nightswimming of the indoor variety

Abbey is home from her surgery. Mom has called dutifully with updates. Abbey seems to be having a bit of a tough time, but I am really hoping that she starts to feel better over the next week. I think what bothers me most is that we can't explain to her what is happening. She probably thinks we took her to the vet and that's why her leg hurts now. It's so odd that Ali's dog, Paige's dog and Abbey have all had ACL tears over the last couple years. Could this somehow be getting more common? I don't remember this happening when I was younger.

A big congrats to Ambush for winning the Easterns division at the Boston Invite. Way to start the season with a trophy! I miss you guys.

Things here have been pretty slow. This week involved some work. (Thrilling, I know.) Some making dinner. Some going out to dinner and a happy hour. You may suspect I am trying to lull you to sleep. Stay with me.

I went to the Melbourne public baths after work on Wednesday. It's 5 dollars in and another $2 for a locker. It's open until 10 PM so I can go after work. There is a nice 50 meter pool with 4 lanes: 2 slow, a medium and a fast. I am slow. It was never too crowded at the pool and there were never more than 3 to a lane. I was pretty scared about the whole ordeal, but I did okay. I'd never tried to work out in a pool before by swimming. I think I was last in a pool for deep water running. I last had swimming lessons at the age of 6 or so. I didn't know pool protocol. When do you put your swim cap on? How do you keep your goggles from fogging up? Is a flip turn mandatory? (My guesses: After you get in your lane and get you hair wet, no idea! and no, you can just turn around).

I was in the pool for about an hour. I can swim breast stoke without attracting too much attention. I swam 6 300s, which is about as far as I can swim in one go without getting quite tired. Freestyle is a much bigger problem. I cannot really do it. I flail around a lot and splash much more than the other humans. Do you kick on top of the water or just below? I cannot get the arms right. I cannot get enough air. I could only swim a 100 free at a time. I tried to do 3 laps four or five times, and always had to quit for fear of drowning. To recover I did some laps with the kick board. Swimming is so different than running because I don't know how to swim slowly enough to recover. I will just sink. I have to go to the edge and hang on.

On the upside, my plan of working out w/o hurting my knees seems to have been a guarded success. I'll go back. (I may need a lesson.)

I am watching the Wimbledon on TV in the evenings after work. They pretty much only show Lleyton Hewitt, but I get a general sense of the goings on from that.

Saturday, I went to Geelong to see the Footy at tiny local Skilled stadium. It's about an hour train ride from Melbourne. It was rockin'. Geelong city has a cute little waterfront harbor area with lots of cafes. We had some good pancakes. The stadium was packed with Cats supporters. We stood in the general admission area with the real fans. It rained on us a bit but that only made the experience seem more authentic. The Cats won definitively and we had a great time. I think it would have been a lot less fun if the Cats had lost.

Saturday night after my day trip to Geelong, I went back to the G, this time for a huge Rugby match between the national rugby team, the Wallabies and the dreaded rivals, the New Zealand All Blacks. New Zealand is just abut the only less relevant country than Australia for Australians to pick on so there is a lot of picking on the Kiwi here. The G was packed with 80,000 people or so. There were more New Zealand fans than Australian fans. The game didn't make a ton of sense to me and I don't really know the rules, but I had a good time. Australia narrowly prevailed, which was a major upset. The best thing about the game was the haka before, which is something I had never seen before. The traditional Maori war chant seemed to add a level of menace and severity to the already violent game.

Sunday was practice for the National Ultimate Frisbee League, where each state selects a team and sends the state squad to a small national tourney. I'm playing for VOS (Victoria One Squad). It is good to be playing again. I missed practice the last couple months. We played from 1 to 5 in Albert Park, and despite it being "winter" here it was about 60 degrees out and a gorgeous day. Practice was fun. I learned some new drills and we scrimmaged for several hours. I am working on my long game and got to put it long quite a bit so it was a lot of fun.

Next week could be a lot like this past one: work, Frisbee, swimming. Maybe we can make the blog a little more participatory and choose your own adventure style. I'm open to suggestions. If you want something to turn up in the blog just let me know.

If I'm not thinking, I'm drinking 'bout you

Hello. What can I tell you? It was a pretty good week. I am feeling a little sluggish and uninspired, but it's probably time for an update so here we go...

Let’s start with the bad news. Another torn ACL: First was J-Christ, then Brenda then Emma and now Abbey. That’s right, my golden retriever tore her ACL. The injury was sustained while playing fetch with my Mom. She’ll have surgery on Tuesday and then rehab, just like a person. I’m sad about this and a bit worried about her. I remember when this happened to Moose (of TMC fame) and it was a tough deal. Moose got better though, at least most of the way. I’m sure my mother will be keeping a close eye on Abbey.

Deirdre is back from the bike vet and better than ever. I just needed a new peddle hyrdacoil. I got her seat raised a bit and rode her to pick-up.

Pick-up on Saturday was a lot of fun. While there, I found a co-ed team to play with here. The seasons are opposite (rather than concurrent as they are in the US) so most club players play both co-ed and open or women’s. I’ll be playing with “Gary” which is based on a core of one of the open team here in Melbourne, the Heads of State. The boys from heads are pretty nice and a very casual group. I don’t expect us to win many games, but we will win the party. “Gary” is a bit of an inside joke, but I’ll probably expose it here in future posts. Stay tuned.

This weekend involved a fair bit of drinking. Jess and I had 5 long necks of Coopers between us at Hell’s Kitchen on Friday after work. On Saturday Jess, Joy, Hussey and I pubcrawled Fitzroy. We approved of the Provincial and Night Cat, and several other places that can now only be hazily recollected. It’s a good part of town. This morning I had brunch at La Citta and had some bloody marys. It’s a good thing I have to go to work tomorrow, I need the detox.

This week’s strangest event was a corporate team outing to watch the movie Office Space. The whole team was there. We were in a Telstra office, showing the movie on an Accenture laptop on a Telstra projector. We had Pizza. The bit about every day at work being the new worst day of his life still paints a poignant for me. It was a queasy dissonance to watch this anthem of rebellion at work with Lumbergs right there all around me. Maybe that’s what necessitated all the drinking noted above.

I also attended another trivia session this week, this time at the Prince of Wales, with Chris and Liz. I didn’t help much, but I did get a question about Jesse Owens right. We came in next to last, which (strangely) wins a prize.

This week’s mailbag: I have an exciting item in the mailbag this week. Thanks to Peanut for sending me a postcard from Budapest. She is in Hungary visiting her family and resting her planter fasciitis.

Peanut was Lindy’s favorite Ambush player for her sic layouts and long “yellow hair”. Lindy, also of the yellow hair turned 5 this weekend. Time flies.

Best of luck to Ambush at the Boston Invitational this weekend. I think this is the first time in 5 years or so I’ve missed that weekend. It’s strange not to be there.

Fellow bloggers: Do you archive independently from Blogger, in the event that it might go down or eat your blog or something? It is free after all. They don’t exactly have a service level agreement to meet. If so, any tips?

And finally, don't think I forgot about you. Here's a few good pranks to keep you entertained:
Oil and Weather.