Changes Ahead

Well, life at L2L Headquarters is about to make some big changes.  I am going back to work.  Yes, I got a job.  It will be about 30 hours a week, same schedule as the Kid’s.  I am very excited and looking forward to the change and more than a little nervous.  It is a mixed bag of things for a growing company in the next suburb over.  They design control rooms.  The easiest way I can describe it is it’s like the control rooms you see in NASA coverage.  Pretty cool high tech stuff.  It should be an easy commute and it’s in a fun location off the town’s historic downtown area, that has made a huge comeback in recent years.  It really is one of my favorite places in the Metroplex.  I’ve known the CFO, whom I’ll be working for, through our church for a while, we have kids the same age.  Plus, pretty much everyone who works there went to my alma mater (I’m such a homer).  So I’m not flying blind on who I’m working with.  Also, I gave them my blog address, they looked at it, and still  wanted to hire me.  I think that is a good thing?  The owner even said he wanted me to start a blog for the company.  I assumed he was kidding, he said he was not, we’ll see.  I start Monday! 

The other big change is that my little girl is starting middle school.  Sniff.  We picked up her schedule today.  Unfortunately, it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked but we got it done.  She’s taking GT math and language arts, so I think the homework is about to pick up.  She also is going to be playing flute in band.  So some new activities and challenges ahead for her.

All this means there will be changes at home and I’m not sure how this will affect my little blog here.  Hopefully, I’ll still be able to keep it going.  I’ve really enjoyed this little foray into the blogosphere and do not want to see it end any time soon.  I’ve been doing this blog for over a month now and I must say what I find most fascinating about blogging is looking at the stats.  The searches that come up with hits for my blog are always interesting.  The thing that is most amazing to me is the popularity of Brad Richards.  Hardly a day goes by that there is not a search of some sort for him.  They have included his name with charity, foundation, girlfriend, golf tournament, wine, photos, PEI and, of course, “is Brad Richards married?”  Also, my post on him has received over 250 views and continues to get hits every day.  None of my other posts even come close to that.  So keep the Brad love coming.  I’ve had a lot of hits for Sean Avery, too, but I don’t want to go there.   

The only definite downside here about going back to work is that I won’t be able to check out Stars practice during the week and report back to you.  On the positive side, those partial season tickets are looking more and more likely.  Hee. Hee. Hee.

Am I A Feminist Or A Prude?

I’ve been stewing about this for the last few days, so I’m going to go ahead and write about it.  I’ve never really thought of myself as a feminist.  I was raised in a small Texas town as a Southern Baptist.  Not exactly a feminist breeding ground.  But I was raised by a mom who was pretty outspoken for the time and went back to work full time the day after I started first grade.  My dad was one of those dads who always told his daughters they could grow up to be anything they wanted to be.  I graduated with my BBA in ‘85 at the height of “Greed is Good” mentality.  I worked at a job where I was considered an equal with my male peers and had a position of power over mostly male sales force.  My reputation as being a serious business woman was well earned and very important to me.  I had my power suits, briefcase and pumps.  So when I decided to be a full-time stay-at-home mom after my daughter was born, my parents were a little surprised and my mom was even a little ticked-off, I think.  We felt it was the right thing for our family at the time and still do.  So I’ve always thought of myself as somewhere in the middle on the feminist issue.

The Hull Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Hull Tree

Ok, I’m doing my usual blog perusing when I run across this quote on Kukla’s Korner from an interview with Bobby Hull.  Maybe it’s just the week I’ve had, but it didn’t sit well with me.  

Q: Do you get to watch many games with (your son) Brett (Hull)?

A: Not now that he has become a co-general manager down in Dallas. He’s done a wonderful job and I knew that he wanted to be involved in putting a team together, but he had just been retired two years and all of a sudden he’s general manager in Dallas and doing a masterful job of putting his team into the third round. I think if they had maybe a little more astute coaching, they might have beat Detroit. I said before the playoffs started that it would be Pittsburgh and Dallas in the finals and I wasn’t far astray.

Huh?  What?  Masterful job?  Putting “his” team into the third round?  More astute coaching?

Giving the son an awful lot of credit there.  And taking a jab at Tipp?  Not cool.

Let me issue this disclaimer:  I know nothing of hockey from the Bobby Hull era, so I know pretty much nothing about Bobby Hull.  But I am now guessing that Brett gets his mouth from his dad. 

So am I being too sensitive?

I am feeling a little punch-drunk from all the hits they have been giving our petulant little ice troll over on the Mighty Sweater Vest’s blog.  So maybe I am feeling a little too defensive. 

What do y’all think?

My Heika Blog Rant, Unedited and Expanded Version

Last night I was staying up late, trolling the interwebs because I didn’t want to go to bed (my adorable Hubbie was gone on a business trip and we had received some disturbing news about a family friend.)  I ran across some comments on the Almighty Heika’s Blog that just really annoyed me.  The general subject had been Sean Avery.  No big surprise there, but it was the actual comments towards us, the female hockey fan and in particular my girls over at The Sign Girls, that annoyed me, not Sean this time.  That will have to be for another post.    Anyway, what follows is my response with the edits and a little additional rant added back in all in the lovely shade of green because I like green, so there.   Or am I not allowed to like green either?  Did I mention that I was annoyed?

46 Days to Cooler Temps and Stars Training Camp

I’ve always hated summer. For as long as I can remember. Even when I lived outside a small town, on a hill, where there was always a breeze. I still hated summer.  Even when I was skinny, I hated summer.  Summer in Texas is not pretty.  It can start hitting 100 in May.  And continue hitting 100 until October.  Blah.  By the time you get to August, you are beaten down by it.  Everything is beaten down by it.  And August is the worst month.  By the time we get through August, everything is various shades of beige.  The lawn is barely hanging on only because we have spent hundreds of dollars on watering it.  Forget about gardening.  Everything is dead by then. 

We do lots of things to try to combat the heat.  As a child, we went to the lake as many weekends as possible.  At home we ate watermelon and homemade ice cream on a regular basis.  Today, we adore our air conditioning, in the car, at home, the office.  We pretty much scurry from one air conditioned environment to another.  Here in burbs, almost everyone we know has a swimming pool.  We don’t, but our friends have mercy on us.  Our consumption of ice cream treats doubles, then triples and finally quadruples by the time we get to September.  We start praying for rain so our foundations don’t completely crumble.  I start to get stir crazy about now.  I start counting the days until mid-September.  Usually, it starts to cool off by them, although, not always.  This year to add insult to injury, I’m going crazy waiting for hockey season to begin as well.  Also set for the middle of September.  Forty-six days.  Forty six days until cooler temps and training camp.  Yes, I counted.  I’m that desperate.

I’m hoping the Olympics can distract us.  But I don’t know.  While I’m a huge Winter Olympics fan, I don’t enjoy the Summer ones as much.  The opening and closing ceremonies are always, shall we say, interesting.  Then there is the swimming and diving, men’s that is, for obvious reasons. I love the field events, but they don’t usually get as much coverage.  At least it’s something different to do.  Since I’ll be stuck inside anyway.  Avoiding the heat.  The freaking 100 degree heat.  For another 46 days. 

I just want a cool front and hockey.  Is that too much to ask?  It’s 46 days until cooler temps and training camp……