It's all about cup size

With my recent quest to find the biggest cup to hold a tasty beverage, it occurred to me over the past week or so that, really, there's only one cup, and it holds about 168 ounces. It is, of course, The Stanley CupI happen to know it holds about 168 ounces because I once heard a story of a player who filled it to the brim with fourteen 12oz beers. The problem was when someone went to take a sip they tipped the cup and poured roughly 4 of those beers on themselves. So just remember: when you are drinking from the Stanley Cup, don't fill it to the top, or use a straw. (Though I have it on good authority from both Brian and Courtney that beer through a straw is disgusting.) If you have been following my advice and been watching the finals, you know that it has more or less played out like I said. The younger Penguins were absolutely stunned by the veteran Red Wings 4-0 and 3-0 in Detroit, but once arriving home the Penguins regained their composure to win 3-2. Game 4 is tonight. As a follow up to my post (linked to above) I do need to point out that upon arrival at Courtney's last week, one of her first questions was when exactly the first playoff game would be. I told her it would be Saturday night at 8 and she said that would be no problem. We could watch it, and if she got tired of it (GASP) she had other stuff she could be doing. She also said she'd TiVo it for me, just in case we were interrupted. (Remember that for tomorrow. It's important!) Have I mentioned lately that Courtney's awesome? And you don't even know the half of it. Ladies, I want you to prepare to go shopping. In a moment you will be able to go on a shopping spree completely paid for by your husband or boyfriend. I will distract him to the point you can take his credit card and buy whatever you like. You'll have over an hour. However, please include in your shopping either a hockey jersey (Red Wings preferred, please) or a catholic school girl outfit. It'll make sense later. Gentlemen, while reading the news coverage for the playoffs, I stumbled on this article about actress Kristen Bell's attraction to Detroit Goalie Chris Osgood, and her first "encounter" with The Cup. Oh yeah, she's a Red Wings fan of the highest order. Follow the link and then click on every single link from that site. You won't be sorry. (FYI: The link is kid safe, the sites linked to from that may not be.) Ladies, grab his credit card, go shopping, and we'll see you later on! Gentlemen, after you have clicked on all of the links you will finally make it to the bottom of the article where they mention that apparently Miss Kristen Bell got her picture taken in her Catholic High School uniform while hugging The Cup. When I read that, my jaw hit the floor, I got a bit woozy, and I fell out of my chair. I will freely admit that, at one point in my life, I would have worn a Catholic school girl outfit if it meant I got to see the Stanley Cup. Because, while it does travel a lot, let's face it, 5 years ago, the chances of us ever getting within 100 miles of each other were slim. The closest NHL teams (Carolina, Atlanta, Nashville, and Tampa) all sucked. Since then, of course Tampa and Carolina have won the cup. (They then returned to utterly sucking.) Atlanta sucks and probably won't win it any time soon, and Nashville may be forced out of town before they can win it. But I was amazingly lucky (as I always seem to be) and Stanley came to me. In 2005 when Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast, it actually pushed a few hockey teams out of their homes the following season. The NHL, being an amazingly charitable organization, sent its most recognizable ambassador, The Cup, to help. A fund raising tour was arranged across the country, visiting cities in the East Coast Hockey League. The stop on Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 would be in Augusta, GA. My friend Kim lives in Augusta, and that is only about 2 hours away from Macon. As I said, I may be the luckiest man on Earth, since I didn't have to resort to wearing a Catholic school girl outfit. I chose to wear my Phil Valk Macon Whoopee jersey, and my Red Wings Dynasty (10 Cups) hat. I will freely admit I cried when I first saw it. I still get choked up thinking about it. I spent a lot of time talking to Cup Keeper Mike Bolt. He's the one who related the "beer bath" story above to me. Apparently it was a young lady who got drenched because she underestimated the weight of The Cup. I asked if I would be allowed to "hoist" it. He smiled and gave a very gentle shake of his head "no." I took TONS of pictures. As a side note, the picture above was the last one with my old 35mm camera. My parents gave me that camera for graduation back in 1994 and it lasted a long time. But at one point it chewed up a roll of film from the wedding of my pledge class sweetheart, Jennifer, that I attended with Nancy. It's not one of those things you can call a "do over" on. As I was clicking off tons of photos Mike pointed out that my flash wasn't working. The place was not well lit, so I knew I had problems. The gentleman beside me leaned over and offered to take a picture of me with his digital camera and then email it to me. He clicked one off, showed it to me on the camera display, and it looked good. So I wrote down my email address. I thanked him profusely. He just grinned and whispered "Red Wing Nation" and we bumped fists. This is THE picture. The next day I bought my first digital camera.Ladies, I am quite certain you can understand the whole "Catholic school girl thing." The hockey jersey thing may not be as obvious. Let me just state, for the record, that to a hockey fan a cute girl in nothing but a hockey jersey ranks right up there with the Catholic school girl outfit. With a few exceptions. I don't care how cute you are, if you don a Colorado Avalanche jersey for me, you are going to lose some teeth, I don't care how cute you are. I think a review of some of Robert Ullman's latest blog posts here and here will give you some idea of a hockey fan's fixation. (Warning: Mr. Ullman's artwork is amazing, but tends towards the PG and R ratings!) Oh how I wish I could draw like that. If anyone happens to have an extra ticket stub of Miss Bell with the cup, or at least a picture of it, I really want to get my hands on her it. I'll try and overlook the fact it was a 1996 home playoff game (game 2, round 3) where Colorado killed the Wings 3-0 in Detroit on the way to sweeping the Florida Panthers to win The Cup. Of course I only want the ticket because I am a Red Wings fan. It has nothing to do with Miss Bell being super hot. And on that note, if any cute ladies feel the urge to send me pictures of themselves in nothing but a hockey jersey (Red Wings preferred) or even a Catholic school girl outfit (with or without The Cup) please feel free to email me here. I don't intend to repost any of them here, but please tell me if it would be Ok. (I'll assume it's not ok unless you say otherwise.)