Since my new Bauer TotalOne gear was delivered last week (I’ll blog about those beaut’s later), I’m ready to part with my Battram set. They are about a year old, and still in very good shape. They are a bit marked up from stopping a lot of pucks, as can be seen.
I’m asking $750 for the full set.
Contact me with any questions.
Pictures are the best description:
Since the wife and I moved to Boston, I’ve been fortunate to quickly find quite a bit of hockey to play. Since I’ve been here I think I’ve skated about 2-3 times per week on average. I found this great hockey [company/group/organization/not sure what you call it] called StinkySocks hockey. I signed up to skate out for a short, late winter, session and through that have started to make new connections and meet new hockey friends. Everyone has been super nice, and since then I’ve been invited to play in a couple different tournaments.
My first Boston area tourny of the spring was one called the “April Showers”. It’s a 30 and over tournament put on by NEWHL in Acton/Concord. That weekend, I played goal for a team called MOEs (Mothers on Edge). It wasn’t my best showing, but we came away 1-2 with a shutout for my win. Despite the losses, we still had a great time.
Mothers on Edge
The second and most recent tournament was this past weekend down in Walpole. It was called the AOK tournament and raised money to help fight breast cancer (a cause I can always get behind). I skated out on defense for a team called Shazam. Unfortunately, we came away with the same record as my previous tournament. All three games were super close (win or loss by one goal). The highlight for me, other than having a super fun hockey weekend, was actually scoring a goal. This is something that very rarely happens for me. but I managed to blast in a slap shot from the point. Woo! We lost that game, and the next, but we finally found our groove and pulled out a win in our final game. Thanks to all the Shazamers for having me on!
Team Shazam
So two impromptu tournaments down, and one more scheduled. My friends from the Chicago Gay Hockey Association asked me to play goal for them in the upcoming Boston Beanpot Classic. I’m looking forward to seeing them and competing at a higher level here in Boston.
Since starting with BEAM Interactive in Boston a couple of months ago I have been extremely busy building a couple of new sites for Saucony. One of them is an ongoing user-generated content inspiration project with weekly prizes entitled the “Find Your Strong Project”. You can check that out at http://www.saucony.com/strong.
The other site I built is a sneak peek at Saucony’s new Kinvara 3 shoe hitting stores next month. It’s an interactive experience showcasing the features of this awesome new shoe as it is put together component by component. Our project was submitted to the website awards site, Awwwards.com, where it won “Site of the Day” honors for April 16, 2012. Big props to Tom Kershaw and Gary Pikovsky for the fantastic design and thanks to all the other great people at BEAM who worked hard to make this site happen.
Wow, I’m already failing on my 2012 goal of blogging more. In my defense, I just moved 1000 miles across the country, started a new job, and am getting settled into a brand new town. But I digress…
Since moving to Boston, I’ve started to search out and find places to play hockey. I’ve skated about four times so far and have noticed a disturbing trend. I am really out of shape! Much of the fitness I had acquired by mid-summer of last year has long since worn off. Areas have gotten soft and I am much to easily winded. Changes must be made.
So I made a deal with myself (and my reluctant wife) to motivate myself to get back into shape. It involves dedicating myself to completing a solid month of workouts based upon a goalie specific training program I will describe later. If I meet my goal of completing phase 1 of the training program successfully I will put a deposit in on a custom order for the new Bauer TotalOne goalie gloves and pads.
Maria Mountain’s Ultimate Goalie Training 2 program.
http://products.hockeytrainingpro.com/ultimate-goalie-training-2-0-2/
The program includes four-month long phases of flexibility, core and strength workouts. I actually purchased this program over a year ago intending to jump right in with it. However I never got my stuff together and actually did it. It’s the perfect solution for both getting myself back into better shape along with improving in areas that will improve my game.
Tonight at the gym marked week 1, day 1 of the challenge.
Bauer is releasing a new line of goal equipment in April called their Supreme TotalOne line. Based on how awesome the pro level One100 line is and everything I’ve read about this new gear I think I’ve finally come to a decision what my next set of gear is going to be. I’m going to put in for a custom set of gloves and pads in the new line. It’ll take several weeks before I actually get the gear, but I love having gear customized the way I like it.
Can’t wait to get my new gear, because I am gonna own this challenge!
I’ve had two huge location changes in my life that I can remember. The first was when I moved to Florida in 2005, and then when I moved back to Illinois in 2008. In three weeks I will embark on the third great move of my life. The wife and I are pulling up stakes, hitching up the wagon and heading east. Back to Dani’s home town of Boston, Mass.
It’s been a great three and a half years in good old Chi-town. I’ve made some great, hopefully lasting, friendships. I met my the woman who would eventually become my wife. I saw my first Cubs, Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks games live. I tore a chunk of my meniscus and had my right knee scoped. And I’ve played some really great hockey. I thought I’d share a few of my memories about Chicago here.
Sweet Home Chicago
For a good part of 2009 I had one of the most trying parts of my stay in Chicago. It was during this time I took a freelancer job through an agency with United Airlines. The job was fine, and for the most part I enjoyed the people I worked with. The pain of the situation was the reverse commute from the city to the north west suburbs. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having to drive in or out of Chicago in rush hour would relate. In the mornings it would typically only take around 45 minutes to get out to the facility. However coming back into the city at 5pm was a nightmare. A good day I would get home in 75 minutes or so. On a bad day, like during a cubs night game, it would easily breach two hours. This went on for an entire year of my life. I for sure will not miss the Chicago traffic. Though I’ve not heard great things about Boston’s traffic either.
Another great memory from Chicago was my 30th birthday. It wasn’t a huge ordeal. No big drunken stories, but to me it was memorable. A good group of some of my favorite people from Chicago were kind enough to travel out to Benihana’s in Schaumburg to celebrate with me. The picture they took of us all will be one I’ll hang on to for a long time to come.
Benihana Birthday Dinner
And then there is the hockey. Before I moved here I had never seen my favorite hockey team play in person aside from half a game in Carolina once. I still remember my first game seeing the Blackhawks play at the United Center. I’ve been to many games since then, and I still never take them for granted. I’m like a little kid every time the crowd starts the roar during the national anthem. But I will leave Chicago knowing that I was able to be here when they hoisted their first Stanley Cup in so many years. I went downtown and found myself chasing the victory parade down the street like a fool. I was there at the UC when they raised the banner to the rafters. This is not only a favorite Chicago moment, but one of the most amazing moments of my life period.
Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Champs
But not to let the Blackhawks have all the glory, I’ve had my fair share of success playing puck in the windy city. A couple years ago I played in the first hockey tournament I had been to in ages. A great group of guys that I knew from Elgin invited me to come along with them and play at a USA hockey tournament just outside Kansas City. The hockey was fun and we dominated, obviously. But the trip out there and back and hanging with those guys was part of the trip that was the most fun. Even though I haven’t skated with them in quite a while, I’ll still miss playing with that group.
Labatt Blue - USA Hockey Tournament Champs
And then I met the Monday night hockey / X-Factor group. The ladies became my hockey family in Chicago. We would meet almost every Monday night and skate for a couple hours. Sometimes it was really great hockey, others it was bad. But it didn’t seem to matter as I always looked forward to going every week. The cooler full of beer and treats Diane would bring every week definitely did not hurt that enthusiasm. And Sam always made sure we had a fabulous soundtrack to skate to. Some nights there was more dancing on the ice than shots on goal. The Monday night hockey ritual will be one of the things I miss most about leaving Chicago.
There are so many other good memories I will leave here with. Almost too many to name. There was the trip I took to Los Angeles with Kerry and Tesh. The Hall and Oats concert at the Chicago theatre. Playing ice hockey outdoors for the first time. That time we ran into the cast of Super Troopers at the Lakeshore Theatre. Skating with Ryan Dempster at the ice rink at Wrigley Field. My 29th birthday spent watching Elton John and Billy Joel perform together in the middle of Wrigley Field. We had some ridiculously silly drunken times hanging out with the John Marshall crowd at the Plymouth downtown. The comicons, and the nerf gun battles. Sailing lessons on lake Michigan. Taking the dogs on long walks through the parks. And so many other great memories. Chicago, you will be tough to leave and I’m sure I will miss you and your fine people immensely. But I am ready and excited for a new adventure. And not to worry, I’ll be back from time to time. You can count on that.
Sailing Lessons on Lake Michigan
So another year has come and gone and we being anew. I started last year on this blog laying out some of my goals for the coming year so I could look back and see how many of them I accomplished.
Last year I set the following as my goals for 2011.
Amazingly enough I really failed to accomplished all but one of them. Sure I made progress towards several of them, but I can’t say I definitively reached any of them other than the spending more time with the family. And that one is pretty hard to quantitatively prove. 2011 was a strange year for me. Not much of it really went like I expected it to. I guess that’s ok though. A lot of great stuff happened, as well as a lot of not so great stuff.
Highlights from 2011 include…
Now’s the time when people are supposed to set their goals for the year to come. With not really making good on last years extensive list, I am hesitant to even create one for 2012. Alas, I am a sucker for traditions. So here we go…
I have high hopes for the coming year. I know some big changes are in already in the works and I am ready for the adventures to come! Happy New Year… I wish nothing but the best to everyone for the future.
I had hockey practice tonight. Coming off a week where I felt I have played some of my best hockey in a long time, I had a moment of self-realization tonight in which I saw how my confidence enhanced my performance. Not stopping a shot wasn’t a possibility that crossed my mind. I literally feel like I have the skills to make every single save necessary. Did I stop every shot? Not at all. But I think I stopped every shot that I should have, and quite a few that I probably shouldn’t have been able to.
Jim Taylor Ph.D. and specialist in the psychology of sport at the University of Denver calls this “Prime Confidence”. “Prime confidence is a deep, lasting, and resilient belief in one’s ability.” I think it’s why I always get excited for challenges. I love playing against teams that I know are really good. I love testing myself against the best. Even when you lose to the best, it still has confidence building effects. You can look back on those one or two amazing stops you pulled out of your ass to get yourself pumped for the next game. And losing makes you just want that next win all the more.
That's not me, but I'd love to go head to head with her!
I am a pretty competitive person by nature. I don’t like to lose. That’s not to say I’m a bad loser, it’s just that I like wins – small or large. So I am working on taking the lessons I’ve learned in being confident from playing hockey and attempting to apply them to my professional life as well. I am already an accomplished web designer and developer with quite a bit of experience. But like you have to train in sports to get better, I am working to take my skills to the next level. I know the type of job I want and I am going to work my ass off until I get it. I’ll have to be ready to go up against the best. But I will win that new position. I’m confident. I’ve got a lot to offer. I’m Tori.
A year ago after Dani and I got married, we decided to wait to take our honeymoon until this fall. We talked about a few different options… Europe, Mexico, maybe Costa Rica. I really wanted to visit Hawaii. So I searched online and eventually found a travel package that we could afford. We spent an amazing week on the island of Oahu at the Aston, Waikiki.
Before I get into the details of the trip, I have a confession to make. I fell completely in love with Hawaii. Everything about the place really resonated with me. It’s beautiful. The weather is fantastic. The people are friendly. The Hawaiian culture is awesome. I love the “hang loose” attitude so many people there enjoy. There doesn’t seem to be the rush and hustle there. I loved how they hang on to so much of the customs and language of the native islanders. It’s just so much fun. I want to go back. I would love to live there at some point. I’m using it as motivation for my businesses. I want to be successful so I can create the opportunities for my family to experience Hawaii in the future. And I am going to incorporate as much of the island culture into my everyday life as possible – starting with my business.
Waikiki Beach - Click to view more photos
Anywhoose, lets get back to the trip shall we…
We spent six full days on the island, so we were able to do quite a bit. The first couple days we did a lot of relaxing. We spend some time at the beach, explored the Waikiki area, and treated ourselves to a lomi lomi massage. The following three days we had arranged for some excursions through an activities desk in the hotel. Monday morning was our first trip. We boarded a tour bus and were taken over to Pearl Harbor to view the USS Arizona memorial and tour the Battleship Missouri which is moored in that harbor. We also got a special treat as we saw the USS Makin Island LDH-8 come into port while we were there. I’ve heard time and time again how humbling an experience visiting the USS Arizona memorial is. It was so much more powerful than I expected. Both Dani and I were happy that we were able to visit and better understand that incredible bit of history.
Pearl Harbor - Click to view more photos
The next day, our second excursion took us to an “authentic” Hawaiian luau. There are a few different large luau productions on the island. After going over them, we settled on what many considered one of the best, Germaine’s Luau. It’s kind of like a big dinner slash picnic slash show. They had a large buffet of traditional and more modern hawaiian foods. The food was absolutely ono (Hawaiian word for delicious). The show was a lot of fun too. They show cased dancing styles from a variety of different islands including Hawaii, Tahiti, and others. There’s a video of some of the dancing following the pictures.
Germaine's Luau - Click to view more photos
Our final big excursion was probably my favorite experience of the trip. We signed up for a morning dolphin cruise and snorkeling adventure. Neither Dani nor I had ever gone snorkeling before, so we were both very excited to try it out. The trip wound up being more than either one of us expected. After setting sail, we traveled out of the harbor where we saw the Black Pearl ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie sitting in dry dock. After about 15 minutes or so, we found a pod of about 30 bottle nose dolphins swimming by. We followed them for about 30 minutes watching them swim around and one of them even jumped out of the water. Soon after we found a stop to moor the boat about half a mile out. They set us up with gear, a bit of instruction and we got in the water. Wow, it was like swimming in a giant salt water aquarium. Right away we were surrounded by beautiful tropical fish swimming through the reefs, and four beautiful green sea turtles just hanging out. One of them came up for air directly in front of me, it was just unbelievable! After what seemed like the quickest hour ever, we were back on the boat for a nice lunch and a couple mai tais. We had a photographer there with us to capture everything, so I will share those photos here.
Snorkeling - Click to view more photos
The rest of the time on the island we did some exploring. We drove up to the north shore – which I can honestly say is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. There is a beach up there where Hawaiian green sea turtles always come to. So we stopped there for a bit. We also took a hike to the top of the diamond head crater, which provided ridiculous views of the island. Driving up the eastern coast of the island the scenery was beautiful. We even spotted a location we recognized from the tv show Lost. And finally, I was able to do something I had always wanted to do… attempt to surf. I took a lesson down on Waikiki beach. Thanks to the super calm conditions I even rode a few waves in. So much fun.
Turtle Beach - Click to view more photos
Honolulu from Diamond Head - Click to view more photos
Well that was our trip in a nutshell. Like I said, I really fell in love with the place and can’t wait to go back. Well time to get back to work and get some practice time in on my new ukulele! Aloha and Mahalo for reading this!
It’s been a while since I’ve shared any artwork on here. Last night I wrapped up a concept for a new logo for one of my hockey teams. So I wanted to share that along with some of my other favorites.
Every now and then I get asked to put together a logo for something. Sometimes it’s a hockey team, or a friend’s beach volleyball team and sometimes it’s for a website idea I’ve been working on. It’s really one of my favorite tasks to do. I almost always build them out in Illustrator. I love the clean look and blocked colors you can get by using vector Illustration. Plus when they are vector they are very easily scaled for printing at various sizes. Here’s a few of my favorites. Some are extremely derivative while others are completely original. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Honey Badger don't give a S#!T
Jake Nickell
I’m a bit late with this recap from the Chicago Creative Mornings lecture for September. I just finished up my last week working full-time for John Marshall, and things have been a bit hectic. The September talk was given by Threadless founder Jake Nickell at their headquarters and warehouse over on W. Madison. He talked a bit about the history of Threadless and the process they went through from a basic website run from his apartment to the t-shirt juggernauts they are now. I always find it incredibly inspiring to hear about someone taking an idea from a very simple first execution through to a really amazing product. Continue reading →
Hockeymama0505: Last year one of my goals was to complete a full distance triathlon ...
Mculliton123: Really enjoyed you commentary and photos. Looks like you had a beautif...
: Thanks Mig! I'm so glad that you brought these lectures to Chicago. I'...
Mig Reyes: Lovely write up, Tori! Glad you were able to make it to CreativeMornin...
Kenan: I rather enjoy being the person in the video who is eternally unamused...
© 2012 Tori Holmes-Kirk.
