Spring Break in PR and other late winter updates

Waaaay overdue for an update here. Sorry. I've been hella busy.

I spent some time in Rincon, PR with my sister at the end of March. I cannot recommend it enough. Great time. Beautiful beaches & snorkeling. Bioluminescent Bay. Yoga by the sea. Easy peasy.

View in front of our beach house

View in front of our beach house

Lindy and Kate being cute

Selfie at the beach

Lindy gamely struggling under the weight of an island

On February 9th my friend Sarah had a tiny baby, Nathaniel. They are both doing great:

Also in February I went with my friends Heather and Annie to Tucker’s organic farm in New York to see the chickens, goats and Tucker’s daughter Kai. It was a blast to get the band back together again.

Tuckaer and Kai in the cool log cabin on the farm they call home

On the way home we swung by Brooklyn for some brunch and saw some more of the old guard (and Allie's two gorgeous girls).

This is a great starting 7. In 2005.

I also got the chance (at a work outing) to bowl in the Truman Bowling Alley below the old executive building. They have a photo up there of Nixon bowling across the line.

Ultimate for the Elderly

Hey. The summer is going by quickly. I just got back from Lebanon, Ohio where USA Ultimate was holding the Grand Masters Open and Women's Masters tournaments. I played with Lady O, mostly from NY, and we finish 11th, but we came in seeded 12th, so lets call it a victory. I got the chance to see a lot of my girls from the Ambush days, and we had a good time. I'm on the bottom row above, second from the right.

Watching the Open Grand Master's final was pretty incredible. Those guys over 40 can still play. Congrats to Arnie for winning it all with Scrapple from PA.

Next weekend I'm off to Oak Island to see the whole extended family at the beach. I can't wait.

Also, despite all of my natural suspicions, I've joined Google+. Go ahead and look for me there if you're the type of person who likes to put people in circles.

Also get ready to Watch the Throne.

Life Fail?

There's nothing like running intervals by yourself in the rain to make you take a little life assessment.

Things are not going well.

I lazed out again today and did 10 hard minutes, which is apparently my favorite way to limp through pretending to cross train. Not sure who I'm fooling or why I bother. I guess since all my friends moved away or got hurt I need to get a trainer. I hate having to pay for friends. Doesn't anyone want to get into game shape?

Tomorrow I am doing a Snertz, in the rain. By myself. Hoo-ray. Maybe I will try to get the slumlord in on that, but he says he is 'retired'.

I got fired. I am no longer a famous west coast internet personality. Now I am just a schmuck like all of you. The slumlord is still working on my new business cards, so I guess I'll still get ones that say, "Famous West Cost Internet Personality" with a strikethrough, and "Just a Nobody Like You" below that. My editor tells me that there is no more money for freelance writers and I have heard enough about the death of the newspaper to believe him. It was really fun while it lasted and thanks for checking out my posts.

Yesterday at 6:30 AM at practice some of the girls on my wayward High School team asked if we could just stop practice and watch the boys. This makes me sick and sad. I cannot imagine asking any of my high school coaches this. What are they thinking? They must think I am such a joke, and they must also not want to get any better which is at least part of the reason we are so much worse than the Bad News Bears.

I hate the off season! 22 days until Fools with Flash Taco.

That reminds me of the old days and made me want to throw this up:

Oh My! Mel feeding baby Ezra who is now 5?!?!? Since then Goldy's married and knocked up. And Tucker is married?!?!?! And Brenda is married!!!!! LP and Jess have both gone off to and finished (?) med school at Emory. Taliesin is married and Michelle had a baby and got married. Kim Koo and Becca got married and retired. Crystal tore 2 (TWO!) ACLs. Erica retired and Redhook got an IKEA. RIP Ambush.

Tonight I am going to MSG to see the Hoyas play Marquette. Hoya Saxa! I am getting all geared up for March Madness.

mild update on my 'life'

Greetings. What can I tell you?

I am pretty much finished with my holiday shopping. The only thing left is that I have been looking for US Senate vacancies on eBay. There are a couple of seats I have my eye on so I guess we’ll see how the bidding goes at the last minute.

Also, if you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet, Jesse suggests this item, which is truly appropriate for anyone, and has a low carbon footprint.

It will shock no one to report that Minneapolis was cold. Work was work. I am back working in NY for now and won’t have to go back to Minneapolis until January. I didn’t do or see anything while I was there, save the inside of my hotel room and my client’s corporate headquarters. I did not even visit Camp Snoopy in the Mall of Americas. Mostly the cold suppresses any and all exploration urges but not having a car dampens my roaming around as well.

Last weekend Chip & Jen were in town visiting but I barely got to see them as they had a whirlwind schedule and I was quite busy as well. We had the Ambush end of season banquet and it was great to see everyone, eat waaay too much and shake it to our favorites. We are really a dance troupe that plays ultimate to cross-train.

Last weekend I also went to a Knicks game at the garden to see my (ex)boyfriend AI with his new team the Pistons and it really did not work out. (Abysmal no-name Knicks prevail.) I am hoping it is a timing thing and that he has not jumped the shark.

Stephen has offered this comment on AI as a means of explanation. Scroll down for Allen.

The Eagles also beat the Giants which was an unexpected source of much joy.

Other than work and watching sports things have been pretty quiet. Ultimate is in the off season and my hamstring is appreciating that.

The only other major update for me is that I have joined this decade and purchased an iPhone (Leroy). I love him. It is the best thing that has happened to my life in years. I compulsively download apps for it (I love Lux Touch and Around Me). The e-mail interface is better that the one on my laptop. There’s basically nothing he can’t do as far as I can tell. Airport delays are just more time to surf, mail, play games and listen to audio. I’m a happy-camper.

This coming weekend should be busy with some visitors in town from Australia and a holiday brunch. MNF is my birds hosting the Browns which they absolutely must win and are completely capable of losing. I’ll be yelling at the TV with my hands over my eyes, like any Philly fan.

For Christmas I’ll be in Raleigh with my nieces, the Gupton girls. I am looking forward to seeing them and they are looking forward to Santa’s arrival. I have been running queries against the naughty/nice database and it seems they are both in good shape.

It’s almost time to draft this year’s holiday letter. In order to be prepared, be sure check out last year’s letter.

We're going to the Dance!

So, it came down to the bitter end, but Ambush is going to nationals. (I'm in the back row, 5th from the left.) Devens was gorgeous and sunny and not even windy both days, though there were a lot of mosquitoes.

We won our pool on Saturday against a good high school team, a bad college team and Sugar Shack, the 5 seed from Vermont. Then we played the #1 v. #4 crossover against Brute Squad and had them even at 9s before losing 15-9. Sunday we beat Hatch, then lost to the Capitals (Go back to Canada!) and had to play Sugar Shack again in the back door game to go for the 4th spot. They were a little tougher on Sunday, but we still finished them off. (Godiva shocked everyone and beat Brute Squad in the finals.) The scores of all the games are here.

Here's me scoring a goal:

I think that is from the Saturday Sugar Shack game, though I'm not sure.







Hillary has more free time now that she is not campaigning as much and she came out to watch the tournament.
She played really well.

Congrats to NY teams Pony (Open) and Puppet Regime (Coed) for qualifying for the trip to Florida as well.

I'll be down in Sarasota Oct 29-Nov 3 so start getting amped now!
See here:
http://club2008.upa.org/team/women

In other news I saw a few minutes of Les Savy Fav at the Williamsburg Music Hall Sunday night and they are insane in a good way.



Also, my mom got some miniature horses. Initially, I was very excited about this. I assumed that they were pocket-sized and could live indoors in a terrarium, like the household deer from that Johnathan Letham novel but I was mistaken. See?

They are more the size of a Saint Bernard, but as far as I can tell, do not fetch and will not bring you whiskey in an avalanche. (Which has me wondering why there aren;t more alcohol delivering dogs these days, that was a real 'value add service' as we say in consulto-speak.)


I was also mistaken in assuming that the miniature horses might serve as a replacement to the full sized horses already in the back yard. No actually, they are a supplement.

Supplemental mini horses. So There.

Stay tuned.

SARASOTA (it is on)

4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS! 4 BIDS!

see:
http://www.upa.org/club/2008_club/2008_fall_wildcards.shtml

Regionals is Oct 12 & 13. Stay tuned. It is an understatement to say that I am fully amped.

Not sure if you've been checking the personals, but it looks like Something About Mary's ex-boyfriend is causing some hurt feelings in the Meadowlands: check it out.

Jets game was pretty fun by the way. Last year of Giants stadium at the Meadowlands. Favre throws no less than 6 TDs and only one INT. Tell your grandkids you knew me, and I went to the game.

If he were only dead, I'm pretty sure Morrissey would be spinning in his grave that NFL Sunday Ticket is using "Every day's like Sunday" as a theme song.

The Ambush fundraiser Slumber Party was 'successful' in so many ways. You can probably find the pics on Picasa and Facebook if you are over 18.

Dallas persists.

Labor Pains, Labor Day

Hello, dear reader. Now that we've run-off those fair-weather-friends who expect a post more than once a month, we can get back to basics.

When we left off, I was about to head up to Vermont with Ambush for LogJam. Vermont is still beautiful. However, it rained all day, both days on us and we were cold and pruney. Ambush won the tournament (after a couple of massive come-backs) so that was fun. Although, arguably not quite enough fun to justify 16 hours of driving and 16 hours outside in the rain in a weekend.

Shortly after LogJam I had to report to the Chicago suburbs for 3 weeks for new robot training. This time, I'm faculty, We had to work weekends. All the participants are fresh out of university. My job is to wind the key in their back, exorcise any tendencies of original thought and dampen their spirits. Objective achieved. I actually had more fun at school than I expected. I attribute this to the fact that many of the co-faculty and participants were international and I generally prefer the company of non-Americans to Americans.

I also learned what many of you already doubtlessly know: that I speak too quickly, too loudly and too frequently. I am now trying to work on this.

As a 'section room lead' I showed great restraint when i did not hang an 'arbeit mach frie' sign over the doorway.

Following the prison camp, I went with Ambush to beautiful Santa Cruz, California for the very tough, high level Labor Day tournament. We played Fury, Backhoe, Safari, Loose Cannon, Brute Squad and Godiva and lost all 6 games. Ugly. On the upside, we had awesome pickups from the CA area: Gulley, Lisa, Bossa, Puja and Mega it was great to play with you guys. Let me know when you are next in NYC. Also I had incredible burritos. CA does Mexican like you can't find in NYC. Finally, the fields, although in a desert were plush and green (irrigated) and on Mount Olympus. Seriously, the nature of clouds and fog and the view from the fields down to the bay made it seems like we were playing in the clouds. Red eye home was as much fun as you'd expect.

September is crazy house guest month: Seb and Tex, Aussies touring after worlds in Vancouver are staying with me now. Mama will be here this weekend for a week or so. Amy and Simon are also coming up from Caracus for a while. So yay! Fun to see everyone.

What does the future hold? Reply hazy try again later. Here's what I can tell you: Ambush has sectionals and regionals coming up, so once again I'll do that, though both the ankle and hamstring are functioning way below normal. I still haven't seen Sarah, or my parents or sister since returning home, so that is on the agenda.

Work wise, I am still 'unstaffed' and uncertain. I'm working on resolving that. I'll either be staffed in New York (+), London (+++), North Jersey (- - - - - - - - - ), West Africa (+++++++++) or any other conceivable location. Once I figure that out, I'll go there. So there.