Independence Day and Hoopfest

Okay, time to play blog catch-up! The 4th of July was great! My friends the Steens (who are kind of like my adopted family in Spokane) invited me over for a brunch and flag ceremony, and we also played some Independence Day games. We each got a partner and had to fill in the states and their capitals on a map, which was harder than I remembered it being back in elementary school! Luckily my partner was Dora, who’s eight and who has been studying states and capitals in school. The second quiz was even harder: LaRae had compiled various obscure facts about certain states. If you could guess the state by the first fact, you got three points; if you got the state by the second fact it was worth two points; third fact was worth one point; and after that she just gave us the answer. The facts were things like “This state is where Scott Joplin was born” or “This is where the first parking meter was installed” (and I didn’t even get that one, Wendy!). It was fun and pretty goofy. Dora and I managed to get 16 points out of a possible 30, which put us respectably in 3rd place. But Bishop Steen and McKenna got something like 25 points! (I think he was cheating.)

The weekend before last was Hoopfest, which is this huge 3-on-3 basketball tournament held in downtown Spokane. They closed all the streets and set up basketball courts in the middle of the streets and parking lots. I’d never been to Hoopfest before, but they were looking for volunteers in my office so I signed up to help out. As the day for Hoopfest approached, the forecasted temperature kept getting higher and higher (92 degrees, 95 degrees, 96 degrees…). I don’t know how hot it actually got to be that day, but around 8:30 that night after it had cooled off considerably, one of the bank marquees said it was 90 degrees.

So it was hot. Really hot. REALLY HOT! And crowded. They had a record number of participants this year: more than 25,000 players on 400 courts, and that’s not including the spectators, vendors, etc. This was all contained in about 16 square blocks plus Riverfront Park. I was supposed to help run the master “scoreboard,” but there weren’t actually any scores on it so it was more like a master “bracketboard.” Team captains would come to me with a sheet saying who won their game, and I would fill in the brackets. I had about 40 brackets at my station, and each bracket had about 20 teams, so it was pretty busy. I was supposed to have a partner but nobody came, which was fine because I liked being busy. When I was busy, I forgot about how hot it was!

In other news, work is paying for me to take a Statistics class from BYU via Independent study, which I’m mentioning for Mom’s benefit. (She took an Independent Study Statistics class from BYU about 20 years ago and had lots of fun with it!) I think I’m using the same book you did, Mom! I had to put up the money for the class initially, and my company will reimburse me upon completion (as long as I manage to get at least a C). So the sooner I finish it, the sooner I get my money back!

No pictures this time. I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me. Usually the camera just stays in my coat pocket, but since it hasn’t snowed in almost a month now, I haven’t had my coat with me!