Whirlyball!

It's Thursday night and I'm sitting in front of my computer, sore and bruised.

Being sore and bruised is not really surprising, though, when you consider that I spent an hour yesterday in a souped-up bumper car playing a game that resembles basketball but uses a hand-held scoop and a wiffle ball instead.

Whirlyball.

Man, did we have fun. And apparently, I have a "vicious game face." Who knew?

You can kind of see what Whirlyball is about in this gallery photo from the Whirlyball website. That's not really us playing, but we didn't look much different.

I went with a team from work to celebrate the release of a software revision. There were 10 of us, the perfect number to play. We all had a pretty even skill level, with only three of us having played before (I played a few years ago with a different team at work.) There was a lot of chaotic driving, free-for-alls to get the ball, laughter and hacking -- and lots and lots of strategic and not-so-strategic bumping.

That's where the bruises come in. I was apparently in the middle of things a little too much, and my legs kept hitting the steering lever. I have bruises all up and down my inner thighs. Lovely. Which probably explains the "vicious game face" people thought they saw glimmers of. Cause I could have sworn I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time.