Roller Derby

So we finally found a sport we can get into watching. Is it foot ball? no. Is is Baseball? no. Soccer? Badminton? Curling? No, no, and no. It's Roller Derby! Last Sunday (2-2) we went to the season opener of the Texas Rollergirls. It was great. There were 4 bouts and during the half time there was a band playing. It's kinda like Nascar in that they go fast and turn left, and everyone is waiting for a crash. There were a few brutal crashes too, and some fighting. At first I thought the fights were just for show, but then there was some pretty nasty hair pulling that had me second guessing that theory.

We took our video and regular camera...... but on the way we realized both had dead batteries. We found some pics on the internet to share though. ...

Do you see us?
Hello

This is Sparkle Plenty who got ejected from the game for brutally knocking Rice Rocket into the crowd and then getting into a ruckus at the other teams bench...

Here is Rice Rocket who was the star of the show. She zoomed around the track. The game was tied until the last few second when she scored the winning point. The crowd went crazy.

The girls ranged from cute to scary... Slightly more skewed toward the scary...

Here's a fairly mild wipe out. You can see how close the crowd is. That little barrier doesn't do all that much. A Rollergirl went flying into the crowd a few times. The biggest mistake you could make when that happened is spilling your beer. Huge party fowl.

Here is the coach of the Hotrod Honeys getting escorted out of the rink after a little altercation at the end of the night.

and here is a bit of that "altercation".

Another miss understanding among the teams...

But it really sounds worse than it was. It was a family event. Here are some kids playing on the track at half time.

Our stay in Austin is almost up just as the new Rollergirls season starts here. We were sad until we found...

Aw yeah. Our Roller Derby nights will live on in San Diego.

And for anyone interested in the rules, here is what I got from the Rollergirls site. ..

The first thing you need to know are that there are three positions:

pivot: sets the pace for the pack and is the last line of defense

blocker: tries to stop the jammer, knocks around the opposing team's blockers

jammer: sprints through the pack, scoring points by passing members of the opposing team

The pack starts with a pivot from each team in front, 3 blockers from each team in the middle, and a jammer from each team in the back. When the whistle blows, the pack takes off, and on a second whistle, the jammers start fighting their way through the pack in an attempt to be named "lead jammer." The jammers lap the pack and when they re-enter the pack, the receive one point for each member of the opposing team that they pass. A jam lasts a maximum of two minutes, but the "lead jammer" has the right to call off the jam at her discretion.

It sounds simple, but it's not ... 'cause there are two little things called "falling" and "fighting" that fill some jams with mayhem, violence, and penalties. Hell, yeah.

Spam

Just an FYI for everyone who's checking the comments on our blog. You may have noticed that several comments have been deleted. Ryan and I are deleting these comments as they are spam posted by people we don't know. Don't click on any comments that you don't recognize the name of, they may contain a virus. Didn't want you all to think we were editing your comments. :)

Hope to hear from more of you soon! We love & miss everyone!
Heather

Assignment: San Diego

So we have some awesome news. I confirmed my next travel assignment. We're going to SAN DIEGO, CA!!! My assignment will start on April 14, but we'll get into the apartment a couple of days before hand. This time we'll actually stay 16 weeks until August 3. We requested this so at the end of July we can go to the biggest, the best, the most extreme, the greatest comic book convention of all times: SAN DIEGO COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is the comic book convention of all comic book conventions. Now I know you all are all jealous, but don't worry, we'll take lots of pictures.

Oh, and two more words that are sure to make all of y'all jealous........ Lego Land!!

Dwayne & Norma's Visit

Hey everyone! So we were lucky enough to have Dwayne & Norma come visit us on February 1-4, 2008. I actually was trying to put together a slide show of their visit, but the program I was using ended up making all the pictures blurry for some reason. So I'll just post them like we normally do. I'll have to find another program to use. Which also means we'll have to wait to display any videos we've taken.

We hope everyone is doing well. It's been a little while since our last post. We're starting to think about our next assignment and where we want to go. Hopefully this week I'll learn more about our options from my recruiters. Not much else has been going on. We're planning a trip to the hill country soon, pictures to follow.

We took Dwayne & Norma down to San Antonio to see the Alamo & the Riverwalk. We went down there on Saturday and they were having a Mardi Gras parade on the water. They had boats decorated and people dressed up throwing beads as they went by.

My favorite walk way at the Alamo.

Behind the Alamo they had people dressed up in period costumes.

Hmmm....what are you cooking?

One of the boats in the parade on the river. They were throwing beads and had music playing.

This one actually had a band playing on it.


Enjoying some refreshing drinks as the floats/boats go by.

Mmmmm.......fresh guacamole

Superbowl night we hung out at Legends in the Holiday Inn where Dwayne & Norma stayed. We had a really fun time. There were people there giving out free beer, necklaces, hats, and other fun stuff. Go Giants!

Austin Video

Hello all.

So we figured we’d do a video to let everyone see where we live. This is our apartment. People have asked about the type of furniture they give us so here you will see. Nothing fancy, but we are more than happy with it. We live on the top of a big hill (as you will see). It’s much bigger than the last place so we love that. Because of our nomadic life we don’t have much to put on the walls. I’d love to have more on the walls but I don’t want to move it every 3 months…

We absolutely LOVE Austin so we will probably do more videos. This is my first time making a movie so bear with me while I learn ins and outs of the process. Hope you enjoy…

Miss you guys!
Ryan

P.S. It’s a big video so it will take a while if you don’t have high speed internet. Be very very patient.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! We really missed all our family and friends and hope next year we'll be able to celebrate with our family. I can't believe it's already the new year. Ryan & I have made it to Austin, TX for our next assignment. We got here on Friday to an empty apartment. We had to wait around for awhile for our furniture to arrive. We're very happy we're on the first floor this time. It made moving all our stuff in a lot smoother. Loki survived yet another car trip. We were all glad it was only a three hour drive instead of a three day drive. Loki's already made himself at home. He has more room to run around in, as this place is bigger than our last apartment.

We went out exploring the city and it looks pretty cool. Lots of really cute cafe's & coffee shops. We found two of the best comic book shops within a couple miles of our house so Austin's impressing us so far. We're looking forward to listening to some good live music and having some good eats at the many different restaurants we've seen. We'll do some more exploring this week and post some pictures of the town and our apartment.

Take Care & Write Soon!!!!
P.S. We got a really cool digital picture frame for Christmas (thanks mom & dad), so please email us some pictures so we can add them to the frame. FYI don't compress the pictures before sending them, it distorts them. Thanks!!!

San Antonio, TX

On November 26-29, 2007 Ryan and I met my parents in San Antonio, TX. We visited the Alamo, the Riverwalk, the Tower of Americas, and saw the Missions. We had a lot of fun seeing the sites and visiting with my parents. San Antonio was different than I had imagined it. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be and I also didn't realize that the Alamo was right down in the middle of the city. There's a mall right next to it. There were lots of restaurants and cute little shops on the Riverwalk. It would be nice if Richmond could try and capture some of the features of the Riverwalk. It would be great for downtown, but they have a long ways to go to get close to San Antonio.

In a shop in La Vallita.

The Riverwalk

At the Alamo.

Can you say Adobe?

Mom and Dad enjoying some margaritas our first night down at the Riverwalk.

Small little church in La Villita.

Skyline view from the Tower of Americas. Can you find the Alamo?

One of the churches on the mission trail.