May 28 Sucks

So it's May 28 again, and this year marks the 5th anniversary of the worst day of my life. Rory has been on my mind quite a bit in the last week, mostly due to the realization that it's been 5 years since she died. While enough time has passed that I don't think about her every day, she definitely hasn't been (nor ever will be) forgotten. I'm sad but also thankful for what I do have in my life.

I realized earlier tonight that there's something about this date that just makes me want to skip it from here on out. For those of you who use Facebook, you're probably familiar with the "On This Day" feature that lets you see all your posts on today's date from previous years. I was skimming through previous May 28s, and this gem from 2010, when Lucas was 2 years old, popped up:

"today's highlights were intentionally peeing on the rug in the living room and pooping in the bathtub (he IS potty trained)."

Little bugger.

Now you can add May 28, 2017, as the latest May 28 to have a bad memory associated with it. Earlier today, Lucas had his third recital for guitar. The previous two went relatively well, and this was looking to be the best one since he had the song, "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, down pat. He was playing third in a group of 30-40 kids, and he seemed confident. The song started off well, but he goofed up on about the 8th note. No big deal, right? Just start over and do it again. But he ends up throwing his head back like the world just ended.

After a few seconds, his instructor was able to get him going again, but then he screwed up again, and that's when the wheels came off the cart. He threw his head back again and basically gave up. I can't recall the exact sequence of events that followed, but he ended up throwing his guitar pick, ripping his sheet music in half, yelling, "I hate guitar!" and then he ran out of the room.

So, basically one of the more embarrassing parent moments of our lives. We hastily walked out ourselves and got him in the car. We had planned to go out to dinner afterwards, but that was obviously off the table. We ended up going straight home and had a long talk with him about his behavior of late. Sadly, this wasn't his only bad incident this weekend, albeit the worst.

The most immediate punishment is that he lost his 10th birthday party. I literally just paid the rental fee on the town hall near us this afternoon since we were going to have a big games party with about 15 of his friends on June 17. So we'll probably lose some sort of deposit fee on that, but we're not going back on this decision. He's been way too spoiled lately so it's about time he learns about consequences. He's also likely to be grounded for a couple of days and lose access to his iPad indefinitely.

He will have the opportunity to earn back a small get-together with a couple of friends to have cake on his birthday, but he'll have to be on his best behavior between now and then, and it will be nothing like the party that was planned.

So, just another shitty May 28 in Canada. The only silver lining about today's events were that we didn't have to sit through the recitals of 39 other kids that we don't know. That was pretty painful last winter.

That's enough typing for now. Pictures in the next post, I promise!

Baseball 2nd Game

Lucas's baseball team had their second game of the season earlier tonight. We knew before the game that Lucas would be the starting pitcher since he pitched quite well at a practice Saturday morning. He only pitched in the first inning, but it was a resounding success as Lucas was directly responsible for all 3 outs. He struck the first batter out. The second one made it to first base, but the third one hit a line drive that Lucas caught for the out and then he threw it to first before that kid could tag back up so he got what I think was his first double play. Woohoo!

On the other side of the ball, he hit off the tee due to being walked in his first at-bat and got a single. And in his second at-bat, he actually hit the ball and got a "real" single.

As if all that wasn't enough, a tooth he was wiggling all day came out in between innings so the Tooth Fairy will be visiting our house tonight.

For what it's worth, the rest of the team played well too, and the A's won their second straight game, 9-2.

1000th Post!

I've been putting off the blog since I wanted to do something super-fantastical for the 1000th post, but all it's done is make me avoid posting since I couldn't come up with anything worthy. As such, here's the 1000th post. So now that that's out of the way, I can start posting again.

In other news, Lucas had his first baseball game of the season today. He walked in his first at-bat, but in his second one he cranked it out into right field, in what was arguably the best hit of the night. His play as catcher could use some definite work, but it's only the first game so there's definitely room to improve. Oh yeah, his team (the A's) won.

A flood of pictures coming soon...

Hockey Party!

If you're wondering about the delay between this and the last post, for once I have a good excuse. Believe it or not, this is post #999 on this blog. I still haven't figured out what I want to do for the 1,000th post so I've been putting off this one since it just brings me one post closer to the inevitable. However, Lucas's hockey team had their end of the year party today, and I wanted to make sure I got his coach's speech about him uploaded in a timely manner. Here it is...

I knew he did a great job on defense this year, but it was nice to hear the coach give him one of the top 2 defensemen awards.

So for post #1000, I'm leaning towards filling it with my favorite pictures from over the years. It might take some time to root through them all, but if so, I should have it up by next weekend. Any other ideas?

Finals Result

If you haven't heard yet, the Emojis lost in the finals, 2-1. It was probably their closest game of the playoffs, but once again, their inability to score in the postseason sunk them (5 goals in 5 games). Lucas had a great game on defense so that's all we could ask for.

The team has an end-of-the-year party in a couple of weeks, but the hockey itself is over until next fall. That same weekend will be the sortouts for baseball (which starts up in May) as well as his first session of flag football. Nothing next weekend for Easter so we plan to RELAX!

Semifinals Result

I'm pretty sure 99% of the people who read this blog have already heard the results of this morning's semifinals game via Facebook, text, or phone, but for anyone who hasn't...

THEY WON!

In a surreal repeat of last year's semifinal (see here to jog your memory), the game ended in a 0-0 tie. As a result, they had a 3 minute 4-on-4 overtime. No one scored. So then they had a 3 minute 3-on-3 overtime. Once again, no one scored. So just like last year, it went to a shootout. Luckily, this year it didn't go through the entire roster once and then into a second round of shootout. This time, one of our best scorers, Cole, scored on the first shot, and then none of the other players scored so we finished with a 1-0 OT victory. It wasn't quite as heart-pounding as last year--since we'd already been through it once, plus Cole's initial goal took some pressure off--but it was still wild.

It didn't hurt that our goalie Shaan had one of his best games of the year--if not THE best--since our team didn't play quite as well as they did in the round robin games. Whatever the case, they won so it's on to the finals, which will be played at noon tomorrow. Their opponent will be the team that beat them 2-0 in the round robin so it'll be a chance for revenge.

I didn't bring the Nikon since I wanted to concentrate on the game, but I did get a couple of before and after pictures with my cell phone. First, here's the Emojis as they are about to get on the ice. I'm not sure what Lucas (#9) was doing on the left side there. I know one of his friends came to watch so maybe he was saying something to him.

And here's immediately after Shaan stopped the last shootout goal and the kids came out to celebrate. I apologize for the crappy image, but like I said earlier, I didn't want to have to worry about photos so I left the good camera at home. If you look closely, you might be able to make out a couple of kids not in uniform in the celebration. They're also seen sitting on the left side in the previous photo. They are out-of-action Emojis that came out to support the team and stood on the bench with the coaches during the game. What a great group of kids.

Keep your fingers crossed for them tomorrow and check in since I should be posting an update during the early afternoon.

Semifinals update

As I predicted, Lucas will be going up against Zach's team, the Bombers, in the semifinals. The game will be this Saturday morning at 8:30 so expect an update by mid-morning.

The teams played 3 times this season. In their first meeting, the Bombers won 4-3, but the Emojis handily took the next 2 games, winning by scores of 6-1 and 7-3. However, given the way this postseason has gone, I wouldn't read anything into the regular season stats.

Hockey Playoff Game #3

Lucas's hockey team had their last of the round robin games this morning, and there was good news and bad news. First, the bad: they lost 2-0. However, due to their previous games, they ended up in 2nd place in their division so they will be going up against the #1 team in the other division, which might be his best friend Zach's team. I'll update on that when I know more.

Regarding the hockey, allow me a moment to put on my tin foil hat. Lucas's division for the round robin hosted the #1, 3, 5, and 7 teams (out of 7). The last place team lost almost every game this season, winning maybe 2. However, against the 1, 3, and 5 teams in the playoffs (all of which swept #7 in the regular season), their record was 5-1, 9-1, and 2-0, respectively.

Don't get me wrong, I understand hot streaks. Heck, Lucas's team got swept by 1 and 3 in the regular season but then went on to tie the top team 1-1 and beat the other team 2-1. But that's a reasonable upgrade since they were just able to get past them. Contrast that with a team that couldn't find its ass from its elbow in the regular season and then managed to outscore the other teams 16-2 in the playoffs. Something's VERY suspicious about that.

Anyway, the semifinals are next Saturday morning and should they make the finals, the Emojis would play on Sunday. So no matter what happens, it all wraps up next week, and then we'll move on to flag football and baseball. As I said above, I'll update once I know the specifics so keep an eye out.

Catch-up: September 2015

I have a little time before work this morning (which is going great, by the way) so here's the rest of the pictures from September 2015.

If you recall our trip to Gatineau Park a few posts back, here are a few more from another trip I took with my friend Mo a week or two later. I really gotta get back there more this year.

What a view!

I have no idea where Lucas got these dolls, but it's amusing to post a picture of him playing with them.

At one of Lucas's school's events,they had posted some of the kids' work on the walls. I believe the one below was to draw a self-portrait. One guess as to which one is our little hellion's,

If I recall correctly, we ended up watching Lucas's friend Max up the street for a couple of days. To pass the time, one of the days we took them to the Canadian Agriculture Museum.

And on another day, the driving range. This might have been Lucas's first attempt at golf. Incidentally, we've got him signed up for a "learn to play" clinic this spring and then a full golf camp for a week this summer. By his choice.

And finally, some pictures from a Sens game.

Woohoo, only about a year and a half behind now! Look for more updates soon!

Playoff Game #2

Just a quick update on the Emojis. Yesterday, they finally had their 2nd playoff game, after a long hiatus due to March break. I was a little worried that their momentum would wear off since they have been playing really well during the last third of the season. My fears were all for naught as they rose to the occasion and completely dominated the other team. The score, 2-1, sounds a lot closer than it really was since they completely controlled the puck throughout 90% of the game and must have outshot the other team 4 to 1. The other team's goalie played extremely well (and supposedly had oversized pads) so that's the only reason they made a game of it.

So that puts the Emojis at 1-0-1 going into their final round robin game. On paper, it should be a gimme it's against a team they beat 3 times during the regular season by a combined score of 9-2. However, both teams the Emojis beat swept THEM during the season so that doesn't matter right now. On top of that, their next opponent destroyed the #1 team 5-1 earlier today. So it looks like both teams are having hot streaks. However, only one can one so let's home it's our guys!

For what it's worth, a win or a tie will definitely get them to the semifinals. In addition, there's a good chance they could make it in with a close loss since goal differential will likely be the tiebreaker, but I'd rather not let it come to that.

New Haircut

Lucas's latest haircut, which happened this morning.

He likes it, and I don't mind it since it's not as bad as some of the hairstyles he's liked in the past. It'll look even more interesting as it gets longer on top.

I had planned to post a couple of times during the week (from bed), but technical difficulties reared their ugly head. I wanted to post via the Blogger app, but I had removed it a while back (along with most of my other apps) to make room on my phone. Lo and behold, when I tried to download it from the App Store, I found that it doesn't exist anymore. I have no idea why Google decided to stop supporting it, but they did so no more mobile updating, I guess.

Catch-Up: Laughter in 2015

Up today, a short video. Based on Marilu's comment in the video, we were playing a game of Zombie Dice. I have no idea what caused Lucas to laugh, but what a laugh it was!

The Warrior

Here's a quick pic of Lucas as he prepared for yesterday's game.

Hockey Playoffs Update

After last week's big win, the Emojis ended up in a 3-way tie for 3rd place. I guess they must have won a tiebreaker or something since they ended up ranked 3rd for the playoffs. As such, they were put in a pool with the odd numbered teams (1,3,5,7). Earlier tonight, they had their first game, which was against the 1st place team (the Dragons), a team that only had 2 losses and that had beaten them in all 3 meetings this season.

Well, things went a bit better this time. The Emojis completely outplayed them, and the only thing that kept the Dragons in the game was their goalie, who stopped a LOT of shots (versus maybe 5 shots on our goalie). The score was tied 0-0 going into the latter half of the 3rd period when the Emojis finally found the back of the net to go up 1-0. It looked like we would finally have a win, but then a missed offsides call by the refs (the kid was about 3 feet offsides) led to the Dragons tying the game 1-1, which ended up being the final score.

So it wasn't a win, but it also wasn't a loss, and against the top team in the league, that should give them a lot of motivation going into the next game. Unfortunately, it's not until March 25, thanks to March break, but it is what it is. The kids did great, and I can't wait to see how they do in their next game.

More photo updates coming soon!

Catch-Up: Gatineau Park

The Emojis closed out their regular season with a big win, 7-3. It wasn't even as close as the score implies as they let their foot off the gas, and the other team scored two of their goals in the last couple minutes of the game. So that's some good momentum going into the playoffs, which start next weekend and then resume in late March, after the March break. As always, I'll keep you updated.

In today's installment of Catch-Up, we're going to return to August 2015. Specifically, Aug 31. It was toward the end of the summer--all of our trips were over--and that was about the time we realized we were getting heavy and needed more exercise. So we decided to head over to Quebec and do some hiking in Gatineau Park for the first time. It was a really fun visit, one we repeated at least once more that year, but for whatever reason we never got over there last summer. We'll definitely have to remedy that in 2017.

Catch-Up: Newfoundland and Labrador 2015! (part 2)

And now for the rest of Marilu and Lucas's trip to Newfoundland.

I don't know what the occasion was here, but everyone (except Lucas) was dressed nicely so I figured I'd include these photos.

Marilu's class reunion was that summer so for the latter half of their trip, they flew to Labrador. So you're going to see a lot more picture of Lucas with his cousins, Colby and Kyle, throughout the rest of this post.

The view from above...

...and below.

Marilu looking her best.

Lucas photobombs the next two photos.

Colby looking too cool for school.

And finally, Marilu shows off her athletic skills during a softball game, one of the events during her reunion.

In current news, Lucas has his last regular game of the season tomorrow. His league is a bit log-jammed in the middle so depending on how the game goes, they could jump quite a bit in the standings. I believe that a win will put them in a 3-way tie for 3rd, and a loss puts them in 6th place. Of course, every team makes the playoffs so it's not that big a deal either way. Whatever the case, I'll update afterwards with the score and let you know when his playoff games will be.

Until then, have a great weekend!

Catch-Up: Newfoundland 2015! (part 1)

Yikes, it's been a while since that last post. Time to get off my butt, and start playing catch up. I've got quite a few pictures from last year that need to be uploaded so the easiest way to do this is probably just to start from the beginning and get to it. So the next few weeks are going to be quite an image dump. I'll throw in some news updates as well so it keeps things at least somewhat current.

Speaking of news, in case you hadn't heard, tomorrow will mark the end of the first week at my new job. I'm out of retail hell and back in the professional world, this time in the accounting side of things. Well, sort of. I'm in a very junior-level position so there's not much actual accounting yet, but at least my foot is in the door, and the future's what I make of it with this company.

Now when I say some of the photos are old, I'm not kidding. This first batch are going all the way back to 2015. For once, you can blame someone other than me. They are from Marilu and Lucas's summer trip to Newfoundland, and I've told her time and again, if she wanted me to post them, she needed to add the commentary herself since most of the photos contain places and people I either don't know or can't recall the names. Since it's apparent that's never going to happen, I've decided to take the best ones of Lucas plus any highlights. So, without any further adieu, welcome to July of 2015!

You probably can't read it, but Lucas is holding up a ticket for the squid race, part of the larger Squid Fest that takes place in Newfoundland around that time of year. Several of the following pictures are taken at or around Squid Fest. They should be fairly simple to spot due to the abundance of cephalopod-related accoutrements.

It's not Newfoundland if you don't have moose crossing the street near your home.

I'm gonna guess this guy is named Squiddy.

Lucas won his favorite player.

Look both ways! You might get run over by a moose otherwise.

That's about half of the ones I have from that trip. I'll post the rest in the next entry so be on a lookout for that tomorrow or this weekend.