Wednesday night we attended Casino Night for the Stars, a charity-fundraising thing. An evening of gambling with pretend money to put toward raffle tickets, auctions (next year, I’m saving up to get 10 minutes in the booth to do color commentary!), food, booze and face time with the players. Needless to say, the craps table got my itch to hit Vegas going again; the plan is to go there in May. I’ll save my anecdotes about my conversations with the players for another time because we’re going to Guys Night Out with the team in early February.
One really nice treat was winning the silent auction on Blindenbacher’s charity basket, he’s one the Stars’ new blueliner. I decided to go with him since he’s a rarity, a professional player from Switzerland. I figured he’d recognize my surname since it’s a division of Nestle, hence why I cannot get maggi.com. It took him a moment to realize this while talking and he replied that everyone back home has at least a box or can of Maggi something. (Sonia who lives in Basel also recommends their chicken bouillon.) In the US, maybe you can find their stuff in stores which cater to Spanish-speaking neighborhoods (Fiesta in Austin) and I have seen one ad via Univision; even in Spanish they mispronounce it!
Anyway, why is this guy famous? He was a member of Switzerland’s Olympic hockey team at the Vancouver games. I thanked him for scaring Canada during the regular round. Severin and his countrymen (Martin Gerber and Luca Sbisa) forced a shootout. Not sure how the IOC would’ve contorted the rules to give Canada the Gold medal then…short of whining like they did in figure skating against Russia years ago.
It’s great to have him here in Texas and Somara is excited to prepare his recipe for risotto!