Category Archives: sports

2025, Business, Kids, Mysteries, sports

Chop Chop

22 Comments

There has been a karate school a few blocks from my house all the time I have lived here (think going on 3+ decades).  I’ve really never paid attention to it at all.

Well, I got invited there to watch Marie (little girl who used to next door to me) take part in her karate class.  If I had any assumptions before going, they were almost all wrong.

The karate school is woman-owned (not Japanese karate master-owned) with primarily women instructors (not Japanese karate masters).   I saw a bit of three classes – the one before Marie’s, then Marie’s and then the very beginning of the class after.  It was approximately 2/3 girls (not a bunch of Asian little boys).   I actually only saw one Asian kid the whole night.  So much for all my assumptions.  To be fair, all I knew about karate before this was what I learned from watching James Bond movies.

Marie’s class is about 40 minutes long and the very first class was half instruction about when and when NOT to use their karate skills.  Marie is the smallest in her class but pretty feisty.  Another little girl had the karate yell down pat and one of the little boys could hardly wait for the instructor to give the go-ahead for the next move.  They were all very cute.

I did a little searching on the internet and the history/etymology of karate is WAY too extensive for me to even try to parse it.  You’ll thank me for that!

Have you ever learned any karate / judo / taekwondo / sumo??

2025, education, Family, Gatherings, sports, Uncategorized

Bowl

33 Comments

I see that today in 1520 is the anniversary of Henry VIII ordering that a bowling alley be installed in his palace at Whitehall. I imagine it was an outdoor lane for lawn bowling, but even so it reminded me of my bowling experiences.

I noticed last week as we were driving around Luverne that the bowling alley was still a going concern, although it is only open Thursday through Saturday these days. I never belonged to a youth bowling league, but the bowling alley was a place to go to have fun when I was in high school. I don’t remember it serving anything but snacks and simple beverages. My mother belonged to a bowling league, and I remember how heavy her bowling ball seemed to me when I was a child when I would take it out of its bag in her closet.

The bowling alley in Dickinson is a really busy place that doubles as a bar and restaurant. There are very active bowling leagues for adults and children. It also is the stop for the buses that run east and west across the state. The police have their hands full there. A work colleague’s husband was attacked and robbed in the parking lot by a couple of Montana guys recently who he met bat the bar and had a couple of drinks with.

One of my high school classmates had a dad who was a professional bowler who seemed to earn a living bowling competitively. I remember seeing him on TV in bowling matches. I don’t think that is a thing anymore. What a way to make a living!

When I started as a freshman at Concordia College in Moorhead. MN, we had to take two semesters of physical education. I opted for bowling for my first gym class. It was taught by Sonny Gullsvig, the college basketball coach, at a local bowling alley. I will never forget Coach Gullsvig instructing us in his coaching voice as though he was in the Concordia gym ” FIRST YOU TAKE THE BALL AND TOSS IT DOWN THE ALLEY….” I skipped class a lot and ended up with a “C,” in the class.

What are your bowing memories? Ever hang out at a bowling alley?

2025, Games, Media, sports, Uncategorized

Just Bananas!

37 Comments

In the “nothing should surprise me” arena, I have discovered Banana Ball.  If you haven’t heard of Banana Ball, try to imagine the Harlem Globetrotters but with baseball instead of basket ball. Specially made banana balls, outrageous uniforms/outfits, trick plays, dancing… just a bit different:

Banana Ball started with the Savannah Bananas in 2016 and competed as a summer collegiate team for several years.  In 2018 they started playing exhibition games outside of their regular season and in 2023 they switched to all exhibition games against three partner teams:  the Party Animals, The Firefighters and The Texas Tailgaters.  Supposedly there will be two more teams added next year.

It kinda looks like baseball but there are some different rules:

  • Innings are worth one point each.
  • The team scoring the most runs in an inning wins that point.
  • In the final inning, every run counts as a point.
  • Time Limit: Games have a two-hour time limit, and no new inning can start after 1 hour and 50 minutes.
  • No Walks: Instead of walks, a “ball four sprint” occurs, where the batter sprints to first base and can advance until every fielder touches the ball.
  • No Bunting: Bunting is not allowed and results in an automatic ejection.
  • Stealing First: Batters can steal first base on any wild pitch or passed ball.
  • No Mound Visits: Mound visits are prohibited to speed up the game.
  • Fan Involvement: If a fan catches a foul ball, it counts as an out.
  • Stepping Out: If a batter steps out of the batter’s box, it’s an automatic strike.
  • Showdown Tiebreaker: If the game is tied after the time limit, a one-on-one showdown between a pitcher and a batter determines the winner.
  • Golden Batter Rule: A team can, once per game, substitute any batter into any spot in the lineup.
  • Challenges: Both teams can challenge certain umpire calls.

This appears to be pretty popular and they are playing to sell-out crowds wherever they go.  I haven’t been sucked in enough to watch whole games… and I don’t know who the various players are… yet.  But Is a lot of fun to watch all the Facebook clips – glad to see them having fun and not taking themselves too seriously.

Do you think mainstream sports should be more entertaining?

2025, Art, education, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

A New Logo

44 Comments

The big local news here lately is that the public high school mascot/logo is being retired. We are known as the Dickinson Midgets. We have apparently been Midgets for 100 years.

What is even bigger news is that virtually no one is protesting the change. The school board tried to change the name in 1996, and the whole board was recalled in a special election by disgruntled citizens who wouldn’t stand for a new mascot. This time, things are different, and students talk openly about how embarrassing the mascot is. Another good reason for a new mascot now is that they are renovating the gymnasium, and they can incorporate the new mascot logo into the gym floor. It will save money in the long run, you see. It will be good to have this little guy put to rest.

The superintendent asked for ideas for a new mascot and had 850 entries. A committee of students and faculty settled on two: The Defenders or The Mavericks. Both ideas seem pretty palatable to me, and seem to go well with our Old West ethos out here.

What was your school mascot? What are some of the sillier mascots you have heard of? Make up some new school mascot names.

2024, 2025, Fantasy, Games, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

It’s a Hobby

40 Comments

When YA was seven, she wanted to be a “horse girl” for Halloween.  Took me a bit by surprise because she hadn’t shown any particular horsey interest up to that point.  We had fun putting the costume together.  Nonny bought the cowboy boots, I got her a hat and a stick horse.  The jeans and shirt she already had.  I still have that stick horse in a corner of my bedroom.

Imagine my surprise last week (while I was wasting time on my phone while Nonny did her morning exercises) when I stumbled on a website for Hobby Horse Championships.

This is a real thing.  It’s called “hobby horsing” and if you look it up on Wikipedia there is a note at the top, in italics, that says “Not to be confused with Hobby Horse polo”.  That made me snort coffee up my nose.  HHing was apparently born in Finland and started to make waves in 2017.  Most participants are young girls, between the age of 12-18.  Classic horse-loving demographic.  These days there are quite a few national competitions (most in Europe) and the largest gathering of 2024 was at the end of August in Finland.  The United States’ games were the beginning of August.

I doubt YA will be interested in this; her infatuation with horses ended after a couple of summer horse camps when she was in Girl Scouts.  But you never know.

YA’s stick horse needs a name.  What do you think?

2024, animals, Games, Gatherings, sports, Uncategorized

Team Goose

43 Comments

As I was leaving the gym yesterday morning, there was a large group of geese walking away from the building.  I’m not sure why but all I could think of was a group of teenagers having just finished a quick basketball game at the gym, heading off for a burger and a pop. Made me laugh.

For a very short time in high school, I was on the track team.  Very short.  My trail leg didn’t quite clear a hurdle during practice and while it was a life-threatening injury, it was pretty gruesome and it ended my extremely short track career.  That was my only foray into team sports. 

What about you?  Any team sports for you?

2024, home, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

Around the Block

30 Comments

It was a big weekend around here.   On Saturday afternoon, my littlest neighbor Marie (5 years old) announced to visiting relatives during a cookout, that she wanted her father to take the training wheels off of her bike.  Big sister Minnie had been getting a lot of attention learning to skateboard on the driveway so now it was Minne’s turn.

Surprisingly she caught on very quickly and despite the neighbors having a big driveway, it didn’t take long before everyone had to troop down to the sidewalk in front of the house so she could have a longer runway.  And even though I had been a witness to some of this, when I went out to water on Saturday night, Marie hurried over to the fence to announce her big news.

Then on Sunday when I saw her, she announced it again, this time telling me how far she could go (almost 3 houses).   Yesterday I got the news yet again when she saw me in the yard cutting the grass.  This time she elicited a promise from me that when her dad came out to help her, I would come out on the front steps to watch.  Getting ready for this big ride took a bit.  Helmet, elbow pads, wrist pads and knee pads; when Dad was going to skin the elbow pads, Marie insisted since older sister had on a full set of pads for her skateboarding.

I remember learning to ride without training wheels.  We lived on West Cedar Avenue in Webster Groves, just down the street from the local elementary school.  I can still taste the exhilaration I felt when I realized that my dad wasn’t holding onto the back of my bike seat any longer. 

Marie’s ride on the front sidewalk went really well.  As expected Dad had to run the whole way behind her and had to help with the stopping.  We have a slight incline/decline (depending on which direction you’re going) on our block and I did notice that Marie struggled a bit more to stay upright when she was coming UP the incline.  But all in all, an impressive beginning for her biking career!

Tell me about a time you mastered something as a child that you were proud of!

2024, Family, Kids, sports, Travel, Uncategorized

Joy

15 Comments

Husband and I are back from Boston, he at home and I in Brookings helping out son and daughter in law as they need an extra hand with home and grandson due to work demands.

We flew out of Boston yesterday to Minneapolis first, then to Bismarck and Sioux Falls respectively. While we waited for our plane in Boston we were delighted to watch the antics of a Minnesotan Special Olympics mixed gender hockey team heading back home. One of the members, a young man named John, held a rather large trophy his team had won at a hockey tournament in Boston, They took multiple photos with their coaches and parents, all so happy with what they had accomplished. It was so nice to see such joy and happiness. They looked so proud of themselves.

What joyous things have you noticed lately? What gives you joy in your day to day life?

2023, Family, Games, Gatherings, home, sports, TV, Uncategorized

The (Not So) Super Bowl

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Husband remarked the other day that in the almost 40 years we have been married, we probably only watched the Super Bowl twice, both times at a friend’s house.

Neither of us follow sports, college or professional. In the last few years I have only been glad there was a Super Bowl because it was a good day to have our church annual meeting right after the last morning service. The annual meeting is a tedious affair, especially if there are contentious issues to discuss. People are far more willing to compromise when they want to get home for the pregame show. Things have simmered down over the last 15 years with the deaths of many of the more iconoclastic church members who would get up in arms about important theological issues like being opposed to installing air conditioning even though it would insure that the service committee ladies didn’t swelter in the kitchen while preparing the funeral lunches, and brides didn’t faint in the heat in the sanctuary during summer weddings.

When I was a girl we would usually go to my paternal grandparents’ home when there were important games to watch on TV. I always enjoyed listening to my dad and his brother, both high school and college sports officials, call penalties before the TV officials would. Our plans for this Sunday are to sing in the church choir and head home to take naps. Salmon and mussel stew with harissa are on the menu. The annual meeting was two weeks ago. Life is good.

How will you spend Super Bowl Sunday? What are your favorite things to eat when you watch the Super Bowl? Any meetings you dread having to attend?

2022, sports, Uncategorized, work

Upset

72 Comments

We have only two moderately large universities in our state, the University of North Dakota, and North Dakota State University. Ice hockey is king at UND, while football reigns at NDSU. Passions run high on game days, especially when the NDSU Bison play the SDSU (South Dakota State University) Jack Rabbits.

Husband and I don’t care very much about any sports teams. We must admit to divided loyalties when NDSU plays SDSU, though, as our son and daughter-in-law both work for SDSU. Last week before the big football match-up between the two teams, Husband wore a SDSU jersey to a work meeting where he knew there were several NDSU aficionados. They teased him, saying they could no longer be friends.

Well, SDSU pulled a major upset last week and beat NDSU in a surprising comeback. Husband has yet to have a work meeting with the NDSU fans, but I hope he wears his SDSU jersey again, just to be a smart aleck

When have you engineered an upset? What sports teams do you follow? When have you been a smart aleck?