Video

Barb's friend Larry was helping her with her third shot because he has a ball machine.  So he set up the ball machine to hit her serve returns and then he stood at the net with his iPhone and videoed her third shots.  Later he loaded the video on Vimeo, so Barb could watch herself on the internet.  He sent her a link to the website but when Barb went to watch the video, it was sideways.  She had to hold her computer on its side to watch the video properly.

Streets

Barb was at it again on the Pickleball Forum where they were sending in street names about pickleball.  One person put up the name Barb Taylor Terrace and another person entered the name Barb Wire Way.  One person couldn't understand how Barb could come up with so many entries and another lady replied that she must have a huge book of lists of things related to pickleball.  That is not too far from the truth because Barb has compiled a list of pickleball specific words and stored them in her notes on her iPod to use to come up to entries for the forum.

0 for 4

After the previous game, we were sitting around having a few drinks and the captain of my recreational league team said to the guys that Ivan is really hitting great right now but I don't want to jinx him.  I had been hitting in the number five spot but had been moved down to the number 10 spot.  I thought it was because I wasn't hitting very well and because I hit into a lot of double plays.  Anyway in the playoff game, I was batting in the clean up position and I went 0 for 4.  I had even come up at a crucial time with bases loaded and hit a soft ground ball to the shortstop for an easy out.  We had a three run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning and one of our best outfielders hurt his leg and we had to get a replacement.  The person we put out in the outfield made two costly errors and we lost by one run. We were eliminated from the playoffs and I felt bad because I didn't hit better.  Then the next day I was playing in the Restricted Bat League and I went 4 for 4 in a meaningless game that we won.

Delay of Game

I was playing in the afternoon in the Restricted Bat League.  Right in the middle of the game, the sprinklers came on when we were out in the field.  No one knew how to turn them off.  So we had to move the game to one of the other diamonds.  Fortunately, there was a free diamond.  Sometimes the other diamonds are being used for team practices.  We went on to win the game which was very exciting because I play for a terrible team that had only won two games all season and is in last place.

Barb's Followers

Barb has been spending many evenings on the Pickleball Forum thinking up and entering names of movies, songs, diseases, famous people, and all sorts of things.  She has a large number of followers who always comment on her entries because they are amazed at the number and originality of them.  When she gets going everyone on the forum just gives up trying to compete with her and say she is the best.

Tom's Birthday

It was the birthday of an old basketball friend that I saw on facebook.  I was surprised when I got a message thanking me for the birthday wishes because I didn't take the time to wish him a happy birthday.  Then I looked at the link to his message and noticed that some other Ivan had wished him a happy birthday and when he went to thank him my name came up instead. I didn't want to reply and say he had the wrong Ivan because then I would have to admit that I didn't wish him a happy birthday myself.

Best Dressed

The pitcher on my recreational league softball team said that he had an extra jersey because they spelt his name wrong on it and so he got another.  He said I could have it since I got picked up half-way through the season and was too late to get a jersey of my own. He said maybe my wife could sew some fabric over his name and put my name on it instead.  So he brought the jersey to the next game and I brought it home for Barb to fix.  Barb went to the local Jo Anne's Fabric and wanted to buy some iron on letters but they had to be ordered.  They came in the next week and Barb sewed some of her own purple fabric over his name and ironed on white letters for my name and then coloured in the letters with yellow highlighter pen to match the teams lettering and it looked great.  When I wore the jersey to the next game, all the guys were impressed and one guy said Barb could get a lot of work doing sewing for the guys.  I told him that Barb had a few choice swear words for me when she was trying to get the puckers out of the fabric.  Anyway, we didn't have too many more games until the end of the season but after the season was finished, they gave us the best dressed team award.  I think Barb helped us win the award.