My Little Derby Pony has arrived!

To say I'm excited about this little girl's arrival is a massive understatement. She's preceded by quite a few of Matthew Becker's other My Little Derby Ponies such as Sounds Like Magic, Malice In Chains, and Greatest Asset. Maybe sometime I'll sweet-talk Matt into letting me put the whole stable up on here? *hint, hint* What say ye, Matt?

A whole line-up of jammers

After a solid weekend of derby and hockey, I *think* my legs might be justified in being sore for the next week or two. Okay, on to the exciting news.

The BC Rollers acquired their very own practice space last week! This is HUGE news for their league, as they had been commuting an hour each way to their former practice space. That translated to a 6-hour time commitment each practice for many skaters and they've been struggling to maintain membership. Growing the league's membership numbers was simply proving impossible due to such a large time commitment.

I was scheduled to coach Sunday's practice, so I had to get into the space ASAP to figure out what I really had to work with. Cleaning party Saturday AM? That's a GREAT time to see the space and get to see a few skaters at the same time. So that's where I was, bright and early on Saturday morning. I popped my freshly-washed bearings back into my wheels and away I went (with a very large cup of coffee in hand.) I took a few laps around the track to test the floor and soon wandered into the bathroom where the cleaning party was hard at work.

I got to know the hallway wall a bit more intimately than I wanted to when I discovered that there's a dip in the floor as you're coming out the bathroom. Remember that nice cup of coffee I had? Generally, doing a 180 while skating through the bathroom door and holding a conversation is something I'm perfectly comfortable with and able to accomplish without incident. Hitting that dip... well... I maintained my up-right position AND my hold on my coffee cup, but the wall behind me got splattered with flying coffee when I whacked my (still un-padded) elbow on the wall. *sigh*

The day's lone Junior derby skater arrived for practice not long after I had my little incident in the hallway. After cleaning up my mess, I joined in on the very first practice held in the new space. Dodgeball and floor hockey on roller skates? Fantastic. We eventually ended that practice with a sweep and partial mop of the floor. The official opinion of the junior skater is that mopping is fun when you're allowed to do it on roller skates. A drop-in visit from a CCR skater, then it was off to hockey practice for me.

Sunday brought more hockey and derby with an away hockey game and a (short) 2-hour practice for the BC Rollers. It was a particularly fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants practice with skaters of all experience levels out on the track and lots of excitement in the air due to being in the league's new home space. We even had the help of Rusty Nailher's four-legged companion, Cowboy, for tennis ball keep-away and obstacle avoidance practice. (I hope I didn't scare the fresh meat away with that one...)

The hockey game ended in a tie (2-2) despite our having a crazy number of shots on net. A fun thing with the team this year is that we've got four current/former derby players on the team. Usually I and another derby gal are both centers so that we're rarely on the same line-up together, but I'd requested to be wing for this particular game. I was paired up with one of the other derby gals as my wing partner and we were rotating three wing pairs and two centers through on the offensive line. Normally the other center and I "find" each other on the ice as we each skate backwards in a half-circle at a fairly decent speed and INTO each other. (Hence the reason for never putting us on the same line-up!) We've been working on staying out of each others' lane of travel for the past year or so and that effort finally seems to have paid off as we successfully completely the game without ANY collisions. Whoot!

Our three derby girls who were up on offense also happen to all be jammers. So roughly every other time my partner and I were skating, we had a full offensive line of roller derby jammers. Yeah jammer line! This made for some super-fun weaving, cycling and scrambling in front of the net as we all found each other with our passes and kept attacking the opposing team's goalie from all sides.

I *believe* my wing partner got both goals and I got one assist. I'm still not quite sure how the goalie managed to stop all the shots that were happening on the other lines, but somehow she pulled it off and kept the game to a tie. My hat's definitely off to her for that and to her teammates for tying us up in front.

I'm looking forward to this coming week's version of hockey and derby!

Holidays, wha??...

The Albany bout, physics class and holidays have all passed and WHEW- what a busy month.

The BC Rollers lost according to the scoreboard, but I'm pretty certain they won the hearts of Albany's derby community. I can't even describe these girls, they are definitely a sight to see.

I passed physics with a "C". Holy cow, am I glad that course is over.

I got to spend some time at the family farm over the holidays with Rusty NailHer. Flower Father got a few trees taken down for him along a fence line and Rusty got to see some amazing poetry of mine from the 2nd grade. "There once was a fish..." Oh boy. I was a sad, sad, sad little 2nd grader.

Tuesday brought my date with the oral surgeon. Goodbye remaining wisdom teeth! My new serger also arrived. Unfortunately I couldn't play with it since I was on painkillers. ARRGGHHH!! And to further heighten this week's geeky excitement, today the FedEx truck brought my Silhouette Cameo! (There might have been some skipping and squealing going on.... just maybe.)

If you're a female who'd like to learn how to shoot, check out this post by A Girl and Her Gun.

ETA A Girl and Her Gun's link: http://agirlandhergun.blogspot.com

What happens when Flower bets.

Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post.

I suppose I should explain how I ended up coaching for the BC Rollers. It's fairly simple- I lost a bet. Rusty Nailher and I were playing cards after her bout against the Nurse Ratchets and she decided that we needed to made the game more interesting. So we pitted booty shorts vs coaching (Rusty wins = I coach a practice, I win = Rusty wears booty shorts for the Albany bout) and the game was on. Obviously, Rusty ended up winning.

Last week, Rusty decided that Guitar Hero needed to be made more interesting. Again, we bet booty shorts vs coaching. I lost to Rusty... again. So this past Sunday found me trekking straight from CCR's FreshMeat practice to Binghamton's practice.

After practice we visited a local watering hole for "one drink". (Hah!) After everyone arrived and things settled down (somehow I ended up with three beverages?!?!) Rusty started feeding bills into the "Big Buck Hunter" arcade game. Now this was something I stood a chance in, so I hollered my challenge over to Rusty. Yep, you guessed it- booty shorts vs coaching. We decided this one had to be the best two out of three games. Game one went to Rusty, game two went to me. After bantering and attempts at distractions on both sides; game three went to... ME!!!
RUSTY'S WEARING BOOTY SHORTS ON SATURDAY!!!!!

Since no one would take on the winner for another round of "Big Buck Hunter", we made our way out to the dance floor and pool table. Did someone say pool? Uh-huh... another bet with Rusty. Then on to arm-wrestling. Let's just sum it all up by saying that I now owe Rusty two coaching sessions.

On the plus side, here's a pre-view of our bout-fits for this weekend:

The noose is back!

I'd like to give a HUGE shout-out to the BC Rollers. After almost exactly a year and eight months, I finally pulled out the coaching whistle as an honest-to-goodness coach again.

It's been entirely too long since I sat down and pondered the needs of a team and its skaters from an outside perspective. Creating the day's practice plan is a journey that I love to take- meandering through skills and drills in my mind, deciding which twists and turns to follow as the plan slowly shape like a map laid out before me. There are favorite sites along every route that simply must not be missed and other sites that can only be visited once or twice before they're old news. Finding the balance between taking time to enjoy the local culture and moving quickly through on our way to bigger, better things is always a challenge.

Some days everyone is on the bus and ready to rumble like a well-oiled machine, complete with a punctual departure and plenty of on-board entertainment. Other days, the bus breaks down and everyone has to pitch in to get to the team's destination. That can mean tough choices and sometimes includes unpleasant compromises. It can also result in some awesome stories as obstacles are overcome. Knowing the lay of the land and the resources that you've brought along with you is vital to being able to respond smoothly to any changes along the route.

Last night's practice was a trip through mostly familiar stomping grounds for this tour guide. We took a few side trips to visit both old and new areas, letting new travelers take in the sights and sounds around them as their more traveled companions got a chance to see things with fresh perspective. More than once the group was let loose to explore a new concept thoroughly in their own way and at their own pace; many bringing new insights back with them.

The night's destination was ultimately and simply; Communication. The BBC Rollers are scheduled to bout against Albany's B-Team in a little more than two weeks and has no shortage of team spirit. Taking that existing team spirit and pushing it to the next level with the use of effective communication will hopefully help the league hold its collective head up proudly on Dec 3rd; no matter which way the ruling for Rule 2.2.2 falls.

So as last evening's tour guide for the BCC Rollers, I hope everyone enjoyed the trip and that I'll see you again soon! (And for those whose bus I wasn't traveling on- I'm excited to find out where your evening's route took you!)

This, that, and the other.

Well, Halloween blew by before I knew it.

I met my parents near the farm on the 29th and we went on to Pike where the RRRG Nurse Rachets were playing New Hampshire's Blazing Betties. The Betties drew from ~4 teams to make a 9(?) skater roster, including 3 skaters from BC Roller's Parlor City Tricks (I never did write about the State College bout, did I?). Delicate Mother and I NSO'd in the penalty box. Delicate Mother has NSO'd with me in the penalty box before, so she's a semi-old hand at it. (She heard Elvis Refley ask me if I'd NSO last summer at the first bout she came to and she promptly volunteered herself. Obviously, she had NO idea what was going on, so I told Elvis he had two NSO's if he could put us somewhere together. We've NSO'd in the penalty box together since then whenever possible.)

Each time I NSO in the box, I learn something new. This time, it was the importance of a well-marked penalty box. Each team ended up with jammers having to serve an extra minute due to leaving the box when they were told "stand" (rather than at the appropriate "done" cue). I'm pretty sure there's video of me yelling at one jammer (probably both, actually) to sit back down and that they'd just earned another minute of penalty time.

The video also includes a moment of roof footage. The penalty box was situated on an outside curve and I had the seat closest to the skaters, with Delicate Mother on the far side and the sound system beyond her. The pack was coming down the straight-away when I realized that there was a body sliding along the floor on the OUTSIDE of the track. The trajectory of the skater's slide included the front leg of the video tripod and ended with... me. Thankfully the videographer pulled the camera back just in time for Rusty Nailher (aka BC Roller's coach/captain) to slip under the leg of the tripod and then Rusty twisted so that she grabbed the penalty box chairs in front of me, almost face-planting herself on them in the process. A grin at me, and Rusty was gone.

Brain's gone zombie, so that's all for now!

Travelin' gal

Guess who's playing this Saturday with the BC Rollers during their very first bout ever?! THIS KID!!

I'm super excited to get to see the BC gals again during scrimmage practice with CCR tomorrow night. The Bluestockings played against some of the BC skaters during the Oz Tournament in June. Unfortunately that bout ended in a forfeit after injuries and penalties shortened the bench to just 4 skaters. This new league still has a very short roster, so I'll be lending my skates to the cause as the BC Rollers face off against the State College Area Rollers' Happy Valley Dolls. Now that my muscles aren't screaming in agony after Thursday's endurance practice, I can look forward to jam, jam, jamming!!

Do you think my pink skirt will match this shirt?