world junior hockey

 the two main events of the day were attending a game in the world juniors hockey tournament, and the fan-zone related to it. in the morning i went to the post office, two orders picked up. and i sent off six Christmas cards to friends and family. then i went to the copy store and scanned a register tape for the Charlie Brown tin promotion. i also printed some event tickets. it was midday by then and i headed to Maplewood and had lunch at the golden corral. i changed my seat after noticing it was next to a walkway being used by plenty of patrons and i didn't enjoy that. i found a table that was farther away from this 'thoroughfare'. i had two plates of food there, three if you one slice of pizza, which was the only thing on the third plate. also had some meatloaf, rice, macaroni. best to master the possibilities when at a buffet. and i capped it with some soft-serve ice cream and some pudding. i left when i knew i would feel full if i ate any more. then it was on to rice park in downtown St. Paul where i attended the 'fan zone'. it was nice getting some free souvenirs there, including a beer cozy from Xcel Energy and a soft puck from Tria. the latter was after playing 'whack a mole'. i also got a look around at a related exhibit at the nearby convention center. i bought a small hockey stick there which had the flags of all ten competing nations on it. after a little over two hours, i headed home and then went to get groceries at Aldi. then it was on to the u. of Minnesota for the game. it was the Czech Republic (or Czechia) defeating Denmark, 7-2. Czechs never trailed in this one, up 2-1 at the end of the first period and 5-2 at the end of the second. i got a hot dog and a coke there. my seat was near the boards so i saw some close-ups of the action. there was a dude near me who was using a camera, later noticed a Czech flag patch on his coat. during one intermission i bought another souvenir, it was a three pack of stickers. some things i saw in person reminded me of what i had seen on TV of the Olympic games. there was a flag raising and national anthem playing for the Czechs. during the game there was an announcement of the score of the game being plated across town, team USA had defeated Switzerland. i haven't ruled out attending another game in this tournament, but it would have to include team USA as i would 'have a horse in that race'. i saw the attendance figures for the first eight games of the tournament. the Americans played in front of big crowds for both of their games, but the others, not so much. the arena wasn't even half-full for the game i attended, just over three thousand on hand.