Aw dang, we lost tonight, 2-6. We were missing 2 skaters, so Amy played up and Jill and I were defensive partners. As it turns out, we played really well together despite me being beat about 30 times up the right side by one of the Nighthawk players. Thanks to our goalie Angela for saving my butt… Speaking of my butt, I didn’t use it to block her view this week like I did last week, which I consider to be progress. Actually, I think overall we all played better than we did last week. We’ll see what the coach has to say about it at practice on Wednesday, but I know I certainly felt better about our team’s performance tonight compared to last week!
We had quite the cheering section too. My folks, Amy’s folks, friends of the team Sue and Elaine, Laura’s boyfriend Sam, and Nancy were all there. We usually have 3 or 4 people, so it was nice to have a bit larger of a cheering section. And tomorrow we don’t have a game – we get a rare Sunday off, which means Amy and I can head into Cambridge to hang out with my folks before they head back to Minnesota. It’s been a great week with them here.
I have owned this tiny little Christmas Cactus for years. It has always sort of been on the verge of dying, sort of dusty, and never particularly interesting. This summer I repotted it and put it out on the front porch. About 2 weeks ago, when the temperatures started dropping to close to freezing, I brought it in to the kitchen. And voila! It’s blooming now! Who knew?
Have you had any plant surprises lately? What did you do differently to your plants that you think caused it?
I didn’t get to play hockey against the Ravens on Sunday (long story, but it’s all good now) so I took photos from the bench instead. I really need to get a better camera for the rink since my little point-and-shoot just doesn’t do the game justice. (Yeah, I’ll get that after we buy a new mattress and a new fridge… and after I pay for another season or two of hockey! Not that high on my list of priorities, you know?) Sadly, we lost this really excellent game 0-1 on a breakaway during a penalty kill. Bummer.
Libby warms up before the game and we get a pre-game pep talk by Coach Tim.
Lexie drew an awesome penalty here (about a second after this photo was taken, the girl in white ended up throwing her body under Lex and tripped Lex up.)
Laura, one of our assistant captains – and Angela, our pup of a goalie (she’s all of 19…)
Yesterday afternoon, my hockey team (the Storm) played the RI Panthers. Sadly, we lost 2-3, although the goal that they got at the very last moment of the second period could have gone either way timing-wise. Regardless of the loss, it FELT like a tie!
Things that stood out for me in this game:
- Playing hockey with a sinus infection is challenging due to the whole “breathing”and “snot” issues.
- I really really REALLY don’t like it when people charge my goalie and slash at her neck with the blades of their sticks. The refs agreed with me and told the girl who did it (on the first shift of the game!) to back off. This, of course, after I got in her face and pushed her.
- Apparently my impulse control when I have a sinus infection is a little free-wheeling.
I’m really enjoying the composition of our team this year. Some people are playing new-to-them positions and are doing a really good job of it. Some people are settling into different positions than they played last year, even if they played those positions before. And the coaches are moving the rest of us around here and there to see what works. I’ve actually played a few games up at forward and have loved it!
The new folks on the team are fitting in quite nicely. Annie, Danielle, Lexie, Jillian, and Angela are all great additions, each in very different ways. We got solidity, quickness, ice-sense, and scoring ability in them, and in Angela have a goalie with a similar strong personality as our goalie last year (miss you Renee!) Although I’m still not sure which of them swears more…. maybe it’s a goalie thing! 
I’m looking forward to the rest of the first half of our season, and to documenting a little bit more about our escapades on the ice.
Here are my stats for the 2009 summer hockey season (last year in parentheses):
Games played: 49 (36)
Points: 21 (7)
Goals: 6 (2)
Assists: 15 (5)
Overall record: 28-19-2 (15-20-1)
Plus/Minus: +90/-67 of possible 173/137 (+68/-60 of possible 109/116)
Noted:
- More points! Yay!
- I played a lot more this summer than last summer.
- Adding a third team to the mix helped.
- Despite playing 49 games, I’m horribly out of shape. Practice is killing me.
- Way to go Forest, Thunder, and Sun Dogs!
Our regular season practices started 2 weeks ago and our first game is next Sunday. I’m wonderfully excited about our team this year, and hope we can do well enough to make another run at Nationals. We want to be Green Bay bound….
hockey, nablopomo | Megan 11/28/2009 | 
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