Hockey 2016/2017 Schedule

So, it's been awhile, huh?

Sorry.  Life has a way of getting in the way.  We are sometimes spread so thin that I don't know what we're doing tomorrow, let alone for the next month.

Here's this year's hockey schedule.  As always, somewhat subject to change, so check with us ahead of time before driving to some far-off locale.

Sat, November 5 11:00 am:  Away, vs. Gilmour Academy, Gates Mills, OH
Sun, November 13 3:40 pm: Home, vs. Shaker Heights
Sat, December 10 6:20 pm: Away, vs. Wooster - Alice Noble Ice Arena
Sat, December 17 3:40 pm: Home vs. Winterhurst
Sun, December 18 3:40 pm: Home vs. Gilmour Academy
Sat, Jan 7 6:00 pm: Away vs. Shaker Heights - Thornton Park Ice Rink
Sun, Jan 8 9:25 am: Away vs. Kent - KSU Ice Arena
Sat, Jan 21 3:40 pm: Home vs. Kent
Sun, Jan 29 1:30 pm: Away vs. Winterhurst - Lakewood Serpentini ice rink
Sun, March 26 11:45 am: Away vs. Wooster - Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena (this game is for CSHL recognition night at the Monsters)

This weekend (12/18/15)

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas, everyone!  It's going to be a crazy, action-packed weekend for us.


Friday:  Julie's work Christmas party.  Nate has a scout lock-in event at the YMCA.

Saturday:  7:40 am - home scrimmage vs. Winterhurst
                 5:50 pm hockey practice
                 7:00 pm open skate
                 ???? Taking the boys to see Santa at some point.

Sunday:  8:00 am away hockey game at Strongsville.  Ugh.
               ???-??? shopping, cookie baking, wrapping, etc.
               4:00 pm Bren scout family Christmas party
             

I think there's more . . . I guess we'll figure it out when I get a text asking where I am.

This weekend (12/4/15)

Sunday, December 6 - 9:50 a.m. - home vs. Kent

Afterward, Bren and I are hitting the road to Columbus for the MLS Cup!  Go Crew!  Or . . . Go Portland!  Oh, heck.  We'll just go with Go Akron!

This weekend (11/20/15)

Not one, not two, but THREE hockey games this weekend!!!  One away, two home. 

Saturday, November 21 - away at Winterhurst - 8:40 am
Sunday, November 22 - home vs. Strongsville at 11:20 am [double header]
                                                - home vs. Shaker Heights at 3:40 pm

I think that's basically it.

UPDATED 2015/2016 Hockey Schedule

Folks:

The team has done some tinkering with the schedule, so this is a more current schedule.


Saturday, November 21 - away at Winterhurst - 8:40 am
Sunday, November 22 - home vs. Strongsville at 11:20 am [double header]
                                       - home vs. Shaker Heights at 3:40 pm
Saturday, December 6- home vs. Kent - 9:50 am
Sunday, December 13 - home vs. Winterhurst - 7:50 am [not yet confirmed]
Saturday, December 19- home vs. Winterhurst (scrimmage) - 7:40 am
Sunday, December 20 - away at Strongsville - 8:00 am
Saturday, January 9 - home vs. Geauga - 12:10 pm
Sunday, January 10 - home vs. Fremont - 1:20 pm
Sunday, January 24 - away at Shaker Heights - 10:30 am
Saturday, January 30 - away at Fremont - 2:45 pm
Sunday, February 7* - away at Geauga - 5:30 pm


*Yep.  Still Superbowl Sunday.

No hockey game today.

Cancelled. Will update.

This week (11/6/15)

Nate has a hockey game at Kent State Saturday, November 7 at 5:35 p.m.

That and raking 3,436 bags of leaves are the only things on the agenda for now.

Are you ready for some hockey?! [PLEASE SEE UPDATED SCHEDULE]

If not, well, too bad.  We have a hockey schedule!

Saturday, November 7 - Away at Kent - 5:35 pm
Saturday, November 14 - home vs. Shaker Heights - 10:30 am
Saturday, November 21 - away at Winterhurst - 8:40 am
Sunday, November 22 - home vs. Strongsville at 11:20 am
Saturday, December 12 - home vs. Kent - 9:10 am
Sunday, December 13 - home vs. Winterhurst - 7:50 am
Saturday, December 20 - away at Strongsville - 8:00 am
Saturday, January 9 - home vs. Geauga - 12:10 pm
Sunday, January 10 - home vs. Fremont - 2:45 pm
Sunday, January 24 - away at Shaker Heights - 10:30 am
Saturday, January 30 - away at Fremont - 2:45 pm
Sunday, January 31 - home vs. Winterhurst - 8:40 am (An 8:40 game the day after driving to/from Fremont.  Ugh. At least it's at home.)
Sunday, February 7* - away at Geauga - 5:30 pm.

All in all, that's a pretty great schedule.  Lots of home games. No 7:00 am games in Cleveland.  Nice long break around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the season will be over by the first week in February.  But please, for the love of all things, do not tell Nate that there aren't any Parma games scheduled this year.  I swear some days I think that child plays hockey just so that he has an excuse to go up there and eat pierogies.

They're not listed on the schedule, but we will also have two tournaments (South Bend, IN and Columbus), and I believe we'll be playing at least one game up at the Q again this year.  I'll let you know when I know more about that.

*Yes, that would be super bowl sunday.  No, there's nothing I can do about it.  The coach is trying to get it changed.

Times Change

This weekend I was talking with some of my Mommy friends about the fall daylight savings time change.   When we were younger, it was practically magical.  We could sleep in an extra hour in the morning!  It was great, until our bodies eventually acclimated and it felt just as miserable to get up in the morning as it had three weeks prior.  In our twenties, it gave us an extra hour before the bars closed, and an extra hour to sleep it off the next morning.  Even as young adults, it would give us a chance to get up and hit the gym before work for a couple of weeks before exhaustion and apathy set in.

But for parents of small people, there is no reason to celebrate daylight savings.  For them, the time change is an epic hassle. Toddlers are nothing if not creatures of habit.  Change their routines, and there will be hell to pay.  Mike and I started the parenting thing a little earlier than a lot of our friends, so we're at a very different stage in life than the ones who still have infants and toddlers living under their roofs.  We're not facing weeks of disrupted sleep, kids waking up an hour earlier than the clock says they should, or falling asleep in their plates at dinner.  Even if our kids wake up earlier than we want them to, for the most part it has no effect on our day.  In fact, just this morning I got up to let the dogs* out and sat down on the couch in the TV room to check my email.  After a few minutes, I heard a weird clicking sound from the front room, and wandered in there to find Nathan happily playing video games.  Until that very moment, I thought I was the only one up. 

When your kids are born, you have to essentially function as an external life support system.  They're completely dependent on you for everything, and you have to teach them things - to eat, to walk, to talk, to blow their noses - that seem ridiculous, in retrospect.  Later, those lessons get a little more abstract - to beware of strangers and cars, to read and write, to share.  We're in a sort of weird parenting phase now.  Both of our kids are able to feed, dress, and entertain themselves.  Nathan can read better than most high school students and rarely needs help with his homework. Brendan is in high school now, teetering on the brink of adulthood.  He never asks for help with homework.  In fact, he nearly always denies the existence of any homework assignments.  Tonight he cooked us dinner.  He made wings (in a deep fryer that I am not allowed to use without adult supervision), corn, baked beans, and tater tots, with minimal assistance.  Sometimes it feels like the only role we have left is to write checks, provide transportation, and keep the refrigerator and pantry stocked.  They're both pretty good kids, and because we provide so little help to them with their day-to-day needs, it sometimes feels like the only thing we have left to do is to wait out the teenage years and unleash them on the world after graduation.

But I realize that the hardest and most important part of our job is still in process.  We have to teach them how to be productive and engaged members of our community.   They need to know that the biggest test of their characters will be how they act when nobody else is looking.  We have long (and generally interesting, sometimes absurd) conversations about politics and economics and justice. We have to teach them how to be good friends, boyfriends, and later, husbands, and (hopefully) someday, fathers.  Anyone can teach a kid how to tie his shoes; it's a lot more difficult to teach him how to handle himself when someone he thought was a friend turns out not to be, or how to stand up for people and animals who can't stand up for themselves.  When they are little you can carefully curate their list of friends and arrange playdates for them.  When they are teenagers with smart phones and social media accounts and 24/7 ability to be horrible to one another without any parental buffer, sometimes the only thing you can do is just reassure them that high school won't last forever.  And, perhaps most difficult, as our friends and family age and die, we have to teach them how fleeting life is, how important it is to spend time with the ones you love the most, and how to honor and carry on those loved ones' lessons and memories.

Some days it would be so much easier to go back in time and deal with lost sleep and tears because someone took the train they wanted to play with at the library.  Luckily for us, they are good kids, and their friends are good kids who come from good families. With every day that passes, I become more acutely aware how quickly their entire childhood goes by.  We're on the precipice of driving (which means even more independence), SATs, and college visits.  Someday soon our only role will be to worry about them from afar, offer advice only when asked, and occasionally bail them out** when trouble strikes.  That will be the most difficult phase we'll ever endure, and it'll last for the rest of our lives.  So for now, I'll just try to enjoy sleeping in and providing taxi services and commiserate with our friends who haven't slept through the night in weeks.  And I'll take my own advice and remember to try to love nearly every precious minute of it.

*Dogs, of course, do not respect Daylight Savings time.  They are now the weakest link in our household.

** Dear lord, please let there not be any literal bail payments.

This week (10/9/15)

The soccer season is finally dragging to a close, just in time for hockey to start up, lol!  This week should be interesting.

Saturday, October 10 - 9:00 a.m. - home vs. Hoban

Monday, October 12 - 5:00 p.m. - away at Lake.

Thursday, October 15 - 5:00 p.m - away at GlenOak.  Last game of the season and I'm going to miss it. Boo!

Saturday, October 17 - 11:00 a.m. - hockey away at North Olmsted

Sunday, October 18 - 10:00 a.m. - hockey vs. Winterhurst at home.

Hockey tonight cancelled

Don't cry.

This week (9/28/15)

. . .  just sucks. That's all.

Monday:

Hockey & soccer practice.

Tuesday:

Mike and I signed up to work the concession stand, not realizing that Brendan doesn't even actually  have a game that night!  Argh.  That means we need someone to take Bug to hockey.  Anyone?

Wednesday:

More soccer practice.  More hockey practice.

Also, fall sports bonfire.

Thursday:

Soccer game - maybe?  The schedule says they're playing away at Copley at 5:15.  But they already played Copley a month ago, in a game that was supposed to have been cancelled.  The away team's bus rolled up halfway through the boys' practice, so they played it.  So is this a leftover game from when it was supposed to be rescheduled?  Or a duplicate game just to round out our schedule?  I have no idea.

Friday:

Soccer practice.

Hockey game!

8:40-9:40 pm - Home vs. Rocky River.  Sweet moses.  So glad it's at home, but really?  A game that late for nine year-olds?  Honestly.

Saturday:

Bren might have a game against Findlay.  He also might not have a game against Findlay.  Who knows?  If it takes place (like one of the two calendars indicates), it will be at 11:00 am at home.

Sunday:

Nathan hockey - 10 am - vs. Geauga - Home.

It's a great day for hockey! 2015-2016 Preseason schedule.

Our little Gretzky is getting ready to start his second season of hockey this week!  They've been practicing since late summer, and tryouts were a couple of weeks ago.  This year he's moving up from the "Mite" division to the "Squirt" division.  Quote of the day: "For such an aggressive sport, I have no idea why they use names like 'mite' and 'squirt' to describe the age groups"  - Mike Bickis.

Mites skate on half-ice and play 2-minute shifts of four skaters and one goalie.  The game stops every 2 minutes and the entire line (except the goalie) leaves the ice, replaced by a whole new set of players.  It keeps things moving - nobody gets bored and starts taking off gear on the bench, and they don't get too tired.  For squirts, they move to full ice, which has been a huge transition.  I don't know how many kids are on the ice at one time, or how long their shifts last.  We're still so new to all of this!

At any rate, this week they scheduled a series of preseason games.  These don't count in the season statistics; they're designed to let the coaches and admins figure out which division to place the boys in.  The first game is this coming weekend!   

9/27/15 at 11:45 a.m.  - vs. North Olmsted - Away

10/2/15 at 8:40 p.m. - vs. Rocky River - Home

10/4/15 at 10:00 a.m. - vs. Geauga - Home

10/17/15 at 11:45 a.m. - vs. North Olmsted - Away (we're not playing this game)

10/18/15 at 10:10 a.m. - vs. Winterhurst - Home (don't think we're playing this one, either)

10/24/15 at 4:00 p.m. - vs. Fremont - Away (this is way out yonder toward Toledo/Sandusky. Ugh)

Come if you can. 

I think I'm being Gaslighted by my own kid.

Over the weekend, I asked Nate to do some research on hermit crabs to see if it needed some fresh food to supplement the dry food we bought.  He did, and we found out lots of fascinating things about hermit crabs, a.k.a. "you're doing it wrong."

According to random folks on the internet, they enjoy green vegetables like kale and broccoli, as we  as fruits, including bananas, mangoes, peaches and apples.  Some observations:

1) Oh good, there's another foodie in my house.
2) How, exactly did they figure that out?

Our old parrot used to scream her head off if anyone dared to make popcorn and not share with her, so I guess I should be careful into whose glass cage I throw stones on this subject, but who woke up one morning and decided to give a hermit crab kale?  I can get on board with mangoes and bananas.  They grow in tropical places where you're likely to find a hermit crab.  But did someone take their crab with them to the produce section, give it a $5 bill and let it go crazy on the apple bin?  Weird.

As it turns out, you're also apparently supposed to provide them with fresh water and salt water.  And don't think you can get away with just dissolving some regular salt into that water.  Nope.  It needs to be a special marine salt mixture.  Nate helpfully found a 2lb. bag of it online, which would probably be a lifetime supply for an entire army of hermit crabs (which, let's be clear, I'm not interested in owning). Instead, we went to the pet store and found some already mixed up!  It's the size, shape, and color of an ordinary disposable water bottle, so we were sure to warn the kids when we got home that it was just for Hermes (which is what we've been calling the crab for months).  Nate threw a look of confusion mixed with pity for being so incomprehensibly stupid over his shoulder and said "What did you call him?  His name is Hercules."  That's . . . news to me.

Here, Hercules, have some kale.

This week (9/18/15)

No soccer this weekend.  Just one game, on:


Tuesday, September 22 - 5:15 p.m. - vs. Green (at home)


We get to see the Gangs!!!  So excited.

CANCEL THE CANCELLATION

Guess what?  Wednesday's game vs. Hoover is back on.  5:00 pm., at home.  Be there or be square.

No soccer wednesday 9/16/15

It appears that the Hoover game will be in October.

This week (9/11/15)

This week, there will be soccer games on:


Saturday, September 12, 2015 -  3:00 p.m. - away at Walsh Jesuit.  Not sure of the exact street address, but it looks like the fields are behind the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, off of Wyoga Lake Rd. in Cuyahoga Falls.  The street address for the school itself is 4550 Wyoga Lake Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44224.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - 5:15 p.m. - home vs. Hoover. This game is on one calendar, but not the other two, so . . . use caution?  I have no idea.

The funds, they are a-raisin'

A couple of weeks ago a viral photo of a PTA fundraising form was making the rounds of Facebook:

(photo courtesy of Dee Heinz)

Apparently it touched a nerve because the woman who posted it, Dee Heinz, suddenly found herself the focus of interest from hundreds of thousands of fellow parents, and from outlets like CNN and Good Morning America.

That it did was no real surprise.  As soon as the children go back to school, form-filling-in season is quickly replaced by fundraising season.  Within the first week or so, the fundraisers start pouring in: Cookie dough! Yankee Candles! Not-to-scale casserole dishes which look like they're made for a lasagna but are actually made for a meatloaf!  Wrapping Paper!  Chocolate and candy! It seems like every week they send home a different plea for kids to shill crap you don't need.  Now, Heinz has made it abundantly clear in interviews (and to me, personally), that she is not anti-fundraiser.  I agree.  Our PTO is amazing.  They do wonderful things for our school.  Just in the past few years they have installed new playground equipment, renovated our gym, and provided all of the teachers with smart-board technology in their classrooms!  Those are all GREAT things for our kids that the school district was unable (or unwilling) to provide.

What I don't like are the manipulative tactics that some of the fundraising companies use to get kids to buy in to them.  If you don't pester your grandma to buy an overpriced ceramic bowl, you won't get the little plastic charm to hang on your necklace like all of your other friends!  If you don't sell $300 worth of wrapping paper you don't get to attend the pizza party! The other thing that galls me about those fundraisers are the incredibly tiny profit margins for the schools.  They're pimping out their students for a couple hundred dollars.  I think if they sent out a simple request to the parents for cash donations in lieu of all of the nonsense, they could easily get as much, if not more.  I do feel for the parents who aren't in a financial position to do that.  Their kids should have an opportunity to help the school, too, and the sales make that (in theory) possible.

Apart from the pimp factor, for us, the school fundraisers aren't the only ones we have to worry about.  A couple of days ago, Brendan came home from a boy scout meeting and told me that if he sold $2,500 worth of popcorn, he could get a ~$200 electronic gadget.  Oh, yeah?  Sounds like a great deal.  Sign me up!  Nate, as a cub scout, is also expected to sell popcorn.  For many years now, we've reached an accommodation similar to the one proposed in the above photo.  The boys will do the storefront sales (I'm sure you've seen them - arm wrestling the girl scouts selling overpriced cookies for space at the front of Lowe's or Giant Eagle, or Walmart), and we make an outright donation to the troop for an amount that we think is about the profit margin that they would've received if we allowed the boys to harass neighbors, grandparents, and our coworkers.  I suppose it defeats the purpose of teaching them salesmanship, but it's just how it works in our house.

Because it's not just school fundraisers and boy scout popcorn.  Oh, nooooooooooooo.  So far this year, there have been at least three fundraisers for Bren's high school soccer team.  Last year there were at least four fundraisers for Nate's hockey team.  Lacrosse, so far, seems to be blissfully fundraiser-free, but I imagine that will change in the near future.

There are a couple that we will participate in.  In the winter, one of them (hockey, maybe?) sells some pretty holiday wreaths and poinsettias.  The prices aren't bad, and we'd probably be buying them anyway, so the organization gets the benefit of our laziness.  Likewise, every spring the Boy Scout Troop sells flowers (like, the planting kind, not the vase kind).  They're beautiful, very high quality, and an extremely reasonable price.  We'd buy them at that price or higher from Lowe's anyway, so there's no real downside.  Our boys have very generous friends and family, and we try very hard to avoid hitting them up for money every time we see them.  We do occasionally pass along one or two of the things that we think are reasonable, or that people might legitimately be interested in.  So if you find yourself hungry for some chocolate covered popcorn, you can feel free to come buy it from them at Giant Eagle in a couple of weeks, but we won't be twisting any arms.

In the meantime, here's a solution I think we can all get behind:

This week (9/5/15)

Soccer:

No games over labor day weekend (that we know of, anyway).

Thursday, September 10- Home vs. Hudson -  5:15 p.m.

Saturday, September 12 - away vs. Walsh Jesuit - 3:00 p.m.