Word Association for August 28th

Must be time for some word association.

1. Sniffle :: Allergies
2. Live :: Concert
3. Finally! :: Finished
4. Honor :: Military
5. New :: Different
6. Cumbersome :: Awkward
7. Thumbs :: Fingers
8. Facebook :: Like
9. Cheat :: Taxes
10. Decisive :: Action

Krusher Wet n Wild 5K

Saturday, I did my August mud run.  I’d only heard of the Krusher mud run a few months ago, but I signed up because it filled the important hole in my mud run schedule.  I had none for August, after all!

The mud run wasn’t that far from me – at least as the crow flies.  It was at Lake Piru, which is a little ways off the freeway on a smaller road, so it still took me about an hour one way to get there.  Still, not as bad as some I do every year which are easily twice that.

Based on the title, I wasn’t sure if there would be mud or not.  And they kept me in suspense until almost the very end.  But when we got to the mud – wow!  It was thick and deep.  Some of the thickest and deepest I’ve experienced at any mud run.  I loved it!

The rest of the run was good, too.  There were a couple of different obstacles like climbing up tubes.  Unfortunately, I skipped their version of a water slide since the way to climb up to it involved climbing up tires.  I’m sure I could have done it if I needed to, but it was high and my fear of heights was making me uncomfortable.

I’ve only ever been out to this lake one other time, so I don’t know for sure, but I feel like the lake is way, way down from where it would normally be.  Part of that is based on the fact that we started and ended at a boat ramp and was nowhere near the later.  I also think that much of the course would be under water in a normal year.  I could be wrong on that, but that’s my best guess.

Word Association for August 20th

Quick, time for some word association.

1. Failure :: To Launch
2. Extinguish :: Fire
3. Probability :: It Will Happen
4. Lurid :: Details
5. Hope :: Floats
6. Supposedly :: Not a Problem
7. Putrid :: Rank
8. Remarkable :: Achievement
9. Bunny :: Easter
10. Expectations :: Meant

Summer League Tournament 2015

This last weekend, we had the hottest weather of the summer so far.  It was triple digits both days.  Naturally, that meant it was time for the summer league tournament this year.  (Seriously, I think it is always on the hottest weekend of the year.)

I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much from my team.  Oh, I knew we’d all go out there and play hard, but look at our record.  We were the bottom seed going into the tournament.  That’s never a good sign.  Plus we were playing the team we’d lost to 4-15 twice.

So imagine my surprise when we started out going 3-0 on them.  However, they quickly turn that around, and we were trailing them the entire rest of the game.  Still, it was a much closer game than I was expecting.  I think it was 8-10 at the end.  (I don’t remember the final score, which was capped as we ran out of time.)

Unfortunately, they were doing work on part of the field (and hadn’t bothered to tell us before that day).  It meant we were down space and couldn’t play all the games we were supposed to play.  Our consolation game turned into a very short free for all of sorts, but it was fun.  It just wasn’t worth staying around to play.

I almost went home.  I’d hardly been home in the last week and was thinking about all the things I could have been doing instead of sitting in the heat.  But I stayed and watching the finals of both Men’s and Co-ed.  Plus I was reading and I finished my book.  I went to the party afterward pretty much long enough to grab some dinner and then I drove home.

I did go out to play pick up ultimate the next day.  After all, I’d hardly played the day before.  We had a small turnout because of the heat, but it was a very fun early evening.

The Final Game (of Regular Season 2015)

We had our last regular season game on Tuesday night.  We actually played this team our first week this season, and we lost to them 4-15.  That was back when we had few ladies - in fact I think they were savage.  So with as many ladies and men, we should have been a new team, right?

Right?

Sadly, we lost to them 4-15 again.  It’s like we had no idea who to play or play with each other at least.  We had multiple people cutting to the same spot at the same time.  We were missing basic catches and throws.  It wasn’t pretty.

The worst part?  They are the team we’ll be facing first in the tournament tomorrow.

At least I didn’t leave the field feeling like a complete failure.  I did get the disc once and successfully passed it on.  I did get scored on a couple of times, however.  Once, the guy took off running and I couldn’t keep up.  The other, I stuck with the guy through multiple cuts until he finally managed to break free.  I felt bad, but there are only so many times you can successfully predict cuts to stop someone from scoring.

Party Friday

We had a second Summer League game this last week, and it was for Party Friday.  In the past, about half the teams in the league have played on this day, but this time, every team was playing.  Plus there was free pizza after the game.  What’s not to love?

I had a complication getting there – the battery in my car was dead when I went to leave work.  By the time I got that taken care of (thanks AAA) and home, I barely had enough time to change and eat dinner.  As it was, I arrived late, and it was 3-3 when I found our game.

Sadly, it went further downhill from there, and we lost 6-15.  Obviously, I shouldn’t have bothered to show up, right?

Actually, we can’t really blame me completely.  Yes, I got scored on a time or two, but I actually didn’t play that many points.  I guess my presence is just enough to make that big a difference in the score.

Of course, it didn’t help moral to see two of our players go down due to injury.  After a year of not playing on this particular field, it sadly isn’t much better than it ever was.  I was hoping they had truly fixed it and maybe fixed the gopher problem, but I guess that wasn’t to be.

On the other hand, it was one of my teammate's birthday, and we celebrated with a delicious cake afterwards.  That was very fun.

Book Events

It’s been a while since I went to book events, but I’ve been to a couple this week.

Sunday, I went to South Pasadena for the monthly Sisters in Crime meeting.  The talk was on the Stratemeyer Syndicate, aka the company responsible for creating and hiring the ghost riders to write the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and many other series characters.  (No, not my favorite, Trixie.)  I knew a lot of the stuff that was said, but it was still fun.  And I managed to work it in between church and pick up ultimate Frisbee, too.

Then last night, I headed out to a book signing.  I’d already read both books thanks to my deal reading and reviewing stuff for Berkley Prime Crime, but it was so much fun to hear the authors talking.  I went to a signing for Daryl Wood Gerber’s very first book (written as Avery Aames), but I don’t know that I’d ever heard Diane Vallere talk.  There were only five of us in the audience, but we had a grand time listening to the two of them talk.  In fact, I left later than I had intended, which was a bad thing since I had to polish up my review of Diane’s new book to be published this morning on my review blog.

I’ve stopped going to events like this since the stores I used to go to have closed down, and I’ve really missed it.  Hopefully, I can find a few more and start going again.  Of course, I say that knowing I’ve got another one planned for next week.

We Got a Second Win*

We had another ultimate Frisbee game last night.  You’ll notice that asterisk up there again.  Yep, it was a win.  And we made it to 15 this time.  But the final score?  Well….

See, there’s the things.  Between the two teams, no one was keeping a close track of the score.  I know when I got there late, it was 3-0.  They started to make some points as well, and it was 8-5 at half.

It was the second half where the score completely got away from us.  At one point, I thought the sidelines had agreed it was 11-9 us.  But a few points later, they were claiming it has been 10-10 and, since we’d just scored, it was 11-10.  While the sidelines was talking about it, we scored again, and then the captains met to really talk about it.

While they were talking, the sprinklers came on, so we moved the field.  It was finally decided that we’d settle the score at 14-11, which felt closer to what it was to me.  And we got the final score, meaning, if our score was at all accurate, we won.  Or, if others on our team were right about the score, we won 16-11.  At this point, who knows, right?

I didn’t play much last night.  Maybe there’s a connection there?  With the low number of subs we had, I probably should have played more.  But darn it, everyone out there is so much better than I am, I don’t want to risk being the weak link.

We’ve got another game this Friday.  Hopefully, we can get one decisive win in one way or the other.  And I think I might actually keep close track of the score, too.