Later today I’ll have my first guest post, provided for your reading and (mostly) viewing pleasure by my esteemed youngest daughter, affectionately known here as TWO aka TheWeeOne.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t update some of you on the last performances that LaGrande was in and how they did overall.
First off – Placements are only published to the top x% based on the quantity of numbers in the category. With 25 numbers for example they give something like the top 8 teams placement recognition.
In the Jazz, Lyrical, Tap, and Duo numbers LaGrande’s teams didn’t place. Jazz and Lyrical are the most popular/competitive categories (especially so in this age-group I am told) with as many as 18-25 numbers each, perhaps more. Considering six numbers was a lot in any one category during the regional competitions you might understand just how concentrated and demanding this competition is. Amazing.
Secondly – In her musical theater number (which has a name that I know a particular reader cousin of mine will absolutely LOVE) called The King of New York, there were only two numbers this time but…let it be known that the team rocked it and earned 1st place. Two teams or ten teams – they don’t keep track of how many teams were there – first is first. 😉
I have seen a decent photo of La-Grande doing her signature leg-hold solo on center stage for this one and when we get the pictures from the photography studio (grumble grumble grumble) I will post it.
Lastly, La-G was a member of Allegro’s 90ish member Extended Time Production Number (aka Finale) and this time out of the two numbers competing Allegro was relegated to 2nd by an outstanding, big budget, number performed by a group out of Bozeman. They had props, a light-up-electronic-dancing-keyboard, a slide painted like a saxophone, and a 12 foot tall Cello with moving strings that they could extend across the stage, and impeccable organization and choreography. If I can find it on YouTube at any time I may post it here.
We found out later over a couple of frozen yogurts that the parents brought the props down from Montana in a horse trailer…a VERY BIG horse trailer. Wow.
So, now, La-G is in “convention” where she learns new dances, auditions for next-year scholarships, and basically gets a lot of concentrated practice time with estimable instructors and other dancers. [tangent] If you’ve ever seen the mass start of a triathlon, with all the flailing legs and arms churning the water into a froth…take away the water, add a dash of high-leg-kicks, a spin or two…that’s what their doing right now for an hour at a time – oh, and set it to music.
So far, La-G has only been kicked twice. sheesh. [end tangent]
Congratulations to the Allegro Performance Group teams who have done very well amidst extreme competition here in Las Vegas!
[another tangent] This turned into a bigger wrap-up than I thought but it’s nothing when compared to the visual extravaganza coming your way courtesy of TWO in any number of minutes.
Hold on to your hats. [end another tangent]
Well, it’ official – LaGrande is at Nationals.
I’ve spent too many hours now goofing around with photographs** to spend much time on the backstory but the quick and the short of it is – these two dances that I DID get shots of took 2nd place with 4 or 5 stars in pre-qualifying (amongst a small group of pre-qualifying numbers) and the other one, King of New York, received 4 stars (I think, and they were the only one in their category too I believe).
She is sleeping pretty contentedly right now as I type, storing up energy to do it again tomorrow – this time against 30 or so other teams.
Enjoy.
And before I go…I mustn’t forget her little sister, TheWeeOne – who was so excited to come to “Vegas” that she sang about it most of the way here:
People on Vegas!
People on Vegas!
…And if you sing it sorta like a 6 year old Tiny Elvis – you might hear those words too!
——
** I took over 1100 shots in about 3 hours before the convention folks got ticked off and told me to stop.
To the casual observer, it may appear that The Mermaids do a lot of dancing.
The casual observer would be right.
For the record – LaGrande was limited to two pictures this year because if we got one for all of her class pictures…let’s just say I don’t like cup-o-noodle.
Yet at the same time, fair is fair – and Th’WeeOne got the same quantity of pictures as LaGrande got when she was 6.
Thanks to TheMommy for having such an outstanding memory for that sort of thing – and “…while you’re at it why not gimmme a nice paper-cut and pour lemon juice on it…”!
Whilst TheMommy was taking a nap TWO helped herself to a juice box and when she was done she located a hair clip, bent the straw from the juice box – just…so – and clipped it on in preparation for her musical debut.
When I was a kid my brother and I carved crude guns out of graham crackers – but this shows a sophistication beyond my means as a six year old.
About six weeks ago my iPhone got wet and despite all attempts to dry it out the screen backlight and ringer wouldn’t work.
At first the buzzer didn’t even work. But somehow dissemble/reassemble worked like a windows reboot – p’tuh p’tuh.
I resolved to wait to upgrade ’till the next iPhone 5 came out, toughin’ it out.
Let me tell you, using a touchscreen without a backlight is a pain. It only works well in direct sunlight – which in Seattle…meh.
I thought maybe, just maybe, Apple would announce a new iPhone at the WWDC today. meh, meh.
Anyway, long story short, I have gotten kinda used to restricted iPhone usage and then…today, I had lunch with Tackleman, and I left my iPhone on the table in the ‘blazing’ Seattle sun as we ate and chatted.
When input it back in my pocket I mentioned aloud,
dOoh my phone is really HOT!
Two hours later, in a meeting, my phone buzzed with an iMessage and suddenly my backlight is back on!! It’s like having a new phone!…errrr…computer.
So now I can write little, relatively inconsequential, snippets on my blog while I’m laying in bed, in near darkness, in abject comfort.
The other day TWO had a bit of a kerfuffle – with a penny in the car; here’s what happened.
She found it in a parking lot and was overjoyed. She extolled for me her pending luck and recited a soothsayers predictions for joy and happiness…many times.
Then she got quiet, in the backseat, belted in, she studied the coin.
The front,
And the back.
And then she announced proudly that she’d flip it!
Daddy?
Yes?
Daddy?
I said ‘Yes?’
[this double question thing is common these days – just roll with it.]
Uh – I can flip this penny and you have to guess…Heads or Cage!
[without missing a beat this time…]
Cage!
And she flipped – right off her thumb and straight down into the confusticating crack between the seatbelts.
She immediately began crying and told me something in a high whiney voice [half of which I could hear and the other half?…only dogs] about how your luck goes away by double if you LOSE a lucky penny that you’d just found.
I told her that she hadn’t truly lost it but that she only can’t get to it right now.
I’ll see if I can get it when we get home, Ok?
The crying mostly stopped.
[other stuff happened, conversation, blowing of noses etcetera etcetera and…]
When we got home I was preoccupado with other business but TWO, she was focused on one thing only…that penny.
[I wonder if she might ever remain so when brushing her teeth?]
Oh yes, of course, I forgot – let me take a looksie.
She pointed to the spot where it disappeared like it contained a venomous snake and I spied it! I gingerly reached for the shiny edge of that elusive copper…ack!
It fell through.
OHHHHHH DADDEEEEE!
Like it’s my fault?!
Crying again?…naturally it is of course, my fault.
Don’t worry honey! I can still see it, so I’ll get something LONG and sticky on the end to snatch it up, ok?
[she snapped to attention]
Can I do it?!
Of course I had to test the laws of physics first to make sure copper wasn’t magnetic. [drat]
So I grabbed some Gorilla tape [product placement!] and stuck it to the end of my telescoping magnetic reacher and handed it over with some terse instruction.
Poke this down there while I hold the belts out of the way – carefully without touching the sides – and when you get the tape to touch the penny push it down kinda hard to make sure it sticks well and then g.e.n.t.l.y bring it back out without touching the sides of the seat, ok?
I can’t touch it at all?!
No – I mean, it’s not gonna burn you or anything we just don’t want the penny to fall off, OK?
ok.
Suddenly it was an adventure, and she did well, gingerly and precisely as requested and she came up with the pennyyyy!!,
and a piece of fruity wrapper,
and maybe like a shriveled french fry or something.
EEEEEEWWWWWW! This is gross!
Then, before you can say “Heads or Cage”, she’d snatched her penny away from the ‘gross’ bits and quickly stuffed them all BACK IN THE CRACK!
Last weekend myself, BopOp, Grumpy, TBuss, and TheAmboyObserver all enjoyed…
[tangent]
I like nicknames, and for some reason – especially here; perhaps here more than ever anywhere. I especially like it when somehow they stick because then there’s like this little other “personality” that comes out on this blog – and it really doesn’t even have to apply to anything else, anywhere else – relative to this blog it works. Sometimes they’re borrowed – ala Grumpy and BopOp.
Sometimes they are mine alone, like TheWeeOne and LaGrande.
And I’m pretty sure I’ve dropped monikers on some folks (like TBUSS) before but their appearances here are relatively far between and so I’ve mislaid it/them (their monikers that is) and so there may be many – I wish it wasn’t so, but alas.
Anyway – somewhere along the way (pretty much right now) I realize that I’m not sure if I’ve EVER dubbed (hehe) my brother in this place, this blog, this…this…blief.
Not that I wouldn’t or couldn’t or even that I shouldn’t – I just don’t think it’s come up.
By all means, correct me if I’m wrong.
And, well, I hope that I’m wrong ’cause I’ve got a good one – and it’s even a clever backronym, which I think gives me the mnemonic to make it stick – whether he likes it or not.
Where was I?…oh yes Oregon…
[/tangent]
So we (BopOp, Grumpy, TBuss, and Tao) all enjoyed the vagaries of the Human Power Challenge in Portland.
Put on by the Oregon Human Powered Vehicles organization (OHPV.org), this event brings folks of like-mind and generally sound body together on one track for two days of pedal to the pavement madness; typically recumbent pedals.
Bodies are typically sound, at least, to begin the weekend, perhaps not so much by the end.
This year we were further treated to an epic downpour (one of the aforementioned vagaries) on Saturday night that saw well over 1″ of rain (closer to 1.5″ methinks) in less than 30 minutes. This rain squall not only sequestered BopOp under a canopy near the restroom for it’s duration but it also forced us, in the tent, to actually bail (water that is) OUT of the door of the tent.
This wasn’t a rainproof tent to be sure – but then again, this wasn’t just rain. Any tent would have been hard-pressed to endure such a deluge.
Besides two overnight rainstorms, the days were good and the wind was calm – perfect for bike racing.
This year, I participated in all five events in the Stock category and generally performed as well as or better than last year. The jury is still out on whether I did better in the time-trial – and technically I finished in the same place in the road race – but I’m skipping ahead.
The Time-Trial
This is not my strength to be sure but it’s the first event for me and I was able to maintain a decent pace (didn’t ever feel like vomiting this year) however, I was able to ramp my speedometer up to 30MPH in the finish straight and with an approximate avg speed of 23.4 mph for the near 10 mile course – that’s probably too much extra energy.
At one point, on the incline at the west end of the course, I sat forward in my climbing position thinking I would momentarily increase my speed and use some different muscles; wrong. I lost over 1 mph and just stayed tired.
The Drag Race
Two epic contests here – one with TheHumanTimeTrial (aptly named TT) and the other with Grumpy.
TT was actually being attacked on both fronts by two good sprinters, myself and PPlath. After taking down Plath in an all out grudge match (not sure there is such a thing at PIR really) he answered my challenge and after perhaps a slow start by me and a mis-shift by him we crossed the line 1/100th of a second apart – I edged him by a crankset length. Great race.
The other, more intense, challenge came from Grumpy and I wasn’t up to it. He was fresh off two other contests with BopOp and Tao so I self-imposed a limiter of one-gear and no-hands. Next year perhaps, but this year I chose wrong and he whipped me good – he’s written about it here.
Sunday morning, somewhat early, after all the excitement of the rain the night before, was my favorite event: The 200M Flying Sprint
I knew from experience that I only had one shot at this. My legs take much longer to recover from this effort than the hour we have. You wouldn’t know it unless you’ve tried it but 200M is really a pretty major distance when going great gonzo.
I started like last year, over-oxygenating and going VERY slow from the very distant start line. I started my run in earnest 100M closer to the start line and quickly rapped my speed up to over 36 MPH as I crossed the start line – that was good.
What I didn’t do well, I think, was pick the right gear – again. At the halfway point I had to shift for more speed, I had left over power but I had spun out and so the loss of forward momentum in that shift may have cost me as much as 1/2 MPH. I crossed the line at somewhere north of 35 MPH for an electronically timed 12.50 and an average speed of 35.79 MPH.
Despite my execution problems and with no real perceptible wind at the time – I think this might be a good estimation of my max – I will have a tough time beating that again.
The AutoCross
One of the most enjoyable (and dangerous right TT?) events is the autocross. Time doesn’t really matter but handling does. I did well but this year the course changes actually made it too “fast” in my opinion – it was fun to watch and toodle around. Next year I may enter my BMX in this event. 🙂 We’ll see.
The Road Race
Last year this event surprised me at how fun it was – an enjoyable 30 minutes trading pulls with a young upright rider and a sprint finish for 4th place was one of the best of that year. This year, I wasn’t so keen to rocket off the line like in 2011 (and then fade so quickly) so I held back just a bit too much perhaps and missed my chance at perhaps riding the wheels of TT and PPlath for a lap or two, or at least until I gagged on my own larynx. My early efforts made for a sizable lead over 4th place which nearly held, but not quite, and so I finished 4th. A valiant effort, but overall, the road race for me was more of a time-trial, not much in the way of “competing” with anyone else on the course – just the wind. Of course there was that lap and a half that I “drafted” Joe K – rather I stayed as close behind him as safely possible and purchased at great price what wind I could from his bottom-half-streamliner. That and I did stave off a late pass for a half lap with a well-executed hairpin turn – that was fun.
The Swap
TT by now recovered from his win in the Road Race wanted to try out my Silvio – which he did with amazing success. Me on TT’s Corsa, counter-steering for all it’s worth out of habit and he on my Silvio counter-steering for all it’s worth out of necessity took a “victory” lap.
I think my shoulders were more tired from holding back my habit than they were for the entire 30 min road race. The Bacchetta Corsa is an amazing machine – very nimble and light. I recommend it after just a short ride and especially after seeing what both TT and PPlath can do on the course.
I know I keep saying this…she’s not so Wee anymore, and today she’s six.
In fact, at the age of six, LaGrande was a full 1.5″ shorter than Wee.
Today we have plans for a little indoor skydiving and then a special dinner engagement.
More to come here I’m sure.
Before I forget this lovely piece of logic she pulled on Easter:
I caught her checking out her candy basket after we’d cut off sugar for the rest of the day.
WHAT are you doing?
I’m just looking!
Are you sure?
Yeahhhh! I’m just looking.
Are you REALLY sure?
Daaaad! 🙂 If I’m smiling then I’m just looking!
blief 