Another Season Comes to an End

We just finished our latest season of Friday Night Hockey. We started mid-October last year and played for half a year - 25 weeks.

Things didn't start off very smoothly. We ran into goalie trouble right out of the gate having to rent twice in the first few weeks. And, one of those times, the rental goalie didn't even show up. We didn't hear from him or the company, Goalies Unlimited, either. Not good.

Shortly after came news that one of our regular goalies, Godfrey, was having knee problems. He would be unable to continue playing. We encountered a problem like that a couple of years earlier when another goalie, Dave, backed out as our season started also because of knee problems. Thankfully, this time, Godfrey's nephew (and Peter's son), Harrison, was able to fill in.

Age is catching up to our group. Another member, Jim, signed up and paid, but was unable to make it to any of the games. Originally he was hoping to join us around Christmastime. But December turned into January, turned into February, turned into March. Thankfully I was able to collect enough money from weekly subs to be able to refund him what he paid.

Other than that, things went pretty smoothly. We picked teams and played a number of Best-of-5 series. That gave most people a bit more motivation to go out and skate harder.

The rink attendant was new this year. We got the ice a little earlier than our 10:30 start time most weeks. But we would always be kicked off at the stroke of midnight and not a second later. Highly unusual to say the least.

On our last day we continued a tradition we started last year. Before the game most of us met for dinner at the nearby Congee Queen. It gave us some time to talk and bond a little more than when you're just sitting on the bench between shifts or changing in the dressing room.

Until next season!

Board Game Café

My friend Gabe and I grabbed dinner at Congee Queen at Centerpoint Mall last weekend. It's a newer location that I've never been to before. I thought I'd try it because I was planning on going there with the guys from hockey the following week.

Like the rest of the chain, the restaurant looked nice inside. Service is decent and the food comes pretty quickly. Since there were only two of us we didn't order much. Just a plate of soft-shell crab fried rice and rice rolls. I was hoping for the beef rice rolls, but we got plain ones.

After dinner my friend wanted to try out a board game café. He found one called, For The Win, located on Yonge, a bit north of Lawrence. So we drove down there to have a look.

Even though we got there fairly late, being a Saturday night it was full. Still, we waited less than 10 minutes for a table.

It's kind of like a library inside. But, instead of books, the walls are lined with board games. The tables are in the back half of the café, while the area where they sell coffee and snacks is at the front. You can also purchase games from a selection up by the entrance too.

Gabe picked a couple of games from the back - Guillotine and Jaipur. Out of the two, we only played Guillotine. It's a pretty simple card game where you have to collect different valued cards (out of 15 lined up on the table) in three rounds. Each player is give action cards which enables them to manipulate the order of the cards on the table. The player with the highest total value of their cards at the end wins.

I then went to the back and found a game that looked all right - Word on the Street. To set up the game, seventeen letter tiles (all the consonants in English other than j, q, x, and z) are placed in a strip down the centre of the game board – the median strip of the street, if you will, which has two "traffic lanes" on either side of it.

On a turn, one player/team is presented with a category such as "types of fruit" or "something a player is wearing", and that team has thirty seconds to come up with an answer in that category, then move the letters in that word toward their side of the game board. Any letters in the word that are not on the game board are skipped. If the answer were "pineapple", for example, the team would move P, N, P, P and L.

If a player/team moves a letter off the game board, it has claimed that letter and that tile will not move for the remainder of the game. The first team to claim eight letter tiles wins.

It was pretty fun. Most tables had at least four people. I think you have more options with the games the more people you have.

It cost $5 per person (no in and out privileges). The have beverages and snacks. We had an Americano (coffee) for around $3 which tasted awful. I also bought a board game that I had tried previously and liked - Code Names. I really enjoy it.

IKEA - New Toronto tourist attraction?

Iris and Tony's friend, Jinny, revisited Toronto for the first time in seven years. She's in town for their second wedding. This time Iris' parents and brother will be in town to witness it.

Since I have a lot of free time on my hands I was charged with being tour guide again. Like I mentioned above Jinny lived here seven years ago. She was studying in Toronto for six months, so she's had the chance to see some things already.

Normally I take visitors to the Distillery District, to the Beaches, Eaton Centre, Yonge/Dundas Square, City Hall, along Queen West, Kensington Market and Chinatown. This time we did something different. Jinny wanted to go to IKEA.

On the way up from Tony and Iris' place I detoured through the Bridle Path and Shops at Don Mills. I thought Jinny might like to see them.

After that we did make it to IKEA. It's been quite awhile since I've been there. They're redeveloping with quite a few condos in the immediate area. I almost couldn't find my way into the parking lot. We were there for quite a bit of time. Jinny was looking for some bedding items both for herself and Tony and Iris. By the time we finished it was after 2:00 p.m and we were hungry.

We went into the cafeteria in IKEA, but things didn't look so hot there. So I suggested going back to Don Mills to go to Congee Queen. Jinny liked that idea. She hadn't had congee in awhile and wanted to order some. As well as the chicken and duck congee we had shredded meat chow mein (chicken, pork and other stuff) and beef chung fun (rice rolls). Mmm.

After lunch Jinny wanted to check out her old neighbourhood of Yonge and Finch. Just to see what sort of changes there were. Unfortunately rush hour was all but upon us. We tried to head back south, but were stuck on Yonge for such a long time. So annoying.

We had pretty much no choice, but to sit it out. I made the decision to head over to Bayview Village in search of a Tim Hortons. Unfortunately our luck didn't change. No Timmies. But, there was a Timothy's so that's where we went. It cost me over $5 for a cold, caffeinated beverage. By the time 6:00 came round we attempted to drive back down to Tony and Iris' place again. This time the traffic was lighter thankfully.

When we got there Tony and Iris had just about finished preparing dinner. We ate together with them and Iris' parents. Tomorrow I'm planning on taking them to St. Jacobs. They have a farmers market there. Let's hope the rain stops by the morning.