The Newest Quirk..."Buddy"

February Vacation

We survived February vacation unscathed.  The boys spent one day at Rye Airfield indoor skate park, which I am told is the biggest indoor skatepark in the Northeast.  They even managed to make a short video of some of their skateboarding.  We trucked back up to Waterville Valley for another hockey tournament, this time for John.  The road trip did not start out on a positive note, as we got stuck in traffic on I93 behind a 5 car accident.  We left Quincy at 7:20 am for an 11:10 game in Waterville.  We got to Watervill at 11:10.  Fortunately, half the team was stuck in the traffic with us, and also half the team we were playing against was also stuck in this traffic.  John, who was the one to play at 11:10 was of course blaming me...."I told you we should have left earlier"...who would've guessed a two hour trip would turn into a 4 hour trip (kinda like gilligan's island)...no matter how much I told him that his assistant coach and 4 other players were an exit behind us, he grew more neurotic by the minute...he even put most of his equipment on while on the highway.  Fortunately, we made it as warmups were starting.  Quincy lost that game and I am totally going to blame it on the traffic (doesn't matter that they all looked like slugs out there).  The rest of the weekend was without incident, and they had a blast in the hotel, being able to play manhunt throughout the hotel.  I think the staff and management just closed their eyes.  The trip home was an uneventful under 2 hour drive....as Ryan would say, (due to his parochial schooling)...thank the dear lord!

It's only 30 seconds..

We went for a rare dinner out to Bugaboo Creek last night.  Why rare you ask?...spend a day with the boys and you'll understand why these visits are not of the frequent variety, although, they are getting much better about getting along long enough in a public venue so that the dinner field trip can at least be tolerable.  There was the usual statements and disagreements, but overall it went well.  Here is a sampling of the conversations:

Waiter:  drinks for anyone?

Ryan: Pepsi for me

Me:  No, you can have root beer or sprite.

Ryan:  I don't wan't root beer!  I want Pepsi..why can't I have it

Me:  Because of the caffeine and I said so...

Ryan:  Fine....I'll have sprite, but I really want Pepsi

Waiter moves around the table and gets to John

John:  I'll have diet pepsi

Ryan:  WHY CAN HE HAVE PEPSI?????

Me:  The caffeine affects you more, you're smaller.

Ryan:  NO SIR, IT DOES NOT AFFECT ME!!!

The stare down with his arms crossed begins....I win...sort of....he ended up taking Dad's root beer.

The next conversation was a keeper:

Patrick:  Dad, can I have the butter for my bread?  This was said with much effort as the poor kid apparently had a temperature of 101.9 not figured out until we got home and took his temperature.

Just as Dad is about to grab the butter, Ryan whips it away and starts buttering his bread.

Dad:  Ryan, that wasn't nice, Patrick asked for the butter first

Patrick: (with a really big sigh, followed by putting the head down on the table, muttering "I have a headache")  It's ok Dad, its only 30 seconds of my life...I have more seconds to wait for the butter...

Maybe if we all had that calm approach to lifes potholes, people wouldn't always be so damn crabby!

Deep Freeze Tournament in Waterville Valley

Ok, so we survived Patrick's hockey tournament in Waterville Valley, but barely.  Who would've thought a hockey rink is actually warm when the outside temp was -22 degrees?  The kids played well and missed the finals by a measly 1/2 point.  We managed to go tubing at Tenney mountain, but that only lasted about an hour since the temperature was a balmy -15 or so.  Back at the hotel there was just lots to do...ok, maybe Days Inn is not a luxury resort, but they could run up and down the hallways, play knee hockey in the hallways, and even skateboard in the hallways...who needs a four star hotel when you have all that at your fingertips.  Yes, though, I was the mean mother who dragged the kids into the room at 10:30 at night...I was part of a small minority...but I digress.  All and all the kids had a great time...even some of the parents had a really great time.....maybe too great...lots of headaches dragging asses around.  We left on Sunday, the day before MLK day during a snow storm....it took 4 hours to get home and we counted 12 cars spun off the road into ditches and snowbanks....at that point the novelty of the weekend had worn off and by hour 3 in the car it was a miracle no one got tossed out of a moving vehicle and the best part is we get to do it all over again in February for John's Deep Freeze tournament....must remember the ativan!

Deep Freeze hockey tournament in Waterville Valley, NH Jan 2009

Ok, so I've been told that I am seriously neglecting my blogging commitment...blame it on chocolate martinis (any headache today Abby?) and hockey.  I know, I know, its no excuse.  So here's some highlights:  the boys are getting too used to 2 hour school delays (two this week alone), we're in a bit of a slump in hockey for ALL their teams (what's a win?), and John's game today was rather ugly in all respects..they got their butts kicked by Framingham, and not just in score numbers....The scorekeeper most likely ran out of penalty lines on the scoresheet, and John was an avid contributor to that (most decidedly undeserved!)....as a matter of fact, one of his brother's coaches has given him a new name:  Jack in the Box.....hmm, maybe we really need to work on that...this week we leave for Waterville Valley in NH on Friday for a 4 day tournament for Patrick's team...6 Quincy teams alone are taking over the Days Inn....3 nights in a hotel with 90% boys between the ages of 6 and 12....should provide for lots of blogging material with interesting pictures upon our return!

Does the sibling rivalry ever end?????

As we are getting into the car tonite (the VERY cold car I might add) to pick up a teammate of John's and drop them off at hockey practice the war begins:

John:  Move Ryan, you have to sit in the back back (after he's all comfortably settled in)

Ryan: No, I don't want to sit in the way back.

John: Too bad, now move

This goes back and forth for a few rounds before I calmly tell Ryan that we can't really have Justin climbing all over the place when we get him.  Ryan finally concedes and I proceed to tell John that he didn't have to be so bossy and mean.  His response was "well he annoys me"  I proceed further and try to explain to John just because he's the first born does not give him the right to boss the younger (especially the youngest) ones around all the time.  At which point Ryan pipes up with "Yeah John it's not all about you" followed by "how would you like to be the youngest for once and get bossed around all the time?"  His response was some sort of gutteral noise, don't think it qualifies for english.  Of course, this whole time Patrick is just focused on his IPOD and had know idea there was even a battle going on...ah, blissfully unaware....he's really good at that.