Ahhh, sweet victory

Well, the kickball tournament on Saturday was a lot of fun. Here's a run-down.

Our first game was at 9:00 A.M. We all were excited and hopped up on krispy kremes and coffee. We played well, and with gusto. The score was tied and went into extra innings. We won by two runs in the ninth inning. Victory felt very good, especially considering the other team used a do-over at a moment that felt like we were really getting screwed. We were able to legitimately use our do-over later in the game to level the playing field and make everyone feel the game was a bit fair. The other team was a good match for us, only one rank behind us, and they were good sports and played with humor, which always makes the games more fun.

Then it started to rain. We switched fields and lost even our tree shelter. We also had to play the team that has stood undefeated the entire season. Needless to say, it sucked. They were all 20 year old frat boys that play professional soccer. Okay, they weren't quite that good but they were large, very athletic boys and we didn't stand a chance. We held them the best we could in the sopping wet rain (oh, and for anyone out of town, it has been raining for weeks, the fields were mud pits). Some of the best plays of the day occured during that game, my favorites being when Steve was trying to catch a pop-fly, the ball bobbled up and Aubrey was right there to catch it. The other was when Jason, who was on second base, slipped while he was running to third on Nicole's base hit. He lost his hat while falling, then managed to pick up the hat, make it to third base and because they overthrew the ball, he came home. It was lovely.

Then everyone went home to shower and dry off, and came over to our house to start celebrating. We all drank and then took the MAX down to the PGE park for the final game. I couldn't have been more happy when I found out that the testerone-team that beat us in the second round had been trounced by the Pour Sports. PS was last year's champions, and were the first team the Ligers ever played. They have acted as mentors to us this year and saved our honor yesterday by beating the Swashbucklers. They then went on to beat the SE team (we're in the NE division), who were a bunch of hippies. Our entire Liger team was in the stands, screaming and cheering and trying to be supportive. It was a great game.

Then we went on to the Eagles club, where the Ligers taught both divisions how to dance. We also received three awards: our pitcher won the MVP for the NE league; one of our captains won the NE league's queen award; and the Ligers won the Spirit award for the NE league, which we accepted with much spirit.

So, my first season of kickball was a very good one, with lots of learning and even more fun. Our team was a very good one and I hope that we can keep it together for another season. I liked our balance of good and not-so-good. Each of us made mistakes and each of us made some really good plays and I think that is more important than winning every game. Though I'm sure we could do just that after kickball camp next year. That's right, we'll be coming in very prepared next year.

And today, I watched the first and second special edition Lord of the Ring installments. We just could not find the third one anywhere in town. If we had, that would have been 12 hours of LOTR. As it was, we watched 8 hours. Worth while.