Smurfs Team Dinner - Osaka Sushi

We organized another team dinner for our Cornerstone Sports Night team. Originally we had nine people who said they could come out. But, Annie and Dan had to back out because they had just returned from vacation overseas and their baby was a bit cranky.

As well, Mike, lost his wallet right before we were supposed to meet, so he had to go look for it. So it was just Lily and Lemei, Chuan and her husband, Anthony, and Derek and I.

Since I had AYCE sushi the week before I suggested either going to Amaya the Indian Room or AYCE meat at Korean Grill on Highway 7 and Leslie. Derek suggested Osaka Sushi on Highway 7 west of Markham Road. He found it on Yelp. He didn't think the girls would be interested in AYCE.

After looking through the menu at Osaka Sushi and seeing that it was a little pricey we all agreed AYCE would have actually been better. Next time.

For the six of us we ordered a large sushi/sashimi boat, plus a couple of their specialty rolls - the $16 Toronto Roll and $15 King Spider Roll.

The food was good for sure. But, we weren't quite full and didn't really want to spend much more money there. So we hit a Chinese dessert place at Midland and McNicoll afterwards.

Oh... and, Mike... he eventually found his wallet. Whew.

Smurfs Rock Floor Hockey

First it was volleyball, now floor hockey. Our Cornerstone Church Sports Night team, The Smurfs, have prevailed once again.

Cornerstone Church has been running a winter sports league for many years. Traditionally we play three sports - volleyball, floor hockey and our version of European handball. For variety we might throw in a night of dodge ball or basketball or soccer now and then.

Originally we started with three teams in the league. Two teams would play first while one rested and then we would rotate. Later on we switched to a high school with a double gym. This allowed us to expand to six teams which was great.

In the fall the captains gather at one of the organizer's homes to pick teams. The games begin shortly after. We usually play each sport 7 or 8 weeks.

The first one we played this year was volleyball. It totally makes sense because none of the teams has their shirts yet (they're on order). For volleyball each team is on opposite sides of the court, so it doesn't matter what colour shirt you have. You automatically know who's on your team.

After six or seven weeks our team, The Smurfs, languished in 4th place. In the playoffs none of that mattered though. Everyone was given a fresh start.

We were put in a round robin group with the 1st and 6th place teams, while the 2nd, 3rd and 5th place teams were in the other. After playing both teams in your bracket the first place team in Group A would play the second place team in Group B and vice versa. The winners of those games would meet in the finals.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but our team actually won the whole thing. I guess anything can happen on any given night. As long as you're consistent and, perhaps, have a bit of luck on your side you always have a chance.

Floor hockey was a different story. Like last year, our team was pretty dominant from the start. Though we didn't win as many games as we did last year when we went undefeated in the regular season, we still went undefeated until the second last game this year. Along with that singular loss we had a fair number of ties to go with our wins.

Like last year we put a girl in goal. Last year it was Frida, this year Ellen. That allowed us to have an extra guy out. We were counting on our offence to win games and, generally, it worked.

This round we were the top seed going into the finals. But, as I stated before, anything can happen. We learned that the hard way in the second last game when the then last place team beat us. So we knew we couldn't take anything for granted.

Also, our goalie, Ellen, had a sore hand so she couldn't play net. We substituted our stalwart backup, Dan, for her. But, that would mean one less guy playing out. We would have two guys and two girls playing out instead of three guys and one girl. Defensively we would be stronger, but our offence would take a hit.

The set up was the same as in the volleyball playoffs. Group A would be the 1st, 4th and 6th place teams and Group B the 2nd, 3rd and 5th place teams.

All the games were very close. We won both ours, but by only one goal each. The other teams were even closer. Many of their games ended in ties and had to go to a shootout.

Through each round we kept winning avoiding having to go to a shootout until the finals. I believe we tied 0-0. This is when having a guy in net made all the difference.

The same thing happened to us last year. We won all our games until we reached the finals which we ended up tying. Having a girl in net versus a guy at the other end was the difference maker. We lost the shootout and, therefore, the finals. That's the one thing I was quite concerned about this time too.

The shootout was really close. Each team picked three shooters (two guys and a girl). Our first three shooters failed to score. But, none of their first three shooters were able to score either.

But, then it was Ken's turn. He's quite a good player on the Monday Blues team. He ran up and deked around Dan and put the ball in the back of the net. Victory looked certain for them.

Now Derek, from our team, was under the gun. The weight of the world was on his shoulders. If he didn't score we would end up losing in the finals for the second year in a row. Well, guess what?... he scored extended the shootout further.

The next few players from both teams couldn't put the ball past either goalie. It was getting really tense. There were only two guys left on our team who hadn't taken a penalty shot yet, Mike and Curran. I chose Curran to go next, but he didn't want to go. I made him go anyway and it paid off. He ended up scoring and we won the game!

It was too close for comfort, but we were all happy about the results. We'll have a week off for March Break before returning for our final sport of European handball.

Smurfs Potluck Dinner

We had our Cornerstone Sports Night team dinner over the weekend. Ellen and Chung-Yen graciously opened their home up to us.

I suggested having potluck which everyone seemed to think was fine. Though the only people who actually cooked anything were Ellen and Chung-Yen and Curran and his wife, Jessica (purple team). The rest of us bought things (mostly desserts).

Ellen and Chung-Yen made pork brisket for pulled pork sandwiches and also they had a cucumber frittata (egg-based dish); Chuan bought some Samosas. For dessert Curran and Jessica baked an apple crisp, I bought an apple pie and Derek bought banana bread. Lemei and Lily bought some fresh cut fruit.

Annie and Dan couldn’t make it because their newborn baby was sick. Mike was unable to make it because of family commitments.

Dinner was good. Ellen and Chung-Yen set up some tables in their dining room so we were all able to eat at one big table. We got to know each other a little better. The only really new team members were Lemei and Lily. The rest have played on various other teams over the years. Lemei and Lily were invited out to Sports Night by their friend Crystal. Actually, they’re somehow related. Maybe Lemei and Lily’s older sister is married to someone that’s related to Crystal.

After dinner we played some games that I borrowed/took from my nephews. A few of them tried Camouflage (one of my favourites). While they were playing I read out questions from the Logo game that my nephews got for Christmas this year. We didn’t actually play with the board and game pieces. We treated it more like trivia with someone reading the questions and the rest of us yelling out the answers.

Our team is doing pretty well at Sports Night. We won volleyball (which was the first sport of three sessions). Now we’re playing floor hockey. After four weeks we’re undefeated. Though a lot of our games have ended in ties.

Go Smurfs!

Dinner with the Pink Flamingos

Our Cornerstone Sports Night team, the Pink Flamingos, had our team dinner at Rob and Kathleen's place at the beginning of the month. It was a potluck dinner. Since I can't cook I brought a caramel cake and four bottles of pop.

I was the first to arrive. Early. I came straight after my boarding home visit. Rob and Kathleen were still getting their food ready. Rob made ribs and Kathleen was working on a variety of appetizers like Jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese.

Not everyone could make it. Ricky was out of town. I believe some people were sick like Freda and possibly Andrew. Either that or he was busy. Winnie made it out though. So did Philip, Derek, Josh and Kim.

Dinner was good. There was a lot of food. We had to take the leftovers home.

After dinner Philip brought out his board game, Ticket to Ride. I believe it's an award-winning game developed in Germany. The idea is to gain points by either building sections of train routes and completing longer routes between various cities on the game board from the route cards you pick up.

I believe up to five people can play at once. The game board gets pretty crowded at that point. You can build train routes by picking up coloured cards (up to two) on your turn. Route sections on the board are colour coded. To build a section you have to collect the number of coloured cards between the two cities. It's pretty simple. The problem is if someone else builds on the section you want. Then you could be in trouble.

Anyway, we played two games. I won both. At first everyone was employing the same strategy - trying to building the long sections of track connecting to distant cities.à

In the second game I tried something different. I didn't concentrate on connecting the long sections of track between two distant cities. Instead I noticed that a lot of points were awarded for building long sections of track (15 points for building a six section track as opposed for 1, 2 and 4 points for building one, two and three section tracks).

So I concentrated on building random six section tracks around the game board. Though I didn't get many points for connecting distant cities, I built up such an immense lead that no one else could catch me. And I finished all my trains before people could connect their distant cities. So they actually lost points for the distant cities they didn't connect.

I have to admit that strategy probably strayed from the main idea of the game, but it was a sure way of winning. Oh well.

Anyway, it was nice for us to get together to get to know one another a bit better over the holiday season. Our team is pretty strong overall. I think we'll do well this season.

Floor Hockey Champs

Most of our team (minus Freda, Ken and Brian).

Our Cornerstone Sports Night team, The Atomic Green Beans, capped off an undefeated seven weeks of floor hockey last Monday. I believe we were the only team to have ever done this since Cornerstone Sports Night was started many years ago. It was an unbelievable run that may not ever be duplicated. Along with our 22 regular season wins we had 5 ties leading into the one day playoff.

Our first playoff game was against Hollis and Chung-Yen's orange team. Surprisingly, they ended up in last, a scant 2 points behind 5th place Blue (Josh's team). Team Orange has given us trouble before tying us one game. This game wouldn't be a walk in the park. And, as it turned out, they tied us again. Not a good start for us.

Next we played Rupert's White Team. We did well against them. That was the end of the round robin part of the playoffs. We would play Josh's Blue team in the next round.

The game against Josh's team wasn't very close. We scored a lot of goals against them. In the middle part of the season they were another team that tied us. But, later on we pretty much scored at will on them. Sometimes they can be overly aggressive leaving themselves open defensively which we capitalized on. Our team is good as moving the ball with accurate passes to one another.

The win over Blue catapulted us into the finals against Alan Ho's Black team. They've given us the most trouble overall with at least a couple of ties in the regular season. They have a good player who was rumoured to have played on the Thai national hockey team (for what that's worth).

For the finals they brought in their "ringer", Benson, to play goal. Benson had been away for most of the season doing his studies. But, I guess he made an exception to come out for the finals. Now we have a girl, Freda, in net. That frees up an extra guy for us to play out. That can be a big advantage as long as we limit the shots our opponents get on net.

One big disadvantage we faced on the night of the finals was our best girl (who plays out), Holly, was missing. She had damaged her ACL (or MCL possibly) skiing the day or two before our game and would likely be out the rest of the season (European Handball was next).

Holly was great at scoring goals for us. We planted her right beside the opponent's net and fed her the ball and she regularly scored. She just had that hand-eye coordination that was required.

Nevertheless, our team sucked it up and played hard earning a two or three goal victory over Black. I think the score was either 3-1 or 4-1. Our team was really happy. Hopefully we'll do alright at European Handball as well.

Skating @ Harbourfront

Our Cornerstone Sports Night team went skating at Harbourfront on Saturday. Well, at least four of us did. We had asked people to pick a day that suited them best and this was supposed to be it. But, there were some last minute cancellations and one person forgot and another just didn't show. So there ended up being four of us.

It was still good. I like skating outdoors. And the Harbourfront is a great place to skate outside. The scenery is nicer than Nathan Philips Square where you're surrounded by concrete and buildings. At least you have Lake Ontario nearby when you're by the waterfront.

After skating we went to dinner at Gonoe Sushi which was just across the street. We ordered a huge 80-piece sushi boat and split it between the four of us. It was impressive looking I have to say. Maybe we'll try again soon and see if we can get a few more people out.

Atomic Green Beans

Danny, me, Andrew, Joe, Winnie, Holly, Karen and Jennifer

Atomic Green Beans - No, it's not some post apocalyptic food item, it's the name of our current Cornerstone Multi-Sport team (aka - the Beans). We're so named because of our bright, lime-green sports jerseys if you must know.

Our season began at the beginning of October. We played a variety of team building games. The following week was Thanksgiving so, of course, we had it off. After that we started eight weeks of volleyball.

Our team did well in volleyball. We had the best record during the regular season. The playoffs were a different story. We skipped directly into the semis where we lost the best of three series 2 games to 1 to Michael's Yellow Team (the eventual winners).

We ended up winning the rest of the games we played that evening unofficially ending up in third. That's alright... it was fun. We put in a good effort.

The picture (above) is from our team dinner at Holly's place. We met up on the first Sunday in December. It was hard finding a day where most people could make it especially in December (close to Christmas). Unfortunately Ken and Brian couldn't come. Freda came late.

Dinner was a little sparse. We didn't really coordinate it as well as we could have I suppose. Winnie and Andrew bought duck and roast pork. Jennifer made a vegetable platter with some dip she bought at the One-of-a-Kind Show,  Holly made some pork and a pot of rice and I bought a tray of sushi with the $50 the Multi-Sport organizers gave us.

For dessert Danny bought ice cream and pie, I bought pie and Joe and Karen bought two tubs of ice cream. Needless to say we had a lot of pie and ice cream.

After dinner we headed to the basement to play board games. I don't remember the names of any of the games we played, but they were fun. Holly has a lot of games.

Our next idea for a team outing is skating at Harbourfront. That ought to be fun.

Cornerstone Sports Night - Angry Birds

Meet the Angry Birds (so named for our red jerseys). This is the Cornerstone Sports Night team I was on this year. Back row (from left) Sang Hee, Ellen, John, Chloe, Sam, Allan. Chung-Yen and I are in the front. Missing are Stephanie and Mike.

We started playing European handball last October. That lasted seven weeks. Next was volleyball for eight weeks. Finally we finished off with eight weeks of floor hockey.

Our team did well. Everyone hustled and played hard. We came first in European handball, first in volleyball and were runner ups in floor hockey. Congrats, Angry Birds!

Angry Birds... No, not those ones

This is a picture of our Cornerstone Sports Night team... well, not exactly. Thanks to the creative thinking of one of our members, Allan, our team name is Angry Birds. I think it's appropriate considering our shirt colour is red.

We started on October 3rd which was a Monday. That was a change from the previous years. In the past we always played on Thursdays. We also changed locations from Unionville High School at Warden and Highway 7 to Milliken Mills Secondary School at Denison and Kennedy. It has a large double gym there. That afforded us the luxury of expanding from three to six teams.

The first week was mainly an introduction for all the new people. We got to meet the members of our teams for the first time as well. The sport for that week was dodge ball (which our team did pretty well in).

The following week was Thanksgiving. So, instead of exercising, everyone stayed at home and ate turkey.

After that we had three weeks of European handball. I'm not sure what happened to the girls on our team the first week we returned. But, only Ellen showed up. We ended up playing short one player the whole night (since each team was supposed to field a contingent of three guys and two girls). Still we did well.

Each of the following two weeks we had three girls turn out. That was better. As usual we had around five guys to rotate through. That's an ideal number to give each one of us enough rest between shifts. Most of us have decent cardio which helps when you have to run so much.

To that end our results have been quite good. We're just a bunch of skinny guys that like running. Hopefully we can keep it up for the rest of the season.

Curling with Cornerstone

Yes, we did it. We went curling... a true Canadian experience. A few of us from our Cornerstone Church Thursday Sport Night group went last Saturday. Ken organized an afternoon out at the Richmond Hill Curling Club on Elgin Mills, just east of Yonge. Out of the sixteen of us who went only two had gone before. Jennifer had gone once and Chris twice. The rest of us were neophytes.

A young lady, who mentioned she just recently started curling, was our instructor. She had a us walk on the ice and get used to the feeling of how slippery it was underfoot. She then had us practice pushing off the "hack". It's sort of like the sprinter's blocks that runners use at track meets. You use it to push off of when throwing rocks/stones down the ice. We practiced sweeping with the brooms and she told us about scoring and a few other rules then let us play.

I have to say, the most difficult part was judging the correct draw weight. In other words, trying to figure out how heavy to throw the rock down the ice. More often than not, we threw it either too hard or too soft. It was tough getting it anywhere near the button (the circle in the middle of the house/scoring rings).

The second most difficult thing was getting the stones to go straight. It was sort of like bowling. If you were a little bit off-line at the beginning it just got worse as the rock slid down the ice. If it touched the black lines on the side it was deemed out of bounds and taken out of play.

Sweeping was a lot more physically demanding than most of us imagined too. You really have to sweep hard and fast when trying to get the stones to slide further. Especially if someone threw too lightly. You could burn yourself out pretty quickly sweeping vigorously trying to get it to go past the "hog line". That's a line 10 metres from the end of the ice that the stone must pass to remain in play.

Needless to say we were all pretty crappy at first. We did improve slightly after awhile. But, we have a long way to go to to even achieve mediocrity. Still it was fun. I know we all enjoyed ourselves.

After the game we headed over to the nearby Kelsey's on Elgin Mills, just east of Leslie where we had dinner and watched the pro's put on a show at the Tim Horton's Brier (Canadian Championships) on TSN (The Sports Network).

Last Game of the Season

The Golden Nuggets - Girls' table + Chris

We played our last Ultimate game of the season this past Tuesday. It was the second week of playoffs and we were vying for 5th place. Unfortunately we lost and ended up in 6th. That's not too bad considering we started the season on a huge losing streak. Out of the first five or six games we played we only won one. It was only at the end when we pulled off two straight wins to finish off round robin play and won last week's first playoff game which elevated us to a respectable placing.

Nevertheless the season was fun, regardless of where we ended up. It was cool meeting some new people. We certainly got our exercise. Especially the girls who on occasion had to go without subs because the other girls were away. That was definitely tough.

The season ended as it began... at Boston Pizza. Part of our league payment went to an opening night and closing night celebration with snacks provided. We all got drinks, appetizers, and light fare which included garlic bread, salad, pasta and pizza. It was a time to hang with your friends and talk about how things went over the course of the few months we played.

Thanks go out to Gord Lau who organized the league. And to all the team captains and other people who made it turn out as well as it did. Cheers.

Ultimate Frisbee

Back row: Rahim, Tim, Me, Jason; Middle row: Calvin, Taku, Curran, Chris, Benson; Front row: Tomomi, Mila, Mary, Laura, Michelle, Anju; (missing Doug)

After a two or three year absence I rejoined the Cornerstone Ultimate League. I played with them a few years ago when my former company was located near Yorkdale Mall. But, after we moved west closer to the airport it was just too far to get there on time after work. Now that I'm not working I have all the time in the world.

This is probably our 10th or 11th week playing. We had a couple of weeks of practice at the beginning. After that we formed our teams. Since we have yellow/gold coloured shirts we decided to call ourselves the Golden Nuggets.

Our captain is Jason Cook. He's quite a good player. Calvin Lee is his assistant. We have a mix of players. Some are new, others have a bit of experience.

Our turnout at the beginning was quite good. We had a good number of guys and girls showing up. But, in the past few weeks the attendance for the girls has dropped. So the ones who do come out don't get any rest. It's tough on them, but they're warriors.

I thought our team might do alright, but we started off kind of poorly. We lost a whole bunch of games in a row. Finally a few weeks in we won one. And oddly enough in the past few weeks we've strung together a three game winning streak. Things are turning around for us it seems. It's too bad the season is ending next week. We should have started this winning streak sooner, eh?

Gym Night

We had Gym Night tonight. Gym Night is organized by a group of my friends who attend Cornerstone Church in Markham. During the fall/winter they rent out one of the gyms at Unionville High School to play a variety of sports. It begins at 8:00 p.m. every Thursday. We started two weeks ago with European handball. We'll also play floor hockey at some point down the road. That's always a fan favorite. Except when you get whacked in the shin with one of the plastic sticks we use. It happens, get used to it. Last year we played volleyball too. I heard we're mixing things up a bit, so we might not play it as much this year.

Of course, you can see from my photo we're not in a high school gym. No, we're at a soccer dome. I assume the gym was being used so that's why we were here. Also, from the photo, if you are very observant, you can see we're not playing soccer either. No, this evening we played Ultimate. It's a frisbee game. The concept is pretty simple. You have to throw the frisbee to one of your teammates, eventually making your way down to the opponents end of the field. When one of your teammates catches the frisbee in their end zone your team scores a point. The team with the most points at the end of the night wins. If, by chance, one of your teammates drops the frisbee or misses it, or it's knocked down or caught by the opposing side, your team loses possession and the other team goes the other way. Not too difficult to figure out. There's a lot of running involved though. Running back and forth and forth and back. A good workout for sure. And fun at the same time. You couldn't ask for anything more. By-the-way... the game ended in a tie, 14-14. No winners, no losers. Everyone goes home in a so-so mood =)