casual ultimate » general antics

I’m here to blog about something other than weddings, although I can’t guarantee it will be more interesting. Personally I have a lot of interest in how the nuptial plans are coming along, especially miss casual ordering me an extra cupcake for the afterparty. Don’t forget.

This week started out with the pride parade and will end with fireworks – not bad for summer. The parade was on Sunday. Overall I enjoyed it, but the participant ratio of waving politicians and animal shelters to assless chaps and drag queens was not what I had hoped it would be. I did see the mayor, wearing a white button-down and slacks like he was going to work – you think he’d have tried something more rainbow-y – along with a few old men wearing nothing at all. I wish they had gone with slacks, at least. Here’s a pic of the float carrying the gay calendar boys of san fran, for all the ladies out there. One of the best characters was on the macy’s float; I must admit, marshall field would never have approved.

On Monday I went to the cubs vs. giants game. I’ve definitely never been at Wrigley field when the cubs just blew the competition out of the water – it wasn’t even a good game. We did spot this fellow though, at the game with his friend who also had an intricate balloon head honoring the giants. I went online looking for directions on making one of these bad boys myself but couldn’t find anything. Clearly this boy is a genius of structural engineering. The ballpark was gorgeous, right on the water and a sailboat harbor. Also, the beer cost $8.25 – that’s eight dollars and twenty-five cents American for a bud. The good stuff was a buck more. I should have heeded my friend billy’s advice and brought a flask. Next time.

The low point of the week was bailing out of summer league, thus guaranteeing that this blog will have nothing to do with ultimate all summer unless tony and bjorn post about poultry days, which is already ancient history. Turns out that in addition to the $45 SF ulty league fee, I have to be a current UPA member ($30), which means paying $75 for ~6 games of ultimate. Insane. I understand they need to use the UPA’s insurance (when has anyone playing ultimate sued a league or the UPA?) but how can they charge 45 bucks on top of that? Bah. Maybe I’ll get out to a pickup game one of these weekends to make dragging my cleats across the country worthwhile.

I hope everyone has a happy fourth, and be careful with those fireworks. Don’t start any forest fires.

it’s been so long i almost forget how to blog. i definitely forget how to illustrate blog posts, so please forgive the fact that all the pics i have are of trees in muir woods. they’re pretty though.

Last week I thought all the talk about summer in san francisco being cold and overcast was really just part of an elaborate slander campaign to keep out newcomers. Every day was sunny, 78 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. This week though things have taken a turn for the worse, with a high of 60 predicted through the weekend. Easy come easy go. At least I got nice weather while I was exploring the city, and starting my internship today means I’m inside 9-5 (literally 9 to 5, actually, which is kind of amazing to me given I’m used to the 8 to 6).

Last week I landed at SFO as was picked up by one of my roommates – they are so nice, they actually picked me up from the airport. It threw me off given the SF subletting nightmares I’ve heard, but so far they’re the real deal. And, as mini and friend were excited to discover, one of them is a product manager for the company that’s launching a “revolutionary” new video game from the maker of sim city. Regular readers of the blog will know that misses casual and ultimate do not like to actively engage the TV or computer while sitting on the couch (besides updating this site once a month…ok, every six weeks), but mini’s friend was pretty astounded to discover my a-list connection to the gaming world.

Anyways, I spent last week exploring the sites and sounds of SF, which are largely made up of pride flags, homeless people, b.o. and burning cannabis. Just kidding, it’s a lovely town with much to discover. I live at the corner of market & guerrero, which seems to be smack in the middle of the city and makes getting around easy. I’m kind of between the mission and the castro, and below the lower haight if that helps anyone.

One thing I discovered quickly is that this is a city for food lovers. Last night when I was coming home from muir woods we saw a big crowd in the ferry terminal; turns out they were awaiting to grand opening of an artisan meat artist’s first retail outlet. This was about 6 pm on Sunday, a time when most Chicagoans I know would be at home eating leftovers or ordering six dollar noodles. There are fancy meat, cheese, bread, etc. sections every other block – artisan, I mean, not fancy. Clearly it’ll take me a few weeks to fit in.

In addition to eating, I visited noe valley, fisherman’s wharf, haight-ashbury, the mission, golden gate park and lovely muir woods in marin county. I was approached by a charming gentleman named bear while sitting in GG park eating my sandwich; he wanted to know if I wanted to buy drugs, hang out, etc. but there’s a medical marijuana dispensary across the street that seems much more trustworthy. Bear told me that my name would be chitown from then on, so please feel free to call me that if ultimate is getting old.

All in all things are good here, and starting a desk job for the summer is putting me back in the blogging mood. I miss new haven as well as Chicago now; it was so great seeing everyone while I was back. Oh, and other news is that I got into the business school at mi Universidad, so I’ll be on the east coast for an extra year getting my mba. Interesting. And actually last but not least, I thought I missed the SF summer league signup but turns out it’s tomorrow, so I may even post about ultimate. Crazy, I know. Just when you were getting used to the new all-bike format.

Team Paulina is off to Seattle tomorrow morning. Liz starts her residency at UW in June. We’ll be taking about 10 days to complete the trip, generally following the route on the map below.

View Larger Map
We’re going to see caves and Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood and Sturgis and the thing from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Yellowstone (hoping for moose sightings!) and Glacier!

We’ll try to update CU with news of our journey when we get settled in Seattle. Thanks ahead of time to all well-wishers. We’ll miss Chicago and we look forward to visiting soon. Of course if anybody is in Seattle, look us up.

the games are starting in four minutes… march 20, 2008, approximately 7pm - scandal has converged to the hotel Milton in rimini, italy and are waiting patiently in a first floor hallway, excited to see for the first time what the titcombs have in store for this year’s dress code. as has come to be expected, scandal was the best-dressed team at the tournament. the in-game uniform: collared polo shirts (made from the latest technical fiber) in pink and baby blue, paired with plaid shorts (again, technical) in blue and brown. the pre-game warm-up attire: an argyle print longsleeve shirt, and a pair of linen-type pants. the off-the-field attire: a sweater vest, a black sportcoat, and some aviator sunglasses to protect us from the glare from the paparazzi camera flashes. we are dressed for success.

the games are starting in one minute… march 20, 2008, approximately 11pm – scandal has put some food in its belly, and heads for the opening party on the beach. time for the paga-rookies to pay their team dues, acting as wine stewards fighting through the crowd to scoop up the cups of (free) red wine being dispensed from behind a row of tables. the rookies prove to be exceptionally good at their job, which led to some personnel/roster issues the following day, but we’ll get to that later. soon enough, the crowd tires of wine and sand and the cold evening air, and the party moves across the street to the paga staple, a place where the beer flows like wine, and the people flock like the salmon of capistrano; a little place called - the barge. setting the tone for the weekend, car bombs are ordered by the dozen, and most of scandal is out well into the early morning hours.

the time is running… but, unfortunately, many on scandal are not, despite our rather late first round start time of 11:30am. it seems our rookies started us off with a little too much wine, and we all finished the job with plenty of car bombs. but our savvy leader, having been through this before, assembled a team of 16 players, ensuring that we could afford to be down a few players at various times on the weekend. so day one begins with yours truly watching (i use that term loosely) from the sidelines, and i wasn’t the only one to suffer this fate. despite the self-handicapping, scandal takes care of a young british team, super mannschaft, with a score of 14-3. mannschaft had been talking a whole bunch of shit the night previous on the beach, but they couldn’t back it up on the pitch. probably because their jerseys didn’t feature a large phallus. next game starts in a couple hours, so we’ve got time to head back to hotel to deal with some incidents at the hotel for which we’re being held accountable. a meeting with the hotel manager, and one player eviction later, we’re free to take much needed naps to sleep off some hangovers. [that situation sounds worse than it was; basically, one player was asked to leave the hotel as an example to everyone that the hotel was doing something about the incident. but the manager was very reasonable with the whole situation; he made a reservation at a hotel around the corner, paid for it (as we had already paid for our rooms), and allowed the player to still come over to the hotel to hang out and eat breakfast.]

the rest of day one plays as expected – we beat the other teams (10-7 and 13-2 respectively), while playing hungover and missing a few guys. i played game 2, but not really in game 3, as my pounding headache returned later in the afternoon. awesome.

friday night comes and goes, and is generally low-key for most. that was both a planned thing to do, as saturday’s games determine whether a team plays up to 1-8 bracket or not, and the natural side-effect of the entire team getting completely shit-housed the night before. but, the night is not completely free from scandalous activity, as one teammate does not return to the hotel that night, and when he does show up the next day, he is without half his clothing and does not have a wallet. these items are delivered to him later that day by the object of the previous night’s affection. most of the team, and a lot of the tournament, has the good fortune to witness this exchange as it occurs in the front row of the stadium bleachers. comedy ensues.

saturday, scandal picks up where is left off, winning it’s first two games 15-4 and 13-5. in the first game, i realized i might be a better thrower when i have a hangover. despite feeling much better this day, i was chucking up pure garbage; whereas the previous day i threw a couple goals and no turnovers. awesome. that 13-5 game was our first of four games played on the arena field, and we used that opportunity to show the rest of tournament that we were for real. freespeed, our opponent, is a solid team and having beaten us in a previous year, thought they might be able to do it again. we answered that question by getting out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back. as the afternoon rolls into evening, scandal plays its final game of the day, a potential trap game against a fiery bologna team. for the first time in 6 games, scandal finds itself trailing by one for a span of a couple points. the italians are playing well, connecting on some well contested hucks, and scandal is off our game a bit. but one mark of a good team is being able to win despite not playing its best, and we were able to do just that, winning our closest game of the weekend 10-9. scandal is in the quarters. have fun tonight kids, but not too much, tomorrow morning we play sexxxspensive; then it’s on to quarterfinals.

saturday night’s party is back at the club, la otro mundo, after a few year hiatus. scandal scores a booth to chill in while the freestyle competition is going on. this party is, frankly, rather boring, so we leave. we go hit up the two brother’s gelato place , and head back to the barge, our home away from home.

scandal is up for an early game (9am) sunday morning, and we’re greeted by a cold, windy, and occasionally rainy, italian spring day. our first game is a placement game versus sexxxspensive; winner gets the better seed in the quarterfinals. given our history with this team, especially after the events of last year, they have no chance against us. no team with a sexxxspensive player on it will ever beat a team that i am on. its not going to happen. anyway, scandal proves that weather will not hold us back, and we beat the euro all-star squad 9-6. the weather continues to go downhill as the day goes on, with our quarterfinal game against hardfisch (germans?) a zone-heavy, super windy game. our offense plays great, working hard up-wind, scoring after having to complete a few dozen passes; and they do it point after point. we may not have been broken that game, which is a real accomplishment in that wind. scandal wins 12-6, with the final goal coming minutes after the real heavy rain started falling. soaking wet, but feeling great to have that monkey off our backs, we pack up our stuff and head for the shelter of the big tent. scandal is in the semis.

4:40pm sunday; it’s cold, windy, and raining hard. sexxxspensive is beating up on no tsu oh in the first semi-final of the open division. scandal is huddled together in the main tent, trying to be warm and dry, yet still somehow prepare for the upcoming game that starts in 20 minutes. sexxxspensive has just beaten no tsu oh to earn a spot in the final game. and then the we hear that familiar jingle.. the games are starting in four minutes… our semi-final game has been moved up 10 minutes, but no one had the courtesy to let us know. but it cold and pouring rain outside, no one wants to go out there until we absolutely have to, still, we have to warm-up somehow. well, there’s a crappy band playing on stage.. dance warm-up. and so it goes. scandal dances around while the young brits, huck & sea, are out doing a proper warm-up of running and throwing. the games are starting in one minute.. we finally head outside and put 5 on the line. the second semi is under way. the kids from england play a hard fought game, but scandal is better, playing a superb game as if we were playing in the sun while the brits were stuck in the rain. we continue our streak of convincing victories, winning this game by a score of 14-7, and taking the second spot in the open final. holy shit.

scandal, you’ve just won your way into the finals of paganello, you’re cold and soaking wet, what are you going to do now? we’re going to the barge! what better way to recover your body after a hard day of playing than by dividing up for boat races of jager bombs versus car bombs? yeah, i can’t think of anything better either, bottoms up; tomorrow you’re playing for a world championship…

So I, Ms. Paulina, just wrote an awesome, creative post about Team Paulina moving to Seattle. But then somehow my connection was lost…grrr. Anyway, YAY! We’re moving to Seattle! Yay! I got my first choice in “the match”! I’m going to be on Grey’s Anatomy (not really)! We’re bummed we’ll miss the best time of year in Chi-Tizzle, but we’re psyched to be headed to another awesome city for 5 years. That’s all for now, but there will be goings-on to celebrate our time left here, so keep an eye to the blog and an ear to the ground. Speaking of ears to the ground, the most adorable member of Team Paulina, The Rev, celebrates his first birthday today at Grandma’s as our landlord still doesn’t know he exists!

i don’t really know how to break this news to the internet other than saying: jess & julio are getting married. they are engaged to be wed. it’s been in the works for some time but now it’s actually happening. it’s beautiful, our little girl is growing up, their offspring will give maxine and audrey a run for their money and will be riding on two-wheelers before they can walk, we’ll all get to eat cake, etc. it’s pretty damn awesome all around. but now comes the hard part, and what we all need to help them with: planning.

first: do not get married on nationals or regionals weekends; once you factor in the bike season scheduled, i think you’re down to somewhere between the months of november and march. remember: there’s nothing more romantic than president’s day. groundhog’s day is also an option, but your superstitious friends might freak out if that thing does/does not see his shadow. on the plus side, you may be able to rent a live groundhog for use as a prop - ringbearer?

second: food is important, and you have friends and family running the gamut from vegan to hunk-o-steak. i think the safe bet here is pennys for the rehearsal dinner and a co-catered event by piece and hot dougs for the wedding. if tbrizzle is willing he could man the grill and cook up steak for carlo and himself. slider will handle cleanup.

third: cake. i cannot stress the make-or-break nature of cake at any wedding or wedding-related event. alliance is at the top of the list, but i strongly urge you to consider the swedish bakery. also, and i realize this isn’t custom - but who puts that cake under their pillow anymore anway? - but you should also serve ice cream.

fourth: outfits. i hesitate to say “dresses” because we all know that julio is a closet clothes hound and will want to look dapper as hell. i would like to throw in my two cents here and suggest you take all the money you save from catering your dinner with fast food and spend it on clothes for you - and of course the wedding party. it’s already been agreed that you will be coming to new york to go shopping with me and brooke. julio should wear a tie that matches your dress in color and fabric (don’t bother with white…who do you think you’re fooling?). and whatever happens, no one will be wearing shoes dyed to match the dresses. which brings me to my final point….

fifth: venue. if you want to wear stilettos, and i know you do, you cannot have an outdoor wedding. as we discussed earlier, a loft or other such space could be good because there would be plenty of room for dancing, etc. although not the loft michelle rented for new years; those were not all good memories. i plan to be wearing a much nicer dress and don’t want it ruined.

that’s about it for now. i’m sure jess will have tons of ideas, all of which will be scribbled down in a rhinestone-encrusted pink bridal journal of some sort. i hope there are helpful suggestions from martha stewart in the margins. this is going to rock. congrats to jess and julio!

this is me as a robot girl from the future, mc’ing the forestry school auction last friday. this is what i do between reading journal articles and writing papers. i was going to be a champagne robot with mini champy cans taped onto my hands edward scissorhands style but figured it would be tough to hold the mic. i’m thinking of doing my hair like that more often. i got a lot of compliments and at least one person is now calling me pippi on a regular basis. against my better judgment i’m posting a second photo so you (miss casual) can see the aluminum foil job i did on my white space boots. it’s a little known fact, but in the future we’ll discover a planet in a distant gallery made entirely of tinfoil - actually it’s the remains of an intergalactic recycling program - which is why my costume (and everyone else’s) was based on foil. trust me, i study natural resources.

kind of a busy week, what with the auction, a saturday bowling trip that involved me driving a 15-person van (i’m getting one) and a visit from the parents. my parents were a good excuse to visit yale’s british art museum and art gallery and the peabody museum. i was wrong, new haven is the bomb - i was blown away by the collections. dare i say it’s almost worth a trip to new haven? *hint hint*? speaking of which, our very own hanging with mr. cooper has been admitted to a PhD program here - if you see him telling him that Washington sucks and he should definitely come here to bolster the pickup frisbee game if for no other reason. anyway, the art collections were fantastic and the peabody museum apparently has more dinosaurs than the field. there was a turtle fossil discovered in south dakota that’s about 11 feet square. it was awesome. i felt like a kid all over again in that museum. in other news, i might be in san fran this summer for an internship. no confirmations but i’m working on it. anyone on the west coast know of folks in need of a subletter?

that’s all the news from the east coast. for the love of god, someone post soon so these pictures aren’t at the top of the page.

Friday February 29. Leap day. Time to get diggity. We’re gonna have some fun in Uptown baby.

The Klob and Geoff “Swoosh” Serednesky (newest addition to the casual ulty world) have moved into a sweet apt in Uptown. They don’t wanna host a party just yet, but BAR CRAWLing, they are all for.

Geoff and I might try calling some bars and setting something up. Let’s not count on it. Just know that we’re gonna drink and move in Uptown. Bars might include: Uptown Lounge, Green Mill, Fatcat’s. We definitely will end up at:

UPDATE! Here’s the bar crawl list:

Time Bar – Location Leap Year Special
9:00 Fat Cat Bar & Grill - 4840 N Broadway St First stop of the crawl!!!! Be on time to pick up your wristbands as there is a limited supply. Ask Kyle, the bartender, for ‘The Crawl Special’.
9:45 Crew Bar - 4804 N Broadway St Show your wristband and get $3 PBR’s. Warning: don’t tap your feet in the bathroom.
10:15 Green Mill - 4802 N Broadway St Free cover with your wristband. Enjoy some drinks and music before the upcoming dance party
11:00 Uptown Lounge - 1136 W Lawrence Ave
I got my work to sponsor a DJ.
Get ready to dance with DJ JEFF BLOOM Spins House, Funk, Soul, Electronic & Old School
Thanks Henderson Mutual Funds!
11:37 Agami Sushi & Lounge - 4712 N Broadway St,
Edamame special $4 with your wristbands. Don’t forget to do a saki bomb!
12:15 Carol’s Pub - 4659 N Clark St

No special. Read a review written on Citysearch.com by user - iline: “Country music the way it should be. Come to the bar Thursday through Sunday and see the BEST BAND IN CHICAGO. These guys will shock you with how good they can play. The prices are moderate and the crowd is eclecltic. This can be the most fun you have in Chicago. It is laid back early, but can get crowded late.”

i understand that chicago is under approx. 400 inches of snow and temperatures are arctic. well until a few days ago it was 45 degrees and sunny in new haven. and you know what i said when the weather took a turn for the chilly, dropping 30 degrees overnight with a windchill of negative one? good, i said, now this is winter. i’m sick of the lond island sound’s moderating effects, turning what could be snow into rain - i want lake effect snow, damn it, and piles of it. i hope all of you back home are fulfilling my childhood fantasy of building tunnels to your friends’ houses. i know miss casual has recently fulfilled my current fantasy of making an entire batch of cupcakes and immediately eating them. good work.

if you couldn’t tell i’m on a bit of a chicago nostalgia streak which translates into a casualultimate.com nostalgia streak. remember 2006, and winter 2007? those were fun times, filled with laughter and merriment among friends.

given the allegiance that former chicagoans seem to have for their native land, i think i have a good business proposal: the chicago-of-the-month club. miss casual, if you’re thinking of smurfing your smurf, you may want to pick this up to supplement your income. following the model of the wildly successful bacon-of-the-month club and the somewhat less successful fossil-of-the-month club, the chicago-of-the-month club will send subscribers reminders of their home town through the year. of course a deep dish pizza packed in dry ice will be included, but let’s not forget the other chicagos: that of anarchist labor organizers (May package, which will include vintage bullet casings and a worker’s time card punched for eight hours), racial and ethnic segregation (October package, comes complete with map of north shore suburbs clearly delineating where jews and blacks can live, and cuisines from ghettos past and present including harold’s chicken, corned beef and cabbage, and sauerkraut), and deeply rooted democratic history (November package, containing various democratic paraphanelia including lapel buttons for all 12 Daley election campaigns and a timeline of Chicago history for the 40+ years the family has been in office). But don’t forget a full-length recording and accompanying songbook for Chicago tunes (the Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow song, Go Cubs Go, etc. for July) and clippings from the plants in Millennium Park, to plant in your own yard far away from home (April). Think about it. I’d pay up to $39.95 for twelve months of such enjoyment.

I haven’t posted in awhile, and this blog is starting to become stagnant, so I’m gonna inject some of brown bear’s life into it. I apologize in advance.

1. School

I’m currently freaking out. I will be applying for residency positions soon and I’m starting to wonder if living/breathing ultimate for most of my adult life is gonna catch up once I start applying against other applicants who have done their dutiful research/volunteering/learning. Will my “I went to Ultimate natties for the past 2 years!” stand up against medical student alpha male’s “I am a lead author on 4 different articles in the New England Journal of Medicine dealing with the molecular genetics of B-cell lymphomas”? Probably not. Crap.
Then, there comes the possibility of getting out of Chicago? I have, for the most part, settled on Emergency Medicine as my career, and Chicago has 6 (and one combined) programs that are great. However, I have a lingering longing to get to Portland. A good buddy from college lived there for awhile and Finn and I made a trip out there 2 summers ago. One of the best weeks of my life, and honestly, the first time I’ve been to a city out of Chicago and thought the whole time…I could live here! Only one program, but it’s quality. 3 years away from Chicago however? I went for one week when it was sunny…could I stand 5 months of incessant rain? Would I like the guys on Rhino (would I even make Rhino with my schedule?)? Would my parents freak out and move to Portland with me???? Dear lord. And even though I’ve made a niche of being the Indian guy that hangs out mostly with white kids, could I live in a city that would only allow that social situation to happen? (One week in Portland and I didn’t see one black person the whole time. We flew back to Midway and felt a culture shock).
Finally, even with my lamenting of how my dedication to ultimate will probably be a hindrance to my career, I am starting to get scared about the upcoming school/ultimate schedule. Some tough rotations in the summer, and then, if Portland is really a probability, I’m gonna have to an away rotation during the season. Hmmmmm…… (more about ultimate later).

2. Social

Living with 4 other dudes. It’s a recipe for trouble, but it’s worked out unbelievably great so far. Everyone has their own schedules, 2 of the roomies have lady friends, and everyone is laid back. Moy cooks a lot, and I’ve started cooking more. We’re no Bryan Kings yet, but my egg curry is starting to rival my momma’s.
Chicago weather promotes a lot of indoor activities and we have jumped whole heartedly into 2 board games…Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. I know I know, there’s no reason to publicly advertise that we’re complete losers, but these games are awesome. Come over and play. Seriously. Right now.
I saw There Will be Blood on Friday. One of the more intense movies I’ve seen, but a couple days after I still have this gnawing feeling that it was missing some sort of finality. I feel like epic movies should leave you with some sort of construct to much on for awhile. And while there was a lot going on, I got nothing that stays with me. Does this make any sense? What did you guys think? I still have to see Persepolis and Juno, and there will be a lot more time to see movies cuz….

2a. Fermentation Free February

Not drinking this month. Most of it stems from the fact that as a 25 year old I don’t recover as well as when I was 19. (I realize that most of you are hitting the decrepit age of 30 and are rolling your sad, old, tired eyes at this). But, successive shitty Sundays have led Moy, Finn, and I to renounce alcohol for 29 days. Yet, all of us have already made amends to this. We’ve already saved a weekend where we CAN drink (Finn in Vegas, Moy and I possibly at Mudbowl). But Moy and Finn have already decided to drink ANOTHER weekend also. Craziness. Can mid-20 somethings even have fun without alcohol? How sad is it that I even have to ask this question? I don’t even know what to do on a Fri/Sat. night except go to a bar/club/lounge/party, etc.
We went out last night to the Holiday Club, a bar at Irving Park and Sheridan that driving by you would be certain was a strip club. Fun bar, good music in the back, mix of cute/ugly girls, cheap enough beer, etc. I couldn’t wait to leave. I spent most of that time talking to this guy that I’ve only seen socially when both of us were wasted. He wasn’t drunk when we got there and I was stone sober…not as great a dynamic this time around. With all the MJackson and old school hip-hop I normally would be tearing up the dance floor (rubbing myself on every female there) and I didn’t even budge last night. This is gonna be one long month.
On the flip side this has been a great Sunday so far. Got an early brunch at Victory’s Banner (best French toast ever) and lots of work in before Super Bowl shenanigans. Ok, let’s end this section with…

2b. Ladies

2007 was an…interesting…year. Equal parts feeling heartache and equal parts dishing out heartbreak. Ladies of ultimate, ladies of medicine, and ladies in between. Now, I know it seems like I’m blowing it up, but as my friends would attest to..it was nothing like that. To put it gently, the year unfortunately was one of quantity and not so much quality. (Man..that’s offensive, even for me…but it wouldn’t be directed at anyone in the world of reading this blog.) But if white ultimate girls and brown medical student ladies aren’t gonna work….WHAT IS?
Hector does a great job writing about this in his blog…but skirt-chasing in the ultimate world (or any insular communites like ours i guess) is a tricky proposition. Do you plunge into this trap even though you know all about the pitfalls out there or do you enter the outside world, and engage women who will have no idea how to fit in to your obsession in to such a fringe world. (I have no idea but I assume it’s the same if you flip-flop genders in my diatribe). Maybe women in the periphery? Girls who don’t play but still understand what it’s all about. A certain ex of mine and a certain teammate are “talking” and I’m interested to see how this plays out.
Maybe I should just go on a lot of dates in Feb. I love dating. But when’s the last time you went on a date and didn’t drink?!

3. Ultimate

It seems like the club season never ends. As soon as Nationals are done, you recover, and then you try to start working on improving your skill/physical set for the next season. This should once again be an interesting year. Exciting prospects, disappointing losses. Bill Finn has requested not to captain this year, preferring to improve the soldier instead of continuing the soldier-general. Two years later, Billy has instituted a lot of changes that hopefully will last. Joey (agreeing to continue), Akira (reprising his captaincy), and Matt Stupca will come in as the trifecta in charge. It seems like 3 dudes with diff. ultimate backgrounds, different ideas, and different strengths. Will it be chaos or beautiful symmetry? I hope and think the latter.
SubZero will be returning most of its team including a lil’ Korean we all love…Tyson Park. Unfortunate, but if you’ve spent any time with Ty, it’s not at all unexpected. I really am sick of losing to these guys. Is it finally the year where we reassert our dominance in the Midwest? No doubt a challenge with them acquiring Tyson and regaining Q-tip. Can’t fucking wait.

3a. Winter League

Been a lot of fun so far. Our team hasn’t been faring that well, but it’s been fun nonetheless. It’s a nice way to keep running, and the fields are sweeeeeeet. The game is also different, with 3 games to 25 min. I was scared that the quality of play would suck, and while it hasn’t been stellar by any means, it’s been good enough.

3b. Spring League

Is this the year that every club player in Chi joins?!!! Why the F not? Spring league is by far the most fun of the leagues, and if enough players joined, there would be less weekends where you can’t pull a full team. (I think Ferrari’s team worked through that a lot last year). Ladies of Nemesis/Briefcase…why NOT join in full force this spring?? Ladies are the limiting factor and the better the quality/quantity, the more fun it would be.
I know there are a lot of arguments as to whether strong ultimate communites lead to stronger club teams, etc. etc. and I’m sure there are arguments ad nauseam either way on RSD. I’m not well versed in any of these..but it’s always bothered me that the Chicago ultimate community SUCKS. There’s such a disconnect b/t league, club, college, etc. Why do people come from Madison or Minneapolis or Atlanta and lament on our poor state of affairs here? I don’t know and I def. don’t have the answers. I’m sure the causes are multifactorial, but we can start to make changes as individuals and members of our respective club teams. Why not join Winter, Spring, Summer Leagues? Why don’t we start coaching more of our area college/high school teams? Coaching/organizing ultimate is a time-sink and I realize club activities take so much time as it is, that it might not be beneficial to one’s life to put that much time into ultimate. But PLAYING ulty, even at league level? Gary LeDonne hasn’t missed a league in the last 45 years of playing (he’s seriously like 60 now); and he is/was better than you were/are/ever will be.
Now that I got some steam….I’ve had multiple conversations with Jacob Dee as to whether strengthening league play/interaction would lead to better recruits for clubs. For the most part, he is not convinced that it does. I have no theoretical/statistical proof, but I do have Ed Uram. Eddie was a rookie on Machine this past year, and has played ulty only for 3 years. As far as I am concerned, he is the most exciting player in Chicago. The kid is like 21 or 22, and is SIIICK. He’s an athletic phenom, and he only has room to improve. The only reason he had the skills (which are soooo raw….his flick still makes me cringe), is cuz Gary and his old-dude crew took him under their wing in LEAGUE PLAY. That is the only reason that kid is as good as he is now. One year of league play under those cronies and he dramaticaly improved. And now he plays on Machine, and he gets pretty good playing time for a rook. One of the more distinct memories I have from summer league was with Akira. I’m sure he doesn’t even remember this, but he spent a game kicking my ass and then telling me why. It was AWESOME.

I’m getting kicked out of this coffee shop. This has been way too long. Join spring league assholes.

So tonight I decided to combine two tasks into one. Firstly, I needed to return a few things to the mailbox of my ex-girlfriend (names withheld to protect the innocent). Secondly, I needed some exercise; which I thought could be usefully rolled in with the first task by running the stuff over to her house. Also, it was cold out, so instead of warming up I just ran extra fast. Also, the lights on Charleston were out, which I thought made it kind of nice and contemplative.

Which is how I found myself running a bit faster than usual down a dark street wearing my usual running clothes—black pants, black hoodie, black skullcap and black gloves—carrying a white plastic bag with assorted media in it. I was about three blocks into this activity when I realized that a police car was driving along in the same direction as I was running, at the same speed—I assumed it was just cruising along checking parking stickers and I sped up because it was annoying to have it there the whole block. As soon as I did, it pulled over quickly, and two cops (let’s call them “officer cheney” and “officer obama”) jumped out and told me to stop what I was doing.

I got frisked, put up on the side of the car, my bag (containing a dvd of Eddie Izzard comedy and a “Children of Men” paperback) was confiscated, and I spent the next twenty minutes in the back of the car attempting to explain what I was doing. Officer Obama was pretty cool, but Cheney was kind of a dick. He spent most of the time repeating whatever I said to them back at me with a whole lot of sarcasm. “Oh you’re just ‘running some stuff over to your ex-girlfriends house’? ‘You don’t carry your wallet when you run, huh? You, uh, ‘live three blocks from here’ is that right?” Anyway it was kind of comical except that this guy had no levity whatsoever. Though he did tell me that if I was concerned at how the Chicago PD spent their time I was more than welcome to bring it up with my alderman.

Anyway, though Officer Cheney’s first idea was that we should drive over to the ex gf’s house and have her verify my story (this would have been both genuinely awful and genuinely comedic) kindly Officer Obama shot me a look and then asked if I had a roommate or anything at home who could verify my story. Which is how my roomie ended up getting woken up at 10:30 at night by grumpy Mr. Officer Cheney who demanded verification for my story, which apparently she provided (thanks for not leaving me hanging, miss casual).

Meanwhile, Officer Obama explained to me, while eating an apple (so healthy!) that there had been a lot of car break-ins in the neighborhood recently and there was a task force out all night looking for the burglers and that I shouldn’t really worry about it.

Anyway, I was released into miss casual’s custody shortly thereafter. Despite the fact that the universe was clearly telling me not to get exercise, I changed into a bright red hoodie and went back out for my run. Felt much better after I got back.

so we’re going to try something here at cu: a little column called “ask the viking”. i’m sure you all can figure out how this works- readers submit their questions, i do my best to answer some of them. we’ll see how this works out. anyway, here’s our first installment:

mr. viking,

now that its winter i spend 1% of my time at the gym and 99% of my time sleeping or watching tv. what should i do with my 1% of time at the gym? cardio or weights? or both? in what order and in what quantities?

signed,
weary of winter

ms. weary,

vikings are known for our strength; at our peak, entire villages would flee their homes at the mere rumor that the vikings were coming. in those days, men grew strong by fighting with swords and shields, and rowing our Longship warboats to new territory to raid and pillage. unfortunately, these days raiding and pillaging are no longer accepted forms of recreation, so we’ll have to make do with other activities. i would recommend a blend of weight training and cardio; weight training will give you strength to strike a man down in battle, and cardio will give you stamina to outlast your enemy in a shield wall. or, perhaps more applicable to modern times, weight training will improve lean muscle mass, which in turn, keeps the body’s metabolism running high, which translates to improved calorie-burning (read: fat loss) long after the workout is over. i would achieve this blend of strength and cardio training by focusing your workout on exercises that recruit as many large muscle groups as possible, and minimizing the rest taken between sets. an example workout of this type would be:

1) 3 sets of 8 squats, rest 60 seconds between sets.
2) superset: pull-ups, rest 30 seconds, push-ups, rest 30 seconds.
repeat twice more, for a total of 3 sets of each exercise.
3) superset: 10 cable woodchoppers (video link), rest 30 seconds, 10 crunches on swiss ball, rest 30 seconds. repeat twice more.
4) on a rowing machine, do 4 minutes of: 20 seconds all-out, 10 seconds rest

that little program hits pretty much all of the muscle groups in your body, and will probably get you in and out of the gym in about an hour. do this 3 times a week, and soon enough, your raids will yield more treasure.

skål,
the viking

mr. viking,

so i really like this girl. i’ve been flirting with her, on and off, for about four years now. i’m pretty sure that she’s into it because she keeps ending stories by saying “you know, back when i still had a boyfriend” or telling me things like “i wore these hotpants just for you” and sometimes things like “my roommates not home tonight and i just got a brazilian wax”…but how do i know for sure that she likes me before i, you know, ask her to get a coffee or something?

for now i’m just going to keep playing it cool and only speak when spoken to. i mean, i just don’t want to be in a situation where i put myself out there emotionally to a stranger and don’t get any reciprocation, because that would be embarrassing. man i wish girls were more forward.

signed,
imaginary bear

mr. bear,

you’re a big fucking bear, with big fucking claws. and you can’t figure out how to kill the bunny? c’mon, you’re so money, and you don’t even know it. just club the bunny with your big fucking bear paws, and drag her back to your cave. advice from my favorite self-help movie aside, this viking learned from his elders of the old norwegian secret for getting girls — sit at the bar until one of them approaches you and forces interaction. vikings prefer strong women, and this is an important part of the selection process.

skål,
the viking

I exhaustedly returned to the dirty south after some holiday qt with friends and fam in the city and ‘burbs. Christmas was typical, with gary’s team winning the family ultimate game like every year (no matter how we change the teams around).
Emilee got back at him by being crowned the victor of Mexican train, a game that’s an enjoyable take on dominos and only takes 4 hours to play. Good thing nobody in my family is competitive at all! Christmas is more fun when there are children to spoil. If lily’s list next year included a life-sized Thomas the tank engine, she might actually get it.
Six days is a long time to be at home & away from home at the same time. After gorging ourselves, family-style, at maggiano’s, the fam caught “between barack and a hard place” at 2nd city on Saturday. Sometimes it’s weird to be sitting next to your dad laughing when the guy on state is pantomiming a motor boat. But this time it wasn’t.
The highlight of my trip was time spent and meal prepared by and shared with nate, schmal, baby max and the lovely ladies of casual ultimate. The recovering bartender mixed some magnificent martini’s and the gang caught up on recent goings and doings. Food coma from the lamb and delicious brussel sprouts meant an early end to this evening, but we managed some debauchery first, despite the lowered volume necessitated by maxine’s slumber. Throwing snaps @ pedestrians on Dearborn from the 7th floor never gets old. Nate just might have the best ass in the casual ultimate family.
2008 in Raleigh, nc arrived an hour earlier than in Chicago, weird. The redhead and I partied with some friends on nye and frolfed yesterday in the balmy, 55 degree sunny weather. Supposedly it’s good luck to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s day. We ate some alongside our perfectly grilled ribeyes, smashed potatoes and sipped on some delicious Spanish vino. Happy new year to all!

I’ve gotta say. It’s really not that bad. There’s pretty much no one here. I’m wearing jeans. I’m listening to music. I’ve already masturbated twice. Ok, that last one’s not true. Still though, not bad.

I started listening to Pandora.com on a friend’s recommendation and I’m kinda digging it. It’s streaming music that is similar to Thievery Corporation right now. I just typed in Theivery Corporation, and it makes rocket go. Also not bad.

I’m dating this exquisite creature that the earthlings call “Tracy.” She is like a cross between seafoam icing and freedom. Not bad.

I guess the work that I’m supposed to be doing should be taking priority right now, but I can’t say that I’m too fired up to get it done. I’m happy to say that I’m not too opposed to getting it done either though. Man, peanut butter sounds good right now. Does that mean that I’m pregnant?

I heard some rumors about Ultimate next year. I’ll put them in order of confidence:

1) Everyone will wear helmets next year through Regionals. Nationals: same rules as always, no helmets.
2) All three captains of Revolver are gone for next season (2 retirees and 1 traveler). I sort of had it tucked in the back of my head to play with them this year, but now I’m not so sure. We’ll see.
3) Jam is way more talented than Revolver and has less character.
4) Wendy Chan has a several photo spread of a layout D she got on game point against Shazam in semis against a dude (Jon Ladd to be exact). It’s in the UPA Newsletter I think. Check it out.

Yeah, those last three may/may not be true, but the first one is certain. I suggest Gaia chinstraps by the way. Very comfortable, but order them now if you want them to get across the border by the Fall Series.

I’ve been thinking about the old body and about some of the “greats” of frisbee past lately. There are many that played at the top for however long or not even at the top for however long, and now their bodies are wrecked. It’s a little concerning. I don’t want to have all kinds of junky joints and handicaps as I raise my kids. When we’re playing in the Townhouse Backyard, I want to be able to run around and bend and jump and do all those sort of things with my kids. Basically, I NEVER want to lose in a game of 1-on-1 basketball against my child. The reason I play Ultimate today is to be in shape for when that day rolls around and my kid is up 9-8 in a game to 10 in the backyard. I will beat him. I will rise to that challenge. I will foul him flagrantly if he comes into the lane. This is my house. Ya betta know dat, son!

I think Ultimate is doing a fine job of preparing me mentally but perhaps not physically for that challenge. What if I get really hurt and ruin my whole “knee area” or my whole “face area” (those are medical terms)? Hell, my room-mate had surgery on his eye after playing one game of winter league. I’m not sure this is the best sport for people who want to not be broken old people.

And on that note, Merry Christmas to all of you in the US. If you are not in the US, rot. Cho, I’m looking at you…although I can’t see you because you are very small and at a great distance. If you are reading this, feel my cyber-gaze.

Oh, and Jews. Hope that festival went well. That’s a pretty cute little holiday you guys have. Awesome. Jews.

its that time of year when you are expected to cough up the dough to show your loved ones you.. well love them i guess. also its the time of year when the blog kind of degrades into open emails between ms. ultimate and myself. what can you do?

i finished my christmas shopping on michigan avenue monday evening (except for tbrizzle which well get to later…) and it was actually very festive and fun. i usually hate shopping here because my office is here and as soon as i get out of work i just want to flee as fast as possible from the parade of babystrollers, tourists, and aggressive 100 pound blonds that make up the shopping public. but monday night it was snowy, i had gotten a christmas bonus (woohoo!) and the lights were on so i bounced along and got into the christmas spirit by spending the evening surrounded in a cloud of bliss and consumerism.

and i got everyone taken care of except tbrizzle. the thing i wanted to get him was sold out. but really.. what does one get for the dude with everything? how about a patagonia t-shirt? oh wait… okay how about something with basset hounds? well… or maybe bike related stuff? okay now youre just being mean.

ill figure it out. meanwhile ms. ultimate is finishing up ivy leaguing to come home and shop, eat and watch tv like the good old days. only a couple days to go! lemmings is already on red alert.

don’t ask me how i came across this video, but i wanted to share it because of the stage composition: full symphony, deep purple, what appears to be a pirate, a dashiki, three men in tight black clothes and one in, i think, a leotard. and of course more than enough man hair to go around. and then there’s the audience. i think next semester is going to be all about theme dressing. one day i’ll dress as a cowboy, the next day as ian gillan, then as my favorite scientist, maybe an astronaut on thursday. it could be fun. tomorrow i’m wearing my hooters sweater for good landscape ecology karma. giddy up!

last night i ate everything pictured here. i was about to take a bite of squirrel leg when i noticed there was still a little fur on the meat so i passed. apparently it wasn’t that great anyways. but you know what was surprisingly good? beaver stew. very tender. tbrizzle, i’ll get the recipe and we can make some over break. the moose kabobs were also delicious, I think it had something to do with the marinade. next year i want to bag a bear, maybe a wolverine. nothing primes you for a night of paper writing like the life force of a half dozen woodland creatures coursing through your veins.

remember several years ago, when i was a vegetarian choking down beans and rice? what was i thinking? god bless the forestry school and my fellow classmates who provide. the plan is to learn how to shoot a bow and a gun next semester, then maybe go hunting. so instead of sitting at a desk somewhere in an office building trading pollution, i can be out on the plains tracking the majestic buffalo. you can all come visit me in my blog cabin. i mean, log cabin.

It’s Christmas time in Townville. We are all gathered in Pompano Beach, FL to annualize our love for each other. How do I love thee? Let me count the years that I have come to this same place in the month of December.

This year, we tried something new: not playing tennis. Here’s some pictures of the tennis we didn’t play.

(footage not found)

I’d just like to make positive mentions or “Pos Mens” of two gifts in particular. Mama Town has a tradition of giving Jess and I a particular gift every year. For Jess, it’s an angel. For me, it’s a nutcracker. However, this year, she took it to the next level and created a nutcracker of me at Nationals in all my Brass Monkey gear. For Jess, she created this bike-riding angel. I think the symbolism is quite powerful. I have powerful jaws that can be controlled from my lower back in real-life, and Jess is a messenger from God in real-life. That’s why it makes sense.

Here are the pictures:

this email discussion happened today and i thought it was appropriate to share. anyone have any others???

ms. ultimate : I thought you prodejiners would appreciate this: apparently my school has its own font. It’s called Yale Design. weird.

miss casual : our office has its own font too. we just call it ‘lucien’. i think instead of christmas presents we should design fonts for each other.

i would like mine to be called ‘jesstown classic’

tbrizzle : cbr and i talked last year about designing family crests for each of our friends—like quartered shields with relevant symbology on each quadrant. i think the russells would be fun:

enormous dog, Ohio State, big sweatshirts, and People Magazine, divided on invected saltire.

volkmans:

brussel sprouts, ham sandwiches, disc golf, and a toyota echo, emblazoned on a cross fitchy.

towns:
great hair, frisbee, tennis, and saturns, on an azure plain with dovetailed fess.

by the way, in the course of my research into medieval heraldic terminology, i came across this image, which clearly must have been the crest of the early Brown family. I can just picture the early Charlemagne Brown, lovable loser that he was, constantly being let down by his friends and family, suffering through the crusades with a wry “good grief!” and getting a rock in his stocking at Whitsuntide.

c(b)r : not sure where Whitsuntide is but Charlemage Brown is awesome.

ultimates’ - recycling symbol, star of David, crucifix and a beagle.

miss casual : b-r’s - a hyphen, a pickup truck, a basset hound and laptop

miss casual is all over me about blogging, but i am crazy busy thinking of 10,000 ways to procrastinate so i’m going to relate a brief tale that has nothing to do with the bitchin’ week/end i just spent in chicago. that news is to follow shortly, and with pics of tanguay as the new bjorn.

so the day after i got back to school (yesterday) i had my interview for the school of management for an MBA (i’m applying to do the 3-year joint degree program). now i’m usually pretty good at interviews, or so i’m told. this one, however, i would describe as a debacle in three acts.

first, in prep for the big event i reviewed my application (essays, resume, etc.). while doing so i learned that i had made a typo on my resume - who the *@$& makes a typo on their resume for business school?!?! i’ve never made a resume or major document typo in my life. ugh. best of all was the word: “environmental finance” –> “environmental fiance”, with an accent on the ‘e’ and everything. unbelievable. the only thing worse would have been spelling “business” as “biznass.”

next step: the interview itself. there i go, in my fancy suit and all, and my interviewer is a 2nd year student who’s in one of my classes! so the entire time i’m thinking, what kind of comments has this kid heard all year? he had made marks all over my resume and circled my typo, so i had to crack a joke and play it off. he laughed but, you know, like b-school kids laugh: like he was judging me. the interview progresses, who knows how i did, i feel like i sounded like a ditz (carlo, feel free to insert blonde/professional woman/pillowfight comment here).

i have class with this kid 45 minutes after the interview, but in between i managed to grab a milkshake with my friend jed to calm my nerves. i walk into class with the milkshake, sit next to my interviewer, and start chatting with him and the guy next to him (who is a joint degree student). other guy asks how it went, i say ‘ask this guy,’ at which point my interviewer looks at me and asks why i didn’t bring him a milkshake. this is all background so far. fast-forward to that evening, when i email him a formal-like email thanking him for the interview, good to hear his thoughts on the school, etc. the note itself was quite formal, but given the fact that i know this kid in regular life i title it, “next milkshake’s on me.” tonight he wrote back but had changed the subject line - in his response and in the copy of my orig. email - to something generic like “SOM-Thank you.” Then he writes me a second email saying he edited mine because it has to get forwarded to the admissions committee. UGH again.

bottom line is, clearly i am not professional enough to get admitted to the business school. but the only reason i thought this would make good blog material is that he asked, “if you got your dream job but your boss gave you the day off, what would you do?” and of course i responded “play ultimate.” wait, shit, that was horrible. i should have said i would go home, turn on CNN and read the financial times. and i didn’t even tell him how mr. briefcase has an office theme! the more i think about this the more depressed i get. good news is, i’ll be back in chicago in two years instead of three!

wow this was long, i could have just written about this weekend. more to follow later in the week.

well right now as im typing ms. ultimate is flying across the country to come back to chicago for casual ultimate 60622: thanksgiving reunion special. hopefully this will involve some if not all of the following

- lemmings, piece, and quenchers (this is already in the works so if you’re in town wednesday night holler)

- brunch, manicures, and light shopping

- napping, arrested development, and live blogging the law and order mini marathon drinking game i have devised

- a battle of wits between slider and the door of tony’s truck

- more bulleted lists

also in an unrelated incident… i overheard a conversation this morning about oprah’s ‘favorite things’ show, which is on today. its the one where she travels around and gives people in georgia presents like new cars and diamond jewelry for taking her to the best hot dog place south of the mason dixon. the conversation in question was between two guys who decided she should say her favorite thing in 2007 is ‘making it rain.’

the idea of oprah saying ‘im gonna make it rain’ tio a bunch of old ladies in macon is more than i can handle right now.

well yesterday was not going all too well. work is especially brutal lately and i was having one of those ‘milk in the cabinet, cereal in the fridge’ kind of days. i wasnt sure if i had even washed my hair or just stood in the shower under the hot water thinking about light and vent schedules and how to get an obscure piece of the integrated headset for the new bike. i was sitting at work thinking about whether to just get up and quit a la half baked or whether to just cry and then throw my computer out the window.

and then someone sent me my first missed connection. silly as it is, and clearly from a friend whos messing with me, it still cheered up my afternoon.

‘Miss Casual m4w - 29
Date: 2007-11-14, 2:27PM CST

aw shiiiit girl, you don’t need that foo’ jdot. you gots me, baybay.

meet me at the altar.’

so thank you invisible romeo for helping me get through a tough week.. even though you are probably ms. ultimate. happy friday everybody.

i know it’s only tuesday, and not even noon on tuesday at that, but i can’t wait for this weekend and next weekend. first, on friday, i’m heading into NYC to hang out with bacers. we’re going shopping at the mythical century 21. i will probably come out of there with a lot of unnecessary new clothes purchased at bargain basement prizes. plus a new set of towels so that i can feel like i did something useful. i’ll keep my eyes peeled for a wool suit, because saturday is the yale-harvard football game and that’s what my grandma says i’m supposed to wear to football games on the east coast. apparently tailgating starts at 8:30 in the morning. i was thinking of finding a skillet so that i can fry bacon on the grill. has anyone attempted this before? bryan?

then on tuesday i leave on jetplane for chicago. wednesday is a bar crawl of some sort led by vijay. if history is any guide, i will not feel well on thursday morning. thank goodness there will be tons of food available. by the way, i couldn’t help but notice that that link to casual mayhem was from a nov. 20th post last year. i believe that was the weekend i was scheduled to take the gre but they canceled on me and treemboat saved my life with cupcakes. i guess everything worked out because i got into school. brown bear, can we head back to quenchers?

this is an illustration of what miss casual and i will be doing from thursday evening onwards, although there’s a pseudo-family dinner of some sort in the works. we will be happy potatos though, and instead of a bag of chips there will be empty cartons from penny’s strewn about. well, maybe there’ll be chips too.

ah the off-season, when we can stop the charade and blog about what we really care about: ice cream. last night my friend jed and i stopped for snacks on the way back from a show. we both got sandwiches, then came upon this gem in the freezer section: stephen colbert’s very own ben & jerry’s ice cream flavor. needless to say i purchased it immediately and let me tell you this people: he may not be running for president anymore, but he makes a damn fine ice cream. as it says right on the pint, “it’s the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth.” now if you understand liberty, and if you understand freedom, i suggest you go out and buy some of this now. eat it tonight during law$order and think about how much this country has done for you. we ate it while watching inane youtube videos with my very own stephen.

i also suggest you listen to some holly golightly, the lovely lady we saw perform. she’s british, but her style is sort of rootsy, slow-paced country with a little bit of the blues. her lyrics are top-notch. she played in this tiny bar called cafe nine, which was actually awesome and reminded me of the no-name bar across the street from the original tricks n’ drinks parking lot. same dimensions. once i finish my landscape ecology paper i’ll be spending more time there.

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.

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.

Warning: this post will be lengthy.

Saturday was quite a long day. And I’m gonna start from the top.

Morning: Machine has a double practice scheduled so that a Machine/Nemesis potluck could go down. Bill Finn and I jump in the ZamDog (my ‘91 Camry), make a quick stop at McDonald’s so I can fill up, and get to practice just in time. Nemesis, Dish, Madison, and UofC/Northwestern/UIC combo are already in the midst of the women’s sectionals. A BEAUTIFUL day, sunny, blue skies, mid-70’s. God invented ultimate frisbee for days like this.

Practice went well. Doubles are usually a horrid affair where by the end of the day I feel as old as Gary is. However, with the potluck/party coming ahead and the meningitis behind me, I felt great the whole day. The practice seemed to revolve around the escalating O-line vs. D-line battle. The morning had us do some basic flow drills and then an O vs. D endzone game…make it take it. O-line won best of 3. I think there was a game to 7 also.

Lunch break called and we go over to root/heckle Nemesis on. They just started their game vs. Madison in the finals. A lot of hooting and hollering, some calls of “Yeah Dirty! (Megan Sweas)” and “Yeah Skanky! (i’ll leave this one alone ), etc. Dane finally gets over a hangover and starts challenging people to cone races. I beat him and get his plum. Taste it blondy. Andy Neilsen roshams Denis Agniel and loses…consequence: he has to introduce himself as McLovin’ all night at the party. (I’m gonna get a good pic of Andy and McLovin’ for the CU lookalike post). General shenanigans.

We get back into it for the afternoon scrimmage. O vs. D game to 13. A heated battle ensues. Kolb calls a lot of bullshit. Finn calls Kolb every name in the book. Ferrari spikes cones and says something about hating this team. I wish every practice could be like this. D-line pulls away to win 14-12 I think. Both sides were looking more pumped than usual. The fire is building and the only thing that’s gonna put this baby out is a Regional Championship.

Afternoon: The Domers: Butler, Kreece, and Mini come over to RWLS (Real World Logan Square bitches!) so that Mini can make yellow curry, so that we can shower, and for pre-partying. Butler is wearing my former/his current OU Sooners sweatshirt the entire time (it was 90 degrees that day). He paid me 30 bucks, a carbomb, and his shitty rain jacket for it. Biggest mistake of my life.

After 45 min of telling jokes, Kreece decides he’s gonna bake a cake for the potluck. This is about an hour before we’re supposed to leave. I hate this guy. He mixes everything together and decides to bake it there. Mini has a delicious yellow curry, I have hummus and jello shots, Moy has beef with rice noodles, and Rich Aycock made Irish sodabread. We’re ready to roll baby. In the car, Butler decides what with Mini having an entree, and Kreece making dessert, he’s gonna have to make appetizers. He puts peanut butter on 20 Triscuits. They are the hit of the potluck.

Potluck: So the potluck was an idea I’ve had for awhile. We used to do these at OU all the time and it was fun to see people get creative with food, and then it was more fun to eat the food. So we decided to have a Machine/Nemesis Potluck with a party for everyone afterwards. Both teams threw down…very impressive. There was a wide array of entrees and desserts with a scattering of appetizers. Some notables: Beef’s “Better than Sex” cake, Moy’s beef/noodles, Shiel’s enchilada casserole, a lot of food I can’t remember. It was good. Nemesis decided to have a team theme and they showed up in meningitis prevention gear. Very funny ladies. Machine was thinking of wearing Sectionals Champions t-shirts. OHHHHHHHH SNAP! Nooooo he didn’t?!! Well…you bet your ass I did bitches.

(I forgot to mention…Nemesis lost to Madison in the finals after being up at half. We saw them shake hands while we were practicing and a lot of dejected faces but none of us believed it until I talked to Beef quickly during practice. Revenge is sweet ladies; show those college hussies what ultimate is really about in Tulsa.)

Back to the potluck…our theme ended up being dress as your favorite Chicago Ulty player. A