Besides going out to eat, I spent the majority of the weekend playing in a hockey tournament.  It started off on Friday afternoon, but I had to skip that game since I was still at work.  I later found out that we had lost that game with a score around 14-0!  Needless to say, the team was not very good, or at least not playing in the right level.  This team was assembled quickly to fill an open spot in the top division of the tournament.  I didn’t have high hopes for our second game on Friday night, and those expectations were met with a 12-1 loss.  We were making improvements, but not quickly enough.

We had two more games on Saturday, one around five in the evening and the next at around nine.  The game at five was even better than the other two the day before, and we actually had the early lead!  We managed to skate pretty closely with this team, but ended up losing 8-3.  Keep in mind that it was much closer than the score indicated, at least through the end of the second period.  And for the big finale, well it sort of ended the same way we started.  We were easily beaten once again, making our tournament record 0-4.  Needless to say, we missed the championship game on Sunday.  Besides the results, I had a good time and enjoyed some weekend exercise.  Our next season should start-up in a few weeks, and I’m ready to get back on the ice weekly.

If you recall, we recently spent some time in New England.  The first activity we took in was a baseball game at the legendary Fenway Park.  My friend Jay secured some tickets for us from StubHub, and though they were located in the second to last row, we were all excited to see the stadium.  I was prepared to see lots of history inside the stadium, but I wasn’t ready for just how small it really is.  Despite being in the top rows of the outfield, we still felt close enough to the action.  We spent about half the game in our assigned seats, and the other half of the game walking around the park and taking it all in.  Here are some pictures from our experience.

Before leaving on our trip last Thursday, I had a hockey game on Wednesday night.  I also had another game last night, ending the regular season.  We should have won both games but came away with only one win, which was from last week.  In that game we faced off with the fifth place team in the league, while we sat in fourth place.  We had beat this team before with a final score of 7-4 and this game would be very similar to that one.  In fact the game ended with the same exact 7-4 score.  I managed to get one assist in the game while playing back on defense.

Last nights game was against the second place team, who we lost to earlier in the season 6-2.  Last night we took it to our opponents early on and had a nice 3-1 lead at the end of the second.  Unfortunately our scoring ended there and we allowed the other team to score three unanswered goals, resulting in a 4-3 loss for our team.  We actually played pretty well against them, but in the end we couldn’t escape with a win.  The loss secured our position in fourth place to finish the league, while a win could have bumped us up to third.  We will play our first round playoff game against the team that we beat the last week.  I will miss the game, but hopefully the team gets another win so I can play next Sunday in round two.

Over the weekend I played my first round of golf in a long while, likely since last summer.  My good friend Ken turned 30 on Saturday and a group of us decided to play a round of eighteen on Sunday to celebrate.  I woke up on the west side of town, at Kim’s parents’, just before six that morning.  That’s my normal wakeup time for a work day, but it wasn’t a work day and the time difference made it four in the morning Denver time.  Fortunately I had planned ahead, and already had a borrowed set of clubs and shoes from my dad in the trunk, so I just had to drive to the other side of town to the Hickory Woods Golf Course.

I arrived ten or fifteen minute before the supposed tee time.  It turns out that Ken and his brother-in-law Bryan had told everyone a time twenty minutes ahead of the real tee time.  Well guess who the only late ones were?  That’s right, the birthday boy and the event planner.  I quickly found another good friend, Jon, and then met up with others who would be playing in the group.  Soon enough we were on the tenth tee and were on our way.  I quickly realized that this course was going to be a little tough for me, and I was glad I brought along plenty of extra balls.  The fairways were all pretty narrow and the holes were filled with rolling terrain.  I had some decent shots, and managed to escape the back nine feeling alright.

From there we moved onto the front nine holes, and immediately I was struck with how different the two were.  The front nine was very wide open and relatively flat.  This suits my playing much more, as I was able to lose very few balls, and I even managed a couple of legit pars.  I even had putting attempts for birdies a couple of times.  My worst hole was number one, which I had a quadruple bogey on, but the rest were all triple bogeys and lower.  Compare that to the back nine, where I had numerous quadruples, and nothing close to a par the whole time.  Regardless of the score, I had a great time, and I was excellent catching up with all of my old friends over a nice morning and afternoon.

I attended my first baseball game of the season on Friday evening as the first place (central) Cincinnati Reds took on the first place (east) Atlanta Braves.  My mom bought a group of tickets earlier in the week, which was fortunate since the game did sell out.  It turns out that it was many of the group’s first game of the season, and the first for my mom in years.  I think she has only been to Great American Ballpark once before, and it’s been open now for over seven years.  I’ve been to more games than that, and I haven’t really lived near Cincinnati since shortly after the ballpark opened.  Either way, we all had a blast rooting for the home team.

We arrived at the stadium in the second inning, and after watching the scoreless second, the scoring started in the third.  Atlanta went on the scoreboard first, but the Reds quickly countered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third.  The Braves added a couple more runs in the fifth and followed it with another in the sixth.  Down 4-3, Joey Votto came to the plate in the eight inning to deliver a solo home run to tie the game.  Things were looking up for the Reds, including a great catch by Chris Heisey that robbed Brooks Conrad of a home run of his own to end the top of the ninth.  After a scoreless bottom of the ninth, we were off to extra innings.  The tenth started off great for the Reds, and they quickly had two outs on the Braves.  But that’s where it all went south, as the Braves eventually scored a couple of runs before getting their third out.  The Reds managed to get a couple of guys on base in the bottom of the ninth, but eventually two strikeouts and a pop fly were enough for the Braves to claim victory.

The Reds went on to win the other two games of the series.  Unfortunately, St. Louis just won three in a row, and the Reds are now half a game out of first place behind the Cardinals.  I’m hoping to catch another Reds game next month when they come to Denver to take on the Rockies.

Over the weekend I participated in a hockey tournament as a fill-in for the Dawgs.  I used to play against one of the Dawgs teams when I played in another league at the different rink, but I think this team was down a level from my normal level of play, thus I didn’t recognize many of my teammates.  There were a couple of other players from my current team also on the roster, and one guy I had played with in an earlier tournament.  Our first game was after 10pm on Friday night against Blueline.  I ended up playing on a line with another guy from my normal team, so at least I had someone on the ice with me who I connected with.  Our team came out strong and there was no looking back.  Then final score was 9-2 and I talied a couple of goals and probably some assists as well.

Our second game was on Saturday at just past noon.  Our opponent for this game was the Knights, a team that I knew nothing about.  During warmups I quickly realized that this team was much better than the team from the night before.  It was a good game through the first period, but by the second my team was really struggling to keep up and our opponents quickly built a sizeable lead.  Some of the players on our team thought that the team had dropped down a league from where they should have played, but I felt that our team was nearly as good as they were and that it could have been a differnent game.  The end result was a 5-1 loss.  My team also had another game at three that afternoon, which I had to miss due to prior obligations.  I’m told it was a nailbiter, and it went all the way to a shootout, which my team won finally after around a dozen shooters from each side.

The two wins (and presummably some tie breaking) sent our team into the championship game on Sunday morning.  I didn’t know who we were playing, but I sort of guessed it would be the Knights again.  And I was right.  This time the game started a little better for us.  We actually built a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period.  But after that it was another brutal second period.  Our team allowed five goals in the second and once that started happening, we ended up in the pentalty box rather frequently, just like the first time we played them.  We had a better third period, but couldn’t find the back of the net.  The final score was 5-2, as we finished in second place.  After losing to them twice, I guess the Knights were just a better team.

We had a one week hiatus from playing hockey, and the break badly hurt my team.  Prior to last night’s game we had won two in a row, and only had two loses over seven games.  Unfortunately we added another loss to our record last night, and ended our streak.  We had previously beaten last night’s opponents earlier in the season, but last night was different.  We couldn’t generate very much offense, some of our guys couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, and overall it was a pretty weak performance.  Personally I played pretty well, and our line had some chances, but we didn’t add any points to our stats.  Only four games are left in the short summer season, so hopefully we can finish strong before heading for the playoffs.

Another week is nearly over and I’m happy to report another win in last night’s hockey game.  My team faced off with the Subluxators last night, who we already beat once earlier in the season.  This team has a few guys on the roster that I used to play with, so it’s always nice to beat up on old friends.  We started off with a nice lead of a couple of goals.  Suddenly one player on the other team dropped his gloves and headed for our goalie.  He was quickly dropped to the ice by goalie, and we all quickly commented that it was the dumbed thing we’ve ever seen.  Why would you go after the most armored player on the ice?  Well apparently this guy said our goalie hit him in the groin with his stick.  I guess he forgot his jockstrap?

Anyway, back to the game.  After the player mentioned above was thrown out of the game for trying to fight, our opponents were left with only seven skaters.  Miraculously they managed to stay in the game, and probably could have won if we didn’t have three full forward lines and four defensemen.  At one point in the second period the game was actually tied, but we never completely lost control of our lead, and eventually we were up by a few goals again.  That’s where the game ended, 8-5 was the final score I believe.  The league has been a little slow in posting results recently so I’m forced to guess.  I do know that our record is now 7-2 and we only have five more games left to play in the short summer session.  Things are looking good as we are solidly in third place overall.

After a great start to this current hockey season, my team has managed to keep the winning going most of the time. I think we’ve only lost one game so far and that was to the top ranked team in the league. I think we played around five or six total games, so our record is looking pretty good. I tried to go online to the league’s website, but it appears that it’s been hacked.

I’ve split my time pretty evenly between playing offense and defense. As long as most of the other defensemen show up, I’m usually able to play wing. I haven’t had a goal yet, but I’ve contributed numerous assists. Our game last night was no exception and I should have been credited with at least one assist in our 7-4 win. I was surprised that I played well considering that I not only biked into work yesterday, but I also biked home from work. It was right around forty miles roundtrip, and I my legs still feel a little like bricks. Playing hockey on top of that was definitely questionable, but the game went pretty well for me. It looks like we are about halfway through this session and are in very good shape.

This morning I participated in my third annual Bike to Work Day.  After ditching me last year, Kim decided to join in again for the fun.  We started our ride around 5:45 this morning, after mapping out a route last night.  Once again it was a different route than used the other two years, though there are some similarities.  We started on a route similar to what we used two years ago, weaving along Franklin, Dartmouth, Colorado, and Quincy.  Once at Quincy we hopped on the High Line Canal trail to take us all the way to the same Panera we visited before for the free food and drink.  From there we continued on Orchard over towards Kim’s office.  As we arrived there just before 7:30 she remarked that we should bike to work more often, as it wasn’t as tough as she remembered it being.

I continued on from Kim’s office, remembering that the ride from there to my office was pretty hilly before, but hoping that my route would be a little better.  Besides, the weather was great and I was hoping to find another breakfast station.  I quickly rode to the other side of I-25 and entered the area I referred to last year as Inverness land, where nearly all the streets have the same name.  However, I didn’t make one wrong turn this year and ended up passing in front of the Colorado Athletic Club Inverness for a couple of slices of orange and some orange juice.  It wasn’t nearly as good as the free bagel from Panera, but I wasn’t too hungry anyway.  I continued on my way, and quickly saw the office sitting up on the last massive hill of the ride.  I ride the hill pretty regularly, now that I am in the office daily, and often bring my bike on the light rail commute.  Though it is always a tough climb, it was nothing like today.  I managed to find the strength to get to the top and arrived right around 8:30.  Even after a quick shower, no one had realized that I was late or that I even biked all the way from home.

I’m considering riding the bike all the way home after work today, which is something I haven’t yet done on Bike to Work Day. I have another route that I really want to try sometime, so I figure that today might as well be the day. I have a change of clothes to put back on, and I don’t have anywhere to be until 9:30 tonight. As long as I leave by six I think I am going to do it. The route that we took this morning can be seen below.