To whom it may concern

Dear Mandrew,

Boo.

Sincerely,
Release the Hounds

I just wanna go to the rooftops and scream: Hounds beat Mandrew!!!!

Remember at the end of "The Karate Kid" when Daniel fought Johnny for the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Championships? After getting beat up for months, he finally defeated his nemesis and earned his respect at the same time. It was amazing! Who else wasn't cheering on Daniel when he went into the "Crane" stance? I mean who else besides Christian, who was 1 when this movie was released...

Ok, so that's about the opposite of how we reacted on Monday.

After two really, really bad losses last year, (and after two false starts this year), this past Monday the Hounds played, and finally beat, the venerable Monday team Mandrew. Even though 8 players had been busting their asses at Regionals, we managed to bring enough energy (and subs) to turn a 9-8 deficit at half in to a 17-12 victory.

Was it me, or were we as excited for that win as we were when we beat MOB in the winter? Seriously...this team kicked our asses last year...twice! Let's how some enthusiasm!

We will definitely have to watch out for them later as they are quite pissed off now. Plus, they were missing some of their key players.

Best comment at the lunch table at work on Tuesday

Me, to Rol: "Don' worry. Half of your team was tired from playing Regionals this weekend. Oh wait...that was us."

Perhaps that didn't help the whole "pissed off" thing. But c'mon, it was funny...

Bonnie can now retire (not really)

Where else can you go after hand-blocking an Olympic Gold medalist twice?

Then and now

Do you remember the time last year when Mandrew zoned us and we kept screwing up? Do you remember the time on Monday when they tried to zone us and we ripped through it faster than a 6-year-old tears through his Christmas presents? Do you remember the time when Michael Jackson released the "Remember the Time" video and it was showed on Fox? What a self-indulgent piece of garbage that was. Ooh, you kissed Iman and turned into sand...good for you...

From the makers of "Where's Waldo?"

Where's Simon?

[Hint: not at Eglinton Flats]

We're never going to play Mandrew are we?

There must be some cosmic force at work that doesn't want us to play Mandrew.  A big storm on Monday afternoon forced TUC called off games.  That's two games against Mandrew that haven't happened yet.  One day we'll play them...one day.

Of course, since 9 Hounds were playing at Northern Flights, we were about as disappointed with this ruling as Tien is when a plate full of wings is placed in front of him.  So, we were kind of like Garbage, if only for one day.

I'm itchy

Game tonight: 6:30 at Eglinton Flats Rugby #9

We're playing against the best competition on Mondays; Mandrew.

I can't really think of much more to say about our game tonight, because I'm too distracted from scratching all of my bug bites from playing in North Bay this weekend.

Apparently tears are not enough.

Also, yours truly made the North Bay Nugget. Had they asked me the same questions on Sunday, I would have had a much different response. So many things were missing (like, the TD and the schedules at the start of the day), it was like they forgot it was a 2-day tournament.

One more week

The best part is, I don't even have to procrastinate since we aren't playing Monday.  You know, since Mandrew can't field a team on Monday even though TUC has been starting the season on the long weekend for years.

Hopefully this weekend I'll come up with some sort of funny season preview.  Or what most of you will call it: a season preview.

And because it's been far too long since I should have posted this song suggestion from Dan; ladies and gentlemen: the Mooney Suzukis, who have obviously heard of us...

Lookin' for some shelter
Lookin' for some peace
The fire in the furnace
Been burnin' like the beast
My pants have all been pressed
All my collars neatly creased
My ride bummin' thumb is up
Cause now the hounds have been released

Release the Hounds!

But who will control the Beer Bong?

This past Monday marked the final game as a Hound for our good friend, Pierre Dufour. As we know, he will be leaving with Natalie for France where he will further his education at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, about 65 kms to the south of Paris. They already have a nice little place ready for their arrival, and I'm sure they will find lots to do while they are working and studying abroad.

Pierre has been a full-fledged member of the Hounds since we started way back in the Spring of 2005. I still remember the halcyon days when Pierre was "Party Guy" organizing all of the Hounds social events; including the infamous Old School movie night, the beer bong and the House Crawl. Although, given the amount of alcohol Pierre made me consume, I am amazed that I actually remember anything at all. I would be remiss (and Michelle would kill me) if I did not also mention the dragonflies at Snowplate.


Unfortunately due to an injury Pierre was only able to play the final point (which happened to be the longest point of the game), and even worse, we lost the game. But a matter such as winning an losing was definitely not the important aspect on Monday night. After the game, we went back to one of our original post-game stomping grounds, St. Louis', to re-live the good times and to give Pierre a proper Hounds send-off, which of course included an Irish Car Bomb.

He has already promised me that he will continue to check the site to keep in touch with our progress, since apparently I'm on his "Top 4" sites to check. He better keep reading, since he's one of about 8 people who actually pay attention here.

So, we say "A Bientot" to Pierre: Hound, Party Guy, Tournament Captain, and most importantly, our friend. Good luck in France, and we hope to see you soon.

J and K would like a word with you

Tonight we get a re-match with Mandrew, which will be a good measure of the progress of the Hounds over the past three weeks. Of course, the last time we played them did not go so well. The only term I can think to describe it would be “pooping the bed.”

I have brought the Men in Black to make a motivational appearance on our site to help us out. Please look at the light on the neutralizer.

[FLASH]

You did not lose that badly to Mandrew before. They totally cheated and the score should not have been 17-5. You did not get shut out in the first half.

You may not win tonight, but you will not beat yourself. You will play hard and smart, and work the disc up through their zone.

Then you are going to get Pierre really, really drunk.

Oh, and there’s no such thing as aliens.

I just want some pants

Since our attempt spying on the opposition didn't really help last week, I thought I'd try a more direct approach at scouting the opposition.

Me: "So Rol, how's the team looking for the game on Monday?"
Rol: "Dude, we got the Legion of Doom coming out."
Me: "Crap."

OK, so Mandrew pretty much has everyone coming out, so we're going to be in tough. So, here are some goals for the game:

1) Play our game
2) Work hard
3) Make smart decisions
3) Have fun

We know that the Legion of Doom has been known to bicker, so hopefully they will be worried about things other than ultimate, like their wardrobe.


We already have the kick-ass uniforms.