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Tonight, in the first period of the Factory Developmental League, I was playing center. We had a rush down the ice, my right winger with the puck, so I camped out by the crease. He wrapped around the net and took a shot that the goalie blocked, but the rebound popped right out to me. I managed to stuff it 5-hole for my first goal scored in organized play.
Awesome.
Ol’ Mr. President says “We’ve never been Stay The Course.” I think someone else would disagree with that.
When the News & Observer came out to my Adult Learn-To-Play class last week and talked to me and a couple other members of the class, I figured I’d get a quote in the article and that was about it.
Turns out the article was pretty much about me. A short article, but a feature nonetheless. Woot!
Their logo may be laughable, their fans may be jackasses, but holy hell the Buffalo Sabres are for real this year. They just put up a 6-spot in the 2nd on Philadelphia.
Barring injuries, I expect them to go deep into the playoffs.
The ever-talented Ted Hobgood made an offer the other day to photoshop a picture for someone. I responded with a link to Hayley’s pictures on Flickr and a list of her favorite cartoons, and he in turn replied with this:
Beautiful work. That’s going up in her room.
Which of the world’s subway systems have I been on?
Updated – Crash reminded me that I have, indeed, been on the two NYC train systems. I also remembered that I went on the trolley system in San Diego and the Paris metro.
I realized that, among many other things, I hadn’t written much about my hockey experiences.
To recap, I took an 8-week “Adult Learn To Play” class at the Garner Ice House back in July and August. It was fun, but I was one of the newest people in the class (many of the guys had been there 24 weeks or so), and it showed. I think I learned a lot during the class, and could certainly see improvement in my skills by the end, but did feel out of place.
When we moved up to Rolesville in August, I signed up for another set of the Adult Learn To Play classes at the Factory Ice House in Wake Forest, around 10 minutes away from the new house. In this class, I’m not the newest/worst person, more along the middle-of-the-pack in terms of skills, which has really helped my confidence. I’ve found that I’m really picking up in terms of balance, crossovers, and stopping. I still don’t do much with transitions, going front-to-back or back-to-front, so that’s something to work on. But I’m having a lot of fun.
There are three levels of hockey leagues at the Ice House – A, B, and C. A-League is for people who really know what they’re doing and take it seriously. C-League is the beer league. B is somewhere in between.
I didn’t really feel like I was ready for any of them – my skills aren’t horrible, but I don’t know much at all about positioning and actually playing the game itself. Fortunately for me, they started up the “D-League” (or “development” league). It’s organized hockey, with coaches and a ref, but the emphasis is on teaching how to play the game. Goals count, but they don’t keep score. My first game (of 7-8) was last night. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to participate, with Kate on her way in a few weeks, but the games start late enough (9:15pm) that Hayley should be in bed, and Holly figured she could handle the newborn for a couple hours by herself while I did that.
The game last night was lots of fun. There were, I think, 16 skaters and 3 goalies, and they split us up by jersey color, so it was the 7-person black/red team vs. the 9-person “other colors” team. That meant 5 skaters and 2 players on the bench at any given time, which meant lots and lots of skating. Lots of skating. There were three 20-minute periods with the clock running throughout. In an effort to mix things up, pentalties didn’t result in someone going to the box. Instead, the ref would explain why he made a call, then the fouled player would get to take a penalty shot. Mixing it up further, when the penalty shot started, it was a live puck, and everyone else lined up on the red line (penalty shot from the blue) and took off after the shooter.
I played every position, but found myself on defense most of the time. Which was fine – I had more of a comfort level about what I was supposed to be doing there than at forward. I won a faceoff and got an assist, and made a few plays that were decent. Now I’ve got some things to think about for the next game.
So I’m a hockey player now. Fun fun!
The TicketBastard gods were kind to me today. I hopped online at 10am, and managed to score front-row, center-section tickets to see Lewis Black live in Raleigh at the end of the month.
I just hope Holly doesn’t go into labor that day!
