Our next defeat is scheduled for next Friday, 8 o'clock. *

Last night, Chris and I went to the VCU game.  I love that my work buys tickets for that because basically, I love basketball!  Baseball is cool, but it's long and boring and I don't pay attention the whole time (and they are the Richmond SQUIRRELS...gag me).  Basketball is something I can pay attention to - plus, there's the pep band.  I didn't take any pictures this year, I think I got about three last year (and by last year I mean February of this year).  The stripper boy from the Pep band was there, but his clothes stayed on - no patriotic boxers this year...darn.  Also - we didn't park in the Kroger parking lot like I did last time, which is good because they were actually towing cars this year.

It was a really good game - there were a lot of good plays but there was also a lot of sloppy playing going on by both teams.  Through it all I kept thinking, "basketball season is coming!" And then I got really nervous and realized that basketball season is coming!  It's been so long since I've played! I'm excited and nervous that maybe I lost all of my skill (assuming I had any to begin with). 

Anyway - The Rams won.  We were sitting next to a couple which I could just tell are season ticket holders because the woman knew all of the things the student crowd would yell (and she was quite older than them) - I've decided also that she was once a cheerleader.  It made it fun.  Chris and I kept trying to figure out what they said after a foul shot was made.  It was something like, "whoosh, VCU - garble garble garble" *Foot stomp*.  By the end we decided that they weren't saying words, only grunting, and that we should feel stupid for trying to figure it out throughout the whole game. 

I wanted to get a picture with Rodney the Ram but I never really thought you could, but Chris said he could get me one.  Then later, Rodney was in the stands taking pictures with people, once he was done with one someone else would call him over.  Chris kept looking at me like, "call out to him!" but I couldn't do it.  I get so nervous around mascots (I don't know if that is true, I'm making a generalization about myself here).  I can only think my nervousness stemmed from the debacle I had with mountain goats in Utah when I was 18.  Traumatized. Which actually reminds me of a poster a guy at work made and sent me once - I wish they had had things like this when I was younger, it would have helped a lot...

Needless to say - I did not get my picture with Rodney the Ram. Sad Day.

The game was really fun though.  It made me kind of sad that my college didn't have sports teams - I mean, don't get me wrong, being the selfish person I am, I'm glad that I got to play tons of sports instead but there's something about having that school pride.  But then I thought about it - how good would the Vikings have actually been? Team pride is easier when your team is kicking butt and made it to the final four at least once. So - I'm going to adopt VCU as "my school team" and hope to go to games for many more years.

You wanna throw up here, or you wanna throw up in the car?*

Ryan and I got the opportunity to go to a VCU Rams game in January (you may know the Rams...they made it to the final four last year...) Anyway - my work has tickets for the season and so I finally took a set of them for me (I'm totally allowed to by the way).


We drove around Richmond looking for a place to park and finally decided on the Kroger near the Seagal Center. The moment we parked I started to worry that my car would get towed. Deigo is young in car years and he shouldn't have to experience that at his age. Before crossing the street I saw a sign about violators being towed and worried even more. We find our seats (right up front to the side a little...right next to the Pep Band) and sit down. I kept thinking about my car, how long would have before they came and towed it away. How will I react when we go to the parking lot and my car is gone. How will I identify my car if I don't know the license plate number? Etc.


Ryan and I were going to go move the car at halftime but as we approached the doors we saw a sign that said, "no reentry" well...then it came down to watch basketball or save my car. I'm ashamed to say I decided to stay and watch basketball, no one tell Diego that it came to that...it's better if he never knows. Even though I made the decision I still worried about it, but tried not to worry as much.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was scared to death to do so. There was some legal jargon on the back of the ticket that said I could get kicked out for that kind of stuff. I wish I hadn't read it, cause then I could have just taken some pictures without aniexty and then been kicked out...but what if they took my camera!?

So I took a some pics with my phone - they suck so I apologize in advance.



I watched the game and Ryan watched the Pep Band. They were very peppy too. You can't tell in this photo, but there are at least 3 of them looking right at me, they knew I was taking a photo. They did an excellent job and to be honest, I don't know why the cheerleaders bother coming, the Pep Band is what really kept the energy up.

The game was really good, it was close and first but by the end VCU had taken the lead and kept putting points between them and Holstra. There was one awesome thing (I think it's awesome but I love coming away from a game with injuries) Holstra had the ball and threw it down the court to one of their guards, the guy was running for it but a VCU guy started going for it too. They both jumped in the air at the same time to get the ball and smacked right in to each other. The force spun them a little and they both landed on the ground. It was awesome.

I also ran into my friend, Whitney. She had apparently been one row over and up from us and I was watching the game and got the feeling I should look over and there she was, waving at me! It was really cool. I think next year I'll try to get tickets again.


P.S. Diego was NOT towed. As soon as I got in the car I felt so relieved and turned to Ryan and said, "That was really fun."

You're mocking me, arent' you?*

Since we can no longer play frisbee on Wednesday nights (the only field we knew of with lights got torn up and they are making it into a baby baseball diamond - what a waste of resources) we have been playing soccer on Saturday mornings.

We like to go to Bryan Park - even though there is a little problem with it.


...do you see it? The fields are "closed" we're not supposed to be on them. But as you can also see from the picture - that doesn't really stop us.





Our team moms, Brittany and Vivienne, making us snacks. Pictured in the back are Elder Pounder and Elder Wardenberg (sp?)

I'll tell you what does stop us though - Parks and Recreation. They came by for a routine visit (aka to make sure the signs were still standing) and that's when we had to quit playing.

Here's Eric, Kami and Jesse as we are trying to figure out where else we could play (where we could play that was close by).


There was a school not too far down the way so we went there - not as nice - but it would do.



I don't really play soccer - but I had a lot of fun, I stick to defense cause I feel like I'm better at stopping people than actually making goals (this is for most sports by the way). One of the Eric's asked me if I played soccer in high school and I laughed and asked him if he was picking on me, he said 'no', apparently my defense is good. ...or he's never really played either. It's a toss up*.

I'm not two-timing. I never one-timed!*

Saturday a group of us went hiking. We chose Old Rag. I remember hiking Old Rag when I was an awkward, overweight teenager - so I figured it wouldn't be so bad now that I've at least lost a few pounds (yup - still awkward). I was still nervous though - I am fairly certain that the last time I went hiking was Mt Temp in Utah...a decade ago. My fears were not satiated when my friend said she was advised not to join in on this hike since it was going to be really hard. Even worse was when we went to pay for parking and there was something that said it was a very difficult hike. But - I was already there.

Our friend, Zach, has a gnome he likes to take adventuring with him. I feel it's like the Travelocity gnome that goes all over but I have never asked to confirm. When we first got there Kami decided to use the lovely commode and I decided that she should see a gnome when she came out.

She was pretty surprised.

We took a before picture in case any one of us didn't make it back - we would know what they were wearing.

Whenever I look at this picture I start singing, "We're off to see the wizard!" I don't know why.

Zach also has a thing for tall ladies. He can't help himself. When Kami shoots him down he comes for me. He was a little downhearted because I am seeing someone now, so he asked if he could at least hold my hand and get a picture of it. Then he told me that he never loses...meaning, he'd "win me back".

Random pit stop:

Making a fire.

Would have been nice if this were the extent of "difficult". We asked someone who was heading down if we were almost to the top and he gave us a sad little shake of the head.

And this is where the fun begins! It's about a 16 foot drop into this little crevice. You can climb down of course, I wouldn't recommend just dropping - that would be stupid.

Not long after the drop - Christan decided to have some alone time and eat his lunch. I think he was looking for some solitude - but this hike ranks "0" on the solitude scale (no seriously, it's on the website)

I was supposed to look stuck - but you can't tell from this angle how close the rocks are.

This may show it better.

Zach and me - my favorite part is the three people from our group in the background - what are they pointing at?

It was so cloudy - of course a thunderstorm was also moving in.

We did it!! Our group got divided up several times (First with Christian hanging back to eat lunch, then Zach and Ben went ahead. Kami and her Ryan separated. I stayed back and helped Maddy through the rock tumble (which I am in love with and I seriously want to go do it again and SOON!) and then we slowly got back together. Christian caught up to Maddy and me and then we caught up to the other four. We got caught in a rain storm on the way down...at least I could say I was soaking wet because of rain rather than sweat...but it was no bueno for my poor little toes. I skipped taking a picture because I didn't want to pull away from the beauty of the hike.

I do want to point out that not only did I make it - but I didn't struggle (sorry this is an issue of pride because Zach was concerned that I wouldn't make it...) It's these long legs, they helped so much during the rock tumble - plus, my experience with rock climbing walls helped as well.

I can't wait for the next hike!

I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka.*

It just occurred to me that I hadn't posted the pictures from kickball. If you are friends with me on Facebook then you have probably already seen this (if you haven't, it's okay, I don't Facebook stalk either :)

I finally took my camera with me the last game of the session. Mostly I tried to get some action shots in between playing on the field and waiting my turn to kick. It was harder to take pictures than I thought. Everyone was so spread out, so I focused on the kicks and decided we'd just get a team picture later.

The last game was pretty fun. I got someone out while playing second base, we had some good kicks and some good runs. My favorite was Katie's. She kicked the ball and went running and then her feet decided she should run anymore. So she stumbled a bit and then she was down. I don't know if the person on first was shocked by this or what, but the main point was that the ball was missed and went rolling away while Katie crawl to first base.

This is a picture of the damage:
We really liked our ref too. Something I learned is that there are fun refs (usually the good ones, the laid back ones, etc.) and then there are the bad refs (who couldn't make a decent call to save their lives). Our last ref was a good one, we could joke around with him but he also called a fair game and he didn't make up rules as he went (not that any of them did that...but one of them may have). We got our ref to take our team photo and he decided to take some candid ones too, so here are all the photos he took.




I really liked these people, they were so much fun to play with and very friendly. I only knew Katie when I started to play and I'm a pretty shy person, but they made me feel comfortable right away. All in all - a good impulse decision...I would do this again.