What's Not to Like About Socks? Since Naomi broke the seal in talking about socks, I'll add my $.02 on the topic. I, too, have special socks for sports, mostly for hockey since I consider Step class to be not unlike root canal and thus, in no way, is it a sport.

When I skate out (i.e. don't play goalie), I wear one of three kinds of thin knee socks because my skates no longer have room for thicker socks and I have the most sensitive skin in the world and have to have something between my janky shin guards and my skin. The Bauer skate sock, the Underarmour 009 sock or the coolest of all, a medley of Sesame Street knee socks. I have Elmo, Cookie Monster and of course, the Count. I got these at Journeys but they don't have a direct link to them for ya.

As for luck, the Underarmour have proven to have the most luck, though I like the Sesame Street socks the most.

When I play goalie, I wear the Thorlo Walking Mini-Crew because my janky (but inexpensive) goalie skates are simply too big and I'm too cheap to buy ones that fit better. I don't need longer socks for goalie because I don't wear shin guards, I wear gigantic leg pads with hockey socks under them. Yes, I realize that hockey socks are not unlike leg warmers. May the 80's live on!

Anyway, that's the scoop on socks. Hope it offers some guidance for someone, anyone out there.

One Down...
The Seals A, my tournament team bretheren, are currently slogging through lousy weather in Rochester New York for the USA Hockey Nationals. They played their first game this morning and won!!!

Here's the whole bracket. Go Seals! Arf!

I'd like to thank the good people at USA hockey for providing up-to-date stats on this tourney. It's quite cool that we can follow their progress so quickly from so far away.

Spring What?
Remember when Spring Break meant something? A week of freedom, most likely a roadtrip to a really interesting and unique location, like Florida, where the rest of the young world was headed. Driving all night through the South with one thing on your mind: collapsing on a beach at the end of the journey. Well, that and beer.

Today marks the start of Spring Break and just like my birthday, there's no love here. No trip awaits me, no grand adventure (though, it must be said, Andrea and I are planning to go to Costco tonight) lies just over the horizon. Nope, just another 2 weekends of evaluations to coordinate and a week without school. Though not quite, because my Wednesday class is still meeting. But I do get to go to work all week, not just part-time.

And I have to admit that now that it's getting kinda hectic, work is rad. Yep, I dig the job. It makes IKEA look ridiculously silly and I am very very grateful for the gig.

Just Plain Tired
The A-Team played another great game last night, losing in a shootout (after an overtime) to HP in the second round of the playoffs. The team has come a long way and I'm still insanely proud of the group's overall improvement. Next season should be even better, though they've determined that we need one more ringer, or at least someone who plays a little better than the rest of us. Drop me a line if you're that ringer...

After the game, I went straight to the computer and finished my annotated bibliography for tonight. I had to examine 15 articles and offer a lot of detail about each one. In the end, it was 2:30 am and I'd written 8 pages that I think are good. I think. But I was too tired to tell then and don't have time to re-read them now.

Evaluations are going okay, there have been a couple of minor snafus and a few angry emails but for the most part, it's moving along. I didn't realize, however, that I'd be stuck with informing the people who need to be seen at a lower level that their skills didn't cut the mustard. I thought their coordinator would do that, but she's out of town and it's in my lap. I've sent the evites and am braced for the wrath of angry blue players. Sorry, ladies. I'm just the messenger.

1 weekend of evals down, 3 to go. Is that right? Why can't it be 2?

Ack!
I think I just started getting a cold.

I'm Not Carol, I Swear
It's 6:30 am. The phone rings. Something about the phone ringing at 6:30 am forces me to answer it. Usually, that early hour can only mean bad news and though in the end I think my mom would hold off until she thought I was going to be awake anyway if something truly awful happened I still felt obligated to answer. Just in case it was someone needing bail or bus fare to Omaha, I picked up the phone.

A Groggy Me: Hello?
Voice on Phone: Hey how are you doing?
AGM: (thinking that it sounds vaguely like Dan, figuring he was needing bus fare to Omaha, I kept talking, ready to help with whatever he needed) Fine. Who's this?
VOP: I thought you'd recognize my voice
AGM: Well, I don't. Who is this?
VOP: Mike. I just wanted to tell you I had a good time last night.
AGM: Who are you looking for?
VOP: Carol. Isn't this Carol?
AGettingPissedoffMe: No. I'm not Carol.
VOP: Oh. I must have the wrong number.
- Click -

Why was any of that necessary???

Saturday night Andrea pointed out that those two games were the only games she's ever watched me play where she didn't have any comments about my performance because I'd played so well. Woo! That's as cool as winning a trophy!

We Are the Champions!
The trip to Vacaville was fruitful for the Seals. We won our first game 3-0, against a team made up of a lot of ladies I play with in the women's league. I was a bit put off that they hadn't asked me to play with them (though I fully recognize that many of them either know I'm on the Seals or didn't know me all that well so I wasn't likely to be one of their choices) and I guess that lit a fire under my ass. I played hard, shut down every breakaway that started to happen (Andrea may correct me on this but I don't remember anyone getting by me. The word on the street was that they took something like 5 shots the whole game, again this I can't confirm but it didn't seem like many at all...).

The second game was only 1 hour and 45 minutes after the first so I stayed halfway dressed, yes in wet shin guards, socks pants and yes, ick, underwear. But it beat putting that same wet stuff on again. Evidently the second team's goalie didn't show so they had someone who played goalie like I do -- not so good. We racked up 5 goals in the first period alone! That was more than we'd ever scored in a game, in just the first! The other team had some of the ladies who play for a different team, a team that had spanked Code Red back in November 13-2, including a woman scoring from BEHIND the net. So again, I had something to prove. We won 9-4 in the end, putting us in first place going into the championship round on Sunday.

Saturday night we stayed over in the hot vacation spot of Vacaville. We visited with an old friend and his wife, hit the outlets and then relaxed in our hotel, which was in the parking lot of the rink. No joke. I didn't know when I booked it but I was quite grateful for the proximity. Our room had a fly hot tub but no view of the rink. You can't have everything.

Sunday we got to sleep in a bit then headed over for the championship game, something the Seals have played in the past but lost. To the Squirrels. Who we were playing again this time. The last time we played them, in Vegas, I spent way too much time thinking about who was going to do what (I play with a lot of them in the women's league) and lost focus. This time, I pretended they were that team from Orlando that we played in Vegas, with nobody I knew. It worked because we stayed strong and our rockin goalie, Joan, came up huge again. We won 1-0!

Afterwards, our illustrious coach asked the world's best question: "Did everyone get a trophy?"

Oh yes, yes I did. It's monstrous and large and shiny. And it says First Place on it. The first First Place I've ever had. Wow. Go Seals! Arf!