Redemption

After a drought hitting last week, the Crankmonkeys came back with a fury scoring a total of 17 runs with an eight run fifth inning. It was a solid performance all around, capped by Alex trying to enact revenge on the pitcher for Mike's left nut, only to be thwarted by the quick reflexes of his glove. I guess we will have to wait until the post-season to try again. We have a week off to prepare for the next game. Enjoy the rest!!!

At a loss for words

Well, we knew it was going to be a rough night when:

a) Scot had to add an additional roll of tape to his cleat.

b) We were forced to endure pineapple rum (well those of us who are alcoholics)

c) Micki and Mike slow danced to "Reunited" after not seeing each other since Christmas

Yes, we experienced our first loss of the season. It wasn't a pounding, but not exactly a first rate Crackmonkey outing. The bats were as dull as Glenn's morning after gin headache. Not even a fifth inning "everyone rotate to the next position" could wake us up.

We were certainly not without bright spots though. Alex made his pitching debut of the season and did an excellent job. Mike made a dramatic leaping catch that surely impressed Julia. Micki screetched about playing left field but then did a great job.

Oh well, better luck next time.

P.S. Diet Dr. Pepper and pineapple rum tastes like baby aspirin.

Jamie

Another Win

With part of the team out living it up in Vegas, we battled for another hard-fought victory. Special thanks to Jayson and Mike, who had some key hits and were very steady in the field. Other highlights include:

-Glenn's clutch homerun.

-Glenn almost passed out on the bench after his homerun.

-Scot finding out he was supposed to pitch 30 minutes before the game.

-Michelle being listed as "The Bav" on the game roster.

-"The Bav's" slide into home, and the resulting scrape.

-Micki tossing her hat to get to (and catch) some foul balls.

-Scot waiting 3 days to get the blog updated. Better late than never. (Sorry Mike)

Well....game one is in the books.....

So, normally, the Spirit Hat award winner has to do the game recap, however, Beef was a fill-in, so we didn't make her do it.
Let's see. Some highlights from last night's thrilling 17-11 victory:
-Mike in full on panic mode about pitching.
-Sue's hair.
-Glenn running past Sue.
-Alex slowing down twice, yet still hitting a "home run."
-Michelle Ryan's heartfelt "ohhhhhh."
-Scot and Jamie's struggles with the wind.
-Tony's half slide, followed by running home after 3 beers.
-Webbie's gapper.
-Holly getting angry at the umpire, then wondering, "Did he hear me?"

Alex, Webbie, and I will be gone next week. WIN WIN WIN without us. Glenn is captain. Good luck to all of you.

Softball starts sunday....practice Saturday at 5:30 at Carrie Busey...

And who wants to guess who wrote this. (and I am NOT by any means mocking what happened)

Our home was robbed last week including our computer. Both our
e-mails have been compromised and therefore we will be changing our
e-mail addresses. Please stop using this e-mail immediately. Thank
you.

....

Us.

In addition to the 2008 Summer Softball Championship, I'm happy to announce that the Crackmonkeys have won the 2009 Spring Volleyball league. A solid performance was turned in on Wednesday night, overcoming a 9 point deficit in game one, and a 7 point deficit in game two, to sweep Joe and his lovely young men out to their cars, moaning the whole way.
Kudos to Jill for her continuously solid play, and passing..
Kathy for setting the hell out of the ball...
Amber for a series of clutch serves in game two...
Alex for being big on the block, and continuing to swing...
James for talking shit...
and Mike...well, at least he wore his Crackmonkey shirt, and won a joust.

For Alex and I, this means a week off until the start of softball season. For the rest of the Monkeys, there's time off until the fall season.

There will be a celebratory party at some point. And another trip to Las Vegas.

Tour de Tony

This was my first adventure with the Tony Cappa. You've heard the audio...now see the visual...

Tony's mug shot: La Bamba after the bar. Julia, Mike and Tony are ready to eat...and enter a construction site...

After dropping Julia off, we needed Baskin Robbins and doughnuts. This is us posing with our treats in front of Mike's old apartment. Why, you ask? Cause we can! The next stop on the tour of the drunken Tony, was the Illini Radio Group. Yes, this is where the audio magic happened. As you can see from this photo, he's beginning to wind down.
This is Mike and his Gold Medal Ribbon stained face at the end of the night. After we successfully dropped off the Tony to his girls, we had nothing left to party for and we retreated to Casa de Cation.

Posted without comment....

While we had snow during our break from Volleyball...

She could have been playing beach volleyball...instead...

Poker night recap

As everyone left the house with their clothes, I think poker night was a success. We ended up having eleven players with the top three finishers being Tony, Mike, and Anhill (I think that is how you spell it). There was a variety of food, a few drinks (or a few too many for some people), and interesting enough, three quads dealt for the night. Jill and I will try to host another poker night in the upcoming months. Much thanks to everyone who showed up.

Oh piss off....

We lost. We will rise again.

Championship match

It will be Wednesday at 8:15 at the Leonhard Center. Please attend if you have some time. It's against James' former team.

Disfunctional Family-Recap of 3/11

Our final "regular season" volleyball game saw the following:
Kathy continued to be the silent leader.
Alex laid off and believed Mike to be drunk.
Mike appeared to be drunk.
James may have been drunk.
Amber ran a mile.
Jill practiced her fist bump.

Regardless, a win was had, and we've clinched at least a tie for the regular season championship, which will be decided next week.

For no reason, I give you Beef and Voss...

Enjoy.

Poker night

All crackmonkeys are invited for a Texas Hold'em night at Jill and Tony's house on Saturday, March 28th at 7:00 p.m. The stakes will be small. Usually we do a $5 buy-in and then manage it like a tournament with blinds going up every 12-15 minutes. Novice and pros alike are welcome, except for Glenn, since he was giving my wife a hard time on previous blog posts.

We will have a few snacks and drinks, but feel free to bring any other thing your heart may desire. If you could comment back to let me know how many will attend, that would be great. Hopefully we can get around 8-10, more if possible.

I will send an email out closer to the event with directions.

A bit sloppy, but...

The CrackMonkeys got another win on Wednesday night in two straight games.

The match was marked by sloppy play, for sure, but was notable for the first ever opportunity for the original six members of this year's squad to play together. That being James, Alex, Mike, Jill, Kathy, and Beef. There was some definite rotational issues, but they were worked out late in the games, both of which saw big CrackMonkey runs.
And not the bad kind of runs.

Also of note from Wednesday's game: Amber's hair looked perfect. Jill brought back her fun grunts/sounds. Alex swung away. James played his good friend, and survived. Kathy showed pictures of cookies.

The mocking of the Jills....

Mr. T says, "He pity da' foo! Who doesn't do post game wrap-ups."

Also, "Quitters never win, and Winners never quit!"

Don't be a quitter ma'am......

Recap, since Jill won't do it.

This week, our team took on a solid blocking team in Aces and Knee Braces. Their team featured one man who was old, cranky, and pissed off. During the game, the Crackmonkeys got off to a 12-4 start, but lost the first set, due to some shaky hitting, serving errors, and other general badness. In not so stunning fashion, we came back in sets two and three behind the swings of Alex and James, and the passing of everyone else.
Drinks were then had by James, Alex, and Mike.

Now, on to Jill. Jill has requested to be taken off of the Crackmonkey blog as a contributor. I say we now proceed to mock her incessantly until she returns. I have already begun the process with this week's post.

This is Jill Cappa, pre-Monkeys.

Let's try this....

For the record, Alex, he started it.

Scary Time

Good job to the four Monkeys who battled with me to a three set win. MVP honors to Judd for the Most in-Visible Player of the night. Thanks Judd! Highlights of the night include...

- Mike taunting the opponent's fearless leader with some friendly in your face clapping (tried to find a good pic of some intense taunting but this is the best I could do).

- Jill proclaiming pre-match that there was a good chance her pants would fall down. Those of you not in attendance will be left in suspense as to whether they actually did or not.

- Amber showing off her shoulder blades. Really hot stuff!

- Kathy's daughter cements herself as the Crackmonkeys' number 1 fan, with runner-up honors going to Julia.

Get some rest, Friday is going to be a long one for some of us.

Photos from last week

So as it turns out, volleyball is incredibly fast.

Also, I thought I'd be further away from the court and thus brought the wrong camera lens. Maybe next time the photos will be better.

Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/thfield/CrackmonkeysVBall?feat=directlink

Remaining undefeated with a huge win over Joe's Auto Body

25-13, 25-17.
Face down, ass up indeed.

Thanks to Glenn, Tyler, the Hugs, and Webbie for the fan support.
Our best to Tony and Jill, who we really missed.

We're coming to get you.....Nefarious dealings!

We will descend upon the volleyball-Monkeys like a swarm of locusts!

Heard you all have a big game.

We will come cheer.

You will win.

Then there will be celebration.

Gratuitous cross-post on post game nefarious-nefarious plan.

-Excelsior!

--edit updated post here.

On my single leg:

We officially welcomed James Ivaska to the CrackMonkey family this week.
James does not own a television, nor does he have a car with a radio, so therefore, he hears a lot of music in clubs, while dancing.
This includes the Beyonce song "Single Ladies"
James, while hearing the song in a club, heavy with bass and practically inaudible lyrics, believed Beyonce to be singing "On My Single Leg"
This is what I believe to be his dance, offering a hand to put a ring on it.

On a side note, we won our volleyball match in two crap-filled sets.

Here is a video: