The Notorious N.H.L. tonight...now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay!

The 95th NHL Season begins! Hockey season is going into full effect tonight and it is jaw dropping how many band wagoner’s have jumped aboard – and we welcome them all! The talk around the water cooler has me more excited than when Puff Daddy created Bad Boy records. If you are interested in getting deeper into the hockey scene, stay away from Sports Center. The NHL Network has everything you need (free in DC w/ FIOS) so get it - watch it - love it. Every morning is jam packed with brutal hits, mind blowing goals, amazing saves and plenty of mullet action. With HD bringing the hockey experience to a whole new level (where you can actually follow the puck and the game without spontaneous seizure) viewers are starting to realize how much fun hockey can be! Remember when Fox Sports tried to put a glowing highlight over the puck? We have come a long way. The 2011-2012 season is going to hold some interesting games this year with the Winter Classic (catch the HBO series), tributes to Lokomotiv (Russian team plane crash) when the Caps play the Pens this month, NHL games in Europe, Hall of Fame game, All-Star game in Ottawa and on April 7th there will be 15 televised games. For those policy driven politico types you can follow the ongoing concussion debate and the bleeding hearts can follow Sid the Kid. One of the best players in history that might not ever get to play again at the young age of 24. Other season highlights will include the ever so strong Eastern Conference which is so sick it’s taken on Notorious B.I.G. status.

You have depth in Pittsburg, the shakeup in Philly, Caps with an amazing offseason, new Jet’s - sorry Thrashers X them out to my left, the Florida overhaul and the Rangers who’s roster scares the hell out of me. Throw in the mighty Sabres, the Lightning and Cup winners in Boston and damn boy-e. Oh and if you have not seen these teams play before don’t worry. With the new NBC contract you get 50+ more games on TV this year and every single playoff game! But hold on tight people, the collective bargaining agreement is up at the end of the season and can take down hockey quicker than a drive by took out Tupac. Remember when hockey took a season off to figure out how much everyone gets paid in 2004-2005? It crippled the sport. Hockey is on the upswing and the popularity is rising fast. Who knows what will happen this time around, especially with no basketball and a "yaaawn" post season for baseball. Expect this to be an amazing season with more drama than your mamma.

If you like drama or just want to research a few interesting players, check out some of my favorites below.

For the patriotic fan - Ryan Miller
Russian Machine - Ovechkin
Concussion controversy - Crosby
The forgotten Pen back in action - Malkin
Czechmate a winning move in Philly? -Jaromir Jagr
Biggest off season contract winner - Brad Richards in NY
Family guys - Sedin Twins really? Brothers both make it in the NHL and on the same team?
The fall of Sean Avery (NY loves drama)
Bible thumper making too much noise - Rocco Grimaldi tells women to put their boobs away.

See you on the ice.

Heartland Hockey Camp

I have been home for about 2 weeks after one of the best "me" vacations of my life. I planned on coming home and telling it all. Drill by drill day by day. Well after coming home to reality I was hit with 2 playful kids that missed their dad, intense work backlog, an earthquake and a hurricane (all very equal in their destructive level). That and after a day at camp the note taking ceased and the beer intake increased…I blame Talbot and Mehnert. I have had a chance to take a breath and reflect and the recent memories, while fading in detail, are still putting a smile on my face. There is so much I could talk about when trying to describe the week. I was like a kid in a candy store. I had never previously been to Minnesota before and now I can't wait to go back. We got to meet and skate with former pros like Steve Jenson and Hall of Famer 2 time cup champ Gordie Roberts. We had unlimited ice (a minimum of 4 hours a day), power shooting range, rink bar, lake access, our own boats, fishing gear, waterslide, water toys (seal island) and so much more. They video tape games and individual power range shooting for daily classroom critiquing. They set up a split screen, with a pro on top half and a camper below, and put it in slow motion so they can break down each individual player. This was awesome as my slapshot went from 56 to 71 by only making 2 small changes. Puck closer to my body and hand placement. Trying to break a lifetime worth of bad habits in a week is tough but the coaches we had were good enough to make it happen. Let me take a moment to talk about the amazing staff. There were 3 groups of adults split up by Group A-C equaling about 70-80 people. Group A and B were about the same level where as group C was the higher level. In hindsight I am extremely glad I decided to stick with group B. We had 6 coaches from all walks of life. From D1 players, international pros, ECHL prospects and a guy that was drafted by the Oilers. They were approachable, knowledgeable, and pretty damn cool. Even better than that they were the best core group of coaches at the camp. They worked well together and could manage 6 stations with about 30 players. They focused on edge work, skating, transitioning, stopping, stick handling, passing, shooting, breakouts, cycling, etc. Refining strong side by pushing the drills with speed and focusing on the weak side until we were comfortable utilizing both sides at speed. I think as a stat chaser my favorite part of it all was tracking personal growth with the radar gun. From shooting to skating, I was impressed with what I could do by the end of the week. I think other campers would feel the same way. I got to meet some very interesting people.

I even meet 2 Canadians I actually liked!! One was a nurse that worked with burn victims and amputees. She scared Mehnert into thinking tubing is the most dangerous sport on the planet. After her stories I agree. She plays in a 76 team all womans league. Damn Canada…damn. I play in a 7 team beer league. The other Canadian was a search and rescue guy. Dude was nuts but in an awesome way. He was the first guy I met at Heartland. Need I say more. The other nutcase we got along with quite well was an IT guy from Colorado. Go figure the Sales guy and the engineer get along. Not to mention he lived about 2 miles from my old house. Small world. I would love to talk more about the camp and break it all down as much as possible. As usual time is an issue but we'll start here and see where it goes. I also have a PDF of the weekly schedule should you be interested. An example of a day in the life of a HH camper looks like this:

Monday
7:30-8:00 Breakfast
8:00-9:00 Classroom
9:30-10:45 On Ice
11:30-12:00 Lunch
12:30-1:30 Power Shooting
2:00-3:15 On Ice
3:15-4:45 Recreation
4:45-5:15 Dinner
6:15-7:15 Scrimmage
8:45-12:00 Optional Ice - Bar!

The schedule is pretty intense when you add 30 minutes before and after every ice session for changing. I’ll end the day with some shameless self promotion - personal stats:

Slapshot 71 MPH
Wristshot 63 MPH*
Backhand 45 MPH
Forward skating 23 MPH*
Backward skating 13.8 MPH
Blue line to blue line sprint 2.4 seconds*

*2011 Adult Camp records
Top slapshot was 78 backhand 55 mph and backward skating was around 18.5 mph. I’ll go for those next year ;)

Free lunch kids: What are they eating during the summer?

In a few years from now my kids will be entering the exciting world of public school. There has been a lot of talk amongst neighbors about the environment our kids will face in the coming years. At first we talk about things like number of students, parent to teacher ratio, the common boring conversation. After a few beers set in, people start to open up and discuss real concerns like ethnic ratios and percent of English vs Spanish speaking students, the juicy stuff. Since we live on the South side, the story takes a lot of unexpected turns. Do I want my kids going to a school where Spanish is the native tongue to 80% of the students? Will they be left out on the playground because they are the minority? When the dust settles, the conversation changes and I go home to ponder these thoughts. I realize that my kids will be fine. They will adapt and make friends, they will be able to speak another language, what do I really need to be worried about? It’s when you take the time to look at the school as whole you realize our happy hour concerns are trivial to some of the other families in the community. I found out that 60% of the kids at Barrett, where my kids will go, qualify for reduced/free lunches (Carlin Springs down the road is at 80%). So now to the real point to the endless rant…drum roll for a fella named Dan Redmond, my new local hero. It’s time to put things into perspective and to start worrying about (and solving) bigger problems. This is what Dan thinks about:

The reduced-price lunch helps families with nutrition during the school year, but they may go through summer without support. We all have seen the increase in food prices recently, but it probably doesn't affect us as much as others in our community. Children at Barrett may experience food insecurity during the summer months.

To address this concern, my family began a program called Tomatoes on Tuesday four years ago. This initiative matches the produce from our vegetable gardens with families at Barrett who can use our help during the summer. Every week through the summer, my kids and I harvest vegetables from four gardens, and share with our fellow students and families at Barrett on Tuesday afternoons. Our harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and beans has yielded between 800-1000 lbs each summer. One of our gardens is a teaching garden at a preschool, so there is a dual-purpose of education with food sharing at that site.

AFAC has a similar vegetable sharing program called Plot Against Hunger, of which I am also an active member. Over a dozen schools in Arlington contribute food directly to AFAC from their schoolyard gardens to this program. While I encourage others to become involved in the AFAC Plot Against Hunger program, I like the personal contact that comes in sharing with people in our own neighborhood.

I would like to increase the amount of fresh vegetables from backyard gardens shared during this program for our friends at Barrett. To do so, I need active gardeners to share produce from their home gardens. Oftentimes, the families that could use fresh vegetables don't have the private yard space to plant their own gardens. We currently share with between 5-13 families per week- I would like to double this number this summer.

It is not too late to put in some vegetable plants in your backyard to help with this project. You would simply bring what garden produce you would like to share at our weekly get-togethers. The sharing experience has been as meaningful to me and my boys as to the recipients of the food. We have made some wonderful friends in these get-togethers; the act of sharing food with neighbors overcomes any language barrier we may have.

I will be glad to help you get a food garden started if you don't already have a green thumb. It doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor. Even if you are not able to share each week, we would love to see you when you can stop by at our scheduled sharing times at Lubber Run Park. I would also welcome visits from those interested to our gardens in production now. You can also join my yahoo group at:

vegetablegarden-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Please let me know if you would like to participate.
Thanks for your support.

Best,

Dan Redmond

Spread the word. Join the club or start one of your own. If you need help finding a similar organization within your community, give me a shout. I can help you. -Coach Dutton


Background:

Barrett Elementary Reduced Lunch statistics
http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/FREE_REDUCED_OCTOBER_31_2010.pdf

AFAC Plot Against Hunger
http://plotagainsthunger.afac.org/Home

Ashlawn's Lettuce 4 Lunch program
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/16/AR2010061602024.html

Barcroft's support of Virginia No Kid Hungry Campaign
http://www.apsva.us//site/Default.aspx?PageID=12808

Free lunch kids - what do they eat in the summer?

In a few years from now my kids will be entering the exciting world of public school. There has been a lot of talk amongst neighbors about the environment our kids will face in the coming years. At first we talk about things like number of students, parent to teacher ratio, the common boring conversation. After a few beers set in, people start to open up and discuss real concerns like ethnic ratios and percent of English vs Spanish speaking students, the juicy stuff. Since we live on the South side, the story takes a lot of unexpected turns. Do I want my kids going to a school where Spanish is the native tongue to 80% of the students? Will they be left out on the playground because they are the minority? When the dust settles, the conversation changes and I go home to ponder these thoughts. I realize that my kids will be fine. They will adapt and make friends, they will be able to speak another language, what do I really need to be worried about? It’s when you take the time to look at the school as whole you realize our happy hour concerns are trivial to some of the other families in the community. I found out that 60% of the kids at Barrett, where my kids will go, qualify for reduced/free lunches (Carlin Springs down the road is at 80%). So now to the real point to the endless rant…drum roll for a fella named Dan Redmond, my new local hero. It’s time to put things into perspective and to start worrying about (and solving) bigger problems. This is what Dan thinks about:

The reduced-price lunch helps families with nutrition during the school year, but they may go through summer without support. We all have seen the increase in food prices recently, but it probably doesn't affect us as much as others in our community. Children at Barrett may experience food insecurity during the summer months.

To address this concern, my family began a program called Tomatoes on Tuesday four years ago. This initiative matches the produce from our vegetable gardens with families at Barrett who can use our help during the summer. Every week through the summer, my kids and I harvest vegetables from four gardens, and share with our fellow students and families at Barrett on Tuesday afternoons. Our harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and beans has yielded between 800-1000 lbs each summer. One of our gardens is a teaching garden at a preschool, so there is a dual-purpose of education with food sharing at that site.

AFAC has a similar vegetable sharing program called Plot Against Hunger, of which I am also an active member. Over a dozen schools in Arlington contribute food directly to AFAC from their schoolyard gardens to this program. While I encourage others to become involved in the AFAC Plot Against Hunger program, I like the personal contact that comes in sharing with people in our own neighborhood.

I would like to increase the amount of fresh vegetables from backyard gardens shared during this program for our friends at Barrett. To do so, I need active gardeners to share produce from their home gardens. Oftentimes, the families that could use fresh vegetables don't have the private yard space to plant their own gardens. We currently share with between 5-13 families per week- I would like to double this number this summer.

It is not too late to put in some vegetable plants in your backyard to help with this project. You would simply bring what garden produce you would like to share at our weekly get-togethers. The sharing experience has been as meaningful to me and my boys as to the recipients of the food. We have made some wonderful friends in these get-togethers; the act of sharing food with neighbors overcomes any language barrier we may have.

I will be glad to help you get a food garden started if you don't already have a green thumb. It doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor. Even if you are not able to share each week, we would love to see you when you can stop by at our scheduled sharing times at Lubber Run Park. I would also welcome visits from those interested to our gardens in production now. You can also join my yahoo group at:

vegetablegarden-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Please let me know if you would like to participate.
Thanks for your support.

Best,

Dan Redmond

Spread the word. Join the club or start one of your own. If you need help finding a similar organization within your community, give me a shout. I can help you. -Coach Dutton


Background:

Barrett Elementary Reduced Lunch statistics
http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/FREE_REDUCED_OCTOBER_31_2010.pdf

AFAC Plot Against Hunger
http://plotagainsthunger.afac.org/Home

Ashlawn's Lettuce 4 Lunch program
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/16/AR2010061602024.html

Barcroft's support of Virginia No Kid Hungry Campaign
http://www.apsva.us//site/Default.aspx?PageID=12808

Life is a party and you're all invited

I enjoy blogging. Putting my thoughts and ideas out into the world for others to enjoy or hate, whatever incites a reaction. I also enjoy helping people. I have done it in most of my jobs from social work to sales (yes selling people solutions that protect them or make them more efficient is helping) to volunteering on my own time. I’ve had ideas in the past and created very specific blogs including hockey advocacy to weight loss/work out programs because I thought sharing would be beneficial. I have come to the conclusion that I need to generalize and create a platform where I can express all my ideas in one place. So for those few avid followers and hopefully some newbies, welcome to my new and improved blog! I will not hold myself accountable for weekly submissions but I will be here from time to time talking about multiple topics. My epiphany this time comes from a blog written by my good friend Corey Farrell. http://thefoaguy.com/2011/04/15/connectors-and-their-role-in-collaboration/ Now I know he wasn’t writing about me but his words really moved me. I am that guy! I don’t know how or when it happened but if you know me outside of social media, you would know I love to solve problems and I have this unbelievable network of people from across the globe. I have an uncanny ability to make friends (off the ice anyways) and keep them for a lifetime. It’s not because I am great at remembering birthdays or because I call them once a month. It’s because I generally care about people. I make eye contact, wave, shake hands, tell stories, catch up with people I have not seen in years and converse with total strangers at the airport. Here’s a scenario for you. I ran into a childhood friend a few months ago. He has no idea I am driving traffic to his blog. I support him because he is passionate about something and I would love to help! Check him out… http://www.fishingpoet.com I want to see people succeed in life and I enjoy helping them down that path. I am not telling you this to brag or boost my ego, I really do just want to help others live better, more fulfilling lives. So if I ask you to join me in a triathlon, come with me to hockey camp, express concern about your weight, tell you to send me your resume, or just say hello in a vague facebook post…it’s because I am compelled to interact. Life is a party and you’re all invited.