NHL AllStars.

Chara's record 105.9 shot!, originally uploaded by Luna Soledad.

Working next door to and banking with RBC Bank has it's advantages... Aside from the obvious convenience, we were fortunate enough to win two tickets to the 58th annual NHL AllStar SuperSkills competition and game this past weekend! Wow!

Let me just say that I have never ever won anything in my life, except maybe a scratch off McDonald's french fry or something. This is the main reason I do not play the lotto. No sense in wasting my money given my track record.

In any case, both Kevin and I were super stoked though we quickly realized that we couldn't possibly attend both events on such short notice without locking the children in the closet for at least one night... So, we chose the SuperSkills competition on Saturday as no doubt it would be the less crowded of the two events and to say I don't do well with massive crowds is a gross understatement. (No worries though, the game tickets were happily used by another well-deserving sports enthusiast.)

We arrived early, made a quick stop for fried pickle chips and beer and found our seats up in the nose-bleed level just above the stairwell and just behind the big glass wall with the hand rail obstructing our view. --Considering that RBC purchased the naming rights for the building and has it's logo smeared throughout, one would think the seats would have been a tad better, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? I mean, they couldn't very well expect someone to actually pay $165.00 a piece for those seats could they? Free is good. I'll take free.

I was reasonably content with my fried pickles and beer until some overly-excited southern heifer (who clearly does not get out much) sat down directly behind me and quickly began yelling, screaming, and hollering wildly (in my ear!) at absolutely everything. And I do mean everything: from the mascots mock game to mere mention of the Carolina Hurricanes and/or any of their players - well before the competition began. And dear me, I thought she would surely pee her spandex when Nicholas Sparks' pre-recorded "Welcome to North Carolina" message came on the big screen. O.M.G.

And it wasn't so much all the obnoxious, inconsiderate, loud hooting and hollering that was so damn annoying... it was the murderously shrill, skull-spitting pitch which escaped her. Like a combination of a cat in heat, a goat being slaughtered, inhaling helium balloons, and nails on a chalk board. Fuck me! And some poor soul had to listen to that every day. I'd shoot myself.

Granted, after I bore holes through her cranium a few times while plugging my ears with my fingers, she kindly took it down a decibel or so but Geezuz! The noise of that woman is permanently burned into my inner audio library now. --Add that to the list of tortures in my personal hell please.

In any case, I managed to capture Boston Bruins' Zdeno Chara's record speed shot of 105.9 mph on video from our perch which was pretty darn cool. And yes, you can clearly hear the bleating of my seatmate in the background over the announcer and the crowds... (Mind you, by this point, I had already moved into a vacant corner seat one row up and 3 seats over.)

All in all, it was a fun experience and everyone lived. =)

bring it! =P, originally uploaded by Luna Soledad.

Yet, another perk of working next door to the bank. ;-)

"Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind."

...John Tillotson

the big surprise.

NC Museum of Art., originally uploaded by Luna Soledad.

A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids out for a "surprise." --Well, I told Bella since they were actually her tickets but i knew she wouldn't tell anyone... and Kevin, not one for surprises, pestered me until I gave him enough clues that he finally figured it out (I sure could use a fixed aperture telephoto lens, a natural disaster, indoors) - so really I guess it was Liam's surprise... Yes, that's right, we went to a Carolina Hurricanes game. It was a first for the kids and they both loved it!

In spite of the loud-mouth jackass sitting behind us yelling the whole game with a scorn on his face like he was watching his girlfriend get it on with someone else in the rink.

No matter where you sit, there's always at least one isn't there? These are the same kind of guys who ruin little league games too with their explosive rantings. Key word folks: "GAME." This one had a supportive wife beside him egging her man on who actually said, "These seats should be filled to capacity! People just need to understand what an honor and privilege it is to come to a real NHL Hockey game?" Seriously??? Is the high altitude up here in the nose-bleed section getting to you or what? I mean come on, sure we enjoy going to a game when we can (Hockey is one of the only sports that Kevin and I can enjoy together after all) but there are a couple of reasons why we haven't gotten season tickets: 1) we don't have 2-5 thousand dollars lying around and 2) because with my luck, our seats for the whole season would be assigned right next to some loud-mouth inconsiderate asshole like you.

But I digress.

new lil' Caniac.., originally uploaded by Luna Soledad.

So Saturday we woke up, did our morning thing (coffee, breakfast, news, yell at the kids...) then got everyone ready and told them we were going somewhere and it was a surprise. --Yay! Everyone was excited. Especially Liam.

Every since Liam and I had played hooky one Monday afternoon from school/work and spend the afternoon gallivanting about the grounds of the newly expanded North Carolina Museum of Art (which I forgot was closed on Mondays), Liam has been asking to go back. So - surprise!

Ten minutes into the new building, Liam begins to cry, "I don't like this surprise. I wanna go to a hockey game!"

"If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot."

...Coach Dean Smith