Easter Weekend Beach League

I’ve forgotten which week we are on, and I’m too lazy to go back and count.  But I did go to beach league again this last Saturday.

We had a split week – we won the first game something like 11-7.  But we lost the second game 8-11.  What was most frustrating was we dominated the team in the first half of the game.  It was 6-2 at half, and we turned that into a 8-11 loss.  Okay, so the other team really stepped up on defense, but we just weren’t trying as hard either.

There are six teams this year, and that seems to mean there are fewer people per team.  As a result, I’m playing more than I’m used to playing.  It has its good and bad points.  Obviously, I love playing the game; heck, I play for an hour or two straight on Sundays at pick up, so it’s not the play time or time on the field that are my concern.  It’s the fact that I feel more pressure during a league game.  That’s where my concern comes from.  I notice when I mess up and turn the disc over more.  Or when I can’t get my guy on defense.  How down are teams?  We are always looking for subs it seems, and even then, we didn’t have enough for a full second line.  That’s a lot of extra playing time for me.

It was overcast Saturday, and windy the first game.  It died down for most of the second game, which was nice, although I’ve played with stronger winds in the past.

And we finally got carpooling going!  I drove, and I had a full car.  Yes, that means driving across town, but it is nice not driving down and back by myself.

Our losses mean we have dropped down to fourth with a 5-4 record.  Still, I’m more than willing to take it, especially after our 0-3 start and my team not winning any games last year at all.

LA Times Festival of Books 2019

This past weekend was the LA Times Festival of Books for 2019.  Yes, of course, I went.

Actually, I went both Saturday and Sunday.  I probably would have only gone on one day, but the friend I always go with had something else she wanted to do on Saturday, so I agreed to go with her on Sunday.  But then I saw who some of the authors were going to be on Saturday only, so I decided I needed to go both days.  Yes, I skipped church on Palm Sunday to go back for the second day, too.

While it isn’t quite as much fun as it was back in the day with fewer authors I want to talk to all day, I still enjoy it.  I even talked to a couple of new authors, and I bought their books.  Now I need to find the time to read them.  As if I weren’t already drowning under books.

I stuck around on Saturday until 4PM, when Ridley Pearson was there signing.  I now have all of the Kingdom Keepers books signed.  And I found out he’s starting a new spinoff series next spring.  Not sure how I feel about that yet.

Sunday, we left around 3.  I can remember the days when we’d stay until it all shut down.  Honestly, by that point, I was tired, so I’m not complaining.  But I’m so glad I went back on Sunday since it was great to spend some time with Angelique.  We don’t see each other as much as we used to, so I’m glad we got to do that.

The weather was wonderful.  It wasn’t windy like it has been here at home for the past week.  Saturday was bordering too hot to be outside all day, but Sunday was cooler.  Couldn’t have asked for nicer days.

Obviously, that means I missed beach league on Saturday.  It looks like we won both of our games, giving us a 4-3 record!  They currently have us ranked 3^rd overall.  I’m very happy about that, too.  I’ll be back in the sand this coming weekend.

The End of the Heater Saga. I Hope

I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger on my heater, or at least the new thermostat part of it.  We finally connected a week and a half ago for them to connect my replacement.  It took about an hour, and there was a connection he had to make in the ceiling.  Honestly, when he figured that out, I felt better that I couldn’t figure out how to take care of it myself.

Ever since then, it’s been working fine.  Okay, so it doesn’t take much right now since it is right at the part where you only need a little air to cool things down at night, but not much until then.  Still, when I do turn the air on at night, it cools it down in a matter of minutes instead of taking the better part of an hour at a minimum.  As much as this all cost me, I am happy about that.

And I’m having fun with my new thermostat.  It’s one I can control from an app on my phone.  Okay, so I’m not doing much with it yet, but it is still fun to be able to check on my condo and see what the temperature is when I’m not there.  It’s a new toy.  I’m sure I will be using it to adjust the temp more this summer when I am not home at my usual time in the evening and don’t want to cool an empty condo until I am heading home.

Beach League Week 3

I can’t believe I didn’t blog about this earlier.  You see, something strange happened at beach league last Saturday.  We actually won!  Even better, we won both of our games.

They were both hard fought games.  The first game was against a team which only had one sub, which definitely gets tiring on sand.  They were way ahead at one point, but we came back and won.  The second game was a back and forth battle the entire way, and we finally pulled ahead and won.  This puts us 2-3 on the season so far.

And once again, the weather was fantastic.  Lower 70’s and sunny with a mild wind.  Absolutely wonderful day to be at the beach.

They will have to win without me this coming weekend since I will be spending both days at the LA Times Festival of Books.

Beach League Week 2

We had two more games of beach league on Saturday.  And we lost.  I know, shocking, right?

There was a beach tournament going on about a mile from where we normally play, so we picked up and moved our games to be by the tournament.  I hated that!  I always have the worst time figuring out where everyone is.  I actually walked probably a mile in the wrong direction first.  But I still managed to be on time for the first game.  That’s how late we started.

The other thing is we were short on players.  I mean, when I’m playing three points in a row, that means we are short on players.  I normally only play a couple points a half.  We only had 8 guys show up, and with 5 on the field at one time, there weren’t a lot of subs.

We may have lost, but I had fun.  I even scored once and threw a score another time, which I was very happy about.  Yes, I got scored on and threw some turns, but we are focusing on the positive.

And, speaking of the positive, it was absolutely gorgeous.  It was at least mid-70’s and sunny.  There was a fairly steady wind, but it wasn’t a strong wind.  I really didn’t want to head home when it was time to leave, but I had some things to get back for, so I did.  We may have lost, but the weather made it worth it.