Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

Scorekeeping Professionals

Today was a great day for floor hockey. Even though Tim, Jeannine, Danielle, Don and I had to get up at a time of morning we had forgotten existed, going to volunteer for the Special Olympics Southern California Floor Hockey Tournament going on at the Convention Center this weekend was well worth it. We arrived at the convention center at 7:45 in the morning and were greeted at the volunteer booth by a very nice woman. She asked if any of us had ref-ing experience and a hesitant Don was soon ingesting a new set of hockey rules. The rest of us opted to sit at rink 1 where the fast pace action was going to be taking place during the day. We were assigned the job of time/score keeping. Little did we know with the amount of line changes and penalties that were about to take place that it would actually take all 4 of us to keep on top of things.

Don was placed at rink 14 with a more experienced ref for a medium-paced game. After a short introduction, the first game was under way on rink 1. It was the San Diego Lightning Bolts (which i believe is the premiere team in San Diego) in an exhibition game against a roller hockey team from Orange County called the Disney Goals. Unfortunately the Bolts got smoked 6-0. The coach for the Bolts had mentioned to me before that when regular roller teams cross over to the Special Olympics hockey it is usually the Special Olympics team that ends up being the victor. But once a regular roller team adjusts to the differences in the game, it’s usually no contest. One of the Goals’ players who frequently sat in the penalty box (the chair next to our table), mentioned that they were a returning team. However, most of the Bolts had great heart. #4 Nicole (with a wicked shot) smiled throughout the game and #18 (a large defensemen) wouldn’t stop talking smack. I was particularly fond of him. In addition to having great attitudes, the refs did an admirable job of catching a lot of the high-sticking, elbowing, pushing, and boarding going on during the game. You see, as there were 16 rinks set up in the concourse, it was hard to keep track of the whistles and airhorns (for lines breaks). As a second measure, the rules call for a towel to be thrown in the line of vision of the ref to signal the end of the 3 minute line “period”. There are 9 set line changes during the game resulting in a lot of towel throwing. While Danielle and I bemoaned the fact that we couldn’t be throwing the towel at Don all day, Danielle did, in good humor, hit our ref in the backside once :).

After the first game we were broke for lunch and were able to sneak over to watch Don ref. His co-ref was a very sweet woman, and from the looks of things they reffed very successfully together. It was then back to our rink to scorekeep another match. This time it was between the OC Goals A & B teams. I would have preferred to watch the Special Olympics athletes, but I was satisfied in cheering for the underdog B team. They ended up losing 4-2, but it was closer than I expected. Even though we were only there for a few hours, it was time well spent. I look forward to going back next year and perhaps making a day of it. See more pictures from the Specials Olympics tournament.

After a short nap, it was then off to the first game of the new floor hockey season. I’m playing on “white” under captain Tim Helmbrecht. Against statistical odds, as far as we were not the first team to score AND we were losing 2-0 going into the third period, we ended up winning the game 3-2. I actually had the game-winning goal (a trickler across the goal from a faceoff) that Tim Helmbrecht engineered (he told me to crash the backdoor). I was very excited. I didn’t have any regular season goals last season, so I’m left with a rosy outlook on my team’s future while we hit a 2 week break before we play together again.

The word has come down that my company will be moving to another location in town sometime in May. Now I’ve heard that we were moving a few times before, but I know for a fact that the lease is up on our “dungeon” space at the end of the year. This means we will either somehow end up squishing into the second floor with the rest of the group or relocating to a new building. Either way we don’t want to be lugging the junk in the storage room with us. This has resulted in a sort of “fire sale” on my part. Everything must go! We have monitors, printers, PC cards, zip drives, modems, apple stuff, power cords, cables, etc . Mind you I have no idea what the majority of this stuff is worth. Most of it was purchased before my time and is a good number of years from being “bleeding edge”. I’m not going to sell the majority of this stuff on e-bay, because the shipping cost should far outweigh the value of many of these items. Thus I have taken my first foray into the world of craigslist. I’m not sure how craigslist makes money, but I’m thankful there is one available for our city.
The first item I posted on craigslist was an Apple LaserWriter w/ 3 new ink cartridges. This printer has been sitting on top of a filing cabinet for over a year, but I’m pretty sure it’s still in working condition. We don’t have a way of using it because the last PC drivers available for it were Windows NT. I thought hey, some Mac enthusiast still might have some use for it. $10. We’ll see if anyone bites. I kid you not that within 5 minutes I had two emails shoot back to me, “Is the laserwriter still available? I’ll pick it up today!” Are there people that sit home and constantly monitor craigslist like scavengers? How crazy, but delightful for me. I’m not sure I can express the joy I have in seeing someone get some use out of old electronic equipment rather than see it tossed in a landfill. Thank you craigslist obsessors, thank you!

USA beats Canada 5-3 in a close Exhibition Game

It’s 85 degrees Farenheit outside. HAHAHHA! Pretty flowers are blooming. This one reminds me of the flowering cherries in Japan.

Another weekend come and gone. Tim and I filled it with visiting many friends. On Friday we headed up to see Dan & Leah. Dan and Tim traded Napolean Dynamite quotes ad nauseum after we finally watched the deleted scenes. Geeez! It was good to catch up with them and hear about the progress on Dan’s pilot with Disney. On Saturday we were off to brunch to see Doug, who had come into town for a college friend’s wedding. We met at La Serenata de Garibaldi which apparently Angie (Doug’s friend) had heard about on the food network. While the restaurant decor was cute, the food was only meh. However the company was great. It was nice to finally meet Doug’s girlfriend Kathy and his college friends Angie and Thomas. Here’s a funny thing. I don’t know why it takes such a long time for Tim to pose for a decent picture. Note that Doug’s expression is almost unchanging in the last three shots.

See some other shots from the day. After lunch we all decided we wanted dessert and went in search of a Marie Calender’s for pie. Unfortunately our directions were off and we ended up having to head to a Denny’s as we were running short on time before the rest of the gang had to get to their wedding.

While we drove home I was informed that my hockey team had lost in the semi-finals that day. I was sorry to have missed the game, but the team that beat us was far and away a more deserving team to move onto the finals. I look forward to the new season starting soon. That night we headed over to Spare and Parker’s for an impromptu pasta dinner with Eric and Dorothy. After dinner the six of us ended up playing a fun game called Mexican Train Dominoes. To the right here we see Tim holding a most coveted piece worth no points. Tomorrow we really begin on house remodeling. Tim and Spare will be putting tile in our bathrooms. I will be back at work, but am looking forward to the finished project.

This was supposed to be our “serious” pose after we continued to squeak through the playoffs.

I’ve had a hard time deciding whether or not I should write anything down here. People all deal with their grief in different ways, so I did’t want to offend anyone with a simple blog post. I received the phone call yesterday from Angela letting me know that David Jairala, Juniper’s brother, had died from a massive heart attack. How could this be? I was just joking with him less than 3 weeks ago at Juniper’s graduation. At the age of 32, he looked healthy. Yes, he had complained of job stress and had been to the hospital a month ago for heart palpitations, but surely they could have detected if something more serious was on the horizon then. My shock then turned to tears. I know far too well the loss that Juniper must now be feeling. However, my dad died at 57, not 32. Tim expressed a sentiment to me yesterday that I think is very fitting, “People should live until they are done.” I can’t imagine anyone is done at 57, let alone 32. After a few phone calls to the girls, I delved into work so as not to have to dwell on the pain. On the drive home from work the thoughts returned and I tried to think about the good things in life. Yet, all I could think of was the loss that Jairalas were feeling was mirrored by millions of others around the world. Watching all the cars tear home yesterday I wondered if any of the occupants were thinking of anything besides money, TV or “what’s for dinner tonight?” Seemingly it has rained two straight weeks in San Diego, yet the sky was putting on a spectacular sunset. And I thought to myself, “there is still beauty in the world.” I will go home get my camera and capture these colors. So I found myself running down my street in my uncomfortable work shoes at 5:00 PM, racing to capture the colors before they were gone. These colors are for you David. May you rest in peace.