At communal dinner last night, I forgot my camera on the table. I felt a little naked without it today, not so much because I NEEDED to take pictures, but because I couldn't take pictures. Even my backup camera wasn't around. So, scary. Sure, I had the phone camera, but, well, yeah, even at the "5 mega pixel" range, the pictures still look like crap.

Shirley noticed my camera at her house, and returned it to me at practice tonight (joy!).

When she handed it back to me, she commented that, "Tyler may or may not have taken pictures with it."

Honestly, when she mentioned this, I was imagining out-of-focus dark pictures of some nebulous down-the-pants nether regions parts of various people at communal dinner. There wasn't nearly enough alcohol at dinner for such thoughts to actually become true fears, though.

Tyler did take pictures. After seeing his pictures, I can honestly say, I'm very glad I know how to use my camera.

After switching cars with Kris, after this morning's workout, I stopped by the local Starsbuck (ask Kris, that's the name, no really) for a milk and croissant. As I was waiting for my milk to be poured, I wandered over to the free, local newspaper stand to check out the headlines.

One of the headlines was San Carlos: Pay up or lights out.

If you don't want to bother clicking that link, don't worry, I'll rant enough that you'll know what's going on.

Essentially, the city of San Carlos is in a financial crunch, as pretty much every municipal government is across the country (why, yes, thank you greedy, retarded, mortgage backers who made very, very bad decisions and are causing problems for the responsible people who didn't succumb to the idea that you don't have to earn your way through life, that you can just mooch off society because IT OWES YOU, just because you breathe).

One of the ways that San Carlos has decided to save money is by turning off the lights.

In particular, the tennis court lights at various parks around town.

The city figures it can save about $15,000 in its $1,200,000 budget shortage by not turning on the lights when it gets dark, and, get this, charging people to have turn on the lights.

You know, have people who use the facility actually PAY for the resources the facility consumes.

Now, this particular idea has caused a HUGE uproar in the city's tennis playing population. "How dare they charge me $20 to have someone come out and turn on the lights. That's an outrage! I can play only at night, I'm a REALLY busy person. I shouldn't have to pay for the lights when other people can use the courts for free during the day."

Actually, what I heard was, "Waaaah, waaaah, waaaaah."

I was actually pretty miffed at the outrage these people are expressing. People who play on lighted fields (you know, like ultimate players) have had to pay for the lights, EVEN WHEN WE TURN THEM ON OURSELVES, and have for decades. Those lights, and heck, those fields, aren't free and as long as I've been coordinating leagues, they haven't been. Hell, to be legitimate, we have to pay for the fields EVEN DURING THE DAY, you know, when ITS LIGHT OUT.

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I become. At least the people who play tennis can get courts. They aren't bumped for youth sports EVERY TIME, because, after you graduate from high school, you're not supposed to be into sports, or playing ultimate. No, every city makes sure that youth get first dibs on the fields, and adult sports get the shaft.

So, yeah, quick your whining about having to pay $20 for someone to come out and turn the lights on. So what? It's a small amount for the joy you get from playing the sport you love, and worth every penny, right? If it's not, find a different sport.

Bunch of mooching babies.

I went to this morning's workout without Kris. For reasons I don't understand, hard workouts make me sore starting less than 12 hours after the workout ends, but Kris doesn't start feeling soreness until 24 hours after the end. Of course, this means that he's still sore two days after the workout, and I'm on the way back to full recovery.

So, he was tired and sore, and I really wanted to go. Paul goes Wednesdays and Fridays, so I was motivated to go. Honestly, I'm sore, too, but consistency is key, so go go go!

This morning's workout was four sets of reducing reps of

Overhead barbell squats
Side to side hurdle jumps
Swissball rollouts
Handstand pushups
Run 4 lengths (50m each)

Reps were 21 18 15 and 12.

The overhead squats were done with a barbell held overhead, so that the arms were straight and the bar was directly over the head. I originally thought the bar plus ten pounds would be fine for me. After three squats, I was sure I was wrong. I dropped the weights and just used the bar. I had problems keeping the bar directly over my head. I kept holding the bar slightly back, which allowed me to lean slightly forward, the bane of my squatting existence. I struggle to work the right set of squatting muscles every time, and compensensate by leaning forward. Such muscle weakness shows in my marking, too, unfortunately, so these lifts are important for me to perform right.

The side to side hurdle jumps were at two heights: 12" and 6". I did the first three sets at the lower height, once again because my knees have been achy, but also because my legs were (are) still exhausted from Monday's workout.

Today's swissball rollouts were different than Monday's rollups.. The rollout was started in a plank position with the ball under the arms, which were bent (e.g. with arms resting on the ball). The ball was then rolled backward to the point where only the hands were on the ball. The butt needs to go up into the air. That's one.

None of the four of us at class were able (well, willing in the case of Breanne) to do the full handstand pushups against the wall. I remember doing them with Gino, but I had a spotter when we did them. Instead, we put our feet on a jump block, and angled ourselves so that we were as close to the block as we could be, essentially doing a handstand pushup, but with greater range of motion since we had less weight on our shoulders.

I wasn't able to run the runs full out, so I had to settle for a fast, first five steps.

I am way sore. While I rather like the sore feeling, I don't like my achilles hurting as much as it has over the last few days. It's really starting to bother me a lot.

Today's workout was 3 rounds of:

40m standing long jump
100m walking lunges
20 kettleball swings with row
20 burpees, or alternately 20 squats and 20 pushups
20 swiss ball rollups

The 40m standing long jump was down and back along the turf. We had the option of taking a large step, then doing a squat, but I liked the idea of working on my standing long jumps. I remember in eighth grade being able to jump the farthest in my class. I did so well at the standing long jump that my teacher felt I was cheating (or that the person measuring my distances was retarded and didn't know 64" from 74"). I had to show her that, yes, I could jump 6' in the standing long jump. Helps to weigh 20 pounds lighter than your peers.

I managed the first two rounds of standing long jumps in 24 jumps. The last one I was trying for fewer, but didn't make it.

100m of walking lunges were done down the track and back. Our warmup sprints are normally 40m long, so that we have space to slow down, but no need for that when doing lunges. I managed to follow Kris' pace when doing the lunges, but my steps are sufficiently shorter such that in 10m I was already a foot or two behind him. My 100m of walking lunges ended up being around 12 more lunges than Kris.

Kettleball swings with a row were done single armed. A normal swing brought the kettleball to chest level, where it was pulled to the chest in a path parallel to the ground, then pushed back out straight, before swinging back down. The trick was to keep the elbows up.

I did the burpees as squats and lunges when my form was so bad on the first two burpees that I feared injuring myself.

The swiss ball rollups were the abdominal exercise. Starting in a plank position facing the floor, with two hands on the floor, and the swiss ball under the knees, roll the knees to the chest (and the ball to the feet), then back out.

To say this workout was easy would be a complete lie. I thought my difficulties were with being tired from yesterday's practice, but Kris said he thought the workout hard, too, so not just me. Of course, when I couldn't lower myself to sit down gracefully (onto the toilet, into the car, or on the train), I figured it was harder than I first realized.

I wonder when I'm going to be sore. I say 4 hours.

Today's practice was at Corte Madera. I managed to miss exactly half of it, as I dashed off after the throwing drills to go fill the cooler. I had arranged for Sunday last week, but thought since Pickett had arranged for the "next one" (i.e. Saturday), he would be bringing the cooler. I was wrong, so went to fix the problem. I had thought that Kris might help me out by bringing the cooler somewhat closer to the fields, instead of his car trunk, so that I wouldn't have to drive all the way back home and back, but apprently helping the wife is less important than World of Warcraft. I drove back to the house, picked up the cooler, bought food and drinks, and drove back to the fields.

Great day for Keebler to show up to practice with us.

I did manage to be at practice for a couple scrimmages and the focused throwing, to which Paul complimented my throws as significantly stronger than previous years. Kris had made a similar comment, speculating that coaching the women's team helped me learn and fix my throwing issues. Regardless, I'm happy my throws are improving, and that people are noticing.

Definitely time for my new throwing coach to help me improve more.

The most important fact I learned today wasn't ultimate related, per se. Today, I learned that Ryan is apparently attracted to me.

VERY attracted to me.

So much so that, if weren't married, he would have asked me out by now (and probably more). Apparently the crush has been going on since he joined the team. Here's how I know this: Every single cut I make, every fake I make, every juke, step, clear and every fucking mistake I make, Ryan is there to tell me what did wrong. Every one. Every single one.

Now, the only way he could possibly see everything I do (wrong) is if he is watching me non-stop. And the only reason he would be watching every moment would be because he has a crush on me.

He lurves me.

You know my logic is irrefutable.

I just wish I had figured this out last year before I yelled at him for trying to direct every single step I made, from the sideline. Only Kris has a remote control for my feet. I should let Ryan know I'm married, in case he missed all of my snuggly with Kris last year at various tournaments. Then maybe he'll stop telling me I should stop cutting when I'm 30 feet open on my defense and cutting to the correct place to pull three defenders on me so that a teammate can be wide open for the score.

Maybe.