Weird November weather

Got home from Oregon to find it colder inside the house than outside. What's up with that?

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Ah, the bloat

So as I mentioned yesterday, the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner was delayed a day so the brother-in-law could deep-fry the sucker. And deep-fry it he did. So fine...if you've never sampled the fried turkey thing, you should. Tender, moist, not at all greasy, just plain delicious. Add to that the standard trimmings (squash, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, rolls, stuffing, and some Godawful Brussels Sprout dish that, in my mind, was a waste of perfectly good bacon) and now I'm 5 pounds heavier and nursing a turkey baby. So basically a day behind the rest of you.

Hmm...I'm feeling slightly less distended, so it must be time for some pie!

Happy porky day!

'cause Pork is what we had for dinner. Sure, sounds un-American and all, but that's how we Chickens roll. At least that's how we roll this year...

See, it's like this: like most married couples, every year we try to figure out where to spend each big-name holiday. Originally it was Thanksgiving with the in-laws and Christmas with my folks, then we started fudging that a bit, and a couple years we decided we didn't want to deal at all and just holed up at home and pretended we weren't there. Anyhow, this year Christmas is up in the air, but Thanksgiving was at the in-laws in Oregon.

Now, this opens up two cans of worms. Can #1 is titled "traffic". Which, as you likely know, blows goat. Especially on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So we traditionally drive down on Thanksgiving morning, figuring most people will already be where they're going. Well, apparently other people are figuring out this little trick, 'cause the roads were anything but empty.

That said, things were moving along just fine until we hit Tumwater (or maybe a bit south of there), where we dropped from a nice round 70 mph to about 20. And we kept it in the 10 to 20 range for a good 10 miles or more, which seriously ate in to our schedule. See, we'd planned to be at the in-laws house in time for the kickoff of the Seahawks game, so we could watch them being the sacrificial Thanksgiving Turkeys for the Cowboys. Oh, and we were going to eat lunch there too. Well, we missed kickoff by about 20 minutes, and missed lunch by an hour or so. And if you've ever traveled in a car with two hungry kids and two hungry parents you know what fun THAT can be!

Anyhow, let's get back to the menu. Why no turkey, you ask? That brings us to part 2 of the equation: the brother-in-law. His family are far more holiday-oriented than either mine or Paige's, so they win. Which means they get Thanksgiving. And since we still want to see him, Val and the niece, we just put off our big turkey fest until Friday so everyone can be together. Which also works nicely since he's the guy cooking the thing now that he's got the fancy-pants deep-fat fryer (or is that deep oil? Whatever). So tonight, in lieu of turkey, we had pork. Which was delightful, but not quite the same. Then again, the fried bird tomorrow will no doubt be well worth the wait, and will be a fine reward for braving the Black Friday crowds!

A not completely unproductive day

Actually managed to get some stuff done today. Retouched more pictures from the WFTDA National Championship tournament...Man, I need to make a huge note that says "don't push to 400 ASA on the camera, 'cause it looks like ass". Then I need to read that note and remember it every time I think "hey, if I boost to 400 ASA then I'll get more light..." The shots at 200 ASA and 1/200 of a second look way better than those at 400 ASA and 1/250th.

Then I need to write another note that says "learn how to use the freaking camera". And stick that with the first note. And then add a third note that says "maybe if you had the right flash these things would all look better..."

Anyhow, once I'm done with the retouch I'll post links. In the mean time, if you want far better shots, just search Flickr for "2008 roller derby nationals" and you'll find plenty.

Man, these hours are killing me!

Another tough day at work today. First, I got up at like 5:15. Jesus that's hard when you're out of practice. Then it was off downtown to meet my new dentist and find out if I could milk some of the excess funds in my healthcare FSA replacing fillings. Turns out they don't need replacing, so I'm out of luck there, but on the positive side I got to see the inside of the Seattle Building, a great example of Art Deco architecture featuring wicked cool elevators (and steam heat!).

After that I headed over to the office, sat around shooting the breeze and surfing the Internets for a few hours, then took off at noon so I could pick Maya up from school.

Grueling, I tell you!

What the hell am I doing wrong?

OK, so thanks to Frogma I found these little rating widget thingies. And I'm OK with the reading level one...Junior High is probably about right, 'cause I don't use big words. They take too much time to type.

But what's up with this?

G? Damn! I've got to start dropping more f-bombs in here, apparently. Or at least use "shit" once in a while to get this up to a PG-13 or my junior high readers won't be interested. Tween pop culture references would probably help too...sentences like "Holy shit, it's Miley Cyrus and the motherfucking Jonas Brothers!"

But possibly more interesting is the "Typealizer" review, where the site as a whole apparently pans out to ESFP, presumably on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator scale. Which is weird, 'cause the last time I took the MBTI I tested out as an ENTP, with a heavy leaning toward introversion. Then again, that was 10 years ago, so maybe I've changed. Or I just write differently than I test. Or something. Anyhow, at least I get a cool graphic and description out of the deal:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Awwwwww yeahhhh....chick with a big fizzy drink and boots leaning on a bar. That's totally me!

It's not supposed to be this way

Since time immemorial (or at least the late '70s) the Seattle football scene has been one of balance: In years when the Huskies were bad the Seahawks were good, and vice versa. Many years they were both OK, but there were periods (the early '90s, for example) where the Huskies reveled in glory while the 'Hawks stunk up the town. And there were periods (the mid-2000s, for example) where the Huskies blew while the 'Hawks flew.

But apparently the football Gods are angry. Or the financial / credit / housing crisis threw things out of whack. Or the pumpkin crop was bad. Whatever the reason, we are in a huge Football shithole. On Saturday the Huskies lost the Apple Cup in the second overtime on a field goal, all because their kicker couldn't hit a relatively short kick from the hash mark. That took them to 0 and 11, one loss away from a perfect season. Today the Seahawks lost to the Redskins in a game they darn well could have won, all because Matt Hasselbeck couldn't hit his receivers and threw two key interceptions. That takes the 'Hawks to 2 and 9 and just about mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

The only light in the tunnel for the 'Hawks is that if they go 0-fer the rest of the season they'll get a nice high draft pick. The only light in the tunnel for the Huskies is that they'll...um...hmm. Not sure what the light is there. They'll have a new coach, sure, but they'll have the same players. I guess this will let us learn just how much influence the head coach actually has on college football, and that could be good. The Seahawks will have a new coach next year too, as well as (we can only hope) a bunch of new players, and hopefully they'll start winning again.

But in the mean time, it's going to be a long December.

Behold the power of yoga!

My Mom's been doing yoga since the 70s, if not earlier. As far as I know she's not a yoga master, or a tantric whatever, but it has helped keep her active and flexible in her later years. I personally haven't done yoga, mainly because I'm lazy. But now I have another reason to avoid it: "It is inappropriate. It can destroy the faith of a Muslim." So says Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the The National Fatwa Council of Malasia in this story from CNN. Which I guess explains why Mom never converted. That and her latent Unitarianism, feminism, and general liberalism...

Boy, I'm getting lazy!

It's clearly my hyper-strenuous work schedule of getting up at 8, walking the kids to school, sitting on the couch doing e-mail, walking the kids home from school, then sitting on the couch some more that's kept me from blogging the last few days. Something about not having a firm wake-up call makes me more lazy in the evening, so I stay up later and, apparently, forget to blog.

So here's a recap of the last few days: Oh, wait, I already did that above! Well, a few more details...

Monday was Maya's parent-teacher conference, which went well. Apparently our daughter, who loves nothing more than yelling at us, is a delight in the classroom and gets the other kids to cooperate.

Tuesday I went in to work, where I did basically what I'm now doing at home, only without Facebook or Twitter.

Wednesday I got up, did NOT walk the kids to school (Paige had to take drive and get coffee for staff appreciation day), watched some DVR'd TV, walked the kids home from school, and that was pretty much it.

Yesterday I got up, didn't walk to school (it was pouring and I was feeling lazy), watched some DVR'd TV, did some e-mails, put the ski rack on the car, picked up the boy from school, drove over to a friend's house where the girl was having a playdate, then headed to Joe's Outdoor to pick up a pair of rental skis for the girl and to drop off my skis and the boy's for waxing and (in his case) binding adjustments.

And today it was more walking: walked them to school, then walked over to the store to get some half and half, then to Loewe's to get some light bulbs, then home. The afternoon I drove, though, 'cause we needed stuff from Costco. And while I could walk to Costco, it would take all day to get there and back and I don't really feel like carrying 72 cans of diet coke on my back.

OK, so now I'm back on track. Whew!

Pointless web site of the day

I give you Generatus: A Social Networking Status Generator for Facebook, Twitter, etc. For those times when you can't come up with "Scott Chicken's feet hurt and he wishes he had softer shoes", or "I wonder what crap I'm going to spew on the blog tonight." Now you can go to generatus.com and click "generate" and you too can have a machine generated status that is both lame AND artificial!

Home!

The weekend o' Derby is finally over, and yet I still can't stop talking like Gotham announcer Corn Dog. Not that I can write what that sounds like, really...imagine a kind of Wolfman Jack growl thing going on, only without Wolfman's energy. Or what my voice sounds like after I've been yelling a lot. One of those.

Anyhow, I must say I do enjoy driving from Portland to Seattle under the right conditions. Today those conditions were sun, dry pavement, and fast-moving traffic. Left the in-laws in West Linn at about 10:15, stopped at a soon-to-be defunct Circuit City in Clackamas to pick up a tax-free Christmas gift, stopped for lunch just north of Centralia at about 12:15, and got home by 2. And other than the stops, I don't think I went under 65 between the Washington border and Renton.

But the best part of the drive was seeing this guy. The crappy cell phone picture doesn't do it justice (I should learn to travel with the Nikon handy for just such an emergency), but the Hummer is wicked jacked up (license plate was eye level). And the license plate reads "7-MPG". Hey, at least he's aware of the folly of driving the thing...

Congratulations, Gotham!

The mighty Gotham Girls Roller Derby All Stars completed the East Coast's total Derby domination today, beating the Windy City Rollers All Stars 134 to 66. Windy City gave it a good run, but damn...those Gotham Girls have it going ON! From some huge blocking (and the insane hip/booty checks of Beyonsláy) to high-speed and agile jamming to overall track smarts, they definitely have the complete package. And while Windy City made some good runs that looked to be shifting the momentum, it wasn't enough. Because eventually Beyonsláy or the equally good Surly Temple would come in and Windy City would be shut down.

Probably the best bout overall of the tournament was the "Grudge Match" between the Texas Texecutioners and Philly's Liberty Belles. The teams were evenly matched, each made some good runs, they each hit super hard, and things were tied with about 3 minutes to go. But in the last few jams the penalties overwhelmed Texas, letting Philly pull ahead to win 114 to 95, completing a 1-2-3 East Coast sweep. Ouch!

My butt's sore

Why, you ask? Because I spent about 8 hours today sitting either on the floor or on a bleacher, padded by a seat cushion that isn't really a cushion. More of a coaster, really.

Today was day two of the mighty Northwest Knockdown national Roller Derby championship tournament thingy, and I am sad to say I am now 0 for 6. A big fat donut. Every team I've rooted for has lost. Yesterday I went with Carolina over Texas...Texas won. Then I cheered for Duke City over Gotham. Gotham won. Today I naturally rooted for the Rat City Rollergirls to beat Windy City from Chicago...Windy City won. Then I wanted B.ay A.rea to beat Philly. Philly won (although it was a fabulous bout and was almost a tie at the end...). So 0 for 4 in the preliminary rounds.

In the semi-finals, I chose Texas over Windy City. Windy City won. And I went with Philly over Gotham. So you know Gotham won.

I now have no idea who to root for. I'll take Texas in the grudge match (which, naturally, means Philly will win), but I can't decide in the championship bout. It would be nice if Windy City, the team that knocked Rat City out of it won it all, but that would mean that I really should root for Gotham. But I'm sure the Derby gods would know I was only rooting for them so that they'd lose, and then they'd win. Sigh...

A day of driving and derby

So this weekend is the mighty Northwest Knockdown national championship tournament for the WFTDA (Women's Flat-Track Derby Association), this year being held in Portland and co-hosted by the Rose City Rollers and my beloved Rat City Rollergirls. So, since it's only a couple hundred miles south and I can crash with the in-laws for free, down I went. Can't post any pictures yet, because a) I don't have my computer here and my brother-in-law's is slow, and b) I didn't sit track-side today so my any pictures I took are probably dim and crappy, but I do have a review: Day 1 was as expected: man-handling by the two top ranked teams.

The tournament is set up in a standard ranked single-elimination bracket: The top teams in the two divisions (East and West) play the bottom teams of the opposing divisions, then the middle teams play, then the winners play, etc. So the first bout tonight was the top team in the West (the mighty Texas Rollergirls Texacutioners) taking on the #4 team from the East (the Carolina Rollergirls All-Stars). And, while the score was 28-0 when we got there (we decided to eat dinner instead of being right on time), Carolina actually made a game of it and kept it relatively close in the first half. Then in the second half they seemed to fall apart, sending many many players to the penalty box and losing 125-61. Ouch, but nothing compared to bout 2, the Gotham Girls vs. the Duke City Derby Munecas Muertas out of Albuquerque. That was an all-out slaughter, with Gotham nearly breaking 100 in the first half while holding Duke City to 8. Final score, 182-25. Ouch!

Tomorrow things get local. Rat City takes on the Windy City Rollers all-star team at 1, with the winner playing Texas at 6. The second bout of the day pits the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls All Stars against the Liberty Belles from the Philly Roller Girls, the winner of which gets to face Gotham. Should be a long day, but a fun one!

The axe man cometh

And by "axe man" I in no way mean a guy who plays guitar. No, I mean the guy who says "Mr. Chicken, here's your axe. Please use it to sever all ties between you and your employer."

As you may know, I work for the bank formerly known as Washington Mutual. Back in September our chickens came home to roost in the form of an FDIC seizure and a hasty sale of banking operations to JP Morgan Chase. At the time, JPM said "we'll let everyone know by December 1st if they're staying or leaving." Well, today it was confirmed that I'm leaving.

I must say (and I'm sure I'll milk this for several more blogs over the coming weeks), this has been the strangest layoff of my life. Not like I get laid off all the time, mind you...this is only #3 in my 18-year career. But the other two were a surprise, while this one was expected.

I suppose that technically layoff #1 back in 2000 was expected...the company had gone through a big merger, we were the smallest and most remote marketing team in the now nation-wide organization, and our function was easy to outsource. We were a simple way to cut 15 FTE. The second layoff, back in 2004, was also probably predictable: we'd had a big management shake-up and ended up reporting to a team out of Chicago who, naturally, wanted the department moved there. But in both cases I was actually surprised when I walked in to the conference room and saw the boss and the HR rep there. This time? Not so much.

The first few weeks after the seizure were pretty busy: we had a quarter to close, information to gather for our new owners, breaks to take while the FDIC rifled through our desks, etc. But the last month or so have been insanely dead. The department head has been on calls and trips, the data people have been busy running data, but the rest of us have been twiddling our thumbs. And playing Fantastic Contraption. And surfing the net. And waiting for the axe to fall.

And today it fell. Well, it fell half way. I don't have the paperwork yet, so it's not officially official, but it's all but. My last day at the company formerly known as Washington Mutual will be January 29th, 2009.

And hopefully, after 18 years, my life as a banker will end too. 'cause man, I'm ready for a change!

Ah, the geniuses...

Apparently, no matter how drunk you are or how tough you think you are, if you weigh 155 pounds and you beg a trained professional fighter who runs 205+ to punch you in the mouth, you are going down. Hard.

This is good to know, because you never know when the opportunity may arise to find out for yourself. It's lessons like this that make reality TV worthwhile. Well, maybe that's too strong...entertaining?

Missed yesterday...

Why? 'cause I shut down and realized "hey, I didn't blog tonight." And by then it was too late. But here's what I would have posted yesterday, if I hadn't already shut down:

Worked from home today, which involved the same amount of work it would have if I'd gone in, but in more comfortable surroundings. I'd planned to take the morning off anyway, so I could go to the Veteran's Day assembly at the kids' school (I was told the daughter would be singing...turns out her class and the rest of the 1st and 2nd grades were singing, but still...). When we got home after that I called the boss to check in, she said there was basically nothing going on and no reason to come in, so I stayed home and played the "work via e-mail" game. Which lasted until about 12:45, when the wife and I blew off both our works and went to see Zack & Miri Make a Porno, which was brilliant. Or at least really funny. And filled with f-bombs. And a couple porn stars. And boobies.

The professional photo

As I mentioned in my post on Friday, I got to tour the Seahawks practice facility. And as an added bonus, the team photographer took my picture posing with a football in a pseudo trading-card pose. And here it is:

It would have been much more realistic if Josh Wilson had stayed around and laid each of us out after the photo was taken, but apparently they didn't want the lawsuits. Sigh.

My new addiction

So thanks to a co-worker, I'm now addicted to Fantastic Contraption. It's a simple game: build a contraption (a fantastic one, preferably) using wheels and rods, and have it drive an object (a circle, square or rectangle) into a target area. Sounds straight forward, and the first few levels are pretty easy, but then the shapes get wierder, the obstacles get greater, and you have to do far more planning. Or extensive trial and error. Or both. Anyhow, I keep getting stuck, then solving the problem, then getting stuck again. The only advantage is there are only three more levels and I think I'll be done, meaning I can get back to my other addictions. Like, oh, Facebook Wrestler.

Seahawks practice facility / HQ tour

So, as I mentioned in yesterday's riveting numbered recap, I got to tour the Seahawks practice facility yesterday. Why? Well, because I'm part of the "Fan Advisory Network" (known by the clever acronym "FAN"), which means I get to fill out surveys after each game, give feedback on how things are going (off the field...), and occasionally get a perk like a tour and a cookie.

Thanks to the rain, the trip there was a pain in the butt. Getting to the East Side in the middle of the afternoon was bad thanks to traffic, but getting from the Taco Time in the Renton Highlands down to the freeway and up to 12 Seahawks Way was bad thanks to dark and driving rain. Give me continual drizzle over torrential downpour any day, thank you very much.

Once I made it to the facility I checked in, got my Visitor sticker, and stood around the lobby with about 20 other people for 5 minutes or so before going in to the auditorium where, I assume, the team watches game film and holds meetings. I assume that because the seats were freaking huge. Nice and comfy, but definitely built for someone wider, taller, and with longer legs than me. So basically the opposite of going to a Parent-Teacher conference at my kids' school.

After a brief greeting from one of the sales guys and the team's COO (I think...) and cornerback Josh Wilson, we went out to look at the indoor practice field, take some pictures (both us taking pictures of the field - see below - and the team photographer taking pictures of us - see farther below). It's pretty dang big. My first though was "oh, they just took over an old Boeing hangar..." Then I realized that a) there weren't any Boeing hangars in that part of Renton, and b) it was clearly a custom build. It's about 150 yards long, 95 feet high, and whatever a football field is wide, plus about 15 yards on each side. Big.

From there we continued our tour, stopping in the weight room (with fancy roll-up walls that open up on to the outdoor practice fields), the observation deck over the indoor field, and the cube farm where all the non-big-shots work (sales, community outreach, etc.) And finally we split in to two groups and went in to conference rooms to give our feedback.

First up was a discussion of the "Fan Conduct Policy", this year's "Keep it PG" promotion. Now, I and the guys I share my tickets with have a bit of a problem with this policy. Not that we're loudmouth drunkards who like to get in fights, nor do we want loudmouth drunkards punching us in the sacks, but we do like the rough edge of an NFL crowd. If we want truly PG behavior, we'll go watch a Mariner's game. We go to the Seahawks expecting emotions to run high, f-bombs to be dropped, and the occasional drunk to fall down the stairs. The "Keep it PG" / "no knuckleheads" campaign seems more nanny-state than anything else. And there were others who shared that oppinion, voicing the belief that on the whole things were good but that certain areas and certain people needed to be dealt with in a more hands-on way. Should be interesting to see how that pans out.

The second session was a review of some feedback we'd provided earlier using a "Start / Stop / Continue" grid (things we'd like them to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing). My request that the team make Jones Soda start putting their pop on tap instead of in evil plastic bottles fell on deaf ears, unfortunately. And I didn't get to bring up the request for a wider sellection of good beer either. Sigh...

Finally, at around 9:30 we left, one last cookie and water for the road, picked up my photo (which I'll post later tonight after I scan it in), and drove home through the continued torrential downpour. And now, the crappy cell-phone photos!

A shot of the indoor practice field from the back of the end zone

On one sideline there's a backdrop that's clearly meant for press interviews. And here's one fan (whose name I didn't catch, but I think he's the guy with the "D-Fence" sign) giving his own press conference. Or narrating his tour. One of those.

A view of the weight room from above. The top balcony of the weight room is all cardio equipment, each with it's own LCD HDTV. The wall of windows behind the weight rack rolls up on nice days to reveal the outdoor practice fields

The final shot, looking down on the indoor field from the observation deck. Apparently this is where the sales guys go to watch practice when it's inside.

A quick pre-bed post...

I'll throw down the details tomorrow, and the crappy cell-phone photos as well, but to recap today's events:

1. Got up and went to work
2. Surfed the 'net
3. Found out a group that used to be part of my department got the axe
4. Had lunch
5. Left early
6. Drove through the insane downpour to Renton
7. Saw RocknRolla, which I highly recommend if only for the fine accents and glamorous junkies
8. Drove through the insane downpour to Taco Time for dinner
9. Drove through the insane downpour to 12 Seahawks Way to tour the Seahawks practice facility and participate in a couple fan focus groups. Very cool facility, and they were receptive to the feedback, which is always a good thing!

A new level of wrong

Tonight's Ultimate Fighter brings new meaning to "eeeeeeuwwwwwwww...." Because "there's no rule that says you can't do anything to your own food." Now, if someone else were to eat that food, well, then, it would be their fault now, wouldn't it?

Yet again, I'm glad I'm not a fighter. Or, really, on any reality show. Jesus.

One final push to get out the vote

I know, it's election day and you probably voted some time last month or whatever, but I figured I'd get in one last push for ol' Jackson Kirk Grimes. If you're in a state that's heavily leaning one way or another, where your vote for President really won't matter, toss a vote to Grimes. Do it for the hat. And to prove that those nerds at Wikipedia shouldn't have deleted his entry (I almost wrote "fascists", but if they were fascists they wouldn't have deleted it, now, would they?).

My record is now officially better than the Seahawks

Not that I'm not also wallowing in failure, but at least my Fantasy NFL team is now slightly better than the Seahawks, sporting a mighty 3-5 record. All thanks to my masterful managerial decisions, I'm sure. Not 'cause my opponent had Bret Farvre who scored like 1.2 points this week...

Oy...

There are times I've been at a Seahawks game and found it so good, so exciting, that I hoped it wouldn't end. Today was not one of those days. This was a day I should have left about 5 minutes in to the game. The Seahawks kicked off, stopped the Eagles in 3 plays, then on the first offensive play of the game Seneca Wallace hit a wide open Koren Robinson, who then ran it 90 yards or so for the touchdown.

That, and the half-time wiener-dog races, were pretty much the highlights of the day. Sigh...

Derby Brats!

And no, that's not referring to some weird Bratwurst / Roller Skate combo, it's referring to the mighty Seattle Derby Brats, who partook in the "Derby of the Dead" this evening over in Port Orchard. The Brats, and the other leagues involved, have girls from 11 to 18 skating in a relatively low-contact version of the standard Roller Derby. No monster checking, but some contact allowed.

I've seen the Seattle Derby Brats play as halftime entertainment at Rat City bouts, but hadn't watched them in action on their own terms before. So when Betty Ford Galaxy of my beloved Throttle Rockets e-mailed me to see if I was interested in taking pictures at the bouts I jumped at the chance. After all, she was going to comp me a ticket, and it was all-ages so we could force the kids to come. Oh, and as an added bonus a couple of Maya's friends from school and Girl Scouts would be skating with the "Tootsie Rollers", a Junior-Junior Derby group made up of 6 to 10-year-olds.

Also on the bill were the A-Town Derby Dollz out of Auburn, who were both short-handed and awesome, the home team Kitsap Derby Brats from Port Orchard, and the Portland Rosebuds.

Thanks to the ferry schedules we split after the second half of the Tootsie Roller bout, but I'm pretty sure I got shots of each team - and hopefully some relatively good ones.

But the best news of the evening was that Maya, as we were driving home, said "you know, maybe I do want to be a Tootsie Roller..."