Tag: softball

Thursday morning

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No Italian last night (again) and no workout this morning. Ugh! For a while there I was like a smoothly spinning top, and now I’ve been knocked off balance somehow and can’t quite get back into the swing of it. But I’m trying.

It’s been a productive morning so far, but it gets a little busier this afternoon, when I have to give a presentation like the one on Tuesday.

I heard from the managing editor at IGMS, letting me know that my contract and check for my story “When I Kissed the Learned Astronomer” is in the mail. More than likely, it will end up arriving while I am in L.A. next week so I shot an email back to let her know that I might not be able to return the signed contract until I am back home.

We have another softball game this evening and it looks like we have an even better player turnout than last time. We’ve got 16 confirmed players for an 11-player lineup, and that means that we’ll have 5 substitutions today, which is a record for us, at least in the last three years. I think I put together a pretty good lineup for the game and I’m looking forward to getting out there later today and playing.

We won our first game!

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That’s right, we won our first softball game last night, and not by forfeit either. We played the full 7 innings and the final score was 14-11. Our offense showed up but do did our defense. Two innings in a row, we held the other team to one-two-three innings. In fact, in the fourth inning, I had three chances at short (1 ground ball assist and 2 pop flies behind third) and made all three outs that inning myself.

We were behind by a few runs until the fifth inning, at which point we went ahead and never looked back. We were up by 2 runs going into the top of the 7th, got one more run, and then managed to hold the other team in the bottom of the 7th.

I went 3-for-4 and score a couple of runs. Our team played great defense, and we did some great hitting too. After the game, about 15 of us headed to The Ugly Mug and Finn McCool’s in Eastern Market. It was late. I stayed for one beer and then headed home. I left the bar at nine, and managed to catch the trains perfectly (including a yellow line to Greenbelt!) and managed to get home before 10 PM.

It was so much fun, to start out the season with a win. And since no other teams have played in our division yet, it was also pointed out that not only did we win, but we are, for however brief, in first place.

A day in the life: 3 PM – 9 PM

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I try and tie up some loose ends before I stop working for the day, but today I might as well be herding kittens. I finally get out of the office at 4 PM and realize that I don’t have any water for the gym, so I pick up some water. I get to the gym and change, and then do my warmup on the elliptical. Bernard is not there yet and I soon discover that my appointment was set for 4:30 PM. He gets there soon enough however and we get started on lower body. Today the first set seems easy but as the session progresses, I find myself wishing it was over. I am beat, mentally, and just want to go home. I realize that I am not trying as hard as I might as this whole workout thing and that if I am serious about it, I should give it a better effort.

This was the last of the first session pack that I purchased so at the end of the session, I purchase 8 more sessions with Bernard and we schedule the first two for next week. I discover that purchasing 8 sessions earns me a free XM satellite radio and car kit. I only have to pay for service. Well, I have no radio in my car so it is really no use to me. I call Doug to see if he wants it, but he passes.

I return briefly to the office to pick up my stuff and then head over to Champps for our end of year softball bash. It turns out to be fun. There are 9 people that show up and we have a good time. Kristy awards the prizes and I am surprised to learn that I tied in voting for the “Golden Glove” award. I am even more surprised (and somewhat embarassed) to discover that I lead the voting for “MVP”. And so I win two cute little prizes.

I leave the restaurant at 8 PM and head home. Rob takes the same route as me so we rode together, talking about work most of the way and it makes the train ride go by quickly. I get home at 9 PM, skim through the mail, and then decide to update the blog before getting into the shower. I am very much looking forward to finally cracking open Dangerous Visions and getting a little reading done. There is no baseball game to watch tonight. And I decided to set aside my stress as work and try and relax. I can get through one or two stories before going to bed.

It has been a long day, but a more or less typical day in my life. It feels like one of those nights where I will have no trouble falling asleep, and will sleep really well. So I shall hope.

Showered, AC’d, and in bed

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We lost our softball game tonight, and it was a doozy. Aside from the fact that it was close to 100 around game time (it did cool off as thunderstorms moved into the area), the team we played (Senator Grassley from Iowa) was clearly one of the better teams in the league.

I had a few plays at short (3 or 4) and a few outs recorded for the 2 innings I played center field. But the best play I made was an assist from center field. I caught a popup in mid-center and the runner on second tagged up. Our thirdbase woman called for a throw and threw the ball right on the money. The guy was out by a mile.

It made up for my 1-for-4 showing at the plate.

I was so wiped out afterward that I didn’t go out to The Ugly Mug, as I normally do. I came home. Now I’ve showered (a cold one!) poured a glass of chocolate milk, turned up the A/C in the bedroom, and climbed into bed. Going to read for a while.

It feels good to be in bed right now.

Softball Team Photo

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Here is a great picture of the team after the game last night. We play on the National Mall, and yes, that is the U.S. Capitol building in the background.

From left-to-right, back row: Jeremy (SF), Lou (kneeling) (1B), me (SS), Drew (2B), Rob (CF), Casey (standing) (LF)
Front row, seated: Colby (3B), Kristy (P), Sheryn (C)
Missing: Tyron (RF)

You can click on the photo to see a bigger image.

Don’t the girls just look so cute there?

We lost a close one!

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Well, we lost another softball game, but this time it was close. The final score was 20-17 and it was back and forth all the way. Our team played really hard and should be proud. I went 3-5 and played short the whole game. I had a four or five chances and made some decent plays, but the best play came when I held the tag on an over-slide for an out.

I also managed to hyper-extend my knee just getting up from the ground. I kid you not, my entire left knee-cap popped out of the socket for about 3/5ths of a second (during which time, I distinctly remember thinking to myself: How will this affect my workout tomorrow? And then it popped right back in. I took a few minutes, limping around, but the limp soon disappeared. I have full mobility and finished the game without trouble.

Right now, my knee is a little stiff and uncomfortable, but not in any pain and I still have full mobilty. I’m icing it and staying off of it for 12 hours to see how things are (which means I’m working from home in the morning).

Afterwards, some of us headed over to The Ugly Mug and celebrated our valient effort.

Two more games: one next Tuesday, the other next Thursday.

And I came home to discover that the Yanks had come back and beaten the Rangers after falling behind, thanks to a Giambi 9th inning homerun. (barmaidblog must be thrilled.)

No softball today

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We were scheduled to have a softball game tonight in Anacostia, but because of the dangerously excessive heat, the game was rescheduled until 2 weeks from today. Our last three games of the season are all pretty close together.

Seeing as how I was going to be out late for softball, I decided to stay at work and get some extra stuff done. I’m glad I did because I made some good progress on the “smart” forms I’m developing. I also hung around for a meeting on metrics.

It’s been a long day, however. I was up at 4:30 and I still have to unwind a bit (and eat something!) before I got to bed.

It’s thundering and lightening in the area and some strong storms are nearby. Hopefully these are the storms that are supposed to cool things down into the 80s tomorrow.

Softball tonight

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I’m about to change into my softball uniform, in preparation for our game tonight. We had to scrape for players, but I managed to get us a couple at the last minute so we have a full lineup. We are playing a team that’s 3-1 and we are 1-4, but I go into every game believing that there is no way we can lose.

I am playing the entire game in the outfield for a change. We have a new player, a girl who played 3B in college, and she is going to play shortstop. We need some speed in the outfield today (no jokes, please) so I’ll be in CF at the beginning of the game, moving to LF later in the game.

It’s 85-degrees out right now. Shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve got to run downstairs and get some water and some gum for the game.

We won!

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We won our first softball game today by the depressing silly method of having the other team forfeit several hours before the game started. They just couldn’t put a team together. So we are now officially 1-4, although I still count us as 0-4 because to me, a forfeit isn’t an earned win.

It really sucks too because it’s beautiful out and all day I’ve been looking forward to playing.