Rubber Souls Dominate

A little over a week ago, the Rubber Souls took its talents to South Beach...err, I mean Edgerton, WI to compete in an all day kickball tournament. The event was hosted by the Edgerton Fire Department and other volunteers from the community. For those of you that do not know, Rubber Souls is the name of my kickball team. We play in three leagues a year plus 1-2 tournaments. Last winter, we played in an ice kickball tournament out on a frozen lake. Despite the cold temperatures, this was a blast and highly recommended to anyone looking to have a good time, free beer and chili, and lots of laughs.

Back to the recent tournament, the squad consisted of 10 players--5 male and 5 female. Our league team has 14 players so we were without a few Rubbers for this competition. Since we were one of the new teams and an out of town team, we were forced to play the opening game, which was at 8 am. This meant setting the alarm for 6:30 on a Saturday...not an ideal situation. Despite a few hungover teammates, the Souls dominated our first opponents and were awarded a three hour break i.e. time to drink and bake in the humidity before our next game. We disposed of the next opponents in similar fashion. After a quick break for lunch and air conditioning, we returned to the diamond for our third game. Another victory. We were sitting 3-0 and feeling pretty confident and buzzed.

Our 4th game, was a semifinal match and the winner would solidify a spot in the championship. A victory also guaranteed a cash prize, as first-third places received various amounts of money. Another opponent and another win. The Rubber Souls were 4-0 and in the championship. Since it was a double elimination tournament, we had to wait for our final opponent to win its way back to the winner's bracket. The team we had just defeated ended up winning two more games to set up a rematch. In the championship game, we played amazing and displayed a total team effort. We shut the opponents out and cruised to victory. The win meant a $750 cash prize, a 3 foot kickball trophy, and a plaque.

All and all, it was a great event and I cannot wait until we defend our championship next summer. Thanks to everyone for playing and bringing your A game. There were plenty of highlights including Jen's inside the park home run, Michelle's 0.067 earned run average, Ben's clutch back up, Kris ambidextrous kicking, Tom's great stretches at first, Sabrina's timely base running, Laura's wipe out and John and Jack's cannons from the left side of the diamond. I can safely say that each Rubber was an MVP at some point during the day.

Also, thanks to our fans especially Gram for coming out to the park and cheering us on through out the day.

Remember the Rubber Souls bend but don't break,

The Bean Spiller

The Bean Spiller is Getting Married!!!

In case you have not heard the Bean Spiller is going to become a Mrs.! I held off on writing this blog because I wanted the chance for Kris and me to tell people personally prior to them reading on the web. Needless to say, I am pretty excited to share our news with everyone.

Three short weeks ago, Kris otherwise known as Mr. Bean Spiller (jk), proposed to me. It was Sunday mid-morning and it was time for my weekly grocery shopping. Kris said that he wanted to join me and that he thought we should walk to the Willy Street Co-op. I was kind of surprised, as Kris is not always a fan of walking places on a hot summer day. We made it to the store and did some quick shopping. With a couple grocery bags of food in hand, we returned to my condo. Nothing to exciting! Then, an hour or so later as we were getting ready to go to George's going away party, Kris said that he had one question for me to answer prior to leaving. He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. He later told me that I barely let him finish the question before I said yes. As you can imagine I was overwhelmed with joy.

I shared with you the grocery store details because Kris' original plan was to propose in a park that is on the way to the Co-op. Unfortunately, there were 3 or 4 homeless people sitting on the park benches drinking some early morning beers. Not the ideal audience for a proposal though I am sure they would have liked to participate or at least cheered in our honor. Only on Willy Street! Either way it was a perfect day that I will remember forever!

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been busy ironing out the preliminary details of the big day. Initially, I was pretty stressed, as it seemed like there were so many questions to be asked and decisions to be made. But now that we have a date and a location selected I am finally sleeping through the night. We will have a lot more to decide on over the coming months but I know that with the help of our family and friends it will come together perfectly. Can't wait!

With love,

The Bean Spiller

Too crazy to write

Dear Readers, if there are any left,

I want you to know that I think about Jean the Bean Spiller blog every day. Frequent thoughts include: "Wow I need to write a blog...It has been far to long.", or "hmmm, I could definitely blog about that." or "I wonder how Gretchen is coming on her guest blog from Danny and Haley's wedding back in June...if only she would finish that I could get back to blogging."

In all honesty, I would really like to get back to blogging on a consistent basis but like I said life has been too crazy to write. I am extremely busy at work, which is a good thing. I have learned so much in the past couple months. I told my dad the other day that I really felt like I was becoming a contractor. Another good thing since this is my occupation of choice.

In addition to the hectic days at work, like most of you, I am also pretty booked up during my free time...whether it is a kickball game or a trip to Galena or LASIK surgery it seems like my weeknights and weekends are all booked up. I don't mind this at all...I love being busy and having stuff to do, especially during the summer. However, this definitely affects my ability to blog.

Another excuse would be that there are no sporting games taking place right now. Yeah, yeah there is baseball but for those of us residing in Wisconsin and/or Cubs fan, the baseball season ended in May. I think the Cubs are about 15 games back and more depressing to watch than the movie Revolutionary Road. Needless to say, I am very excited for the return of fall and football. Go Bears and Badgers! But most importantly go HOYAs. Hoya Saxa can't wait for my 5 trips!

Lastly, my latest and greatest excuse is that I am now planning my (and Kris') wedding. And for those of you that know me this could result in ZERO blogs over the next year, even with football and basketball. And those that don't, I tend to fixate on things and devote a lot of attention to the particular issue until it is resolved. Right now, it is church and reception venue. After those are taken care of I can breathe a big sigh of relief.

If there is anyone reading this, I hope you enjoy and I promise I will do my best to turn my thoughts into actual posts.

Enjoy,

The Bean Spiller