Caniac Carnival

Last Sunday was the Caniac Carnival in Raleigh, which is a big shindig that the Canes put on to officially kick off hockey season...it's a good time -- live music, lots of bouncy things for the kids to play on, and this year, they brought back the red/white scrimmage game.

We got there about an hour before the game started, so we grabbed a couple of hotdogs and drinks (which, at this event,  are the cheapest you'll be able to get them all season), and Ella decided she wanted to try some of the bouncy things.

Jon and I were a little hesitant because we've seen the crazy violent throwing around of bodies that goes on in some of these bounce devices, and Ella is not an agressive kid when it comes to stuff like that.  Plus she's tiny.  Also, she tends to say she wants to do big, brave stuff, only to not be quite so big and brave when it comes down to it.

But anyway, we went ahead, although we started out pretty small, with a little mini-bounce house:

Clearly, that went over pretty well.

While we'd been waiting in line, Ella had spotted a big inflatable slide near where we were standing, and had declared that she wanted to do that next.  This was one of those deals where you also had to climb up the inflatable ladder/staircase to get to the top.  I must have asked her 3 or 4 times if she was sure she wanted to try that one, and every time, I was met with a resounding, "Yeah!"

I was pretty convinced that Jon would have to help her up the stair ladder.  With her eye issues, she had depth perception issues, and even though they've gotten better since her surgery, she's still tentative on stairs.

So we waited in line again, and when it was her turn, she stormed up the stairs without even looking back at us, and slid on down like it was her job!

Up and down!

After that, she did a couple more bounce things, and then it was almost time for the red/white game.  We headed in, stopping at the team store and dropping some money -- and Jon surprised Ella with her first hockey jersey!  We were a little bit more excited about it that she was, though.  I don't have a good picture of her with it on yet -- soon!

We only stayed for the first period of the game, but it was fun, and great to see live hockey again after having not been to a game in such a long while.

Goal!

The reason we only stayed one period is because earlier, Ella had spotted what she referred to as "the spin".  And she would NOT let up about wanting to go ride it.  Basically, it was this thing with 4 seats and handlebars out in front of each seat that the riders would pump to propel the ride (sometimes sickeningly fast) around in a circle.

We thought at first that there was a height restriction, but I checked with a volunteer, and she confirmed that there wasn't.  So we waited, and tried to make sure that Ella really know what she was getting into.

The gals who were running the ride did a good job of pairing up people kind of in the same age group, so Ella was with 3 other younger girls...no chance of anyone getting slung off the ride.

Once she got on the ride, I think she was a little nervous -- no smiles or anything -- but when she got off, she said it was fun!  She couldn't really reach the handle to help pump, but she tried.  It was cute.

And so ended our day of fun -- we hit The Cheesecake Factory for lunch on the way back, and the poor kid was so worn out, she didn't eat anything, and fell asleep before we were on the highway.  If that's not the sign of a good day, I don't know what is.

She made her daddy proud :)

Washington, DC trip report - part I

Jon and I had a rare long weekend away this past week as part of Christmas to us from my parents.  They kept Ella for us, and we took off up to Washington DC.

After dropping off Ella and taking the dogs to puppy camp, we hit the road late Wednesday morning.  We had our usual road-trip stop at Cracker Barrel, and picked up an audio book on Billy the Kid, which turned out to be a dud.  The rest of the drive up was uneventful, aside from going around in a few circles once we got into DC proper, which is pretty much standard operating procedure.  Our home base for the next few nights was to be The Fairfax at Embassy Row -- we used our Starwood Points to book it, and on the whole, it was super-nice.  (We did have some ongoing hot water issues, which were kind of a pain, but no major complaints other than that.)

After we got checked in and dumped our stuff in the room, the first stop for us was a Washington Capitals game, and they just happened to be playing the Hurricanes that night (yes, we planned the trip around the game).  We had originally planned to grab dinner before the game, but we ran short on time, and wound up going straight to the Verizon Center.  We knew which stop we needed off the Metro, but weren't sure where to go after that -- luckily, there were plenty of Caps fans heading the same way we were, so we just followed them.

Our seats were AMAZING -- 3rd row, right behind the goal where the Caps were shooting twice.  

The game was tons of fun, despite being two of the very, very few 'Canes fans in the building (which was sold out -- the Jumbotron told us it was their 48th sell-out in a row!).   No one harassed us for wearing our enemy jerseys -- except for Slapshot, the Caps mascot.  He came all the way down to where we were sitting, pointed at our jerseys, then at his, then shook his head at us. Ha!

Much to the surprise of both Jon and myself, the Canes gave Washington a run for their money.  Given the season that both teams are having (them: fantastic; us: not so much), we really hadn't expected a whole lot, but the game actually wound up going to overtime, which was completely nerve-wracking.   The Caps won in the end, though.

After the game, we headed over to Matchbox, where we had originally planned to go before the game.  We had some delicious mini-burgers (part of our whirlwind cheeseburger tour of DC...more on that later), and split one of their wood-fired pizzas.  Yuuuuuum.

On the way back to the hotel, while we were waiting for the Metro,  Jon poked me, nodded towards a group of very well-dressed gentlemen, and said, "Don't look now, but I think that's Ron Paul over there."  I took a glance, but wasn't really able to tell.  Once the train arrived, the man in question wound up on the same car with us, and sure enough -- it was Ron Paul!  He was chatting with another passenger about the hockey game.  Kind of neat.

A great start to our trip!

Random stuffs.

I was just busy getting myself all ramped up over a great deal on hockey tickets -- 3 games for the price of one. Considering they're charging $70-80 for lower level seats this season, the 3-for-1 seemed like a really good deal.

Then I get to the fine print. Well, I guess it wasn't THAT fine. It was pretty much staring me in the face the whole time. "Minimum purchase of 10 tickets." Well, dang. So much for that idea.

Anyway. What else?

I've got a bunch of Ella's teensy clothes from last fall on the kitchen table ready to go to consignment. Only I'm not sure if I'm ready for them to go to consignment. It's hard getting rid of those itty-bitty things. And I mean, they don't take up THAT much space, right? But I know it's like a 99.95% chance that we're not having another one, so I guess I really should take them.... *sigh*

We went on a walk yesterday over at Guilford-Battleground Park, and we saw 3 deer on the trail! Really cool. Of course, it was the one day I forgot to take my camera with me...go figure. They stared us down, and then bounded off into the woods. I didn't realize their tails were so long.

Oh, I found a new Internet radio thing. I'd been using Pandora, but it was getting really terrible, always playing a bunch of crap that I don't like. So I switched to jango.com...MUCH better, so far anyway. I've only been using it a couple of days, so the crap-factor may increase as I use it more.

Awesome. I heart playoffs.

Opening night!

Jon and I went to the Hurricanes opening game last night against the Florida Panthers, and boy, I am so happy that it's hockey season again! We had great seats -- 3rd row between the benches! We've never sat that close before, but since we don't know how many games we'll make it to this season, we decided to splurge.

Here are a few photos from the game...

Faceoff


Rod the Bod


Just for Jon, Seidenberg and Kaberle :)


Cam Ward between the pipes

Fall is in the air!

And just in time for the start of hockey season, too! I actually had to turn the heat on yesterday morning and this morning to knock the chill out of the air when I got up. It's still a little warmer than it should be during the day, but it's been dipping down into the 40s at night.

I still have no confirmation on what the situation with my job is. We thought we had it worked out, but then it turned out that Jon wasn't going to be changing his schedule at all, so I would need to work mornings instead of evenings. Well, they don't need anyone in the mornings (never mind the fact that I worked mornings before I went out on leave). So my boss is checking with her boss to see if there's the possibility of me just going back to my old position (I'm on loan now to a different department), but it's been over a week since I spoke to her, and no word yet. I'm not holding out a lot of hope at this point, really. So things might get interesting here in a little while.

Ella's been doing great lately. She can hold onto a rattle now for a little while, and the other night, she would sit it down and then pick it back up with the other hand. That seems smart, but it might have just been sheer luck, who knows? :) The big news is that she's been sleeping through the night -- we're talking like 8-9 hours -- for the past couple of weeks! She has her last bottle of the night, and typically starts getting fussy around 12:00-12:30 am. We change her, put her down, and she's usually asleep within 15-20 minutes max. It's fantastic.

Some of the Canadians are coming down next week to meet her (well, and to see us too, but mainly to meet her, haha), and we're looking forward to that.

Last night's hockey game...

...was so weird. Aside from the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad officiating (of which there was A LOT), there were random other mascots there. Muddy the Mudcat was there (and on ice skates, believe it or not), as well as this strange Sumo-type mascot for Sports Clips, the haircut place for guys. He could only wave to people from the elbow down... no shoulder motion.

Also, last night there were no less than 20 little girls, all with ponytails and ribbons of various colors sitting down a few rows in front of us. Turns out they were the Rec Zone skaters, and did a little performance after the 1st period, but MAN, some of those kids needed some discipline. I know they were excited to be there, but they were screaming and shrieking (in that piercing pitch that only tiny girls can achieve) and standing in their seats... they had adults w/them, but apparently, they couldn't be bothered to keep the kids in check, as this went on for quite awhile. People sitting in front of them soon began turning around and shushing them. It was bad enough from where we were behind them; I can only imagine how loud it was in front of them.

Our seats our on the very last row of our section, and back up to a box. A kid in the box last night had a duck call (and no, we weren't playing Anaheim) and kept blowing it right behind us. Sheesh.

See? A weird night. But we won, and 2 points are 2 points at the end of the game :)

Before we headed to Raleigh yesterday, we had a doctor's appointment... I can't believe I'm already 23 weeks. Ack! Where is the time going. She'll be here before I can turn around good. Anyway, everything is going fine and moving along just as it should be. Always helps to ease my paranoid mind to hear that.

ETA: I *did* ask about my teeth moving, and that actually is NORMAL, believe it or not. Basically, when you're pregnant, there's increased blood flow to your gums (and nose), which is why your gums bleed more when you brush your teeth. But that increased blood flow can also kind of soften things up and cause things to shift around. Weird, huh?

So I guess I'm just going to keep an eye on things, and if it seems to be getting worse, I'll go get a new set of retainers made.

I'm the newest psychic friend.

So Jon and I were both up at about 6am yesterday morning (him to let Lukin out, who's been sick, and me to pee). I told him that I had just had a dream about the hockey game coming up that night, which we had tickets to go to. I had dreamed that the score was 7-2, with the Oilers winning.

Needless to say, I was more than a little freaked out when we were at the game last night, and Eric Staal scored his hat-trick goal w/less than a minute left... and the final score was 7-2. I got the teams reversed, as the Hurricanes actually won, but it was really weird nonetheless.

Anyway, we went and had dinner w/Sara and Randy at their house before the game. Gracie is a doll baby...so precious, hardly fussy at all, and so teensy! I'm trying to add a photo of her, but blogger isn't letting me for some reason. Will work on that later.

What else? It's snowing here, I have a UTI, and I seemingly reek of garlic (ate some w/dinner last night, and it seems to be radiating from my pores... I'm glad I'm home today b/c I'd be afraid of running everyone off at work w/my stench).

A perfectly lovely Saturday.

I met Sara for lunch in Durham today. We went to PF Chang's, which was delicious as always. Afterwards, we went over and poked around at the mall for a little while. I went to Macy's and managed to find another sweater like the one I shrunk to Barbie proportions in the dryer...and it was on sale, so woohoo!

The Hurricanes won tonight, after getting off to a sluggish start. My man Rod Brind'Amour had 2 goals :)

All in all, a very nice Saturday. And I still have one more day to sleep late. Woo!

Humming along...

This week, Wednesday *is* actually HumpDay for me, since I'm working a human schedule.

I'm glad we didn't buy any candy (we're kind of Hallowe'en scrooges)... we haven't had a single trick-or-treater! I thought we'd probably have a few rings of the ol' doorbell, but it's going on 8:30, and nothing! I wouldn't expect anything at this point. We didn't even seen any little spooks walking around as we were driving to/from dinner. Maybe kids don't go out as much as they used to... more parties and church funtions and whatnot.

We're watching the Canes game, which during the first people was terribly uneventful. Here's hoping the 2nd period isn't so sluggish.

Hockey season is in gear!

Jon and I went to the Hurricanes opener last night against the Canadiens. We lost, but it went to OT, so we got a point anyway. Not the start we wanted, obviously, but I'll take the point.

I got my 10th Anniversary patch on my jersey. :)



My traditional picture of Cam.



I was pretty happy w/our seats (we got a 10-game miniplan). We're at the end of a row, lower level, with no one behind us but the people in the box, so I think it's a good space. And we can see everything.

Glad to have Matt Cullen back.



Jon and I have decided to make a goal of seeing a game at every home arena...all 30 teams. We have 2 down (Carolina, obviously, and Tampa Bay), so 28 to go. We're going to a Leafs game when we're in Canada later this month, and we're taking a little road trip to Atlanta next month. So we'll be making some headway :) Look for photos from each arena.

Thursday 13 -- early this week.

Thirteen Reasons KELLY is ready for hockey seaon...48 days to go! 1. Hockey season means it's fall, and fall means the end of hot weather. 2. Hockey games in HD... there's not much better. 3. John Forslund is great at calling the Canes games :) 4. Tripp Tracy is great at brown-nosing the goalies. 5. I'll be able to pull out my big ol' Brind'Amour jersey again. 6. We're going to the first game of the season this year! 7. Jon will become even more tormented as the season progresses as to whose name to get on his jersey. 8. Matt Cullen is back with the Canes. 9. So far, we haven't lost any key players. 10. I love all the food smells of the RBC Center...probably the only hockey arena where you can get boiled peanuts. 11. We are probably going to pony up for the Center Ice package this year... no more listening to games on the internet. 12. In addition to the season opener, we're going to 9 other games this year. 13. Hockey is just plain awesome. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Rae's World 2. Cheaper Than a Happy Meal 3. Buck Naked Politics

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Hell's Kitchen!

The finale is tonight... we'll be watching it when Jon gets home here in a little while. I think the restaurant is Rock's for the losing. We'll see, though...stranger things have happened.

I just read something online indicating that Ashely Olsen is dating John Stamos... that's Uncle Jesse to you. I can only hope that is NOT true. Makes me feel all icky thinking about that.

Oh! We got our form in the mail the other day for our Hurricanes tickets, so we got to pick out our top 3 sections and indicate where we wanted our seats. Dorks that we are, we filled it out and mailed it back the very same day. Yeeeeah, we've got issues.

The stupidest arrest ever

So Carolina Hurricanes center Eric Staal, as well as his little brother Jordan, who plays for Pittsburgh, were arrested this weekend for "disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process" after Eric's bachelor party got a little out of hand.

Apparently, the partygoers were "screaming, yelling, and playing loud music," and had recieved several warnings to put a lid on it.

Here's where the stupid comes in.

The first time after the authorities warned the group about the noise level, the Staals went to bed.

The police actually came and woke them up out of bed to arrest them.

W.
T.
F.

Spoilers suck.

I just accidently read some Harry Potter spoilers that I didn't know were going to be on the page I was reading. I'm not really happy about this. I don't know why people have to ruin it for everyone else. I can only hope that whoever posted the information was just full of BS, and that the spoilers weren't accurate.

Also, the ticket packs were released for the Canes today for the mini-season ticket holders. We found one that will work great for us. We'll only have to switch a couple of the ticket dates (we can exchange 4). AND we get to be at the opening game too, so it works out great. I expect we'll be getting a call/email from our ticket guy sometime next week.

Awesome Canes update

We got Matt Cullen back! Woohoo!

We traded Hutchinson, Barnes (?), and a 3rd round pick in next year's draft.

That's such good news. He was cruical when we won the Cup, and he's only going to be a positive addition to the team again.

78 days till Opening Day...

Mailcall

We got a crap-load of mail today, and most of it was just that -- crap.

Why do I still get so excited over getting the mail? I don't what I think is going to be in there other than bills, junk for the former residents, and the occasional magazine.

Jon is the same way too. When we rode to work together, on the way home, we would call dibs on who would get the mail. We both knew it wasn't going to be anything good or anything we wanted.

Is anyone else like this? Or are we just the two mail-lovin' goofballs out there?

On an unrelated note, NHL opening day is October 3. That is 79 days away. The Canes will be at home that night, and if all goes well, we will be in attendance :)

**Hockey playoffs, round 3""

It's come down to Sabres vs. Senators for the east and Wings vs. Ducks for the west.

I'm picking the Sens (only 'cause I'm anti-Buffalo) and the Wings.

Games start tomorrow night, I believe.

I messed up last week and didn't make it to the gym for my tour/sales pitch thing, so I'm going tomorrow. It works out well though, since I just got a card in the mail for a free 30-day trial. So it's kind of good I didn't go last week... I'd have missed out on that.

**Weekend, weekend!**

I guess maybe it's weird to most people that I get all excited about the weekend smack dab in the middle of the week :)

I'm having dinner w/Shelly Daniels tonight... yay! She's in town for some kind of conference/training w/her job. You know we're going to the Olive Garden too! It'll be good to see her... it's been awhile.

We got our names down for Canes tickets for next season. We can't pick our ticket pack till the schedule is announced, but we have our deposit down. We're just doing a 10-game pack this time... mostly 'cause it's a bit of a haul from Greensboro to Raleigh to justify a 24-game pack. We'll probably pick up a few individual games here and there as well.