mini-recapish type thing

So it took me a while to remember, oh, maybe I should update here, too!

Continental Cup was amazing.  Our crew only got three games, and I had to alt one of them, but the third game was the championship game! (Unfortunately it was the one I was alting, but whatcha gonna do.  I'm proud of the fact that my work helped my crew to get the championship game.)  I met so many cool people, had so much fun, learned some valuable traveling lessons (if I have too many pockets in my clothes, I forget where I put things and proceed to freak out.)

eeeeeee!

This is a thing that’s gonna happen soon

OMG I LEAVE FOR LONDON IN LESS THAN A WEEK

I hope I put my passport where I think I put it

And I should probably pack

And I can’t really just shove everything into IKEA bags this time around

yay!

So Saturday Kid Queenie and I went down to Ithaca to NSO a juniors' game.  We got to the venue and discovered that the humidity of the day (their venue is semi-enclosed) and the relative chill of the floor resulted in the WHOLE THING BEING A LAKE OF CONDENSATION.  They tried to dry it out with big fans, but it didn't work, so they switched the game to be a scrimmage at their practice space, a few miles away.

I was jam timer, and it went relatively well, except for the part where I could not for the life of me remember when on my stopwatch I had started the jam (thanks to an official review, I'd started the jam at an odd number), and since there was no scoreboard, I couldn't tell how long it'd been, so I just kinda....ended it at a random point.  (And got called out by one of the coaches for doing it.  Oops.)

Anyway, that's not the point.  Here's the point.  Kid Queenie scorekept, only the second time he'd done it.   After the game:

OTHER SCOREKEEPER (running into the room, talking to the Head Referee): The other scorekeeper, I don't know his name, he's only 17 but you need to get him for every home game you can

(meanwhile, the two of us were standing directly behind the scorekeeper as she was saying this, and I was like, in my head, THAT'S MY SON HE'S AWESOME, ISN'T HE?)

So yeah, looks like I'll be volunteering for a lot more junior games in the next few months, to get him out there.
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twelve days until I leave for my Grand English Adventure (hgahagggaahhhhhhhhhh!)

wheeee!!!!

I got to operate the scoreboard for a half of a scrimmage on Saturday.  It was fun!  I had to do things on the trackpad rather than use a mouse, and I missed stopping the clock on an official time out once, but other than that it went really well and I hope I can do it again soon. 

Nineteen days until I leave for London.  Twenty-six days until the Continental Cup.  Gaaaah!  So excited and nervous and whatnot. 

moving along, as things do

I ended up scorekeeping, hahaha.  It was okay, though - it was the only position left where both spots were available, and I wanted to be near my kid if he needed help. (He totally didn't. He's a natural.)

I might be going to a rec league practice with the London Rollergirls while I'm over there - they have them on Wednesdays if there is enough interest by the Monday before.  I hope I can; that'd be fun.

T MINUS 30 DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE FOR LONDON

ZOMG LIKE EEEEEEEEEEE

Saturday I am going to NSO a game about an hour away - so is my kid!  (The game isn't WFTDA sanctioned or regulation, so there's no minimum age.)  He's pretty excited, as am I.  (I hope I don't get put as scorekeeper again.)

Fixed the straps on my elbow pads, hooray hooray.  I also cut the straps so they wouldn't flap all over the place, but instead, they're unraveling a little bit.  Oops.
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So now it's time for another Queenie Reviews Stuff.   First, it's the Sisu Go Mouthguard.

I used a few different mouthguards back when I played - a sports one that I attached to my helmet with a string of (increasingly enfilthenated) piece of elastic, one my dentist made that I think I wore twice before I got rid of it, and eventually what they now call the Aero and the Max on their website.  (Back then they were just differentiated by their thickness.)

I loved, loved, loved the thinner mouthguard.  I could talk!  I could drink water!  It came in white, so I could look like I had nice lovely teeth in pictures!

Then I became a ref, and mouthguards were not compulsory*, so I stopped wearing one.

After seeing various injuries and whatnot sustained by friends while skating, I recently started thinking I should start wearing one again.   Enter the Sisu Go!

It only goes to my canine teeth, so there's less material to go off center when you mold it (there were points with the original where it'd just go on the sides of my teeth.  It brings back memories - I still can drink, still can talk (though I've noticed that if I have to speak for an extended period of time, I do remove it).

We've got scrimmage tonight, so I'll have to see how well it works with whistles.
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Our second item is Z-Clear Anti Fog Spray.  I used to wear my contact lenses exclusively while playing and reffing, until a little over a year ago.  I felt that glasses worked better with my distance vision.

Unfortunately, glasses fog up, which is where this stuff comes in.

Also unfortunately, it doesn't work at all for me.  In fact, I feel like my glasses fog up more now than they did before.  Sigh.
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*for some reason, "compulsory" looks like a word that should mean "voluntary"