Finally, Frozen Fury 9 has come and gone. Now, I’m anxious for the real season to start!

During the weekend, we were able to get down to the MGM Grand Arena and wait outside for the players to come out after the morning skate. We didn’t have a Sharpie (bad planning) but we did have our small digital camera. As a result, I took Annette’s picture with Craig Conroy, Alexander Frolov, Tim Gleason, Sean Avery, and Eric Belanger. Rob Blake and Mattias Norstrom walked by but we didn’t get their picture. A few of interesting things about the experience. First, every player was gracious and friendly. No one was turned down for an autograph or picture. Second, Avery walked out with Norstrom and Blake. It seems that Avery now has two dads since the Kings have purposely put avery between Blake and Norstrom in the locker room. Maybe Avery will avoid the controversy this year and just play hard. Third, Craig Conroy has to be the happiest and niciest of all the Kings. He was all smiles for hte picture and really seemed in the moment. By this, I mean that for the 15 seconds or so it took to take the picture, he seemed focused on what Annette was saying. Annette commented that he had healed up nicely from last season. He understood what she was saying and said it was a rough two weeks for him. Annette was refering to the weeks when Conroy had taken a couple of pucks off the face and had a bloody/bruised eye last year and looked very scary. Lastly, it was strange when a couple players came out and no one recornized them. One of them was Sopel who was only on the team for the last 20 games last season. Overall, the players were fantastic. I wonder if baseball, football, or basketball players would be so gracious or even have the time. I’ll post a couple of the pictures later.

The MGM Grand, where the game was and where we stayed, was unusually expensive. Maybe it is just me but when I go to Las Vegas, I expect my food to be cheap. The buffet at the Grand was $21 a person on Saturday and the coffee shop had $12 entrees for breakfast. At home, I can get breakfast for less than $10. Nathans hotdogs cost us $20 for a fast food dinner. Next time, I’m staying downtown. =)

The gambling in Vegas was horrible. We lost lots of money on video poker, craps and slots. Fortunately, we made some of back on a good streak at Blackjack on the way out of town at Whiskey Pete’s.

How did this happen? On Mondays, I now create things like this flower arrangement instead of watching Monday Night Football. What a long strange trip its been. I guess that once you are married, you do things with your wife (or husband) that you wouldn’t have done otherwise. For me, it is taking a flower class at the local junior college. Annette loves flowers. Last year, I discovered that we could take classes about floral design and we signed up for a class. What I thought was a one-time class has now turned into a second class. If I’m not careful, I will amassed enough units for a Floral Design and Management associates degree. Armed with this degree, I could work in a flower shop or start my own business in floral arranging. Ok, maybe I won’t do that but I can help Annette out with any flower business that comes our way.

Thank god that the Kings camp opened today. I’ve been Jonesing for hockey every since the Stanley Cup was hoisted in NC a few months ago. 9 Days until our Frozen Fury game and 3 or so weeks until the Kings opener in Anaheim on October 6th.

Here’s to a good Kings season.

Las Vegas is a town known for its drinking but this might be a little too much. In court this week, a man appeared drunk in court. What is most unusual about this case is that it was one of the lawyers. The Las Vegas Journal has the full report. I guess in Las Vegas you need to give your lawyer a field sobriety test prior to giving him a retainer.

So, while my wife’s car was in the shop for two days, I ended up driving a Hertz rental car. One of the gadgets that this car had was a GPS map. This toy would give you driving directions to whatever address that you programmed in. For the first few hours, I was typing in my destination even if I knew the way to the location. Then, I had an inspiration. I could use the previous renters destination that was stored in the GPS as my own. Today, I spent the entire day driving to Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles but never getting there. The GPS became very annoyed with me whenever I missed one of my turns. In fact, at one point, in a fit of frustration, it demand that I enter my destination. I think this was because I had entered my work parking lot and it was obvious to the GPS I had no intention of going to Roscoes. Oh, well, maybe another day.

Frozen Fury in Las Vegas is only 11 days away. Go Kings Go!

So, it has been a long summer without hockey. A couple of weeks ago I order our 12 game pack for the Kings and we’ll probably pick up another 8 or so games. We already have the Luuuuuuc retirement game so we are at 13. What is interesting in looking at the schedule is that there are only 5 games that weren’t on the schedule last year, Philly, NYI, NYR, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh. Our package has opening night and the Penguins game. So, I’m happy. Let someone else have the other games.

We are thinking of travelling to Anaheim for the opening of the season on October 6th for a Duck Roast. The Kings fans have a somewhat bad rep with the Ducks fans when we go down there. I think its because Ducks fans are not too rabid during the regular season. In fact, during the playoff runs recently the fans seem to be quiet until the second or third round. I frankly hate the Ducks but it has to do with the Disney connection. Their very first home game was when I started hating them when the trotted out Disney on Ice to perform. Blech! I want more hockey, less other crap including Kingston and Wild Wing.

Ok, so the bad news is that Annette has miscarried. 🙁 The good news is that we are probably better prepared to have a child. Annette went to the hospital multiple times. It seemed for a two week period we were always at the hospital. Life is back into a routine. Annette is on a pump to help with controlling her diabetes, she’s’ eating better, and we are exercising more.

Ok, so you must wonder, why didn’t I post about the baby for over a week? Well, the roller coaster began on last Thursday. Annette was starting to feel morning sickness and was throwing up. This was after she had visited her primary care physcian. Her primary care physician had told her to stop using all of her meds, including her long lasting insulin. In addition, Annette was drinking a number of Diet Cokes a day. So, at the beginning of all of this, she was probably dehydrated. To make a long story short, we ended up going to the emergency room on Sunday night and Monday afternoon.

It ended up she was dehyrdated from puking so much and need to be refilled. Fortunately, this isn’t the Olympics and she doesn’t have to undergo a doping testing at the end. This means that help from the medical community is acceptable and is actually prefered.

Sunday night was the interesting visit to the ER for me. After her blood was done and her ultrasound finished, we had to wait around for the test results. So, to pass the time, I started to watch a documentary on Gibson’s 1988 World Series homerun. The documentary ran 1 hour but hey, I had time. God knows how they stretched it out to 60 minutes but they did. So I sit through 55 minutes of commericals and drawn out commentary. The count is 2-2 on Gibson and the doctor walks in. WTF? So, I listen to the doctor who tells us to go home.

So far, I think Annette has started crying or cried more times in the last 36 hours since finding out she was pregnant than in the previous six months. It is rather overwhelming, everything from morning sickness to figuring out which doctors need to be contacted to figuring out how to make the house baby ready. I think I just want to put the baby into a giant round ball, sort of like a hamster ball. That way, she can roll and crawl anywhere without worries.

Annette said she was surprised that she got in the family way so easily. I think it is because I have sperm that look like the little guy on the side. Of course, I’m not sure how he got so muscular when I’m not.

One of the fun things we’ve done even before we knew that Annette was pregnant was figure out what names we won’t name our baby. Here’s a few:

Morris
Irwin
Louis
Mabel
Effie-May
Olive
Louisa

This is almost every parent and grandparent name on my side of the family. Oh, well, I still have Gordon and Irene.

8/3/06

Yesterday Annette called me up and told me she was, in a rather excited voice, pregnant.

“Whoa, slow down, what makes you say that?” I ask. “I just did two pregnancy tests and both came out positive,” I’m informed.

I’m not sure how this happened. What a minute. I know how this happened but given that I’m 43 and Annette is somewhat over 35, it shouldn’t have been this easy. We were suppose to have to go through infertility counseling or adopt. Of course, I’ve always wondered why it is called fertility counseling. Do they teach you techniques that help get pregnant easier? Ok, I’m wandering here a bit. Stay focused.

After a brief conversation we decide to have Annette go get tested today to see if she is pregnant since it was already nearly 5pm yesterday. Third time is a charm. She’s pregnant. No, we’re not pregnant. I hate when people say that. I’m not pregnant although some smart ass who knows me would say that I look it. So, the question is what will our kid look like?

I hope she gets her head size from one of her distant Aunts. Yes, I said she. Just have a feeling although if she is a boy that will be ok, too. Maybe this because she was expected on March 29th, the day after my grandma’s birthday. She’ll probably be early since Annette is diabetic and I guess babies from diabetic mom’s come early.

An interesting aside is this. Last night we were over at our neighbor’s house, Liz and Terry. After Nick, her son, was a pain she commented to us: “Don’t have kids!” I wonder what she’ll think now.

One last thing. Is it just Annette or does every woman excited show the pregnancy test to their husband? Honestly, the last thing I really want to look at is something that has been peed on. I have three cats and a dog to fulfill that need. Even stranger, I suggested we keep the test for the scrap book. I’m not sure how the conversation will go on that. “Look everyone. Here’s the pregnancy test that Annette peed on to determine if she was preggers with little Tina.”

This is rather rambling and will be held until we tell everyone. I’m going to keep blogging until the baby is born.