Interesting hockey tonight.

And I'll be darn none of the craziness had anything to do with our championship game which we lost 3-2 and I sucked eggs. Oh well. It was fun anyways. We'll be back at it next Monday night and I wonder what team I'll get shuffled to next.

Anyhoo, on with the countdown of interesting events.

3. There was a beautiful doe running down the busy lane just outside of the arena. It's near a busy metropolis so I thought it odd. I dreamed about a car deer accident this weekend and always see deer on my way home from Bay City but usually a little bit closer to home.

2. I went out on the ice from the locker room and quickly fell face first and sprawled out like an dead fish. My Dad and brothers were there and I looked up and got lots of cheers. I then stood up and immediately fell again. I guess I had left one skate guard on. Jackass. That got quite a few laughs.

1. I was using the bathroom and some crazy ass dude comes in from the other locker room and uses the urinal. He's whizzing away, and coughing, and clearing his throat and I'm thinking for #$#@! sake how do I end up in situations like this? I just hung tight in the stall until he was done but a sadistic part of me wanted to make a scene and walk out on him and then scream"Oh dear God!" in shock but I really didn't want to see Captain Winky. What's with men? Can't they knock? Us ladies always knock, then open the door without looking, yell "is anybody in here" and then go about our business. And you know what else?? He didn't wash his hands. Although my flushing probably scared the piss out of him LOL so he got out of there as quick as he could one he realized he wasn't alone. So that was interesting. It was kids playing so it must have been a Dad or coach. At least I haven't walked in on any dudes in the shower. But it might make for good blog fodder.

The Bell of Shame

Everyone has seen Akeelah and the Bee right? It's a great movie about an inner city youth who goes on to win the Scripps Spelling Bee. When a speller gets a wrong answer there is no empathetic "ooh so sorry you missed" it's a shrill "ding" and the speller takes the long walk of shame to the chairs to watch the rest of the bee internally beating themselves up over their errant spelling.

Tommy's latest endeavor...you guessed it the spelling bee. It was the Catholic's vs. the Lutherans as two local schools came to our gym showcasing local 3rd and 4th graders in the annual parochial spelling bee.

We studied a bit, probably not as much as we should but I was confident that young Thomas would fare well though he probably wouldn't win. He did do well, for a long time there were about 8 students who were all looking great, after a while it was down to four and Tommy was still in. It was looking like a possibility that he could go all the way. They threw homonyms at him left and right, words like weigh, pare, etc. and he cleverly asked for a sentence and would quickly spell the word correctly. During our "trainings" Joe had urged him to ask for a sentence for every stinking word, even if it was obvious what the word was with no double meanings. He scoffed at that deal and said "only for homonyms, I don't want to be annoying." And that my friends was his undoing. On and on the final four are going when the spell master gives him the word "piece" and he immediately starts spelling "p-e-a-c-e" and just like that "DING" and the crowd moans. It was all over. He gasped, then threw his hands in the air, looked up to the heavens and took his walk of shame. He had gotten overconfident and didn't ask for a stinking sentence. And we had practiced that one too.

Oh well it's all good and well. And it was nice that our little neighbor girl won it all. She is a sweet little thing and wouldn't you know it, she asked for a sentence for every single word she was given. Nice strategy which may have saved Tommy, I wonder if he'll follow her suit next year and ask for a sentence at every word. Her brother won the 4th grade bee as well. Smart little cookies. And honestly, little Amber knew every single word on that list; Tommy not so much.

The final chapter in this excellent story is just knowing who the bell ringer was. Any guesses? Oh yeah, it was me. And I tell you what I felt very bad ringing that bell for all those poor kids. I think it's a little harsh but I guess it's the way things are done in the big bees so why not give them a taste of that agony as 8 and 9 year olds.

Poor Tommy, he will never forget that piece/peace was his undoing in the 3rd grade spelling bee. Just like I will never forget in 2nd grade it was down to me and one other dude and they went to 3rd grade words and I got out on freeze leaving off the last "e." And just like Joe and "cotten/cotton" in his 4th grade bee. Thankfully he didn't take it too hard and was happy that Amber & Aaron won. However in the few hours afterward he had no peace over his inaccurate piece of spelling work.