Life Lessons thru Bad Parenting - Washington Capitals @ SJ Sharks 2/17/11

I'm working through my extreme lack of energy to post this.  The photos have been (roughly & quickly) edited for weeks but life has been coming at me too fast and too depressingly for me to find the wherewithal to put jumbled thoughts to fingertips to screen...

But without further ado, 

 The life lesson I learned at the Capitals/Sharks game:

Bad parenting and a bratty kid trumps 
well-behaved kid and meek parenting.
  

At least when it comes to getting hockey pucks.

Here's the story.  We arrived pregame and took our customary place in the second row (okay, our customary place is often right on the glass but that hardly matters, now does it?  Back to the story.) on the visitors side.  There was a woman sitting with two youngsters, a girl and a boy, right in front of us on the glass.

The girl was a bit cra-cra as we like to say. Yelling, running back and forth, banging the glass, etc.  All in good fun.  The boy was also having a good time, talking excitedly, laughing, etc. They were wearing Capitals gear and had made a couple of signs for Ovechkin.

 They were sitting with a nice woman we shall call Mommy. Daddy, apparently, was sitting over on the Sharks side.  So after causing a bit of mayhem, the girl decides she wants to go see her dad.  Mom says okay.  Exit the kids.  

Return the kids + the dad who now sits about 3 rows behind us.  The kids make their way back to the glass and resume sitting in the exact seats that they were sitting in before.  

Tampa Bay Lightning @ Sharks 11/6/10...and a few other things...

Holla. Sitting here watching the Sharks apparently on their way to another loss, this time against the Oilers. *le sigh*  Today was a good/bad day and appears to be ending on a down note with this game.

On the good note, Roman at Guitar Center in San Francisco is a gem.  Actually a lot of the dudes there are pretty nice.  Had a nice little drive with fairly light traffic except a couple spots on the Bridge and in Berkeley on the way back.  Sonic tots are always a plus. And able to help my daughter out after she had a very, very bad day yesterday. 

On the bad notes...why mention it?  Alzheimer's is a bitch.  Add in fairly acute hearing loss and life is pretty stressful and ALMOST unbearable.  I really, really pray that she gets her audiology appointment soon and hearing aids soon thereafter.  AND  I really, really, really pray that once she can hear better, she will be more responsive and regain some of the independence she has lost over the last couple months.

Holy hello!  Jumbo just scored on the PP after nice passes from Patty and Heater.  Nice puck movement boys!  Is there life in this team after all???  Oh...maybe not... Oil with a 5-3.  This will be telling....please kill this boys!  Oh.  Killed it and then they scored.  Wow.

*******************

Alright, let's go back to when the Sharks were decent and we all had hope for a future filled with bright, beautiful, silver cups.

Once upon a time a fan drove to a Sharks game with a feeling of optimisim that the home team was badass and would overcome even an opponent who was playing as well as the Tampa Bay Lightning. 
That day was November 6, 2010...

There was a lovely air of pissed-offedness amongst the fans since this was the first Free Jumbo game.

Sharks Mid-Season Rant

I was going to post my pics & thoughts from my trip to see Ryan Malone and the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Sharks in November but first a few random thoughts:

Another brutal Sharks loss last night.  This team is talented offensively and there is just no damn reason for the lack of scoring.  Our defense is not as atrocious as previously anticipated but it's not good enough to support a dearth of scoring .

Poor Devils Get Eaten by Sharks! 10/27/10

Disclaimer: 

I am watching the Sharks @ Dallas Stars so there may be some cursing, etc., if tonight's game doesn't go better than the first 17 minutes did.  And while I'm still pissed off about the loss last night, let me just say:

Poor Ginner!!  Not only do I believe that he had a good goal taken away from him (although I do not fault the officials since the angle was almost impossible to judge on the replay) but then to hear that he felt terrible because the puck might have been going in anyway and he fucked it up by touching it! 

*sob* The heart - it breaks.

I don't have any scoreboard pictures showing the Sharks vs. Devils logo to bore you with.  Not sure why actually.  You'll have to make due with a blurry shot of the neato 20th Anniversary puck sculpture!

San Jose Sharks (true) Home Opener 10/16/10

Vs. the Gilligan's Island Blackhawks. 
Castoffs?  Get it?  Never mind.
:clears throat:

Vs. the Atlanta Thrashers! 

Gorgeous night in San Jose.  In case you haven't noticed, this is the 20th anniversary for the Sharks. 

That very much featured at HP Pavilion in new banners, etc.

2010 Sharks Teal and White Game September 21

Thanks to a couple of nice posters at HF Boards, Adie and I decided to "sneak" into the Teal and White game (TWG). 

The TWG is the Sharks annual preseason welcome for season ticket holders.  The event is free with your ticket holder id and there are autograph tables set up for all the players followed by a scrimmage.  Needless to say, we are not season ticket holders. 

One poster emailed me the "save the date" flyer to use as a season ticket holder invitation and another poster pm'd me his phone number in case the "invitation" didn't fly. See?  There are still awesome people in the world.  Otherwise, I might not have made the drive to San Jose with no guarantee of getting in the doors.  We did have a backup plan, which was to backtrack to Oakland since the A's were in town. 

But, with just a little stress, we got in!  Yay!  First thing we did was note that all of the lines to the autograph tables were already hella long.  No thank you.  The sucky thing (for me) was that 3 of the 4 tables were located in the upstairs eateries...so you couldn't just walk thru and see the players and take photos.  You had to actually stand in line if you wanted to gawk.  Again...no thank you.

So, thanks to the setup, here are a ton of pictures from the ONE table that was located directly on the concourse. 

Luckily three of my favorites were at the table,