Sweet Child of Mine

Gotta love Berkeley Park. Was it just last year that Dom was yelled at by that guy for having Mateo off his leash, and then Dom yelled back in that guy's face? Oh memories. No wait, last year all the girls, excluding myself where doing boobie pictures.  Ha ha!

Special thanks to Savannah for ordering pizza and Gen for crafting that delicious key lime pie! Also, a special shout out to Shane's leg, we hope you heal soon!

Top 5:

1. Nate's ball splitting in half, and then splitting into thirds!

2. Mikey saying " lets roll a joint into a slice of pizza."

3. Chachi's amazing shot out of the croquet bag.

4. Mike asked for the lights to be turned on in the park, in which Huevos Rancheros somehow  became expectopetronuss. Needless to say, neither works.

5. Julie getting 100% in her game. She got poison and killed every player! Go Julie!

This weeks game had lots of laughs, especially Zach and Christine's tip of the week.

I had originally asked Zach earlier in the night if he would like to provide the tip, since I know Zach to always have something clever to say. This one however, came from Christine, as Zach's other half. It just sort of happened. Needless to say, I will have to briefly explain where it came from. So without further ado...

Tip of the Week, by Christine & Zach:

"When you're peeing close to your friends, it just makes sense that your balls would roll in it."

The boys in my game (Dave S., Mikey, Mike G. & Chris Red) had all been peeing next to Dave's van, and then later in the game, they kept hitting there croquet balls into it. I love Christine. She's so silly!

Last but not ever least, thank you thank you thank you to Stephanie for the beautiful piece of artwork. I had to call a second half time in our game so I could stare at it. You are wonderful!

Thanks to everyone who brought beers. You rule. See you next week at Apel-Baucher.

Finger Lickin' Good

So Jess is off this week as her priorities are all screwed up and she missed the game. Apparently I was not entirely there either if my top 5 and winners list is any indication. But anyhow, these are the top 5 things that I can decipher from my shoddy records.
1-Eric - I see his name on here several times, once in relation to the "mulch madness" and once to "the 3's". People always seem to be the cheeriest after a game when it's Eric that wins. If he keeps playing like he was on Tuesday, people will get over that quick enough.
2-Sprite
3-Whatever battle was going on between Boyd and Poops - They both kept calling bullshit on each other as their submissions to the top 5 list.
4-The longest halftime ever - I've heard as long as an hour, but that's probably an exaggeration, brought about by the time distorting effects of halftime.
5-The bullshit list - the bulk of suggestions I was given for "best of" moments were actually submissions for the bullshit list, which doesn't actually exist.

So that's about all I can read from my notes. Next week is at Berkeley Park, and this time, player pics for the reals.

Pretty Young Thing

Call it what you want to all it, but I think we might be croquet-a-holics. Did anyone else notice the mass amounts of beer at this weeks game? I think we just paid some hobo's rent for the next two months with the amount of cans that entered the trash. Who said we weren't a charitable organization!

So this week was pretty cold and damp. Not the usual weather for May, but for the NSCC, games are played rain AND shine.

What's really hilarious is when it rains for the entire game and you keep asking yourself "why am I here?" and then you never leave. Is it the love of the game? Or the thought of a possible point to get you off the NPP list? Im not going to lie, its the NPP list.

This Weeks Top 5:

1. Christine asking Margaret "Remember when you used to suck?"

2. Anthony, the tiniest member of the league, having a bad ass run while there where two poisons after him. Go little man!

3. Zach poison killing John. He shot through the picnic table and down the hill. (Wish I could have seen that!)

4. John's attempt to bowl over another game with Poops' spare tire.

and finally...

5. The ridiculousness of hearing that former member Melanie, started a new league. "the South Side Croquet League." That's lame. Banished for life I tell you.

This weeks tip comes from our very own John Simpkins: "Just punch yourself in the face and you'll forget". Even though this tip came from a long rooted conversation about bowel movements, I think we can all apply it to different things in our life to make it work. Thanks John.

I haven't heard where next weeks game will be, but I can tell you that we WILL be taking player card pics at this game. Lets face it, who wants to remember the croquet season with scarves, hats and pink noses?

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

As with all things in spring, the grass gets greener, the trees form leaves, flowers are in bloom, bee's are a pollenatin', and twenty some odd North Side folks, holding mallets and beer, walk into a park for a friendly match of croquet.

Surprisingly enough, there were a few faces amongst the crowd that I wasn't expecting to see. Hasn't Nate announced at every season that this season would probably be his last? It made me glad that he hasn't given up on the wild banshee group of ball whacking boozers that we call Northsiders. A privilege to be one in fact.

Welcome back to another glorious season of shit talking and mallet busting.

Last week's game: Wolff Park

Jess' Top 5

1. Carly tripping over wickets before the game even started, and before she cracked a beer.

2. Boyd's "Amazing Technicolor Raincoat."

3. Acai Tuazon fka JC. I think this might be his real name!

4. The theme song to Indiana Jones that Poops was humming, only the version that we made up was sang with poops and doo doo's instead of la la's. (If that doesn't make sense, ask Boyd to sing it for you. It sort of worked out as a "blue bubble" method in our game.)

5. Asking Dave B. for a quote, unto which he recited Duran Duran lyrics. (I didn't have it in me to embarrass anyone right off the bat, so I'm leaving his ridiculous quote out.)

I didn't really get a whole lot of game action in my Top 5, nor did I get the chance to ask anyone else how their games went. I did however get a story from Eric about their game that made me decide to also write a "Tip of the Week."

This week's Tip: Don't quit playing your game without telling anyone, it only results in "Whose turn is it?" Only later to find out that the person whose turn it is left a long time ago, and you've been standing around getting drunker (which may or may not be a bad thing).

Everyone make sure to look your croquet best next week, we will be shooting the latest player card pics, which also does on the website. That means, Mike G, comb out your fro, yo!

See you next week!