The sun goes down early and there’s a chill in the air. That means it’s time to play some sled hockey. By request, here’s a preview of the exciting Blackhawks 2023-24 season.
Last season ended on a high note as we sent a combined A/B Team to Minnesota and took home the championship. This year our team has gone through some changes. In a typical season, we start and end with national tournaments, and in between play league weekends. At the national tournaments, teams are divided by skill into tiers. The top tier is the “Championship Tier”, and after that there are Tiers 1 through 5. Our A Team is in the Championship Tier, while B Team has been playing in Tier 4 or 5. While I have played up a few times, I’m not skilled enough to consistently play A Team, and my coach would rather have me as the best Tier 5 player instead of the worst Championship player. I always thought I would be best somewhere in between, maybe in Tier 1 or Tier 2. But we’ve never had enough players for a third team.
A Team usually has 3 or 4 Paralympic (Team USA) players, and 3 or 4 fill in players who don’t see much ice time. After that great tournament in Minnesota, one of those fill in players decided he was done warming the bench with A Team and requested to play B Team. Over the summer we picked up a few teenagers who transferred from other Chicago teams. So for this season, we’ll have teams in Championship Tier and our upgraded B Team will play in Tier 1 or 2. Yay for Kevin, I’m finally playing right were I wanted!
Here’s our schedule as it stands now. Things sometimes change (I am often reminded by Mrs. TOK that this is organized by men), so I’ll post reminders in the comments as we get closer to these dates.
November 16-19: NHL Sled Classic in Tampa Bay (Both Teams)
December 3: Team Fundraiser game vs New Trier High School Hockey club in Chicago
December 9-10: Possible B Team games in Chicago (Morgan Park Ice Arena)
January 12-14: League Weekend in Denver (Both Teams)
February 9-11: League Weekend in St. Louis (Both Teams)
March 8-10: Wirtz Cup – League Championships in Chicago (Blackhawks Community Ice Rink) (Both Teams)
April 18- 21: USA Hockey Disabled Festival in West Chester, PA (Both Teams)
Is this a case of “Humans are unreliable” or a “Men versus women” thing?
She considers being completely disorganized and doing things at the last minute to be a male trait.
My wife would agree, but for some reason she’s the one who is always late.
I’ve tried this. It’s a good method and cuts down my stress to time increments that are manageable. Cooking a Tday dinner at the drop of a hat is doable if I have ingredients, which I almost always do. Having to figure out when to start thawing the turkey is stress-inducing.
That is the complete opposite of my lived experience.
The big problem is that if she wants to join me, she needs to know our itinerary so she has enough time to schedule a cheaper flight.
The girlfriend and I have done trips where one (or the other) had something going on at the destination. We’re both (ostensibly) responsible adults and can take care of ourselves for a couple of hours in a strange city.
Oh that’s no problem, it’s more of a problem when they switch weekends altogether, which has happened.
Same here, kinda. Broadly, err, generally speaking, men make less detailed plans and fill in the blanks on the fly, but the plan doesn’t really change. Women tend to have a detailed plan which has to change as events unfold.
In my experience women tend to the extremes — everything is planned in great detail or nothing is planned at all.
Cool
The ice better be cool, otherwise things would, instead, be going swimmingly for Kevin.
Good luck this year, looking forward to more of your writeups.
Wish you were coming somewhere closer to me.
They can’t have games everywhere.
Agreed. So far I’ve met Tundra, Patzer, and our Pope. Didn’t have much time to hang out, but it was still nice to meet them all. We used to play in San Antonio but that team dropped out of our league.
I think San Antonio is closer than Denver for me.
Hmmm. Perhaps I can rally and check out some sled hockey during your January tourney.
That would be great. That Denver trip is fun.
Completely Unrelated
Oh good, the Republicans are going to pick another establishment squish:
Democrats have eyed Emmer, the third-ranking House GOP leader who had voted to certify the 2020 election results as a potential partner in governing the House.
Halp, Edit Faery!
Your link. I fixed it.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-pick-tom-emmer-as-their-nominee-for-house-speaker-as-they-try-for-a-third-time/ar-AA1iJwf7
Thanks!
Now Rs can be the party of compromise as they do everything the deep state wants.
Not with this guy. He’s been nominated, but doesn’t have enough votes to get elected Speaker. None of them has the votes unless some Dems decide they want to be primaried by voting for a GOP Speaker.
The RINO and Less Irresponsible wings of the GOP are deadlocked, each blocking the others’ choices.
for speaker, a powerful position second in line to the presidency.
Either the writer has the knowledge base of a high schooler, or someone know something about Kamala’s future.
President is president. VP is first in line.
got it
I had to think about it, cause that’s not the way most people describe the succession.
Just so. The President isn’t in line, the VP is first in line, and the Speaker is second in line.
“Oh good, the Republicans are going to pick another establishment squish:”
That was always the plan. The fact that they used so much “Come get on board with the winning team!” talk told me that. Well, I didn’t really have to hear that as past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior.
Keep suckin’ that dem cock r’s. I wouldn’t know what to say if you didn’t.
Threatening the president! Arrest this madman!
President Trump says he dreams of fighting Biden:
“Remember when Biden said, ‘I’d like to take him to the back of the barn.’ You know what I’d do with him? I’d hit him right in that fake nose.”
Joe can handle him with a pool chain, just like Corn Pop!
Orange Pop was a bad dude.
Cool. “My dad can beat up your dad” is on the ballot next year.
After work. By the EV charging stations.
How soviet.
Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty in Fulton County Superior Court to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. The charge related to false claims of voter fraud that were made to members of the Georgia Senate at a hearing in early December 2020.
In a tearful statement before Judge Scott McAfee, Ellis expressed regret for her actions in the wake of Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. …
Ellis will avoid prison time as part of her plea agreement. She was sentenced to five years of probation and must pay $5,000 in restitution, in addition to completing 100 hours of community service and penning an apology letter to the people of Georgia.
Now think about what you’ve done and consider how you will better serve the party.
Did they shave her head and force her to take the walk of shame? Pelt her with rotten fruit?
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Remember when . . . . Theft of 2 million dimes from truckload of coins from US Mint leaves four facing federal charges
They had a plan, sort of . . . .
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that prosecutors contend that the theft — which they now say totaled $234,500 in stolen dimes — was part of a spree of robberies from tractor-trailers passing through the region that also netted the thieves frozen crab legs, shrimp, meat, beer and liquor.
But they didn’t plan for . . . .
The indictment unsealed Friday alleges that after the theft, thousands of dimes were converted into cash at coin machines in Maryland or through deposits to at least four different suburban Philadelphia banks, the newspaper reported.
Four Philadelphia men — 25-year-old Rakiem Savage, 31-year-old Ronald Byrd, 30-year-old Haneef Palmer and 32-year-old Malik Palmer — face conspiracy, robbery, theft of government money and other charges.
Oops
Loose change… The anti-Bitcoin revolution is upon us!
https://www.9news.com/article/money/welding-business-pay-23500-settlement-coins/73-1ca0c2ec-597f-4914-b35d-77dc4b9d3ed7
They didn’t realize it’s not 1983 and they couldn’t make 2 million phone calls.
Quarters would have been a bit more manageable I think.
But there was never anyway they were going to launder 2 million dimes.
Not even through the William J LePetomane Memorial Thruway?
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/660422-william-j-lepetomane-memorial-thruway
Quarters would have been a bit more manageable I think.
Maybe not. Weight-wise, $1k in quarters weighs about the same as $1k of dimes; roughly 50lbs.
I meant that using a bunch of quarters in vending machines or laundromat or even dumping them on the counter at a bodega will generate less curiosity from bystanders that dimes.
That’ll work in vending machines and convenience stores, but try to buy an X-Box with rolls of quarters (I’m assuming what they got away with was boxes of rolled coins, not bags of loose coins) and you’re going to arouse suspicion. Nothing illegal about it, but it’ll certainly raise eyebrows.
Even taking it to Coinstar machines would be unusual unless you were doing it in small enough increments.
There is a fundamental problem of laundering coinage.
But you could at least spend money rationally while you are trying to figure out the problem.
So the banks dimed them out?
huh
fucked the link. oh well.
April 18- 21: USA Hockey Disabled Festival in West Chester, PA (Both Teams)
That’s the third weekend. Usually I’m in the Philly area for dance events the third weekend of the month. Potential for a meet-up?
Occasionally I travel to Philly for work, I’ll try to finagle a trip for that week.
Philly is pretty close, and I have friends there. Hmm…
Sure! I am usually at the mercy of our schedule and whoever is driving us around in vans. But at the very least we can hang out before or after a game, and perhaps get some food. I’ll put a shout out a week or so ahead of time.
That works, thanks!
Titty Tuesday has the GI Joe kung fu grip.
https://archive.ph/31lmI
I tapped out at the face diaper picture. Blech.
SUPER FOG
Once the #superfog cleared the extent of the #pileup on I-55 west of New Orleans could be captured by air …
The extent of the damage is massive, with car fires and cars off the bridge. Sadly, we are hearing of fatalities as a result of the pileup.
Must be the result of climate change.
Cajuns Repent!
Super fog. What the fuck is wrong with those idiots? It’s fucking fog. It happens all of the time. At certain times of the year, for instance now, Louisiana is foggier than London.
Don’t they have fog lights?
Fun with numbers
Damage from the global climate crisis has amounted to $391 million per day over the past two decades, a report showed.
Wildfires, heatwaves, droughts and other extreme events attributable to climate change have incurred costs averaging over a hundred billion per year from 2000 to 2019, a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications showed.
“We find that US$143 billion per year of the costs of extreme events is attributable to climatic change. The majority (63%) of this is due to human loss of life,” scientists wrote in the report. The remainder stems from the destruction of property and other assets.
——-
The world’s protracted battle with extreme weather events is one that is increasingly harder to contend with, especially as global temperatures continue to soar and disasters intensify.
The world just recorded its hottest summer on record by a substantial margin, putting 2023 on course to be the hottest year on record.
——-
The estimates of the losses were calculated by combining the economic data of these losses, along with how much global heating has exacerbated weather events.
The research, however, notes that there is an underestimation of the true costs of climate change due to the difficulty of measuring indirect losses. Examples cited include productivity losses arising from a heatwave, mental health impacts borne by people, or the loss of access to education and jobs if a place of employment is damaged.
And if that’s not scary enough, we have some more fudge factors we can toss in.
We could be sending that money to Ukraine instead!
Paywalled NYT
How the Israel-Hamas War Imperils Action Against Global Warming
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/climate/gaza-war-climate-change.html
They are nothing if not predictable.
Wow, that is some first class bullshit right there.
Missing: any calculation of the expected benefits, or a disclaimer that the underlying premise might be GIGO, or error bars reflecting the predicted range of outcomes.
has amounted to $391 million per day over the past two decades
Show your work.
No life ’til hockey
We’re gonna kick some ass tonight
Oooh yeah!
Hit the Ice
Yeah, Hit that Ice
I’m sure James won’t mind the changes.
Why not go with an actual hockey song? There’s a couple I can think of off the top of my head.
I always consider this a hockey song, because of this great promo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjm-WTNzPSo
Local (Austin, Minnesoda) boys dun good!
[I Wanna Drive The] Zamboni – Gear Daddies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD5oBHGmes8
January 12-14: Wish I could make it. If I can, I may come up. Would like to meet you and Tundra at the least. My vacation schedule may not align but I will try.
Hope so!
“She considers being completely disorganized and doing things at the last minute to be a male trait.”
And….?
I hate this.
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/18/once-a-fringe-theory-greedflation-gets-its-due