Well Groomed

Want to hear the funniest thing TigerBlog heard all weekend?

TB's friend's wife was talking about her experience in taking the family dog to the groomer, and it turned into a little more than she expected.

Apparently, she picked up the dog and got back to the car before she realized that she had the wrong one, so she took that one back inside and pointed out the error. When asked which dog was hers, she motioned to one who was still being groomed, and she was told it would be another 20 minutes.

So 20 minutes later, there she was, back in the car with the dog, on her way home. When she got the dog inside the house, her family pointed out that this, again, was the wrong dog, something that she admitted she should have been able to figure out given the huge disparity in tail size between her pet and the one she now had at her house.

It was at this point that TB asked her how long she's had her dog, wondering if perhaps they'd just gotten him, but, no, she said its been two years. 

So now she had to load up the second dog and take him back to the shop, which she did, and she finally took the correct dog home with her.

When she got back to the house with the right dog, her oldest son said to her youngest son: "be careful next time she takes you for a haircut."

Now that's funny stuff.

TB can't really figure out how it is that the two original dogs went with her willingly, the first to the car and the second to the house. Even if the human didn't know she had the wrong dog, shouldn't the dogs have known they didn't have the right human?

TB heard that story while at fall lacrosse.

Between TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog, there was about 10 hours worth of athletic events this past Saturday and Sunday alone. Or is that "were" about 10 hours worth of athletic events?

TBJ limited his to lacrosse. MTB had field hockey, lacrosse and even basketball.

Overscheduling of kids is a problem, and having too many athletic events is also a problem. Young bodies need time to recover from strenuous activity, and there's also the risk of achieving some level of mental burnout from playing too much at an early age.

TB used to worry about that with TBJ and lacrosse, and yet he'd play 365 days a year if he could. Lacrosse, though, is the only sport he plays now that he's in high school, which makes him part of what TB assumes is a larger piece of the pie - high school athletes who specialize in only one sport and play it year-round. In his case, he essentially bailed on playing anything else competitively long before he got to high school.

MTB is still in middle school, and she is more of a field hockey/lacrosse kid than basketball, but she still likes all three.

And, whenever TB starts to think that it's too much, he thinks that it's better than playing video games, texting and being on Facebook.

MTB plays field hockey for the school team and on a club team, which means she goes from playing during the week on grass fields where the ball bounces all over the place to playing on the weekends on Princeton's Bedford Field, which is pristine, brand-new artificial turf - well-groomed, one might say.

It's like watching two different sports. The ball is constantly bouncing on the grass, and so many scoring opportunities are lost because ball hops over stick.

TB prides himself on knowing the rules of field hockey, which not too many non-field hockey people know. He learned them from Beth Bozman, Princeton's former coach, back when he used to cover field hockey games on Gulick Field.

Back then, Princeton played on a regular grass field, one that was well-groomed and all, but grass nonetheless. Gulick Field, for those who don't remember, was next to Lourie-Love Field, the old soccer field.

Today, Plummer Field, the FieldTurf practice field, sits where Gulick used to.

As for the new home of Tiger field hockey, it hosts a huge game between the third-ranked Tigers and No. 4 Maryland. The game starts at 4 this afternoon, because the lights on Bedford Field won't be installed until the next phase of the Class of 1952 Stadium construction project, which means they won't be ready until next year.

Maryland is 8-2 on the year, with losses to No. 7 Virginia and No. 8 Old Dominion. Princeton is 8-1, with its only loss to No. 1 Syracuse. North Carolina is ranked second.

Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League and has outscored its three league opponents by a combined 20-1, including back-to-back 8-0 wins over Yale and Columbia.

Princeton's eye is on the biggest prize in the sport, and that comes next month in the NCAA tournament. Between now and then, the Tigers have the rest of the Ivy schedule and non-league games against, among others, Virginia and No. 5 UConn.

TB is a huge fan of weekday afternoon games.

Today's should be a pretty good one.