Sectionals in Geneva

Our ultimate travelled to Geneva, NY yesterday to compete at Sectionals for Upstate NY. I have posted the details on our seVen blog. We won the tournament, which is the first tournament that we have won, which means that we are competing at Regionals in Devens, MA.

The Fall seVen team after winning!

The trip was long because we drove down on Friday night and stayed at a Econolodge in Canandaigua, which was just east of Geneva on another of the finger lakes. It felt like a really long journey even though it was only 4 hours, I think that the wait at the border added to the time. We learned that to avoid getting harassed by the border crossing people it is best to have a passport or a birth certificate to prove that you are a Canadian citizen. Geofford was the only one in the car without such identification and the guard didn't seem to approve of that too much. Fortunately for us, he decided to be nice and didn't completely search the car, although he seemed to want to. It was funny though, because we paved the way for Nat Massé's car (who was also driving Tina and Glenn) as he was joking around with them saying that he had another car (us) that came through to play Ultimate Frisbee.

Once we got to Canandaigua we met up with Keith's car (which also included Batch and Luke) and Damian. Fortunately for us there was a back door, and we were able to fit everyone (all 11 of us) in the two motel rooms that were inter-connected. Once everyone had arrived, we relaxed and enjoyed some beverages (I really liked the Rolling Rock beer)...we were happy to learn that the Wegmans which sold food and beverages and was open 24-hours a day. We also discovered that Luke forgot his cleats in Ottawa and after a bit of quick thinking, we made a few phone calls and arranged for Pat to pick up some cleats from Geofford's house before continuing his journey to Geneva.

The next morning, we discovered that the directions to the field were a bit flawed thanks to the online mapping tools used, even though we used 3 - Yahoo Maps, Mapquest and Maptuit. We eventually got to the fields and discovered that the tournament was running on Ultimate time, which was good for us. By the time that everyone got there, the games had not started yet even despite the start-time getting pushed back by 1/2 an hour. After winning both of our games, we met at a rest stop along the thru-way to have lunch at McDonald's and Ben and Jerry's. I wanted the New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream, but it was soft so I had to settle for the Chocolate Fudge Brownie Frozen Yogurt which I guess was more "nutritious". After lunch, Damian headed back to Waterloo, Pat and Deb headed to Portland, Maine to participate in the Clambake tournament, and the rest of us headed back to Ottawa.

I have discovered in the past week that Epson Salt baths are super good to relax muscles, so I took one of those and headed to bed....now I must face a mountain of school work, but I guess it will be worth it eventually, well, that's what I keep telling myself :)

Spirit

seVen has competed in our first Fall Tournament - Spirit, and we made it to the finals which was very exciting. On the other hand, I hurt my shoulder AGAIN during the semi-final so I had to stand on the sidelines watching. Apparantly the commentators (the final was televised) were making fun of me because I only had one arm, so I am quite interested in watching the replay on Rogers. The women did an amazing job as we were down to three women after Kindha had to leave, and then when I got injured we only had 2. Sully and Nat Masse played an amazing day of ultimate. After playing against the juniors twice (Oddjob) - we were able to add two of their women to our finals Roster: Alex and Anne who played really well despite their reservations before the Final. We also picked up Miriam who had to give Dave Milks a ride. Dave was supposed to be their all day, but fortunately showed up just before the final, to give our guys an extra sub. The guys also played a really good day of ultimate - Pat, Geofford, Evan, Luke, Denis and Jon played a solid day of offence and defence.

Here are the scores from the day:
The results of the day:
Game # 1: Lunchbox 4 vs seVen 3
Game # 2: Weapons 4 vs seVen 10
Game # 3: Ragin 0 vs seVen 8
Game # 4: Oddjob 2 vs seVen 12
Semi-final: Oddjob lost to seVen (can't remember the score)
Final: Lunchbox beat seVen by 2 points (can't remember the score)

I just hope my shoulder gets better before next weekend so that I can play at Sectionals next weekend!

Dinner in Toronto

It is my parent's 30th Anniversary this year, so they organized a big dinner in Toronto to host their family and friends. There were about 30 people in attendance and it was a wonderful time. I am in the process of posting up pictures, but will include the link when I can.

A New Chapter...

Now that I am back in school, I feel that I should post more on my blog :) Well, I am supposed to be doing homework, but as usual I am procrastinating, so I figured I might as well do something somewhat useful by updating my blog.

Hmm, let's see what I have done since I have returned from Vancouver...

The first week back I basically slothed around my apartment and my parent's house. There was one day where I went to Kanata to have lunch at the Texas Chophouse with my old co-workers (it was actually my good-bye lunch, but due to vacations this was the best time to have it). It was nice seeing everyone again, they even gave me presents which I didn't expect. I received a wonderful pink Bratz backpack with a non-electronic PDA (aka pad of paper) with extra memory (aka extra pink sticky notes), an assortment of stylii (??what is the plural of stylus?? - aka pencil crayons), a PDA stylus holder (aka Barbie pencil case), and a gift certificate to buy some clothes at American Eagle. I was very surpised to get these gifts and was a little sad when I had to say good-bye to them. There is a chance that I will go back to Alcatel for a short contracting stint if they need people and it fits into my schedule. It would be nice to get the extra cash and see all of the old gang again, so who knows...

During the weekend, on the Saturday we (Amy, Kelly, Nadine and I - the bridesmaids) hosted Shanna's bridal shower which was a lot of fun. I got to see some people that I haven't seen in years too, so that was quite nice. It was a lot of fun planning her shower and helping to host it. I can't wait until the stagette as well, that should also be quite entertaining. On the Sunday, I spent most of the day at UPI watching or playing Ultimate (surprise, surprise). It was Wednesday Playoffs and we couldn't have worse weather. At one point in time, the rain was falling so hard that it was difficult to see the disc. Fortunately we (GYA) won the first game over Rainbow Trout and were able to go on to the Consolation Final for Tier 5 (game for 5th place). We had to wait out the rain and by this time were cold, hungry, and thirsty - the winner of this consolation final won 14 beer tickets (which could also be redeemed for food!) so we offered to split the beer tickets with the other team, which seemed smart for us because we only had 7 players. The other team decided that they would rather play, so we went out and played and beat them 15-2. At half-time, their cheer was asking us if they could still split the beer tickets....what do you think our answer was? So it was nice sitting down with some beer and some food watching the Tier 1 finals, which was quite entertaining.

For the rest of the week, I spent more time doing nothing - watching a lot of TLC - I'm not sure what I am going to do when I move - with less TV, I will have to do more homework...which I guess will be good.

During the long weekend, Geofford and I travelled to the Georgian Bay to spend time with his family. We stayed with his Mom and Dad at their house right on the bay. This was to be my first time at their house when there wasn't snow on the ground, the bay wasn't frozen, and it wasn't pouring rain. The weather definitly did not disappoint and I was able to spend most of every day out on the beach. It was nice because everyday the water was a little bit different - so I was able to do different things. I even played in a kayak for this first time, which was quite fun. As usual the food was amazing and there was a filling Turkey dinner at the Seaborn cottage next door on the Saturday night.

When we returned home on Monday, reality set in. I was to begin school the next day. My first day of school for my Masters program was September 7th. That was almost 3 years to do the day that I started my first full time job (September 5th, 2001). I definitly felt a little bit out of it as most of the people in my classes had some sort of human kinetics, kinesiology or physical education educational background. All I had was an interest in sports and an engineering degree.

As it turns out, my classmates are a lot of fun, and despite the heavy workload, I'm thinking that we will get along great and have a lot of fun along the way.

Vancouver continued...

We had such big plans for walking on the Tuesday to start preparing for our tournament, but due to the rain and then humidity, we decided only to walk to and from lunch at a local sushi place. The sushi was good, but not as amazing as other sushi that I'd had before. After lunch, we headed to UBC via downtown, checked in and then went up to meet up with my friend Jethro and his fiance Lisa. After a nice dinner, we went back to the residence to watch the Olympics and wait for the rest of the team to arrive.

After an afternoon practice at UBC with the whole team, Geofford and I went to go meet up with my Uncle David, Aunt Ruby, Cousin Evelyn, and my Aunt's family. We went to Isami Sushi in Burnaby. This restaurant had some amazing sushi.

Nationals was again an amazing experience. We ended up 12th overall in the Mixed Division and I have posted on OCUA's website a description of our results. Here are the official results from the CUC website. I am super proud of the team and I hope all of them had an amazing experience.

The party on Saturday night was a lot of fun, but I guess the tournament really took a lot out of me as I couldn't party into the night as I normally do, which was a little disappointing. But, we ended up getting up early to go back to Coquitlam to meet Seryna and her boyfriend Shawn (or is it Sean or Shaun?) for brunch at the IHOP. After brunch we headed back to UBC to watch the Mixed Finals. Unfortunately Bombing Madd Fatties lost to Team Fisher Price, but it was fun watching your friends (and people you've played against) in the final. After the game Geofford and I drove around the English Bay, Stanley Park and headed over the Lion's Gate Bridge before heading to King's Chinese Restaurant for dinner with all of my relatives in Vancouver. It was a little banquet, with lots of food, and it was a little too loud to talk, but it was nice seeing everyone. We then headed to my cousin Tullia's house to stay for the night.

After dropping off the car, we went to Dim Sum with my Aunt Stella, Uncle Eric, Damian, and his girlfriend Melody. After Dum Sum we headed to the airport an hour early, but apparantly not early enough as we got rushed to a separate line. I guess because we checked in so late, we weren't able to get seats together, so Geoff and I sat apart, which was probably better for him because I sat at the back of the plane again, which meant no reclining seats. The plane on the way back was much newer and we even got a hot meal so that was nice.

My trip to Vancouver was a lot of fun, but it was really nice to come home and sleep in my own bed...