Well, today went fairly smoothly. I made it to Tom's, grabbed the rocker, put it in the car, drove back here, put the rocker together and hid it in plain sight and got rid of all the evidence before Terri got back from work.
Turns out the reason my parent's didn't want me borrowing the truck today to haul the rocker over here is because my father got a new truck. 4-wheel drive, automatic, with a CD player. Nothing like jumping into the 90's. Someday they'll catch up with the rest of the world.
Anyway, not much else is going on. Only a couple hours til Christmas. I figure Terri will be asleep in an hour or so and I can put a bow on the rocker and go to bed. Hope everyone's holiday is what they're looking for.

Merry Christmas to me!!!! I finished up the one account that I really wanted to get done and thus it is a wonderful Merry Christmas for me!

Today was an easier day than most I guess. I managed to save the University another large chunk of money in penalties. It's a shame I can't tap into a percentage of that money. I'm working on one last account trying to "nice" the woman into helping out. I use what Terri calls my "radio" voice. It's very low and smooth and has a wonderful way of putting people at ease and getting them to bend to my will. So far, I've gotten her to agree that the problem is on their end and they should work very quickly to fix the problem and get back to us.
Last night we hung out with Glen and Amy and Cole as noted in yesterday's entry. I ended up hanging out til about 1:30 in the morning just talking about families and pregnancy and stuff. So, I wasn't exactly running at peak efficiency this morning, but a cup of coffee cleared that right up.
The rest of the day has been pretty dull. Tom, Joe, Dwight, Terri and I are going to get together this evening and putter around. We'll probably do dinner somewhere and then end up at our place trying to one up each other at some sort of trivially inclined game. Then comes my day off.
Except for the fact that I have to get up just as early in order to drive over to Tom's apartment to grab the pieces of Terri's gift, get it back to the house, put it together and hide it before Terri gets home from work. I'm so behind in all of the things that I need to get done for the holidays. And, that doesn't even begin to cover what needs to be done for the baby's arrival.
Oh well, a little more time to kill before I can head home for the holidays.

Did I happen to mention that working for the IRS is not something that I'd ever really enjoy doing? Tracking down this tax certification from 3 and 4 years ago is not only incredibly difficult, as some companies have merged, closed, etc., but it is also boring beyond all belief. What I can't figure out is that when there were three people working on it, I had to drop everything I was doing to help out, but today I'm the only one.
We went to the Penguins game Saturday night courtesy of Ray and Tara's most generous Christmas gift. They played a decent game, but lost 7-4. I haven't heard anything on the status of the goaltender Caron, but after listening to his Christmas message to the fans, I think he's secretly channeling Justin Wilson. In fact, I guar-an-tee it.
Joe flew in early Sunday morning and he and Dwight and I went out for brunch. I did finally round out the consensus that while 14 or 15 might be a good nickname, no one under a certain age will get it. And that kind of scared us because it will be hard to determine which Superbowl we're on, or more importantly, which Wrestlemania. (sniff, sniff...you smell that? that's sarcasm)
Not too much else is going on around here. We're headed over to Glen and Amy's tonight to hang out and play with Cole.

Oh, and I almost forgot... Look who I found. She's been at this longer than I have, but I guess we never crossed paths. I've also updated the sidebar so you can find her quicker and easier. Hi, Diane!

Well, it seems that things have finally started working again. I don't know if the problem was on my end or bloggers, but oh well. Let's see do I have any news? Um, yeah sort of.

Yesterday morning for the first time I saw my son.

And, the first thought that ran across my mind was the little green alien baby that was in the Mini Series "V" It was kind of spooky the way it looked like that. I wonder if that means everyone is correct and I am having an alien child.
Yesterday was my Grandmother's 83rd birthday and today is my brother's 23rd birthday. Since my brother is in North Dakota it's fairly difficult to celebrate with him. We went out to dinner last night with my parents and my grandmother to celebrate. After dinner Terri and I headed over to my old bosses house. She has two children a little girl and a little boy. They are both adorable. Terri got some maternity clothes which was great for me. It was like shopping without the money. We also got lots of tips and advice which is always good. I love seeing how other people deal with similar situations. Terri and I are like sponges when we get around people with children. I sometimes feel like we're studying for some sort of exam.
Tonight is the office Christmas party so that ought to be interesting. I'll probably have more on that on Monday. And, I didn't get my early present from the Pens, they lost to Carolina 2-1 last night. They did, however, get a point out of it since the loss was in overtime. I like Ron Francis a lot, I always have, but does he have to stick it to us each and every time? Cut us a break Ronnie, we have your name up in the arena as one of the all time greats. Anyway, Saturday's game should be a good one against Atlanta.

That didn't work. I wonder what the holdup is?

For some reason yesterday's post didn't publish, though it said publish successful. I wonder if I publish this will both show up?

Today was an interesting day at work. I had a project that I've been working on since August that was going to culminate in a class that was scheduled to happen tomorrow afternoon basically get cancelled right out from under me. It must be nice to sit in the seat of power. This class was a cooperative effort from several different departments and would have greatly improved communication and knowledge within our department, but alas it wasn't important enough. Bitter...oh, a tad.
Anyway, other than that there's not much going on. The Pens are on a two (count 'em two) game winning streak. And we're headed into Carolina on Thursday night. They were beginning to spiral downwards and just recently fired Paul Maurice their coach. He was the coach with the longest tenure in the NHL up until this week. So, hopefully we can capitalize on their downturn and pick up another 2 points and a third win in a row to come back home on Saturday for Mike Lange talking bobblehead night. I wonder how many things he actually says. Anyway, enough rambling. Sorry there was no post yesterday it's been (or was until today) a very busy week at work. Now that my entire schedule has been cleared in favor of one project, I have a little extra time which I'll probably sink into this blog.
Oh well such is life. Hopefully Tom will make it back to his apartment ok with Terri's Christmas Present (which of course, I won't divulge just in case she ever takes the time to actually read these pages, which she never does)

Standing in sub-zero temperatures in just a suit jacket watching Kathy's coffin be lowered into the ground I came to the realization that in the midst of God's master plan for life on earth, it is a cruel twist that has a parent bury a child. My Aunt could barely handle the funeral and didn't even attempt the gravesite. My Uncle was slightly more stoic, but only slightly. And once again, I had to put my pall bearer skills to the test. All in all, Friday wasn't the greatest day of the holiday season for me or my family. Kathy was 33. They read the following poem at the gravesite and I guess I feel compelled to share.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!--Mary Frye (1932)

I don't mean to go on about this, but it hit me rather hard at a time when I was already reflecting on mortality and the fragility of the human life.

On Saturday we went with Glen, Amy, and Cole to Babies R Us. There is sooo much crap associated with a child we don't even have yet. I'm beginning to think that if there was a test to parenthood I'd flunk. There are car seats and boosters and travel systems and breast pumps and swings and cribs and changing tables and bassinets and portable changing mats and diapers and pull-ups and bottles and bibs and washcloths and clothes and strollers and high chairs and on and on and on. At least the Pens beat Columbus. Now let's roll over Buffalo and carry a winning streak into Carolina so that we can beat Atlanta on Saturday when I'll be sitting at the game enjoying it.
One last thing, watch this space in the next couple of days or so. I'll be starting my annual fundraising for the MS Walk, which, for me, has taken on a whole new meaning this year. So, I'll be hitting everyone up and generally begging for money.

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I was just floating through the day. In the morning before I climbed into the shower the phone rang. My mom was calling to tell me that sometime during the night my cousin Kathy had passed away. I'm still kind of sketchy on the details. All I know at the moment is that the funeral is tomorrow morning, so there probably won't be a post tomorrow due to travel, etc.
I've also found myself trying to figure out exactly what I'm feeling. Kathy was the oldest of 15 grandkids on my Dad's side of the family. I'm number 5 which puts Kathy pretty close to my age. She's had health problems due to MS and Diabetes and was even confined to a wheelchair because of the lack of feeling in her legs. I've just been sitting and thinking of stuff we did and stuff we'll never do. All I'm consistently aware of is the fact that I don't know what to think or how to feel. There is the part of me that feels guilty because I haven't made it a point to go and see her when I was up in that area visiting. Then, there's a part of me that's angry that I didn't go and see her. And, then there's the rambling part of me that seems to be coming through in this post.
Oh well, enough with the touchy-feely stuff. Eventually I'll have to work things out in my own head and life will go on for everyone else.

Wherever you are Kathy, I hope you're happy and healthy and stretching your legs out for a marathon. I'll miss you.

Not too much going on today. I did get to yell at a customer service rep for AT&T. Complaining to these people is one of the joys I take in having to pay bills. I love it when they screw up and I get to call and complain. I usually wait until I'm good and frustrated from something or someone else that I can't take it out on and then let the poor rep have it with both barrels. I know, I know, it's not their fault, but they represent the company so they have partial responsibility. I got my long distance bill (which for reasoning that escapes me at the moment is a completely separate service from my local bill). I made $9.30 in phone calls from August to November. My bill was $29.80. There were charges for minimum usage and connect fees and other random assorted crap. The woman from AT&T told me that I was a valued customer and that they didn't want to lose me. She asked if a free hour of long distance a month would help. I told her that even if she came to my house and dialed the phone for me I still wanted my service cancelled today. So, that was a good day.
Outside of that, not much else is happening. I got some good news in the respect that I can actually use some of the existing data for my class in a week or so. That means I won't have to create everything from scratch like I thought originally. So, that was a bonus. Maybe the Pens will even manage a win against Vancouver tonight.

Well the Pens managed to lose that game 4-3 and then get blown out by Calgary the next night 6-1. Hopefully they can salvage the last couple points on the road and limp home mostly intact. Not much else is going on around here. We're trying to get the Christmas cards done and sent. (Which reminds me...I need addresses for you and you.
We haven't put the tree up yet, but I'm sure that's on it's way. I need to finish up the last of the Christmas gift stuff. The upstairs looks like some sort of weird tornado hit it recently. There's an upheaval of furniture. Stuff that used to be in one room is now in another and a general displacement of crap.
We also found out that our friend Niki is pregnant. She's due in July. I'm going to be surrounded by kids. By this time next year, God willing, we'll have three more little ones to contend with in the general vicinity of our friends.
Anyway, not too much else tonight. Although if you get a chance give the new Battlestar Galactica a chance. I'm not completely sold on it (and I have yet to see anything resembling a daggit), but it wasn't bad and Edward James Olmos turned in a pretty good performance in the Lorne Greene part. There's a completely different dynamic from the old show. It makes me want to buy the box set to compare. A guy at work has it and was pointing out how much footage was reused from show to show. And although I'm called a purist in the pursuit of movie, tv, and music excellence I do look at those old shows in the context that they were meant. I reflect on the era produced and marvel at the technology of the time. That's why in addition to the re-done Star Wars movies, I also have copies of the originals. I remember watching Battlestar Galactica with my parents and wanting a daggit so badly and at the time not understanding why I couldn't have one. Now understand, the tv show ran from 78-79 and I was four going on five. I'm lucky I can remember watching the show.
Anyway, if you get a chance check it out. Like I said above, there are a lot of differences and I'm not sold on it, but it looks promising.

Make that 3-1 Pens.

Sorry it's been a few days. Thursday and Friday I got bogged down during the day and when I tried to blog last night the internet crashed on me and I just didn't feel like rebooting.
Now that that's out of the way on to what's been happening.
Thursday was a pretty typical day at work as was Friday. This whole week has been a low pressure situation since the supervisor for our side has been on vacation all week. I think she's also on vacation all next week as well. Friday at about 4:30 it began to snow and snow and snow. Friday was Terri's office Christmas party. Quite boring since there's about four hundred or so people milling about and I know maybe four or five including me.
Today was one of the dreaded Christmas shopping days. I hate Christmas shopping. There are 7 bazillion people and not one of them gives a damn about anyone else. I lost count of the number of people who cut me off, the number of idiots who make a right hand turn from the left hand lane, and just the general number of people who ticked me off. And this year because of Terri being pregnant we'll have to do this several more times than I'd like to since she can't walk around as much as in the past. We finished up some people today, but not everyone. Tomorrow, I hope to finish up the majority of the rest of the list so that I only have to pick up a few last minute items.
Anyway, the Pens are currently winning 2-1 against the Edmonton Oilers so hopefully they can hold on to that and build for tomorrow's game against Calgary.

I had another class this morning for the suggested track of discipline that my superiors at work suggested I follow. It was about the respectful workplace. I thought it was quite ironic that one of the women in a department in the same sector of the University that I'm in showed up 10 minutes late, left the presentation 3 times while it was going on, and bolted 15 minutes early. Very respectful in my eyes. I was also trying to reconcile everything that they were explaining to me with the various jobs that I've had throughout my professional career. At Lycos, when they announced we were going to have sexual harassment training, we immediately began to practice sexually harassing one another. When the HR woman told us this wasn't exactly the purpose of the training, we were smartasses. We asked what the training was for. She told us it was to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. We then figured we only had a week to sexually harass one another before the training took place and we were no longer allowed. The HR woman gave up and went into her office. I don't think the policy applied to our group. I mean we had porn Mondays.
My current job has several women of advanced age (the saying of which probably violates the age discrimination act that they explained today) and they find it second nature to call everyone honey or dear. I think it's grandmotherly. The video we watched portrayed it as harassment. No one in my office thinks twice about asking me, one of the few males, to lift the heavy objects or put together shelves or mail bins. Again, the video portrays that as sexist. Guess the offices I've been in have broken quite a few policies along the way. Oh well.
Hopefully this evening, I'll get to spend a little money on the phone bill calling Matt to gloat about a Pens victory over the Flyers. They've tied the first two games they've played this season. So, maybe they'll do that again. In which case, it's still my turn to call.

Well, Terri had another baby checkup today. We got to hear the heartbeat again. Still doesn't sound quite human, but at least it hasn't decided to abandon us yet. I'm a little worried that these early appointments are taking about 3 minutes on the average. I guess it's still a little too early to do anything more. The ultrasound is a little over two weeks away. "We" haven't decided anything. However, "I" made a decision last week as to whether or not we were going to find out. And, the decision is...I'm not telling you yet. We'll see how the next couple of weeks play out. You may find out, you may not.
Enough with the baby talk. It's coming up way too fast. We're almost half-way through this thing already and there's so much stuff to do at the house. Not to mention the fact that Terri is more than ready to start house hunting. Being slightly more practical, I know we're not quite up to that stage, but try telling a pregnant woman that.
With my luck, I'll get everything in the current house configured for impending baby arrival and all the pieces will fall into place for a move and I'll have to start all over again. I did get the library mostly finished. I need to go through a ton of old magazines, newspapers, and catalogs, but other than that the structure is pretty much there. Know anyone that needs 7 or 8 years worth of Bride's Magazines?
Not much else is going on around here. The day is winding down and there isn't even any Pens hockey on tonight. At least I'll have a shortened work day tomorrow. I have a seminar to attend in the morning. Hopefully, I'll stay awake.

Wow, lots has happened since the last post. Let's see...
The Pens and the Flyers tied. Somehow the Rangers found a way to beat the Pens 4-1. The Hurricanes got an early Christmas gift by the refs and beat the Pens 4-3, and if I don't type fast enough we'll see how the Pens/Thrashers game turns out.
Enough hockey, I guess. Wednesday when I got home from work, our wedding album was waiting on the porch, freshly delivered by the UPS guy. This album is huge! The box said it weighed in at 18 pounds. The pictures are great though. The photographer's were worth the money paid.
Thursday we went out to dinner with my parents, grandmother, and uncles. Since they put my grandmother into assisted living, we've eaten Thanksgiving out since grandma feels bad that she can't host the dinner. Then Thursday evening we went to Terri's parent's house. One of the cousins that she had a big e-mail fight with was at dinner. It's interesting to see how people talk around one another.
Friday night, Tom, Terri, and I went down to a bar/restaurant near my parent's house to see a country band. One of the girls that I graduated high school with sings for the band. They were pretty good. The bassist does a great Willie Nelson for the duet, "Beer For My Horses" There was a lot of Shania Twain and not enough (She wants to sell my monkey!!!!!!!! For those outside of Pittsburgh, the Pens just scored making it 4-3 Pens and Mike Lange comes up with one of his spectacular goal calls. Hopefully they can hold on to the lead, unlike some other Pittsburgh team, but more on that later.)...where was I... oh yeah, not enough Jodee Messina or Martina McBride. The only song that I was disappointed in, was "When You Say Nothing At All." The female version was probably most notably done by Alison Krauss. It was fine, but it didn't have the emotion that Alison conveys. And Pittsburgh wins the game 4-3. Great job boys.
Anyway, it was a local bar (read: Redneck) and it was the first time that I had ever been inside. Besides beer, one of the things you expect in a bar is sports. Two televisions one playing Entertainment Tonight, the other Wheel of Fortune. We had to ask to get the Pens vs. Rangers game. I do realize that it's not very hard to go home again, but it's extremely difficult to fit in. I saw more than 10 people that I graduated high school with and that's just the usual patrons. There were a bunch of us there just to see Lindsy.
Anyway, enough about that. Saturday Mark and Robyn were headed to the Pitt vs. Miami game so Terri and I went up to babysit Jacob. Robyn's new kitchen looks great and Jacob was as cute as ever. The Pens game turned out bad as did the Pitt game. Mark and Robyn were home before the game was even over.
Sunday, Tom had club seat tickets to the Steelers vs. Bengals game. Now, I'm not a big football fan, hell, I'm not a football fan at all, but I never turn down rich people seats for sporting events. The game wasn't bad and the Steelers looked like they were actually going to pull it out. With 55 seconds to go they scored a touchdown and took the lead. The crowd was rocking. I turned to Tom and jokingly said, "If the Bengals run the kick-off back for a touchdown you'll be able to hear a pin drop in this place." I was kidding, but the Bengals weren't. They ran the kick-off back to the 50 yard line and then proceeded to not only get within field goal range to be able to tie it, but they threw a touchdown pass to win it with 13 seconds to go. Not a happy day for Steelers fans. I had lots of other comments on the fans at the field, but I'll just let them go. It boils down to hockey vs. football and with my normal blog readers, I won't win that fight no matter how right I am.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. More tomorrow I guess.

Not a long post today. I got off work early and I'm posting from home. I just wanted to do the cheesy thing and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm not sure whether I'll get on the computer again before Monday so posting might be a touch thin.
Once again I have to split the holidays. I hope the child gives us the power to stop doing that, but I doubt it. We'll start with my family, end with hers and will most likely see Tom's family somewhere in the middle.
Anyway, that's about it for now. Hopefully the holidays will go well, although some of Terri's extended family will be in for Thanksgiving and that's never good, but we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll get a chance to express my true feelings and take care of all of the problems all at once.

Looking at Joe's comment, I couldn't help buy chuckle. I'm taller than both Randy and Elizabeth and I'm pretty short comparatively. So, no, I don't know Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. I think it would be rather difficult for a dead woman to have a baby, but stranger things have happened.
Randy, Elizabeth, Matt, Alison, Suzy, Terri, and I all attended CMU at around the same time so we all kind of knew each other. Now Elizabeth, Alison, and Terri are all in various stages of pregnancy. Elizabeth is due first and will have an '03 baby, but Alison and Terri will have '04 babies. It's going to make getting together interesting to say the least. Instead of everyone piling into one or two cars, we'll have to caravan since car seats aren't exactly compact and none of us is planning on running right out and buying a 24 passenger mini-van.
Anyway, that's enough about that I guess. Although it's rather odd being around that many pregnant women at once. Usually it's just one at a time. And, to top it off there's a woman at work who is becoming a grandmother for the first and second time within months. There's also a woman who used to work in our department who is expecting. So, there are going to be kids everywhere I go.
And, looking at Friday's blog, I was close. We got 3 out of a possible 4 points. Now, we lost to the Devil's in overtime, but still gained that crucial point. We are at the moment last in the league, but we'll vault over Washington quite handily. We just need a couple of other teams to spiral once we put together a few wins. Lemieux's status just became indefinite today so that was a blow to the team in general. Hopefully they can win Wednesday and Friday. The Flyers might be a slight challenge, but we've tied them once already this season. And, we owe the Rangers.

This weekend was a lot of fun. Matt and Alison arrived Friday night and dropped me off at work this morning. One thing we found out...Alison is due 3 weeks after Terri. So, I spent the majority of the weekend hanging out with three pregnant women (as friends Randy and Elizabeth are expecting next month.) I didn't make one decision on what or when to eat. I did, however, spend the majority of Sunday in Randy's basement playing Lord of the Rings RISK with Randy and Matt. Matt ended up winning about 9 hours after we started. Talk about a war.
Anyway, not much else is going on. I spent the bulk of the day training a new employee, so those days are always mostly relaxing. More tomorrow about the baby explosion that seems to be happening around me.

Ok, so I didn't make it back to the blog last night. I guess that's ok.
Part of what I wanted to talk about was Wednesday night's Pens game against the Wild. On the 13th I talked about the lights going out on Broadway because of the reference to the Billy Joel song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" and the fact that they refer to the Rangers as playing on Broadway. However, on Wed. I saw the lights go out in the Mellon Arena. There was 31.9 seconds left in the first period and wham! No lights anywhere. Everyone was sitting completely in the dark for a second or two. Then slowly everything kicked back on. So, the announcement was made that they would tack on the 31.9 seconds to the beginning of the 2nd period. So, when they came back, they had them take the same sides of the ice they had for the 1st period skate for 31.9 seconds then switch places. It was fairly asinine in my opinion, but no more so than not broadcasting the Heritage Classic outdoor game in the United States. They're playing 2 outdoor hockey games tomorrow. One is an old-timer's game between Montreal and Edmonton alumni including Wayne Gretzky and, to the chagrin of everyone but myself and Darren Pang, Mark Messier. And then the Oilers and Montreal will play a regular season game outside. Everyone says it's generating a lot of talk and will cause quite a stir in the hockey world. How the hell would I know? I won't get to see it until next weekend on ESPN Classic where they butcher the coverage and only show you what they consider to be the "interesting" part of the games.
Now, don't get me wrong, I like the Classic channel for catching things like the Pens 8-0 victory for the Cup against Minnesota and Mario's return to the ice in 2000, but that's only because I've seen both those games, know how they end, and can live with the fact that the coverage is chopped up. For a monumental game such as this, I want to see every minute on the ice. I want to see the weather being a factor in the game for players like Saku Koivu. I want to see some blowing snow catch the goalie in the mask and give someone a wide open net. But I won't get to.
ESPN bitches about the attendance at hockey games and the general fall-off of popularity. Did anyone ever think that they might play a fairly large factor in that? They are the Sports channel for pete's sake.
Enough ranting. Time to get stuff packed up, find out where my guests are on the road and enjoy the rest of my weekend. Which hopefully I will get to do by seeing the Pens stomp New Jersey tonight and Ottawa tomorrow. (Optimistic ain't I?)

Quick post right now. Hopefully more later. That is if I get a chance to do some cleaning for the impending house guests.
I just found out that I got tapped to teach a class to the majority of my co-workers in December. At least they gave me a little time to prepare.

Made another great dent in the library last night. It seems as though I'm going to run out of time before Matt and Alison show up. Well, they know me. I'm sure they know I'm cluttered and messy. Oh wait, they've visited before. They know.
I'm steadily working on trying to relocate all of the items in what was the game room. I did succeed in displaying Escargot. I think it looks very distinguished where it is, but as usual Terri and I disagree on style choices. I think we need to go on that Mix it Up show started by Courtney Cox-Arquette and David Arquette. Anyway, I have ideas for the Air hockey table and the foosball table. We'll have to see how that pans out.
Right now I need to concentrate on getting the guest room in order for our impending guests. And tonight is shot since I'll be at the Pens/Wild game courtesy of Ray, Tara, and the Pens. And, in addition to all that I need to get caught up on my exercise. Oh well, Let's go Pens. They're only 6 points behind Minnesota overall. And for Minn in the west that's not too good. Maybe we can eek out a win and prepare for Ottawa this Saturday.

Gee, if I'm actually slacking I don't mind getting nailed for it. (Though I rarely do) Today, though I'm sitting working very quietly at my desk to finish up a very tedious assignment. You'd think I was hosting a party in my area. The supervisor, and I use that loosely, decides to exert her pretend authority. So, I fire back a quick e-mail defending my position. That's when she involves the boss. He reads what I wrote and his response is for the supervisor to handle it. That was almost an hour ago. No response yet. So, I'm blogging. Just goes to show you shouldn't piss me off when I'm actually being ambitious.
I started rearranging the library at the house last night. I was very motivated by a movie I saw recently and I'm creating the poor man's version of what I saw. Hopefully it will materialize the way I want it too. It will also create a nice house for Escargot which is one large chunk removed from the soon to be nursery if it happens that we're still in this place come due date.
Anyway, that's enough for now. Not much else is actually going on. Pretty dull, huh?

Today was a nice easy day. I got to clean out my filing cabinet, post some of the nice homey touches back up in my little cube area, and just generally slack all day. Work was sporadic and not very taxing and with my supervisor having the day off things drifted along nicely.
This weekend I was very lazy work-wise. I should have been cleaning the house and steadily going through all of my stuff to prepare for the impending arrival of the kid. Did I do any of that? Hell no. I worked out on the treadmill a little, went to a Pens game (they lost) hung out at Glen and Amy's, played with Cole (which is to say I held him while he slept). And, I was just generally lazy. I'm sure I'm going to pay for it.
We have company coming in this weekend. I think they'd like a place to sleep which means I need to get working on that. And the living room and dining room looks as though they exploded into one another and then self-destructed. Terri and I need to get better as housekeepers. I could give a bunch of excuses, but laziness prevails both in preventing excuses and being the root cause of the whole issue.
Anyway, enough rambling. This week is shaping up to be rather busy, so hopefully I can carry the motivation home with me and put it to good use. I have an interesting idea for re-configuring the library which I can't wait to try out. But, since the library is not a necessity in a guest ready house, I may have to hold off on that.
I also need to finish the cat stand that I've been working on since last November. I now have everything at the house, carpet included. I just need a little time and space to work on it. This in addition to buying a last minute baby gift for Randy and Elizabeth, getting my hair cut, my oil changed, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, as stated before...enough rambling for today.

Well, I was informed this afternoon that starting on Monday I would be going back to writing the process and procedure manual for the office. Which should leave me plenty of time to blog at work. So, the posts should keep flowing nice and steady. Of course, this being Friday there's not a whole lot going on within the office today. Everyone is just kind of clock watching til their quitting time. And, I'm no different (51 minutes to go). I figured that I could kill a few minutes scanning blogs and such. Oh well, time to head out.

Well, the lights went out on broadway last night as the Rangers beat the Pens 6-2. I know everyone's pinning their hopes on Fleury, but um, we need to score too. Remember the good old days when we didn't even need a goalie or defense? We'd just outscore all the other teams. Now, we're 14 games into the season and we haven't even broken 10 points yets. The only bright spot was the fact that the Caps were below us, but now they've pulled even. Stupid Hurricanes. Where were you when we needed you Ron Francis?
I recently re-heard (is that even doable?) or once again came in contact with the phrase, "One monkey don't stop no show." What if it's a one monkey show?
I have seen several interviews with celebrities where they have mentioned the fact that one of their negative reactions to interviews are the fact that they get asked the same questions over and over. I'm beginning to understand what that feels like. Everyday, my office asks me how Terri's doing. Like there's going to be some huge change from day to day. I can't even make up answers anymore. I just mumble ok and keep working. One day I think I'll say the baby sprouted wings and left the womb under it's own power. That'll keep them talking. Not that they need encouragement.
I did get to head off an anti-gun person today. The office was talking about home invasions and they were joking that you need a gun around every corner of the house, just in case. The anti-gun popped up with..."But, why do you need a gun?" I just paused and said, "'Cause it does more damage than a wooden spoon." The laughter killed the rest of the discussion so there was no need for me to get in a lather. Other than that, the day has been pretty dull.

Today was fairly uneventful. Most of the day Saturday and again last night I was babysitting a 3 year old. His grandfather had bypass surgery so Robyn and Mark were at the hospital. The world of a child is an interesting thing. On Saturday, Robyn and Mark went to the Pitt game with another couple; Gary and Jody. Gary and Jody have two children and Robyn and Mark have one. I, at the moment, have none. So, it was decided that I would take Jacob to McDonald's for dinner (which was not my choice by any stretch of the imagination, his mother put that idea in his head). So, he had to be dressed for the weather, so I got him a little Pitt outfit complete with hat and got him out of his PJ's. Then he was gone. So, I had to chase him around the house trying to get clothes onto him. Did the four adults with actual parenting experience offer any assistance? No, they just stood and laughed. It took me about 35 minutes to get him fully clothed. Then the errands that we ran before dinner would have taken me about 30-45 minutes. It took us 2 1/2 hours. We got home just in time to see the Pens get stomped by Tampa Bay of all people.
Last night was also kind of amusing. Since Mark and Robyn are remodeling their kitchen, they've been eating out. So, it was either take Jacob to dinner last night or try and defrost something for the microwave. When Terri and I picked him up from daycare, we started driving down the main road looking for a good place to eat. I finally saw a Lone Star Steakhouse. I was in the wrong lane to make a left hand turn so I pulled into a parking lot to turn around and head towards the restaurant. That's when I hear this little voice from the backseat..."Bill, can we eat at the place with the playroom right there?" Turns out, I had pulled into a parking lot across from a Burger King with a big playland for kids. So, instead of a nice juicy steak, I got a whopper.
The playland itself was an interesting experience. The majority of the stuff is above your head. The kids climb up a staircase and crawl through some tunnels to get to a slide, a helicopter, or a rocketship. It was fairly cool and there was certainly nothing like it when I was child, but it made me think. What if your child decided he didn't want to come down? What if he got scared and couldn't come down? I'm certainly not going to fit up there to follow him. I'll end up like Augustus Gloop in the chocolate tube. They'd be sending the oompa-loompas in after me.
Anyway, not too much else going on. Hopefully the Pens will respond to the shelling they got Saturday by handily beating the New York Rangers, which are just the Pens branch East anyway. They have 5 ex-Pens on their squad. Oh well, we shall see.

Well, let's see. Apparently I was supposed to send out a lot of bells and whistles to tell people I was blogging again. I'm not sure why. And it doesn't just apply to the blogging. I guess I'm supposed to sort out the caliber of the news that I'm delivering and send the more important stuff through e-mail as well.
What brought this on? Well, I've been yelled at twice already for not directly informing people that I was blogging again. I was under the assumption the fact that words started appearing on the page kind of spoke for itself, but I guess I was wrong. So, if there's anyone that hasn't found out yet...I'm blogging again.
And, I got a call from the LA side of the world last night chastizing me for only making an oblique reference on my blog about the fact that my wife and I are expecting.
So, if anyone hasn't quite figured it out yet...in about 7 months or so Terri and I will have a bouncing baby something or other (we don't even know what it is yet).
Now, on to some notable things that happened whilst I was preoccupied and could not blog.

I met Craig and Mike. They came down to visit Joe and Dwight and I had the pleasure of having breakfast with them.

There are a couple of job related things that happened, but I'll blog about them at a later time.
Glen and Amy had a bouncing baby boy. Cole came into the world on September 13th. Friends of ours near Philly had a little girl they named Anna. Other friends in Texas had a little girl they named Summer.
Other than that it's been pretty much work, home, work, home, the occasional bout of play, work, home, etc.
Well, I think that's about it for now. There are a couple other things of note, but I'll get to them later.

Alright, due to the systems being down at work today for an upgrade I am fully caught up on my blog reading. Now the trick is to stay that way. Apparently at some point I'm gonna have to install this meme tracker thing that Craig, Dwight, Joe, and Tom have. Just because I like to be orginal.

Another blog down. I love Friday afternoon slacking when the big boss is in meetings most of the day. One to go and I'll be all caught up and then the fun begins...Ok, so there probably won't be any fun, but you get the meaning. Or, maybe you don't. Either way, it's...oh who cares?

Oh, and as an addition to yesterday...

That's What Love Is For- Amy Grant
All 4 Love- Color Me Badd
Masterpiece- Atlantic Starr
Do Anything- Natural Selection
Something To Talk About- Bonnie Raitt
Paintings In My Mind- Tommy Page

I think that about covers it, but you never know.

Hmmm, well I've made it through both Craig's and Dwight's blogs. Since I don't have an affinity for football, it made for shorter reading. Although there were several things to address.
From Dwight's blog...this scares the hell out of me and I like his music. Also from Dwight's blog the whole Top Gun/ESPN "Secretly Terrible Good Movies" The article itself was only mildly interesting since again, I'm not a football fan, but the whole STGM thing kind of stuck with me and on the bus home I started thinking about that category. I think the one that is uppermost in my mind has to A Beautiful Mind.
From Craig's blog the discussion of high school songs. That one caused me a lot of thought. No one song encapsulates high school for me. Since I DJ'd through most of my high school years (89-93) I heard songs from every genre and some I never want to hear again. However, I did manage to come up with some of the more memorable ones for me.

1. Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover- Sophie B. Hawkins This song used to play almost every time I was in the car during the summer between my junior and senior years.
2. One Moment In Time- Whitney Houston Didn't come out during high school, but a soloist in the choir did a rendition of this that I will never forget.
3. The Grease Megamix- John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John Again, didn't come out during high school, but Grease was the first musical we ever did and that carries it's own weight.
4. To Be With You- Mr. Big Another song related to the musical
5. We Are The Champions- Queen Musical
6. More Than Words- Extreme Musical
7. Right Here, Right Now- Jesus Jones
8. Friends In Low Places- Garth Brooks
9. That's What Friends Are For- Dionne Warwick
10. Life Is A Highway- Tom Cochrane

That's a good list to start. I may or may not add to it. However, I'm just happy that I made it through two of the four blogs that I used to read daily. Now, onto Joe's and Tom's blogs.

What an interesting week thus far. Last night conjured up all sorts of thoughts of passing and the afterlife and some emotion that I, personally, have not felt in a long time. Tonight was no exception. Being raised where I was, country music is almost a prereq for life. To that end, I tuned into the CMA's to see who would win some of the big awards. And there it was...a tribute to Johnny Cash.
However to balance out some of this doom and gloom I got to hear my child's heartbeat for the first time tonight. I thought it sounded like our washing machine on a low rinse cycle, but none the less there it was. Actual physical proof that everyone's hopes are dashed and I have successfully started the pro-creation process.
And then, apparently just to keep my happiness in check, Robyn's father Don had another heart attack and is now currently stable in the Cardiac ICU unit. So, join me in a quick prayer for his speedy recovery.

It is absolutely amazing to me how outside experiences can influence the written word. If we lived in a utopian society where everyone was one big happy family, would the Wizard of Oz even make sense on a thematic level?
What brought all this on you might ask...or you might not. Well, on September 11th of this year in the midst of remembering all of the pain and Alan, the entertainment world lost two major players. Johnny Cash and John Ritter both passed on. Both immensely talented, but for me the losses were on two separate ends of the spectrum. Johnny Cash had lived an incredibly full life and recorded right up til the end. He was like the terminally ill great uncle that sparks the over-used phrase of, "he's better off, the suffering is over." It's so out of place and simply used as filler for the empty space that they have left.
Ritter on the other hand, was taken way before his time. His newest contribution, though mostly one-liners and filler, had it's moments. Tonight was different. Back when I was younger, I fancied myself an actor. I was told I wasn't bad and even had a passing thought to drama as a major in college. While flying around in this fantasy world, I read a lot of books on the craft of acting and going back to the most lucid theme in all of them...Draw on your personal experiences to create a believable character. Tonight I watched four people fighting real, raw emotion while trying to formulate the words set before them by a writer who was no doubt trying to do the same thing. So, in the midst of a falling tear I realized that whether you know it or not each person that you file into your subconscious has an effect on you.
I just attended my 10 year class reunion. We lost a member of our class to epilepsy. It tore some of us apart. And, though I've thought of her often since she was taken from us it only took a simple mention at the reunion to stun the crowd into silence. And, though I've never met John Ritter or Johnny Cash both affected me just as profoundly as Lisa did. And thinking of the three of them again makes me hope that somewhere up there the three of them are having dinner at the same table with Alan, June and Jesus.

Apologies for the rambling, I'm starting to get back into this. And the word lucid comes to you courtesy of Craig.

Alright, I finally realized that I didn't create this blog as a diversion, I created it to get me back into the habit of writing. And, in my brilliant flash of inspiration, I also realized that my "job" shouldn't stop me from doing what I want to do. So, maybe I don't get to post at work anymore. Isn't that why I bought a computer for the house? So, slowly but surely over the next couple of weeks I'll be catching up on reading everyone else's blog and that will no doubt precipitate discussion of some sort. Like finding the unnamed commentor who decided to point out my birthday. Anyway, with little to no fanfare, much like in the beginning...I'm back. And may God have mercy on all our souls.

Tom asked me to post this for a very good cause, so here it is.

Heart Walk

I donated, so should you. In fact, I may go watch since Tom is actually walking in the event. That in itself will be worth the donation.

"If there's any justice in the hereafter, Brooks is standing behing the bench of a hockey team in heaven today facing his old Wisconsin foe, Bob Johnson. The ice is wide and smooth and every player can skate like the wind and pass the puck perfectly from tape to tape, skating in seamless and ceaseless motion. There are no neutral-zone traps, no goonery. Just smart, swift playmaking and intelligent defense, the hallmarks of Herb Brooks hockey. Johnson, whose sunny nature shone in stark contrast to Brooks' serious reserve, saluted everyone he met by declaring, 'It's a great day for hockey!' Monday was not a great day for hockey." Helene Elliott, Los Angeles Times

I don't have War and Peace sized entries. Anna Karenina sized maybe. I'm just verbose. And I am gonna catch up soon. I'm making headway.

I haven't given up or quit. I swear. I have lots to blog about, I just need time. Please forgive me.

Ok, Joe was right when he said that blogging was what suffered when you worked a long week. This month is the last month of the fiscal year for the University I work at. That means that all the bills have to be paid and since I technically was hired to work in Accounts Payable this is the time of year they pull me off the shelf, dust me off, and see if I remember what I'm doing. So, I've been working 12-15 hour days since last Tuesday and have 5 more days to go. Anyway, I'll try and finish up the events of two weekends ago, last week, the past weekend, and this week, so it's probably going to be wordy.

So I last left off with the reception. I made a few phone calls, sent a few text messages, and just generally alerted people that it actually happened, which no one was sure of anyway. When I called my buddy Mark he gave me some great news. He got a new job and was able to leave the company that he despised. This was the company that I used to work for. I'm sure I've blogged about it before, but I'm too lazy to look it up in the archives, so I'll give a banana peel to anyone that actually finds it. Anyway, when I went back to the reception we started to drink at the cocktail hour. I drink Stoli Screwdrivers. It's my drink of choice. Bond had Martini's--shaken not stirred. I have Stoli Screwdriver's very little ice. However, when I got up to the bar I found out that they only had Stoli Razberi. I wasn't quite sure how that was going to mix with orange juice. Turns out, it's fantastic. When I get my life back in July, I'm going to have to pick a bottle of Razberi up. I only have about a shot left in the bottle I have. Anyway, as we were waiting to go into the reception hall, we noticed a relative of Dave's getting a coke. I'm guessing he had to be somewhere between 12-14, but I'm not certain. Matt caught a glimpse of him and said, "Look it's Mini-Dave." None of us could argue with that. He was wearing a suit jacket that was so long it made him look like a midget. A fat midget, but a midget none the less. We figured that in order to get a jacket that would go around his considerable girth, he had to order it way big. From there we got in to the reception hall where we met the people that we would be sitting with for the evening. There were a trio of people from Jessica's side of things that seemed nice, but they were all vegetarians, so I'll hold that against them. After Pat's attempt at a toast (I've seen much better) Dave grabbed the microphone and thanked everyone for coming and a couple other of pleasantries that no one really listened to. Then a strange thing happened. The band started to play, "It had to be you." I immediately grabbed my phone and sent a text message to Tom..."Oh, my god. He's singing." He, of course, could not remember all the words and didn't quite make it through the whole thing, but I've seen very little stop Dave from making a fool of himself. Of course he had help. The Band was pretty bad. They play at the bar where Dave and Jessica met, but I get the feeling that the band at the wedding was all his idea. She didn't seem real thrilled with it. The lead singer (and I use that term loosely) looked like Elvis Costello, but didn't have one tenth his talent. The only thing that we liked from him all evening was his rendition of The Rainbow Connection in a Kermit the Frog voice. We thought he should sing all of his songs in that voice. But that's getting ahead of myself. Dave and Jessica had not devised any sort of plan for alerting the wait staff to which meal people had ordered. I couldn't even remember what choices there had been let alone which I had chosen. So, the wait staff hated us. So, after dinner they began to play some music to dance to, or at least that's what they said. At one point they had played, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "I Will Survive" and they began to play something that soundly oddly familiar. That had been our game all evening trying to guess which song was going to be slaughtered next. So we were trying to figure out which song it might be when it hit us...it was Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. Taylor (another CMU individual at our table) leaned over and said, "Perhaps the song about an illegitimate child is not the most appropriate song for a wedding." The rest of the evening had it's ups and downs. We danced when we could stand the music. And we got to catch up with some people we hadn't seen for a while. Since Adam had been studying in Rome his internal clock was all screwed up. He was starting to fade out quite quickly. And, when Adam gets tired it's always funny. As we were walking back into the hall he said, "Maybe they'll (the band) play something I like, or, I might slit my wrists." Knowing Adam as we do he's not prone to making comments like that.
Dave's photographer was using a pretty elaborate digital set-up. We figured he must have come from CMU as well. There was a great big party going on, lots of liquor and food, and he was sitting in the back corner of the room hunched over a computer. We sat and heckled everything around us a bit more and I finally decided that when we all got to hell I didn't want the rest of them celling with me. They were a bad influence. Ok, we were all being fairly mean, but if we didn't heckle who would? I went out with Pat and Matt in the hallway to catch up and while we were gone, Phil, a true sales weenie, decided that he was going to hit on our wives. As we were walking into the hall again he had drug Alison out on to the dance floor and was basically holding her hostage. We watched for a while and then Matt felt bad and went to rescue his wife. Phil then went to Terri and I also watched and laughed for a little and then went over to rescue her as well. When we got back to the table they said that he had walked over to them and asked if they were with anyone. They both said that their husbands had just stepped out. He said, "That's ok. I'm married too. So, it's ok."
About halfway through the evening we noticed one of the guests looked exactly like John Cusack. We spent the next half hour or so spouting our favorite quotes from his movies. "I want my two dollars." "I killed the President of Paraguay with a fork, how have you been?" At about this time they brought out a bunch of desserts in addition to the cake. There were several big bowls of chocolate pudding that were left when we decided to head back to our rooms. We were fairly certain that we could get out of the ballroom with one, but realized that we would have to hum the Mission: Impossible theme song. So, we gave up on that. As we were walking up the hallway generally making fun of the band we noticed the lead singer standing in front of the Mac machine. Quickly we ducked around the corner to the elevator hoping he hadn't heard us. But then again, I'll most likely never end up in his piano bar so what do I care. As we got onto the elevator an older couple that had been at the wedding got on as well. They made polite small talk and ended with, "That band was phenomenal for people of all ages. Don't you think?" We had no words. We had spent the better part of the evening making fun of the band and my mom always said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." This was one of the times that I listened.
When we got upstairs we played a game of cards and somehow Alison won. I'm pretty sure there was trickery involved, but I'm not sure how.
The next morning we set off for home. After following Matt's warped sense of direction we finally got on the way home. We stopped at a donut shop (there seems to be one every five feet in New England). The donut shop was a drive-thru only basically. But we didn't want to drive through so we tried to go around and almost ended up in the McDonald's drive-thru. We finally got to the shop, but they didn't take credit cards and we didn't have much cash. So we had to trek across the parking lot to the Mac machine. We made it back to Matt and Alison's house eventually and after a few more leans from Susie we headed for home. And, I'll pick it up there later. Gee now I'm only 9 days or so behind.

It is both intrinsically sad and disheartening to be the one who shuts the lights off in the office on a Friday night and the one who turns them back on Saturday morning. Sweet God of caffiene don't fail me now.

Okay, need to get everything caught up here. I've seen way too many things since I've been back that I want to blog about. So, sit back, grab a cocktail (I recommend Stoli Razberi and orange juice, you'll find out later), and prepare to be amused, amazed, or angry.
Alison was off work on Friday so the four of us were stumped for something to do. Then someone decided maybe a movie. So then we had to wait until someone broke down and went and retrieved the paper from the paperbox so we could see what was playing. I was looking for an intelligent piece of cinema so I suggested this. Thankfully I was shot down. We decided we were going to see this piece of crap. Ok, that's probably a little more harsh than I need to be, but I didn't really care for the movie. But back to the events leading up to that.
The movie started at 4:30 so Alison decided she wanted to get a haircut. So she and Terri set out on a fairly long journey to get a haircut. (This chick's rockin' your bro on the dance floor) Matt and I decided to play Gran Turismo for the Playstation 2. Well, let me put that in slightly clearer terms. Matt decided he wanted to win for a change so we played video games. I got my ass kicked more times than I could keep track of. I got beat by a freakin' VW Bug and a Mini-Cooper. Anyway, once I tired of that we started to watch this, which was actually supposed to be this. One thing that we noticed using the subtitles is how close Henry IV is to The Holy Grail. I'm still not quite sure whether that's a product of Shakespeare stealing from Monty Python or Monty Python stealing from Shakespeare. Before we got too far into the movie the girls came home from their long journey to get a haircut (but she's towin' an anchor, a junior investment banker) and we had to get ready for the movie.
I didn't like the movie. Everyone else seemed to. I did enjoy the scene with the Fish-Eater's Anonymous meeting, but that was about it. Disney/Pixar stories traditionally have always worked on three levels. There's the bright colors and animal characters for the little ones that are 2-5ish. The actual story is usually geared to the 6-13 year olds. 13-18 year olds don't usually watch Disney movies cause they think they're uncool. However, when you start watching them again for whatever reason, you begin to notice that the third layer is just for you. Jokes that are above the little ones heads. Whether it's an age gap (they're too young to have seen the material the joke is based on) or a knowledge gap (they just won't understand til they've been exposed to the material) the adults got to have a couple of laughs within the movie. This movie didn't have anywhere near enough of that. It did have me wondering what Walt Disney had against motherhood and mothers in general. Nemo's mom gets eaten in the first three or four minutes of the movie.
After the movie we headed to a neat pizza shop called Vetrano's. The pizza there was really good and I got the added bonus of getting to eat a Hawaiian pizza. I don't usually get to have that around here since very few other people seem to have the stomach for it.

This is another hint to move back to Pittsburgh...you know who you are.


The pizza also kept the conversation to a pleasant minimum so there was no mention of the haircutting trip. (who's talkin' bout herself and not much more whoa-o-oo) After dinner we headed over to the House of Satan. For those of you that know me, you know exactly what store that is referencing. And, as though being in that store wasn't bad enough, we had gone with the express purpose of buying season 4 of this crap. I never did watch any though. I would have if questions had started popping up about the haircutting trip. (So, buy her a beer that's the reason you're here. Mighty Wingman.) I beat Matt a few more times at Trivial Pursuit (though he did win one when I got a little too cocky).
On Saturday we got ready for the wedding. The drive over to Framingham was pretty uneventful except for more questions about the haircutting trip. (You're takin' one for the team so your buddy can live the dream. Wingmaaaaaaaaaaaaan!) We checked into the hotel and our adjoining rooms that we requested were on opposite ends of the 4th floor. So as we headed up to stow the luggage we saw a note taped to the wall from none other than Adam Davis. So of course we had to stop in and say hi.
For those of you that don't know Adam, shame on you. Adam is...well...Adam. He has the voice of a game show host, but manages to pull it off quite well. He's in law school right now at Temple. For some reason they were having a study abroad thing in Rome, Italy. So, he actually flew back from Italy to be in Dave's wedding. As we sat talking to Adam he told us about the rehearsal dinner and meeting some of the extended relatives. He met one of Dave's relatives and the first thing they said to him was, "Dave's full of shit." That is one of the best sentences I've ever heard to describe Dave. Then Dave came in and we chatted a while longer and then everyone left to get ready for the actual wedding.
Jessica, Dave's fiancee, is Jewish. They had a portable chupah for them to get married under. Pat was the best man. Adam and Steve Badelt were also in the wedding party. I also saw ex-Lycos Pittsburghers, Ron Rainville, Frank Treu, Jason Heyd, and Joe Pranevich. The wedding itself was pretty enjoyable. Although when finished the ceremony there was the traditional breaking of the glass. I couldn't help myself. I leaned over and said, "Did anyone else feel sorry for the glass?" And, looking over the vast expanse, I'll save the reception and the rest of the trip and oddities I've seen since til tomorrow.

Alright, missed yesterday trying to get caught up on all the things at work. Anyway, Wednesday was a pretty uneventful day. I worked til noon and then headed down to Primanti's to pick up sandwiches for everyone. Terri picked me up and we headed home to pack the car and ride off into the sunset. I'm telling you, that drive across Pa. gets longer and longer each time. We got into Matt and Alison's at about 11:00 or so. I was greeted by Susie their "new" "old" dog. Susie is 7, but Matt and Alison just got her a few months ago from a friend whose living arrangements were no longer able to accomodate a dog. Susie does what they call "the lean." She'll walk up to you, turn her body towards you and lean on your legs til you pet her. Turns out she's right on my knee level and after 9 hours in the car, she didn't earn any points. But, that's ok. I don't like dogs anyway.
Thursday dawned or rained depending on your outlook. Matt, Terri, and I took Susie for a stumble. It wanted to be a run, but it wasn't. We tried. But, that's ok. I don't like dogs anyway. Terri and I tried to get our hair cut, but walk-ins are only welcome occasionally. So, we were told to come back at 4. Since Matt had dropped us off and went to get a dog license, we decided to walk to the nearby Store. They were closed for inventory. So, we were striking out all the way around. Matt was back by then and he had also struck out. Turns out he needed a rabies certificate that he left at home. But, that's ok. I don't like dogs anyway. Then we headed to the grocery store for dinner ingredients. I know we were in Connecticut, but you could never prove that looking at the magazine rack in the store. The only magazine that mentioned Ct. on the cover was a golf magazine which is a waste of the paper it is printed on. There were magazines for Boston, Rhode Island, and Vermont. I guess even Ct. people don't want to actually be in Ct.

This is your hint to move back to Pittsburgh...you know who you are.

After shopping and not buying Cottage cheese, we headed back to the house to have the Primanti's sandwiches for lunch. Then on to the haircut, but not the Store. Feeling about 5 pounds lighter with no hair, we headed back home and caught up with Alison just back from work. So, we hung out and watched Matt cook dinner and played Skipbo. A very interesting game. Though after Matt and I won several times Terri and Alison just wanted to know when dinner was going to be ready. The rest of Thursday was very laid back. As noted before Matt got his ass kicked several times at Trivial Pursuit and we all went to bed happy. And, on that note...we cue the music, or at least stop for a breather.

Ok, I have returned, but it will take quite a while to get the events of the past (almost a week) into perspective and posted here. So, if you have any questions, just pop up a comment.

It rains a lot up here which is odd considering where I come from, but oh well. Things are going well on vacation. I've maintained my winning streak at Trivial Pursuit by handily beating Matt in 2 straight games. There's talk of a movie today, but everyone's being kind of lazy. Tomorrow we head off to the wedding which might not be.

Damn, I go away for one day and everyone gets wordy.
Since I don't have time at the moment to read everything I'll just make two suggestions.
Give Edzo a chance as head coach and read Dwight's comment on my New Jersey post.

This little paragraph on the imdb made me almost very happy. I love the fact that he not only spoke out against Starsky and Hutch, which, just based on the casting, is gonna be horrible, but he also managed to rip on Charlie's Angels as well.

Original Starksy And Hutch stars David Soul has been forced to eat his words, after being offered a small role in the upcoming movie adaptation. Soul had initially been furious that film studio Warner Bros. were updating the 1970's cop show for the big screen with stars Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. He had raged last month, "They ain't Starsky and Hutch and to cast them as such cheats a huge audience who grew up with Glaser and Soul in the roles...(It will be) another one of those bad, glitzy action pieces, like Charlie's Angels." However, Soul and former co-star Paul Michael Glaser are now taking a different approach. Soul reveals to British newspaper The Daily Mail, "Paul and I are in talks with the producers about cameo roles in the movie."

I hope that the cameo's fall through. That will be just as sad as Patrick Macnee's cameo in the Avengers movie.

Anyway, one hour and I'm off to Connecticut.

There have been vast rumors of Edzo taking over the head coaching duties for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I'm torn. I feel much the same way that I did when Bryan Trottier took over the New York Rangers. I really want Edzo to succeed, but I'm terrified of the repercussions.
Oh, and even though I voted against them, you can check out my mini-band review of Queen at Craig's blog.

Top 5 on my hate list right at the moment
1. New Jersey
2. Chris Berman
3. The regular ESPN hockey announcers
4. The "new" camera angles
5. ESPN itself
Here's a hypothetical commercial that I think would look good on TV.
"New Jersey, you've just won the Stanley Cup, what are you going to do now?" "Um, well, we're pretty rude and stupid around here so we'll boo the MVP of the playoffs cause he's not on our team."
Ok, hockey is over, but that didn't stop me from reading this completely true article.
Congratulations to the Mighty Ducks for their efforts and for making a post season without the Penguins much more tolerable.
Well, I don't know how the posting will go over the next couple of days. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon and heading to see Matt and Alison in Connecticut for a few days and then all four of us are headed to Boston to see our friend Dave get married (maybe). Why maybe? Well, with Dave you just never know. No, from all indications that we've seen, this girl is good for him and I hope their wedding goes as smoothly as ours did. And we'll most likely get to catch up with people we haven't seen in while. But, all that fun may diminish my connectivity to the internet. I'm sure you can find some other addictive substance to help you cope. I should be back to normal by next Tuesdayish.

I fuckin' hate New Jersey.

This was an interesting weekend. On Friday night I ended up helping a friend of a friend move from an incredible house in Point Breeze (her parent's residence) to a studio/efficiency on the South Side. There wasn't enough room for us to turn around in this apartment, but she's going to live there for at least a year. If you had seen the house she moved out of you would cry. I asked if I could move in since she was moving out. The bulk of her wordly possessions fit in the back of the pick-up truck we were using. Since she had been to my house there were lots of jokes about the size of the truck it would take to move everything that Terri and I owned in one trip. I think it was determined to be roughly the size of Rhode Island, though you may find differing opinions depending on who you ask. Saturday we had to go buy birthday presents for Jacob. He turned 3 on Thursday which was the reason for the Pirates excursion. Then Joe came over and we set out on an odyssey to find a copy of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Well, ok, not an odyssey, but it did take us two video stores with the second being an incredible find. It was a small operation (or at least it looked so on the outside). When we got inside we were overwhelmed by the amount of things that they had to offer. So, we got that and The Big Hit. Now, I don't have the rave reviews of Valance like Joe does, but it was a good movie. I find more and more that I'm not a great big Jimmy Stewart fan. I think that's pretty un-american, but such is life. Wayne was able to save it for me. And, I learned two things. One, where the quote "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, you print the legend." actually came from. And two, why everyone associates the western use of the word "Pilgrim" with John Wayne. After we finished both movies (after many interruptions for the Ducks hockey game, Go Ducks!), it was about 1 am and Joe headed up to bed. Me and my insomnia decided to see what else was on. Wouldn't you know it, ESPN Classic was running Game 6 of the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals. At 3 am I finally headed to bed.
On Sunday, we headed out to run a bunch of errands before heading to Jacob's party, but that didn't work out so well. The video store wasn't open so we couldn't return the movies. The mall didn't have exactly what we were looking for so that trip was a bust on all fronts. The day picked up when we got to the party though. Everyone had a lot of fun and the swingset that I poured three days of my life into got lots of use. We also ended up making fun of our wedding video later on that night and watched what was supposed to be a really big storm spill about three raindrops and then taper off into a light misting.
Tonight is THE last hockey game of the season. Regardless of the outcome this is it. I don't know if anyone has actually seen this movie, but John Candy has a minor role as the announcer. And all day long his little patter about the game being for the whole ball of wax, the whole enchilada, etc. has been popping in and out of my head. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It just doesn't get any better than that (although the Pens being one of the teams would make it easier). However, win or lose I think J-S Giguere has proven himself the MVP of the Playoffs and deserves the Conn Smythe Trophy. Anyway, Let's Go Ducks...one last time.

Ok, I missed the post yesterday. That's ok, very little was going on anyway. There was nothing more to rant about really. No hockey game, no more Pirate rainouts. It was just a fairly boring day in which I tried to clear some stuff off of my desk. Last night, however, was a different story. Mark and Robyn's little boy Jacob turned 3 yesterday. Happy Birthday Jacob! So, we all went to the Pirates game last night. Which, that in itself, is a big step for me not being a baseball fan and all. However, it also meant missing Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. And, with the series being deadlocked at 2 games each, game 5 looked mighty important. So, since I had heard part of the game on the radio on Monday night, I thought that ESPN radio would also be broadcasting the game last night. So, I had Terri find my walkman and some fresh batteries and I was all set to watch the baseball game, but listen to the hockey game. I also had Brian and Tom standing by with their cell phones, sending me updates via text messaging. Thanks to both of them by the way. They did a much better job than any of the services offered online. I not only got the scores, but also personal views of the goals and mistakes. So, not to get off topic, but I found ESPN radio and listened to what I thought was the last five minutes or so of a sports call in show. Then at 8 the show came back. They weren't broadcasting the game and to make matters worse they kept giving me frequent updates of the Pirates game. (Which is to say nothing of what I saw at the game when I first got there, but more about that later.) I thought perhaps they couldn't reschedule the show or some other nonsensical reason and they would cut to the hockey game in the second period. So, nine o'clock rolled around and the sports call in show ended. And, instead of the hockey game what do I get? Inside Pirates Baseball. It was like I was in my own little personal hell. I quickly scrambled up and down the dial, but alas, no hockey game. So, thankfully the updates were keeping me well informed every step of the way. And, everyone had fun at the baseball game so it wasn't a total loss. The Pirates even managed to pull out a win. Which brings me back to the beginning of the game. Mark and I waited outside for his Uncle Rick and assorted family members to show up since we were holding the tickets. As we were walking up to the seats (letting Mark lead was a mistake, I think at one point we were actually in a different zip code) I looked down onto the field. There were several PNC Park groundskeepers watering the infield with a hose. Yes, WATERING THE INFIELD WITH A HOSE. I'm sure the dust factor is a major problem, but if they had removed the tarp from the infield on Tuesday night when we sat there for the rain/no-rain delay, it would have taken the entire game for the infield to become as wet as they made it WATERING IT WITH A HOSE ON PURPOSE. Yet another in my long list of reasons why Baseball is one of the more brainless sports.
On the heels of his reported exodus out of town, Mario became slightly surly with the press yesterday at the opening of his annual golf tournament. The Post-Gazette had this to say about it. And, I'm sure it won't be the last we hear about it. Nor should it. Yes, the economy is shitty, yes there probably is no money available, yes they are drowning in the loans of the previous two stadiums. And yet, both Jim Roddey (the county chief executive) and Tom Murphy (Mayor) said that they were committed to keeping the Penguins here. So, what to do? Well, it's about time that Pittsburgh actually stood up for some of the things it needs and admits that it overspent on some of the things that it doesn't need. Was the old convention center so decrepit that we needed a new one immediately? No, and the new one has actually had more bad press than the old one ever did. Did we need two one-sport stadiums at the same time? No, the Pirates or the Steelers could have easily stayed another season or two or three in Three Rivers Stadium thus stretching out the pain and expense. Three Rivers wasn't even fully paid off. I know, I know, it doesn't have the luxury box revenue. Hmmm, didn't stop the Steelers from selling it out and people certainly seemed to like it. Can't say I've heard the same reaction about Heinz Field. Sure, if one sport deserves a new stadium they all do. But, realistically, they don't all need it on the same day. So, you start with the ailing franchise...Pirates. PNC Park goes up and does wonderful in it's first year. The Steelers still continue to perform well in Three Rivers. The Penguins begin tentative plans for their new building. A year or two after PNC Park comes the new Igloo. A year or two after that Heinz Field. Everyone is happy, no one feels slighted and maybe, just maybe the small market teams in Pittsburgh survive another 30 or 40 years. But no, we had to have baseball only and football only stadium built at the same time, doubling the money, pressure, and wear on the patience of the taxpayers and sports fans in the city. Hockey also has been, and will probably always be the bastard step-child. I don't understand it, I certainly don't like it and I won't perpetuate it. The Penguins have hoisted championship banners up in this city twice. And they've done it in the past 15 years. Which is more than either the Pirates or the Steelers can say. The Steelers and Pirates made Pittsburgh a city of champions and the Penguins carried on, and added to the tradition. Now that they need a little help from the big brother sports teams I hear nothing. I don't hear McClatchy or Rooney standing up and backing Lemieux in his bid to get a new arena. However, when they were lobbying for their buildings the Penguins did issue the comment that all of the sports franchises in Pittsburgh needed new venues to remain viable and integral to Pittsburgh. I think it's time for Pittsburghers and the business' in this city to stand up and take some pride in the city. Bite the bullet and pay some business tax. There is absolutely no reason the city should bend over backwards to accomodate you with tax free buildings when you have plans on vacating the city as soon as the tax free status runs out. Everyone is struggling in the economy. Lord knows, I'd like a little money myself. But, if anyone out there is willing to donate money, get in touch with the Penguins front office. (412) 642-1300. Let's start a fund for the arena. Hell, I'll kick in the first $20.00

Well since I seem to be the first of the three to post about this, my story will stand as the accurate, correct account of last night's events. Tom, Tiff, Tom's brother Joed, and I all attempted to go the Pirates first game with the Boston Red Sox in 100 years. That ridiculous fact aside, the crowd seemed ready to watch the game. 2 hours and 30 minutes later when they made the announcement that the game was cancelled due to rain the crowd seemed ready to lynch the first person with any authority that they saw. So, what do you do for 2 hours and 30 minutes to kill time? Well, in a normal rain delay I'm told that they show stuff on the scoreboard. Clips from past games, world series games, etc. Not at this game. It was turn back the clock night. The scoreboard only showed a graphic of an old fashioned scoreboard. And nothing else. The rain, a light drizzle at best, seemed to be a non-factor. These guys are being payed a lot of money to do their "job." I find it hard to believe that the game couldn't have been played. And, I'm not the only one. Local columnists had this to say. And it's completely correct. Once they removed the tarp from the infield, it would have taken at least three innings before you could even tell it was raining. So, what did they do to entertain the crowd you ask? Nothing. For about an hour and a half. Then some poor guy (who knew what he was in for) climbed onto the dugout in front of us with a megaphone (which had a built in microphone, so much for turn back the clock), and recited Casey at the Bat. If there had been a giveaway that night, this guy would have been stoned to death with said giveaway. Thankfully for him, he was just booed incessantly. Loudest of these came from the gentlemen about 5 rows back from us that seemed to be seeing things for the entire game. Not once did we see Kevin McClatchy (the current CEO and owner of the Pirates), but for some reason this guy either saw him or perhaps thought someone would relay the message. About every 5 to 7 minutes he stood up and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Hey Kevin McClatchy, this is why attendance is down." and various other sentiments all geared towards the owner. See, I would think that attendance is down because Baseball is by far one of the more boring sports, the Pirates haven't won a World Series since 1979, the team is in a rebuilding mode, they don't win very often, etc. Any or all of these would work. Apparently though, this guy thought that the rain delay was the sole reason attendance was down. Oddly enough, it was the first game I attempted to attend this year. So, I think that reasoning is kind of shot. I actually tried to go to the game with the rain delay, so on the nice sunny days when I wasn't there I certainly didn't blame it on Mr. McClatchy. I've never even met the man. Anyway, we spent the majority of the time making fun of Tom so I guess it wasn't a total loss. However, I think I'm gonna start keeping track of the time in my life that gets wasted either through my own bad decisions or at someone's else's hands. So far this morning, I've come up with 337 minutes. 150 mins. last night at the pirates attempt at a game, 101 mins. for the crap that is Two Weeks Notice, and 86 mins. for this crap. I know there's a whole lot more, but that's all I came up with this morning.
Anyway, no hockey tonight, but Tom did send me this. Now, normally I won't give any notice to Mark Madden and his ego (maybe because I've never made the decision on what contains the most fat, his head or his gut), but this was right on target. For as much as I dislike Mr. Madden, he does have a unique way of looking at things and occasionally I find myself agreeing. Especially with the paragraph towards the end where he explains that Pittsburgh should be a little friendlier to those who choose to stay here. And, I got a good chuckle out of this when Ray sent it to me. I can see the first line for the Rangers now. Kovalev, Lindros, and Jagr. And they still won't make the playoffs.

Quack
Quack
Quack
Am I wrong in thinking that the Ducks should just start with overtime? I haven't seen a team dominate like that in quite a while. Just when I was all set to start ranting that I needed to get some sleep the Ducks decided that was enough and scored 39 seconds into overtime. Good enough for me. Since I was working a long day yesterday, I listened to the first period on the computer from a Ducks oriented radio station, or as they called themselves, Orange County's Conservative Radio, found all the way to the right on your radio dial. I listened to the second period on the way home in the car on some random AM station, but this station was broadcasting from a New Jersey perspective. And, to make it just a little surreal, Edzo was doing color commentary. I got home in time to see the third period and the overtime so it was a weird way to watch the game. Oh and if I have to listen to Chris Berman make one more reference to the Hotel California I'm going to make sure he's punted back to where he came from. Hockey is painful enough to watch with the ESPN camera angles and announcers without dragging some jackass in that isn't even connected with the sport for the majority of the season.
Anyway, yesterday came and went and so will the month of June. Not much else is going on. I'm attempting to write a procedure for the consultant so that she can pass it off as her own work. Thankfully senior management is well aware of who does what, or rather, who doesn't do what. Maybe I'll get promoted to something a little more in line with my skill level and closer to the salary I'm looking for. And if not, there's always the option of beoming a high paid escort.
Tonight, if it isn't rained out, which in Pittsburgh is never a given, I'll be at PNC Park watching the Pirates play the Boston Red Sox. Now, I'm not a big baseball fan (tix were given to me by Tom) but I will go to a game or two every year with a group of friends more for the company than for the game. However, on the radio this morning I heard that this was the first time that the Pittsburgh Pirates would play the Boston Red Sox since 1903. 100 years! I found that a little difficult to believe and started asking questions. "Well, there's the NL and the AL and they started interleague play recently and the scheduling was weird and they finally switched things around." No wonder baseball is a dying sport. There are like 500 hundred scheduled games a year for each team and they can't squeeze in one game for every team? There are 82 hockey games and we see everyone at least once. Perhaps they don't play home games with each team every year, but within two years, you can catch just about every single team in the arena of your choice. See, now you know why hockey will always triumph because baseball is dumb. Or something like that.

Let's Go Ducks! Let's Go Ducks! If I had my wish, when they induct Martin Brodeur into the Hockey Hall of Fame (which I would stop if I could), there would be a little interactive TV display right next to his plaque. When you pushed the button it would play the clip of him dropping his stick and deflecting the puck into his own net for Anaheim's second goal of the night. And it would play it over and over and over and over. That would make me happy when I go to visit. Hopefully this evening the Ducks can even up the series at home and gain a little momentum going back to the pit that is Jersey.
This morning my computer lit up with the discussion of Mario Lemieux becoming a New York Ranger. Thankfully before much more speculation went on, Lemieux issued a statement saying that if he was going to play next year, he was going to be a Pittsburgh Penguin. Now we just have to figure out how to convince him to actually play this season. I think his decision will be based largely on the coach that they choose. If he has confidence in the coach and feels that they will be a viable contender, not Stanley Cup caliber, but playoff bound, then he'll take the ice again. I think most of the league is banking on a major shake-up in the CBA coming in September of 2004. Ottawa could certainly benefit, as well as Buffalo. But, since I don't do well at predicting the future, I think I'll just wait with everyone else and see how things turn out.
Today is the first business day of the last month of the fiscal year at the University. That means that we have about 28 days to get everything paid and put into the system. So, I'll be putting in approximately 12-15 hour days from now til the end of June. What fun. The only consolation comes in opening that paycheck when it's all said and done. Not much else is going on today. The weekend was spent getting a ton of stuff done around the house in addition to getting back to a little physical activity. I got to ride about 40 miles on the exercise bike while watching the hockey game and Dover race. I also got a graduation announcement for my cousin Nick. I can recall with clarity when Nick's parents (my uncle and aunt) were married. Which means I also remember with clarity when Nick was born. Now he's graduating from high school. Nothing like getting a reminder that you're getting older. Anyway, congrats Nick!

Quick post today. We actually got out of work early so my normal afternoon slacking was cut into. One thing I did want to mention, other than the fact that I hate New Jersey and the type of hockey they promote, is a question more or less. Is chili a salad dressing?

So, after reading the comment about the length of yesterday's post I decided to see just how long it actually was. 1,268 words. So, I'm verbose, loquacious, garrulous even. Sue me. My opening argument will probably last long enough to get the case thrown out. Anyway, tonight is game two and the Ducks need to look and play a whole lot better than they did in Game One.
This was the topic of conversation for an hour or so today. I'm telling you, if my cat leaps at the screen to catch one of their TV squirrels and breaks my TV Meow Mix is gonna be paying out the tail. And, not that I was scouting for jokes, but when I went to link the previous article I saw this which seems to prove that Philadelphia really is the city of Brotherly Love.
Not much else is going on and I'm looking forward to getting out of here in a few minutes. I want to continue reading the Newsweek article that I started at lunch. It was on the 100 best high schools in America. Not one of these schools is in Pennsylvania. Not one. Ohio, Kansas, Arkansas, even freakin' Alabama had one. Not Pa. My consolation is that for all their bragging, Cherry Hills NJ was not on the list. So, to the people I know from there I bite my thumb at thee, according to this list you got no better learnin' than me did.

Just a quick side note before I get down to the topic on my mind. My office chatters constantly about things that are going on in the world or stuff they heard on the news. They talk about TV shows and cooking and anything else that springs to mind. Today, this was their topic of conversation. Now, I can remember having fights with my parents about not being allowed to do something that I wanted to do, but I think with all the recent happenings in the world new parents should get a checklist. So, when their teenager starts the same argument that I did (you don't love me, you don't want me to have any fun, etc.) they can refer to the checklist. "Did I ever put you in a washing machine and turn it on?" No. "Did I ever try to drown you in the Snake River?" No. Then get back in the house and finish your chores.
Now on to today's, or rather, last night's musings. My parents weren't big sports fans. My father watches racing of all sorts, but for as long as I can remember his version of watching the race included turning the race on, sitting back in the recliner, watching 10-20 laps, falling asleep, and waking up with 10-20 laps to go. So, I didn't grow up pledging allegiance to any one sport or sport's team for that matter. Don't misunderstand me, as someone who grew up in the shadow of Pittsburgh I can remember the World Series in 1979 and the Superbowl in 1980 and the whole "We Are Family"/"City of Champions" deal. However, we didn't watch games on TV or even in person. I got tickets to a Pirates game in the 6th grade for straight A's in some program that they had. My dad and I went. I had to that point never been that bored. In the 5th inning my father got upset when I produced a book and started to read. So, I sold the rest of the Straight A tickets I got. As I got a little older I began to realize that I could do some things that my Father couldn't do. What I didn't realize is that there were thousands of things my Dad could do that I couldn't. And he didn't give an inch which is something I still respect.
I had never seen either of my parents play chess. So, when I learned how to play chess I felt pretty special. I came home bragging to my parents and my dad offered to play a game with me. He played so efficiently and beat me so effectively for about 10 straight games that I thought I had become retarded. Another time, I bought a box of random stuff at a yard sale that my parent's friends were having. Mixed in among the sparklers and marbles was a pair of wooden sticks. So, I asked my Dad what they were. "Those are chopsticks. I used to eat with those all the time when we were stationed in Hong Kong." Now I couldn't imagine anyone being able to eat with a pair of sticks thinner than a pencil. So to prove something either to myself or my dad, I began to practice. Now, I eat quite well with a pair of chopsticks and won't eat chinese food without them. When I found out my dad was a good bowler, I joined a saturday league. It was like a competition for me in some way.
Where is all this leading? Ice Skating. When I was about 12 or 13 I found out my Father was a pretty good ice skater. According to my Aunt and Uncles (his sister and brothers) out of the 7 of them, he was the best. I didn't have the opportunity to test my skating ability until this past winter and let me tell you, there's not a skater gene that gets passed down. I couldn't skate worth crap, although after three tries I could make it around the rink without falling. But enough of my lack of athletic ability, back to the story at hand. So, when I couldn't test my skating ability I began to really respect the people who had. Namely hockey players and figure skaters. Now the two don't go hand in hand and other than the fact that both use ice they have little in common. However, I began to become absorbed by both. In 1988 I was glued to the skate wars of Brian Orser and Brian Boitano in the Olympics. And, when the 1990-91 hockey season rolled around the Penguins had my attention full throttle as they made their way into the playoffs, past the first round...second round...third round and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is where the story comes full circle. I watched all 6 games in the finals that year. And, in the beginning of game six they interviewed a small child as part of their fan bit. "What do you think the score is going to be?" "8-0 Pittsburgh" Most amazing prediction I've ever seen. Last night, with the exception of the interview part, ESPN Classic was running game by game highlights of the Stanley Cup Finals from the 1990-91 season. Watching those clips brought back such a flood of emotion. I could remember my excitement building with each goal in game 6. Since my parents weren't big sports fans, they had gone to bed. I was alone in the living room (back then it was the only room in the house that had a tv) trying to quietly watch the game. When your team goes up as quickly as Pittsburgh did, it's very hard to contain that. So, I ended up running laps around the outside of my house to calm myself down. All in all I think I did about 20 laps around the house that night. 8 for the goals and lots in between periods just to burn off the nervous excitement. And, watching those goal highlights again last night, I felt the same nervous energy building back up. Which is what led to my disappointment. The highlights finished at 8:00 and I quickly flipped over to watch game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Now, I know that since Pittsburgh isn't playing that the level of excitement or energy wasn't going to come anywhere close to what it had been in 1991, but Stanley Cup hockey is always exciting regardless of who is actually in the game. At least that's what I thought til last night. Let me just state for the record. I hate the neutral zone trap playing style of the New Jersey Devils more than I hate the ESPN announcers and camera angles for the games. Watching Minnesota and Anaheim play to a 0-0 regulation tie and Anaheim win in overtime sounds boring. It wasn't. I was on the proverbial edge of my seat for that entire game. If I hadn't had other things to occupy my time, I probably would have fallen asleep during last night's game. I know, a long drawn out story to essentially say...I hate New Jersey and their style of hockey. But I do. I hate it. It gives hockey a bad image. New Jersey couldn't even sell out their arena for the first couple rounds of the playoffs. The most exciting story to come out of New Jersey has been the meltdown of Martin Brodeur's marriage. Although the two Niedermayer brothers make for an interesting side bar. But hell, even their mother is rooting for Anaheim.