Ashes to Ashes

I just got home after Ash Wednesday Mass and below average fish and chips from the Crows Nest. As you can see Fr. Bob, (not to be confused with Dr. Bob from the Veterinarian's Hospital skit on The Muppet Show), decided to strategically place the ashes on my forehead with the intention of making me look like Eddie Munster. This was better than the cross that Karen received, damn life flight kept trying to land on it.

Even though I expected it, I am still too dumbfounded by LeCharles Bentley's need for a second surgery and a second season on the sidelines, that the best I can do is point you once again to the God hates Cleveland Sports Blog link on my page.

I know I promised you all a story about Mattie's gymnastics meet and instead fed you a fluff piece about sports and Spring, but come on how about the weather the last 2 days since I declared Winter called?

So here's how it went. We got there and my first thought was, "Holy crap it really is a house!" You actually walk in a door and can go upstairs to the house or downstairs to the "gym."Once you go down, you turn a corner and walk down a hallway, which figures into the story later, and into this giant press board structure that is partially below ground. At first I didn't even see an additional fire exit. Of course this happed after I drove in and out of 3 tiny parking lots looking for a spot. Its a rural road and with the snow there's no way to park on the street. I actually parked someone in that had also just gotten there, then after the first session left I went back out and moved the Jeep.

Mattie and I were expecting a hostile environment, what with me being an honorary Salemite, I knew Poland was enemy territory. Let's get the bad out of the way first. Mattie again didn't get over on her vault. It did not help that the mat was 6 inches higher and the "runway," well remember the special hallway I mentioned earlier? That's right they started their approach in the hall outside the gym area. Absolutely insane!

What really pissed me off was that Mattie got a 7.0 on her bars. she was attempting a level 4 skill, front mill, that she just learned that week. She normally gets it, but this time she didn't make it all the way around, other than that she did pretty well. Here's the thing, I watched girl after girl do the exact same thing, some didn't even get their dismount, and receive much higher scores. This kind of subjectivity makes me insane and want to pull her out of gymnastics right then and there.

Balance beam was average for her, 8.25. but it was anything but average for the spectators sitting along the wall that had to duck every time a girl dismounted from the balance beam for fear of getting kicked in the jaw. This close proximity of course did not deter yahoos from walking right beside the beam, while girls were doing their routine, to go get a snack. morons!

She finished by kicking butt on her floor routine, 8.75. Now, I know you don't want to give girls unnecessarily low scores if you know they'll be in last anyway. However, judging by Matt's other scores it hardly seemed fair that there were girls that honestly didn't even know the routine, they all do the same), and received nothing lower than an 8.0.

They only gave awards for the all around so all Mattie know is she was 7th out of 7. Yet, I think she would have gotten a 1st for her Floor. Next meet at home during the 2nd weekend of March.

Time to go watch the second half of the CAVS and OSU, both are close games right now.