We Got The Cup

That's right. Lord Stanley's Cup is back in Boston. After a 39 year hiatus. This was a story book ending to an amazing playoff run. This was quite possibly the finest Stanley Cup Series for a goaltender in the history of the game. Tim Thomas was a slam dunk for the Conne Smythe Trophy, for the Series MVP. Most saves in a SC Series. Most saves in an entire playoff year. He was something else.
The boys were fired up and watched the whole first period. Well, Coco did. I think Caz may have a bit of the old man's superstitions. He was definitely interested elsewhere. But I think a piece of him was too nervous to watch for fear of jinxing it.
I woke the boys up at the conclusion of the game, so that they could see the Cup be hoisted by Chara and the team. Coco almost went back to sleep. He was out of it. But then his eyes opened, and he was excited. Caz actually woke up to the sound of fireworks outside. Everyone was amped up for the Cup's return.

Field of Dreams

If you build it, they will come.

Well, in my mind I built the perfect day for the family. It is a rare occasion, if it happens at all, that the execution goes as well as the planning. Today was such a day. In fact, I would say it went better than planned. Our friend, CJ, had procured us tickets to an afternoon game at Fenway. Originally the start time was a night tilt, but with the Bruins in the Stanley Cup for prime time, the Sox opted to move the game up.
The launch started shaky. We left a bit later than planned. We hit unusually bad traffic before even getting on the highway. The Pilot was on E with the Gas light on. It was not looking promising.
But we took an alternative route to the exit that we were not quite sure of. We hit the gas station just in time. We pulled into Boston later than planned and missed batting practice. However we found a taxi in no time and arrived at Fenway with plenty of time to spare. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees and sunny. The breeze was refreshing. We took our seats and saw that it was Beckett warming up in the pen. We were excited to see the ace. The boys had not seen him pitch in person before. A-Gon launched a shot over the Monstah at his first at-bat. Crawford got into the act with timely hits and good defense. At the one hour mark the game was in the 5th. We were cruising to a Sox win.
We had a temporary set back. Papelbon gave up a few runs. Varitek got tossed for arguing balls and strikes. Pedroia let a game ending double play through the wickets. Then Papelbon got tossed with the game tied. Extra innings. Ruh Roh Raggy. Caz was getting restless. The boys were both tired from the previous days excursion. Coco actually slept through the 8th. Right through Sweet Caroline and everything. I made a command decision to leave after the 11th, after the meat of the Sox order batted and the game headed to the 12th.
It was an opportune time to get a cab. We got lucky again when Demi realized she had left the camera in our seats while walking up Landsdowne. A sypathetic usher let her back in to retrieve it. We hailed a taxi and got into the North End in great shape. We picked a restaurant on Hanover street and were seated right away. Dinner was amazing. Not a scrap was left to take home. Caz broadened his horizons and at linguine carbonara. I mean cheesy cream sauce and bacon? What's not to like, right? Then is was over to Modern to pick up pastries.
We got home just in time for the drop of the puck. We relaxed. Watched the game and ate fantastic pastries. It was such an amazing day. The perfect family day.

What 'Til Next Year

Well, Caz and Coco will have to wait until next year at least, for a Stanley Cup to come to Boston. It looked so promising. The stars were aligning. San Jose with Jumbo Joe bowed out in Round 1. The Red Wings looked like they were struggling in Round 2. The Bruins were poised to take down the ex-Whale. Too little, too late. The B's dug themselves a huge hole. They almost climbed out of it. But when you wait to decide to play, you run the risk of not leaving enough time to dig yourself out. And the hole closed on them.

Spring Training

The boys are very fired up about the start of spring training. Talks around the table are starting to included signing Varitek, who are starting pitching rotation will be, and will Lowell and Papi be back to their old selves. I do love the change this year that boys want to talk about the Celtics and Bruins too. It's nice to have a little variety. But I also like the boys being excited by all four of the Boston sports franchises. Even if the Grinch does still own the Bruins. There are the Krafts, John Henry, Wyc, and then.........the Grinch. One of these kids is not like the others.

The Return of Jumbo Joe

Jumbo Joe Thorton returned to Boston tonight. For the B's, this is "The Trade". Probably not up there with shipping Bobby Orr out of town, but close in B's history. The boys were not really into the B's until last year, so this was not Nomar 2.0 for them. I had to explain the history to them. So there were no tears when this happened years ago. But they got the point. It was a big deal. So Caz was waiting for me to come home tonight, to get the game on TV. He was primed. Fortunately, he saw the best part of the game for a B's fan. The first period. They were up 2-1 when he went to bed. It was hard breaking it to the boys in the morning that the B's went on to get shellacked.

Mantown 2009

This weekend is Boys weekend. Demi is off the the Island to her annual weekend with the Real Housewives of Long Island. I know, I know. Where do I begin? I know you just want to shout out @#$%^ (rhymes with "stores"), but they are actually very nice girls. Mostly.... Just me and the boys. And I have a raging head cold. Not a good start. But we had the beach party at the school last night, where the boys got to do the limbo, arts and crafts, dancing, moon bounce, run around with their friends. And I. I got to hang with some of the football moms. The boys both have basketball and Coco has a birthday party. I score bonus points with organizing a carpool and play dates (for the boys, not for me).
I got the boys fired up for NHL All-Star Weekend. They are rooting hard in the Futures Stars games for the Bruins Representative to the Rookie Squad, Blake Wheeler. Editors Note: Here is the first representation for the B's in this blog, and is a positive sign of how well they are doing this year, it is not followed by a curse or outburst of disappointment. Unfortunately, Milan Lucic was not able to play for the Sophomore Squad. I pointed out to the boys the fact that Zdeno Charra took it upon himself to turn his role in the hardest shot competition into a way to fund raise for charity. And how it snowballed from just the entrees in the competition, to their teams, to the NHL and then to the NHL Players Union. So not only an opportunity to get the boys excited about hockey and the Bruins, but a good message as well. The boys went wild when Charra set a record to win the event.
At one point, while the three of us were sprawled out on our new sectional couch, each having plenty of room to sprawl out, stretch, scratch, etc, Caz turns to me and asks, "Hey, at bedtime, can we take Mantown upstairs and have a Mantown sleepover?" I lost it. I am sure it was inspired by all the commercials during the All Star Skills Competition for the new show with the Goose, Tony Siragusa, "Mancaves". Highlight of the weekend.
In order to comply with by full disclosure policy, or fair and balanced, or whatever you would like to call it, I must confess that I was not on my A game all weekend. I could hide behind my head cold but I just need to fess up and say I did not have the energy to be as patient as I needed to be. There was an inordinate amount of yelling on my part and not because I was trying to be heard from one floor away. The boys are of the age where they can be extra helpful when they choose, so maybe I expected more help than I got. Maybe my expectations were out of skew because I expected more help because I was sick. There were a couple of moments that were not my proudest. Not to worry Lefty, I don't think the boys will be in a clock tower over it. Scared Straight or not, they should pull through.