Blood Clots and Black Holes - Happily Giving Blood @SJSharks Blood Drive 2/1/14

Some mood music...

Hi again!  I'm always behind the eight ball.  But who the fuck cares, right?  Well, sometimes I do.  Sometimes.

Anyhoo...had an amazingly fun weekend last weekend so wanted to share before TOO much time goes by.  

I've been looking forward to this weekend since September when I bought my San Jose Sharks vs. Chicago Blackhawks tickets.  And then I heard the Sharks were having a blood drive the morning of the game RIGHT when I was due to give blood!  It's a bloody miracle!  

Public Service Announcement:  Don't google image search "bloody miracle" unless you want to see some truly disturbing things.

Alrighty then...  

The second best thing about donating blood at the Sharks drive (the first being that you're saving lives...duh) is you get in to see the morning skate.

So we originally planned on leaving Sacramento at 7:30 to get there by 10:30.  Of course that didn't happen.  It was too hard to get out of bed on a Saturday morning.  So we left at 8:30 and consequently missed most of morning skate.  Adrienne told me it was more than likely an optional skate anyway.  Turns out it wasn't, but it's okay. 

But we did get to see the tail end and a few players:

Hockey! Sharks Season Opener - 10/3/13

I've got 54 photos to post here so I'm going to keep the chatter to a minimum...(but I must say I was experimenting with colors in a lot of these pictures.  Subjects are not always as orange as they appear.  Although some are (I'm looking at you Doug).)  

Cliff's Notes:

Canucks (BOOO) at Sharks (YAAAY HAPPY)

No Adrienne (SAAAAADDDD)

Street Fair:

Where Did The Party Go? - Sharks/Canucks Game 4 - 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs 5/7/2012

That is my Fall Out Boy inspired (or stolen, depending on your outlook) title.  If you're an FOB fan like me which - let's face it - most people my age are definitely not, you'll know that they used to write extremely loooonnnngggg song titles.  Their new cd is different, so I fixed one of the songs for them.

Just in case you're not a fan, but feel like they sound familiar, this is probably why:

Damn, that video made me really fucking sad. Which is surprising since there is a (not)surprising lack of Sharks in it.   I really thought the Sharks were going to do it this year.  I still think they got robbed.  You will NEVER convince me that the Kings were handed game 2 in L.A. with that incredibly bogus 5-3 in the waning minutes of the game.  The Stuart penalty? Okay, maybe although the Kings are truly the Kings of interference which never gets called.  The Vlasic puck over the glass?  No. Fucking.Way.  That went off of the Kings player.

Yes, you can argue that the Sharks should have killed off the penalty, but that late in a close game...having a bullshit call practically gift a tie to the opposition...

pretty demoralizing, I can imagine.

And don't even get me started on the bullshit suspension of Raffi Torres.  He deserves a lot of things but a 6 game suspension for THAT particular hit was definitely NOT one of them. 

But I digress.

This post is about a HAPPIER time.  A time when the Sharks were ebulliently crushing the Canucks who, ironically, were ardently complaining about the refs themselves.  Oh, good times.

We got there late.  Which wasn't a good time.  We left Sacramento with plenty of time, but traffic was horrible.  So we got there at the tail end of warm ups and couldn't even think about getting close to the glass.  Nevertheless, pictures!

The Not So Marvelous Return of Jamie McGinn - Avs @ Sharks 3/26/12

Color me shocked that I'm thiiiiiiiis far behind in my postings.  The blame for my lethargy rests squarely on my mother.  And of course it all started on the day I had a trip planned to San Jose to see the return of Jamie McGinn.

The months-long drama that sapped my energy is fodder for another blog posting; I won't bore you with it today.  Fortunately, the lassitude did not fully set in for a few weeks, so I was able to make the trek to the game after work.

Obviously, much time has passed and I don't fully recall the details.  One thing I know is that it was a bittersweet night for me.  I really HATE HATE HATE the trade that sent Jamie McGinn to the Avs (along with a good prospect, Sgarbossa) in return for T.J. Galiardi and Daniel Winnick.  So of course I wanted Ginner to do very well and hopefully continue the great season he was having.  With the Sharks winning of course.  

Didn't happen...

Because I have a dear, wonderful friend whom I adore, I tried to be by the Avs bench area during warmups.  It was interesting....I had to move once and then I ended up sitting with some really nice guys...one of whom spilled a beer on my feet.  

But hey, that's okay.  He didn't get my camera...or did he?  I'll just blame any sad, blurry photos on beer.  And let you determine what I mean by that.  

Warm-ups baby!

Here's Paul Stastny doing a pregame telly interview. 

And Jumbo, my Jumbo giving a fan a smiley photo opp.

I love it when he does that.