Ha, I'm Retired

So I'm not in Sarasota

But this time, unlike 06&08, I'm actually not at all grumpy about it.

Being retired is fun. It means things like going to farmers' markets, meandering, checking out the new neighborhood, drinking a flight of Zwanzes at ChurckKey and the like are actually things I get to do before it gets bitter cold outside. Not that bitter cold stops a crazy-ass Northern European mutt like myself... but sometimes it gives one paws. I mean... pause.

The trade made is that I'm not down at the nexus of the universe of ultimate. Not getting irrational goosebumps on Tuesday. Not falling asleep dreaming of things I'll to do on the field while my teammates toss and turn. Not seeing the sun rise as the steam floats from my coffee.

More specifically, I'm not wander over to ask Jim and Jaeger 1000 little questions. I'm not getting lessons in what to cook for breakfast from J and Jude. I'm not seeing a Ho-train at a Waffle House at 3am with LambJuice, Lunchbox, Spike and Squigglio. I'm not talking the speed of coffee consumption with a farmer. And I'm definitely not watching Troll 2.

So it goes.

That all said, I'm missing Sara' just enough this morning to write a little on some pre-game thoughts. Not sure how this 'll come out since it is 7:40am on a Thursday and my goal is to finish this by 8:15, but away we go. Oh, and my computer battery seems to be burning itself in effigy. Only without the flames or the effigy. I mean it is running out of charge.

Open Pool A
Revolver might get challenged in one of these games. To the tune of 15-11 or so. The other two are 15-8 or less. Bravo or Goat? Tossup as always when the 8-9 seeds meet. As for the 'Dors? I have no faith.

Open Pool B
I think Ironside is actually be in for a bit of a tough time with this pool. In the end, yeah, I think they take it, but this pool is quite a bit more challenging for Boston than Pool A is for Revolver. Not convinced that Truck won't drop a winnable game to Sub-Zero, but I'd definitely put money on Truck if forced. Finally, which of S-Z or Tanasi will blow their Day 1 load against Truck&Ironside and lose a tight one only to get sent to the kiddie pool with a loss? Schedule says it is more likely to be S-Z. Especially if they get televised. Harder to thhrow a game when the fans who voted to see you are watching at home...

Open Pool C
This is a mess. A Happy mess. Avg margin of victory in this pool will be <3 points. I'm going to pencil Southpaw in for 3 DGP games. I have no idea if they'll win or lose. My instinct tells me that Machine is the loser of this group and that Ring will not go undefeated. Furious? Well... I don't think they'll go undefeated either, but they definitely have the inside track to finishing 1 in the pool. FG and... I'll pick "Whichever team wins btw Ring and Paw" to advance. Machine and the loser of the MA battle go down.

Open Pool D
Based on this tweet from @oaklandultimate I bet they win the annual award for "New team that shows up to their field late because they underestimated the traffic/parking/size of the fields/whatever". The other thing that'll happen to Oakland is that they think they'll know what's about to hit them when they play Chain and DW... but playing them at Nationals is a whole other thing. I am not saying that Oakland can't hang, but that they won't in those games. I will pick Oakland for the upset against Madison solely because of the number of times I've had Kanye&Jay-Z's Hate jump into my head because of you clowns. Late in the day, the Hate builds. As for Chain and DW... I pick Chain b/c of depth. Even after last year's Brodie-centric beating of PoNY (seriously... it felt like all of their offensive points were "Catch pull. Hit Brodie at the front of the stack. Give him 9 seconds to bomb it to someone beating double coverage."), I think Chain's style of point distribution mixed with a more coherent set of players/strategies will send them up to the power pool with the W from Double*ide.

As for Coed? Well, we're already 1 minute overtime. I'll just say I'm rooting for D5, The Ghosts, Slow White, Termite's and AMP to rock some shit. Women's? Green Means Go isn't there, so... I'll cheer for Bent.

Edition #2 tomorrow? Only Time Will Tell.

Damn. 6min overtime.