A Time For Everything

Okay, it really happened before I left, but I didn't realize it until I was halfway there.

So I stopped for the night in Neosho, MO--roughly halfway between Fort Worth and St. Louis--and discovered when I went to take a shower, that I'd forgotten to pack underwear! What with all the duplicate lists I had, I missed this one key item of apparel. Luckily for me there was a WalMart across the highway from the hotel I stayed in, so the issue was easily rectified.

There's some very lovely countryside between here and St. Louis...the eastern part of Oklahoma is mostly cattle country as far as I could tell and I enjoyed the beauty of the Ozarks as well. The foliage had barely, and I mean barely from green to yellow, started turning, but it was so so lovely.

Here are a few images...

This was Tuesday morning..first day out. Gorgeous blue sky as you can see.

My first couple of hours on the road Wednesday morning was filled with low, low clouds and then some rain.

And then some beautiful canyon-like passages in the last couple hours before hitting the outer edges of the city.

My roommate was arriving via Amtrak and I timed my arrival to pick her up. Actually I arrived a little early because, as it happens, the Enterprise Center is right across from the Amtrak Station. :0) Despite not being a fan of the Blues by any stretch of the imagination, I am a hockey fan. I visited the fan store, because of course I did. They didn't have much that wasn't Blues specific, not even hockey pucks, which was a bit disappointing. I did end up buying a cat toy so that Karma could literally tear up the Blues.

They did have some lovely statues out front however...

And that's it for today...more about the actual conference on Monday. Have a great rest of your week.

 

Once upon a time, DD would only watch Dallas Stars hockey. Didn't care about news of any team other that of our home team. She was a more a Stars fan and less a general hockey fan. It was challenge to have a hockey conversation with her sometimes. But five months after the world went on hiatus and my girl is watching all kinds of hockey.

Of course, other games have ramifications for our team, provided they move forward.

It's really nice to have hockey back, but we've both become realists about the chances our Stars have to get past the first round. Could it happen? Sure it could. Anything can happen during the NHL playoffs. Will it happen? Sadly, the play of our team and decision of the coaches on whom to put in the lineup greatly reduces our chances.

We've both made other picks as to who the winner of the Stanley Cup will be. Neither of us has picked our Stars to go all the way. We're each rooting for one of the other's most hates teams. I'm rooting for Colorado Avalanche and she's rooting for Philadelphia Flyers. Since they're in different conferences, they could end playing each other for the Cup. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

Anyway, it's been an exciting week of hockey with more to come this weekend.

Hope your weekend is whatever you're looking for it to be! Have a great one.

 

 

Eighteen days until I leave for my conference in Albuquerque.



It's time to make the lists: things to do in preparation and things to pack.

I'm driving this time, which is nice. I like road trips and having a vehicle is always handy if you want to sight see or whatever while you're wherever you are.

Things to do in preparation is two-pronged: all things at home and at work I have to do in advance of being gone and all the things I have to prep for the actual conference.

I'm getting tired just thinking about it. :0)

But it's Friday and I have a hockey game tomorrow. I'm going with some friends who don't go to many hockey games, so I'm hoping to give them the full experience. I created a poster for my favorite player and I want to get there in time to secure spots on the glass to watch warmup and see if I can't get another interaction with my man Roman Polak.


Monday evening is the Season Ticket Holder event at the zoo and I'm hoping that Mr. Polak will be attending that as well, so I can get a picture and possibly an autograph. So excited!!!

I'll report back next week.

Have a great weekend!!

Yup...baseball terminology to describe the next two and half weeks for the Stars.



My Dallas Stars currently sit in the first wild card slot for the Western Conference. They are 2 points behind the team in front of them and 4 points ahead of the team right behind them. Not a bad place to be considering this time last year, our goalie got injured and we went on a ten-game losing streak.

Every game they play is important. Every game those other teams play is also important. It's going be nail-bite-city (if I did such a thing, which I don't) for the next couple of weeks.

Three teams have clinched their spots in the playoffs. That means if they lose every single game they have left, they will still be included in the playoffs. I think it's going to come down to the wire for the Stars because they just aren't consistent enough and are partially dependent on other teams losing.

But they are still in the hunt, so bear with me for the next couple of weeks...

Because of the tight race the Stars are in, DD has an interest in other teams' games now. She was never been very interested before, and is only interested in them now as to how their win or loss affects the Stars, but I'll take it as a step in the right direction. I've also encouraged her to find a secondary team to root for. I have two of them.

Speaking of which...my second favorite team is coming to town and, for the first time ever, I'm taking a poster to the arena. I will be standing at the glass during warmup, hoping against hope that Sidney Crosby sees my sign, gets a warm fuzzy, and tosses me a puck.



In writing news, the words for the anthology have been flowing pretty well. I'm ahead of the writing curve in terms of how many days and how many words per day I'm supposed to write, but the universe threw a monkey wrench in writers spoke when a whole chapter's worth of text disappeared.

I use Scrivener and it's been acting rather persnickety as it syncs the file between two PCs. I encounter error messages every day but up until this morning I haven't had any real trouble with words appearing or not appearing so far, but today was my unlucky day.

So I copy/pasted all chapter and other information out of Scrivener and into Word or Notepad files. I really love working in Scrivener and am waiting anxiously for the new Windows version. Hopefully, I can rewrite that chapter and have be just as good.

Anyway, have a great rest of your week.

Check off another great experience in this journey of being a hockey fan. Last night DD and I went to our first ever official watching party. While the team is on a road trip, fans are still gathering to watch and cheer.

Last night the watching party was at closer-to-home than usual venue, Texas Live. With a 100' screen and a wicked sound system, it was almost like being there.



The Dallas Stars in arena announcer was there as well, providing many of the same announcements as if at a game--like announcing Dallas's goals when scored. There were also give-aways of tickets to an upcoming game as well as signed stuff. Sadly, neither DD or I won anything, but the experience was so fun.

So much so that we're attending the next one on Thursday. Which is mostly only possible because DD is enjoying spring break, so we're taking advantage.

Hope you're having a great week...as you can tell, I am!!

My office is an ode to my various interests and obsessions as well as to my odd sense of interior design.

Hard to see with the light glaring at the camera, but you can probably see the fairy lights. And on the right side of the left window is a Stars car window flag. :)


My Charles Wysocki collectors plates (one set of three, actually) that I've had for over 20 years. Just to the right of those is...

My BBC Sherlock wall. Note the sampler there on the left... That was a blog post subject many many moons ago.


My desk and the wall above, chock full of random goodies that make me smile or were gifts.

Now this is the piece de resistance... my shelves full of more randomness, suck as my rubber duckie collection, my dala horse collection, my Matchbox NASCAR collection, along with keepsakes from my trips to Nashville. Draped around the top is a Fourth of July garland, because I love that too.


I have a little section of wall between the window and the corner that has been designated the hockey wall--the back of the door and the wall space next to it is also hockey wall, now that I'm thinking about it...



But this particular space only had a Tyler Seguin pennant along with a couple of "posters" -- a.k.a. expired calendar images of Tyler and his teammate Jamie Benn.

Remember those little baby samplers I shared a couple of weeks ago? Well, one got framed and is now on the hockey wall. :0) Of course, Jamie Benn had to come down. He's not a favorite of mine so I passed him along to a friend.

And now the hockey wall looks like this:


And the sampler itself...


The wall still needs a little work, but I have a few plans.

Stay tuned...

Two years ago around this time, I started watching hockey. It might have been more mid-to-end-of-April than the beginning of May, but whatevs--

I embraced hockey and fumbled around trying to figure out how to watch my Dallas Stars play hockey whenever the mood struck. Alas, my first year attempts were in vain and I didn't get to watch much Stars hockey.

Last year, I was all into playoff hockey again even though the Stars didn't have a chance, and I finally figured out the best way to get Stars hockey on my TV--I had to upgrade my cable package. Which meant, of course, the monthly cost would go up. I spoke with DH and he had no issue with that and so, this past year, Fox Sports Southwest and Dallas Stars games were available to me.


Despite the Stars just missing the playoffs again, I am a happy hockey fan.

Watching the Vegas Golden Knights defy every expectation this year has been a lot of fun. Their whole fan experience looks fantastic and I hope that I can make a trip to Sin City one of these days to enjoy the spectacle in person.


I have also been rooting for the Pittsburgh Penguins, back-to-back Stanley Cup champs (2016, 2017), to get the three-peat. I can't say it's all been fun and games there because they played a tough opponent in the first round and are currently playing in the second round. Playing the same team they've vanquished the last two years in the second round--a team that you can imagine wants to end the heartbreak. A team who has never made it past the second round in about a dozen years. A team with a star player who deserves a Stanley Cup win in his lifetime. (Maybe next year, Ovi?)

Let's go PENS.

Let's go KNIGHTS!

Have a great Monday and a great week.