oh dear

I've been rostered to be front IPR at a regulation bout on the 25th of June

ZOMFG

and I just doublechecked and I'm JR for the sanctioned bout

ZOMFG

it's been a while

OH MY GOD IS IT A SATURDAY WHERE I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING DERBY-RELATED TO DO?

(well, I do have some heat transfer vinyl work to do.)
(and there's a bout on Sunday morning.)

(but still.  A SATURDAY WITH NO OFFICIATING.)

So that was a weekend!

Men's derby is like everything's exploding.

My skates decided they wanted to enter the "smashing hammers into your big toes" phase after two games.  I do believe I need to re-heat mold them.

ok let's do this

In about 3 and a half hours....

(mic drop)

Everything I need for a weekend of refereeing, in a carry on bag.

dammit

dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit

apparently the moral of this story is GO FOR THE IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION

Beaver Fever in the Books

It was a very long weekend, being on two of three NSO crews. 

Everything went fine until the very last game I was officiating - I was moved from lineup tracking to scorekeeping. No problem, right?  Scorekeeping was my job on the other crew.

Except for the part where I made an incredibly boneheaded error and gave a team four extra points and didn't realize it until waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay after the jam ended.

I felt horrible.  Still do. 

Everyone was very understanding though, and it didn't affect the outcome of the game.

So that was a thing that happened. 

Now it's back to refereeing and OPRing and all that.  Whee!?!?

weep weep

So this is the pool at the venue.

I might need to go over early.

My appointment with the hand doctor is the Wednesday after I get back from Battle of Bunker Hill. 

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

so I have this ganglion cyst on the top of my left hand that comes back like zombies.  I first had it removed in September 2000, and then again in September 2010.

Now it's starting to come back again. It's not visible yet (in the past it's been like a gumball trapped under my skin) but I can feel it if I run my right hand down the back of my left hand, and if I have to carry things, or write for an extended period of time, it really hurts (which is sort of the signal that it's coming back and I'll need to get it taken care of).

When I had it taken care of back in 2010, I was in a wrist-guard kind of cast for about two weeks, then another week or so of "be gentle with it."  So I need to find a three-week window where I don't have anything going on HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that's hysterical.  (I can't even be, like, "Ok, I'll NSO" because I'M LEFT HANDED.)

weekend excitement builds

So trying to get organized for this weekend.  My spare NSO shirt should arrive from Uniqlo today (I don't know if I mentioned, but I managed to get a stain on one of my shirts, ARGH ARGH SMASH) so I will have to HTV stuff on it.

the THNSO very kindly took me off the first game on Saturday, BLESS HER SO MUCH.

There is an indoor pool at the hotel and a pool at the venue (though I don't know when I'll have time to swim there, as I only have a 2 hour window open from 1pm to 11pm on Saturday).

I need to find my OFFICIAL-TYPE PERSON backplate so I can wear my hoodie there (a team from our league is participating, so I can't display their logo while there).

I need to remember to bring the one nameplate I made for someone.

I should probably get some Canadian dosh at some point.

THROW EVERYTHING INTO IKEA BAGS, basically.

Games 45 and 46

It was a long day, as I'd done a garage sale beforehand.  It went pretty well, I think - I was told I made some good calls.  I think I screwed up a couple minor things, though. 

My experience with breaking in skate boots seems to go "oh, these are great" to "I'VE MADE A HORRIBLE MISTAKE" to "oh, these are prefect".  Right now I am in the second phase, alas.  My toes went completely numb by the end of the first bout, and my right skate was rubbing against my ankle any time I had to make a tight left turn (which, well, is pretty much all you do when you're jam reffing).  They're also putting pressure on my big toenails - not so much that they're turning black or in danger of falling off or anything, but it does hurt.  I don't know that relacing them would help, as the laces on Chaya boots don't start up at the toe.  I'll have to do some tinkering around with them.

I also had this for my nameplate:

the weeding....my God, the weeding

Anyway, now it's on to Beaver Fever!  Woot!

Battle o'Bunker Hill

Got my schedule - have the first game on Sunday (8:30am).  Hopefully our "you need to be here by X o'clock" time will not be too crazy early.

And thus begins MONTH OF DERBY ZOMFG

Doubleheader on Saturday - OPRing the sanctioned game and JRing the regulation game.  Whee!

I put my outdoor wheels on my old skates and went out this past weekend - it felt really odd. The boots felt huge and the trucks were all wobbly weird.