Last Saturday the Silicon Valley Roller Girl’s (SVRG) Dot. Kamikazes took on Angel City Derby Girl’s (ACDG) Rocket Queens. I was coaching SVRG and when I have the time/money, I like to do something nice for the other team. This year has been so busy between work/school/derby/personal life that I haven’t had too much extra time. But I was able to sneak in some extra time to bake the Rocket Queens some vegan cupcakes (chocolate with “buttercream” frosting). I also baked some vegan chocolate/vanilla zebra swirl cupcakes for the refs. I forgot to bring my camera to the bout so I had to use photographs from one of our photographers, Russell Limprecht.

I am so grateful to have such great sponsors too! Chipotle supplied burritos (vegan ones for all the vegans, woohoo!), Clif Bar supplied LUNA bars, and Glaceau supplied a ton of Vitamin Water. Overall, the Rocket Queens were a bunch of great ladies and they had an amazing attitude. You can read more about the details of the bout here at blog.svrollergirls.com

Last Friday SVRG had our traditional “night before a bout” potluck and we were getting ready to play the Angel City Derby Girl’s (ACDG) team the Rocket Queens. Usually we have have a pasta potluck to carb up for the next day’s game but since it was a lovely summer day on Friday; we decided to have a BBQ potluck. Donna Diggler hosted the potluck at her Willow Glenn home; which was perfect for such a nice summer evening.

• Picture #1: Smack brought over vegan “chicken” burgers; which were pretty good. I made a vegan potato salad and we also BBQ asparagus (not pictured).
• Picture #2: Mr. Ed Roth, Donna’s super cute dog
• Picture #3: As per the usual pre-bout potluck tradition; we had to watch bout footage from a previous bout. We decided on watching bout footage from our bout against the Santa Cruz Derby Girls a couple of months ago.
• Video: Somehow during the potluck we decided it was a good idea to tow Donna’s turtle (small contraption that is a combination between a bike seat and a skateboard) while attached to her bike down the street. The video is very brief and I don’t know why we decided to do something so dangerous the night before a bout, but it was fun! Kyle made the turtle spark and I almost got my toes caught in Donna’s bike spokes!!!

Reason #192,847,580,950 why I heart the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (SVRG): even though there are only two vegans in the league (myself and Smack); they make sure to have vegan treats for a bake sale fundraiser (even though I couldn’t attend because I had school, boo!). Steffen Razor made chocolate cupcakes with SVRG green frosting and custom cupcake toppers. Intern Beth made yummy chocolate and zucchini brownies (yum!).

One of the traditions of the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (SVRG) is that we try to have a pasta potluck the night before every bout. The potluck is a time to get together to get excited/focused; we watch bout footage and talk about new plays. It is also a time for us to hang out and relax away from practice, fundraisers, and all the other activities that it takes to run a roller derby league. The ladies (and a couple of dudes) of SVRG are super awesome about making sure there are lots of vegan options at the potlucks (Smack Dahlia and I are the only vegans in the league).

Above are pictures from last month’s potluck that we held before our bout against our friends/rivals the Santa Cruz Derby Girls. Smack Dahlia and Skooter hosted the potluck at their pad, The Pentagon, in downtown San Jose. The first picture is of the spread of awesome food that was brought over (fruit salad, vegan spaghetti, Skooter’s homemade pasta sauce, pad thai, garlic bread, roasted asparagus, and orzo salad). For dessert I baked a mango/peach “make it rain” pie. The expression “make it rain” is an inside joke for me and the league but it is also one of the songs that we roll out to.

Tomorrow SVRG has a double header in Ventura and I will unfortunately will not be able to make it. This is first game this season that I will have to miss (I’m staying in the Bay Area of an event that Hanford is putting together, Tiki Central’s 9th annual Tiki Crawl). While I am sad to be missing a bout, especially a double header, I know that I need to be able to balance derby and personal life. I delegated out all my coaching duties and I’m sure that everyone will play smart/hard tomorrow; MAKE IT RAIN SVRG!!!!!