Wheelchairs and Wiis

Random Items of Interest:

  • [Maggie->] lost her first tooth! And by that evening, she’d lost it again. Fortunately, [Liam->] found it for her, though not without three days of it being MIA. Thanks to her brother’s efforts, the Tooth Fairy was at last able to make a visit. (Fortunately, it wasn’t this version that dropped by.)
  • Kathy has torn back into school with a rabid vengeance. She’s really enjoying the opportunity to be challenging herself and learning at such a rate, and has taken advantage of the opportunity to sign up for some very interesting courses, including one in which she works with players of wheelchair rugby (or “Murderball”, as it is sometimes reassuringly known).

    As part of one of her assignments, the whole family went to a tournament last Sunday afternoon. It was pretty amazing to see these guys charging around, slamming into each other, talking smack, and making quite a show of it. I was particularly impressed by one fellow whose arms and legs were amputated just above the elbows and knees. I didn’t see how he would pull off playing, given that the game requires a bit of dribbling and a good deal of passing, but he had worked out a fascinating system of tossing the ball in front of him while moving quickly so that it would bounce back up to his lap or lobbing it a few inches into the air and giving it a mighty whack with one of his stumpy appendages. It was really a sight to behold.

    It was also fun to see Mark Zupan, one of the players who is featured in the excellent documentary on the sport.

  • Thanks to the awesome power of the Internet, I was finally able to successfully place on order for a Wii. If anybody out there is still trying to lay hands on one, I highly recommend the OuttaStock Wii Finder, which even includes a widget that you can float over the other windows on your computer to let you know if there are any in stock around the net.

    I expect I’ll post a mini-review on the Wii once it arrives and the various family members have put it through its paces. Until then, bated breath!