LA Times Festival of Books 2017

This last weekend was the annual LA Times Festival of Books.  Naturally, that meant Angelique and I were there.

It was hot this year (unlike last year where it threatened to rain).  We only went on Saturday, and it was close to 90.  That didn’t keep us from having a fantastic time, however.  We did our usual wander all over the festival, but we mainly haunted the mystery booths so we could talk to authors.

It seemed like more authors were doing only one day or the other this year, so I missed some I would have enjoyed chatting with.  But I’ll see a few of those this weekend at Malice Domestic.  (Flight leaves in the morning!)  Of course, I had fun chatting with those who were there.

Nothing really out of the ordinary happened.  We had fun hanging out and looking at books.  It was a nice, relaxing day.

Word Association for April 25

I'm going to slip in this week's word association before I head to bed tonight.

1. Improve :: Technique
2. Brothers :: and Sisters
3. Crystal :: Ball
4. Zoo :: Animal
5. Second :: Place
6. Sell :: Buy
7. Death :: Murder
8. Current :: President
9. Pain :: Gain
10. Value :: Money

Bowling for One Week

I can’t remember if I mentioned that I am a sub for bowling this time around instead of being on a team.  That’s actually worked out well with how crazy things have been at work.  I’ve worked late one Thursday and thought I would the next Thursday.  Yes, that’s how crazy things have been.

But this last Thursday, I did get make it to the bowling alley, and I had a blast.  I definitely needed it.  I did my usual start slow and build.  I started with 116, moved to 136, and finished with 138.  I got a lot of spares, but not many strikes.  I seem to not be able to strike much anymore.  Still, I’m not really complaining.

I don’t know when I’ll be back at the bowling alley, since I will be out of town on Thursday and then we hit crazy month end time again at work.  Hopefully, I can make it back sooner rather than later, but we will have to wait and see, I guess.

Two More Wins

Attendance was low at beach league on Saturday.  Some teams only had one sub, and one team was savage (no subs).  We played that team our second game, and they fought hard.  In fact, both teams we played fought hard.  Not that it changed the results.  We won 11-7 in both games.  How’s that for consistency?

I was disappointed, however, since both of the teams we played had people I can match up against, and neither of them showed up.  I was really looking forward to playing some points against them, too.

Still, I was responsible to two of our points in the second game, and both in the first half.  Early on in the game, I threw the disc to a teammate for the score.  Fortunately, he was able to reach behind him and grab it since I threw it a little behind him.  A few points later, he returned the favor, throwing me the disc in the end zone.  This was a perfect throw, however, landing right in my hands.

The weather was absolutely perfect for running around.  It was officially upper 60’s, but it felt warmer than that out on the sand under the sun.  There was a breeze, but it wasn’t enough to be annoying when throwing a Frisbee.  In fact, it was so nice that I stuck around after the games were over.  My carpool buddies weren’t able to make it, so I was on my own.  I’d brought my book, so I sat on the beach and read for a while before coming home.  Bliss!

Two Weeks of Beach League

And now it’s my ultimate Frisbee beach league that I’m not blogging about in a timely manner.  Let’s catch up, shall we?

Our first game on the 1st was against the other undefeated team.  We beat them, and actually by a larger margin than we were expecting.  Ironically, they lost their second game of the day as well, so they went from undefeated to having two losses.

We, on the other hand, won the second game that week as well.  It was against a team that was low on numbers, so they were tired.

Last week, we suffered our first loss.  We were missing our best player, and it showed.  We played well, and the score was close, but we just couldn’t pull it off in the end.  The team that beat us is the team that the two friends I carpool with are on, so that was the silver lining for me.

We did win our second game, however.  It was close at half time, but we pulled away in the second half to win rather easily.  The hardest part of this game was the win.  It had really gotten strong, so one way was much easier to score than the other.  But we did it a couple of times to win by four points.  (In a game to 11, that is a nice margin.)

No real hero moments, but also no real negative moments from these games.  But I’m having fun and enjoying being on a team with a winning record.  And I’m certainly okay with one loss.  It’s good for a team to not be too confident going into a tournament or they get slaughtered.  I’ve seen it happen plenty of times before. 

Word Association for April 11th

Been quiet for a couple of weeks again.  Need to do some word association to fix that.

1. Awkward :: Silence
2. Reality :: Virtual
3. Yoda :: Star Wars
4. Medication :: Allergy
5. Headache :: Painful
6. Sensation :: Pleasant
7. Sneeze :: Allergy
8. Historical :: Fiction
9. YouTube :: Video
10. Polka :: Dance

Can you tell it is allergy season?