TurkeyBall 2007 - Thursday

Time for the volleyball tournament! There were six of us, so Dayong put together a schedule of ten games that had each person playing with and against everyone. The winner would be the one who played the most games on a winning team. And to spice things up a bit this year, we made betting sheets, where, for a dollar, you could pick winners and losers in hope of winning the final pool by picking more correctly than anyone else. So, as an optimist might say, there were two chances to win! The tournament, and the pool.

In addition to those of us from yesterday (Dayong, Feng, Doug, and myself), we were joined by two of Dayong's Tampa friends, Akiko and Ashley. We headed to the court at about 1:00, just in time to get rained on. Fortunately (or not, depending on your perspective) the rain ended about midway through, and that's about when two more of Dayong and Ron's Tampa friends showed up and started taking pictures.

Dayong on the attack (Akiko and Feng looking on, Doug blocking)


Me hitting, set by Feng. Ashley playing defense:


Feng passing with Akiko:


Me blocking Dayong:


Doug trying to block Dayong:


Doug showing perfect hitting form:


Final Results of the TurkeyBall Tournament: Dayong won, with 7 team victories. Feng won the betting pool, having picked an amazing 9/10 correct! Congratulations to the winners!

Thanksgiving dinner, of course, was to follow. Ron cooked an amazing turkey dinner, and their friend Sue brought over a really fantastic ham as well. As happens so frequently on these occasions, I ate to excess. And as is the TurkeyBall tradition, the tournament losers (of which apparently I was one, along with Akiko) have to do the dishes. I think that means we don't have to do them next year at least, no matter what happens.

As the last guests were leaving, Ron brought out the poker chips, and Doug, Feng, Ron, and I played the first annual TurkeyBall Poker Tournament while Dayong watched the UConn women trounce perennially overrated (in every sport) Stanford. Feng hadn't played before, and was knocked out first by Ron. It looked like I'd be next to go, losing most of my stack to Doug when my trip queens lost to his straight. But I managed to double up a few times and then knock Doug out, and eventually take out Ron when my pocket 77 held up against his AJ.

So I guess when I said there were two chances to win, I was wrong, as there were actually three!