• December 2010: We get engaged
• April 2011: I leave my job at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for a new position at Health Canada
• May 2011: We spend the month travelling in Belize
• July 2011: We get married
• August: Mel submits her PhD thesis for defense and starts her new job as Director of Research at Youcan
• November 2011: We buy our new home

The new place is in Lincoln Heights, a great little neighbourhood we knew essentially nothing about before going to see the house two weeks ago. The house is a 70s-era ranch-style home, but it’s really the lot that sold us. The yard backs onto the Mud Lake Conservation Area, an NCC wildlife preserve, which means no rear neighbours, ever. It also means access to bike and hiking trails and the Ottawa River Parkway. It’s a bit further west than we had been looking, but it will be worth the extra few minutes travel time. Libbie is going to go nuts when she sees her new playground, and Mel and I might actually get to use our snowshoes this winter…

The next few weeks before we move in will be crazy: packing, purging, Xmas season nonsense, etc. But once we’re in and settled, drinks by the fireplace will be sweet.

Housewarming coming soon…

I’m still too tired to do a full post, but suffice to say our semi-final game was one for the ages, and one we can be proud of despite the finish. Some serious resolve shown in the 3/4 game, as well, dispatching Real Huck with authority. In absence of any real commentary on the weekend, here are some links:

ESPN piece on the tournament

Day 3 Recap – Masters Division

Masters Division scoreboard

Video:

The story of the semi-final vs. Boneyard

Day 2, Round 2 highlights (GLUM vs. Ball & Chain starts at 34s mark)

Day 2, Round 1 highlights (GLUM vs. Le Tigre starts at 1:20 mark)

Day 1, Round 3 highlights (GLUM vs. Surly starts at 54s mark)

Day 1, Round 1 highlights (GLUM vs. Chesapeaked starts at 1:30 mark)

GLUM descended upon Devens this past weekend in its annual run to the UPA Championships, and didn’t miss a beat from 2009′s dominant performance. This year’s team is about 30% different from last, but the changes have been positive and the gelling has happened fast. There’s no doubt this team is deep, and it showed at the UPA Northeast Regional tournament. Pete Knowles was a late scratch on Thursday due to a minor (we hope) back issue, and 2010 addition from Mephisto, Mark “Shaggy” Zimmerl, is also nursing an injury, so we were running a still-crazy 27 strong on Saturday. Brett Taylor cleated up for his first GLUM tournament since last year’s No Borders, but spent the first half-hour babysitting before the cold wind sent he and the kids back to the hotel, so he didn’t play Saturday either. And was careful not to remove the tags from his jerseys. BT is never one to commit easily…

Despite missing 2 of our top O weapons and our D-line motivator, Saturday’s pool play came and went without much excitement. We opened with a 13-3 win against our compatriots from Quebec, Quantum, who were making their first foray into Fall Series. I think this is the same score we played to in Lennoxville at Nationals, although both teams had markedly different rosters in August. They’re quick and energetic, but lacked the handling skill and — this was a recurring theme — depth to stay with us. We started on D, and rolled 3 different D-lines at them to start, breaking each time. We played Mt. Crushmore next, and dispatched them by the same score. Our final game of the day was against our sometime rivals from NYNY, once Above & Beyond, now WSL All-Stars. Sort of expected this one to be tighter, but with a new team (Rumble) from the NE reportedly taking some talent from both DoG and NYC, they aren’t what they used to be. They gave us a run for a short time, but we pulled away without a lot of fuss to a 13-6 win.

Seton did some math at the end of the day based on Shaggy’s points spreadsheet, and figured the average number of points available to each of the 27 of us who had played was something like 4.2/game. I think I played about 10-12 points over the course of the 3 games, and I’m certainly in the bottom 25% of this year’s roster, so I was right on par, and never felt I was being slighted or should have got more PT. Instead of it being tougher to manage a roster of 29-deep, as it’s generally assumed, maybe it will be easier with this team. As long as everyone is playing their role to the best of their ability, we will win games AND everyone should play. Very exciting, and definitely makes for some good internal competition for field time. We also seem to have a really relaxed yet confident headspace on this year’s squad, from the captains all the way down to the ‘Black Aces’ end of the lineup. There will be a need for an increased sense of urgency at some points in Florida, and hopefully that will be there when needed, but the calmness under pressure is a positive thing.

Sunday morning for us meant semis — win and we go to Florida; lose and we have a tougher road. We faced the new team, Rumble, who definitely provided the closest match for us athletically and skillwise that we’d seen so far. The game was back-and-forth to start, and even at half, was closer than we felt it should be. The second half showed again how valuable our depth will be this fall; our level of play went up a little, and theirs started to drop. At some point, they may have decided to shut it down in anticipation of their 2nd-chance game-to-go (the region got 3 bids to Nationals this year instead of 2), but whatever the case, we dropped them 15-10-ish. And with that, we were back to Sarasota. No overt celebration, no sense of accomplishment. After beating DoG 3 straight times in 2009, we weren’t here to take the #2 seed to Florida.

We had been scheduled to play the 1-2 seeding game at 3:15. Nonsense. A 10-hour drive for most of us starting at 5:30pm is crazy talk. Cooler heads prevailed, and we agreed to start ASAP vs. DoG. They look mostly the same as last year, just one year older. Jim Parinella is back after offseason neck surgery, and Alex DeFrondeville is still chucking hammers. They definitely gave us more than wanted to start the game. I think they may have been up 2 breaks at one point. But our O line was steady and we managed to take half 8-6 despite having a lot of trouble finishing on defense. Tons of turns generated, but just couldn’t seem to keep a lid on the crap long enough to get to the endzone. The second half was much better for our D, but DoG continued to stay close until the closing points, when you could see their defensive energy draining while ours stayed level as we continued to roll guys through. Final score 13-10 (first game we played that got capped). #1 seed headed to Florida. We should have a solid seeding — top-3, I would expect, behind Beyondors and Surly.

With 2.5 weeks to go until the start of the tournament, my structure needs a little work. Leading up to this week, I had just started to get over an incredibly painful left heel injury that has dogged me all summer — or it got to a point where I could run through it without wincing, more accurately — and I was beginning to enjoy the fitness work rather than dreading it. Then I got stupid. Last Tuesday, 3 days before Devens, I played pickup basketball because I’d been sick for a few days and wanted a good sweat, and I pulled something in my hamstring on a full-court breakaway. Didn’t feel too bad, so I just quit immediately, skipped Wednesday’s practice, and hoped for the best. All day Saturday was no problem; never felt it, never thought about it. First strike of our first huck drill on Sunday morning, however — it popped again. Same thing as before — not a whole lot of pain, but enough that I knew I couldn’t generate a full sprint and therefore was of no value to the team on the field. It sucks to have not played at all in the semi and final, but I’d rather play in Florida than risk it in Devens. So now, it’s 2.5 weeks of yoga and the Ottawa High Performance Centre for physio. Hopefully Jay can figure out what it is and fix it pronto. If this is to be the end of my touring career, it would really suck to spend it in flip-flops on the sideline.

It’s pretty exciting to think about our chances this year. Last year, we thought we had the makings of a finals team, and I still believe we were very close. Tough (stifling hot) weather and maybe some strategic roster management mistakes early in the tournament cost us, though, and ending up in 5th is probably where we deserved to be. This year, especially without last year’s champion, Troubled Past, in attendance, we should be right there on Saturday, making our own destiny. I’m confident that there will not be a team as deep as GLUM down south, and we’re better built for handling the Gulf winds this year for sure. As long as we take care of our bodies, and clean up some of the minor dirt that we saw this weekend on our game, we’ll be fine and should be pushing for a finals berth. Can’t wait.

Because I check it so rarely, I miss a lot of status updates. So I initially wasn’t sure what to make of Rollo’s update a few days ago that read, “… now has a designated driver for the next six months.” It’s apparently confirmed, though. And as it will ever be with Rolls, here’s a selection of what his good friends had to say on the matter:

“Had your license taken away? Congrats!” (Rollo’s dad)

“wow.” (A. Sage)

“god help us all…” (Tahirali — btw, we said the same thing about you, dude)

“BTW, the Elmdale doesn’t allow kids…” (McLatch)

“So if it’s a boy… Hillbert?” (Hillbert)

“hearing whispers of baby names… Barney? if it’s a chick…Polly?” (the Bishop)

Strangely enough, Maggs was quite polite with his congratulations, and Morrison hasn’t commented at all (yet). I think the vacation to Spain came at an opportune time; the shock will have worn off for most of us by the time the happy couple return.

Anyway, congrats to Rollo and Melina. It will be an interesting winter in Hintonburg. Hope that baby can hoist a hammer… 

In short, looks like the boys are 2-2 through the first two days of play.

DAY ONE: GLUM vs. Gauntlet (Canada – BC)

We saw and put down B.C.’s Gauntlet 15-5 or so at Canadian Nationals last year. Closer this time. GLUM 15, Gauntlet 12 in a seesaw battle that neither team led by more than 3 at any point. No big surprise, as BC may have some new guys, and GLUM definitely had some gelling to do with half a team of new faces. Box score shows our Blackfish brethren are making their mark as expected, with Kieran McConnell and Colin Hanes both leading the scoring, with Yapper, Brooksie, and Geofford close behind.

DAY ONE: GLUM vs. OLD SAG (United States – Philly)

Another old foe, from UPA Fall Series, revisited. Another case of slow start probably due to lack of PT together. Box score shows we started out on O and got broken 5 times in a row. The gap stayed at least 3 the rest of the way. Derek Baxter, Brooksie, and Kieran led the way in scoring again.

DAY TWO: GLUM vs. Big Bombers (Japan)

Japan’s Masters team was expected to be a possible dark horse in the tournament, based on the performances of their Open teams in recent years, but their 0-4 record indicates that’s not the case. GLUM took this one, fairly easily by the look of it, 17-10. Took a 9-3 half, then basically traded out. Brooksie, Ford, Hillbert, and Bax atop the scoreboard; are we resting our younger guns from the ‘fish? In one interesting side note, it appears that Brad Rollo threw a pass for a score in this one… hmmm, that’s one long-ass huck from Hintonburg to Prague…

DAY TWO: GLUM vs. Wolpertinger (Germany)

I’d love to hear more about this one from the boys. I wouldn’t have expected such a beating by a Masters team from Germany (not really a world power on the ultimate stage), but GLUM went down 17-11, and the only team Wolpertinger has lost to so far is OLD SAG, by just 2 points. Geofford and Brian Baker with a couple of assists each, Ford and SDR each with a pair of scores.

NEXT UP:

Tomorrow’s games are against OUF (France) and Helsinki Ultimate. OUF is 1-3 after beating Japan and losing to Wolpertinger (17-11), Troubled Past (17-4) and OLD SAG (17-13). A match against Troubled Past (currently skunking the field with a plus-minus through 4 games of +45) closes out pool play on Wednesday. I don’t know how tiebreaks work at WUCC, but it seems like a tough road for GLUM to climb into the top-4 of their pool and make quarters. Hopefully the boys can take care of business against OUF, win one against Helsinki, and hope for a drop by Wolpertinger to steal that 4th spot…

If any of you are reading this in Euroland, let us know how it’s going outside of the scoreboard. Sounds like it’s hot as f*ck over there, which puts you in the same boat as us at home in Ottawa. 40+ degrees with the humidex today and not much different the rest of the week. League tonight, practice tomorrow, league on Wednesday, and mens night on Thursday. Advanced weight-dropping and cardio-building weather. Defibrillators optional.

Good luck to the crew over there, and try to come back in one piece. No Borders and Nats are on the horizon…

———-

Addendum: Here’s an email I got yesterday from X:

very very quick…

We’re 2 and 2 so far, wins over Vancouver and Japan, losses to Old Sag (Philly) and Germany. Old Sag, they started off with a 0-5 lead, we finally got it together after that but not to overtake. Germany, well, they’re strong. Solid throws, they have twins on the team who are short burly guys who seem to lead the team. No games have been runaways – we were leading the Germans 4-1 (I think) early on. Don’t remember anything specific about the Vancouver game (except that we won), Japan was mostly long bombs to short quick guys, Brooks had a stellar D in the end zone.

Our team is starting to gel pretty well – boy these Blackfish guys are good. We’re all playing well I think. Two games a day doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s draining. The first day was a scorcher, every day so far (and probably today) has been humid.

Gotta go, we play in under 2 hours…

Couple updates to the previous post, and a suggestion to keep your links tuned to Consequence of Sound’s Festival Outlook page and LastFM’s Bluesfest page, which both seem to be updated frequently with the latest speculation:

• Crowded House – 80s indie nostalgia!
• Metric – wouldn’t be a big stretch
• Rush – the requisite classic rock
• Black-Eyed Peas – playing Sarnia Bayfest in the days post-Bluesfest
• Arcade Fire – same as above
• Sam Roberts – same as above
• Scorpions – same as above
• Weezer – same as above
• Jack Johnson – playing Toronto in July
• G Love and Special Sauce – opening for Jack Johnson

Oh, and this isn’t a Bluesfest rumour, but it’s pretty cool anyway: Sloan is playing Westfest on June12…

Jazzfest also has some good stuff: Medeski, Martin & Wood on June 28, Owen Pallett and Elliott Brood on Canada Day, and Souljazz Orchestra on July 2…