Bacos Squared

Tonight we played volleyball - Bacos I vs Bacos II. Rob is on the other team now and it was fun to watch him setting balls back and forth with Dave and Nick. My team won 2 of 3. I have no clue what the standings are but it was fun to get out and play!

Bridge Accident

In case you haven't heard, a major highway bridge in Minneapolis collapsed today during rush hour. Nick and I don't use that bridge very often, although we would have driven on it Sunday, and we are both fine. As far as I know, so are all of our friends and colleagues in the area, but we won't know for sure about that until later. Our two friends who we think are most likely to take that bridge are both out of town which is a relief. Thank you to everyone who reached out and called. I remember when the San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed and that freaked me out - this was worse because it's a bridge that I drive on occasionally and used to drive on frequently when I was in college.

Non-bridge news: the green board is up on three sides of our house and the windows are being installed tomorrow! The sliding doors will not be installed until next week because the lumberyard broke one when it came in. ARG! Bacos did not win tonight, but we did have three subs who helped out a ton; Brent, Kari and Brian all earned the All-Heart award for some awesome playing! After the game we ate two plates of cheesy bacon fries as we watched more bridge coverage. YUM! Finally, the Twins lost in extra innings to the Royals tonight, breaking our win streak. They decided to play the game because they didn't want all the people to leave the Metrodome and get in the way of the rescue efforts. Tomorrow's game is post-poned.

Post Backlog: What's Been Going On

The Twins won 3 in a row! And Nick and I had fun in the Dells, he even brought up "next time we go" so I think we'll be back next summer. I'm glad he enjoyed my favorite childhood vacation spot. When we got back yesterday I was flipping through the camera and found a number of pictures I've been meaning to share, so here goes:

How much have the volleyball refs changed since last season?
A lot - one of them took this picture!


Nick and his newly refinished poker table - no more fuzz!


Megabus sighting on the way to the Dells!


Nick and his Moosejaw sampler platter.


One of the Army ducks in the Dells. In addition to riding the Ducks, the Moosejaw restaurant, and Noah's Ark, we also went to the Pizza Pub and drive-in theatre (The Simpsons Movie) while we were on vacation this weekend. In addition to all that, we got the free added bonus of getting stuck in the elevator at our hotel with 4 other people (max elevator capacity: 5 people!). We all got in, pushed 2 and 3 and the elevator didn't move. We called the front desk from the phone and the woman said "Again?? I'll come help you," as the elevator moved up to floor 2. However, the doors didn't open and soon it went back down to 1. After we pushed each button about 3 more times the doors finally slid open just as the hotel clerk arrived and started opening the elevator closet on the first floor. We all opted for the stairs.


Work started on our house today!


Oh, Roomba. First he found the piece of wood that broke off our mattress. Today he ate a dollar (still not sure where it came from). He almost shouldn't be allowed to vacuum our room!

Another Bad Volleyball Week

The summer Bacos team just isn't playing very well. I wish we would have less criticism, less ball hogging, and more fun, but instead everyone seems to feel that it is more fun to yell at all the other players while getting highly upset if anyone else criticizes them. Then everyone is just upset and plays worse. Sorry for the downer post, I know I normally only post happy things, but after my terrible day at work I'm just not in a good mood right now and I feel like posting something sad.

Trying to think happy thoughts...two of my eBay items went for more than $5 more than I thought they would so that was a nice surprise! And Nick won the darts game. Rob didn't play, but I gave him a good run for his money. I was points leader for most of it and just couldn't close out my final 19 or my bullseyes. Next week!

Game Theory

Last night the Bacos didn't play very good volleyball - we just barely won the first game in OT, then dropped the next two to the team that's next highest in the rankings. That takes a little of the pressure off for the playoffs in two weeks. Afterwards, Nick, Rob and I continued our new volleyball tradition and played a couple of games of darts while watching the 7th and 8th innings of the Twins game. My first dart game was terrible and Nick ended up overtaking Rob's early lead to win. In the second game, I finally got my hand settled down and ended up winning a close game easily. Everyone had everything closed out except the bullseyes. I had two bullseyes and 74 points. Rob had 0 and 54 and Nick had 0 and 34. So it was basically bullseye to win! I ended up getting a double with my second dart and won with 99 points! Unfortunately the Twins lost both last night and tonight - so much for our fantastic start after the All-Star break.

I won at spoofing today on a gutsy 1-call with 0 in my hand; guess I won't be winning at poker. Good luck anyway :)

Quick Notes

We played some pretty good volleyball Wednesday night, but only managed to win the first game. All-Heart award goes to Bob, who was perfectly consistent and served us to victory in our only win.

Harry Potter was pretty good, although they changed a bit too much for my tastes. Good movie, just not the book. It was fun to play hooky though and see a movie. We went to the outlet mall afterwards and I got a new shirt and the kitchen scoops I wanted so it was a doubly-beneficial trip.

Nick got the first-ever Thursday night royal flush tonight (correct me if you remember another one by someone else) and still managed to be first out :( Later James got one in our second game of Crazy Pineapple, which I took second place in.

Twins won their first game back after the All-Star break. Keep it up guys!

And that's your adventure snapshot for this Friday morning! I should have pictures, but I'm too lazy to upload them, maybe later :)

The Last Four Days

I just feel like writing, so here's some random stuff that's been going on.

On Tuesday, the boys won at softball! Congratulations!

On Wednesday, we went 1 for 3 in volleyball, winning the final game of the night. This moves us up to sixth place! We have a bye this coming week because of the holiday, but we'll be back with a vengeance on the 11th!

Thursday was poker. We had a pretty big crowd - 20 people came over and 15 of them played. Nick and I both made the final table but quickly lost; Dmitry ended up beating Katie to end the game. I think the large crowd was due to the three special guests we had coming; unfortunately, only one of them made it and she didn't play. In her defense, she was only 12 days old then so her hand-eye coordination isn't quite conducive to playing poker yet.

The final table, minus Sergei (he disappeared with his chips so I didn't know he was still in)

The "Good Luck" cake I had made. The "Good Luck" was directed at everyone. The cake was because I felt like getting one!

Earlier in the day was my division's work picnic. It was a lot of fun, but also slightly unsettling because half the poker crowd was missing. I played in an impromptu volleyball tourney. We started off with fours - Andrea and I were on one team and the other six players were men. Our team lost. More guys wandered over and we ended up playing fives next - our team won! Finally, two more guys showed up so the last game was sixes. We started off badly, going down 0-8, then we rallied and came back to 14-10. We ended up winning 18-16. It was a lot of fun, although the ball was a rock! I have a large bruise on my knuckle from bumping that ball. It was interesting to play with Rob not diving at balls - he had on new jeans and didn't want to ruin them :) I also had good luck at the bingo table, winning a $5 gift card and a beach towel. I then won the "final" prize of the day, which was sort of a booby prize but exciting just because it was the last one they had. Finally, I won one of the raffle prizes, a $25 gift card to another place. Fun!

Today was a half day - awesome because we're not going anywhere this weekend. I came home from work, listed some stuff on eBay, took a walk, and took a nap. After Nick got home we went over to Dave and Smeeta's for supper and games. We played a high-scoring game of Puerto Rico. Nick was smoking us all early but ended up in last place. Final scores were 49, 52, 56, 57 and Dave won. If Nick had had one more mayor turn he would have tied Dave! We also played Euchre; both the guys and the girls won one game apiece before Dave and Smeeta had to leave for the airport. Joe Mauer also got his first major league grand slam (3rd homer of the week!) as the Twins pounded the Tigers 11-1.

And thus goes this week's adventures!

Bacos Rule!!

Tonight we (1-5) played the number one team (6-0) and we managed to win the first game! What a fantastic feeling. We got 14 points in the second game and 17 in the third, so not embarrassing losses either time either. The All-Heart award has to go to the entire team: Nick, Rob, Bob, Sarah, Andrea, and me. Everyone played well and helped contribute to our victory. Nick tried to break my left foot, but after all that happened in Vegas, that didn't really surprise me. No bruise yet so I should be ok.

After the game, Rob talked me and Nick into a game of darts. Even though I haven't played since the Thompsons still lived in Minnesota, I did nicely. In the final round I was two points ahead of Nick and down two bullseyes. My first two darts missed anything worth points but my last dart was a double-bullseye! Go Karin!!

Bacos: Full Throttle

Team Bacos played hard tonight, winning 2 of 3 games with scores 27-26, 23-25, and 26-24. Everyone played well and had great hits, but the winner of the All-Heart Award has to go to the Borchs. They worked well together and got us many points. Rob was also the "game ender" for our two victories: he served the winning point in the first game and pulled up mid-dive to avoid hitting the ball on the winning point of the last game (it was out-of-bounds). Go Bacos!

Bacos Defeated

We won our first game easily tonight and then lost our second two. We had scores of 21 and 24, both of which were comebacks. We did play well enough to award an All-Heart award: Rob for getting us back into the second two games with some outstanding serving. I do have to say though, everyone did a great job with ball placements and hits, our end game was just off a little. Here's to next week!

We're Baa-ack!!

Yes, the Bacos started off strong, winning all three games tonight :) The other team never even broke 20! The guys voted me All-Heart player of the game based on my serving. I got us the ball back on their first serve in the first game, then served 4 straight points to put us up 5-0, as well as serving the game winning (ace) point in the third game! We all seemed to play pretty well, but it was hard to tell because the other team was rusty and had trouble getting the ball over the net. We followed our games with Nick-grilled steaks and a game of Trains, which Dave dominated. Luckily it was 5 players so I didn't feel bad.

In baseball news, after a disappointing loss on Sunday, the Twins bounced back in Seattle, winning 11-2 last night. They are up 5-0 after two innings tonight so far. Go Twins!

Volleyball Recap

We ended our indoor volleyball regular season tonight, going 2-1 and then winning the bonus extra game as well. Several notable plays prevent a single "All Heart" player:

1. Bob hit two balls really well off the net and we were able to save them for points.
2. Rob's serving in the second game, plus his overall good play.
3. Nick's "laying on the floor" dig that actually got the ball over.

It's not quite a "positive" but I had my first ever volleyball carry tonight. And let me tell you - I knew as soon as it happened that I had carried! It was sort of a weird feeling. My serves were pretty good too; I only missed one in about ten attempts.

Next week: Playoffs. After that: sand volleyball at Alleygators!

Brilliant Luck?

I had two lucky streaks today: I was the last person to "win" at spoofing and I won the first poker game :) Nick's streak is gone, but maybe one of my own is starting! For all those wondering: spoofing is a game we play every Thursday at work. The losers have to buy the winners a drink from Caribou.

ETA: It was actually a brilliant poker night for the women. We started off with 11 players, 8 men and 3 ladies. We got down to 6 and it was equally divided - 3 vs 3. It came down to me vs. Janelle for the victory after we pushed all of them out! The second game was a little more fair - 6 men and 2 ladies and I went out before the money, but Janelle hung in there and managed to take down all the guys by herself!! So it was the best kind of poker night: LADIES NIGHT!! Here's to another week of the same :)

Not much to report in other news. We were competitive at volleyball last night, but couldn't win. Our All-Heart player was Rob - he had some truely awesome plays! We're also all signed up for sand volleyball, so the Bacos stories will continue until at least September. Go Bacos!

Volleyball and Fitness

We only won one volleyball game tonight - we were playing the top-ranked team. We matched them point-for-point in the first game (actually were ahead for most of it) before losing at the end, then had our normal second-game slide, then won the third game after squandering a large lead. Nick is the Bacos All-Heart Player of the Game, with a fantastic block in the second game - first block we had all season!

As for fitness, Nick was checking on fitness centers in the area and one of the francises he brought up had my old telephone number! What a weird coincidence - I've never seen one of my old numbers turn up again like that :)

Karin IS the limiting factor!!

And the truth comes out! I didn't play (or attend) volleyball tonight because of my flu virus and in my absence Bacos managed to go 3-0, plus win the exhibition game. Guess they really are better off without me :)

Bacos with Heart

We played the #1 team tonight and won 2 of 3. One nice win, one decisive win, and one in which we were tied at 17s but then lost. Go Bacos! :)

Volleyball Success

Tonight we played the top-ranked volleyball team in our league for the third time (there are only 4 teams in the league so we repeat a lot) with some great results: we beat them the first time and were within 5 each of the other two games, not a bad night at all. In fact, it was good enough to warrant several All-Heart awards:

1. To Molly, our awesome sub, who encouraged us to try Bump, Set, Spike with moderate success in the third match.
2. To Dawn with her awesome digs that completely shocked the other team.
3. To all the Bacos for a consistent 99% serve rate (only 3 misses total over 3 games)!

Great job to all :)

Victory

A big "All-Heart" goes out to the entire Bacos team who played tonight - Bob, Dawn, Rob, Katie, Nick and Karin. Everyone played fantastic volleyball and we won 2 of the 3 games. The second game came down to the wire and we won two challenges by the other team. First that you can kick a ball and second that you have to win by 2. Our loss in game three was close too: 23-25. Most exciting for me was that I served the winning point in the first game (actually the last three) - very rarely do I get to do that :)

We followed volleyball up with a game of Beyond Balderdash, a game which hasn't been drug out since last year's cookie exchange. I narrowly beat Bob out for the win (he got second and Katie third). I love hearing what everyone comes up with (and writing out clues that everyone thinks are real!).

Hopefully I've got a little winning dust left over in my pocket so I can win at poker tomorrow as well.

Bacos Did It!!

We won all 3 games. I was even the All-Heart player, serving us from a 4-7 hole to a 12-7 lead, then making the final hit that won the game for us when it was 24-20. Everyone played very well though, we only allowed 10 points in each of the first games. GO BACOS!!

A New Volleyball Season Begins

Tonight we played some pretty typical Bacos volleyball in our first game of the season: destroyed the other team in the first game, squandered a large lead in the second to lose narrowly, and destroyed ourselves in the third. There are two very special All-Heart awards though:
(1) Rob - his amazing "thumbs down defense" hit for a point in the first game.
(2) Dawn - her serves in the third game made the score look like it was far more evenly matched than it actually was (I think she got 5 and we lost on the volley, not a bad serve).
Thanks for putting your all into the game!

Afterwards I dragged everyone to the Big 10 restaurant in Hopkins. I've only been to the on-campus one so I wasn't sure what to expect, but this one was nice too (and a short drive from where we play volleyball). Unfortunately they were all out of roast beef, but the food was still excellent.