Water, water, water....oh, and when you get home, some more water.

Had a tournament today out in Arlington Heights. It was a nine team tournament where we were again playing with some teams a level above us. This time though, we also were playing with six of our regular players out for the holiday and only one extra player, which we were going to lose to a bachelor party at some point in the afternoon. Not bloody ideal. On top of all of that, it rained last night as well as this morning. I really didn't even think we were going to be able to play, but they did a bunch of work on the fields and started the tournament with just an hour delay.

Playing on a wet field is a mixed bag for us. While the wet field slows down the ball for our infield (aging and playing out of position infield today), it also slows down our ground ball hits which the majority of our team tends to hit (key in our offense at our level of play).

Since we were short-handed, I moved from third over to shortstop. Our other third baseman played second. One of our first basemen played third. Our first string shortstop played outfield. And to top it all off, our mostly blind coach (really, he is) was our designated pinch runner. It was crazy!!

However, despite all that adversity, we played a team at our level and beat them handily in the first game. Then we played a team that sometimes plays a level higher than us, depending on the organization rules. About a month ago, they slaughter ruled us.....which is not good (they stop the game early if your team is losing by a certain amount of runs after 5 innings). Well, it was a tough game, but we ended up winning 9-7. Even without our full team and a 41-year old shortstop!!

Then came a three hour wait for our next game against a long-time foe: Precision (that's their team name). We went to Chilis for lunch and the rains continued the entire time we were at the restaurant. Confident that we would not be playing anymore games today, several team members decided to imbibe a little bit. Unfortunately, despite the poor field commissions, we did play. Towards the end of the game, there was standing water on the infield. Precision ended up slaughter ruling us by scoring eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 10 run lead which they held through the fifth and won 17-7. Our game ended up being the last of the tournament and we tied for third I believe.

After changing clothes, I headed home and brought all my wet gear into the house to dry out. While preparing dinner, I noted the smell of my nemeses: the smell of something musty. As I checked under the sink, I discovered a pipe and threading directly below the sink had been knocked loose. Ugh. Most of the water continued down the drain, but some was spilling out the side. I tried to reattach the pipe and threading (as I do have some plumbing experience), but failed. I'm not sure how it even stayed in place this long!! So instead of going out to grab a drink at the local pub, I had to dry out the area under the sink and all of the cleaning supplies that were now, ironically, soiled. Hopefully, with the help of the internet, I'll be able to figure out how to fix the pipe.

Here's some holiday fun that I stole from another blogger. #44 and 43 are my favorites! Though I really like 24 and #11 is a classic. 8 is from a great movie too!