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Crushed It

I crushed it today at work, which was fabulous. Yesterday started quite slow, but turned out fantastically. Here’s hoping the rest of the week goes just as well. Perhaps I was inspired by the raise I was given. I had no idea I was getting it until I saw my paycheck. Color me surprised. Surprise or not, I’ll take it.

Back to excuses, my hubby reminded me that Goalielocks used to use homework to get out of doing chores. I probably excluded it because it was so far fetched. Truly, he’s never known for doing his homework without being pushed or at all for that matter. The Mayor came up with a ridiculous excuse in Utah, but I can’t remember it at the moment. I’m hoping Jake will remember it because it brought back the memory for him of the socks and shower episode in Orlando.

I also crushed my workout this morning. Mercifully, it was the ab and arm workout, which is by far the easiest of the three Dayan. I’m not looking forward to Friday’s workout as it looks like a real ass kicker. I’m now in week 4 of BBG 1.0 (now known as Kayla Itsines High Intensity 1.0.). This is the second time I’ve done 1.0 although it’s much different this time around. I look forward to seeing what the next eight weeks hold.

Prayer request: tonight the Hubby is cooking for a friend. His friend’s young baby was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis last week and was given a dire prognosis. Thankfully, he is proving the doctors wrong. Nevertheless, the family is need of support, prayers and meal. If there’s a financial need, I will share it here. Please keep them in your prayers.

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Excuses

Excuses are part of every parent’s life. Kids always have an excuse as to why they can’t do something you’ve asked them to do. I thought I’d share some of the gems my boys have come up with over the year. Naturally, this was inspired by the Mayor’s most recent excuse when I dared to ask him to take out the dog. So here’s the list in no particular order.

  • “I can’t, I just put my socks on.” – The Mayor when asked to take a shower after his hockey game.
  • “I can’t, it’s too dark outside for me.” – The Mayor when asked to take Athena out tonight.
  • “I can’t, I’m drinking my milk.” All of the boys when asked to do various things ranging from chores to homework.
  • “I can’t, I’m about to eat.” All of them.
  • “I can’t, there are toads outside.” The younger two when asked to take out the dogs.
  • “I can’t, he’s too strong for me.” The younger two when asked to take Anakin out.
  • “I can’t, I have to take a shower.” Ironically, this one also comes from the Mayor.

I feel like I’m missing a bunch and they’ll probably come to me later. Nevertheless, they’ve come up with some frustratingly yet funny. Naturally, I’ll have to adjust the Mayor’s curfew to coincide with his new found fear of the dark. Fortunately, I’m not afraid of the dark, so I took my sweet Piggie back outside. She’s definitely not quick to do her business, but I encounter nothing scary while waiting for her.

One excuse that has never made into the list of excuses in this house is “I can’t, I have homework to do.” Parenting is definitely and exercise in patience with the occasional mental and emotional breakdown peppered in their for fun. I’m sure as we finish the high school years and move into the college years, our younger two will come up with some great excuses.

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Frustrating

Technology, specifically my internet, has been frustrating since Friday. I don’t know if the copious amounts of rain and flooding near the cable box screwed something up, but it hasn’t worked well since. In fact, my system hung up on five people today because my internet dropped service. Naturally, I switched over to my AT&T, but that service didn’t perform any better.

I spend a fortune every month for high speed internet, so when it doesn’t work it’s beyond frustrating. What am I paying for?! Frustration, mad clients and shitty customer service?! Unfortunately, it’s Monday, so I didn’t have the emotional or mental energy to call support for either internet provider. Instinctively, I knew calling them would only make me angrier.

Despite the tech glitches all afternoon, I still had a great sales day. Obviously, it would have been a better day if I hadn’t lost so much time on the phones this afternoon. For a Monday, it was relatively boring which was nice. What I mean by boring is that I didn’t have any dumpster fire or mean customers. This is always a win. I love days like this because their filled with great conversation and lots of sales.

The biggest challenge on the week days is the meals. I’m way too tired to cook by the time I finish work. The Hubby is at hockey practice three out of five days, so him cooking is a no go. Sadly, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, but frozen pizzas have been our go to dinner since AEP started. I’m sure the kids and hubby will by thrilled when AEP is over and I can go back to cooking.

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Big Weekend

It was a big weekend for us with Goalielocks turning 18 yesterday. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by. Honestly, it feels like I was just 18. Now my second child is an adult and I’m at a loss for where time has gone. Does one blink and their kids suddenly become adults? I’m barely an adult myself.

Before we celebrated his birthday, the Hubby and I spent night down at the Hard Rock having fun and watching Metallica. We had an amazing evening with our besties John and Hanh. We love them so much. They’re not just our friends, but our family. Anyway, Metallica has long been a bucket list concert for me, so this was a special evening. Unsurprisingly, they lived up the the hype. They are absolutely incredible live. The setlist was great. I loved that they played Sad But True, Nothing Else Matters and Enter Sandman. I will be seeing them live again.


We also got to spend the night in the Guitar Hotel, which was also awesome. The bed was incredibly comfortable. Obviously, we didn’t spend too much time there, but it was a nice space. Before heading down to the concert, we definitely took a picture of the room number. This way we wouldn’t forget it in event we over did the free drinks in the casino. For a concert, Hard Rock Live is a great venue. There are several restaurants and bars in close proximity, which makes celebrating before and after concerts quite easy.

We celebrated Goalielocks birthday today. The Hubby grilled some ribs and potatoes and onions. We got him a cookie cake. Meanwhile, I made a rustic French tart because it’s yummy. We couldn’t celebrate yesterday because the Mayor’s hockey games and Homecoming. Last night was the first and last Homecoming for Goalielocks. Hard to believe he’s 18 and a senior in high school. I’m still waiting on pictures from the event, but hopefully I’ll have some to share with you all soon. It’s been a great big weekend. Hopefully, our week is just a great. Oh wait a second, Goalielocks just sent me some pictures!

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Redefined

It’s amazing how success and failure can redefined in our minds as time goes on. My day at work was arduous and slow, but still quite lucrative. In fact, it was more than double the business I wrote this same time last year. Yet I left work feeling defeated for not hitting my personal goal. This despite the fact I worked over twelve hours today.

Days like this remind me of how wonderful and horrible people can be. On one call I’d speak tor the coolest person ever. Unfortunately, the next call would be the biggest tool ever. There are some truly miserable people out there. Honestly, it must really suck to live their lives. I can’t imagine how terrible their lives must be that they act so horribly. Meanwhile, some people I work with are in terribly tough situations, but are the sweetest, kindest soul you could ever meet.

Speaking of redefined, I’ve had to redefine my expectations for running. I’ve been back to running since 2019 (albeit not consistently,) yet I’m still so slow. Before I got hurt and sick, I got my split time on a 5k down to 9 minutes and 14 seconds. Now a fast mile more me is nearly eleven minutes. Needless to say, I’m not thrilled about it. I’ve redefined success to being able to run two miles three times a week either on the treadmill or outside.

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Crazy

It’s crazy to me that after a letter from our state hockey league addressing poor parent and coach behavior that people still don’t get it. Last weekend there was a squirt A game (I mean u10a) on the West Coast in which a parent opened the door to argue a call. Let that sink in for a second. It wasn’t even a rec game where you’d expect that kind of uneducated and uncouth behavior from a parent.

To be fair, it was a squirt a travel game filled with future NHL stars. Obviously there was a lot of skin in the game. So much that this dad felt the need to open the door to tell the ref there were too many men on the ice. Spoiler alert the right number of players were on the ice for both teams. I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in my years as a hockey parent, but a parent opening the door to the ice sheet during a game takes the cake.

Naturally, this set off a lively conversation on the youth hockey forum. People, the majority in fact could not believe parent could behave this poorly at a game. Unsurprisingly, the guy did have a few defenders okay two defenders. Their argument, by the way, was that he’s a good dad and was just concerned about the ref’s missing a call. After all their kids work so hard and should lose on the account of a bad call. Again this was u10a game in southwest Florida and there was no missed call.

Eventually the moderators had to shut the comments off because these two jokers were getting ridiculous. They couldn’t understand how we could judge someone as a bad person/dad for their actions at the game. There is a Grand Canyon size gulf between disagreeing with someone’s actions and judging them as a bad person. My dude made a poor decision and needs to be held accountable, but he probably is a good guy. Anyway, you can’t fix crazy.

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Wonderful Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend and am ready for the work week. After a productive day at work Saturday, Goalielocks and I headed to the Luke Combs concert with my bro, sister-in-law, Richard and Suelen. To be honest, I’ve never been a country music fan. However, Goalielocks and I would listen to Combs every time we drove to Miami for hockey his U16AA season. Luke Combs’ music brings up so many great memories of that season and of spending time with him.

I’ve never seen the BB&T Center (or whatever it’s now called) so full. It was filled to the brim. Consequently, it took us over thirty minutes to actually get into the stadium for the show. We’ve been there a lot for hockey games and have never waited more than five minutes to get into the arena. Fortunately, our seats were club level so the lines for the bar and the bathroom were not bad. The lines on the 100 level, however, were absolutely ridiculous. I did get to see some of my favorite people from Kaplan, which was epic.

Many artists sound way better on their records, but not Luke Combs. To be clear, he sounds amazing on his records. It’s just he sounds even better in person. His voice is absolutely incredible and so was the crowd. The arena had an amazing energy that I wish we could bottle and preserve for the Panthers games. At any rate, if you have an opportunity to see Luke Combs, even if you’re not into country music, you should see him. After all, according to Goalielocks Comb is baseball cap or bass fishing cap country not cowboy boots and cowboy hat country.

I spent Sunday baking and organizing. I baked a French apple tart and made some chocolate avocado mousse. Both turned out really well. Additonally, I cooked pasta with lamb sauce, but I wasn’t thrilled with how it turned out. Don’t get me wrong, it was good just not as good as the last time I made it. Nevertheless, we had an awesome dinner before heading outside for Halloween.

It was a beautiful evening, so we rolled the cooler over to Carrie and Mark’s for drinks and trick or treating. Unfortunately, the trick or treaters were sparse and we have entirely too much candy leftover. Clearly, I don’t need lots of candy in the house on top of the tart and mousse. Even though there were few trick or treaters, we had a great time hanging out with our neighbors.

It was a wonderful weekend. In fact, I even took Anakin on a run for the first time since last spring. Goalielocks and his girlfriend carved pumpkins and then took some great picture at the farmers market near us. They turned out great. Meanwhile, the Mayor had a wonderful weekend with his boys.

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No Surprise

No surprise here, but Coach Q resigned his role as head coach of the Florida Panthers. The Panthers are off to their best start in years and could be a serious contender for the cup. Fortunately, for all that is wrong with the Panthers, the team made the right decision on Coach Q. To keep him behind the bench would have been a mistake of disastrous proportions. The Panthers, along with the league, would have lost all credibility.

I, like many hockey fans, are still reeling from what happened in Chicago. How many other cases has hockey covered up over the years? How many other recommendation letters have they written for monsters allowing to continue their predation on vulnerable athletes. To be clear, this isn’t just a hockey problem. It’s a sports problem from the lowest level of the game to the highest level of the game.

For years USA Hockey has required participating coaches, managers, officials and hockey directors to complete Safesport training. Moreover, USA hockey built a reporting system by which Safesport violations could be reported without fear of reprisal. Or at least that’s what they say. But here’s the deal. When you report a Safesport violation, USA Hockey assigns it back to the USA Hockey affiliate for investigation and disposition.

The setup is problematic for many reasons. Perhaps the biggest problem is the close relationships between those on the affiliate board making it impossible for impartiality and discretion. If you report a SafeSport violation report, your identity is supposed to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, the victim’s identity too often becomes public inowledge or worse they’re persecuted for reporting a violation.

This is a problem that we have to solve. The days off sweeping Safesport violations and sexual abuse under the wrong have got to be over. We can no longer tolerate winning at all costs, including ignoring serious allegations like Beach’s. Kyle Beach has bravely stepped forward to tell his story. However, there are probably thousands of athletes that continue to suffer in silence. Until something changes, it can come as no surprise that the abuse of athletes will continue. I love hockey and my Florida Panthers, but I want to watch them play with a clean conscious.

As for work, I had a long but productive week. Nonetheless, I am ready to go to bed early and catch up on some rest. The morning workouts continue to go well, but its tough to get out of bed. Tomorrow Goalielocks and I are heading to see Luke Combs in concert. Its going to be epic.

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Disappointed

After reading reports of what happened to Kyle Beach in Chicago during their Cup run, disappointed seems like too mild of a word to describe my feelings. For that matter, I’m not sure this word adequately captures how many hockey fans feel about what was allowed to happen and covered up in Chicago. The abuse Beach endured while a Blackhawk is sickening, but the way the team and the league handled it are equally terrible.

Here in Florida, we’re waiting to see how the fallout will impact Coach Q and the Florida Panthers. Coach Q is an incredible coach, but if he was complicit in this horrid affair his hockey days need to be over. Meanwhile, the Panthers are off to a very hot start this season. Nonetheless, we can’t be tempted to brush this aside in the name of the cup. After all, that’s what happened when these allegations first arose.

Bettman, who a was probably in the loop on this too, met with Coach Q today. I’ve not seen anything come across the web detailing how that meeting went. Bettman has to tread carefully here. This incident says just as much about the culture of the NHL as it does the 2010 Blackhawks. But back to the Blackhawks, these fools wrote the offender a recommendation letter. Consequently, he got a job coaching at a high school where (you guessed it) he sexually assaulted another victim. He’s now a registered sex offender. Good looking out Blackhawks….

Meanwhile, work is going well this week. My clients have been pretty nice. I did have a lady that was rude this morning, but apologized as soon as I called her on it. There’s no need to be rude. The dogs keep me company all day, which is wonderful. They wipe away any disappointment I experience during the day with their loving demeanor. They’re the best co-workers. In fact, their only fault is that they can’t make a Dunkin run for me.

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Buzz Kill

Growing up in Minnesota, there was no bigger buzz kill on Halloween than your mother making you wear a jacket over your cool costume. The vast majority of Halloweens growing up were bitter cold and filled with snow. In fact the last Halloween I was allowed to trick-or-treat, my night out and candy haul were cut short by a historic blizzard. We made it less than two blocks before having to call it a night.

My kids, particularly the younger two, will never understand the pain of having to layer below and on top of your costumer. Admittedly, Halloween in Florida is much more enjoyable. Our neighborhood does it well with several houses having bars for the adults and great candy for the kids. Honestly, I missed all the Halloween fun that Covid cancelled last year.

Speaking of buzz kill, there’s nothing worse than someone who is unwilling to compromise at all. I’m fortunate that I’m no longer faced with this bull headedness at work. I wish I could say the same thing for the rest of my life. Even my dog is stubborn! Anyway, stubbornness without a willingness to compromise does nobody any favors and can destroy relationships. Fortunately, I can coax Athena into a compromise with a nice treat.

This week’s been long, so has this month for that matter. I love working from home, but it can be quite isolating. Not to be a total buzz kill, because my job is amazing and so is my life, but it can get pretty lonely. I know what you’re thinking. My loneliness is killing me (if you didn’t sing Britney Spears right then, we can’t be friends.). Anyway, I’m looking forward to the Luke Combs concert this weekend and getting out of the house. It will be nice to not be all myself.