Why I Oughta...

*Rubs eyes* What?!  What is this??!? Well....that's a Sega Genesis on the bottom shelf at the Villa Park Target store. I immediately had flashbacks to playing NHLPA Hockey 93 - you know the one....where the Blackhawks were stacked with Roenick and Chelios and Larmer and Goulet and Steve Smith on offense and Vince Vaughn and the dudes in Swingers knock Gretzky out of the game . I spent countless hours playing that game.  We only had two tvs at the time and I usually found myself plugging the Sega Genesis into the tv in my parents bedroom and sitting on the floor where I honed my triple deke skills. Alas...in the 80 games that are included, there's not one sports title.  So this didn't end up in our cart. Still....for $39.99 , it seems like a fun gift for any guy who was in junior high school in the early 1990's.

On the side marquee of the York Theatre in Downtown Elmhurst, they're advertising a special showing of a movie called "Hat Trick" that covers the Blackhawks championship run.  The movie is being shown this Saturday (December 5th) at 10 am.  Doors open at the York Theatre at 9 am. Here's the listing on the York's site .  Details: The Blackhawks’ full-length Stanley Cup Championship movie Hat Trick is coming to the York Theatre on Saturday, December 5 at 10:00 AM. Admission is $5 and ticket proceeds benefit Chicago Blackhawks Charities and Variety Club of Illinois.  Showings may include appearances by Blackhawks Ambassadors and the Blackhawks Street Team. Plus, the Blackhawks Store retail truck will be on hand so you can take home your very own copy of "Hat Trick". Sounds like a nice little event.  Ambassadors "may" appear?  Let's hope they do!

Take a look at that backyard rink.  Pretty awesome.  Equation Boy/Man really stepped it up this year - his second as a rink owner/operator - by adding some length to the ice and building boards for behind the goal at one end.   He even (with the help of his daughter) painted on the Elmhurst Chiefs Hockey logo (see it there on the boards) and hung a cute banner (which is cut off from this picture because it has their last name on it!). I walked down there one day last week and they weren't home and the ice was so clear that I was afraid to go on it, so I didn't even do a 'boot skate'.  Last year, Nat gave me a nice pair of skates and I played down there a bunch of times with very few injuries.  Hopefully the weather stays on the cold side so I get an invite to come down and play over the weekend.  I'll be padding up a bit more than I did last year, I think.

That's me on the back left (behind Equation Boy/Man) right before we took on the Elmhurst Chiefs Hockey Club in a Father/Son (in my case Uncle!) game.  My nephew plays for the Chiefs and I was lucky enough to be able to get on the ice along with these Dad's. I'm not standing that far away from the other guys because I don't like them.  Nope.  It's because I'm not that adept on the skates as some folks and I didn't want to risk falling in any attempt to move closer to get into the photo.  No injuries were reported and I had a lot of fun.  Equation Boy/Man had a hat trick and my nephew had a goal off of a nice rebound!