casual ultimate » 2007 » October

There were a lot of great things that happened this weekend at Nationals. I talked to Becky about life. I said what-up to Vijay after he sent me a benediction last week. I saw that Mischief is a really great group of people who care about each other immensely. I saw Tim Murray as a pretty respectable, mature individual who loves the game (that was really over the course of the season and not just this weekend). I saw the Ring/Backhoe social circles in motion. I saw how nothing really changes in that regard and how the lowest common denominator: drinking, mocking, hooking up, and other pretty dumb things seem to shine through in most cases. I felt the tug towards romance, and resisted it. I struggled not to judge myself and my team-mates at times. By Sunday, some of my better friends on the team had become so irritating to me that it was almost too much to be in a room with them.

Mischief lost in Quarters. Shazam showed up and played hard in all their games. They are good folks. I saw my humor turn towards ridicule and mockery this weekend instead of just light-hearted observation. I saw stress and anxiety bring out the best in some people (our late innings come-back against Shazam really made me happy to be on Brass Monkey). I saw one of the sickest D’s I’ve ever seen AGAIN from Wendy Chan on game-point against Shazam against a guy (Ladd). It was just unbelievable. Better, I think, than the one last year in semis that Wendy had. I saw Nate, the guy I would lie down in traffic for, one of the greatest team-mates and players I’ve ever seen grace a field, not win a title this year.

The sacrifices that people make to be at Nationals and to play at Nationals are unreal. I think maybe the best moments of the weekend were Saturday night after games were over, seasons were over, and dinner was over. Monkey sat around one of our condo units and told stories and gave speeches and just really enjoyed each other. I laughed more on Saturday night than I have since the last session of One Degrees in Tempe. What a soulful, filling experience it is to just laugh with each other.

I got to introduce Nate and Becky on Saturday night. It was like introducing someone to my family. I got to just say, “Look, Becky. This is the guy that I’ve told you about. This is why I love playing for him.” They talked for 10 seconds and Nate drove the conversation as he does the huddle, and it was just pure and simple. She looked at me after Nate had left, and I could just see that she understood. In 10 seconds, she just understood why I like him.

The first time I went to Nationals was in 2004, and I had been diagnosed with mono on Monday and was not able to play at all. My team, Machine, went 0-7, my new girlfriend at the time, Sarah, had way cooler friends than mine (Brood et al), and way cooler ex-boyfriends than me (Michael Jamkung, formerly Namkung). I had a knot in my stomach that weekend as big as a fist and I didn’t play a single point. I do believe the antibiotics that I had taken gave me a skin reaction that made me look like I had frickin pink polka dots all over my body too. I was so terribly unhappy. I was so hurt and hopeless.

My second trip to Nationals was in 2006 with Brass, and I had not played a point of Ultimate (other than the weekend prior) since the end of August due to a horrible ankle sprain. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to play at all. I prayed that my higher power’s will be done and that I could just be present and do his will. I played and played great. I really brought joy to my team, and in our big semifinal loss, I played one point, and I didn’t feel, at any time, like I was being cheated. I wasn’t hurt or hopeless. I was proud and honored to be on this team. My team had a lot wrong with it that year, but it had a lot right with it too. We have a rookie this year named Mike that reminds me of me last year. He’s just happy and proud to be with this group, and that’s a really awesome way to approach Ultimate, I think. On Saturday night last year, I left the team dinner to be with a good friend in a hard moment and grew closer to a few people. I wasn’t the life of the party that night. I wasn’t making some hot girl. I wasn’t doing anything but being me and doing what I thought was right. That was awesome.

This year, I went to Nationals healthy for the first time, again with Brass Monkey. This year, we had something that we didn’t have last year: the ability to pull together and play big in big moments. Our hearts weren’t fragmented and in close games, we were able to play up. I wish that we could have given ourselves a chance against Shazam instead of dropping down to a 7 point deficit and not getting our engine started until 12-5 or whenever it was. We played them to 11-14 and were really close to a couple blocks on that final point. It’s a little too much to ask to score 5 in a row against a great team like Shazam with the season on the line. I wouldn’t have put it past us though, the way we were playing.

On a personal note, I don’t think I’ve ever pulled as well as I did this weekend. They were huge airy bombs and they were all in bounds until the Shazam game. I would kind of like to just go up to Seattle or somewhere and scrimmage Shazam for 4 or 5 hours with Brass. I just like playing against them. I want to play a lot of points against them. It’s really fun. I don’t have very much fun at all against Mischief, and I’m not entirely sure why. I guess I can’t really think of anyone on that squad I like to guard for some reason. With Tyler, I’m usually backing him. With Kyle Smith, I’m usually busy nearly biting my tongue off while he elbows me in the face. With Shazam, it’s just a battle though. I love it. They are good, they are fast, the throws are on the mark, and for whatever reason, I like playing them. I like playing d and beating them and mashing their faces into a fine paste and then dousing their faces in kerosine and lighting them on fire and then breaking their mark, zipping down field for a wide-open 15 yd under and throwing a buttery goal to Nate up the line, while a faceless Shazamer runs after me with his burnt eyes trying to figure out what happened and why he will always be hideous for the rest of his life and never have children or friends. Whoa, sorry about that. What I mean to say is: Ultimate is fun.

This week’s episode of the Chris Farley show:

Chris Farley: Hey, Steve Finn. ‘member when you were on Sockeye?

Steve Finn: Well, yeah Chris, I do.

CF: Man, you guys were awesome…

SF: Why thank you, Chris.

CF: ………God, I’m so STUPID. I’m such an IDIOT.

SF: No, no, Chris, you’re doing fine…

CF: Really?…Oh, man…..You remember when you were on Brass Monkey?

SF: Yeah, yeah I remember, we won it in 2005.

CF: Man, you guys were soooo good….

SF: Thanks, Chris.

CF: …..God, I don’t know what I’m DOING on this interview. I’m such a FAILure….

SF: You’re doing fine, Chris. Really.

CF: You’re just saying that.

SF: No, really, Chris.

CF: Well…remember when you won your third consecutive Masters title at age 47?

SF: Chris, I’m not sure that’s happened yet although I’m sure it will.

CF: Oh….why did I SAY that?! I’m such a MORON!

SF: No, Chris. You’re really giving a good interview.

CF: No, I’m not. I’m making all kinds of mistakes all the time.

SF: Well, Chris. You know I’ve learned over the years that it’s not about whether you do things perfectly or not. Everyone makes mistakes. It has more to do with whether your mistakes ever result in something other than a National Championship. I think that’s where I’ve had a lot of success in my life. I only make mistakes that somehow lead to me being a National Champion.

CF: ….

I saw Ray Parrish’s teeth from about 500 yards away, and a few minutes later, I could see that the rest of him was also there as he continued to walk towards me. That guy was so huge for me at Sandblast when I had heatstroke and couldn’t take care of myself. I would marry him if I were some girl with really huge fake breasts, the way he likes. Sidenote: Can I just say that the reason Starsky and Hutch is a masterpiece is because it makes fun of homophobia? Can I just say that right now? I have made a living on that kind of humor (or no money at all as I look a little closer), and guys acting like they have no emotions and like they don’t care about their friends or anything for that matter is just not human. I care about my friends.

Thank you to Bil Elsinger for all the great photos and write-ups of the Mixed Division this year, which is a real division with uniforms and everything.

Dragon foot, ball of yarn, bamboo pole, Chinese boy…Prune Candy.

When’s Tempe?

well all our friends are back from nationals by now but after playing their butts off all weekend in sarasota im sure they need a day or two to recoup and collect their thoughts… check email, call mom, check in with their tivo, etc. hopefully well get some recap and highlights after all that but to give them a breather heres what happened in chicago this weekend.

the race. it was awesome. went off basically without a hitch. check out simon bringing the pain to his checkpoint in the video above. we had 29 teams and we raised a pile of cash for cornerstone plus everyone was in costume and the afterparty was a hit. big thanks to dave and rodan for putting up with all of us. the only minor snag was that 20,000 war protestors were in union park right when our race was starting. it was a little confusing to say the least. why couldnt they have their protestacular another day? oh well. heres some of us getting swarmed by them as they began their march downtown.

another minor miracle was this guy from one less car clothing just swooped in (literally swooped) out of nowhere and brought us a bunch of shirts and stuff for prizes. we are now best friends forever with those guys. the Brs and ms. mimms did the race and said they had fun. cbr’s porcupine costume was interesting to say the least. you dont often see an architect dressed in all black and covered in clothes pins riding a bike.

meanwhile i was watching scores on the upa website and clenching my teeth. i was on the war phone to mama town during brass monkey’s face off to the death with tandem that took it to double game point. i almost died of the tension but brass pulled it out and went on to semis. the talk in the forum was the big upsets in the open bracket in pool D with furious going 0-3 the first day as the top seed in that pool and chain lightening going 3-0 as the bottom seed (ATL represent!). madness.

anyway wished we could’ve dusted off our press passes and joined you on the sidelines. congrats to everyone who played on finishing great seasons. cant wait to hear your stories.

hugs

miss casual

cleats? check.
jerseys? check.
toiletries? check.
socks? check.
butler’s rain jacket? check.
OU jersey to trade with Nielsen for haymaker jers? check.
Non-playing Machine jersey for Soda’s Doublewide jersey? check.
one frisbee? check.
book to read on flight? check. (Ira Glass’ New Kings of Non-Fiction…pretty awesome)
UnderArmour everything? check.
cash? working on it…
camera? bill’s got it. check.
OU wristbands? check.
Ipod and ITrip? check.
swim trunks? check.

condors? check.
bravo? check.
doublewide? ohhhhhhh check!

the ability to bring it together? CHECK.
focus? CHECK.
determination? CHECK.
blood-hungry defense? CHECK.
cool-as-cucumber offense? CHECK.

i think that’s all i’ll need for this trip…

love,
vijay

here is an overdose of cute to celebrate my birthday today. this is maxine and slider competing for total dominance of the water cooler at sectionals which is almost more than i can handle. i ran into maxine and her parents at fall league this weekend and man is she getting tall! she is undoubtedly going to be a pro basketball player so hopefully i can sign on as her manager if i get on board now.

public news team went 1-1 on saturday although its been a great season and the weather was near perfect so it took the sting out of our first game loss. plus mr. baker and miss casual got to play together for the first time all fall league season so that sweetened the deal too. baker we’ve missed you! we had 7 ladies but it was really nice and everyone got to play a lot somehow… now we just need to win both games next weekend to hopefully get a first round by at the tournament… unfortunately ill miss our games since they are in the afternoon and the headless horseman hunt will be happening at the same time. we got picked up in time out chicago thanks to m. ulty and every stop on the course is someplace haunted so its looking to be good times.

also this week ive discovered that there is an event horizon for me around wabansia and milwaukee and that if i get any further north than that i am sucked into the black hole of my couch never to come out. or at least not til the next day in most cases. this is worrysome as it isnt even cold out yet and the event horizon only expands as the temperature drops. anyway im officially a grown up today so im blaming that. seriously though… i did a series of dances in my kitchen when i received a bitchingly awesome coffee maker as a birthday gift. if that doesnt make me grown i dont know what does.

xoxo
miss casual

we can’t believe larry and sergey didn’t call us personally about blog action day. don’t they know we’re sisters in arms? blog activists, just like them? blogtivists? and it’s about the environment - ms. ultimate loves the environment! with their gajillions of dollars and our ability to plan parties, we could have coordinated a protestacular happy hour rally for environmental justice in our nation’s capital. sadly we just learned about this and have barely enough time to run to the store for some fine belgian ales to be consumed on our respective couches.

so ive been looking for a new bike for a while. i was thinking of getting a road bike.. something with gears for longer rides and for use as a backup when someone steals a pink wheel off my bike or other hypothetical situations like that. and i looked and looked and finally i found the new whip. here she is in all her splendor. of course its not a road bike. and of course its a bianchi. and of course its white and shiny. but what can i say? i know what i like. lay off me its almost my birthday.

the ‘concept’ sticker is coming off first thing and will be promptly replaced with new decals. maybe pink ones that say ‘casual’ or something. ill post new photos when it gets all built up proper like. alls i knows is… its gonna make me fast at the track. big time.

in other news the alley kitten scavenger hunt were throwing is gonna be bananas. piece is sponsoring and so is rodan (which is where the afterparty will be) and so is casual ultimate of course. but maybe most importantly tbrizzle is sponsoring our own ms. ultimate’s plane ticket to come back for the festivities. that is if she can finish up all her forestrying in time. here is the new flier and the request for sponsorship that i send to tbrizzle.

‘Dear Mr. Brizzle

We at chicks and drinks incorporated are looking for a sponsor for our grad student rescue program. For your contribution of just 25$ you will receive a photo and a letter from the grad student, your logo on our race flier for the headless horseman hunt, a smug feeling of superiority, and the chance to have your grad student come and stay in your home for an entire weekend. Such a small amount can do so much for a needy grad student from New England. Wont you help us at Lets Get Crunk.org to give this starving Yale forestry student a temporary home?

Please make payments via pay pal to m. ulty.

Thank you so much for your contribution

Miss Casual
VP of Forestry Refugees
Lets Get Crunk Corp.’

i know machine will be busy at nationals but the rest of you better come on out. while condors are getting their asses served by our boys from the chi you can be biking around in silly costumes and drinking cheap draft beer at rodan. what could be better than that?

well, from what i’ve heard no one took me up on making casualultimate tgif happen, so i don’t know what to say other than that i’m starting a new blog called serioushappyhour. i had to take matters into my own hands, and guess what the cat dragged in to the hayve this weekend:

that’s right, the brothers jacobs were in town for a wedding and they called me up to hang out at richters. and thank goodness they did call, because i was sitting at my laptop staring down the barrel of a midterm paper at 10 pm on a saturday night. i know that being a good student is cool, but being a good student on late saturday night is not cool. my roomie haley and friend esteban got a taste of these two crazy kids, shutting down the bar and heading to louis’ lunch for a late-night burger.

for those of you who don’t know, which is probably all of you unless you’ve ever lived in this town, louis’ claims to have invented the hamburger in 1900. it’s stilled served the same way 107 years later: between two slices of toasted white bread, with tomatoes and onions. no ketchup, no mustard, no nuthin else. i have to say it was a good patty (they grind their own meat every day) but i’ll take a kuma’s burger piled high with grilled onions, bbq sauce and the works any day of the week.

today i finally got out to play a little ultimate with the grad school pickup group. it was so fun, and the weather here is gorgeous: cool but sunny fall day. we had some skills on the field, especially this one super fast guy who kept defending me.

on one point i was standing in the endzone lazily waiting for a floating disc to get to me, when he started running straight at me/the disc from 30 yards across the endzone. he caught up and d’d the disc mightily. on the next point he came out of nowhere and almost killed me d’ing a disc. i mentioned on the line that he seems pretty aggressive - apparently that’s because he ran the mile in the olympics in 2004. so there’s that. needless to say i made it a point to step up my game after learning that i was playing an olympian. i think olympic-caliber mile runners would make pretty sweet conversions to ultimate, given that they have the acceleration needed to get open all the time but more endurance than shorter sprinters. actually, what olympian wouldn’t you want on your team? maybe the biathalon guys, i’m not sure what they’re up to.

what’s up with fall league? public news team? it’s pledge drive time here on the east coast, but i hope you’re taking a break to kick some ass.

There’s been a lot of communication back and forth with Chicago this week, particularly about the headless horseman scavenger hunt & bi-cycle race in two weeks, which is going to be fantastic. word on the street is that the peach pit is sponsoring with beer- and pizza-related prizes and rodan is hosting the afterparty. let’s spend some time on this blog talking about how fantastic their mojitos are. but for real: all my peeps in chicago need to congregate and have the happy hour to end all happy hours tonight.

back in eastern standard time, ms. ulty is excited about the prospect of getting back on her iron horse like the chicks n’ drinks ladies in chicity….eventually. the bruises from my battle with a biology professor’s hood are pretty much gone, but my right knee still has this weird swelling on it, it’s a little hurty, etc. now you know. i can’t help but think that if i’d gone to berkeley i would have had doctor welsh’s expert consultation. maybe grandma’s right, maybe i do need to start hanging out with the medical school.

since this accident kept me away from regionals last weekend (so frustrating), i picked up a new pastime to cheer myself up: stump. this game is what it sounds and looks like: you put a bunch of nails into a tree stump in a circle, with one in the middle. everybody playing picks a nail and the object of the game is to be the last nail standing. you achieve this by flipping a forester-sized hammer end over end, cactching it on the fly and immediately striking your opponents’ nails/the stump/miss catching it and permanently maim a bystander. i got pretty into it, and finally won a round by the end of happy hour. needless to say every aspect of the competition improved over time since it was part of our weekly outdoor happy hour.

speaking of which, miss casual, i seem to remember us making a graph of crunkedness over time at one point. last friday, at the as-close-as-new-haven-gets-to-a-bicycle-bar bar, we were doing something similar and my friend esteban came up with a complex version involving four axes. general consensus at the table was that he’s a shoe-in for the nobel prize. turns out that went to al gore instead, but maybe next year we’ll get his submission in on time.

but back to ultimate. congratuf’inglations to machine, and my heart goes out to everyone else. while no one wanted their seasons to end in the sooner state, the good news is that, while machine is having two-a-days in 50 degree drizzle, you’ll be inside watching football, eating steak and drinking beer. same goes for happy hour: do it up chicago, make some happy hour magic so miss casual has something to post about on monday. rally the troops - i want shenanigans, hijinx and pictures. remember that time bp and miss casual got into a fight at that crappy indoor beergarden? remember when that kids got headbutted by the crazy bartender at the hole-in-the-wall on armitage? avoid those places, and instead go to lemming’s, order a kind midwestern brew and catch up with your friends. do it or else i’ll come at you with my hammer.

Cheers

So my team does cheers after games sometimes. Not really all that often these days as my room-mate, Henrik (the mastermind behind all of the cheers), is no longer an active player on the team, but we still do some crazily elaborate cover-cheers when he makes it out. Last year the big hit was Gin and Juice (the Gourds - folky version) “mind on my monkey and my monkey on my mind” kinda thing. It was a solid jam with me laying some heavy fiddle on it and Lauren Casey filling it out with some mando. We never did get around to doing a cover version of Devil Went Down to Georgia, although on the train in to work the other day, a homeless guy sitting near my feet asked me if I had a viola in the case, and I said “Naw, it’s a fiddle”, and he immediately launched into the first few verses of that Charlie Daniels classic on a crowded commuter train. Awesome. Thank you so much for doing that. Without grassroots support from people like you, this day would never have been made possible (the words of Aaron W, my former room-mate from Paulina).

Back to the lecture at hand. This year, I have some work to do to cover a really tricky riff from some Chili Peppers song called “Hey-o” maybe and an awesome bassline from a Beck tune. If you are going to Nationals and are in our pool, that’s good news for you. If not, maybe get elinimated before us and then check out some of the post-game magic.

Why do I like the cheers? It really brings this great energy to the team. It is something that is very Brass Monkey, and without it, it just doesn’t feel like the team for some reason. We F around a lot and have a good time regardless, but cheers bring it to another level. It’s also indicative of the idea that Brass plays great Ultimate because we’re having fun and enjoying each other. Last year, in my opinion, we didn’t enjoy each other as much. There was some chemistry that was a little off, and there was a general lack of ease that isn’t there this year that kept us from playing great when we needed to. That is not to say that we will go any further or even as far as we did last year, but I think the soul of the team is intact this season. It feels good and loving. Sidenote: maybe one of the things that I don’t completely like about Open is that this loving piece is pretty much missing. At least it doesn’t show up in the same way as it does in coed. Nothing says loving like spiking on each other in practice and kicking a water bottle. What Open gives up on the positivity scale, it may make up for on the humor scale though. Ladies, I love you, but guys are just WAY funnier. I met this guy once. Oh man. So funny.

Flying, Magic

So Regionals briefly: it was cold, windy, and rainy. Needless to say, I excelled in that environment coming from the Midwest and practicing on the shores of Lake Michigan for 3 years in college. We had a relatively easy road to finals with arguably the easiest pool (Bozos, Night Train, and Denial) and Golden Spike upsetting Mischief to face us in semis. Golden Spike, by the way, is a phenomenal team, and deserves to be at Nationals. However, since they have a couple of guys on their team that are COMPLETE pricks, no one is too sorry to hear that they lost 3, count them, 3 games to go to finish 5th. Our game against Shazam was VERY upwind-downwind, and each team had 2 breaks I believe. 12-11 was the final with both teams essentially holding serve. These guys play really well. I like playing against them because they don’t cheat, they don’t really get chippy, and they play good Ultimate, even though they have one of the stupidest names I’ve ever heard. By the way, there is an awesome story about Shazam in this month’s issue of Poof magazine. With Shazam, everything is so dramatic and flamboyant; it makes me just want to set myself on fire!

Ok, enough. Love from the Left.

Hey, while all you cats were in Tulsa playing frisbah in awful weather, I stayed in Chicago to take part in this live design competition called cut and paste. A live iron-shef style illustration showdown, with an audience of around 800, sponsored by the big names in design software/hardware and taking place in 11 cities around the globe. The deal is that you get 15 minutes to create a design based on a specific theme, judges vote on the winners, and you advance bracket style to a championship round. Awards include about 8 grand worth of software and hardware.

The good stuff: I was happy as a clam in mud. I would do this every weekend if they let me. I had a most enjoyable night and was very entertained by all the goings on. I made one pretty sweet image right off the bat and got the crowd on my side. First category was themed “currency”; and for no particular reason other than it had to be a crowdpleaser, I decided to render my currency concept in the guise of a TRON lightcycle metaphor. Even better, the crowd got it the joke, freeing me from my nightmare of having a Chief Wiggum moment (Treehouse of Horror VII). I was one of the guys chosen to continue on to round 2, got some nice compliments from the judges and one aggressive skinhead in the audience, and all was well.

Hmm. Then came round 2. I had planned to create an underwater image for the “Through the Looking Glass” theme (required integration of a digital photo taken on site). For some reason it took me forever to get through with taking, importing and arranging that photo, at which time i felt very behind in my work and made a series of bad decisions that led to a completely ugly result. I swear that it looked good when i did it at home. Audience comments included “what the fuck is that”. Honestly, I had no good answer. Sometime in the last minute I just gave up and laughed at the monstrosity, hoping my casual attitude would endear me to the judges and they’d advance me for reasons of pity. Didn’t work.

Spent the rest of the evening watching the finalists go at it. Some things I was impressed by, others not so much. One thing I’m pretty sure of is that 15 minutes ain’t much time to create anything worth looking at, even with prep. Oh well. All in all though I got a big kick out of the idea of a photoshop duel, and it pretty much made me want to hole up in my basement and get faster at everything. One other good thing; at the close of the evening they announced the “audience award” based on american-idol style text message voting from people in the room (or in Tulsa…) and I did win that thing, so either people really like TRON or there were alot of bored frisbee players waiting by their phones. In either case, thanks to those who contributed, I got to leave with some self respect and a pile of new software at least.

a guest post from another of our friends in the dirty south… mike d.

I’ve been playing ultimate for some 12 odd years. I love the game, love the people I’ve met, love the competition. I guess through my career I’ve been blessed with some awesome experiences: throwing the game winning goal to go to college nationals my senior year, being involved in some great back end games to get to Sarasota, coaching a sectional qualifying northwestern team. But, something I had yet to experience was a stomach punch game.

Well, that experience, I’m sorry to say happened last weekend.

As most of you know, I moved to North Carolina this past spring for a job in the big city. I started playing in Spring league and met a couple people from this team called Los(including Haley’s brother-in-law Jb, who is Hales south.) They suggested I try-out. The schedule seemed light enough and the team competitive enough to keep me interested without burning me out like in year’s past. In all honesty, by November for the last 5 years, I’ve vowed never to play this game competitively again because:
a. My body is a wreck.
b. This sport is filled with cheaters.
c. In college, I always ran into this dude on Indiana, who was roughly my size, but like 20 years my senior, 20lbs heavier, looked like Grizzly Adams, and walked with a hellacious limp. He kept playing and playing, looking more ragged everytime I crossed his path. I did not want that to be me.
…So throwing caution to the wind, I ended up trying out.

Unknown to me, there was a talent influx, including 5-6 former ring players, some out-of town ballers, and a bunch of talented college kids. I could tell within the first practice that there was a lot of unharnessed talent. It was just a question of if there was enough time to gel.

Flash forward 4 months to last Sunday…after battling in the ac regionals, including a revenge victory against a team we were 0-3 against on the season, we met up with pike for the second time on the weekend in the third place game to go.

I can’t remember the exact play-by-play, but we took half 8-5. I had a couple of scores(I play offense now, who would’ve thought), one from chasing down a play, the other off of a tipped pass on an underthrown disc. The celebration is seen here…

Dance for me monkey…

Anyway, after the first half, we turned it up, making some sick athletic plays including…

…this from a sick defensive freak named Matt Thomas. I’ve seen him get more lay-out d’s in a weekend, than most teams get in a tourney…

a sweet hammer catch off a blading hammer…

and Ray Parrish being…

…a crafty…

…veteran…Score!

Anyway, we run the score up to 14-9. And from here it is kind of a blur, but we had several scoring opps, including a couple endzone drops/throw-aways, and a game winning score called back because the thrower’s foot was in the endzone.

This is a picture after said score…

…not so fast Los.

So, Pike battles back and rattles off 5 straight, then takes two out of the final three to win 16-15…season.

So, I’ve experienced the stomach punch game and it is more painful than I could ever imagine, but unlike the past 5 years, I really have a desire to get back on the ultimate field already. This year’s experience of meeting all these young and hungry players, mixed with the crafty veteran talent you need to have a national caliber team has rekindled my fire faster than years past. Hopefully, my teammates share this desire and grow enough to bring Los to Sarasota next year.

Anyway, good luck this weekend Chi-town teams and my Iowa boys and girl. Hope you all make it and maybe we’ll meet up next year…or in 10 years when I look like a hobbled garden gnome.

mike d out

Ring and Backhoe dominate their respective divisions. Ring cruises through the double-elimination format defeating Truckstop in Finals, while Backhoe’s Sunday semis and finals opponents (Scandal and Wicked) score 3 and 2 points, respectively. Tourney champs line the sidelines with some well-deserved brewskies to cheer on NC’s Los in the game-to-go. Los seemingly has the game in hand, leading 14-9 when the cap goes on. Unfortunately, Los blows the lead – maybe nerves and inexperience got the best of them. It was hard to watch and we feel for our los buddies and wish they were making the trip to ’sota with us.

Can everyone please stop moving west to play ultimate? It’s so frustrating to only see “real opponents” twice a year - sorry if this is rude or offensive to our recent opponents, but come on. Backhoe faces their serious competition only once before nationals when the team spends over $10k (and countless travel hours) to fly across the country to face all the tough teams at once at ecc, which takes place over 2 months before Sarasota. And probably more than 2 teams from the northwest region that failed to qualify could paste many of the teams that get bids from other regions – let’s spread the wealth around!

What’s the solution? How can I be casual about this?

In other news…. Nope. I have no other news. Life is ultimate right now. With the exception of griping about fast food establishments – I would normally avoid fast food at all costs, but driving to tournaments dictates otherwise. Due to a massive pile-up traffic mess on hwy 95 on Sunday, we were forced to an exit that had McD’s and Wendy’s (which had failed me on Friday) – we stop at the golden arches. Why do fast food places insist on putting cheese on burgers that don’t come with cheese? I specifically order the Big’n'Tasty b/c it doesn’t have cheese. “Do you want cheese on that?” NO. Get my burger… they’ve added cheese. I go up and get a new one. I hate doing that shit but I hate processed cheese even more. Friday’s Wendy’s experience, I order the “regular” ¼ burger whatever that doesn’t come with cheese. Do I want cheese? No, thank you. Not once, not twice, but 3 times I get the wrong order, once with cheese, once with absolutely nothing, and the 3 rd with cheese again (can I get some extra spit with that?) I’d better stick to fine dining.

BIIIIIIG shoutout to all my teams that have regionals this weekend. Obviously good luck to Machine, NEMESIS, Mr. Briefcase in TULSA-town (sorry ’bout it), and my other fave teams: Brass Monkey, Golden Spike, Ambush, Black Molly, Olio, Boneyard, list goes on. DOMINATE!

so yesterday was the 34th annual apple cider century in three oaks michigan. i was attempting to ride 100 miles on my bike for the first time and it proved tougher than i thought. barreling around chicago for miles and miles is one thing. climbing hills with fierce wind and a bike with only one gear was total insanity. next year i will be sure to do this sucker with a real road bike. i painted my nails the fastest color scheme i could think of and i still only did 75 miles in the end.

the night before we went to the town house in michigan to carbo load. no one does pre-ride dinners like mama town. we skipped rocks and played trivial pursuit on the deck until we crashed out early. getting up at 6 was just the beginning though. we drank some coffee and got on the road to three oaks. thankfully a huge posse of our friends were already there when we registered and ate our first apple of the day. so we rolled out maybe 20 strong on the first leg. maggie and i were riding with one gear each although she was doing the ride fixed which is just plain nuts. the first 26 mile bit was nice. beautiful weather and lots of chitchat with the two amys of chicks and drinks fame.

heres the first stop. thats a lot of spandex. each stop had apples and cookies and gatorade. even pb&j. yummm. after mile 43 i was hurtin. the course was much hillier than i was told and my knees were killing. maggie and i had to walk one or two of them. but the course was lovely and the company was great so we kept it up for another 30 miles. 6 hours start to finish including stops. about 15 miles an hour. not too bad. culvers never tasted so sweet as on the ride home. and the booth was so big and squishy i couldve stayed all day.

ill certainly do some more distance but not without a road bike. although i slept like 10 hours and feel great today. good times. cheers to all the friendly faces at the checkpoints and to ms. ultimate whose encouraging text messages made me fly down the road like a dolphin. im gonna go to chipotes and house a burrito.