Friday, June 13, 2008

The Challenge is not yet over!

Well, I was begged today to get back on the bowling team for Corporate Challenge. I'll be competing tomorrow, which means there is no time for practice or anything. Wish me luck!

Random Thoughts for the Day

  • When did life get so busy that I can't even find time to write my thoughts down?
  • When you are busy, why do people think that constantly asking "How can I help?" is actually helpful?
  • Note to self: Indian food makes me burp a lot.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Last Challenge Update

Well, we played soccer Tuesday night. The women's team started off fantastic and we won our first game 4 to 0. The men on the other hand, lost their first game. It being a double-elimination tournament, both teams headed into their next games with some optimism. The women did not do as well and we lost like 4 to 3. Our next game was a forfeit which gave us a long 45 minutes before our final game of the night. We got to watch the men win their 2nd game which helped give us some steam as the women headed towards our fourth match up. Unfortunately, the long break made several of us get cold and tighten up some which did not help as we tried to keep up with some young girls who had some obvious ball skills. I was further chagrined when I realized that one of the ladies on the team was the person I played (and beat) in my first racquetball game. She obviously had more soccer skills than racquetball. We did score two, but compared to the other team's 7, it just didn't cut it. Thus, the women ended their competition with 2 wins and 2 losses. The men ended up winning their third and final game, which means they will continue playing again tomorrow night. Some of us will go to cheer them on.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Can I be the biggest loser?

A coworker has brought the concept from a reality TV show to work and we are starting a weight contest next week. Normally, I don't like diets, but now there is competition involved so I think it could be fun. He sent the request to the entire IT department, and so far quite a few have signed up. Once all the names are in, teams will be randomly selected, which will make it all the more interesting. The first weigh-in is next Tuesday, so I'm getting all my bad eating habits out of the way - I went to Stroud's yesterday and am going to Five Guys today. After next week, I won't be back to those places until after August 10th.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Finally, some vacation pictures

Yes, I know these are LONG overdue; and even now I don't have a lot of time to type up a nice story, so this will be short and sweet.

The first picture on my camera

While standing at the pizza/video place, I took this picture of the resort we stayed at. This bay marked the country borderline on this side of the island -- our resort was in Dutch Saint Maarten, while the pizza/video store I'm standing in on the north side of the bay was in the French Sint Martin.

This is the aforementioned pizza/video store (in the lower right-hand area), where we rented DVDs almost every night but only ate the pizza once.

We watched some wind surfers one day

I tried to catch this guy in one of his jumps, but this is the best shot

I really enjoyed a lot of the colors we got to see at the butterfly farm. What follows are only a few that stayed still long enough for a picture.



More of the beautiful ocean

This is one of the spectacular views we saw as we were geocaching on the island. Can you imagine living in a house like that in a place like that?

There was a cool fort not far from our favorite French city Marigot.

I finally managed to catch a photo of one of the many geckos we encountered.

Mediocre Challenge Performance

Okay, so I didn't do as well at racquetball as I did at disc golf. I showed up and was immediately nervous when my first opponent was noticeably younger than myself and seemed to be in much better physical condition. Luckily, however, she does not play racquetball very often and I was able to get into some rhythm and actually won that match, keeping her score to under 5 for each game. My mounting optimism was soon squashed when I met my next opponent. This girl was younger still and a physical therapist by profession. Not only was she in top shape, but she played volleyball in college and thus, as a collegiate athlete, was much more agile and coordinated than I. To further sway the scales, her first opponent forfeited so she had not even played yet and thus was completely fresh and ready to go. Needless to say, I did not win the match, but at least I scored 8 points in both games I played.

Next week is soccer, but as a team event, I should have some good support. Plus, we've actually been practicing, so I am optimistic again.