Jenny

"Honey, look away, I have a good shot of Cleary!"  
















Goodness, Abby's growing into his looks quite nicely:




Apparently Conk thinks something is hilarious, but he didn't share the joke with me so I can't report back on sources of goalie humor:


Lidstrom using his Super Secret Sweden Powers to cause two Dallas players to collide behind him:




And here was the view from my seat before GIANT HEAD BOY sat down:

He's with Minnesota now.

*headsmack*  You're right. I blame lack of sleep. I don't even have a high-stick induced sinus infection as an excuse.

SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT THE PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!

Oh, should I wait until after warmups to yell that at them?
Or should I start now to get the idea into their heads?

You're in a different time zone, so you should probably start now so the sound waves have time to get over to the Joe.

Born and raised in SOUTH DETROIT.

He would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling message board members.

I dropped Cleary from my fantasy team as of yesterday, so he's probably good for 8 goals tonight.

At least that seems to be the way it goes when I drop a player.  

I voted Other. Somehow, this is all the fault of Gary Bettman, the Vatican, and the alien lizard men that David Icke says are secretly running the world. Also, I'm sure I saw silent black helicopters over the Joe last time I was there, and also this was predicted by the book of Revelation and the Mayan calendar.  

Conk is also handy around the house, as we learn in the latest Wings commercial!
http://www.freep.com...6/1053/sports05

Oh boy! That will make stalking even easier!

Um, I mean, that's really cool, Karen.  

I knew you'd understand.
My attachment to Manny is such a strange thing, though. Some 10 or 11 years ago, he was just one of many Hot Wings I was getting fond of, you know? And at the time I was involved in what was to turn out to be a very bad relationship/marriage. But then I had this dream about Manny-- and not the sort of minor erotic or nonsensical dream we might typically have about our boys. This was more like an entire, lifelong, happy relationship, all experienced in the space of one dream. And how long does a session of REM sleep last, 5 or 10 minutes at most? It was all very intense and I remembered it very clearly (although the details have faded over time). I thought at the time that it must be the way the kids felt at the end of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe-- they'd lived these very full lives and grown to adulthood, and then suddenly they were children again. And I'd dreamed this entire life of being quite thoroughly loved and growing to peaceful old age, and suddenly I was 24 again, in a very different life than the one I'd dreamed.

So, anyway, I was able to put the dream aside and just think of it as a pleasant (if strange) memory, and thinking about it even helped me when my first marriage turned so sour and nasty. Life went on and the dream seemed very far away. Once Manny left the Wings, and it was harder to watch him play, it drifted even more. But it all came flooding back when I met him at Hockeyfest. It was honestly kind of the same feelings as when you see a real life ex that you made yourself get over, but never stopped loving. The way he was looking at me so intensely did NOT help-- it was almost like he sort of recognized me and was trying to think where he'd met me before. (Which got my crazy imagination to come up with the ridiculous idea that maybe he'd had the same dream on the same night. Not that I believe this, mind you, but my imagination doesn't ask permission before coming up with this kind of idea.) And it was just a truly heart-melting look and smile anyway, with or without seeds of recognition.

So, as sappy as it seems, he's more than just an "ordinary" crush to me-- he's actually a very meaningful person to me. (Even if he doesn't know it and likely never will.)

I don't know, maybe I should just write some sort of overly sentimental hockey-based romance novel about the whole thing to try to exorcise it.  

so how long before brunstrom pulls a leino and starts whining about playing time?  i give it a couple more games.

I doubt it, or maybe it's more of an "I hope not." I would like to think he really meant everything he said during his tryout about being willing to do whatever it takes to stay with the team and get back to the NHL.

No doubt he wants to play, but this is only game 4 of 82 (+). He can afford to be patient.

Really, is changing things up so as to put Pavel and Hank together ever a bad idea?

Aww, that would be so perfect! I think she's got her heart set on having the baby and the dog dressed in matching pumpkin costumes, though.

Oh! The dog is a large-ish black lab mix, so if the baby goes as a werewolf, they could be Remus Lupin and Sirius Black from Harry Potter!  

Pat, was your brother maybe raised by wolves or Colorado fans and only reclaimed by your family after he was grown? I can't think of any other reason he'd think wasting tickets like that was okay!

Karen (and anyone else), feel free to snag as many of my pictures as you like! I figure if I ever get one that I'm really proud of, I'll watermark it, but I don't care too much if the normal quality ones get spread all over the internet. I figure since I'm privileged enough to go to a game, it's my duty to Wing Nation to share the photographic evidence of hotness!

Sure, it's an irritating question every year. But it also indicates that the Wings are drawing new fans every year!