The Basement Top 10 of 2012

We have a few repeats this year.   We must be getting predictable in our old age.

1		Модест Петрович Мусоргский – Promenade
2		Harry Nilsson – Good Old Desk
3		The Magnetic Fields – Three-Way
4		Swell Maps – Read About Seymour
5		Harry Nilsson – Puppy Song
5		Harry Nilsson – Rainmaker (Mono Single Version)
7		The Killers – All These Things That I've Done
7		Ian Hunter – Fuss About Nothin'
9		The 101'ers – Keys To Your Heart (Version 1)
10		The Flaming Lips – Turn It On

The Hard Sport or The There Is No Can't Edition

This latest chapter in my sports adventures is my husband's fault.  He's at least partially responsible for hockey, too, but I think I can put Cross Fit all on him.  One of his personal trainers at our gym had left to work at something called "Cross Fit".  "You should try it," he said.   "Have you called Cross Fit yet?" he would ask.  I blew him off.  I ran 3-4 miles a day most days of the week.  I played sports.  What did I need with this Cross Fit?

I am a weekend warrior.  I used to run 40 miles a week and even ran the marathon in Detroit in 1999 in a middling 4 hour 20 minute time.  Then I discovered team sports, and my mileage dwindled as I fell first in love with soccer then hockey, playing as much as possible as many days a week as I could.  The gym was for winter, when I couldn't run outside or when I went through one of my "weight lifting" phases when I'd use the weight machines a couple times a week.  But team sports were where my heart was.  I loved the thrill of the game - the winning or losing with my friends, and solo sports had lost their appeal.

"Try Cross Fit," my husband kept saying.   So I called.  And showed up at a converted industrial building, now a gym unlike anything I'd ever seen before, at 7am one Friday in early July to meet with an instructor who would take me through an "introductory session".  I thought "How hard can this be?"  Little did I know, 12 hours later I would barely be able to move.

We did some stretches.  We did some sit ups.  Some push ups.  Some rowing (that, at least, I could do).  I attempted a pull up.  It was hot, humid, miserable.  We went through some barbell skills.  I think there were kettle bell swings, maybe some wall ball throws.  I was terrible.

But I went back.  And back.  Then I sprained my ankle.  And I took two weeks off.  Then I went back. I kept going back even when my arms would shake with exhaustion and  I wanted to crawl into a ball in the shower after a work out.  I kept going back even when I was the least coordinated and oldest person in class and when I wasn't sure if I could make it through a work out.

And now I'm not terrible.  I'm not great.  I'm not even good.  But I think I've moved beyond terrible.  I can dead lift 125 pounds.  I can push press 65.  I can "double under" with a jump rope, do banded pull ups, do 10 "real" pushups in a row.  I am a decent rower.  I can jump on and off  a 20 inch box.  I can flip a big tire (my husband thinks that is the coolest thing).

I have learned so much beyond how to do a clean and jerk or a dead lift.  One of the instructors once told me "no one is going to do those burpees for you".   I actually look at many things in life that way, now.  No one is going to do the tough stuff for me, so I might as well just get it done.  And if I need to chip it out into small chunks; it is best to get the biggest chunk done first.

Cross Fit has taught me there is no "can't".  When you walk in for a class, the work out is on the board.  I have frequently thought "I can't do that."  But invariably, I do the work out.  I get through it.  It isn't always pretty, but I get through it and feel better for it.  So what if it is hard?  If it were easy I wouldn't want it so badly.  And I wouldn't feel nearly so good once I've done it.

And even though it is an individual sport where you mostly compete against yourself  by getting a better time or lifting more weight or getting more reps in, Cross Fit feels something like a team.  We encourage each other, commiserate over a tough work out, and help clean up each others' equipment after a class.

I haven't really lost any weight, but I'm smaller.  I have new muscles.  I can skate harder.  Run faster.  I feel great.

"Try Cross Fit," my husband said.  I did, and now I'm hooked.

Brushing the dust off....

Well, that was quite a gap.   In the interim, the sprained ankle has healed, the hockey season has started (at least for my rec teams and for Michigan),  I've fallen in love with cross fit, we went to San Diego and New York City,  many batches of chili have been made, I got a promotion at work, the cold frame is up, and winter is here.  In the past, I would have said so much has happened.

But a college friend passed away this week.   A wickedly smart, funny friend that I hadn't seen in a few years and now I never will see again.  A friend I am determined to remember as I knew him in college and not in the casket I saw him in this week.  I am faced with a friendship that, because of the "busyness" of life, I let slip.  And I so regret that.

5 years can go by in a heartbeat.  10 years in a few breaths.  I want to slow my heart rate and my breathing down to a crawl.

And so I brush the dust off my blog once again in hopes of slowing down my life and focusing on the good stuff.  The small stuff.  The take a walk after dinner stuff.  The get together for lunch or for coffee  stuff.   The best girlfriend coming into town for a night stuff.  The sit in the backyard with your Dad stuff.  The hang out with your cats stuff.

The stuff that matters in life. 

Ankle Sprain - The Sidelined during the Summer Edition

I twisted my ankle at a drop in hockey game a couple weeks ago.  A totally accidental fall, combined with an apparent failure to lace my skate up quite tight enough, and I was out of commission for a couple weeks.  I skated this morning at another drop in.  After about 50 minutes, I could feel my ankle start to get a little tired, so I stopped.  But there is no pain, just a little tightness which I figure is normal after all.   The body's ability to heal itself never ceases to amaze me.

That said, I learned a few things during this experience which I'm going to try to remember, going forward.

1.  Flip flops are not real shoes.  As cute as they are, they give absolutely no support.  I think I did myself a disservice in the healing process by wearing flip flops for a few days because they were the only shoes I could fit my foot into.  Next time (please, no) I will go buy a cheap pair of sneakers a size or two too big and suffer the style points.

2.  It takes real determination to get out of bed in the morning when the first thing you are going to do (take a step) will cause you to experience pain and discomfort.  My pain was temporary.  There are a lot of people out there who deal with pain daily and my respect for those folks increased exponentially.

3.  There is no shame in going up and down stairs on your behind.  At least at home.

4.  If you can't walk normally, getting ready to go to work takes at least half again as long as a normal day.

5.  Your non-athletic coworkers will have amazingly unhelpful things to say to you.  For example,
"Oh, did you get a boo-boo", or "Well, I guess you're done for while" or "At your age, that's going to take a while to heal".  Pay them no mind.  They know not what they say.

6.  If you need to drown your sorrows, you can't do much better than Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie ice cream with caramel sauce.

7.  Ibuprofen is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy (apologies to Ben Franklin).

8.  The ability to walk down a flight of stairs without hanging on to something or bringing both feet together on each step is under-appreciated.

9.  Patience.  Patience.  Patience.

10.  It is almost as much fun to cheer for your team as to play with them.  Almost.

Happy 16th Birthday to the Itty Bitty Kitty

14 years ago today, a matted, oily white kitty meowed at the window of our first floor apartment.   My future husband let him in, and we became the proud people of an amazing cat.  We tried out and discarded several names, and our new friend became known as the Itty Bitty Kitty, or Itty Bitty for short.  We took him in to the vet, who estimated his age at two years.  We count July 8 as his birthday and anniversary.   IBK loves olives, turns his nose up at tuna fish, and likes nothing better than to keep us company in our backyard.  Many happy returns, old friend.

Happy 40th Anniversary Title IX

Happy 40^th Anniversary Title IX.   I celebrated by spending my weekend on the soccer field and the hockey rink playing the games that I love with some amazing women.   Thank you, Title IX, for making this possible.

Spring Pasta with Peas and Asparagus

8 oz penne or fusilli pasta
1/4 cup fresh peas, shelled
1 cup asparagus, rinsed and chopped into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces
4-5 garlic scapes, rinsed and chopped
10 walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
kosher salt
2 cups spinach, rinsed and thick spines removed
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 - 1/2 cup pasta water

Heat over to 350 degrees and toast pine nuts for 15 minutes or until golden

Prepare pasta according to package directions.  Make sure to salt your pasta water.  Add the peas and asparagus for the last 4 minutes of cooking.  Drain and return to the pot.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the scapes, spinach, walnuts, olive oil and salt to taste until well mixed.  I use about 1 tsp of salt.  Add the pasta water until the pesto is still very thick, but saucy enough to coat the pasta.  Toss with the pasta in the pot.

Serve in two bowls, each topped with half the pine nuts and cheese.

A Checkbox off the Restaurant Bucket List - Awesome Night in the D

Thursday night my perennial dining companion and I made a check mark on our Restaurant Bucket List - The Whitney.  We had tickets to see the DSO at Orchestra Hall that night, so we made reservations ahead of the concert.   The Whitney lived up to its hype.  A gorgeous building - we were given a brief overview of its history by our server.  The service was very, very good.  So was the food.  I had a filet and my perennial dining companion had scallops - both outstanding.  We split the side of brussel sprouts and chorizo (yes, we are getting old) and started with eggplant bruschetta.  All very good.  The wine was outstanding - you can't go wrong with Barolo.   So a very happy check mark next to The Whitney.  We would definitely go back.

As to the concert, all I can say is if you have the opportunity to hear Pictures at an Exhibition live, you must go.  It is one of those lifetime imperatives that you may not understand until you do it - but Pictures at an Exhibition never disappoints.

Thank you, Brandon Inge

Brandon Inge is no longer a Detroit Tiger.  And I am sad.  The face of the Tigers for so many years, especially the thin ones, is no longer on the roster.  Maybe it was time.  But I'm not sure the next time we will see a player with such a love and enthusiasm for the game play it with such pure athleticism.  Inge has been my Tiger since Bobby Higginson last wore the Old English D.  Thank you, Brandon Inge, for giving me a reason to watch, years ago, when the Tigers rarely won a game, just to see what amazing play you might make at third base.  Thank you for supporting the community.  And thank you playing your heart out, every day, with such a love of the game.  You will be missed.

Hope Springs Eternal

I have been in a blog-subject drought lately.  Work has been taking up most of my thinking time recently.  But tendrils of creativity are swirling around in my head....

My hockey team won its rec league championship a couple weeks ago.  Our new season starts back up Sunday.

 NHL Hockey playoffs are in full swing (come on, Wings!).

The plants are growing  at an amazing rate, thanks to the early Michigan spring.  We even harvested our first asparagus last weekend.  And it was good.


My perennial dining companion has given me a plethora of new cookbooks to explore.

And baseball is back.  Go Tigers!

Life is good.

The Last Game at Yost for the Season or the Thank You Seniors Edition

One of the things that makes college sports so special is that you know every year will bring change as the seniors graduate in spring and freshman join the team in the fall.  Four years may seem like forever, but every year former freshmen, now senior leaders, graduate and move on.

College teams typically celebrate their senior players on "Senior Night", the last home game of the regular season.  And Michigan's hockey team celebrated four of its best this year,  that Saturday night in late February - all captains or alternate captains, all outstanding contributors to its team.  But in my mind, due to the success of the Michigan program over the years, you can count on a couple more home games every year because the CCHA playoff games are played at the higher seeded teams' home ice.  And Michigan typically hosts one round of the CCHA playoffs at Yost.

So while Senior Night was officially in February, tonight was Senior Night in my mind.  The night when, for the last time, the four seniors took the ice as the team defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to move on to the semi-finals of the CCHA playoffs.  Captain Luke Glendenning, and Alternates Greg Pateryn, David Wohlberg, and Shawn Hunwick played their last game at Yost tonight.  The crowd was electric, the band spot-on, and Brady Hoke was in the house.  You couldn't ask for a better atmosphere, and the Wolverines came to play, apparently recovered from the marathon double overtime game the night before, to sweep the series against Notre Dame.

But how bittersweet it was to watch Shawn Hunwick, perhaps the best goalie Michigan has ever had, perhaps the best goalie it ever will have, lead his team onto the ice for the last time.  The last game was  a victory in which he, as he has so many times this season, made spectacular save after spectacular save to give his team the chance to win.   And then to be the last player to walk off the ice after the game was won,  turning around to look backward at the ice one last time.


Thank you, seniors.  But especially, thank you Shawn Hunwick.    And with the grit and the talent of this team, we hope to see you playing in April.  But never again at Yost.  And you will be missed.

Winning in overtime is so much sweeter, or the what I wish my fellow hockey fans knew edition

Michigan had an outstanding overtime victory tonight over Notre Dame in their first game of the CCHA playoffs.   I could have watched all night,   And for awhile there, I almost thought I would until the tie was snapped a few minutes into the second over time to give Michigan a 2-1 victory.

That was a heck of a hockey game.  And a heck of a long hockey game at that.  CCHA playoff overtimes are sudden death (of course), but they go 20 minutes at a time with 15 minute intermissions.  Which gave me a little extra time to listen and to ponder the comments about the game made from the folks sitting behind me.   And made me want to offer a few suggestions.   I wish I could claim they were my own ideas, but most of them came from listening and learning from other, more experienced hockey fans and players.

To my fellow hockey fans:

The next time you yell at a defender to shoot from the blue line, take a close look at the path between that player and the goal.  If there is no clear path, it could be a disastrous play for that defender to shoot the puck (indeed, the worst play in hockey).  If the puck bounces off the opposing team back toward our goal, the other team may very well have a breakaway.

Likewise, the next time you yell at a defender who failed to pinch in at the blue line while we are in the opponent's zone, consider what would happen if that defender pinched, and the puck popped out behind him, giving our opponent a breakaway.  To pinch or not to pinch is always a judgement call, but I will rarely fault the defender who makes the safe play (which is not to pinch) to prevent a defensive disaster.

In CCHA college hockey, icing is when the puck is cleared from the zone before the red line and the team clearing the puck is not on the penalty kill and does not reach the red dot prior to an opposing team member.

If most of the players are one side of the ice battling for the puck, it is because nothing else matters until we gain possession of the puck. It may be good strategy to have one  more player in the scrum for the puck than the other team.  As long as one player remains more center to clear, we should be in good shape.

If a player fails to stay on his skates, that doesn't necessarily mean a penalty has occurred.

And probably most importantly,  in the fifth period of hockey (after four intense 20 minutes periods), please do not yell at the players if they don't make a perfect move in front of the goalie before shooting.

 Now get back out there and cheer again on Saturday!  And let's get the job down in three stanzas this time.  Go Blue!

The Shoot Out - Musings on a Backup Goalie

Goalie.   The last line of defense. The netminder.  The keeper.   There is no other position like it in sport.


In hockey, players are trying to score by getting a puck into the opposing team's net (or goal).  There are rules about how the puck can get to the net  (you can't kick the puck into the net, for example).  And in hockey , there is a goalie who is in charge of standing in front of the net to try to keep the pucks out.  The goalie gets to use special gear (bigger pads and helmet) and special rules apply (he or she can cover up the puck, for example).   But the goalie is part of the team.  The puck has to get by all other 5 players on the ice before it gets to the team's goalie.

That said, the goalie is highly visible.  A team wins - the goalie is great!  A team loses, and the goalie may feel the heat.  The goalie is central to the team, frequently its best skater, and a huge key to a team's success.    A team plays differently in front of a goalie in which they are confident, or accustomed.

Tonight, the University of Michigan's hockey team started its backup goalie  against the visiting Lake Superior State Lakers (both teams part of the CCHA).  The backup goalie played really well, stopping 34 shots and keeping Michigan in the game, letting in only 2 goals in regulation play.  Michigan also scored two goals, and at the end of regulation time, the game stood at a 2-2 tie.

In hockey, depending on the league, after a game is tied in the regulation time allowed, an overtime period may occur.  This happens in CCHA play - the overtime period lasts 5 minutes and the first team to score a goal wins the game (aka "sudden death").  Tonight, neither team scored in overtime.

Which leads to a shootout in the CCHA.  Each team picks three skaters and  each skater gets a one-on-one chance against the goalie to score.  They go one at a time.   If each team has the same number of goals after the first three skaters, additional skaters take shots on the goalie until one team has scored more shots than the other.  A shootout in college hockey is something of a nebulous event.  The outcome does not count for the NCAA.  Not all conferences use shootouts.  I don't like the shootout, especially in college hockey.

A shootout takes the game out of the hands of the team, and transfers it to the hands of individual players.  One skater, one goalie.  Is it exciting?  Yes, it is. Many fans love the shootouts - a dramatic finish to the end of a close game, not to mention the display of skill (both shooter and goalie) during the event.  I have not played goalie in hockey, but I have filled in as a goalie at soccer and there are few things in sport (even as a recreational athlete) like the excitement of a one-on-one between shooter and goalie.  I loved being the goalie against a breakaway in soccer. 

But a shootout changes the game.   It takes the game from a team sport to a one-on-one competition, transferring the focus from the team to individuals.  The best team may not win, but the one with the most skilled shooters with the best moves may.  Or the team with the hottest goalie.  But not necessarily the best team.  And it is a team sport, after all.

Michigan lost in a shootout tonight and its backup goalie played a great game. 

Play the hockey game.  Play an overtime.  Bet let the game stand as a tie if neither team wins at that point.

The Basement top plays of 2011

 54-40 – Baby Ran
.38 Special – Hold on Loosely
The Beatles – Anna (Go to Him)
Humble Pie – I Don't Need No Doctor
Angel – Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
Harry Nilsson – Good Old Desk
REO Speedwagon – Roll With The Changes
Humble Pie – 30 Days In A Hole (Live)
Foreigner – Feels Like the First Time
Humble Pie – Shine On
Harry Nilsson – Puppy Song
City Boy – (Moonlight) Shake My Head And Leave
Nirvana – Sliver
City Boy – The Greatest Story Ever Told