casual ultimate

ladies and gentlemen...

2006-10-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

announcing the new and improved www.casualultimate.com

'hobo frisbee' or 'where's my michael?'

2006-10-16T08:44:00.000-05:00

no that's not lindsey lohan and paris hilton on the way to the grocery store. its casual ultimate on the way to fall league saturday morning. with a tennis skirt, leggings, and carlo's sweatshirt, and ea's cu hat, prada sunglasses, and valour pants respectively, we set out for chilly fall ultimate. we had a devastating loss to rob and his syndicate but played some very casual ultimate and won our second game of the morning. ms. ulty cheered the public news team on our pledge drive with a cry of 'next d gets a canvas tote bag.' even though miss casual broke every fingernail she had it was lots of fun and rick buying us hot chocolate capped off the afternoon just right.

friday night was spent at happy hour with cbr, pfil, bjorn, and 'where's my michael' denardis. we were exchanging parent stories when mike d. made the mistake of telling us about a time when his mom smoked pot with his brother, got paranoid about the baby of the family being in trouble, and ran into a screen door yelling 'where's my micheal?' and we know where he was friday. he was putting hanson on the jukebox at the chipp inn.

the diverse (read: creepy) crowd loved our punishing 80's string of song selections, from mariah carey to hanson to n'sync. who knew bjorn could sing all the words to an n'sync song? cu is considering forming a boy band which we could manage and now we have a lead vocalist. here's our future star with lucas in his halloween costume at treem and aaron's. notice the remarkable hair style similarity.

what could end such a blissful weekend? the ambrosia of brisket at RWIP last night. ea was in attendance which is always a special added bonus and he brought us some rubber lance type cu bracelets. youll have to work for them, but maybe theyll get you a pass to skip in line for the wave pool at great wolf this year. bryan's cooking was magic and another in a series of marriage proposals from miss casual almost followed the revelation that there was indeed cookie dough in the brownies somehow.

oooh girl i know he didnt....

2006-10-13T09:16:00.000-05:00

last night all the usual casual suspects converged on our favorite pizza pit to celebrate sally's birthday. of course tbr and monica are out somewhere fending off bears and hypothermia in the wilderness and ay is jetsetting but the rest of us showed up to toast the new lawyer who is another year older and wiser. next year we are going to have to plan better and have a big libra birthday party since miss casual is getting older (although wiser is still a question mark) next week too.

after gossiping about nationals and who's staying in the best party house ('outdoor kitchen and 'hottub overflowing into swimming pool' had a throwdown...i think hottub won) the casual ladies and the birthday girl made a weak attempt at getting bk to cook us dinner sunday night. 'hey bryan, what are you doing sunday?' 'i dont know, why?' (he knows us too well....) 'wanna cook us dinner and watch v for vendetta?' 'no'. ms ultimate offered to make a dish for dinner and bring it up to the RWIP house when bk lashed back. 'i dont need my dinner watered down with pedestrian fare.' giiirrrrl... ms. ultimate was all up in his grill before you could say 'girl i know he aint call you pedestrian...'

i have a picture of the throwdown and the birthday girl but they are on my camera at home. ill throw em up tonight. but not til after happy hour which you should all attend. tonight 6ish roll out to the chipp in with casual ultimate. everyones invited. if cho doesn't come out were going to cry. we promise. tomorrow is rumble in the jungle with the public news team and the dreaded syndicate. well keep you posted on the carnage. happy friday.

'casual ultimate madlibs' or 'lets stay entertained at work today'

2006-10-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

this will be way more fun if you guys post comments to fill in the some of the blanks. so here goes.

yesterday miss causal and ms. utlimate hightailed it out of work and then _______. it had been a ________ day. once the cu ladies were back in wicker park we ________ before we ran into cho and bk. we all got dinner and cho turned to the girl next to him and said _________. he didnt realize it was roadhouse. the cu ladies were all giggles when pfil and bg showed up and said 'cu is so _________.' of course the BRs were no far behind. tbr had bought a new ________ and cbr was obvioulsy uncomfortable with the ________. after more _________ and ice cream after that, we all biked up to _________. who knew that wed meet ferrari and akira? a spontaneous game of ________ ensued and we played until it was time for _________ . quite a fun night in the __________ of the casual ultimate universe.

happy hour is back

2006-10-10T08:46:00.000-05:00

we know you all missed the CRAFT club and since we have so many reasons to celebrate this week we are bringing it back at the chipp inn friday afterwork. the post happy hour after hours late night post party will be hosted by treem and aaron who you might remember from such posts as 'miss casual gets assaulted times deux' and 'que buena! mas mojitos!'

last night with the afterglow of a nationals bid in her eyes, ms. ulty came by and we went out with treem and aaron to toast mr. briefcase and the rest of chicago ultimate. we realized that chipp inn, which is located at the corner of happiness and awesometown, was the perfect spot for happy hour, with its schizophrenic jukebox, golden tee, and cheap beer. if you go to google maps and cant find this intersection, try heading up honorary harriett levitt de la rosa blvd. then when you see the wobbly senior citizen crossing sign you're there. and in the immortal words of fitty cent, you can find us in the club. or in this case the chipp inn. friday. 530-6 ish. be there or... we'll be talking about you. or something.

also we are actively looking for a logo for casual ultimate. and by 'actively looking' i mean 'pestering tbrizzle every other day or so with some kind of guilt ridden email'. but hey our other casual brothers and sisters may have mad graphic skillz so if you have an idea holler... or 'jauler'. it might be a soft j.

Sarasota, meet Chicago

2006-10-08T22:12:00.000-05:00

If you know anyone who has to fly out of Chicago to southern Florida on the evening of the 25th, you should call right now and tell them to book tickets, because all flights are about to be overtaken by hot ultimate players. Unless....are there enough to make a chartered plane worthwhile?

Chicago rocked Regionals this weekend, with Nemesis coming in first in the women’s division, Briefcase coming in second in mixed and Machine taking the third bid for the gents; Real Huck, the Masters team, won their game to go. From Saturday morning domination in bracket play to the last catch of the day landing in Ferrari’s hands in the Machine endzone, Chi-town/the‘ville represented for our visitors.

As far as final standings, Nemesis beat Bait to clinch the championship. Mojo came in second. Briefcase played an intense but high-spirited game with with Flaming Moe for second place, owing to the fact that both teams were guaranteed bids and were playing for seed. CLX won the mixed division, but turned down the bid due to the fact that they’ll be representing Midwest ultimate to the world and throwing some shrimp on the barby in Australia later this fall; thus, Briefcase ends up the #1 seed coming out of the region. Carleton alums, aka ¡Salsa Police!, finished fourth and got bumped up to take the third bid. Machine beat Madison for their bid. Sub Zero took first in the open division, and Big Ass Truck took second. Real Huck beat Chico's Bail Bonds in the game to go; Twin Cities'Surly came in first.

It was perfect out for ultimate, not windy but just enough to keep things interesting, and the bluest skies for this weekend in recent memory. Briefcase will be seeing several 2005 season alums down in Florida: Brass Monkey won the Northwest, and we’re hoping Chuck will be in playing form by the end of the month. Justin and Carrie qualified with Puppet Regime, which came in second to Slow White in the Northeast. And, of course, Sals with Nemesis.

So, does anyone know what other co-ed teams might be skipping Nationals for Worlds? And does this mean that rightful 2006 mixed division title will be won down under rather than just down south? Rumor had it that Bad Larry would be foregoing their Nationals bid too, but they’re listed among the 16 on the Championship site.

Don’t put the sunglasses away for the summer, because you’re going to need them in a few weeks.

briefcase baby's first public appearance

2006-10-06T09:03:00.000-05:00

Adoring Fans Beginning to Doubt "Baby Briefcase's" Existence; Question A.V. Was Ever Pregnant At All

2006-10-03T22:41:00.000-05:00

Early in the afternoon last Monday, September 25, A. V. reportedly gave birth to a baby girl, Maxine. While the V’s are supposedly happy, healthy and at home, neither A not the baby has made a public appearance since the Sectionals tournament, just one days before the “birth.” A’s new secluded lifestyle and the lack of any baby pictures or eyewitnesses has led some to question the baby’s existence. C.U. has obtained these satellite images of baby Maxine, although picturologists are not able to positively identify the images as a human child.

The birth was without complication and drug-free. It has been alleged that the V’s decision to choose this method may have been spiritual. While this was apparently not a “silent” birth, it should be noted that the Church of Scientology does in fact ban the use of pain relief drugs during childbirth. A. has stated that “Maxine” is a family name, but others have noted that the baby may be named after the quirky principle character in the 1999 film Being John Malkovich, or that the name may be a derivation of the French men’s name Maximillen, meaning “the greatest.” Disgruntled teammates have suggested the name may be a reference to A and N’s combined ultimate skills, and their hope that young Maxine will indeed be the greatest player ever to grace the sport.

A typically joins N at Briefcase practice, cheering from the sideline - this past Sunday she was nowhere to be seen, although Nate insisted she was at home resting. A source close to the V’s told C.U. reporters, “she loves going to Briefcase practice and sitting on the pregnant line, and normally clears her schedule to make time. I’m really surprised that she’s not out here with N and the rest of the team.”
Several days before the noted absence at practice, N had sent an email to the team informing them of Maxine’s arrival. It was a terse, text-only document and N declined to provide pictures upon request. First the email, then A’s curious absence from the sidelines, have made friends of the V’s wonder whether the birth took place at all.

“When I think about it, A’s stomach kept getting bigger and bigger but she didn’t gain weight anywhere else,” said a former teammate who asked that her identity not be revealed. “She look great. And she ate an astounding amount but, you know, that’s what the V’s do. It’s strange that it was pasta salad instead of ham sandwiches, though.”

“A has been in a great mood for the last nine months, and I’ve heard that pregnant women can get cranky sometimes,” said a regular fan of the V’s style of play. “I guess it’s possible that she just got a huge beer belly not playing ultimate. It happens.”

When asked about A’s extended absence from the ultimate scene, friends and teammates say they miss her and want to see the baby. Many have also offered the fact that, while A certainly appeared to be great with child and N was seen doting on her even more than usual, no one ever actually saw her stomach.

“She would wear N’s jersey, because it was bigger, and was definitely rocking the stretchy pants,” one beach player said. “But, no - come to think of it I never actually saw the stomach. She let me feel the baby kick once but, to be honest, I didn’t feel anything. And her stomach felt exactly like a gel bike seat.”

Only one acquaintance of the V’s, tbrizzle, has come forth and said that he has seen baby Maxine. Tbrizzle allegedly visited A in the hospital just days after the birth. When asked to provide evidence of the Maxine sighting, however, tbrizzle failed to produce anything substantial.

“I saw the baby in the hospital,” said tbrizzle. “She is the cutest baby in the world!!! It’s no surprise with such fantastic parents, but this baby is amazing - amazing, I’m telling you!! And she got A’s hair, which is a plus. She actually has an amazing amount of hair for a newborn baby.”

Friends and teammates continue to wonder, will they ever see baby Maxine? Will a picture of the little cutie-pie be brought to Regionals and passed around? Can the baby paparazzi satisfy the needs of the demanding Chicago ultimate public? How long will A “resting at home,” as N insists she has been doing for over one full week? Will Maxine herself show up at Regionals this weekend, and will she be wearing a tie? The world will wait and watch.

the casual weekend catch up

2006-10-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

friday night we went to wish that guy rob bon voyage and good luck in nyc for just long enough to get stuck in the rain on our bikes on the way to piece. after sending a blank text to a bunch of people and then texting the wrong rob, we destroyed some pizza with cho, bk, pfil, treem and henderson et al. it was a revolving door of people and food which was not happy news for our waitress, who was surly at best, and hated us with a passion at worst.

saturday was fall league, shopping, and the family guy movie... which was lovely. yesterday i switched my bike to the fixed gear side for the first time and rode around very slowly, with a hemet on, trying out my new hardcore-ness before i spent my rent on a pair of boots. then last night i went over to see the BRs and watch the bears game with them and the russells and pfil. the highlight for me (aside from the bears stomping the competition) was watching the simpsons at half time and eating ice cream with monica's killer pecan pie. rod and tod flanders played christian clue ("it was the secular humanist, in the schoolhouse, with misinformation") and madden dubbed michigan avenue the best avenue in the universe. now the weekend is a sweet memory but fear not... the casual continues this week with casual dining wednesday (La Scarola), dinner with the towns, and hopefully a baby sighting before regionals. stay tuned...

"i'm not a player i just crush a lot" -rr

2006-09-30T19:51:00.000-05:00

the public news team reported the shit out of the news saturday morning, winning both games after a depressing five-game losing streak. apparently you're more likely to win if you run a little bit and actually try to make connections on throws. the weather was awesome, and so was a big hammer by rick to bk (inspiration for the post title). little sacrificed his body for the team, weathering a kick in the head by a teammate and a mid-air bodycheck by an opponent. we're going to fundraise for recspecs. while we're sad it doesn't look like haymaker will be going to regionals, we're glad we have our little back. rachel is....fast and fierce. for future reference: it's a lot easier to cheer "cheese wheel" than "i'm not even mad i'm impressed."

friday on my mind

2006-09-28T19:37:00.000-05:00

believe it or not this post title is a song on the 1996 album, beverly hills 90210: sounds from the peach pit - not to be confused with 1992 or 1994 90210 soundtracks. i never knew any of this existed before i went looking for this picture, but i think it's a good sign. it still can't beat what steve found, though - it's a rat race, mr. briefcase.

in case you haven't caught on yet, C.U. and crew will be at piece friday night, 7:30ish. nothing starts psyching me up for regionals week like a little bbq chicken pizza. that and practice.

today is not my day

2006-09-27T08:58:00.000-05:00

today is that guy rob's last day at our office. he is going to new york to work for some superstar architect. i am happy for him even though they will work him like a teenage prostitute in bangkok. here he is repping c.u. at duffy's on monday night while the saints were spanking the falcons. keep your ears to the blog because there will probably be happy hour friday in his honor. here's to you rob. we expect guest posts from nyc, hopefully titled 'flex in the city' with you making muscle builder poses on broadway.

on top of losing rob, last night baker assaulted my self esteem on the tennis courts in grant park. i wont tell you the scores cause they were embarrassing. has anyone seen my tennis game? i know i left it around here somewhere.... if you see it call me.

then on the way to the WP on my bike i got actually assaulted by a crack head on milwaukee avenue just north of augusta. i was biking home and some crazy lady was crossing the street in front of me. when she got to my side of the street she stopped and slapped me in the face as i rode by. no joke. i have scratches from her rings or something on my ear and cheek. i have no idea why crackhead lady hit me. maybe her tennis game was off too. after the 32nd time my forehand went sailing out, still gaining altitude as it hit the back fence, i wanted to punch something too but i didnt. becuase im not crazy. sigh... milwaukee avenue is officially a war zone. you've been warned.

the silver lining to this cloud is ms. ulty who gave me a big hug and took me with her for dollar burgers at bar louie with treem and aaron. you might remember them from such posts as 'dart gun wars on labor day' or 'i laughed til my spleen hurt'. they made my brutal day a little brighter. hopefully theyll make it to happy hour friday after they brave critical mass.

chin up c.u. tomorrow is bound to be brighter.

Candy Land

2006-09-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

Listen up, friends. There are people in this world who make promises but don't come through, and then they make excuses. And then there are people who deliver. I met one such man two weeks ago, a gentleman who ate the last twizzler at the real world party but promised he'd send more. I get home from jogging tonght (or yogging; it might be a soft j) and what is there on my doorstep but a package full of every kind of twizzler under the sun? I've only ever had the classic strawberry, but they all look like so much fun. The twizted paradise pull-n-peels look like the product of a play-doh extruder contraption I used to have. Call me, we'll watch charlie and the chocolate factory and play candy land.

'what comes after b?'

2006-09-24T11:40:00.000-05:00

last night was pretty casual. so much so that the old joke 'what comes before part B? part-ay' was lost on one member of our group before we even left the house (try and guess who it was). hollering 'what comes after b' didnt quite get the rousing response intended but we did indeed get off the couch at the BR's and make it up to quenchers in honor of mini's birthday. here is his illegally aquired license showing him looking older and wiser.

we started out at the BR's with the briefcase peeps watching pointy soccer upstairs and the c.u. staff watching the muppet movie with the pretty ladies downstairs. the boys had to take shots every time their opponants team scored so before we got to the bar they had each had 5-6 shots and a few beers including tbr. drunk tony is rivaling drunk cho at this point for most fun when intoxicated. the leprachauns beat the spartacuses and we left for quenchers. drunk tony took a piece of chicken for the road and he ended up giving up on it and shoving it down ms. ultimate's shirt. the chicken fight was on.

at quenchers we met up with baker and our new friend tom carter who was wondering what the fragrance of casual ultimate was ('sugar and spice and everything nice of course'). we had to leave boots and ryan at home since theyre certified minors but everyone else held it down in honor of mini. we traded hats and there were more shots and then miss casual busted out to walk drunk tony and the birthday boy home and finish off the ice cream. heres hoping mr. briefcase and haymaker are not suffering this morning because of our late night. rob was worried about making it home to get more clothes for today but georgia graciously offered to loan him shorts ('freak, youll fit in my shorts!). and on that note i will take my leave of you. happy monday.

xoxo
miss casual

midas touch

2006-09-22T09:01:00.000-05:00

is slider not the most pampered bassett hound in the universe? i wish i got the kind of attention this puppy gets. last night over curry chicken quesadillas and tobacco onion rings carlo mused outloud that he wished slider were there. miss casual was only slightly offended seeing as how, certainly, when c(b)r is at home with slider he never thinks 'wow i wish miss casual or sally or bjorn were here.' although later on carlo admitted he might think 'wow i wish bjorn were here' if bg carried around a photo of his t-ball trophy from 1st grade.

we realized at dinner what ultimate is missing - a big f&*k-off shiny trophy. either something you can drink out of (a la stanley cup) or some kind of belt. or even the tall bmx type trophy that bg used to win by destroying other kids' dreams in his youth. our crack team of c.u. analysts are working on this as we speak. next year for sandburst the whole entry fee will be spent on a lifesize gold statue of the infamous chucktown vs. bg photo for the winner... or on a team of day laborers to get the glass off the field.

its friday ...can i get an 'amen'? which means game on for lots of y'all with sectionals this weekend. and game on for me with dj krush tonight at smart bar and fall league tomorrow with 'cash only' russell and '945' king. the c.u. staff will be spending the rest of the weekend working with our i.t. dept on the new site. if theres trouble happening holler at us. good luck to our peeps in naperville this weekend... not that y'all need luck with your fierce skillz. better reckidnize.

the blog must go on

2006-09-20T09:48:00.000-05:00

well after such a tumultuous saturday it seemed like we would never recover but as always... the casual continues. with ms. utlimate in the dirty south for a few days, i will attempt to hold it down in the chi. we didnt even mention our friday night which was lovely. c(b)r and i took slider for a long walk through lincoln park and ate expensive life changing chocolate at vosges and then met up with ms. ulty and tbr for mexican food.

chucktown called and i swear i talked to him for one minute and when i turned back around tbr was throwing lit tortilla chips at poor confused slider and ms. ulty had agreed that we would sleep over in jbr's basement rec room and make cupcakes and watch anchorman. not only that but she somehow agreed that shed wear the br's clothes to fall league the next day. i cant leave her alone for a minute. i have a picture of her wearing tonys shorts over her pants but its on my camera which is still at RWIP along with my self esteem and possibly my i-pod. (bk, you wanna get dinner tonight so i can grab my camera?)

last night we celebrated akira's return to the working world at rodan. after talking to dave about how bad pepe worked us last saturday at fall league we recounted more party stories, of which there are many, and discussed the new site for c.u. we need to get ea on board since hes obvioulsy in charge of our new marketing department. you wouldnt believe how high i jumped (and in heels) when i saw his shirt... screaming like a little girl. another big thanks to our rogue guest posters from saturday night. i was impressed with how well the post came together under the circumstances and even more surprised that it wasn't all that offensive or incriminating.

xoxo
miss casual

sparks was a bad choice

2006-09-17T20:06:00.000-05:00

the guest post says it all - in a seedy, end-of-night kind of way (for the record, future guest posters, our moms read the blog). the real world party was epic. we had been thinking of having the website launch party in the 22 because the house is so far away, but that's definitely out of the question now. it'll be worth taking a couple vacation days to get out there assuming those boys ever want people in their house again.

roommate four's 5 am post only touched on the highlights, but if you weren't there you're going to have to take our word that the best-dressed award goes to ea for silk-screening the C.U. page banner onto a T-shirt and trucker hat. the runners up were naked persons 1, 2, 3 and 4. 1 was naked for a reason - machine beat nemesis in flip cup - but 2, 3 and 4 were just jumping on the bandwagon. you might want to hose that bandwagon off before jumping on it yourself.

we added a few photos to the morning post. happy monday.

Early morning at Irving Park

2006-09-17T05:41:00.000-05:00

Guest post. You might know who we are. Don't bother guessing. You either know or you don't. This is being written at 5:10 am. Sunday morning. At TRWIP party. Guitar Hero is still going on downstairs. Quite loudly. Thanks to the downstairs neighbors, who are either very cool, or very deaf. They came by earlier, so we're thinking they're cool.

There was a bit of a miscalculation in the hallway, so our shoes and feet reek slightly of vomit. Incidentally, neither of the authors of this did the vomiting. Only two bedrooms of the five are occupied by the usual residents. For the purposes of anonymity, the roommates will be numbered. One's bedroom has seen 2 couples, neither of which involved One. There are four people, two couples, in Two's room. This group includes Two, so that's ok. Three's room has a new couple in it. They went into Two's room, found a pair of couples, then went into One's room. While it is unoccupied, there is something in it they didn't like. Four is still partying, as is five. One and Three are as well. Five's room is being protected by his girlfriend. They seem determined that they will be the only ones there tonight. Four's room has someone, but not in his bed. There is another non-resident asleep in a bathroom. He is much larger than this room, so he is curled in a little ball. And Pfil is looking for his keys. That's the state of the apartment right now. It is 5:15 am. Guitar Hero is still going on.

Highlights of the evening. Much more nudity that you might have expected. A lot of random making out, some that led to other things. A LOT of drinking. One and one half kegs of beer, plus multiple random cocktails were consumed. More drinking games than were healthy. As evidenced by the amazing amount of vomit that has hit a few spots.

we're not fourteen

2006-09-15T17:01:00.000-05:00

and yet... check us out on myspace

your casual forecast

2006-09-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

last night was a great night for beach. lucky for us (but unlucky for all the girls at depaul gym) bg rallyed everyone and we had enough people for fours and enough light to play for a bit. heres tony with his game face on....and a tiara. tony's been busy at work lately. which you can tell becuase i am also posting korean passports and dollar bills with slider on them which the man came up with while 'working.' this is all to add to the guilt trip miss casual was giving him last night at goose island in an effort to get him to come up with a logo for c.u. hopefully today he'll 'have time'. (you know in talladega nights when the gay french nascar driver says his dream is to retire to sweden and design a currency for dogs and cats to use? yeah....brs. big time .)

in another BR related incident, c(b)r noted his profoundly feminist attitude last night over root beer floats and nachos. 'i treat all women badly not just my girlfriend.' ahem. its the stuff of c.u. legend. as was my sick layout last night...even though i dropped the disc. i looked like a kindred there for a minute. but mostly i just ran around and collided with people, namely leah. it was fun though and even dr. mercer came out. (congratulate him if you havent yet... on the dr. bit. he's kind of a big deal.)

this weekend the forecast looks like ultimate with a slight chance of casual on friday night (anchorman viewing to get psyched up for our big game), increasing to mostly casual on saturday (with fall league, the r.w.i.p. party, and possibly photos of bg and pfil in bridesmaid dresses) and the casual clearing up on sunday in time for a relaxing afternoon. holla at a playa.

girls gone idlewild

2006-09-13T10:58:00.000-05:00

party this weekend at real world irving park. this is roadhouse telling ms. ulty that saturday night is gonna be 'off the chain.' if you dont know email us and maybe well let you in on the details although i think every ultimate player in chicago has probably gotten the email by now. casualultimate@gmail.com theres gonna be cho and a keg and maybe some outkast (ive been listening to idlewild nonstop...hence the post title) and thats all you need to know...

casual dining last night was pretty sweet. empanadas might be the perfect food. and who can argue with cheap red wine and birthday cake for dessert? we are hatching a scheme for bryan king to be the empanada king of chicago. its pretty complicated. i could maybe draw you a diagram of the aerospace mechanism that will allow him to produce 500 empanadas a day and sell them in the loop but it will look remarkably like a team of hispanic men with a truck. stay tuned for possible happy hour friday. this weekend is going to be bloggarific.

hangin' tough: the casual ultimate movie

2006-09-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

the weekend started off without a bang after all. with the promise of lowering a couch via a complicated cable and pulley system from the roof to the fourth floor deck of pfil's new place, c.u. was certain that we would get some photos worthy of 'faces of death: furniture edition.' but no dice. in bjorn, tbrizzle, and paul's capable hands the couch drop went surprisingly smoothy. miss casual took to the street with lauren to watch the couch go over the side. with a 40 oz. in one hand and a camera in the other i watched with the stunned car wash guys as the couch landed safely in the hands of dp and pfil on the deck.

of course saturday was the start of tuneup and ms. ulty can post a bit about their first day out since miss casual was holding it down with rick, bk, and liz on the funnest fall league team ever. we played savage since everyone was at the tournament / weddings / notre dame game but we played pretty well considering and yelled and giggled quite a bit which bodes well for the rest of the season. seriously...think of somebody fun who's playing fall league. theyre on our team. (c.u. in no way wishes to offend our future opponants...unless it makes you more scared of us and in some way furthers our quest for victory). saturday night it was notre dame mayhem at the BR's with all the south benders and Dan Baker even. here's Baker wrestling with Mike D. sunday on the briefcase sideline. we missed you dan. were glad youre back.

the post title comes from carlo's new haircut for the tourny which makes him an honorary new kid on the block. check out the photo below. you be the judge. sunday on the way to watch our business casual brothers and sisters rock their way to the finals, bk, rick and miss casual cast the entire casual ultimate movie. we are still taking suggestions for a few roles but generally here is the cast.

parker posey is miss casual
portia de rossi is ms. ultimate
will ferrell is dan baker
tom cruise is mike d.
the wilson brothers are the br's (we think)
will arnett might be pfil
jet li is cho
chuck norris is bjorn
buster from arrested is joe little
jack black is russell
jeneane garofolo is sally
obviously whats his face from the o.c. is ferrari
i think vince vaughn could cameo as dr. mercer
maybe sarah silverman as becky? or lindsey lohan?
chuck is the only person cahrasmatic enough to play himself
so we have some obvious gaps to fill here...(akira, bk, thor and liz, dr. welsh etc.) so post suggestions or substitutions. *inspired casting will get you a v.i.p. pass to the launch party.*

coming soon to a theater near you...

here are some more photos from the tourny thanks to candice. (more coming later due to technical difficulties...)

i wanna go fast i wanna go fast i wanna go fast

2006-09-07T09:39:00.000-05:00

last night miss casual went on a bike ride with papa town (yes the towns are in... town). we rode up to the top of the path and back. i am so in love with my new bike. i love it more than brunch or manicures. i want to ride it like a skeleton horse through the gates of hell. (if you havent seen talladega nights yet you might want to get on that.)

yes the stars in the picture come standard with the pista. it must be embarrassing to be wearing more spandex than a linda ronstadt concert and get owned but some girl wearing big gold hoops, an old t shirt and some hot pumas singing 'sexy back'. it is amazing how slow some of those dudes go. i mean im pretty sure wind resistance isnt your big concern if you are barely breaking a sweat pedaling 3 miles an hour. the c.u. staff are going to put together a long fall bike ride sometime soon so stay tuned.

friday night when i bought the bicycle of my dreams, the c.u. staff went out to dinner at club lucky to celebrate with some peeps. unfortunately due to a family emergency most of the table left bjorn and i at a huge table for 6 people with a pissed off waitress. thankfully monica and tony showed up so poor bg wouldnt have to listen to me babel about the bike for two solid hours. my brain was on a bike-bike-cocktail-bike-veal ravioli-bike-bike-beer-bike loop. it got interrupted by our trip to map room to meet mike d and his friends for exotic belgian beer where we ran into my roommates (1535 in the heezy!). and then it was on to lemings for american, the opposite of exotic belgian beer. its almost the weekend casual people...hang in there. why do short weeks always feel the longest? maybe we'll get some happy hour happening tomorrow to celebrate surviving another week in flourescent purgatory. totes.

Robotic Frisbees of Death

2006-09-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

This news item was brought to my attention via JKD and the Oberlin ulty listserve – you know it's from an Obie because it's about warfare. Apparently we weren't just being paranoid - the defense department has been spying on left-leaning frisbee players lo these many years:

"'The Frisbee disc has proven its potential on the sports field as a platform for short free-flights'…..Without 'predefined flight orientation,' a Frisbee drone 'offers novel flight characteristics and manoeuvrability. It is potentially suitable for a variety of mission objectives fulfilling surveillance, communications, munitions and/or airborne radar warning systems.'"

UK researchers have also found that we're going to have to attach jets of some sort if we want our throws more floaty:

"The disc-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) configuration in question is based on the Frisbee™ sports disc shape, typically unstable in pitch and for practical purposes inertially stabilised by spinning. The Frisbee disc has proven its potential on the sports field as a platform for short free-flights. This research harnesses that potential proposing a UAV capable of sustained flight. A flying sports disc generates lift through forward velocity just like a conventional wing. The lift contributed by spin is insignificant and does not provide nearly enough down force to support hover. A spin-stabilised disc-wing UAV, based on the sports disc shape, requires a power plant and an appropriate method of provision for aerodynamic control. The spinning UAV demands a cyclically pulsed jet thruster of some description and investment from industry to develop the necessary small-scale propulsion technology."

Do we have a materials scientist on staff? Think tank, what's the plan? Maybe if we can develop an ultra lightweight plastic we can attach a couple cyclically pulsed jet thrusters and keep the whole thing under 175g.

C.R.E.A.M. - casual rules everything around me

2006-09-04T19:31:00.000-05:00

labor day weekend was money. for as much nothing as we did, we are certainly worn out. friday we started by busting out of work early and doing a little light shopping with that guy rob, pro-dejiner and all around trouble maker. after we parted ways the c.u. staff went to humboldt park and bought miss casual a new bike. a bianchi pista actually, covered in chrome and glittering like the sun. it makes her so fast stars fly out behind her when she rides it. as a boy on the path said, 'its a lot of chrome.' miss casual thinks now she will petition our favorite viking and triathalete to start a bianchi biker gang.

so saturday the c.u. staff took the new toy out for a spin to hyde park to go to the bookstore. ms. ultimate was on a quest for textbooks with ugly 70's covers and frozen lemonade. on the way we ran into tiger and lyrica rollerblading to jazzfest and passed rose on her bike headed the same way. after another long ride sunday morning and business casual practice the c.u. staff grabbed the keg and hightailed for the northside wearing our new miss casual and ms. ultimate shirts respectively.

the labor day bbq chez ultimate was epic in scope and consequence. new laws were passed (this fall vote prop. 69), new friends were made, and thanks to treem, aaron and ashley dart gun wars were fought and lost. sally is a deadly shot. after taking over the block party and playing some home run derby, the casual crew retired to the back yard. props to everyone who came and brought goodies; it was good times and the BBQ is now officially an annual event.

that said, things got crazy and we can't be sure where the trouble began - bridget and her bourbon, pfil et al with their demon juice (sparxx) or mini and his pbr - but pants were exchanged. the C.U. staff, after getting all hopped up on caffeine and candy flavored malt liquor, abandoned ship for hopleaf. ms. ultimate and bg took a detour through the cemetary and then we picked up mike d on the way to carol's for swing dancing and legislation. mike is the head of the new c.u. politicy think tank. he is accepting applications for interns. here's your new boss:

so after a late night and some more dancing in the kitchen back at the manor, the c.u. staff woke up to find out the shocking news that crocodile hunter had passed away. miss casual shot some mf'in dinosaurs later with bg in his honor. it took us seven hours of well crafted planning and execution to go see talladega nights and get pizza with bg and pfil on monday. this is obviously why we have established a think tank. we cant do it alone.

happy tuesday,
C&U

'labor' day and the flying viking

2006-09-01T09:37:00.000-05:00

here's allison last night at beach playing a point and trying to induce labor. get ready people cause casual ultimate is having a baby...and by 'casual ultimate' i mean allison. but we at c.u. are so excited for our first casual baby we can't stop talking about how adorable this kid is going to be. labor day could end up being a very literal phrase for this weekend.

and speaking of labor day, we are going to play some beach on monday and if you are in town and want in on it, email us. last night was great although we couldnt believe how early it gets dark all of a sudden. we still got in some fun points with bjorn flying through the air like MJ before hightailing it to darwins.

and speaking of darwins... that place is now dead to us. it is full of frat boy clones and anorexic chicks with bad highlights and bra straps hanging out of their ASU tshirts. plus they dont have turbo dog or oberon on tap anymore and our waitress tied the all time record for slowest land speed exhibited by a bipedal organism. we gotta come up with a new place to go. hopefully somewhere with dollar burgers for slider.

well have a good weekend our casual brothers and sisters. the c.u. staff will be in town and probably up to our usual brand of trouble so call us with suggestions for either new bars to go to or tactics for world domination.
__________________________________________________

230 addition
speaking of the flying viking... heres some more mustache porn to get you through the brutal afternoon before the holiday weekend. sent in by the viking himself.

Mustache Porn

2006-08-31T10:23:00.000-05:00

Last night we rolled up to the peach pit for a mysterious celebration which bk initiated yesterday morning. You'd think it'd be tough to get a crowd to roll out on such short notice but not if you're in the CU state of mind. The occasion ended up being bryan's birthday (of course c.u. knew in advance but we cant name our sources....) The party was a success on every level, if those levels include doing one jameson shot too many and giving akira head - I don't think it was in that order though. Here we are giving the birthday boy his present. We heart BK. So does piece obviously... because billy came by and brought us all shots to toast our favorite 32 year old. Here's the rowdy group mid toast. shots on a school night? oh my...

In other news, Miss Casual rocked the house in gold stiletto sandals. Maybe we can find a similar style with an athletic feel for the fields; unfortunately, these casuals aren’t that cute. We were inspired by someone's new mustachioed look and created this montage. Sometimes it takes a montage to show a lot of things happening at once. Match the 'stache to the CU contributor - name them all and you win a free VIP pass to the launch party.
Last but certainly not least, rumor has it James Burris is back in town - true or false? Also, for those of you who think Roadhouse shows up on the field and kicks ass without thinking of frisbee in her downtime, she was spotted out for a jog around 10:30 last night - I hope you were wearing something reflective, young lady. You're putting us all to shame...and by that I mean me.

pump your brakes

2006-08-30T10:29:00.000-05:00

pump my brakes what? i mean granted c.u. has been verging on megalomania lately but hey... we're a little bored at work. last night we had a casual dining outing. casual dining may be a bi-monthly occurance now so if you are interested email us (casualultimate@gmail.com as if you didnt know). our next stop we are thinking will be la scarola in a couple of weeks.

our first venture for the newly forming supper club was at la sardine. between braised oxtail with gnocchi and miss casual's first mussel, we spent some time discussing the launch party for the new site. deep into our second bottle of burgundy miss casual convinced half the RWIP house to host the party with BK's room as the vip 'high life' lounge. we are thinking we need either bjorn and pfil or denardis and baker to run the velevt ropes with full on c.u. t-shirts, clipboards, and earpieces. sally suggested flying chucktown in to be the hired muscle for the party which is a fantastic idea if we had any money. ("'country, country...you were being kind of a bitch.' youre not on the list.")

if it ends up being denardis and baker we like the idea of denardis as the hired muscle satnding silently brooding off to the side while baker gets all up in peoples' grilles. with bjorn and pfil, its at their discretion who wants to play bad cop.

of course the c.u. staff will need t-shirts for the launch which we are looking into as we speak. 'that guy rob', my friend at work (not to be confused with briefcase rob, who we all know loves the blog) requested a shirt designating him as such for the launch. we at c.u. are not sure its in the budget at this point but are more than willing to consider bribes in exchange for shirts and / or fame.

to be privy to more of our insane scheming, come out to piece tonight at 7pm. happy hour courtesy of BK.

this night has taken a turn for the worse

2006-08-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

Friday night was...ultimate. What started out as happy hour with the ccx IT department turned into a night of drunken debauchery. i won't say who, but someone almost got his balls cut off. we don't know his name, but it was close. that's how we roll.

It started out at the Peach Pit - brew some more worryin' ale or shut down the bar. After a mass texting, C.U. knew we had to make this night happen on our own. and happen it did. El Presidente oversaw our first meeting of the technical advisory committee; Akira is quitting his job on Thursday to work on the website fulltime. She wouldn't have come out if she knew she'd be watching drunken brainstorming sessions all night. Next stop was Lemmings, where flowcharts, venn diagrams and strategic planning continued. Scanned blueprints to come. Rob brought in reinforcements from the burbs and we headed out to our next stop. Ms. Ulty decided that the best cure for an injured back is to give El Presidente a piggyback ride to the Map Room for some Beers of the World and the longest pool games on the planet. (Dan, seriously, i'm going to stop drunk dialing you to say things reminded me of you - but baby i miss your body.)

Next stop turned out to be a lapse in judgment. We're not even sure what this place is called, but it may as well have been in Bagley, WI. It may be called Ed & Jean's, but stay away because you'll be assaulted or sexually harassed by the proprietors. unless that's your thing. The $2 high life seemed worth the atmosphere, until our new friend John (bless you soldier) got headbutted by Jimmy*. It looked like it hurt; here is John being comforted by his assailant. Sorry dude, but you get mad props for not crying.

Oh but there was more to come. Next stop was Danny's....too sleepy thanks to the reggae and the weirdo who lost his cellphone. We cabbed the four blocks to Estelle's in an attempt to beat the line, all to no avail. Which brings us back to square one, the kid in the window almost losing his manhood. If you want the details you'll just have to come out with us next time. Props to Pete, our best friend forever at Penny's; that place is good even though ms. ulty has been "banned for life" by the owner and can only dine in-house and pay with cash. Petey moss, see what you can do about that.

* Check him out; I think Jimmy is older than my dad.

casual ultimate 90210 update

2006-08-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

Good evening, because whatever time it is in Cali, it's always 11 PM in Chicago due to time change.

I'm pleased to report that Casual Ultimate is alive and well on the West Coast and that Sarah and I live in a palace on a hilltop called the bakerylofts. It may look like it has plywood floors, but that's only because it does.

Sarah is busy looking for a house to buy in a housing market that starts in the low 500's and that's in the hood. Think 82nd and Dan Ryan; now imagine living there with Cash as your watchdog. Sweet.

We live in Emeryville, right on the western boundary of Oakland, which you may remember from such films as "Where are all the black people in San Francisco?" It's pretty sweet, and it turns out Eritreans are from Africa AND from Oakland; surprised you didn't know that.

Anyway, the other night Sarah and I were at dinner at the Olive Garden...which was lovely, and at one point during the meal I happened to look over and notice a waitress taking an order at another table. I couldn't help but wonderwhat color here underpants were.....her panties. Chances are they're basic white cotton, but then I started thinking, maybe they're silk. Maybe it's a thong...maybe it's something really cool that I don't even know about...What? I thought we were nesting in the trust tree, are we not? (Sorry about that; Old School showed up on Netflix last week.)

The Ultimate out here is no BS. There are so many good college programs out here, and the level is just so much higher than the Midwest that it has been a real treat getting to play against a bunch of new players, getting cut from a bunch of new teams, and getting skyed by a dude that looks mentally retarded who played at this school called "Stanford" which is apparently the Northwestern of the...northwest. Think about this: Sarah went to Midwestern and is from the Northwest; I went to Northwestern and am from the Midwest; that means if we have kids, they'll be Asian.

I want to try and clarify about the level of play. I guess it's not that it's so much higher. It's just that there are so many more good players. I tried out for the team formerly known as Jam, and there were 50 guys out there, all of whom were ballers. You'd want every one of these dudes on your Poultry Days team, and they're all there, in the same place, trying to one up you. It's a trip. That being said, the guys out here have all been very nice. None of them seem to be elitists by any stretch. They just happen to have dominated you systematically over the course of an entire point, but there are no hard feelings. "Nice bid, Chuck. You're pretty fast for a big guy."

Anyway, I'm happy to report that I can stop with all the "struggling to play at the top of the game" and just get back to sitting on my ass and building resentments toward future opponents. That is to say, I'm injured. I sprained my left ankle playing a savage tourney in Portland with Brass Monkey, and it's pretty bad. I'm on crutches still, and it's already been 3 weeks. The doctor said at this rate I will die on crutches. I think if that happens though, I'm gonna have the headstone read "Died Tragically Rescuing His Family From The Remains Of A Destroyed Sinking Battleship."

On the working front, Sarah started her job at Sutter Solano hospital up in Vallejo a month ago or so, and they still haven't paid her for her move or any of her work. That's a good sign, right? I'm working at Watson Wyatt and preparing to take my second actuarial exam in November. Basically we both spend all day observing death. Mine's on a mortality table, her's is on arrival. By the way, check out RP2000 if you haven't (great mortality table).

This keyboard is running out of ink, so I better cut it short. To all our friends and Joe Little, we send our love.

Chuck and Rah (that's what her name is out here)

CU 90210

________________

check these peeps out at

chuck.kindred@gmail.com

scaree10@hotmail.com

write them and tell them how much we need them to guest post more often. it is criminal that i am the kindred with a blog.

holy shit

2006-08-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

casual ultimate

This blog has moved to a more permanent home, which will soon look incredible and be a jumping-off point for world domination. Those who have been contributors since the beginning will be getting @casualultimate.com email addresses once we figure out how they work. Chuck clearly needs a new address.

it's time for the future of casual

2006-08-21T20:18:00.000-05:00

It's happening. www.casualultimate.com is being created by miniature robots and unicorns somewhere in the interscope as we type. don't try to go there now it's blank because unicorns are slow as fuck. but soon it will be there and it will be AWESOME. big ups to treem for technical support - his blog, by the way, is 100% real biznass. U.S. workers are more productive this year. watch for these productive workers to begin manufacturing casualultimate gear.

On the ultimate front, Cooler was this weekend but we don't have much to post, despite the fact that "injured" ms. ultimate was there on saturday. mr. briefcase (soon to be found at casualultimate.com/businesscasual) lost to CLX on sunday; according to roadhouse, we failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities. briefcase has taken this approach in the past. i haven't heard anything about a blamestorm, so i think everyone's ok. paulie paul pulled his hammie. lauren and ms. ultimate sat on the sidelines eating fruit salad and going through business jargon flash cards purchased by the most awesome and aforementioned roadhouse. expect these flashcards to be incorporated into the new site.

share your comments on cooler - how did the girls and the boys do this weekend? chicago represent?

motherf^&*in casual

2006-08-18T12:18:00.000-05:00

the c.u. staff is heading out to see some motherf%^&in snakes on a motherf%^&in plane tonight and if you're reading this you're invited...probably. email us (casualultimate@gmail.com) if you're interested. or if you want to be on the mailing list and you're not. or if you want to shower me with flattery becuase i have a copy of outkast's new album a week early thanks to everyones' favorite new yorker and maybe ill give it to you.

in other news... ms. utlimate is injured and probably can't play at cooler. i dont know how briefcase is going to do it without her. i mean i have faith in our business casual brothers and sisters but without ms. ultimate's fierce wit, super speed, and stunning good looks... lets just say its a tough loss. miss casual skipped out on beach last night, not that i was really invited, becuase i also skipped work and rode my bike to evanston. the only way to recover from the team M festivities in my humble opinion. i ran into baker (going back to rodan to reclaim property from the night before) and monica (who hollered at me from her car...big ups to her by the way for yelling 'hey miss casual' instead of 'hey jess').

so its going to be a tall order for those of you going to cooler. youre going to have to cover the tournament for c.u. if ms. ultimate does go. but i know you can do it. pfil, baker, rob... don't let us down.

c.u. goes to crazytown

2006-08-17T10:47:00.000-05:00

well thankfully summer league is over becuase we cant hang with team M. they are too hardcore for the casual ladies. last night we had our team party and things went well beyond 'casual' into 'staying out too late on a school night and singing skynard'. thats right you heard me...freebird. thats how we roll.

we started at rodan with ollie, ruth, jim, and our lovely hosts the khales. they all got out before it got ugly although not before we all got to drink some yummy champagne and verbally abuse the waitstaff in front of dave, the big boss. baker was already willing to do anything to get on the blog. witness his hot dance moves.

then we went to nicks with a smaller crew... megan, evan, jason, baker, and the c.u. staff rolled up in there ready to cause trouble. megan has some inside connects so all of a sudden there were shots. pfil, who'd been busy making dollars in a focus group for playboy.com all afternoon, rolled up with dp and thats when the real trouble started. we played some pool and miss casual, being total deadweight in this regard, caused herself and jason to lose to meghan and baker. i believe there was some wager involving miss casual singing 'ive got friends in low places' to baker and meghan but the details are fuzzy.

then dp and i tried to start a bar brawl but it didnt catch on quite like we hoped. there were jukebox wars all night and we had a round of singing and dancing to johnny cash before walking back up paulina at some rediculous hour of the night / morning. pfil apparently needed that playboy money cause he got two parking tickets while throwing down with the c.u. ladies.

the post title was supposed to be something along the lines of 'i just had all my pubic hair ripped out' becuase baker said that at some point in the evening, although we have no idea when or with regard to what exactly. the only reason we even know this is that ms. ultimate, in her ever vigilent dedication to our faithful readers, emailed it to me at 130 am when she got home. thats love people.

going to the chapel

2006-08-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

while miss casual was holding it down/dashing ms. ultimate's dreams of ever being a league champion in chicago, the other half of C.U. was getting casual formal for Ben & Bacers' wedding in la jolla. for those of you who don't know, la jolla is in SoCal, just north of the whale's vagina. it's a lovely town, filled with seals and tide pools. ms. ultimate fulfilled a childhood dream by visiting the san diego zoo on saturday, home of this panda. this panda is on the blog mostly because stacey loves pandas, and this post is about her wedding (i still don't have a guarantee i'll make the final album).

after the requisite brunch and pedicure, the other 75% of the quad got decked out and headed to the beachside hotel to watch little bacers get married and change her name, all so that her email address could be slutkoski@gmail.com. ok, actually she put a B in there for her middle initial, but her nickname's slutkoski from now on regardless. i know C.U. isn't the place where you come to read sentimental sap, that's mike's world, but people i can't help it she's my bestie. the ceremony was lovely, simple and very stacey&ben for those eight readers who know her. it was outside, in a park overlooking the ocean. aside from the sunset, the best part of the location was that it meant the snakes on a plane banner flew by more than once - i hope it made it into the background of one of the photos. the bride and groom looked so happy i couldn't stand it. i was crying so hard the whole time my eyes hurt the next day. the only complication came at the end, when it turned out the actually wedding papers were nowhere to be found. best man Ned had to go find them in the groom's room, supposedly under a dirty pair of underwear. we won't ask questions. anyway, they got it signed in the middle of the cocktail reception, although the judge was so tipsy i'm not sure it's a binding legal document. lainers? russell? professional opinions? ms. ultimate was pacing herself, but apparently judge and his bosty botox second wife knew they weren't staying for the reception and took advantage of the open bar while they could (thanks, by the way, mr. and mrs. gerson).

of course it wouldn't be stacey's wedding without a little sass, so here's the blushing bride at the bar across the street, waving her finger at somebody. probably adam, because he was wearing a suit and tie instead of the pirate shirt he'd ordered from international male just for the occasion. the bride and groom left pretty soon to make it official, and the evening trailed off from there. we hear there was some fighting and bloodshed among the groom's friends later in the evening...maybe they can fill us in on the details.

it's all pretty casual from there. hilary got the same american apparel bathing suit that ms. ultimate has, even though she knew i'd be wearing it because i brought it to vegas. we lounged by the pool, took walks along the ocean, pestered sea anemones, etc. we ate mexican food for lunch and dinner - anyone know where a girl can get a good lobster enchilada in chitown? it was a fun weekend. congrats to stacey and ben! i hope simon didn't miss you too much and bite you in the eye when you got home, like that crazy cat at the hotel.

'i had to keep some in the tank'

2006-08-13T21:07:00.000-05:00

well the summer league tournament was an affair to remember. even one of the b(r)s showed up with slider. (thanks for coming out carlo...represent). after a stellar season, team M went down early, losing to mike d's assassins in the first round. but we couldnt have lost to a more casual team. ms ultimate was greatly missed but hopefully she did something she'll regret in california. after miss casual's best attempt to tackle mike, we played the 3-4 game against lyrica and tiger's team, who went down to cho, thor and liz. it was a fun game, especially since we were drinking high life before, during, and after the regulation play.

after the comissioner and i went on a beer run, we played another game in the loser bracket (for no apparent reason) while thor's team took down the assassins. miss casual tried to get out of the game by playing drinking games with the casual crew (pfil, dp, lyrica, tiger, mike d, and joe little) but got guilt tripped into playing by jason, baker, and the cutest kid around, quinn (the kales' little one).

after winning that game, the team M love fest broke up in time for some spirited sideline adventures during the finals. dp (the big spirit winner) and pfil kicked his disc's ass while baker and mike d. spooned. at one point mike spiked the game disc onto the field and made some dude in spandex call for a new disc. (buddy shoulda called for some frickin pants while he was at it. its a family program bro.) baker even blushed at some of the heckling... and at mike and i ripping new holes in the already disappearing shirt on rob. rob, who was making fun of yours truly for her casual lifestyle with dan benjamin, admitted he "love(s) the blog" before being permitted readmission to the casual collective.

the post title comes from thor, who reigns victorious with his team after the finals on saturday. he was talking about the precision with which cho plays ultimate. sometimes he seems to calculate how much awesome-ness to put on any one throw, so as to save some for later. his awesome-ness suffered later on that evening at the real world house when he was still roaming around wearing his championship medal. (how lame is the medal? if he ever leaves the house wearing it i give you permission to tell people he won the long jump at the gay games.) but bk's cooking brought us back to life as usual and all is well in the casual universe.

dinner for realz

2006-08-11T10:16:00.000-05:00

yeah cookies.

last night was the inaugural bbq at the real world house and i have to say, if this is a foreshadowing of things to come, we at c.u. are already looking to buy some elastic waist pants. burgers and grilled peppers and asparagus, cookies and ice cream. and thats not even to mention the chocolate bars, potato chips, and champagne that were the appetizers. good lord. i think im still full. the house is still in a bit of disarray but it looks like things are starting to come together. i stopped in the living room to visit our old tv from paulina. sniff sniff....

and then there was the inevitable discussion of the summer league tournament tomorrow (and by discussion i mean trash talking). i feel like we should be taking bets on the c.u. site but im not even sure if thats legal so im just gonna throw this out there instead. joe little and some other peeps on gary's team came back to the house to eat and they were discussing the possible names for the team. chicago 7....? really? i feel like we could do better (although im not sure) so im just gonna put it up for discussion.

also dont forget tonight - meet us in the club...its goin down. actually its not so much a club as the continental on chicago and california for those of you with short memories. we have received no word as to the timing of this event so for now im gonna say 530 til who knows when and if someone wants to post a comment and correct me thats fine. otherwise see you after work. shake and bake.

oh the bitter irony

2006-08-10T17:19:00.000-05:00

this is, honest to god, a picture from the latest mcdonald's happy meal bag. don't worry, it makes sense when you find out that you get a tiny plastic hummer with your cheeseburger. you can collect it in eight colors. what ever happened to care bears?

*sigh*

let's all go ride bikes.

that's what we do... we win

2006-08-10T08:57:00.000-05:00

last night at piece was great except that it was for such a sad occasion...the end of summer league. however the c.u. team was all smiles and giggles since we beat pfil and dp's team and won the wager. get ready boys cause i feel your dirty dancing solo coming on... team M cheered their team with the chorus of the song and ms. ultimate and miss casual reenacting the lift scene from the movie. ms. ultimate layed on the ground and yours truly ran up and jumped on her feet to do an airplane. (we need a photo of this...) but the boys version will be even sweeter im sure. we agreed to wait for karaoke of 'ive had the time of my life' along with another song of c.u.'s choosing. we were thinking bossy by kelis but then i also think maybe a destiny's child song would be fun. bootylicious anyone? rest assured well let you, our reading public, know when the performance is going to go down. probably next week or the week after.

another event to keep on your calendar is an upcoming happy hour. we are planning on hitting the new bar at chicago and california, 'the continental', tomorrow night. we'll post the time once we get all coordinated. if you dont know, last weekend was cho's birthday so come out to buy him a drink. the post title is apparently on his family crest or something.

last night there was also a party in hyde park so you peeps who went, post us some comments with what went down. the seeding for the tournament at piece brought lots of people out but team M got a tough draw. we thought we'd meet bk, ay, and jt in the first game but we are up against mike d's assassins. we're just gonna have to play dirty. look for miss casual to throw elbows. or just plain tackle mike. or whatever it takes to win for ms. utlimate in her absence. cheers to a great season with team M and hopefully a great day on saturday.

pearl harbor

2006-08-08T22:23:00.000-05:00

tomorrow night pfil, dp and liz get yet another chance to try to beat c.u. in summer league, their third for the season. word on the street is dp's trying to psych his team up with motivational emails. well it ain't gonna work. sorry mouthbreathers. in order to make this a little more interesting we're soliciting wagers from our faithful readership. we need to bet something more precious than gold. something along the lines of honor, self-respect, etc. right now the only thing on the table is that the loser has to drink a disc at piece. the only challenge there is finding a clean disc. i'm sure we can do better. suggestions?

triathalon antics brought to you by our favorite viking

2006-08-08T14:24:00.000-05:00

this just in from our c.u. correspondent, bjorn, who witnessed the triathalon this weekend live and in person.

"the r.w.i.p. triathalon started with a half-mile swim along the lakefront path between oak street and ohio street. casual ultimate obviously has a much larger readership than we all think, because about 200 boats anchored themselves in the harbor to watch the spectacle. or maybe they were there to party, and could care less about joe and cho. whatever. one of the many boats that costs way more than our collective net worth was bumping out some phat beats, giving the triathalon a soundtrack, which was nice. cho is the obvious favorite in this event, and he does not dissappoint, shrugging off an attempted mid-swim brawl from joe, finishing the swim with a 4 minute lead.

next up was the bike leg, 11 miles worth. the route was supposed to follow the lakefront path south to mccormick, then turn around and head north to irving park ave. the experts figured joe would have a clear advantage in this event, given that he actually owns a bike, and rides it frequently. it was speculated that joe would be much more aggressive about weaving through the mobs of lance-armstrong spandex-wearing wanna-bees, and clueless knobs walking four-wide across the path, allowing him to quickly close the 4 minute gap. at that point, the stratedgy from the cho camp would be to draft joe the rest of the way, letting him do the work of trailblazing.

well, cho chose to ignore his crew chief, and tried to detour around the congestion of the path on the bridge at navy pier. the details are hazy, but along this route cho found his way into a street festival, had to run the bike rather than ride it, and go up/down some stairs before he could make his way back onto the lake front path. by this time he had burnt up his lead, and then some, and had some work to do to catch up. cho caught up to joe around belmont, and adpoted the stratedgy of drafting for the remaining mile or so, which led to a dead even race going into the final leg - a 4.5 mile run back to the real world house.

the next 5 - 10 minutes would determine the outcome of the race. in the words of cho, "i knew i had to blow [joe] out in the first mile, otherwise [he'd] think [he] had a chance the whole way." apparently, cho did just that. after stopping at a convenience store to get gatorade for the competitors, i caught up to joe at damen ave, he said cho was further up. about a mile further down the road, i finally caught up with cho.

the race had started at 1:36pm, and at 3:15pm, the victorious cho arrived at the finish line - the front gate of the real world house, but cho kept running. through the front door, up the stairs, and into the green skylight room. run cho, run. joe arrived not too long thereafter, at 3:23pm. joe may have lost the battle, but i think the war was a draw, as both guys ended up in the room they were favoring.

it was good show by both competitors, and it provided an afternoon of entertainment for me at least. then we went to some irish place a few blocks away. good food, cool bar with lots of outdoor seating, but the bartendress wouldn't shut up about jeff tweedy and wilco coming into the bar."

a big c.u. thanks to bjorn for his rundown of events. hes our first c.u. guest blogger! the ladies at c.u. will get you a beer at the next happy hour for sure.

briefcase brings the low life

2006-08-07T08:48:00.000-05:00

the real winner this weekend was the city of madison. every time i go there it gets harder to leave...i think they put something in the water. but seriously...madison is awesome. briefcase didnt have the most stellar weekend on the field but it was still a great weekend in c.u. history.

drama on half-day road
we didnt get out of town on time becuase ms. utlimate works for an environmental fascist. just a note...half days do not start at 430. so the br's and the c.u. staff plus slider rolled out of town at rush hour dispite our best intentions and began our long trek to madison. eventually we made it into town to get dinner. madison has the cows on parade which brought up a list of dictator cow names - moomar cowdafi, moosolini, chairman moo... the list goes on and on. we met a member of the team that they had picked up last minute on the street by coincidence while ms. ultimate was vaulting over construction cones on the sidewalk.

briefcase goes to injury town
then we got some sleep at georgia's and headed out to the fields. the briefcase squad was slim to begin with and people were dropping like flies. leah got stepped on. rob (here looking like some kind of crazy office stripper with his briefcase tie and no shirt) busted his knee laying out. tony got horrible leg cramps and the winner of the grossest injury goes to ryan with his softball sized ankle. it was a slightly depressing day but there were moments of magic like leah's sick nasty lady hammers, georgia's big sky, and this layout from tony who had a birthday, along with slider, on saturday. to celebrate, it was birthday cake and high life at the fields. tony and carlo along with yours truly and steve came up with a new product for miller - low life beer. low carbs, low calorie, low price beer. if high life is the champagne of beer, steve figured low life would be the boones farm of beer. we would volunteer to be the spokespeople with our brown bag stylo.

just call her 'boots'
saturday night we went to the ultimates' compound and the '70's porn house' as ms. ultimate calls it, was amazing. there was lots of steak and many drinking games which lead to the inevitable booting by not only our favorite 19 year old, but slider too. rob and georgia arm wrestled over a card game and there was a threat of a drinking game where we would have to drink everytime one of the c.u. staff said the word 'blog'. dangerous....sunday morning it rained and then poured and briefcase, with no healthy men except the indistructable steve philips, slept in and bailed on the tourny. we had a rock and roll party instead. ms. ulty and steve went for a hike looking like swedish refugees and the rest of us stayed in and put together a puzzle and played euchre while listening to whitesnake. rock and frickin roll.

drama on kick a boo road
on our way back to the chi there was some drama when the water cooler flew out of the truck into the highway median. carlo came to the rescue and then it was off to madison for food. we stopped at a crazy irish pub where we got to sit at a square table on couches and hear irish folk stories from curry while eating lounge fries. full and happy, it was off to the WP to go see talladega nights with the real world house and monica. it was a great weekend and hopefully well get some photos / commentary from bjorn and/or bryan of cho's victory in the real world triathalon on saturday to complement this mass of photos from madison.

xoxo
miss casual and ms. ultimate

dr. casual's 100% natural good times family band solution

2006-08-04T12:57:00.000-05:00

well c.u. is hitting the road for madison this weekend. the staff is piling into tony's truck with both (b)r's and slider and heading for the hills. briefcase is playing a tournament and miss casual is doing her nails in a briefcase french manicure in preparation for the main event. a little good old fashioned family bonding is just what c.u. needs.

last night we went out to celebrate bk's final day at the forbidden fruit fortress which kept me out way past my beadtime and way out of my zip code. at least bjorn and tony brought fudgcicles to make the drive up there more fun. bjorn, i expect you and bryan king to cover the trathalon in my absence. its a tough job but somebody's gotta do it. since you are the second deadliest man we know you should be able to handle it no problem.

also in the way of upcoming c.u. events, thursday is official 'skip work and go to six flags and get on some mf'in waterslides' day so get ready... 'no boss i was just working on this rendering. no im almost done. ill be right there. *cough cough*'

all the terrycloth is packed into our matching louis vuitton trunk cases and the cocktails are shaken into their appropriate nalgenes for the trip so have a casual weekend and well see you kids same time and place on monday with updates from the 'joe and cho rumble in the jungle' throwdown and briefcase's 'ass kicking madison good times' weekend.

(possible discussion topics - best cocktail to put in a nalgene? best songs to sing along to in the car?)

xoxo
c..u.

road rage and ribs

2006-08-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

so last night we actually had a team at summer leauge, barely. dp and liz's team was savage but it didnt get very far becuase of mother nature and her wild-ass lightning storm. we were playing like our old selves though and it was fun til our game got called.

pfil texted the c.u. staff from his plane to seattle saying he'd been sitting for two hours on the runway between a crying baby and a man who was aggressively occupying the armrest. he freely admitted, however, that all of those shenanigans were just to avoid playing team M in summer league. i mean i was gonna say so anyway but im glad he didnt front.

then piece was crazy since games were canceled early. couldnt get to the bar, no pizza, it was mass hysteria. so the c.u. staff took off for darwins with the real world household minus ferrari and cho, plus rick and tiger. bk totally stole our parking spot with the minivan. oh sure like the guy with the $1550 micro-convection oven is going to save a spot for the chicks who dont make that in a year...come on!

"roasts yes, lasagna no"

2006-08-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

its a tough life in the c.u. universe. last night joe little and bk had a rough time of it figuring out how and when to use the convection feature on the stove in their new mansion. seriously...its a viking stove for god's sake. miss casual must've been taking crazy pills when she passed on the chance to live in this new crib. we tried to name it last night but nothing stuck. we at c.u. are referring to it as 'Real World Irving Park'. if they had a pool table and a confessional like this one it would be ready to go.

i definitely wish i would've moved in if only because then i could use c.u. as a confessional for R.W.I.P. like 'god cho left his socks in the living room again and i have just had it.' and then photos of the ensuing fight with me throwing dirty socks at cho and then both of us crying and making up and drinking beer on the couch together talking about the war in lebannon. thats what the kids are doing these days right? aren't we in the trust tree? the nest? cricket, cricket...

we also discussed the house warming party which will be amazing with the deck and the skylit bathrooms and the metal railings and the pink wall. we at c.u. are hoping to run the door with a trusty clipboard and a snotty attitude only letting in v.i.p.'s who know cho's middle name. (shhh dont tell anyone...its pierre). so look out cause this is definitely the new hangout for this winter. its absurd how much space they have and how brightly colored the walls are. itll be the perfect thing for when frisbee season ends and winter boredom begins. real life reality tv...

and this saturday is supposedly the triathalon. well keep you posted on who ends up in the little, green, skylit winners circle.

we're like 7-11, we never close

2006-07-31T11:58:00.000-05:00

well is was champagne wishes and C.U. dreams this weekend as usual. friday we celebrated pfil's new abode which was christened 'meng-town', although we at c.u. are still partial to 'rockwell' or 'the rock'. im sure the syntax will evolve as new casual memories are made there.

saturday it was beach time what with the opressive heat. yours truly rolled up to evanston with ms. utlimate to hang out with her super stylish grandma and go swimming. i cant even begin to describe the swank apartment...eames chairs, custom danish furniture, amazing art, and stunning flatware. on top of eating lunch and tossing on the beach we got relationship advice from an octagenarian. the bottom line: join you local national affairs club, go to grad school, or both. ms. ultimate could have told you this would be the advice, but we got a nice trip to the virtual countryside out of it.

as humiliating as it was, it psyched us up for another night out. we decided half our problem is that we never leave wicker park where the crowd tends to be young, affected hipsters who dont buy girls drinks and even if they did, the way to a girl's heart is not through a can of pbr. we can buy our own. and sometimes a lady wants to get dressed up to go out on a saturday night.

so we ventured outside our normal stomping grounds. we started at home at parlor on north ave with my friend rob who bailed becuase we were too dressed up. then we met another architect, c(b)r in lincoln park, way out of range. then he bailed cause he thought he was hurting our chances. then we picked up matt and went to cobra lounge. we love cobra. we will be back there very often. then it was on to fulton lounge for cans of champagne. matt tipped over a glass and ms. ultimate sustained a minor flesh wound before we headed to flash taco for late night mexican.

then at 3am miss casual got an update from mike d. who was stranded in minneapolis outside of his hotel room becuase of his friend and a stripper. we at c.u. sincerely hope he got to sleep inside and not in the corridor.

mom don't read this...or black wednesday

2006-07-28T08:48:00.000-05:00

team M lost their first game on wednesday. it sucked. we just fell apart. i cant even discuss it becuase it makes me sad and whiny. alls i know is we are not going to lose another one. this little uplifting image came from my friend rob at work who also gave me the best piece of advice ive gotten lately. i told him i have the taste of an 18 year old boy, what with my fondness for will ferrell movies, rap music, and playing sports. he told me to drop acid and hang out in the american girl store for an afternoon to straighten things out. werd.

after our devastating loss, we rolled up to piece in the minivan and i was telling akira that he was either really lucky he moved out or really unlucky he moved out becuase my roommates had a blowjob class in the house last week. miss casual doesnt participate in such un-ladylike activities so dont post a bunch of comments asking about the curriculum for the class, what happened, who was there....cause i dont know. i didnt stick around to find out. all i know is there were no men involved, gay or straight. im not sure if thats good or bad. im getting the ick just typing this. moving on...

at piece the war for bedrooms started in the joe squared, cho, akira, king household. i do believe joe ferrari and cho are running a marathon in two weeks for one of the rooms and from what i gather both of them will be sleeping in the living room until its decided. there was talk of an amazing race and segway jousting, both of which make us at c.u. excited for photo ops, but i think its the marathon thats on so well keep you posted.

lastly, this photo was taken by our c.u. correspondant pfil 'daddy warbucks' broering who is closing on his place this morning and would like to invite everyone to black beetle for a happy hour repeat and then popsicles on his deck and a look at this view, albeit with less clouds. congrats to the property owner. post a comment giving the c.u. readers a time for happy hour, a breakdown of the closing, etc etc...

this burrito is dollars

2006-07-26T13:09:00.000-05:00

i have to tell you, i was having a rough morning dealing with the mouthbreather of an architect i am working for right now and things were not looking good in the c.u. universe.

until lunch when i went to burrito-town and my favorite girl at the chipotle on ontario turned my day around. some days they dont give you enough salsa and they yell at you for your order when youre still 18 ft. from the counter, and let's face it, if i wanted to get yelled at in public i'd get a boyfriend, not a burrito.

but today she hooked a sister up with tons of the spicy spicy salsa ('i spit hot fiyah'...thats for chuck), the sun came out, and the afternoon is looking up. so the lesson for today is revel in the little things that kick major ass in your day and it can change your whole outlook. now if i could find a ride to summer league so i dont have to take the king drive express the whole day would be dollars.

1000 hits day

2006-07-24T22:48:00.000-05:00

So, immediately after instructing C.U. to "dress slutty" to go clubbing in a couple weeks, mike d tries to cushion his instruction by insisting that industry night at a club is mostly for gay men, which begs the question - why would C.U. be attending, and in short skirts at that? according to our host, the hot girls are there because of all the gay guys, and the straight guys are there because of all the hot girls. apparently The Club is a delicate underwater ecosystem, wherein ladies are the clownfish, gay guys are the anemone and other guys are the sharks. we'll keep this in mind and travel with harpoons.

on a related note, after ms. ultimate's suggestion that everyone call in drunk to work tomorrow, miss casual asked why you can't just call in single now and again: you're out on a schoolnight, talking to the boys and you don't have plans to head home in time for sufficient beauty rest - why not? how do you move down the path towards maternity leave without a little single leave now and then? it's amazing that we're still fighting this kind of injustice in the 21st century.

and now.... something that would be funny if it weren't true. tbrizzle's new neighbors let themselves into his ride, proving that toyota's theft deterrent system is anything but. *WTF* sometimes the world blows, and even the casual ultimate lifestyle doesn't make you feel better. we're sorry tones. if you find these guys we'll kick their asses. seriously. with nunchucks.

2 in the mornin' and the party's still bumpin cause my mama aint home

2006-07-23T11:05:00.000-05:00

when this is where your night ends you know it was good. we drank pfil under the table...or at least he got sleepy and tried to take a nap under the coffee table on paulina sometime around 230am. or maybe this is him getting ready to play golf on saturday. or maybe he just wanted to ensure his appearance on the blog. whatever is going on here, this is the end of our casual friday happy hour so lets work back to where it all started shall we?

the vip after hours party landed pfil, adam, and the c.u. staff on paulina with a bottle of veuve and a frozen pizza. big pimpin. before that we went to high dive on chicago with carlo 'the sprinkles on our cupcake' ruth and met up with pfil's brother who looks just like pfil in profile. we also were hanging out with tara, a friend of adam's who looks so much like me our friends kept getting us mixed up all night.

before that we had a crazy turnout at black beetle. our new friend bill came out as did charlie, our friend from the first c.u. happy hour. but that was really just the beginning. there was a joke on paul when ms. ultimate ordered us all shots and got one full of water for lauren. pregnant ladies taking shots...represent.

then there was pfil and vijay throwing us the c.u. which we deeply appreciated and totally not acting gay at all. mike d. requested a song on the jukebox that never seemed to come on and left for date night without telling me what it was. (ahem...i expect a comment from you here with the verdict on redlight and the name of the song.)

thor showed up looking like the power lawyer that he is, dressed to kill. and since ms. ultimate was held up getting casual, the night began with mike d. (who seems to think happy hour starts at 4pm) and i holdin it down and getting a live demo of pfil's crazy throw to dp from wednesday at summer league. holler.

so thanks to everyone who came out. hopefully you had as much fun as pfil obviously did. we'll see you all soon and it will involve pfil's new roof deck, a kiddie pool, a giant tv, and lime popsicles.

The Young and the Reckless: Chicago Drift

2006-07-21T16:01:00.000-05:00

Faithful readers, your comments to miss casual's post suggest you want to see more references to B-movies on the blog. Here at CU we aim to please.

Leaving the fields on Wednesday night, Baker and Oli pulled up next to eachother at a stoplight. They exchanged casual glances (rather like the ones pictured to the right), and Baker started inching forward... When the light turned green he peeled out of there like miss casual cutting to the endzone, with Oli following close behind. Oli accelerated and swung around on the right, then cut Baker off [picture a tall angry white guy hitting the steering wheel] and they both landed at the next stoplight, engines revving. At this point Baker mentioned how ironic it would be if there was a cop behind them, given the fact that he had a $120 city sticker ticket in the back seat, issued that same day in the Millennium Park garage (isn't this entrapment? rick?). They played cat and mouse down the street, and had just turned onto the highway on ramp when Baker spotted the fuzz in hot pursuit, cherry lights going, siren on - even the loudspeaker: "move to the right! move to the right!" They passed Baker and we thought for sure Oli was toast, but it turns out they had bigger donuts to eat and sped by both of the speedracers.

phew! Baker was free to go on vacation next week, along with approx. half of the summer league team, and Oli lived to resume his career taping interviews with porn stars. that's right. it's all for the college fund.

we're not businessmen, we're a business, man

2006-07-20T11:00:00.000-05:00

here's adam gettin his hustle on in the kitchen last night before we went out for a late dinner involving an obscene amount of sushi at sushi wabi. having him in from out of town forced me to miss team M kicking some major ass at summer league last night but i got to wear my new sneakers with a matching tube top to dinner so i guess it was worth it. adam wore his orange patent leather air force ones so we looked like some sort of deranged japanese couple. he thinks the blog has too much frisbee. i think thats probably not going to change until it snows.

today kind of sucks what with the rain and gray and such. but tomorrow is going to be beautiful. ahh chicago... the sunshine state... so get ready for happy hour. make sure you bring your beer drinking shoes. black beetle. 630. it could get casual.

C.U. Hits The Big Time

2006-07-18T22:35:00.000-05:00

Our best blog friend ever is making good on his promise to spread casual ultimate's fame. We shall bring our C.U. style to the masses!

make ultimate not war

2006-07-18T12:10:00.000-05:00

weve been having close games lately at summer league. last night we barely made it out of there undefeated. it was so hot we figured the only way to stay cool was to get tallboys of pbr and bring them to the field. thats us looking ghetto with our bags..thank goodness rick knew a place in the hood on the way to the field. you know the beer your drinking is quality when two tallboys cost less than the bougie bottle of water i bought.

the post title comes from someone at piece calling us haters (you know who you are)...in a nice way. i mean we took it to mean we have discriminating taste and know what we like. and you know what we like? you guys. and ultimate. and happy hour. so come out friday to the black beetle and let us share the love... not the hate.

oh and just in case you didnt think we at C.U. were totally headed to famous town, we are going to be featured in metroblogging chicago (chicago.metblogs.com) so check it out.

midnight in the bar with good and evil

2006-07-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

we were visions in terry cloth saturday night at a costume party in logan square. yours truly was sporting a black strapless terry cloth mini dress and ms ultimate wore one in white. with the necessary accessorizing we pulled off being 'good and evil go to the beach' or something similar. unfortunately the best costumes were on the people we came with (us of course, and treem as a soccer fanatic, aaron in a shark costume and martha in full on medusa gear with snakes and glitter and everything). so after making the scene there we retired to rainbo room on our way to paulina. its not every night you end up in some hipster bar wearing a glorified bathrobe but at C.U. thats how we roll.

we spent friday night post happy hour ruling damen with pfil, and saturday watching a movie, tossing at the park in our skirts, and eating tater tots with carlo and sally. the highlight of friday night was maryjane, who strolled into lemming's wearing this batman skirt. it's made from an old batman sheet, the kind you boys probably had when you were young'uns. not only was she rocking the skirt, but she casually mentioned, "i know it's funny that my name is maryjane, because that was spiderman's girlfriend's name, but i'm still a batman fan." way to know your superero trivia, MJ! i'm glad we ran into her, because miss ultimate been waiting to post this photo of The Bat Cave - the town bar in Gotham, WI - ever since the 4th. finally!

great weekend for refreshing the spirit and recharging our will to cause trouble with the C.U. antics this week. so give us your best shot and well try to make it all go down by friday's happy hour at black beetle on chicago and rockwell. theres already an after party in the works for friday so stay tuned.

if you guys dont suggest anything we can only come up with more themed clothing outtings (which we'll probably do anyway) so post some comments or well cut you off from our terry cloth mayhem.

lucky's got a brand new pair of shoes

2006-07-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

Two orders of business:

(1) happy hour tomorrow (friday), pontiac, 6:30/7pmish
(2) the first-ever casual ultimate Antics Competition, whereby the readers of this very blog nominate (a) a person and (b) a situation/event for the chosen person to undertake and have documented on your very own casualultimate.blogspot.com. How does this work? Each person nominates, via comments to this post, a person they would like to see undertake some crazy shit and some crazy shit to be undertaken.

Example: (a) Carlo (b) shoplifting women's hosiery
Example: (a) Baker (b) holding up a liquor store with his imaginary machine gun
Example: (a) Roadhouse (b) headbutting someone in the chest in practice on Sunday

But the crazy thing is, our loyal readership could vote for Carlo as (a), but headbutting as (b). And then A and B would have to come together under the watchful eye of ms. ultimate and miss casual and/or the situation would need to be independently documented and presented to the misses at happy hour NEXT friday. It's ludicrous, I know, but there will be a prize so calm down. On second thought, get excited because this is going to be fun. Bring on the hi tops this weekend is going to be good times.

frisbee foreplay

2006-07-13T10:23:00.000-05:00

we need to go easy on ms. ultimate. she has a demanding job and cant blog at work. i, on the other hand, treat architecture like a temporary layover on the way to being the wife of a corporate lawyer and having one of those cute 'aw she doesnt have to work but does it for the furniture discount at DWR' jobs.

speaking of looking cute and being useless... i realize i have been playing too much frisbee and not spending enough time trying to look cool. this weekend is going to be all about getting a pedicure, drinking cocktails (as opposed to beer) and wearing shoes that cost more than my car payment.

the post title comes from ms. ultimate who says she misses hanging out with the casual crowd without playing frisbee first. so it looks like tonight might be a 'blow off beach and make trouble' night. we arent sure what direction this will take yet so if you, our lovely readers, are in a similar boat email us (casualultimate@gmail.com) or post a comment with a suggestion. there will be another official meeting of the C.R.A.F.T. club, our casual ultimate happy hour, a week from tomorrow somewhere in the WP (pronounced 'dub p') but tonight maybe include post work frivolity as well so hit us up if youre interested.

everyone loves a man in a two-piece

2006-07-12T23:01:00.000-05:00

Akira wanted me to post more, but I think he just wanted to see more Akira on the blog. So here it is; this boy was very excited about Sandblast, despite his debilitating rib injury. You would think he was on a Hawaiian island with those shorts, but really it was just Montrose beach. I wonder if they have that much glass hidden in the sand in Hawaii.

Team anything-but-M pulled out a win tonight, but it was close. Both lady ultimate and miss casual would have been unhappy to lose to that particular team - lady ultimate did get to hear some fun gossip related to miss manly crazy/hot pink socks, though. We had to cap the game because of the eerily dense fog, which left a few extra minutes for post-game Piece. Miss Cas. finally heard the scoop on mr. "your blog is strangely erotic" - i hope it was worth the wait. as, i hope, was this picture of bikini man. nice visor.

"we'll blow you for cool points" - evan & baker

2006-07-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

my self esteem is in the gutter after i couldnt find anybody to waste time at estelles with me last night. although ms. ultimate did offer to make me a martini as long as i came to her house wearing pajamas so she wouldnt be underdressed. mike d. sent a cryptic text saying that sparks made him do bad things and he was still recovering. we at C.U. are dying of curiosity so hopefully he'll make it to piece after summer league tonight.

after work i went to some young architect happy hour thing. no wonder i dont go to those. they are filled with nerds. except rob of course. here he is coming correct with two beers.

and if my cool points are suffering at least i am not offering to do obscene things to earn them like dan baker and evan in this photo from our monday night win at summer league. here are some more photos from sandblast etc.

i heart sandblast

2006-07-11T08:31:00.000-05:00

sorry for the late post but it took me all day yesterday to recover from sandblast...and i didnt even play. and by 'recover' i mean 'eat an absurdly large brunch with the towns and sarah and jason t. and hit the movies with bk'. it was so great to have chuck and sarah in town this weekend. here's a picture of chuck about to go to work on saturday.

and work they did. briefcase played a sick nasty tournament this weekend with our own ms. ultimate having one of her best tournaments ever (this is a third party opinion from numerous sources). unfortunately she wasnt around for sandburst saturday night becuase she was watching a mariachi band at her parents house. sandburst was awesome. we ate at el cid (heres a pic at right with chuck in his work you dog shirt and sarah throwing us some blue steel) and then chilled at the BR's with beer and mini kit kat bars. no wonder i love those guys... the talk turned to soccer, moisturizer, and how miss casual needs to marry a mob boss. i already have the pointy toed italian leather heels and big gold hoops so if anybody knows a soprano, hook me up.

akira and cho didnt make it because they were bringing the pain to the official sandblast party. through a C.U. correspondant we got reports of them stumbling home late and not being able to open their front door with either of their keys. (we are working on getting a photo of the offending lock to inspect it's obviously defective nature.) then cho proceeded to shoot said correspondant using his finger as an imaginary gun. gangsta.

so unfortunately be'ach got upset in the quarters on sunday, possibly because of their a-game tactics at cherry red the night before and briefcase had to watch / play against the speedo team. ick. however we did get the C.U. MHP (most hilarious player) out of that game. Jarrett shaved his number into his back hair and so goes down in history... (does anyone have a pic of this?)

bjorn, who was off filming a doublemint gum ad on saturday night, brought his a-game on sunday where he and becky and their madison team bested briefcase in the finals. it was sad to see briefcase lose but it was nice to have some casual peeps on the winning team. so big ups to bjorn and becky and the volkmans whose divine dinner sunday night made losing a little easier to take.

when i do show up, it will be momentous

2006-07-07T13:30:00.000-05:00

last night beach was so casual that at one point on the sideline nate knew the score but didn't know what we were playing to. it was awesome. ms. ultimate was off on date-night (ahem, if we cant gossip about ourselves who's left?) so i had to hold it down for the blog.

the post title came from cho who said he doesnt want to say anything in front of me anymore for fear of it ending up on the blog but also thinks dan baker is getting too much press from the c.u. i say cho is just jealous and all he has to do is show up to beach drunk more often to regain his c.u. stardom because when he shows up...it's momentous.

oh and he has to show up to sandburst on saturday night too. all of you do. and if you read the blog but arent on our mailing list yet, email us at casualultimate@gmail.com so you can get invited to all future meetings of the C.R.A.F.T. club.

TGIF

2006-07-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

This morning I threw a shoe at a wisecracking coworker, and it disappeared. I think he took it; won't give it back. So now I only have one shoe. It's only 8:30. Damn.

...and then pfil stabbed this guy

2006-07-06T09:08:00.000-05:00

its like homecoming this week. becky rolled into town and it made our win last night against billy's team at summer league that much better to roll up to piece after and drink von awesome with becky. unfortunately this is not the car we rolled up in. look at the rims on that impala! theyre up to my hip. granted im short but still...i expected this in the ATL but not the peoples republic of wicker park.

beach tonight should be good. its great weather, becky's gonna bring her dirty south stylo out to north ave, and i think ive recovered finally from my car key fiasco. oh and nothing quite so dramatic as a stabbing last night but if you guys aren't going to do stupid dangerous things for us to post about im going to have to start making them up. holla at a playa.

heres some more pics from last night...baker with his game face on, our pizza, our waitress who tried to remain aloof while sporting a white napkin like headband. miss casual has a tip for ya darlin...its hard to pull off pouty teen angst when you look like frickin karate kid.

countdown to sandtown

2006-07-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

ben wallace is coming to chicago and you can bet miss casual will have the first bulls jersey with his name on it that she can lay her hands on.

this is also a pretty decent depiction of my mood last night when i realized that i had locked my keys in the car...while it was in the middle of the street in front of sally's house...with the engine running. good times.

thankfully the rest of the weekend was awesome. my mother (mrs. town) made an italian feast that i am still daydreaming about. plus i went to the zoo with rick, tony and carlo and rode the merry-go-round... and they did too. i am hoping theyll send me the photos but somehow i think they wont want them to get out. they were nervous enough standing in line.

the zoo brought up the discussion of what would be the ideal job for someone you are seeing. tony's new lady is a zookeeper, hence our field trip. i came up with pastry chef as an optimal occupation and rick told me i need to track down a chicago fire player.

and in case you havent heard (but im sure you have) party at t&c's on saturday night. get your most casual outfit together and head on over. and people...come on. do something stupid / dangerous so we can post about it.

sandburst

2006-06-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

last night at beach....nothing really happened. which was weird becuase two weeks before sanblast it seemed like lots of people would be out. but it was still gorgeous out and we had enough people to play fives so alls well that ends well.

the best things going on....ms. ultimate threw another fierce hammer, tony and bjorn sized up the people on the path based on whether they could beat them up or not ('him, not him, maybe him if he's not fast'), bjorn left early for a mystery non-date type thing (i know this is not really gossip but this week is slow), and there was some freaky guy that literally had the worst sunburn ive ever seen passed out a few yards outside the endzone. it was fascinating and painful to watch.

the other topic of conversation seemed to be a general grumble about the lack of of respect given to the returning champions of sandblast. the post title actually comes from steve who figured briefcase could secede from the tournament and have their own beach throw down. yall know where i'd be...i already bought brown face paint to put a tie on my belly...not really but i should. or allison should. big time.

moral of the story...kicking ass is the best revenge so im lookin for briefcase to bring their a-game next weekend. totes.

UPDATE - sandburst is turning into a sandblast after party at tony and carlo's saturday night. email us at casualultimate@gmail.com for details.

'M' is for passionfruit

2006-06-29T08:40:00.000-05:00

i am dedicating this post to our fearless leader on Team M, Dan Baker, seen here at left imitating a passionfruit after our stunning victory against 31 Flavors of Awesome last night. their record isnt the most impressive in summer league but for our game they brought out their big guns. although we'd never show it, the ladies of casual utlimate were a little nervous going up against such a stacked lineup...akira, bryan, and jason all came out. it was a great game though and ms. ultimate kicked some major ass, throwing a hot, lady hammer to henderson for a money score.

lucky for us we stayed undefeated and therefore got to drink beer post victory at piece. we played grown up and actually got a table and had a waitress and everything. that's class people. take notes. granted the beer comes in plastic pitchers...but hey you cant win them all.

Could you kill your best friend?

2006-06-28T09:19:00.000-05:00

we're playing bryan and akira's summer league team tonight. Battle Royale! let's hope it stops raining.

thank goodness for socialist democracies

2006-06-26T16:44:00.000-05:00

captain clark just had the IT intern install speakers on my computer for the express purpose of watching this music video. i can't condone what's going on, but i can say that casualultimate needs something which we can euphemistically refer to as, my "ta la long."

sippin moet is where you find me

2006-06-26T09:17:00.000-05:00

well carlo's toe incident is a mixed blessing becuase we finally got to go on our architecture field trip to milwaukee. and it was awesome. the museum is really beautiful. we saw an exhibit about comics and roamed around taking gratuitous architecture photos before taking a break to get a mid afternoon drink (guess who's is whose) and watch kids climb all over the bazillion dollar a square foot curtain wall.

carlo 'aint nothin changed but my limp' ruth actually kept up amazingly for being injured althogh he almost broke another toe when he realized he could've used his injury at beach thursday to get bjorn to give him a piggy back ride to the hospital and kicked a column. i am also disappointed as carlo getting a piggy back ride from bjorn would undoubtedly have been the photo op of the summer thus far.

all day i dream about sovereign

2006-06-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

last night casualultimate finally got to see lady sov at intonation. she is awesome; didn't wear one of her signature track suits; and weighs about 90 pounds. if c.u. were her mother, we'd insist she eat three squares a day and an ensure after every show. that said, she had an amazingly strong voice and puts on a solid drunken show. she spilled beer all over her sandaled feet (and i don't think she's even old enough to drink legally stateside). nearly everything she sang seemed new, so we're looking forward to a new album in the near future. ladies: the new style is sheer aviators and a ponytail so far to the side it's over your ear.

before the show we were hanging in the BBC America Underground tent. it was casualultimate on safari. every outdoor event should have a tent with plasma screens billiards.

we also met roadhouse, whose owners accidentally named him bosco.

talking to strangers

2006-06-24T11:42:00.000-05:00

the first casual ultimate happy hour was a success, with the usual cast of characters plus a new guy we met tossing in the WP. new guy is/was a professional banjo player. a major topic of convo was Roadhouse, the hypothetical new vessel house pup. in the absence of a puppy, this nickname is too good to go unused - who should it be? don't say cho, we already thought of that.

akira, young professional that he is, showed up avec dry cleaning; see picture to left. he had to leave early because his shirt started wrinkling. pfil, young unprofessional that he is, showed up avec stamos hat, which ms. ultimate ganked at the end of the hour. the hat played a critical role in the evening's next act, when m.u. ate a hamburger cake with her bare hands.

takeaways from the evening: carlo (formerly blanchet-) ruth definitely has a broken toe; he's also so rich he can wipe slider drool off his leg with dolla billz. there will definitely be more casualultimate happy hours in the near future, although hopefully miss casual won't get completely tanked after the next one (hey mom, you still reading the blog?).

xoxo,
ms. ultimate & miss casual

p.s. thanks to TBR for the pics

sentimental garbage

2006-06-23T10:52:00.000-05:00

'if you've ever wanted to know what its like to look into the face of god and see him looking back saying, you are my most perfect creation' you shouldve been out at beach last night. lots of people turned out, the weather was perfect, and the sky lit up like magic. it made me stop, wipe the sweat off my forehead onto my lil kim shirt, and be thankful that the friends of casual ultimate are hilarious (not to mention stunningly attractive) and give us lots of ammunition to keep the blog rolling.

unfortunately carlo broke a toe early on in the evening so he might not be playing sandblast. which would suck big time. i think this means he's on the free beer list for happy hour tonight. also the first person to email us at casualutlimate@gmail.com with the person who said the quote at the beginning of this post gets a beer courtesy of miss casual.

and speaking of happy hour...you better show up. if you dont come we'll be talking about you. you've been warned.

casual ultimate happy hour

2006-06-22T15:59:00.000-05:00

tomorrow night the casual ultimate ladies are posting up at pontiac on damen and drinking beer for happy hour. if you are a casualty of machine cuts, or you have never / still play for machine but you have secrets you can tell us or amusing tricks you can perform, maybe well buy you a beer. 630. bring your peeps. get your casual on.

werd.

these times call for beer

2006-06-21T15:07:00.000-05:00

the machine roster is up, and it looks like several casualultimate peeps are not on it. WTF. perhaps sacrificing institutional memory for young blood? we wonder how this will impact gary's roster and mr. briefcase. thoughts, faithful readers?

the purveyors of casualultimate would like to extend an invitation to all those who ended up on the cut list to join us for brews at some point in the near future. fallen soldiers, set up your appointment by emailing casualultimate@gmail.com. beer's on us.

another night at the peach pit

2006-06-20T08:48:00.001-05:00

we won our game last night at summer league in record time and hauled ass up to piece. we were there when the first pizza came down the stairs and what a lovely sight it was. plus baron von awesome was the cheap ultimate beer last night ... music to our casual ears. and then came ms. ultimate's salad. and it was....magic.

i think our team's fun-o meter went up last night a bit. plus we are winning by big margins so that's pretty nice. now if it wasn't for dr. jazzhands we'd be unstoppable.

i wished our game had taken a little longer though becuase rick said he'd give me the unicorn lamp if we waited and gave him a ride. but they weren't even at halftime and we were playing extra points for giggles on our field. we played dp and pfil's team but pfil wasnt there. rumor had it he was at the radiohead concert. i wish i had a picture of this girl's shorts from their team. they had a huge hole and you could practically see her whole butt. come on sister...hold out for a dinner before you give it all away.

sarah's on the road to sanfran today. sniff sniff....

page six

2006-06-19T09:58:00.000-05:00

eric, pictured here in the throes of trying to figure out how it should all go down, popped the big Q yesterday. there's a hyphenated last name in his future! the full story is more ultimate than casual due to the nerves and crying involved, and you can read all about it here. he took advantage of chicago's 1000park and the iconic bean as background (and metaphor). i feel like there are going to be/have been but we don't know about proposals there; perhaps we'll have to call the next generation of chicagoans "bean babies" (maybe a little too close to beanie babies?).

'i like this neighborhood becuase of the sluts.'

2006-06-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

well vessell throws down. the office happy hour was a very casual event. beautiful, albeit divided crowd, with the frisbee players staking out the kitchen and the designers everywhere else. lots of fun people including the ever elusive eric. the russells showed up with a lovely plant and were greeted by cries of 'itll die' to which rick responded 'no it wont, we asked.'

sarah russell won the raffel of the shiny unicorn lamp and so ms. casual had to pester her for it for the rest of the evening. best dressed went to ms. ultimate and her new hottie outfit and carlo who had a guns and roses belt buckle on. tony did make a run for it though by sticking a soccer ball in his shirt to empathise with allison, the hottest ultimate mama.

are there cooler couples than chile and chiara? i think not. plus chiara totally loves the panda skin shoe stylo.

the taste of randolph brought out an interesting crowd to the hood near vessell's office. the casual sisters ended up with bjorn and akira drinking beer and enjoying the summer air around the corner and the plethora of trixies made the people watching pretty entertaining. is nowhere safe? are see through shirts and skirts up to your arse what it takes these days? pump your brakes ladies. its easier to let your casual shine through when you have some self esteem left.

in her infinite wisdom ms. ultimate reserved casualultimate@gmail.com for our use. so feel free to send love letters, bribes, and unsubstatiated gossip to us. also we are totally famous now. if you check www.chicagobloggers.com you will find us at the damen blue line stop. totes.

im having trouble uploading more pictures but ill try and post some more this afternoon.

i'm not gonna lie... it's gonna get weird

2006-06-16T09:31:00.000-05:00

last night was all about sarah and drunk cho. bryan put it like this... 'if i had to choose between hanging out with will ferrell and drunk cho, i'd have to really think about it.' strong words...strong words. although it was pretty much right on. somewhere between getting wrestled to the ground by rick and being the only one to get carded at darwins, cho gave me a long lecture about how i was doomed because i have shoes made out of baby pandas.

after lots of the crowd had left tony and monica showed up....and then so did carrie. this was actually totally drama free but it did get everyone who was still around to get another beer and wait to see if anything crazy would go down. no dice. and i missed the best photo op of the night while i was at the bar...tony with monica and carrie flanking him on the banquet.

it was a great night. too bad it's because sarah's leaving. here are some more pictures...bryan throwing his blue steel into the mix, rick and sally getting tired, claire accosting a stranger in a suspisciously briefcase looking shirt, bjorn and sarah engrossed in dialogue...

kindred represent

2006-06-15T09:20:00.000-05:00

this morning i got an email with chucktown in a flier for sandblast. i hope this is an omen that this year he is coming back to town to work. you. dog. i also think sarah and akira and carlo are on the banner for the sandblast website.

ms. ultimate and i brought our a-game to summer league and piece last night. here is a picture of jeff and mike looking intimidated by our game faces. actually that might be mike throwing blue steel...i can never be sure.

so far our nameless summer league team is winning some games but im concerned that we lack what the french call a certain 'i dont know what.' hopefully our chemistry will get better as the weather gets warmer.

oh, it's already been broughten

2006-06-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

oh man, i am going to rock this blog. as ms. casual mentioned, my company just finished its annual meeting so now i can devote time to more important pursuits. i've had to wear a suit for three days straight, but now i can go back to biz casual....and then 100% casual. suits make me tired, but they also tend to mean i'll be getting martinis and steak. it all balances out in the end.

i'm already looking forward to treem's world cup BBQ and the beach on saturday. and i'm going to get a digital camera, so soon i'll be able to post pictures instead of just text. i know the public is dying to see my snapshots.

mmmm...tennis

2006-06-14T13:27:00.000-05:00

i had the best intentions last night...treem and i went to try and play tennis but there are no frickin courts...anywhere. the two in union park were taken and there arent any at roberto clemente park. weve already made the mistake of trying to play in humboldt park (think chain link nets and grass growing on the court) so we did what we had to do....give up and go to estelles for 2$ oberons. i think with a little more practice we will be a fierce doubles team...

we tried to get ms. ultimate to come out too but shes busy with work. however her meeting is almost over and then shes gonna bring the pain to this blog. big time.

until then she sends her wish for sweetsauce to all the people playing along at home.

drinking my way to stardom

2006-06-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

what a weekend...i wish world cup was every summer. not that girls as casual as ourselves need excuses to drink beer in the afternoon but having a room full of screaming fans brings it into focus...

and then last night i got tipsy in the name of green design. some chemist came from herman miller to give a very dull lecture full of bullet points striaght off their website about how many squirrels and bunnies theyve saved by making bougie office furniture. heres a picture of rob looking skeptical.

also tony, our resident star designer stopped by last night. i think we are all getting sad sarah is leaving this week. we've got to come up with someplace good to go on thursday atfer beach. im not sure darwins is up to the challenge.

our ultimate brings all the boys to the yard

2006-06-09T12:14:00.000-05:00

man sometimes just being female is enough to provoke unnecessary abuse.

witness a comment last night at beach made by a boy who will remain nameless...a disc drops in the endzone and the spectators all enjoy a shout of 'oh i forgot it was a girl cutting.' ouch. is our casual ultimate too much for you? i know it can be intimidating.

if thats not enough after saying that soccer players were hot i got a rude 'thats cause youre desparate.' not that this is news necessarily but come on...can a sister get a break?

thank god for lady sovereign (she's ill, naw she's sick) and the remix of kelis's milkshake with pharrell and clipse. they are brightening my whole chick outlook immeasurably.

god i wish i had cornrows like hers.

holla at a playa

today is casual thursday

2006-06-08T09:32:00.000-05:00

in order to start off on the right foot i think im going to dedicate this first post to our wonderful friend tony who inadvertantly gave us the name for this chronicle. he is one of the best people i know and also one of the most snobby ultimate players around. in his defense, he has the right to be...sigh. this is the briefcase i want to get him for his birthday.

in another briefcase related story... i went to this shindig for redeye the other night and they made us fill out nerdy questionnaires about our favorite bar / beer / sports teams so i put mr. briefcase as my favorite chicago sports team. im sure those redeye chicks thought i was crazytown. totes.