Englische Originalversion
Die beiden Dragons-Kapitäne Darren Fenn und Darius Hall geben im Laufe der Saison einen Einblick in die Drachen-Welt.
Englische Originalversion | Deutsche Übersetzung
Englische Originalversion | Deutsche Übersetzung
November 13th, 2009 (by Darius Hall)
Hello everyone.
Well, the season has begun and we started off well. October was a nice month for the dragons. 6-2, not bad! I hope we can continue.
We had our second annual halloween pumkin craving contest. Adam Hess started it last year and it was great. This year was a no different. We had some creative pumkins this year. Naturally we gave out awards also. The most scary, best pumkin and worst pumkin. I made a Frankenstein pumkin. It was nice (well, at least I thougt it was)! Hendrik did a pirate. Chad made one with a gun. Like I said the ideas were great. But we only gave out three prizes.
The best pumkin went to Florian Hartenstein. He made one with a joker face. His prize was a 10 euro gift card to the bakery. Mind you, he has a family of four and his son's shoe size is as big as mine, 54, and he is only elven years old. Hahaha! Coach Leibenath won the scariest. He had a pumkin with an ax in the head. I think it was a message to the guys that if we don't play hard, he will hurt us! HELP ME! HELP ME, PLEASE!!! His gift was a Subway voucher. He needs it because he is the skinniest coach in the BBL. And the best prize of the night was the one for the worst pumkin. The prize was a roll of tissue paper. And guess who got it. Yeah, you guess it! Darren. He made the man on the moon but nobody saw the man or the moon. :-)
Klick here to view the Pumpkin Pictures
Then we had the famous costume party. The guys and girls were dressed up. Darren just as Toby Bailey. Ronald was Charles Lee. Folarin Campbell came as Blankman and his girl-friends was Lil Wayne. Nathan Peavy and his wife came as Chris Brown and Rihanna. She had a black eye and everything. Charles and Flavio were slaves. Hendrik and his girl-friend were pirates. Toby was a gay thug and his wife Tracey was Madonna from the 80's. Ali was a vampire. Flo came as me. He had a beard, my kangoo hat, my necklace and sunglasses. He even put ear plugs in his ear from when I wore mine in the game. The crazy part is I dressed as him. I taped my head to look like his hairline and taped machine parts all over my body. (We think Flo was build from old World War II army parts.) We had a good time. Club D-Hall and Fenn was the place to be Sunday.
Oh yeah! I was thrown off the counsel because I said let's invite the coaches. :-) But I got put back on after the party. The coaches weren't there. I only have two words to say about everything: GREAT WEEKEND!!!
Until next time, be safe.
D-Hall
Well, the season has begun and we started off well. October was a nice month for the dragons. 6-2, not bad! I hope we can continue.
We had our second annual halloween pumkin craving contest. Adam Hess started it last year and it was great. This year was a no different. We had some creative pumkins this year. Naturally we gave out awards also. The most scary, best pumkin and worst pumkin. I made a Frankenstein pumkin. It was nice (well, at least I thougt it was)! Hendrik did a pirate. Chad made one with a gun. Like I said the ideas were great. But we only gave out three prizes.
The best pumkin went to Florian Hartenstein. He made one with a joker face. His prize was a 10 euro gift card to the bakery. Mind you, he has a family of four and his son's shoe size is as big as mine, 54, and he is only elven years old. Hahaha! Coach Leibenath won the scariest. He had a pumkin with an ax in the head. I think it was a message to the guys that if we don't play hard, he will hurt us! HELP ME! HELP ME, PLEASE!!! His gift was a Subway voucher. He needs it because he is the skinniest coach in the BBL. And the best prize of the night was the one for the worst pumkin. The prize was a roll of tissue paper. And guess who got it. Yeah, you guess it! Darren. He made the man on the moon but nobody saw the man or the moon. :-)
Klick here to view the Pumpkin Pictures
Then we had the famous costume party. The guys and girls were dressed up. Darren just as Toby Bailey. Ronald was Charles Lee. Folarin Campbell came as Blankman and his girl-friends was Lil Wayne. Nathan Peavy and his wife came as Chris Brown and Rihanna. She had a black eye and everything. Charles and Flavio were slaves. Hendrik and his girl-friend were pirates. Toby was a gay thug and his wife Tracey was Madonna from the 80's. Ali was a vampire. Flo came as me. He had a beard, my kangoo hat, my necklace and sunglasses. He even put ear plugs in his ear from when I wore mine in the game. The crazy part is I dressed as him. I taped my head to look like his hairline and taped machine parts all over my body. (We think Flo was build from old World War II army parts.) We had a good time. Club D-Hall and Fenn was the place to be Sunday.
Oh yeah! I was thrown off the counsel because I said let's invite the coaches. :-) But I got put back on after the party. The coaches weren't there. I only have two words to say about everything: GREAT WEEKEND!!!
Until next time, be safe.
D-Hall
October 9th, 2009 (by Darren Fenn)
If several weeks ago you decided that you were in the mood for chicken wings and couldn't find any in the local Famila or surrounding stores I would like to apologize on behalf of the Artland Dragons. You see, a few weekends ago we had our first ever team chicken wing gathering. We named it Wingfest 09, and it was put on for the team by Darius and I at our apartment building. It was a Sunday and the weather was beautiful.
The previous week, Darius, my wife, and I drove to every food store we could think of and bought every wing we could find. I even drove out to the Famila in Vechta. When I spotted the wings in the meat department, I walked up and asked the woman working behind the counter for all of them. She kind of looked at me cross-eyed until I explained in my limited German that they were for the Dragons. She weighed the bag and told me I had 1,5 kilos. „I need more“, I said. After a few minutes in the back, she came out with a mountain of wings on a tray. 3,75 kilos. „More.“ Another trip and we were up to 5 kilos. „More!!!!!!“ Finally, she brought out every wing she could find and it totaled 7 kilos. „Perfect“, I explained. After thanking her profusely, I called Darius and yelled JACKPOT into the phone. All counted, we wound up with 15 kilos of wings, and almost nothing else in our refrigerators since they took up so much room.
Darius cooked his half two different ways. He baked some in his oven barbecue style for about three hours until they were fall off the bone tender. He also made some lemon pepper wings which were equally delicious. As some of you know I am from Buffalo, New York, and one of the few things we have to be proud of besides our tremendous amounts of snowfall each year is our wings. The name Buffalo wings came about because they were invented in Buffalo. Every Buffalonian takes his wings seriously, and if you ask him about wings made in other places he will simply tell you that they are not wings. There have also been countless numbers of arguments around Buffalo as to who makes the best wings. There are many things to consider, the taste of the sauce, spiciness, the size of the wings, the variety offered at the establishment, and on and on and on. We even have an annual Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo that it so large it takes up an entire Baseball Stadium. As you can see this is no laughing matter.
So, when the team challenged me to make some authentic Buffalo wings I knew that I had to deliver. I mean, not only my reputation was on the line, but also that of my hometown. The key is not to cook them so long that the chicken is rubbery, but long enough so that they are done. Also, you cannot underestimate the importance of the wing sauce. For mine, I use a base of a popular hot sauce that I have shipped to me every year by relatives. I truly cannot live without this stuff, and at one time I may have up to 6 or 7 large bottles in my apartment. I then mix it with butter, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. I don't measure anything, it is all done according to the taste of the sauce. This is by far the best thing I cook.
By the end of Wingfest, there was not one wing left. All were eaten, all 15 kilos of them. The truly nice thing about the event was that we all got to hang out with and really meet each other's families. Charles Lee was running around with the kids, playing with my daughter Sydney and Folarin's son Cade. Darius had music and videos going on his projector in his place and it quickly turned into club D-Hall as the night wore on. All in all, it was a great team experience and a really fun night. Hopefully Wingfest will live on and become a tradition for the Dragons. Adam started one last year with the pumpkin carving contest, so stay tuned to hear all about this year's pumpkins, the best, the worst, and the truly weird!!!!
Take care and all the best,
Darren
The previous week, Darius, my wife, and I drove to every food store we could think of and bought every wing we could find. I even drove out to the Famila in Vechta. When I spotted the wings in the meat department, I walked up and asked the woman working behind the counter for all of them. She kind of looked at me cross-eyed until I explained in my limited German that they were for the Dragons. She weighed the bag and told me I had 1,5 kilos. „I need more“, I said. After a few minutes in the back, she came out with a mountain of wings on a tray. 3,75 kilos. „More.“ Another trip and we were up to 5 kilos. „More!!!!!!“ Finally, she brought out every wing she could find and it totaled 7 kilos. „Perfect“, I explained. After thanking her profusely, I called Darius and yelled JACKPOT into the phone. All counted, we wound up with 15 kilos of wings, and almost nothing else in our refrigerators since they took up so much room.
Darius cooked his half two different ways. He baked some in his oven barbecue style for about three hours until they were fall off the bone tender. He also made some lemon pepper wings which were equally delicious. As some of you know I am from Buffalo, New York, and one of the few things we have to be proud of besides our tremendous amounts of snowfall each year is our wings. The name Buffalo wings came about because they were invented in Buffalo. Every Buffalonian takes his wings seriously, and if you ask him about wings made in other places he will simply tell you that they are not wings. There have also been countless numbers of arguments around Buffalo as to who makes the best wings. There are many things to consider, the taste of the sauce, spiciness, the size of the wings, the variety offered at the establishment, and on and on and on. We even have an annual Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo that it so large it takes up an entire Baseball Stadium. As you can see this is no laughing matter.
So, when the team challenged me to make some authentic Buffalo wings I knew that I had to deliver. I mean, not only my reputation was on the line, but also that of my hometown. The key is not to cook them so long that the chicken is rubbery, but long enough so that they are done. Also, you cannot underestimate the importance of the wing sauce. For mine, I use a base of a popular hot sauce that I have shipped to me every year by relatives. I truly cannot live without this stuff, and at one time I may have up to 6 or 7 large bottles in my apartment. I then mix it with butter, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. I don't measure anything, it is all done according to the taste of the sauce. This is by far the best thing I cook.
By the end of Wingfest, there was not one wing left. All were eaten, all 15 kilos of them. The truly nice thing about the event was that we all got to hang out with and really meet each other's families. Charles Lee was running around with the kids, playing with my daughter Sydney and Folarin's son Cade. Darius had music and videos going on his projector in his place and it quickly turned into club D-Hall as the night wore on. All in all, it was a great team experience and a really fun night. Hopefully Wingfest will live on and become a tradition for the Dragons. Adam started one last year with the pumpkin carving contest, so stay tuned to hear all about this year's pumpkins, the best, the worst, and the truly weird!!!!
Take care and all the best,
Darren
