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As I said a few days ago, I signed up for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) again this year. Last year I actually succeeded, and I’m hoping to do so again this year.

Unlike last year, this year I have a plan. My plan is thus:

• Sunday: Hockey updates
• Monday: Refgrunt (i.e. what I do at work)
• Tuesday: How I…
• Wednesday: True confessions
• Thursday: Technology in my life
• Friday: Photo Freeday (amusingly enough, I wanted to call it Photo Friday, but when I tried to enter that into my Google Calendar, it wouldn’t actually show the word “friday” since it’s all smart and stuff - so freeday it is - and freeday it will be, since I really only plan on posting a photo and small story around it on those days)
• Saturday: Listening to…

So that’s about what you can expect this month. Granted, there is a long weekend in there, so I’ll be deviating a bit from this plan during those days. But for the most part, it’s a plan I think I can live with - especially after I reflect on the lessons I learned last year. Wish me luck, and see you for the next 30 days!

[tags]nablopomo[/tags]

We lost 0-2. We got called for about a bazillion penalties, only one of which may have been remotely legitimate. They got called for a couple of penalties, only one of which may have been remotely legitimate. Yours truly got sent to the penalty box not once, but TWICE. See my previous comment about whether I deserved to be there or not… The first penalty was for cross-checking. It’s hard to call someone for cross-checking when they’re throwing their hands up in self-defense from the crazed Gaelic football player masquerading as a hockey player who’s bearing down on them, but there you go. If the ref would have called me for interference I’d be less annoyed at the whole thing. The second penalty was for tripping. I’d have been THRILLED to have been close enough to their player to trip her, but she’d blown past me down behind the goal and simply lost an edge into the corner. I actually watched her skate lose the edge and her skate boot hit the ice. Oh well. They didn’t score on either of those power plays.

That said, their two goals came on breakaways. On one, Amy was pushing their player wide into the goalie’s left side of our defensive zone. Their player shot it to our goalie’s right, and we all thought it was wide. Including the goalie. We were all wrong. The same sort of thing happened later in the game, only I think this time we didn’t put hardly any pressure on their skater at all, leaving our goalie dangling in the breeze.

We got about 50 shots on goal. I’m assuming that if their goalie was a D-level goalie we’d have put a few of those in. As it is, they’ve got a B-level goalie on their roster. Not that I’m annoyed about THAT or anything.

So yeah, not a favorite game of mine.  We don’t play them again this half of the season, so I can focus on actually enjoying their team as people (because I’ve played with some of them before and like them!) But dude. I don’t like playing them. Not one bit.

Yay! Another trip to the World Series!

I officially love Jacoby Ellsbury (oh so good-looking, and such a good player), Josh Beckett (potty-mouth notwithstanding), Jonathan Papelbon (freaky odd man), Dustin Pedroia (he’s my size!), Manny and Papi, Yoooouk and Varitek, and all the rest of the team.

It’s fun to be part of Red Sox Nation.

How on earth is it possible to play two games in one game? Because that’s totally what happened tonight.

Game 1 was the first period. We had 13 skaters and our goalie, which translates into 3 offensive lines and 2 defensive lines. We skated hard, we forechecked the heck out of the puck, we let very little into our defensive zone. I managed to get three big rushes up the ice from our defensive zone into our offensive zone, letting loose with a shot on each one. The first hit the left side post (dang!), the second was wide to the right, and the third was wide to the left. Must practice my shots more, and continue feeling confident taking advantage of those opportunities.

Game 2 was the second and third periods. We ended up with a 14th skater, so one of our wings dropped back to defense and we played 5 defense. That’s always hard because it means 1.) every shift you’re out there with someone different and 2.) the three who normally play right sometimes have to shift to left. So we were off on defense, and I’m not sure what happened to the 3 offensive lines, but we had nothing.

It didn’t help that the RI Panthers had one incredibly mean player. She nailed pretty much everyone on our team - a couple of cross-checks that I saw (refs didn’t…) and at one point she had her stick wedged between Jonesy’s legs and was just messing with her. Purposely. I hate it when that kind of thing happens, because it gets us all worked up, and if we’re not on our game to begin with, getting worked up takes us even farther off it.

Amy got a stupid penalty. STUPID (not her, the call). She was skating out of the zone and one of their players put her head down, turned into Amy, and fell over on her butt. The ref called Amy for interference. Whatever. Stupid call. The girl didn’t look where she was going. Fortunately, we killed the penalty quite nicely.

What else? Yeah, it wasn’t our best game. The final score was 0-4. I was out there for 2 of the goals - one came on a breakout from my side when I’d pinched down in our offensive zone, and the other was on a similar play except that I did make it back but then the RI player held the puck just a bit longer and a bit longer and a bit longer yet and then popped it up and over our goalie.

So we played two games tonight - a great one in which we tied 0-0, and a really not-good one in which we lost 0-4. But still, a bad day playing hockey is still a good day.

Which is the bigger success?

1. I trimmed all 8 of the big dog’s nails (in front, not dewclaws). Most I only took 1-2 mm off of, but on a couple I got about 3-4mm.
2. He only tried to bite me 6 times while I was trimming said nails.

This is a dog who hates having his nails trimmed so much that we call him “Otter Scissortoes.”  This is a dog who hates having his feet handled. This is a dog who lets me handle his feet now - after about 9 months of almost-nightly handling - without getting angry. This is a dog who once couldn’t get his nails trimmed at the kennel because “client was too stressed.”

So which of those IS the bigger success?