Local NBC joint did a story on the WAKA NC Capital division, with a lot of coverage of our team, Maggie’s Farm.

See the story (and clip) here.

Yes, you heard me correctly… after a three-year hiatus, the Maggie’s Farm kickball team is back in action!

I played kickball Sunday.

This, in and of itself is no big news, as most people know. Prior to this year, I played three or four seasons up in various Northern Virginia WAKA divisions. This is, however, the first year they’ve gotten a (small) league going in The Triangle.

It shows, too.

I didn’t make the first game, and while I accept partial blame, I received no email from the team captain. Now, I don’t expect anyone to send out as many emails as I did when I captained a team, but an introductory mail would be nice.

Also, no one knows how to bunt.

The worst part is the reffing, though — there are no “full time” refs, at least not yet, so instead of supplementing the ref staff with players from neutral teams, it’s all neutral teams… and remember, these are all ‘rookies’.

That would explain why the ref standing on the foul side of first base called me out on my slide into second. To think I wasted a good and remarkably joelogonesque raspberry to get called out.

And the more I look at Joe’s leg there (umm), the more I realise how similar my injury is, right down to the bandage on the knee.

Overall, however, it was pretty fun. We lost 4-1, despite shutting the other team down 1-2-3 in at least two innings. I played 3B, and though showed a little rust (had one go through my legs…), it was a pretty good time. Too bad I didn’t feel like I could hit the bar, what with my travel schedules calling for early Sunday nights.

Had a good ole time up in Toronto over the holiday weekend… as if I ever have a bad time up there.
Friday:
Arrived in Toronto. Didn’t do much that night, except relax.

Saturday:
Went to the CNE roaming up, down and around the venue.
Apparently we went one day before all the excitement, however — although I do remember standing right next to that ride. It wasn’t bad, but it seemed pricy, considering we had to pay $10 CDN to get in, and then were nickeled and dimed everywhere we went. Did get to introduce her parents to the wonders of international foods — Indian, Greek, Jamaican amongst them — albeit they were your typical, dubious fairground versions.

From a distance away, we could see the more interesting bits of the air show, and I saw the various fighter jet units all over the sky during the entire weekend, regardless of where I stayed.

I tried my hand at a few of the skill games, most notably of which was the one where you try to throw a baseball and bust a plate. Two throws for five bucks; two shattered plates equalled a big prize. My first pitch was a dead ringer, shattered the plate fantastically. My second pitch — well, I can’t believe it. I have little accuracy when it comes to throwing, but unbelieveably, I hit the exact same spot where the previously shattered plate was — so no prize for me.

Finally, we went to one of the few free events, to see the RCMP Musical Ride. It was fairly interesting, although it seemed a bit hokey — but I can’t be so culturally ignorant as to bust on it. The RCMP are an indispensable bit of Canadian culture. I guess it was just the music that bugged me. Other than that, the precision involved w/ the horse processions reminded me at least somewhat of the US Army Drill Team.

Sunday:
I got to grill for about 20 or so family members, which was, to date, my most intense venture yet at grilling. Grilled three pork loins in a BBQ sauce; it was mostly the same sauce I used in the past, but wasn’t quite as good this time around. I also grilled six chicken breasts in a simple marinade that was mostly cheap red wine and soy sauce. On top of that, I grilled three top roasts and attempted to do them in something of a Jamaican style, but they turned out a bit bland… mostly though, in my mind anyway, because one of the younger faces in the crowd would’ve refused to eat anything w/ the slightest bit of heat to it.

Finally, I grilled some stuffed tomatoes (put the guts in a bowl; add various italian seasonings, breadcrumbs, and parmesean or asiago or romano; drop a chunk of mozarella in to the tomato and re-fill them; sprinkle the top w/ more asiago) and some garlic (chop off the top; drizzle with olive oil and add basil, oregano and a bit of salt). In all, the meal was pretty good, along with what everyone else brought… although I am still disappointed in the beef.

Monday:
Monday was a bit of downtime. We went to go see Vanity Fair which I really can’t say impressed me too much, although to be… uh, fair, I was kind of drowsy about 1/3 of the way through it (probably due to the several glasses of caribou — no, not the meat, but rather some strong, Quebecois port wine and alcohol concoction — that I had w/ her dad at lunch). A lot of the guys looked a lot alike, and I just generally had a hard time following it, although the story, in my mind, wasn’t too interesting… it just wasn’t my cuppa.

Afterwards, we went to the always tasty Margarita’s for dinner to introduce her parents to yet more foods — this time it was chorizo chimichanga, steak tacos and chicken fajitas. The fried ice cream left something to be desired, however — it seemed a bit… stale? Dunno, but the outside was kinda chewy, not even reasonably crispy as I’d expected.

Tuesday:
Departed Toronto. Taxi was running late to the airport, the line at the United desk was unbearable, and the US Customs and Immigration lines were terrible, although they let me cut ahead since I had a 10:20 AM flight.

That is, my flight was supposed to be at 10:20.

I huff it and puff it down to the gate w/ about thirty minutes to spare, knowing that they normally start to board flights 20-30 minutes beforehand. I get down there to Gate T, however.. and there is no status on the screen and no one at the desk. 10:00 rolls around, 10:10… no one. Finally, I query someone doing security and they told me they just found out that the flight was delayed. Mechanical problems in the flight departing from Dulles or something.

As it turned out — or what they told us — someone had mistakenly turned on the heat, rather than the AC in the cabin, and they had to de-board and let the cabin cool on its own accord. However, that may or may not explain what they told us, upon boarding, that the auxiliary engine was not working, and therefore we would not have AC before takeoff or after landing.

In any case, our flight was supposed to depart at around 12:45, and I guess we boarded around that point, but I dozed off shortly thereafter, but I’m guessing — and United’s website seemed to confirm this — that we didn’t leave until after 1:30, because I didn’t arrive at IAD until nearly 3:00.

Interesting observations on my way back.
* Guy sitting in the lobby whose otherwise short hair had a long strand a la one of Lucas’ jedi knights. My first judgement was to assume he was some sort of sci-fi geek, but I decided I’d better not be so rash as to assume this; perhaps there was some actual religious or cultural meaning to it, and that it just resembled the jedi hairpiece…. and then I saw his book. He was reading Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.

Yep, sci-fi geek.

* As we approached landing, I was looking down at the busy suburban streets. As we passed over an intersection, I noticed that there were about four or five vehicles all lining up at a light — and all the cars were red.

* On the shuttle back to the main terminal, I saw some sort of letter callsign/identification/something on the side of a larger jet… I think it was Air Lingus. Anyway, the callsign was almost very close to dubious: “I-DEID”

In any event, it was a busy day… but a shutout in kickball was a good capstone, busted-up legs notwithstanding.

Kickball has been cancelled, for the third straight week, due to this infernal rain.

THE COOLEST THING EVER.

(pretty high up there, too)

They had a thing on the news the other night about a hit-and-run killing that took place probably about 1/2 to 1 mile from my house. I didn’t see the accident happen, but I saw the body there on the road, with two cars around it, presumably people who found him, before the cops got there.

It rained like a madman, Monday night/Tuesday morning. Here is evidence (clicky clicky):

Wednesday, we got destroyed, both mathematically and physically in kickball. I will have to do some roster shufflin’.

A diagram I put together for my kickball team, in an effort to better visualise the positions on the field.

For those of you scoring at home, I went 1-1 with one run, two RBIs and one lost temper in our first game. We won, 11-5.

Website for Maggie’s Farm, of the WAKA Reston Division: http://wiw.org/~corey/kickball/

The party this past weekend was off the hook! This season is gonna be great!

Unfortunately, I feel like crap today.

Hey all you Northern VA area friends and freaks,

It’s getting to be kickball time of year, again. You’ve heard me rave about it before, and here’s your chance to join!

Right now, I have a group set-up. It will not necessarily be a team, unless it gets big enough, but regardless, all people in the group should end up on same team.

To create a WAKA account, and to login:

https://www.worldkickball.com/mywaka/index.php

Once you are in, if you want to join our group:

* Select “Reston Division” from the list of available ones — it should be near bottom.
* On the next page, choose the option to join an existing group (not team). Select the group “Maggie’s Farm”

I don’t know what to do after that. Wait for me to approve you, I guess. I have never done this before. I like the whole “group” idea, less commitment involved, immediately, than a team. Not that I’m “afraid of commitment”, but after the teeth-pulling experience of putting together an FFL, it’s a breath of fresh air.

This is gonna rock!

Kickball is justified (and ancient!)

…there are none!

We got to the cricket field for kickball, and it was starting to rain… I dunno what happened. The league coordinator was there, told us, “you all would be safer in your cars” and then she — and most of the rest of the people, including the team we were supposed to play, drove off!

Shortly thereafter, the sun came out, fragments of different teams showed up, and we had a good time, with a scrimmage game created. What fun. And most of you were sitting at home on your arses!

Or something.

Come out today to the Cricket fields at Lake Fairfax to cheer on the Crazy Kids against the division leading, ape of a team, the Monkey Balls. We’re half a game out (We’re 3-1-0, they’re 3-0-1); Our only loss was a forfeit and they tied a team last week that we’d previously destroyed.

I was 0-2 last week, experimenting with some new kicking styles. Not this week, it’s tried and true, down and dirty Adult League Kickball time.

Our game is at 6.30 (although, based on past experience, it probably won’t get started till 7). Show up and support the Crazy Kids!

Kickball was canceled. Well, more accurately, it rained like a fiend. The sharp gusts make the rain feel more like hail. Maybe some of it was. While this didn’t stop some of us from running out onto the cricket field and start kicking around a soccer ball like idiots while fighting the rain and wind, it stopped anyone from the other team from even showing up. Now, considering that:
1. Come to the site expecting to play, regardless, if nothing to the contrary has been posted by 3:30, and…
2. We had enough (including women!) to field a full team, and…
3. Their team captains never even made it out…

…we’re gonna argue for a victory due to forfeiture. We’ll see what becomes of that.

It turned out to be a good evening, though — I ended up spontaneously inviting some of the team, those being the remainders left after everyone else had gone home — to come over to my place for dinner. Cooked a variety of things, nothing fancy, really. Fried rice, fancy scrambled eggs, and cornbread, along with whatever else they got at the store. It was a good time, I thought. Really got to know everyone a little more, and just generally enjoyed the company.

The little notebook that had the cornbread recipe is a faux-velvet covered wirebound thing that I got at Borders one time when I decided I wanted to start writing and drawing a lot again. As does happen to any of my notebooks, it started that way, but ended up with just a bunch of scribbles and torn sheets. This time around it has hanzi throughout, from when I was really studying my Mandarin.

In any case, N, the co-captain and gf of captain, was, for some reason, intrigued. She mentioned that she likes to just write in notebooks if they’re around. She asked if she could. I didn’t care, though in retrospect, I think that’s a great idea — I think I’m gonna leave a notebook out for guests in the house to write anything they want.

Dinner got cooked, we all chatted, discussed magic tricks and whatever else the world would allow. People started getting tired around 9.45 and headed out shortly thereafter.

Talked with the girlfriend on the phone for a while, and am now in the process of getting ready for bed. Doing so, however, I remembered that N had written something in the notebook. I decided to see what she had to say.

N

So anyway, I have been suffering somewhat all weekend from a combination groin pull and twisted ankle, both on the same leg, that I received playing kickball, of all things. They’re both about gone now.Hope it doesn’t become a “nagging injury” that affects my “season”. In any case, we won our third game. I forget the final score, but we won handily, by like six or seven, playing 1-2-3 Not It! I went 2-3 — yes, had my first out at-bat, a foul ball pop-out — that’s the worst. I ended up scoring no runs, and knocking no runs in. Of course, when you end up kicking leadoff two of those times, these sorta things happen. Maybe I can get some credit for starting a rally? I dunno.

Didn’t do a whole lot this weekend. Saturday, I went and picked up the aforementioned server from my neighbor. Sunday, I played poker. Only really played once before, where we nickeled and dimed it; Â This time stakes were higher (minimum bet of 25c), and I lost a little bit of money. Not bad, though, with the exception of one hand. Learned a few variations on a lot of different poker games. It’s “Four Corners” and “Guts” that get expensive quickly.

I ate fast food twice this weekend. I am such a dumbass.

Hi Corey,
You’ve been placed on the Crazy Kids. That team plays tonight at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston at 6:30pm. (off Baron Cameron). There will be signs up once you enter the park for you to follow. We will have your t-shirt.
Thanks & let me know if you have anymore questions!

That’s right, kiddies, I am now signed up to play adult league kickball! Right now, such a concept completely rocks my world.

Wanna follow my thrills and agonies? My division is here.

In fact, should you yourself be interested, check out the main WAKA website. It’s only been around a few years, so there aren’t a lot of divisions around the country — but nothing says you can’t start one!