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Best Valentine’s Day gift ever!
We had houseguests with small children on February 14th which was not very romantic, so DH and I agreed to reschedule our personal Valentine’s Day. We just celebrated and look what my wonderful, amazing, thoughtful husband gave me:
It’s red, it’s worn in the bedroom, and IT HAS THE DEVILS’ LOGO ON IT! You just can’t get any more romantic than that.
Oh, what a night!
Warning: long post with lots of pictures and exclamation points!
St. Patrick’s Day evening at Prudential Center (aka, The Rock) in Newark, NJ. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur is tied with Patrick Roy for most games won in an NHL career (551). Tonight could be the night Brodeur breaks the record. AND I WAS THERE!
Here’s Brodeur stretching before the game begins. He said he was thinking he just wanted it to be over, not to drag on for two or three or four games. He didn’t want breaking the record to become a disturbance to his team. Because he’s all about being a team player.
The Devils jump out to an early 1-0 lead with a goal by captain Jamie Langenbrunner. Below you see the team in full defensive mode around their future Hall of Fame goalie.
Travis Zajac scores a second goal, and The Rock is rockin’! When Patrik Elias (below) gets an assist on a goal by Brian Gionta, HE breaks a record: for most points scored (702) by a Devils player, beating John MacLean. Very appropriate on St. Patrick’s Day!
The crowd chants “Pat-rik El-i-as!” over and over again.
Then the audience goes back to cheers of “Mar-ty! Mar-ty!” and “Mar-ty’s bet-ter!” and “Thank you, Marty!” as Brodeur makes the save.
Everyone’s feeling really good until Chicago scores TWICE and makes the game tight at 3-2 (the score with which Marty most frequently wins his games, BTW). Now the crowd is tense and focused on every move in the game.
When there are only seconds left in the game, Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador has had enough of the tension and literally falls on the puck to put an end to Chicago’s scoring chances. The buzzer sounds. Marty leaps straight up into the air. The crowd goes insane. The Devils swarm their goalie to congratulate him.
Marty saws away at the net to take it home as a souvenir of his record, a tradition the former record-holder Patrick Roy began. However, hockey nets are sturdy since they’re meant to stop pucks flying at 100 miles an hour. It takes a couple of teammates’ help (including backup goalie Kevin Weekes below) to finally free the cording from the frame.
Here’s a happy Marty with his net, skating off the ice.
It still gives me chills thinking about the emotion in that arena last night. Martin Brodeur could have a gone to a lot of other teams and made a lot more money (in fact, the goalie playing opposite him last night makes more than our Marty) but he’s stayed with the Devils for his entire NHL career. He’s considered a very normal, affable guy (which is unusual amongst goalies who tend to be weird and idiosyncratic). Maybe his comment about why he’s stayed says it the best: “I never thought about going somewhere else because my grass is green enough here.” There you have the philosophy of the greatest goaltender in NHL history.
And I was there.
I’m not the only one!
For those of you who think I’m totally insane, I wanted to quote this little item from The Hockey News:
Columbus netminder 20-year-old Steve Mason’s hockey idol is (NJ Devils goalie) Martin Brodeur. Mason’s bedroom in the family’s Oakville, Ont., home is painted Devils red and filled with Brodeur memorabilia. Even the family’s miniature schnauzer is named Brodie, after the New Jersey stopper.
(See my previous post if you don’t already know why this seems perfectly normal to me.)
Brodie the Snow Dog
Yes, there’s still snow here in New Jersey, but Brodie’s happy. He loves to frolic in the white stuff with his favorite stick. Personally, I’m ready for spring.
A Nod from Nancy: Creation in Death by J.D. Robb
I adore all the J. D. Robb books but must warn any new reader that they are a series (and I’ve lost track of how many there are but I suspect it exceeds 20). You will undoubtedly get more from any of the books if you read at least the first five or so in order. However, each book very much stands on its own, in my opinion. Creation in Death was absolutely terrific in every way.
The “In Death” books are described as futuristic police procedurals which sounds a little off-putting. They are really suspense/thrillers set in New York City about 50 years in the future. The future part only comes in when NYPD Lt. Eve Dallas or her hunky Irish super-entrepreneur husband need a neat gizmo to help solve the crime. Mind you, they mostly use brain power and good police work but occasionally a flying car or souped-up security device comes in handy.
Mostly it’s the main characters and the supporting cast that are such a pleasure, like visiting with old, extremely interesting friends. The story is always gripping which is why I am very careful about starting a J.D. Robb novel: I find it almost impossible to put it down until I’ve finished.
Adirondack Adventure
For his winter vacation, our son announced he wanted to go skiing. Not water-skiing, downhill skiing. My DH and I looked at each other and wondered where this mutant being came from. Our family usually spends the winter break someplace where you can bask in the warm sunshine on a white beach and paddle through turquoise blue waters with brightly colored fish for company. Downhill skiing involves SNOW which involves COLD which we have plenty of in New Jersey in February.
However, being the agreeable parents we are, we booked a hotel in Lake Placid, New York, in the heart of the beautiful, SNOWY Adirondacks. Amazingly enough, we had a great time. I don’t do downhill skiing. Been there, done that, have a bad knee to prove it. However, I managed to find lots of other fun things to do in the COLD.
Here I am skating on the 400-meter oval where Eric Heiden won his 5 gold speed-skating medals in 1980. It’s a loooong way around this track!
Here I am with my DH snow-shoeing through the alpine forest of the Adirondacks. That’s a workout!
I also went cross-country skiing but didn’t manage to bring my camera for that. I even talked DH into trying it; he’s REALLY not into cold weather. But he said he’d try it again. What a trooper!
My last activity was something I’ve always, always wanted to do: ride in a dog sled across a frozen lake. Mush!
I wasn’t allowed to “drive” but riding was a blast. DH and I were tucked snugly under a blanket as we flew across the ice.
This is how I survived all my unaccustomed activities:
Our hotel’s fabulous hot tub. It bubbled away all my muscle aches and pains before I even knew I had them. There’s something very decadent about sitting submerged up to your chin in warm, frothy water while snow swirls by the window outside.
Ahhhhhh!
Fun fact: This gorgeous region is actually named after an insult. Evidently the Iroquois disliked the Algonquin tribes who lived here and called them by the derogatory name Adirondack which means literally “bark-eaters.” Who knew?
Another reason I love hockey players
When Sports Illustrated asked Bryan Little of the Atlanta Thrashers to name his favorite super-model, he responded, “I don’t really like tall skinny girls.”
Music to the ears of a short, curvy woman!
A Nod from Nancy: The Hearts of Horses
Ann Patchett wrote something in The Wall Street Journal which resonated with me. She said people walk into a bookstore and “feel utterly lost in the face of all those titles, and so they walk out empty-handed.” She combats this problem by recommending books she likes to anyone who listens. I’ve decided to do the same.
I can’t promise a review of the books I recommend since that takes a lot of time and thought. However, when I read a book I like–of any genre–I will tell you what it is and try to pique your interest in some way. Since I’m a big fan of alliteration I’ve decided to title my picks “A Nod from Nancy”. Catchy, eh?
Here’s my first “nod”:
The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss
I like horses but plenty of folks I know who aren’t particularly taken the the four-legged beasts have enjoyed this novel. It’s set in Oregon in 1917. The main character is a young woman who travels around various ranches and farms, gentling their horses. She’s a cross between a bronco-buster and a horse-whisperer. The story is about people though, as she gets drawn into the lives of the horses’ owners. There’s love, death, and plenty of other drama, yet the book has a wonderfully calm rhythm which reminded me of riding a horse.
If anyone else has read this book, I’d love to hear what you thought.
The Unseen Hand
It’s a term my favorite hockey announcer Doc Emrick uses to explain the invisible force that seems to help you in weird ways. This is my "unseen hand" story:
Brodie frolicking with his buddy Trace
Yesterday I had to drive Brodie the Devil Dog to Rover Ranch and Spa. (Rover Ranch is a giant playroom for dogs where Brodie can get his ya-yas out by running around and bothering all the other dogs.) I loaded Brodie into the back of my SUV, turned on the ignition and saw the dreaded "tire pressure warning" light (which looks nothing like a tire so I always have to look it up in the manual to see what it means). I got back out of the car and discovered that my tire wasn’t just low, it was dead flat. This ticked me off because I had just had the car serviced the day before, and it seemed a little too coincidental that it would go flat overnight unless the car dealer had an "unseen hand" in it.
So I unloaded Brodie and reloaded him in my daughter’s car which providentially she had left home from college for the winter. As I was driving west along Bloomfield Avenue, I saw policemen setting up red cones. I continued along my way, dropped the dog, and came back. Approaching the red cones, I discovered the police were checking everyone’s car inspection stickers. I glanced at my daughter’s, saw with relief that it was current, and was waved through the checkpoint without incident.
When I got home, just out curiosity, I check MY car’s inspection sticker. Guess what? It expired in March of 2008. Whew! The unseen hand had saved me.
Note: it cost me $42.00 to have a local repair shop blow my tire back up, and it was indeed the car dealer’s fault that it had gone flat. However, I’m not complaining this time because they saved me a ticket.
I’m a “face” now
Well, I’ m on Facebook anyway. My Darling Daughter is horrified and made me swear never to attempt to “friend” her. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant so I had no problem making the promise. Of course, now I’m curious to see what’s in her profile. But I’m resisting.
At any rate, I joined the Facebook crowd because a local writers’ group moved their communications on to it so I had to if I wanted to keep up. Since then, I’ve wasted immense amounts of pleasurable time updating my profile (who doesn’t like to list their favorite music and movies?) and writing on my friends’ walls.
The most fun has been reconnecting with folks from college whom I haven’t heard from in decades. Hearing about their families and work has been fascinating.
I even “poked” someone although I still don’t get the point of it. However, the little caption that said “Poke Gordon” was irresistible and I figured Gordon wouldn’t mind. He says he counter-poked me but it never showed up on my page. A glitch in the sofware perhaps…or perhaps it’s that Gordon and I are the wrong age to use the “poking” mechanism.
I feel very au courant and hip now which probably goes to show how unhip I truly am. (In fact, I think anyone who uses the word “hip” probably isn’t.)
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