Roller Derby

This weekend we attended our first roller derby. How did we get here you might ask?

Last weekend we watched Roll Bounce (a very cute movie about rollerskating set in the 70s, if you haven't seen it) and afterwards I was curious if there was roller skating in Boise. While searching I came across the Treasure Valley Roller Girls
Lucky for us they had a bout in town this weekend.

If you have never attended a roller derby bout you are in for a treat. The match was at the Idaho Exposition Hall. They had bleachers set-up on one side, decorated for each of the four teams competing, and lines painted/taped to the concrete floor serving as a rink. They gave a little demo and tried to explain the rules. The basic premise is that the player with the 'star' on their helmet (the jammer) is trying to work their way through the pack to earn points. In the demo they went pretty slow and weren't really hitting each other.


During the actual matches the skaters are moving pretty quick. It's a lot like watching a NASCAR restrictor plate race. The crowd is always eagerly anticipating a wreck. The ladies do not disappoint, it wasn't unusual at all for a 2-4 girl pile-up to occur in the corners. And when they do the crowd lets up a loud cheer. The coolest part of the sport is that once they have wrecked they players have to get back up and catch the pack to keep going at it.



It takes a certain type of woman to be a roller girl. I'm not exactly sure that I know anyone who fits the bill but there were all ages out there. Several women had their kids in the stands dressed in team colors.




Overall the crowd was a lot like a NASCAR race, lots of tattoos and beer (though they were serving Fat Tire Ale)yet surprisingly family friendly. There were lots of family members and friends in the stands.


We watched two 20 minute halves and the half-time show. The half-time preformance was a Maori Poi dance using balls that were on fire. She was also a player on one of the teams.


Now that we have been to a Roller Derby would we go again? Joanie and I agree that it was fun and tickets were only $10. When you live in Boise you've got to take advantage of what's around.

Joanie's Pears

After months of waiting in anticipation (including a few days where the shipping company couldn't FIND our street), we finally received "Joanie's Pears" a commissioned painting from Robert Lange.

I hung it that afternoon.

It may not live where I had originally planned because the varnish is so high that there's a terrible glare (you'll note the picture was taken from the side -- but I included a shot of it in the living room, for context, Eileen will know what she's looking at!).

If you haven't heard of Robert Lange, check out his website at Robert Lange Studios. He was recently chosen as one of 2007's New American Painters, by the Open Studios Press. We found him in Charleston a few years ago and I've been dreaming of buying one of his paintings ever since...

Tumbleweed

As an east coaster I've never really seen tumbleweed except in the movies. When we came to Boise to interview I saw it for the first time. We were sitting in a Tully's having coffee and there was a tumbleweed rolling across the parking lot. I ran to the car and pulled out the camera and by the time I turned around it was gone. Vanished. There was no sign of it anywhere in the parking lot.

Yesterday while driving on the highway that goes from downtown to the interstate, I crushed a large piece of tumbleweed as it blew across the highway. Maybe that's what happened to other one.

Eileen a.k.a. "Super Girl"

Eileen showed up from Portland late in the evening, the day after the boxes arrived. She was amazing. We had three monumental unpacking days and a nice little visit downtown as well. Despite the sheer volume of things to do, we turned the house away from total chaos, into a relatively organized home. We still have a room full of boxes to unpack, some hiding in the bedroom, and more in the garage, but the bulk of the work is done! We even hung a majority of the art...pretty nice. Way to go Eileen!

Two suitcases and an air mattress

Apparently I've never slept on an air mattress without my sleeping bag. You see, we normally use the air mattress when camping. That's right, camping. I never said I was an outdoors type... Anyway, what I discovered is that it's ridiculously cold sleeping on the air mattress in a house with no furniture and nothing more than an itchy wool blanket which barely covered the two of us. On night two, we went to the mall and bought a comforter.

Needless to say, when our furniture arrived following the third night, I was thrilled to make my bed as soon as possible. We had 290 boxes/pieces of furniture delivered. I don't really know if that's a lot or a little, but there was stuff everywhere! Boxes almost to the ceiling in some rooms. And although the movers did a great job of walking through, pretending to learn where to put everything, they still put boxes in the wrong rooms and everywhere that the furniture should go. Ah well.