You Know What to Do. Do it.

So I'm watching the training scene from Rocky IV on the eve of the first kickball game of the year.  I've seen it, without exaggeration, at least 45 times.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was higher than that because I think my brothers and I watched the last half of that movie once or twice a day everyday during the summer of 1990.  It would end and we would rewind it and start it over from the middle, as we rocked out from one great Survivor song to another.  No matter how many times I see it I just get sucked in.  In case you haven't seen it, Ivan Drago is training in a gym so advanced it could only exist on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain in Communist Russia, while Rocky is training in what appears to be an insulated barn in the middle of a frozen wasteland.  The classic "advanced" Russian war machine against good old fashioned American blood, sweat, and tears.  

My favorite part is when Rocky decides that he's tired of the KGB following him everywhere and he just kicks it into another gear, then proceeds to not only run away from a car, put then run straight up a mountain as if he were wearing anti-gravity boots.  What always gets me, is that the whole time he is training Adrian is watching him with this "I disapprove, but I'm hear to support you." look, which is just total B.S..  I was so happy that they killed her off in Rocky Balboa.  How could she just flat out yell down the stairs "You Can't Win!!"?  Then 2 seconds before Rocky knocks him out she yells "You're Going to Do It!!".  Way to jump on the bandwagon you heartless witch.

But right before they start training, his trainer, Duke looks at Rocky and says "You're going to have to go through hell, worse than any nightmare you've ever dreamed.  But when it's over, I know you'll be the one standing.  You know what you have to do.  Do it."  You see Rocky was a veteran fighter.  Duke didn't have to give him the big long pep talk.  "You know what you have to do.  Do it."  We are a veteran kickball team.  As the suns morning light kisses the dew of the 2009 season tomorrow, remember that.  We've been there.  We know what to do.  Now lets go out there and do it.

Good luck tomorrow and lets not get hurt.

Begin with the Beginning

Stephen Covey teaches to "Begin with the end in Mind", what an idiot.  Everyone knows things should always begin at the beginning.  Today was the "unofficial" beginning of the 2009 Kickball season.  Just hours ago I was in the "Kickball Meeting" going over all the rules and picking up my kickball with all of the other team captains.  The smell of competition coming out of that room was so thick I could literally taste it while I was driving down Oak Park Blvd.

When it comes right down to it, going to the Kickball Meeting is really uneventful.  I walk in pick up the rules and my new set of balls, and that's about it.  But I have to tell you, my heart was racing looking everyone in the eye, knowing the next time we see each other it will be under much different circumstances.  It's kind of like going into a slaughter house and looking the milk fed veil calves in their big brown Obama inspired hope-filled eyes right before they are shoved through the meat grinder of life.

So as the opening credits of the 2009 season roll and Episode 1 of Season 1 of the Bayside Tigers Kickball Team approaches the May 29th opening day, I become more an more filled with breathless anticipation of the season to come.  We are not much different than those kids at the top of this page.  Just look at them.  Max thinks he will be on the show forever, Screech and Richard Belding have no idea they will be on the show for another 15 years with no other chance of working again.  Zack has no idea that Kelly will rip out his heart and throw it on the floor time and time again.  Jessy would have never guess that her big move from Farmington Hills to an NBC Saturday Morning show would someday get her the lead roll in the biggest Cinemax Late Night movie ever Showgirls.  Slater has no idea that when he gets to College he will learn that he is Mexican.  Lisa... Oh lets face it, Lisa will continue being "Daddy's Little" girl and spending money without consequence for the rest of her life, she was the least developed character on the show.  And finally Kelly.  I had Kelly built up so high in my youth, to witness the shenanigans she pulls on the show through the eyes of an "adult" turns my stomach. 

The Team T-Shirts are in and they look great.  I hope everyones off season training was up to snuff, so we don't get 4 pulled hamstrings on the 29th. 

So I haven't posted anything in Months.  Since before Thanksgiving.....I didn't do the math yet but are we closer to Thanksgiving 2009 than we are Thanksgiving 2008?  Is it possible for memory's that haven't happened yet to be clearer than ones that happened a few months ago?  Ok, that was an Irish Car Bomb talking, I'm not sorry because it's St. Patty's Day.

I wrote 2 other blog entires since then but didn't post them.  One was about the Christmas Cruise, which was... Well we lost a lot of good people out there.  Then I wrote one about how depressing winter was.  It was right at the end of January when it had been below 32 degrees for the entire month, save 15 hours (I wish that was a made up number, but if you remember 2009 started out like the movie The Day After Tomorrow ended).

I figured today was a good day to get things going again.  Not only is it a religious holiday, it was also a beautiful day outside today.  Just as the sap has started running in the trees the blood in my veins is starting to unthaw and heat up my competitive juices.  So to my players, I say it's time to limber up.  I really only care if we win one game this season.... It's a specific game and I will get more into that later, but it will be a day that is circled on my calendar this year for sure.  It's going to take a lot of solid play to get there, but I think the Bayside Tigers can accomplish anything they set their minds to.  (The movie Unfaithful just started on TBS, Diane Lane is easy on the eyes huh?)

And just like the daffodil's are starting to bud, a young kickball season is starting to grow.

I'm pretty sure I lost a lot of my readers over the many many months of absenteeism, but recently I suddenly lost probably my most loyal reader, and without a question this Kickball Teams biggest supporter.  I can't help but think about Don Finkel Jr. when I write this first post in many months, I know there will be many kickball oriented things that will remind me of Don over the next several weeks, months, and years.  He told me a few weeks ago that he checked my blog all the time hoping I would update it.  Well, this is the first post.

Will I Get Dumber Now?

Ooooouuuuuccccha!

(Not mine pictured)

Today I had parts of my skull ripped from my face!  The people at work said that was a little "dramatic", but who are they to judge?  It's kind of an amazing process really.  I got to the Dr's office at 1:50, I was in the chair by 2 or so, they had the gas going by 2:05, a couple of needle pricks, then listing to two Old Hen's talk about their lives for a few minutes.  The Doctor came in and did his thing, I honestly have no idea what he did.  There were pliers, a drill, and....I think that was it.  I was out the door at 2:25.  I was at Rite Aid longer....

All I can say is thank God it's 2008.  Having in that done 50 years ago would have been awful.  Just the amount of pressure it took to get them out...  I couldn't imagine doing it without some sort of drug.  Right now I'm watching Policy Academy 4 and it is more painful to watch than it was to have my teeth pulled.  I'm still not sure what's going to happen in the next few hours or days, but right now I'm still bleeding pretty bad, but only in a marginal amount of pain.

I would also like to say what a great thing "Laughing Gas" is.  I was all buzzed up.

Here Comes Christmas Again!!!

I bought a computer back in May of this year, and the first widget I added to my desktop was a countdown clock to Christmas. As we sit at this moment it shows 36 Days 3 hours and 6 minutes to go..... I can't wait!!!

Even though my feelings about Christmas have changed a lot over the years in many was they've stayed the same. When I was little we would do the Christmas Eve Service every year, I would get a new sweater then stand up in front of the church with all the other kids and say "In those day Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world..." Then we would go to Grandma & Grandpa Iseler's to open presents and watch my uncles get drunk. We would get home around midnight, watch the Mass at St. Peters in Rome and go to bed then get up at 6:00am to open presents. Fast forward 20 years, now I'm the uncle getting drunk and instead of Mass we watch "A Christmas Story"....

4 years ago Chad and I started a tradition of our own.... We try to keep it as Christmassy as possible, and we have spread lots and lots of Christmas Cheer over the years. I attached 1 or 2 of the pics from last years Formal Outing... Click here if you want to see what it's all about.

Also, a Gold Star to every person who learns this dance before December 6th, and performs it at some point in the night. Nerissa, Autum, Lesley....I'm thinking you 3.

Have I Just Lost Interest? Or Have I become Uninteresting?

Ok, I get it.  Once a month updates to the blog are not going to fly.  I have heard from several different people that I need to be more diligent with my posting.  So I decided to give you a picture of the most amazing thing ever to help make up for it.

Google Images is silly

I'm not 100% sure why I have been so lazy lately.  I do tend to get bored easily, that may be playing a big role.  However, I just don't really think I have all that much to post about right now.  So, have I lost interest, or am I just uninteresting?  In reality it's probably a little bit from Column A and a little bit from Column B.  So I have been making a list of things to write about to help organize my thoughts.

  

1.  I never did a proper post about the Kickball Tournament.  Although, I think a couple people would thank me for that (Todd, Autum, probably Mike, not Chad, but most of Chad's team...).  Lot's of good stuff from that weekend, I can honestly say I've never see the Hotel such a mess.

2.  I was cleaning out my car and I found some papers dating back to May 5, 2005, a day that will live in infamy...  The day 3 young men traveled 376 miles and stopped at every Taco Bell they saw.  That's a story my friends, that's a story indeed.

3.  Halloween.

4.  The Christmas Cruise, this could be a couple good ones.

5.  Christmas YEAH!

6.  There is a good "HoCo Korner" out there just waiting to get posted!

That should do it for now.  It's a cheap post, but hey, it's a post, right?  Better than nothing, right?  I mean if you had to choose between nothing and this post you would take this post, right?  Alright, so maybe this wasn't such a funny post, so please enjoy these clips of something that has always made me giggle.

Lazy Bones

Wow!  I have been a Neglectful Nelly to the blog lately.  It's not like I haven't had any Kickball news to report on either, I've just been a...well lazy.

The Fall Season is 3 weeks old so far, and I have to say it's been pretty interesting.  Since they combined anyone that wanted to play from the "A League" and the "B League" and new teams off the street into one 11 team Fall League, the talent level can only be described as "peaks and valleys".  The good teams are good and the bad teams are terrible....we are both.  Depending on what week it is.

Week One was pretty interesting, we played one game against Vinny Delicious & The Band.  Everything was going well, we were up something like 13-2 when Hurricane Ike decided to join us in the bottom of the 3rd.  The cell phone obsessed umpire was out of there right after he waited long enough for us all to get really wet.  Both teams decided to finish the game, so there we were, playing some kickball in the rain.  Although, I need to bring up the point that I was not playing (I've been on the DL for much of the season) so I ended up umpiring the game.  We won going away, but it was a pretty cool experience to say the least, even if I was on the sidelines...

After week one was Nerissa's 25th Birthday party.  I could go on and on about Nerissa drink a little to much and paying a visit to the bathroom that need to be followed up with a mop, bucket, sawdust, a Hazmat team, and a gallon of bleach because she left her dignity all over the floor.  I could talk about her special rendition of the Thriller Dance, but I'll just let these pics do the talking...

The Birthday Girl is Nothing But "Rock'n Roll" (Must be Early)

The Screen Saver on my....everything

As you can see Nerissa is gravitating toward a "Punk Rock Crowd" but is still begging for "Peace"

Obviously she's doing well.  Get ready for the next 3 pics...

Those are my favorite 3 pics of all time.  I submitted the Middle one to Webster's to put under the definition of "Sweetest Girls Alive"