Saturday, June 13, 2015
Bellmore, New York
Schedule
Participants
Dave (19th), Marc (19th), Span (), Brian (), Eugene (), Matt (), Eric (7th), Rolly ()
Anecdotes
Reviews
The first email for MBBB 19 was sent out by Marc on April 2nd and it asked the usual questions: where would the next event be held and when? It took almost a month (May 7th) before everyone agreed to June 13th, a date with no conflicts due to holidays, birthdays, or otherwise.
Matt then suggested the possibility of doing a destination MBBB. A few members thought that this was a good idea, but also realized that it was too late in the game to coordinate such a venture. Thus, the idea was tabled with the possibility remaining open for a future MBBB. At the same time, no one definitively spoke out about hosting. This was probably due to the realization that hotels would need to be involved, thus driving up the cost for all of the married fathers (some with multiple children at that). And so, Long Island was once again deemed the best location for the bash.
Events soon became the next topic of conversation, with David and Matt asking for non-active events due to nagging injuries (are we getting old?). Mehr took to the task and suggested almost twenty events, active and non-active, and opinions quickly began forming. Location, cost, and novelty were all factors, as was the thought that the day might be too hot during the afternoon. The gang ended up narrowing the field down to shuffleboard and mini-golf (both were located at Jones Beach), a movie (Mad Max was the popular choice to break the MBBB Movie Curse), either frolf or volleyball, depending upon the logistics, and a board game or poker to end the day.
Meals were also discussed, with breakfast at a diner being the usual suggestion, dinner at an Indian restaurant being a mild surprise, and lunch TBD being a combination of both the usual and a surprise.
Unfortunately, late in the planning, May 28th to be exact, Mehr had to bow out due to a family issue. The group discussed the possibility of postponing, but Mehr insisted we forge ahead without him. Due to this, David actively sought Brian for inclusion into a few of the events; this, despite Brian dealing with an illness. Additionally, with Eric expecting a baby almost the same day as MBBB, it limited his ability to commit to too many of the day's events, but his hope was that he could at least join us for some of the later activities.
Another knock to the MBBB plans arose just three days before the event (i.e., June 10th). Matt advised that his entire family was ill and so he was unlikely to be in good enough shape to endure the long drive down from Syracuse. Though everyone was a little rattled, they moved ahead with their plans. Thankfully, most of the events could be played individually, which meant it didn't matter if the group consisted of an even or odd number. The day would go on and they were sure that it would still work out very well.
Breakfast
After Brian, Span, and Eugene arrived at Marc's house (in that order - David had slept over), the five members decided to eat at the same diner they had eaten at the past few years. It was a quick drive with everyone piling into David's SUV (?), and also a quick seating at a familiar round table. Everyone checked out their menus and talked about the goings-on of the past year.
One particularly funny thing happened while Span was ordering his breakfast. He wanted some pancakes (?) with maple syrup, but the menu indicated that maple syrup would cost an additional $2.99 (?). So, he ordered a different menu item. Then, after the food was served, the waiter put some tiny syrup containers on the table and Span became rather dismayed. It turned out that the $2.99 maple syrup was likely from a bottle (or a nicer brand), so Span could have kept his original order if he had liked. This mistake was reintroduced later on during the drive to Jones Beach when Span called his wife Rachel about the maple syrup quandary. It turned out that she was flabbergasted that he could be unaware of the free syrup.
One other tiny note was that, upon exiting the diner, the group crossed paths with a mailman, and so Marc remarked that it immediately made him think of how Mehr couldn't attend this year. Mehr is, after all, a mailman. Heck, even his team name in their Seinfeld-based fantasy football league is "The Postal Workers" with a picture of Newman to supplement the idea.
Shuffleboard
As noted above, the group decided to drive to Jones Beach after breakfast as they would be able to squeeze in two events without any additional travel. Bearing in mind that it was a hot Saturday in the middle of June, they worried that the beach (and their activities) might be a bit crowded. This proved to be anything but true. Surprisingly, as they drove the car into the Field 4 parking lot, there were less than 10 cars in the lot. They were flabbergasted, made mention of it, but then realized that they might as well be happy to take advantage of it. They grabbed some water, put on their sunscreen, and started the walk to the shuffleboard courts.
There was only one problem: while human activity was scarce, insect activity was through the roof. Flies buzzed around everyone's heads, landed on their shoulders, and otherwise annoyed the heck out of them. The approach to the courts offered no relief and, tiring of using their hands to swat at the flies to no avail, they applied plenty of bug spray to keep them at bay. The bugs were particularly fond of Marc, and David had to apply a fair amount to the back of his t-shirt.
Starting the competition also entailed a small problem. While the price was right (just $2.00 to rent the equipment), no one had a particularly good grasp of the rules. Thank goodness for wireless internet and smartphones, then! After a few minutes, the rules were laid clear and the games began.
A detailed list of the scores is noted below, but here are some of the more interesting things that can be told about the event. As you look at the scores, you should note that the person listed first for each game was the person who pushed their pucks (a.k.a. biscuits) first. It is important to switch up who goes first each game as the person who goes second has the opportunity to both knock the other player's pucks away as well as forego an actual play on their final push if they're already in the lead. This is because they want to avoid the -10 box and/or knock their own pucks out of scoring zones. Though, oddly, most of the winning players for each game happened to go first. You'll also notice that the scores often ended up in the negative for one or both of the players. You can blame that on it being a first-time event for the gang.
That said, the event was structured in a round robin fashion (as there were only five participants) with the idea being that the players with the two best records at the end would then play in a championship game. Crazily enough however, three people finished with the second-best record and so the tiebreaker went to points. Eugene edged out Span by six points and went on to play David in the final. David, as the higher seed, chose to go second for the strategic purposes listed above, and the strategy worked as he squeaked out the win by a mere three points.
(Need to check with David if he remembers it this way.)
Additionally, it turned out that a number of people were actually interested in the results of the action. In reaction to this, Marc hopped onto Twitter during the day to relay the MBBB experience, but Jones Beach happened to be where much of his tweeting happened. In particular, Matt wished to follow the proceedings and so enthusiastically added Marc's account to his feed, while also offering his own insights here and there. And, apparently because not much was going on at the beach that morning, a number of other patrons stopped and watched the below-average play of the MBBB group. They were passing by on the boardwalk that overlooks the court, so they probably thought, "Why not?". But did they cheer anyone on? Not really. They pretty much just watched in silence for a few minutes before moving on to find something a little more entertaining.
Round Robin Scores:
Marc (14) vs. Brian (-10)
Eugene (14) vs. Span (8)
David (-10) vs. Marc (-20)
Span (22) vs. Brian (18)
David (8) vs. Eugene (7)
Span (-3) vs. Marc (-10)
Eugene (30) vs. Brian (7)
Span (8) vs. David (22)
Eugene (-10) vs. Marc (0)
David (12) vs. Brian (11)
Round Robin Wins/Losses:
David: 4-0
Eugene: 2-2 (41)
Span: 2-2 (35)
Marc: 2-2 (-16)
Brian: 0-4
Final
Eugene (-3) vs. David (0)
Mini-Golf
After the gang returned the shuffleboard equipment, it was an extremely short walk to the mini-golf course. This area was also peculiarly a ghost town, but everyone was happy to take advantage. Generally, they take the competition pretty seriously (lining up shots and taking practice swings), and so oftentimes groups behind them have to wait hole after hole (because other people don't take mini-golf so seriously for some reason). They also decided early on to give each player one mulligan (i.e. a do-over swing) during the game; these would be used strategically by each member of the match.
Marc and David each took turns keeping track of the scores for each hole, and others scattered around to take pictures and videos of the action. A full scorecard is listed below, but the surprise of the day was when Span, after starting with a 5 on the first hole, used three hole-in-ones (and no 5's on any other hole) to take first place by a stroke over David and Marc.
Lunch
While driving back from Jones Beach, the location for lunch still hadn't been decided. So, the gang took the exit at Merrick Road, which was a very familiar area for them. During high school and college, they had often eaten at Taco Bell, and they knew that Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, and plenty of other restaurants were also located here. It was right about then that Marc remembered that a Greek festival was taking place during the weekend and that the church where it was taking place was just a few steps off of Merrick Road. The group parked the car in a nearby strip mall parking lot and walked over. Unfortunately, despite the fact that food was already being cooked, almost none was actually being served yet, and so they had to turn around and find another place to eat. That said, the famous words of Homer Simpson from the Flaming Moe's episode rang especially true here: "You just lost yourself a customer!" might have been said to the organizers of the festival. FIVE customers, in fact!
Thankfully, a great burger joint named Five Guys Burgers was located in the strip mall and most everyone agreed to eat there for lunch. The only holdouts were David (a vegetarian) and Eugene (who had packed his own lunch), but David was able to grab lunch next door at a Bagel Boss before they both snuck the contraband in to Five Guys to dine with the others. It was a nice reprieve from the hot day as burgers, soda, water, and other items were consumed while the gang talked about the occurrences of the day so far.
Movie
As this year's MBBB was slated to take place in mid-June, it was recommended by Span (?) that the group avoid the heat for an event by taking in a movie. If you've never read about the MBBB Movie Curse before, now would be a good time. As you can see, Span's recommendation flew in the face of all logic (i.e., superstition). But Mad Max was in theaters this year, and so the gang decided to be as fearless as the titular hero. The only other concern was whether to see the movie in 3D or 2D. Originally, Mehr had advised that he had issues viewing movies in 3D. Even when he had to drop out though, it was decided to see a 2D version because that at least would save them some money.
That said, the price for a ticket at the theater for an afternoon showing was still $13.25! That's a 2D showing in a theater that, while not terrible, has not been refurbished with some of the amazing amenities (e.g., electric recliners) that other local theaters have. Pretty crazy.
In the end, everyone enjoyed the movie, but to different degrees. Span was enthused, while Marc thought the beginning and ending were much stronger than the middle. David put it best, though, when he said something to the effect of: "At least we can say that the movie wasn't bad.", which was his way of saying that the MBBB Movie Curse had finally been broken.
Volleyball
Volleyball has been an event at a number of MBBBs, so there wasn't any doubt that it would be a fun activity again. However, the question was: should it be played at the beach and on sand or at a park and on concrete? The pluses and minuses laid out like so:
At the beach, you could pay for a reservation and not have to worry about other groups already occupying the courts. You could also dive without getting hurt and generally had a lesser chance of getting injured (scraped knees or elbows, for example). The negatives were the cost, the hot sun beating on the sand (and people's backs), and the difficulty of running and changing direction in sand.
At a park, you could often play on a court for free, but you'd also have to hope that a court was actually available. Other benefits included it being easier to play on concrete and not having to clean sand off of your body and clothes afterwards.
With all of these thoughts in mind, the group decided to play at a park. Which park was another matter. David researched some places in Nassau County to try to determine which had volleyball courts available. After locating a possible location in Christopher Morley Park, he called their office to confirm. Though the person who answered the phone did confirm the existence of volleyball courts and that no resident permit was needed to park or play, David wasn't convinced.
It was then that Marc advised, as the park was relatively close to his office, he could visit it during his lunch hour and, in doing so, confirm if David's fears were unfounded or not. So, one hot summer day, Marc took a short drive over to the park and parked in their parking lot. There were no resident signs, and he was easily able to walk around and check out the facilities. There were two volleyball courts, both in great shape, and both empty at the moment. In fact, the park itself was relatively scarce when it came to people. Marc also noticed a few shuffleboard courts, which could be useful depending on how the order of events played out. After replying to the mass email and relaying all of this information to everyone else, it was agreed that it looked like a great location for the event and was therefore locked in.
Prior to going to the movie theater (?), David had called Eric to see if he would be available for volleyball and Eric confirmed that he would. The MBBB members met Eric in the parking lot and proceeded to walk to the volleyball court. Unfortunately, there was an intense game going on on one of the courts and two girls practicing on the other. David (?) decided to approach them and find out if they would be willing to let them play. The girls, named Kim and Lucy, were college students and Kim (?) was on her university volleyball team. David (?) convinced them that playing some actual games would be beneficial to her training and so the eight players split into two teams. It would be the Strucks (Brian, David, Eric, and Marc) versus Eugene, Kim, Lucy, and Span.
There was a little bit of practice before the game(s) began. They played to 21 and the game(s) were back and forth with plenty of excellent teamwork and long rallies on display. In the end, the non-Strucks won the day using a combination of Span's superb serving and Kim's (?) experience on her volleyball team.
One minor note: Marc was making it a habit of using his foot to corral the ball when it rolled towards or away from him. It wasn't until after the game that Eugene pointed out that Kim (?) was getting mad about this because it was her volleyball. She was muttering under her breath while Eugene was trying to get Marc's attention. Unfortunately, Marc was too preoccupied (focused on winning?) to ever get the message.
Dinner
Before heading to dinner, the group made a brief stop at the Target in Westbury to see if they could locate a board game to play later in the evening. Matt/David (?) were going to bring Settlers of Catan (?), but both fell through for different reasons. They were very interested in purchasing a game (perhaps Settlers of Catan), but the prices for these sets were very steep (at least $30), so everyone agreed it would be best to choose from one of the numerous games that Marc had back at his house.
The MBBB members drove back to Marc's house and then decided to walk over (drive?) to the Indian/Pakistani restaurant they had chosen to eat dinner at, which was just a few blocks away. A minor note: it's the only authentic Pakistani restaurant in the whole neighborhood! The group had gotten take-out from this location the year prior (MBBB 18), but this time decided to actually walk over and eat in. It would be nice to have the food served and their table cleaned for them. It was a relatively quiet dinner with plenty of chicken tikka masala, naan, and lassis (some with mango, some without) to go around.
Board Game
After dinner, it was a short walk (ride?) home with a decision to be made. The group knew they were going to play a board game, but they weren't sure which one. After a round of discussion, it was decided that Loaded Questions would be the one. Eric rejoined everyone at Marc's house (after taking a shower and eating dinner), and David provided even more good news. Matt was willing to join in on the game via Skype. What was even better about this was that Marc had a Skype-ready camera connected to his HDTV. It took a few tries, but once the video chat got going, it was almost like Matt was sitting in the living room with everyone else.
Before the game got going though, the rules needed to be explained. This is good for you, the reader, as well. The concept behind the game is that each person in the group takes a turn being the guesser. The rolling of a die and the game's board determine what question the guesser will ask (e.g., "What is your greatest hidden talent?"). The other players will then write their answers down and the guesser has to guess which person said what. Points are awarded for correct guesses, and so it moves to the next person in the circle. A more detailed explanation can be found here, but hopefully you get the gist.
As you can imagine, this game is great for family members and close friends, because you really need to know the other players in order to correctly guess. However, even if you've known each other for over 20 years (as the MBBB members have), it can still be very difficult. There's not a lot to tell about how the game went, but here are some notable occurrences:
- This game often seems like it's going to be over very quickly when you first start it, but it lasted well into the wee hours (2:00AM or so?) after starting well before midnight.
- Rolly made a surprise appearance for about an hour (his first MBBB appearance in over a decade), though he didn't participate in the game, only observing and chatting it up during the slow points. Rolly's visit was arranged by Eugene and Marc. Rolly only had a 15 minute drive while coming from Hicksville (?).
- At one point, Matt dropped a medicine pill on the floor. During the course of the game, he relentlessly searched for it as he didn't want one of his kids to find it, think it was candy, and eat it.
- As it got later and later into the night, certain people started intentionally writing "easy" answers down to try to speed up the game's conclusion. As an example, there were two questions in a row where Eric made specific mention of Kate Murray, a politician in Nassau County. The second time she was mentioned, Eugene should have realized that it was Eric's answer, but apparently he was too tired to make the connection.
- The game ended with Eric as the winner, and everyone was happy to head home after a full day of wonderful events. Luckily for Marc (and Matt, for that matter), they were already home and didn't need to travel.