"Wings" is leaving the Runway.

Farewell Matt – We’ll miss your Hello Kitty, Hannah Montana, and Lizzy McGuire towels, your calling yourself in by one cone but not the other (that’s a straight line between two points right?), your cries of “Ball up!” even though we continue to play this game with discs, and your politically incorrect sense of humor always welcome on this pitch. It’s been great having you with the Buzzards and we wish you Fair Winds as you travel to Texas.

Yesterday, and the last couple days really were fitting weather to send off somebody to Texas. Consider yourself acclimated as the humidity has been oppressively heavy. Or as another Texan Buzzard put it “You know what they call this weather in Houston? Spring!” Well, in fact Brian, it’s still technically just spring here also.

The first day of summer does not come until the 21st which coincidentally or not will also be my first full day of waking up for two weeks at the beach in Kitty Hawk, NC. Not that I’m counting the days or anything.

Prior to beach trip though we have time for some great Ultimate (and I’m sure there will be some great games when I’m gone as well). We’ve been playing in front of bleachers the last couple of days out on the parade field. Well, I guess more accurately, we’ve been behind the bleachers. Now we probably all have some interesting “behind the bleachers” stories to tell but this blogger doesn’t really want to head down those clouded and time embellished lanes right now.

What has actually happened behind the bleachers, which we assume are set up on the parade field for some pass and review ceremonies coming up on Ft. McNair, is that we’ve had two big games. The Buzzards are on a roll lately and it’s been a rare occurrence when we haven’t had at least a dozen players out recently.

So yesterday, when there was a wicked thunderstorm going on about the time I was sending out the morning invite, I suspected the potential weather might scare away some players. And, in fact, the email RSVPs to the game were sparse. Only 9 confirmed players on the way out to the pitch for Matt’s final game. But, as has been the pattern lately, plan for at least an extra 25-30% to show up.

You know there is a saying in some other team sports that “speed kills”. Well I’m finding that “heat kills speed” and our sprinters like Leroy, and Devan were showing signs of that as I noticed them walking up the field several times yesterday. Kevin and I continue to do our best tortoise impersonations and Tom keeps wondering why I’m sticking all the “old and slow” guys on the same team.

May have dubbed Steve with a new nickname yesterday – “Gunn” not to be confused with his handling aptitude but his desire to walk off the “Runway” with his pinnie on. Many of you won’t get this reference and so I’ll refer you to Erick who did know the Project Runway host’s name which may have only been slightly less disturbing than the fact that I used it. He “at least had an excuse” he claimed by living in a house full of girls. I’m blaming mine on 123 Washington Ave. and Alexa, Kelsey, Margaret & Mary.

Speaking of pinnies! Today will mark the unveiling of the new pinnies for the Buzzards so come out and see the new colors as we retire the green and gold for something a little more organizationally inspiring (or if you prefer, they can be considered the colors of Virginia, Illinois, Florida, or some Scandinavian’s national soccer team which escapes me). At any rate, gone will be the plunging neckline and thong models of the gently worn pinnies we’ve used.

Looking forward to seeing you all in them. I’m not sure they make the Tim Gunn’s 10 Essential Elements list but I think we’ll look “mahhhhhhhrvelous”!

15 and no rain!

Monday, 50% chance of rain was the disclaimer on the game invite yesterday morning to which I got varying responses…

“Monday Ultimate in the Rain? Of course I'm down for that. I think that's the only time you actually get a Yes response from me.” – Thunder

“Don't say "rain" or Jeana won't play (she's made of salt, apparently). There's a 50% chance of summer snow. I'm in.” – Kevin

“Yee haw a chance to get wet too!” – Brian

“What are you doing telling people it’s going to rain? Trying to keep them away?” – Matt

Well, as it turns out, the Pillar of Salt…aka Princess…aka Jeana did not show. My last IM on the way out the door was “It’s not raining”. To which I got a reply of not so cloaked cynicism.

“Not now”

Well, not then nor at all in fact through the whole game. It was cool, overcast, the grass was a little high but not really any standing water and the Buzzards came out en masse yesterday…15 of them!

We’d like to give a hearty Buzzards welcome to John joining us for the first time yesterday. He’ll be taking over for Scott in their office. That was the easy part of his check-in but as tasked, Thunder also told John his check-in included coming out for a game of disc. Okay John, so we may not technically be on your check-in sheet but thanks for giving us your time. We hope you had fun and will come back out.

Welcome back out to Steve and Tim who we hadn’t seen much of lately. Great to have you guys with us.

So with 15 I’m sure you’re thinking the pitch was a bit crowded, and it was but green seemed to get their short passing game working a little better than gold was able to for most of the game. I noticed they did a little better job of getting a handler on the disc for the first throw. Todd remarked that he rarely had to run much further down the field after he would make the first throw because the rest of his team was managing to get it up quickly.

Brad and Brian, in particular hooked up on a couple great looking pass and catch plays in the end zone despite what I thought was fairly decent defense.

It was a great day for Ultimate and a great week planned. For any of you who haven’t heard yet. Wednesday we have our first ever Buzzards Cookout planned. Thunder has taken the lead on this and will be acting Grill Master after our normal 1130 game. Many of the rest of you have volunteered to bring things and I want to thank everybody for their support. If you can get out and join us for the game or the cookout, come on out!

Thanks again for the great turnout yesterday! Besides those mentioned above, the usual cast of characters put on the green and gold…Tom, George, Conrad, Paul, & Jeff were all out there as well. Did I miss anybody? Because last time I did, I wound up writing the person their own column.

Going to be a great day today, see you on the pitch.

Pull!

The nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

One of my favorite song writers once penned the words “You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away”. And that was very much how I felt many times yesterday thinking I was making a cut for where I needed to be for the disc only to discover there wasn’t much footing and indeed the more I was slip sliding away.

With the forecast yesterday morning, and for that matter all this week calling for rain, rain, and then some more rain, I was a little surprised to get such quick response yesterday morning. The first replies coming from the usual suspects, Todd, Kevin, & Bob. Then Brian, eager to play after missing a couple games last week, rogered up. Then Joe and I started thinking to myself “Ah, he’s hooked, to be replying so early for a certain rain game”.

Not so hooked was “Princess Tiarable” who replied “I’ll play if it’s not raining” which sounded like a no to me since I knew it would be raining. So I did what I normally to when I receive cryptically worded replies…handed it over to the kangaroo court for a quick decision. The court’s decision was something akin to “Nana nana boo boo, we double dog dare you to play”, which of course she could not ignore and after a game time start without her (which sparked talk of how best to penalize her) Jeana did indeed show up giving green the extra person yesterday (arguably to no avail).

Welcome back out to Mike who had exhausted his list of excuses (many making the all-time Top 10 lame list) like “I’m too skinny”, “I don’t have enough core strength” and “I’ve got a toastmasters meeting” and joined back up with the Buzzards…the equal opportunity fitness alternative where we don’t much care about body shape or size, or give a rip about core strength and get plenty of public speaking opportunities in the showers after the game.

Conrad and Bridgette rounded out our drenched disc denizens yesterday and we had a fun game with some highlights like sliding catches through puddles and some nice defensive knock downs. And some low lights like getting hit right in the center of the core and dropping it and a few missed throws that somehow got away. Speaking of throws…Bob did anybody else mention to you that you completed more junk yesterday then I’ve seen in a while? Which brings to mind two axioms that I find a certain amount of resonance in….1) It’s better to be lucky than good and 2) You make your own luck.

On the day when two amazing hat tricks would be recorded later at Verizon Center by Alexander the Great and Sid the Kid, Bob may have had his own hat trick of missed throws that wound up in somebody’s hands for scores.

So when most fair weathered sports are hoping for some sunshine, the Buzzards were finding voice in another songwriter’s lyrics (one I’m headed to see tonight!)

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party

Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party

Tell me how do we get this thing started

Meet me at Mary's place

Yo Boss, see you at the JPJ tonight…

Yo Buzzards see you on the pitch today?

Summer turns to high...in the Spring

Mercury
is rising still
Turn the fan on high

I won't step on my own shadow
No-one wants to cry

Someone put a pox on me
I spit in their eyes
Summer turns to high

It’s still April right? Wow! As temperatures soared into the 90’s yesterday on April 27th (Happy Birthday Mary!) the Buzzards soared to the Ultimate pitch in droves…or flocks I guess would be more appropriate…yea, that’s it, they flocked to the field. And the Mercury was still rising with no fan in sight which was too bad for Kevin who for some reason missed R.E.M.’s weather forecast and decided to come out with his long sleeve t-shirt while a few of us decided to go sans sleeves altogether.

I don’t know about any pox, or swine flu for that matter but somebody put a hit on me early in the game. Okay, maybe that’s not quite a fair representation of what really happened. A disc remaining in the air for an inordinate amount of time all of a sudden looked like it might be in play for me and so I decided to run, faster, close to top speed for the ol’ Chief in fact and then “Splat!”, I ran right into something that didn’t move (that something was Paul) and as I was crumbling to the ground I heard ringing and after a couple seconds of coming back to I took inventory quickly to realize, in a relief, that I did indeed still have all my teeth and that none of them seemed to be sticking through my lips, though they had tried to make there way through as evidenced by the colorful red expectorant I spit out…fortunately, in nobody’s eyes.

Summer has indeed turned to high!

Great, great turnout yesterday. Would like to welcome back Bridgette from her month long sentence of jury duty. She wanted to know who the heck this new girl was out there that wouldn’t stop running. Oh, Bridgette, meet Karen, Karen, Bridgette. And not just running yesterday apparently. Todd had a front row seat for a nice one-handed, left-handed running grab Karen made late in the game yesterday. It was one of many really nice plays I saw yesterday.

Want to also welcome back out Joe. He’s from the previous generation of Buzzards but has been on hiatus.

Jeff made a banned substance induced-like cut in end zone on one play that Bob zipped to him on a line and had to because JasonC was running step for step with him on D. And that must have been a switch off because for the most part I enjoyed watching the match up between Jason and Erick during the game as they traded nice grabs in traffic. I also saw Conrad make a nice rolling catch of a disc destined to hit the ground.

After 4 or 5 drives down the field Bob & I finally got ready to field one pull and I heard him remark “Hey, I’m finally going to touch the disc”. And so it goes with 15 people on the field. Some nice attempts, at times though gold to run formations from the stack. It was the multiple cuts we were having difficult with. And no wonder, it was hot. Yesterday marked the first day this year I can remember sun screen coming out on the field. And the first time in a while we had an all-hands mandatory water break called. Kind of like a safety pit stop mandated by NASCAR.

After a week of being away in Montreal and presumably not getting in a lot of Ultimate, I heard Brian calling for his mama out on the field and then suggesting in the locker room later that we find another sport on days like this….Blasphemy! Thunder did suggest though that we purchase some cool water Jacuzzis for post game relaxing. Not a bad idea, maybe I’ll run that by the next Fitness Council budget meeting.

I also tasked Thunder with getting together with Hollan once he gets down to the Tidewater area and getting together a team there that the Buzzards can travel to play against. Beach Ultimate anyone?

We are losing some other Buzzards soon. I believe Matt, Karen, Paul, & Scott are all departing. Am I missing anybody else? We tried last year for a picnic with very tepid response at the time. Anybody feeling more ambitious about that this transfer season?

Stealing my paycheck today...

Wow, that was a lot of people. And Brian didn’t even show up. But 16 others did and we had a grand game of 8’s today.

Welcome back from the long lost to Joe. He’s a holdover from the old “Lonnie Days” of goals, lots of banging with the likes of Tom and Lindsay.

Also want to give a big Buzzard welcome to Amy, from Seattle. Great to have you join us today too. Tell Brad not to forget to shave tonight, he was looking way too scruffy to come back to work tomorrow.

Speaking of “back to work”, that is where nobody wanted to be headed after today’s game. Fantastic weather out on the pitch today. So good, that Todd tried to bait a few of us to leave work and head to the links. His lure? “I’ve got an extra set of clubs in the car, they’re women’s and in a pink bag.”

“Yea, but that’s better than work right?” I asked. Kevin said something unrepeatable about women’s clubs but I knew he wanted to leave also.

Paul was back out today sans ring. But still with those big furry gloves? We know they don’t work to keep jewelry on but after watching one of the grabs he made in the end zone today, I can’t really question him wearing them. Kevin also made a nice grab or two that Dennis classified as “larcenous” I believe.

I wish we could steal a bunch more days like this during this spring. It doesn’t get much better.

Tinker Bell and one ring to bring them to their knees.

I’m writing about Ultimate when I should be writing my Comparative Education paper. But yesterday’s game warrants at least a few paragraphs.

I had sent out a precursor invitation to play on Facebook on Sunday, noting that the temperatures were supposed to be approaching 60 and it should be a great week to play. Sending out an invitation for activities at work on a Sunday got me labeled a “fanatic” by Marianne.

At any rate, the invitation at work went out late because I was down in Medical getting my annual physical and dental exam done. The doctor wanted to know why I didn’t get more sleep which led to a whole discussion about the value of traveling between Richmond, D.C., & Charlottesville every week, sometimes all 3 in the same day. Listen, I know it’s not the “healthy optimum” but it’s not going to change in the foreseeable future so can we just let it go.

When I finally got back up to my cube nobody else had sent out an game invite either and only 1 email in my inbox from a Buzzard wondering where I might be. I was suddenly worried we might not have any interest for a game but I sent out the email anyway and immediately had 8 responses. Scott replied twice, once in proxy for Phil who apparently was coming into work only to play but was running just a little late.

In fact, by the time Phil got here, Scott and I had already hooked up on two scoring passes which he made really nice catches on both. The first stretched out sprinting to the side of the end zone line after a very nice “Chiefly finger point” call for the throw. The second was a really nice grab of a Hammer that didn’t quite flatten out and was falling more like a guillotine in the windy conditions.

Phil finally showed up and as we pointed him toward green to join Todd, George, Paul, Kevin, & Matt. Meanwhile, Scott & I were joined by Jeff, Bob, Jason, & Brian. Both teams were finding challenges with the wind that was gusting upwards of 30 mph but not all the time so occasionally one would think they could throw it the length of the field and watch their teammates tripping through pot holes to get it and the next we were throwing our first pass backwards.

Phil barely even got a sweat up today though because not long after he got there I was falling back into defense watching Matt try and sneak behind me. When I turned back up field, I saw the other 10 players on the ground. “What the heck just happened?” I wondered. “Must be an injury, who went down?” I thought trying to see who was holding anything and writhing in pain. Then I noticed they were all moving and rubbing their hands on the ground. “Ah, I deduced, lost contact lens I guess.” As I walked back toward the scrum on the ground I heard Paul explaining where we was when it came off, the trajectory of his hand and what force it was thrown with….”Hmmmm, this wasn’t a contact lens” --- lost wedding band ---

“This reminds me of a Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street story” I chimed in as I got down on my knees to help in the search.

“Did that story lead to a pawn shop?” Kevin asked and the whole conversation quickly degraded to replacement rings, replacement wives, replacement body parts…and other things but unfortunately no found ring. Paul, under threat of being battle axed (apparently the weapon of choice of his in-laws) decided to head back to building security to get some of those cool metal detector wands. The rest of us (well except for Phil who nobody really knew or cared was at work anyway) headed to the showers.

Normally I don’t relate what it’s like standing with a bunch of naked men partially wrapped in towels or wash cloths, or drying off with paper towels because they’ve forgotten one. In fact, Jason joined me (as a proud owner) today in finishing the purchase of his 2nd set of “Exchange towels” because he’d forgotten one…Anyway, I don’t normally bring this up but yesterday was special because Matt was showing off his “Tinker Bell” towel. The product of living in a house with all women/girls… apparently it was either that, “Hello Kitty” or “Hanna Montana”….good call on Tink there Matty.

About an hour later, we all got an email from Paul. On the last sweep across the field, Phil found the ring which saves Paul a severing from Nordic weaponry but indebts him to help Phil remember his anniversary next year. It was, in fact, the most productive thing Phil accomplished yesterday. On the precipice of dissolving its first marriage, the Buzzards Point Ultimate club backed away slowly from the edge.

Lap dances and new guys...

Do I have your attention yet?

On days like yesterday there are always two questions you hear asked after or during the game. “Why am I running more with more people out here?” and “What happened to all my passing lanes?”

Ah, the benefits of having a regulation 14 players!

To think, when I called the game yesterday I had to send out an email to ask the bare minimum crowd of 7 asking if they minded banking on the return of a “maybe” from an official function. “Call the game!” was the resounding reply and so I did. And…as it turns out…had very little to worry about. Both Todd & Phil did, indeed, get back in time and said they were in.

Then I wander down to the locker room to change and in saunters Scott (or when “No” means “Yes”). Still, I hadn’t counted on him for sure. Then as he, Paul & I were out warming up on the pitch, a stranger came wandering across the horizon of the field, holding his cleats in hands like an old western hero moseying down the middle of town hands at the ready for anything suspicious. I could almost hear the “Eastwood-esque” musical announcement of his arrival and there he was, returned from the proverbial dead…Tom.

“Hey, I get ‘new guy’ status today” Tom argued.

“What status is that exactly?” I asked.

“I can pretty much screw up anyway possible out on the field today and you have to keep giving me that positive encouragement of insincere plaudits like ‘good hustle’ and ‘nice effort’ every time” he explained.

“Oh” I deadpanned, thinking to myself that insincerity and sarcasm are two of my stronger communicative characteristics. “No problem, you got it”.

So we lined up our 5 on 5, still expecting Kevin & Conrad to make it out of the locker room. And then George wandered over, and walking with Kevin & Conrad was Jeff and all of a sudden we had 7’s!

On gold’s first drive down the field, Tom made a great cut toward the side of end zone and made a nice reach on a low pass I threw him. “New guy status, my …” I thought.

“Great catch Tom, welcome back”.

That cut to the outside would be something we’d struggle with making the rest of the day as we continued to try and throw to the middle of the field where most of those 28 arms were flailing around. Stack and cut, stack and cut, stack and….well it’s progress, not perfection.

Because there are some other factors like Jason observed. “Well, if I cut and you don’t throw it to me, then where do I go?” And it’s a great question with multiple answers depending on who you ask and what style of offense they’ve played in the past or what makes sense to them logically. Of course, as Brad has found out, his logic isn’t necessarily everybody else’s logic.

And back to Brian’s question of “Why am I running more with more people out here?” Well, perhaps because you’re trying to get away from each other to get open. See “stack and cut” - A good rule of thumb for you, as a receiver, might be to not let one defender cover multiple receivers because they are standing next to each other.

This actually may take some practice. We’re starting to develop a nice little core group for a potential tournament appearance soon and we may want to run some drills. We may also want to find some women for our team.

Kelly? Have you found employment yet? If not, come play with us. You know why Jeana couldn’t play with us yesterday? She fell off a bicycle this past weekend. We’re going to have to write clauses into our Buzzards’ contracts about dangerous activities during non-playing hours. Oh wait, I thought the playing hours were generally the dangerous activity period but I guess when you add tequila, anything can be hazardous. Bridgette? Are you still around? We need more women! Otherwise, I’m going to have to resort to asking Scott and Paul to come out in drag. Now word has it that Scott can do a mean lap dance but really…please don’t let it come to that.

Great turnout yesterday folks!

Kiss my Assets

People were eager to play today. The invite went out at 0700 and an hour later I had already gotten 9 positive replies and even 1 cancellation. The Buzzards were apparently trumped by the Coast Guard’s Chief Counsel for Kevin’s billable hours. But no worries, Phil rogered up shortly after and we were back to 9. I thought for sure, with the weather forecast that we’d see some stragglers but it stayed at the uneven 5-4 which gave me the chance to snap off some pictures (soon to be posted) before joining the game in time to throw my 5 best passes to Phil who unfortunately was not on my team at the time.

To add insult to injury on one play I was actually heading into the end zone, I drew the attention of defensive Mr. Everywhere. He didn’t intercept the pass to me though…no instead he cleated me on the heel and I went down in a crumple. “In the crumple” seemed to be a popular position today by the way. Bob had already been down once and would go down again and Brad also rolled an ankle and went down in a heap when I put on a lightening fast cut fake on him (okay, I leaned my head one direction and stopped).

Todd claiming some numb armness (I just made that one up) from apparently hitting too many volleyballs this past weekend, said he was having trouble making the long throw and 2 or 3 times I saw him look off the deep route. Too bad on those occasions, we didn’t actually give him too many short cut options.

Brian, fresh off his elbow surgery seemed to have few ill effects. And in fact may have even been running faster than normal (not that you need a flipping elbow for that). But he made at least 2 great running grabs deep.

Speaking of volleyball, we lured Shane back out again today. We love it when he’s got those 1300 meetings and can’t make the v-ball schedule. He and Scott had some interesting matchups today. Neither of those two look like leapers on the outside…ah but looks are deceiving.

And finally, we have a picture of Jason to post soon where he is skying above the defender for a disc. Your kids are going to love this one.

Here’s the philosophical question of the day…Would you rather be a legacy or leave a legacy? And is “legacy asset” an oxymoron? I’m pretty sure Thunder was playing with my asset out on the field but I don’t have it on camera for the proof I need. I do, however, have cleat marks on my heel….oh, that’s going to leave a legacy.

End of the 20/20 days?

Finally the wind subsided a bit and we got enough for a game yesterday. Those 20/20 days (temps in the 20’s/wind in the 20’s) are winter’s equivalent to the summer’s 90/90 (temps in the 90’s/humidity in the 90’s) and just as difficult to play in and lure people out in. But yesterday the temperature crept above 40 by lunch time and the wind had pretty much died down.

I want to give a big Buzzard’s welcome to Shane who was joining us for the first time yesterday. Usually you can find him on the volleyball courts but yesterday they weren’t playing and as he told me “anything is better than the treadmill”. I did caution him though that it might not be any less running but certainly more fun and interesting. Shane made some great grabs yesterday particularly on some lousy throws by Kevin. Hey, that was their own description of the plays, not mine.

Paul also came up with some unlikely catches yesterday off tips either from his hands or somebody else’s. I think JQ was enjoying having somebody just run down to the end zone and see if he would throw it to him.

Our gold team of myself, Bob (after a bit of a layoff), Matt, Brian, & Jason couldn’t seem to get everything clicking in sync, especially on defense where we found ourselves getting to a lot of passes but not being able to either make the interception or knock down (re: Shane’s and Paul’s catches). Bridgette offered to let us go take cold showers in the women’s locker room…wait, I’m not sure if those two things are actually related or not.

Today’s game time temperatures should be approaching the 50’s with more sun so it promises to be another great day on the pitch. Looking forward to a great turnout before I take off all next week.

Trifecta - Weather prediction, Vegas omen, or the truck I ran into?

Yesterday was a day off for the Buzzards – We hit the weather trifecta of cold temps (feels like 28 according to weather.com), precipitation (mixture of rain/snow), and high winds (18 mph). Usually hoping that only one of those surfaces though we often play in two of the conditions, three just felt like too much to me yesterday morning as I was recovering from my near concussive state of the day before. So I didn’t even send an email out to see who might be interested.

Often times when I do this, in fact, most times I don’t, somebody else will pipe up and ask what’s going on and clamor for a game. There was no such clamoring yesterday. At about 9, Todd sent me a message “How are you feeling today?” I gave him the update, explained that I was trying to get some school work done, turned down his invitation for racquetball and just generally went back into hiding in my cube.

"Where's Swinny when I need him" was Todd's diappointed reply.

1030 – Kevin sends me a message wondering if he would be the 8th…that he might talk himself into playing. Kevin, by the way was who I dove into the day before sending my head into the hinterlands. He suggested I must have hit him in some more…uh…tissuey area…

“No” I assured him “Whatever I hit definitely was bone.”

And that’s almost all I remember from the game on Tuesday. It was one of Scott’s bi-monthly games which made for some good story telling. I don’t remember the whole thing but his wife’s friends, vodka, lap dances, and flatulence were involved. Oh yea, and Scott slapped Todd with the disc at one point on the field. Did we mention we miss you not being out there more often Thunder?

You know if you’re looking for a club that’s right for your needs you should really consider the Buzzards Point Ultimate Club. In a gesture of flexibility afforded to one of its most “seasoned” members, we moved the game to noon on Tuesday because Matt was driving into work (off leave?) for a medical appointment or some other such business and asked if we could delay the start time.

“Send me a text if we’re playing” said the voice mail.

“Game On ~ 1200” I sent to him after conferring with the other 7 confirmed players for the day. Oh, so we mentioned Matt was actually the 8th and I wouldn’t have been able to call the game without him? Still, we’re pretty darn lenient in this group. Don’t let it be a habit though because I really don’t like having to shuffle around all the soccer players and vie for shower space with them when we get back the same time they do in the locker room.

Anyway, hoping to get in a game today. Paul, who can’t seem to find our Facebook page is hoping to find a Vegas jackpot and won’t be with us. But let’s shake a bunch of feathers from the nest today. Hey Brian, I see you’re already in as I’m writing this morning, you’ve been ducking us the last couple weeks. Grab John and Doug and come on out today. Tom – I’m no doctor but I think your snowboarding injury is healed enough to come back out. Bridgette? Jeana? How about some of you who are in danger of having to take the driving test again if you don’t get back out soon….Tim? Mike? Bo? Fred?

Todd, Kevin, Matt, Phil, Jason – I’ll be counting on you guys if you’re here today. Should be a nice soft field for soft landings assuming I can avoid contact with other players today.

Pull!

Handlers, runners, and a taste of spring...

Monday was a teaser for Spring. Beautiful weather and it brought a good turnout for the game. We had 11 Buzzards wander out to the field. It was so nice that people were taking off layers before we even started and periodically through the game after scores, somebody would run to the sideline to peel something else off.

Speaking of clothes coming off, everybody can breathe easy….Kevin got a new pair of sweats and so we don’t have to worry about seeing him running down the field with his pant around his ankles…well at least not due to his broken string now.

John, this must have easily been the nicest day you’d been out so far, right? As the current “Newbie” (new to the Buzzards but not to Ultimate) you had come out on some of the most frigid days we’d played this winter for your first games with us. To your credit, you’re still coming out and if I haven’t done so already let me give you the official Buzzards Welcome!

More new players are on the horizon. This morning we’re having some trouble getting enough to answer email for today’s game but one new player has and for Arthur’s sake, I hope we run today. I also got an email from a guy named Jeff who apparently “lives right next to Fort McNair” but has no military affiliation and wants to play with us. I think he may have found out about us through our new Facebook group but I’m not sure yet. The other possibility is that he’s been scoping us out from an apartment window telescope but that seems less likely as somehow he got my email address. If anybody’s got any ideas about how I can get Jeff onto the base continue his reconnaissance…uh…I mean begin playing disc with us, please let me know.

So back to the game…when Brian came out he said he and John needed to be on opposing teams so when they both left for their 1300 meeting it would leave the teams balanced. He said it was up to me which team to saddle with the chicken wing throw (which by the way is becoming surprisingly accurate) or the guy with the pulled “buttocks” (John’s diagnosis, not mine). You know how when you’re making Mojitos there is that delicate balance of rum to club soda? Well, there is a similar delicacy in deciding on handlers vs runners in splitting up the teams. It’s especially difficult when your handlers are also your runners as that sometimes has a negating effect on both. I can usually be accused of putting myself on teams that are “handler-strong” or at least as I perceive them. I do this even though I know I can’t run enough to take advantage of this.

That’s a long story to say that I decided to opt for John and his buttocks over Brian (the underrated handler) but usually more of a threat to run by you. We teamed up with Todd (one of those handler/runner types who you handicap by making him do both), Bridgette (who I like to get in height mismatches with guys like Jason), Paul (who inexplicably volunteers to always run down and play cup), Jordan (joining us for his monthly game) and Dennis (also a runner who fancies himself more of a handler).

And we matched up against Kevin, Phil, Brad, Scott, Jason & “Chicken Wing”. This is a sneaky physical 5-some. They find ways to run into you and hit you without it seeming like it’s illegal.

You know, for those of you who read this and wonder why I don’t mention outcomes very often it’s because there is a strange little tidbit about the Buzzards…we very rarely keep any kind of score. I mean generally you know which team is playing better and might be ahead and when we call “Last 3” at 1125 we are able to count to 3 (usually). You know, now that Derek has left us (it was the football/softball player in him) nobody else really keeps track.

So I can’t tell you really who came out on top yesterday though my suspicion is it was probably the gold team. We were having some defensive break-downs on green that seemed to get a little better when we switched to man but not enough to overtake the gold by that point.

Looking forward to redeeming myself some today…”Bill, take a runner because you’re not one” is the voice I’ll be listening for.

I pass on greeting from Buzzards Alums (and part-time players) Kash, Travis, & Kelly who have all joined our Facebook group.

Pull!

Buzzards go Cuckoo

There are new birds in the nest! Just when you thought it was safe for the Buzzards to stay in, the Cuckoos fly in.

By the way…as a small aside here. I have this blog as an RSS feed to my Facebook (just don't try to access this from work) page but it shows up as a note (which some of you only read it as) but it does not give any indication where it’s coming from (i.e. the blog is the source). So, I’m thinking about putting the hyperlink as the first line of each blog entry. Well, at least until somebody can figure out how to have Facebook credit the source and steer people to the BPUC page. I’m sure one of my friends (Kari, I'm thinking this might be you since you had Twitter updating your Facebook status from a train the other day) can help me with that but that supposes any of them actually read this.

I didn’t want to confuse any of the Buzzards who are reading this and wondering why I’m directing them to someplace they already are.

Anyway, back to the nest interlopers…

There are a couple of great quotes from R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that I’m reminded of this morning as Brian fills in for the deranged Jack Nicholson. I got out of my car this morning at about 5:15 (that’s a.m for you Facebook readers) to walk into the building. I’m not exactly sure what the temperature was then but right now, as I write this (8:40 a.m.), it’s climbed to a “balmy” 25. Problem is, the winds are blowing from the NW at 23 miles an hour with wind gusts up to 36! That makes it feel like 10 degrees which ain’t Chicago but it’s still darn cold.

So, I figure “Okay, I’ve got my Ultimate gear today but there really won’t be anybody who wants to play.” I had already heard from a couple leaving the pitch yesterday that stated “for the record, I’m not playing tomorrow.” Thanks Todd for the heads up. You’re to be commended on your relative sanity. Unfortunately, that cannot be said of all your teammates. This is where McMurphy, a.k.a. Brian comes in.

Email at 8:03 – He wants to know if I’m calling a game for today. Or as McMurphy would have said “Which one of you nuts has got any guts?” Here’s the thing, it’s sometimes easier to ignore or assuage one loose cannon with misplaced bravado. But see Brian’s smarter than he looks, he’s got 3 other nuts with him already committed to play when he emails me (Jeana, Doug & John…you better show). Did I mention John's first two games with us will have been yesterday and today? That’s half the game right there and my obligation is to only come up with 3 more players assuming I’ve been guilted into going out myself (this is not one of the club leader perks they tell you about when you take this job).

And see I already know there is at least another one out there because Paul came out in shorts yesterday! He told me something the other day about family ancestry being tied into some Nordic fishermen or some such crazy story. Meanwhile I’m left thinking “I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this.”

Brian chirps in a few minutes ago with another co-conspirator in Dennis and all of a sudden we’re at 7 and I have this awful feeling we’re actually going out to play today. I’m envisioning discs cracking in pieces when and if they actually land after getting caught up in the wind.

I think I’d rather face Nurse Ratched “You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.”

“P-p-p-please d-d-d-don’t tell my m-m-m-mother.”

Crap! There’s a positive response from Brad, now I’m going to have to send out the “Game On” email. Have the clinic standby for frost bite patients after lunch. There’s 8 flying over this Buzzards’s nest!

A slapdash kind of game...

There was indeed slapping and dashing going on yesterday…and kicking apparently. Some of the kicking was legal; I was actually able to kick block a pass which I will try from time to time when I don’t really feel like bending that far. The other kicking was compared to mule-like activity so I’ll assume there may have been some physical contact involved which, by the way, is not legal.

Apparently there was also some mocking going on when I explained that double-teaming was also not legal (even when you are down a player). The mocker in question shall remain nameless but he’s the one with the accent. George (so much for nameless) despite your incredulity there are, in fact, a set of rules for Ultimate and a (some would argue more than one) ruling Association. I’ll remind folks or tell them for the first time about the Ultimate Players Association where you can find all things Ultimate. For a small fee, you can join up which will allow you to play in most organized leagues and tournaments should you find yourself wanting something to supplement your daily fix with the Buzzards. In fact, I just got my renewal notice in the mail a couple weeks ago…it’s next to the Comcast bill. If this economic crunch starts to hit me too hard and I have to decide between the two, I’m sending in the UPA renewal and turning off cable and internet.

Now back to yesterday’s game. Did I mention it was a bit sloppy? We had another great turnout though with 6’s when Jeana finally got away from her office and came out to even up the teams. By that time though, we, on the gold team, had already gotten ourselves into a bit of a hole. When I say hole, I actually mean multiple holes that seemed to be in our zone defense. Green managed a couple of nice short pass drives up the field for scores.

The slapping going on yesterday actually looked to be the result of some nice hustle. I thought we had people hitting each others arms and wrists (and ears?) as they were both going up for passes. And that kind of “incidental contact” seems to be generally okay with most of the Buzzards. In contrast to the just running through somebody because you're too slow (re:lazy) to get around them and front them on defense.

I was having some pinnie color recognition problems yesterday. On one early drive I threw a pass to the corner of the end zone that I thought I had gotten close enough to Jason that he should have caught it. Just when I was about to yell something about the lack of hustle, I realized we didn’t have the same color on. Ooops. “Hey Bill, you’re gold” Bob reminded me as we turned around after the turnover.

We got an unexpected visit from Kelly yesterday. Taking a break from the job search to concentrate on things much more important. Great to see you yesterday KG! And even though you gave a disclaimer when you got out there about not having played in “months” I saw you make several nice plays, including one really good defensive block.

But most of us noticed our own lack of execution yesterday…When I tried to pep talk gold one trip back down the field with “Okay, here we go, now we’re going to start showing them something!”

Matt replied “Does that mean you want me to leave the field? I just want to know now before I run back down there.”

Todd remarked after the game “I know I saw at least 2 discs coming straight for my hands that somehow did not wind up there.”

And Paul told me on the way back down the field after another score “You remember how yesterday we were saying what a great game it was? Today…not so much.”

“Yea” I conceded “but it still beat being in the cube.”

And you know, you all are just crazy enough that when I think we might take a day off…you know for the temperatures in the teens with the wind chill kind of days….like TODAY! I get an IM from Brian saying “Hey, we’ve got 3 (Doug, John & I) in my office ready to go today.” And I give in and send out the invite, finding two more immediate replies to take us up to 6 already.

Sloppy or not, we’re headed to the pitch.

Pull!

Muddy Monday

We’re only 2 weeks into January and really have hadn’t a long stretch of challenging winter weather but I’m encouraged by our 3 games and 39 people we’ve had come out so far. It was a great game of 7’s today. Welcome back Scott, good to see you. Soccer and basketball took the day off and we also got Doug and JQ. And while Leroy finished up his winter “break” at work with the Coast Guard last week, Carolyn is still with us as George Mason apparently doesn’t believe in school in January. Now that’s a J-term I can appreciate.

The pitch was a bit muddy today…I guess. I came into the locker room though having to carry my shoes in a Ziploc because I had played yesterday in Richmond on a completely grassless bog where my cleats were essentially useless but I wore them anyway and there was a coat of dried mud on them to start today’s game. But many of us were also in it today. I saw Carolyn diving for a catch across the end zone…or maybe that was the defensive play where she and Bridgette looked like a snowball picking up size as it goes downhill when they both hit the ground in pursuit of one throw. Jason fell straight back on another throw that was surely headed into his hands even though he was the defender. And so much so that Todd had stopped covering the deep guy and gold team got the first score of the game on a broken play.

Not all of us saw that play though. Remember the bit in the email this morning when I called the game about trying to start a few minutes earlier than we have been? Well, Brad apparently thought that was a personal affront to his civil freedoms and decided to not come out until 15 minutes later. So we, on the green team had taken our extra player advantage in George, the other late-comer, and didn’t do much with it.

It actually looked like we were gaining some reasonably approximation of a zone defense on a few plays as Paul was hustling up to get some good cup defense set. And it worked well for a while…or on some plays I guess. By the way…I noticed Mike that you were trying to exercise the “Phil” rule and swing the disc around hitting people on the arm to show that they might be in your “pivot zone”. A little clarification here may be in order. When you have a 6-foot plus wingspan or you’re able to pivot the length of a small child, you cede some of your privilege to that foul call. The defender gets to come close to you and you’re probably better off trying garlic, really strong onion or flatulence if you want to ward them off. We’re not letting you hit people with the disc anymore so just throw it already.

Brian seems to have ironed out most of the kinks of that reverse discus throw of his. It’s amazing what you can adapt to when you’re injured I guess. Now that Scott is back I can shift my missing Buzzards attention to other people. Eli, where in the world are you? I keep getting “No” responses from Tim. So much so that I wonder if he hasn’t set up an “Out of Office” rule on his email to anything Outlook sees from me. And Tom we haven’t seen you in a while though I did notice that you had RSVPd for Friday’s game which didn’t happen.

Okay everybody, don’t pass by too many opportunities to play. The weather could turn anytime (check out the 10-forecast…Thursday may be the turn day this week) so let’s take advantage while we can. Great, great turnout today!

http://bpuc.blogspot.com/

Rodney Reunion Tour

“So with Rodney playing today, do we have to let him win?” was the question I got asked yesterday morning in preparation for the BPUC reunion game we had planned for him as he was going to be back in the building and hoped to play.

“No way” I said “Let’s just treat him like we always do…like our little sister”. I mean we didn’t want to make him feel unwelcome. I did notice though that JQ was making Rodney look deceptively fast early in the game zipping two passes into end zone corners where the defense wasn’t actually that badly beaten. Ah, handlers…sometimes they make you look good.

There seemed to be a variety of defenses being played yesterday. My team, overwhelmingly outvoted me and wanted to play zone to begin with. So Brad and Brian headed forward to play the cup with mid-play tutoring going on (which, oddly enough, seems to impact the effectiveness of the defense actually being played…not in a good way). Phil, Dennis & I roamed the middle and Bob played deep safety (he likes that position too much and jumps at the chance he gets to play it).

The green team seemed to be playing some bastardized version of pentagon and 1 or what I like to call 5 guys playing man and the 6th letting Brian run loose. After we found Brian for the 3rd or 4th open pass early in the game, I heard Todd shouting “Who in the world has Brian?” I’m not completely sure but when I saw JQ racing back and forth across the field as safety a la Bob, I figured he was the one who’d been cheating on the man defense.

I had a particularly tough time throwing yesterday due to the new defense being played on me. Scott was marking me with the “bump pivot” D. That’s when I’m trying to get him out of my shirt and I pivot around and he keeps bumping me. It’s legality clearly in question…I could picture Phil if he’d had to endure it, constantly rotating the disc around in front of his stomach to try and cry for more room…but the effectiveness of it could not be disputed. My handling sucked yesterday. Aside from a couple that I decided to just throw out of bounds and let come back in (and one of those got caught up in the tree), I was pretty much useless.

Several players deferred playing yesterday and said they’d be playing today. If that was your idea of fair weather Ultimate playing I might point out that you didn’t check your weather forecasts very well. Yesterday was almost perfect playing conditions with temperatures in the 50’s and almost no wind. Today will barely reach into the 50’s and there is 100% chance of rain. Oh, we’ll still play but for Alec & Jeana…I’ll be looking for you two.

And while I’m throwing people under the bus…er…uh…I mean…missing players who haven’t been out this week…that we usually see out there is…Jason, Paul, Brook? Are you guys here this week? We got George back out yesterday so I’ve taken him off the MIA list. Rachel, are you coming back out? How ‘bout some other former players who have really gone into the Witness Protection Program…MattD, Jorge, Bo, Eric B, Denise, Roz? Hey, don’t think I don’t know who’s on this list. Come on back out folks!

You know I sometimes mention the conversation on the way out or back from the pitch or in the locker room…they’re generally my most interesting of the day. Last week there was talk of loofahs, waxing, and quality whites (wine, not linens) that would have made you think you were at the spa and not the guy’s locker room. Yesterday, Kevin and I were comparing our driving lives that shared commonalities like 3-generation pickups, routes (29 & 95 respectively), some Va. State Trooper observations, and High School Musical 3 (okay we don’t share that but we talked about it). You don’t get this kind of renaissance intellectual and emotional stimulus in many other circles.

So, I’m thinking…what this White House transition team really needs is a lunchtime Ultimate game coordinator to keep everybody motivated and physically fit and…you know…informed.

Our cup over runneth...

“Okay, shake your head up and down if what I just said made any sense, and side to side if you thought I was speaking gibberish” Kevin clarified after the words cup, left mid, hammer block, force wind, and other quasi-official Ultimate speak left this somewhat dazed look on his teammates faces?

“Can’t we just cover somebody?” Tim asked. And to his point…if you spend all morning in a meeting with a bunch of other O4s, being asked to think at lunch time on the pitch may be akin to any Republicans that were up late Tuesday night somehow hoping California wouldn’t go blue. Yea, that’s not happening.

Well, to even be in the position to practice the zone yesterday was a surprise because when I called the game I had just barely gotten the 8th response and I thought for sure we were headed for a 4 on 4 or 4 on 5 game yesterday. But then I was able to solicit a few latecomers, Alec & Brook, on our new “Office Communicator” (really the most functional aspect I’ve found for the application yet), Thunder changed his mind, somebody finally found Phil hiding under his desk and Mike wandered out and then Brian even showed up on his bicycle. So our 8 turned into 15 and the 3 mile and hour winds cranked up to about 15 probably and made for some interesting passing…uh…er…dropping perhaps.

Early in the game was ugly as everybody, it seems, dropped pass after pass. Or the handlers just threw them into the ground or 15 feet over somebody’s head depending on how the wind was blowing at that particular instant.

But, teams were running from stacks (well, when Brian didn’t think I was talking about IHOP), and we were playing some zone and actually forcing to one side or another and at times we looked like Ultimate teams. Not a lot of long pass connections yesterday though.

Another overcast rain threatening game today. Life’s good, let’s play.

Hats, tights, and gloves...oh my!

~ posted by Bill

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to all the Buzzards who came out today. The rain stopped and it was just the wind and cool temperatures to contend with and once you started running it really wasn’t that cool anymore. I saw clothes being shed in fact.

But it was also a day for tights, sweats, hats, and gloves. The game started with some monster pulls, courtesy of a nice back wind. And through the course of the game we had some other types of pulls too. Like Brian’s pull that landed behind his line. Wind is a tricky think sometimes.

And some were surprised that there would even be a game today. A little after 0900 my instant messenger window popped up? “How many do you have today? Want to play racquetball instead?”

“Well, actually, if you’ll change your mind and play, we’ll have ‘Game On”” I replied.

“If I don’t, I’m going to feel like a ninny. I’m in.”

“Outstanding! Game On then!”

Todd may have been reconsidering his decision after about the first 10 minutes when the green team couldn’t seem to catch a disc. But they came around and worked some nice short passing runs with Hollan, Brad, Brian & Jason all getting in on the game with Todd.

The gold team started out well with Bob, Kevin & myself handling to Dennis, Bridgette & Paul…did I mention what a great turnout this was today for an inclimate weather day? But I’m not sure what happen with our 1-person advantage and some defensive breakdowns. The green team started scoring and hanging on to discs.

All in all though a great game. I’m headed out of here to the Swing State Voter Awareness concert tonight. Who knew Virginia would ever be a swing state again? Life is good. I’ll be groovin’ to some Jack Johnson, Sheryl Crow & Beastie Boys tonight. You all be good to each other. See you tomorrow.

pre Halloween & Election Day wear.

~ posted by Bill

It’s getting to be that time of year. What time of year you ask? The time of year when we walk around the wall of the loading dock on the way out to the pitch and that wind hits you and you say “Crap, it’s colder than I thought!” and wonder if you shouldn’t turn around and go back in.

Okay, it wasn’t quite that cold…but it’s getting there, quickly I suspect. And for the record, Brad and Jeana were the first to wear either tights and/or sweats out on the pitch. I thought wearing long leg wear before Halloween was like wearing white after Labor Day.

Some of you heard me ponder aloud a couple weeks ago, when we had 19 come out to play, “I wonder how many we’ll get when it’s in the 40’s and raining?” Well, I guess we’ll find out today. Not to lower anybody’s expectations but today has the potential for all the worst elements. Cold, it’s only supposed to feel like 40 around game time. Rain, chance of showers all day. Wind, and not just some little breeze like we had yesterday. It’s supposed to be 25 mph by the time we’d head out.

I bet we don’t see anybody on the volleyball court today. I overheard Larry yesterday complaining about frostbite on his feet from the cold sand. You ever try to serve a volleyball in high winds? You think throwing our disc is challenging? Alas, the netters can move indoors. We Buzzards? We’re resigned to the fact that if we want to continue to play our fine sport, that we’re going to have to play on days like this. Well, maybe not just like this. I prefer to only have to contend with one or two of the above mentioned elements rather than all 3 on the same day. Especially since I don’t have my tights with me today. However, I do have my gloves and if we get enough people to play, I suspect I’ll be wearing those.

But I actually think the chances of getting enough for a game today are slimmer than those of Governor Palin passing the CLEP for American Government and finding out that even if she were to somehow find herself on the winning ticket next week (also a long shot at this point), she would not be in charge of the Senate as Vice President.

So, it’s a good thing we had a game yesterday. Despite the cooler temperatures and breeze, it was a good day on the pitch. Where’s Rodney when you need him? You would not believe the example of Spirit of the Game attitude we had yesterday. But perhaps it’s gone too far when you stop to help up a defender who likely just fouled you and you miss your own player cutting into the end zone for a score…okay it didn’t happen like that Brian but next time you can just leave him on the ground until after you throw it and not risk it.

I checked with Kevin and he said most of the leagues he’s played in don’t actually require you to stop play unless it’s a puncture wound and you see blood spurting in the air. Speaking of league play. I heard Jeanna asking to play “the cup” yesterday after Paul kept getting past her or reaching above her for completions. So there’s your homework Buzzards. Find out what “the cup” is. I learned this strategy last winter when I played in CUDO. I’m not convinced it doesn’t actually take a higher degree of athleticism but maybe that’s just because I was nursing that pulled groin last year.

Thanks to everyone else that got out yesterday. Pull out the cold weather gear.

Welcome to Autumn

- posted by Bill

This run of 14+ games is starting to spoil me. When was the last time we got stood up by two players and didn’t miss them? Okay, well when I say “didn’t miss” I meant, we still had plenty to play, not that we didn’t want you guys there…

Listen Todd, I know it was your first day back after about a month of leave but in case you need a small reminder I found the perfect bumper sticker for you…

We had another great game on the first day of Autumn which ironically seemed much warmer and more humid then our last days of summer last week.

Want to welcome out Tim2 (look you already get a nickname since we have an established Tim), and welcome back to George and to Kelly who made a surprise visit and who obviously is in the spirit of the above bumper sticker, giving up the job search for Ultimate today.

We had some nice collisions today. Brook and I had a rude intersection after I had tapped a high pass into the air and that tried to recalibrate the landing. Rodney took out Scott on a slide tackle in the end zone and Brian clobbered Bob on one pass along the sideline (though apparently not hard enough as Bob caught it anyway).

In fact, with that grab and another one in which Bob outran Phil half way up the field and all the way across the end zone for a score took some credibility away from the “old stiff and sore” routine that Bob would like for you to believe. Jason found the words the more common belief among his fellow Buzzards, “Bob’s full of it! I’m not buying that bum ankle story anymore. He’s outrunning everybody.”

Will and Mark also joined us but somebody forgot to explain another Ultimate rule to them…if you’re going to be late, you don’t get to stretch. Again, it’s nice to have so many people playing right now that you can start without everybody that RSVPs.

By the way, anybody think that if the BPUC can increase our debt to income ratio a little higher that we’d qualify for the current Federal buyout of all things private. You suppose this is what Alexander Hamilton had in mind when he established the Department of Treasury? You suppose anybody will challenge Ben Bernanke to a duel?

New Math and Avian head shops...

- posted by Bill

“8 + 7 does not equal 17 Bill”. Okay, to be fair I can add, but somehow I’d gotten into my head that a regulation game was 16 players and when I start adding or subtracting from that point I actually got the math right but my baseline data was flawed. Which is a ridiculous excuse but actually what was going on in my head yesterday afternoon as we were coming back into the locker room after a great game of 8 on 7.

As we wandered out yesterday, I noticed the grass had not been cut and that there were a gaggle of Canadian Geese just sitting on our field. They quickly took flight noticing the approaching Buzzards but they left us “presents” all over the field. Is it just me or does goose feces have a disturbingly similar aroma to cannabis? Had they detoured over Northern California? You know, as professional Law Enforcement officers, we weren’t too sure what our jurisdiction over the geese were or if we had extradition agreements with Canada so we decided not to pursue that action and instead just pulled the disc to start our game.

Since I’ve been playing with this group it’s been my observation that the extra person makes huge differences in games with 7-11 players. Not usually so much with anything more that that because often it gets so crowded that you can just kind of zone the other team when you’re down a player. But what is not supposed to happen is that the team short a player gets a lot of long scores because in theory the extra-player team can always have a “safety”.

Yesterday was the exception to that Ultimate axiom. The gold team, stacked with the legs of JQ, Bob, Hollan, & Will exploded for a run of early scores on deep passes. Despite the attempted force lessons of yesterday, our green team could still just not effect the defensive theory of “forcing middle” and gave up pass after pass down the sidelines.

We also gave up two toe dragging end zone sideline scores to ballerinas Rodney & Will. Kevin almost came down with one of his own for green but called himself out on the back line. Mercifully, Ultimate Karma provided for an immediate gold turnover after that and we got a nice short score but it was one of very too few for green yesterday.

Erik did manage to pull in a few scores yesterday for green but I would submit that at least two of those were on “missed” throws to other players that he just found himself in the right position for. I know this because the first one came out of my hands and was headed for JasonK whom I could just not find the range to yesterday missing him by about ½ arm’s length on at least 3 passes in the end zone.

Good to see some guys back out yesterday that have been missing some lately…Brian & Mark. Thunder keeps trying to quit us for a day or two of rest, then checks the temperature at game time and realizes the addiction is just too strong and winds up wandering out to the field.

Alec, a newer addition to the Buzzards, and I were talking on the way out to the pitch yesterday and he asked how late in the season we play. I told him we played all through the winter last year and he asked for clarification.

“So you move inside at some point?”

“No we stay out” I said. “It’s only really bad on those high 20’s, low 30’s days with icy drizzle.”

“You’d have to trudge through 3 feet of snow in the winter where I’m from.” Alec observed.

“Oh? Where did you come here from?”

“Maine”

Well welcome to D.C. Alex. I grew up in the Northern Virginia suburbs and have lived in this area parts of about 25 years of my life and I can only remember 2-3 snowstorms that ever dropped that much of the white stuff. I think you’ll find our winter games practically mild by Maine standards.

Of course after a great defensive block on a mark yesterday, Alec was glad it wasn’t winter yet. He took a mean shot of disc off his hand.

Today is picture day boys & girls. Remember to brush your hair and tuck your shirts in before you come out today and Hollan has hopefully brought his camera. Phil, I hope you brought a clean shirt. The one you’ve been wearing that reeks of weekend beer and goose droppings is wearing thin.