Korey Atterberry’s Idle Chatter

Yesterday we had a superbowl party, and in short, a number of things went a little oddly…

First, and most obviously, the 14-point underdog NY Giants pulled it off!

Secondly, on saturday at 4pm, prior to shopping for the party, we had 8 families (28 people) planning to join us for the game. Within the next 6 hours, that number had reduced to 3 families, mostly due to illnesses. Funny how that happens with kids…

Third, as our guests started to arrive, we experienced the rather rare phenomenon of “thundersnow.” Actually, that was the third time we had it this year.

Finally, about ONE MINUTE before kickoff, the local high-def station carrying the game went off the air… Thankfully we were able to switch over to the standard definition version, which was unaffected. The high-def station came back on about 20 minutes later.

Last weekend, my sister, brother and sister-in-law took a day trip up to Sundown for a day of skiing. We’d had temperatures hovering around zero for a couple of weeks, but for the weekend we got a reprieve. The weather and ski conditions were actually pretty good, but the roads were a little slick and patchy so we spent a fair amount of time in the car. Even so, we had plenty of time to ski.

Since it was a nice day, the hill was pretty crowded. Lift lines were pretty long and tables in the lodge were hard to come by. I hadn’t been skiing for a few years, but I don’t recall people being so inconsiderate last time. It seemed like there were an inordinate amount of people line jumping, getting in the way (i.e. congregating at the dropoff point for the ski lifts or in front of jumps), and generally being rude.

Enough complaining… Overall, the good outweighed the bad. My sister and I stuck to the beginner and intermediate areas while my brother and his wife (i.e. the ones who have actually been skiing on MOUNTAINS) tackled the more advanced areas. We made a number of attempts at capturing a photo of Nathan jumping in the terrain park, some of which you can see on the photos page. Bethany and I tried the small jumps once – I made it, but Bethany had to go after her skis and poles! Nathan managed to take Erin out once after turning around backwards at the bottom of one of the steepest sections. All we could see was powder flying everywhere!

According to my skiing companions, the most entertaining thing of the day was my failed attempt at a small jump. I was up the hill only about 50 vertical feet above the rest of my group, so I yelled down to ask whether there was a jump near the edge of the course. My brother pointed at a spot so I headed down at what little speed I could muster from the short descent. As I approached the jump, a small dip followed by a steep berm about 5 feet high, I prepared for the possibility that I’d end up flat on my back. To my surprise, I found myself flying parallel to the ground for about 10 feet and landing on my belly. Before I even hit the ground, my brother was rolling on the ground laughing. Apparently one of my skis got stuck down in the little dip and came off. I still don’t know how I ended up in that position, but Erin summed it up best when she attributed the humor of the situation to the fact that such a simple obstacle led to such a dramatic outcome

All in all, it was a good day and no one got hurt. I can’t wait until next time to tempt fate again!

I posted a few photos at on the photos page.

On Sunday, we had a few friends over to watch the Superbowl. Since the NFL seems to like putting the game in TV prime time instead of mid day, traveling out of town to watch the game (thanks for the invite, Brian) wasn’t really an option for us this year. This year’s get-together was a gathering of other folks in the same boat (except my sister!)

Three couples came over to hang out with us, and each has a kid around 2 years old. Evan had a great time sharing all his toys with his buddies, and we were glad to have the company! No major incidents or events to report- just the basic hijinks of a house full of two-year-olds up past their bed time. They were very well-behaved, though. Young Lilly did get a small scratch from our little cat… but she explained to us what happened. She pointed at Ginger and said “eat!” We asked her, “did you try to eat the kitty?” and she nodded and smiled!

I’ve posted the pictures on the photos page.

Over the weekend my younger brother got married. Everything went very well and it was a nice occasion. Congratulations Nathan and Erin!

Well, the weather held off yesterday and despite fairly poor turnout we had a decent game of kickball. Nathan, Laura, Brent, Dan, Beth, and Larry showed up and we played for about an hour and a half.

We started by playing a few innings with two batters and five fielders. We played with a 1-strike starting count and counted a third-strike foul as an out (which meant a significant number of foul-outs). We didn’t allow walks (you could pass on any pitch with no penalty) and did allowing “bunting”. For the most part, those rules worked pretty well, but with only five fielders the outfielders did quite a bit of ball-chasing.

Our solution was to play an infield-only game. Any ball kicked in the air onto the outfield grass was an out. Any ball bouncing or rolling into the outfield was a ground-rule double. This made the game work great, even though I personally had a problem with my batting average then! Keeping all the play in the infield made the field easier to cover with our limited fielders and resulted in more people getting pegged by the ball!

Folks at work were expressing interest in playing again, so we’re going to try to put together another game in the near future. We’re also considering playing wiffleball, flag football, and other games from our youth. Any suggestions?

Last weekend, we decided to have a party at our house, since we had no other plans. It was the best time I’d had in quite some time- the weather was fantastic (which never happens for my parties) and despite extending the invitations only five days ahead of time we had 23 people show up. With turnout that high, I don’t think I’m going to bother planning ahead on parties any more!

Eric and April came down for most of the weekend, but Sunday was the main party. It wasn’t for my birthday, but Dusty surprised me with a cake. We had a small cookout, played some yard games, and watched all the kids play together. Afterwards, in an attempt to recapture a piece of our own childhoods, we put together an impromptu dodgeball game, as you can see in the pictures below. I have to apologize to Laura for the second picture! At least it seems I aimed below the waist…

After most folks left, Eric, Dave and I went down to the basement to record an audio commentary track for a DVD of some of our college experiences. We got Brad on the line via Skype and told some of our old stories to get them recorded for posterity. It turned out pretty entertaining, so we’ll have to show it next time the college guys get back together!

Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, I’ve scheduled a time with friends and coworkers for reliving one of my favorite childhood activities: kickball!

Last week our boss was good enough to give the us afternoon off to celebrate recent project successes. We had a picnic lunch and played 9 holes of golf at the local par 3 course. Two thirds of us had never played before, but most everyone picked it up pretty quickly. We played best-ball, so there wasn’t a lot of individual pressure!

One of the highlights for me was Vijay screaming like a little girl when he almost sank a 50 foot chip shot He did hit a 30-footer though and he took most of the pictures, so I won’t make too much fun of him.

Check out the photos.

Over the weekend, we put together an impromptu softball game. A number of my coworkers from India expressed an interest in learning how to play baseball, so what better way to learn than to try it. About 8 people showed up, including my brother, his fiance, Vijay, Shankar, Sundar and a few of their friends.

It was about 95 degrees and very humid, but we took a little batting practice and played a little bit of a game, letting teams of two bat for an inning each. Most of the Indian gentleman picked up the fundamentals pretty well. A couple of years ago, my work group got together for a game of cricket and the results were similar; it seems the basic skills carry over pretty well from one game to the other.

Afterwards, we played a round of frisbee golf, which was much better, considering there is no running and you get to play in the shade! The course we played at was pretty narrow and mostly followed a creek, but we only tossed a disc in the water once (yes, it was me…) We did get a disc stuck up in the tree once (about 40 feet off the ground), but a couple of minutes throwing a water bottle at it solved that problem.

A few pictures are available on the photos page.