Sitting Dux

After much anticipation, trash talk, and no preparation what so ever, the Sitting Dux made their dodgeball debut on Tuesday. I sent out the all call to my admin co-workers to form a dodgeball team and only one, Kelly, answered the call. She recruited her 9 year old daughter, Quinn. Three down, three to go. Dale Fox, the 57 year-old Driver's Ed coordinator was my next recruit. He ended up being our ace in the hole. He recruited our other two players - Scott and Josh, two P.E. teachers and members of the district softball team (I think).

This is the team...

Pretty intimidating huh??!! Check out the two younger guys, Scott and Josh, on the back row. I met them for the first time at the game on Tuesday. Wow, they were way too over-qualified to play on the Sitting Dux. Sorry guys!!

We go in the gym and we find out we're the 7th game. So, we have six games to watch and learn. Well, actually, what Kelly and I learned was that we were scared. This was serious business. These dudes could hurl a dodgeball. I had envisioned PE class dodgeball that I played at Robinson Elem. You know, everyone get in a circle and throw a rubber kick ball at the people in the middle. Well, like most things, dodgeball has come a long way since then. Now, you play with small, light weight balls and each team is on opposite sides of each other. One thing Kelly and I knew for sure, we didn't want to be the last person left on our team.

Our team was up and we hadn't even talked strategy. This was going to be bad. Each game has a 3 minute time limit. Here we go...

This is the dash to the balls at the beginning of the game. Notice how we sent the 9-year old to get one of the balls and I'm nowhere to be seen. That was my strategy. All I can say is I have no idea what happened from there. I couldn't even tell you what the other team looked like. Balls were flying every where. It was utter chaos. I had no dilutions of grandeur. I just tried to stay in the back and not get hit. There are two things that I do remember vividly. First, Dale hit some guy right in the crotch. Secondly, one of our big dudes had the shot of the tournament. I looked up and right in front of me, the young kid on the other team took a bullet dodgeball right to the face. He went down like a ton of bricks. Go team!!! Mike said that the guy on our team, Scott, that hit the kid threw it harder than anyone he'd seen so far.

Check out my cat-like agility. Doesn't our team look like we mean business!!!

An action shot. These guys would get a running start and then hurl that little ball. Scott is getting ready to unleash on someone. This could have been the face shot for all I know.

Anyway, back to the game. It sounds like all is going well, right. A crotch shot and a face shot. What more could a team ask for?? I'll tell you what, two actual players rather than two lamo girls that sit behind a desk all day. Well, that's what it came down to. Two lamo girls were all that remained of team Sitting Dux. Before I even knew what had happened, I sense that it's me and Kelly left and one other person from the other team. If Kelly and I had even half a brain between us, we'd have just moved back and tried to out last the other team until time ran out. Then we'd have won. But before I knew it, Kelly was hit. Then, my worst nightmare came true. It was just me and this other dude in a stand off. I looked up and there was 43 seconds left on the clock.

I'm in the middle of the gym with all eyes on me. God, this sucks!!! I don't hear my team giving me any words of encouragement. Not that it would have helped any. I had such a rag arm. I couldn't throw those little balls to save my live. I didn't want to just lob it over there because then he'd catch it and I'd be out. So, I tried to keep it hard and low. I had two balls and he had two balls. I gave him a fake throw, he flinched just a bit. Then I let loose on him. Not even close. It wasn't long until I was hit. Game over. Dodgeball over. Team done. It was one and done.

Check out our cool shirts though. Thanks to Dawn, John and Kathy for the shirts. If nothing else, we had the coolest team name and shirts. If those three guys would have had anyone else on their team, they'd have gone far. As it turned out, the team that beat us won the whole thing!!!

Well, we learned some valuable lessons this year and we'll be back and re-tooled for next year. Although, I think word will be out about my athletic inability and it'll be even harder to recruit for the team. I doubt that Scott and Josh will want to be associated with the Sitting Dux next year. I'm going to get me one of those little dodgeballs and start taking aim at the dogs so I'll be prepared for next year's tournament.

http://iss.schoolwires.com/southhigh/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=511262
You can go to this site to see a video montage of the event.

Mr. & Mrs. Mull

Our niece, Asheigh, got married this weekend. We used to tease Ashleigh that she just made up this supposed boyfriend of hers. Jason, her now husband, was always 'working' whenever Mike and I were around. Well, I guess she showed us. She went and married this fictional boyfriend. Asheigh is a genuinely nice, sweet, caring young lady. Jason seems like he's a good guy who loves Asheligh very much. We, of course, wish them never-ending happiness.

The wedding went off without a hitch (as far as I could tell). Ashleigh looked beautiful, as always. The family did surprisingly well. I just knew there would be lots of waterworks but everyone seemed to hold it together. Ashleigh and Jason seemed to be enjoying themselves and didn't look nervous at all. The kids in the wedding party were entertaining but didn't steal the show.

Ashleigh and Jason drove away from the church in a very cool classic Mustang.

They actually just drove around the block and came back to the church for pictures.

The light is bad but this is Mike's parents and the proud grandparents.

The proud father of the bride.


The happy couple leaving the church to a shower of bubbles. Of course Mike splashes Ashleigh with the liquid from the bottle rather than actually blowing bubbles. At least he didn't hurl the actual bottle at them.

Ashleigh trying to stuff her dress in the car. I don't know if you noticed, but Jason is a rather tall fellow. He looked a bit cramped in the car too.

The wedding party. There were 8 attendants and six kids. WOW!!



This cutie was a 'miniature bride'. She wore a mini replicia of Ashleigh's dress.

Heard While Watching the Cowboys Game

In addition to the never ending 'updates' on how his fantasy team was pounding my underperforming, sorry excuse for a fanstasy team, I got to hear the following:

We had to watch the game on mute because of a certain announcer who will be named later:

"The officials gave the Titans 14 points!!"

"Phil Sims is a dumb ass!!"

He emailed CBS to complain that Phil Sims is a dumb ass.

"The officials only call penalties against the Cowboys!!"

"If they overturn this call I'm throwing something at the TV!!"

"It was the officials fault that we lost to the Redskins!!"

"He can run for Miles and Miles and Miles". A not so clever reference to Dallas receiver Miles Austin.

"Phil Sims is a dumb ass!!"

"I'm gonna stop watching football."

And my personal favorite:

"Break him in half and then jump on his face!!!"

The Mother Land

Last trip post!!! We left Banff and headed back to the States. On the road to Idaho, four rams crossed the road right in front of us. We'd never seen these before on any of our travels. We'd been seeing signs warning about them but had yet to see any. We pulled over and did a little stalking. It was exciting because they didn't care about how close we got. They crossed back across the road and climbed a bit up the rocks. They just stared at me as I took pictures.

We stayed the night in Spokane, Washington. This was my first time in this state. We got up the next morning and heard some brief weather report that mentioned there was a wind advisory. Didn't really think anything about it. Well, we sure were thinking about it as we made our way to Seattle. This was hands down the worst time either of us has ever had on a bike. We've ridden in rain, snow, heat...but this wind was horrible. It was actually scary at one point. I've never really been scared on the bike before either. I've ridden on the back of sport bikes at track days and haven't been scared. This wind would literally move the bike around. We pulled over to take a break just before we crossed this bridge.

It was a very slow drive the rest of the way to Seattle. I was sooo glad to finally get there. We spent two days in Seattle.

We didn't go up in the needle because it cost $18 a person. What a rip off!!

This is the waterway in downtown Seattle.

This is the famous Pike's Place Fish Market. It was kind of hard to find. It reminded me a bit of the markets in Morocco.

There were lots of vendors selling flowers. They were very affordable. A bundle like above was $5-$10.

We watched what looked to be a homeless guy play chess with someone else. They were really good. It was just a neat thing to see. You don't see that in downtown Statesville.

We flew home from Seattle. It was a great trip with everything from the remoteness of Alaska to the big city of Seattle. I can't wait for our next adventure.