I'm going to be retiring from chasing after Derek Boogaard at the end of this season. I still hold out a little hope that the Wild might swing out this way during the playoffs, and I might have one last chance to get my jersey signed and get my picture taken with him, but I don't know how likely that is.

Bryan and I will be having a baby in late September/early October (during preseason, I hope), and while it's one thing to spend two seasons trying to meet your favorite NHL player when it's just you, I think having an infant along sort of crosses the line between "Enthusiastic Fan" and "Freaky Stalker Chick." I'll still be able to watch games and cheer Boogaard on, but I think I have to give up on the autographed jersey.

The timing is pretty good - I had visions of a due date in late May or early June and going into labor during Game 7 of the Finals, and refusing to go to the hospital until the game was over and they'd awarded the Cup.

No, we're not naming the baby "Derek" or "Boogaard." Quit asking, you freaks!

I'd planned to spend today straightening up, especially in the spare room. Bryan's mom, Rosemary, his sister, Crystal, and Rosemary's exchange student, Isabelle are coming to visit in a couple of weeks. Bailey got me up at 7, apparently starving, and I flipped on the TV while I was trying to decide if I was going to go back to sleep or get up and face the day.

And I discovered that "Amazing Stories: The Movie" was on.

Sweet! I loved Amazing Stories when it was on as a TV show back in the mid-80s. Because I was watching the east coast feed and started about 15 minutes late, I checked the west coast feed to see what time it started so I could DVR the beginning of the first episode.

And discovered they were doing a 10 hour marathon.

Double sweet!

And so much for my cleaning plans.

I love, love Amazing Stories. "The Mission," the one about the bomber, still makes me cry like a baby. I sat on the couch and bawled and Bailey got all upset and tried to make me feel better - I had to explain that everything was okay and settle her down.

I just found the Season One box set of DVDs on Amazon, and ordered it. Bailey will just have to cope.

So I've got jury duty tomorrow. San Diego has a "one day/one trial" policy, which means you've got to serve for one day or one trial, and then your service is done for one year. I've lived here for three and a half years and been called for jury duty twice. I lived in Seattle for 9 years after I turned 18 and became jury-eligible and didn't get called once. I guess it's a toss-up whether I'd rather spend the day seeing patients or sitting in a room with 100 other people.

So there are some henious drivers around here. Seriously. I got cut off by a guy on the on ramp this morning - there were two lanes to get on, everyone (including me) got into the right lane and were doing about 60, and some asshat flies past me doing at least 80 and cuts me off. Wahoo, Dude! You made it onto the freeway one entire car length ahead of someone else! Now you'll get to work on time!

Bailey's being a beast tonight. She had dog daycare today (instead of Thursday) because of my jury duty tomorrow. She was thrilled, but was already feisty when I dropped her off. I warned them that she'd be trouble today, and when she got picked up, they said I was right! Tonight she's lazing around, whining (this pathetic, thin, high whiny whine) when she wants someone to rub her belly. It's a dog's life, I tell you.

The Wild play in Boston tomorrow. It's the Season Ticket Holders' Road Trip, so at least they'll have a decent sized cheering section! Hopefully I'll be out of court early, because the game starts at 4, I think.

The Star Tribune had a good article about Derek Boogaard a couple of days ago. Check it out.

Today was one of those days where despite repeated checking, pretty much none of the blogs I read regularly have a new entry (except Gavin's, finally!). Checking in wth the blogs is usually something I do during the weekdays, when I have a couple of minutes between patients - not long enough to really work on a project or anything, but more than just enough time to clean the room for the next patient. I read the blogs of friends, and of people I've never met, but who are friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends, or who write about the Wild.

It's frustrating when people don't update regularly (say, less than once a week). I know I'm hardly in a position to be throwing stones, since I've certainly had my share of lengthy periods between blog updates. But, you know, since the world exists to keep me entertained, the least the world could do is update its blog when I need a little entertaining!

Update: You can get the video of Boogaard's hits last night, thanks to Ryan's video editing skills!

That's what Boogaard ended up with this game. You gotta give him a lot of credit for staying disciplined and not letting Torres or Staios get under his skin. He got some decent ice time - hopefully Lemaire will keep playing him. He should next game, given that Vancouver and Matt Cooke are notorious for playing dirty.

Props to the whole team for a good, strong game. A shutout for Harding (who showed a surprising lack of rust these last two games - go Josh!), despite Edmonton having a two man advantage for almost the entire last two minutes of the game.

I still don't get the Boogaard penalties. Email me if you can explain them.

Boogaard just got another roughing penalty after Staios decided to play pushy-shovey, Torres came barreling over and Boogaard again refused to engage. That guy has the self control of a freakin' saint on the ice this year. At least Staios and Torres got penalties, too, putting the Wild on the power play.

Dunno who made the call - McCauley? He seems like a McGeough in training, and when the two of them are together...

And the announcers are still idiots.

So the super-duper Edmonton rink announcer just announced that the WIld's latest goal, scored by Branko Radivojevic (#92), was scored by Pierre-Marc Bouchard (#96). They don't play on the same line, and as Bryan pointed out, they don't even shoot with the same hand (Radio's a righty, while Butch is a lefty).

Maybe someone should give that guy a copy of the Minnesota roster. It's almost as good as last time they played Edmonton and we had the Edmonton feed on Center Ice and the TV announcer kept calling Backstrom "Backman."

Fair or not, I expect better from Canadians when it comes to hockey.

So, I know I'm new to the hockey thing, but can anyone out there possibly explain to me why Derek Boogaard got a 10 minute misconduct when he did a gnarly, but perfectly fair hit on Reasoner, stood his ground when Torres charged him (Note to Torres: If you slam yourself into a guy the size of a wall and you fall down instead of him, you don't get to be pissy about it) and then didn't engage when Staios and Torres came rushing at him (and Staios sucker punched him, the jerk)? Not to mention the fact that one of them (Stortini, I think) was hanging around Boogaard's neck like an ugly man-necklace while Boogie kept his hands in the air and the ref had to practically pry the guy off Boogaard's neck.

Boogaard didn't instigate, he refused to engage the two losers who were trying to start something and he ends up with a misconduct.

Someone explain that to me.

(If Ryan posts the video on YouTube, I'll link to it, so you can decide for yourself. Update: watch the video here.)