GodsendJen

Some lessons are learned the hard way, others are learned the hard and bloody way.  The photo doesn't do it justice, but I sustained my first bloody in-game injury a mere week after being so blithely stupid as to make fun of my klutzy non-game injuries. My glove and stick got in the way of a slap-shot and even through the monstrous finger padding of a hockey glove the puck managed to split the tip of my finger, turning it black and causing it to spew blood all over the previously white palm of my gloves.  Amazingly I didn't break a nail.

An expected side effect of my great hockey experiment is the occasional ever-present bruising.  Last night I cataloged yet another of these little joys.  Typically these bruises show up after 3 on3 games when someone else can't stop and consequently hits me--in the beginner league this is frequent--or when I fall because I get tangled up with someone's stick while fighting for a puck. (Note, this also happens in the beginner league.  In the other league everyone else just takes the puck and leaves me in their snow.)  However this bruise is part of a disturbing new trend--bruises I get for being a klutz.  It seams a new one of these may arrive after every Rec-League game.  Last week I had one from the most comedic part of my game--trying to go over the wall on my way to the ice for a shift change. But last night I rose to a new height.  The bruise you see here I got because I fell...while stretching before the game.  I guess I'm just the kind of uncoordinated bafoon that can fall stretching. It didn't photograph well, but I'm particularly impressed with the solid deep purple line at the top of this bruise.  That line corresponds with the end of the side-padding in my breezers. Without padding I believe I'd either have avoided a bruise altogether, or I'd have one twice this size.

I spent some time on hold with the good folks at Emory University Hospital today. While I'm waiting to talk with Nuclear Medicine about my treatment options I am subjected to a number of adds.  Do I suffer from uterine fibroids?  Am I a 40 year old male in need of a prostrate screening?  Fine, good, whatever... I'd rather not listen to this prattle but I can at least tune it out.  Then comes another add....Are you a woman between the ages of 21 and 34? (As a matter of fact I am.) And just what are the good folks at Emory suggesting to me based on that?  Well they think it would be swell if I'd sell my eggs to infertile couples at their baby making center.  They would even pay me up to $6000 for my effort.

I don't know what is scarier.  That they would subject someone to an advertisement seeking their eggs....or that they would suggest someone on hold discussing radioactive treatment options should be the donor.  No couple in their right mind would want my eggs...and I'd run screaming if I new they were being solicited this way.

I watched tonight's Thrashers vs. Bruins game at the hockey viewing party the Interactive Squad hosted at our suburban Up the Creek.  If the team wants to evangelize in my neighborhood I want to support it. 

The good news is the turnout surpassed my expectations.  The parking lot was full, no small accomplishment for a Monday night.  The bar area and about half of the dining room was awash in blue jerseys. Most tables were filled with families.  Everyone had a chance to spin the prize wheel, and to do so without waiting in line for 20 minutes as you do at games. School age children dressed in their Blueland best sat coloring their children's menu and cheering when appropriate.  The crowd was quiet at first.  I expected more of a party atmosphere with fans mingling and discussing the recent trades.  Instead most tables kept to themselves but shared collective cheers and gasps as the game played out on the plasma TVs overhead. Cheering a television is always more fun in a crowd. Families watching the game together on a Monday night is great, but you have to wonder if some felt they were a victim of false advertising.  The fliers posted online and at the restaurant promised that Thrash himself would host this party.  Instead the hosts were two women from the Interactive squad and a couple of people in charge of the prize wheel.  Thrash's presence might have encouraged mingling and would certainly have added something extra for all the kids. 

Another negative is that Up the Creek isn't the ideal place for a viewing party of any sort.  The staff was pleasant and worked to meet any dining request, but the game wasn't visible from most of the dining room tables.  A variety of decorative metal plants blocked the view of televisions from half the dining room entirely.  Even the tables with a view of the TV only provided that view to patrons on one side of the table.  Also perplexing was the staff's insistence on vacuuming the dining area during the game.  Nothing quite helps you enjoy a hockey game like the feeling that your hosts are just watching the clock waiting for you to exit. I don't blame this on the Thrashers.  I think it was a side effect of Up The Creek trying too hard.  They even had the regional manager on hand.  Too bad she didn't have ask them to stop vacuuming or suggest they offer some specials to the folks who turned out. 

These factors make me think that other venues could be the difference between what was a nice viewing party and what could have been a great viewing party.  The northern suburbs have no shortage of family friendly sports bar. (Yes, you out of town folks heard that right.  Here in Atlanta we have family friendly sports bars.  I think its a side effect of confusing an SEC football game with holiday mass. But that is another post.) Across the street was Indigo Joe's.  The food isn't spectacular, but not really worse than Up the Creek.  As a sports bar they have far more TVs in proximity to all of their seats.  Any one of the Taco Macs  in the area would work. As would the very nice Barnacles on 141 in Norcross. At last count Barnacles had somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 televisions.  (Up the Creek had 7.)  And don't forget the largest Jock's and Jill's in the area is just a few miles away in Alpharetta.  A happy plus to gathering at a traditional sports watching venue is an increased likelihood of drawing in a few more casual sports fans.  I dream of a day when I'm not the only person in Jock's and Jill's who speaks up to complain when someone asks to have the single hockey TV changed so they can have yet another view of the SEC game that is on 3 other TVs.  Getting hockey folks into one of these bars might help raise their awareness that hockey fans do exist in the south.

Overall I'd give the event a B with the potential of turning into a B+ of A- next time out if they choose a better venue.  The team has sponsored at least 2 of these events so far and I expect more in the future.  If a viewing party comes to a place near you, do yourself a favor and check it out.

A nice article about the work Dorothy and her grandparents are doing with a ministry to the homeless. Complete with photos.

Ministry Helps City's Homeless

I've never eaten at Sugo but I might have to add it to my list of "must try" places.  A recipe of theirs was featured in today's AJC for Federico's Pork Braciole. The chef was flattered that someone would try to make what he refers to as a "highly complex" dish at home, so he included his phone number with the recipe so people could call him if they ran into problems and needed help.  Here is a snippet from the article:

If you want to re-create the best meal you've ever tasted, you'd better be prepared to work for it. This recipe will take a home chef at least two evenings to prepare, but the work could actually be spread over three or four days...

If you'd like to attempt this braciole at home, plan to roast the garlic and caramelize the onions one day, and then stuff and roast the tenderloins the next. And if you get stuck, Castellucci invites you to call him for advice (phone number above). "Sincerely, anybody that puts in the effort to re-create a complex dish like this, I want them to know that if I have six calls at once, I'll take theirs first."

The menu descriptions sound like they might use just a little too much "stuff" for me but if the chef cares this much about his food it might be worth a venture.

The planets aligned and today I got the rare opportunity to spend the day with Dorothy.  My bright idea for a fun day out was to take her ice skating at The Cooler. We both rent skates and head onto the ice. I have difficulty standing in my skates, skating in my skates...well yikes! Dorothy isn't much better so we both go round the rink twice, holding onto the railing for dear life, and stop for a break. Dorothy braves it again and magically decides that she can skate. At this point I give up on the hockey skates I'd put on and go to the desk to trade for figure skates. Back to the ice for me and and Dorothy grabs my hand, look at me in earnest, and says "The secret to ice skating is beliving in yourself." She has proclaims herself my ice skating teacher and proceeds to drag me around the rink. I don't know how she went from clueless to professor so quickly, but wow. Other tips included "lean forward if you need to" and my personal favorite "they don't hold onto the wall in the olympics."

Thanks to some help from my sister I was able to drag Jeff out to see my school girl heart-throb, Jon BonJovi in concert.  It was a really incredible show, and Mr. I'm Sure I'll Have an OK time but I'm not too excited about it was so stoked by the show that he surprised me with tickets to Jon's encore concert at Gwinnet Arena last night.

We had great seats again (on the floor, center ice) but what a difference a month makes.  The song selection was different. More slower mature stuff and a little less of the rocking stuff I loved from the 80s and 90s.  Midshow they addressed the recent tabloid stories.  After the admonition not to believe everything you read Jon turns the mike over to Richie.  I've never thought Richie had the vocal range to be a solo singer or to front his own band.  I wont change that view, but he sang I'll Be There for You, purportedly for Heather, and it was moving.  After that the show picked up a lot.  I don't think Richie was the tide turner though, it was a couple of very lucky folks in the stands.

Jon pops up on a pedastal in the middle of the crowd for a couple of songs mid performance.  First his big solo hit from Young Guns II (another fond droolfest from my adolecence), Blaze of Glory. All the folks by this platform are understandably excited.  But this one poor girl was so taken I really thought she might pass out.  She calms herself enough to enjoy the show as he begins his second song, Always.  It quickly becomes easy to forget this is a song about breaking up, because overwhelmed girl's boyfriend is on his knees in the aisle with a nice shiny diamond popping the question.  Anyone who missed what was going on figured it out as soon as the song was over and Jon looks at her and says "Well, are you going to give him an answer?" As romantics everywhere know, she said yes.  Points to the boyfriend for not asking on Valentines day.  Maybe he just got lucky, but this was orginial.  And despite it being a break-up song I suspect Always will be one of their songs forever.  After this little episode the concert picks up tempo, the band makes the standard jokes about beautiful Atlanta women and Richie being on the market, life goes on.  And I've gotten to remember what its like to be 12 again, wearing out my New Jersey tape playlist on the handy DellPod.

Jeff has some great photos if you are interested.