SJ Stealth vs. Chicago Shamrox - 1/26/07

For those that don't know, the Stealth are the National Lacrosse League team based in San Jose. Lacrosse is comparative to hockey in that it's fast paced, the players are always moving and it's definitely a contact sport. I had season tickets for their first season in 2004, but it's a little difficult getting to every game while living in Tracy, so I don't go to every game now. For this particular game, I went with Dan, Kelley and Andrew. It was Andrew's first lacrosse game and, being 4 years old, it was a test of how long he could last before pooping out. We ate a Peggy Sue's prior to the game, then made our way to the arena for some high scoring, fast action, fun.

The game started on the wrong foot as the Shamrox scored less than 90 seconds in and continued to score the next 2 goals to put the Stealth in a 3-0 hole. The Stealth finally got on the board with 90 seconds to go in the first quarter to close the gap 3-1. However, the second period started off with Chicago scoring 2 goals in the first 2 minutes to put the Shamrox up 5-1. Being the streaky sport that it is, the Stealth responded with 3 consecutive goals of their own to get back into the game 5-4. The first half ended with a Chicago goal that put them up 6-4.

The second half started on a promising note for the Stealth who scored 2 goals in the first 4 minutes to tie the game at 6 apiece. The teams then traded some goals until the Stealth scored twice in a row to take the lead 9-8 at 11:33 of the third quarter. That lead was short-lived as Chicago struck back 1 minute later to knot it up at 9. The fourth quarter started with 2 Chicago goals which ultimately put the game out of reach as San Jose could only manage one more goal to lose the game 11-10.

Despite San Jose's slow start, it turned out to be a very good and close game (San Jose outshot Chicago 51-47). Even though there were only 3 goals scored in the fourth quarter, it was filled with action and some great scoring chances - especially when the Stealth pulled their goalie for a extra attacker. As for Andrew, he had a great time, gave high-fives every time the Stealth scored and stayed all the way to the end of the game, although I'm sure he bonked in the car on the way home.

Score: L 11-10
1st Quarter
Chicago - Bryan Kazarian (unassisted)
Chicago - Bill McGlone (Mat Giles, Brandon Miller)
Chicago - Cody Jacobs (PP) (Bill McGlone, Drew Candy)
San Jose - Cam Sedgwick (PP) (Luke Wiles, Gary Rosyski)
2nd Quarter
Chicago - Jason Clark (Mat Giles, Matt Marchildon)
Chicago - Bill McGlone (Jason Clark)
San Jose - Callum Crawford (Jeff Zywicki)
San Jose - Gary Rosyski (PP) (Luke Wiles, Jeff Zywicki)
San Jose - Colin Doyle (Jeff Zywicki, Tim Booth)
Chicago - Josh Wasson (Bill McGlone, Jason Clark)
3rd Quarter
San Jose - Callum Crawford (Cam Sedgwick, Gary Rosyski)
San Jose - Colin Doyle (PP) (Jeff Zywicki, Luke Wiles)
Chicago - Chris Panos (PP) (Josh Wasson, Jon Harasym)
San Jose - Luke Wiles (Jeff Zywicki, Kyle Neufeld)
Chicago - Bill McGlone (SH) (Josh Wasson, Jason Clark)
San Jose - Gary Rosyski (PP) (Colin Doyle, Jeff Zywicki)
San Jose - Jeff Zywicki (Luke Wiles, Gary Rosyski)
Chicago - Chris Panos (Thomas Montour)
4th Quarter
Chicago - Mat Giles (Bill McGlone)
Chicago - Thomas Montour (Brandon Miller)
San Jose - Jeff Zywicki (Gary Rosyski, Colin Doyle)

San Jose SOG: 51
Chicago SOG: 47
Winning Goalie: Brandon Miller
Losing Goalie: Anthony Cosmo

Tickets: Section 201 Row 9

17 weeks and counting

Today we went for a check-up, and everything was routine. One exception was that our little one wouldn't cooperate with the nurse who wanted to check the heart beat with the Doppler. We wound up in the sonogram room getting to see a picture of the baby bean instead! My goodness is it growing as you can see from the first sonogram at 6 weeks, posted here, compared to the new picture from today. This will probably be one of very few times where I'm glad that baby was uncooperative :-)
Dave also took a picture of my profile today to show that I am showing! We're almost halfway through, but I know I'm no where near halfway as big as I'm expected to get. Stay tuned for more as the pregnancy progresses.

Guess the Baby's Details

Ready to have some fun? Click the image below to visit our game and enter your guess for our baby's gender, weight, length, and birthday. The person who is the closest in each of the categories wins the chance of forever being able to say that they were the best guesser.

Once you click on the image, click "Enter a guess" in the upper right and fill out the fields with your guesses. It's that simple and is totally free and you do NOT need to register. There's no pressure - if you want to change your guess in the future, let me know and I'll do it for you. Good Luck!

Baby Registry

Today, Shawnna and I went to Babies "R" Us to set up a baby registry. I had been looking forward to this because I was anxious to see all the cool things we could spoil our baby with (and it's fun to use the zapper gun to scan the items you want to add to the registry ;-) I was amazed at all of the different choices we were presented with and a bit overwhelmed at the decisions we had to make. I felt like we should have brought a recent mother with us to provide guidance as to what we need (and what brand / style) that only someone who has lived through it would know. For instance, there are MANY brands and styles of baby bottles (straight, bent, tall, short, ones with an anti-vacuum valve and others with air vents - not to mention the different sizes, shapes and amount of flow the various nipples on the bottles have). As I was looking at them all, I started feeling like I was buying a car and deciding which options to install. We finally settled on one and moved on. Four hours later, we finished registering. You can view our handy work here:

Although tiring, it was fun checking out all the different strollers, high chairs, cribs, carriers, bouncers, etc. and thinking that we'll have someone to use them in the near future. We'll have to go back and register for the gender-specific items later (we'll learn the sex of the baby between 25-30 weeks), but we made a nice dent.

SJ Sharks vs. Detroit Red Wings - 1/4/07

I went to this game with Shawnna and it was the last game I bought tickets for at the beginning of the season. So, this could be the last game I attend this season unless something changes (anyone offering free tickets :-) Whenever one of the Original Six hockey teams comes to town, there are always plenty of fans that come out of the woodwork to attend the game and tonight was no exception. There were Red Wings jerseys peppered throughout the sea of teal to watch what turned out to be one of the most exciting games I have ever witnessed.

The game started out rough for the Sharks as the Red Wings took a 1-0 lead when Jiri Hudler scored 3 minutes in. Five minutes later, Tomas Holmstrom scored a power play goal to increase the lead 2-0. Less than 3 minutes after that, Jason Williams scored an unassisted, breakaway goal to put the Red Wings up 3-0. At that point, Evgeni Nabokov, who had given up 3 goals on 12 shots, was pulled and replaced with Vesa Toskala to try to shake things up. It seemed to work as the Sharks finally got a goal 3 minutes later when Josh Gorges scored his first goal in the NHL to close the lead 3-1.

The second period was much better for the Sharks as they kept their momentum going from the end of the first. Jonathan Cheechoo scored a power play goal 5 minutes in to make it a one goal game and Ryane Clowe scored just over 1 minute later to tie it up. The Sharks weren't done yet as Christian Ehrhoff scored at the 14 minute mark to give the Sharks the lead and Joe Pavelski added a power play goal 3 minutes later to pad the score 5-3.

Unbelievably, the Sharks still had more in them during the third period. Mike Grier started things off with a power play goal 6 minutes in to double-up Detroit's score 6-3. Patrick Marleau added his own power play goal 1:30 later to increase the lead 7-3. Mike Grier struck again 4 minutes later for his 2nd power play goal of the game and 4 minutes after that, Ryane Clowe scored on the power play for his second goal of the game which finished the Sharks run of 9 goals in a row. The Red Wings got a meaningless goal with under 2 minutes left to make the final score 9-4.

This game set several records. The Sharks set franchise records for the most power play goals (6) and longest one-game scoring rally (9). Also, Patrick Marleau became the all-time leading point scorer for the Sharks passing Owen Nolan. Personally, I have never witnessed so many goals scored in one game and the Sharks fans were more aggressive to the Red Wings fans than I have ever seen them be to any opposing team fans. When the Red Wings went up 3-0 in the first period, their fans were very vocal - standing and cheering at what seemed like the beginning of a rout. When the Sharks rallied back and started running up the score, the Sharks fans began chanting, "Go home Red Wings!" When Red Wings fans started to leave after the 7th, 8th and 9th goals, the Sharks fans cheered and heckled them very loudly - even the women. Moral of the story - no lead is safe and don't cheer too loudly if you're in the opposing team's building.

Score: W 9-4
1st Period
Red Wings - Jiri Hudler (Niklas Kronwall)
Red Wings - Tomas Holmstrom(PP) (Mathieu Schneider, Henrik Zetterberg)
Red Wings - Jason Williams (Unassisted)
SJ - Josh Gorges (Joe Thornton, Mike Grier)
2nd Period
SJ - Jonathan Cheechoo(PP) (Joe Pavelski, Marc-Edouard Vlasic)
SJ - Ryane Clowe (Marcel Goc, Curtis Brown)
SJ - Christian Ehrhoff (Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau)
SJ - Joe Pavelski(PP) (Jonathan Cheechoo, Milan Michalek)
3rd Period
SJ - Mike Grier(PP) (Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton)
SJ - Patrick Marleau(PP) (Joe Thornton, Christian Ehrhoff)
SJ - Mike Grier(PP) (Patrick Marleau, Scott Hannan)
SJ - Ryane Clowe(PP) (Doug Murray, Patrick Rissmiller)
Red Wings - Brett Lebda (Johan Franzen, Kris Draper)

SJ SOG: 31
Red Wings SOG: 30
Winning Goalie: Vesa Toskala
Losing Goalie: Dominik Hasek

Tickets: Section 220 Row 4