not April Fools

edited to add: 1) I saw a man on a CTA bus today wearing a White Sox hat and a baseball shirt reading Cubby Bear on the front/Wrigleyville on the back (Cubby Bear being a popular bar in Wrigleyville)--was that April Fools'? I honestly don't know, given all the odd things I see on the CTA.
2) even long after I wrote this, I still managed to fall for a 4/1 piece on the Chicago Wolves' website (about a bunch of players supposedly not available for the rest of the year. scared me!)
3) I remembered it was the birthday of the friend who first took me to a hockey game and called him tonight. I wonder if anyone does anything special for an April Fools' birthday...

I've had a lot of long bus rides recently in which I could have come up with an April Fool's post, but didn't. (as a colossal nerd, my favorite April Fools' every year is wondering what NPR will come up with--and this year it was a piece on "a box set of NPR's entire history of funding credits.") I'd rather get a joke to spread on Twitter anyway, since it's quite easy to do so (such as, RIP for celebrities who haven't actually died, a hoax about the anonymous questions site formspring being a hoax), but it's easier to do so on a day when "April Fools" and "Fooled" and such aren't trending topics.

I'm considering the previous post with the NHL mistake (they never responded, and I don't know if they corrected it) to be a joke. or at least it worked nicely as a reverse-jinx, and the Blackhawks DIDN'T lose four straight--hell, they won with a shutout last night! and I was there! because I was there I missed getting to watch a bunch of games online, so I missed this...not a joke:

 

Wolves vs. Stars 11/22/09

I made the CTA/Pace bus trek out to Rosemont Sunday afternoon for my first Chicago Wolves game in a while; they'd been away (played Sat. night too, but I was watching the Hawks and other games online). I got there just before the game started and bought an upper-level seat this time for the match against the Texas Stars (their NHL affiliation is a little easier to figure out than the Wolves'). I won't describe the game in too much detail (you'll note this will be a recurring theme here), so...

Stars scored one goal in the first period. Wolves tied it in the second. Near the end of the 2nd, FIGHT! And a real one (sorry, Blackhawks [to be another recurring theme here, how Hawks fights never get rated much higher than 4/10 on hockeyfights.com, I mean, I care much more that they win GAMES, but that's a bit embarrassing])--I immediately looked at the game day stat sheet thing (how'd I miss getting one of these at all the other games?) and noticed both fighters led their team in PIM. Josh Gratton (Wolves) vs. Luke Gazdic (Stars) video here. Intermission: I didn't get a free t-shirt or cookie or anything. Scoreboard showed that the Manchester Monarchs were beating the Providence Bruins 4-2 (a game the first blogger to blogroll this blog mentioned he'd be at); I find out later the Bruins came back and won 5-4. Third period: Wolves score again. Two minutes left, Stars pull their goalie. Wolves immediately score again. Goalie reappears. Something happens and Wolves get a penalty with 5 seconds left. WIN! My first Wolves game with a win AND a fight. I buy a Wolves winter cap on the way out--my first hockey apparel of any kind. (But I have pages of stuff I want to buy from several teams secretly bookmarked on Delicious.)

After the Pace bus and CTA train, I stopped at a Walgreens a couple miles from home, but it'd moved across the street to a dazzling new building and the store is all shiny and balloon-filled. Bought a Sunday paper, and weak with hunger, went to the 24-hour diner across the street. I'm not even sure what the place is called (one of those places that has no name, or several different ones on the signs and menus [one place like that, I didn't know what it was called till I saw it in the paper shut down for a health code violation]), but I like it, and drank lots of coffee and had a BLT club with fries and watched the TV tuned to the Sunday night football (Eagles at Bears, uh oh) pregame show. And then got home, all caffeinated and waiting for the late Blackhawks @ Canucks game...

Another recent Gratton fight, versus Matt Kassian (Houston Aeros) (rated 8.7 on hockeyfights.com, but it's a small sample). (I haven't learned to post videos in Blogger yet but I will soon...)