Before the game even started we were selected to get the “Uncle Bob’s Self Storage Upgrade.” So following a member of the staff we left our upper bowl seats and headed down to four nice lower bowl seats. The view is very different and I don’t think I would buy season tickets down there, but as a treat it was fabulous. This upgrade came with those nice canvas bags, t-shirts, and a little video board time.

Just got the Uncle Bobs seat upgrade @GriffinsHockey! First game from the lower bowl for us.

December 8, 2010 6:51 pm via Tweed webOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@xdreamwalker

Jason Holzhausen

The Griffins played well tonight and were rewarded with a home win. The team has struggled at home and it was nice to see the group play together and have a good time. With this win everyone gets a free ticket for next Wednesday’s game. So, including my parent’s tickets next week, we’ll have 12 tickets to the game. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble filling those seats.

During the third period came the biggest surprise of the night. Theresa’s name was drawn to win a game used stick! Tonight marked the 1000th game for Brad Thompson, the Griffins equipment manager. After the game Theresa and Drake headed down to the equipment room to meet Brad and pick and random card which had one of the players numbers on it. By some stretch of luck or something Drake drew #19. Drake was super excited. Number 19 happens to be Drake’s favorite player, Greg Amadio, it’s even been autographed!

I don’t think anyone is going to be able to top this at his birthday party this weekend.

A few photos of Drake and his new hockey memorabilia, click to enlarge.

Click to Enlarge

I am saddened to say that I was almost beat by a 3 year old at Wii Sports bowling. I must have been having an off night, because the alternative of Drake being that good is just horrible to think about. I really thought that it would take much longer for the kid to become as good as the parent.

My score of 155 is low for me. Just last week I bowled a 213, but I average 175-185. Drake’s score of 131 is his highest yet; he bowled a 121 the very next game.

The single most impressive thing about this game happened in the 8th frame. Drake was faced with a 4 – 6 split and managed to pull it off. I would love to say that it was a happy accident, but for all I know he is a master. He managed to hit the 4 just left of center which sent it to the back wall. The pin then shot back forward and took out the 6 pin. My jaw dropped; I couldn’t believe what I just saw.

The first frame of the game was my worst in a long time. With only knocking down 8 pins I almost restarted, and had I been playing with Theresa I probably would have. My skill points drop from this single game was heartbreaking.

Overall Drake played a great game getting 2 strikes and picking up 3 spares. He gets so excited with he gets a strike or spare, jumping up and and down shouting “I did it!”

The Heart of Summer via Animoto

This video is viewable on it’s animoto page for browsers that do not support flash. All of my photos can be viewed on flickr; videos are on animoto and YouTube.

Our May was filled with visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Holzhausen, the beach at Millennium Park, camping with Grandma and Grandpa Klein, and Drake running around with my camera. I’ll let you guess which photos are his.

All of my past Animoto videos can be found on my Videos page, or on my YouTube channel. One thing that does bother me about Animoto is that there is no public page that displays all of my creations.

If you are interested in creating your own video slide shows visit animoto.com, were you can create free short 30 second videos. For full length videos you can get a discount of $5 off the yearly cost by using my animoto referral link. You’ll be able to get the All-Access pass for $25 per year for the life of your account.

Phineas and Ferb ©Disney Channel

“I know what we are going to do today.”

Drake has managed to get me watching Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. The basics of the show are two kids on summer vacation that create and do crazy things in their back yard . Like… building a rocket, fighting a mummy, climbing up the Eiffel Tower, discovering something that doesn’t exist, giving a monkey a shower, surfing tidal waves, or creating nanobots.

Drake’s love of all things Phineas and Ferb has gotten to the point where he calls members of his family names of the characters. He is Phineas, Theresa is Ferb, I am Perry (the platypus), and Garrett is baby Perry; occasionally grandma gets referred to as Candice . It’s odd that Garrett is baby Perry as there is not a baby Perry on the show, but there are plenty of other characters.

If you don’t know the show, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is an evil doctor and Perry is a secret agent that is charged with stopping his plans. This is one of the subplots that goes on in every episode. No on knows that Perry is a secret agent, unless he puts his hat on.

Now that I’ve been watching the show for weeks and there are plenty of episodes saved on the TiVo, I do have grown to like it. I’ve gotten the show so stuck in my head I have now changed some notification tones on my phone.  Perry has a one liner that gets played in the background whenever he is found out by Doofenshmirtz. The Perry line plays on my phone whenever I get an email. The other tone is for txt messages, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.

If  you have kids and let them watch TV, I would have to recommend giving Phineas and Ferb a look. Disney Channel has some episodes right online for sampling. Phineas an Ferb on Disney Channel

Drake browsing for some entertainment

Originally uploaded by xdreamwalker

He was looking for something to do. He would take something down, look it over then put it back. He was being so cute.

The AHL today released the 09-10 schedule. I have made a public Google Calendar of the schedule: http://z11.us/3

The season gets underway Oct 3rd with the first home game scheduled for Oct 23rd. Drake and I will be so excited to get this season underway. He had asked to watch hockey a week or so ago, it was so cute.

The Griffins put out a press release with some interesting facts: http://z11.us/4 My biggest concerns are these:

Longest Road Trip
6 games: March 12-25

Three Games in Three Nights
12 times: Oct. 23-25, Dec. 11-13, Dec. 18-20, Dec. 26-28, Jan. 15-17, Jan. 22-24, Feb. 19-21, Feb. 26-28, March 4-6, March 12-14, March 25-27, April 9-11

Four Games in Five Nights
3 times: Dec. 9-13, Feb. 24-28, April 7-11

The late season road trip never seems to do us any good. Also the multiple games in a short span are always worry sum. Now we just have to figure out who is going to be on our team…

I also put together two short shows of our trip to the John Ball Zoo and the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum.

Work has been going well. I am out at the park on the weekends.

Oh and Drake got his very own Digital Camera from Grandma Klein! He has been very excited to take a bunch of pictures.

After a boring and mildly uneventful day at work we had some dinner and took off for the arena. There wasn’t a large promotion or anything going on, but the Griffins played very well and put the hurt on Peoria.

griffinshockey.com – Returning from a five-game absence due to a concussion, Jimmy Howard made 24 saves to best former Detroit Red Wings netminder Manny Legace and guide the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 4-1 win over the Peoria Rivermen on Friday at Van Andel Arena.

Darren McCarty and Garrett Stafford each had a goal and an assist while Ryan Oulahen had a pair of assists to help the Griffins claim their fourth win in five games and stay within five points of first-place Manitoba in the North Division race.

Saturday started with some shopping and a bathroom project. The valve that controls the shower nozzle failed last week. By Friday taking a shower was not an option due to very little water actually going up instead of down the spout. This situation was a very easy fix. I just replaced the spout with one that has a gate diverter on it. Total Cost: $11.23 & 5 minutes.

I then watched the Red Wings game on TV. They were able to get past the Blues. Then it was off to the arena for day two of Griffins vs. Peoria. This time it didn’t turn out so well for the Griffins.

griffinshockey.com – The game was scoreless until a flurry of goals in the final six minutes of the second period saw Peoria go to the locker room with a 2-1 lead. The Rivermen (34-30-1-1) scored the first two, with Ryan Reaves cleaning up a loose puck in the crease at 14:22 and Nicholas Drazenovic splitting two defenders before beating Jimmy Howard at 17:09.

The Griffins would answer before intermission, as Francis Pare potted his 21st goal from just outside the crease, putting a rebound past Holt. Pare now stands as one of only five rookies in franchise history to score more than 20 goals in a season.

An unfortunate bounce for Grand Rapids resulted in a gift goal for former Griffin Carl Corazzini and a 3-1 Peoria lead just 1:11 into the third period. As Howard skated behind his net to stop a dump-in, the puck took an odd deflection off the end glass and caromed out in front of the vacated net, allowing the charging Corazzini an uncontested goal.

Sunday came and it was promising to be a long day of everything Hockey. The annual Season Ticket Holder Event was going on before and after the afternoon game. After lunch we arrived at the arena around 1pm. We collected our Jiri Hudler jersey cards and headed in. Our first stop was waiting for the next tour of the press box and control room. During this time Drake took a bunch of pictures with my camera. He must really like the flash and screen because he laughed after almost every picture he took.

We all headed up to the press box where we were told that Drake could not be for safety and security reasons. It was basically because there is no barrier keeping him from jumping from the table up there. I call BS, it’s not like I would have set him down up there. From there we were treated to the control room to see the sound and video boards. I even got to press the air horn button!

Down on the ice we were treated to the penalty box, and the chance to shoot some pucks. Drake was so cute and adorable playing with a full size stick. Yes, there are pictures below. After some fun down there we headed up to our seats, where Drake did take a short nap.

The game proved to be as tough as I thought it was going to be. They had to play three games in three nights, and the Admirals are a good team.

griffinshockey.com – The Grand Rapids Griffins suffered the season’s sixth one-goal loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday, dropping a frustrating 2-1 decision in their third game in three nights at Van Andel Arena.

The game was scoreless for nearly 58 minutes until a controversial interference call on Darren McCarty resulted in a power play goal by Milwaukee’s Cody Franson with 2:04 remaining, and the Admirals held on as the Griffins suffered consecutive regulation losses at home for the first time this season.

After the game we all seperated a little to gather some autographs. I sent Theresa to wait for Jimmy Howard. My dad was second in line for Justin Abdelkader, as I waited for Darren McCarty. Once those were completed we headed to the basement where the Griffins locker room is at. Yes, it is a locker room. Yes, it smells like a locker room wehre plenty of hockey players just changed out of game equipment.

Okay, on to the pictures. There are 77 pictures in thumbnail form below the cut. There are also two videos from the locker room. Enjoy!