8 games in 18 hours

... and still can feel my feet (no small feat - nor small feet).

Saturday night - Susie was gone overnight for the Fryeburg Fair so I took three evening games starting at 6:40pm (not leaving me alone with those kids! they may kill each other, but they're not taking me with them!). Being a Peewee and two Bantam games, they were fairly fast and as all "C" level checking games are, rather entertaining. I was really "on my game" for this set (sometimes you just see the game with more clarity and decisiveness) and I even got to toss a coach - which I haven't actually done for a few years - who was loudly irate over a "NON-Icing" call and wouldn't shut up or calm down. (Icing you say? Nobody gets irate over an icing call - or non-call. But you'd be wrong!) By the time I finished the necessary paperwork (all game misconducts require a report) and got home and to bed it was 11:30. Then up at 5:30am to be on the ice in Falmouth at 7:00am for five more games (1 squirt and 2 peewees, then 2 girls games). When the kids lined up for the first faceoff, I was impressed with how geared up they were - squirts seldom look this competent. They started out quite aggressively and I quickly called a penalty for checking. The confused coach asked what the penalty was for, and the game resumed. At the very next whistle, he politely repeated his request for an explanation, which I gave. He then said "but this is a peewee game. They are allowed to check!". "Really? Peewee's? Not Squirts?" said I? The timekeeper confirmed it. (wow - this set ALWAYS starts with Squirts, but that explained why they looked so strong) I offered my apologies to the coach and player and let him out of the penalty box and cancelled the penalty (thankfully, they were not scored on while he was incorrectly being punished). Needless to say I didn't feel "on my game" for the rest of this one, but things went better after that. The one coach's complaint of the day was from Falmouth in the 3rd game, who felt I was being too strict and calling too many penalties of his team. "Come on Ref - we're trying to teach them how to check!" he complained. "But coach, I called a trip - not an illegal check!". I refrained from saying what I wanted to say which would have been "I understand you are trying to teach them how to check, but you need to understand that I'm simply letting you know they haven't learned yet! Keep trying".

Beach weather

stormy weather is a favorite time to go to the beach - to look for whatever the waves might wash ashore. Granted, tomorrow would be a better time to go explore but today is when I had some spare time with the kids.

Cheryl Wheeler at the Narrows

As part of our long-on-going 25th anniversary, Sue arranged to get tickets to see my favorite folk singer - Cheryl Wheeler - at a place in Fall River called "The Narrows Center For Arts". It was a secret (and I'm so wonderful that I never attempted to guess - although when pressed to guess, I got it on my first attempt) that she had managed to keep since earlier in the summer - no small feat considering the amount of people who knew about it. Her primary co-conspirators were Auntie Maria and Maria's best friend Joanne Clemons, who's daughter (older daughter - I used to coach younger daughter Barbie in softball) Debbie's husband Steve is best friends with Kathleen who happens to be Cheryl's partner, whom they are building a house next door to, on the property they bought off of them (got all that?). Joanne (maybe with some help from Maria who is also claiming some credit!!!) got 5 tickets and reserved seating at a table 10 feet from the stage (thankfully NOT on the 200 year old wooden church pews that some people got to sit on) - so Maria, Joanne and Joanne's husband Allan joined us for the show.

The warmup act was respectably good, and Cheryl was in fine form with her unconventional wit, crystal clear voice and beautiful fingerpicking guitar playing. Julie has been babysitting a lot - including this night - and having recently discovered and become a fan of Cheryl's, she requested us to get her some "swag" (J & M didn't know what "swag" was until Sue explained - concert gear/CD's/T-shirts/etc.. - but Allan knew it as a pirate term, and coincidentally Friday was "talk like a pirate day"). We got a CD with JuBee's favorite song "When fall Comes To New England" on it, and after the show, Cheryl stopped by our table to say "Hi" and she signed the CD for Julie.
So all in all, a lovely evening with great company, music, and lots of humor - a bit of a microcosm of our past 25 years! That you, Aunt Maria & Joanne (and Allan too).

ABSOLUTELY check out Cheryl in concert if you get the chance. Her pre-song stories of how the song came to be will have you roaring in laughter, while the songs themselves might continue the laugh-fest or might bring a tear to your eyes with the eloquent beauty of the music and lyrics.

this was Sue's favorite number
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfni_ZMhx5o&feature=related


here is Cheryl's song about how she must have done something terrific in a prior life to deserve a partner like hers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6j5HOuIpeo&feature=related

here is the counter-song that her partner might have written
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6j5HOuIpeo&feature=related

Here is the link for "The Narrows" website
(easy to get to and free parking!)
http://www.ncfta.org/

Advanced Children

People like to brag about how advanced their children are, and we are no different in that regard.

SO - tonight I am sitting at the middle school open house with my 6th grader Joe. The principle is explaining her description of middle-schoolers saying "and 6th grade boys are just silly. They are likely to sit at lunch mixing some concoction of ketchup and jello - and paying someone else to eat it!" As her audience is politely chuckling, Joe quietly says to me "I did that LAST year!"

Youth Hockey season 2008/9 starts early

Every September there is a referee meeting local ref's who intend to officiate either Yankee and/or So.Shore Conference games. Although it is typically the "same old/ same old" information, It's good to attend in case there is that one bit of knowledge one might otherwise miss (like two years ago when I couldn't make it and didn't know that our state was doing an experiment with a new "icing" rule - I figured it out when in the middle of my first game I informed by the coaches and my ref partner that I was calling it wrong). This past tuesday I learned that the two year old experiment had ended and we are reverting back to the original ruling (thank goodness). I also discovered that assignments would be given out via phone on Wednesday night for games this weekend! (Normally first Yankee games would be 2/3 weeks away still). So I've already gotten my first 5 games under my belt - 3 Mite "C"s and 2 Squirt "C"s. The only complaints from anybody was from coaches who hadn't yet had a practice session and had not even met some of their players until 20 minutes before game time. Mite C players tend to have difficulty figuring out where to stand for a faceoff, but generally we can ask the coach what postion "Billy" is supposed to be playing and we can move him there - but these poor coaches didn't even know who "Billy" was! (at certain times, even "Billy" didn't seem to know who "Billy" was, or what town he played for, or which goalie he should be shooting at!)

Makes me look forward to the 1st year Peewee's and trying to teach them the right way to check (tweet "nope, that wasn't legal" - tweet "neither was that" - tweet "no , this isn't football" - tweet "no, this isn't wrestling")

for the sake of simplicity....

lets just say...

I "get it" that it is an expected part of childhood to test boundries and see what you can get away with.

but they "don't get it" that it is an equally required part of parenthood to set boundries and ruin kids lives when they break the rules.

Being "sneaky" is bad enough, but being stupid about being sneaky just drives me nuts! I know it's a short drive, but Jamie & Nikki have the pedal to the metal lately.

Let's all go to Arizona to visit Jason Silverman

Jason is one of my best friends.

(actually, he SUCKS because he never writes, calls, IM's or emails - I hope you "google" yourself and read this Jason! jk lol)

He is smart & zany & eccentric & a very good musician. (I assume he is a good architect although I have never personally seen his work, and he has now quit that occupation to do full-time music - I think just to make me jealous)

We played in a band together off and on for a few years. Then he moved to Worchester, then Arizona near his mother and sister (so I suppose I must forgive him).

FINALLY!!!!! He shows up on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/jasonsbass and facebook and writes a blog about the band "EastonAshe" he's in now. So - everybody - go visit Jason's myspace page, or go read his blog at http://jasonbass.blogspot.com/ even if you don't know him - just to bombard him with site hits. "Friend" him through FaceBook if you like (I know Scotty needs more friends to stay with or ahead of Jen!). Pour out the love!