Caturday 21: Meowy Lagniappe

Sue recently signed up for Google Photos to store her phone photos in the cloud. This week, they sent her a Lacey compilation, putting a Meow song together with all of the Lacey photos that Sue had.

Now there's a lagniappe for you. Or at least it was for Sue. And me. And Lacey, of course.

Apparently, one can also get to the video file right from this link. I don't think we can embed it directly though, so I sent it to my phone from Sue's phone, then downloaded it to my computer, and finally uploaded it to here.

And just in case lagniappe is a new word to you as it was recently to me . . .

Hockey Game: Free Suite and Food

This past weekend, Sue and I, along with Shauna and her friend attended a big league hockey game between the Ottawa Senators and the Detroit Red Wings. Along with a few other families, we were treated to a suite courtesy of Shauna's connections through her work.

We also had a suite last time for the last time we attended a game, two years ago, when I won the tickets at a lottery for JJ's hockey team. That was nice enough, but this was even better.

For one thing, this was a larger suite with perhaps fewer occupants.

For another thing, there was free food, which I shall get to shortly.

Here we are pre-game, enjoying our beverages. Mine was Coca Cola; the others were boozing — moderately, of course.

While the food was included with the suite (or box), the drinks were extra. They will be billed to the owner of the suite, so they were still free to us.

Sue and I are not always too wise to the ways of the world. When she ordered wine, she didn't understand fully that she (or someone) would be paying for the whole bottle. And brother sister, did that bottle cost. Sue just about had a conniption when she saw the charge at the end of the game when Shauna had to sign the bill.

Would you believe, $65!!

We are pretty frugal folks, and Sue nurses about one box of wine (cost ~ $40) for a whole month, so this hit her pretty hard. To add insult to injury as it were, she had only consumed two rather small glasses of the bottle, not realizing that it was all hers. It could have served the others in our group too, but the rest of us are not particularly white wine drinkers. In my case, in point of fact, I am not much of a drinker at all. A box of red will last me for quite awhile, depending how often Shauna visits, for she really likes red wine. When she wasn't drinking much last year, one box lasted me for 3 months.

Anyway, the food.

This was part of the table of appetizers that was already laid when we entered the suite.

We munched on that while the pre-game warm-up was taking place. Ottawa Senators on the right; Red Wings on the left.

Back to the food.

By the time the game was beginning, the main course dishes were brought in: pasta, rice, veggies and chicken.

A close-up of the veggie and chicken dishes.

While I do not drink much, I do like my food, and I found all of this quite wonderful indeed.

Here we are drinking (me ginger ale) during the game. There were other seats in the box just below, but we just remained at the counter for the duration as it served as a good holder for drinks and food.

Our hostess with Sue's wine bottle.

Once the second period began, snacks were brought in. I had a slice of pizza and a few egg rolls. Both were quite good.

Dessert was brought during the third period, but it consisted of just cookies. I felt robbed. lol

As for the game itself, we lucked out there too. It was a close match, tied 3-3 at the end of regulation, so we were treated to overtime.

The five minute OT period features just 3 players plus a goalie for both teams. With all of the extra space to work with, the action can be very exciting and usually results in a goal.

However, there was no goal in this case, so there was an additional bonus — a shootout. Our team, the Senators, scored in 1 of their 3 chances, while the Wings missed in all of theirs.

So, the good guys won, and we went home full and happy.

What a treat to enjoy all of those perks, including the free-for-us drinks.

I searching for my post of our previous game here, I also came across a post about JJ actually playing a game in this big arena, here. I didn't remember it because I wasn't there, but I still posted about it here 3 years ago.

No Swans This Time

On Sunday I trudged through the snow to get another photo of the Tundra swans. They were closer than last time, which pleased me.

Except they weren't.

For when I got close to them, something seemed wrong.

Sure enough, when I looked through my viewfinder using my telephoto lens, I saw that it was just a bit of swan-sized ice. I probably should have taken a picture of that, just for the record, but I didn't.

There were swans, but they were farther away, and I would have trouble getting to a good spot to photograph them. Besides that, I was a bit pressed for time, so that was that.

I went back on Monday morning to a more accessible spot where the swans have often been seen. Alas! There was nary a bird in sight.

This might have put me in a fowl mood, so to speak, but I made the best of it and took a few photos looking across to the other side of the river. There was still some snow on the trees from last weeks sticky snowfall, which I thought looked quite pretty.

But first, I was attracted to the patch of water that looked blue. For the most part the water was dull due to generally overcast skies, so this patch stood out. By including the bench and tree I felt that I also had some good foreground interest which anchored the photo. Besides, who doesn't love a bench?

Picking up a thread from a previous post, we are able, once again, to see the transition between the frozen and unfrozen parts of the river. If we could see that far, we would see that the water would be frozen for many a mile to the left beyond this view.

The view across the river: two photos from the same spot, once a little more zoomed in than the other. I prefer the second, less zoomed, photo.

I thought that I was done and was walking back toward the car when the near curve in the ice shelf drew my attention. I thought that it would make an interesting foreground and even a bit of a leading line. The reflection of the fallen limb is also a good element in my opinion. I also made a bw version, but I like the colour better, I think.

I was in the nick of time as it turned out, for it soon began to rain. That would wash the snow off the trees and make those woods a very dull gray mass. Unless, we get more sticky snow, it won't be a pretty for quite awhile until new life begins to burst forth over there. I look forward to seeing the soft green as the buds begin to break forth.

Final Game

I shot my final game of the season on the weekend. This was the second of two playoff games, and the team lost both. The scores were close, and the boys played hard right until the end.

I think these were my best two game photos. They might not be as good as some of my previous game photos, but I do like them still.

Let us bring the curtain down on the season with some JJ photos from the game.

Until next year . . .

Cars That Go Bump in the Cold

I posted those snowy photos that I took on Thursday. That was the snowfall that was very heavy and wet. Very very sticky.

Then, it got very cold very quickly.

On Friday, there was a bumping and rattling from our vehicle. We thought and hoped that it was ice under the car, that I picked up riding those snowy streets. But we couldn't tell.

Needing to drive into the city on Saturday, we wouldn't want to proceed if the car was having real trouble.

But what can you do late on a Friday afternoon?

Well, I took it to my tire place and asked if they could put it on the hoist just to see if it was ice or some other problem. I wasn't asking for a fix, just a check.

They took it on a little drive to discern the problem for themselves and then took it into the shop. A half hour later, the car was fixed and ready.

Yes, it had been ice, which they were able to take care of when they removed a wheel.

There was no charge.

I have been loyal to them for 15 years, always getting my tires changed for the season (we have two sets of tires hereabouts, one for winter). I also have bought my new tires there as well as having brakes serviced.

My loyalty to them paid off that day.

.....................................

Speaking of ice, this is a result of the quick freeze after the wet snow in mild weather. We've never before had such a display of icicles on our house.

I Fell on My Sneeze

I fell on my sneeze. For some obscure reason, I said that to myself after putting my hands of my knees for two consecutive big sneezes. (I usually put my hands on my knees as a good stabilizer for my back during cataclysmic sneezes, which can send people running for cover.)

And then I began to think of and sing this song, or at least a version of it, from my elementary school days.

Wikipedia's Lyrics

I went to the animal fair,
The birds and the beasts were there;
The little raccoon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
The monkey he got drunk
And sat on the elephant's trunk,
The elephant sneezed and went down on his knees
And what become of the monk?

Those Wiki lyrics weren't exactly the words that I learned back in elementary school, but they are close. My raccoon was old and a she. Well, why I don't rewrite the whole piece as I remember it?

I went to the animal fair,
The birds and the beasts were there
The old raccoon by the light of the moon
Was combing her auburn hair.
The funniest sight was da monk
It climbed up the elephant's trunk.
The elephant sneezed and fell on its knees
But what become of da monk?
Da monk da monk da monk da monk
But what because of da monk?

Those last two lines were great fun.

There is an alternative version by Tex Ritter and others in which  "that was the end of the monk" rather than "what became of the monk," which is the way that we sang it, and as far as I can tell was also the original lyrics.

I sang that at least 60 years ago, but I remember the tune, and I think I have close to the words of the version that I learned.

I find this memory just a little synchrodipitous that this occurred almost immediately after posting my previous piece about memory.

Synchrodipity

I just experienced a case of synchronicity. Or was it serendipity? Actually, I think it was both. Kind of like that certain breath tablet containing two mints in one. Raise your hand if you recollect that commercial.

Sue and I sometimes joke that my brain is something like a record player. You never know where the needle is going to come down. So it is that I might find myself singing a tune out of the blue, one that perhaps hadn't crossed the threshold into my consciousness for a decade or maybe even five.

Now, I do know that the record player analogy dates me, for now one would more likely talk about about random access memory and so on and so forth.

Onto to the actual storyline for this post.

So it was that the word, Zugzwang, popped into my brain late one night, probably when I was in that somewhat stuporous state of being — neither quite awake nor quite asleep.

Let's put that aside for now while I seemingly move onto a different topic — memory loss, or more to the point searching for words, mainly nouns.

I knew that I had blogged about memory and how frustrating it can be to fumble about  for the right word when in conversation. In fact, I have experienced that more than once, but I mentioned the specific phrase, losing my nouns, quite specifically in this post: Memory Kicks In.

That is when the synchrodipity thing kicked in, and I found that I had once (ahem, speaking of memory loss) posted about Zugzwang. That post recounts how at that time I had forgotten the word but remembered its meaning. Strangely enough that incident also occurred when I was in a somewhat somnolent state.

On this occasion, I remembered both the word and the meaning, but I cannot remember why the word surfaced in the first place. However, I suppose that remembering both the word and the definition is an improvement.

Of course, I also discovered that my pronunciation had never been quite perfect.

Memory is a odd thing and probably seldom to be trusted. There have been studies about the unreliability of memory, some of them in reaction to that whole Recovered Memory craze that swept society several decades ago.

The main point now, however, is that in this case I find it intriguing how these two strains of recent but seemingly unrelated thoughts came together in such a way.

I still don't know whether it is more a case of synchronicity or serendipity, but I love it anyway, almost as much as I love my new word, synchrodipity, particularly since it gave me something to write about on a Sunday morning.

If anyone wishes to know what in tarnation this Zugzwang thing is all about, please refer to my former post, for the definition is somewhat tangential to this particular post. But it is still interesting — to me, at least.