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!