Picture snapped after our last regular season game, check out the team - courtesy of SarasotaUltimate.com

It was a hard season that saw a lot of new players in the first couple weeks, driven practice discussions, high emotions, and a lot of grit. By the last 3 weeks all 4 teams had stepped it up to the point where each game was a squeaker. However, we played through and managed to finish the season undefeated.

These week was the playoffs, a two round series to determine the end all champion. Round one would see 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 ... the final round would be a duke out of the two winners. The first season (last summer before I started with the team) saw our team enter the playoffs as the last seed - yet come out on top. So, we couldn't take any game lightly - it was anyones disc ... who would take it home?

The first game, vs New College, saw us trying a bit too hard - "holding the stick too tight" if I might steal a term from my hockey days. But by second half we were in more of a groove. Kay found open ground repeatedly in the end-zone to help us take the first game 15 - 7 (or something like that). Now we had to wait as the other game still had to finish up. We tossed the disc a little, rested a little, trying to keep our heads in it.

Turns out that Dos Manos (#3 seed) managed to sneak out the win 15-14 and headed over on a big high. In the final game they came out strong taking an early lead. We came out completely flat and dropped the first half 5-8. The initial part of the second half was not much better going down another 3 points right out of the gate ... with the score 5-11 for Dos Manos we called a time-out.

Time to settle it down, clear the bad karam we had on the field, re-group as a team ... play as a team. It was time to deliver! And we did. We stopped the inter-team banter and started playing "our" game. As the momentum shifted you could see Dos Manos fade. They played a hard first game and were seeing this one slip away. Everytime they got the disc we had pressure ... all kinds of pressure. We were not letting any easy throws get caught.

And after completing a 10-0 run we took the game 15-11 ... we went 10 and 0 after our time-out and regrouping.

A massive calf cramp on point 13 ended my game a little early, but the win made everything just fine! Today we are all sore ... now is the time to heal cause end of June we are back ... and it looks like we are going to fielding 6 teams. Competition is going to be even stronger ... and I look forward to every minute of it. Heck, I am in decent shape again :)

Though if anyone knows any good exercises for my calf I am all ears!

Because so many people were requesting them (ha!), I thought I would post the pictures from Sunday night. Yes, being that it IS thursday they are kinda late ... though still earlier than our vacation pictures which seem to be taking the better part of this decade to get onto the site.

Anyway ... go check them out.

This week has been crazy, last night was my second night where I was still here at 1AM. See Melissa, aren't you happy your not here? It is release time again, and deadlines don't move as easy as the hours ... so, we continue to work. Unfortunately, that has caused me to miss the iTunes promotion ... or almost all of it (tomorrow is the last day). So I guess on the way out to the Ultimate field this evening I will have to stop and find those "yellow caps". So, even if I don't win via caps, I am downloading the free songs offered with their latest version (Finally I setup an account ... now ... do I spend money?)

Krishen, however, managed to find a few ... congrats Zameer

Who is using iTunes? How many songs have you purchased?

Girls were back on Sunday

I hope everyones weekend went well. Mine was once again filled with hockey! Oh yea!

Managed to get myself out of bed and head up to Tampa for my first playoff game. And what a game ... two early goals by Tampa left the Canadiens struggling to make a comeback. While they got one before the end of the first, Lacavalier basically finished the game with a goal at 2.4 seconds remaining in the second.

And I sat there and watch the whole thing from row 305, off the players bench side of the Montreal net. OH YEA! We had the thunder sticks banging and the crowd chanting. While we did have several fans down from Montreal sitting just a few seat behind us ... I hope they had fun at the beach!

Anyways ... Darren snapped a couple pictures so I hope to snag those soon. And, as long as things go well, I may get back for at least one more game this year. Pulling for a finals! Now, that would just rock!!

PS. For all my Canadian buddies: $60 for second round playoff tickets AND there were seats still available ... plus I could snag '04-05 season tickets for as low as $500.

Well, it was another long day at work. Seemed so unproductive this past week, not like I did not get anything done but I just don't have the "yes ... completed!" feeling. Could be that a couple of the days were broken up by admin work and all we have been doing is hunting down issues prior to our next release. But with a deadline of next Wednesday ... this week DOES have to be productive - likely a couple late nights coming.

So, figured that I would top off this unproductive week with a night out. Darren, Krishen, Greg and I met up with the girls from the paper for a evening at the "Silver Cricket". Nice little prep bar right down town. Think that will be a nice spot for one of my Wednesday night 'date nights' when Melissa gets home. Nice spot to just sit and have a drink.

Of course, I should note that the night started off well with a 4-0 Lightning win over Montreal.

So ... Thursday evening turned out to be a hard fought win, probably the hardest of the season. We managed to tie the game 14-14 with seconds to go in the game - which push a "next point wins" scenario. Sudden-death in Ultimate is interesting as it is more like football. The 'pull' gives one team possession which dramatically increases their chances to end the game. Since we tied it (ie ... just scored), we were pulling the disc which gave Dos Manos possession. We needed a big D, and we got it giving us a chance to end the game ... and we did.

It was a great game ... and needed celebration. So it was off to the Ale-house for some Blue. As expected ... they had the games on :)

[Next Thursday: Single elimination playoffs]

For Orque:
- Calgary pulled of a 2-1 OT win over the Red Wings.
- San Jose skated around the Avalanche taking game 1, 5 to 2
- Leafs struggled loosing 3-1 to the Flyers

No hockey tonight ... so I get to sit back ... relax ... maybe hit the hot tub. Hmmm, that would be nice!!

What is everyone else doing on this night without hockey?

And last night we just lost one too many.

The Vancouver Canucks are now out of the playoffs ... and I am left stunned by the game. Calgary just seemed to desire it more. While I can blame a couple weak calls in the last couple minutes, Calgary just fought a little harder.

A last effort by Naslund and Cooke tied the game with 5 seconds remaining to push the game into OT. However, a faltering Flames power-play seemed to finally click and not 2 minutes into the extra frame the black rubber disc lie behind rookie goalie Alex Auld.

I am now wondering ... whats next ... the Leafs play tonight to decide if they move on. And my new 'home town' team will take on the Canadiens in round two.

I wish Calgary luck in their series against Detroit ... I look forward to them in the Cup final. (Leafs vs Flames ... is it possible?)

Well ... just rolled in and I am sure that the players are just rolling back into their hotels. What a game ... what a game!!!

As expected ... I headed over to Darren's place for the game tonight and was soon joined by both Krishen and Kay. The Canucks took a commanding lead (4-0) easing a lot of the pressure in Darren's living room. However, on a goal that should never have counted (in my opinion) due to a high stick deflection Calgary found some gas. They clawed their way back to a 4-4 tie and put me into a very tense state.

Kay finally could not take the pressure (or length) and after two periods of OT she headed home. But we were not done yet ...

Though in the third OT Morrison managed to walk out in front, out wait the goalie, and put it in ... pushing a game 7 back in Vancouver. So ... with the leafs tomorrow and Canucks on Sunday ... I will have gone a full week watching hockey all by Wednesday night. And I live in Florida!!!!

(Though ... the Lightning are starting to grab some attention down here ... they have quite a team)

YEA BABY ... I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!

Well, the Leafs and the Lightning both pulled out wins ... so after a day or work and an evening of beer and hockey Krishen, Darren, Lisa and I headed out to the Daquiry Deck for a little of the Sarasota night life. Kay had to work in the morning so left as we headed out.

Ok ... we ended up at the D.D., we wanted to head to the "Tasting Room" but that looked a little out of our league and the 5 O'Clock club seemed a bit to "old". They were playing rock and not jazz (my previous experience there) so we headed to Margarita Ville ... also known as Siesta Key. Spent the night sipping drinks and enjoying the cool spring evenings (knowing they will not last).

Tonight ... hockey again (love this time of year) ... question is ... can we stave off elimination?

Well, while our Ultimate team pulled off another win last night ... it was not to be for the Canucks. While they played as the better team for most of the game they had trouble finding the mesh and as a result are now down 3-2 in the series.

Gladly, we discovered that the Ale House had satellite TV with CBC and managed to collect about 8 teammates to join us for the first two periods (post our game). However, only the true hockey nuts (and those that were car pooling with me) stayed to the dying seconds. That put us will past 1AM getting home ... got to love these pacific coast games ... and to think I always complained about east coast games being too early .. HA!

Tonight it is the Leafs ... so that should be done early enough to go out after. Yippy.

Another Siesta sunset, you ready to come home yet Melissa?
(Picture was taken during Melissa's mothers visit late last month)

So, someone had the nerve to call me at 1AM last night ... can you believe that. And not only did they call and leave a message (cause I was too busy listening to the hockey game) ... but they called and mocked the fact that Calgary beat Vancouver 4-0 in game 4. How extremely rude!

So, the series is tied 2-2 and it heads back to the coast for game 5 - down to a best of 3 series now!

Otherwise, the night went not to bad. Ultimate practice in the wind turned out to be a challenging experience. Throwing disc into gusts of wind causes a ordinary pass to be .... ahh ... just plain horrible. But it was all good since Krishen brought a cooler full of beer ... everything is made better with beer :)

And since I had my taxes done I got to go to Applebees and watch the first two periods over a plate of nachos. Though they did not taste as good with Montreal giving up such a poor goal in 2nd OT ... and then the three goal advantage Calgary took on Van in the 2nd period.

Thursday ... just wait 'til Thursday!

With no-one pushing me out of bed I am tending to sleep in a little longer on my days off. It is nice ... so nice ;)

But I was able to get up in time to do some work on the computer, laundry, got taxes in the mail, and made some more address change phone calls. Then it was off to GT Bray for our weekly Ultimate pick-up game. While this week was only a 5-on-5 game it was still a blast. After a long game in muggy weather it was over to Jeffs for another BBQ and movie night. Yummy!

But after watching S.W.A.T. and the start of Rundown I had to leave ... and why? because game 3 was on ESPN 2.

I met Darren at his place to watch the Canucks put out the Flames on his oversized TV. Loosing Cloutier in the first was hard to watch but Hedberg seems to have stepped up the challenge. This series is getting nastier by the game, but man are they fun to watch. Big hits, great goals, and lots of tense action.

Tonight ... it is likely going to be a Leafs-Senators game at the Paddy Wagon.

Addendum
We had a nice thunder storm this morning. I had left the windows open (avoiding the A/C) and was awoken at 5AM with doors slamming in the house. A quick clean up of the rain which was blown in the window and a double check of the porch left me mildly awake. So I turned on the TV to find that winds had peaked at 66-67 mph at the airport and we were being dosed with 1.5 inches of rain per hour. I laid down on the couch to enjoy the power of nature and was quickly joined by Patches ... who I think was really missing Mom. One has to wonder what the storm season has in store this year. (They are expecting another phase of this storm front to hit the coast this evening)

On a side note: our TV looks to be on its way out after about 4-5 years and 4 moves. It is slow to display and gives us a blue horizontal bar as it turns on or off. Guess we should start saving the pennies.

Well, with the wife out of town I got to hang with the guys (Eric G., Darren, and Krishen). After watching the Lightning play the Islanders in game 2 (series is now tied at 1-1) we headed up to St. Pete. It was John and Ivee's annual Easter Party. I was new to the group but was accepted right away. Some of those there were at our Mantee P&R sponsored hat tournament (an ultimate tourneyment where the teams are picked from the group that shows), but most come from the St. Pete league that I did not join.

It was all good fun; some BBQ chicken, some Brauts, and a Keg of Guiness that was gone before 10. Krishen grabbed some pictures before his battery ran low. I must thank John and Ivee for putting on a great show - I look forward to next year. In the mean time, I will see everyone again at All Faiths in May.

Here is our new place. While the pictures don't really do it justice it is quite a bit largers than our previous spacing. I found it hard to grab a good angle with the camera. Maybe if you can remember the old place it might help you out.

I should be heading back into the office at some point this weekend to try and get the pictures up from March. I have been playing with making a video, however I am finding that iMovie is either creating a movie that is too big too place on CD or the pictures are too small. 100 pics are showing at a decent size (default high quality encoding) with 3 songs playing is like 1.4 gigs of space, I can bring it down with the pictures at 320x240 - but then the quality really sucks ... anyone have any ideas?

... but Melissa is gone.

I apologize for the web-site issues over the last couple days. My ISP, Canada Web Hosting, moved their Unix servers to a new system. However, in doing this the DB has been moved to a different server than the web site - which caused DB disconnect issues. Passwords changed so I had issues logging in. AND, I ended up loosing a couple of the last few entries ... but such is life.

To catch you up ... we have moved into our new place. A 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1000 sqft pad that now leaves a lot of empty holes in our furniture accessories. We have picked up a new coffee table set and dining room table (which we are still waiting on delivery as it doesn't fit in my car). I will have pictures up tomorrow (I know ... you don't believe me. But the vacation pictures are coming soon ... still have CDs to burn first).

There are issues though. Seems that the last tenant had a male cat who sprayed the entire place and the carpet did not get replaced. We are in "talks" with management as to the next step - cause it is bad (worse in the living room/dining room). Other than that ... the place is comfortable, large, cool (now that it is out of the direct sun), and private as we now face the woods rather than a suburb.

So ... with 90% of the place together Melissa has headed back to Victoria to help a friend with a wedding so will be gone for the next 6 weeks (or so). She also took the camera so we will have to relay once more on my visualization through text. (I am sure you understand the reason I did not do well in english classes) I hope she has fun back with friends and family ... I am going to get a chance to work more (hay!). But, since I lost my sunglasses last night - maybe I can save the coin for a new pair -- KD becomes a friend while the wife is out!

Oh, one more thing ... we OWN our car. 4 years I have been paying that girl, and now I have no more payments. We are done! Now, if only I can find a decent pair of sunglasses I can enjoy this upcoming summer.

Did I mention the Canucks won the Northwest Division using a 6 game winning streak to pull the title away from Colorado at the end of the season (sweet revenge after last year). Now ... we look to the playoffs ... I can taste the Labatts already!