Springtime on the east side.

Well, it's rainy and that's good for the bulbs I planted, some of which are coming up.  We'll see how that works out when/if they bloom.  Thanks, Shawn, for the free winterized bulbs!

I was quoted in The Pitch, which is kinda cool.  I asked Jen Chen, who bumped into Adam D and me at the Foundation, if I could give her a fake name, and she said I could give my porn name.  I told her it would have to be just the street I grew up on, because most of the pets I had growing up were female.  So, I'm known as Quincy in the article.  Any guesses who Thor is?

The ankle is better today.  It's not 100%, but I didn't work out at all last night and kept my weight off of it.  I tried to photograph the bruise on my calf last night for posterity, but the photo didn't do it justice, so I didn't include it here.  It's about the size of the palm of my hand and multiple colors now.

T-minus two days until the TFC fights in KCK.  I found a compadre I know from the gym who will join me Saturday after I check out the Auto Show at Bartle Hall.

New kind of pain.

Hockey players are not padded in a few areas, including the sides of the feet, the back of the calf, the forearm, and the neck.  I was expecting a pass in front of  the net, but the centerman hit the point, so I screened the goalie. . . and then saw a slapshot coming straight at my feet, so I raised my left skate to let the shot go under me, but it was rising and impacted my calf at about 70+ miles per hour.  That is a new kind of pain for me.  The worst part is the shot deflected wide of the net.  It would have been easier to take if we had scored.

Later in the game, I was playing a rebound in front of the net with defensemen on either side of me.  The puck was on my backhand and just as I was shooting, shifting my weight onto my right foot, someone swept my right leg with their stick.  My foot was pointed toward the goal, my knee went all the way to the ice, my butt went all the way to my skate, and my ankle bent in a direction that ankles should not bend.  I shook it off and kept skating.  The ref didn't see it, because I was in traffic.  I deserved a penalty shot on that one, even though we ended up scoring on that play.

Fast forward to this morning.  I got out of bed onto the left leg with the fantastically bruised calf.  Then I shifted onto the right leg with the hurt ankle.  Then I winced and got back into bed.  When the endorphins kicked in, I basically crawled to the shower.  I'm discovering ankle movements that make me want to scream.  Flexing the foot to depress the gas pedal or flexing the foot to turn the office chair are particularly surprising.  Something is really strained in there.  Today is quadricep day, but I won't be doing any squats.  I guess I'll just hit the leg extensions extra hard.  All that said, it was a really great defensive game last night.  My team really outscored them, too.  I can't wait to play again next Tuesday.

What a week!?

Monday, I did the whole rush from place to place thing and tried to fit meals in edgewise.  That leads to a lot of eating in the car.  Work.  Eat.  Work out.  Eat.  Choir rehearsal. Eat again.  I think if I had a minifridge in the dash of my car, it would be more of a life saver than the airbag.  An in-dash toaster oven and beverage dispenser would be too much like a Sprite commercial, but don't think I wouldn't use it.

On Fat Tuesday, I played hockey, then joined some of the guys at Maloney's for 75 cent tacos.  I choked down four of them and a coke and bolted to try not to miss the Crossroads Mardi Gras parade.  Nieda and Lake were already out and having fun at Kelly's in Westport, but we met up at Grinder's on 18th.  It was nice to meet Dory, who works there and is somewhat hot.  The trail of confetti down the street indicated that the parade had already passed.  I went down the street to watch a very good punk rock band for a while.  After drinks and some pretty good pizza (sliced meatball pizza is deluxe!) and incriminating pictures were taken by Leanderthal, we parted company.  Adam D. and I motored to the Mardi Gras party at the Foundation.  It was crowded inside, but the music was excellent.  We chatted with some art crowd regulars and were interviewed and photographed by Jen Chen, who is cool, but really good at catching people off guard. 

Wednesday, I just worked, worked out, then vegetated and watched Americans Idle. 

Thursday, I started coming down with a cough and some chest congestion.  So, I did the usual work-eat-workout-eat-tv-eat-sleep thing.  Emphasis on the sleep part.

Friday, I felt rested and better.  I went to the doc and got some antibiotics.  I'm told I have MRSA.  The first thing the doc asked, "Do you use antibacterial soap?"  That's an understatement.  When I take off my nasty hockey gear, I wash with surgical scrub.  Methicillin Resistant Staph. Aurelius is the only thing that survives it.  Without competition from the good bacteria which is supposed to be on your skin, it goes crazy.  It's like killing all the predators in the jungle and letting the monkeys take over.  And it was in my sinuses and on my skin.  So, the moral of the story is this. . . antibacterial soap is only for hands. 

After my workout Friday evening, I went to the KU versus MU hockey game.  KU could have won that game, except for someone's skate being in the crease when the tying goal was scored and then retracted with 4:40 left in the 3rd period.  Then MU proceeded to score again.  4-2 final.  MU Tigers win.

Saturday, I worked out in the morning and went shopping.  That included upgrading the broken radio in the Jeep to a fancy CD, MP3 player thing with a USB port on the front and built-in Sirius sattelite radio.  That was a good thing on the road trip to Manhattan, KS later.  I wish I had gotten a nap in, because by the time I had explored Aggieville and saw my brother's band play and loaded up their gear, and bumped into some KC acquaintences out there, I was dead tired.  We grabbed food and hit the road.  I don't remember much of I-70 except that I couldn't recline the seat because of a speaker cabinet and the seatbelt made a mark on my neck while I slept and my brother drove.

Sunday, well, it was already Sunday when we got home from Manhattan.  I don't often see daybreak, but I fell face first onto the couch and later awoke to find that the indelible black B they drew on my hand at the bar to indicate that I was with the band had transferred very nicely onto my leather couch.  My cough had resumed.  I felt wiped out, so I ate some hot cereal.  I skipped hockey.  I needed a break.  I watched the UFC 58 fights, recorded the previous night.  I ate at Pancho's, then crashed.

It's Monday again, and I feel much better.  Not 100% clear, but much better.  This week, I'll try to not miss any hockey games.  Rob Zombie in 40 days.  Tick tock!

Mardi Gras Weekend.

I did not train on Friday, because I went to a party. I did not train on Saturday. I slept in, then did some cleaning, then did some laundry, then went to the store. I had a get-together at the house Saturday night, including watching some Kung Faux DVD which I had completely forgotten about.  It's basically 70's kung fu movies edited down to just the fights and plot points, then dubbed over by rap artists playing the characters with the ebonics laid on thick.  Funny stuff.  It's big on cable in the UK, but too harsh for the censors here.  Anyway, then I went to play poker at Harrah's until the sun came up. I arrived at the casino with $23. I put $20 in a penny slot machine until I hit a bonus and cashed out $65. I bought chips and played some 3/6 Texas Hold 'Em. I was up about $300, but lost $100 back before I decided it was time to quit. Then I slept. Then I played hockey in the afternoon. My team won 8-4. I grabbed a Vanilla Hulk Smoothie from Smoothie King, stopped by the grocery store for a few items, then played hockey again at 8pm. It was a very fast paced drop-in game. Playing against people who are way better than me indicated some weaknesses. I need to work on puck protection and shooting from my backhand side.  When I was first learning to play and going to Mike McEwan's clinics in Oklahoma City, he would have us pick a partner, grab a puck, and just play keepaway for about 10 minutes at the beginning of practice.  I learned more about puck protection doing that than anything.  But I need to brush up, I guess.  After all that I was craving pomegranite juice.  It's about six bucks for a 24 ounce bottle. . . which was empty before I even got it home from the store.  In all, I'd say it was a fun weekend.

Lewis Black is as funny as ever. This tour had two great opening acts. I was out too late, so I'm in 3 syllables or less mode. Good day.

Instituto de la Seguridad Social

I have a tenant who is from Mexico. She was born in Mexico. Everything I've checked is legitimate, but her credit is trash. She doesn't always pay her rent on time, but she does pay it when she says she'll pay it, and she has been working for a major travel-related company for a few years now. Her son is in and out, and I think he's in Iraq now.  Her daughter is in college somewhere on a scholarship.  These are really good people with really bad credit.  But her mother, who also lives with her, is Mexican.  She has never, to my knowledge, been legitimately employed here. But, she, somehow, for some reason, has a social security number. Here's the clincher:  She draws social security benefits and has never worked a single day in the U.S!! The Office of the Inspector General won't do anything, because, apparently, if you pay into the system with a bogus social security number, they KEEP THE MONEY. The Congress, I believe, keeps the thing on the hush, because illegal immigrants are paying $7 billion a year into the social security system. They are the bouy that's keeping the thing afloat. Personally, I'm outraged.  How much of that $7 billion goes out to illegals who are retirement age who have never paid a penny into the system, though?  Let's try not to think about Medicare for illegals; that might send me over the edge.  It has been illegal to employ these people since 1986.  It is now clear to me that we have a $7 billion reason to not enforce that law, and so it goes unenforced.  It's sickening when our own system undermines itself.  The SSA needs to be abolished.  It's a big mess.  Let me and a million other people who want to spend our earnings while we can to opt out of it and not burden the thing any further.  The thought of paying into a system that hands out free money to illegals of retirement age makes me want to vomit.  At least I get some of it back in the form of rent.

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.