Construction Hat

Wow - 12:20 A.M. here and my wired brain/body duality is still recovering from the Ultimate game tonight. We played Eric and Katherine's team (known as Pretty Huck Machine, and if you don't get that reference, well, you have clearly never been on a driving date with Lucifer). They have a very solid and well-balanced squad (but were noticeably missing Craig); we were missing Al and Eric, so pre-game predictions were for some badness. But thanks to some ubersloppy play, a rather unfortunate hammer drop in the endzone, and some good play on occasion from our side, we overcame the on-paper mismatch to pull out a 13-12, double game point hard cap win. The game was very tight from start to finish - I think we at most got up 8-5 at halftime, but they promptly tied the game at 8s after half, and the rest of the way it was tit for tat. (It also featured some hellaciously bad drops and throws and, as a consequence, some very long points. UGH). Eric and I guarded each other for the bulk of the second half of the game, and damn: dude is tall and fast and makes some great in traffic skies. I became well acquainted with his hip at my face level on more than one play. Fun.

Anyways, I can't pretend that we can hang with those dudes; in the classic "play 100 games" scenario, we probably win somewhere around 15. They should be fine for the rest of the season. But we avoided the goose egg in the win column for the season and, thanks to that one point victory, improved our point differential to -17. Yikes. I was also slightly stunned at the severe lack of zone. No wind last night, but we scored on a lot of hucks - might've been a good way to bring us back down to earth. Oh, well.

So good game to Trent Reznor's henchpersons. Very fun, very well-spirited, and other than poor Pat getting hit in the face by an Obert huck (from about 5 yards away, ouch), nothing terribly violent went down. Woohoo Monday Ultimate. See y'all next week.

P.S. Mad props to Beck, who came to the fields to spectate after a long day at work. That is some dedication right there. She also had the experience of meeting some Ultimate stalwarts like Tricky, Eric and Big Nate. And she has also gained a new nickname for me. For the usual identity-obscuring reasons, I can't reveal the nickname, but let's just say it plays off "Big Nate" and sounds something like "Nyet the Lesser." Ouch. Seriously, thanks for coming Beck! You bring out the best in me.

P.P.S. Did I mention I am FREAKING EXHAUSTED??!?!? Serious amounts of running. I really am trying not to go to sleep because I'm fully aware how stiff as a board, unlight as a feather I'm going to be when i wake up.

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UPDATE - 3/25, 6:28 AM
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It's the next morning, and I just saw Manny crush one to right center to put the Red Sox up 6-4. LGRSCCCC. Nothing like Tokyo baseball in the wee hours of the morning - anyone else remember staying up 'til 5 to watch the Cubs in '00? Oh, and btw, re: soreness? I was completely correct. Hobbling around this morning something awful.