’s already learning to love hip hop. miss casual already taught him to bark ‘wamp wamp’.

sunday morning was moving and brunching, respectively. miss casual cleared out the last of her household goods while ms. ulty brunched with bike friendlies. you wouldn’t think it, but oval waffles are actually better than round ones; maybe because they hold so much fruit and syrup. after brunch, while casual and tbrizzle were setting up the new place, ms. ulty peeled off ot spend the afternoon at the velodrome in northbrook. it was *awesome*. it’s like a rollercoaster you make yourself. there’s a very small chance ms. ulty might even start a new blog, www.seriouscycling.com. if you see her in a bike shop considering the purchase of spandex anything, please try to stop her. here’s a picture of two speedracers going faster than pegasi.

some briefcase peeps and the usual beach suspects played at north ave. sunday afternoon, although c.u. missed out. it was a tough call, but guiding movers and going to the track won out. this is only just the beginning of summer; there will be plenty of days wash the sand out of our toes in the coming months.

so wednesday night (the new thursday) found the cu staff antsy and ready to explore a new and exciting location. and by location i mean bar. so we went to cleos for pizza and grilled cheese because ms. ulty had never been there and then retired after dinner to high dive, which you might remember from such posts as ‘revenge of happy hour : who will survive?’.

miss casual, who we all know works in a very high design snooty pants architecture firm, was explaining to ms. ultimate the intricacies of the design process in the firm. ‘this kid who sits across from me was playing with jenga blocks at his desk all day because he like their proportion’. ahem. ms. ultimate suggested knocking them all off his desk and screaming ‘jenga!%^@’ in his face. sad but true revelations from the world of the pro-dejiners. so we played our own jenga with ashtrays and candals much to the dismay of the bartender.

and speaking of pro-dejiners check out these people at the milan furniture show. seriously. look at that guy. ugh ’shudders’. miss casual decided she will become this girl by getting a severe haircut and straightening, continuing her all black rampage in wardrobe, adopting an austrian accent and going by the name ‘jesika taunhaus’.

also discussed was the fact that when working overtime at the office the people with kids always have an out. like ‘i havent seen my kids in days’ blah blah blah. hey buddy…i have a kid too. its called the blog. and i havent posted in days so lets not all cry about our life stories. just because you chose to procreate and we chose a loftier goal, total internet domination, doesnt mean that your problems are any worse than ours. so can it.

on this dreary friday morning miss casual is giggling about our weekday antics and wondering how ms. ultimate’s night went last night watching some track bike race at friendhugger’s and then celebrating with aaron for his big bday. also we are looking forward to spring league tomorrow am and an epic happy hour tonight in honor of ms. ultimate’s last week at work. get on the party train people. you know where its headed. the land of ameri-CANS and shennani-gans, lemmings. hope you all come out. holler at us.

xoxo
miss casual

p.s. hey rob why did you move to mke from chicago again?

Things are slow at the c.u. ranch, where we’re still recovering from our earth day hangovers. Brutal. Teamocil went 1-1 this weekend in spring league, although ms. Ulty was in Wisconsin and miss casual was in Michigan, so we can’t take any credit-blame. Ms. Mmms, wanna fill us in on the action? There was a mini briefcase scrimmage in smith park on Sunday, too – sad to miss everything, the weather was unbelievably gorgeous as anyone with 4 out of 5 sense already knows. Ms. Ulty did run into Biz (briefcase 2005 fiscal year employee) in a Culver’s in Wisconsin on Sunday, though, heading back from a tourney with her high school team. And yes, carlo, she’s totally beefed up – it looks like she’s been drinking protein shakes and lifting weights all winter. Watch out for that girl.

Last night while ms. Ulty was eating sea bass and drinking decaf with titans of industry and finance, miss casual was at home drinking beer and eating waffles. It was Oberon, though, so that evens things out. Miss casual is moving in with tbrizzle this week, which is a pain and seriously detracting from time that should be devoted to engaging in blogworthy events. We hope tbrizzle likes pink razors and bar tape as much as we do. Speaking of pizzazz (that’s what we’re talking about, right?), what about this grassy banner for the c.u. summer site….we were looking for grass when we set this thing up at the end of last summer, but it never happened.

It may seem early, but put happy hour (hereafter to be known as “H60”) on your calendars for Friday. This Friday is ms. Ulty’s last real excuse for a Friday happy hour, as the following Friday is her last day of work before a summer of relaxation and fun. Probably lemming’s, no need to fix it if it ain’t broke.

im dedicating today’s post to that guy rob because of his outstanding achievements in disregard for health, the laws of chicago, and the laws of physics and his continuing excellence in the field of troublemaking. i believe he, or colonel sanders, said it best when he said ‘im too drunk to taste this chicken.’

last night was no exception. turns out rob has siblings. and they are also awesome. his brother and rob talked miss casual into after work antics at the tasting room which wasnt difficult because it is one of her favorite locations. after the second bottle of champagne things degraded quickly. its not worth recounting all the details but robs brother told out waitress she had nice eyes while we contemplated his upcoming weekend driving ferraris and jumping out of airplanes in san diego. clearly we need a guest post. long after miss casual peeled off to stop by tricks and drinks the mayhem continued it seems because she got a txt at 730 from rob leaving his brothers house. not a good sign for a happy well rested friday.

ms. ultimate was all tuckered out so she didnt come join the fun because as she said ‘we all know robs goign to wake up four months from now in milwaukee, realize he made a huge mistake, and be back here within 6 months.’ so true.

lastly in some other business (not the kind liz deals with at work) the cu staff will both be out of town this weekend so teamocil will need baker and rob to step up to the winning plate and hit us a home run in our absence. also this week miss casual is moving off of paulina. sad to leave but she is the new BR as she will take cbr’s spot in tbrizzles apartment. at left is a picture of casual friday at tbrizzles office submitted by the vessel boss himself. it looks like a good time surely but not a safe place for children.

We’re a little worried about our target audience given we seem to think about bikes more than discs lately, but so it goes. Wednesday night was no exception: after scoring free passes at the cycle smithy, misses c and u went to a premiere of ‘the flying scotsman’ with some chifg friendlies. This is the UK-made film about Scottish cyclist Graeme obree, who built his own track cycle out of old bikes and washing machine bearings and went on to set world records in the 1-hour and 4-km sprint races. I think I got that right. Overall it was a good flick, but word on the forum is that the book is better. Ms. Ulty thinks it could have been improved by better character and plot development, while miss casual thinks putting ‘eye of the tiger’ on soundtrack repeat would have made all the difference. After the movie we bike-ganged it the map room, where we made friends with Ian, who is coincidentally a buddy of our very own adam of briefcase and c.u. banner fame. You kids are fun, we should hang out and drink beer that tastes like salad all the time (3 floyds rabid rabbit – learn it, know it, love it).

It was an inspiring sports movie to be sure, and we’re totally gearing up (or down, I suppose) to hit the racetrack in northbrook in the next couple of weeks. We hear it’s relatively flat, so it should be a good starter track before we hit the majorly banked walls of the velodrome in Norway to set world records of our own. It’s gonna be fun.

The movie made us think of putting a dramatic ultimate story on the big screen. It would follow a scrappy Chicago co-ed team from the first spring practice, where we are introduced to the main and supporting characters, and follow their development over the summer months. We would explore the motivations of a few key players, and how those motivations combine with love of the game and team politics to create an explosive performance on the field. Needless to say the storyline would lead up the finals at nationals, where The Flying Suitcases win in a nailbiter, only to be disqualified by the UPA because the game disc was of their own design, 175g and all the right geometry but carved from a 1978 samsonite instead of manufactured by discraft and available in the commercial market. Soundtrack will involve ‘eye of the tiger,’ ‘here I go again on my own’ and ‘rock you like a hurricane.’ We haven’t nailed down an ending yet, but suggestions are welcome. Since madam zibby’s going to be in town this summer instead of working on ‘where the wild things are,’ she can direct the action. Let us know if you’re interested in producing.

ms. ultimate: phew, i’m exhausted. what did you think of today’s games?

miss casual: well, i got mauled by a cougar, i didn’t learn anything about ultimate, and i ruined my crystal gale shirt. how do you feel?

ms. ultimate: like committing harey carey.

miss casual: take me out to the ballgame?

ms. ultimate: no, like the samurai suicide ritual.

that pretty much sums up saturday’s performance on the field. we’re not sure how it happened because our team is actually stacked full of ballers, but there it is. it might have been a result of ms. ulty’s boxstep and miss casual’s broken fingernails. a bit frustrating. needless to say other performed like a squeaky bionic man; tun came out of nowhere to handle like a maniac; we found out matt is on our team; mel was everywhere; and we caught just a fleeting glimpse of roadhouse, thanks to the end of tax season. baby you know we call you that because you love it. it turned out that joe was a good trade, 85% because of the hat he was wearing.

it all started off so positively, with dp, liz and the c.u. staff carpooling to save the planet and fueling up on victory twizzlers. they soon turned to bile in our stomachs.

we had given up the weekend as a lost cause, but then rob called ms. ulty to say that he and the benders would be in the city in an hour. she was on the couch in her PJs in the dark when the call came, but against all odds she rallied. miss casual was long gone. luckily mini, doobs and rob brought fun back to town, and we went to annette’s party in logan square. it’s a little known fact that playing shoulders with the rodells is the best way to de-lame oneself. it was all fun and games until ms. ulty got voted off the table in survivor cups. one northside and an underdog later, she had recovered.

sunday brought sun, taxes and potstickers. lookout for mayhem as that guy rob is abandoning us for milwaukee next weekend. this week may be dangerous.

Another weekend is here, which means another Saturday afternoon playing spring league games in sub-par weather. It’s looking like serious competition for team teamocil, however, with our first game vs. feats of strength. Both teams will be playing down some good players, with teamocil missing rob and dan (without these two, who’s going to serve as captain? Ms. Ulty?) and feats sans one j. Ferrari. we’d worry it could devolve into an outright carnival of turnovers if we weren’t so sure that teamocil is ready to win. other andy’s drinking OJ to get healthy as we type. Miss casual mentioned getting to bed early tonight so as to be able to bring her a game; ms. Ulty is finally going to see blades of glory for inspiration. Someone may be showing up to the game with sequins tomorrow. sadly miss casual lost her ‘members only’ jacket; that thing was so f*ing cool.

See you in study hall.

24 is like a security blanket. even if i forget about it sometimes, when i come back to it, it always makes me feel safe. even when things are looking bleak for jack bauer, he is a hostage of some kind of chinese terrorist organization and has a nasty looking beard and greasy hair and is wearing funny looking chinese pajammas, in the next scene he is clean shaven, wearing a t shirt and dejiner jeans and biting off peoples’ ears in order to save our country. some things i have noticed about this season of 24 in no apparent order just because its tuesday and nothings going on.

jack bauer never eats.

does jack not notice that nothing really scary happens until 10 til the hour every hour? i mean going back to my first point youd think he could stop for a mcmuffin at about 25 after because a life-threatening explosion / abduction / shooting isnt gonna go down for another half hour at least.

they must’ve run out of middle eastern actors to typecast as terrorists because this years bad guy, abu fayed, looks just like that french head-butting soccer player zidane or whatever his name is. look out frenchies and italians, youre the new terrorists.

did they have to kill off kumar in the first three episodes? he couldve been great comic relief. maybe he and fayed couldve gotten orange mocha frappucinos and made the characters a little more ‘human.’

anyway thats all. i still love 24. and jack bauer of course. especially now that hes started a man purse trend.

clearly my friday will not be as good as ms. ultimate’s since she is already sleeping late and planning on throwing a softball and biking to hyde park. miss casual, however is holding it down at work. however we at cu, as well as our buick driving friend here, that a good friday comes down to happy hour. so after work itll be off to a going away party for my one friend at work, yoo joung, and then who knows? it could get crazy. all i do know is that tomorrow team teamocil is playing against the volkmans and then cu and that guy rob are going to the ritz carlton for cupcakes. seriously. cupcakes. like a diabetic coma’s worth of pastry and champagne. hopefully well behave ourselves. but probably not. but at least well be wearing cute shoes.

lots of our faithful readers are in italy enjoying beach ultimate at its finest so well have to make do without them this weekend but hopefully well do them proud. signing off.

miss casual

first off, congratulations to team teamocil, again captained by captain berg. apparently only three team members showed up saturday but we only had to forfeit once. capt. berg negotiated a 13-13 tie for the second game. ms. ulty missed had to miss the games because she was hanging in the big apple with her little sis and dan the man. miss casual needed to, uh, taper so as to bring the pain next weekend.

the weekend started friday with dinner in little italy; it was supposed to be little india, but we couldn’t make it that far. we ended up not going to this restaurant, although the name alone promised culinary treasures beyond imagine. word on new york: new yorkers like to defend the fact that they leave piles of garbage in the street by saying that real estate is too valuable for alleys. truth is, it just makes all the streets smell and look like alleys, but actually even worse because there aren’t enough garbage cans. points to chicago on this one. anywho, after dinner we walked past an awesome bike shop; ms. ulty thought of miss casual and wanted to go in, but it was 11 pm so no dice. there were some late-night phone calls about bikes that had our rims (miss casual, i saw yours too. sugarbomb is cuter though). z&u hopped the train to williamsburg to hook up with some of zibber’s friends and go dancing. i wish i could have spent more time there, because it’s the wicker park of nyc and vice versa. we tried to convince zib’s friend shawn to move to chicago and produce a double-deuce based version of the burg - so far we have ‘the park,’ ‘wickertownvillage’ and ‘22′ as working titles. auditions will be held next weekend. it will be a wealth dejin, inc. production. in other acting news, zibbers may not have provided a law$order walking tour, but the big news of friday night was that she’s friends with a special victim. unfortunately ms. ulty didn’t have her season 7 dvd bixed set with her, so no autograph. new york is clearly the celebrity capital of the world.

saturday was shopping in soho and coffee. ms. ulty pondered buying miss casual these shoes as a passover present before trudging across manhattan to chelsea to go gallery hopping instead. someday perhaps she’ll be able to afford the works of art on display. until then, she’s going to rely on zibby becoming a famous filmmaker to hob-nob with the artistic elite.

saturday night was off the heezy thanks to dan the man, a former obie and ultimate playa. and by “off the heezy” i mean we ate mexican food and then played settlers of catan for three hours with the hil formerly known as gerson and mr. mike. according to tony, bk and little have this game and are mildly obsessed with it. there’s a reason why. this game might make an appearance at future happy hours.

sunday brought a little moma action and late afternoon naps. zibby has fallen asleep in the course of writing this post. it’s probably a sign that this should be the end. i hope the weather improves in chi-town and we can get back to our frisbee ways.

well this weekend with ms. ulty out of town yours truly didnt. do. anything. spring league? nope. sunday bike ride? nah. make it out to the sprints at the bar on saturday? heck no it was raining. heres a picture of jdot bringing his a-game at the sprints while i was at home watching florida finish off ucla. actually watching the tournament was about all i did accomplish.

cant that noah boy cut his hair? im surprised his mother doesnt make him since hes on national tv. im sure this is the kind of raw sports reporting our dear friend j only dreams of.

saturday afternoon that guy rob was in a frisky shopping mood and miss casual never argues about a trip to barneys coop so off we went with dennis in tow. turns out shopping after a cocktail (or two) at lunch is difficult. its almost as difficult as doing math. somehow we started talking about the square roots of numbers and it devolved into a long stretch of quizzing each other about our times tables. embarrassing but necessary for the furtherment of science. yeah i said furtherment. what?

quotes of the day
1. dennis at barneys - ‘chain mail is totally my thing’.
2. rob at active endeavors - ‘this store is for all the std swappers.’

i cannot compete with that. i did in fact see blades of glory but i was underwhelmed. i am not questioning the comic genius of will arnett and amy poehler or my total devotion to everything will ferrell ever does but my ribs didnt hurt from laughing afterwards as they did upon witnessing the awe inducing splendor of anchorman.

so hopefully ms. ultimate will fill us all in on her rowdy weekend in nyc hob nobbing with ivy leaguers and hey lets ragers. im sure her post will not be as half assed as this one.