KO Squad - Langley Sportsplex Chrome Champions!!!

Woohoo!! So many of you know that I play on multiple hockey teams, 4 to be exact. Anyways the playoffs for all of my teams are now done and over with and 3/4 of my teams were knocked out of my playoffs. One of my teams made it to the finals though. My team KO Squad played in the Langley Sportsplex Roller Hockey League and making it to the finals was an amazing feeling as this would be my first Championship Series in Roller Hockey. Anyways making it to the finals in our league meant that we would play against a team named the "Buffalo Bruins" in a 5 game series. 

To start the series my team went up 2-0 by winning the first 2 games, they were both close games and I believe both went to OT. After that though we dropped the next 2 games against the Buffalo Bruins, game 3 was a close one and game 4 was a blowout of 7-1. 

Now after all this it brings to me to say that on Monday night my team was entering game 5 and we were all quite disappointed in ourselves. I should also mention that we hate the team we were playing against so beating them was something we really wanted to accomplish. I have to say, game 5 was an amazing experience and was extremely grueling. My team took a couple of early penalties and wasn't playing as well as we expected. We got scored on early and before we knew it the game was 3-1 and we were kind of on our heels but we ended up getting a power play and guess who scored to make the game 3-2 and give my team some much needed life. Yes I was the one to score. I was so happy to score the goal mostly because my team really needed a boost of energy to get us going. Anyways after that my team started to have some more jump in their stride. We got another power play and then tided it up. After that there were 2 more goals on each side going back and forth. Being tied 5-5 one of my team mates buried a brilliant chance he had to make it 6-5 for us. We held the lead right up until the last minute until we took another penalty and went on the penalty kill. So we were playing 5 on 3 hockey as they had their goalie pulled and then with 3.6 seconds to go we took another penalty. The game was now 5 on 2!!!! I was out on the rink with another teammate and the faceoff was in our zone. Our only option was to win the draw to the boards and keep the puck away from their players. My team mate sacrificed his body and won the faceoff to the boards while I raced to it to ensure there was no shot for the other team. 

The clock ran out and we were champions!!!! Oh my god what a feeling it was!! I couldn't control my emotions and I started hugging every team mate that I saw. Anyways after winning the  game a league rep brought out our trophy. Actually it wasn't a trophy that they brought out, it was a belt. For the Championship teams in the league they decided to give out Championship belts that the teams would keep, that and mugs for each player. I was excited about the win and I'm still overjoyed right now just thinking about Monday night.

I'll post some pictures later when I've got some more time. 

Sorry about the long post. Lol

S.A.D.

Well you must be wondering what the title of this post means right? The other day I was talking to a close friend of mine via email and she mentioned that she hadn't worked out very much lately and the rain was making her SAD. At first I was like, well everyone gets sad about the rain. It's Vancouver it's inevitable, but she replied to mean and explained that it meant "Seasonally Affected Disorder." I don't know why but I laughed pretty hard when she told me that. Maybe you don't think it's funny but I do, maybe because I totally agree with what she was saying. I mean with the weather in Vancouver being good then bad, then good then bad over and over again.... it gets depressing. Having it rain all the time makes me depressed and well it makes me not want to go to the gym and work out. It makes me not want to do anything for that matter aside from sit at home and be a couch potato.

Down Time =)

So lately I've had a chance to have some down time to spend unwinding a bit with my piggie (that's her other nickname) I guess if I have to explain I'm the big piggie and she's the small one =). A few weeks ago my hockey schedule was pretty hectic. If I haven't mentioned it before I play on 4 recreational hockey teams and before now I was playing about 5 games a week. 2 of the 4 teams I was on had entered the playoffs and the possibility of winning was promising but both teams fell short and were knocked out in the semi-finals. So now in the last week or so I've had a couple more days off to just rest and catch up on some much needed sleep. A few days ago I went out for some late night food with my baby at Starlight Casino in New Westminster, we shared Onion Rings, Lasagna and Cheesecake for dessert. I have to say the day after I felt pretty guilty about it because I ended up eating practically all the Onion Rings and the left overs of the Lasagna. I admit though the food tasted good so I don't regret it that much, that plus I just finished a long session at the gym. I'm slowly trying to get myself into the gym some more too. Part of the reason for that is so that I can eat more food, lol. Oh on the weekend as part of my unwinding I ended up spending most of Sunday in bed watching Glee with my piggie and pigging out on New Town Bakery Apple Tarts =D. If you've never had the Apple Tarts from New Town, well all I have to say is that you're MISSING OUT!! They are amazing!!! 

Anyways now that I've had a bit of rest the last 2 teams of the 4 I play on for the Winter Season have now entered the playoffs. Which means it's time to kick into overdrive yet again and while just around the corner the new Spring Season for hockey will be starting. Surprisingly the Spring Season is starting early this year as my first Roller Hockey game is this coming Sunday. Right, I should mention in the Spring I end up playing more Roller Hockey than I do Ice. Alright so with this in mind it means that I've really only had a few days off from hockey. That's ok, I don't think I could go very long without playing anyways because when I'm not playing I'm still playing; usually drop in hockey with friends. 

Alright, well I'm gonna try to get some sleep and tomorrow I get ready for some more playoff action Woohoo!!! XD 

Til next time. 

- arf

Hockey Hockey and more Hockey.

So I've done a terrible job of updating my blog in the last 2 weeks or so. I think it's come down to the fact that in the last 2 weeks I've just been terribly busy with other things going on. Most of which would be my hockey games. I think in the last 2 weeks I've had a total of 2 days off from hockey. If I count correctly, in the last 14 days I think I've played about 13 games. 2 of the 14 days though were break days which means in the 2 weeks I also ended up playing 2 games in one day. Some people may say that I am crazy and probably spend too much time playing hockey. Those people may be right, but I don't see it that way. I just see it as a way to keep myself busy. If I'm playing hockey, then it means that I'm too busy going out drinking or clubbing. I like drinking though, don't get me wrong drinking is something I like doing from time to time. Especially with close friends that I don't get to see very often.

Anyways aside from all the hockey I've been playing I've found it hard to get myself to the gym. Lol, I know what you're thinking. I play hockey virtually everyday, yet I still want to go to the gym. Well truth be told, as badly as I want to go to the gym I haven't had the opportunity. I've probably only been a few times this month. It's also playoff times at the moment so I've had a lot more games to play then usual.

Other things that are new for me.... hmm... well today I tried the restaurant Pittsburg for the first time. For anyone who doesn't know where that is. Well it's a restaurant that is part of Crystal Mall by Metrotown. The restaurant is kind of a Hong Kong Cafe type place so the menu has quite a few options on it. I opted to try their Mushroom, Ham Alfredo Spaghetti dish today, which was delightfully good to say the least. I didn't expect anything amazing but it was exactly what I was hoping for. It wasn't over bearing in flavour and had enough Mushroom and Ham in it to satisfy my expectations. =)

Anyways, for anyone who's reading this I'll try to update more often rather than make a post every 2 week.

Laters

arf =P

hmmm... maybe that'll be my sign off now.

Sleep Deprived ... If Only There Were More Hours In A Day =(

I'm looking at my schedule for the rest of this week and I'm realizing that I have a hockey game everyday from Mon-Fri. This usually means that I won't get much sleep in the week. I've had other weeks like this where I've had a game in everyday of the week and all I have to say that is that it's extremely tiring. Mostly because the games are late a lot of the times which means I don't end up going to sleep until even later at night. I think I average about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Based on that I'm surprised I don't fall asleep at work. Another thing about having this many hockey games in a week is also trying to find time to go to the gym and get stuff done at home. On a day that I play hockey I tend to skip going to the gym depending on what time the game is at, but really I'd prefer to go either way. See but if I do that then that really cuts back the amount of time I get to sleep and/or get things done around the house. *Sigh* ... I LOVE sleeping and totally wish I had more time to do it. But I also wish I had more time to do anything else. Seems like my life revolves around hockey nowadays (is that right?...w/e). I can't complain though because that's exactly how I want it, I enjoy playing hockey so much I that I can't stop thinking about it. I think about hockey at least 5 times a day. But ya, one of the things I don't have time for anymore is reading. So on that note I've got some free time since I'm on a lunch break.... I think I'll go read one of my books.

If anyone's curious to know how many teams I play for... well the number is 4. BUT I also sub on other teams as well as play drop in hockey at least once a week. =S ... some people think I'm crazy, I just call it a love for hockey. =)

Striving To Be Better & Dealing With Defeat

I think one of the hardest things for me as hockey player is dealing with defeat. Learning how to take the positive out of something negative and turn it into something constructive. Every time I play I want to be better and I want to do more. So when I play a game where I think I've played well but as a part of team played poorly it gets hard to distinguish between the things that I did well and the things I did poorly. I think being a perfectionist it makes it even harder to be constructive and positive about the way I've played. No matter how well I play I usually still find a way to be negative towards myself, although it's even worse when I play bad. I have to say though I have gotten better at not taking things too seriously. Like I mean I play rec hockey so it's not like winning a hockey game necessarily means anything. It's just a game but of course no one likes to lose. I like to think that I'm a pretty competitive person. I try not to be but by nature aren't we all, don't we all want to be the best at what we do.

Anyways what I'm trying to say is that when things get tough it's hard to know how to make yourself better and look past what's happened. Sometimes we just get caught up in the emotions of things, the emotions of losing. Once you get past the initial disappointment we just have to learn to know that we'll never be perfect and sometimes we'll struggle. So we just have to be positive and know that there are going to be ups and downs and just try to be motivated to be better the next time out. 

Alright, well sorry if that sounded whiny. Just finished losing a game and thought I'd get out some of those emotions I was mentioning.

Tokyo Joes!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE SUSHI!!! Anyways last friday I met up with friends of mine for dinner and skating. I met my friends at this small little Japanese restaurant in Richmond called Tokyo Joes. At first I didn't know what to think about the restaurant because it was really small and just looked a little dinky if I must say so. Once I sat down though I started to feel homey because you can help yourself to miso soup and tea at anytime and the staff was extremely friendly. Anyways I ordered a Sashimi Don, an Alaska Cream Cheese Roll and a Tuna and Salmon combo to share with my baby. When the food came out I was completely stunned by how BIG the pieces of Sashimi and Sushi were. The pieces of Salmon Sushi that was in my Salmon Don were huge!! Almost twice the size of what you would normally get at any other restaurant. The sushi pieces were a really good size too. The Alaska Cream Cheese Roll was delicious too as it was a perfect amount of Cream Cheese that was added to the roll. 

Anyways check out some of the photos. 

Looking at these pictures it makes me want sushi again. =S 

Alrighty well after dinner we went out for some skating at the Richmond Oval. It was ridiculously expensive though if you ask me. $21 for 2 people without skate rentals is stupid! For that I could go to a community centre rink a couple of times. Whatever it was nice skating in there just not worth the price of it. 

Anyways if anyone is looking for a place for some sushi I suggest trying out Tokyo Joes. Let me know what you think of it and how you liked the food. =)

Baby and Me  =)

Lol!! Schnitzel!! Oh and Borsch!

Hey!! So here's another post to add to the list. So again last week probably a couple of days after the night out with my baby, I went out for Ukrainian food. This night out was with one of our favourite couple friends. They invited us out to eat Ukranian food with them as a birthday treat to me. Actually it was a really really late birthday treat, a couple of months late I think. It doesn't matter that it was a late gift though, it was the thought that counts most plus it was nice to seem them again. So I have to admit this was my first time having authentic Ukranian food. The place we went to was suggested by the couple we were out with because they had been there before. It took us a while to decide on what to eat but when I finally made a decision I ended up ordering the Chicken Schnitzel. Aside from that baby and I shared the Russian Borsch, they also had Ukranian Borsch but we were pretty keen to try the Russian style. Oh and baby order the Beef Stroganoff, I think I spelled that right, well ya Beef Stroganoff for baby because she's never had an authentic serving of it.

Here's some pics of the food we ordered. 

So this is the Borsch

Oh and we shared perogies too!! Potatoe and fried onion perogies!! =D

Here's my Schnitzel!!

 

Beef Stroganoff!! mmm... tasty!!

Check out my Tiny Pickle that came with my Schnitzel.

Now I'm eating my Tiny Pickle! Lol!

Anyways by the end of the night I was stuffed!!! We had lots of food and it was damn good!! =P 

A Night Out With My Baby!! =D

Ok so I know that it's been a while since I last posted something, a little over a week or so. It's my own fault though, I keep letting myself get distracted by other things and then just end up forgetting to blog altogether.

So anyways last week baby and I went out to the movies on half on Tuesdays. We went to go watch The Eagle. Most of the time it's actually quite hard for us to go out to the movies on Tuesdays for half off on tickets because majority of the time I end up having a hockey game. I usually play hockey 4-5 times a week so it's hard to do anything really, not just going out to a movie. Well anyways if any of you don't know what The Eagle is, it's a movie about a man who's father was the leader of the Roman Empires 9th Legion. The same Legion that mysteriously disappeared and lost The Golden Eagle. So the son is on a mission to find the Eagle and restore honour to his families name. I have to say the movie was actually pretty good, at least I thought so. It was weird to see Channing Tatum in a action movie though considering that he usually stars in Rom Coms. I thought he did well in his first role in an action movie.

After the movie baby and I felt kind of hungry and started craving a poutine, specifically a poutine from the Starlight Casino in New Westminster. The thing about the poutine from Starlight Casino is that the french frie slices are big and they also give you ground beef with it. Mmmm... beef, cheese, gravy and fries!!! *drool* It's good stuff, that's all I have to say about that. 

These pictures probably don't make this poutine look as good as it really is, but I assure you it was awesome!!

Anyways after eating that we weren't done. We decided we'd go to the Tim Hortons down the street and get some coffee and donuts. Ok well actually I decided that we'd go to Timmy's for coffee and donuts; I was craving donuts!!! Don't judge me. Well I can admit I'm a pig anyways so who cares!

Donut eyes!?!? I'm weird, don't judge.

Mmmmm... Boston Cream!!

Well anyways that concluded the night... but I think it's safe to say we pigged out that night. =S

I Just Keep Eating & Eating!!! =P

So Saturday was a pretty lazy day for me at the least the morning and early afternoon was anyways. I woke up Saturday morning and kind of just took it easy. I think I was up at 11am and at this time I just kind of sat on my butt and played video games for a while... NHL 11 to be exact, lol. Mmm... for lunch though I had some Dim Sum. That was awesome to say the least! After eating I didn't seem to want to to anything at all. My plan was to do some cleaning around the house or maybe some laundry because I figured it should probably get done sooner rather than later. But nope, didn't have the motivation to do it. Instead I just went to my bed and took a nice long nap!! Lol!! Although to justify the nap I do have mention the fact that I also had 2 hockey games that night to get ready for. Anyways after my nap I just got read to leave the house and went to pick up my friend for our 1st of 2 games in the night. The thing is though that Saturday night was just 2 days after getting hit in the face with a puck. So with that in minded I opted to borrow my brother's helmet which has a full cage mask on it. When I got to my 1st game of the night and started skating around I felt a little disoriented having the cage in my face. I've never played with a full cage mask before so this was a new experience for me. Very strange to say the least because it was so hard to see the puck. I guess switching from using a visor to using a full cage mask it would be harder to adjust than say if you were to switch the other way around. But anyways I needed to protect my pretty face so I had to make do. Even though it was a hard adjustment for me using the cage I actually ended scoring 4 goals in my 1st game of the night to help my team win 5-4. Lol, half the time it was hard to tell where the puck was so I had to go off of instincts. Some of my team mates were saying that maybe the cage was helping me shoot the pucker better. I don't think that's true because even though I scored 4 goals in that 1st game I didn't score any in my 2nd. Lol, so I think it's safe to say it wasn't the cage helping me. Oh I should mention though that my 1st game was a roller hockey game and the 2nd was an ice hockey game. I think playing with the cage in ice hockey was worse, because I had more equipment on and with the cage being so big it was harder to move my head and look down. So half the time I would lose the puck thinking I still had it. LOL, *sigh*

Anyways to conclude the night of hockey my ice hockey team ended up winning 4-2. Yay!! 2 for 2 on the night. After hockey though can you guess what I did? .................................... If you guessed that I went out to eat. Well you'd be right, LMAO!!! I went out to eat Pho again... hahaha. One of my friends was craving Pho and asked if I wanted to go so a couple of us went out to this 24 Pho place. My baby went with us too and I shared a bowl with her. =) Then after having Pho I hate to admit this part, but I went home and had a steak and prawns. The steak and prawns was actually what my dinner was supposed to be minus the Pho. Lol, my parents had made dinner and offered to save it for me for after my hockey games. So I ended up having two dinners on the night, but why not. Two hockey games, why not two dinners!! XD
Ya I know I'm a PIG but whatever, I like food!!! So sue me!!! XP

Yay For All You Can Eat Sushi!!!!

Alright so on the same night that my baby brought me a box of yum yums we went out with some friends for all you can eat sushi at Toyama sushi. I had never been to Toyama before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard good things and was optimistic that the food would be good. So anyways when we got there we went crazy and ordered tons of food. The good thing about Toyama is that they don't limit the amount of Sashimi you can order. As soon as I heard that I was excited to start ordering Sashimi. Anyways all I have to say is that the food was great and I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone looking to have good all you can eat sushi. =D  Oh yeah, this place also has pretty good mango pudding for dessert.

Here's a look at our food when we started eating.

Here's an order or Sashimi.

Mmm... Lobster sushi!!! XD

We started running out of table space so we combined some plates together. lol

Lol, this was funny. I ordered Seafood Udon and the only Seafood that came with it was a piece of cooked salmon. LMAO!!

This Box Contains Yum Yums!! =D

Ok so I didn't get a chance to post anything over the weekend... mostly because I was busy sleeping and stuffing my face with food. Lol. So I figured I'd post a couple today. This will be my first of a couple.

So anyways on friday night after I came home from work my baby called me to pick her up and she brought me left overs!!! I just have to say I love my baby because she keeps me well fed. She knows that I absolutely LOVE left overs!! =) The perfect thing about our relationship is that she never finishes her food and I always want more!! So whenever we go out I don't just end up eating my own meal I eat hers too... essentially a meal and a half. That plus she loves feeding me when she gets the chance. Feeding me in the sense that when she goes out she'll always try to bring something home for me to eat. It's probably part of the reason my waistline hasn't gotten any smaller... but hey I don't say no to free food. hehehe...

This is a shot of the food, she brought me what was left of her open face turkey sandwich and mash potatoes!! It was amazing!!

 And this is a close up.

I know these pictures probably don't make the food seem that appealing but trust me, it tasted amazing!!! Can't go wrong with turkey and mashed potatoes!!! Mmmm.... =)

WooHoo!!! Got my first Stitches!

Alright so I've finally gotten stitches for the first time. It happened on Thursday night when I found out about getting that new job I interviewed for and it was also the day that I was supposed to play 2 games. Well I never made it to the 2nd game that night. When I was playing in my first game I ended up getting hit in the face with a puck. Luckily I didn't break anything because the puck hit my visor first and then hit my nose and cheek. Even with my visor taking part of the blow I still ended up taring part of my nostril. At first I didn't think it was anything serious, but when I finally looked at it in the mirror of the locker room I realized there was a tare. It was enough of a tare that I decided to go to the hospital for stitches. The wait surprisingly wasn't as long as I thought it would be. I arrived at the hospital around 12 and actually ended up getting out by around 1:30 am. The funny part of that night after leaving the hospital was that I went out to go eat Pho with my girlfriend and my bro. The hardest part about eating Pho was that half my face was still numb. Lol!! Ridiculous that I go to get stitches and then go out to eat Pho.

I'm Fuckin' Tired But I'm Feelin Good... I Could Use A Nap Though!!

Fuck, I'm tired! Lol! Although the thing is I'm always tired!! So there's really no difference today from yesterday or the day before that. The difference right now at least is that I just got word from a company that recently interviewed me. Of course my phone was off when they called and I didn't realize I even had a voice message until 40 minutes after the fact. The person calling left me a number to call back at.... so I did and are you ready for it? I GOT THE JOB!!! WOOHOO!! I was so happy!! It's awesome because I was a little uncertain about whether or not they liked me. I had good feelings about it but I thought maybe I didn't have enough experience. Anyways I'm just happy to be moving forward with this new endeavour.

Enough about that though, time to watch the Canucks game. They're playing the Nashville Predators, so Go Canucks Go!!!

Oh I've also got 2 hockey games tonight, so I've got make sure I get a good meal in to make sure I've got enough energy to survive the night. Playing 2 games a night isn't a new thing for me though, I've actually done it plenty of times before. It's ridiculously tiring, but fun.

Anyways more blogging later. Have a great day everyone!! =P

It's my First Time... so let's take it slow.

Exciting!!! This is my first ever blog.... well not really I suppose. I use to use something called Xanga back in the day, if anyone remembers what that is. Either way this is my first official blog. I don't necessarily have a reason for starting this aside from using it as a way to connect with some friends and maybe even just get some thoughts out of my head. A lot of the things that I will end up talking about will be about my life as a hockey player and my life as someone who can't resist food. I have to admit, I love hockey but I also love food!! People who know me know that I have a hard time saying no to food, especially when it's free. I love to eat and I eat a lot, although with that in mind it doesn't help my hockey life. I try to find a balance between playing hockey, staying in shape and enjoying the food that I eat. So I guess in this blog you'll end up hearing about me pigging out, regretting it and then playing hockey to justify it. Lol. It's probably why I don't lose weight.

Anyways this probably isn't a very good first post, so sorry if I bored you. Although no one's first time is ever good.... it's usually sloppy and out of sync. So bare with me, I'm trying and hopefully I'll get better.

Now I think it's time for a bowl of cheesecake ice cream with Maltesers & Marshmallows. =)

Hmmm... I'm sure I'll regret it tomorrow when I realize my jeans are tight.