Surfergeeks

Or “I Finally Attended My First Professional Hockey Game”

That’s right, I’m a virgin no more. Friday night I took Alex to a London Knights hockey game at the JLC. It was Scouts night for the OHL team and apparently there were 800 scouts (and family) in attendance. For some reason, Alex’s troop was selected to present the colour guard so he was down on the ice during the national anthem and everything. At least I’m assuming he was on the ice. There were little people, presumably kids, on the ice and they were holding flags, but from the seats we had at the opposite end of the arena they were sadly no more than colourful little blobs.

Those who know me know that I’m not a fan of professional hockey. To be more specific, I’m not a fan of the fighting in professional hockey. It’s a polarizing issue where everyone seems to be strongly on one side or the other. I’m not trying to change anybody’s mind it’s just a belief I hold. I’ve always said that I could be a fan of hockey if they did something about the violence that permeates the game. Do I still feel that way? Read on!

Let’s start with the venue. As usual, the JLC is a premier facility for, well, just about everything it seems. Our seats were in section 308, Row M. For those that don’t know – that’s as high as it gets. There were no seats higher than ours. While the players did look a little small at the far end, we had a completely unobstructed view of the entire ice surface. The only time I had to shift in my seat was if the play was right down in front of us; I had to sit up a bit to see over the guy’s head in front of me. The center score board was JUST high enough that the far end of the rink was not obstructed. Something I have a feeling was carefully measured. Kudos to them. My ONLY complaint about the facility was that where we were sitting it was very difficult to hear to the announcer. It wasn’t that his words were muffled or garbled, they just weren’t loud enough. I think it may be due to the roof structure muting it. A few small speakers mounted on that structure would do wonders.

The fans. What to say about the fans? Well…they’re an energetic bunch! Indeed, their energy and involvement made the game all the better. Except for those with damned vuvuzelas. If the OHL can draft a draconian camera policy that, as written, gives them de facto control over ALL events held at the JLC (which I’ve been assured is not the case and likely not legally enforceable but who knows) then surely they can draft some sort of policy that prohibits vuvuzelas from the arena.

On to the game. Was I right? Could I be a fan of hockey? Let’s take a look. As I mentioned above, I’m not a fan of the fighting. In fact, I hesitated bringing Alex to see the game because of the fighting. Right now we’re trying to teach him that punching and hitting is wrong and I was worried how he would react to two players squaring off with 7,000 people cheering them on. Fortunately I didn’t need to worry. There was one fight early in the game and because of the colour guard he wasn’t in his seat yet so didn’t see it. As for the fight itself, it left me more disappointed and disgusted than I had been prior to watching a game. In my rainbows and unicorns world I had envisioned that as soon as a fight breaks out the referees quickly would jump in and separate the two. That simply was not the case. The gloves came off and the two faced off for a good 10-20 seconds before the first punch was thrown. The refs stood by and watched. It wasn’t until the two players ended up down on the ice that the referees interrupted the fight and sent the players off to the penalty box. There was ample opportunity to separate the players before the first punch was thrown and ample opportunity to separate them after the first punch was thrown but it wasn’t until they were down on the ice that action was taken. Okay, enough about the fight. The rest of the game was high energy and fun to watch. I was right into cheering on the team (although not quite as vocal as some). Sadly the Knights didn’t seem to playing at their best. Even what little I know about hockey was enough to see that their puck control was poor at best. The final 4-1 score in Windsor’s favour was proof of that.

So, could I be a fan? Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt. But not until the fighting is all but eliminated. Even the one fight I saw was enough to turn me away from the game. Would it have been that way if the refs stopped it immediately? I don’t know. So until that happens I’ll just sit on the sidelines and watch our local team churn out overpaid NHL players while our education system struggles to provide for its students.

Click at the bottom. You should be able to find it. If you can’t, please turn off your computer, disconnect, and discard computer. Thank you. kthxbye

So as many of you know a week or so ago I had this crazy idea pop into my head that we should get Alex into model rockets. I talk to Rob and he’s up for the idea too.

So later that day we head out to AVF Hobbies and look at what they have to offer. We find a good starter kit which pretty much only requires us to buy the engines separately. We pick up a package of A and a package of B engines. The bigger the letter the higher the rocket goes. Each pack also comes with 3 engines. So we are now set.

We don’t get a chance that day to set off the rocket for a few reasons. One Alex wasn’t behaving well at school and the rocket required assembly, plus our days were filled up with other things. Then the weather gets rainy for a few days so we have to wait for better weather.

So finally, today, we aren’t too busy, Alex has been good at school and the weather is amazing. Rob puts together the rocket and we set out and head to the park behind Laurier School, thinking it will do the job well. It’s big, open, no trees and no hydro lines.

We can tell the kids are excited. Alex can’t stop talking and even Ryan is making rocket noises and swinging his arms around when he does. It doesn’t take long to set up the launch pad, get the parachute packed into the nose cone and set the rocket up and get ready for launch.

We start off using the A engine, get the kids to stand back and I hold the ignition and do the countdown. After counting down from 10, I push the button and hear the tell-tale hiss, then whoosh and the rocket shoots up into the sky. It was great, it went up about 200 feet, still withing sight, you could see the cone pop and the parachute deploy and watch it the whole way down. It lands without damage about 30 feet away from us.

With a successful first launch we have to do a second. This time we go with the bigger engine. From the package it predicts to go about 600 feet. We set up, get back, do the countdown and launch!

Hiss…whoosh….! Up it goes. It goes so high it’s almost impossible to see until the ‘chute deploys. It slowly starts heading down, as it does we realize it’s going to get much further away than the first launch did. We start chasing it down the field, going, going, going. Ohoh. Even before it lands, it becomes painfully clear it’s going to go into the subdivision behind the school. We try and keep track of where it lands as best we can and Rob takes the van to try and find it.

I think he was gone a good twenty minutes before he came back. It took so long I was sure we’d lost it. But as Rob comes out of the van I see a vibrant orange thing in his hand. It the rocket! YAY!

I can’t believe he found it. Rob tells me he was quite lucky he did. He had almost given up on finding it when someone came out of their house asking if he was looking for a rocket. It had landed in their back yard.

Since we enjoyed the first two launches we decide to do one last one with the small engine again. And the kids wanted to do another one as well, even Ryan, as when we were bringing the rocket back he would run to the ignition and try to work it. Good thing it wasn’t hooked up yet and has a safety mechanism to prevent accidental launches. For the third attempt Alex asked to set it off so we let him. We explain that he has to be very careful, wait for us to tell him to start, he has to do the countdown to give everyone notice it’s going off and only push the button when it’s time.

It’s set up and I get next to Alex to help him if needed. He counts down as told and pushes the button. Hiss…whoosh! The rocket goes up into the sky for a third time. As with the first launch we see it the whole way and it only falls about 50 feet from us. Alex asks if he can run after it and get it and we let him.

The rocket has survived intact so we pack up and head home. If you ask Alex his favourite part was getting to push the button by himself. We are planning to keep doing this hobby, although we may not have any more launches this year, I can’t see the weather continuing to hold. Alex wants a blue rocket for the next one and I’m sure we will oblige. Although, if we want to shoot off the bigger engines we may have to find a bigger field!

Wow. I’ve been thinking about this post for the past couple days as I knew it was coming up but I’m still not sure what to say. I could blather on for pages probably but I don’t really know if all those words would convey what the past five years have meant for me. Sure, there’s been days that I just want to grab him around the neck and throttle him like Homer does to Bart but then he does something or says something that just makes my heart melt and makes it impossible to stay mad at the little guy. Even the days that he is bad are FAR outnumbered by the days that he rocks. One of the most recent examples of this was just yesterday. He decided that he wanted some juice so he goes into the kitchen to get some juice. He came out of the kitchen empty handed. Why? Not because he drank it already. Not because he spilled it. He came out empty handed because he also got his little brother some juice as well – the last of it. He gave up pouring himself juice so Ryan could have some. It’s not possible to explain what selfless means to a five-year old (okay, four at the time) – trust me, I tried. I hope that one day he’ll go back through this site and read the entries from me & Nikki so that he’ll realize that even though we yell at him and send him to his room or take away his computer that we always love him.

Happy 5th Birthday Alex! This day is for you!

How about this?!?! SAME DAY SERVICE!!!! Snapped a few pics earlier today of the kiddos playing outside on their new swing set that the Bowler and Stewart families got them for Christmas. Lemme tell ya – INSTANT hit! Also a few pics of Alex on his scooter going up and down the sidewalk.

Click here.

Kind of a catch-all post to bring you loyal readers up to speed on what’s happening at good ol’ Casa del Surfergeeks.

First Up: Kinda pissed. DHL tried to delivery my autographed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate today and we were out getting milk. Damn kids and their need for milk. Okay, we were buying HE laundry detergent too.

Second: Speaking of HE laundry detergent (how’s that for a smooth segue?), our new LG Washer & Dryer get delivered tomorrow! Yay! Can’t wait to play do laundry with them. Had to finish unhooking the old washing machine today. THAT was a bitch! The water hoses were rusted/corroded onto the taps. Vice grips got the one off but the other held fast. Ended up breaking out the Dremel with a cutting disc attached and cut the fucker off.

Third: Speaking of cutting things off. Get well soon Mike!

Fourth: Mike H can’t make poker next weekend.

Fifth: I’m out of segues.

Sixth: Alex is doing okay in school. Not great unfortunately. I tried to convince the school that it was simply his absolute genius that was the issue but they weren’t having any of it. Just kidding. The teacher actually is very impressed by his reading skill. Apparently there is some type of level that JK/SK aims for and it’s level 4. He’s already at level 2 a few weeks in. Unfortunately, he’s also being bad at school. He’s switched from Mrs. Woods’ class to Mr. C’s class and I think it’s going to be really good for him. He’s already showing an improvement in doing what he’s told at school.

Seventh: We’ve all got some type of cold/flu in the past couple weeks. The worst of it is over and nobody died. Nikki still can’t talk very well and has managed to miss pretty much a full week of work. Thank god for sick pay.

Eighth: (the more I stare at ‘eighth’ the more I think it’s spelled wrong) I’ve registered for school! Yep; hopefully come January I’ll be @ Fanshawe taking Architectural Technology.

Ninth: Alex just reminded me that one of the fish died at some point last night. Poseidon, like the god he was named after, is no more. Alex & Nikki gave him (her?) the ol’ flush-a-roo before school. Gotta say, I’m pretty impressed that she managed to keep them all alive this long.

Okay, I’m about out of things to say that I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe if I posted more I wouldn’t need to do this huge catch-up posts. Until next time! Later!

Hey everyone, just uploaded a few new pics. Here’s the link:

click here

Enjoy!

Christmas this year was a blast. Alex was more aware of the Santa concept and the backstory to it. Here are some pictures from this year:

Christmas 2008

I surprised Nikki with a couple goldfish for a present. She’d made an offhand comment a month or so ago and it sorta sat there in the noggin’ gestating. You’ll see a couple pics of Poseidon and Neptune and the little goldfish bowl I got for them. Then at the end of the pics you’ll see today’s update and upgrade…

Ryan, while far more into it than Alex was for his first Christmas, still wasn’t too excited. He would grab at the paper and rip it but it wasn’t anything structured or thought out – more like reaching out to grab and pulling back.

Hey everyone, just uploaded some more pics. Here’s the link to view them:

2008 Fall/Winter Random Shots

Enjoy!!!

Are being posted as I type this. Should be available by about 2:00pm.

African Lion Safari