Lets Go Caps: On Saturday March 6th we went to yet another hockey game with our neighbor's the Willis's. How cool is that - that John and I double date with our neighbors. They are exceptionally cool and neat people, and we are really blessed to have them as neighbors. (Remember when Karen babysat for us back in February? Well, we were talking about it the other day at our weekly Monday lunch and I was saying how cool it was that John and I have finally found someone to double date with. And Karen laughed and said that she was expecting the other couple to be younger.) Anyway, we are (again!) sitting in the 2nd to last row of the building, right behind the goalie - which are great seats if you ask me because you can see plays develop. The first period (of three) was really horrible. The Caps played like they were half asleep, and our goalie let in a weak goal. The puck was rolling in slow motion and he looked up or something and consequently the puck rolled right over his glove. Ugh! The beginning of the second period was no better. All of 10 seconds in the other team shot from behind the blue line (at that point they could have been shooting from the parking lot) and somehow it went in. So we're down 2 zip, they are playing like and we still have two 20-minute periods to sit through. And it's a sat night with half the crowd young inebriated adults and the other half families with little kids. So I said to Sharon, if they would just score one goal, this place would be rocking! People were dying to have something to cheer about! Well, no sooner had we discussed this then the Caps suddenly went on this Fabulous scoring spree! They're buzzing like bees to honey around the other teams net - and then in quick succession score 3 goals! Oh, the arena was shaking and little kids going mad with pleasure. SO this also fires up the other team leading to my second favorite activity (after dancing to the "we've scored a goal" music) which is fights and penalties. What a blast!

Our seats were really cool for watching plays develop - Assuming that you know what is going on, which half the time I don’t. Capitals had a power play - which means the other team did something wrong and got a penalty - the penalty is that the wrongdoer has to leave the ice and sit in the Penalty Box (the Sin Bin!) for 2 minutes. During this time the non-penalized team has a man advantage on the ice, making it easier to score. Anyway, the Caps had a power play and were screwing around passing the puck and such. And I'm screaming, "what are you doing?!" So John quietly says, "They're trying to set up Gonchar." Well, no sooner had he said it that I watched and indeed that is what they were doing and 3 seconds later Gonchar scored. So I shut up quick.  (PS, the opposite of a power play is being on the "PK", the Penalty Kill! Which is when you are a man short - bad!)

So, It's the 3rd period and the score is now 4 to 2. With about 4 minutes to go the other team again scores the stupidest goal! It was unbelievable. The guy basically flipped the puck in the air - it bounces off the back of our goalie's helmet, off the helmet of another player and flops like a fish into the net. The officials called that goal for review, not believing it could possibly be legal - but it was and now we are only ahead by a goal. During the last two minutes of a game, if you are only down by one goal the team will usually pull it's goalie so that they have an extra attacker on the ice - making it more likely that they will score. The idea is that losing by 2 is the same as losing by 1, so having an empty net is a risk to take to have an extra person at the other end of the ice shooting the puck. This is what happened in our game - so the other team is buzzing around OUR net and everyone is on their feet screaming and yelling and going crazy for a full 2 minutes. Oh it was fabulous!! And our guy Bondra got the puck and is motoring up toward the empty net and gets dragged down from behind - but the referee doesn't call the penalty so Bondra's yelling, and his teammates are yelling, and we're yelling and a fine time was had by all!

Final totally cool thing. As I said, we are up in the nosebleeds with lots of other families. One row down in the section next to us is a heartbreakingly earnest little kid - maybe 1st or 2nd grade - with a big handmade Capitals sign. Every break in the action he stands up with this thing, hoping to get on the overhead screen. Well, as we are in the cheap seats and about a far from the cameras as possible, there is NO WAY this is going to happen. As the game goes on, he gets dejected. So, as the game is going into the final minutes everybody around him is pointing at him and screaming, trying to get the camera's attention. Guess what, it worked! A Ha! Oh it was beautiful! We're standing and pointing at him, as are the people behind him, and unbelievably, the camera's got him and his little sign up on the board. I thought this kid was going to pop for excitement. It was so totally cool. And after the game ended, each of us walked by and shook his hand and thanked him for bringing the sign and getting us on TV. You have never seen a happier kid. Boy was that a great evening !

Anyway, Sharon and Bill have yet to see a losing game! The Capitals have won a total of 15 games at home, and they have seen 4 of them. How is that for cool! Hmm, I notice I spend a lot of time in my letters talking about hockey. I need to get some other hobbies.

My B'loved Car: Tuesday March 9 was a big snow storm day. People up here handle snow in approximately the same sane fashion they'd handle an asteroid impact. One of John's co-workers left at 11am and it took him until 1pm to reach his house - 2 hours to make a 45-minute journey, surrounded by completely freaked out drivers. Well, I usually hitchhike in (the infamous "slug" lines") but I figure it will take me only a million hours to get home. Then, the Gov't got let out 2 hours early, so I know there isn't going to be anyone to pick up slugs. I'm dead in the water. John had already left so I took the train home (which was very cool, if expensive.) Anyway, John picks me up at the train station and we drive to the slug lot where my car is parked, surrounded by other cars with a foot of snow of them as well. I look at John and say - you know, it looks like someone tried to break into my car. The driver's side of the windshield had been cleared off. So John investigates and finds a note. It was the torn back of an envelope stuffed in what appears to be the cellophane wrapping of a cigar. The note states (about, the cop has it for evidence)
This morning your car was struck on the driver's side by a woman driving a blue Dodge Caravan. Me and other man witnessed this and left a note. I was released from work early today, and I noticed her car had been moved and this white car covered in snow in it's place. I checked for the note and it was gone. The other individual signed his name after me so I don't know who it was. Here is her tag number."
He then signed the note and left his phone number. Well, this idiot really did a number on my beautiful car! And I just paid it off in October. Both doors are scraped - the back one is dented and will probably need to be removed. So, we called the cops and they came out and took information. This was about the highlight of JD's day - "Oh look! Police Car! Police Man! Blue police car!!" (To be young again!) Our cop is David Chou, very young, oriental, slight accent. Nice guy.

Unfortunately the tag was a temporary tag. So, Officer Chou called the tag in and found out where it was from - some tiny used car dealership in Fairfax. However, no one was there (because of the snow). The next day O. Chou calls me and says that the dealership basically didn't believe he was a policeman and refused to give the information on the owner to him. Said they would contact the owner and have her call him with her insurance information "if she was willing" !! Can you believe it! I'm like, we ALREADY KNOW she's not willing! So they have to send an actual officer to Fairfax to get this stuff. An "AI", an accident investigator. I have to call again on Monday to see where things are standing. My poor car. Damn damn damn.

So, this is classified as a hit and run, which is a misdemeanor. I'm not sure I want to press charges or not. I flip flop. I mean, I can understand hitting a car and panicking. However, she must have seen the guys write the note and then come back, take the note, and move her car. That's premeditated!! She must have done it right away because both cars next to mine where covered in snow! That pisses me off. Everyone at work thinks she doesn't have insurance, doesn’t have a license, or is an illegal alien. I'm also thinking - I have Thursdays and Fridays off - if I need to find that other witness I'll just make some flyers and work and on one of my days off pass them out. I just don't want to have to deal with this at all. People at work are more irritated than I am -- "oh no! You must press charges! You can't let people get away with stuff like this!" I figure this person is shitting bricks anyway, once the car place called them. If the two good Samaritans hadn't left that note I wouldn't have noticed the scrapes until I washed my car! (I washed my car, ha ha ha. I mean, until John washed my car. Which he did.)

The positive of all this is my attitude. I'm really pleased. You know how much anger I generally carry around, and this is just the type of thing that would usually drive me bananas, just eat me up inside. For whatever reason, instead of being angry, (hardly annoyed even,) I am finding this to be a great adventure, and it's not bothering me at all. Maybe because one of my joys in life is telling stories and this is a really good one. Talk to me again next year when my back door is new and doesn't seal and my front door has rust marks where they buffed out the scrapes.

Our family tree: Family tree research is proceeding at a slow and steady pace. I'm starting research on my dad's side, which is more difficult since I am starting totally from scratch. I'm also in the slow and sometimes expensive process of creating a paper trail of my research -- by which I mean getting all the birth, marriage, and death certificates. This is kinda hard because no one kept track of marriages until 1940, or deaths before 1908! In order to get my grandma and grandpa Kenkel's marriage certificate I had to go through the archdiocese of Cincinnait! What a pain. (But I love it!!) I get such a high when a hunch proves to be correct, or a death certificate comes back with a mystery to solve!

I started researching John Lubber's death way back before Thanksgiving. I paid 10 dollars to have a death index search done at Ohio Vital Statistics. This came back as a blank, so I went to the gravesite with Mary the weekend of Nov. 11. Their burial records indicate he died in mid July of 1921. With this information I went back to Ohio Vital Statistics and gave them another 10 dollars. Just last week -- 3 months later!! -- they sent me the volume and certificate number of his death certificate, saying they didn't have it and I'd have to contact the Ohio historical society. So, another 3 bucks to them and I should have this information by April! I hope it has his parent's names on it. What a bummer it will be if it comes back as unknown!

My real goal is to get family calendars up online. The idea being that you could click on the month, see the birthdays, the anniversaries, who is going where, stuff like that. Like if you clicked on May everyone could see that me and mom were going to visit you, or if you clicked on June you could see where everyone was going for the Molleran camping trip. (John has pointed out that maybe it would be best if everyone in the world didn't know when people were leaving town.) Hmmm.

Well, it's damn freezing in the office here and my hands hurt. Fingers are having a hard time hitting the correct keys. Still haven't told you about the new press release, JD's new video tapes -- Veggie Tales, or the plans for our deck. And here I figured I'd write a 4 page letter and catch up. Oh well.

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Last updated: March 10, 1999