5 Things… instead of blogging (Bartl’s Blog)

Tuesday is supposed to be my blogging day, but it didn’t happen. Monday was a holiday, so Tuesday was like my Monday. Then the schedule came out and that took up my whole day on Wednesday. Thursday the whole day got away from me and then here we are, on Friday, the day before we have an entire week off in the Condors office. I can’t go three weeks in between blogs, so I thought I’d put together this list… you know… just to make sure everyone doesn’t think I was slacking off. Of course, it’s not ALL I did all week, or else Jonathan Fleisig would think i was stealing from him every week. I did some actual work as well, these are just five random things.

5. Volunteered for Voting Poll duty. It seemed like a good idea at the time I was registering to vote. It was a harmless little box on the sheet. Then they sent a letter asking me if I was serious. I hope they call… voting is one of my favorite hobbies. Maybe it will be boring, who knows. Maybe not. But whenever the thought of “doing my civic duty” pops into my head I get a little twang in my heart that makes me feel like an American.

4. Reviewed and/or re-wrote our schedule about 10 times. Seriously, I’m probably underestimating this. The press release was reviewed at least three times, the printable calendar format schedule on the website was proofed at least twice this week, probably five times last week. An initial version of the pocket schedule was proofed. I put the whole schedule into Google Calendar and then had to proof that, so it could be downloaded. The window wrapping of our schedule was proofed at least a couple times as well, getting ready to go up. I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but it’s a wonder I don’t have the whole thing memorized by now.

3. Wrote a press release about our Protected List. It has 29 guys on it. and no, just because Erick Lizon is on the list doesn’t mean he’s coming back. There are four players we issued Qualifying Offers to last summer that were eligible to be protected this season, and he was one of them. (The others were Erik Burgdoerfer, who signed with us; Bobby Robins, who was traded; and Jonathan Parker, who was traded as well.) If he wants to sign anywhere in the ECHL this season during the next two weeks, it will have to be with the Condors. After June 15, he can do whatever he wants.

2. Enjoyed a birthday cookie. One of the more underrated aspect of working at the Condors? Cookies and/or cupcakes from Smith’s Bakery when it’s somebody’s birthday in the office. Greg Lowe and Justin Fahsbender are sharing a birthday this weekend, so if you see them, wish them well. And know that I had a baseball cookie with cinnamon frosting from Smith’s on Thursday to celebrate their special day. One of these days I’ll do a blog on how stupid I think it is for adults to celebrate their birthday, but for now, I’ll just be happy that it means I get to eat a cookie.

1. Put on “Tule”. Ok, I really just put on Tule’s head, but close enough. Tule, for the uninitiated, is one of the single weirdest mascots in the history of sports. What does one expect when the team’s nickname is the Fog? How do you make FOG into a mascot? Take the logo on the front of the jersey and turn it into a 6’ tall cartoon character. Boom. Some folks found Tule in a storage closet in the arena. I couldn’t resist. I should have taken a pic so I could tweet it. Oh well.

Kevin Bartl is the VP of Communications and part of the broadcast team for the Condors, entering his 10th season in #Condorstown. His blog comes out every Tuesday, or whenever he gets around to it. For opinionated and not-always-about-hockey tweets, follow him @KevinBartl.