Saturday, May 31, 2014
Bellmore, New York
Schedule
Participants
Dave (18th), Marc (18th), Span (), Mehr (), Brian (), Eugene (), Matt (), Eric (6th)
Anecdotes
Reviews
The planning for the 18th annual MBBB began when Marc sent an email out to the MBBB crew on February 21, 2014. He asked if anyone was interested in hosting and whether any dates for May or June were already unavailable for the event. Everyone very quickly determined that Long Island would once again be the best place to host the event as David, Span, Matt, and Mehr would have trouble housing everyone, especially with multiple children and newborns. Holidays and birthday weekends also eliminated a number of potential dates and so May 31st was agreed upon soon thereafter.
Events were the very next topic that sprung to mind. Even though we had completed so many events in the 17 previous MBBBs, a concerted effort was made by all to try to introduce new activities and keep the day fresh. Matt saw a number of lawn games in his garage and suggested croquet which he noted seemed boring but was anything but. Marc threw out surfing or stand up paddle lessons and remote fliers such as planes or helicopters. David thought go-karting or curling might be fun and Mehr offered up European handball. In the end, due to time and money constraints, lawn games (croquet, ladder golf, maybe cornhole) and European handball were the lucky two chosen.
The locations for meals were the final piece of the puzzle. As we had had breakfast at the Sunrise Diner many times already, it was easy to choose it again. Marc then suggested the newly opened Panera Bread for lunch and nobody had any objections. Finally, Marc suggested a different approach for dinner. Normally, the MBBB gang would to out to a restaurant for dinner. However, the drawbacks always included price, waiting in line, and then the normally long wait during service. Therefore, Marc suggested that everyone get take out and eat dinner at his house. Options would include Indian/Pakistani food, pizza, Chinese, plus numerous fast food restaurants. This was agreed upon and so almost all of the pieces were in place for another great event.
The only negative possibility that lingered was the weather. The previous year, Watertown, MA had seen a heat wave which made the MBBB members struggle at times through 90 degree weather. But, as May 31 drew closer and closer, no one could believe their luck. The weather would be very close to 70 degrees with only the slightest chance of rain, meaning it would be the best weather seen by a MBBB in quite a long time.
Breakfast
The time set for the beginning of MBBB 18 was 9:30 AM. David and Brian had arrived at Marc's house the night before and so didn't have to travel. Mehr, Span, and Matt were to travel from Harrisburg, PA, Wilmington, DE, and Syracuse, NY respectively. Matt and Span traveled on Friday, but Mehr advised he would drive in Saturday morning and attempt to be at Marc's house by 9:30. So, what was the order of arrivals? Despite leaving from Harrisburg in the morning, Mehr actually got to the house first at 9:00. Eugene surprised by following at 9:34, and then Matt and Span arrived almost at the same time (9:43 and 9:44). It was by far the earliest that everyone had arrived at the beginning of MBBB, at least in a long, long time.
After exchanging pleasantries, Marc and David agreed to take on driving duties for the day. Mehr and Matt transferred supplies such as water and sporting goods to those cars and off everyone went to the Sunrise Diner. Mehr, Matt, and Eugene rode in Marc's car while Brian and Span rode with David. After a short ride and parking in the diner's lot, David advised that brother Eric was going to join them for breakfast and even some events. It didn't take long for the diner to put two tables (one square and one round) together so that the eight of us could eat a hearty breakfast that would supply the energy needed for the active events to come.
This breakfast wasn't very different than those that had taken place before it, but there were some items of note as everyone talked about how the past year had gone. The diner was televising the French Open so David and Matt brought everyone up to speed as to who had been eliminated (it was a surprise that Serena Williams was already out). This triggered a thought to Mehr; he was watching a Law & Order: SVU where Serena was guest-starring. When he saw her, he immediately thought to himself: "She did it!" So, then a number of other people at the table concurred that having guest stars on TV shows or movies often ruins the surprise.
Upon ordering their meals, there was also a debate (if you can call it that) on what the healthiest beverage was. Marc ordered water, David tea, and Mehr orange juice. Though both David and Mehr would be drinking sugar, they agreed that at least Mehr's drink had some vitamins in it.
???What else did we talk about?
European Handball
After breakfast, Marc, David, and Eric drove everyone down to the elementary school that all of the Strucks attended, Birch Elementary. As they walked towards the tennis courts, they noted many of the changes since they were younger (new fencing, updated playground, expanded basketball courts) and also remembered some of the games they played back when they still lived in Merrick (wiffleball against the garage, baseball both inside and outside the tennis courts).
Upon approaching the tennis courts, everyone was soon surprised and dismayed at their terrible condition. The rest of the school grounds appeared to be in great shape (there was even a vehicle using a drag to smooth the dirt of a baseball field). In stark contrast to that, the group saw large amounts of ivy both climbing the fences surrounding the tennis courts as well as on the surface of the court itself. In addition, the courts had numerous cracks which predicted that it might be dangerous to play on.
Nonetheless, the game would go on and so Mehr positioned the orange cones for the goals and explained the rules while everyone else either stretched or practiced shooting and goalkeeping. David attempted to make fair teams and eventually the consensus became Mehr, Eric, Span, and Matt versus Marc, David, Brian, and Eugene. Eric and Marc played rock, paper, scissors for possession and Marc won by choosing scissors to cut Eric's paper.
On the very first possession, Marc, David, and Eugene advanced the ball (a volleyball supplied by Mehr) while Brian stayed back in goal. They moved and passed quickly and it wasn't long before Marc shot and scored on Span? (or Matt?) to score the first goal. After that, there was a lot of back and forth with each moving the ball well while mostly excellent defense was played by the goal keepers. Brian and Eugene shared goalkeeping duties for their team while Matt and Span shared for theirs.
After about 15 minutes of play, the score was 3-2 with Marc scoring three goals including one through the five-hole on Matt (which was interesting as Matt is such a big hockey fan?). On the other team, Eric used a two-handed approach to score both of his team's goals. Unfortunately, the game was about to come to an abrupt stop. As Mehr moved the ball up the court, he made a great pass to Eric near the perimeter of the goal area. Eric went to shoot but stepped in a crack (we think) and all of the sudden was in terrible pain. He started limping over towards the fence as Marc followed and tried to determine what was wrong. After a few minutes, Eugene, Mehr, and Marc used their experience and hypothesized that Eric had strained and thankfully not torn his left (?) Achilles tendon. Based on this and due to the luck that the Strucks' mother lived just a stone's throw away from Birch Elementary, Eric decided to go her house to ice his leg down and possibly wrap it as well.
David, Span, and Marc then talked about the possibility of continuing the game by playing half court with Span as automatic goalie (Span quipped, "At least it would be a high-scoring game then!"). However, the mood was not great after Eric's injury and it was decided that it would be best to move to the next event at Marc's house.
Croquet
Back where the day began, Matt and Mehr took the liberty of setting up the croquet course. It didn't take long and soon Matt was doing his best to explain the rules, which were more extensive than most expected. Once everyone was ready to play, another complication arose. There were seven players but only six balls and mallets. The solution turned out to be a rubberized baseball that Mehr found during the gang's visit to Birch Elementary. It would be substituted in for a croquet ball during each round, preferably a ball which would not be in play during any particular player's turn.
With the rules and equipment issues settled, it was time to determine the order of players. Much like with Bocce ball, everyone threw one ball towards the middle wicket with the closest being able to choose their position in the order first. Matt and Mehr had advised that being in the middle was best and that being first was worst. Thus, as David (?) threw his ball closest and Mehr was furthest away, David took the fourth spot while Mehr was left with the first. The final order was Mehr, Matt, Eugene, David, Marc, Brian, and Span.
Croquet can be a very slow, strategic game and so this one was as well. However, there were some great moments:
1. Span and Eugene took turns hitting each other into the dirt near the garage early in the game which effectively eliminated them from winning.
2. Almost every time a player knocked his ball into someone else's, a chorus of "Launch! Launch!" from the rest of the players sprang up.
3. On the back half of the course, Mehr launched Matt's ball about 8 feet into the dirt by Marc's fence. Despite both a brick and some bamboo being in his way, Matt still found a way to hit out of the dirt and into another croquet ball. You can watch that incredible shot here.
4. This was not related to the croquet played, but it was during the game that David found out that Eric would be able to run the scavenger hunt later in the day despite his injury.
5. Also, not related to the game, Span often kept Marc's mischievous son Max at bay (he wanted to pick up the croquet balls) by playing with him and teaching him various ways to give high fives.
There were many lead changes during the game and a lot of that owed to the long grass in the backyard which hadn't been mowed since Tuesday. This made it difficult to accurately measure the length of one's shot, and also sent even the shortest shots left and right instead of straight. David finished the game by pulling ahead on the second half of the course and winning the game with Marc the closest behind.
In the end, though the event was supposed to be "Lawn Games", everyone agreed that they didn't need more than one lawn game because croquet had been such a long-lasting and fun activity.
Lunch
Late afternoon was approaching and it was time to fill their bellies again. Everyone jumped into the two cars and rode over to a Panera Bread location which had only just opened a few months prior. The line was short, the sandwiches were cooked quickly, and it wasn't long before the group was enjoying menu items such as Sierra Turkey on Focaccia with Asiago Cheese and Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean soup. In fact, the soup was a great help as Eugene was able to eat freely with the knowledge that he wouldn't suffer from his lactose intolerance as happened the year prior.
A variety of topics were again explored, but most importantly, the current members of MBBB reminisced about previous members and what they were up to. Of course, the topic came up in the oddest way: both David and Eugene saw someone in the restaurant who they almost mistook for Russ before realizing how young he was. A couple of theories were then bandied about due to the coincidence: maybe Russ had created a younger cloned version of himself or perhaps his teenage self had traveled into the future to see how all of his friends were doing. Unfortunately, no one thought to ask this mystery person such questions and so we'll never know.
Scavenger Hunt
A short drive down Merrick Road and soon everyone was joining Eric as host for the scavenger hunt at Field 9 at Cedar Creek Park. Eric had designated a hilltop just across the street as both the start and finish of the race. Soon after climbing the hill, Eric split the group into three teams which he hoped would be competitive with one another. The two major criteria he used were that no team should have two Strucks and that each team should have a player capable of (and willing to) run a fair amount. This led to the teams of Marc and Eugene, Mehr and Brian, and Span, David, and Matt.
Eric explained that the event would be like a scavenger hunt meets geocaching meets The Amazing Race. A master list of pictures that each team could take while completing the hunt were first handed out by Eric. Then, a staggered start was implemented with Marc and Eugene starting first, Mehr and Brian starting three minutes later, and the final team starting another three minutes after that.
The first part of the event involved a math problem based on items within a short distance of the hill. Seven green benches, two softball fields, eight tennis courts, and six basketball rims multiplied up to the correct answer of 672. Marc and David's teams finished this part pretty quickly, but Brian's stumbled as it was difficult to see the basketball rims which were hidden behind the tennis courts. At first his team though there were four and then five.
The next section of the event included a physical activity: throwing a frisbee back and forth from one concrete block to another. It ended up being quite difficult for two reasons. The first was that Eric had brought frisbees that you might get during a cruise ship giveaway. This was compounded by the wind at the top of the hill which curved each throw of the frisbee greatly. David's team had the most success with five completed throws, Marc's followed with four, and Brian's team again struggled with just one.
Third up was a list of quotes from movies from the 1980's, one of the golden ages in cinema. David and Brian's teams excelled here. In particular, Span motored through the list leading his team to 19 correct answers out of 20. Brian and Mehr successfully answered 16, but Marc and Eugene could only net 13. Marc and Eugene also lost time here as Marc went to try take a few pictures of items around the park. Meanwhile, David's team was taking the lead as they handed the questions in quickly and moved onto the next stage of the race.
That stage would take each team across the park, from the beginning of the bicycle path, past the playground, and finally to the dog park where Eric awaited their arrival. It was at this point that each team would complete the Dash and Cache. One member would run to the signs for Field 9 and 10 to obtain secret code words while another searched for a nanocache somewhere along the dog park's fence.
Surprisingly however, even after David and Marc completed the very long trek to Fields 9 and 10, both Span and Eugene were both still looking for the nanocache. It took Eric four hints before each team was finally able to find it. As David's team found it first, they started the next section which included repeatedly completing throws of (another small) frisbee down to the Field 9 sign and back. The team started out strong and had a great strategy; as soon as one person would catch the frisbee, he'd put it on the ground and run back to position himself for the next throw.
Despite this, Marc and Eugene had an even better advantage: they had both regularly played Ultimate Frisbee while in high school and on the track team. This advantage was particularly prevalent after each team hit the halfway point and headed back into the wind. Eugene was much more able to throw the frisbee in a straight line while Matt and David's throws kept curving away, sometimes dangerously into the nearby road. After the race, Eric said originally they were to throw the frisbee around the soccer field so as to avoid the street and cars. However, as there was a soccer game going on during the race, he had to ::Ross Geller:: "PIV-OT!" That said, Marc and Eugene regained the lead while Mehr and Brian remained mostly absent.
Both teams headed back to the hilltop where they started the race for one final push. Eric asked them who the bicycle path was named after and Marc and David raced to find the correct answer on Ellen Farrant. They met Eric back in the parking lot where Mehr and Brian were still completing the frisbee catching leg and obviously stopped. The win seemed likely to go to David's team as they had started six minutes behind Marc's team and yet finished only two minutes later. However, there was a huge curveball: David's team had forgotten that Eric had given them a list of pictures to take and missed out on all of those bonus seconds. So, Eric told everyone he would go home to rest his leg some more, calculate the times, and let them know who won when he met them for dinner later at Marc's house.
One other note: why did Brian and Mehr fall out of contention so early on in the race? Apparently, Brian thought that the beginning of the bicycle path was at the park opening at Sunrise Highway. As this is a long, long run from the hilltop, it took them much too long to get there before realizing they were in the wrong place.
If you want a much more detailed write-up on the event, you can get it from the creator himself (Eric). It includes both the 10 pictures that each team could take for bonus time as well as the 20 movie quotes (and answers) from the 1980's. Here's the link.
Mini-Golf
Despite two relatively long events in Croquet and the Scavenger Hunt, the MBBB crew was surprised to find that they actually had plenty of time to squeeze in another event before dinner. In some recent years, they had over-planned and chosen four events, one of which they couldn't complete. Therefore, the group took a minute to discuss which events they felt would be both quick and painless. Bowling and mini-golf were mentioned with mini-golf getting the nod due to majority vote. The only decision left was then where. They could go to Jones Beach but would have to pay for parking. Farmingdale and Eisenhower Park were also options, but instead everyone agreed to go to Bethpage as the course was both close and easy to locate.
Upon arriving at the course and getting their equipment, two interesting things were noticed. The first was that there was literally not a single person on the course which is unusual on a Saturday afternoon, especially with the excellent weather they were having. In addition, the cashier had been asking everyone to choose their color of ball; crazily enough, Marc, David, and (?) had chosen blue (and somehow actually received three different shades of blue), while Mehr, Eugene, and (?) had chosen orange. Were we Mets fans? Islanders fans? Yikes! Due to the obvious confusion that might take place on the course, a few people went back to the cashier to exchange their golf ball for another color.
A random selection of groups was made based on the order that Matt wrote the names on the scoring card. He, Mehr, Dave, and Span would play together while Eugene, Marc, and Brian would follow. The game went as expected, with some holes being easy, some hard (thanks to rock traps), and some just plain weird (e.g., holes in the middle of the course that had no obstacles and so felt like they should be at the beginning of the course, not the middle).
The only other major notes were that, oddly enough, after we started playing, a whole line of people joined in the fun and that Hole 16 was broken. This hole had a ramp and three holes you could shoot for, sort of like a Plinko board. Getting it in the highest hole rewarded you with a hole-in-one and getting it in the second highest hole a likely two stroke. However, if you missed both, the ball would fall to the side and you'd have to put around. Unfortunately, the third hole was not perfectly lined up and so everyone who missed the first two holes had to hit their ball off of the ramp. At first, it was being counted as a second stroke, but as the ramp was designed for the ball to go through, eventually the second stroke penalty was rescinded.
The final hole posed one more interesting scenario. All you had to do was put up a long ramp to get a hole-in-one. Seemingly. Of the seven players, only three got hole-in-ones and Span actually managed to hit his ball so that it ended up on the side of the ramp. All told, Mehr was the big winner in both total score and holes-in-one with a whopping three. The full results are noted below.
One final quip: the golf course had a small video game section that included an old school pinball machine licensed by Lethal Weapon 3 and that was probably more than 20 years old. In reference to this machine, Span would go on to say: "I'm getting too old for this ****!"
Dinner
After a long, successful day, everyone again retreated back to Marc's house for dinner. As noted above, the plan was choose from a variety of take-out places nearby. Marc had mentioned that he was interested in getting dinner from the Indian & Pakistani restaurant just around the corner. Mehr wasn't interested and felt such a meal would mess with his digestive system, so he asked where the nearest Subway restaurant was. Marc gave him directions and then turned his attention to everyone else. One by one, and very surprisingly, each of the other seven participants (including Eric who gave his order over the phone) said that they'd be interested in ordering either Indian and Pakistani. A list was written, a phone call was made, and half an hour later, Marc and David drove over to Lazzat Indian Restaurant to pick up the food, which included three (?) orders of Chicken Tikka Masala and plenty of Naan.
Mehr had come back and eaten his sandwich by the time everyone else ate; meanwhile, Eric had arrived as well. And thus, conversation flowed between the group with the topic of how terrible New York radio broadcasters (Stephen A. Smith, Mike Lupica, etc.) are being a particularly engaging one. Unfortunately, Mehr also mentioned that he had a lot of errands to run on Sunday and therefore would be leaving for home around 9:30 PM. This meant he would do the round-trip between Harrisburg, PA and Bellmore, NY (some seven hours of driving) all on the same day.
(What else did we talk about?)
Poker
After cleaning up dinner, the majority of the group asked Marc to set up for poker which he did by grabbing his poker tabletop (with both chip and cup holders) and poker chip set. As there was an NBA playoff game on, Marc decided to watch it instead; Brian was tired and wanted to go online on his phone. This meant that the five poker players would be Span (who was waiting at the table for quite a while for everyone else), Eric, Matt, Eugene, and David.
All players put in their $5.00 and got their chips prepared for nickel-ante poker. It was a shaky beginning as most of them hadn't played since two years ago at MBBB 16. In fact, Span actually forgot exactly what the rules for his preferred game (which we affectionately call the Span-dard) were. This segued into the games that certain members of the MBBB often chose while dealing: the Span-dard had been named for seven-card stud, deuces wild. And soon after Eugene started playing poker with the gang, he developed a preference for five-card draw, deuces wild, which came to be known as the Euge-ual.
Two years ago, Matt had also chosen a game that he had seen many times on Star Trek: The Next Generation: five card stud, deuces wild. Matt decided to use wild cards even though the characters on ST:TNG didn't because otherwise it would be very difficult to form good hands. A great name didn't come quickly, so it was called the Star Trek Special at the time. But ever since that night, David had tried to think of some catchy titles for the game. Two years later and he presented Matt with two options: Matter of Fact or the Matt-ural. Matt chose (?)
(Need some info on the hands from David)
Just as the players were hitting their groove, Marc announced that they would have to take a little break as he had arranged a surprise for them. He had been in contact with another former classmate from high school for the past month, Rania Elbaz. They had come back into contact because she had opened a pediatric dentistry in Merrick, the town over from Bellmore, and Marc's son Max was just now approaching the age where he needed a dentist. Coincidentally, just a month before the MBBB, Rania asked Marc if he ever saw still people from high school; specifically, she mentioned Matt Berger's name. Marc told her the MBBB to come and from there they arranged a meeting when Marc knew everyone would be at his house (during poker).
So, at 11:15 PM, Rania and her husband arrived and she greeted some members with hugs and others with questions. It was nice to reconnect, but Rania didn't want to interrupt too much and therefore left after about 30 minutes so that the players could get back to their checking, betting, raising, and bluffing.
A little before 1:00 AM and after dozens of hands of different styles of poker, the games were completed and everyone settled up. Span was the big winner while Matt had lost the most money. Totals are listed below:
Span: $2.80
David: $0.65
Eugene: ($0.85)
Eric: ($0.95)
Matt: ($1.70)
Eric left almost immediately after the event as he needed to get some rest, both for his body and his leg. Span, Matt, and Eugene lingered for a little while to talk before departing just around 1:15 AM. Thus ended another largely successful May Birthday Bash Bonanza, with everyone certain that far more MBBBs would follow in its wake.
Notes