He Could Throw That Speedball By You

I remain a sporadic (at best) blog poster while our lives get turned upside down for about a week. This week we’ll physically move everything out of this house, where it will reside on a truck for several days while the house we bought gets some work done (wood floors, etc). In the meantime, we’ll be staying with the in-laws. Everything is a mess. In flux. In transition. It won’t be settled for a few weeks.

Anyway, last week I was invited to play in the Nashoba Regional High School ice hockey alumni game. The game was held this past Saturday night over in Boxborough, MA, a rink I haven’t liked playing in since the early 1990s. They keep the temperature too damn warm. Regardless, my thoughts were that I’d be seeing some old classmates and having a good time talking about some of the ridiculous things we did back then. My fondest high school memories have to be the four hockey seasons I played there. There isn’t much better – not only does it keep you in shape and keep you mentally sharp, it also establishes the importance of teamwork, both in sports and life. So anyway, I was expecting a lot of laughs.

When I arrived, I was a little shocked at how organized it all was! There was a check-in table for the players, locker room assignments and hockey shirts given to us – with our names on the back! There was a green team and a white team (all Nashoba alum) and I was on the white squad. There was about 30 total players. In each locker room there was a case of water and the night’s agenda taped to the door, which included 10 minutes of warmups, individual player introductions and then the national anthem. This was like a real hockey game!

Now, without sounding too narcissistic, I must now relay that I am one of the school’s career leaders in points. I’m not the top guy and I don’t know where I rank, I only know this because I’m apparantly one of 6 or 7 players in school history who amassed 100 points in their careers (one is Hall Gill, who now plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs). This is only important because when the game started, it felt like almost everyone out there was a 100-point scorer. Much to my surprise, this was a competitive, super-fast, back-and-forth hockey game, made up of mostly graduates from the 1998-2007 era. There were a few of us from the 1980s, although only one other guy on either team was a person I was actually a teammate with.

So there was very little reminisicing and a LOT of skating – certainly the fastest game I’ve been involved in since I tried out for a division 1 college team back in 1990 and I played in a scrimmage. At 36, my age certainly showed – some of these guys really had wheels, but I took some satisfaction in the fact that I got off a few very good shots and kept pretty good pace for the first two periods. Either age or conditioning started showing in the 3rd – I’d like to think it was age, as I’m still skating twice a week these days. But who knows.

So yes, it was fun, but in a far different way than I expected. The green team ended up winning 10-9 on a late third period goal, but in the end, it was just a fun game and good to talk with some of the guys who came after me, many of whom went on to college hockey careers as well. I was very pleasantly surprised by how excellent some of these players really were.

Day After Day I Get Up And I Say….

Stephanie and I concluded last night that the last six months were the hardest six months of both of our lives. I probably don’t need to explain and I won’t. I also can’t claim with any degree of honesty that things are back to normal. Things will never be back to normal. We’re finding small pockets of time to try and reclaim our lives a little bit. Sleeping has stablized somewhat (yeah, there’s that one baby who keeps waking up at 5am, ready for the day), regular naps are starting to form and once in a while we can leave them alone to play for 10-15 minutes. These are all huge victories.

It does mean we’re finding time to cook again, which we both missed. As we find our way through the haze, we’ve decided it works best to each take 2 nights for cooking every week. In the past week, here’s what the menu has looked like:

  • black bean soup with cornbread and salad
  • chicken paprikash with noodles and veggies
  • flank steak stir fry with peapods and brown rice
  • maple glazed pork chops
  • chicken cordon bleu with veggies and brown rice
  • Do I expect that pace to continue? Hell no. But it was great to sort of feel “normal” again.

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    Now playing: Built To Spill – Bad Light
    via FoxyTunes

    Predictable But Reliable

    A short, but good read in Time Magazine about what it means to be an average American. At first sniff, being merely average is probably not something we strive for. But when put into perspective, being average really is glass half-full, considering how much the odds are stacked against some people, many of whom don’t have much choice in the game.

    So, some stats and how my household compares:

    Average Household: 2.6 members
    Our household: 4 members

    Average Age: 36.6
    My Age: 36.5

    Average Exercise: just under 20 minutes per day
    My Exercise: two hours per week of hockey, plus lifting babies endlessly

    Average who believe in god: 90%
    My belief: No comment

    Bible Owners: 90%
    My Bible Owning: 0%

    The average American:

    Prefers figure skating to NASCAR
    I prefer figure skating to NASCAR

    Average person lives in the state they were born
    I live in the state in which I was born

    Spends more money in restaurants than grocery stores
    Upon checking Quicken, we spend more money at the grocery store

    Average shower time: 10 minutes
    My average shower time: 15 minutes

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    Now playing: Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good
    via FoxyTunes

    Movin’ On, Baby, Yeah I’m Never Touchin’ The Ground

    It occurred to me this morning that I’ve moved more times than I thought. In fact, since 1995, I’ve moved six times, counting the one we’re about to do. I wonder if that’s more than average? Here’s the rundown:

    1995 – Moved to Somerville, MA
    1999 – Moved to Allston, MA
    2001 – Moved to Arlington, MA
    2001 – Moved back to Somerville, MA
    2003 – Moved to Maynard, MA
    2007 – Moving to…..Maynard, MA

    On average, that’s a move every two years. Me no likey. However, my last two stints have been pretty stable – two years in Somerville and four years in Maynard. So the business development guy in me would also say that I’ve only moved once in the last six years. Which reminds me – moving with 5-month old twins – it’s pretty much a pain in the arse. Not recommended.

    So there will be less than usual posting here in November. Why? Because our house is just starting to look like Baghdad. Evidence:

    Living Room Bomb Zone

    Living Room

    Dining Room Bomb Zone

    Looks like fun, doesn’t it? How many times have you moved in the last 10-12 years?

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    Now playing: Gomez – Fill My Cup
    via FoxyTunes

    Random

    It’s officially oatmeal weather again. I recently discovered a new flavor of apple hitting the New England circuit lately. It’s called honey crisp and man, they are good. Taking this into consideration, I cut one up into small pieces last week and put it into my oatmeal, along with some brown sugar and…..voila! Rock. It was delicious.

    I went over to a local coffee/sandwich joint for lunch the other day and I’m standing in line examining the menu when the owner looks at me over the counter and says, “hey, you posted a pictureof our cafe online!” I was kinda freaked out for a minute because I had no idea whatsoever how he knew it was me, but then I remembered that Fickr has little picture ID’s. Funny that he recognized me. That’s the first time anyone has really recognized my “online” life in real person.

    Halloween was quite fun this year, of course, given it was the first halloween for our twins. We got them dressed up for about 10 minutes. Here’s Nathan, as a chili pepper:

    Nathan, dressed as a chili pepper

    ….and here’s Zachary, dressed as a pea pod:

    Zachary, dressed as a pea pod

    Moving date is November 29th. Exciting!

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    Now playing: Band Of Horses – The Funeral
    via FoxyTunes