Flair For The Game: Take I-55 all the way until you see the Arch.

I need to stop slacking on this blogging thing! It's been a busy time in my life recently. I just received a promotion at my job and have begun training to receive special certification from the state of Illinois. I started training Monday & was immediately told that we have 25 chapters to cover in less than a month as our testing date is November 18th. Needless to say i kind of freaked out because there is SO much material to learn. I thought my days of reading and studying were over but alas, they are not.

Anyways, I went to the Hawks/Canucks game on Wednesday. Unfortunately, my camera lens decided to break right as i was taking pictures of the Stanley Cup Banner. Just my luck! And i swear to you this same camera had a similar problem earlier this year.......at a Canucks/Hawks gm!!!!! I think it's a sign that my camera hates the Canucks as much as i do. Lesson Learned. So i wasn't able to take many pictures at that game but luckily i have insurance on my camera and will be getting it repaired soon. Thursday night i went to Best Buy & bought a new Nikon camera. To me having a pricey camera is worth it because i use my camera SO much. I may try selling my other Canon camera since i have this new camera so if you're interested in a Canon Powershot SX1o IS please let me know! I bought the camera for almost $400 & it's in great shape, it's about 1 1/2 years old. I don't want to part with it but really don't need to have 2 similar cameras.

I was able to christen my new camera for the Blackhawks @ Blues game this past Friday. My brother was able to score some amazing seats, 5 rows off the ice, and i was able to take the day off from training so i could make the trip down to STL. My brother, sister-in-law & I made the 5 1/2 hour trek down to St. Louis and were really excited about the game. There's just something so much more fun about going to an arena other than your home arena to see your team play. We were able to book a pretty sweet hotel right by the river and literally across the street from the Arch, it was also only 10 blocks away from the arena so it was a short walk to and from the game. For years i've been going to Busch Stadium for Cubs/Cards and the environment is usually a hostile one but it seems as though this Hawks/Blues match-up is becoming just as hostile. So many drunk blues fans were talking major smack and really all i had to say was, "Defending Stanley Cup Champions!" That usually did the trick until they were too dumb to talk hockey and soon changed the talk to baseball, because well that makes sense! Wish we had walked out of there with a win to extend our win streak but also because i wanted to shut their ignorant fans up lol. Sadly we lost and i think the tough grind of all these games to start the season is starting to get to them. Short off season plus new faces to the team seems to have the Hawks still finding their groove. The defense is missing Campbell & goal scorers just aren't scoring goals yet. But the season is still young and things can turn around quickly. Overall it was a great trip to STL i just wish we could have brought home a victory! Here are some pics from St. Louis! Enjoy & leave some feedback!