I'm Baaaaaaack!

Quick! What is that line from!?

I'm not sure myself....I want to say Arnold in Terminator 2 but that doesn't sound right. The Gremlins? I want to think it was something hokey....

Anyway, my computer DIED last week right after I had uploaded photos of the "Select A Seat Night" at Nationwide Arena. I have spent the last week trying to revive it and then, when that failed, transferring photos and documents over to a new computer and installing new software. I love The Robot from Lost in Space but I *don't* like computers!!

Needless to say, I never got around to writing about our experiences at the Open House. I did bring my cap with most of last year's team members' signatures with me...

and got the additional signatures of Jared Boll, RJ Umberger, and Derek Dorsett. Now the only team members I would really like to have are Captain Rick Nash and Asst Captain Antoinne Vermette. I basically have everybody else from last year...! NOW I have to think about what to get signed by the current team, with newcomers Jeff Carter and the-guy-whose-name-I-can't-remember-let-alone-spell. :-)

The evening was mostly just a long line of waiting to get up to chat with the three players...there were kids playing hockey on one side, and tables set up on the other near a make-shift hot dog stand. There was a jump house or whatever they're called where the littler kids can jump around like a trampoline....Here's a photo I took from the seats we reserved for the new season. My wife and I had picked these seats at the open house back on the Draft Day (was that mid June?) but the daughter hadn't seen them, so we went up to them on Friday and I took this picture from there:

You can see that they didn't have any ice down on the open house night...! The Blue Jacket goal is right around where that boy is standing in the center of the picture. The Cannon that fires every time we get a goal will be directly above and behind us. Without the safety (puck) netting up it's hard to tell if these are really good seats or not, but we scouted them out at the end of last season so we're thinking they're pretty good. We are all excited for the season to start...exhibition games the last week of September, and then first home game Friday, Oct 7! :-) (The line of people on the far right are the people still waiting to get the autograph of Derek Dorsett.)

And this is me and Jared Boll, about to get him to sign my hat and one for my buddy. After living in Japan for 14 years, an experience I often compare to living in a fish bowl because I was *literally* the only foreigner in a town of 7,000, I feel like I have a better feel for what celebrities go through. I try to treat all the "famous" people I've ever met like they are normal, everyday people. So at things like this I don't usually gush or act nervous (although I did get tongue-tied when I tried to talk to one of the players back at June's Draft Party). I went up to all three of these guys and asked, "Are you looking forward to the new season?" and had a quick chat. It was cool. And I showed Jared Boll my t-shirt and told him, "You're one of my favorites!" He said Thanks.