Delayed V-Ball wrap

I'd missed two weeks of volleyball for various reasons, so I was happy to get back in action this past Monday night. Making it a bit more interesting was the fact that I was playing my uncle's team, a fact which he was sure to let me know by calling me ahead of time to make sure I was coming. Knowing Eric, it was mostly an attempt to start rubbing his (assumed) victory in ahead of time!

A couple things had happened in the intervening weeks, we lost two of our better players with injuries. Hard to believe we could be any worse, but it could happen! We still had only 3 wins on the season, and when I arrived it looked like we might have 3 more without even getting to play. It was myself, Kate and Christine, only three players which would mean a forfeit. At the last minute, Leighana showed up and then Missy. So for the first game, it was myself and the 4 ladies! Predictably... we won! We really played a smooth game, rotating and covering nicely for each other and taking advantage of our opponents mistakes where we could.

For the second game, Diego showed up and we promptly lost the last two games. So, we still stink, but I was able to "practically single-handedly" beat Eric's team! I did get to play a few games of racquetball, and then some pickup volleyball for a full evening!

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New running partner

Went for a run this morning with my latest running partner, my 10 year old daughter! We got up at 5:30, and went for a short run in the snow! It was dark, but I brought along my headlamp, and our neighborhood is well lighted.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2442927

She seemed to have a lot of fun, so hopefully this will be at least a weekly thing for us.

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Lonely

Shared by a friend, ironically on twitter!

http://www.cagle.com/working/081205/koterba.jpg

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Weekend recap

It started pretty promising, I got lots of work done in the morning when my wife headed to RI to visit her Aunt. I finally finished putting the door knobs on my new closet and fixed the entry knob and deadbolt on the garage door.

I left for a nice bike ride on Soapstone around 1:00. It started nicely, but I was soon left in the dust by the three riders who were in better shape and then I started having trouble with the bike. It was really cold, and as we would break through some iced over puddles the water would freeze on the frame, chain and derailleurs. It was pretty nasty with all the rain over the last few days, but the worst part was when my shifting started to freeze up. The derailleurs were soon totally froze and I was left with a middle gear in the back and only the granny in the front. Then my pedal froze and I could no longer clip in.

Turned into a pretty nasty but entertaining ride. Unfortunately at some point I sprained my wrist pretty badly. I think it was just landing on a hard jump and all the weight coming on my wrist since my foot slipped off the pedal. It was so cold out that I think it stayed numb until later that evening, but even today I can't type without pain and my wrist is really sore. Sore enough that I'm going to have to skip volleyball tonight.

It may well be for the best since I can let my knee heal up completely as well and hopefully be back next week.

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Delayed Volleyball Recap

Mostly because it was ugly! Another 0-3 night, I guess I need to concede that we are just not very good as a team.

I played fairly well I think and had some fun but it was a bit brutal to lose all three games again. Even worse, it was to my uncle's team, and we were close in all three but couldn't get over the hump. Oh well, I still had fun playing pickup afterwards and working on my serving and hitting. I got the overhand serve in consistently enough that I will probably go back to it in the real games. We also played with 4 people for a bit which was a lot of fun and keeps you running pretty good.

It was nice to get a win in the pickup game... even if it didn't count in the standings!

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Conferences and Dinner... oh, and Twitter

Last night my wife and I went to the kid's parent/teacher conferences and then out to dinner. The conferences went well, this year we had to visit two schools as my oldest is now in Intermediate school. They are all doing relatively well for the most part.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner and tried a new Indian restaurant called Utsav. Very, very tasty. My wife was not as impressed, she thought it was tasty but ultimately it didn't sit very well in her stomach. I had a dish called Uppu Kari *, which is described in the menu as "Traditional South Indian lamb preparation with shallots, ginger, garlic and curry leaves." It was spicy, but not overwhelming and really filled me up very well. I'm eating the leftovers for lunch right now!

Also, I described a bit of this in Twitter, and you can see my updates on the right. Twitter is for smaller, more frequent posts and I just started using it. It's hard to really describe the value, in some ways it seems non-sensical but I did use it already to connect with friends. Worth taking a look at, I can post to it from my phone or over the web.

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Volleyball

Ugly... very ugly. We seem to find a way to lose every game! Another 0-3 evening, this is getting old fast. We would play well, then miss a serve to change momentum, or not call the ball and let it fall between two players. I feel like a broken record, but we can play well and did for stretches, but couldn't stay consistent.

My hitting was better, I'm focused on staying behind the ball, then jumping through it with power instead of jumping directly underneath. My passing needs work, no surprise, I struggled with that last year as well. I haven't been aggressive with my serve at all yet, staying with the underhand because we can't afford to miss the serves. At some point I would like to go back to overhand serves, but I need to practice a bit before I try in a game.

Perhaps next week, when I play my uncles team in the late game we could stay afterwards and play pick-up or just practice a bit??

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Last MTB with my brother... at least for a while

Matt is moving to upstate New York, but we got in a nice ride on Friday at Case before he left.

I didn't have a great day, really struggling with my knee hurting a bit and the wet leaves don't help. We did discover some new trails that were a lot of fun, and pretty intimidating as well. Some pretty big rocks and stunts that would be really tough to pull off. It was nice to get out on the bike though... here's 2 pics from our day.

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