Showing posts with label soccer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soccer. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Mixed Doubles

It's the end of the USTA tennis season. Hence tournaments. My 8.0 mixed doubles team played in the sectional tournament at Reed-Sweatt (R-S) Tennis Center today. I played a match at 2 pm with my partner - one of the hard core girls. I usually don't play very well at R-S, but we were already out of contention for the trip to the nationals, so most of the pressure was off. I have been having some knee problems and tried to baby the joint as best I could, yet trying to be competitive. We scraped out the first set 6-4, but lost the second 6-2. The match is then decided by a 10 point tie-breaker (first one to ten and ahead by 2). At 8-5 against us, my sore knee acted up and I was temporarily unable to put weight on it. I think I have a bone chip or calcium deposit that moves around, because after walking around for a few minutes the knee reurned to near normal. We played on, but lost 10-7. Another fine example of GOINFS, but I was glad that I played - there were a lot of very competitive, if not artistic points and I enjoyed the chance to beat some other pretty good players much my junior.

The Prairie Princess is home for the weekend. She's been off visiting friends and socializing. We have had several opportunities to chat and catch up on her Glyndon orchid activities. It's nice to have her around.

Unky Herb has a new toy. He bought a new bike - I think at Erik's. It's a Specialized and seems pretty nice. He went for a ride on it today and pronounced it better than the previous one, which had been stolen out of the garage a couple of weeks ago.

Today's picture is a soccer practice I encountered at Linwood Park. The season of kids kicking the round ball is upon us. It reminds me of the years I spent coaching and following Herb's teams to various soccer fields in the area.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Three Hundred

It is nearly July and the tiger lilies still look like this. There are no flowers on these plants. It was a late season and the tigers are still trying to catch up.

It was a rest day for the tennis part of tousan. I walked around the neighborhood for about an hour this morning, along Grand, up Victoria to Ashland, then to Oxford and home. It was a pleasant day in the 70's and there were a lot of people outside enjoying a very pretty day. There was a reasonably strong wind, but no problem for a pedestrian.

I kicked the soccer ball around with Herb after the Euro 2008 championship game on ABC. Watching the really skilled players seems to encourage me to see what skills I have in the game I have been watching. The same thing often happens after pro football games, an activity where I have a trifle more skills. The team from Spain beat Germany 1-0 in a very entertaining game to win the championship of Europe.

The Prairie Princess will be visiting again this weekend for Independence Day. It will give me an opportunity to learn some more about prairie vegetation, especially the kind that regularly shows up in city landscaping projects.