Signing off for the weekend now. Whole lot ‘o’ things to do (and probably far too many things I will forget to do) for the rest of today, and tomorrow at 9-esque we’re hitting the road for the 12+ hour car ride to fair Montreal. Yee-HAW!

I promise to return with pictures… and bruises… and strains… and contusions… and aches… and you get the picture.

So, my rosemary-encrusted readers, allow me to leave you, trembling with anticipation, with one final image to send you blissfully soaring into the weekend:

A handful of baby iguanas.

It’s what you really needed.

“Finally, I have words to describe that most sublime of satisfactions!! BREAKFAST PLEASURE.”

- T-Rex, Dinosaur Comics

I’ve discussed email sign-offs before — sometime back in the stone age of this here site.

I don’t feel like I came to any singular conclusion on how to sign-off an email in a manner that a) retains a sense of your personal charm and wit, and b) doesn’t dip you headfirst into the realm of dickwadery. (Wow. Haven’t used that word in a while.)

So it comes down to My Lovely Wife sending me an email this morning to give me the bestestest (even better than “bestest”) email sign-off ever:

Blah-blah-blah, you’re so great, blah-blah-blah, I like cheese, blah-blah-blah, do this now, chore-monkey, blah-blah-blah.

Baarggggggggg.

Your Lovely Wife

Yes. She said “Baarggggggggg”.

What does it mean?

I don’t know.

And I don’t care.

God. It’s got a certain ineffable charm, a definite insouciance… and really makes absolutely no freaking sense.

“Aaarggggggggg”, that would make sense. So would “Yaarggggggggg”.

But “Baarggggggggg”?

I love it.

Baarggggggggg.

• “Best of Boston” (photos by the esteemed Steve Locke)

This is another minor effort to appease the Karma Gods.

Look! Halifax players playing in Boston! Look how good they are! Doesn’t Ultimate look like fun?! Please let us play this weekend! I’ll give you a cookie! Your hair looks really nice today!

(Was that too desperate?)

UPDATE: The Karma Gods have smiled! The tournament is on! Montreal, here we come!

Sigh.

The Master’s team is heading off to Montreal this weekend to play in the Montreal Jazz Tournament. It’s our one real opportunity to play a tournament at an elite level (i.e., get our asses handed to us) before Nationals. The tournament does not actually have a Masters division, which means we are playing in the same division as all the young guys (see “asses handed to us”).

But — shocker! — My Lovely Wife decided on Friday that she wanted to come up with me! She NEVER comes to tournaments with me, so this is a big deal. It did mean dipping a little further into debt to buy her a plane ticket and getting us a separate hotel room. (Previously, I was just planning on sharing a hotel room with a passel of sweaty guys. Heavy emphasis on “sweaty”. Hell, the emphasis on “sweaty” is so heavy that bolding and italicising the word just won’t cut it. Imagine the word is on fire. That might give you the proper feeling of emphasis. And now back to our tale.) But debt is a constant — us taking a vacation is a rare, rare occasion, especially a vacation that doesn’t entail going to visit family.

To add to the excitement, we finagled our dear friends Otto and Jen to come up for the weekend too! I managed to get a spot for the Otto on the team for the weekend, and Jen was coming to hang out with Beth (i.e., NOT hang out at the fields with us).

So, everything’s coming up freaking cookies and teddy bears, right?

Ha.

Last night, this notice appears on the tournament website:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – Monday, June 26th, 2006

Dear MJT teams,

There is a possibility that this year’s tournament will be cancelled due to inclement weather, as the forecast is calling for rain all week in Montreal. So far, the city has seen a very wet spring and early summer, and some of the Douglas fields will not be in useable condition if the rain continues this week as forecasted. Unfortunately, there are no alternative sites within the city that can host the number of teams scheduled to attend the tourney, nor are multiple sites available during that weekend.

We will continue to assess the situation and will keep you informed. A final decision about whether the tournament will be cancelled will be made late Wednesday/early Thursday morning. The news will be posted on the website as well as emailed out to all captains.

Crap on a stick.

So right now, the Karma Gods are hovering on high, karma sticks lightly held in their multitudinous hands, just waiting… waiting…

I will be spending the next several days making burnt offerings of Gummi Bears and salt & vinegar chips, praying that they appease the great and terrible Karma Gods.

All I ask of you, my pine-fresh readers, is that you send your voices on high on our behalf.

Pray to the Karma Gods.

Pray.