Hockey Day in America

The Bean

Us

We decided this morning even with the rain and cold to go to Millennium Park to check out "Hockey Day in America".  The event was suppose to promote youth hockey in the states and we figured, why not? As we arrived to the park the national broadcast was just starting, so we went to the upper level to get a good view of the action.

Multiple jersey fails

I'd totally wear this even if it is a Red Wing hat.

Why?  Seriously, why?

 The Nemo jersey is a fail because the kid wearing it was trying to be ironic, he also had large black plastic glasses on without lenses...I have several names that I'd call him, but I wouldn't want to offend anyone.  The next one...well if I need to explain Fedorov I should just have you ask Paul.  And thirdly, seriously that baby blue is the ugliest thing ever.   And for the Stanley Cup Champs....why would you do that?  It's not cool!  Who told you that it was cool???

We made it on national tv again!

Back (what we saw)

Front (what everyone saw on tv)

Stanley!

Didn't realize that it was Milbury from the back

 The kids skating were so cute!  They were all practicing different skills all over the ice.  Even when it was a downpour they were still out there playing.

Practicing the "Jonathan Toews slides under truck" move

Tommy Chicken

Took all afternoon for him to turn towards me....jerk.

So cute!

Awesome backdrop for a hockey game.

Fish n Chips

 It was cold and we had a while before the drawing that we were entered into, so we went to our favorite English Pub...Elephant & Castle.  Paul tried to make me jealous by ordering the delicious fish.  But I ordered the amazing steak and ale pie so it didn't matter. 

I feel like I'm Sarah Grandstaff's twin in this picture.

Captain Morgan and skank.

 After lunch and a quick trip to the Blackhawks store we went back to the park for the drawing.  We never win anything but since it had been raining so hard for so long we figured we had pretty good odds of winning something due to the lack of people. And guess what?  Paul won!  Captain Morgan even pronounced his name right!  They made Paul do the Captain pose but I couldn't get a picture of it.

We couldn't believe out of all the stuff they were giving away he ended up with a Kopecky signed photo with Hossa.  Both are former Red Wings, both Slovaks and totally Paul's favorite players!  It was a great birthday present from Captain Morgan to him!

Paul with his signed Kopecky & Hossa picture.  Seriously, how perfect for him?  His favorite Slovaks!

I got some girlie rain boots last week.  Ya they are pink with flowers, not my style but my feet were dry even if my pants were soaked.

 I felt the need to include my new boots since they are so out of the norm for me.  No other real reason.

Also, they changed how the editing/text portion of the blog goes and it's a little different from usual...sorry if it's a little more choppy than normal. :)

In da hood...

Regardless of how much I joke about living in a shady neighborhood, I (and I think Paul too) usually feel pretty safe. Last week during the blizzard cleanup, I was outside shoveling out the Vue and some guys pulled up and asked if they could borrow my shovel to get their other car out that had died. Not a big deal, I was tired anyway and needed a break. They were polite and offered to finish getting the Vue out but since I only had a couple shovel fulls left, I said not to bother. They told me where they lived and if I needed help next time shoveling that they would be there.

Of course when I recounted the story to Paul he was like "you mean the drug dealers from the condo???" Ok, so I don't know for sure if they are the drug dealers from the condo but there was a high likelihood of it being them. It's pretty common in our area.

A news release went out yesterday from the police department stating

"CHICAGO – Today, Superintendent Jody P. Weis announced that nearly 200 gang members belonging to the most violent gang faction in the Harrison (11th) District have been arrested in complement to the Chicago Police Department's ongoing violence reduction strategy. This strategy unites law enforcement partners to end gang violence and puts criminally active gang members on notice that their illegal activities will not be tolerated."

Yup, that's my hood. Awesome huh?

Well this morning as the cats and I were relaxing on my day off I heard some sirens...then some more and then some more. I looked out and my street was closed off by 7 Police SUVs and they were surrounding the condo building.


It's times like these that I really miss the peace and quiet of the country.