A sports prejudice revisited

As some of you may know, I (Patrick) am a sports fan. This fandom, however, does not extend to all sports. Football, in any of its many forms, is worthy of being showered with praise and honor. Basketball is an undeniably fun sport who's playoffs and finals can justifiably be watched on TV. Baseball's history combined with the mental aspect of the game make it a sport that, while boring at times, is great if your team's competing. I have nothing against soccer and played rugby in college.
That said, there are some sports that are not worth getting out of bed for (Note: I am talking here about watching these sports, not participating in them). I realize that by evening mentioning them on this little-read blog I am wasting your time and mine. These sports are, in no particular order: car racing of any kind, animal racing of any kind, bowling, women's collegiate sports (sorry ladies), rowing, body building, the WNBA, billiards, and many other "sports" that occasionally appear on TV. You are probably thinking that many of the activities I just listed don't even count as sports. You are correct. And I didn't even mention poker.
All that to say that I have firm opinions about every sport. Almost. Hockey has always been difficult for me to categorize. I enjoyed floor hockey in P.E. Activities where i furiously hit things and people repeatedly with sticks usually go over well with me. But the NHL has continually confused me. The sport is fast, very athletic and physical, and requires excellent team work. And yet somehow i was never interested and even bored by it. Here are my main beefs with hockey:
1. The fighting seems like a silly side show. Sports should be interesting and not need drama to punch up the story lines.
2. The goalie and his padding take up 7/8 of the net. I'm sorry, but when your job is best accomplished by laying down and hoping for the best you lose me.
3. There's no way to follow the puck (But read more on this later). The fact the hockey has a spinning red light to let people know their team has scored clues you in that the action is hard to follow.
4. It's not a sport you can just grab a couple friends and go play. Unless you live near a frozen lake. Which not even most polar bears do these days.
Last week a friend here invited Kim and I to an NHL game. The response "I'd rather eat the pencil I'm holding" was almost on my lips when he slipped in the twist: It was free. All of a sudden my curiosity was piqued. I had never been to an NHL game. I could put my long held prejudices to the test and surround myself with people actually interested in hockey. We immediately accepted the invitation while I prepared some of my best hockey-scorning facial expressions.
We arrived at the game (Washington Capitals v. Ottawa Senators) right as it started and found our seats, which, despite being as far from the ice as possible, gave a great view of everything. The only bad thing about our location was that we were out of range of the t-shirt cannon. Seeing the game in person, several things struck me immediately:
1. The puck is (mostly) visible. You can basically follow all the action. Slap shots are still invisible. If the red light goes off it means the shot went in the net. If another player mysteriously appears with the puck somewhere else then the shot must not have gone in the net.
2. I like sports fans no matter what they're rooting for (does not apply to car racing). A family behind us was coaching their 3 year old daughter to say things like 'Go Caps!' and 'The Caps are so good!' Cute.
3. The fouls in hockey are like penalties in football: they can be called at anytime for just about anything. The definition for hooking (which flashed on the jumbotron) is "using your stick to impede the movement of another player" The definition of holding is "holding an opponent from moving with your hands or stick". If both of these weren't happening all game then I must have been watching something else.
4. The intermissions are HORRIBLE. One 15 minute half time is bad enough to sit through in any sport but in hockey both intermissions are 17 minutes. I should have brought a Dostoevsky novel.
5. The most fun part to watch is skirmishes near the goal that usually involve the goal tender, totally unaware of the puck's location, flailing on the ground like a beached whale. Every time the goalie ended up on his back making ice angels I giggled to myself.
I have to admit, barring the endless intermissions, I had a good time at the game. The action was fast and skillful and the fans were fired up. I would still rather go to almost any other sporting event but at least next time I'll know to bring a long novel. And $140 if I want to buy a jersey.

A Day in the Life of Kim and Jack

Today Jack and I made Christmas cookies. It was super fun. I showed up with most of the stuff to make them, shape them, and frost them. When I told Jack that we were making cookies he was stoked. Then I started to pull all the ingredient out while telling him what they were for and how we would use them to make the cookies. Once I pulled everything out he said, "Kim, where are the cookies, I want to eat them." Cute. Later we put all the stuff together and had our dough and again he asked where the cookies were. We cut out Rudolphs, Mittens, Presents, Snowmen that Jack called Johnny the Snowman, and Stockings, baked them and made frosting, lots of frosting of different colors. While they were baking Jack sat in front of the oven and watched them bake making funny faces in the window and saying things like, "oooo", "Kim, can I eat them now?", when I said, no they are too hot right now in the oven he said, "I think they're cold now." Then, you guessed it we frosted the cookies. Jack was making his cookies for the "art show", not sure what that meant but it was cute. All this fun with some good Christmas music in the background. Once we were done we ate cookies and watched Rudolph. Then went back for round two of frosting. It was a fun day.

"I'm ready Kim!"


"Wow, we're making a mess."


"ooooo, I think they're cold now."






"That Good!"

The Cernas in Town

My family plus Meghan (David's girlfriend) came for Thanksgiving. It was so great having them here. I think DC wore them out though, they went to all the major museums, to the top of the Washington Monument, saw the glory of the National Cathedral and still had time to shop and just hang out. I loved having everyone in our little house, surprisingly it fit us all well. Meghan and David did take turns on the couch and the floor-sorry guys, but they didn't complain at all. Meghan and I made dinner for the family and Jack and his parents. My family enjoyed meeting them. It was an all around good week and I really miss having Dad asking me 101 questions about everything I do : ), Meghan and David constantly teasing and laughing with each other and Mom's funny one liners and expressions. It's really quiet here now and I can't wait to see them again for Christmas.



Our table...we had more food than this. Seeing as how we barely had room for our immediate family we decided that we are a long way from being able to host a real Thanksgiving.

Patrick being such the man of the house by carving the turkey he made.

The only thing Meghan bought while she was here, a finger puppet from the Native American Museum.


Mom and Dad walking The Mall.


One of David's cool pictures from the Washington Monument.


Meghan making her Inaugural Address.


Mom and Meghan riding the carousel in at the National Mall (they were the only ones on the "ride").




Here we are totally bored with the DC scene.
(That is Barak's Inauguration stage being build in front of the Capitol.)