Washington Capitals 2009 Southeast Division Champions

Remember that I'm not a good secret/surprise keeper? Well, mission accomplished. The surprise was that I was going to get DH tickets to the Caps game for his birthday. The upgraded surprise was that Fairy Grandmother and Luvs2Boat bought us (DH and napmom) a joint birthday gift (both April birthdays) of 3rd row center tickets to the Caps game!

Ah! I finally told DH that we were going to the Caps game about a week before the game because the secret was just bursting out of me. I didn't tell him where the seats were until we got to the game... literally in the stadium and about to get to the seats! Ta-da! I can keep a surprise a secret! So there!

I get the feeling that we don't make date nights near the priority that many other parents do. Fact: this was our third date night in about 15 months. We'll try to do better.

For now, we had such a good time, drinking, laughing, and cheering on the home hockey team. When we weren't spilling beers on the people next to us, we enjoyed these sights...

First stop - some people watching... well, we have this grandpa-like-guy to my left who brought two books with him, one of which was titled Analyzing Algorithms. You can barely see the books tucked under his arm and in his lap, but they are there.

I can hear the trivia question now....

Name something that you might bring to a hockey game?
Umm... an algorithms book?
Yes - you just won $10,000.



Then, we have this guy seen below.

Let me interrupt this normally sweet blog post to rant for a minute. This guy is probably one of the ONLY opposing team fans in the whole stadium. He is a speck of blue in a sea of red. When his team scored a goal he stood up and ranted and hooted and hollered and shook his whole body in celebration. Seriously guys - there was NO ONE cheering with him. I almost think that this behavior is rude. There is something to be said for cheering on your team and then, when you start push the envelope, you are not just a fan you are, in fact, an a**.

I know... those Yankees fans come down to bird stadium and cheer their little heads off when they kick-some-Oriole-butt. Disappointing? Yes. However, in that case, at least they have others cheering with them. I'm telling you - this looked like an idiot cheering his head off.. it was just crazy.

Then we had the dad to my right whose funnel cake sugar was getting caught in the hair of the lady sitting in front of him. (He was trying so hard not to get the sugar in her hair that I didn't have the heart to take a picture of it.)

After I scoped out the people around me, I got back to the task at hand.

Watched the game.

Watched the guys in the penalty box.

Admired my husband.

Watched the refs replay a bad(ish) call. Note the angry Caps fan banging on the glass.

Then, restocked our refreshments.


Celebrated another Caps goal (video alert)...

... and a game win (which meant that they won for their division as well)!

Watched at the Caps players line up to give actual game jerseys...

... to a few devoted fans (Ovechkin in white hat).


Being as it was the last game of the regular season, I got to wiggle my way through this crowd to by a some gifts for the kids.

It's not too late to sign up to win Washington Capitals Prizes during fan appreciation week. No purchase necessary. Check here for a list of daily winners to see if I won.

Are any of you going to grow a beard to show support for the Capitals during hockey playoffs?

Do you think that it is obnoxious to loudly cheer/chant for the visiting team? You can disagree with me. It's okay!

(Sports) Green Tip of the Day

Did you know that the NHL celebrated Earth Hour? Some teams turned out their stadium lights (in lieu of lighting up the night sky in team colors) and one team even changed the time of their game so that the stadium could be black during Earth Hour. Go team!

Speaking of sports... are you bringing along a reusable water bottle when you exercise? I purchased Sigg water bottles for my family (even my toddler) last year and we take them everywhere. This is great because (1) we always have water with us and (2) we know which water bottle belongs to us because it doesn't look like every other plastic bottle.

Personally, we use our Sigg bottles and we love them. I have also seen some kleen kanteen bottles around the office that seem fairly popular as well. Plus, reusable water bottles are great gifts for friends and family. Seriously, every year I have one find in the $20-25 range that is universal and I call it my gift-of-the-year, and it is my most popular gift to give that year. Reusable water bottles were my 2008 gift-of-the-year.

For those of you who prefer to buy from your local merchants, I also found these bottles at Whole Foods grocery market and at local hiking/camping stores.