In Florida, I asked Andy if he wanted to host communal dinner this week. He enthusiastically said yes, so I volunteered his house and his hot tub for the group. In honor of the Orange Box and the new console games Andy had received when we were all gone, I proposed the meal to be The Orange Meal™. I offered salmon and sweet potatoes, and asked everyone else to bring something orange to the meal. Suggestions were pumpkin pie, butternut squash soup, pumpkin ice cream (mmmmmmmm.....), and the like.

Last time Andy hosted, he had an elaborate (but incredibly tasty) meal that kept him in the kitchen the whole evening cooking. What fun is that (read: none)? This time, we agreed to keep each portion someone cooks small, and encourage everyone to bring something tasty.

I grilled whisky marinade salmon. Humorously enough, I bought six pounds of Salmon since we expected around 14 people, one of who was Tyler, so six pounds didn't seem too unreasonable. It was my first time grilling salmon on a grill outside. Kris kept having to answer questions like, "What happens if the skin sticks to the grill?" and "Is the salmon suppose to catch on fire?"

Warren brought some amazing pumpkin soup with onions and corn. Steffi brought some also amazing dessert from Sugar Butter Flour. mmmmmmm.... pumpkin cheesecake. Goodness, how I love fall. Andy made squash and a green (!!!) salad with hints of orange. Crystal's orange salad had some token green in it. The potatoes I was making were late in coming, but still managed to be eaten.

As soon as the first guests arrived, we were off and playing Guitar Hero again. Portal is a single player game, but well, Guitar Hero is good for both players and fans, provided the players actually act out what's being performed on screen. Kris kept dressing as a scantily-clad bass player with big hair. I wonder if he's trying to tell me something.

The goal of this whole endeavour has to be to see if we can get everybody's poop orange tomorrow. Because that would be entertainingly funny.

Update: Gah! Almost forgot one of the most entertaining parts of the evening. As Crystal and Nick were getting ready for the hot tub, Nick spied Andy's yearbooks in the guest room closet. As I entered the bathroom to change into my "swimsuit," I heard Nick ask, "Should we look?" When I exited, the two of them were furiously flipping through the two yearbooks, my year and Andy's year, trying to find our pictures. I found them, and managed to show them to Crystal and Nick before Andy surprised us from behind, none of us had noticed his arrival. "Uh, I don't think Kris wants those out."

Yeah, neither Kris nor my mom.

I went into Nob Hill tonight on a grocery run for tonight's communal dinner. Kris and I had driven by the store recently when he commented, "Ah, the old hood. We won't be shopping there any time soon, will we?"

He was referring to the new, larger Nob Hill store which, because of a lease negotiation, took over the All-Star Baseball Academy's space, closing down the facility, changing our training opportunities and plans. No longer could we run to our fantastic training location, we actually have to drive and train to get there.

So, in I went, and wandered over to where the batting cages used to be. Huh, look at that. I then wandered to where the back, members-only weight room was. As I stood there, where I lifted weights for many hours a week training for Team USA tryouts, I couldn't help but think,

"This? THIS? This is what you tore down ASA for? An aisle of dog food? Because when I'm out of dog food, the first thing I think is, hey, I should go to Nob Hill to buy dog food. They won't be overpriced there. I'll get a good deal!"

Dog food. Flippin' dog food.

Stupid Nob Hill.

Today was my first Master Gardener Hotline day. I was late, arriving at 9:30 instead of 9:15 as the instructions suggested. What was worse, however, was the even later arrival of the two veteran hotline people and the other junior hotline gardener. They arrived between 10 and 25 minutes late, while I wandered around wondering where I was supposed to start and what I was supposed to do.

Eventually the other three people showed up, and showed me how to get the messages from the voice mail. I wrote down the names, numbers and questions, and called back the first person after researching her question. What i found strange about the calls were that the answers of each of the questions could have been found with a simple google search. Why call the hotline when you can just look up the answer in the Intarweb™

Of course, by gathering the questions into a hotline log, answering them, then posting the answers on the master gardener website, we'd have a phenomenal resource for local answers.

Honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to answering questions on hotline. I was sure to know none of the questions asked, given I haven't been in the garden for a while now, with ultimate and work, I haven't had much time. We were told to answer the phone, get a phone number, and offer to call back with the answer after researching the question.

I was worried about getting too may calls. I needn't have been worried, though, as any calls that were too many were allowed to roll over to voice mail. No problem. However, what I had problem with was the non-stop questions from one caller: I'd answer the original question, and as I'm about to say good bye, thanks for calling, she asked another question. I'd answer that question, only to be asked the next question. I kept wanting to say, "How about asking me all of the questions so that I can look up all the answers at once?"

Eh.

It was mostly a successful hotline experience.

Okay, kids, a house without lights on, without any even remotely inviting exterior, with a locked front door and two barking dogs means THERE IS NO CANDY HERE.

Don't come to the door.

Don't ring the doorbell.

Don't pound on the door.

I'm not going to answer, and if I do answer, I'm not going to have any candy to give you. See that? That's a DARK front porch. Go AWAY.

Are you deaf? Okay, fine, here, have some candy that I just bought because I knew you would ignore the dark driveway and uninviting door. I didn't want it anyway.

I drove up to Velocity Sports this morning. I'm still on East Coast time, which is fantastic for my morning schedule, not so hot for my evening schedule (thinking mostly of my 9PM - 11PM women's practice, actually).

When I arrived, I was the first person for my class, which surprised me, as the classes had been becoming full, eight - ten people in the class. Today, without Kris, Heather or Brynne, there were only four people in the class, including me, two I recognized and one I didn't.

The warmup was different than our usual warmup, a different order, but not so different in the exercises. I lined up in the first group for the 40 yard 50% jogs, one guy I recognized, the other I didn't. From previous runs, I knew I was as fast as the guy I recognized. I had no idea about the second guy.

During the 50% jogs, the guy I didn't recognized, ooo, look, he won! During the 75% jogs, hey, what do you know, the other guy won some, too. I was worried about my quad and hamstring, so was using both the 50% jogs and the 75% jogs for what they were: warmups, taking lots of steps, moving my legs in varying stride lengths.

When the 100% sprints came, however, I ran them full out as I was warm. The first run I mis-stepped my first two steps, and finished a half step behind the guy I recognized. The second sprint I finished dead even with him. The third sprint he didn't even try. I had a quick start and lost him around 10 yards.

"AW, COME ON!"

It escaped, I admit. I yelled it as I crossed the 40 yard mark, annoyed that he stopped trying. Sure, I assumed it was because he was about to be beaten by a girl. It wasn't necessarily a correct assumption, but I made it at that moment because I was annoyed.

The guy I recognized approached, and I blurted out, "You can't stop early! Come on! All the way!" Must have worked, as he sprinted the next run. The guy I didn't recognize finally woke up, too, apparently, as on the last sprint he was keeping up with us.

Sprinting all out is a heck of a lot easier when you have someone who runs yours speed when he's going all out, too.

Today's workout was named "Kettle Hell," but was mostly sled work.

With a partner, each pair of exercises were done 4 minutes each, alternating between the two exercises:

Sled Push
Kettleball swings

Sled Push
Kettleball squat to press

Sled Pull
Kettleball figure 8s

Sled Pull
Hand walk out and back

The sled pushes were with 35# plates on the sleds, after the first push with 45# nearly did my hamstrings in. The pulls were similar, but pulling the sled instead of pushing on the sled.

Kettleball swings were squat with the ball between the legs, swinging straight arm up above the head.

Presses started the same in a squat position with the kettleball on the ground between the legs, but ended with a stand up to overhead press with the kettle ball.

Kettle ball 8s where done standing with legs far apart, and weaving the kettleball from the front of one leg, through the legs, to the back of the other leg, around the outside of that leg, and back through the legs from the front, making a big figure 8.

Hand walks were the same as the normal stretching hand walks: starting from a straight leg, almost downward dog pose, walk the hands out to a plant/pushup position, then walk the hands back to the feet, keeping the legs straight, and stand up. This one was done as quickly as possible, in contrast to the warmups slower movement.

What I didn't do after this was more hamstring stretching that the handwalks started. My legs were sore the rest of today.