Philadelphia - WOW!
Those of you who know me know that this year I was more excited about my trip to Philadelphia to see friends and the Penguins playing the Flyers at the Wachovia Center more than anything this trip. I always love seeing the Penguins play, and when they're playing as well as they are now (Crosby and Malkin on the same line - amazing!) it's even more fun. Going to an NHL arena I've never visitedd is also always great. The Wachovia Center was truly amazing in many ways. The score board and other screens are top of the line, but the most impressive thing to me was how the Flyers fans stand by their team even when they're at the bottom of the NHL. Fan support like that is great to see!

Labels: hockey, life, NHL, Philadelphia

Posted by Kat @ 6:59 PM | 0 meows

What a Week!!
Any time I go to NYC, I have a great time. Surprisingly, this time I had more fun in my one night in Pennsylvania. That's not to say that I didn't have a GREAT time seeing everyone (and all the shows) in NYC.

It was great that Dad was there most of the time we were in town (he left for Pittsburgh the day before we left for Philadelphia). Craig's week got totally crazy, but fortunately we were able to see him Saturday and Monday before work kept him too occupied to hang out (he didn't even get to Philly for the Flyers game as originally planned). Seeing James on Saturday and again for Tuesday and Wednesday was great! Definitely a different visit than any of our previous trips, but we had a blast and James even introduced us to his friend who is one of the stars of A Chorus Line before we saw it (James didn't realize that his friend was in the show, but noticed his picture as we were walking past the theatre after seeing Avenue Q). I'm glad that we got to see Kenny for dinner one night, too. The fact that we managed to see everyone we really wanted to see in NYC in the week we were there was great. Plus, we got to meet James' friend Rob, who is always crazy busy with work when James and I are in NYC together. I'm sure Rob and I crossed paths at some point at Penn State, since he looked familiar and I hung out with the North Halls crowd quite a bit, but it was great to actually spend some time with him and get to know him more.

As usual, shows worked out pretty well for us, too. We went there having only tickets for The Wedding Singer (which we were able to get an extra ticket for at the last minute so that Rob could see it with us, too). I'm glad we saw that before it's gone, since apparently it's closing at the end of the year. Such a shame, The Wedding Singer was a MUCH better show than any of us expected. I'm definitely ordering the album!

The other shows we saw in the week we were there were A Chorus Line, Avenue Q, The Fantastics, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit, Les Miserables (the revival in previews), & more than half of Mary Poppins. We were there for the first night Mary Poppins had to completely shut down. Quite a bummer, but we did get to see a bit into the second act and all the first act for free. I hear the finale is amazing, so hopefully we can see it after the opening when they've worked out all the bugs. It was clear that Disney was not prepared for the show to have problems. They said nothing to the audience for the first 5 minutes it was clear there was a problem, then said they hoped to continue in 10 minutes, then returned a bit more than 20 minutes later to tell us it was all over and they had to send us home. If I were them, I would have brought out the Banks family, Burt, and (most importantly) Mary Poppins and had them sing the finale in front of the scrim. Of course, they never asked the audience...

The show reviews will be up on my review site, Kat Views at some point. With the hockey games coming up this week, it might take some time, but they'll be there.

I'll get to the Philadelphia part in another blog - I fear it might be a bit long...

Labels: life, NYC, shows

Posted by Kat @ 9:47 PM | 0 meows

Rough Intro to the Honda Center
The Kings lose 4-3 after dominating the first 2 periods and giving up completely in the third.

I had a great intro to the Honda Center in other ways, too. Someone had thrown up on our seats and they had never cleaned it up. They did send someone to clean it up as well as she could, but we still used one of the hideous orange Ducks shirts we got for free to protect us from the parts that they didn't cover up with a towel or completely clean. The lady who cleaned it did the best they could, but there's only so much you can do without being able to get the seat really wet.

And, in the 3rd period when the Ducks scored their third goal (first of the period), the girl behind me spilled the scalding hot chocolate (that was too hot for her to drink) on my head. Fabulous. Really helped my migraine... My head still feels hot and hurts where the hot chocolate hit my scalp. The jersey was mostly spared and I only got a little on my jeans, but my first experience at the Honda Center wasn't any better than my last experience at a Ducks game (then the Mighty Ducks). Hopefully, next time I see the Ducks play I won't get anything spilled on me!

I also hope that the Kings will play all three periods tomorrow night at their home opener at Staples Center. I missed Renee's chocolate party tonight to see the Kings lose. I can't believe they had the nerve to lose when I skipped CHOCOLATE for them! Very rude!

On top of all that, the Yankees totally bombed tonight. They'd better pull their act together soon! Let's go YANKEES!!!

In good news, it seems almost everyone is having a baby now. Four cousins, my only friend in Germany, and my best female friend are all pregnant now! My friend in Germany is due in a couple weeks, the rest have a lot more of their pregnancy left than that, but it's all so very exciting! Congratulations to all of you expectant mothers out there.

Labels: baseball, hockey, Kings, NHL, Yankees

Posted by Kat @ 12:21 AM | 0 meows