Kastles Tennis

While watching Wimbledon we saw ads for Kastles Tennis and World Team Tennis, neither of which we'd ever heard of before. From what we can tell, it's a laid back tennis league for pro players between times of serious tennis, like between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. This year there are 11 teams that compete between July 5-25 and the franchises include Boston Lobsters, Delaware Smash, Kansas City Explorers, New York Buzz, New York Sportimes, Newport Beach Breakers, Philadelphia Freedoms, Sacramento Capitals, St. Louis Aces, Springfield Lasers and Washington Kastles. The rules are different and each match includes a set of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles (in whatever order the coaches agree). Each game earns single points and there's a total tally at the end which works towards overall winner in the league season (Kastles won last year) in order to win this lovely prize:



Can you guess who a major sponsor of the tournament is?

"Top Spin" hung out with Ian for a bit before the Kastles team came out to the court.

And then the tennis started. Up close and personal.



The coach challenges (a stuffed gecko attached to little parachutes tossed onto the court) and replays were cool to watch:

I don't have photos of the women's doubles or women's singles, because quite honestly, they just weren't that interested to watch, and the Kastles got blown out of the water. Kastles lost 5-0 in doubles, and 5-1 in singles.
We had good seats, it's hard not to in such a small venue and the tickets were only $15/each. They kill on food and drinks which I thought was really uncool in the crazy hot sticky temps. At $3-$4 per drink and seven people to keep hydrated with no outside drinks allowed.... yeah, add that up. Just for drinks and ices. Next time though, we'd like to be the people in these seats:

Between sets the cheerleaders came out, tshirts were tossed into the stands, burritos were tossed into the stands, a guy on stilts encouraged people to yell and cheer, music played. It was a lot like a minor league baseball game. After the match was done kids under 16 were encouraged to line up to get autographs and just as the tables were set up and the players sat down to start signing the clouds opened up in huge heavy drops. We were drenched within minutes but persevered and still got Leader Paes' autograph on tennis balls. I told him we'd seen him in Chennai in 2009. Ian got a fist pump. He is an awesome doubles player and enjoyable to watch and at events like these the players sort of linger among the crowd, chat fans up and are normal people. It's kind of cool.
Sopping wet we made it to the car and within minutes the rain had stopped. It was a late night, we didn't get home until 11 p.m., but it was so worth it. Hopefully next time we'll recognize a few more names.

Worn Out

Busy couple of day, and the heat is wearing us down.

We've taken it pretty easy this week. Jacquelyn is here so some shopping, some eating, some playing around is our daily routine. The park system closed the pool on Monday, so no swim practice. Only made it through 30 minutes of practice on Tuesday before thunder rolled and the clouds opened up. Wednesday, no practice, so the younger girls and I shopped for nearly 5 hours and returned home worn out. Ian was home so he took the boys to the lake for some swimming and fishing. Apparently the fish were biting so much that when Nicholas caught a little one he didn't have time to pull it out before a bigger fish came by and ate the little one off the hook. Sheesh. Thursday, finally a normal swim practice. Then Friday came.
Friday everyone dressed in their finest to go the Main State for the Foreign Service Youth Foundation awards ceremony. Every year there is an art contest, essay contest, KidVid contest, and community service award, along with recognition for the local kids who have a parent serving in an unaccompanied post. This year they added the Haitian UNICEF highest fundraisers. Jacquelyn was accepting the award for her brother who won 2nd place in the art contest for his age group. The topic this year: On the Move.
His art was on stage.

Unfortunately the room is so dark and poorly lit, and I didn't bring my big lens, that all the photos were blurry. But the Benjamin Franklin room was a very pretty room.

Jacquelyn sat up with the other award recipients. Very few were present for the ceremony, as is expected when submissions are sent from all over the world.


Some tasty treats before we checked out the rest of the floor and the view from the balcony.


The other rooms held such artifacts as Thomas Jefferson's desk and this unusual painting (not blurry in real life) of the Treaty of Paris. On the left, Americans. On the right, well, that's where the Brits were supposed to go but they wouldn't agree to be part of the portrait.

After all the pomp, we crossed the road to Ian's office building and changed clothes. He had a couple more hours of work to do the kids and I took off towards the Mall. First stop was the WWII Memorial, the first time I made it there. It was far too hot to do all the walking we did, so we took a breather at the fountains.



I admit we cooled our feet in the cool water. I'm sure that's against the rules too, even though the signage only stated no wading or coin tossing. After the respite we made our way to the American History Museum with a stop for drinks along the way. Yeah, really really hot and muggy out. Some little guys hung out with us while we took (another) break in the shade.


We know they were just looking for a handout.
Finally, into the blessed cool of the museum. It wasn't long before Ian called and said he was ready to go, but we did get to visit the hands-on science and see Julia Child's kitchen. Rebecca and I enjoyed Julie&Julia so it was fun to check it out.


And then back into the heat armed with lemon ices (and Gatorade... and a hot dog... and water).

So how obvious is it that my white balance is completely off??

That was our Friday in a nutshell.
Saturday morning - swim meet of course. The kids did great, I'll post their times in another entry. For now, I need to take a nap. The alarm went off at 5:15 a.m. and it was so very hot outside by mid-morning. Bring on the thunderstorms, we need them.

Swim Meet Round-up

Times from the two meets we've done so far. There have been 2 others, but we've missed those (a day at Kings Dominions, and the 4th of July parade). This weekend's meet started in a downpour. It's amazing anyone even showed up, many of our Dale City Frogs didn't. Some of the other meets in the district were cancelled but ours plugged on even as covers leaked, towels were soaked with no way to dry them, kids shivered, heat cards were sodden. It was 30 degrees cooler Saturday morning that it had been Friday afternoon and though the pool was warm that wasn't much consolation with only seconds to swim at a time. For a while the rain was loud enough the announcer had competition getting the race numbers heard. But plug on we did.

Meet #1 @ Ashland Stingrays
Jonathon:
Event #1 - Mixed 8 and under: Medley Relay: swam 3 Fly: 2:26.06 (came in 3rd/6)
Event #28 - Boys 8 and under: 25 Backstroke: 45.16 (seed 43.03)
Event #38 - Boys 8 and under: 25 Breaststroke: DQ
Event #48 - Boys 8 and under: 25 Fly: DQ
Event #58 - Boys 8 and under: 100 Free Relay - swam 1: 2:09.83 (came in 3rd/4)
Nicholas:
Event #2 - Boys 9/10: Medley Relay: swam 4 Free: DQ
Event #30 - Boys 9/10: 50 Backstroke: 1:00.94 (seed 1:04.63)
Event #40 - Boys 9/10: 50 Breaststroke: DQ
Event #50 - Boys 9/10: 25 Fly: 36.50 (seed 34.97)
Event #60 - Boys 9/10: 100 Free Relay - swam 4: 1:29.72 (came in 3rd/6)
Rebecca:
Event #15 - Girls 11/12: 50 Free: 41.43 (seed 39.85) PWB
Event #33 - Girls 11/12: 50 Backstroke: 52.16 (sed 54.39) PWB
Event #53 - Girls 11/12: 50 Fly: 55.12 (seed 52.23)
Event #63 - Girls 11/12: 100 Free Relay - swam 2: 1:12.19 (came in 4th/5)
Katherine:
Event #7 - Girls 13/14: Medley Relay: swam 2 Breast: 2:54.90 (came in 5th/6)
Event #17 - Girls 13/14: 50 Free: 40.98 (seed 40.56)
Event #35 - Girls 13/14: 50 Backstroke: 51.37 (seed 53.09)
Event #45 - Girls 13/14: 50 Breaststroke: 49.53 (seed 49.55)
Event #65 - Girls 13/14: 100 Free Relay - swam 3: 2:35.72 (came in 6th/6)
Meet #2 @ Wellington Dolphins:
Jonathon:
Event #1 - Mixed 8 and under: Medley Relay: swam 4 Free: 2:34.31
Event #28 - Boys 8 and under: 25 Backstroke: 39.73 (seed 43.03)
Event #38 - Boys 8 and under: 25 Breaststroke: DQ - scissors kick
Event #48 - Boys 8 and under: 25 Fly: DQ - arms underwater recovery
Event #58 - Boys 8 and under: 100 Free Relay - swam 2: 1:51.76 (came in 2nd/8)
Nicholas:
Event #2 - Boys 9/10: Medley Relay: swam 3 Fly: 2:15.34
Event #12 - Boys 9/10: 50 Free: 47.95 (seed 51.03)
Event #40 - Boys 9/10: 50 Breaststroke: DQ - hands brought beyond hipline
Event #50 - Boys 9/10: 25 Fly: 33.59 (seed 34.97)
Event #60 - Boys 9/10: 100 Free Relay - swam 4: 1:25.06 (came in 3rd/6)
Rebecca:
Event #5 - scratched (one swimmer didn't show)
Event #15 - Girls 11/12: 50 Free: 39.97 (seed 39.85) PWB
Event #23 - Girls 11/12: IM: 1:56.07 (seed 1:50.94 - last year)
Event #53 - Girls 11/12: 50 Fly: 56.66 (seed 52.23)
Event #63 - Girls 11/12: 100 Free Relay - swam 2: 1:10.70 (came in 3rd/6)
Katherine:
Event #7 - Girls 13/14: Medley Relay: swam 2 Breast: DQ - 4th swimmer took off early
Event #17 - Girls 13/14: 50 Free: 40.71 (seed 40.56)
Event #25 - Girls 13/14: IM: 1:47.28 (seed 1:46.47 - last year)
Event #45 - Girls 13/14: 50 Breaststroke: 48.53 (seed 49.53) PWB
Event #65 - Girls 13/14: 100 Free Relay - swam 3: 2:50.87 (came in 6th/6)

Somethin' fishy

The kids all got good grades this past year, so we wanted to reward them with something fun for each of them. Nicholas chose the Wii game "Overlord," set in a land of fairy tales where Lil' Red is actually an evil wolf queen and the witch from Hansel&Gretel is working for the tooth fairy. Jonathon has a birthday coming up next month so he already said what he would like for that which left it up to us to choose something for now. He's been asking for a fishing pole since we moved to this neighborhood, and now he has one. Today was his first attempt at using one. I, of course, was left the duty of digging worms in the yard (he still doesn't like getting dirty) then the job of impaling them on cruel little hooks. The fish were smart so the worms couldn't just be S but had to have part of them fully skewered. I'm not really up on my worm torture techniques, so the fact that Jonathon caught 3 fish was entirely of his doing. Rebecca didn't have any luck. Outsmarted by little sticklebacks, that one.


Mutilating worms and not catching anything wore her out.

Rebecca got hold of the camera for a few minutes.


It's nice to see joy in Katherine.

It's not a celebration until...

A) The grass is set ablaze due to misfire
B) The fire department is called
C) Fireworks rain down burning embers
D) Ash and fireworks bits hit all bystanders
E) All the above

If you've ever been to a Diwali celebration in India, YOU know what I'm talking about.



And the requisite ground fire...

Hope you had a Happy 4th!