Round and Round, Around and Round

I got a couple great gifts from Chris for Valentine's Day. I'd been mentioning that I'd like to get a food scale to help measuring my food to log my calories, and just hadn't gotten around to getting one. Having no money was a hindrance to that, too. Even though I will ask Chris for money when I need it, it's never something I feel awesome about, and it was hard to justify the purchase when I'd done without one for so long and I would really be the only one using it. (I sure am glad I finally mailed those checks home and thankful that my parents deposited them!) Needless to say, I was really excited to see a new food scale in his backpack when he tricked me into looking in there for something. Well done, Chris.

I seriously love this thing.

We'd agreed not to do anything too crazy for V-Day, so this was perfect, but it wasn't all. Chris also got us both tickets to the Toronto Roller Derby, two weeks later. Well this Saturday we took the subway to the bus to the venue, and got to see our first real life roller derby bout!

The bout was a double header, which made it great for first-timers like Chris and me because we got to watch the first match while reviewing the rules in the pamphlet we were given as we walked in, and by the second bout we actually mostly sort of knew what was going on. Stuff would happen that made no sense at all to us, and we got to see it happen often enough that suddenly we understood what was going on. We came to see the strategy, if not of the blockers, then certainly of the jammers. I think I'll have to see a few more games to be able to focus on more than just the two jammers, a single player on each team who earns points by passing the rest of the group.

Crankypants, Toronto Roller Derby's announcer, introduces Smashley 

from Sister Slagwhile the ladies skate around the track.

More than just being educational, though, the first bout was a great match up. It was the perfect combination of an exciting and close-ish game of two similarly-matched teams and a victory for the home team, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, or the D-VAS, against the Sudbury's Sister Slag. There were a few great players on each team, but my favorite was the jammer deom the D-Vas, hellbat. She was fun to watch and her shorts (which might have just been underwear worn on the outside) had a bat on them. Wheels of Miss Fortune was on Sister Slag was a pretty great jammer, too.

A video from the first bout, wherein a lot of ladies skate and a referee falls down.

At this point we realized that we were starving, and Chris ran to get us some pizza slices and water. If only we'd though ahead and brought delicious not so bad for us snacks. Alas. The pizza wasn't too bad, just 380 calories for two slices of cheese. We ended up splitting a hot dog, too, but when we got home I did a workout and considered everything even. EVERYTHING IS EVEN.

Defecaitlin (#2) laps the pack, scores points, and "calls the jam," a term for ending the round.

Next came the singing of the American and Canadian national anthems, and then the big bout, pitting Toronto's CN Power against Michigan's Killamazoo Derby Darlins. It was very exciting. Until the score got to about 60 points of difference between the two teams and just never shrank. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to watch the home team steamroll the competition, but it was a little disappointing seeing things so lopsided. We all wanted Toronto's team to win, I just wanted them to have to work a little harder for it.  During half time, the junior roller derby girls skated around the track, weaving between cones and jumping over pool noodles. It was pretty adorable.

I had a great time. I wish the bouts had been closer, but I don't think, "My team is too good" is a legitimate complaint. Chris and I really got into the game and I'm really hoping I can catch the next match-up on March 12th between Chicks Ahoy! and the Smoke City Betties. Maybe we'll even bring some lawn chairs and get to sit up front instead of back in the stands. We'll see.

Click here for some pictures from someone who was a lot closer to the action than we were.