Rat City Rollerfan

One of my goals before I turn 29+1 was to attend a roller derby. Here in the Seattle area, the hometown Rat City Rollergirls are all the rage, as this is an alternative area that supports alternative sports. I can see why.

With no knowledge of the sport other than it somehow involved women on skates bashing into each other, I decided right after moving here that I needed to check out this indy phenomenon.

I wasn't disappointed.

After some brief research on Wikipedia - we're cool like that - K and I headed to the last home game of the season for our local team. We both enjoyed it more than either of us thought we would.

If you want more details of the sport itself, you need to Google it, 'cause I am lazy and a slow typist. Know this much: offense and defense are played at the same time. Scoring is done by a certain person (jammer) passing the group (jam) of others a certain number of times.

Even after reviewing the rules, we started out this match scratching our heads. By the end, we were a little hoarse from cheering, and pretty sure we had figured out the whole thing, or at least a close enough understanding to keep us entertained, which is good enough for now.

The skill of these women on eight wheels is outstanding. We saw effortless leaps, wicked speed, and spectacular crashes that would have sent you or I to the ER, but merely shaved half a lap off of these starlets on skates.By the end, I was officially hooked. I'm bummed that this was the last match this year. Next year, I'll be attending as many matches as time, money, and spouse will allow.

Only took the small, "cheap" digital cam this time; next time, expect more, better, cleaner, closer pics. Also, expect pics of me wearing team gear and possibly face paint.

A candid shot. I was apparently enjoying the game.

This pic doesn't do justice, but trust me; they kick ass!

Of course, when I got close to shoot some video, nothing exciting happened. Still, look how fast!

Because I know you can't get enough, MORE GARDENING PICS!

Bell peppers. They seem to be ok, minus a few bug holes.

Eggplants, which can be taken more or less as early as we want. Small for Asian cooking, big for Italian cooking.

We've already been eating our cucumbers, and they're sweet as melons and burpless. Yum!

The cherry tomatoes seem to have survived a rain, wind, and gravity induced toppling, and are already blushing.

We are drooling in anticipation of the impending flood of tomatoes.

A wee spaghetti squash. The plant has basically taken over the garden, and has now spilled out into the yard.

A more mature spaghetti squash. By mature I mean bigger, firmer, and into Shakespeare.

Blarney & Friends

Chalk up the Irish movie marathon; we managed to cram six Irish movies into a day off and one more the following evening. I also prepared a few untried Irish dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and enjoyed some as yet unenjoyed Irish brews. A good time no matter how you slice it.

First, the flicks:

Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes is based on the memoir of Frank McCourt which details his poverty stricken life in 1930s and 40s Dublin. Not poverty like "Applebee's is high livin'" poverty, but poverty like "mmmm, rat meat" poverty. Ran a bit long, but a great piece of cinema and a brilliant insight into what was then basically a Western third-world country.

The Commitments

The Commitments is a musical dramedy in which American soul - as played by a thrown together band of losers and misfits - is as much a character as any of the people involved. It's not about money, fame, or sex; it's about soul.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Darby O'Gill and the Little People is a classic early Disney live action film featuring a young Sean Connery and some special effects that are good even by today's standards. An eccentric old villager entertains the locals with his tales of encounters with leprechauns until he is laid off from his job as a groundskeeper. Brian, King of the Leprechauns, "saves" him from a life of loneliness by abducting him into the realm of the Little People. As a game of magical cat-and-mouse takes place between Darby and Brian, Darby's daughter and his young replacement fall in love. Good movie, even by live Disney standards.

The Secret of Roan Inish

The Secret of Roan Inish is a lovely bringing to life of the Irish tales of the selkies, a race that can take the form of seals or people. A young girl goes on a quest to bring back her brother who was long ago taken away to sea by seals and learns a fascinating legend about her own family's heritage.

The Quiet Man

John Wayne in Ireland? Yup. But don't worry, he rides a horse, smokes, and beats the crap out of a bad guy. A man returns from America to his native land to buy back the family land. He also takes a wife. By "take a wife," I mean by the arm, kicking and screaming, and under threat of violence. What can I say? It was the 1950s, it was John Wayne, and it was Ireland. It's like when your grandparents call black people "colored." The old days were wrong in so many ways.

The Magdalene Sisters

Remember that girl in high school that lorded her beauty over everyone? The teases, the flirts? The pregnant girls? The real or imagined "sluts?" Well, up until 1996, such girls in Ireland were sent to Magdalene Asylums, church run laundries that imprisoned girls and women of "loose" character or virtues. Unwed mothers, prostitutes, the feeble-minded, and even women seen as "too pretty" were sent away, sometimes by state order, to live their lives under the watch of cruel clergy and staff until they took vows, were signed out by family, died, or escaped. Heavy, heavy film. The acting was phenomenal and the cinematography was brilliant. The winner of the mar o'thon.

My Left Foot

My Left Foot, based on the play of the same name, which was based on the book of the same name, is the biographic tale of Christy Brown, an Irish child born with severe cerebral palsy and only able to control his left foot. Unable to speak, walk, or build ships in bottles, the young Christy used his left foot to write, paint, and model for "tough actin'" Tenactin commercials. He finally grew up to be an eloquent and celebrated poet, writer, painter, and drunkard, giving hope to those of us drunkards who posses all of our faculties.

The Jews call them latkes. The Americans call them hashbrowns. The Germans call them Kartoffelpuffer, 'cause the Germans have to complicate everything. The Irish call this dish boxty, yet another take on potato pancakes. We also enjoyed Dublin Coddle, a dish of sausage, bacon, carrots, potatoes, onions, and herbs, all slow cooked in hard cider. A winner to be sure, and something to become a regular feature in our house. Colcannon was another dish we tried, which is more or less mashed potatoes, but with onions and cooked cabbage blended in. I liked it, K didn't.

Reading left to right: O'Haras Irish red (perfect), O'Hara's Stout (good), Beamish (ok), Smithwick's (too sweet), Guinness' 250th Anniversary Stout (INCREDIBLE), and Wexford's Irish Style Cream Ale, made by the feckin' English, but tasty nonetheless.

More Gardenin'

Well, we pulled the damn broccoli out. Also most of our lettuces, as they had bolted as well.

What's left? Two tomato plants that have seemingly been cross-bred with oak trees, a spunky eggplant, assorted herbs, two cucumber plants that are holding their own, and a spaghetti squash that is already on its way to taking over the garden, the yard, and possibly the neighborhood.

Apart from the main garden, our zucchini plant has been feeding us for over a week now, and sticking my fingers a couple of inches into the barrels of potatoes revealed spuds ready for harvest.

Yep, it's that tall.

Like she points out every chance she gets, size does matter.

Fun for my wife: pulling plants out of the ground. Also: stomping on butterflies.

Now a purple flower, soon a purple eggplant. Never had eggpplant? Picture Grimace from the McDonald's ads, but sliced and served with marinara.

Run, Fatboy, Run!

On July 25th I ran in my first 5k race, the Torchlight Run in Seattle's Seafair.

I had started running and training for races back in December, but quit when I had my first thyroidectomy, and didn't get started again until about a month ago.

Luckily - miraculously - I managed to not only participate, but to finish, and maintained a running pace the entire time, except for a brief pause to drink water. I just can't drink when I run, apparently.

My time was 39:13, which is pretty good for an out of shape guy.

The only bummer - apart from nearly puking and having the world spin around me at finish - was that my Nike+iPod announced that I had completed 5 kilometers when, in reality, I had several hundred more meters to go. Kat said that they can be re-calibrated, but still, it was depressing to hear the digital voice announce that I was done, but to see the finish line so, so far away.

So yay, one more down!

Veggie Tales

Our garden has certainly been a learning experience.

Lesson 1: Broccoli sucks. I don't mean it tastes bad or anything; in fact, I wouldn't know, since we never got to harvest any. Before I knew that broccoli was notoriously hard to grow, I planted several of them. Never again. The plants took off fast, but apparently due to unseasonable warmth (thank you, GM), they went to seed before we got anything out of them. We keep cutting them back, though, hoping the next growth will be the winner.

Lesson 2: Tomatoes do a lot better in the PNW than had previously been thought. I planted a bush cherry tomato, which is doing quite well, and a regular tomato plant that has become a one-plant jungle. Seriously, whatever combination of sun, water, and my special blend of soils, fertilizers, and coffee grounds there were seemed to be exactly what the doctor ordered. The thing is currently being held up by a tomato cage, two five-foot stakes, several twist ties, and a length of twine.

Lesson 3: Get more strawberries. Our strawberries are producing, but if we wanted quantity, we should have gotten more plants.

Lesson 4: Why buy seeds and plants when the seeds from veggies do just fine? Upon attempting to compost the guts of a spaghetti squash, the seeds all sprouted in our worm bin, and now a couple of the plants I transplanted are booming.

Lesson 5: Gardening is awesome! K and I have had a blast, working on something and seeing progress. It's great to get outdoors, and eating our own produce is one of the most rewarding things ever!

This was probably the most pristine zucchini I have ever seen, and it was just as delicious as it looked.

Our first pea pod, and Kat's first ever pea right off the vine. She doesn't like peas, but she liked ours!

Ta-da!

Nike+

My running has slowly but surely been getting back on track, thanks largely in part to our good friends at Nike. I have been using a little gadget from their Nike+ line which attaches to my iPod and tracks my workouts.

So thanks to this teeny little attachment on my iPod and another teeny little sensor attached to my shoe, I am able to track my distance, time, and calories burned. I can even set goals on the iPod before I start a workout; for example, lately I've been setting a distance when I start, and as I run, a voice comes on periodically and tells me how far I've gone and how far I have left.

On the Nike+ site, I can track all of my workouts, set goals, get challenges, and even sync with Mapquest to plan a route.

And the best part of all is that whenever a new personal best - for example, a new best MPM - a sports figure comes on in my headphones and tells me that I've just reached a new personal record.

Hooray for motivation!