The GGA Project -- Day #70 "Fish on Ice"

This is a week for cancelled plans.  This afternoon I was supposed to be hanging out with my gal Kelsi, but things came up on her end, as things are always bound to.  One thing that's been a great change for me as a mom is that I now understand more completely how easily and often things come up, and going with the flow is easier than ever.  In fact I myself was supposed to be in Cotati visiting a friend of the family today, but again, things came up (my son was teething something awful the night before, and I didn't want to subject anyone else in the house to the madness, should a similar, wakeful evening make a repeat performance).


Anyway, a late-in-the-day text from my friend and near-neighbor Brian made for some good alternate plans and led to


Today's New Activity: Watching a Sharks Game


What?!  Say WHAT?!  Never watched a Sharks game?!  I know, huh.  I have lived in or near San Jose for over a decade now, at times living and/or working mere blocks from the Shark Tank, and I've never even taken in a single game on t.v.  This is silly, because I actually really like watching hockey.  It's just not one of those things I ever made room or time for in my life.  Also, I really haven't followed hockey at all since I was in middle school and my brother watched the L.A. Kings religiously.  There are apparently at least 6 new or newish teams I'd never even heard of, all of which came into being after I lost track of all things NHL.


I mentioned to Brian that the Sharks themselves weren't even a team yet when I stopped following hockey, and he said, "oh yeah, I think they just celebrated their 20th Anniversary," which made me feel really, really old.  Yikes!


I love supporting local teams though (become a late-in-life A's fan, since it would almost surely kill me to support the Giants), and the Sharks are a legitimate team to get behind.  And it was nice to be able to take in this first Sharks game with one of the team's Super Fans.  I really never even need to watch any of their games, as Brian's numerous Facebook updates during the course of all televised games are enough to let me know what's going on.  But it's so much more fun to take in the action firsthand --including the sounds of the clashing sticks and the sights of blood flying out of recently-punched mouths.  Golly...why so violent?


Since it's been years, and since I was never quite able to grasp the concept before anyway (sorry bro, it's not you or your explanations, it's me), I asked for an explanation of the Offsides penalty, which is called multiple times in any game.  I think...*think* I got my head around it this time, unless I wait another 20 years to take in another game, in which case I'd likely need another refresher.


Luckily, the rest of the rules of hockey are pretty basic and easy to grasp.  It's not like sitting down with somebody who has never seen a single baseball game and trying to explain everything from a basic count to the infield fly rule.  Believe me, I've done that twice and was tired of hearing myself talk by the middle of the third inning.  For the most part, the idea in hockey is to pass the puck to the guy who has the best chance of getting it into the net. Or, just getting the puck into the net yourself (unless you're on defense, in which case you should really really try to keep it out).  With strategy like that, maybe *I* should be a pro hockey player!!


We saw some good getting of pucks into nets.  In fact, the Shark's Setoguchi made three of the Sharks' four goals (in a 4-0 shutout against the Colorado Avalanche), for his first career Hat Trick.  That was a cool thing to see, since it doesn't happen all that often.  The fans threw dozens of hats on the ice to celebrate the feat.  That it all happened on the Sharks home turf made it, I'm sure, a super awesome night for the young trickster and his fans alike.


It was a fun time all around  :)






And for another little baby first.  I bought the monkey his first pair of slippers today: