The Bitch is Back

My back aches, my groin muscles complain with every step, my glutes are sore.

I'M SO HAPPY!!!! :)

My return to the ice after 6 weeks of no hockey was a success. I played well, my team played well, and we stuffed the blue team in regulation 4-2. (We won't talk about that extra 4th period where I was the only goalie and had to play in the enemy net for the final 10 minutes. I understand and didn't mind, but yuck. What a mindfuck.)

I'll just bullet point this sucker:

• Highlight was stoning the best player on the blue team. Maybe he was taking it easy on me by not shooting high, but I stopped him on a big breakaway, and got a toe on several more of his shots. All good ones, but I was motivated. I wanted to shut him down. Beauty. That felt awesome.
• Took me a good 15 minutes to not feel like I was tripping over my feet. I was definitely a little wobbly, like those small muscles that deal with balance were out of practice. 
• I was surprised, however, by how strong my legs still felt. No biggie getting up from the fly, which is how I hurt myself initially. Made some big lateral pushes from the posts for a couple of saves. Real proud of those for reading the pass correctly. 
• I would say my rebound control was lousy but, frankly, it always is, so nothing new there.
• TONS of new people at novice, though some are quite good and probably should be playing C, unless they just like the easy pace of novice. It's great that this group is growing. I like my teammates. They were fantastic last night. And Mitch was there! Everything's better when Mitch is there. I think because he was always so nice to me during some rough early months when I was going to drop-ins and he was the only one I knew and he didn't pretend to not know me, even though I sucked so bad. I'll always love him for that.
• You need that as a new goalie. You need people to say, "Man, that sucked" and you need people to say, "Good save!" even if you only make one save all game. You need SOME air in your tires all the time or else, you have no motivation to keep going. 
• My knee hurt the entire time out there. Controlling that blade dug into the ice is exactly what my knee doesn't like right now. Felt like I was going to take my gear off and it was going to be swollen up like a grapefruit. But it wasn't. And it doesn't feel any worse today than it has the last 6 weeks, so I'm calling it a success. 
• The brace was absolutely no problem didn't even notice it. Don't know if it helped, either, but if I can't feel it, it obviously isn't hurting.

Here's the thing: I started playing goal because I had to. Like, if I hadn't tried to play, I would have looked back on my life when I'm 90 and thought, "Dammit. Why didn't I do that?" And really, when you feel that way about something, you KNOW you have to do it. You have no choice. You have to honor that instinct.

So to not play for 6 weeks, which I realize is not THAT long if you think about how long some guys go without playing, even as pros (*hugs Brusty*), was like a part of me was missing. Sure, I missed it less as time went on, but then as soon as work stress started to lift, there it came back again. I had to have it.

I've been avoiding this comparison because I didn't want to seem like I'm just trying to be shocking (which I'm not inherently averse to, but I'm quite serious about this), but I want to play goal like I want a good lay. You know the feeling I mean? Like you just need to get fucked until you're limp. That's exactly the inner tension I feel when I can't play for a long time. It's nasty. It's fabulous. And nothing else can scratch that itch. I had this one toe save, literally off the plastic cowling over the toe of my skate, that was worthy of a cigarette after. Heh. Yeah. Hockey is amazing.

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Dodging Bullets

"You're a hypochondriac."

"I know."

"Ha, just kidding. But really, there's nothing wrong with your knee."

I knew this already because I had gotten a copy of the MRI report when I got in the room. I spent the 10 minutes waiting on the doctor searching the cobwebby corners of my brain for the 2 semesters of Latin I took in college trying to understand what it said. But I didn't need Latin to see that there was nothing wrong with my knee other than my patella being a little off kilter.

So, thus continues my lifelong record of having very expensive testing when there's absolutely nothing wrong with me. At least I'm consistent. And, well, there still is pain in the knee. At least I can't chalk this up to anxiety like I was able to with the other things when I was younger..

But it's good news, even if it does make me feel like a complete pussy. Let's be honest. I totally am. I may be a goalie and like getting hit by pucks, but that's pure masochism and love of hockey. I don't like to be uncomfortable, I have a low pain tolerance, I'm easily annoyed. Hey, at some point you just have to accept who you are and work from there.

Doc gave me a brace that shoves my kneecap over a smidge (which is a distinctly weird feeling, but very clever of the knee brace to do that). It's got hinges on either side but is otherwise quite soft. And he's sending me to physical therapy to work on strengthening those muscles that support the knee. So I'm pretty excited about that.

Now, here's the part that made a few of my tweeps wag their fingers at me: I asked Doc when I could play and he said, "Not until you're pain free."

Well.

Um.

But there's nothing wrong with me.

So.

Yeah.

I'm playing.

Sunday.

I'll take it easy and I'll ask my D to not go out of their way to let me see a bunch of shots. I need to keep it light and easy (though after being off 6 weeks, it's still gonna feel pretty damn hard).

But I'm pretty stoked. You goalies know... that first save. Oh man, I hope it's a good solid shot that I can feel. Fuck me, I miss that feeling like you wouldn't believe.

And if that goes well, I really will have to prepare for my camp in Minnesota in earnest. Which means working out on non-hockey days. Boooo... but necessary. I've been off so long, I feel like goo.

But I really feel like I dodged a bullet here and it's a gift and I need to make the most of it. So, that's what I intend to do.

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This is awesome. Someone should buy this. AND PUT A GOALIE MASK ON THE POOR GUY! Yeesh. But still. Awesome.

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Offered a wager with my Yankees friend on the Jays/Yanks series this weekend but he was too chicken. ;) Guess it's just bragging rights. Either way, I'm looking forward to a bounce back from a couple of ugly ones. BRETT CECIL, bitches.

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MRI and Kevin Gregg Blows

MRI is done and I'll see the good doctor on Friday to see what's what with the bad knee.

My hip is starting to hurt now from limping for nearly 6 weeks. Any "healin' feelin'" I was having the last few weeks was strictly from the prednisone, because my knee feels as bad as ever now. It's less tender when I twist it, but it's swollen and stiff. It sucks. I'm really ready for Friday to get here. Let's just get this train rollin'.

On the upside, the MRI tech was very handsome. On the downside, I had to listen to Sunny 99.1 during the scan. Ugh.

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So, the Jays were just supposed to be a summer fling. Something to occupy the sports-loving part of my brain for a few months until hockey comes back. Maybe become literate, or at least semi-literate, in another sport.

But then the Jays turned out to be so fun and inexplicably good and lovable. And really, there's nothing more fun than a team playing above its talent level. They're like lovable losers... who don't lose!

But then Kevin Gregg darkens the mound with his chomping and his Oakleys. Screw his hot start. Night after night, he HEMORRHAGES leads. I was mad when I went to bed and I woke up still mad. At first I was shocked at myself. I can't tell you the last time I woke up still mad from a hockey game. Even my OWN games, usually a good sleep and I'm full of perspective and zen the next day.

So, why am I getting this worked up for baseball?

Well, I figure it's because I don't know what the fuck I'm looking at with baseball. As in, I have no perspective because it's too new to me. I can look at one miserable loss in an 80 game season for the Aeros and go, "Okay, I know why that happened and I know what this team can do, so I'm assuming they'll do it better next time." Hockey is a slow burn. Baseball is sirens and red flashing lights and OMGOMGOMG!!! You'd think, given the divergent pace of the two games, it would be the other way around. You'd be wrong.

I'm assuming this will get better. Or the Jays will finally start being bad-to-mediocre when they remember that gravity applies to their balls (baseballs, I mean), too, and there won't be so many fat leads to blow. I'm not sure that's better.

Anyway, Kevin Gregg will continue to be a magnet for my ire and disdain until he's sent to Vegas or he quits seeing the Baseball Reaper every time he's on the mound.

(P.S. Even worse is that he's HOT. Like break-my-neck-doing-a-double-take hot. And 6'6". Bitches!!! But he's completely unlovable and reeks of GAZOLINE! What a waste of a perfectly good object of lust.)

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Ms. Meniscus

Well, doc upped the ante on the knee saga today by declaring the need for an MRI on my lousy peg. The knee is still swollen nearly 5 weeks after the injury, and there is still pain in certain situations (particularly bread and butter goalie situations).

He thinks I have a torn medial meniscus, so we need to get a look inside the knee and see what's really going on. Honestly, I've had trouble with this knee from the beginning, so part of me is relieved to just finally see what's going on and what it will take to get it strong again.

I found myself almost giddy when I got home, actually. I've been sitting around for 5 weeks wondering when it's going to start feeling better, when I can play again, what's wrong, etc. etc. Now I get to get answers. Expensive answers, unfortunately, but... when I'm feeling positive... I think that I could play for another 15 years if I want to. I might even not suck so consistently at some point!

So taking some time now to get things right is worth it. I don't know what it will entail yet, because as I'm learning, a lot about meniscus tears revolves around where the tear is and what kind it is. Here's a great page I found on it.

I'll get an MRI next week, doc will have a peek at it, and we'll figure out what to do. Progress! Sweet sweet progress!

Meanwhile, I've told Monday I'm basically out of the rotation until they hear otherwise. This breaks my heart. But I'll get better and I'll get back in there.

Not sure what to do about novice. I've paid for this season and got hurt the week before the season started. So I may see if they can just give me a credit for the season and I'll pick it back up when I'm ready to go again.

But who knows what the verdict will be. I'm just happy to be moving forward. This probably sounds weird but I feel like I can just relax and be hurt now instead of constantly worrying about what I could/should be doing to get better.

Aeros equipment sale is tomorrow, but my plans for going to buy a new stick feel pretty pointless and depressing tonight. It's like I don't want to think too far ahead right now, but I know I'll need a new stick eventually, so I might was well get a deal while the gettin's good.

The Khudobin stick I bought last year is basically being held together with hockey tape on the edges of the paddles. Totally stole that trick from Mr. April in the Aeros calendar this year, otherwise, I would have needed a new stick by now.

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Marcum today. Cecil tomorrow. As I tweeted earlier when the Jays went up 5-0 on Baltimore, "The #bluejays are baseball porn. Just whipping it out and going to town. I adore them."

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Knee Update, cuz I know the wondering is keeping you up nights

So, Prednisone is subtly interesting stuff. Damn shame it's bad for you long term because I feel great. Nothing like a little bit of roids in the system to get things clicking.

Guess I should do some catch up: I finally broke down and went to an orthopedic doc on Friday. The Aeros doc, to be exact, because frankly, I doubt many doctors in Houston really understand the rigors that goaltending in particular puts on joints. So I figure, why not go to the guy who treats them during the season?

It was a good visit and fun to get to "talk shop" and know that he maybe gets it.

Anyway, the x-rays didn't show anything, other than my bones look fine and my knee cap is a little goofy, but he said that had been that way a long time. Of course, my response to that is, "Well, this knee has been annoying for a long time." Just not THIS annoying.

He said either it's the MCL and if it is, it will be good in 2 weeks, or it's probably the meniscus and they'll need to do an MRI if it's not better in 2 weeks. Urgh.

The good news is that it's only been three days and the knee is feeling noticeably better. I don't think I tweaked it but one time today, and that was getting up from sitting on the floor. I'd been tweaking it 6 or 7 times a day and almost that many times during the night.

And it's not as stiff and painful after sitting for a long period, so I'm limping a lot less.

I'm going to add glucosamine to my routine to help my joints out however I can, and I'm trying to add a few little things back into my day, like some light squats and maybe some easy biking, just to keep those joints and muscles going.

I also read another "retraining" type of move where you balance on one leg for 30 secs, then bend the knee a 30 degrees and balance another 30 secs, then another 30 degress for another 30 secs. Work up to doing it with your hands on your hips and then with your eyes closed. Simple but kinda tough. Felt good to remind myself that my muscles do still work.

Got me some gnarly bruises from my deep tissue work with Cheryl Thursday, too. Look like I rode the Kentucky Derby on a golf ball saddle. Not cute. Felt like it, too, but there were plenty of trigger spots and other angry bits in my groin muscles, so she had a lot of work to do.

I, of course, had to bow out of playing Novice tonight and drop-in tomorrow. I completely wrecked my skate blades last time I played (always the mark of a hard fought game, right?) so I'm not letting myself get them sharpened until I can get up off the floor without my knee hurting. At that point, I feel like maybe I can skate a little and see how it feels.

I've been on a rollercoaster about the whole thing. It sucks not to play for a lot of reasons. Really feeds lots of insecurities. But on the bright side, I've managed to finally get caught up somewhat with work without starting my week off in zombie-land. You know, except for tonight where I'm up until 4 a.m. working and screwing around. Shooooot.

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Quick Hits: HGH, down with Cosmo, yay Jays, other stuff

Seriously, isn't there something The Man can inject in my knee to make it better by, say, Thursday? Hell, I'm willing to give it until Saturday. Okay, Sunday at 9:30 p.m.?

Whatever, I just really feel aimless not being able to play hockey. I can't even imagine what that's like when it's your job. At least I can still do my job (thank heavens I do that a little better than I play goal). But really, would a little bit of human growth hormone or whatever it is the studs take on the hush-hush to heal up faster be such a big ask for this weekend warrior?

Fine. I'm just grumpy. I don't just miss playing. I miss walking without a limp. I miss being able to move around without worrying about tweaking my knee.

That said, it does seem to be getting the tiniest bit better. But I'm still missing my second weekend in a row of being on the ice and that sucks. I've already committed to playing next Monday, and of course, Sunday for Novice, so I'm really hoping I'm good enough by then.

Honestly, it's a shitload harder to make the decision not to play than it is to just "man up" and play anyway.  Staying home carries a lot more fear and insecurity than playing hurt does. Fear of looking like a sissy, of losing  your spot, of being deemed "unreliable", etc. It sucks.

Have I mentioned my shoulder is jacked up, too? Yeah, 35 is turning out great. Maybe me and DiPietro can lick each others... wounds....

One thing I did kinda figure out is that this pain feels and behaves very much like my achilles tendinitis did. So now I'm looking at the solutions that fixed that and seeing if maybe they help with this. It involves deep, extremely painful massage of the damaged muscles in my groin and calf, which I'm trying to do myself for now, but I may end up seeing if my MT can work on me, too. We'll see. At least it's a direction to go in for now.

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So, I got my haircut last week, which rocked cuz I don't do it often. They have a new guy working there and he got his claws in me and waxed my brows, too. The shape is amazing. Queer Eye for the Hockey Girl, it was.

Anyway, while I was waiting, I was reading a Cosmo magazine for the first time since my early 20s. I quit reading magazines like that back then because I realized they were just warping my sense of self and my self esteem.

It really struck me while reading the feature article on Lada Gaga. Now, I'm not a big Gaga fan, but I respect her for pretty much showing up, doing things her way, and being a huge success at it. But this interview with her was literally question after question about men, relationships, etc.

I get that that's Cosmo's angle, but damn, here's a chance to feature a woman who kicked ass on her own terms and all they wanna know is what she looks for in a man? Who gives a shit? The whole article, I kept wishing she'd just say, "I'm a lesbian. So, can we talk about me now? *I* don't even care who I'm fucking as much as you people care!"

Anyway, I was reminded why I don't even bother with those mags. I'm convinced they turn you vapid and needy and encourage women to be someone they're not just to please men. Well, not YOU personwhoreadsMsConductANDCosmo, but the rest of them. You know who I'm talking about.

Not to say I haven't had a few glaring moments of hypocrisy on this front.... damn goalies.

Hey, and while I'm on empowering women, if you're ever in a "crazy bitch with subtitles" kinda mood, dial up La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson's French version) on Netflix or wherever and enjoy. I haven't watched it in years but that was on heavy rotation back in my 20s. If I ever get my name put on a jersey, I'm gonna put Nikita. She'd stop your puck and kill you before you're done with your follow-through.


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How about my freaking Blue Jays!!?! I'm totally taking credit for how lens flare and happy cat they are this season. Yeah, I know they haven't played anyone. Shut up. Let me enjoy it before angry little girl sets in.

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Just learned that they make Stetson Black... which is apparently the "sexy" Stetson fragrance. Um. Jesus.

Speaking of tingling down there, look who made it on to a fake billboard for the Aeros! Seeks it, huh? Heh.

Honestly, if that were a real billboard, I'd would find a reason to drive that way no matter where I'm going. "I'm going to Katy, but, uh, I'm gonna swing by Pearland first."

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Wild Horses Couldn't Drag Me Away

Up late working, as is my life now. I actually took the evening off but felt so "unaccomplished" when I went to bed that I had to get up and put a few more hours in to feel like I'd actually gotten enough done today.

I've about decided that my perfect schedule is to get up early and work until about 2. Take a nap while it's too hot to think. Take care of stuff around the house, have dinner, watch playoff hockey (that goes on all summer, right? Right?!) and then around 10 put another 3-4 hours in. I would be super productive if I could do that.

As it is, I get up early, work until 1, sit on conference calls all afternoon while trying NOT to fall asleep (I sometimes don't succeed... thank god for mute button), then wander around in a stupor for a few hours wanting to go to bed, and then when it IS time to go to bed, I get my second wind and want to work again.

I like the late night because all my internet distractions are at a minimum. The biggest distraction is the occasional Facebook post from my west coast friends and @TeleEroticist tweeting her adventures as a phone sex operator (frankly, it's a must-follow if you're cool with some pervy shit). Anyway, I get a lot done without TweetDeck pinging at me and checking email and whatnot.

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This is my new Facebook profile photo. It makes me deliriously happy. I love Marty. I love cheeseburgers. I wanna have a monster liquor and cheeseburger party with Marty. We'd totally laugh just like this a whole bunch. *sigh*

Thanks for passing that along to me, Chris Jerina!

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Went to Dr.Dan today to get poked and cracked. He identified my psoas muscle as the culprit of my janky pelvic bone. I was amazed when I got home and read more about this muscle. It's basically, in cow terms, the tenderloin and controls a lot of really important movement in the lower back and hips. So when it's messed up, it can cause a huge chain of problems, including knee pain, lower pack pain, hip pain, legs different lengths, etc etc.

We decided that 3 months is about how long I can go from adjustment to adjustment. Month 4 is when I get injured.

He cracked all kinds of other stuff, too, especially my neck, making lots of happy mutterings at the "movement" he was feeling along the way. I dunno. I still don't really buy chiropractic and yet I can't really argue with the results I get. I'm always afraid the more I get adjusted, the more I'll need adjusting. But I know if I went to a traditional doc, I'd probably just get some pain killers and a "keep an eye on it" instruction. Bleh. Wrong answer.

Anyway, it sucked not playing Sunday or Monday. I switched to not play this upcoming Monday, but I'll probably try to play Sunday at Novice. Still quite a bit of stiffness in my knee but I'm hoping by then, it will be good enough to muddle through. Worst case, I'll be forced to practice pad stacks.
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Okay, so I couldn't stay away from the blog. I guess I just have stuff to say regardless of how busy I am. Whether it's interesting or not is another story.

Off to try and sleep again.

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Harding and the goalie food chain

Josh Harding was a freaking STUD tonight. I wasn't even planning on posting tonight but shit, he was clearly in pain with just about every move and still managed to get a shutout. It was an epic, Kerri Strug-esque performance. (I'm probably insulting one or the other in making that comparison, but I mean it in the best possible way, while still sort of mocking Josh because I'm mean like that.)

Anyway, first star and a shutout for that guy and well earned.

But this certainly makes things interesting. My boy Jaeger might wanna keep his phone on him where ever he is in bumfuck CHL, because neither Backs nor Hards seem to be in particularly good shape.

If the goaltending experience is remotely universal, Harding had adrenaline in his favor tonight, which dulls pain. Imagine, with all the grimacing he was doing WITH the adrenaline (and whatever superman painkillers they'd put in him), how he's gonna be feeling in the morning. Ouchy hips make everything hurt. It's one of those deep pains. You can't ice it. It just sits there ... hurting. Ugh. I feel for him.

But the whole team just played their nuts off. It reminded me of some of the heroic defensive performances of the Aeros two years ago, back when all they had was great goaltending and gutsy defense. God, I loved that team.

I'm watching the recap of the game on On the Fly, though, and there was no appreciation for what Harding really did there. Was kinda like, "Well, normally they mostly suck so this was kind of a fluke because they have Colorado's number." Pfft. Kevin Weekes would have nailed recapping that game. Not kidding. Everything he does that isn't goalie-related is intensely uncomfortable, but his goalie commentary is often pretty good.

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Still, that means Brusty is in the AHL where he belongs (at the very least). So as much as I feel for Harding, I also feel like the planets are aligned again.

Ha! They just said, "He loves to ride the hot goaltender" on OTF. Who wouldn't? *sigh*

Anyway, Brusty's in Milwaukee. No clue where it goes from here, but I'm feeling mellow about the whole thing. It's all gonna be fiiiiiiiine.

Here's a pretty cool video of Brusty's greatest hits (and some warmups?) put together by the Blades, who are surely crying in their beer at the moment. Not only is the music funktastic, but you also get to see how often he gets run by his own fucking team. Honest to god, those boys need to learn to stop. I've never seen a goalie get run by his own team more. He's not a tackling dummy, guys, he's a person.

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Gonna try something new here. Like how I made my bitterness cute with sweet, fuzzy animals, I'm gonna try and make my my aching knees and other lamentations sexy:

I totally knew a change in the weather was coming tonight thanks to my knees feeling crummy.


How's that working? I think repetition is key. We'll see.

Buenos noches, gatitos....

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Quick Hits: Rapper's Delight

I've got my little superstitions. Nothing too crazy and some are just habits that I feel weird not doing.

But one of my bigger ones is that I won't wear another goalie's sweater to play goal in. Like if you gave me a goalie cut Brusty sweater, I'd totally love you forever, but I wouldn't wear it to play because I don't want whatever shitty goalie mojo I have jinxing him.

Who knows how detail oriented the hockey gods are? Maybe they get confused and punish him for something I did. I can't live with the uncertainty!

Anyway, I've got a thing about that and I just won't do it.

But then in my Google Reader, among all my AHL goalie news hits, I get this from Ebay.

Dare I test the theory?

Ha! Nahhh, not with MY $125+...

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My knee is feeling better! I can kneel on it, it doesn't have that squishy "fluid on the joint" feeling anymore. I'm still aware of it, but I'm delighted to see any progress!

I'm so glad I was able to take Sunday off and really give it a rest. I had a dream last night that I could drop into the fly with no pain at all. Pretty sure that's still just a dream but I am going to bust out the Stretch-a-Flex tonight and see if I can get a really good stretch in.

So much for my wonderful plan of going for a massage this week, though, since my car is dead. Again. And Mr.C is out of town. Again. This is getting old quickly. At least there's a CVS in quick walking distance. I'm getting hungry.

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So, I'm having this issue with my pads, you know, where the right one won't flip up a lot of times when I drop.

And then I notice that I'm having trouble keeping that pad centered on my leg. It wants to turn inward on me.

So, the other day, I'm standing around waiting to play and kinda thinking about this and trying to figure out, mechanically, what is going on here. Because when I shift my right pad over to where it should be, it pushes on the padding in the front of my pants.

I start feeling around to figure out why that's happening on one side and not the other and I discover the following:

The hard padding on the front of my pants is basically flat and about the width of my pads. On the left side, that flat surface matches up with the back of my pad just fine.

On the right side, however, the pants padding sits a little off center, turning inward. So, when my pad meets the front of my pants, it also shifts inward.

And when I straighten it back out, the pad is pushing on the curved outer edge of the pants padding, and eventually, invariably slips back off center again.

The drawing shows what it looks like when I shift the pad over to where it should be. The red area shows where the pad shifts back to when it's sitting naturally against the pants.

It doesn't seem like much but it's actually a pretty big difference.



I'm going to try lacing the pants up looser Sunday and see if that helps the pants sit differently on me. They're fairly loose now, but it's all I can think of to try, other than new gear. But if anybody has any ideas, let me know.

The good thing is, now I know it's not my knee pads screwing up my pad rotation, so those are coming back. I'm tired of slamming them on the ice.

Also, almost on the boobie drawing, right?! Shame I'm not having a problem with my chest protector....

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Quick Hits: Chicks dig bruises & an offer to my goalie readers

Am I ever bruised up today. I forgot to mention the most painful shot I took last night, right in the boob. Seriously, I need to get busy on that armored bra. My forehead still has a hangover from that shot in the head, but the boob one hurt way worse at the time.

Nothing like watching your goalie trying to rub the sting out of her chest as the play moves to the other end (thankfully). Damn. That hurt. I really need to learn to catch.

My knees are bruised again, too, but my butterfly was so good last night, I don't really give a crap. BOTH knees are bruised, which is a new thing because that right pad is finally flipping up properly more than its not (can't say the same for Sunday night, when I had my straps a bit tight).

Between my defenseman running me Sunday (WE made the save though!), and getting the puck knocked out of me Monday, I can't wait to see what happens tonight. I may need a wahhhhbulance to get home. ;)

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I've continued my ShamOMG sweatband experiment and think I have a winner. Looks like the thicker orange sham fabric is the best. Four layers is about the right thickness. I used that one Sunday and the yellow with 5 layers last night and could wring a fair bit of sweat out of the yellow when I was done. And that was just an hour of playing.

Sunday, I couldn't wring a drop out of it and that was an hour and a half, though I don't feel like I got quite as hot either. Monday is a little tougher night.

Anyway, I'm going to make a bunch up with the rest of the material. I think the yellow with 6 layers might be good, too. 5 was a bit thin. It is definitely softer though. Wonder if having a yellow layer on the forehead side but orange everywhere else wouldn't be just perfect, actually. Hmmm!

So, my dear goalie readers, if you want me to send you one, shoot me an email (link is in the sidebar) with your address, and I'll mail as many off as I can make with this batch of material I have. And really, it was only $8 for a huge box of the material so I can make more. Considering you'd spend $15+ for ONE of these, that's a steal.

Let's call it my 2 year bloggiversary (in January)/happy holidays/thanks for reading and supporting and putting up with my neuroses gift to my fellow tenders. Don't be shy! I'm not saying they'll be pretty. Sewing isn't exactly my strong suit, but it's kinda like pie. Doesn't really matter how the piece looks on the plate as long as it tastes good.

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So, Cal...

Amazing to think this time last season, Clutter was just revealing himself (not in a streaker way, but in a hockey way) to the Minnesotans. I was holding my breath wondering both how his game would translate up there and how the sometimes-stuffy (oh, just accept it, you are!) Minnesota hockey fans would accept his edgy style of play.

Well, it didn't take long to breathe regular again because he couldn't have approached his entry into the NHL with any more poise and intelligence.

Anyway, he seems to continue to constantly raise the expectation level and make bigger, better paid, more lauded NHLers look like candyasses. This time he's doing it with the dreaded high ankle sprain, which lays most guys out for weeks on end, and even then, they take a long time to get back to where they were before the injury.

I actually wasn't quite sure what a high ankle sprain was exactly. I mean, the ankle isn't that big, but apparently there's enough of it to have a high and a low. Here's some info on it. Note that even for a "stable" sprain, it's 3-6 weeks in a cast.

But of course, Cal is back on the ice already, trying to get back in game shape and shake off the tentativeness that comes with recovering from an injury.

Of course, whenever you have something injured, you compensate with other parts of your body, which can throw your whole body out of whack. Hopefully they're guarding against that, or at least treating with that phenomenon in mind. Otherwise, you end up straining the opposing muscles, jacking up your back, etc. Got the t-shirt on that one.

Anyway, I think it's interesting that they're letting him go full bore already. Given my experience with soft tissue injuries, it does make some sense. It will be interesting to see if the approach works to get him going sooner with this particular injury though. I've never seen anyone not just wait it out, though I know a few guys have in playoff situations.

I'm not typically one for medical stuff, but sports medicine is pretty interesting to me, mainly because I've spent a stupid amount of time and money being hurt, misdiagnosed, mistreated, etc. so I've had to do a lot of research on my own to get the right treatment.

Luckily I haven't hurt anything yet playing hockey that hasn't mostly gotten better on its own or with a visit to the chiro or massage therapist. Knock on wood. Though I am getting a lot of pucks to the head lately. I'm hoping it makes me smarter.

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