WeekNINd

Friday after I had worked out, Adam D. and I grabbed some grub at Buffalo Wild Wings with my bro.  Then we dropped in at the Record Bar.  Jason, Courtney, Keaton, and Steve were there.  We arrived in time to see/hear the worst band in the lineup, then left to find that it had snowed about a quarter inch while we were inside.

After dinner at Sutera's Saturday night and much anticipation, Courtney, Keaton, Jason, and I saw NIN at Kemper Arena.  I think it was the best show they've put together in 10 years, including lights, sound, and song selection.  They got some mileage out of that chopped up Jumbotron and mondo sized projector from previous tours.  Imagine the pieces of that sliced up Jumbotron cut up into smaller pieces that look like MS-Excel bar graphs and arranged around the stage like shark teeth.  I appreciate the superior use of LEDs and video.  They haven't surpassed Skinny Puppy or Meat Beat Manifesto when it comes to incorporating video and graphics into the show, but I appreciate the arena stage scale of the thing.  I'd pay $50 to see it again.  At first, I thought $30 for a tour t-shirt was a rip-off, but after I saw the show, I decided to get one.  I might have been just as happy buying a knock-off shirt in the parking lot for $10.

I had made the mistake before of doing a leg workout too close to a hockey day.  I stupidly did quads on Friday, then hams and calves on Saturday.  That doesn't bode well for marathon hockey on Sunday.  I only rearranged my workout schedule because I thought I would be playing a tough game of hockey Thursday night.

I had left my hockey sticks at Jason's house Saturday to make room in the back seat of the Jeep for the concert trip and forgot all about them until it was time to go play hockey.  Luckily, I have a spare.  It's not my favorite stick.  It's a $20 cheapo wooden one which I bought on sale at Academy in Edmond, OK.  I positively hate the curve on it.  It took some getting used to.  To further handicap things, I had taken a slapper to the left skate blade and now the blade is in the holder kinda crooked.  It was stable enoughfor me to play on, but I kept catching a left inside edge when I would normally slide sideways. . . so, there were some interestingfigure skating demonstrations during my game.  My game was over by 8, and we lost.  We were kinda psyched out because they were playing a very defensive game at first and didn't even have a goalie for the first half of the first period.  After their goalie showed up, they started spreading out and we actually started playing in their end and scoring.  They were beating us at the 6-on-5 game with no goalie.  It was too little too late when we did rally and score 3 goals.

I then proceeded to Smoothie King on 135th (better than the one in Seoul, except I haven't spiked my smoothie since) for refreshment, and noticed the time.  I hadn't had enough hockey, so I proceeded to the drop-in game at the AMF Ice Chateau at 8.  It was only $10 and they extended the time, because they wanted the ice cut up for a broomball game at 10:30.  There was nobody on the bench.  After playing the ENTIRE two and half hours against some teenagers and 20-somethings and only a couple of water breaks and one faulty skate, I was beat.  My calves were really getting tight and my hip flexors were sore, especially since I had been favoring my right side.  By the time I got home, my calves were so tight, no amount of rubbing was helping.

Monday morning, I was crippled.  I could not flex either foot.  I applied a heating pad and stretched.  I called the gym and told my trainer I needed a recovery day, and cancelled my appointment with her.  I embarked on some unfinished projects around the house, like cleaning all the clutter out of the back porch and reducing the laundry mounds and piles of unopened mail, in anticipation of having a party here Saturday.  I'm looking forward to that.