Endurance

Subrata finally emerged from his work-encrusted shell on Tuesday to come play ultimate for the first time in about a month. And he brought his friend Lynn with him. She's been staying with him off-and-on for the last six weeks while she simultaneously applied for residencies at various hospitals and did some work at Stanford. Between both of their schedules I'm sure they didn't see a whole lot of each other!

The weather's warmed up this week, into the 60s, and it felt slightly too warm for me as play began. Despite this, I had a really good night on the field: My endurance was as good as it's been all year, and once I kicked myself in the ass to stop standing around and actually run hard, I made some good cuts and caught some discs, including a couple of scores. My achilles heel was that my throwing was a little off, and I was trying some harder throws than I usually do, which ended up not quite working out right, but at least it was a learning experience!

I feel I've basically accomplished what I wanted to when the season started: My instincts have improved considerably and my endurance is getting up towards being respectable. I need to keep exercising over the summer and fall so I'll be able to pick up next year without starting over from scratch.

On the minus side, I haven't yet worked out this week...

Although I'm too lazy to scan some covers, there are some comic books that came out this week worth noting:

• The Avengers #39, by Kurt Busiek, Alan Davis and Mark Farmer (Marvel, $2.25): If you enjoy Busiek's writing and - more pointedly - enjoyed his run on Avengers with George Perez, you ought not to drop the book now that Perez has gone, as Alan Davis' pencils on the title are nearly as good, and he's drawing in a slightly more realistic style than he has in the last ten years. It's reminiscent of his early work on Captain Britain.

• Fantastic Four: Big Town #4, by Steve Englehart and Mike McKone (Marvel, $3.50): The final issue of this story exploring what would have happened if Reed Richards and Tony Stark had made their inventions available to the world and transformed New York into a futuristic wonderland. Despite inspired art by McKone, this turned out to be yet another Englehart project that just didn't go anywhere, largely ignoring how the changes affect the normal man in favor of just presenting a different framework for a battle royale between the good guys and the bad guys. Very disappointing.

• Girl Genius #1, by Phil and Kaja Foglio and Brian Snoddy (Studio Foglio, $2.95): The first issue of Foglio's new series, featuring 19th-century-looking cultures and technology concealing futuristic capabilities. Agatha Clay is the somewhat-bumbling assistant of a professor who's the former mentor of the local ruler, who shows up for a surprise inspection on a very bad day for Agatha. This issue is long on dramatics and short on Foglio's trademark humor, which feels very bizarre. Probably it will just take a few (bimonthly) issues to get used to these new characters. The premise (explained in the guidebook released last month) is fascinating, so I'll give it a chance to develop. Foglio's stuff has almost always hit the mark before...

• Green Arrow #1, by Kevin Smith, Phil Hester and Ande Parks (DC, $2.50): Yes, that Kevin Smith is writing the return of the original Emerald Archer, believed killed in a plane crash several years ago (though I'd long since stopped reading at that point). Apparently he spawned a son at some point who took up his mantle, and of course his ex, Black Canary, is still motoring around. This first issue is basically a reintroduction to the character. Hester's rather cartoony artwork doesn't really work for me, however; surely Smith can command access to A-list artists?

I've felt kind of blah all week. Although overall I love this time of year in the Bay Area (it's getting warmer, we're having actual weather, everything's blooming and smells wonderful), the days of gray skies without rain I think help depress me. I do have seasonal mood issues. And I haven't been getting enough sleep lately - always a recipe for a less happy Michael.

But things are going pretty good. I have some chores I need to take care of, and I need to figure out what I'm going to do this weekend since Monique is apparently busy all weekend. I turned down an offer from Subrata to play Bridge, since I don't think that's what I feel like. I think reading and perhaps going out to the coast and/or up into the hills to take some pictures of spring in the Bay Area is more along the lines of what I want to do.

Well, that and start preparing for my fantasy baseball draft...