To Mr and Mrs. Thomas Boelcke

On May 19th my sister, Renee, and Tom Boelcke were married in Chicago. It was a really great wedding since everything went really smooth, it was lovely, and I got to see most of my family. Tom's a good man its nice to welcome him into the family.

Most of the bridal party (I cropped the picture to include those that I know). Starting on the left is Trudi, sister Teresa (maid of honor), sister Renee (bride), brother-in-law Tom (groom), best man, and Brian (myself).

I was a really lucky guy and had two dates (my girlfriend Demoree and my bridal party partner Trudi).

Demoree looking beautiful and myself

Trudi and I…Trudi I still couldn’t be happier to have had you as my partner

Following the wedding we partied it up at the reception, which was held at the Sabre Room. Ironically Jenna Fritz was raised very close to the Sabre Room and remembers when it was built. She always wanted to go to a party there and she finally got to but was invited by a family from Pigeon…oh I love irony. So the reception had great food, good drinks, and plenty of dancing (my mom and grandpa stole the show). Towards the end of the night I went out to the front to get a sweet picture of the Sabre Room sign (it isn’t every day you see a sign that includes a moving sabre). While out there, Demoree and I made an attempt (or I should say many attempts) to take a picture of the us in front of the place. Below you can see a few of my failed attempts to capture the moment…I guess I just don’t have the ability to take a picture of myself.

A few of the attempts to take a picture of Demoree and I in front of the Sabre Room

Luckily the Fritz’s were just leaving when we were trying this (I’m sure we looked plenty foolish), but Jenna got out and took our picture so we actually have one good one (that is if my eyes were open).

Sports Talk with Brian

A few comments on tonights games...

1) If the Wings win the Stanley cup Thomas Homstrom deserves the MVP...I'm rather confident that if we didn't get him back during the San Jose series we wouldn't be in the playoffs right now.
2) While listening to the game (not on regular television) I was torn with the thought of whether I would have rather been at this game or the last one. I decided I would rather be at the one I went to...while it would be a lot of fun watch the Wings just kill the Ducks, I honestly think I would rather see an intense well played game by both sides.

3) Coach Babcock finally impressed me (yeah I sure he'll be glad to hear that he finally gained my approval). Honestly it is great that he was able to change up the lines and have such a positive effect. We really haven't seen this kind of result since Scotty Bowman was at the helm and he always seemed to be able to change the lines to turn around a series.

Now for the Pistons...

4) Seriously guys....seriously. I think all Detroit fans need to write articles and send them to the team telling them that they suck. Seriously because once everyone starts talking about how great they are they stop playing hard...its as if their main goal is to prove people wrong (even if they are saying you are great and should win). With this loss ESPN has started talking about the Bulls taking this to game 7, which makes me feel better because that should be enough to get them to play hard once again.

Happy Mother's Day

I spent most of this past weekend up in Traverse City meeting Demoree’s family. I had a lovely time up there and really enjoyed meeting her family and visiting Traverse City (Lake Ann). Then on Sunday we drove straight from Traverse City to Detroit to go to the Red Wings game 2 of the conference championship. This worked out well since it allowed both Demoree and I to see our moms on Mothers Day…

Happy (Belated) Mother’s Day Mom!!!
The game was actually much better than the first game I went to (Game 1 of Round 2 when the Wings got shut out by San Jose). The Wings were playing quite well and if it were for 2 goals by Anaheim that were waved off but then given to them after review the Wings would have had the win. However those goals counted and the game went to overtime (seriously how lucky to be able to watch live overtime playoff hockey). Unfortunately Anaheim was able to get a really nice shot from the corner to end the game during the first overtime. Well I would have loved to seen a Wings win but at least I was able to see Maltby score a shorthanded goal, overtime playoff hockey, and watch it with my parents and Demoree (thanks dad).

Red Wings!!!

So obviously I'm pumped to see the Wings take it to San Jose in game 5, which gives them the 3-2 lead in the series. One thing that always seems constant with the Wings is once they smell blood they attack...once they got the second goal I was pretty sure they won't lose it, but then in typical Wings fashion they put the game away with goals 3 and 4. Now lets just go to San Jose and finish off this series...I maybe wrong but I think this series may determine the Stanley Cup winner.

Now on to the Pistons game...Sports!!!

Go Wings!!!

Tonight I was at home planning on writing about the effects of roughness on skin-friction measurements in a turbulent boundary layer when I got a call from a buddy saying that some friends were watching the wings game a BW3. With the dilemma of should I work on a paper or watch Red Wing playoff hockey there was only one solution…Wings!!! Now I did wait until the end of the first period to go so I could get started on the paper…so I didn’t totally bail on my objective.
Originally I planned on listening to the game on the radio since not even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is playing the series. That didn’t bother me too much since (to be honest) I really thought we were going to lose this game…sorry but San Jose is very fast, strong, and the Wings don’t match up well against them, which made me think it would be very difficult (not impossible) to get a win on their ice when they have the momentum. It was so nice to see the Red Wings play hard tonight…we now have a completely new series. It’s now a best of three with two of the games at the Joe.
On my way home all I could think about was how much I would have been kicking myself if I hadn’t went and watched the game…it would have been torture to listen to that game on the radio. For those that didn’t get to see it the Wings were down by one with under a minute to play in the game. At the one minute mark we pulled our goalie and then at 33.1 seconds left on the clock Robert Lang (dad you had the right guy for the wrong game) scored to tie the game and put it into overtime. Then in overtime the Wings looked like they were the better team playing that game (something that hasn’t been the case for this entire series). My main concern was that San Jose was going to get a lucky goal and win the game. But then Matthieu Schneider scored a power-play goal to end the game…seriously it was sweet!!!
I was also glad to see Holmstrom back on the ice for the Wings…not to mention that sweet goal with only a few second left in the second period. Honestly that was pretty impressive to see him swat that right out of the air…hopefully with Holmstrom and the momentum the Wings can take control of this series.

Birthdays!!!

Today is filled with birthdays...three to be exact.

First off I have to wish my father a happy birthday. Check him out back in the day at my parents wedding day...pretty cool.

Then there is my college buddy from WMU, MattO. The picture was taken before our friend Joe's wedding...man I didn't mean to but there does seem to be a wedding theme going on now...Happy Birthday MattO.

Last, but not least, is my friend Aidin. He's a friend from Ann Arbor and is a good man. Happy Birthday Aidin...

I have to say that it was really nice of so many of my friends to have the same birthday because it makes it a lot easier to remember...to the rest of you guys that have them on different days lets try to organize a little better.