My first thanksgiving without family had family

So as far as I can tell, I have been extremely fortunate in the fact that I have always been able to share the holidays with lots of my family. This was my first thanksgiving without any family in the sense of parents, cousins, grandparents and siblings. Even though I miss all of them a lot (I really do miss my family) I managed to have a really good time thanks to BOSN who is the officer of deck force.

He invited every one from the ship over and about 20 were there. It was for starters a beautiful, warm and welcoming house. The best house in Cordova I have seen since I got here. There was a big screen t.v. in the living room that was playing foot ball games and several tables put together to feed about 18 or so people.

It was pretty typical with many of the men drinking beer and watching the football game and the wives making the meal. BOSN was very much like my own dad being a very good and busy host, he kept a warm fire going and took his time to talk with everyone making it a very welcoming enviorment. He even managed to cook some of the food on the grill outside. Of the three or so football games on that day none of them were really close. Not that I am a football buff (because I am not) but it seemed like the games were over in the first half.

After dinner several people continued to watch the football game but I didnt. I was too busy playing some intense games with Jackson. Jackson is a charming young boy who also happens to be BOSN's son. These games were SORRY and TROUBLE. I think that it would have been funner with some more people but it was still pretty much a good time dueling with him over who could roll the higher numbers quicker (With only 2 people you just try to get home A.S.A.P. and dont really have to worry about him hitting you).

After some "motivation" by the women we all left the house and shot some "gernade shells" that BOSN offered. I had the honor of firing the second shot and it was pretty fun. They were shells that are desgined to scare ducks, or bears or whatever you were trying to hunt. We then went back inside and finished off some deseret.

So on behalf of everyone who made it to BOSN's house I say thank you for a great thanksgiving. It was truly better then what I thought it was going to be and for about those 8 hours I didnt think of my family once because you and my fellow shipmates are another family to me and I am very proud to say it.

The sharks are lousy

So I have a while to go before I can show pics of the house but I figured that I would put something on my blog for everyone to enjoy.

These are all funny from the sharks, my fav would definatly be Dan Boyle and Big Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m6vykvwvEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9gwDT-r5fY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_FQW0r-dek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s-ohOU8wl0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE7oZCfYqoc

While I was surfing I saw some more that werent as shark related but super funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfjKMpbJOs4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MEpzRGgtok

I think that the last one means that I wouldnt make it into the NHL (as a player anyways). So I decided to add to my Christmas list: Socks.

My Sharks continue to collect points

So my prediction earlier today was very wrong. They didnt win 4-1, the were on the losing end of a 4-3 O.T. score. The good news is that they still get that extra point and are now a sparkling 14-4-4 and 4 points ahead of the closest teams that trail them.

Dany Heatley scored in the game which ties him with the league lead in goals with 14 on the season. It was another snipe, beautiful wrist shot with an equaly beautiful pass by You-Know-Who.

Patty Marleau also scored a very nice goal, and it is the league leading 9 goal on the road. Those are some very impressive stats and if these guys keep it up this is the year that the sharks will go all the way.

I was told to put up my Christmas List on my blog and after some thinking here it goes:

A new electric razor (I lost half of the blade to my current one which still works but not well)

A snow board, with snow boarding extras (whatever it is that snow boarders wear with the snow board) because there is a mountain/hill that my roomates are going to now that there is snow and I think that it would be nice to join them. I would think that the most important thing that someone would need to know is that i am a size 9 and that when I snow board I put my right foot forward.

Pokemon cards (just kidding)

Shark clothing (not kidding)

Socks, preferably long and warm and white

Some video games that I will post once I see what I have after I recieve my house hold goods.

Maybe some moveis or Two And A Half Men seasons (I have the first 3 seasons so anything after that would be appropriate)

A girlfriend (not kidding)

pictures of family, preferably of them smileing and doing fun things.

Something that will motivate me to exercise

A way to charge the battery in my camera

So that is what I was able to come up with after some thought and I will be sure to add or subtract from it accordingly.

I'm not dreaming of a white Christmas

The reason that I am not dreaming of a white christmas is because i am actually dreading it. It has been snowing pretty much on a daily basis since the day before holloween. It wasnt that bad untill about a week ago. Now it is something that makes me wear several of coats, at least two pairs of socks and gloves (or whatever i can get my hands on for additional warrmth). This is the first time in my life that i will be having a white Holloween, a white Veterans day, a white Thanksgiving and a white Christmas.

So far I have been on duty and shoveling snow for Holloween, Veterans day and I am schedualed for Thanksgiving as well. I really hope that means that I can get Christmas off. Although even if I do get Christmas off i wont be where I want to be. I really want to be home in Aldergrove B.C. for Christmas but it looks like that wont be happening this year. Really depressing because I think that all I want for Christmas is to spend a week with the beautiful young siblings that I have.

Looking at moms blog I can tell everyone right now: Nick has the potential to be a professional hockey player. This baby was working hard for dad and accquired a bloody nose, but he kept working and even smiled through his pain. That is the hockey player mentality, working through the pain and doing it for the team. I couldnt be more proud of him.

Also the sharks have been doing amazingly well, I thought that this year they would start to decline (its hard to become better after winning the presidents trophy and setting all of those important franchise records, also other teams have improved dramatically namely Colorado, Los Angeles and Phoenix (two of those dramatically improved teams are in the pacific division with my beloved sharks). My sharks havent lost in regulation time since Oct 22, which is amazing and could also come to an end today when they finish a back to back with the Chicago Blackhawks. I hope that some one lays out Brian Campbell because he should be wearing a Sharks jersey with childhood friend Joe Thorton but appatently he wanted more money then he was worth and Chicago was going to do that for him. I think that one of the key reasons that the San Jose Sharks have been so energized recently has been the all star play of Dan Boyle, and Danny Heatley. Boyle has six points in his past 4 games (including 2 goals) and Heatley put an end to St.Louis penalty killing streak (they had killed 32 straight penalties before Heatley one-timed a shot past Chris Mason) and has 13 goals in 21 games.

Storm is my dog

So today i took my dog storm for a walk out back and realized that he has been a really good friend for me for a really long time and that i should give credit where credit is due. He has been friendly to everyone and is a great watch dog. I have used him in pretty much all of my years of 4-H where he has gone on to win lots or ribbons that were mostly blue and red. He even got a grand champion reserve ribbon once. It was a long time ago but it happened. Some of my highlights with storm would be watching him run and eat snow at the same time. Him not being able to catch anything ever (literally a piece of cookie will hit him in the face before he opens his mouth to catch it). He is also very photo getic and here are some photos of my dog for the past 10 or so years.

My predictions where 7/8 for round one

So i made all the correct predictions in round one except for my San Jose Sharks. I thought that they would win in 6. Instead they lose in six. Aside from that amazing upset the rest of the teams i thought that would advance to round two did. So the match ups are as follows: Detriot vs Anahiem and Vancouver vs Chicago in the west. Boston vs Carolina and Washington vs Pittsburgh back east.

This round is going to be harder for me to make predictions because with the exception of Chicago and Carolina the remaining teams have made a case for winning the stanley cup this year. Boston, Vancouver and Detriot swept their first sereis respectively. Anahiem beat the top seeded sharks and made it look easy. Washington now has excellent goaltending (another prediction that i made correctly about Jose Thedore a while back). Any team can go deep when it has sidney crosby and evgeny malkin. Add in to the fact that this team made in to the stanley cup finals last year and Pittsburgh really does look good.

So enough talk here are my difficlut predictions:
Detriot will win in 7. The i am soooo tempted to say that the ducks will win because fact of Jonas hiller. Here are the most mouth watering stats a rookie goalie can give you: 2 shutouts in 6 games. 4 wins in 6 games. 10 goals against in 6 games. 230 saves and a 1.64 goals against average. This guy was the only reason that the ducks won round one. I doubt that he can keep it up though because Detriot has been scoring at least 4 goals a game in round one. What is really amazing though is the fact that Detriot has 8 players averaging a point a game with 2 players averaging over a point a game.

Vancouver will win in 6. Again you have the best goalie left in the playoffs with probably the best all round defence corp. The only problem is that these Blackhawks can score. They are very offencive, with the most noticable gund being Jonathan Towes and Patrick Kane. It will be a great series but i can only see the canucks advancing.

Out east I have the bruins winning in 6. The canes were fantastic in round one against the devils with the all star Eric Stall putting in the most timely goals ever. But the bruins are simply the better team. What really helps the bruins is there defence with the likes of Zdeno Chara, Denis Wideman. It will be a pretty good series but the Bruins will win.

I have the Penguins winning in 6. My reasoning is simple. These two teams match up very evenly in all aspects but the edge goes to the penguins because they dont have the pressure of home ice in this series. As long as they win one of the two first games they will be golden. The capitals are still new to this thing called the playoffs having only one their first round in a decade.

Losing in round two doesn't seem that bad anymore

Well the sharks season is over and this is by far the worst ending that they have been ever since i can rember (about 5-6 years). The sharks lost in the first round. Numero Uno. They are out and now the only thing to do is get ready for next year. For the past four years they have always been able to shake hands with the opposition knowing that they still had some hockey in very near future. This year losing in round two doesnt seem that bad at all.
Its really a shame when a team is eliminated, there are about 23 or more guys on each team who have been working hard since training camp to win the stanley cup. And then 8 months later they get sent home with nothing. The sharks have it worse then the other 14 teams that will be elimated from the playoffs this year, because they won the presidents trophy. When the sharks put up their presidents trophy banner they will look at it with dissapiontment and lilkely disgust. Knowing that trophy pales in comparsion to the one that they are just getting further and further away from.However the last presidents trophy winner to lose in round one made it to the western confrence finals the following year. And then won the stanley cup the next. Todd McLellen was there for all three of those years as an assistant coach to Mike Babcock and the detriot redwings. Maybe he can repeat those results again for the Sharks. I will gladly wait 2 years to see my sharks hoist the Stanley Cup. I still think that firing Ron Wilson was the right thing to do and that Todd McLellen has his best coaching years ahead of him, particularly in the post season.