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Things have been a bit mental, so it's been a couple of weeks since I've done an update.

The team are getting better at working together and passing. And they're still really good at holding even high scoring teams to very few goals. (We still have the lowest goals against by a long shot.) But they are still having trouble turning opportunities into goals. Some of it is just bad luck--shots going wide or the other goalkeeper getting hold of a near thing--and some of it is their desire to put the ball in the goal themselves, even if someone else on the team has a clearer shot at the net. ::sigh::

Last week we played the team that was lowest in the standings, and I thought we had a shot at winning. But they have clearly improved (they've got a three game winning streak going) and our defence fell apart at a couple of key moments, so they managed a 2 - 1 win. But Ros got our "1," so that was awesome. She's definitely become a much more aggressive player, which is lovely to see.

This week we played the top team in our division, and they really could have killed us, but we played a really solid game. They scored early, but we kept the pressure on and our best player got a really lovely goal she chipped over the head of their keeper. (Ros also made a really lovely run and had a clear shot on net, but kicked it right at their keeper, alas.) We had them at a 1 - 1 tie for most of the game, and I thought we might keep that, but our defence fell apart two minutes from the end and they got a goal in. Still, it was a great game.

Outside of soccer, things have been a bit crazy. I did my back in about a month ago, irritating two arthritic vertebrae doing some yoga moves after a running class. Yoga always seems like a good idea, but my crazy passing-itself-on-a-curve spine just can't handle it. This has not only meant no Taekwando until I get the pain under control, it has also meant I've been sleeping badly to not at all a majority of the time. Which means that every few nights after we get Ros to sleep I pretty much keel over where I'm standing. This has almost entirely eliminated most of the computer and TV watching time I usually eke out.

Stupid back.

In spite of that, there has been fun had.

We went camping two weekends ago, which I always enjoy. Though sleeping on an air mattress really did not impress my back, and was managed only after I ventured into the nearest town to buy the strongest over the counter pain meds I could find. (It was that, or find a cheap nearby hotel so I didn't feel like someone was drilling into my spine.) The drugs were lovely stuff for knocking you out, but not a sustainable solution due to its not-so-lovely side effects.

Today, I took the day off work to take Ros and a friend to the Canadian National Exhibition,a.k.a. the Ex. It's a fall fair on a huge scale, with a midway, a giant food building where you can get all sorts of crazy things like donut hamburgers (the girls had perogies; I had a yummy fish taco), and lots of shows, demonstrations and ridiculous things for sale.

Ros loves to go primarily for the kids' circus workshop that gets put on every year. She always has done the tightrope walking and acrobatics, but this year she was finally big enough to do the trapeze, which was very exciting.

( Circus pics this way... )