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28 January 2012 tagged day2765, ericiv, hockey, odin, tournament with no comments
in our continuing adventures as hockey parents, we spend many of our weekends at hockey games. this time it was the “mighty mite hockey jamboree” at Winter Rec-Fest in la crosse, wisconsin.
in the tournament, “mite” players from around the region get together and play each other in quick games, 20 minutes each, 3 games in a round, 2 rounds total ( got that? so they play 6 teams, total. ).
it’s a great way for the young players to build up confidence and play a variety of teams with varying skill levels.
odin did a great job playing defenseman and even managed to score a goal!
here, he’s skating away from the net in the blue and white jersey after scoring his second goal in a game, ever ( defense doesn’t get as many opportunities to score a goal as offense )!
odin, sitting on the sidelines. they swap out players every two minutes. for this game, they split up the team into two separate teams playing “four on four”, allowing for two players to sit out every two minutes. if you think about it, it’s that’s a lot of skating over six twenty minute periods!
while he loves playing defenseman, he’s also been enjoying being the goalie. at this level of play they don’t need all the gear and the, er, goal, is to just get them used to trying to keep pucks out of the net. odin stopped quite a few goals and let just a couple get past him. given his love of defense, i wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to be a goalie after he gets a little more confident in the position, though it’s hard to say if it’ll be his favorite position since the defenseman gets to skate around a lot more which is pretty fun too 
even when you handily beat a team, it’s important to give them an honest “great game” and a “high five”. ’cause, as odin already knows, it’s no fun to hear “you suck!”
odin, right in the thick of the action! i have to admit that it’s big fun to hear other parents yell out his name when makes a great defense play ( he’s number ’5′ ).
odin is all smiles ( through his mouth guard ) getting ready to get back on the ice after a break beating all three teams they played in the first round.
at the end of the tournament, everyone gets a medal.
after all his games are done ( they beat five out of the six teams! ), of course, there’s no way odin will leave the tournament before catching the other half of his team play a period or two their last games from the top of the stands.
yeah. but what about screaming at the kids on the opposing teams
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22 January 2012 tagged beams of light, light, mystery with 2 comments
last night, around 11:30pm, kris and i were getting ready for bed and she looked out a west window and said, “wow, what in the world is that?” we watched as about 20 beams of light formed slowly along intersection of the street running north and south near our house ( the rusk and court intersection, for the locals reading this ). each beam was looked to be about a two feet wide and they were grouped in clusters of four ( so, five groups of four beams ). strangely, the beams appeared to start about 20 or 30 feet above the rooftops of nearby houses – i.e. they didn’t go all the way up into the night sky. they gradually got about as bright as a bright moombeam and faded away rather quickly after 5 minutes.
we moved around while looking out the window and they didn’t move around. they were not reflections in the window.
i made a joke about them being tractor beams from alien space ships in another dimension.
but seriously, we both saw them. what’s a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon? swamp gas?
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21 January 2012 tagged day2758, ericiv, haircut, odin with no comments
playing with legos post haircut while waiting for mama.
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15 January 2012 tagged bloom, flower, Narcissus papyraceus, plant with no comments
Narcissus papyraceus forced blooms. fragrant! and such a nice treat in the middle of january.
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14 January 2012 tagged day2751, ericiv, hockey, odin with no comments
today, odin had an away game in winona, minnesota which we knew it would be a tough game since those minnesotans take their hockey very seriously, even with the younger kids!
in past games odin has seemed to enjoy playing the defenceman position but this game he played center for much of the game which meant he did a lot more skating from one of the ice to other.
i think he enjoyed the “faceoffs” but he was pooped out at the end!
each game, he gets a little more confident about getting in the middle of the action and going after the puck.
is he smartly assessing the trajectory of the puck so he can intercept, or taking a breather? only he knows for sure
d’oh! the final score, 7 to 2. the game was fairly close until the last 10 minutes of the final period. i think everyone just ran out of gas.
odin was none to happy about the loss. maybe even just a wee bit sad ;-(
but he got over it quickly and i think understands playing a better team is a great way to learn how to become a better player.
they’ll play many, many more games over the years, so there will definitely be a re-match!
update:
bummed to learn today why odin was sad after the game. apparently, after the game when the kids line up to shake hands and say “good game!” some of the winona kids were saying “you suck!” to the viroqua kids. interestingly, odin didn’t say a word after the game. he casually brought it up today and later confessed it was why he was sad and wondered why they’d say such a thing and if he really was a bad player. coincidentally, an email chain started after odin told us what happened between the other hockey parents as word got out from their kids.
on the one hand, it’s sad to hear the doubt a few words can cause. on the other hand, it’s a great opportunity for odin to learn that he can’t control what others think and say and he certainly shouldn’t pay any mind to poor sports!
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8 January 2012 tagged day2745, ericiv, hockey, odin with no comments
in this stage of learning the game of hockey, odin is getting a feel for playing a variety of positions. he mostly enjoys playing the defenceman position, but in this home game against la crescent, minnesota he got a chance to play the goalie.
and he quickly learned it isn’t so easy to keep the puck from going in the net!
hi. ho. they still won the game 6 to 3. wooohoooo!
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19 December 2011 tagged exercise, running with no comments
after feeling the twingy heel a couple of weeks ago, i backed off the long, 8-11 mile, weekend run and picked up some extra shorter runs.
so, instead of running 4 days a week with 3 shorter runs and a long run, now i’m running 4-6 miles 5-7 times a week. net-net, i’m running slightly longer totals for the week ( 20-30 miles ) and my heel is really thanking me.
it’s pretty much mostly not twingy anymore!
since it’s continuing to improve i’ll keep up with the new schedule for a few more weeks before picking up the mileage on the long run.
i can’t believe i’ve been back in the running saddle for 3.5 months! i almost feel like a “real” runner again.
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4 December 2011 tagged exercise, running with 1 comment
it’s funny to me that i’ve been quiet over here about the fact that i’ve been running again! after 7 years trying and trying again to get back into a regular routine after odin was born, i’ve been back at it for 12 solid weeks. i’ve ramped up to 20+ miles a week fairly quickly with three 4-5 milers during the week and a longer 9-11 mile run on the weekend.
so far, it’s been surprisingly, um, easy ( relatively speaking ), but i know from my marathon training days that 8 to 12 weeks into it is when you want to pay close attention to what your body is telling you. it’s all too easy to ignore a little pain in the foot until it turns into a repetitive stress injury that can take months to heal.
this week i felt the dreaded “heel twinge” after a 5 miler. could be nothing, or it could be the beginnings of plantar fasciitis. i skipped a weekday run but kept feeling the twinge in my heel for the rest of the week whenever i’d reach down to touch my toes.
i dropped the long run this weekend and almost didn’t run at all, but against my better judgement i decided to see if a short five miler today would work it out. sure enough, i seem to have run through it.
maybe just a tight hamstring? we’ll see if i’m limping in the morning.
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30 November 2011 tagged day2706, ericiv, hockey, odin, zamboni with no comments
sure, playing hockey is cool and all, but what kid, or kid at heart, wouldn’t rather be tooling around on the zamboni?
