Thank You Loyal Fans!

This post is to say a big thank you to all our great fans that endured the sometimes harsh elements to watch our weekly Tauro soccer games. The fans in this picture were at many of our games this summer and it's great to have people cheering you on! I know there were many others that came out and thank you as well, I just didn't have a picture of you all. We look forward to seeing these same fans and hopefully many more (yes, this means you if you live in or near Saskatoon) cheering us on during this indoor season. Hey, it's warm inside so it's already better than outdoor!! Check out the Tauro FC schedule under Men's Div 3 at http://sdsa.saskatoonsoccer.com

Medical History and New Pictures

I can't seem to post these pictures like I want, so this will have to do. Sorry that it doesn't look very pretty.
This first picture is the lunch they served me in the hospital. It looks uneaten because that is usually how I left it. I brought my own lunch with me since there is no way I would eat their sandwiches. I did eat the soup once and I always drank the juice, but that's about it. By the third day they didn't even bring me a lunch but just asked if I wanted juice.
This is the needle I had in my arm for the 3 days I went to the hospital. They just kept it in my the whole time so they wouldn't have to put it in every day. It worked for me. I asked if I could just hook it up to a Coca Cola IV but they assured me that wouldn't be a good idea. Oh well, doesn't hurt to ask.
And this is me in my hospital bed. I look really sick all bundled up like that but I really felt pretty good. I would just spend the time reading books or playing crib with Shiela.

I decided to look back and take a look at just how my platelet count has been doing. Every Tuesday I go and get my blood tested and then sometimes I'll phone to find out what my count was at. Often I don't phone because I figure if it was bad they would phone me, but every once in a while I get curious (and so does Shiela!) (this chart didn't post real well, but hopefully you can see the trends)

So I've posted a chart that shows my platelet count from the day I found out about this until this last Tuesday. I'm missing a couple near the end of October, but the chart shows almost all of my results. You can clearly see the time where I went in for IV gamma globulin because my platelet count went very high. After that I was reducing my prednisone amount by 5mg every 5 days. Well, you can see what happened with that. The specialist finally stopped me at 15mg around the middle of October and now since my last meeting with him I'm down to 10mg a day. If it gets below 30,000 I'm back in the hospital for some more IV gamma globulin.

This last Monday night in soccer the other team kicked the ball hard right at my face and it nailed me right in the eye. I couldn't see for a few seconds but it started to clear up. Luckily it didn't bruise because that is exactly the type of thing that will send me back to emergency (for some reason bleeding in the head is a bad thing)....but we've watched it closely and nothing has happened with it. I feel God protected me in that encounter.

I Love Poker!

I've been noticing lately just how much I really enjoy playing poker. It is so much fun. Reading people, trying to bluff, having your heart race trying to figure out whether or not to make a call and the highs and lows of winning and losing big pots.

This last weekend I went out to a poker tournament in Waldheim. There was a total of 12 people so it was an ok size group. The top three places paid out $40, $15, and $5 (I know, the payouts are a little out of whack. It should have been $30, $20, $10 or something, but whatever). Myself and 2 other friends I regularly play with drove the 30-40 minutes out there and the ironic part was that when we randomly drew cards for positions we all ended up at the same table right beside everyone. Oh well, no big deal.

The tournament went really well. I had a couple big hands that helped me along. The first one was when I played King and 2 offsuit in the small blind. The flop came out King, Jack, 2 so I had flopped 2 pair. I bet around 300 (we started with about 2000 chip value) and my friend to my left called. It ws just the two of us and I kept making fairly large bets as I figured I had him with 2 pair. He kept calling me and the turn and river cards were just rags. He made a large final bet and I debated for a while whether to call. I did and when I showed my two pair he just about died. He didn't last much longer after that since I had taken a large chunk of his chip stack.

At the final table I had two big hands. The first was up against my landlord who happened to be there too. I was holding Queen 8 and the flop came out 2 Queens and a low card. I checked and my landlord made a bet after debating for quite a while. The turn card was a King. My landlord quickly called all in and I sat there debating for a while. I figured he may have a King, but probably not a full house since he hesitated on the first bet. I finally called him (he had more chips then me so if I lost I was out). He flipped over Ace and something else and I won with my trip Queens. Needless to say my rent will probably go up now! LOL

Anyways, I ended up getting second place and my other friend got first. I felt like a ringer as we left with everyones money, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. I can't wait to play again!

If anyone out there wants to join our poker game (we usually play no limit hold em tournament with just a $5 buy in) let me know in the comments section and I'll invite you out.

Oblivious to Fame - Fact or Fiction

Growing up during my high school years in Caronport I worked in the cafeteria in the summertime during different sport camps to earn a little money. It was a great job, especially being the beverage guy. All I had to do was ensure that the beverages were always full. This meant replacing the milk, chocolate milk, waters, making more juice, ensuring the coffee was full, etc. It was a great, coveted job and I loved it.

One morning I was working the breakfast shift as the beverage guy during a hockey camp for young boys. All the boys had gone through the breakfast line and had kept me hopping on my toes as I constantly refilled the chocolate milk (most of the boys took full advantage of drinking as much chocolate milk and pop as they could during this week since their parents weren't there to stop them) and other beverages that these kids constantly drained. As the last couple kids left the cafeteria I decided it was finally time to eat my own breakfast. So I grabbed some french toast, bacon and chocolate milk (yeah, I was still a kid at heart!) and sat down for a good breakfast.

As I sat there eating an older man (I thought he was old since I was only about 15) came in, got his breakfast and came and sat down beside me. I didn't think much of it even though there were about 500 other empty spots for this guy to sit in. But whatever, he was being nice and probably figured he didn't want to eat alone. So we ate and chatted a bit, but being a young high school kid I didn't really have that much to say. The only strange thing I noticed was that I kept feeling that there were people watching me as I talked to this guy. I quickly glanced over my shoulder toward the dishpit entrance and saw a bunch of my friends peaking out the door at us. I didn't think much of it and figured they must just be slacking off.

As I finished my breakfast I said goodbye to this guy and said I had to get back to work. As I brought my dishes into the dishpit my friends were acting excited. Once they realized that I wasn't all that excited, they asked me if I had any idea who I had been eating breakfast with. Having no idea I considered lying so I wouldn't look stupid, however not only would that go against being a Christian I honestly had no idea who he was. They then informed me that I had been eating breakfast with a professional hocky player...Bob Bassen of the St Louis Blues. As I finished cleaning up the beverage counter I pondered this rare meeting and felt special that I had the chance to eat breakfast with a professional hockey player. However, I think this meeting would have had much more impact on someone who actually really enjoyed hockey as I was obviously oblivious to how great this breakfast meeting really was! (I would have preferred David Beckham!)

So...fact or fiction...you decide and let me know in the comments section.

The Tournament Rages On

The Lakewood Kickstart Soccer Tournament continues....

Our 2nd game of the tournament was against SUSC and my team played the best game of their season so far. It was great to watch. We beat them 5-2 which means we scored 11 goals in two games.

Our 3rd game of the round was against Aurora and we lost 3-0. It didn't help that we scored on ourselves for their first goal and their 3rd goal was a misjudgment by our goalie and the ball went through his legs. So I feel they only really beat us 1-0.

We placed 2nd overall after the round robin and so we made it to the final game against top ranked Aurora. Unfortunately we just were outplayed in that game and lost 4-0. The guys tried hard but the truth is that Aurora passes a lot better than we do right now and that made a HUGE difference. At least we now know who our nemesis is for the year! Overall I was very proud of these boys and they worked hard for their silver medal. Way to go Eastside Gold Eagles!

One Down, Two to Go

Yep, I'm talking about the good 'ol Lakewood Kickstart Soccer Tournament here in Saskatoon. I'm coaching the Eastside Gold Eagles U12 boys gold team (that's Div 1). Our team is interesting. In our team practices over the last few weeks basically all we have worked on is team defense and our defensive shape. I'm of the mindset that if the other team can't score on you, you can't lose. The problem is that we are still getting scored on numerous times each game. The funny part is that the boys can score goals like they are going out of style. We have scored 1, 4, 5, and 6 goals in our last 4 games and we really haven't even worked on any offense yet. But when you have 6, 2, 7, and 3 goals scored against you in the last 4 games something is obviously wrong defensively (in case you didn't figure it out our team is currently 2-2 including exhibition, league and tournament games).

So anyways, for me this tournament is all about getting our defensive shape together and defending as a team. The boys are starting to pick it up and I hope that by the time we have our next league game we will be much better defenders. We play again today (Friday) at 5:15pm and then again Saturday at 3:30pm. Hopefully we will be in the final on Sunday at 4:00pm. Feel free to come out and watch some great soccer.