Yes, I know that it has been a while since my last post, and yeah, I went to Vegas! But Viv does such a detailed job of describing our games that I just want to wave y'all in her general direction and say "Yeah, like that! We had fun, we made it to the championship but got second place, see Viv for details!"
Things that stuck in my head from the trip: That getting a trophy, regardless of size, is pretty dang cool. That a defenseman actually got the 'All-Tournament Defenseman' trophy this time instead of a center, woo...go Becky! That I got an assist, which I'm very proud of...Ds don't exactly have a very glamorous job (there's no statistic for 'goals prevented'), so I count the "major defensive mistakes" (none IMHO, thank goodness), add bonus points like assists (yay one!), take into account the attitude of the other teams (good), filter it through my physical state (just fine -- avoided the local water this time, and had no injuries), and total it up, and I can say that I had a good tournament.
Other stuff that stuck in my head: The cafe at the hotel was 'meh'. It was food. (I'd avoid the calimari, though.) We even got to meet a slightly drunk guy there, who was convinced that G was his brother Mike. However, the dinner that G and I had at the italian restaurant at the hotel on Saturday(?) was *fabulous*, even if the strawberry dacquiri I ordered seemed to have lots and lots of grenadine in it...in lieu of strawberries. (*blink*) It was somewhat tasty, in a...rather syrupy, un-dacquiri-like sort of way.
The 'things appearing in gear bags after games' thing? Yeah, I know who did those. (And no, I didn't go anywhere near Circus Circus!) Though I think our team is getting more and more playfully superstitious each year, so it's just as well that some of the things were perishable and (we hope) won't be brought back to the locker room next time for good luck!
Oh yeah, and I got another year older the day we flew to the tournament. G got me a banana split (Who serves banana splits without chocolate sauce? Apparently they do) that night from the deli and brought it to our room, and bought me flowers, too. He also paid for all my meals over the weekend as my gift (and if you count the Wynn buffet, this was $$$!). The team celebrated my birthday at dinner the first year, but (understandably) not since then. My sister called and sang HB to me like she always does. :-) And I brought a couple of cards that I'd gotten in the mail with me to open. One of these days I'm going to move my birthday over a week and go to Carmel or something for the weekend. As much as I love spending four days with my teammates and friends and playing hockey every year, I think I miss being able to actually do something for my birthday rather than it just being a footnote. Maybe we should get the organizers to move the tournament back to the first week of February! (Who watches the Super Bowl, anyway? *duck*)
After we got back from Vegas, I had a game on Tuesday -- well, a scrimmage, really, as an accident closed the freeway at the requisite exit, and the refs and scorekeeper were so late that we decided to just scrimmage instead of try to play half a game. It was a lot of fun, though, and I seem to recall that our team kicked some scrimmage butt. :-) Thank you, goalies, for being on time!
I played Thursday also, per usual; we had 9ish skaters and led until the end, when our opponents came back to win it by one. We were lacking in Russian-ness that night, which is usually what does most of our scoring, but it was a good game. I still love playing with ya, Joe, and I'll miss you when you take the summer off.
Then I played Friday (subbing in Red, a narrow win), and Sunday (my own Red team, a somewhat embarassing tie with our 14 skaters against their 9 -- and an almost-goal by me on my second-favorite goalie, stolen by an early whistle, d'oh!)
Today, being Tuesday, I am celebrating *not* having to play hockey today. Playing on 8 out of the last 11 days is plenty!
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