Kickball Game #2

This time I took notes, as promised!

We played Squatting Otters at 4:30 pm at Robert Downs Elementary School (now the OFFICIAL field for the rest of the season) in Pacific Grove. Our shirts were delivered earlier this week, so Booze on First (my team) adorned the purple WAKA shirts and got ready to rumble! Our opponent wore black shirts, which is the perfect color considering how happy those people are right about now! MUAHAHA...

We started the game infield. Nothing crazy happened, just warmed up a bit. When Squatting Otters caught Tom, Jenny, and Lizzie's outs, we hustled into the outfield, ready to serve up a plate of now-its-your-turn-to-get-out! Before I knew it, the bottom of the second had crept up on us. Tyler managed to dish out the 2nd and 3rd outs in just one play!

The game was still 0-0 heading in to the third inning. I managed to kick a semi-bunt and hustle to first. My teammates followed up with some more amazing kicks that facilitated my run! YaY! Booze on First was now leading 1-0! During the bottom of the 3rd, while we were in the outfield, Olivia made a $$$MONEY$$$ catch and Tom caught one of the many fly outfielding balls. The other team did get 1 run in though, tying up the game.

Top of the 4th, Mike got to first with a powerful low flying kick, Olivia's bunt got him to second, and then Max's kick loaded up the bases! Now imagine the classic scene where a ball flys through the air and two people start to run for it.... bumping into each other, dropping what would have been an easy catch. That's what happened with their pitcher and short stop. HI-LARIOUS. However, we weren't able to get any of our kickers back to home.

Bottom of the 4th was pretty humorous. Tyler, our first base guard, was trying to get one of their runners out, and he hit her in the face with the ball! You can't hit above the face, so the lucky duck got to stay on first. Later, Dave caught a huuuuge outfield kick and threw the ball so forcefully back to home plate. I couldn't believe it! Especially since I can barely throw the ball 5 feet. Sad. Very sad. After that, various people commented about how I was texting. Truth be told I was just taking notes on the game and Dave's impressive catch/throw combo. The new guy kicking took advantage of the fact that I seemed to be a huge space cadet and rammed it way into my side of outfield. While I ran backwards I stepped into a giant mud puddle and that distracted me from getting to the ball faster. When I finally grabbed the rubber ball, I threw it even less than 5 feet. Horribly embarrassing. I need to practice throwing! Needless to say, that was an EPIC FAIL on my part. They were able to get three runs out of it!

Top of the 5th was our time to shorten the 1-4 gap. We had people on 1st & 2nd. Someone kicked the ball towards third base .... it was barely caught by the crazy shortstop lady with a Lara Craft horse braid. BUT, we didn't get an out because horsebraidlady was out of control and caught the ball when it was on the ground. SHE FREAKED OUT. Started yelling and pointing and swearing and muttering and whipping that horsebraid round and round. Lizzie got up to kick, and Tom literally slid to third with her first [foul] kick. When she kicked it fair, Tom again slid into third, angering the shortstop horsebraid girl. This really was NOT her inning. Dave was able to get us our third run of that inning! The game was now tied 4-4!!!

There was no bottom of the 5th because we ran out of field time. Didn't really matter anyways because they had to forfeit the game in the very beginning due to lack of girl players.

Our record is now 2-0! Great start to the season!

Kickball Game #1

Sunday afternoon at 4:30 pm Booze on First (my team) had our first game against Balls Deep. We played at Robert Downs Elementary School in PG. The weather was frightfully cold. We managed to win our first game, don't really remember the score OR any highlights. Next time I'll take better mental notes so I can give a play-by-play recap!

I did, however, attempt to bike to the field. I poorly misjudged time and distance. Ended up in Sand City with 20 minutes til the game (soooo far, 20 mins was not enough time to go the remaining distance). I called Max and he - thank god - picked me and Lukefrancis up. We attempted to find the field, but got a little lost. We made it just in time for the bottom of the 1st, our team's first turn "at bat."

After the game I curled up with some tea and watched the Oscars while facebooking. I then fell into a deep post-Vegas sleep. More details about my weekend in Vegas to come...

Grocery Outlet and .... a surprise!

After work I went to the Grocery Outlet (215 Reservation Road, Marina) to assess how good their deals are. They buy brand name products directly from manufacturers when there is surplus inventory or manufacturing overruns. Example from their website: cereal company had boxes with Shrek on it. Then Shrek went to DVD. Don't need those Shrek boxes in stores. Fill em up anyways and give them to Grocery Outlet (at a fraction of the cost). I noticed that they had really good deals on health/beauty products, like Neutrogena's $20-ish dollar wrinkle cream for only $8. Must remember that for when I'm OLD (or if I continue making strange faces as often as I do).

I read that they also have good wine deals. I'll have to go back before a night out to stock up! The produce section was pretty small, but how would you get discount produce anyways?? The Grocery Outlet website advises to stop by often because products are always changing, when you do see something you like get a lot because it might not be there the next time, and sign up for email notifications - if you are that gung-ho. (Which maybe I am?) I left Grocery Outlet with a HUGE thing of $5 detergent, lots of $1.50 lean cuisines, $2 box of Kashi, and other stuff!

From there I drove up Hwy - 1 to go pick up something I decided to buy on craigslist. I bet you are curious as to what I got!

That's right! I finally got a stand mixer, thanks to the help of my Doze-Valentine. The drive went by really fast both ways, mostly because I listened to the new Angels & Airwaves album LOVE on repeat. I was, however, perplexed by the intense fog. (Or should I say marine layer?) I plan on researching a bit more about this and posting a scientific description - bet you can't wait!

Tomorrow is Thursday aka the preseason for the WAKA Kickball league begins. My team has a late game, which I'm pretty happy about because then it won't get in the way of my after-work routine. It's too bad that our team will be missing both our captain Tyler and teammate Max. I'm anxious to see what these Monterey teams are going to bring to the, um, plate. Literally.

The Brit - Pub Crawl Part II

The Brit is a chain! My first experience at a Britannia Arms was at the Almaden one. Let's just say photoshop + scanner + temporary paper driver's license + small talk with bouncer = dancing with Katie and making googly eyes at the saxophone player. HA! Very fun! Anyways....

We walked in to Brittania Arms (444 Alvarado St, Monterey) and headed to the bar to see what sort of deals they had that night. The bartender asked me to look at the chalkboard above the bar. Sure enough, there were the deals! We all went for the $3 Tangerine Wheat. I really liked it, but I'm a sucker for adding flavors to reduce the beer flavor.

I tried to convince these two guys to join WAKA, but they gave me such a severe cold shoulder! I wonder if maybe I had a middle part that was distracting them? Shoot.

After about 30 minutes of being at The Brit, Kyle pointed out the fact that there was a live band. What the? How did I miss that? I was even TRYING to be extra observant for blogging's sake. Double shoot.

Instead of heading to Crown & Anchor, as planned, we headed back to the boonies and went to sleep! Overall I would say that downtown/Alvarado street looks REALLY fun. I can't wait to go back!

Mucky Duck - Pub Crawl Part I

After dinner at home, Kyle and I met up with my future kickball teammates at the Mucky Duck (479 Alvarado St, Monterey). As we stepped inside, my eyes were drawn to the fireplace (#1) on the left. Attention: this starts the fireplace trend. We keep walking down the hall and pass by a few tables and a bar and… fireplace #2 (pictured). Tyler mentioned that they were all outside, so we continued past the bathrooms to where the action was.

Picture this: you walk outside to a misty night… but then you see a big white tent with twirling club lights, a fog machine, a good DJ, a happening dance floor, an outdoor bar, and a huge fire pit (#3)! All of this at a place called "The Mucky Duck"?? You betcha.

The inside decor makes the place look like an old English man's mountain cabin. Jolly ho! But the outside… that's a whole different story! We all chatted, exchanged WAKA necklaces, and warmed up near the fire. I tried to convince Kyle to dance with me, and when he declined due to something-or-other, I did what all ex-wannabe-dancers would do… danced by myself! Mere seconds after this began, I was told to leave!

Of course it wasn't because of my expressive dance moves! What are you thinking?! It was because the schedule indicated that it was time to promote kickball at The Brit!

Battleship Sunk.

On Sunday a few of us got together to play Battleship (a smaller scale version). Spent the whole day hanging out, eating good food (props to Pizza Hut for their Sicilian - I was surprisingly impressed), watching football, and surviving the cold garage. Hopefully I can get some video footage of the 1+ hr game.

Also, met a bunch of people that will be on my new kickball team. It won't be the same without Brew's Your Daddy, but I am eager to get games going. I miss that EXTREMELY-nervous-step-up-to-the-plate feeling, and the OH-MY-GOD-the-ball-is-headed-straight-towards-me-catch-it-CATCH-IT feeling!!!