coprime

Man, life got busy the past couple months! Lots of (good) family stuff + my car broke + questions about the BF's work + working out a living situation for the next year left me drained.

I have been keeping up with the Tigers though. We were in a pretty bad slump during April/May, but it seems like we've finally (slowly) climbed out of it. It helps that I've adjusted my expectations from "we were division champs last year" levels to "we're the Tigers" levels. Much less stressful and I get to be pleased when we finally get a .500 record.

Austin Jackson, who's been my fave Tiger since he was a rookie, is doing real well in his leadoff batting spot. And I'm so happy for him because batting was his weakness in previous seasons. And he's not only improved significantly but he's also very reliable now. And Quintin Berry! We brought him up from the minors in May when Jackson got injured, but he did so good that we kept him around even after Jackson came back. I have fun watching them play, along with Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Cabrera has also been doing much better at third base than I think anyone expected.

The bottom half of our batting order is less fun to watch, and we don't really have a second baseman who's any good, but that's fine. Even Delmon Young hits home runs sometimes.

In hockey news, I am not really keeping up with all the trading and signing and dealing because I don't think I can form a defendable opinion until I see everyone playing together. I am sad that the Wings lost the Parise & Suter sweepstakes, but oh well. I do have a five minute rant with bullet points that I wish I could give to every caller on the sports radio station who says we should "just go down [to Columbus] and get Nash" about why that is both not happening and not a good idea. Everyone else though I am content to wait and see about.

Ahhh, we keep coming thisclose to winning and then failing to. So far this series whoever has more shots on goal is the one that loses, and Nashville is beating us 3-1. I wasn't really expecting the Wings to have a serious run for the cup, but I was hoping we could at least advance to Round 2. (We still could! It will be tough though.) We are kind of worn down as a team though, poor Cleary and Helm. I did really like how the crowd at Joe Louis Arena booed Weber every time he had the puck.

I think I need to try my hand at icon making once more, given how much I keep talking about hockey. Probably of Filppula, who I sort of randomly decided was my favorite. He's a good, solid player for the most part and probably the most attractive player on the team. This is not saying much, I know, given the average attractiveness of hockey players.

The Tigers are doing pretty good, which is nice, I suppose. I mean, if I can only have one sports team win a night, I'd prefer it to be the Red Wings since they're in the playoffs now and the Tiger's regular season is just starting. But I will take my wins where I can get them, haha. And Austin Jackson, my favorite on the Tigers, is doing much better at batting this year. Which makes me happy because he was really...not that great at batting last year.

And in much more squeeful fandom news, I finally got to watch the first episode of The Legend of Korra, and it was the bestest! So amazing! I want to watch the rest right now because everyone and everything in it is awesome.

I participated in a 5K run/walk (I walked) last Sunday. It was fun! Even despite the rain in the morning before the race. My dad, brother D, and his wife all walked too, so it was nice to see them. My ankles were so sore the next day though; I am out of shape.

I have been utterly apathetic about sports for the past quarter of a century, and now I find that I have all sorts of opinions on things. I keep giving myself a mental side eye because I am not really sure how this happened.

For example, I am looking forward to baseball season starting! Mostly because I think the announcers for the Detroit Tigers are hilarious. I'm not sure if them spouting any random thought that pops into their heads is just due to the nature of baseball (162 games in the regular season with a lot of spots where not much is happening = lots of air time to kill) of if they're especially bad about it, but it made last year's season lots more fun once I figured out I should actually listen to the announcers.

Also, Prince Fielder is growing on me -- he is like a smiley teddy bear! -- even if I think he's overpriced. (He is, but that's what it takes in order to convince good players to play for the Tigers.) I'm going to miss Victor Martinez though. And apparently Brandon Inge says he's not going to suck this year?

As for hockey, it's been really nice to see Datsyuk playing again. ♥ He's still just as amazing at puck stealing/handling as he ever was. Still really missing Lidstrom though, and I can't help but feel that him being injured for the past month means he'll retire at the end of the season. And that if Lidstrom retires, Holmstrom will retire too. And that will be sad for the team.

On the other hand, the Wings have a number of younger/rookie players that I think will eventually shape up to be really good players. Like, I think Justin Abdelkader's been doing good and Brendan Smith has a lot of potential in him. Jiri Hudler being decent this year still confuses me though. Also I sort of adore Cory Emmerton for his desire to troll everyone (but especially Brendan Smith).

And I don't care about football (I refuse), but I still have opinions about the New Orleans Saints bounty thing. Very passionate feelings that I'm only subjecting the BF to because I don't want to start wank on Facebook.

I don't adore looking at bookshelves as much as I used to, but I still find these teacup-shaped shelves to be just about the cutest ever.

I was very excited about the Red Wings win on Tuesday! Or, well, as excited as I could muster after being up for eighteen hours by the time the game ended. We did not have as much energy in today's game - I think Nashville played a smidge better than us - but it was still a win! Datsyuk made some really good plays, but that is not really surprising. ♥

I wonder if all hockey players mumble horribly when talking to the media. The Wings certainly do, and weirdly Coach Babcock is the worst of the bunch. Is this why they always pick the same four or five players to talk to if they want to ask random lulzy questions? Are the Swedes on the team the only ones who speak English clearly?

I have been trying to get into hockey fandom for something like the past two months and failing because it turns out I am a much bigger Red Wings fan than I'd thought. And the Red Wings do not seem to engender fandom squee (or at least none where I can find it). So every time I'd try to read something - because I like squee and fic about dudes failing at emotions! - I would just be, "Ugh, who cares about the Blackhawks/Penguins/whoever, the Wings are clearly the best," and have to quit reading.

So frustrating! (Also frustrating was missing nearly every game because I thought I didn't get the channel they typically got shown on. Turns out I do get that channel, whoo.)

But I think I may have figured out why no one loves the Red Wings (despite the fact that they are awesome): we're essentially the NY Yankees of the NHL. I think we were the Yankees before the salary cap got implemented. So if what I think is true, it is not really surprising that no one loves the Wings except for Wings fans.

Figuring this out has quieted my inner fan enough that I can read about teams who are not the Red Wings. Yay! Figuring out that I can watch the Wings even when the Pistons are playing also helped a lot too, not gonna lie.

And, oh man, tonight's game! So exciting! We extended our home win streak to nineteen games, yes! And if we can beat the Flyers on Sunday, we'll be tying their record. I was annoyed at Bertuzzi for getting three penalties (out of seven Wings penalties) but then he scored the winning shot in the shootout, so I guess it was okay. Also his job on the ice does generally result in hm getting penalties, so it's not like it was unexpected of him. But, man, all those power plays were not helping us get that nineteenth win. And I am so glad MacDonald did not suck at goaltending as much as he did in the previous game I saw him play where he gave up four goals.

I almost forgot my favorite bit of the game! As excited as I am for the win, I thought it was hilarious when the announcers were like, "LOL, Hudler, good job keeping hold of your stick when you try to get in a fight. You're too small otherwise to be effective."