AL-NYCPUL champs... again!

2006 AL-NYCPUL Champs! (Team Grey)

back row: eric, brant, dan, hunt, aru, eli, ben, tom, joe
front row: charlie, bob, melissa, dai, luke, drew
missing: nnenna, brendan, pete, cyd, josh, jonathan, brooke, sarah

Our playoffs were originally scheduled to take place on August 27th. But due to a mishap by the Central Park people, who managed to give out 2 permits to the Dustbowl on that day, one to us and one to Ellen Degeneres, we were bumped off our field. Yes, no joke. A massive stage had taken over our field the entire weekend in preparation for a taping of the Ellen Degeneres show on Monday featuring Justin Timberlake and Beyonce. Yes, we got bumped because of Ellen, Justin, and Beyonce.... I was tempted to ask friends to show up and throw discs at the stage during the taping...

So playoffs were postponed to September 3rd, Labor Day weekend. We were worried that teams would not be able to field enough people to play, but suprisingly, 4 of 6 teams showed, and they managed to have a good turnout.

In honor of Dai's sparkly skirt and the one she inspired (coerced?) me to make, we all decided to get decked out in sequined material and call ourselves Team Bling for the day....

Eli was very excited to make his skirt.


Brant and Bob sporting their headwear... Tom probably had stuff on his shoes which Dai forced upon anyone that wouldn't voluntarily wear the sequined material.


Squinty Joe (he didn't want to wear anything that would slow him down, but Dai probably attacked his shoes, too), Eli in the skirt you can't see, Eric and his green cape, Dai being Dai, and Ben sporting the shimmering lavender bandanna (and a grey skirt as well! he rocks!).


Luke and Charlie in bandannas as well.... and well, Drew wasn't so shiny that day.


Me with my silvery bandanna and blue skirt, Aru had sparkly ribbons on his shoes...


Sparkleness Galore. I love the hairstlye, Bob. And a better view of Eric's cape and Ben's skirt.



Quarterfinals were Lemon vs Navy (Lemon won by forfeit) and Pink vs Maroon (Pink won easily). Semifinals were Lemon vs Green (Again, Lemon won by forfeit) and Pink vs Grey (Grey won easily). Finals was a very fresh Lemon (with practically their full squad out minus some women) vs Grey, game to 15.

We went to half 8-4 with Grey in the lead. Then we quickly expanded that gap to 11-4. Then... fiasco! My team fell apart with people making numerous unforced errors (people throwing away, me playing terrible and not catching. I'm so embarassed!). The next thing we knew it was 12-11... 12-12... 13-13... 14-14!... Universe point!!! And then..... Whew, we took care of business properly and finished the game 15-14. I think I almost had several panic attacks during that game.

It was a great and spirited game. I love my team and Lemon (granted, many are friends from pick-up which made it much more fun!)... What a great season! And a great finish to my last summer in the City!!

A pull by Dan...


Check out that stack! (and Sinai in the backdrop)


The End.
Ben and Eli strutting in their skirts with Sean. The rest of Grey and Lemon behind them....


Grey with 1st place blue ribbons!


Lemon (with half the team already gone) with their 2nd place red ribbons!

Mike, Nedra, Jay, Craig, Rich, Dan, Apu, Sean, Paul

The great commissioner Cathy then treated us (anyone from the league) to dinner and drinks! Whoo-hoo!.... Some pictures:

Me and Dai...

She is one CRAZY little girl. I'll miss her when she goes back to school.
:(

Many more pictures from this season here!

We got it!

August 19th
GardenWalk Phase 12 Release:
When the names were called, we were not called first. We sat with heart-beating trepidation as we watched a man and his two teenage daughters walk up to the board.... and picked Lot 2! Whew!

Next up... was us! We eagerly jumped up, signed our names next to our favorite, Lot 10, grabbed our bottle of champagne, and waited outside to meet our new neighbors as they came out one by one. We met some very nice couples (one of which both work at BD Biosciences... yay, connections!) as we waited to hand over our big ol' deposit check. We found out that they were all dissuaded from even considering our lot since they had no chance of getting it. :) hee...

Dave and I then spent about 2-3 hours finalizing the loan application with our lender (looks good!), picking our options with the tech expert (surround sound, baby! By the way, have you ever heard of a central vacuum?? For $2-3K, you can install a massive cannister in your garage, a 30' portable hose, and outlets scattered throughout your house connected to that cannister with a strong vacuum. Interesting, huh? But we didn't get it.), and signing our massive contract with Chrissy, one of nicest agents we've ever met. GardenWalk was smart in picking their sales agents. Both were highly knowledgeable, friendly, and just made everyone feel welcome. We seriously believe that's why this is one of the few communities still doing well in the housing slump... Most of the other neighborhoods we visited have nasty old ladies who give you that look (remember in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts tries to go shopping the first time? THAT look.)....

Anyways, Dave and I signed our contract in record time (I felt like we were racing to see who could initial the documents faster)... Grabbed a couple photos of the house before running over to CTI, who was in charge of flooring and countertops. We found out during the contract that the deadlines to choose these were in early-mid September, a bad time for me and Dave as I won't be back in San Diego in time, and Dave has a horrible ICU rotation coming up. We asked Chrissy if she could arrange for us to complete it all this weekend, and she managed to fit an appointment for us right after the contract signing....

Us, house, and champagne!


So we rushed over to CTI (without eating a proper lunch) and spent the next 3 hours designing our house. Oh, the exhaustion! It felt like 10 hours... All I can remember is that we got granite countertops for the kitchen (Ouch, expensive!), a medallion for the foyer (I love it! You gotta visit to see!!), upgraded to tile in all the bathrooms (default was vinyl. ugh!), cool tiles with some accents in all the bathrooms (too tired to describe them all, except that we got some sea turtles in the future kids' bathroom. hee.)... You know, describing really does nothing. You're just going to have to come and see when the house is done. Heck, I can't even imagine in MY head... I just hope it turns out great. Keep your fingers crossed!

August 20th
We went back to GardenWalk to take more pictures of our future house,
10481 Red Rose Lane (aka Lot 10, Plan 2C):


Isn't it amazing how quickly the framing goes up? 2 weeks ago, it was only 1 story! Look at it now!!
Front view with front door

Front view with driveway and garage


In one of my previous posts, I took a bunch of pictures of the house from back to front. Here's the same with 2nd floor...
Back yard, back of garage, Master Bath on top

Dining Room and Kitchen, with one of upstair's bedrooms

Living Room with part of the 2nd upstair's bedroom and bath

Front door with the "tower" window of 2nd upstair's bedroom

Downstairs bedroom with loft and balcony on top

Me upstairs in the loft, on the balcony

View from the balcony


Master bedroom on top of garage with a small deck

View from the deck

Dave looking out of the "tower"

Views from the upstairs bedrooms



We also walked around the park across the street from the house and took some pictures (our house is the 2nd wooden roof from the right you see when zoomed in).

Putting green in the park (you can still see our roof!)
Buildings with red roofs belong to the new elementary school opening this fall.

Ultimate Wedding Shots

So I had forgotten to mention, that at Irene's wedding, Dave and I were playing around with the discs they gave out. Tony, the photographer, walked past and commented "I've never seen a bridesmaid do THAT!" and proceeded to take a few shots. Here they are! A rare opportunity to get action shots.... in a dress!

Ultimate in the shadow of Sinai

As many of you know, I'm pretty obsessed with Ultimate Frisbee. You see, I was obsessed with volleyball in college. I mean, I played a lot. I'd play 5 hours straight, 3 days in a row during the weekend. It was pretty crazy. During that time, I also played lots of intramural sports. Almost everything (including 4 different vb teams, field hockey, soccer, touch football, innertube waterpolo, ping-pong, squash, billiards (i suck), softball (ugh, my least favorite)) ! I also picked up ultimate frisbee during that time. I played with Yale Ramona during my sophomore year ('95-'96) which was a great learning experience, and a great bunch of girls. We went to Nationals (My one and only time in Minnesota. Did you know Blaine, MN, has beautiful grassy fields??) and traveled quite a bit. However, I didn't stay with it afterwards as I was an IM secretary and put intramurals as my priority. So ultimate was put on hold, as I focused all my extracurricular time in college on intramurals and volleyball (did i tell you i used to compete in 2 on 2 grass tournaments? even won twice. sigh. back in the day....).

However, after college, I realized my shoulder was shot. I had problems with my rotator cuff that even now bothers me if I attempt to hit/serve a volleyball. :( So I picked up Ultimate again. It's now my obsession (although I've determined my rotator cuff will never let me master a hammer).... I've played in the Philly PADA league one summer, in every possible WAFC league in DC for the year I was there (That was nuts, as I would be playing games 5 days a week. My brother complained that I wouldn't let him do any DC activities. Heh.). When I moved to New York, I found a local pick-up game walking Coco on my first full day in the City. Talk about fate... I've been playing in the Dustbowl ever since (6 years!)....

(The Dustbowl is actually the big round dirt patch next to the marker. The big building to the right is one of the buildings of Mount Sinai called Annenberg. I work in the building on the NE corner of Madison and 98th Street and live across the street. This pick-up game was meant for me. My commute is 1 minute!)

I've been very involved in the AL-NYCPUL summer league since it's inception. Out of 4 years so far, I've managed to be on winning teams 3 times! Sweet!

2002 NYCPUL Champs!(Nomads)

front row: caroline, kit, me, megan, tc
back row: rich, evin, steve, rocky, john, josh, scott, doug, jacques

2003 NYCPUL Champs! (Team Black)

front row: patrick, nnenna, me, kit, jason, josh
back row: josh, brant, billy, shah, LT, hunt, dutch

(No picture from my 2004 team, Iris. We didn't win, but we were great at heckling and eating!)

Last year was a blast, as I got to co-captain with one of my favorite players, Hunt, and we had drafted a ridiculously stacked team. It was beautiful watching this team flow. Here's a team pic after winning the whole thing:
2005 AL-NYCPUL Champs! (Team White)

front row: brendan, paul, malcolm, bob, denis
back row: fitz, lev, josh, me, megan, perry, casey, mark, amos
and we're missing hunt!!!

Nedra, Eric, Hunt, and Me-- When I grow up, I want to be like Hunt. He's in his 40s with 2 teenage kids, but still one of the hardest playing, most skilled players out on the field... and still fast!


This year, I am co-captaining with Nnenna, my most favorite piano-playing ultimate player! (see below) Our team looks very strong. Playoffs are 2 weeks away so we will find out then if it's a repeat!!!

Here are some pictures from this year so far. I hope to get some better ones during playoffs.

Icy Pops!
Me, Aru, and Brant enjoying some icy pops during our bye in the shadow of Annenberg... this was a ritual. Icy pops if there was a bye between games. Yum!


Me and Nnenna = co-captains of Team Grey for NYCPUL 2006
Nnenna is just too cool. She's a professional pianist!


Team gathering on August 19th. Notice, Ben being Ben.



Me + Dai + sparkly skirts!
Dai is 19 years old. 19!!! And already an awesome frisbee player... I do have to say, it makes me, the old lady, feel good when she tells me she wants to grow up and be like me. :) hee
I'm old and lazy, but it's nice that people still think I'm good (I used to be MUCH better, faster with better throws. Oh well.).


Catching a disc! (Uh, that girl in pink is 20 years old)