St. Pat's Hat 2014

Yep, I'm getting behind again, aren't I?  Not this last weekend but the weekend before was the annual St. Pat's Hat ultimate Frisbee tournament.

We played at the same field where we played the winter league finals, but it seemed even worse than before.  We're talking more dust than grass.  Heck, I was tempted to play in my running shoes instead of my cleats.

The weekend started off well.  We won our first game in fact.  We lost the next two, but one was very close.  And we won the final game of the day in another close game, so we were 2-2 on Saturday.

However, we fell apart on Sunday.  We went 0-3 to finish bottom of the pack.  I hardly played, either, since we were so close and yet still so far away.  I kept hoping my teammates could turn it around, but that never happened.

To make matters worse, we played some pretty poor teams.  One team ignored an injury foul call and played it like a turn over.  Then someone lied to us to get on our field for the last point of that game when he was already on a different team for the day.  His excuse?  "I just wanted to play more."  Then in the second game, someone blatantly lied about a foul call.  Fortunately, we had a good final game with people who actually wanted to play and have fun.  Sadly, we still lost, but it was a much more pleasant loss.

Word Association for March 26th

Boy, I've gotten bad at this blogging things, haven't I?  But here's the word association for this week.

1. Encourage :: Uplift
2. Geography :: Location
3. Entrance :: Exit
4. Helicopter :: Hover
5. Creation :: God
6. Pillars :: Temple
7. Article :: Newspaper
8. Desk :: Chair
9. Discouraging :: Words
10. Display :: Cabinet

Word Association for March 21st

It's Friday, and I still haven't done this week's word association.  Let's fix that.

1. Crunch :: Sit-ups
2. Handle :: Stairs
3. Stoned :: Colorado and Washington
4. Kettle :: Corn
5. Worst :: Episode Ever
6. Agreement :: Binding
7. Keg :: Beer
8. Legacy :: Cord
9. Gig :: Music
10. Nails :: Trim

Disneyland – Again!

Monday, I went to Disneyland again.  My friend Brian who works there had some free tickets for a cast member preview of Big Thunder Mountain so Angelique and I took full advantage of it.  We got to ride it four times with hardly any waits once they opened it up.

And we got to spend the entire day there.  It was only one park admission and it was more crowded than we thought it would be (early Spring break is the rumor we heard).  But still, a day at Disneyland for free.  How can you complain?

Once again, the weather was nice.  It cooled off quite a bit when the sun went down, but for the majority of our time there, I was quite comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.

Highlights?  Can’t really think of any outside of getting to hang out with friends at Disneyland.  We hit all our normal rides, well except a few that were closed.

Winter League Tournament

I got to play ultimate Frisbee for my birthday this year.  Saturday was my birthday and it was the final tournament for winter league this year.  I just love it when a great plan comes together like this, don’t you?  (Even better, it wasn’t my plan.)

Our first game of the day was a rematch against the team we’d beat 15-10 on Monday.  I was surprised we’d beaten them that well then, and figured it would be a hard rematch to start out the day.  I was right.  Even with keeping our A team in there most of the time, we still lost by roughly the same margin we beat them by on Monday.

That immediately sent us to the loser’s bracket.  But we still wound up with two more games, and we won both of them.  The next game was against another team we’d beaten.  They started out with a lead, but we managed to come back and take the victory, which secured our third game.

The highlight for me of this game was my score.  This is the team my friend JV is on, and we guarded each other like normal.  I’d been teasing him that since it was my birthday, he should give me a present of a wide open no opposition score in the end zone.  Well, that’s exactly what I got.  At one point, he decided to poach off me, and I turned around and ran to the end zone.  I figured he would follow me, but if he didn’t, I’d be wide opened.  Sure enough, I was, and Lincoln recognized it and sent the disc down in my direction.  I almost over ran it, but I slowed down and got it.

Our final game was against the only team in the league that we hadn’t played since our game was rained out.  It had another of my good friends on it, so it was fun to finally play against Luke’s team.  They only had one male sub for the first half and no subs the second half.  We finished up that game 13-6.

Overall, this meant we placed 5th out of 8 in the league and that was our standing going into the tournament.  I’m very happy.  Many of these people hadn’t played league before, and there are differences from how we play pick up.  Additionally, I was finally on a team near the half-way point of the standings.  Maybe my luck in improving.

I’ve got an all weekend tournament coming up in two weeks, so we’ll see how that goes.

The weather was absolutely phenomenal.  Just about 80 with a slight breeze.  It did pick up some for our last game, but it was never too bad.  Really, how could you ask for better weather?

We were done before the tournament was over, but I stuck around with a few members of my team and watched the finals.  Then I headed to the party long enough to grab something to eat before running some errands and heading home.  I was exhausted by then, but it was a great day.

Word Association for March 12th

Welcome to this week's word association.

1. Personal :: Assistant
2. Coworker :: Fun
3. Sofa :: Couch
4. Serious :: Laugh
5. Chords :: Piano
6. Platonic :: Friendship
7. Jacket :: Chilly
8. Neck :: Head
9. Scatter :: Wind
10. Nailpolish :: Paint

Winter League Winding Down

We've played our final two games of regular season winter league.  The results have been great!

Last week, we played the same team we played in week one.  This was the team we lost to 4-15.  I was expecting another slaughter.  Instead, it was a close game.  We tied it up in both halves, including at 13-13.  They did win 13-15, but considering how close it was and how badly we lost the first time, I'm not complaining.

Then Monday night, we won again.  This is the team that wound up seeded 4th.  We're 5th.  And it was 15-10 at the end, too.

Needless to say, we are all flying high.

I had a perfect record Monday night, too.  Every time I touched the disc, I wound up throwing it away when I went to pass it on.  It was aweful!  On the plus side, I was getting open to catch the disc.

Tomorrow, for my birthday, we have the tournament.  Should be a fun day of ultimate in nice weather with friends.  Can't wait!

Job Update - Again

So the day after I posted my last update on my job situation, I found out that the end of February was going to be my last day for sure.  I was able to say goodbye to my co-workers and move on, which is nice.

I thought I'd get a nice quiet week or two at home - at least that's what I was hoping for.  However, Monday AccounTemps called me up with another assignment.  I'm a little closer to home, but I'm also the entire accounting department.  It was a mess when I got there, but I've gotten it mostly cleaned up at this point.  I think I'll be helping them get ready to be correct going forward and then move on to something else.  It's been a little stressful, so hopefully it will be something calmer, too.

That's it for now.  Hopefully the next one will have great news in it.

Word Association for March 4th

Falling behind again, but let's get started this week with some word association.

1. Get back :: From the edge of danger
2. Kids :: Fun
3. Plus :: One
4. Tamborine :: Shake
5. Thursdays :: Fridays
6. Hems :: Skirts
7. Busted :: In Trouble
8. Polo :: Horse
9. Discount :: Ticket
10. Balanced :: Books