hockey

I want to blog about hockey, but I have to get dinner made and stuff all ready for Andrew's tournament this weekend!

I will write a few quick things-

My favorite team is the Sharks.

I really, really, really like Sidney Crosby.

I have no teams left to root for in the playoffs, but that may be a blessing is disguise because watching hockey takes a lot of my valuable time.

I have tried to watch some of the NBA playoffs, but they are not as exciting as NHL playoffs, for sure!  (Stephan Curry is mighty exciting, though!!!)

The Sharks need some help! Time for some change!  I would NOT miss Joe Thornton if they were able to get rid of him somehow.

The Penguins were NOT bad in the playoffs, their losing wasn't anyone's "fault", they were very depleted with injuries (all season) and the New York Rangers (and their goalie) are REALLY good!!!!

People on Twitter are very hurtful!

Come back tomorrow for some basketball blogging!  Hockey is over!!!  I like Ottowa because PK Subban is mean (he's on the Canadiens).  Ottowa also has this player who I adore...he's a young smiling rookie who eats hamburgers thrown onto the ice and draws get well cards to his injured teammates.  He also looks exactly like Tomas Hertl.  I dont like the Canucks because the stanchion and because a Facebook friend likes them and she say taunting stuff about the Sharks and Crosby.  I dont like the Ducks, but they have awesome uniforms.  I like Nashville over Chicago just because Chicago has won it so much, time to share the wealth....but if Chicago wins, I wont be sad, I want to see the Kaner Shuffle again! See, no one left to really root for.

USWNT uniforms

National team uniforms should represent the nation....should utilize the nations colors.  Is the US flag black, neon yellow, and white?  I think NOT!

Is this our country's flag?  NO!

Hey, they are not ugly uniforms, but they are not what belong in the Women's World Cup.  Can you imagine how cool these would be for a college team or a city league team?  Or even if the stripe, number, and crest were navy blue and the sock color was red instead of yellow (or is that green?)

And they are making a big deal that fans can now buy these in men's sizes.  I can totally see a woman wanting a Men's National team jersey....I want one.....but I would buy it in men's fit, not womens.  If I were a man, the only time I would want a women's national team jersey would be if my daughter or sister was on the team.  Men wearing women's clothes is just weird.  (double standard, I know)

What do you think???

Gold Mining

an eel!!!!

my Saturday

It's almost 10:00 pm, so I guess my Saturday is over, but I still haven't gone for a walk yet....I should go do that, not blog, but blogging is safer....I walked once at dark in this neighborhood and even though it's a great neighborhood, everything seems scary after dark.  Wonder if we still have that exercise bike here somewhere???

Anyway, no basketball today, so I planned my day around televised sporting events.  The Sharks played at noon and it was their last game of the season, so I didn't want to miss it, but I wish I would have.  It was a waste of time.  They didn't even seem like they were trying!!!  The Sharks lost!

I also wanted to watch the Penguins game at 4:00, but it was not televised even though they were playing for a playoff spot.  I just followed along on Twitter....really a lame way of "watching" sports, but I must be some kind of lame fanatic!  The Penguins won!

At 7:30 I set aside time to watch the Earthquakes game.  I was happily surprised that they had a pre game show also, so I watched that, too.  The Quakes won!

I also went to the mall.....TWICE.  Once with Andrew, once with Bradley.  I bought a sweatshirt with Andrew and returned it with Bradley.  I am not a mall shopper.  Target or Costco are much more fun for me.  I also like Ross, but we didn't go over there today, it's really not as fun on a Saturday!!!  And, I couldn't fit it in between all my sports watching!

Andrew really wants new basketball shoes.  He says he NEEDS them....I think he WANTS them.  We've been looking for a new pair for weeks now.  I look at price, he looks at style, we haven't come to a compromise yet.  There is one pair that is under $100 that he now says he wants.....all the rest have been OVER, way OVER, $100.  The only place to buy "John Wall's" are on the Internet.  I don't like to do that with shoes because Andrew is a 10.5 in some brands and a 13 in others....very tricky to size without trying them on!!!

Bradley doesn't have a soccer team to play for this summer/fall.  It's kind of a problem because he needs to train year round for high school or the players who are playing will improve and pass him, but it could be a blessing because we would save a lot of time and money.  I was feeling super down about it, but realizing that he wasn't as upset as me, so there was no reason to stress about it.  Kids/athletes need to love the game themselves, not play because mom or dad want them to!  Then today, Bradley got a text from the coach that a few of his teammates are playing for asking him to come to practice on Monday.  Bradley was very excited and wants to go!  And, he has already picked out his new number- #19.  It's his high school number, but he really likes it and will even keep it when #7 graduates.  It is nice to see him excited for something (besides skateboarding, that always gets him happy/excited).  I like that he is well rounded and has several hobbies.

Scott and Andrew continue to pan for gold.  Scott has also started capturing a lot of bee swarms again for his bee keeping business.

Our garden this year is a couple of tomato plants so far.  I'm sure Scott will find a place to grow his giant pumpkins.  We are a family of a wide range of hobbies/interests, aren't we???

I guess I could go tae bo for my exercise tonight!

soccer scrimmage

I have no photos because Bradley is getting older and it would just be embarrassing for him for me to come watch his "scrimmage" and bring a camera, but Bradley was invited to a scrimmage between an u15 team who is playing in the Commissioners Cup next weekend and who needed game type preparation.  A u19 coach invited a bunch of u16 kids to get enough for a team.  The u15 team ended up winning 4-1,but Bradley scored the "1"....He was playing center mid and a ball came out to him after being cleared by a defender, he one time volleyed it from outside of the 18 and it had some cool spin, arch, bend on it as it was flying through the air.  The goalie couldnt control it, it went off his hands into the goal.  SPECTACULAR!

gold panning

I dont know if I've blogged about Scott's new hobby, but he has one....he wants to become rich, this time through gold mining.  He rushed in the house a few minutes ago all excited to show me his loot....he wanted me to take a picture....I felt like telling him, "this is a camera, not a microscope".

1st AAU Basketball Tournament

I know if I add too many photos, people just skim through them or skip them all together, but this post has a lot, sorry!  

Andrew and I drove all the way to Sacramento yesterday for a one day basketball tournament.  It was the first one for his new Blue Devil season.  His team has practiced ever since junior high basketball ended.  Seven of the kids are from the junior high team and the coach is the junior high's assistant coach, so it would seem that not a lot has changed.....but, I actually think this team is BETTER than the Jr High team.  The two player they added and the three players who didnt come back make it a whole new team.  The coach also coaches differently, so it will be a fun season, I'm sure.

The new uniforms look great!  

The boys are all nice.  The parents are nice.  The coach is nice.  

If you read a lot of my sport blogging, you'll notice that's a lot of positive words.  

The first game wasnt until noon, so we had a relaxing, not rushed morning.  The drive went well.  We got to the high school we were playing at about an hour before game time.  (They charged TEN BUCKS to get in!!!!)  About half the team was there when we got there.  One of the boys arrived without his jersey!  His dad was VERY upset, but headed back to Chico and his mom headed toward Sacramento with it and they met half way.  Only other problem, though, was when his dad left, he took the kids basketball bag with him, so took his shoes and socks!!!!  Oops! But I bet that player will NEVER forget another piece of sports equipment in his entire life after this fiasco.  (The dad made it back before the second game.)

The refs were OK, but they didnt seem too into the games and they called A LOT of traveling and 3 seconds in the key.  I dont know if they were all correct calls or if the players just did them a lot because it was the first game of the season!!!  All of our games were scheduled in the school's "little gym"s, that's not cool and not worth $10!

Andrew got to start the first game!!!!!  He was so happy!  He played pretty well, too.  This coach does really equal playing time....I was really happy with his subbing skills and rotations....the people who's kids got all the jr high playing time were complaining, though!  (haha).

 They won the first game 33-28, but it was a super close game the whole entire game.  We were winning, then losing, then close....at one point, while losing, the other team fouled our player on a lay up.  The player made the lay up, was given two free throws for the "intentional" foul, made one.  Then he got to take two free throws for the "technical" foul, and he made both of those.  Then our team got the ball and we made a basket on that effort, so they made 7 points all at once and after that, they just played really good defense and won the game.  The coach is really good at subbing at the end of game to get his good defenders in on defense and good offensive players in on offense.  He's really smart.  He's really trying to coach to get an advantage.

 Their uniforms are reversible, they wore their blue side in the second game.  They look really sharp!!!  We are going to get parent shirts to look cool, too!

The numbers are fancy, too!

A lot of the offensive plays have Andrew doing the pick/screen thing.  He gets run into a lot!

He took 4 free throws, but only made one of them....definitely something to work on, they are called "free" for a reason!!!

Bad photo, but he led the cheer after this timeout or beginning after half time-

 The number 17 kid on this team was the one Andrew had to go up against, he was kinda dirty/rough/unskilled/painful to cover.  At one point Andrew got CHOKED, like both arms around his neck and squeezed and not let go very quickly...Andrew blamed it on the #17 kid, but in looking at these photos now, it was #9 performing the choke hold!! (Right after the photo, his arms came down around Andrew's neck.)

(still holding his throat for a while)

He scored a basket in all three of the games.....I didnt get a picture or video of the first one....and this is actually his second basket---  I was zoomed in way to far.  It was a "buzzer beater", well, in that it went in as the buzzer buzzed, but they were already winning, so it wasnt a dramatic game winning at the buzzer shot!

 We went to In n Out between games.

 The third game was at a different school.....dont ask me why?  And again, we got the "little gym".
This was the deciding game because the team we were playing had also won their first two games.

 Dont have many photos, but that's ok, it's a game we'd all like to forget....Andrew's team got slaughtered!

Note to self, do not ask for a team photo after a demoralizing loss-

The loss was soon forgotten, we went to Sky High after the game!

And chocolate shakes at McDonalds on the way home!

Great day with Andrew!  He had fun, too!  His coach plays him.  His team passes to him.  He is just a happy person, so much fun to be around!!!