Pucks, Purim & Palm Trees

Sweet Seats

There's something congenial about hockey in palm trees. Perhaps I would have been cursing the "soft ice" had the Caps walked away in defeat. Thankfully, I got to witness a quality win that propelled the boys in red (ok, white) to the top of the SE division. Caps 3, Panthers 2. And of course I get to cross one of the '30' off my list. And walking out of the game into 80 degree weather and palm trees was very serene. 

Neuvy in Net

My father is a Panthers season ticket holder so we already had tickets (In the 400s) for the game, but we actually used one of his clients' tickets which were 9 rows off the ice. They'd be big money if we were in Verizon Center. The truth here is that the lower bowl was 1/2 full at most, and I'm fairly sure most people in the lower bowl had tickets for the upper bowl and just moved down. My aunt, uncle and little cousins met us at the game (they got 4 people in for $20 total) and there were plenty empty seats next to us. Sundays are 'Family Fun Day' at Panthers games. The MC announced this before the game, then immediately introduced the Panthers Ice Dancers who did their routine. I found this extremely awkward family friendly. 

Rabbis vs Clowns in Intermission Broom Ball

There was also a Purim Party. This included a Purim costume contest at the 1st intermission. For those of you who went to Hebrew school or synagogue, you remember dressing up as Queen Ester, Mordechai, Haman, etc and waving the noisemakers, right? This nondenominational Purim party costume contest included Spiderman, Gumby and Darth Vader. It was humorous cute. They also had a Rabbi take the ceremonious 1st slap shot and the 2nd intermission included a broomball game of Rabbis vs Clowns. I love it!  
The Panthers look so small next to the Caps (especially Arnott). Our seats were on the side where the Caps shot twice. The view of the goal in front of us was excellent (which included Backstrom's goal and Semin's awesome GWG) but we could barely see the other goal through all the glass.

Caps Win in OT!

I'm used to sitting in the press box or in the high seats at Verizon Center and I forget there's actually a big benefit to height! Energy in the Bank Atlantic center was great last night. Much better than last season. The in-game entertainment is much improved which helps the overall atmosphere. We're spoiled by all the energy and show entertainment at Verizon Center that it can be a major let down at other venues.  The BAC is a quality venue so I'm glad they finally figured out how to make the game experience more exciting. Also helped that at least 1/3 of the BAC was full of Caps fans. When Semin scored the game winner (conveniently in front of me) the arena erupted in cheers. Good times. Another one crossed off the list. Now off to read Twilight by the pool, shop, and hopefully cook a turkey tonight.

Florida: The '30' Checklist

Just arrived in sunny rainy West Palm Beach! Some good news. A few months ago I "lost" the battery charger to my Canon point and shoot. I scoured my house, car and workspace to no avail. I've been using my SLR or Blackberry cam for the past few months. The SLR is awesome of course but it's not the most convenient to carry around, say, when you're snowboarding. And the Blackberry has a decent cam, but it's still a cell phone.  Welp, when I pulled out a suitcase last night tada camera battery charger right there. I guess I haven't had the charger for about 6 months. It's back, I'm happy, It's in my pocket. And now I can easy document the lofty '30' goals I have for this Florida trip. In an ideal world here's what's gonna get checked off this week...

Twilight - I WILL finish Twilight. I read another 70 or so pages on the plane this afternoon so I'm about halfway through. Tomorrow morning I'll be in the pool or under the palm trees reading. That's right.

Capitals Road Game - Tomorrow, 5 pm, vs Panthers! So excited. Our seats are 9 rows off the glass on the blue line at Bank Atlantic. Last year I went to the final Caps-Panthers game, but a) Ovi was suspended which always makes things a lil less exciting and b) it was mid-March and the Caps had already clinched the SE. I'm way more excited for tomorrow's game. Meaningful and I get to see the newbies for the 1st time. Plus it's Wideman's return. I guess that is something interesting to Panthers fans, if Panthers fans exist...

Cook a turkey - Turkey is in the fridge thawing (thanks, Mom!). The plan is to cook it on Monday night provided it thaws by then. I guess fresh turkeys aren't in season. This will be an adventure. I'm still creeped out by these gizzards I keep hearing about, but maybe this is a gizzard-free turkey. We shall see. I've been working on my poultry handling aversion. I have faith I'll survive this one. 

Be more patient - This was not originally in this week's plans however I think I get to cross it off the list tonight. I love Southwest, I absolutely do, and I had a great flight down here and I'm really not complaining but there was a screaming 2-yr old behind me for most of it. Normally, I would have been really really really irritated and annoyed. However, this more patient me just sat back and relaxed and didn't let it bother me much (helped that my iPod headphones are somewhat noise reducing). I was only a lil irritated. Does this count? 

Learn to drive stick - The likelihood of this happening this week is slim to none, but since none of my friends with stick want to teach me on their cars, I'm exploring alternatives. I considered having my mom take a manual car out for a test drive, get it off the lot, then teach me in some empty parking lot. Of course we'd have to kick the salesperson out of the car and hope they don't call the cops on us when the car isn't back within a reasonable time.  The other issue is that while my mom swears she can drive stick, she hasn't done so since the mid-70's when she had a Fiat X1/9. Right, I'm thinking the same thing. Some of the neighbors down here have fancy sports cars, maybe I could peek in and see if they happened to leave the keys in the ignition? Problem with that is my lawyer sister is not licensed in FL so it would cost me an arm and a leg when I end up in a ditch in a "borrowed car". I also considered finding out if any of the car rental places rent out stick cars, but I have a feeling they've already caught onto people like me and you can only rent automatic. I think I'm just gonna have to work on convincing a friend they owe me a favor and this is it.

Expect a bunch of posts this week, but for right now, back to vacation...