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The Mayor’s Prom

Last night was the Mayor’s prom. He and his teammate Danny went with Danny’s sister and best friend. The Mayor was defitjeily anxious to get dressed and get to his buddy’s house to get the festivities going. He and Goalielocks both opted for the gray suit, which looked super good on both of them. He added light gold accents to match his date’s beautiful dress.

The girls weren’t ready when we first got to their house, so we had a blast taking photos of our two hockey players. They’re absolute characters. I have to say I was impressed as my boy dropped his voice and introduced himself to all of his date’s family. Albeit, it was quite amusing that he dropped his voice and octave or two. The resulting photos of the boys were absolutely incredible. There are so many great photos, I don’t know where to even start.

When the girls came down, they were absolutely stunning. Their dresses were gorgeous. Aubrey opted for a white dress with pink and rose gold accents. Her friend opted for a blue dress. After seeing all the prom pictures from this weekend, I think most girls wore blue this year. Before heading out for pictures, the boys gave the girls their corsages. Afterwards, the girls pinned on the boys boutonnières.

The Mayor was in rare form as we took pictures outside and in the limo. He may or may not have given his buddy’s grandma a shock as he did a cup check during family pictures. Perhaps the picture was the one that captured his reaction when they told him the limo had chocolate milk. As they made there way to the limo, he did the “no pictures” pose. And then they were off!

Meanwhile, we watched the Panthers game until the limo came back to take us parents to dinner. Originally, we were thinking Restoration Hardware for dinner, but they had no more sittings available. This in spite of the fact their restaurant was half empty. Consequently, we ended up eating at True Food Kitchen in Rosemary Square (formerly known as City Place.). After dinner, we we’re all fried and ready for bed. Meanwhile, the Mayor’s prom was a huge success.

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Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend at the rink. Goalielocks had two games yesterday in Coral Springs, while the Mayor had games in Palm Beach today. Unfortunately, the way our schedule worked out there wasn’t enough time to go home between games either day. Moreover, we didn’t even have time to leave the rink for lunch either day. Honestly, it makes for a really long day.


Goalielocks and the Toros dropped their two games yesterday. It’s so hard to play U18AA with a really short bench. Nonetheless, Goalielocks and his goalie partner both played phenomenally. The first game was pretty nasty. The Clearwater team was super dirty. In fact, one of their kids got tossed from the game for a terrible knee to knee hit on one of our players.

Today’s games were a little stressful. The Mayor’s team really needed to win both to have a chance at states. The first game versus the Makos was pretty tight. The Mayor got the game winning goal in the second period. His goalie came up with some huge saves to keep the Makos to one goal. Late in the third, the boys added an empty netter, which was a nice insurance goal. The final score on that contest was 3-1.

The second game they won 4-0 with goals from four different players. Including a beautiful short handed goal from the PK1 line. Honestly, that goal really took the wind out of the other team’s sails. Both games were a lot of fun to watch even if the first game was pretty stressful. The Mayor’s team has four more games left and they really need to wrack up the wins.

While we were at the rink, the temperature dropped considerably. It was in the 50s when we drove home. In fact, we’re under a frost warning. Or as I like to call it, a falling iguana warning. We don’t get many days that are this cool, so I’ll enjoy the lack of heat and humidity for the next day or so. And then we’ll get back to the normal heat and humidity. As for the rest of the night, we’re winding down our busy weekend with some NHL hockey.

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Winter Break

Winter break is over for the boys. They’ll finally head back to school tomorrow after a nice break. Of course, they’re just in time for the omicron variant, which means we’ll receive a boundless number of emails from school about it. Honestly, the Covid fatigue is real. I’m over all of it. Fortunately, there is no chance that they’ll go virtual, which will save my sanity.

Tomorrow the puppies and I will get back to our well established routine. While the boys are home, the puppies are a bit all over the place. They bark to get into our room and then bark or get out. Unfortunately, there’s just so much going on that they can’t decide where they want to hangout. Normally, I leave my door open so they can come and go as they please. However, that isn’t feasible when the boys are home from school.

I finished The Diary of Ann Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell last night. It was an entertaining read that fed my Tudor obsession very nicely. I’ve already ordered her other books about the Tudors. It’s all Hillary Mantel’s fault. Her Wolf Hall trilogy about Thomas Cromwell is absolutely outstanding. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Tonight I’ll be starting another Mantel novel albeit not one that involves the Tudors. After this book, I’ll circle back to Robin Maxwell and the Tudors.

Reading has long been a love of mine. For many years, I neglected this love, but not anymore. I’ve made reading daily a priority for the last three years, which has been wonderful. I’m slowly working my way through the top 500 novels. What books have you been reading? Did you ready anything interesting over winter break?

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Writer’s Block

The hardest thing about writing a blog is overcoming writer’s block. I had a working title and topic, but I’m not sure Google and SEO gods like words like fuckery. To be honest, the use is of the word is completely appropriate when discussing Facebook’s sheer and utter incompetence.

Since our oldest joined the service, I’ve had friend requests from countless fake accounts spoofing military leaders. I’ve reported each one and Facebook in all it’s awesomeness has done nothing. Rather they knowingly allow the spoof accounts to pray on service members and their families. Meanwhile the real accounts have been verified by the same entity that refuses to shut down the obviously fake accounts. Great job Facebook.

I shared the post from the hockey parent dumb ass on my blog last night. Unsurprisingly, his account is also fake. Apparently, this keyboard hero, who makes fun of officials for being afraid to take the ice, is afraid to make these comments from his real account. What a loser. Naturally, Facebook or the moderators of the forum should shutdown this fake troll account. Yet neither have decided to act on this despite the fact the troll acknowledged he setup a fake account. Anyway, Facebook has jumped the shark Reddit is significantly more interesting.

Anyway, the writer’s block has cleared. My two mile run was arduous this morning. I don’t know why it’s not getting any easier, but it’s super frustrating. Tomorrow morning I will be doing the BBG arms and ab workout. I’m planning to do yoga in the evening to help my muscles recover. I need to get back into the rhythm of practicing yoga daily. By the end of AEP, my yoga schedule will be back on track.

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Oh Anakin

Oh Anakin as if my Monday was not already Monday enough, you decided to puke on our white down comforter. Naturally, I watched horrified while I was on the phone with a client. Athena was also concerned and was trying to look up onto the bed to make sure you’re okay. Again I was watching you, so I saw when you grabbed my pajama pants with your mouth and used them to cover up your vomit.

Thankfully, I can’t smell. Otherwise, I’d probably have lost my cookies as well. Fortunately, my phone call was short, so I was able to strip the bedding off my bed and get it into the wash immediately. Sadly, some of the vomit bled through to our memory foam pad. Pro tip, the bissell portable carpet cleaner destroys memory foam pads. Whoops! Oh well, at least there’s no vomit on the pad.

Oh Anakin, you are such a silly puppy. I love working from home and having the dogs chill with me all day. Most days they are well behaved and I don’t have to clean anything up. Moreover, most days Anakin and Athena lay quietly near me. They only get loud when somebody comes to the door. Fortunately, I don’t plan on going to the office anytime soon, so the puppies will be my office mates for the foreseeable future.

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Happy Birthday Hubby!

Join me in wishing my hubby a very happy birthday! Today we chilled at home, which was nice. I’ve been a bit under the weather, in addition to the broken toe. Also, the Mayor was exposed to Covid last week, so today wasn’t a day to paint the town the red. (“Paint the town red,” what a brilliant bromide.) It really was a nice, low key day at home.

The hubby smoked a nice pork butt and grilled some yummy ribs. We used the ribs from Butcher Box for the first time today. While the ribs were tasty, they were pretty fatty. Moreover, some pieces had a lot of cartilage on them. Nevertheless, they tasted amazing. We also had some of the Hubby’s amazing grilled potatoes. Additionally, I air fried up some home made french fires. The food was awesome!! As was the company, since my brother was able to join us for lunch.

The Mayor tested negative on the rapid home test, but I still took him to Urgent Care tonight for a PCR test. Obviously, it’s never a fun time waiting at the Urgent Care, but the waiting room was mildly entertaining. First of all, the guy that came in immediately after us was looking to be seen because he got Palmolive (yes, the dish soap) in his eye. Given his conversation with the front desk, he’s definitely a frequent flyer. He was quite the character.

Secondly, a mom and her teen daughter came j for a Covid test. The daughter had two positive home tests and was coming in for the PCR. Wh they were in the waiting room, the mom called her daughter’s boss to tell him she wouldn’t been into work tomorrow. Moms, dads, guardians of the universe don’t do your kids dirty work. If they’re old enough to hold a job, they’re old enough to tell their boss they have Covid and can’t come in. #helicoptermom

I was also finally able to get my toe checked out by a doctor. Unfortunately, the urgent care (like many others) is short staffed and did not have an X-ray tech on staff today. Nevertheless, I was able to have a doctor evaluate it and re-wrap it. It’s broken, but I’ll go back tomorrow to have X-rays taken of my toe and foot. For the interim, the boot is back to ensure I don’t flex or bend the toe injuring it further.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.

*I still can’t run because my toe. It feels like deja vu.

*This morning I made homemade cookies and cream and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. For the Hubby’s birthday, we had ice cream sandwiches.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. The tropics are heating up again. Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana today at a Cat 4 storm. That is a scary!

*The Hubby picked up coffee for me today since I was not feeling great this morning.

* I watched the live Safaris on YouTube today. The safaris absolutely inspire me. The vistas are extraordinary and the animals wondrous. I simply have to see it in person!

*For dinner, we had bbq ribs, potatoes, baked beans and brags. It was awesome!

*The word of the day and it is excellence. I had an interesting conversation on the topic over the weekend. The thing about excellence is that it should come intrinsically. One shouldn’t be reliant on outside influences to find excellence.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance.

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Busted

Well they busted our tournament courtesy of Covid. Unfortunately, we learned that there was Covid case on the team, so they shut down the Mayor’s team for now. The Mayor was incredibly disappointed and frustrated by this news. Honestly, I’m both disappointed and relieved. I wasn’t looking forward to spending my weekend on my feet. However, I was very much looking forward to watching him play.

Speaking of busted, my toe looks pretty gnarly today. I’ve now got some bruising on the top of my foot and the side is swollen. The hubby taped it last night with a cotton ball and first aid tape. Afterwards, I ordered some buddy tape from Amazon, which was supposed to deliver it today. Unfortunately, Amazon is now delivering it on Sunday. Consequently, I ordered some for curbside pickup at Walgreens.

I decided I should probably get an X-ray to make sure my toe heals properly and rule out any issues with my foot. After all, the most important thing is for me to return to running as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the urgent cares around me had no capacity until tomorrow night at 7:00 pm or were closed at 6:00. I’ll probably try to get an X-ray tomorrow since this also happens to be my foot with the torn tendon. At any rate, my left is a hot mess right now.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.

*I still can’t run because my toe. It feels like deja vu. Just when I get started again, something derails my running.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. The tropics are heating up again. Hurricane Ida is headed to the gulf coast potentially as a major hurricane. Meanwhile, there are still two areas of concern in the Atlantic.

*Goalielocks went back to school today, which was great. He loves school and hated being home, but he also understood it’s not okay to go to school sick. Naturally, I ordered my coffee via Uber Eats.

* I watched the live Safaris on YouTube today. The safaris absolutely inspire me. The vistas are extraordinary and the animals wondrous. I simply have to see it in person!

*For dinner, the hubby cooked vodka sauce pasta. It was yummy.

*The word of the day and it is stupefy. Sometimes at work I think there’s no way I can stupefy my explanation of coverage any further. In those cases, where the client clearly isn’t understanding, I ask to speak with their children before doing business with them.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance.

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Loss

Loss seems to be the overwhelming theme of 2020 and 2021. Life naturally brings us life as we age and the people we love age with us. It sucks but it’s reality. The past eighteen months, however, has presented us with loss on a scale we’re not accustomed to. Just this week, we have lost two hockey dads to COVID. Men that were far too young to leave this earth.

It’s, of course, a lot easier for us as adults to process these losses. Which is to say it’s not easy, but we’re better equipped than our kids to handle and process the grief. For our kids, it’s not just the loss of their friend’s parent they’re trying to process, but the possibility that they could lose their parents to Covid. To a kid of any age, this is terrifying.

The sense of loss, the fear of loss remains omni present even as we’re eighteen months into this thing. Honestly, it’s exhausting. Nonetheless, you have to live your life and move forward. The boys being back in school is an important step in moving forward. Moreover, hockey has been an integral part of keeping them socially engaged and active. During this difficult time, exercise be it hockey, running or lifting weights is an easy way to help cope during this period.

In other news, it’s only Tuesday. Truly, it feels like it should be Saturday already. This week is dragging. Fortunately, I had a much better day at work today. Thank God. They say laughter is the best medicine and I wholeheartedly agree, so I’ll leave you with this.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Far From the Madding Crowdby Thomas Hardy. At first I wasn’t sure about the book, but now I like it. Albeit some of the plot twists have left me aghast.

*I ran a mile and a half. It in many ways sucked. Especially since it’s my first run post leg day in over two months. Leg day yesterday killed me!

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. The tropics are heating up again with three areas of concern. Fortunately, all the tropical weather is moving away from us! Unfortunately, the heat has really cranked up due to the Saharan dust cloud overhead.

*Since Goalielocks is home sick, I drove to pick up my coffee this morning. Fortunately, Goalielocks’ Covid test came back negative! Thank God!

* Every day I watch the live Safaris on YouTube, I’m inspired. I never thought I’d be one for a safari, but the views and the animals are incredible. It’s now on my bucket list. Today was a banner day. I always love watching the young elephants or lions playing. They’re so cute!

*For dinner, I made home made meatballs and spaghetti. Tonight we tried Michael’s from Brooklyn’s tomato basil sauce. It was super yummy. As a family, we’re trying all the top jarred spaghetti sauce. The Mayor and I love spaghetti, so I thought it would be a fun activity for us.

*The word of the day and it is kakorrhaphiophobia, which means and abnormal fear of failure. I think a lot of have a fear of failure, but for most it’s not a paralyzing fear.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance.

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Title

The worst part of writing a blog is thinking of an adequate title. My creativity, much like my ability to make a sale today, has left the building. Consequently, you get a lazy title from me tonight. And now here I am rambling about choosing a title.

Fortunately, I wasn’t as lazy with the rest of my day as I am being with the blog tittle. While work wasn’t super productive for me today, I did work my arse off. During lunch, I ran a mile and a half and walked a mile. I thought a boost of endorphins may help on the sale sides. It didn’t. After work, I restarted Kayla Itsines High Intensity workout. Unfortunately, it showed me how out of shape I have become.

The sadness of losing one out hockey dads has been omnipresent today. It’s incredible sad and scary. My heart aches for the family that’s he’s left behind. Please continue to keep his family in your prayers. You can support the family through donation or providing a meal. Moreover, the meal train can be found here.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Far From the Madding Crowdby Thomas Hardy. At first I wasn’t sure about the book, but now I like it. Albeit some of the plot twists have left me aghast.

*I ran for the first time since getting sick. It felt both glorious and awful all at once. My fellow runners will understand exactly what I mean.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. Fortunately, all the tropical weather is moving away from us! Unfortunately, the heat has really cranked up with heat indexes in the triple digits.

*Uber Eats delivered my Dunkin’ this morning, which was awesome sauce. Unfortunately, their customer service and their shitty eats pass suck.

*For dinner, the I tossed some pizzas in the oven. I cooked two market pantry and one digiorno pizza. They were very good. Unsurprisingly, we have no leftovers.

*The word of the day and it is enclosed. At the present moment, the dogs are enclosed in their crates. Anakin has finished his dinner, so I’ll let him out soon. I love my puppies!

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance.

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Fatigue

Guys the Covid fatigue is real and it couldn’t come at a worst time. Now more that ever, however, it is important to be vigilant and protects ourselves and our families. I know I’m sick of hearing/reading about it everywhere for the last fifteen months. Honestly, I’m most sick of the assholes on Facebook that think their opinions on masks and vaccines are important. Spoiler alert they’re not. Both sides are excruciatingly vapid and sanctimonious. At the end of the day, opinions on social media do nothing but turn people off. Moreover, the only opinion that should matter to anyone is the advice of their doctor. Rant over.

Of course Covid fatigue isn’t the only type of fatigue we’re battling here. With the school year and hockey season back in full swing, we’ve accepted that we’ll be exhausted for the next ten months. This year we have practice on four of five weekdays, which is great. One day off during the week is a bit brutal, but it could be worse. Practice could be five days a week like it was several years ago.

Speaking of hockey, last night we went out to dinner with some of our favorite hockey parents. I was super excited to try the prix fixe menu for Dine Out Delray. The best part of trying the special menu is it forces me to try something I wouldn’t ordinarily order. I already knew what I was going to order before we walked in the door.

Unfortunately, the experience didn’t live up to the expectations. We were sat outside, which is an incredibly beautiful space. Sadly, it was also as hot as Hades. It took almost an hour before anyone took even our drink order and another hour to get our drinks. The whole dinner took over three hours. In contrast, the dinner at the steakhouse with 15 people took less than 90 minutes. Moreover, there was no excuse for the slowness as the restaurant was not full. We won’t be going back.

The dining didn’t live up to expectations, but fortunately the company exceeded expectations. People think travel hockey (travel sports) parents are crazy for the amount of time and money they invest into the sport. Fortunately, the time and money has paid dividends in life experiences and friendships that will last long after our travel hockey days are done. Yeah, we do it for our kids and they benefit greatly, but so do their parents.


On a side note, I spent some time updating the blog including my awesome Savings page. Affiliate relationships help cover the costs of this blog at no cost to my readers. Several companies are running some incredible sales in August. You can see them all on the savings page.

Lastly, a prayer request. Today one of the Mayor’s teammates lost his father to Covid. Please keep his teammate and his family in your prayers. Please also protect yourself and your family as best as possible because this thing is insidious and deadly even though Covid fatigue has set in.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Far From the Madding Crowdby Thomas Hardy. At first I wasn’t sure about the book, but now I like it. Albeit some of the plot twists have left me aghast.

*I ran for the first time since getting sick. It felt both glorious and awful all at once. My fellow runners will understand exactly what I mean.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. Fortunately, all the tropical weather is moving away from us! Unfortunately, the heat has really cranked up with heat indexes in the triple digits.

*I actually drove to my Dunkin’ this morning, which was awesome sauce. It’s always good to see my Dunkin’ crew.

*For dinner, the Hubby made Osso Bucco for dinner. Honestly, it was was amazing. Furthermore, the stew meat from Butcher Box was a big win.

*Today’s word of the day is destination. Life is a journey and we’re all headed to the same destination, so enjoy the journey.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Furthermore, he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness