...for many reasons, not least of which is that women bring beer and baked goods to share. It occurred to me last year at Christmas, when I decided not to do any baking (boo!) because I wasn't eating sugar and I had no one else to share the bounty with that DUH, I could have brought the fruits of my labor with me to hockey practice. (It's a perfect arrangement, actually, since practices are on Monday nights, directly after the days when I'm most likely to have time to bake.) I resolved that THIS YEAR I would be baking, and bringing.

Of course, some women don't need a stinkin' holiday to bake. The last pickup session of the summer is reason enough to share the sugar. Evidence: Not one but TWO women brought cupcakes to last night's pickup at NE Skatezone. (And Barabara brought "beverages. Adult beverages" to share, too.) Angela's offerings even came in a specially-designed delivery system:

I left early (because I'd neglected to set expectations about when I'd be home when I left the house, and Al was having trouble getting the Beaner to bed), so I missed the Beer and Cupcakes in the Parking Lot after-party. I did, however, lift the cover of the delivery system to get a closeup of the decorations (verdict: amazing) on my way out, and they smelled yummy.

First practice for the Freeze Fall/Winter '07-08 season is on September 24. I can't wait! If you're in the Philly/South Jersey/Delaware Valley area and need a team, e-mail the team captains for more info. Beginners are welcome!

Edited to add: No slight intended to the male bakers out there—and the Macromedia Contribute team had several, to the extent that they had to draw up a schedule for when folks could bring in goodies to share. It just hasn't been my experience with coed/men's hockey teams that there've ever been baked goods brought to the locker room. It's happened several times with my women's tournament team, though.

Posted by Lori at 5:51 PM | Comments (2)

Al's summer hockey season is over, and my ankle was feeling like it had healed properly (it still pained me occasionally, but I finally had full range of motion, and I didn't need to wear the brace to get around comfortably), so I decided to go to the women's open hockey at NE Skatezone on Monday night. I'll admit I was a little nervous—this was the scene of the injury, after all, and I'd be going by myself again as I did last time.

I'd planned to wear the ankle brace under my skate, but I forgot to bring it. To be safe, I taped my skate and my shinpad tightly for extra support... and then started to wonder if I'd cut off the circulation to my toes. Oops.

I found I was a bit tentative at first (and also slow, because I'm out of shape), but as we started playing 4-on-4, my confidence went up and I skated normally. I sucked at D as usual, but since we didn't have any goalies and it didn't really matter if our opponents scored on us, I didn't sweat it too much. I managed to hang onto the puck most of the time, which is great, and my backhand shot was quite good—I feel confident I'll be able to score with it in an actual game. (With the nets down and a decidedly smaller and lower target in the offing, however, my shots tended to go over the net instead of into the little trapezoidal scoring area. A forehand shot would have served me better in this case.)

I only lasted for about 45 minutes, but that was mostly because Al had asked me to be home by 9, not because I couldn't have skated longer. In the end it was probably good I stopped when I did, though, because my ankle has been decidedly sore ever since. My hands are, too, so maybe it's not so suprising that my ankle would be, but it was so achy yesterday that I ended up having to wear the brace all day. It's a little bit of a bummer, honestly. I thought I was making such progress!

If the soreness is gone by next Monday, I'll go again—and wear the brace under my skate this time to see if it helps. If it's sore again after that, then I'll wait until the pre-season practices start before I get on the ice again. :-/

Posted by Lori at 4:17 PM | Comments (4)