Whirlyball Extravaganza


To celebrate my birthday, I decided that a return to Whirlyball was in order. We were here two years ago, but only for an hour (an hour that went by mighty fast). So this time around, more people – and more court time.

I reserved two hours for us to drive around and crash into one another.


Like all warning signs, this just adds to the fun.


Quite possibly my favorite image from the evening. We started at 5PM, and there was a strong sun coming in to the court (we were at the front of the place, versus tucked away in back last time).

Overall, my photos weren’t that great (most of them were a bit blurry). But this moment out of all of them, stands out. I think it’s both the strong sunlight and the long shadows. It makes me feel like a kid who’s staying out to play, with no cares at all about the upcoming dark.


Most of the game is spent looking up high, trying to spot the whiffle ball.


Chris scores!


Will (aka rogue_designer), reaching for a catch.


Liz, zipping along. Hmm… I wonder what this game would be like with scooters.


Alexandra, trying to hold on to the ball. It became common practice for folks on the opposite team to try to “steal” the ball by making you fumble. As soon as someone would get a ball in their scoops, someone would invariably come along and try to use their scoop and knock it free.


We had a scoreboard and buzzer and everything. Two points for getting the ball in the hole. I’m delighted to report that this year, I actually scored once.


End of the evening. I ran back in to take a quick shot at all the cars.

Fun fun stuff. I’m so happy that so many friends were able to come play. Justin gave a pretty great speech for me, complete with a big pitcher of beer. Liz made a great tres leches cake, which everybody devoured (and which I forgot to photograph).

Really great fun today. I got to see so many people that I like, and I got to see all of them play and laugh. Nothing really beats that.

I didn’t really have any specific plans afterwards, and so things just slowly broke up after our time was done. A few of us (Justin, Ben, Dave, Michelle, Liz and I) went out for a dinner in the neighborhood. We all got some great food at Smokedaddy’s, and that was a perfect end to the day.


I got a ton of great gifts from my friends, including: two kinds of sauce (Johnny Black and Balvenie); the first three issues of McSweeney’s; the latest Family guy; John Hodgeman’s “The Areas of My Expertise”; a Glenn Gould documentary; a set of stickers; two awesome-looking little notebooks featuring Doraemon
(a cat-like robot); two CD’s (Dr. Dog and A.C. Newman); a giftcard to Best Buy; and two heartfelt cards that made me feel lucky to have the friends that I do.

Oh, and did I happen to mention the HUMONGO block of Nestle Crunch that Kashif gave me? This bad boy weighs in at 9.25 lbs and the nutritional information on the back says that this bar contains 92 servings.

I think… I think I’m gonna bring this in to work.

Previously: Whirlyball 2005

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. I got The Areas of My Expertise for Christmas, it is a great book to just open to a random page a start reading, with in a minute I am totally cracking up.Also I can not believe how big that Crunch bar is.

    Ookami Snow Reply


  2. I think that you should have another theme day, like naked day. Only instead of being naked, you should make it your goal to consume the entire bar during the course of the day. Also, please to be posting videos along the way for my entertainment. :D

    Mellzah Reply


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