Sorry for your troubles bob. I hope this cheers you up.
Bobby G's footblog
Re: Bobby G's footblog - JAMPS sizzle my nizzle!
Sorry for your troubles bob. I hope this cheers you up.
Drew Martin
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Thanks to the folks that wrote nice comments since my last post…..holy cow, a whole month has gone by.
Cass came here and shredded with us for a weekend, which was pretty awesome. I actually got to make it out and kick with everyone two days in a row, which was actually a bit shocking. That weekend was the weekend we were getting the first floor of the house emptied out so that work could get started. I worked hard leading up to that to make sure I could get a session in, but I was stoked to get two sessions in. Especially excited because I played a lot better the second day.
We had two weeks living in the house while the work started, and then just ahead of that third week we had to clear the rest of the house out so that the floors could be re-done. My playing was down this month as a result of all of the happenings, and I had one full week where I didn’t play.
The floors are done now, and we moved back into the house on Sunday. The light fixtures were installed in two rooms on Tuesday, so the contractor’s work is done here now. Everything is still a bit disorganized, but it is nice to be sleeping in my own room and streaking my own toilet bowl. Classy.
Trying to get back going with footbag too. I managed to play a couple of times over the weekend, including a session with Hogan on Memorial Day. I had my best session in quite some time. My endurance is down, so I don’t think I had any strings that were getting into the 20+ contact regime, but I had a few very solid tiltless runs that were perhaps 15 contacts containing upwards of 10 contacts of bops, ducking clippers, whirls, drifters, etc. I hit a couple of specific combos that I was particularly pleased with:
-smear > dimwalk > drifter
-ducking butterfly B2B
-ducking clipper > ducking osis BS
-ducking osis > whirl
-dimwalk > ducking pdx mirage > ducking osis
I feel like there were more, but those are the ones that stick out.
Hogan was playing really well too. He started the session doing long drills of easier stuff for him, then skipped straight over the moderate difficulty stuff and into doing some fearless combos. He was playing really strongly.
Still have the goal to sell the house and move westward closer to family. Going to be organizing and doing touch up painting this weekend, and hopefully re-listing for the season this coming week.
I’m still tired and a little overwhelmed, but less so than I have been in a few weeks.
Cass came here and shredded with us for a weekend, which was pretty awesome. I actually got to make it out and kick with everyone two days in a row, which was actually a bit shocking. That weekend was the weekend we were getting the first floor of the house emptied out so that work could get started. I worked hard leading up to that to make sure I could get a session in, but I was stoked to get two sessions in. Especially excited because I played a lot better the second day.
We had two weeks living in the house while the work started, and then just ahead of that third week we had to clear the rest of the house out so that the floors could be re-done. My playing was down this month as a result of all of the happenings, and I had one full week where I didn’t play.
The floors are done now, and we moved back into the house on Sunday. The light fixtures were installed in two rooms on Tuesday, so the contractor’s work is done here now. Everything is still a bit disorganized, but it is nice to be sleeping in my own room and streaking my own toilet bowl. Classy.
Trying to get back going with footbag too. I managed to play a couple of times over the weekend, including a session with Hogan on Memorial Day. I had my best session in quite some time. My endurance is down, so I don’t think I had any strings that were getting into the 20+ contact regime, but I had a few very solid tiltless runs that were perhaps 15 contacts containing upwards of 10 contacts of bops, ducking clippers, whirls, drifters, etc. I hit a couple of specific combos that I was particularly pleased with:
-smear > dimwalk > drifter
-ducking butterfly B2B
-ducking clipper > ducking osis BS
-ducking osis > whirl
-dimwalk > ducking pdx mirage > ducking osis
I feel like there were more, but those are the ones that stick out.
Hogan was playing really well too. He started the session doing long drills of easier stuff for him, then skipped straight over the moderate difficulty stuff and into doing some fearless combos. He was playing really strongly.
Still have the goal to sell the house and move westward closer to family. Going to be organizing and doing touch up painting this weekend, and hopefully re-listing for the season this coming week.
I’m still tired and a little overwhelmed, but less so than I have been in a few weeks.
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Dig the Ducking Osis>Whirl and Ducking pdx mirage>Ducking osis, i've not tried either, I need to duck more toe sets, stealing these combos for training this weekend.
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010 19:53
- Location: Drumore, PA
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Damn, Bob. Lots of dense combos in there. My favorite is Ducking Butter b2b. I remember that learning that was pretty frustrating. It's a great combo, regardless of what level player does it.
Something that c really helped me with Ducks and Dives was Diving Osis b2b and links like Diving Clipper> Diving Osis bs then eventually repeat.
Hope to kick with you again in the not so distant future
Something that c really helped me with Ducks and Dives was Diving Osis b2b and links like Diving Clipper> Diving Osis bs then eventually repeat.
Hope to kick with you again in the not so distant future
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Thanks Kyle. Hogan was doing a lot of fearless that day, so trying to hit a couple of 4s back to back was my version of fearless. It wasn't the prettiest, but that was the first time I hit 3 consecutive 4s.
And Nick, I'm glad you liked the ducking butterfly B2B. I was pleasantly surprised by that. I had been working on them BS through the session and Hogan said he would like to see it B2B soon. I think he meant in a few sessions, but I tried it a couple times and amazingly had success. That felt pretty sweet.
I really like the idea of diving clipper > diving osis, and I look forward to getting good enough to drill that B2B. I had a session with Kevin yesterday and had some of the deepest diving clippers that I think I've ever had. Also hit a few diving mirages on each side, which I don't do enough of. So yeah, I'd like to step up my diving game.
Overall, I feel that I played pretty well and I definitely had a lot of fun. One thing I'm particularly pleased with, which is why I'm taking the time to document it in my blog:
ducking clipper > drifter BSOS
Drifter has been so difficult for me to learn on flip, this is quite an accomplishment. That was the first time hitting flip drifter out of anything other than clipper.
Toward the end of the session we were trying to figure out what to end on that would 'earn' us a post-shred margarita. I can't remember at the moment what Kevin picked, but it was something burly. So lame in comparison, but I was happy to finally hit same illusion > same mirage > same mirage > same illusion. I allowed that to earn me a margarita....chalk it up to senior citizen's discount.
And Nick, I'm glad you liked the ducking butterfly B2B. I was pleasantly surprised by that. I had been working on them BS through the session and Hogan said he would like to see it B2B soon. I think he meant in a few sessions, but I tried it a couple times and amazingly had success. That felt pretty sweet.
I really like the idea of diving clipper > diving osis, and I look forward to getting good enough to drill that B2B. I had a session with Kevin yesterday and had some of the deepest diving clippers that I think I've ever had. Also hit a few diving mirages on each side, which I don't do enough of. So yeah, I'd like to step up my diving game.
Overall, I feel that I played pretty well and I definitely had a lot of fun. One thing I'm particularly pleased with, which is why I'm taking the time to document it in my blog:
ducking clipper > drifter BSOS
Drifter has been so difficult for me to learn on flip, this is quite an accomplishment. That was the first time hitting flip drifter out of anything other than clipper.
Toward the end of the session we were trying to figure out what to end on that would 'earn' us a post-shred margarita. I can't remember at the moment what Kevin picked, but it was something burly. So lame in comparison, but I was happy to finally hit same illusion > same mirage > same mirage > same illusion. I allowed that to earn me a margarita....chalk it up to senior citizen's discount.
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Life continues to be pretty busy and somewhat overwhelming at times, but things are on the up and up. The repair work on the house is finished and it all looks great. As soon as that was done we got everything moved back into the house, tidied up, and put it on the market again two days ago. I shouldn’t expect it, but I really, really hope that we are able to find a buyer quickly.
This coming Friday my family and I will fly out to Idaho and I will give an invited talk on Monday the 22nd at a regional chemistry conference that is happening at my alma matter. Most talks I’ve given are on the order of 20-25 minutes with about 5-10 minutes for questions at the end (the organizers decide this, not the speakers). This talk is going to be about 40 minutes, and work has been so busy I have not yet created any content. So that is stressing me out a little, and gives me a pretty good idea what I’ll be spending most of my day tomorrow working on. Professionally I always want to do well, but giving a talk in front of my advisor puts a little extra pressure there to make sure I make it as good as I can.
After the talk on Monday there will be an outing organized by my former adviser to go canoeing up near Yellowstone. We are going to hit that, and then off to Portland on the Wednesday ahead of US Open. First day there, we are meeting up with my wife’s best friend and then heading off to hang out and spend the night at the Edgefield. I’ve not been, but going to the Edgefield has become a tradition between my wife and her friend (also named Kristin). Anyway, I’m stoked to see it and hang out there. Portland has a bunch of really cool bars and restaurants called McMenamins, and the Edgefield is a hotel/resort run by McMenamins. From what I’ve seen the McMenamins are mostly cool old buildings that have been purchased and refurbished, including really neat, eclectic murals and such by local artists, and they are really cool establishments to to hang out in. I was telling Hogan about them today and hope to get the chance to take him to the Kennedy School or somewhere cool like that. Would love to have others come too if anyone is up for a field trip.
http://www.mcmenamins.com/KennedySchool
After the Edgefield overnight, we will be back in Portland for the duration. I have a lunch date with my Uncle on Friday, but mostly an open schedule that I intend to split between footbag shenanigans and making sure I spend a lot of time with Ruari so that the Kristins can have some time to go kick up their heels.
So this is a footblog, so I'll give an update on that end too. Owing to busy life schedule, I’ve only been playing 2-3 times a week. Played pretty solid overall today. Hit paradon > ducking butterfly on challenge from Hogan today. Also hit drifter > ducking butterfly, which I was pleased with since drifter is such a bitca for me. Footed pixie muted clipper > flip drifter, which is a combo I’d really like to BSOS. Other than that just fun with some reasonably solid strings. Kevin is breaking in new lavers which is causing him frustration, but he is still playing quite well.
Paul posted this the other day:
This nugget from Ivan’s response to Paul also put a very nice smile on my face.
Till next time, happy kicking!
This coming Friday my family and I will fly out to Idaho and I will give an invited talk on Monday the 22nd at a regional chemistry conference that is happening at my alma matter. Most talks I’ve given are on the order of 20-25 minutes with about 5-10 minutes for questions at the end (the organizers decide this, not the speakers). This talk is going to be about 40 minutes, and work has been so busy I have not yet created any content. So that is stressing me out a little, and gives me a pretty good idea what I’ll be spending most of my day tomorrow working on. Professionally I always want to do well, but giving a talk in front of my advisor puts a little extra pressure there to make sure I make it as good as I can.
After the talk on Monday there will be an outing organized by my former adviser to go canoeing up near Yellowstone. We are going to hit that, and then off to Portland on the Wednesday ahead of US Open. First day there, we are meeting up with my wife’s best friend and then heading off to hang out and spend the night at the Edgefield. I’ve not been, but going to the Edgefield has become a tradition between my wife and her friend (also named Kristin). Anyway, I’m stoked to see it and hang out there. Portland has a bunch of really cool bars and restaurants called McMenamins, and the Edgefield is a hotel/resort run by McMenamins. From what I’ve seen the McMenamins are mostly cool old buildings that have been purchased and refurbished, including really neat, eclectic murals and such by local artists, and they are really cool establishments to to hang out in. I was telling Hogan about them today and hope to get the chance to take him to the Kennedy School or somewhere cool like that. Would love to have others come too if anyone is up for a field trip.
http://www.mcmenamins.com/KennedySchool
After the Edgefield overnight, we will be back in Portland for the duration. I have a lunch date with my Uncle on Friday, but mostly an open schedule that I intend to split between footbag shenanigans and making sure I spend a lot of time with Ruari so that the Kristins can have some time to go kick up their heels.
So this is a footblog, so I'll give an update on that end too. Owing to busy life schedule, I’ve only been playing 2-3 times a week. Played pretty solid overall today. Hit paradon > ducking butterfly on challenge from Hogan today. Also hit drifter > ducking butterfly, which I was pleased with since drifter is such a bitca for me. Footed pixie muted clipper > flip drifter, which is a combo I’d really like to BSOS. Other than that just fun with some reasonably solid strings. Kevin is breaking in new lavers which is causing him frustration, but he is still playing quite well.
Paul posted this the other day:
I’ve seen people make comments from time to time that they don’t want to drag down the mood of the forum by posting about it when they are frustrated. I guess I wouldn’t be interested in reading a blog from someone who complains non-stop, but Paul is a pretty positive guy I think and I have to say that I found this post extremely refreshing. That comment above resonates so much with me….like when I meet people at an event and they ask how long I’ve played, I’m always a little embarrassed to say. I should be much better than I am for someone who has played as long as I have.MetZelRio wrote:I don't know. I feel embarrassed to play footbag sometimes. Not because it's footbag, but because I should be better than this.
This nugget from Ivan’s response to Paul also put a very nice smile on my face.
So flipping true! I am lucky to play this game and take joy from it even if my blades do not have the fine edge that I wish they did.isirc10 wrote:Take joy from the fact that you are healthy and can have fun kicking around a fabric bag with metal beads, according to some convoluted set of rules based on imaginary planes and made up points.
Till next time, happy kicking!
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Lycanthrope
- BSOS Beast
- Posts: 431
- Joined: 12 Oct 2004 19:39
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Contact:
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Yellowstone canoeing sounds like a dream come true. I went kayaking last year in Poland, and it was absolutely amazing. I think your scenery will be even more epic than mine was.
I really enjoyed your last post. I can relate to Paul's little negativity nugget. I always wonder if I should share that kind of stuff or just keep it in. The last thing I want to do is drag somebody's day down.
I really enjoyed your last post. I can relate to Paul's little negativity nugget. I always wonder if I should share that kind of stuff or just keep it in. The last thing I want to do is drag somebody's day down.
Evan 'OP' Gatesman
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Thanks for reading, Evan. I’m glad you liked the last post.
Howdy everyone. This post will not have footbag content in it, so if you came here for that move on. If you came here for updates on life (all positive) and reflections on aging (not so positive) then read away.
First, the big news.
We are very excited to move out west and be closer to family; the main downside in all of this is no more weekly Hoag sessions (until I can convince him to move to California). Based on discussions with my boss, I will probably be in Boston about every 6 weeks still so we will have to coordinate sessions while I’m in town.
Logistics for the next 6 weeks between now and closing should be interesting. We need to secure a place to live, and do all of the moving company coordination that comes with packing up your house and moving across the country. Our stuff is largely still packed from when we had to move it out for the floors to be re-done, so hopefully that reduces the stress a bit. Hoping to sell/shed a bunch of my tools and things like that so we don’t have to deal with taking it.
Back to the logistics of finding a place though. Per my last post, we are out west right now and will fly home on June 29th. Ruari is staying back in Idaho to spend some time with family, so just Kristin and I will be flying home. I’ll be back in the office for the next week to catch up on whatever I need to from being out, then I’m in the UK from July 7th-10th. I found out after securing those dates but before purchasing my plane tickets that one of my best friends is getting married/partnered in Berlin on July 11th. They’ve been together for probably at least 6 years, but the wedding was somewhat of a spontaneous decision (and thus the short notice). Anyway, I ended up setting it up so work is flying me from Boston to London, I’ll fly on my own dime from London to Berlin, and then work will fly me from Berlin back to Boston. I get home on Sunday July 12th. Given that closing is on July 31st, my plan is to clear it with my boss for Kristin and I to fly from Boston to California on July 13th and spend that week there looking for a place. In Massachusetts, I don’t think looking for a place 3 weeks before wanting to move in would be sufficient but it seems to be the norm in silicon valley? I guess we will find out.
One of my dreams in this whole process has been for us to coordinate things so that we could drive one car across the country while our stuff is being shipped out there. I figured we could take the trip somewhat leisurely, see a bunch of sites, and that hopefully I could shred with (and maybe crash with) folks all along the way. I suspect that will not be feasible due to time away from work, but hit me up if you would like to have the Green family visit your town sometime between July 31st and August 13th in the event that it does become feasible.
Lets see, what else? My talk is tomorrow and canoeing trip is the day after. I will try to get some good pictures in the next couple of days and make the next post less verbose and more picture-rich.
And the aging thing…
I had something written up and then I re-read it and it is too much of a downer, so I’ll abbreviate. Suffice to say that I have one relative in her 90s in Boise and another relative in his 70s in Twin Falls and that aging is slapping them both silly right now. To visit with them both is to mostly just be a presence as there isn’t too much back and forth conversation. It is hard for us to see them like this since we remember their active, former selves but I cannot imagine what it is like for them to be trapped in their bodies the way they are.
Nine years ago my Father-In-Law flew across the country just after retiring and spent a month with us to help me rip out and rebuild the kitchen in my first house. That was somewhat exhaustive manual labor. Yesterday my wife and I helped stand him up from his recliner, pulled down his diaper, and held the urinal in place while he concentrated holding onto the walker so he would not fall over while trying to take a piss.
There are worse things than getting too old to play footbag, and when I come visit my family out here it scares the shit out of me.
Pictures of the Grand Tetons next post!
Howdy everyone. This post will not have footbag content in it, so if you came here for that move on. If you came here for updates on life (all positive) and reflections on aging (not so positive) then read away.
First, the big news.
We got an offer on Thursday and after minor back and forth are now under contract with an expected closing date of July 31st. The buyers are required to have their home inspection completed by June 30th. That *should* go fine, but there is always risk of the unknown, so cross your fingers for me.bobgreen wrote:I shouldn’t expect it, but I really, really hope that we are able to find a buyer quickly.
We are very excited to move out west and be closer to family; the main downside in all of this is no more weekly Hoag sessions (until I can convince him to move to California). Based on discussions with my boss, I will probably be in Boston about every 6 weeks still so we will have to coordinate sessions while I’m in town.
Logistics for the next 6 weeks between now and closing should be interesting. We need to secure a place to live, and do all of the moving company coordination that comes with packing up your house and moving across the country. Our stuff is largely still packed from when we had to move it out for the floors to be re-done, so hopefully that reduces the stress a bit. Hoping to sell/shed a bunch of my tools and things like that so we don’t have to deal with taking it.
Back to the logistics of finding a place though. Per my last post, we are out west right now and will fly home on June 29th. Ruari is staying back in Idaho to spend some time with family, so just Kristin and I will be flying home. I’ll be back in the office for the next week to catch up on whatever I need to from being out, then I’m in the UK from July 7th-10th. I found out after securing those dates but before purchasing my plane tickets that one of my best friends is getting married/partnered in Berlin on July 11th. They’ve been together for probably at least 6 years, but the wedding was somewhat of a spontaneous decision (and thus the short notice). Anyway, I ended up setting it up so work is flying me from Boston to London, I’ll fly on my own dime from London to Berlin, and then work will fly me from Berlin back to Boston. I get home on Sunday July 12th. Given that closing is on July 31st, my plan is to clear it with my boss for Kristin and I to fly from Boston to California on July 13th and spend that week there looking for a place. In Massachusetts, I don’t think looking for a place 3 weeks before wanting to move in would be sufficient but it seems to be the norm in silicon valley? I guess we will find out.
One of my dreams in this whole process has been for us to coordinate things so that we could drive one car across the country while our stuff is being shipped out there. I figured we could take the trip somewhat leisurely, see a bunch of sites, and that hopefully I could shred with (and maybe crash with) folks all along the way. I suspect that will not be feasible due to time away from work, but hit me up if you would like to have the Green family visit your town sometime between July 31st and August 13th in the event that it does become feasible.
Lets see, what else? My talk is tomorrow and canoeing trip is the day after. I will try to get some good pictures in the next couple of days and make the next post less verbose and more picture-rich.
And the aging thing…
I had something written up and then I re-read it and it is too much of a downer, so I’ll abbreviate. Suffice to say that I have one relative in her 90s in Boise and another relative in his 70s in Twin Falls and that aging is slapping them both silly right now. To visit with them both is to mostly just be a presence as there isn’t too much back and forth conversation. It is hard for us to see them like this since we remember their active, former selves but I cannot imagine what it is like for them to be trapped in their bodies the way they are.
Nine years ago my Father-In-Law flew across the country just after retiring and spent a month with us to help me rip out and rebuild the kitchen in my first house. That was somewhat exhaustive manual labor. Yesterday my wife and I helped stand him up from his recliner, pulled down his diaper, and held the urinal in place while he concentrated holding onto the walker so he would not fall over while trying to take a piss.
There are worse things than getting too old to play footbag, and when I come visit my family out here it scares the shit out of me.
Pictures of the Grand Tetons next post!
Re: Bobby G's footblog
I began composing this post on July 12th, while flying home from Berlin via Reykjavik. Things for me are a little busy, and that has caused the delay. This is a long one, but I’ve broken it into sections. Skip to section 4 (photos) if you don’t have time for the rest of this nonsense.
Footbag:
Time has been flying by, and I’m just now starting to get some footbag in after a few weeks of not managing to play much. Honestly speaking, footbag has not been my focus lately and it is hard to remember my accomplishments. I do know that these things are noteworthy for me:
-toe drifter BSOS
-squeeze to opposite rubber knee a handful of times
-most recent sessions, string length is returning
Also, last week I got to have a session with Kevin Hogan, Pete Bowler, and Ben Little. Such a fun session! Just as Ben returns to Boston, I am moving away. Bummer….Ben is such a super cool guy.
Life Logistics:
Here is a summary of my commitments and logistics since mid June. This is a crazy, nutty time in my life right now. Basically we got the offer on the house after we had already scheduled 11 days of travel.
June 19th: Boston, Massachusetts to Boise, Idaho (flight); Visit family in Boise
June 20th: Boise, Idaho to Twin Falls, Idaho (drive); Visit family in Twin Falls
June 21st: Twin Falls, Idaho to Pocatello, Idaho (drive); Invited talk at chemistry meeting
June 23rd: Pocatello, Idaho to Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Utah (drive); Chemistry Meeting Outing
June 24th: Salt Lake City, Utah to Portland, Oregon (flight); Visit friends and attend US Open;
June 28th: Ruari flies to Boise to visit family
June 29th: Portland, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts (flight); Back to work in Boston office
July 7th: Boston, Massachusetts to London, England (flight); work related activities
July 10th: London, England to Berlin, Germany (flight);
July 11th:: Wedding celebration for one of my two best friends from university
July 12th: Berlin, Germany to Boston, Massachusetts (flight); Home for one night
July 13th: Boston, Massachusetts to San Francisco, California (flight) for Rental Hunting Trip
July 14th: Signed lease on home rental in California (earlier than expected)
Original Plan:
July 18th: San Francisco, California to Boise, Idaho (flight); Pick Ruari up from in-laws (bringing him home to say goodbye to MA life)
July 19th: Boise, Idaho to Boston, Massachusetts (flight); Go home.
Child care plans for Ruari back in Massachusetts have fallen through, so we had to revise plan and leave him in Idaho with grandparents. In some sense this simplifies things and I know he is having fun, but on the other hand I do wish we could have him here for a few days.
Revised Plan:
July 16th: San Francisco, California to Boston, MA
July 26th: Goodbye BBQ with current and former coworkers
July 29th: Car #1 is picked up
August 5th: Movers come
August 6th: Car #2 is picked up
August 7th: Close on house (e.g., say goodbye to Annie)
August 8th: Fly to California (with cat, vet apptmnt earlier this week)
August 9th: Ruari arrives with in-laws
August 8th-12th: Car #1 arrives
August 10th: Register Ruari for School
August 12th-15th: Our stuff will arrive
August 16th-20th: Car #2 arrives
August 17th: Ruari starts school
We staggered the car pick up to minimize how much time we would have with no car at all. This way we are down one car for about a week and down both cars for just a few days. Kristin will work until one week before we leave. In the middle of what is captured above we have had to deal with a couple of repairs that the buyers demanded, and we have the currently on-going task of packing all of our stuff. Almost there!!!
On Moving:
This is the 5th major move of my lifetime. Two really cool things about moving:
1) You get to go see and experience new things and you get to live somewhere distinctly different than you have before. You (hopefully) grow as a result.
2) You leave friends behind (which means that you have people to visit when you come back).
Coincidentally, the one really shitty thing about moving is number 2 from the list above. It is really hard to leave your friends.
So yeah, I’m going to really fucking miss Kevin Hogan. I spend more non-working hours with him than anyone else outside of my family. Hell, many weekends I’ve probably spent more time with him than I have with my family. He’s obviously at a pretty different place in his life than I am because of age difference, but I don’t think that really impacts our friendship at all. Maybe in some ways it even makes it better. I really have fun talking both footbag and life stuff with Kevin because he has so much runway in front of him and I’m excited to see where he goes. It is fun to watch him progress in life and in footbag.
Shut Up and Show Pictures:
Anywhoooo, here are some photos from the last month.
June 18, 2015 – The brown pile behind the blue car is the last that remains of a South Boston snow farm.
June 22, 2015 – Back at my alma matter to give a talk
June 22, 2015 – Post dinner walk just south of Pocatello. Pocatello’s history is steeped in the railroad.
June 23, 2015 – Drive on the way to the Grand Tetons. We told Ruari the story of the name behind the tetons, and that was a mistake.
June 23, 2015 – Lunch on canoeing trip in Leigh Lake, Wyoming (in Grand Teton National Park).
June 24, 2015 – “The Edgefield” in Troutdale, Oregon. Built in 1911 as the country poor farm, this place is now one of the McMenamins establishements that are so popular in the Northwest. Like all of the other McMenamins, it features a lot of murals by local artists.
June 26, 2015 – Salmon Springs in Portland, Oregon. Ruari came along with me to a footbag session at Waterfront Park, and him, Hogan, and myself took a little dip.
June 27, 2015 – Naked bike ride in Portland, Oregon. Hopefully this picture isn’t too offensive to anyone….it was a really cool experience to be in the midst of so many naked bikers doing their thing.
June 28, 2015 – Multnomah Falls, Oregon. Kristin and I took Kevin Hogan out for a morning trip to Multnomah Falls. What a strange US Open this was for me. I enjoyed every bit of footbag I got to do, but moments like this that had nothing to do with footbag were also really awesome.
July 8, 2015 – Salisbury, UK. “The Haunch of Venison” is in the left background and has been in business for about 800 years. I was there on a Tuesday during a work trip and had hoped to have a meal there, but they only serve dinner on Thursday-Saturday. Still enjoyed a beer, then moved more of a post-modern type of place by local standards (2nd place was only 500 years old).
July 9, 2015 – Stonehenge, UK. Hit this place on the way back to London for a short visit. My co-worker convinced me to kick the bag a little there, so I dinked around and did a couple of ducking clippers to honor the druids.
July 10, 2015 – Berlin, Germany. Tagged this visit onto the end of my work trip because my great friend David was getting married to Frank, his partner of something like 10 years or so.
July 11, 2015 – Berlin, Germany. This is the floor sign off of the elevator in the hotel I was staying at. When I saw this I thought that it read “one point zero” with the letter G after it. This lead me to think how precise Germans are and that adding a .0 was just unnecessary precision. Then my mind wandered further thinking about the 7½ floor in Being John Malkovich. In the end, it turns out the sign says “one dot letter O letter G” and that OG is short for some German word that I can’t remember at the moment.
July 11, 2015 – Berlin, Germany. This is the tower at Alexanderplatz in the background. I’m actually not too much a fan of this architecture, but it is certainly distinctive.
July 11, 2015 – Canal near David and Frank’s weekend cottage. This is just outside of Berlin and is where the celebration took place the next day.
July 12, 2015 – During the wedding celebration, we got an unexpected fireworks show over the canal. This was definitely a professional job, and strangely no one there knew what the show was for.
July 14, 2015 – San Jose, California. I had one night in Boston, then off to California for rental hunting trip. This is the front of the house that my family will be renting for the next 1-2 years.
July 14, 2015 – San Jose, California. This is the back of the house we are renting. There is a patio off to far right from where this photo was taken. It has a little shade covering, and I’m pretty sure will work well for shred. So in the coming days, I’ll be able to have a great shred session and then take a dip in the pool to cool off.
Come one, come all.....Visitors are welcome.
Footbag:
Time has been flying by, and I’m just now starting to get some footbag in after a few weeks of not managing to play much. Honestly speaking, footbag has not been my focus lately and it is hard to remember my accomplishments. I do know that these things are noteworthy for me:
-toe drifter BSOS
-squeeze to opposite rubber knee a handful of times
-most recent sessions, string length is returning
Also, last week I got to have a session with Kevin Hogan, Pete Bowler, and Ben Little. Such a fun session! Just as Ben returns to Boston, I am moving away. Bummer….Ben is such a super cool guy.
Life Logistics:
Here is a summary of my commitments and logistics since mid June. This is a crazy, nutty time in my life right now. Basically we got the offer on the house after we had already scheduled 11 days of travel.
June 19th: Boston, Massachusetts to Boise, Idaho (flight); Visit family in Boise
June 20th: Boise, Idaho to Twin Falls, Idaho (drive); Visit family in Twin Falls
June 21st: Twin Falls, Idaho to Pocatello, Idaho (drive); Invited talk at chemistry meeting
June 23rd: Pocatello, Idaho to Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Utah (drive); Chemistry Meeting Outing
June 24th: Salt Lake City, Utah to Portland, Oregon (flight); Visit friends and attend US Open;
June 28th: Ruari flies to Boise to visit family
June 29th: Portland, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts (flight); Back to work in Boston office
July 7th: Boston, Massachusetts to London, England (flight); work related activities
July 10th: London, England to Berlin, Germany (flight);
July 11th:: Wedding celebration for one of my two best friends from university
July 12th: Berlin, Germany to Boston, Massachusetts (flight); Home for one night
July 13th: Boston, Massachusetts to San Francisco, California (flight) for Rental Hunting Trip
July 14th: Signed lease on home rental in California (earlier than expected)
Original Plan:
July 18th: San Francisco, California to Boise, Idaho (flight); Pick Ruari up from in-laws (bringing him home to say goodbye to MA life)
July 19th: Boise, Idaho to Boston, Massachusetts (flight); Go home.
Child care plans for Ruari back in Massachusetts have fallen through, so we had to revise plan and leave him in Idaho with grandparents. In some sense this simplifies things and I know he is having fun, but on the other hand I do wish we could have him here for a few days.
Revised Plan:
July 16th: San Francisco, California to Boston, MA
July 26th: Goodbye BBQ with current and former coworkers
July 29th: Car #1 is picked up
August 5th: Movers come
August 6th: Car #2 is picked up
August 7th: Close on house (e.g., say goodbye to Annie)
August 8th: Fly to California (with cat, vet apptmnt earlier this week)
August 9th: Ruari arrives with in-laws
August 8th-12th: Car #1 arrives
August 10th: Register Ruari for School
August 12th-15th: Our stuff will arrive
August 16th-20th: Car #2 arrives
August 17th: Ruari starts school
We staggered the car pick up to minimize how much time we would have with no car at all. This way we are down one car for about a week and down both cars for just a few days. Kristin will work until one week before we leave. In the middle of what is captured above we have had to deal with a couple of repairs that the buyers demanded, and we have the currently on-going task of packing all of our stuff. Almost there!!!
On Moving:
This is the 5th major move of my lifetime. Two really cool things about moving:
1) You get to go see and experience new things and you get to live somewhere distinctly different than you have before. You (hopefully) grow as a result.
2) You leave friends behind (which means that you have people to visit when you come back).
Coincidentally, the one really shitty thing about moving is number 2 from the list above. It is really hard to leave your friends.
So yeah, I’m going to really fucking miss Kevin Hogan. I spend more non-working hours with him than anyone else outside of my family. Hell, many weekends I’ve probably spent more time with him than I have with my family. He’s obviously at a pretty different place in his life than I am because of age difference, but I don’t think that really impacts our friendship at all. Maybe in some ways it even makes it better. I really have fun talking both footbag and life stuff with Kevin because he has so much runway in front of him and I’m excited to see where he goes. It is fun to watch him progress in life and in footbag.
After the move, I should still be in Boston every 6 weeks or so. Just will have to plan that shit out so I get regular sessions in with Hogan and hopefully some other BSC members as well. I am heartened that right when I move that Ben Little is returning."He got that ambition baby. Look at his eyes. This week he washin’ dishes, next week its the fries.”
Shut Up and Show Pictures:
Anywhoooo, here are some photos from the last month.
June 18, 2015 – The brown pile behind the blue car is the last that remains of a South Boston snow farm.
June 22, 2015 – Back at my alma matter to give a talk
June 22, 2015 – Post dinner walk just south of Pocatello. Pocatello’s history is steeped in the railroad.
June 23, 2015 – Drive on the way to the Grand Tetons. We told Ruari the story of the name behind the tetons, and that was a mistake.
June 23, 2015 – Lunch on canoeing trip in Leigh Lake, Wyoming (in Grand Teton National Park).
June 24, 2015 – “The Edgefield” in Troutdale, Oregon. Built in 1911 as the country poor farm, this place is now one of the McMenamins establishements that are so popular in the Northwest. Like all of the other McMenamins, it features a lot of murals by local artists.
June 26, 2015 – Salmon Springs in Portland, Oregon. Ruari came along with me to a footbag session at Waterfront Park, and him, Hogan, and myself took a little dip.
June 27, 2015 – Naked bike ride in Portland, Oregon. Hopefully this picture isn’t too offensive to anyone….it was a really cool experience to be in the midst of so many naked bikers doing their thing.
June 28, 2015 – Multnomah Falls, Oregon. Kristin and I took Kevin Hogan out for a morning trip to Multnomah Falls. What a strange US Open this was for me. I enjoyed every bit of footbag I got to do, but moments like this that had nothing to do with footbag were also really awesome.
July 8, 2015 – Salisbury, UK. “The Haunch of Venison” is in the left background and has been in business for about 800 years. I was there on a Tuesday during a work trip and had hoped to have a meal there, but they only serve dinner on Thursday-Saturday. Still enjoyed a beer, then moved more of a post-modern type of place by local standards (2nd place was only 500 years old).
July 9, 2015 – Stonehenge, UK. Hit this place on the way back to London for a short visit. My co-worker convinced me to kick the bag a little there, so I dinked around and did a couple of ducking clippers to honor the druids.
July 10, 2015 – Berlin, Germany. Tagged this visit onto the end of my work trip because my great friend David was getting married to Frank, his partner of something like 10 years or so.
July 11, 2015 – Berlin, Germany. This is the floor sign off of the elevator in the hotel I was staying at. When I saw this I thought that it read “one point zero” with the letter G after it. This lead me to think how precise Germans are and that adding a .0 was just unnecessary precision. Then my mind wandered further thinking about the 7½ floor in Being John Malkovich. In the end, it turns out the sign says “one dot letter O letter G” and that OG is short for some German word that I can’t remember at the moment.
July 11, 2015 – Berlin, Germany. This is the tower at Alexanderplatz in the background. I’m actually not too much a fan of this architecture, but it is certainly distinctive.
July 11, 2015 – Canal near David and Frank’s weekend cottage. This is just outside of Berlin and is where the celebration took place the next day.
July 12, 2015 – During the wedding celebration, we got an unexpected fireworks show over the canal. This was definitely a professional job, and strangely no one there knew what the show was for.
July 14, 2015 – San Jose, California. I had one night in Boston, then off to California for rental hunting trip. This is the front of the house that my family will be renting for the next 1-2 years.
July 14, 2015 – San Jose, California. This is the back of the house we are renting. There is a patio off to far right from where this photo was taken. It has a little shade covering, and I’m pretty sure will work well for shred. So in the coming days, I’ll be able to have a great shred session and then take a dip in the pool to cool off.
Come one, come all.....Visitors are welcome.
-
boyle
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Re: Bobby G's footblog
Nice pool! That will be great for jumping in after the shred sessions. Sounds like a crazy time, but it looks like you have planned things pretty well to make it all work.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Good luck to you and the family on the transition. I hear California is pretty similar to Boston though, so it should be pretty easy.
Good seeing ya at USO!
Good seeing ya at USO!
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Yeah Daniel, we are super excited for the pool!
Thanks Ken, it was good to see you at US Open too.
Had my last session as a resident Boston Shred Crew member on Wednesday night. Am I now a non-resident member, or perhaps Boston Shred Crew Emeritus? I think I like the latter. Emeritus implies a title of honor and it certainly has been an honor to play with these guys for the last year and a half.
Before the session Kevin and I went for a nice walk in nature to get charged up. There is often such beauty in nature.
We shredded in the same spot as the week prior and had good times once again. After shred Ben impressed us with his nunchaku skills. I’m not kidding on that last statement….he is really good at it.
After shred, we hit a nearby BBQ joint and all got some nice mac and cheese loaded up with BBQ (chicken or pork). After that, we had some man hugs and went our separate ways.
The next morning was moving day. We got up at 5:00 am to start packing the last remaining stuff. I’ll save you the gory details. It was stressful, but now it is done. I took this picture specifically for y’all. This is one of the most important boxes of all and contains all of the shoes I’ve been stocking up on from ebay and other sources (thank goodness it looks like that may no longer be necessary).
In about 3 hours I go to sign paperwork for our house to be sold. Wild. It is a good house and we have many good memories in there. I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog somewhere that Ruari had named the house Annie during a particularly bad storm that we got once. I’ve decided in the last week that her full name is Annie St. James. Annie started out as a rectory, so it seems fitting for that. That name also sounds either like a very classy lady or like a burlesque dancer, and that sort of tickles me too.
Tomorrow morning we fly to California and head to the new house. Sunday my in-laws will arrive with Ruari. I am SO EXCITED to see him. I have never been away from him for so long, and I miss him.
Thanks Ken, it was good to see you at US Open too.
Maybe not quite as similar as Philadelphia, PA was to Pocatello, ID, but hopefully we will manage.C-Fan wrote:I hear California is pretty similar to Boston though, so it should be pretty easy.
Had my last session as a resident Boston Shred Crew member on Wednesday night. Am I now a non-resident member, or perhaps Boston Shred Crew Emeritus? I think I like the latter. Emeritus implies a title of honor and it certainly has been an honor to play with these guys for the last year and a half.
Before the session Kevin and I went for a nice walk in nature to get charged up. There is often such beauty in nature.
We shredded in the same spot as the week prior and had good times once again. After shred Ben impressed us with his nunchaku skills. I’m not kidding on that last statement….he is really good at it.
After shred, we hit a nearby BBQ joint and all got some nice mac and cheese loaded up with BBQ (chicken or pork). After that, we had some man hugs and went our separate ways.
The next morning was moving day. We got up at 5:00 am to start packing the last remaining stuff. I’ll save you the gory details. It was stressful, but now it is done. I took this picture specifically for y’all. This is one of the most important boxes of all and contains all of the shoes I’ve been stocking up on from ebay and other sources (thank goodness it looks like that may no longer be necessary).
In about 3 hours I go to sign paperwork for our house to be sold. Wild. It is a good house and we have many good memories in there. I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog somewhere that Ruari had named the house Annie during a particularly bad storm that we got once. I’ve decided in the last week that her full name is Annie St. James. Annie started out as a rectory, so it seems fitting for that. That name also sounds either like a very classy lady or like a burlesque dancer, and that sort of tickles me too.
Tomorrow morning we fly to California and head to the new house. Sunday my in-laws will arrive with Ruari. I am SO EXCITED to see him. I have never been away from him for so long, and I miss him.
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Enjoy California ! Is there any chance we will see you at east coast again?
Mathieu Gauthier
Re: Bobby G's footblog
ECFC wasn’t in the cards this year, Mathieu, but it is my intention to still make it to events on the east coast.
I’m sitting in the Denver Airport right now, staring into a tiny glowing screen like so many of the other people that occupy this space. Either someone just microwaved popcorn or I hear the sound of a thousand people pulling their head out of their asses in rapid succession. But I digress…
I feel that I must finish the story of the move, if nothing else, for my own documentation purposes. Skip to the bottom if you came to read about footbag. Regarding the move though, let me try to dust off the cobwebs….
August 5th: The movers came and packed up the house. At the end of the day there was still a bit of stuff left that we didn’t want to take with us, so we paid someone around $300 to come get the rest of our shit out of there.
August 7th: Took the day off so I could sign the paperwork. The whole transaction went pretty smoothly and took maybe 30-45 minutes. After that we returned the rental car (our 2nd personal car had been picked up the day before), and went to lunch where I had mexican food and a margarita. I’m pretty sure Kristin has a Sangria. It is a pretty big fucking deal to sell the place that you’ve lived in for the last several years, so it was nice to have a drink and commemorate good times in a great house. After lunch we eventually took a limo service (nothing fancy, just black car) down to Boston with our suitcases and Piper (our cat). We made our way over to my work around 5pm and several of my co-workers joined us for drinks at Harpoon Brewery. It hadn’t been my intention, but basically all of our drinks were paid for so that was pretty nice.
August 8th: Flew to California. I had told Goldberg I was planning to come shred with the crew that day. What the heck was I thinking? Piper shit himself on the way and despite cleaning him up as well as we could in the airplane lavatory, he stunk the joint up for the last 3 hours of the flight. Sorry to the folks that were sitting next to us!!! Landed at SFO, hit the car rental place, and drove immediately to Target to pick up some essentials (cat litter, cat food, dish soap, and that kind of thing). Drove to the rental house where we met the landlord to for one final show around the property and to take receipt of the keys. After that, we finally got the chance to force Piper into the bath tub and get him cleaned up. It was still early in the day CA time, but I was way beyond feeling like kicking at this point. Ruari showed up with my in-laws a day earlier than I had expected him. Sometime that afternoon or evening, we went over to my boss’ house where my Uncle had shipped us an air mattress as a house warming gift.
Our stuff was supposed to arrive by the 15th, but it didn’t come until August 18th. Kristin was complaining at some stage about how displaced she felt. Apparently reminding her that we are fortunate to not live in Syria was not a very empathetic response. I can say, it is quite a luxury to be able to sleep in your own bed after not having that be an option for a couple of weeks. We are still wading through and settling in.
My stepdaughter, Aubrey, finally showed up on October 24th. We are a full house again.
The casualties….
The car:
The undercarriage of the Acura was damaged on transport. It took a little effort, but the moving company reimbursed me for the damage done.
The pets:
We had 2 lizards and a snake shipped to us by a company who does this sort of thing all of the time and who we had every confidence in. One lizard survived. The company shipped us a replacement snake (lizard 2 had not yet died when I called to express the situation), which I guess was the best they could do under the circumstances. Still, it sucked.
The Steuben:
Kristin and I were given a crystal bowl as a wedding gift from my Uncles. I had to ask the value of it for insurance purposes when we moved from Idaho to Pennsylvania, and it was such an expensive piece I basically always had it put away for fear that the kids would break it. It was my intention that someday the kids would move out and we would be able to display it. When everything happened with the flood, it got hastily boxed and put into the attic so the repairs could take place. It seems like everything between the flood and the move happened so quickly, and we could not find it before the move. Long story short, we did not have it properly protected and the movers were not exactly gentle with our stuff (many other things that should not have been dinged/damaged were), and when we finally found the box it was in it was quite evident from the sound what the outcome was before we even opened it. Now this is a weird thing to get emotional about. It is a piece we have never really been able to enjoy because we’ve always been afraid to break it, so it has always been put away. We have NEVER had it displayed in the house, so we aren’t missing anything by not having it displayed now. It is also a gift from my Uncle Danny, one of the most important mentors in my life, and he is dead now. So yeah, we kind of felt sick to our stomachs when we discovered that it was shattered. Kristin has kept the pieces with the intention that maybe in the future she could have a glass artist make something out of it.
Footbag:
I made it to my first SUFC session one week after the move. The move and all of the preceding activities had taken its toll on my game, so I did not play well. But footbag is an awesome thing, and it is nice to have a community and friend base to jump into when you are new to an area.
Since that time, I have been chipping away hard to start feeling like I’m improving again. I tried to start working on Ianek’s LOTW a couple of weeks before the 3Q deadline came and went. I got through about half of them, but was not satisfied enough to submit a video because I knew I wasn’t hitting everything I am capable of. I’ve continued on a training program since, and have been trying to keep the current 4Q LOTM tricks in mind, and I think it is paying dividends. I’ve hit a handful of tricks that are new for me, and my consistency is returning.
Currently on a mid-week work trip to Kansas City, and I’ll be home Thursday evening. Sunday I’ll fly to Boston for work, and hoping to get an evening session in with the BSC. Miss those guys.
I’ll give some proper highlights in my next post. Until then, best regards!
I’m sitting in the Denver Airport right now, staring into a tiny glowing screen like so many of the other people that occupy this space. Either someone just microwaved popcorn or I hear the sound of a thousand people pulling their head out of their asses in rapid succession. But I digress…
I feel that I must finish the story of the move, if nothing else, for my own documentation purposes. Skip to the bottom if you came to read about footbag. Regarding the move though, let me try to dust off the cobwebs….
August 5th: The movers came and packed up the house. At the end of the day there was still a bit of stuff left that we didn’t want to take with us, so we paid someone around $300 to come get the rest of our shit out of there.
August 7th: Took the day off so I could sign the paperwork. The whole transaction went pretty smoothly and took maybe 30-45 minutes. After that we returned the rental car (our 2nd personal car had been picked up the day before), and went to lunch where I had mexican food and a margarita. I’m pretty sure Kristin has a Sangria. It is a pretty big fucking deal to sell the place that you’ve lived in for the last several years, so it was nice to have a drink and commemorate good times in a great house. After lunch we eventually took a limo service (nothing fancy, just black car) down to Boston with our suitcases and Piper (our cat). We made our way over to my work around 5pm and several of my co-workers joined us for drinks at Harpoon Brewery. It hadn’t been my intention, but basically all of our drinks were paid for so that was pretty nice.
August 8th: Flew to California. I had told Goldberg I was planning to come shred with the crew that day. What the heck was I thinking? Piper shit himself on the way and despite cleaning him up as well as we could in the airplane lavatory, he stunk the joint up for the last 3 hours of the flight. Sorry to the folks that were sitting next to us!!! Landed at SFO, hit the car rental place, and drove immediately to Target to pick up some essentials (cat litter, cat food, dish soap, and that kind of thing). Drove to the rental house where we met the landlord to for one final show around the property and to take receipt of the keys. After that, we finally got the chance to force Piper into the bath tub and get him cleaned up. It was still early in the day CA time, but I was way beyond feeling like kicking at this point. Ruari showed up with my in-laws a day earlier than I had expected him. Sometime that afternoon or evening, we went over to my boss’ house where my Uncle had shipped us an air mattress as a house warming gift.
Our stuff was supposed to arrive by the 15th, but it didn’t come until August 18th. Kristin was complaining at some stage about how displaced she felt. Apparently reminding her that we are fortunate to not live in Syria was not a very empathetic response. I can say, it is quite a luxury to be able to sleep in your own bed after not having that be an option for a couple of weeks. We are still wading through and settling in.
My stepdaughter, Aubrey, finally showed up on October 24th. We are a full house again.
The casualties….
The car:
The undercarriage of the Acura was damaged on transport. It took a little effort, but the moving company reimbursed me for the damage done.
The pets:
We had 2 lizards and a snake shipped to us by a company who does this sort of thing all of the time and who we had every confidence in. One lizard survived. The company shipped us a replacement snake (lizard 2 had not yet died when I called to express the situation), which I guess was the best they could do under the circumstances. Still, it sucked.
The Steuben:
Kristin and I were given a crystal bowl as a wedding gift from my Uncles. I had to ask the value of it for insurance purposes when we moved from Idaho to Pennsylvania, and it was such an expensive piece I basically always had it put away for fear that the kids would break it. It was my intention that someday the kids would move out and we would be able to display it. When everything happened with the flood, it got hastily boxed and put into the attic so the repairs could take place. It seems like everything between the flood and the move happened so quickly, and we could not find it before the move. Long story short, we did not have it properly protected and the movers were not exactly gentle with our stuff (many other things that should not have been dinged/damaged were), and when we finally found the box it was in it was quite evident from the sound what the outcome was before we even opened it. Now this is a weird thing to get emotional about. It is a piece we have never really been able to enjoy because we’ve always been afraid to break it, so it has always been put away. We have NEVER had it displayed in the house, so we aren’t missing anything by not having it displayed now. It is also a gift from my Uncle Danny, one of the most important mentors in my life, and he is dead now. So yeah, we kind of felt sick to our stomachs when we discovered that it was shattered. Kristin has kept the pieces with the intention that maybe in the future she could have a glass artist make something out of it.
Footbag:
I made it to my first SUFC session one week after the move. The move and all of the preceding activities had taken its toll on my game, so I did not play well. But footbag is an awesome thing, and it is nice to have a community and friend base to jump into when you are new to an area.
Since that time, I have been chipping away hard to start feeling like I’m improving again. I tried to start working on Ianek’s LOTW a couple of weeks before the 3Q deadline came and went. I got through about half of them, but was not satisfied enough to submit a video because I knew I wasn’t hitting everything I am capable of. I’ve continued on a training program since, and have been trying to keep the current 4Q LOTM tricks in mind, and I think it is paying dividends. I’ve hit a handful of tricks that are new for me, and my consistency is returning.
Currently on a mid-week work trip to Kansas City, and I’ll be home Thursday evening. Sunday I’ll fly to Boston for work, and hoping to get an evening session in with the BSC. Miss those guys.
I’ll give some proper highlights in my next post. Until then, best regards!
Re: Bobby G's footblog
My motivation for updating my blog has been waning. You'll have to take my word for it that I am actually playing a fair bit of footbag! I have aspirations of a post on the year in review and also to review my goals from last year, but I’m having difficulty making the time.
So, I’ll start back in easy with a few brief sentences about my most recent footbag adventures.
I’m in Beantown for work at the moment, and was stoked to have the opportunity last night to try and keep the bag off the ground with one Ben Little and Kevin crazy legs Hoagybeatz. I was bummed to miss Pete on this trip, but stoked that it looks like he was having fun in Nola with Monistere. Pre-session walk around Northeastern University to get loosened up, then we made our way to a classroom that was empty except for one dude studying in the background. Ben and Kevin were really ripping it up, and I think I started okay though I definitely lost energy before those guys did.
I’m not that great of a player, but one of the things I can do fairly well that a lot of folks choose not to do are squeezes. Most of you probably call them pinchers, but I guess I’m old school and stuck in the vernacular of Tricks of the Trade. Anyway, Ben is by far the best pincher artist that I’ve had the chance to play with, and at some stage I asked him whether he could hit atomic squeeze. He proceeded to hit atomic same squeeze and atomic opposite squeeze many times throughout the rest of the session. He has such a nice variety of stuff that the plays out of them with and it is fun to watch. In general he was hitting very long strings and playing very consistently which was awesome to see.
Kevin was stylie as all fuck and he hit a lot of really great variety and a several dense combinations. At some stage he hit PS whirl > mullet, but Ben and I were both totally convinced he hit mullet B2B. I recall one string toward the end of the session that seemed to go on for ever and was chock full of spins toward the end. I recorded a good portion of our session, so I’m hoping to find some time go to through that and put a small video together.
Post dinner burger and a beer, then we had to call it a night. So stoked the guys made time to come hang out on a Wednesday night while I was in town!
I’ve been a very lucky boy over the last month as far as footbag is concerned and have practically had tournament exposure in terms of the number of folks I’ve played with.
So, I’ll start back in easy with a few brief sentences about my most recent footbag adventures.
I’m in Beantown for work at the moment, and was stoked to have the opportunity last night to try and keep the bag off the ground with one Ben Little and Kevin crazy legs Hoagybeatz. I was bummed to miss Pete on this trip, but stoked that it looks like he was having fun in Nola with Monistere. Pre-session walk around Northeastern University to get loosened up, then we made our way to a classroom that was empty except for one dude studying in the background. Ben and Kevin were really ripping it up, and I think I started okay though I definitely lost energy before those guys did.
I’m not that great of a player, but one of the things I can do fairly well that a lot of folks choose not to do are squeezes. Most of you probably call them pinchers, but I guess I’m old school and stuck in the vernacular of Tricks of the Trade. Anyway, Ben is by far the best pincher artist that I’ve had the chance to play with, and at some stage I asked him whether he could hit atomic squeeze. He proceeded to hit atomic same squeeze and atomic opposite squeeze many times throughout the rest of the session. He has such a nice variety of stuff that the plays out of them with and it is fun to watch. In general he was hitting very long strings and playing very consistently which was awesome to see.
Kevin was stylie as all fuck and he hit a lot of really great variety and a several dense combinations. At some stage he hit PS whirl > mullet, but Ben and I were both totally convinced he hit mullet B2B. I recall one string toward the end of the session that seemed to go on for ever and was chock full of spins toward the end. I recorded a good portion of our session, so I’m hoping to find some time go to through that and put a small video together.
Post dinner burger and a beer, then we had to call it a night. So stoked the guys made time to come hang out on a Wednesday night while I was in town!
I’ve been a very lucky boy over the last month as far as footbag is concerned and have practically had tournament exposure in terms of the number of folks I’ve played with.
- 1) Two sessions with Jim Penske while I was in Idaho visiting family. The second session also featured Boone (Jim’s bro) and the 3 of us hadn’t had a session since probably 2001. I already released one video from the solo session that Jim and I had: I also have footage of the session with Jim and Boone so I’m hoping to put something together for that soon too.
- 2) Most recent Stanford session (this past Saturday) was well attended and featured out of town guest Johnny Sarah who I hadn’t played with since ECFC 2014. Super fun session, and we basically continued playing until Goldberg called us out of the shred room because pizza was ready. And of course the Stanford guys are always fun to play with. If you are reading, Derek Littlefield, I need to play with you soon either at Steve’s place or up in Sacramento. I'm calling you out!
- 3) As noted above, a very memorable session with BSC last night. I also captured video of this session, so I’m hoping to get a video together of that as well.
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h0ag3yb3atZ
- Egyptian Footgod
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Re: Bobby G's footblog
thats for the kind, maybe slightly exaggerated words 
so good seeing you mang, those burgers were rad, impossible to find bad vibes hanging with ben and yourself. re-read most of this whole page, is it weird to be nostalgic about shit that happened less than a year ago? sure feels that way.
Good stuff Bobby G. see ya soon, come crash in salem with me!
bscfamilia <3
so good seeing you mang, those burgers were rad, impossible to find bad vibes hanging with ben and yourself. re-read most of this whole page, is it weird to be nostalgic about shit that happened less than a year ago? sure feels that way.
Good stuff Bobby G. see ya soon, come crash in salem with me!
bscfamilia <3
Kevin Hogan
BSC
BSC
Re: Bobby G's footblog
So I called out Derek in my last post, and I think he made it out to the last Stanford session but I skipped due to crazy work schedule. I sucks and owe that dude a visit in Sacramento.
While I did skip on the group session, I managed a 45 minute solo session outside on Saturday while I was doing laundry and getting ready for work travel. So nice to be able to play outside in the winter time!
Yesterday I got up at 3:50 am my time so I could hop onto 7:00 am flight to Boston. Land a little shy of 4:00 pm, then at La Casa Hoag by about 5:00. Kevin has a pretty sweet apartment with a much nicer kitchen than anything I had in my first couple of apartments. A little bit of stretching and other footbag preparations, then off for a session at the YMCA. I'm pretty lame because I don't even remember all of the good highlights, but it was a really fun session. Toward the end when my legs were already very heavy I hit clipper > far pickup > near rake > rpt. That is a pretty stylie combo I think with expansion possibilities into harder links. Will definitely have to play with that again.
After footbag we had a bite to eat at a fine local establishment where the Superbowl also happened to be playing. There was a woman across the bar from us with the thickest New England accent ever who thought Petyon Manning's Fathah Needed to be Fucked. At least twice. I have no beef with Peyton Manning, but I was quite entertained listening to her carry on about that and other things. She was trying to set some buddy of hers up with a couple of ladies sitting next to us, and they were not amused.
Have to be in Edgewood, MD tomorrow through Friday. Went to the office in Boston for meetings today. Bad weather in Boston though, so I headed to the airport after my first meeting many hours ahead of my scheduled 5:30 pm flight to try to avoid cancellations. All flights until mine have already been canceled, and I'm waiting to find out whether I can get out of here tonight or not. It appears to have lightened up a lot so I am hopeful, though I did just get a text that it has been delayed until 7:30 pm. I hope if they cancel they do it early so I can find a hotel instead of sleeping on the airport floor.
Okay, that's it short and sweet. Maybe if I'm succinct and go quickly I'll post more often.
While I did skip on the group session, I managed a 45 minute solo session outside on Saturday while I was doing laundry and getting ready for work travel. So nice to be able to play outside in the winter time!
Yesterday I got up at 3:50 am my time so I could hop onto 7:00 am flight to Boston. Land a little shy of 4:00 pm, then at La Casa Hoag by about 5:00. Kevin has a pretty sweet apartment with a much nicer kitchen than anything I had in my first couple of apartments. A little bit of stretching and other footbag preparations, then off for a session at the YMCA. I'm pretty lame because I don't even remember all of the good highlights, but it was a really fun session. Toward the end when my legs were already very heavy I hit clipper > far pickup > near rake > rpt. That is a pretty stylie combo I think with expansion possibilities into harder links. Will definitely have to play with that again.
After footbag we had a bite to eat at a fine local establishment where the Superbowl also happened to be playing. There was a woman across the bar from us with the thickest New England accent ever who thought Petyon Manning's Fathah Needed to be Fucked. At least twice. I have no beef with Peyton Manning, but I was quite entertained listening to her carry on about that and other things. She was trying to set some buddy of hers up with a couple of ladies sitting next to us, and they were not amused.
Have to be in Edgewood, MD tomorrow through Friday. Went to the office in Boston for meetings today. Bad weather in Boston though, so I headed to the airport after my first meeting many hours ahead of my scheduled 5:30 pm flight to try to avoid cancellations. All flights until mine have already been canceled, and I'm waiting to find out whether I can get out of here tonight or not. It appears to have lightened up a lot so I am hopeful, though I did just get a text that it has been delayed until 7:30 pm. I hope if they cancel they do it early so I can find a hotel instead of sleeping on the airport floor.
Okay, that's it short and sweet. Maybe if I'm succinct and go quickly I'll post more often.
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Alright, going for two posts in one week. I was fortunate and did end up getting out of Boston and on my way to Maryland Monday evening. I’m here helping to kick off some work related equipment testing.
Tuesday was the first day of testing, and by early afternoon it became clear that we were going to finish the day off early by 3 or 4 pm. I checked FB to reacquaint myself with where Nick had moved to and realized it was only about an hour away from where I am working. Messaged Nick a bit after 2:00 and through good luck with his availability and lite traffic, I arrived to his house about 3 hours later for a shred session.
Pretty awesome that I got in two separate sessions with different folks on the same work trip. Nick hit some really cool stuff that he’s already blogged about. I played okay I think. I had several strings where I would hit a decent opening combo, just be getting into rhythm and be working on transitioning the bag for my next planned combo would drop on something really stupid, like clipper set mirage. Oh well. No one likes a complainer though, so here are a couple of things I was pleased with.
ducking clipper > drifter > osis > string
squeeze > opposite pickup (this was new for me)
PLO > pixie squeeze (on challenge from Nick; not smooth, but I got it)
Nick gave me a couple of nice tips on gyro clipper, which I haven’t really worked on in a very long time. I hit a couple that were pretty good, and I feel energized to start working on them again.
Here is a cool picture of an Army helicopter I took this week.
So here is a surreal, non-footbag related story.
Tuesday before I had gone to play with Nick I had lunch at a Panera a few miles from where I am working. Wednesday my colleague and I drove to the same shopping plaza for lunch at a Wegmans grocery store (they have hot deli lunch by the pound). Just before we pulled off of the highway at the appropriate exit, two cops went zooming around either side of us with their sirens blaring. They drove straight on past the exit that we were going for. Then we exited and as we were about half way down the exit ramp a third cop screamed around us and proceeded to run two red lights getting wherever he was going (including swerving in and out of oncoming traffic to do so).
What the hell is going on? We figured there must be a robbery or a drug bust somewhere. About 1/4 mile later we were pulling onto the little side road leading to Wegmans and we heard a helicopter. We parked and exited the car and as we were walking into the store we realized that the helicopter was hovering over the shopping plaza that we were at. Upon entering the store, there were folks crowded in the entry way and one lady said that a cop had just been by and indicated there was a shooting at Panera and that people in the store had been instructed to shelter in place.
My colleague lives locally, so she called a couple of family members quickly to tell them to stay clear of the area. In the meantime I see some lady sobbing uncontrollably, and I gather that she had been at Panera when whatever happened went down. Not knowing what else to do, we grab our lunch and start eating. In the meantime, the helicopter that was circling turns out to be a life flight helicopter and it lands across the shopping plaza from us. By the time we finish eating, the area is swarming with police and news vans already. We headed back to work shortly thereafter.
The news story indicates that police were called to Panera at 11:45 am. According to witnesses, the first officer on scene sits next to the guy who they were called about to talk with him. Without provocation the guy pulled out a gun and shot the cop in the head. Other officers arrive on scene just after noon and are told by witnesses which way the shooter went. They found the shooter a short time later about a block away in front of some apartments, and a shootout ensued. One more officer is struck, two officers responding on-scene are uninjured, and the ’suspect’ is shot and killed. This is presumably 5-10 minutes after noon? The time stamp on my colleague’s phone from when she called her family was 12:13. My Panera receipt from the day before has a timestamp of 12:05. To be clear I don’t think I was ever in danger, but it is kind of surreal to think I missed the whole thing by 24 hours and 0 distance or 15 minutes and 200 yards depending on how you look at it. For me, I think the most unnerving thing was seeing the woman at Wegmans who was sobbing so unconsolably.
Both officers who were shot, died. My mind drifts to kind of strange things. I was having a conversation with Goldberg a couple of weeks back about something completely unrelated, and he made the comment that people should try to optimize their time (e.g. during their life).
It is true I guess….life is an optimization problem. The trick is trying to figure out what the fuck the objective function is. That’s actually something I spend a lot of time thinking about…whether I am focusing my time and efforts on the right things. Am I maximizing the correct objective function? I like to think that my decision to go play footbag Tuesday night instead of staying at the hotel to work was a good one.
But I worry a lot whether I’m spending enough time with my family, or playing footbag, or saving enough for retirement, or working hard enough. The problem is that life is also a stochastic process and you never really know what will happen. Those cops didn’t know they were going to die that day, and I wonder what kind of morning they had. I hope for whoever it is that they left behind that there were no stupid arguments on the way out the door or that kind of thing.
Since I’m generalizing, just as no one likes a complainer I’ll also say that everyone likes a story with a happy ending. I walked by this sign while searching for a place to eat last night, and it made me smile (though I've never been to this place before). Anyway, here is that happy ending for you. Extra points for the double entendre?
Tuesday was the first day of testing, and by early afternoon it became clear that we were going to finish the day off early by 3 or 4 pm. I checked FB to reacquaint myself with where Nick had moved to and realized it was only about an hour away from where I am working. Messaged Nick a bit after 2:00 and through good luck with his availability and lite traffic, I arrived to his house about 3 hours later for a shred session.
Pretty awesome that I got in two separate sessions with different folks on the same work trip. Nick hit some really cool stuff that he’s already blogged about. I played okay I think. I had several strings where I would hit a decent opening combo, just be getting into rhythm and be working on transitioning the bag for my next planned combo would drop on something really stupid, like clipper set mirage. Oh well. No one likes a complainer though, so here are a couple of things I was pleased with.
ducking clipper > drifter > osis > string
squeeze > opposite pickup (this was new for me)
PLO > pixie squeeze (on challenge from Nick; not smooth, but I got it)
Nick gave me a couple of nice tips on gyro clipper, which I haven’t really worked on in a very long time. I hit a couple that were pretty good, and I feel energized to start working on them again.
Here is a cool picture of an Army helicopter I took this week.
So here is a surreal, non-footbag related story.
Tuesday before I had gone to play with Nick I had lunch at a Panera a few miles from where I am working. Wednesday my colleague and I drove to the same shopping plaza for lunch at a Wegmans grocery store (they have hot deli lunch by the pound). Just before we pulled off of the highway at the appropriate exit, two cops went zooming around either side of us with their sirens blaring. They drove straight on past the exit that we were going for. Then we exited and as we were about half way down the exit ramp a third cop screamed around us and proceeded to run two red lights getting wherever he was going (including swerving in and out of oncoming traffic to do so).
What the hell is going on? We figured there must be a robbery or a drug bust somewhere. About 1/4 mile later we were pulling onto the little side road leading to Wegmans and we heard a helicopter. We parked and exited the car and as we were walking into the store we realized that the helicopter was hovering over the shopping plaza that we were at. Upon entering the store, there were folks crowded in the entry way and one lady said that a cop had just been by and indicated there was a shooting at Panera and that people in the store had been instructed to shelter in place.
My colleague lives locally, so she called a couple of family members quickly to tell them to stay clear of the area. In the meantime I see some lady sobbing uncontrollably, and I gather that she had been at Panera when whatever happened went down. Not knowing what else to do, we grab our lunch and start eating. In the meantime, the helicopter that was circling turns out to be a life flight helicopter and it lands across the shopping plaza from us. By the time we finish eating, the area is swarming with police and news vans already. We headed back to work shortly thereafter.
The news story indicates that police were called to Panera at 11:45 am. According to witnesses, the first officer on scene sits next to the guy who they were called about to talk with him. Without provocation the guy pulled out a gun and shot the cop in the head. Other officers arrive on scene just after noon and are told by witnesses which way the shooter went. They found the shooter a short time later about a block away in front of some apartments, and a shootout ensued. One more officer is struck, two officers responding on-scene are uninjured, and the ’suspect’ is shot and killed. This is presumably 5-10 minutes after noon? The time stamp on my colleague’s phone from when she called her family was 12:13. My Panera receipt from the day before has a timestamp of 12:05. To be clear I don’t think I was ever in danger, but it is kind of surreal to think I missed the whole thing by 24 hours and 0 distance or 15 minutes and 200 yards depending on how you look at it. For me, I think the most unnerving thing was seeing the woman at Wegmans who was sobbing so unconsolably.
Both officers who were shot, died. My mind drifts to kind of strange things. I was having a conversation with Goldberg a couple of weeks back about something completely unrelated, and he made the comment that people should try to optimize their time (e.g. during their life).
It is true I guess….life is an optimization problem. The trick is trying to figure out what the fuck the objective function is. That’s actually something I spend a lot of time thinking about…whether I am focusing my time and efforts on the right things. Am I maximizing the correct objective function? I like to think that my decision to go play footbag Tuesday night instead of staying at the hotel to work was a good one.
But I worry a lot whether I’m spending enough time with my family, or playing footbag, or saving enough for retirement, or working hard enough. The problem is that life is also a stochastic process and you never really know what will happen. Those cops didn’t know they were going to die that day, and I wonder what kind of morning they had. I hope for whoever it is that they left behind that there were no stupid arguments on the way out the door or that kind of thing. Since I’m generalizing, just as no one likes a complainer I’ll also say that everyone likes a story with a happy ending. I walked by this sign while searching for a place to eat last night, and it made me smile (though I've never been to this place before). Anyway, here is that happy ending for you. Extra points for the double entendre?
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Perhaps a bit too much musing in that previous post. Maybe its better for my blog when I'm not on the road....at home I would have probably been watching my son save the universe from certain destruction on his xbox one and you likely wouldn't have been exposed to that drivel.
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010 19:53
- Location: Drumore, PA
Re: Bobby G's footblog
Nah, I like the version with the crazy Panera shit haha I actually heard some co-workers of mine talking about it the next day, too. Real stuff, man. Nice write-up. I had a great time kicking with you last week. I thought you were hitting some impressive stuff. Next time you come here, you have to hit that Pixie Legover> Squeeze 
That's your challenge. I'm about to go to bed, but I wanted to read your post and thank you for driving out to my place. It was really nice to have some company. Shred on.
That's your challenge. I'm about to go to bed, but I wanted to read your post and thank you for driving out to my place. It was really nice to have some company. Shred on.