"leaping lizards"....I mean, er, "leaping contact"

on the one hand, I'm glad there is now a separate verbal cue for "star pass interference"

on the other hand, why do we now need to say "unsporting conduct" when "misconduct" WAS A PERFECTLY REASONABLE WORD TO USE IN THAT CIRCUMSTANCE

post-tournament recappiness

So! Siege of CNY!  Exclamation Points!

I went in as an Alt NSO but did get to do some work: 

I was a scorekeeper for a half and I discovered that I really enjoy it.  My jam referee was one of my fellow refs, so our communication was on point. (I did discover, though, that I have to wear the colored wristband and signal points with my right hand, since I'm a lefty and all that.)

I lineup tracked for a juniors bout.  It was difficult, because we were in the corner by turn 4 and while it was relatively easy to get numbers, it was hard to see when people sat in the penalty box because one of the team's benches was in the way.  It was also difficult because there were two players on the team I was tracking who looked almost exactly the same from back, one was 15 and the other was 16, and one of them had a long ponytail that hung over the second digit of her number.  I muddled through as best I could.

Then, I penalty box timed the last game.

Prior to this last game, I could count on three, maaaaaybe four fingers the number of times I have EVER penalty box timed.

THE TEAM I WAS TIMING HAD FIFTY PENALTIES IN THE GAME.

AND THERE WAS NO INSIDE WHITEBOARD.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

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My handy list of things to remember when tournamenting was indeed handy.  I think something is screwed up with my left ear canal, though, as I could not get the earplug to fit in without it hurting, a lot.  A referee friend brought me an octopus and I can't wait to try it out! There was no poutine, but there was a refrigerator stocked to the gills with chocolate milk (Byrne Dairy was one of the league's sponsors) so that was very cool.

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Looking ahead....May is gonna be cray busy.  Sanctioned/regulation home doubleheader on the 7th, then Beaver Fever from the 13th to the 15th, then Battle of Bunker Hill from the 20th to the 22nd, then another sanctioned/regulation home doubleheader on the 29th.

calm before teh stormzar

completely derby-free weekend, which is a bit unusual for me.  Making up for it this upcoming weekend, though, what with Siege of CNY and all that.

more Curio stuff

I can also do regular vinyl cutting, which leads to helmet things like this:

the minifig head is not my own creation

and this...

this was a pattern I purchased from the design store

and this...

thischarmingcharlie.tumblr.com

and this....

note: sewing the edges so that they don't peel and fray also means they don't stretch.  oops.

 and this...

for a leaguemate.  It was making these when I learned the hard way that it's best to keep your free hand away from your rotary cutter when slicing neoprene

once I can get my act together and consistently produce these without screwing up every other one, I will add them to my Etsy shop.

in my spare time

when I am not refereeing, or sleeping, or working, or knitting....

I have a Silhouette Curio, which is an amazing machine that can do all sorts of neato stuff.  Probably most derby-centric is that I can cut heat transfer vinyl into any shape I want, which leads to me having cool nameplates:

 

It's an all caps font, but the lowercase and uppercase are different, so I can have two different "E"s and "K"s

right now, this is my favorite. weeding it [removing all the excess material] was a bitch though.

a nice legible but fancy font

this one may be a little too fancy.  the lettering is white; the lack of a flash makes it look off-white

same deal with this one.  The lettering on this is a little too thin; it also went through the wash and got ripply

my original ref jersey.  It had "Queenie" in white lettering on a black vinyl patch, but the letters peeled off.  Since I did this, the very left part of the "Q" has come off. 

This one is before application to the fabric.  A more formal nameplate.

games 43 & 44

So after each bout I referee, I go back to my Book of Referee Stuff (which now also has NSO stuff as well, so I should probably rename it) and highlight things I blanked on/need to remember in the future.

This time it was apex jumps and DON'T BLOW THE WHISTLE FOR PENALTIES BETWEEN JAMS.

I also need to remember that if I need an Official Time Out, I can call one myself.  I don't need to frantically make the arm gesture and hope that someone sees it in time.

I'll get it all right eventually.