Teeth, Pucks, and Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

(Provocative title, no?!)

One reward for having recently acted in a commercial for UND Athletics was free tickets to a couple hockey games. So last night, the fam and I attended the game between the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux and the University of Minnesota Gophers (who ended up winning 4 to 3). It was at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, and we knew it would be a sold-out event, so we left home 45 minutes early to find a parking spot, enjoy the sight of falling snow in the spotlights scanning the skies over the arena (which looked like glitter in a snowglobe), walk around the arena so the girls could gawk at the extravagance, buy some (outrageously overpriced) snacks, and find our seats.

We shared some popcorn and pop and tried not to get nosebleeds in our mile-high top-level seats. We also tried to ignore the swearing of the boorish (and possibly drunk) oafs a few rows behind us, upon whom the irony was obviously lost of being seated so near the very family featured in the between-periods commercial whose message is NOT to swear while at UND athletic events! Ingress to and egress from our seats was an ordeal, because there is so little room between rows, necessitating that everyone between the exiter and the aisle stand up or leave the row, too, in order for the exiter to get out. Because of that fact, it was not surprising that two of our daughters had the urge to urinate immediately upon our being seated. We delayed attending to that potential emergency, however, because we didn't want to be in the restroom when the commercial played on the scoreboard big-screen. As soon as it did play, however, Susan was out the door with three little pottiers (not me) in tow.

We stayed through the first two periods before leaving. For one, the girls were pretty much over the excitement of UND Fighting Sioux hockey sometime between the opening laser show/introduction of players and the bottom of the popcorn bag. For another, we had been invited to a birthday party for our friend Job, and the girls had made presents for him and were eager to deliver them. That soiree was at his dad Duane's condo, and it was very civilized: wine, hot apple cider, cheesecake, chocolate-covered strawberries, spinach dip on rye, seafood and artichoke dip on toasted Italian bread, chicken legs (not those dinky wings that are all the rage in restaurants, no sirree), chips and dips, cookies, fruit, cheese and crackers . . . and I'll bet there was even more, too. Job was very welcoming of the girls, even though it was definitely an adult party (we had permission to bring the girls, who asked to see the birthday boy). We didn't stay long, but it was fun to see Job, Duane, Mishka, Darin, Sandee, and many other friends and acquaintances who are fast becoming friends after seeing them at so many social events recently.

Before we left for either the hockey game or the party, however, Abigail and I went into the bathroom where we wrapped a string of dental floss around her sole remaining upper central incisor and yanked it out. Yes, now all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth, the lack of both of which makes her speech distinctly impeded now. With those and other teeth either gone or only slightly grown in, her mouth looks like a jack-o'-lantern. She's cute as can be!

Tonight: our faculty's biennial Christmas party, done as a progressive dinner. The bus leaves at 6:20 P.M. for the first of four stops (appetizers at House #1, then soup/bread/salad at the next, then the dinner course at House #3, followed by dessert at the last home). Fun and laughs guaranteed!