librarygrrrl.net

It’s been a while since I’ve written about hockey, and since I’ve just had a really intense week of it, thought I’d catch you all up on what’s been happening.

1. 1000 Shots of June: Several folks from my regular-season team are in a contest to shoot at least 1000 shots in the month of June. The winner is the person with the highest shot count; everyone else buys that person a 6-pack of some microbrew beer. Needless to say, I’m totally trying to win this one (I love beer!) I started strong in week 1, tapered off a bit in week 2, and am really struggling with week 3 thus far. It doesn’t help that both Amy and I are out of town 10 days this month. Still, I think with some hard work, I can eek it out. Our friend Libby lent us a net which we set up in the garage. We’ve got 5 pucks and a big piece of plexiglass. Shoot 5, retrieve, repeat. It’s fun! And I’m totally going to get a goal this coming season!
2. Carolina Team in the Concord Women’s Summer Hockey League: Amy and I signed up for the summer Sunday league in Concord (regular season practice ice). We got assigned to the Carolina team, which means we wear light blue. The other team names are white, blue, teal, orange, and black, which means that we WIN on cool team name basis! We’ve been to two games so far and missed one. So far I think we’re undefeated - fun! I like the mixed nature of the teams in this league - there are a lot of really great skaters out there and playing defense against them is only making me a stronger player. Had a lot of fun last Sunday against one winger in particular - she had a wicked shot, of which I took several on my body with bruises to show for it.
3. Pink Ladies: We’re still 100% un-undefeated, but have had some success the past two weeks. Last week we played a C-level team and managed to score 3 goals, losing 3-5. And last night we played another C-level team, and while we lost 1-alot, we scored that one goal before they scored any goals. That meant we were ahead and winning for several minutes during the game! Rock! Our goalie Kelly is getting better every single game. Last night she made some of the most amazing saves - highlight-reel-worthy - that I’ve seen in a long time. Acrobatic, quick, smart, and instinctual. We only had 8 skaters last night, 3 on defense, so it was pretty easy to keep connected to the game the entire time. When there are 2 full lines you’re not in the game as much and it’s harder to keep focused the entire time. If I do say so myself, I had some great defensive play down by the net. To keep it honest, I also resembled an orange traffic cone up near the blue line, what with their wingers’ speed in skating past me with the puck… Lots to learn still, lots to learn!
4. Cape Cod Canal Challenge with the Raging Black Phantoms aka Hambonis: Last weekend a team made up of half Black-Icers and half Phantoms (and 2 stray friends-of-the-organizer) played in the first annual Cape Cod Canal Challenge in Bourne, MA. The tournament proceeds all went to the Doug Flutie Foundation for Autism - awesome! There were 12 teams in the tournament - 4 at each of the levels (B, C, D). We played in the D division. We won the first game 1-0 against the Ice Breakers, a local Cape team. The second game wasn’t quite as easy, and we ended up losing to the RI Raptors (a team that’s in our league in the regular season) 1-8. Yikes! Our final game against the Rip Tides we also lost. Sigh… so despite the Good Luck Pigs on our persons during the final game, we went 1-2 on the weekend and didn’t make the finals on Sunday morning. That said, our regular season coach, Steph, played for one of the B-level teams, and her team did make the finals. Amy and I watched her play an amazing game - which they sadly lost. To make up for it, we made her go to IKEA with us afterwards… Wahoo!

Amy and I are missing this Sunday’s hockey in Concord - and I hope that’s one of the last hockey things we miss until the end of July. Coming up are more of the Pink Ladies and Carolina games, hockey camp at Dartmouth, and a skating clinic. And BEER for winning the 1000 Shots of June competition!

Amen - amendment defeated in the ConCon!

I just received the following email from my state representative, David Linksy. He’s awesome!

Dear Ms. Brooks,

Thank you for your recent correspondence relative to gay marriage and the Constitutional Convention.

As you may know, the Constitutional Convention has been postponed until June 14th. My record on this issue has been consistent and remains unchanged, and I am happy to be able to express my agreement with you on this matter. For reasons that I have made clear on my over twenty votes and two political campaigns, I believe that civil marriage is a right that should be available to all citizens, and I plan to vote accordingly. In the three years that same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts, over 8500 couples have enjoyed the rights of marriage who could not do so previously. Their families and their lives have been improved as a result of that marriage. No one else’s marriage has been affected in a negative way. I am grateful for your support for my position on this issue. I am very hopeful that this matter will soon be laid aside, allowing us all to turn our focus to the important issues that truly impact all Commonwealth residents: Health care, education, and public safety.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to do so again in the future if I can be of assistance to you. It is a pleasure to serve you in the state Legislature.

Sincerely,

David P. Linsky
State Representative
Fifth Middlesex District

Thank you, Rep. Linsky. Your continued support in this means so very much to me.

The constitutional convention is in two days! If you live in MA and haven’t done so yet, contact your state representatives and state senators and remind them that voting on civil rights isn’t a good idea. Remind them that if this gets put onto the general ballot, for the next 2 years nothing will get done in this state because it will be a media circus (because - you know - the presidential election isn’t crazy enough!) Remind them that they represent over 8500 couples whose lives have been made better because we can enjoy the benefits of civil marriage, and if they vote to put this on the ballot, that’s a minimum of 17,000 adults (and untold numbers of children) whose lives will all of a sudden be made a whole lot worse.

I’ve been majorly stalled on my knitting lately. Janda is still sitting upstairs, front done, back half-done, and sleeves and hood still in their pre-knitted form. I’ve got nothing else to speak of on the needles, and no real plans or inspiration either.

And then… then today I got an email from Ravelry.com inviting me to participate in their beta test (okay, me and about 2000 other knitters out there.)

Oh wow oh wow oh wow. What a fabulous amazing incredible site! They’ve really thought about how to create a site that will help knitters manage their projects, connect to other people who are making the same projects, and find inspiration for new projects.

This is an example of the “notebook” area (click to see it larger) which includes projects and all the other things you see listed on the left side. More screenshots are here.

If you’re a knitter or crocheter and want to find a good web-based management tool, go on and sign up for an invitation. Eventually you’ll get an invitation, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If and when you do, add me as a friend - my user name is librarygrrrl.