Some End-of-Summer Notes

I haven't been the most active here on the blog, you can always count on Thursdays of course, and you can count on Mondays and Fridays, ahem, mostly. I kid of course, and am more than delighted to have both Miller and Rucht on board. Because of them Mik's Minis is starting to become something a little bigger and a lot better, if you haven't checked out their weekly features, you should, links above.

The garden still grows. I got frustrated with the zucchini and removed it with extreme prejudice. Other than that, we are rolling along as you can see here.

Speaking of what you see here, as you can tell from my shoes and fancy moisture-wicking shirt, I am still playing tennis. I wish I could report a ton of wins, heh, but they seem to allude me. I am getting much needed exercise (which is my primary goal) and I am starting to feel myself get better at the game. It's been an interesting experience, and it has been a surprisingly mental exercise as well. Anytime you're playing strangers in direct head-to-head competition in a purely physical arena you're bound to learn all kinds of things about yourself. It truly becomes a 'make or break' situation.


We've been gaming too, but as I have mentioned many times in the past, we lack some focus. Hopefully Infinity will remedy that to an extent, but other great games seem to be hanging in the wind; such as the new Marvel RPG and a promising Legends of Anglerre campaign that never got off the launchpad. It's funny, with all the focus on minis (buying, painting, the like) it is these two roleplaying games that I miss the most.

On the other hand, lack of focus and not having a minis game prepped and ready to roll does mean that there has been a good deal of board-gaming going on. With all of the solid selections out there right now, this certainly can't be seen as a complaint. I've recently taken stock of my own boardgame collection and have been kicking around the thought of doing a new series where I learn/re-learn what I've got, play it with the group at least once, then review it here. I recently ordered the Gears of War boardgame, so that may be the first one I do if and when that happens.

Round One of Tennis Ends

This tennis "round" is over. It was just a short, five-week singles league, but it saw me playing alternates and subs more than regular opponents of roughly my same skill factor. Chalk it all up to "match experience" but it would've been nice to win at least one match!

My closest match was tonight, err, last night as you read this. I lost, obviously, but the score was 7-5, 6-3 which is something I can hold my head high about. Over the last four weeks I've had an even split of two really hard fought and close matches, and two not so much. There's many take-aways for me however; I'm having fun, I'm getting much needed exercise, and I'm improving every time. There might be nothing but "L's" in the win/loss column but I'm making my opponents earn their victories one game at a time.

I'm naturally competitive, so this has been fun from that aspect, it's a highly ritualized duel out there. But it's also humbling to start over from ground zero from a skill perspective. When I think about it, it's been about twenty years since I last did any kind of routine exercise/sport as well, so that's extremely humbling. This league may be over, but sign-ups are already posted for the next one...which starts next week!

Don't Call it a Comeback...Really

It's been about eight months since I posted on my emergency room trip following a tennis injury. Well it was a pretty slothful eight months, some of which were spent on crutches, the rest just general physical malaise.

Well, this past week I got back on the tennis horse, having signed up for a short, six-week league. There's been pretty much zero practice during the downtime too so I went in not expecting much.

I lost. In straight sets. In fact, I never won a game, haha. To be fair there were several games that went back and forth on both sides of deuce, I just couldn't seal the deal. But I accomplished two things. One, I ran my 220 pound arse all over a tennis court for about an hour probably getting more exercise in one evening than I had the last six months combined. Second, I started tennis back up. I may not post on every match like last time, but suffice it to say Wednesday evenings yours truly will be on a court somewhere.

My leg didn't bother me at all, which is something I worried about. I tried to do plenty of stretching beforehand, maybe that helped. My serves were surprisingly consistent too with only one or two double faults the whole match. It turns out in the end, talking with my opponent, that he was a substitute and that my actual opponent who was about my same skill level was sick and this guy was levels above me. I still feel I made him earn his win however and I did have a few good winners throughout, so not a total loss.

Gastroc Amok!

All right, the tennis season is over for me. Prematurely. I had a "big match" set up for Friday evening a week or two ago. What do you do to get better? You practice.

So the Monday before the match I was playing a practice match, it was hot, like one hundred degrees hot. It was humid, like, 90% humid.

So there I was, back, on the ad-court side. A well placed passing shot was hit diagonally cross court. It would've been hard to get to, but a little hustle would do the trick. As soon as I took off, I felt a "pop" dead center in the middle of my calf muscle. My leg gave out and I hit the court. Of course it's embarrassing because everyone within a court or two comes rushing over to make sure I'm not dead.

After a minute or two lying on the 150° court surface I tried to stand and couldn't put any weight on it. I chilled on the sideline for a while, in a lot of pain, but thinking I just had a bad cramp or something. After about an hour however I knew something was wrong and a trip the emergency room was in order.

So after a follow-up visit to a sports orthopedic doctor it turns out I had a "partial tear in my medial gastroc". Sounds impressive, but apparently no big deal. The big deal however is that if it tears anymore, it means surgery.

Consulting the diagram to the left you can see the smaller of the two calf muscles, the Medial Gastrocnemius. See where it meets the white Achilles Tendon? That's where my tear is. If it tears the rest of the way, the tendon and muscle separate entirely and that's not good.

So for the next 4-12 weeks I have this huge, immobilizing power-armored moon-boot that prevents my ankle from any motion. It's quite awkward actually.

The main reason I've been playing tennis these last few months is to get exercise. As you can see from the photo (a sad commentary when you're taking a photo of yourself in the ER because you know you're eventually going to blog about it) I don't have abs of steel, but I can't help but think that if I had just stayed home that night, laying on the couch, enjoying a beverage, and watching television this wouldn't have happened.

Mind you, with that plan of action I'd just be in the ER with a heart attack ten years from now.

One League Down, a New One to Go

I was planning on keeping the tennis updates here on a regular basis but that kind of got away from me as the 'season' marched on. Thanks for the words of encouragement on the last league updates when they were here. Basically that league, a USTA Men's 3.0 league, is over with.

I didn't go win-less, so it wasn't a total loss, but out of nine total matches I lost six of them. Having said that I feel two of them could've (should have) gone my way but didn't based on technicalities alone. The rest I lost quite soundly however. I'm not going to whine about it, I set out to get some exercise, lose a little weight, and have some fun. I wasn't exactly in a trophy hunt.

With that league and that team over, and just in time for hundred degree days with 90% humidity, I'm about to start a new league/team. This one is a USTA Mixed Doubles 6.0 league. Basically it's doubles, but the partners have to be opposite genders, and their combined total ability rank can't be above a six. This can show all kinds of a combination of players and challenging matches depending on how the opposition is put together. It's also weird because some of my team-mates from last time are now going to be my opponents.

My team has already had their first match, last night, and lost. There's six couples on the team but you only play three courts per match so I had last night off. Tomorrow is another match and that means it's go time for me.

Straight Sets

Just a quick tennis update. Last week's match, as you may have guessed from the title, was the 'straight sets' victory I was shooting for. There was all kinds of drama all over the courts that day, it was crazy.

The court on one side of us was a forfeit because the opposing team was late, but no one said it was a forfeit until halfway through the match. My captain and the opposing captain were going at it off and on during my match, and then on the court on the other side of me a player hit the ground and got knocked out and bloody. They had to call an ambulance for him. Meanwhile I'm in the middle, just trying to figure out how to serve and wanting nothing more than a little fun and exercise!

Well, finally, no third set tie-breakers in sight this match; I won 6-4, 7-5. I was happy but most of the mirth of the day had been spoiled by all the other shenanigans, it didn't help that the opposing team's coach was one of my opponents! Also, his partner was a bit unsportsmanlike which prompted me in turn to be rather unsportsmanlike myself in one particular instance. Not something I am prone to do mind you, and it was a one-time thing, but I still should've kept my cool a bit better.

So the season is six matches in and I am batting .500 (3 wins, 3 losses) with two matches to go. So my first goal was to just win a match, which I did. My second goal (after two third-set tie-breakers) was to win a match in straight sets, which I just did. Now my third goal is to finish the season with a winning record, which means I have to win the final two matches!

Finally, a Tennis Win (and another loss)

Because things have been queued up for so long, as I type this it's already old news! It finally happened, I got my first league-play tennis win! I remember after winning the first set 6-3 thinking how happy I was, and that winning a set would've been good enough for me. I distinctly remember walking over to get ready to serve and thinking about you guys and the blog and how I was going to get to post I finally won a set. I didn't think I'd win the match.

The second set was awful and I got trounced 1-6, it looks like they didn't cotton too well to their first-set loss! So that set us up for a tiebreaker, which by the way in tennis is a very convoluted affair. It was a very close one and I squeaked by ten points to my opponent's eight. I recall after scoring the match-winning point not realizing the match was over, or that I had just won on top of that. Overall I was happy, at least now I won't have a win-less season, right?

As for the match the following week...well, let's just say it was another loss and my win streak didn't last very long, if at all! I queued this up to coincide with another match I'll be playing soon. My future match is at 5:00pm, so when this posts I'll be half an hour into it, and hopefully I'll have more good news to report on next time around.

Mik vs. The Gumbo Gator

Another week, another match. This was my second official doubles match, but we were on the #1 court (I don't know why exactly) so we had a tough match to weather. This was by far the best tennis I've played to date, we still lost but the score (at least the first set) was much more tolerable in my book: 6-3, 6-2. Our opponents were nice enough, if a bit confident. Honestly, slamming a couple of winners in their midst was pretty darn satisfying.

I felt my net play was pretty solid and even my serves, usually a trouble area for me, were surprisingly consistent. My main goal is to get some exercise, lose some weight, and have some fun. So far all three seem to be working.

Mik vs. The Penguin

So I showed up, admittedly a bit nervous, for the second week of my USTA league. Last doubles match against Gene Hackman was less than kind so I was hoping to do a little better this time around. I asked the captain who my partner was on this fine, sunny day. After a page flip or two on the ole trusty team clipboard I got a, "Oh yeah, you're playing singles today."

Okay, I'm a real go-with-the-flow kind of guy, but I've never played singles in my life. I've only been 'playing' for a little less than a year and that has mostly been clinics and practice. This week's opponent I've dubbed the Penguin, but really he was a nice guy. He was shorter than me (which is saying quite a bit, I'm no basketball player!) and a good deal older than me (and I'm no spring chicken!). I didn't win this week either, without further adieu the final score was 6-2, 6-0.

Yeah, I got beat soundly, but technically I won more games this week than previous, plus I did manage to take two games off of a much more experienced opponent. For those readers who actually stuck around this far, thanks. I debated posting anything at all, but this can of worms has already been opened.

Since my posts have been far and few between, there's not much of a gaming update on my end here. We're still acclimating to our newborn, who is doing great, but the painting desk downstairs is collecting dust. I hope to get some gaming in this weekend however.

Mik vs. Gene Hackman

The title doesn't make much sense, unless you were there. And you weren't. So it has been a while since my failed trek across Middle Earth. That didn't really work out, haha, no pun intended, it wasn't because I miraculously got a new, healthier, thinner body either.

So then I took up tennis, and have been going regularly to a weekly clinic, based mostly on skills, for the past six months or so. I do want to get in shape, and I think some kind of sports route is the better option for me than anything else. Now tennis isn't the same as cycling or whatever, but when you don't do anything, something is better than nothing.

What's a competitive sport without competition? The skills clinics and all are fine, but I've also joined up with the USTA and a couple of days ago had my first sanctioned league match. The guy was good (though our respective skill levels were supposed to relative to one another). He also looked just like a younger Gene Hackman!

Well Gene Hackman put the old Lex Luthor on me and nearly skunked me in the match. My moral victory is I did get a single game off of him, and to his credit he was pretty cool about it. For those keeping score; 6-0, 6-1. This isn't the last you've heard of my exploits on the court, I've committed to a league, so for better or for worse there you have it.

The Waterford War Pigs

This season marks the whopping tenth fantasy football season for me and the boys of the Appalachian Football League. We've played on many different sites over the years, but we've called CBSSports.com home for the last three. It's a pay-to-play site, but it does give some nice features for the money. It's kind of cool too, playing with the same group of teams for such a protracted length of time. Well this year's draft has come and gone and below is what my team consists of. We play in a keeper league, and my two keepers from last season were WR Reggie Wayne (a no-brainer there) and RB Michael Turner. The latter is kind of a gamble, but with twelve teams in the league, quality RB's will be kind of hard to come by, plus I'm banking on him having a better season this year than last year. I'm not exactly a coaching genius though!

I won't bore you with the details, I'll let my roster speak for itself, needless to say I do have a good feeling this year, but we'll see. A couple of snags I'm pretty happy with are Matt Schaub at QB and, surprisingly the Jets DST. A lot of times the DSTs play second fiddle, but a solid core can really pack in reliable points week in and week out. Enjoy!

The Dunwich Horrors, '09 Season

It's been a while since we talked fantasy football here at Mik's Minis, as in, like, about a year! Anyway, I'm a fan of football, mainly NFL, but college ball too, and there's ten of us who have playing fantasy football going on about ten years (or more) now, and about half that time online. The last few years it's cost about forty bucks to to pay for the service we use and what-not, and our league is at a whopping twelve teams. So now losing not only sucks, but you've got money on the line too. Forty bucks is a box of tactical marines! Anyway, we had our live draft the other night, and as always, it was fun. Oz came over and we clicked away at our laptops, enjoyed some junk food and beverages, and made goofy comments all night on the chat window. In the end, I think I came away with a pretty solid roster, especially for a twelve team league, lots of good players were snatched up fast. We'll see what happens...

Romo, Tony QB
Turner, Michael RB (last year's keeper)
Johnson, Larry RB
Houshmandzadeh, T.J. WR
Wayne, Reggie WR (last year's keeper)
Winslow, Kellen TE
Kaeding, Nate K
Chargers DST

..and my backup squad:

Hasselbeck, Matt QB
Ward, Derrick RB
Maclin, Jeremy WR
Moore, Lance WR
Davis, Vernon TE
Folk, Nick K DAL
Cardinals DST

The last couple of years I was really put in a pinch because I didn't pay attention to 'bye' weeks. Many of my backups had the same weeks off as the players they were supposed to be backing up! I took a couple of extra steps to make sure that didn't happen again. I didn't really report on my season last year because, frankly, it was pretty lackluster.

Ball Boy Bites It

"And thus ends the great ball man experiment..."

The Dunwich Horrors

I'm a football fan, and well, it's now football time. I like college ball all right, but for me, it's more of an excuse for social gathering than keeping up with all the conferences and teams. Pro ball on the other is what I do follow. There's a group of ten of us who participate in a fantasy football league every year, looking back now, we've had the same group since 2003.

It's fun, especially now that all of the stats are kept up with through the computer, and makes for some great rivalries and competition throughout the season. Frankly, I'm not the most proficient of a coach. I've made the playoffs a few times, but I've never received any kind of payout. We recently held our live draft online, the pic above is me gearing up for it.

It was a thirteen round draft, and we were allowed to have up to two "keepers" from the previous season. These keepers would take your first and second round picks respectively. I kept a couple of players from last year, namely because they're good players, but also because I just like the idea of doing it in the first place. When the dust cleared after the draft, my picks, and my new team roster looked like this, here's the Dunwich Horrors:

round 1: LaDainian Tomlinson - running back, keeper
round 2: Braylon Edwards - wide receiver, keeper
round 3: Reggie Wayne - wide receiver
round 4: Donovan McNabb - quarterback
round 5: Michael Turner - backup running back
round 6: Selvin Young - backup running back
round 7: Santonio Holmes - wide receiver
round 8: New England Patriots - defensive team
round 9: Heath Miller - tight end
round 10: Mason Crosby - kicker
round 11: Matt Hasselbeck - backup quarterback
round 12: Benjamin Watson - backup tight end
round 13: Buffalo Bills - backup defensive team

That's a wrap for now, here's to a good season!