Hockey Night In Oklahoma

Southern Man got a call from the tax office on Thursday afternoon - we don't need you to come in tomorrow night after all. He has his little daughter this weekend but, thinking he had to work, had already arranged for Grandma to watch her on Friday night. He can't take it back 'cause she already knows and you don't take a girl away from her grandma (or a grandma away from her grandbaby) without good reason - so Southern Man has a totally unexpected Friday evening off.

So what is Southern Man going to do with this unexpected gift of time? Scrub his highly unsanitary kitchen? Catch up on several weeks worth of laundry? Start on the long-needed garage cleanup? Play computer games? Sleep?

Heck, no. He's going to call his gf and see if she wants to go out on the town.

She does, so now for something to do. Something unexpected, something fun - but what? Then his email chirps and the message says "Free Hockey Tickets." Southern Man is all about "free" so he nabs a pair - and he and gf find themselves at the local arena for what will be his very first (and only her second) appearance at a professional (well, CHL anyway) hockey match.

And it was great fun! This was, lessee here, our fourth date at this particular arena (preceeded two concerts and a pro basketball game) so we knew our way around (translation: knew where to get good 'ritas) and felt quite at home there. Southern Man's home university was one of the sponsors of the evening (thus the free tickets) and the university provided a fair bit of the entertainment. There was a surprisingly large and active crowd and lots of fun stuff on (and off) the ice during time-outs and between periods and such. The home team went up 3-0 in the first period and held on to win 5-2 and it was great to see a victory after the heartbreaking loss at the basketball game last month. Actually it was a bit surprising, considering the large number of penalties they had; it seemed that one of the home team was pretty much always in the penalty box. Fortunately our opponents could never do much of anything with their numerous power plays. And of course there were several good fights. What's a hockey match without fights?

And then we had a nice dinner at Chilis and the evening ended all too soon. But Valentine's day is coming up soon...