Main Street in Plevna, Kansas.

Today my team is off to Oklahoma City to face off with the Victory Dolls. I won’t be there because I’m still nursing a torn ligament (MCL), which sucks but this is the last bout I’ll have to miss. My stepdaughter, Emily, will be making her debut on the travel team tonight as Nasty Sinatra, and I’m excited for her! I can’t wait to hear all about it:)

This past winter Kansas got hit by a severe ice storm that decimated the trees. As we drove along the highway we could see the aftermath - the forests were littered with the wreckage of huge broken limbs. Only the trunks and sturdiest limbs survived intact, but they had been virtually stripped of every small branch and twig. As a result, most of the trees appeared as the ones shown in this photo - growing back in tufts of new growth along a few sparse branches.

The lamp post is leftover from an old freight station along the train tracks in Plevna, KS.

Gosh, it’s been an awful long time, eh? Here’s the lowdown:

• We went to Kansas, as usual, for the 4th of July. This photo was taken on the road. More to come!
• I tore a ligament in my knee and had to sit out the last home bout. My team was also missing our star jammer - Whiskey broke her ankle and will be out for the rest of the season and that’s going to hurt the travel team as well. In any case, my team lost but it was a much closer score than our last bout. Our rookies performed magnificently, especially our newest jammer, Biohazard Betty, who received MVP!
• My knee is healing well and I should be back in action before too long. I’m forcing myself to follow the doctor’s orders and avoid straining it. It was torture watching my team skate from the sidelines on Saturday night, but I have to think about the big picture. It will be worth missing 1 or 2 bouts if it means my knee can recover fully without surgery and I can enjoy a long and spectacular derby career;) So really, 1 or 2 bouts isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. I can do it!
• Steve just took a job as a sexton. Get your mind out of the gutter!
• Life is pretty damn great all around. Being too busy to blog isn’t really a bad thing.