Roller derby and bowling

This is a post that should have been made before now because the night was so great, but wasn't written because this has been a busy week. (Jeni is co-producing a play at Workshop Theatre which is keeping her running around with her hair on fire right now, so while she's in a meeting I'll try to get this up.)

Last Saturday Jeni and I, along with Lisa, Brian, their friend Breck, Tiff and her friend Kirby, all went to the roller derby and then bowling. Back in early January I found out we had a roller derby team and instantly we knew we had to go. This is by far the best $10 we have spent in a long long time. The whole night was just way too much fun. Honestly, I think we did as much people watching as derby watching, but by the end of the night we had scoring and strategy mostly figured out.


Here we are before the night began in our semi-matching t-shirts. We were expecting more of a rock crowd and less of a punk crowd.


As an added bonus to the roller derby, there was a wedding before the bout.


All the team members had personas with fun names, like Mel Anoma, seen here coming out of the penalty box. There was a lot of penalty box time.


This was one of my favorite pictures, featuring Shiv Tyler and her "Get Some" pants, again coming out of the penalty box.


Afterward, Breck went around and got autographs and pictures with the QuadSquad rollergirls. Crystal Cutt was his favorite, and with much right because she kicked butt.


Here we are after the bout, looking even happier than before. This picture was taken by a girl who, unfortunately, did not wash her hands before leaving the bathroom. Jeni was really asking the girl beside her, who did wash her hands, to take the picture, but the other one offered faster. (We wiped the camera off real good.)


After the roller derby bout we went bowling. Don't ask me why sitting on the floor at the bowling alley seemed like a good idea. This is the group picture including Nikki, who was out with Morgan and a limo full of 13-year-olds and couldn't be here in person.


As the night went on they black lights came on at the bowling alley.


Jeni wore Tiff's QuadSquad bandana as a doo rag until someone asked her what gang she was in and Jeni decided it was best to take it off. (We were leaving at that point anyway.)

We have a whole set on Flickr of the best of our roller derby pictures, so check them out. We'll be doing it again in March, except that it'll be on a Sunday so probably less of a big night. But it was just too much fun. We really can't stop talking about it.

Jeni, the cheerleader judge

Jeni is heading over to Camden to help judge the middle school cheerleader tryouts. I can't wait to hear how that goes. She gets to break some girls' hearts and make some girls' dreams come true. There are at least 27 girls trying out, in groups of four. She's looking at at least 2-1/2 hours of tryouts. I think she'll have her fill of hip hop music and pumpin' up the jam. Tiffany warned her to watch out for the crazy cheerleader moms -- good advice, for sure!

Clara Ann is here!

Congratulations Lisa and Brian (and Gracie, too). Clara Ann was born Saturday, March 3 at 12:38 p.m., weighing in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 20 3/4 inches. She scored a 9/10 on her APGAR tests. Although initially low on her blood sugar, she brought it up to where they want it to be and is a healthy, beautiful bunch of cheeks and fat rolls.

The crib saga pictures

You really do need the pictures to truly appreciate the before and after of the crib...

This, obviously, is the model crib. I guess if Lisa and Brian could have found a bottom for it, it might have worked for about a month. You'd be sure the baby wouldn't be rolling around much.

Here's the finished product. You can see a drastic improvement. Didn't Brian do good with his first paint job? The green looks great in the room. And OCDean hung the wall hangings all even and spaced right and level. (I have a problem.)

This is the other side of the nursery. At the bottom is the changing table, which went together surprisingly well (although I had my fears when, as I pulled out the lettered pieces, I saw they went from A to Z) and the dresser that we were trying to match from the beginning (it's all the dresser's fault!). The little shelves on the wall are very cute, and I think the lamp on the dresser adds a nice touch, too. Now they just need to add a baby, and I'd say that room's done.

Four Wal-Marts, a Target and a Babies R Us

We went over to Lisa and Brian's Saturday to help get the nursery ready for Clara Ann and to get Gracie's room put together. Well, with the best intentions, the afternoon quickly deteriorated into quite an adventure. First off, we attempted to turn Gracie's 4-in-1 bed from a toddler bed to a full size bed, but it turned out that three years ago they were given the wrong bed rails. So now Gracie has a half built bed in her room for the next two weeks while we wait for the right bed rails to come in (they were out of stock and had to be re-ordered).

So we decide to tackle Clara Ann's nursery instead. Brian and I brought in the crib and changing table. The crib was a "floor model" but was the perfect match. In our mind, floor model meant it had been a display, but was the last one and was re-boxed. No, we could only be so lucky. The first piece out was small side rail, about one foot long with a picture on the side of what the crib would look like. The next piece was the headboard, again with a framed picture of the crib. Finally, we pull out all the pieces, line them up, and realize that the crib was a miniature of the actual crib -- a floor "model." Well, that won't do. Thus began the evening of four Wal-Marts, a Target and a Babies R Us.

We promptly returned both the model crib and the changing table to the Camden Wal-Mart (they didn't have a full-sized version), then headed into Columbia to check Target. No luck at Target, so check Wal-Mart (where the car-jacker got shot in the butt), but no luck there. Drive through Chick-fil-a and head across town to the Babies R Us. Nothing was right there, either, so hit the next Wal-Mart. No dice, even though their display showed a picture of the crib we wanted. It appears that they carry the crib, but in the wrong color. They also carry the changing table in the color we wanted, but with no cribs to match. When asked about this, the sales associated could only say, "Yeah, I can't explain it either."

Jeni decided to call the last Wal-Mart in Columbia, and they said they actually had two cribs in the style we wanted in the walnut finish we wanted so we loaded up the crew and headed back across town and back toward Camden. Once we got there, I took Gracie off looking for lobsters (yes, it appears some Wal-Marts have lobster tanks, so a trip to Wal-Mart for Gracie means a visit to the lobsters). While I was pushing Gracie, I head them page a flatbed to children's furniture! It turns out that, no, they did not have the one we were looking for in walnut, but they had a comparable crib (and one we ended up liking better), so we bought a full-sized crib for Clara Ann, re-purchased the same changing table from before (I'm sure this one is better, though), loaded up the Tahoe and hit the road.

Almost six hours later, seven stops, but we got what we needed. Just to be sure, Brian and I put the crib together that night (we got home around 10:30), but wisely waited until Sunday morning to do the changing table.

Jeni and Lisa went through all of Gracie's old baby clothes, washing about 10 loads and sorting them by size into tubs. Lisa has enough clothes for triplets (not that I'm trying to jinx her).

We also hung another shelf in the laundry room for the detergents to get them off the dryer, reversed the dryer door so it opens the right way, hung shelves in the nursery, hung hooks in Gracie's room, hung decorations in Clara Ann's room, and built two sets of cabinets and a toy box for the play room. Overall, I'd say it was a successful weekend, and with Clara Ann carrying so low, I think it's a good thing we got this stuff settled when we did. From here, I think it's just the little stuff.

Oh, and if Jeni and I hadn't sworn off Wal-Mart already, we definitely have now. It's like locking a kid in the closet with a pack of cigarettes until you know they'll never touch them again...