HO HO HO! Merry Christmas!

Santa (and elves...) have been to our house - hope they find you, too!

All I Want For Christmas Is A Raincoat For My House

The kids played their last hockey game of 2007 this morning, at the relatively civilized hour of 8:50am. After, we divided. Chris took Lars for a last shopping run while Ross and I gave the downstairs a quick once-over and then started making blue cheese bacon puffs to eat with our friend Rob, who came over to watch the Bills vs. Giants game. We were planning to do wings and fries but we couldn't get any wings, so it ended up being pizza. The Bills dominated the first quarter and put up a good effort but the Giants earned a decisive win in the end with some great plays (88yd turnover TD, anyone?). Rob brought the kids little RC tanks with instructions in Engrish that took a while to figure out but once we got them set up, the kids busied themselves building The Biggest Barricade Ever! out of their sneakers and the fort walls that came with the toys. The tanks are parked in the plaid chair, for easy access in the morning since there's no school.

It was raining a bit when Rob headed home, so Chris checked the basement. We still like to do a happy dance when it's dry - or at least I do, since 1/3 of my kitchen remodel fund is down there - but, alas, no dancing today. The rain driving in from the south pounded the large windows in the kitchen and dining room on that side of our house harshly enough to make pools in the windowsills. This, and the dirt clogging the sill drains combined to cause the water to leak through the window frames, onto the floors and then to drip down through the floorboards into the basement. (What is it about holidays that causes rain in the basements of Blackman homes? At least ours wasn't sewage, for which I am VERY thankful!) We pressed all our scrap towels into service soaking up the puddles and Chris did his best to clear the sill drains - not an easy task in the driving rain or in the dark. As long as we were wet and busy with the windows on a dark December night, I got out ammonia and a scrubby and took the fall grime off. This had the unplanned yet delightful side effect of cleaning my rings, so they are sparkling brightly now and, with another glass of rum (thanks, Rob!), I might just be able to be distracted from the monsoon coming into our house from the south.

The First Year, We Were Scared

We'd been in our new house for three weeks before we were startled one afternoon by blaring sirens and the loud, blatting honks of the Fire Chief's jeep. Worried because they sounded so close, we looked out the windows and saw the trucks coming to a slow stop IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE. Hearts pounding, we sniffed the air and looked for the children. Then we noticed the neighbors' kids running toward Santa, perched atop the Ladder Truck!

Four years later, our kids' inner clocks are now set to listen for the sirens on the Saturday before Christmas. They keep shoes by the door, ready to spring out whenever Santa might drive by. Lars heard his the sirens first this year and everyone jumped into shoes while I grabbed the camera. It's fun to see all our neighbors at once! We got to meet Minnie, the new puppy across the street and catch up with everyone's holiday plans. We'd been standing outside long enough to be officially chilly and were starting to wonder if Santa and his chauffeurs had been called to duty when we saw them coming! Having Santa come by our house is SO much better than suffering the mall! We might not get tree ornament style pictures out of it, but the home-based memories of seeing Santa with all the kids' friends on the block will survive, good photos or no.

Tooth #7

9:09pm, feet on the stairs. A serious voice, "Mama, I need to tell you something."

"Ok," I call and with my verbal permission, Ross appears fully downstairs.

"I was in my bed and I heard something 'pop'. I went to the bathroom and, apparently, my tooth came out." He extends a palm showing the apparent tooth and gives a not-so-toothy grin. This is the fourth tooth he's yanked out in the hour or two after bedtime.

"What made it apparent that your tooth came out?"

"Mama," he giggles, "It's here in my hand!" How will he stave off bedtime when he runs out of baby teeth?

The Force Has Been Used

Confronted by this grisly scene on your desk, would you take it as some sort of warning?

The Next Train's Not Until When?

I am stuck in Syosset. By the trains, I am now nearly four hours from home. I missed the two-and-a-half hours from home train by three minutes. I am having murderous thoughts about that guy who just HAD to extend the meeting by ten minutes to discuss a personal agenda. The worst? I have to be out here again, tomorrow morning at 10:00. Here's hoping I get home in time to get the train back!

With nods to SpiceGirl & Joy's month of being thankful, I am incredibly thankful right now for the Dunkin' in the train station parking lot, where I've got food, an outlet to save my battery, and a weak but useful wireless connection. Thank you, open router person...thank you.

Tuesday Is My Day to Take the Blame

...but not for this. This is entirely the fault of our dentist. She has known Ross a long time - more than his whole life, in fact - and she enjoys facilitating. We love her!

Nobody Heralds the Holidays like Rick Jeanneret

In other news, I'm getting my USA Hockey Ice Coaching certification. I took the Level 1 course last weekend and hope to have completed Level 4 by the end of 2008.

First NHL Bruise

The kids got to watch the NHL players skate warm-up before the game Friday night. Lars, enthralled, had his forehead pressed against the glass. During the butterfly drill, one of the players winged a one-timer from the point that hit the glass where Lars had his head and gave Lars his very first NHL bruise! See that purple lump with the red middle, just above his radiator scar? That's from getting hit by an NHL puck! As Lars said, hopefully it will be the first of many - he couldn't be more proud.

The Bears skated well as the Mites-on-Ice that night. You can see the video here, if you'd like. After they skated, they got chocolate ice cream (see Lars' chin...) and cotton candy which probably isn't good for my reputation.

Blackman Has The Puck!

I skated team practice tonight! I almost made it the entire hour and a half but decided to err on the side of caution and sat out the last ten minutes or so when I got to the far side of discomfort. An hour later, there isn't much swelling and I'm medicating with a beer so I think I've got some hockey feet again!

Question: The spider web I've just noticed in the top corner of my den window has an impressive collection of little gnats trapped in it. Should I let the spider stay? She hasn't been there very long - I actually vacuumed in here (I hope you were sitting down, Mom...) last weekend.

Youth is...

Youth is snapping your fingers at a red light 32 times and still being delighted when it turns green with snap 33.

Banner Day

I skated today! The cobbler put extra grommets in the back of my skate boot, so the tie doesn't land right across the break anymore and I grabbed a few minutes of ice time before the kids got on this morning to test the modification. Happily, I think it'll work and I'm going to see if I can start skating practice after Thanksgiving!

9:00am...Time for Lunch

We're seeing a lot of early weekend mornings this year because we have to get the kids to their hockey games which, at Mites level, usually start around 7:00am. Our club usually has an away game on Saturday, so we have to get an extra early start for the travel.

We've been trying to find ways to make these early morning hours more palatable but 5:30am is difficult to combat on any day and Saturday is worst. Last night, Chris had the idea to call our Starbucks and put in our order so it could be ready first thing and we could just grab it. Staying in town until 6am for the pick-up would put us just on the edge of late but we figured having coffee would be better than not, so I called.

Nicole gladly took our order but then called me back, really apologetic because they don't open until 7:00am on weekends and I'd asked for the order at 6:00am. She'd checked with the opening staff and they could get in early to do our order but it wouldn't be ready until 6:15. I was touched that she'd gone to the trouble of asking the guys to come in early and even more that they were willing to come in for us...but 6:15 would have made us really late for the game, so I had to just cancel the order. I'm not sure which one of us was sorrier!

We were unquestionably on-time for the game and the kids played well despite their parents' slightly groggy overcast. We stopped for coffee on the way home, which worked out fine as it was still only 8:45am. We got bagles, too, since the kids were asking for lunch and going home for bologna just seemed wrong at that hour.

That's Got to Hurt

Room Perimeters

The third grade is learning about personal measurement references. One of the homework assignments this week was to pace out the perimeter of your bedroom and some other room in your house, which you were to draw on the back of the paper. Ross picked my and Chris' bedroom as his other room and very carefully drew a floor plan on the back. He paced around our bedroom and bathroom, very carefully drawing his paces in little circles around his floor plan. He also drew in the toilet at the far end of our bathroom and our bed, neatly made (as if...), with Chris lounging atop it, his feet toward the pillows and a Pilgrim-buckled hat on his head. I'm hoping the absurd hat didn't call into question the (equally absurd) neatness of our bed covers!

Your Cadaver, Sir

Driving to an away game, Chris and I were discussing whether organ doners can become research cadavers. Attempting to argue for the contrary, I proposed the scavenged bodies could be handed to prospective dissectors with an immediate pop quiz, "Here's your cadaver, what's missing?"

Over Chris' derisive snort, Lars called from the back, "Abra!"

Mites & Midgets

Today was Mites & Midgets Day, an annual torch-passing ceremony for the kids' hockey club, celebrated with the youngest team at the last home game of the oldest team. The Mites (youngest kids) have a game in the morning, then get breakfast in the rink's banquet room. After breakfast, they go into the locker room with the Midgets (oldest kids) and hang out. The Midgets come out to help with Mite practices, sometimes, so the kids aren't strangers to each other. The two teams also have the same head coach this year, so he knows all the kids quite well and had a good time pairing them up.

















After the locker room pow-wow, the Mites got on the ice to participate in the game introductions and a ceremonial puck drop to commemorate the last time these older kids will play on home ice for the Bears. Here's a video of the game intro:



The ceremonial puck was dropped by a Mite (name picked from a hat):

After the opening ceremony, the little kids went back up to the banquet room for a hockey-puck pinata and got commemorative T-shirts from the Midget Moms. It was a sweet day. As I stood watching the puck drop, Mites between Midgets twice their size, I sighed and said, "Tomorrow." The mother next to me chuckled, "Yesterday," in response and I knew she knew exactly what I meant.

Would You Move Your Bag?

I sank into a seat on a train from the Lower East Side to Columbus Circle today, grateful for the rest especially since my phone can't ring in the subway. I had my briefcase across my lap - it's exactly the width of the subway seat divisions, so I don't seep into the next chair but the train wasn't crowded and there was an empty chair between me and the next guy. A stop after I got on, a large woman boarded, surveyed the train and decided to sit in the empty chair beside me. The problem was that she was considerably wider than a single chair. She MUST know this, yet she still sat down...half of her right on top of me! I figured she'd get right up but no - she glared at me instead and said nastily, "Would you move your bag?"

Wordless Wednesday

None of the things I can think of to write about just now are very nice...so I'm not going to write them. Hope your day was better!

Exercising My Right

Voting scares me - it feels like a test I've had a year (or four) to prepare for and yet, every time I get into the little booth, I feel like I haven't studied. I'm generally aware of the candidates for major positions but some of the minor lines throw me. County Clerk? I have to vote for that person? What sort of platform should I expect, "I will faithfully record County real estate transactions and will do my best to ensure name changes are filed with the State in timely manner?" How might the platform differ from party to party? No matter how much research I do ahead of the vote, I always feel unqualified to choose.

This year, I had a personal chat with one of the newcomer candidates for town council. He seemed like a nice guy and I agreed with the things he had to say about our town. He was also genuinely interested in my concerns - he even sent me a follow-up letter addressing one point on which he did some research after we talked. I did my own follow-up research and found that, while I liked that guy, I wasn't keen on some of the things his party's been up to.

On the heels of more research than I've done before an election in quite a while, I turned up to vote with a measure of confidence I'm not used to. Still, I found myself torn in the voting booth - would my newcomer be able to change the direction of his party in the ways he talked about? Or would it be better to vote for him but then vote for people from the other parties - people with platforms I also agree with - for surrounding positions? Splitting the ticket is always awful, right? Nobody agrees? Ack! I jabbed some choices, left some blank, and exited the booth feeling the same sort of turmoil as always. Maybe next year I'll get the right answers?