Saturday was my daughter’s first flag football game of the season. Yes, you heard right, flag football. The greater Kansas City YMCA’s have a coed flag football program and this is the last year Tori could participate. Her age group is the 6th-8th grade one. After getting over the initial qualms about the boys playing touch rather than flag football…wink, wink…I have to admit that its pretty cool and I’m proud of her for getting out there and doing this. She doesn’t have a great deal of football knowledge except for that gleaned from watching the KC Chiefs and playing in our annual Thanksgiving family football game but she makes up for it in enthusiasm and the courage to get out there and do her best. The weather was gorgeous out all day Saturday and they play their 5 on 5 flag football games at Derrick Thomas Academy on a small, 50 yard astro-turf field painted with Chiefs colors. It is a really cool little field. In her minimal playing time her strength appeared to be what would essentially be middle line-backer. She recorded a sack and harrassed the quarterback a few times. I look forward to the rest of the games this season. In the “its a small world” category I was shocked to discover that her assistant coach is one of the guys I know from the local comic shop. He’s a great guy, very encouraging. Should be a fun couple of months.
After grabbing something to eat we headed to the Loose Park to spend a few hours people watching and playing with Moses and Motley. It is there that the beautiful afternoon turned gray as one of our own, our beloved nephew Motley, turned to a life of crime and was busted:
There is a leash law within the city limits and Motley was running free, claiming the park territory as his own. For a usually vocal dog Motley had been unusually quiet all day. Perhaps he was deep in thought planning his introduction into the criminal underworld. This all changed when the animal control officer showed up and Motley vehemently voiced his opinion of the men in blue, rebuking the officer for stepping onto his turf. Cooler heads may yet have prevailed had Motley not decided to also jump on the officers leg. For his crime Motley saddled his owners with a citation…damage to be determined by a ticket in the mail. The officer shared that they had written 45 tickets in the last hour. Evidently this was some sort of dog mafia spawning ground. Hopefully Motley will travel the straight and narrow from now on!
There is evidence all around that spring has indeed sprung, for which I am extremely thankful. It is so nice to be outside. We of course were all recipients of natures April Fool’s joke as none of us thought to wear sunscreen on that glorious Saturday and 6 hours out in the sun makes for some lobster-like complexions! And speaking of April Fool’s Jeff pulled a nice email joke on me when he told me that my favorite author…do I need to name him?…would be at Planet Comicon this year. This is of course the annual Planet Comicon that had earlier been cancelled due to space issues. It was almost midnight on the 1st, I hadn’t been pranked all day, and I was also very vunerable after my nephew’s earlier criminal behavior because I bought it all hook, line, and sinker. Of course I haven’t stopped crying since I found out the truth. Betrayed by my own friend and fellow Gaiman fan. The youth of today are so cruel!
Happy Monday everyone, I wish you a week filled with spring breezes, the sights and scents of new spring growth, and no animal control officers!
Sorry buddy. Glad to see you haven’t blocked me from posting on your blog. I’ll be awaiting your payback next year. 🙂
Mike and Abbey I’m so sorry to hear off Motley’s turning to life of crime. Maybe ” Moses ” can steer back onto the path of good.
Tori I hope you had a great time. My kids can’t wait to chase around after you soon to help you work on your speed. 🙂 I hope you had a great time.
Flag football sounds like fun. Was vaguely tempted to try tag rugby this year. but then my innate laziness persuaded me otherwise.
Tori: your flag football game was awesome! You did so well. It was so much fun to watch & I really like the neighborhood where it was held.
Yes, my son is a criminal! He will have to miss a few weeks of daycare in order to pay his fine!! I can’t believe someone would dare ticket my baby. He’s soooo cute! The whole ordeal wore him out and when he finally got home that afternoon, he slept the rest of the day and evening.
Carl: did you take the above picture of the barn?
Yes, I took it on the way home from Turning Point on the back roads. I could’nt get as close as I wanted to so the definition of the flowers didn’t turn out quite right but I like it all the same.
At least our grandaughter is walking the straight and narrow! You look so cute ,Tori-I bet you are the best player there.
Motley,Motley,how many times have we told you???? You can’t get by with a warning showing that kind of behavoir! Hopefully your parents can come up with the cash or you will see the inside of the rougher side of life!
Love the barn,Carl. Sandy Beltz loves barns and always asked me to take pictures of different barns while we were on vacation.
I can send you a better copy of this one. It has a concrete silo next to it with the top missing and a tree growing out of it. I have pics of both so I’ll try to remember to resize them and send them to you Mom.
Tori, you go! You’re so brave! Glad you are having fun!
Nice barn picture!
Motley, you little devil!
Hi! 🙂 I must say I was pretty excited to find that I was finally going to play flag, even though our team name is the Chiefs. It was fun playing the first game. I felt like and idiot when they didn’t tell me what I was doing on one of the plays + it was weird playing against a friend. Oh well, his family cheered for me! I hurt from sun burn.
Everyone on the team said that Motely was such a good, quiet dog, but LOOKS CAN DECEIVE.
Nice barn picture dad.
Motley is so cute!!! And the picture of the barn in the field of purple flowers…beautiful!
Not as good as your pictures, Janet, but thanks.
Hurray for Tori! They had a nice looong practice tonight, so I’m sure she won’t be confused again.
Yes, I had to laugh as Motley was so interested and happy to greet everyone he saw in the park until the Animal Control showed up. He was just being a typical teen and rebelling against authority.
I love the picture of the barn, Sweetie.
just found this page while looking for reference-you have an awsome taste in artist!