Too many calories on the ice

Tonight I went with a bunch of dudes to the all-you-can-eat seats at Staples to see the L.A. Kings face off against the only NHL team with a grammatically incorrect name: The Toronto Maple Leafs.


The newest addition to the Staples court is a statue of The Golden Boy. The likeness seems smaller than the version of Buck across the way.


But since we were there for a hockey game, we met in front of The Great One.


Inside, I immediately saw my friends and old-time GR contributors Ted and Trang. This is Ted with their younger daughter, Genevieve, who plays for the Pasadena pee-wee team, and skated between the first and second period. She skated well without the puck, but ended up with a +/- of -1.


As for the other hockey game, the L.A. team jumped to a 1-0 lead early in the first on a nice breakaway goal, but you probably don't care too much about the score.


This is the all-you-can-eat area, where you can grab four items at a time. Mario, Gabe, and Martin each had two hot dogs and various amounts of nachos, popcorn, peanuts, and soda. Mario's dad had three weiners.


Jack and Ken had three hot dogs each, along with the various other foodstuffs. No hot dogs for me because I don't eat meat, but I downed two orders of nachos, popcorn, peanuts, and two Pepsis. Yikes.


In the end, we all felt sick--and not just because the Kings gave up two goals in a two-man advantage during the opening moments of the third period (in addition to an empty-netter). But it was good to get out after deadline, and the ice, the lights, the overeating, and the hanging out with friends I don't see often enough made it feel like the holidays.