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Apparently I need the specter of NaBloPoMo over my head to get me blogging every day. Or every week. Whatever. Kind of like Otter needs me to put treats on his nose so he’ll behave. (He hates me for this trick.)

Some small nothings for your entertainment this fine weekend:

Work: This semester has been a doozy - lots of stuff going on at work (mostly good) and lots of stuff going on at home (hockey, mostly). It’s kept me busy and exhausted most nights. I’m looking forward to the December break and January’s wintersession on campus. Our group has a bunch of mini-workshops lined up, the first time we’ve taught most of them. Wintersession gives us some time to test-run courses to see if they should go into regular rotation. We’ll see - I’m hopeful.

Married life: Amy and I have been horribly lazy last night and tonight. The sofa has buttprints in it.

Food: On Thursday night we went to eat at Ka Carlos, a Cape Verdean restaurant in Dorchester with our friends Lib and Steph!TP. The service was definitely on island time, but the food was good. We all shared sauteed octopus and friend yuca. Lib got a spicy shrimp and veggie dinner, Amy got a spicy cajun-like chicken dinner, Steph!TP got conch, and I somehow managed to order a Denny’s Grand Slam (without pancakes). It claimed to be Portuguese beef with eggs. I guess I didn’t read the menu very carefully because there were some words next to the English description which apparently meant “with a heart-attack sauce and french fries too.” Ah well, it was still pretty tasty, my arteries notwithstanding.

Dogs: Maggie and Otter are funny. Ever since their Thanksgiving kennel trip, Maggie’s been all chow-houndy. Normally she’s happy to sit back while Otter inhales his meals, eating only when she’s good and ready. He probably snarfed up all her food in the kennel, causing this backlash on her part. Whatever it is, I love watching the two of them eating at the same time. Otter’s so tall that when his tail wags it completely clears Maggie’s back.

Knitting: I started knitting again, on my Janda sweater. Finally did some frogging on the front piece, which I made too long. Finished that and cast on for both sleeves last night. The easiest way to make sure your sleeves are the same length? Knit them at the same time. No photos this time - alas - but perhaps in the morning when the light is better.

Speaking of knitting, I’d like to get back to it, maybe finish the cuffs tonight and start in on the actual sleeves themselves. It would be nice to finish this before 2008, given that I started it in 2006… Ack!

We had one of our rare Saturday night games last night, against one of the two teams we always really, really want to beat. (The Storm Chasers and the Raging Storm are part of Storm Women’s Hockey, just like our team, the Black Ice.)

The most important part of the game is that we won, 1-0. What that score doesn’t tell, however, is that we pretty much dominated the game. We spent about 75% of the game in their end, and when they did get the puck into the neutral zone, we were pretty good at tangling them up and defusing any breakaways. They had a few sustained efforts in our zone, but didn’t manage to get many shots off at Lynn.

The highlights in my mind include:

In the first period, I took a sweet wrister from left point. Libby (I think) passed the puck back to me, their winger didn’t step up to me so I walked it in about 2 steps into the circle, and then let loose with one of the shots we’d been practicing last week. Apparently it went pretty much between all of their players and ours, and THUNKed off the goalie’s stick.  I AM GOING TO SCORE THIS YEAR.

Also in the first period, they got a breakaway. Arlene (who practices with us even though she’s on their team) was driving hard to our goal. We tangled and I managed to keep her outside so she couldn’t get off a good shot. We did that in practice last week too.

In the second period, I stripped the puck from one of their wings in our zone and drove hard into their zone, taking the shot a few steps too late. Linda (their goalie) stopped it nicely, and I picked up the rebound as I was going behind the net. Of course, then I panicked (”what the HELL am I doing down here?”) and threw it up the boards a bit, hoping that a winger would be there to grab it. Alas, no one was there and one of their defenders got it out of the zone. Sigh…

The scariest moment of the game came in the second period. STP and I weren’t watching their wingers too well when we were in their zone, and all of a sudden we coughed up the puck and one of their players threw it to the cherry-picking winger in the middle of the ice. STP and I hauled ass after her. Lynn decided to come out of the goal to challenge her - not a move she’s tried before in a game! - and stopped the first shot. The rebound was soooo juicy, and neither STP nor I were paying any attention to the second and third Storm Chasers into the zone. The second player picked it up, and somehow both STP and I managed to throw ourselves sort of between her and the goal (Lynn was well out of the net, scrambling to get back on her feet at this point). Her shot bonked off the left post, and I think the third girl tried to grab that rebound and stuff it in. AAAAAAHHHHH! Thank God no one scored there. We were so so lucky.

In the third period, Sharon, one of their centers and along with Arlene their biggest scoring threat, was driving hard through the neutral zone. I pushed her hard outside and just stuffed her at the blue line, forcing her to go off-sides. My chest puffed up a little bit with pride on that one, I admit.

The only score of the game also came during the third period. Libby (who had a wicked pissa game) deked past two of their defenders and put the puck on net , just barely getting out of the way to let Amy pick up the rebound. Only Amy didn’t get the rebound, because Mich blew past her and stuffed it in - then Amy collided with Mich and they, the goalie, and the puck all ended up in a small heap in the net. SCORE!

It was a really fun game, and as I said, it’s so good we won since we outskated them in so many ways. But when there are a few really strong players on the other team (Arlene and Sharon as scorers, Wendall on defense) sometimes simply outskating isn’t enough. Whew to that goal of ours!

With this win, we’re now 6-4 on the season. I’m so proud of us.