More on Philly

After game 2, we all went out in search of a quick dinner to re-energize before the 3rd game. What we discovered was that apparently Philly natives all go out to the relatively few restaurants in the area on Saturday. Every place we went to had a wait for almost 2 hours! Even Applebees, TGIFridays, etc. We ended up wandering around a bit killing time until we decided to just head back to Applebees. Whoo hoo… all the way to Philly for Applebees…

Game 3 – Quakes v. Bruisers (New York)

This game was a bit of a blur since we were all already so tired. Which is not a good state to be in for your play-in game. This game would decided whether we would be placed in the A division or the B Division. Last year we played Special Sauce in the play-in game and lost in a shootout so we went to the B division (and won the B division championship!). This year our play-in game was 11:15PM on Sat. – our 3rd game of the day. We were all already pretty pooped and had no idea of how we might perform.

The game started out really rocky since the Bruisers were able to get a goal early in the first off of Jeannine’s foot right into the net. However, as it turned out, this was to be Deb’s game. She handled the ball all the way into the slot and scored (unassisted) in the first period. Then Deb got a second insurance goal in the 3rd from a pretty assist from Shawna. Final score of the game 2-1. Quakes advance to the A division playoffs!

Deb and Chris were hungry so we went out for a late night munch at Applebees (again). So sick of Applebees now…

Game 4 – Quakes v. Mass Mutiny (Massachusetts)

Good thing we had the late game the night before because otherwise we would have had to be at the rink playing by 7:00AM Sunday morning (which would have felt like 4:00AM our time). At least in my room, we were having a really tough time sleeping. We were up talking until like 4AM the night before. *sigh* We thought that after a full day of hockey we might be more tired and ready to crash, but unfortunately that was not the case. Deb, Jeannine, Shawna and I talked about our 12-month guys of floor hockey calendar instead – but I digress…

Again, the game started out to a rocky start with Mass Mutiny scoring a goal very early in the first period. In fact, I think they scored on our first line (my line). *sigh* such a bad +/- record during the tournament for me… Anyway, Laurie was able to find the back of the net later on in the first period in a scrum in front of the net. We all played hard (I elbowed some chick in the head on accident but it worked out for her and not for me since she happened to be wearing a helmet. Ouch!) In the third period, Shawna earned her banana cream pie with a pretty shot from a pretty pass from Deb. Here’s a pic of Shawna enjoying her banana cream pie. Quakes win 2-1 again! Next up – the semifinals…

After game 4 we headed back to Leonardo’s Deli and Bakery since we had promised ourselves some rewards for winning. Shawna got her mini banana cream pie and a slice of tomato pie. Deb got another Panini, Jeannine got a slice of tomato pie, Kim got a philly cheesesteak and I got a spicy deli pickle and Italian hoagie which was quite possibly the best sandwich I have ever tasted. So yummy! I brought the other half with me to the rink for Chris to eat after his game. The other SoCal guys were so jealous. Here I am loving my pickle and hoagie…

Game 5 – Quakes v. RoadBlast (a comglomeration of all the USA Womens National Team Players from all over the eastern seaboard – a combination of the Road Rash Team and Boston Blast Team)

Just some background on the RoadBlast team – as I mentioned above, RoadBlast is a melding of the two strongest female teams in the country – creating 1 juggernaut team. This juggernaut team had already played each of their two previous games to a mercy game beating the first team 9-1 and the second team 8-0. So basically their team was obviously stacked and they were only playing their 3rd game of the tournament while we were playing our 5th. We had also been matched up against much tougher teams due to our low seeding pre-tournament.

The RoadBlast team was obviously much more well-rested than us and to their credit very skilled. They had some great passing and positioning and it was obvious that they had practiced and played with each other extensively before. Furthermore, they had 3 full lines of subs on the bench. We ended up losing 0-2 and I definitely remember the team being pretty dirty players. It is disappointing each year playing against that team because it is sad that the team representing our country is a team of unfit, lazy, dirty players. Several of the players were actually very skilled players but they sure did whine a LOT! Plus they got 2 “too many men on the ice” penalties which really should not happen on the national team. Anyway, we’re pretty proud of ourselves for how far we got in the tournament. We heard from Coach Tom later that the USA team was musing about how that was the best competition they had had in a long time and that we really can run! You better believe it! California plans to bring it again next year and maybe even in September in the Barrie, ON tournament.

After the last game, we were knocked out of the tournament in 3rd place – which felt pretty good to us. We had risen from the last seed of the tournament to 3rd! We all then went to Chris’ SoCal game which was right after our game. It was a fun game to watch and the guys won so they were heading to the C Division finals! After the game we all went back to the hotel to grab a shower before heading back to the rink to watch the guys’ final game. I made sure to fill up on a very strong lemon drop (a little lemonade + a lot of Bacardi limon rum). I had a great time watching the game and giving all of the guys nicknames. The nicknames included: Token (short for Token White Guys since he played on the Asian line); Dos and Hermanos (because they were brothers so the shorter one was Dos and the taller one was Hermanos); Speedy; Stitches; Fancy Pants (Fancy for short); Black Hole; Canon; Gimpy (Chris); Fluffy (Wendy’s son Jacobus); and Scruffy. I’m probably forgetting some others…

I was able to catch some of the A division women’s final game and it was definitely a much slower game than our game. Our game really should have been the final game and Andrea from Barrie said she thought so. The Barrie team was playing in the B Division final and I don’t know how it ended up. I hope they won!

We all went out to a Mediterranean restaurant where most of us ate Paella for 2. It was all that great but worth the $11 per person that we paid. By the time we headed back to the hotel, I was pooped and I conked out half way through Blades of Glory. Apparently some of the SoCal guys headed over to Chris, Laurie and Kim’s room for a night cap. I was bummed I missed it. Oh well… needed a good night’s sleep before waking up at 3:45AM to head to the airport to catch our 6:15AM flight. We really did not get much sleep during the weekend. On Monday night, I passed out around 9:30PM and slept for 10 hours. I guess my body was pretty wrecked from the tournament – but oh so worth it!

We Worked it Ladies!

So we are flying back to San Diego now and our bodies are all very very angry at us – which means it was a fantastic tournament! I am so proud of all of our gals that fought hard and played awesome. The California Quakes consisted of myself as captain, Shawna Hamon, Deborah Finucane, Jen Hannum, Katie Hicks, Julie Ott, Jeannine Stuzka, Kimberly Phipps, Laurie Chong, Wendy Vanos (from Boston), Stephanie Freeman (Goalie from OC) and Coaches Chris Tran and Tom Roberts (from Barrie, ON).

Game 1 – Quakes v. Stick Tease (Washington DC)

The California Quakes had some first game jitters to overcome – plus a lack of sleep. We got into town around 11PM and were starved for dinner so we met up with some other girls are this very strange 24 hour diner called “The Suburban Diner.” The manager was a funny greek guy that was so impressed with the fact that Chris was with 6 girls that he said he wanted to be Vietnamese for the night too. Anyway, by the time we got back to the hotel it was 1:30am and when we tried to turn in for the night we found that the room was facing the highway and the traffic noise was pretty bad. That and the room was getting very hot so all of us tossed and turned and did not get much sleep. By the time we made it to our first game, we were a tired, jet-lagged, and nervous bunch.

Stick Tease did not get a whole lot of good offense and shots against us but we allowed 2 flooky goals and ended up losing the game 0-2. The first goal was unlucky and went off my toe into the net and the second goal was just a scrum in front of the net that led to a rebound goal late in the 3rd period. This was probably our worst game of the tournament in terms of team chemistry. I think we were still feeling things out.

Game 2 – Quakes v. Special Sauce

After the first game, we decided to go get some lunch to refuel. We found this lovely little authentic Italian deli called “Leonardo’s Deli and Bakery.” Shawna and I decided to share a panini with artichokes, sundried tomatoes, Italian sausage, pancetta and prosciutto. It was fantastic! Yum. Plus we saw so many yummy baked goods that we swore that we would be back for more. Shawna said that if she scored she would go back to treat herself to a mini banana cream pie.

We overcame our first game jitters in this one. We were in the 3rd period and the score was tied 0-0. Julie and Katie were out with me when Julie challenged the ball along the boards. The girl took Julie down but then Julie swung around and knocked the girl down on the ground too! Another girl on the other team went into the corner to fight for the ball too and so did Katie and another girl. Katie managed to get a handle on the ball for a second and tapped the ball over to me (I had decided not to get involved in the scrum). I get the ball and find that I am totally wide open for a shot! So what do I do? What I always do… shoot it right into the goalie’s pads. However, I was prepared for this and I followed up my shot and got my own rebound on my backhand and roofed the shot. I start celebrating… but then I realize that my backhand hit the top left hand corner post! NOOOOOO! Lucky for me it hit the post then hits the goalie’s back and rolled into the net. SCORE! Katie and Julie ran over to give me a hug - greatest moment of the tournament for me. We ended up holding them back for the rest of the game to win it 1-0. The win was especially satisfying because I had overheard one of the girls prior to the game say that they were playing the team from CA so they couldn’t be that good since they’re from CA… Take that bitch!

More to come on games 3-5 in Philly + notable moments…

PS.. I had to include this picture of Ada because she looks so darn cute!

Checking In...

I am currently on a plane on my way to Philadelphia to compete in a women’s hockey tournament with girls from my hockey league. Just to document, I went out to Thursday night hockey last night to get some practice in before the big tournament and it was the most injury prone pickup that I can remember. I sustained an elbow to the hip, an elbow to the face and a shot (impact from the ball) to my knee cap. Needless to say, I am already a little bruised and battered going into the tournament…

Apparently it has been a week for injuries because this past Sunday, EK severely sprained his ankle during his floor hockey game. He said that his hands went to make 3 dekes while his feet only did 2. He basically cut hard and turned his ankle pretty badly. I took him to the ER at UCSD Thornton Hospital and he had x-rays taken. The ER trip wasn’t so bad since there actually weren’t that many people there. We didn’t have to wait more than 15 in the waiting room before EK was seen by a nurse. Anyway, the doctor said he did not break or fracture anything but that he would have to wait until the swelling went down to see if there is any ligament damage.

I am pretty confident that there is no ligament damage since EK isn’t in as much pain as I thought he would be - he only took 2 of the 20 vicadin the Dr. prescribed him. To his boss’ dismay, EK was unable to hike and do field work last week which was killing him. EK does not do well with sitting for long periods of time and unfortunately that was what he was stuck doing. He started limping around a bit yesterday without the use of his crutches and he drove for the first time too. Hopefully the healing will continue through the weekend since I won’t be around to help him as I will be in Philly sweating and playing hockey with the girls.

The past 2 weeks have been pretty rough at work since I have been working on my first deal where I was the lead negotiating attorney. I was pretty nervous about it at first since I wasn’t sure as to how the attorney for the Client would be since he works for a firm (and thus gets paid a lot more than I do). Apparently getting paid more does not = smarter. The counsel was pretty inexperienced (more so than I!) and it was a very difficult negotiation simply because he couldn’t understand contractual concepts and principles. It was a crazy morning for me this morning but I think we might actually close the deal today and secure $6 mil in revenue for the company. My boss even sent an e-mail to my big boss with some good remarks about my progress and work. I am feeling pretty good about what I am doing now… it might not be saving the world – but it’s definitely rewarding when you close a deal.

More to come on my trip to Philly and how the tournament goes…

Anza Bonaza 8

Our annual trip in search of desert wildflowers in Anza Borrego yielded more than just pretty flowers. This year Shawna organized the best bonanza of all past Anza Bonanzas, filled with close encounters of the vertebrate and invertebrate kind.

The trip started out with its usual stops. A quick look at the Visitor's Center to ask what everyone asks "where are the flowers?" This year's bloom brought a line to the the overflowing Vistor's parking lot. And with flowers everywhere you didn't have to go far. just a few mile northeast were fields of sand verbena, desert dandelion, and desert chicory. So we all (Shawna, Dale, Jeannine, Brian, Wendy, Ben, Angela, Heather, a sick Dorothy, and I) set off for the death march up Alcoholic Pass. Up we climbed the steep rocky slope under hot desert skies leaving the flowers below. Well, we did find some purdy little Bigelow's monkey flower and blooming beavertail cactus. The views of the rarely seen green hills of the desert were worth the ascent, but we ready to get back to ground level and start passing the alcohol. Maybe that was why it was called Alcoholic's Pass?






At camp, Angela brought out not just chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers... no, we were treated to s'mores with Reese's peanut butter cups and Cadbury caramel chocolate. After all that sugar I was ready for another beer. Luckily I didn't drink so much as to unsteady my nimble scorpion-catching hands. While Ben was enjoying some brew he calmly mentioned that a lizard had crawled up beside him as he sat on the ground by the camp fire. Then his voice jumped a few octaves as he jumped a few feet when he noticed that it was not a lizard but a large 5-inch desert hairy scorpion. Of course the scorpion immediately ran towards Dale and Jeannine's tent. To Dorothy's protest, I snatched up the scorpion by the tail just under the drop of poison poised on the tip of the stinger. This was the largest scorpion I had ever seen. The little bugger was also quite strong and was able to bend himself up and pinch me while he dangled by his tail. With help from Brian we escorted the scorpion to safe place away from of tents. Brian commented that maybe the beer dulled my senses enough to make me feel that picking up the scorpion was a good idea.

The next day we decided we hadn't had enough punishment yet so we went for a hike up Palm Canyon to find the endangered big horn sheep. The sheep are hit or miss since they stay hidden up in the boulder and rock strewn hills above the canyon. But, I had seen them here before so we were optimistic that we might get a fleeting glimpse. The red rocks and green shrubs of the canyon were dramatic in the morning sun. And, as the trail approached the northern slope of the canyon wall another hiker informed us that a couple sheep were visible up the hill. We anxiously searched the hillside and saw a stout male crouched on a ledge. He had large set of horns suggesting he was full adult. As all ten of us gathered around the base of the hill a second male appeared. He was a bit younger with a less intimidating set of horns. The two of the them hopped around on the rocks undecided for a bit then slowly made there way down the slope towards us! I figured they would take one look at the gaggle of on-lookers and take off over the hill and out of site. Within a couple hundred feet they veered down and to the left behind the rocks. We all scampered around the bend in the trail to follow the sheep with Dale in the lead. Dale lost site of the sheep for a second and then found himself within thirty feet of the larger of male as he bounded up onto a boulder in front of him. The male with the horns did not appear scared. The male with the Czech accent did. As we stared and took photos the sheep just stood there like statue mounted on that boulder. Even Angela's wild laughter did not evoke a reaction out of him. The larger male eventually bounded off across the wash while the smaller and more sheepish male took the longer route away from the wildlife paparazzi. We were so in awe of this close up viewing that we didn't bother reaching the palm oasis at the end of the trail.

We hurried back to the campground to break camp and end our happy little gathering. Jeannine, Shawna, Dorothy and I headed straight back to SD for the girl's practice... well, we did make one stop... at Dudley's! This time we didn't go for the yummy baked goods but rather had some delicious deli sandwiches. All-in-all we were all totally beat by the end of the weekend but you know you've had a good weekend when you're more tired going back to work on Monday!

Lumberjack/Hobo EK No More!

So EK and I were driving to dinner on Friday night to meet the Hamon Family when I noticed something move in EK's now super overgrown and lumberjack-esque beard. Some background info about the beard...

EK has been on a major scoring slump since the end of October. As such, he decided that he would not shave until he scored a goal. Imagine how he looked since not haveing scored since October! Unfortunately, I don't think I have a pic of him sporting the beard because I hated the beard and wanted no memory of it! So it got to the point where everyone wanted EK to just score a goal so he could shave his yucky beard! Of the people to express their dislike of the beard included myself, Shira, Janet, Steph, Shawna, Jeannine, etc., etc.

Anyway, so as we are traveling to dinner I let out a yelp in the car because there was a TICK crawling in EK's beard. So super gross!!! I felt all itchy and got the heebie jeebies. He brushed the tick off his face somewhere into the truck. So now there was a LIVE TICK crawling somewhere in the car with us. UGH! He ended up finding the tick on his shirt and tossed it out the window. Then he proceeded to tell me how he had even already showered since hiking in the field earlier that day. So that means this tick found shelter in EK's beard during his shower? So totally gross!

Lucky for me EK finally did score a goal that same night in his Cobra East game (the game winning goal) and he shaved his beard that same night after the game. I also happened to catch a cold and was suffering from fever and chills when he came in to show me his freshly shaven beard and head...in my delerium... I thought, wait, is that a mohawk? No... I'm just out of it... and I just fell back asleep. The next morning I wake up and OMG it is a mohawk. So EK is now sporting a mohawk. I prefer the mohawk much more than the beard. Pictures to follow...

Welcome to Our Blog!

EK is a little computer-slow when it comes to this blogging thing so for his birthday yesterday, I set up this new blog for us to write down our thoughts and experiences. I think EK is more likely to write than I since my own personal blog is always lacking in content. That being said, welcome to the adventures of Do' and EK.

My news to report is that I recently bought a house (with lot's of help from my mom). I moved in last week and am now happily enjoying the new house along with my new roommates. I have numerous home projects planned including building a pond in the backyard for the turtles and painting my bedroom. Stay tuned...



Aside from that, EK and I have been playing a ton of hockey lately. We both just got back from Vegas where we competed in a Floor Hockey Tournament - I, in the Recreation Division and EK in the Men's Open Division. EK's team won 2nd place in the Men's B Division! EK was competing on the team in honor of his friend, Mark DeGreffenreid's, bachelor party. EK had such a good time in Vegas that he came back with a cold. I captained my tournament team - the San Diego Wildfires, and we ended up with 4th place. I had one of the greatest moments of my life though when I scored the game winner in OT of our first playoff game while all of the San Diego Teams were watching. Awesome!

Other than the tournament, EK has signed up for the upcoming floor hockey season - which really suprised me since I thought he was permanently retired. That means EK and I will be playing ice 1-2 times a week, floor 2 times a week all at different times! That's a lot of hockey...