Tuesday, February 23, 2010
first real practice of the season, aka GUH
oh lordy lord lord. I am a pile of guh and a blood blister and a painful contact lens which I ripped out of my face as soon as I got home. I am thankful, however, that I kept up on the exercise stuff or they probably would've had to scrape me off the floor.
back in the empire state
So I was in North Carolina Thursday-Monday, for my grandmother's memorial service. It was a sad occasion to be sure, but it was good to see everyone on my dad's side of the family (they're spread out across the US - Virginia, California, Arizona and then us here in New York).
I used the fitness center exactly once while I was there - 15 minutes on the elliptical, yay me - and ate bunches and bunches. Sigh.
Tonight is practice for those who are going to try out for the travel team. I am still conflicted about that.
I used the fitness center exactly once while I was there - 15 minutes on the elliptical, yay me - and ate bunches and bunches. Sigh.
Tonight is practice for those who are going to try out for the travel team. I am still conflicted about that.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
middle of teh weekzar
I WENT TO THE GYM LAST NIGHT. Whee. I started feeling crappy again during the weight lifting and exercise machine portion of it, though. Don't know why.
The assisted dip/pull machine was fixed and even though I hate that machine so very much, I did my repetitions on it. My left elbow is still bugging me a little, but I slogged through it. Go me.
I also did a half hour on the elliptical, during which I alternated between watching the Olympics (men's figure skating, yawn) and the pop-up rerun of LOST. Did you know that there is a love triangle between Jack, Sawyer and Kate? I would not have known that if it weren't for those pop-ups! Thank you ABC!
So today is Ash Wednesday and as a lapsed Catholic, I feel it is my duty to give up something for Lent, so I am going (read: trying) to give up eating everything that's not nailed down. Fingers crossed.
The assisted dip/pull machine was fixed and even though I hate that machine so very much, I did my repetitions on it. My left elbow is still bugging me a little, but I slogged through it. Go me.
I also did a half hour on the elliptical, during which I alternated between watching the Olympics (men's figure skating, yawn) and the pop-up rerun of LOST. Did you know that there is a love triangle between Jack, Sawyer and Kate? I would not have known that if it weren't for those pop-ups! Thank you ABC!
So today is Ash Wednesday and as a lapsed Catholic, I feel it is my duty to give up something for Lent, so I am going (read: trying) to give up eating everything that's not nailed down. Fingers crossed.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
oh! and....
Watched a lot of speed skating on...Saturday, it must've been. I learned about the sheer AWESOMENESS that is/was Steven Bradbury (Salt Lake City games - the final of the 1000m. He's last out of five, skating a fair distance behind everyone else [including Apolo Anton Ohno]. EVERYONE ELSE CRASHES, HE'S THE LAST ONE STANDING AND HE WINS THE GOLD MEDAL. And even better, THAT WAS HIS STRATEGY - to skate behind everyone else and hope enough of them fell to get him to medal status. He is totally my new hero now.)
It's really amusing to watch the crashes, as long as they don't end with, like, someone's thigh slashed open by a skate blade. I really did not need to see the replay of J.R. Celski's injury. (For what it's worth, I think I have only been in one bout where blood was an issue - the last bout of the season, I believe one of the other team's jammers got hit in the nose.)
We have a new coach this year, who is also a speed skater. I'm not quite sure how well speed-skating will translate into derby-skating. One of the better jammers on Queen City's league is a former speed-skater, but when it comes to blocking, it's not really necessarily about GO GO SO SPEED FAST FAST FAST. (Plus, if we flung our arms around like that we'd get so many penalties it wouldn't be funny.) Plus the stance is entirely different - speed skaters have flat backs, we squat like we're over a disgusting toilet. We shall see how it plays out.
It's really amusing to watch the crashes, as long as they don't end with, like, someone's thigh slashed open by a skate blade. I really did not need to see the replay of J.R. Celski's injury. (For what it's worth, I think I have only been in one bout where blood was an issue - the last bout of the season, I believe one of the other team's jammers got hit in the nose.)
We have a new coach this year, who is also a speed skater. I'm not quite sure how well speed-skating will translate into derby-skating. One of the better jammers on Queen City's league is a former speed-skater, but when it comes to blocking, it's not really necessarily about GO GO SO SPEED FAST FAST FAST. (Plus, if we flung our arms around like that we'd get so many penalties it wouldn't be funny.) Plus the stance is entirely different - speed skaters have flat backs, we squat like we're over a disgusting toilet. We shall see how it plays out.
have to remember it's Tuesday, not Monday
(three day weekends always throw me off)
So, as I said yesterday, I did not go to the gym on Friday night. I got sucked into the Opening Ceremonies with its non-functional cauldron. (And, as I said to Roy Underkill, Bob and Doug McKenzie should totally have been the ones to light it, eh.)
So that was my excuse for Friday. My excuse for Saturday was...I took like a four hour nap that afternoon. I have always slept really crappily, and who can resist the siren call of a really comfortable couch? Not me, that's who.
So Sunday's excuse was....I got up late. I was supposed to meet with our stats guy at 11am so he could give me my stats for the season, but he showed up 40 minutes late. I hung around for a while, watching the first set of fresh meat skaters go through their assessments, but I had to get back home.
(I also found out why The Bowling Powers That Be scheduled their makeup game for Valentine's Day. Back at the start of the bowling season, they said "okay, we'll schedule it for the Sunday after the Super Bowl," and no one looked at a calendar to see that oh, hey, the Sunday after the Super Bowl is Valentine's Day. Whoops.)
So that brings us to yesterday. I'd signed up to help out with the fresh meat assessments last night. They weren't at the rink where we normally have practices, because it's February Break and they have lots of private parties. So we had it at the venue where we have our late summer/fall bouts. The floor there is technically "polished concrete" but it's more like "semi-polished concrete with lots of cracks and bumps". I tried out my wheels and skidded around a lot (but I wasn't the only one). It was like doing donuts in a snow-covered parking lot. I figure if I use good 88a black Heartless wheels as pushers, and my 92a yellow Heartless as my outside wheels, I should be okay.
The fresh meat, as I've said before, are absolutely awesome. It's so awesome to see so many women frickin' excited to skate. I think towards the end of last season we got a little apathetic, kinda "we've been skating nonstop for over a year* now we need a break". So we've had our break and are now WE NEED TO SKATE NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW DAMMIT, and I think the influx of fresh meat is adding to the excitement.
On Thursday I have to fly down to North Carolina for my grandmother's memorial service. I hate flying with the intensity of eleventy billion suns. I am going to have to sedate myself up the wazoo. (Xanax FTW!) It means I'm going to miss the Cooked Meat party (celebration of the Fresh Meat who make the league) *and* the first league practice, about which I am kinda bummed.
Oh - so I did get my stats last night. I have no idea what they mean, but apparently in one game I did really well. Yay me? Our stats guy had the numbers from two bouts - one bout where we lost, I played pivot about a third of the time and during those jams the other team scored eighty trillion points. Whoops. I don't like being pivot - I'm not good at telling people what to do. I like inside blocker (put me on the line and I will stick there like glue) and back. Outside you need to be able to move around the track more than I am really able to do, though maybe this year I will be better at that.
Tonight is Gym Night Whether I Like it Or Not. Kyle is on vacation so I won't have Death Paces, but I can go and tinker around on some of the machines and do a half-assed job of it. I wonder if the assisted dip/pull machine is fixed. God, I hope not.
--------------------------
*The timeline of our league kinda goes like this - the league began to take shape in February 2008; I joined in July 2008. We started bouting in May 2009 and ended in November 2009. So I, at least, skated 16 months without a break.
So, as I said yesterday, I did not go to the gym on Friday night. I got sucked into the Opening Ceremonies with its non-functional cauldron. (And, as I said to Roy Underkill, Bob and Doug McKenzie should totally have been the ones to light it, eh.)
So that was my excuse for Friday. My excuse for Saturday was...I took like a four hour nap that afternoon. I have always slept really crappily, and who can resist the siren call of a really comfortable couch? Not me, that's who.
So Sunday's excuse was....I got up late. I was supposed to meet with our stats guy at 11am so he could give me my stats for the season, but he showed up 40 minutes late. I hung around for a while, watching the first set of fresh meat skaters go through their assessments, but I had to get back home.
(I also found out why The Bowling Powers That Be scheduled their makeup game for Valentine's Day. Back at the start of the bowling season, they said "okay, we'll schedule it for the Sunday after the Super Bowl," and no one looked at a calendar to see that oh, hey, the Sunday after the Super Bowl is Valentine's Day. Whoops.)
So that brings us to yesterday. I'd signed up to help out with the fresh meat assessments last night. They weren't at the rink where we normally have practices, because it's February Break and they have lots of private parties. So we had it at the venue where we have our late summer/fall bouts. The floor there is technically "polished concrete" but it's more like "semi-polished concrete with lots of cracks and bumps". I tried out my wheels and skidded around a lot (but I wasn't the only one). It was like doing donuts in a snow-covered parking lot. I figure if I use good 88a black Heartless wheels as pushers, and my 92a yellow Heartless as my outside wheels, I should be okay.
The fresh meat, as I've said before, are absolutely awesome. It's so awesome to see so many women frickin' excited to skate. I think towards the end of last season we got a little apathetic, kinda "we've been skating nonstop for over a year* now we need a break". So we've had our break and are now WE NEED TO SKATE NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW DAMMIT, and I think the influx of fresh meat is adding to the excitement.
On Thursday I have to fly down to North Carolina for my grandmother's memorial service. I hate flying with the intensity of eleventy billion suns. I am going to have to sedate myself up the wazoo. (Xanax FTW!) It means I'm going to miss the Cooked Meat party (celebration of the Fresh Meat who make the league) *and* the first league practice, about which I am kinda bummed.
Oh - so I did get my stats last night. I have no idea what they mean, but apparently in one game I did really well. Yay me? Our stats guy had the numbers from two bouts - one bout where we lost, I played pivot about a third of the time and during those jams the other team scored eighty trillion points. Whoops. I don't like being pivot - I'm not good at telling people what to do. I like inside blocker (put me on the line and I will stick there like glue) and back. Outside you need to be able to move around the track more than I am really able to do, though maybe this year I will be better at that.
Tonight is Gym Night Whether I Like it Or Not. Kyle is on vacation so I won't have Death Paces, but I can go and tinker around on some of the machines and do a half-assed job of it. I wonder if the assisted dip/pull machine is fixed. God, I hope not.
--------------------------
*The timeline of our league kinda goes like this - the league began to take shape in February 2008; I joined in July 2008. We started bouting in May 2009 and ended in November 2009. So I, at least, skated 16 months without a break.
Monday, February 15, 2010
wow! a comment! I HAVE READERS!!!!
(of course, this makes me feel really bad now, that I didn't go to the gym on Friday *or* today. Epic, massive, major FAIL.)
Friday, February 12, 2010
nothing matters but the weekend (BWOMP BWOMP BWOMP)
and once again we hit the weekend, not a moment too soon.
Should be fairly low-key; Maverick has his junior bowling league tomorrow morning. He is scary good bowling these days; we went on Super Bowl Sunday and his three game total was a 350. Sunday is Valentine's Day but Roy Underkill has a make-up bowling league day from Christmas. Apparently the people who decided to reschedule it for then are not celebrators of the holiday.
I really don't care about it one way or another. My Confirmation name is Valentine, so in theory I should. (My mother thinks I picked it because it was my great-grandfather's middle name. I picked it because it sounded cool and everyone else seemed to be going the Anne/Elizabeth/Margaret route. I was such a rebel in 8th grade.)
But then again, I don't care much about many holidays. They're just so much work. Decorating and stuff like that. Christmas trees are the worst - if we didn't have a kid, we wouldn't get one.
ANYway.
Tonight is my usual gym night. I will probably go and watch the Olympic opening ceremonies (and then not watch anything else). Back during the 2006 Winter games, I participated in the Knitting Olympics, wherein you cast on for your project during the opening ceremonies and had to finish by the closing ceremonies. I was able to complete the Jesse's Flames sweater in that time, although I used a really cruddy yarn and I really don't wear it that often. (That's another one of my obsessions - knitting. Yes, I have this book. I've knit one or two things out of it.)
Ever since I started derby, I haven't knit as much as I used to, which I regret, as I enjoy doing it a lot (and because I have a room in my house filled with bins of yarn for projects). There's only so many hours in the day, though. I did pick up a project that had been languishing for a while again recently, so soon I will have a pretty pair of socks. (Do NOT ask me about my sister's sweater that I was supposed to have finished by Christmas 2008. Just don't.)
I really need to see a bout soon. It's been so long, I'm getting antsy. The closest league that's in bouting season now is Buffalo - Queen City Roller Girls. Roy Underkill has a bowling tournament in Buffalo some time in March, and if the weekends line up properly I'll go with him, stay for the bout and convince someone on the league to give me a ride home.
Should be fairly low-key; Maverick has his junior bowling league tomorrow morning. He is scary good bowling these days; we went on Super Bowl Sunday and his three game total was a 350. Sunday is Valentine's Day but Roy Underkill has a make-up bowling league day from Christmas. Apparently the people who decided to reschedule it for then are not celebrators of the holiday.
I really don't care about it one way or another. My Confirmation name is Valentine, so in theory I should. (My mother thinks I picked it because it was my great-grandfather's middle name. I picked it because it sounded cool and everyone else seemed to be going the Anne/Elizabeth/Margaret route. I was such a rebel in 8th grade.)
But then again, I don't care much about many holidays. They're just so much work. Decorating and stuff like that. Christmas trees are the worst - if we didn't have a kid, we wouldn't get one.
ANYway.
Tonight is my usual gym night. I will probably go and watch the Olympic opening ceremonies (and then not watch anything else). Back during the 2006 Winter games, I participated in the Knitting Olympics, wherein you cast on for your project during the opening ceremonies and had to finish by the closing ceremonies. I was able to complete the Jesse's Flames sweater in that time, although I used a really cruddy yarn and I really don't wear it that often. (That's another one of my obsessions - knitting. Yes, I have this book. I've knit one or two things out of it.)
Ever since I started derby, I haven't knit as much as I used to, which I regret, as I enjoy doing it a lot (and because I have a room in my house filled with bins of yarn for projects). There's only so many hours in the day, though. I did pick up a project that had been languishing for a while again recently, so soon I will have a pretty pair of socks. (Do NOT ask me about my sister's sweater that I was supposed to have finished by Christmas 2008. Just don't.)
I really need to see a bout soon. It's been so long, I'm getting antsy. The closest league that's in bouting season now is Buffalo - Queen City Roller Girls. Roy Underkill has a bowling tournament in Buffalo some time in March, and if the weekends line up properly I'll go with him, stay for the bout and convince someone on the league to give me a ride home.
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