dalebert

Nationals starts wednesday. In Florida. So Excited.

Right, I know sometimes people are at shops to just answer phones etc. It just caught me off guard I found it funny, Usually the what are your hours is 99% what I'll get. I also think the people that ask that question are usually trying to get "what time are you open til?" out but it comes out as are you open.

Yesterday's gem for me, Phone rings- Me- "Pro shop" Person- "Hi, are you open?" Me- (Wanting to say something clever and witty like Let me check!) "Uh yes sir. Open until 9:30"

So I got my first tattoo today, drove 3 hours to get it done. All the way from LI to Rhode Island. Here's the story... My uncle passed about 2 months ago unfortunately, he had always talked about getting me my first tattoo as a sort of 18th birthday present [20 now] however I could not decide what I had wanted on my body for the rest of my life at the time. He had always said when I'm ready his guy had just moved from Florida, where my uncle lived to Rhode Island so they would have to set something up. So after my uncle had passed it kind of hit me I should get my first tattoo in memory of him. It had become kind of a fantasy type thought that maybe I could find his artist to do mine. Well I started a search checking out local parlors on the island but also had an idea, I went to my uncles old website, which still is up and functioning and noticed on the bottom it had a little box saying "Tattoo Mike" Ink then a phone number but it was a Florida number which I assumed was old. So a week or so after his passing we had a memorial party in my uncles memory which was pretty cool, we had it in NY and at the same time where he used to live in Indiana [his sister lives there now] and in Florida where his girlfriend and he lived some of his close friends came just to hang out tell stories etc. As my family is setting up for our party my dad says "Hey Rhode Island plates outside" My mom says oh maybe thats tattoo Mike....before I could talk to him in person he had left but I did get a website fromt he back of his truck so I shoot him an e-mail and by the next day I find out he is the artist who had tattooed my uncle and would be privileged to do mine. And the final product... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=9656...mp;id=847370520

Just on the topic of sizing, at my shop the other day I had a wonderful customer [not sarcasm] who was extremely uninformed when it came to hockey equipment but her brother in law [coach of the team her child played on] sent her in with a list of what he thought the child should be in. She was very open about her not knowing about hockey equipment, listened to everything I had to say and we even joked around a bit. So anyway towards the end of the sale she says I'm going to text him [her brother in law] and tell him what I got him see what he says before I purchase them if you don't mind. [This after I have fitted her child and he has walked in them etc.] I said no problem tell him no one was there to help you so you just grabbed a Reidell in a size 5 [her child walked out with a size 2 skate, the uncle also knew what shoe size the child was] So she texts him and his text back is "...call me back ASAP!" She calls him and he is flipping out on her, all the while she is nearly in tears from laughing so hard. She finally stops him and says shes kidding he was put in a size 2 Easton skate. His next question [and the woman was very quick on this one] "Did you get them sharpened?" She goes "Is that important?" He ended the phone call without answering that.

Nothing too exciting, I was able to pick up a pair of practice edge socks to match my practice jersey. Our new jerseys come this week. Which I'm sure I will end up showing off :D Sorry for the terrible cell phone quality picture. Camera is broken.

This was waiting for me at my house when I got home. Did my best to take a picture of the Octagon Shape, also the shaft has a feel very similar to the CNT but a bit toned down. I haven't used it yet, hoping to get out and shoot for a bit tomorrow.

When I was graduating I told my parents to save the money they were going to spend and put it towards books for my first semester. They ended up doing that and throwing me a suprise grad party. I didn't attend my grad party for the first 3 hours, I went to my playoff hockey game :D

I followed the instructions on Rit-Dye's website for spot dyeing and after using them today my hands are still the natural color. Also here is the picture from when the palms were still wet. Now that they have dried they are a bit more green.

No problem man! Anyway back on topic here, I got bored and decided to dye the palms of my 4 rolls which are getting old lol [Old as in the Bauer ones came out :P ]. Went for the team color of dark green. It came out pretty good I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Well if I don't like them I'll keep you in mind :D Going to try them out tonight. Midnight at long beach, by chance? LB has been evicted it was in Newsday. I know they put a hold on certain activities for now I'm not sure if that means open too. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/n...0,4878470.story

Sounds good. I have no problem with needles and can take pain fairly well. Just seeing what was to be expected. Thanks! And if anyone is interested for that area I'm probably going to put my birth year in roman numerals or my number in roman numerals I've had since I was a wee lad in hockey.

I know everyone has a different threshold for pain etc. but I was just wondering Fire0nIce how was getting the tattoo there? I'm thinking about putting something there myself.

Fletch it's great to see you're finally able to show off those skates in action lol :lol:

from what ive seen and heard from a few friends it looks like red fades pretty quick. But not so much so that it looks too pink. But i cant really say with too much first hand experience. I have 1 red star and it faded some, but it seems like it was pretty hard to get evenly colored at first. Hopefully some others can give more insight. cant wait to see what the final will look like. +1 Please post pictures.

I guess I should have mentioned I don't usually use grip sticks but I liked how the grip AK27 looks compared to the clear version. My bad :) .

To some yes, to me...not at all haha.

I have a dolomite that still has all the graphics after a few months of use. I really could care less I just thought it was funny, only downside like I said is that the graphics is also the grip so the grip is missing in some spots.

Hah nothing, the graphics started peeling in my hands.

New toy :D And just to comment on the durability of the GRAPHICS :lol: They are terrible! Hahah I haven't even used this thing yet just stick handled around my house with a stickhandling ball. This is how the other side looks now. My jokes about the graphics aside the crushed velvet grip is nice if you don't like too much grip. It feels a bit slicker than the Soft Touch grip from Mission. At this point it won't matter though because by the time I can use it the grip and graphics will have peeled away completely.

Another personal favorite. When a customer calls the shop I work at we answer the phone by saying [store name] how can I help you? Then our wonderful caller hits me with this one..."Is this [store name]? So my answer once was..."hold on let me check."

The only thing I could see making this story better is if they pulled a lefty off the wall.

At first glance those xxxx's don't even look like they are the same material as unpainted ones, I couldn't put my finger on it but the "leather looks" as lampliter87 put it does describe it well. Either way great job and take some pictures after a few games I am curious to see how it holds up.

The only piece of equipment that I have with a mod that I can think of is a pair of Dallas Stars gloves I bought off Drewhunz. I forget who they belonged to but he cut the piece connecting the thumb to the glove on the left glove. On the Right glove there is an extra piece of palm on the side to make the inside of the glove more roomy. I'm assuming it is for stickhandling as the player who had it done was a righty and I'm a lefty. Nonetheless I like the gloves and I'll try and get pictures up if anyone is interested.

Time for an update, skated for the second time on the blades last night. I don't know if it was the ice being harder because of the temperature but I felt a bit faster and definitely wasn't as tired at the end of practice and the half a hour of conditioning we had to do... <_< All in all I am beginning to enjoy it. Hopefully it gets better as time goes on like some of you said it does lol.