Windy City Rollers

Carrie invited us to celebrate her birthday with her on Saturday by taking in an evening of roller derby. Here we are--Julie, Diane, Carrie, Maria, Lisa, me, the Gooseman:


The four teams warming-up:


It may seem at first like roller derby simply consists of some hard-core women skating in a circle and knocking each other down, but there are rules and structure to the competition. A game or match consists of two 20-minute halves, broken down into rounds that last for a max of 2 minutes. In each round, there are 2 "jammers," one from each team, that start at the back of the pack and try to get to the front of the pack. The members of the opposite team try to block them, and can be pretty agressive. This picture isn't very clear, but the one in the red in the rear and the one in the blue with the green skates are the jammers trying to get through the pack:


Check out the website for more complete rules. I was surprised how much we got into it! If you have the opportunity to see a game, I would definitely recommend it. The atmosphere is great, with funny announcers and creative names for all. Some of my favorite player names include Yvette YourMaker, Hoosier Mama, Ying of Fire and Anne Putation. One ref is Sheik Yerbouti and the rules and regulation chair is Scorey Feldman. For much more interesting pictures and history of Chicago roller derby, check out the Windy City Rollers website.

There was even a half-time performance by the some go-go dancers:


Eric thinks I should try out next year, but I think the last pair of rollerskates I owned had My Little Pony painted on the side.

Some random pictures from the past week or so...

The World's Tallest (and Most Delicious) Garden Burger:


Here is Nico looking regal on a rainy walk while his owner basked in the sun on a Costa Rican beach:


Two Saturdays ago, Barrett had us over for an amazing eating event he and Megan hosted. We started with wine and cheese and finished the evening with enormous pieces of cheesecake swimming in chocolate--with a substantial meal in the middle! And of course, the evening was filled with great conversation and heaps of laughter.