Congrats, Canada, you hosted a memorable Winter Olympics. We don’t begrudge you beating us. It’s not like you’re 1980′s Russians. You wanted it more than us this time. You needed it. You did it. Stay gold, Canuck-boys.
Happy Birthday 4th Birthday, Doodles. We’ll have more on you later.
No More Meh Winter. Bring on the Spring. Broken Social Scene, Stars, The National, The New Pornographers, The Hold Steady, Brazilian Girls, among others all have releases in the next few months. Many in May. It’s going to be a windows down driving around kinda season. Soon.
First kindergarten field trip was a convenient jaunt to the beach. The kids were in two groups, scooters and joggers. Pablo was a jogger, but we have since procured a scooter for him which he has taken to quite nicely.
The field trip was my first chance to volunteer at school. I’m also going to be reading in the classroom next month. It’ll be a good opportunity to experience Pablo’s day first hand as information is usually parceled out in brief missives at this point.
Jefe: How was school today?
Pablo: Awesome.
Jefe: What did you do?
Pablo: I don’t remember. I’m hungry.
As the day goes on, information trickles down to me. It’s been fun to share with other parents because only together can we really create the whole picture of the school experience. Here are some shots from Beachcomber’s Day. And then read on for Bobcats.
Pablo scooted to soccer. His team is the Bobcats in the all cat named league. Another bullet dodged as we could have been vegetables or something lame like that fruity tee-ball league.
Pablo was the only one without shin guards. D’OH! My bad? He seems fired up about the project though, which is a good start. Pee Wee Soccer at the YMCA a couple years ago was a lot of dandelion picking in the middle in the field. Still the snack and juice pouch at the end of the game seem a major draw for most of the 5 year-old-boys. It’s the 6-year-old soccer girls to watch out for as they have some serious skills.
Pablo had me read the back of the Big League Chew pack to him aloud…3 times.
So, we recorded it. But I found out I can’t upload it here without a space upgrade. We’ll see if I find it worth it to do that later. Sorry for the tease. How about this?
Pablo may have found his sport. Soccer and swimming were rough, but we’ll try again. Last week he started playing for the Lyndale Farmstead Bluegills. We’ve never seen him shag a ball so quickly or actually concentrate on a game at hand like this. He was looking fine in classic Charlie Brown style with his baggy shorts, baseball cap, and big t-shirt. The irony is that his favorite part of baseball is absent. Normally he only likes to pitch, but said he really likes being in the field and trying to get the ball now. It’s fun to walk to the park whilst he runs ahead in excitement. And our sense of community is heightened by the neighbor kids on the team and their parents coaching.
action up the middle
helmet over Brewers cap
OK, the only glitch is he’s not officially on the team yet. The park board said they were full, but the coach told us to keep showing up if we want to play. He doesn’t have an official shirt either. One of the coach’s sons doesn’t want to play, but she is holding out hope for him. Maybe not that much, since she told us to keep showing up. And we will every Tue/Thur till they kick us out.
Trying a new video upload and embed using our Uptown Kickball Facebook page. My privacy settings don’t allow it to be embedded here. Now that we have many video and regular cameras shooting the games, I’ll think I’ll keep it on Facebook. If you care enough, join the group there or come out to Painter Park (33rd and Garfield) on Wednesdays at 6:30pm.
It was a fun night with the sunlight lasting long as we lingered in the park till about 9:30. We had a higher scoring and more energetic game than the previous two. And I have my first win of the season under my belt. Whew. That’s half of all the times Christian won last season. Hey, it’s about the fun, right, Commish?
Jim said -
Game 03:
The Clitourists – 7 (Bonk inspired and a book that SB has)
The Local Happy Thursdays – 3
Game MVP: Erin ‘Old School’ Erickson Garner – for getting on base every single frickin at-bat, and being an all-around morale booster
For game 2 of the 2009 season, Uptown Kickball’s loose theme was Joose or similar bad malt or wine beverages.
Joose tastes like Children’s Motrin if you chased it by licking a battery or piece of foil. It’s a malt beverage energy drink with 9.9% alcohol content made in Cold Spring, MN. You don’t have to support everything local. If forced to pick one, I find orange the least despicable of the flavours. As for performance enhancing energy? Well, see Xian’s Mariah Carey routine in the video as he relates his first experience with the awful-aftertasting malt beverage. Would you drink it now? Would you drink it on a boat? With a goat?
I do not like green Joose, or purple or red.
Commissioner (and sweet dude) Jim Schloemer reported the final stats:
(Colon) Overblow – 4
Ribbed (For Her Pleasure) – 2
“Game MVP: Ryan Harris – because he showed damn fine teamwork/sportsmanship (way to back people up like a boss!) and versatility on the field. Kudos to you!” –
and to you, Mr. Jim for being the fine leader of our sport.
Note: Our official team name was actually
RBI’ed (For Her Pleasure) BuntF’ers 9.9%
Because we don’t believe in intentional bunting in kickball.
Next time we’ll expend less effort on nombre and mucho mas on kicks n’ catches.
We were happy to welcome many newcomers including Jess K., Elli and Kate among others, not sure who were all first timers. But as you can see from the group photo we’re bursting at the seams with chewy friend goodness.
Another reason to see the video is for Kate and Elli’s “recalibration” bar signals.
After the game, Uptown Kickball sang the night away doing karaoke at Country Bar. I jumped in for a duet with a stranger doing Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”. I also went back to my roots for a falsetto rendition of “Kiss” by Prince.
If possible, it was even more fun than the first game. The bar is set really high for the summer and I think we’re going to clear it easily. Let’s jump.
A cloudy 50 degrees set the tone for a fun, but offensively subdued opener with over 20 people playing and at least 5 more jeering us from the peanut gallery.
Team names were Cake Eaters vs. Birthday Suits. (In honor of Captains Jim and Laura’s birthdays. Laura’s from Edina, but no one else admitted to that if they were.)
Birthday Suits won 3-1 after an extended 9 innings. Everyone was well-stretched, but the 10 players in the field rule, including a catcher, should help improve scoring next time.
Jefe tried to slide under Morgan at 3rd base and was later reminded by Mama that he shouldn’t hurt himself trying so hard. He took what was deemed to be an intended slide by his teammates, Cake Eaters, or a fall trying to dodge the ball by the opposing team. (It was a slide, really, I’m fine, just dusty.)
The Jackal’s new shoes proved sadly in need of practice without Jess there to cheer him on to victory.
Jim Schloemer (Co-President/Overly Competitive Jackass)* proclaimed
“Game MVP: Laura Hovi – because she pitched 8 straight no-run innings, and also it’s her f’in birthday!”
Cedric, the 11-year-old neighbor groupie, nicknamed newbie Erin “Old School” and Sarah B. “New School” and wanted to play doctor with both of them after getting past “Old Man” MacGillis. We welcome all three, new to Uptown Kickball this season. Another new recruit, Peter “Don’t call it a comeback, been on the list for years” was stellar in his first showing. Also Erin shared a story with a fake happy ending and her fear of balls. And don’t expect Sarah to play, but she’s happy to cheer.
We forgot to take the group photo, but now have two video cameras shooting with Jefe adding to Stensby’s stellar production values. The team went to Country Bar for karaoke after lingering in the cool park and discussing the last party mishaps.
We’re just warming up for what promises to be a really fun season. I’m going to need a better camera.
*self-described on Uptown Kickball’s Facebook page
Tomorrow is the last day of Pablo’s pre-school. I don’t know how we’re going to handle it. I am scrambling to get a few things done before I know I can’t.
This is what he and his classmates want to do this summer:
And today was red, white and blue day at school. At least one other parent participated with me this time. (Baby steps.) Another parent said she heard about me in the robe and jammies and was sorry she missed it. I said, there’s always the blog.
But what do I want to do this summer? Let’s look at what’s coming up on the iCal.
Brewers/Twins, kickball (!), Houghton BBQs, our new BBQ space, Grand Old Day, concerts (some of my fave bands), 10 Second Film Festival (entering a few Bright Asides) dodgeball, Books & Bars, Liz and Turf’s wedding in Oak Park, St. Paul Saints, park playdates, Prior Lake, and my first (not the year obviously) high school reunion in Milwaukee. Hopefully we’ll fit another weekend getaway from Pablo and Doodles in the schedule, too.
This past weekend we attended the LynLake Festival and Art-A-Whirl and then the LynLake Festival again. Not the most economical planning, but at least we live near LynLake. I got to hear local buzz band, Solid Gold, whilst the boys loved the Strider bike race set up in the middle of Lyndale…
…so much so that we bought a couple used Striders the next day.
Swimming pools, squirt guns, and watermelon on tap for today.
What about you and your summer? Hope to see you outside soon.
I joined a Friday night dodgeball league at the MLK rec center. The balls are smaller than you may remember as a child, but they fly much faster. They don’t hurt when you get hit, though the few I’ve taken Pelé style have momentarily stunned. Especially when they were more of a facer than a header. Our team, Ball Crushers, plays against others like The Incrediballs, Team Murphy, and Venezuela. Here are some clips from last week’s game. I instructed Mama to capture me early before I got all red-faced and sweaty. She caught some good hits, dodges, throws, and a win, if I dare toot this well-worn horn o’ mine. You’ll notice my technique of trying to hit the women first and also going after someone right after they’ve thrown and are off-balance. Still working on the catching, but dodging is key.
Anyone else play?
If you can’t tell, I’m having a blast. Love it. Very happy to have been asked to join the team.
Look at the perfect design of the M(ilwaukee) B(rewers) glove.
Brewers are the best. Twins are #2 for teams, but not logos. Sadly the Brewers no longer use this classic design, but they did when they were rocking their serious ‘staches in ’82. Yeah it was 1982, but Rollie Fingers looked like he was from 1882 and might tie you to the train tracks.
And then the Cubs take 3rd for baseball love but not when they are anywhere near Brewers. I love a good underdog whether its an unknown or unsold band, author, indie film, etc. A losing sports franchise seems a natural for me.
Growing up in MKE the Kamin side of the family were Brewer fans. Conradt side were for the Cubs as they lived close enough to Chicago (Kenosha) and could get WGN reception with their TV antenna. We are now in Twin-town, where Mama grew up, so there you go. Twins have been solid for many seasons, whereas the Brewers are only recently hot again. And it only took about a quarter century.
Brewers are up here Memorial Day weekend and we’ll be at the Friday night game.
Play ball.
