Hockey at last!

Even though we always have stuff to do in the house... trim work, paint, cleaning and organizing the guestroom/craftroom... at times it gets a bit...

dare I say...

boring.

So we got to thinking the other day about taking advantage of the fact that we live close to two Universities. Northern Michigan University in Marquette and Michigan Technological University in Houghton. So this last weekend on Saturday after work I drove home enjoying the path taking pictures out my window and picked up David, locked up the dogs, and went to meet up with Joy, Dick, and Jerry.

We all went to watch a hockey game at Michigan Tech!

Hockey is big up here and I suppose that makes sense. When Amber and I lived in Northwestern Washington it was big up there too. Commercials (especially on the Canadian channels) would come on for various things and instead of football stars acting as spokesmen there would be Hockey stars. I got pretty good at recognizing this one in particular.

Mark Messier (aka: The Moose)

Of course, he was pretty well known at the time as were these two characters.

Wayne Gretzky (aka: The Great One) and Mario Lemieux (aka: Le Magnifique or Super Mario)

Hmm..

Those guys are a far cry from the normal (?) picture most folks
have in their minds about hockey players.

Anyway... I always thought I would enjoy hockey.
I mean check out these hockey correspondents for ESPN.
While I must admit I like him, this first guy Don Cherry makes me a bit confused...
Just a bit over the top... I get distracted by his clothing choices.

but I just LOVE this guy. He is on ESPN also and his name is Barry Melrose!

Check the hair! He is SOOOOO Hockey!

Yes it is a mullet and yes he sometimes, well a lot of the time even has it wet looking!
How cool is that?!

He actually has quite a following...
I love how the The Sports Hernia Blog described him,
" Who else could get away with a shirt/tie combination that looks like it should be worn by the person in charge of final negotiations before entering hell?"

However, whenever I tried to watch a professional game on television it seems all they do is fight and you can not really see the puck all that well so it is hard to follow (except for Stanley cup and a few select games where they put some kind of electric tracer on the puck) . In addition, while I really don't mind a scuffle now and then on the ice because I mean.. it IS hockey for criminy sakes... the fighting thing is getting to be a bit too much for me to enjoy.

We learned the other night however that in college hockey they do not fight..
not really...
(Mich Tech is yellow.... Denver is red)

At one point in the game a check like that picture above happened and there was a pretty obvious foul by a Denver player against a Michigan Tech player. Well the fans at the glass jumped up in the area surrounding them and all started pounding on the glass and yelling. The glass was shaking, and quaking, and I wondered if we were going to get a bird's eye view at some glass shattering over the ice. No such luck though. Also, in person at the game you can see the puck VERY well... and it is not an urban myth... sometimes the puck goes into the stands...

Don't worry ... that is pretend.
You don't wanna see the real pictures that came up when I searched for that picture. Ouch.

Anyway... Hockey is a very fast game and I am still trying to figure out some of the basics but we really enjoyed it! It was kinda crazy to watch the substitutions though because they just randomly (it seems) come spilling out of the box and fly out towards the action... while others turn and swarm back into the box. At first it looks like a brawl is going to happen but it is just a change in players.

We had a great time...
they even sold ice cream there and the Hershey's had to partake.. of course...

Those fellas can never let a good ice cream go to waste! But geez, it is not like it was not cold enough... it was like 2 degrees outside, and then we were in an ice rink.. and then we ate ice cream. I bought a coffee just to hold in my gloved hands to keep warm.

Starting to feel a real kinship to the Snowmiser.

I saw this sign behind the pep band while I was wandering around the arena.
It is nice to see that Michigan Tech Hockey Arena is an equal opportunity facility..
no discrimination against minorities or those with physical challenges.



One of these games might be REALLY interesting to watch.



Heh. Just kidding.

Well, that was our Saturday evening excursion, and then on Sunday we (David, Jerry, and I) decided to go in the opposite direction towards Marquette and Northern Michigan University. The annual Christmas Craft Fair was being held at the "Yooper Dome" so we thought we would go check out the goods.

We piled in (the dogs came too) and drove up to Marquette. When we first entered the dome we saw a local celebrity right off! Very exciting! It was Karl the Weather man! The photo is a bit blurry... I was star struck. Sorry... that is Karl sitting down drinking coffee by the way.

Weather is very important up here... as you can imagine... so the local weather guy is everyone's friend. His name is Karl Bohnak and folks just love to quote him. Greetings of... "Hey dere. How ya doin? What did Karl have to say today? Hay?" are not uncommon. His booth was right there when you walk in the door past the concession stand... he was selling his books. We didn't buy one. However, I did get some treats for the dogs, cookies for us, and Jerry bought some jams.

While in Marquette we went to the hardware store and I finally got some paint. Man oh man paint color is a harder decision than people realize! Well I just decided, grabbed some swatches, and went for it... we took them home and got started on the mudroom. David is color blind so I had to choose and I have decided to go for warm autumny colors. Enough with the grays already. That explains the terra cotta pot color in the mudroom with the cream colored trim. This is the first room we have painted... we have several more to go but at least it is a start. The color was hard to capture.. one of the pictures below is darker the other a bit lighter... and the door color is not chosen that is still primer in case you were curious... however, the cream color trim is around the door and on the hook rails.

Well, to get a good idea just imagine the color of terra cotta pots with a nice warm cream trim and you are pretty damn close.

On to the next room...