A beautiful letdown - Song by Switchfoot

No, this post isn't about that song, though I like the song.  However, the song title is exactly the way I feel about the dog, Koda.  For years, I have wanted to get a Siberian Husky and finally had the space and financial means to have one.  I even planned on naming my dog Koda, so finding a Siberian Mix (also what I wanted) named Koda seemed like fate.

About Koda - he is a 3 1/2 year old Siberian Mix, with multicolored eyes, and red and white coat.  Exactly what I wanted.  He's energetic, and understands commands and pulls!  Boy, was I looking forward to winter!  However, I was to be his third owner, and he was already a rescue puppy to begin with.  There were rules for him:  no rolled up newspaper, fear of vacuum cleaners, etc. due to prior abuse.  He could not adjust to our apartment for whatever reason and hurting my roommate and beginning to attack me as well.  After a conversation with my roommate about the concerns, and then discussing it with his previous owners, we all agreed that his behaviors were abnormal for him and they agreed to take him back.  I want what's best for him, but it was disappointing.

After a good cry on Thursday night and a chat with my friend in California until midnight my time (Thanks, I really needed that), I was resolved to do what needed to be done the next day.  I took him back after work on Friday evening and returned him to his previous owner.  I was sad.  I am still sad.  He was a beautiful letdown.  My friends have been great and telling me that I shouldn't take it personally, and I don't.  But there was a lot of build up leading to it and the apartment search was based on having him around.  So I move along.  Koda is happier in his home in Eagle River.

Jewel Lake Fun

As the Alaskan summer commences, so do they late night activities.  What do you do at eight o'clock on a Thursday night?  Why, I go to the park and make bubbles.  When nine o'clock rolls around you decide "hey, let's start a game of volleyball."  Who needs sleep anyway, right?

Beast making bubbles

Me, I made a big bubble!

Volleyball.  I was too tired to play, so I went home ha!

Labatts was AWESOME!!!

Alright, here we go!

We played "Champion's Chicks" aka "Champion's Choice" during regular season play, on Thursday and won 3-1.  Beast was in the crease and I took on the role as one of three centers.  It was the first time some of us had played together, so it was a great game to feel each other out and figure out what style of team we were gonna be for the tournament.  Playing Champ's was a lot of fun and felt more like a bunch of peeps out at the park playing pond hockey, except we had officials, a scorekeeper, scoreboard, and benches.  We all knew each other so well from playing in the same league this past season, that we went out and had a great time playing and laughing.

I skated out as a Center, which was rather interesting.  From the crease to center was quite a transition, but it was a lot of fun.  Looks like I will be skating center during summer hockey for a team over at Subway Centre, so I will get more opportunities there to skate out.  At any rate, I learned a lot being out on the ice in that position and my stopping ability improved every shift!  It's just a whole new world of skating outside my goalie gear, and it was baptism by fire out there!

Our second game of the tournament was Saturday morning and boy, oh boy, was it fun!  We played a team that was stronger and higher level players than we were, but it was amazing to see how we stepped up our game!  We skated faster, harder, and handled the puck better with every shift we skated.  It was amazing to see us improve by the minute.  Despite the loss, we got back into the locker room beaming and on fire with excitement.  Everyone had such a good time skating hard and playing a team of that caliber.  We held our own and Beast played well in the crease for us.

Our third and final game was Saturday evening against the Homer team...I wish I could remember the actual name of their team, but it escapes me....well, at any rate, they were unbeaten at this point and no one had scored on them yet.  I am proud to share that our team scored on them, and in doing so, we drew first blood!  We were ecstatic, but just mostly stoked to be playing an even better team and to be able to keep up with them.  Players that I had played with all season were skating faster than I had ever seen them skate before and even handling the puck and getting shots off, when all season, they played timidly, or gave up the puck before pushing it up.  Here they were, skating and handling the puck with some authority.  It was incredible.  We skated short-handed for the beginning portion of the game because of some late arrivals and a no-show, but it all worked out!  On the bench, we looked over at each other and asked, for example "Who's wearing Karen's uniform?"  Ha ha!  We lost the game, but we felt like winners going into the locker room.

The group of ladies on the team were fantastic and all had such positive attitudes!  We were there for the main purpose of having fun, and we had fun!  We had a lot of gals, but I think everyone got enough ice time.  Good times!

Team Rush'n Attack!!!  Rush the Puck.  Attack the Net.