Auctioning off the Rookies....

.... always THE highlight at the Annual Booster Club Players Appreciation Banquet..

We do so appreciate the rookies.
All 10 of them.
That's coaches and staff, too!
Yep.

The live auctions of
"Lunch with the Rookies" and
"The Jersey of Nr. 62"
went fast, real fast. All thanks to 'rookie' Denver Wilson,

who has his auction patter down pat.

FYI: As a (former?) rodeo roper and aspiring livestock
(do rookies count?) auctioneer(he'll head to Wisconsin ? this summer to hone this patter, he told us), he rattled off increments of 25s and 50s, so before we all knew it the price shot up and up and, bingo, 'Kids Unlimited' were richer by some $ 1000's.

Well, even Better Half got in on the auction action, but stopped when the 'jersey of Daoust' hit a certain high (somewhat beyond our budget limit).

After all we had already bid, and won (I kept an eagle eye on them),
3 silent auction items.

• Such as Braden Holtby's signed Photo to keep the puck, he signed last year at play offs in Austin, company.In a recent interview Holtby (21 yrs)when asked about The Water Squirt as Holtby squirts water out of his bottle during stoppages in play, picks out one  specific drop from the spray, and follows it to the ground with his eyes. BTW I did not see that last year "Actually, that looks a little weird," he admitted. "If you can focus in on something, it sharpens up your vision." "I think everyone else is scared of looking weird," he said. "I don't really care, as long as it helps me stop the puck."

• Better Half - being a goalie fan - got Harding's 04-05 Aeros season stick, signed by what looked about a third to a half of the then team(now proudly displayed on the study door...open it too fast and the stick sets off an alarm).
• And last but not least a Symphony/Restaurant package..after all artandhockey must have some art (musical and culinary) somewhere? The question now is do we choose Shostakovitch or Mahler?

All in all, the atmosphere inside the Country club was

warm (so nice) and friendly. Lots of joshing among players and coaches, and pleasantries from players to fans made for a good event. And thankfully, NO long winded speeches by any one.

The two kids from KU did well, kept it short and sweet. 

But a bit emotional..tears were observed flowing.

Raining bottles...duh?

last night I dreamt of 'raining bottles'! I have no clue why or how?
Not rain IN bottles.
No, bottles like raindrops falling into the pool.
We knelt poolside and fished them out.

At one time, we did have a pool! And did have multitudes of croaking frogs keeping us awake! And literally had to catch them to have some peace at night. We did release them elsewhere-picture this two people scurrying towards a park with frogs in buckets!!!
Froggy concerts are vastly overrated to induce slumber!

There was also a 'cattery' - 'wild' cats established nurseries on our grounds.
After they had wooed eloquently right outside our bedroom windows -
a veritable 'feline lovers lane" ;-) And tiny kittens, like willow wisps, scurried hither and thither. Too fast to catch, they hid under shrubs and abundant vegetation ;-)! I felt that when THEIR time came they simply returned to that 'nursery place' which may have been imprinted on their minds?

Well, but I digress from the dream of raining bottles...
I did however looked at some 'Rene Magritte
(Nov 21, 1898 - Aug 15, 1967-Belgian Surrealist)' Paintings recently!
Who really IS a favorite artist!
His art just calls for huge imagination on the side of its viewers.
Who must dare to question the reality/reason for being of what they sees around them.
Like this one:"mankind in free fall?"
A prediction of times to come after 9/11?
And then there is this -
eerily reminding me of "big brother is watching"! Had Magritte read Orwell? One wonders!
And - wouldn't you say - Magritte was way ahead of his time with this as well?which, IMO, could very well depict the
loneliness, in these times, of a hard core smoker :-)?

And with this one:
"Bottled Life" or "Life in the bottle?"
Subtitled perhaps as
"In the clouds"- Essence for a Luftmensch?
"Heartburn ";-) - Advertisement for Maalox?
and"In Vino Femina" ;-)?

I really enjoy letting my imagination get away with me
- in a purely ironic way, of course ;-).

And on the Hockey Front:

It looks ever more iffy for Khudobin, since the Wild have re-signed Harding as BUG for one more year!

He re-signed a two way contract! And his fans are ecstatic!