1. Spinners games. The Spinners are Lowell's Class A baseball team. They're a Red Sox affiliate. They're awesome. Their mascot, the Canaligator, recently married Allie-Gator, and they are the proud parents of Millie-Gator. The mascot family runs through the park during the game, and they also host "Spinnertainment" during the inning breaks. You should follow that link to see some examples of Spinnertainment, as it is not to be missed. They bring border collies onto the field to do tricks, have kids wrestle in sumo suits, and otherwise amuse the audience. In fact, I like the Spinnertainment better than the game. But that tells you a bit about my level of baseball enthusiasm. If you're visiting Lowell, go to a Spinners game if you can. If you don't want to go to a Spinners game, you should offer to babysit Lucy and we will go to a Spinners game. Deal.
2. Hockey games. We've been to quite a few UML hockey games, and they're great fun. Also, the players are my students. For the most part, I don't want to see them get slammed into the boards, but it is fun to see them on the ice, sometimes starting trouble with the other team. Especially if that other team is UMass Amherst.
3. World Men's Curling Championships: Curling is a crazy awesome game that involves a sort of shuffleboard on ice. With brooms. And special shoes. Oh, and like 900-pound curling stones*. It's awesome. And they had their championships in Lowell a couple years ago. It was so much fun to watch.
4. New England Golden Gloves. We went to one night in the series, which happens every year right around now at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. If you click on that link, you can see that they're fighting RIGHT NOW. They're also presenting Sesame Street Live, but fortunately not on the same night as the boxing. The Golden Gloves is also the backdrop for one of Lowell's famous fellows, Mickey Ward, a boxer who's story will be on the big screen sometime this year in The Fighter, featuring Mark Wahlberg (as Mickey) and Brad Pitt (as his brother). This is the site of one of my most favorite stories of the Lowell accent. I'm afraid I can't do it justice on the blog, since you really have to HEAR what the guys around us were saying and because I'm afraid the content of what they were saying isn't family-friendly. And we're a family blog here. Anyway, you should go see a fight. It's really, really weird.
But all those very exciting sporting events pale in comparison to what I'm planning to attend this weekend. I will be going to some portion of the Colonial Classic. No, this is not a group of re-enactors. This is a SYNCHRONIZED ICE SKATING COMPETITION. If you are wondering what this sort of thing looks like, you can look at the websites of some of the competing teams. Go ahead. Click those two links. And realize how much you want to join me at the Tsongas Arena this weekend.
*as you might expect, that was an exaggeration. According to this source, the stones weigh between "44 and 38 pounds".
Why must you make me so jealous?
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