We’ve been housecleaning all day today in anticipation of the arrival of some beloved guests tomorrow evening. Nothing motivates me to clean my house like having house guests and I only wish we had them more often! My dad, stepmom, and niece Elise are arriving tomorrow from NH and I’m looking forward to spending some time with them as we don’t see them nearly enough!

In derby news, there is no news. I haven’t skated at all in 2 weeks. My knee has taken a sudden and inexplicable turn for the worse and I don’t get it. I just know it’s hurting more than ever and now my lower leg is swollen and stiff like it had never been before. It’s kinda mysterious considering I’d quit all forms of exercise 2 weeks earlier. What gives?! So I’m wearing my knee brace all the time now and trying to be extra careful. *sigh* I’m not very good at inactivity.

Clearly the universe is determined that I learn to be patient. Resistance is futile. Like I’m always telling Rio, if don’t learn the lesson then you’ll just keep suffering it. Here I am, suffering it again!

I finally upgraded my Wordpress installation and the site survived intact. There was a little glitch with the categories but I worked it out. I still have some minor issues to solve concerning thumbnail images and my archive pages but it’s not urgent. It’s not like there are 10,000 visitors on my site earnestly sifting through my content. Right now I’m pretty thankful about that:)

I have a whole bunch of black and white shots from a roll of film that I’ll have to scan. Since my leisure time is scarce I’m not sure when that’s going to happen, but there are some cool images that will be worth the effort.

The other big news is that I finally bit the bullet and replaced the battery in my digital camera. Film is expensive and money is getting tighter by the day. As a result, I shoot less and I’ve also noticed that I’m overly picky about the shots I take and so I don’t take enough family photos. I’ve also realized that when I only shoot 4 or 5 frames at time, it might be 6 months and as many events before I process the entire roll. Therefore, the shots from the first half of the roll are already dated. I miss being able to post photos instantly after an event takes place.

There are many pros and cons to both film and digital, and while I will always love shooting film, right now my circumstances require that I opt for the convenience and affordability of digital.

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.

Back from Tulsa and fully recovered from a weekend of brutality and debauchery. The Green Country Roller Girls taught my team how roller derby is really played and it wasn’t pretty. All the same, it was a fabulous experience and I truly admire GCRG for their sportsmanship and hospitality.

Personally, I feel that I gained a lot from the experience. I learned not to let myself be intimidated by girls three times my size. I kept my skates under me, stayed low and hit them as hard as I could. I played a lot better in this bout than I did in the one previous and I gained a great deal of confidence. I can’t wait for our next bout, which is a mere 10 days away in Arkansas. It’s going to be awesome:)

Just so you know I haven’t quit posting photos altogether:)

Yep, we actually own this movie. We watched it for the first time the other night and it’s pretty much everything I hoped it would be - cheese and hilarity galore! I was disappointed to discover that none of the women ever appear in any of the awesome outfits pictured in the poster. I was also amused by the keywords for it at IMDB:

Lesbianism, Beautiful Woman, Female Nudity, Lesbian Scene, Babe Scientist, Bee, Dying During Sex, Lesbian, Nude Woman Murdered, Nudity, Transformation

If you’re looking for hot lesbian action, this movie will be a disappointment. However, you WILL see a lot of boobies.

I love cheesy B movies!

In other news, my new knee pads arrived today, thank goodness! My knees are desperate for extra protection. I hesitated briefly to spend another chunk of cash on expensive gear, but you know what? My knees are worth it. It was either that or quit derby, and I’m not ready to do that anytime soon.

These are my new skates, aren’t they lovely?

I would’ve posted sooner but I’ve been sick. Just a cruddy cold so I pretty much just want to sleep a lot but otherwise I’m pretty functional.

But yeah, these new skates have made skating much more enjoyable. I can already feel an immediate improvement in my speed and agility. The wheels are a bit harder than I would have liked, but they should be perfect for the surface we’ll be skating on in Tulsa. My next purchase will be some grippy wheels. I’m already shopping around. I have a birthday in July, so by then I should have the perfect set all picked out:)

Damn, it’s been a while, eh? Anyone still out there? In any case, I’m hoping to post more frequently by keeping my updates short and sweet. For now, here’s a quick synopsis of the last few weeks:

• I’ve been skating like a fiend and loving every minute of it.
• Played in my first bout and my team lost by a wide margin but it was definitely a valuable learning experience.
• Got new skates! Yippeeeee! I love them so much I want to wear them all the time.
• My knees are starting to protest this whole derby thing. My solution is to save up for better knee pads.
• I need new wheels, too. Damn, this derby thing is getting expensive.
• I’ll be going to Tulsa on June 1st for our first travel bout against the Green Country Roller Girls
• I’m working my ass off in the meantime because *holy shit* I’ve played in one bout and now I’m on the travel team? I’m a little terrified but mostly excited:)
• We have barely enough active skaters to string together a full team roster, that’s the only reason I made the travel team in the first place.

So yeah, my life is pretty much consumed by roller derby. But don’t worry, I really do have some photos to post! I’ve been shooting very little so finishing a roll of film takes an eternity but I’m getting there. I’m near the end of a 36-frame roll of high speed black and white that I bought so I could shoot indoors over the winter. Now I’m anxious to finish it so I can shoot in color again. It’s nice to be getting outdoors again.

If roller derby weren’t eating up all of my funds, I might be able to afford a new battery for my digital camera, which I’d actually like to resurrect sometime soon. It would certainly speed up my turn around for new photos and allow me to justify silly snapshots and stuff.

In fact, I’m going to post a photo of my new skates very soon. Because they’re SO pretty!