Lace 'em up boys

A six quart crockpot filled with chili

Three dozen steamed hotdogs

Many chicken wings

Two giant thermoses filled with hot chocolate (peppermint schnapps, optional)

30 bottles of water

Many cans of beer

Two dozen brownies, a dozen chocolate chip squares and a dozen cupcakes

Chips & salsa, jax and popcorn

+

Eightish inches of ice and forty (!!!!) people

=

Sunday afternoon at my house.


In the latest great debate entitled "Should we invite the whole team?" we did, in fact, invite the whole team. Plus a few families from teams past. There were alot of idon'tknows and we'll sees in the locker room on Sunday morning. But post game, when the goalie shouted "Hey, whose going skating at *boy's name* house?!?!" Well, that appears to have tipped the scales. Many parents caved to the begging and we had a full house. Or full pond.

My heart skipped a bit when they started pulling in, especially because about 15 of the people were all firmly among the "thanks, but I doubt it" camp. Obviously, pleading children and 35 degree weather won out.

Beer Sled

Saturday we had the entire pond to ourselves. The boy had two friends over to skate and they could literally skate the entire thing, shore to shore. A rare occurance in these parts and to these boys? Very, very cool. A pesky one inch of snow fell on Saturday night so the husband and son took to the ice at seven a.m. clearing a rink for a game and a smaller rink for twirly girls (figure skaters) and littler kids with big paths connecting them to form a loop. Dedicated guys, those two.

• Day Three of the 102.3 degree fever. The girlie not me.

• Day Five of the UNO Winter Tournament. I'm only losing to her by 650 points.

• Day Twelve of Winter Layoff 2007. He's cutting firewood today, but he's working on making wooden shutters for the house and shed.

• Day Two of Waiting for Football Season to Begin Season.

• Day Twenty Six of credit cardless spending.

• Day Twenty of wondering if there will be a reply to an email that might have effectively ended a seven year long friendship.

• Day Four of Realizing it didn't upset me quite as much as I would've thought. But still, it did upset me.

• Twenty three days until the annual ice fishing trip for the husband. I've told the kids they could spend their holiday gift cards and my own personal plan is to watch a ton of movies and spend guiltless time on the computer into the wee hours of the morning. We are all counting down.
  

Okay, okay, okay

So the Patriots didn't get to do any showoffy moves centerfield. And I'm bummed.

But hey, they just didn't have what it took this year. Watching Peyton pray on the sidelines as Tommy marched his team back up the field with under a minute to go...you have to know that even Peyton thought it could be done. And this year...that will have to be enough for me.

There will be no Super Bowl party, no watching of the commercials because I've promised myself that I would never NEVER watch Peyton in a SuperBowl. Ever. And so football season, in my house, has ended.

As the Colts began their last drive back up the field I said to my husband:

Want to know my fantasy ending?
he just looks at me...

the Colts run the clock down to mere seconds...they are well within field goal range but can't get a first down.

Vinatieiri takes the field.

Seconds tick away.

Cue Gil Santos as announcer:

The snap. The kick. He shanks it right- NO GOOD!!! The kick is wide! The kick is WIDE!

End Gil.

Vinatieri jumps for joy...

Then, Superman like, he rips his Colts jersey off to reveal his true colors....his old number 4 Pats jersey.

The Patriots win the game!

Okay, so it's not plausible but it really would've been something, eh?

And Kate, what's with all the Tomhate? I don't take it personally but according to my girlie, she's marrying him - so he's practically family...do you know something I don't?

while I suppose I'm rooting for New Orleans, I'm doubting they'll win. I'm doubting even more if I can stay awake through this boring game. yawn.

i missed all the hoopla surrounding the Patriots win last week. Unsportsmanlike? Maybe...More unsportsmanlike than trash talking a team during week prior to the game? More unsportsmanlike than suggesting, post game, that it was done with the coach's direction?

My two cents: People are passionate about sports. Fans, sure, but imagine being a player. Sure, you're paid alot of money (more money than you should be but that's neither here nor there) you're alot of things to alot of people...hero, role model, scapegoat, object of my affection (that would be you Mr. Rodney Harrison)...-ehem, anyway...you spend the week listening to just how terribly you do your job and just how much better someone else is. You've been overlooked as far as individual honors and maybe you really don't want to go to Hawaii but you know you should've been invited. I mean, Merriman? Hello, didn't he miss quarter of the season for violating the substance abuse policy? Really now, that's company you'd be better off without. So, you're being put down, not given a chance to win and you go out and play one of the most physical games around. And then something unexpected happens...you win. And maybe you shouldn't do it, but you do...take that league MVP, take that Shawn Merriman, take that naysayers. Enjoy your stay in Hawaii, and hey, now y'all can leave a few weeks early.

Does LT really think Bill Belichick okayed all of that? I'm sure not, it hardly seems his style. I think emotion got the best of those guys and they all heard about it in the mandatory full team practice on Wednesday. I think emotion got the best of LaDanien when he repeated the coaching comment later in the week, disappointing end to a stellar season...can't be easy, but as a friend of mine says "Suck it up, Buttercup."

I didn't have a problem with Harrison doing the eagle wave when the Pats won the Super Bowl, I don't disapprove of the Merriman imitation and I'm wishing the Colts had some sort of signature dance that the Pats could perform on that big blue horseshoe in the dome after they win later on today.

Sigh.

I am alone. In my own home. For the first time in too long.

We are about done recuperating. The hockey tournament was exhausting. Late nights, lots o' boys, snowball fights, intense hockey games..




Getting ready to tee up on the goalie.







Post Snowball fight exhaustion. See that two inches of snow? Not very wintery for January in New Hampshire...but no matter, it was perfectly playable.







Inspirational team meeting.






We parked our car on Friday and left it until Monday. The whole village is centered around this square...hockey rink included. There were fireworks on Saturday night and it did actually snow while we were there...not to mention the ice storm we drove home in. I thought I would go a little stir crazy - and I did - but it was survivable. Much more so because I could walk to the bakery for hot chocolate to escape the knee hockey madness that overtook the boys. And our living/common area.





Little rink rats sisters. Whose throats were hoarse from breathing in the superchlorinated air in the pool. They're pretty good sports considering an ice hockey rink is one of the dullest places on earth...if you don't watch hockey.






This number 11? Played the best hockey he's ever played and learned why good sportsmanship is so much more preferable than bad. Seeing a Squirt A (our's are C's) team from Rhode Island come in and skate circles around them, all the while taunting our boys and complaining to the refs when they were called for penalties. He took notice...they all did. Sometimes the winning team doesn't necessarily have the higher score.


Oh, did I mention that due to two poorly scheduled hockey games I MISSED THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF THE PATRIOTS GAME? And had to rely on a 12 year old who was sneaking into a bar for updates? No? Yeah, well I did. I really didn't mind, still don't in fact...but let me just say there will be little to no parenting happening after 6:30 p.m. this Sunday.

yipes. a week, eh?

I'm fine.

I'll be back tonight to post.

First of all....

Go here. Go on, go wish Jen a Happy Birthday ~ she's a sweetie...a YOUNG sweetie. I hope it blizzards for her tonight.

*taps foot, waits impatiently* And, please Jen, take no offense that I'm foot tapping...I'm just impatient by nature.

Back?

Okay, well I guess we'll see how well I can sign on to a random wireless network this weekend...

We're heading to Waterville Valley, NH for a hockey tournament. Oh, the joy. Fourteen boys and one girl with their families. When booking the hotel room the clerk offers me a room that sleeps ten. Um, no - I'm not going to host the knee hockey tournament in my room. So the only other room available was a regular ole hotel room...away from the other team. The clerk said it like it was a bad thing but I'm thinking 'hey, no early morning or late night kids playing ding dong ditch?' I think we'll be fine.

There is an obscene amount of packing today as it turns out there is only three days of hockey during our four day stay.

And being the impatient soul that I am, I don't do bored very well. So. I will pack. Stuff.

Stuff being: knitting (a scarf in my boy's hockey colors), 2 issues of Vanity Fair, Ipod (recently downloaded with Tetris and some Battlestar Galactica - I know, I know...GEEK!), Laptop, Alias Grace (very good, just very little time to dedicate to reading...so not like me) Uno Attack, Cribbage, Blisters and Pictionary Junior.

Gretsky the Guinea Pig is visiting friends. Baxter the Lab is staying home, with occasional adult supervision and that, I think...is that.

So, tell me now....what will I forget?

wow. things sure are different with the husband home.

A. lack of blogging/computer time. Sheesh, he's a task master and a master of the guilt trip.

B. he comes with me places. I had to pick up a hockey sweatshirt for the boy a few towns over and he drove. it was kind of nice.

C. he comes with me places. Christ, give me some space already.

D. the laundry is folded. the grill rotisserie we've had for almost a year was put together and installed, the cellar is halfway cleaned, he promised to go food shopping tomorrow and he's going to grab a battery for the dog collar today. After he buys the boy some snow boots and me the latest copy of Vanity Fair. At the mall.

E. I too am a master of the guilt trip.



As an aside - we cooked a pork roast on the rotisserie last night...excellent.

Here I am. On my couch. Blogging and watching the Grease/American Idol thing.

On my laptop.

With the wireless connection.

The other day with all the negative, woe is me...yeah, not so bad now.

Plus today I got some baby smooching time in with my favorite three month old.

Baby smooching courtesy of SneakyPeek with wireless access brought to you by the SP husband.

Really, I might've hugged him. If I was the hugging type.

IN which I learn to not blog about financial messes because there's always something else waiting to drop on my head like an anvil

So, it was suggested that there be no blogging of husbands and jobs.

Well that will be easy.

My husband has been laid off and the job *poof* is no longer.



In all fairness, he was the last one to go this year and we're going with the assumption that he'll be called back when work picks up again. It's likely that there'll be work for him before spring but really, there are no guarantees.

On the bright side - he can take over half the carpool, lunch making, backpack packing duties.

Well, yeah. The movie was terrible. Bad acting!! (exclamation points merited) and a complete ripoff of LOTR in some places. Never mind the fact that the movie just didn't go from point A to point B with any plausibility. I expected better.

New Year's Eve was a mellow affair. We were with friends but no one was feeling it so a bunch of us just hung around, chatting and completely sober. Christmas trees were set ablaze in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Good times.

Monday was the last day of vacation and we did nothing. Or next to nothing as playing Uno Attack, Pictionary Jr and The Littlest Pet Shop Game and watching National Treasure doesn't amount to a whole lot.

I napped.

Then it was back to school. Back to the dentist's, a different dentist - one who couldn't help the boy (immature tooth, blah, blah blah) and then on the phone for almost an hour with a new endodontist. Dudes, I'm getting tired of teeth.

As for resolutions? Two.

Quit with the yelling.

and

Work on being debt free. This year was a financial disaster for us...the husband was laid off for two months - and then, with the company's legal "issues" they aren't allowed to bid on any jobs that are funded by the state. Which means his rate of pay dropped considerably. Then it was my huge car troubles, new tires for both vehicles, two root canals and remaking the teeth, an oven that died and needs repair, a washing machine that died and was replaced. Oye.

I just picked up some more work, we switched phone services, I'm cancelling netflix (and maybe cable if my husband keeps being jerky), switching our cell phones to a prepaid option (we barely use them), eating out only every other week, and no credit card use. Well, with the exception of an occasional internet order or say, booking a hotel for a hockey tournament. I have to be realistic.

I'm curious to see how I'll do.