trip

aug 11-14: wisconsin

10-year high school reunion saturday night. weird and awkward and fun all in one. glad i went. weird to see some people i hadn't even thought about in 10 years, but also good to see some people (matt raboin, meghan boyle to name a few).

drove down to platteville to visit grandma. she is slowly but surely recovering from 2 surgeries (1 planned for her back; the other unplanned for a ruptured gastric ulcer. complications from both (heart failure) made her recovery slower than anticipated). games, crosswords, food, & chatting. stopped in madison on the way back for a drink with courtney.



aug 14-17: washington, seattle & lynden & seattle

flew out to seattle/washington early to visit my relative (aunt & uncle & cousins) who live up in lynden, WA. stayed at skip's in seattle tuesday night. good to hang out with him. drove up to lynden first thing wednesday morning, stopping at a best buy along the way to buy a camera (!). chatted with sue, talked with josh about his recent 10-week trip to europe (which sounds & looks awesome), then lunch with them + jeff. got a tour of the garden from jeff, then sue drove me around the area in the afternoon. went out to birch bay which has the "mud flats" -- the coast is so gradual that there is an area that doesn't ever completely dry off during low tide and the result is muddy sand. it's cool to walk in. took some pictures. drove up to the canadian border, which was cool. saw where jeff works. dinner: delicious, delicious, fresh-caught salmon. mmmmmmmm. watched "Top Chef" on TiVo, further deepening my love of automatic digital recording technology.

thursday, went for a hike in the north cascades with jeff & josh. drove all the way up to heather meadows and hiked out to chain lakes and back. cool, overcast weather, but still gorgeous and fun. just great to be out in the fresh air. parts of the trip looked familiar from my backpacking trip in 2004 -- the ranger station in glacier, douglas fir campsite, the nooksack river, hannigan pass... on the way back we discovered that my rental car had optional techtronic shifting, which made for a fun drive down the winding mountain roads.

thursday evening, headed back into seattle to watch the showcase games between the local seattle teams and the visiting japanese teams (MUD & buzz bullets). MUD defeated riot, and sockeye beat BB. good games. thurs night stayed at the titcombs on lake sammammish -- xthen, zalen, viro, & qhina (i am probably spelling them wrong), plus viro's gf diane. they are all so chill & cool.

friday, went for a run in the morning on the path along the lake, then a jump in the lake (so refreshing!). lunch with catherine on the UW campus on portage bay. she is pregnant! and surviving her post-doc. not sure what she wants to do next but trucking along. chaos meeting up with teammates. eventually found them at charlie/meatball's place. from there, to the harbor & pike's market. then a mariner's game with steve & dan -- ran into seth crockford on the street before the game (he was going as well). nice stadium, good game, great decision. back to the titcombs for some sleep.


august 18-19: ECC/spawnfest
not really sure what the proper name for the tournament is. good competition. great fields. delicious dinner. spectated some amazing ultimate.

Slow went 4-2 on the weekend, beating Brass 14-11, Horde (Whoreshack) 15-6, Flycoons 15-12? on Saturday, then Flaming Moe in the rain 15-12ish. then we stuck our thumbs up our asses and lost to Mischief 6-15. i don't know what it is about them, but we just don't play well against them. final game against Shazam was better, but still lost 11-15. it was 4-8 at half, then 9-13. we pulled within 11-13, but failed to convert during a marathon point (had at least 4 chances...one on the endzone).

i was playing mostly offense, and often b/c hammer was injured, which is still weird for me, but i am slowly adjusting mentally. learning how to cut with greytak & dan. cut confidently when i did cut, but need to gain confidence in my throws. didn't play particularly well...had some uncharacteristic drops which i am most upset about. some not-good throws, but they were in the rain. caught some goals, made some good cuts, had some nice catches -- and played good D when we turned it. legs felt good endurance, strength, & speed-wise. so, overall a step in the right direction. (rolled my ankle...was able to play afterwards but it still hurts the day after)

watched the open finals: rematch of sockeye vs. buzz bullets. GREAT game. one of the best i've ever seen, live or on film. sockeye won 17-16. good heckling, too.

good to see a lot of people: the mischief people (lori, steffi, paul, dan O), the brass people (josh, margo, sven, pat hard), the boston people (jasper, teddy, kurt gibson, fortch, cobbett, j-co), brute (beth, betsy, mack, christie, sarah), the sockeye people (skip, will, seth, idaho, ben...sorta), the other people (lauren casey, andrew brown, ted tripoli, charlie, carla, nate segal, schwa & moe), the new people (ryan on mischief, skizip from ultivillage, tim on flycoons, the ring dude i sat next to during the saturday showcase game?...oh names escaping me...).

red-eye back sunday night...took monday off to sleep, grocery shop, unpack & do laundry. back to the grind tomorrow...