Well the Pens lost again to Tampa Bay. The good news is, Number 29 is headed back to Cape Breton. And even though he let in 11 goals in his last two games people were still saying he had two good games and he played well. Have they seen the definition of the word well recently? I guess mine differs just a little. Don't get me wrong. I think he's probably going to be a world class goaltender one day. And with a little experience, practice, and patience I'll probably come to respect his abilities and trust him in the net. Right now, have a nice time in Canada. The Pens only have 30 games left on the season and then playoff hockey starts. It is without a doubt one of my favorite times of the year. Then comes the offseason and the CBA. I hope that goes well. I can't handle a lockout.
I just got word that Adam is in Altoona so he's going to be a bit delayed getting here this evening. That train definitely takes a wandering route from Philly to Pittsburgh.
And, after a dozen or so days with below freezing temperatures, all I want to know is..."Where are the global warming people now?"
I saw a dramatization of this on some channel Terri was watching last night. The vast majority of people really are stupid. I just can't figure out any other explanation.
Here are two commercials that have been pissing me off recently that I just haven't gotten around to ranting about.
The first is for Comcast Cable (who have also been pissing me off recently) They have this complete and utter idiot who bought the dish, but didn't anchor it to anything. And, according to the biased slant of the commercial, when he called the dish people they told him to anchor it in a bucket of cement. But, his claim, is that he has nowhere to mix the cement because he lives in an apartment. WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKING BUCKET? This guy is too stupid to live on his own and should be confined to a room with rubber lined sheets to contain his drool.
The second is from Special K cereal. They have jumped on the diet bandwagon (let's not even go down that path again). Their latest commercial shows meat stacking up on a butcher's scale til it reaches 6 lbs. Then they tell you that you can lose 6 pounds in 2 weeks by replacing 2 meals a day with a bowl of Special K cereal. I want to know how many brainless idiots are following this plan. Of course if you switch two substantial meals a day to cereal you're going to lose weight. I don't care what cereal you're eating. You could be eating sugar coated pieces of sugar with sugar frosting and still lose weight if you're eating one meal and two bowls of cereal in a day. And, I'm sure there's a whole subsection of the populous that's jumping towards this. Morons. Morons. Morons. Oh well, enough bitching for today.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. It was a slightly busy day at work and last night I went with Tom to see Lindsy's band last night. You can check them out here. As always, a wonderful show. However, I'm not used to hanging out in a loud bar for most of the night, heading to bed at 2:00 in the morning and then getting up for work so this morning was a chore.
Then I got to work and they were out of coffee filters for the regular machine. Which meant there was no coffee waiting for me like there usually is. Not a good thing this morning. So, I fired up my own personal 4-cup coffee maker with my columbian blend. Good stuff.
I also saw on the ESPN sports crawler that Washington beat the Rangers 2-1. Way to go Caps. Probably the first and last time I'll ever root for them, but way to stick it to Jagr. For being the "best player in the world" (which is a title bestowed a little too frequently nowadays) he wasn't even the high scorer on the Caps. He's currently 11 points behind Robert Lang and not even in the top 10 of the NHL. So much for being the best. I've come to grips with the fact that the Penguins might not make the playoffs this year, but I'm still rooting for the Rangers to fall into a horrible slump. They are 5 points out of the playoffs now and I hope that the chasm widens til they can't even see the 8th slot. I'd love for them to end up in 16th place in the Eastern Conference and 32nd in the league. Ok, I know that's not possible, but a guy can dream can't he?
At the moment, we're still on the hunt for a name and I'm trying to get rid of a horrible headache.

I chose to watch the Pens against Tampa Bay instead of catching the Dennis Miller show. Bad idea. The sooner they send Fleury back to the Junior League the happier I'll be. I'm sure that someday he might be the phenom everyone is claiming, but I have yet to see it. The only thing he seems to have any consistent stopping power on are penalty shots. And, how often do they happen? After the 6-2 loss (with a nice bright spot on Joe Melichar's first NHL goal) Stan Savran gave a little rant on Jagr being traded to the New York Rangers. He said it would be hard to have Jagr whine and destroy team chemistry because the Rangers don't have any to begin with. So, I won't be alone in rooting for the Rangers to miss the playoffs yet again. I was talking, ok ranting, with Brian on the phone about the Pens. He's pretty sure that if he was a player he'd rather retire than play for the Rangers and he's from New York. I just hope that this September brings good things to the Penguins and the league in general. And here's hoping that I can stand the ESPN announcers long enough to watch the All-Star game and playoff hockey.
Terri had another doctor's appt. today. Everything seems to be coming along well. We heard the heartbeat again. The second ultrasound is in about a month or so and I'll be sure to update once we've done that. We've started the name game again, but still nothing. Although Matt has threatened to do the same thing to our son that we once did to Dave and what'shername's cat. They couldn't decide on a name soon enough so we called it motherfucker. It answered quite readily. They finally decided on smudge, but the first name stuck better. Now, I'm not saying Matt's going to call my son motherfucker, but he's threatening Darius. Somehow I think I prefer the former to the latter. Anyone else have any name suggestions for a boy?

Well, I was supposed to start back to class this evening, but the weather decided I needed another day off. So, depending on tomorrow's weather I may have one of my two classes or I may have another week's reprieve. I need to find the severe weather number that they referenced on the sign on the door. That might give me just a little up front insight.
One thing that having this evening off did accomplish was getting to see the newest Dennis Miller vehicle. This is on CNBC every evening at 9:00. Dennis is crawling up on 50 and has mellowed a little. He's become slightly more conservative in his advanced age. Oddly enough the imdb doesn't have this new show listed. His first guest was Gov. Arnold. It was an interesting interview though most of it was spent trying to push the two propositions that Arnold needs passed in California. And, what's Dennis Miller without the news. The last segment of the show, I think it was called the Varsity Squad or Varsity panel (gee what short term memory, huh?) He had three "informed" people though David Horowitz did all the talking. Naomi Wolf was a little outmatched being the only girl. I'm wondering if these three people will be regulars or will they be replaced daily or weekly. Anyway, if you get a chance, catch the show. I think Dennis might actually go a long way towards drawing both sides towards common sense. I guess that will remain to be seen.
Other than that, not a whole lot is going on around here. Just trying to get the house into shape for the annual commercial bowl. We just found out that Adam will be coming in from Philadelphia and being a guest at casa de Vandermark. That means we'll have to be slightly quicker in getting everything ready, but oh well. I need to solve the logistical problems of a.) finishing the cathouse and b.) delivering the cathouse. Finishing hopefully won't be a problem, but delivery might. The weather combined with my father's new truck, added to the fact that he probably doesn't have a cap on the truck, along with the fact that it probably won't fit in any car might make it difficult. I'll get it eventually.

When I started at the University, they had hired a new temporary employee as well. He started the day before I did. For about a month or two Tony the temp would sit at his little table workspace stuffing checks. No one knew too much about him at that point. One of the women in the office finally started talking to him. Not that that's any great feat. I think this woman would talk to cadavers given the opportunity. And, knowing how loud her voice is, she might wake some of them up.
Tony ended up in much the same situation that I did. As soon as they found out his talents extended beyond check stuffing, they quickly put him on other projects within the office. He worked his way around and eventually ended up as the sole web representative for the newly formed customer service department. During this time four of us in the office had developed a nice little clique. We went out for a walk at lunch pretty much everyday and three of us left together every night. A few months ago Tony got another job and left the department and things haven't quite been the same since. The three of us left tried to fill the vacancy, but it never materialized. Customer Service suffered such a blow that they had to open up a third slot to fill the void Tony left. His leaving also had an impact on office moral. Tony was a very funny guy and could lift everyone's spirits regardless of whatever else was prevailing in the office that day. If you ever meet Tony, ask him to do the Spiderman dance, you'll see what I mean.
So, why bring all this up now since it happened several months ago? Well, I was just kind of pre-looking into maybe checking out some possibilities for that change of scenery I mentioned yesterday and looking at the website for the company he works for, they have a nice opening for which I am actually qualified. That and he wanted to know why there was no mention of him anywhere. (hehehe)

Today was the same old same old at work. I think maybe it's time for a change of scenery in that respect. I received an e-mail forward from my Uncle today. I won't copy the whole thing here since it was rather lengthy, but it dealt with God vs. Satan. God created broccoli and lettuce and Satan created Ben and Jerry's and Krispy Kreme. God created running shoes and yogurt to combat that and Satan created the TV remote. God created lean beef to help man stay healthy and Satan had McDonald's create the $.99 Double Cheeseburger with everything and fries. Man went into cardiac arrest. God then created the quadruple bypass surgery and Satan created HMO's.
Why point that out? Because Terri and I are currently being screwed by the healthcare system (although I'm hesitant to use healthcare since I don't think they actually give a damn about our health). When we found out Terri was pregnant, we immediately checked into costs since my last name isn't Rockefeller or Rock for that matter. The insurance company said that once we paid the $250 deductible that everything else would be covered. I said, "Fine. $250.00 over the course of 9 months shouldn't be too hard to squirrel away." The insurance company said, "No, perhaps you misunderstand. The deductible runs concurrent with the calendar year. So anything you pay in 2003 will count towards 2003. However, since the baby will be born in 2004 you'll have to start from 0 again on Jan. 1st. So, I wasn't too keen on that. Then came the ultrasound bill. A one hour ultrasound costs $600+ and on top of that they billed us a second fee to have the "doctor" (read: snotty nurse with little to no patience) read the ultrasound. After 20 minutes I could read the ultrasound. It's not that difficult once you get your bearings and understand how the sound affects and bounces off of tissue density. So, because the ultrasound was in December, we'll have to pay what they won't cover and it counts towards the '03 deductible. Which doesn't do us a damn bit of good in '04. And, when the bill came in yesterday the statement date was Jan. 16th. The due date was Jan. 30th. It took them almost a month to bill us, but we're expected to turn around that cost in under 10 days since we received the bill on the 21st. Makes me want to schedule that annual check-up I've been putting off since I have a little money in savings at the moment.
Now, please don't misunderstand. I'm really looking forward to being a parent and would never actually hold any of this against my son. However, the longer this process goes on, the more I wonder how I never managed to stumble into some facet of the baby racket.
Gap baby sells jeans for $19.50. I don't remember the last time I spent that much money on my jeans and my waist size hasn't changed in almost 12 years. If any one has any low investment high yield baby ideas, let me know. I'll be more than happy to devote time and energy towards making it work.

Pretty dull day today. Tom stopped by the office today and we went through another round of...Are you guys brothers? Aside from dark hair (which is rapidly falling off of one of us, I won't say which so as not to embarrass him) we are fairly different. He's taller, broader, and as a programmer wears the typical uniform...t-shirt, jeans, and a ball cap. Who knows what goes through people's minds?
Another thing that caught my wrath recently is wrapping paper. I wish I had invented that. Wrapping paper costs money and all it does is hide a gift you spent money on for about two minutes while the recipient rips it to shreds and then you go through and pick it all up and throw it away. And, in my house it seems we buy one roll of wrapping paper for every gift. Does the gift take the whole roll? No. But the rest of the roll seems to disappear from gift to gift. Every Christmas we spend $10-15 on wrapping paper and the next year all the leftovers are gone. Where did they go? I've actually considered buying that wrapping paper caddy that they advertise on TV. Then I stop smoking the crack and realize that's exactly what they want you to do. Spend more money on wrapping paper and wrapping paper accessories. I just don't understand it. I think the underpants gnomes are expanding their business. Wrapping paper could be phase two.

Well, I had yesterday off so there's a little more to talk about today. On Friday night, we took Terri's boss out bowling as a late Christmas gift. Poor guy got crushed every game. And speaking of crushed, the Pens have dropped games to Minnesota, Washington, and most likely the Devils.
Saturday we headed out to pick up a travel system from a woman that Terri works with. We got a $150 piece of baby stuff for $40. That enabled us to head to Babies R Us and adjust the registry. What we didn't know is that Saturday was the big Grand Opening of the Babies R Us in Cranberry. It was wall to wall people and babies. It was crazy. Then on the way back we wanted to head to USA Baby to pick out a crib, but snow and lack of directional skill prevented that.
Then early Sunday morning we headed out to Cole's christening. He was very quiet and well behaved during the christening itself, but he decided quickly that he didn't want anything to do with all the pictures that people wanted to take and no one could really blame him. After family cleared out we headed back over to Amy and Glen's to hang out and visit. We were able to ascertain that Glen's father, who was in a car accident Saturday night, was ok.
Monday, I slept in a little and then set to the task of starting the big tetris puzzle that is my house right now. I need to put the carpet on the cat house to get the cat house out of the kitchen to get the kitchen table out of the dining room into the kitchen, etc. etc. etc.
I did manage to make some headway. I got the bottoms of both floors covered and started on the house portion. I wanted to do a little more this evening, but just haven't found the motivation quite yet. I need to do it soon. There's only 11 days left before the Superbowl party and I need to have the majority of this stuff done by then. And, considering this is a Christmas gift from Christmas '02 it's about time.
And, even though there are 11 days left, I lose two evenings next week to class which I haven't been in since 1998. So, that in itself should be an interesting experience.

Ok, I'm done hearing about diets. Get off your ass and exercise a little. Losing weight is the simplest equation in the world. Burn more calories than you take in. Do this enough and you'll lose weight. There's no need to buy special food from the same place that Fergie does. There's no need to cut out all carbohydrates or all proteins or all fats or all...you get the picture. Joe is doing it right. He's snacking a little less, exercising a little more. If you break down the calorie equation I'll bet he's burning off more than he's taking in. I think that everyone I work with is on a different diet. One guy is on the South Beach, one woman is on Atkins, others are counting fat, and they claim that they are going to exercise. With the exception of one person, I haven't seen a change in anyone. I've lost more weight than they have and all I do is step on the treadmill a couple of times a week.
Ok, enough about that crap.
This isn't a funny scenario, but to hear it on the radio made me laugh like hell. The announcer said that..."apparently the man had an incendiary device in the car and set it off when he noticed the police chasing him. I wonder if they just wanted to tell him his brake light was out?
Pens play Minnesota tonight. I hope that Marc-Andre isn't too rusty. It's rumored that he's starting tonight.
Oh well, here's to a whole weekend of getting stuff done. I need to finish the cat house before the annual Superbowl party. I know, I can't stand football, it's a long story that maybe I'll get into later.

Well, last night the Pens managed to beat themselves. They spotted them a two goal lead by having bad bounces go off sticks. Other than that, they played pretty well. Not as good as they played in the Philadelphia game, but oh well. I don't understand how we can get shelled 8-0 by a middle of the pack team and then go into Philly, on their ice, and beat one of the top teams in the East. Such is hockey.
Last night while waiting for Edzo's post game comments, Gene Collier (a columnist for the Post Gazette) came on to do his little rant about whatever was pissing him off. I have such a strong dislike to the man that I flipped the channel to the first available station and watched 5 minutes of basketball. Doesn't seem all that unusual unless you know me. I would never voluntarily sit and watch basketball. But, when it comes down to "something else" or Collier...I'll take "something else" regardless of what it is.
And, oddly enough on the basketball front, the University of Pittsburgh's Men's basketball team is undefeated so far this season. I think they are like 17-0 or something. You can barely buy high priced scalped tickets to the games. The University of Pittsburgh's Women's basketball team on the other hand, just sent out a flyer. They are having an activities fair before one of the games. Admission is free for everyone 18 and under. Admission is free to all employees of the University of Pittsburgh and their immediate families. So much for Title IX or whatever the ruling was to try and even out Men's and Women's sports in college.
I guess that's about all for today.

Yes, I was at the arena for the 8-0 shellacking that the Pens got from Montreal. And, yes to make matters worse it was the same idiot with the same piece of paper not knowing the words to O Canada. I could go down to the ice and sing O Canada for the start of a game. It's a very easy song to sing. We also found out that there are going to be life-sized bobbleheads up for bid in the hockey cancer auction found here. That's fairly scary. Although I guess I could purchase any one of the Flyers and have the neighborhood dogs use it as the new fire plug.
I also realized that even though this blog is for my thoughts and to show people my point of view (however twisted or skewed that may be) it still has its own form of censorship attached to it. The majority of the people reading the blog (unless I've gained some underground readership that I don't know about) are people that I deal with in my everyday life. Which means that if I have a fight with my wife and post the details and my side of the story up here, every last one of them will take the opportunity to take her side and flame me. So, I find myself picking and choosing my topics and rants. And, I'm sure I was going somewhere with that, but at the end of a workday, all I know is that I'm ready to head home. So, that's all for today I guess. Bye Bye and Buy Bonds.

Well, let's see...where to begin. It's been a few days. I think I'll start with one of the oddest things I've seen in a while. Terri's boss dropped by to see how she was feeling (she either has bronchitis or pneumonia, but they can't take a chest x-ray due to the whole pregnancy thing). Anyway, he was hanging out for a little while and we tried out the pool table that Tom bought me for Christmas. He's a big fan of George Lopez and we don't usually watch TV on Friday nights, so we had it on for him. And, in the middle of the episode, George Lopez is relaxing on his couch wearing a Mario Lemieux hockey jersey. And it was a pretty blatant placement. There was no mistaking the team, the number, the C on the jersey, the name on the back. It was a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey featuring Mario Lemieux. And, I don't have a connection. According to the imdb, George was born in Mission Hills, California. None of the movies or shows that he was in, points to a Pittsburgh connection. If he is a big hockey fan, why not the Kings or the Sharks? Or follow a crowd favorite and go with the Detroit Red Wings. Even if it wasn't his choice (which would be odd considering he's the writer, star, and producer) why didn't the costume people choose a team near the top of the standings? Detroit, Toronto, Philly, Vancouver, Ottawa...all popular teams, colorful jerseys. If anyone has any idea why he chose the Penguins, please let me know. I'd love to see it replicated on all TV shows. Friends stars will wear a Rangers jersey every so often, but it's just a generic jersey no star, though Messier would certainly be popular, but thankfully they don't use Lindros.
Anyway, enough hockey even though I'll be seeing the Pens take on Montreal tomorrow afternoon. And, I'll get to hear O Canada again, which to me, is one of the great moments of seeing a hockey game. I hope the person singing it knows the words. Sitting down in Level A, we could see Sebastian Caron fairly well and he knew the words to both O Canada and the Star Spangled Banner. Why can't the person being featured provide us with the same courtesy.

I was up before 6:30, at a seminar all day long with 14 people higher up on the org chart than I am, running to the mall to supplement my "management" wardrobe for the next two days of the seminar, headed to Glen and Amy's to pick up a bassinet (is that spelled right?) for the kid, and when I finally get back to the house at 11:30 the first thing I notice in the bedroom is that there's a lace tablecloth laying by the door. The same tablecloth that was sitting underneath a ton of knick-knacks that were on top of the dresser. Upon looking at the floor, Terri lost two jewelry boxes, several carousel horses, and a beautiful snow globe that Tom had bought Terri for Christmas a couple of years ago. The cats are lucky they survived this long. I was pissed beyond belief. There is glass all over the bedroom floor. Neither Terri nor I even have the energy to clean it up tonight. We just shut the door and we're utilizing the guest room.

Well, doesn't this always happen, a ton of stuff to blog and no time to blog. Instead of re-linking the article here, I'll point you to Diane and Ed. Read the entry marked...god help america. It's a good thing you can't take back pregnancy. I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to explain to the little one that that sort of thing isn't right and never will be.
And speaking of patriotism in a weird sort of way...If you are going to sing the National Anthem or O Canada at a hockey game, no, at any sporting event, KNOW THE FUCKIN' WORDS!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for that brief outburst, but the moron at the Pens game had to have the words to O Canada written on a piece of paper in front of him.
On the upside, once I review the tape of the game (though I'm not sure I want to relive the 5-0 loss) I'm sure that I'll be able to spot Terri and I on TV. We were one row off the ice. Oh, and remind me later to rant about the idiot girl that was behind us, then in front of us.
So, I've sat in on every level in the arena with the exception of on-ice and in the sports deck. I have my pros and cons for each and may even go into them at a later date.
There's also a lot of work stuff, but I'll get to that later too. I'll be out of communication over the next three days due to a seminar that mysteriously appeared on my agenda so it may be a little while since over the course of the next 3 days I'll be spending about 25 or 26 hours with high level managers learning about the ins and outs of Project Management. Woo-hoo. I can hardly contain my excitement. Hopefully I can figure out a way to get coffee done intravenously throughout the day. More to follow I'm sure.

Well, there's probably a lot to say. The Penguins can't win a game to save their lives. They closed out the old year by dropping a New Year's Eve game to the Islanders and opened the New Year by giving up 3 power play goals to Nashville and losing. And we continued losing yesterday as we let the Rangers edge past us. Although if you count ex-Penguin's goals we actually won 3-2. Maybe that's how I'll choose to look at it.
Anyway, I saw this today and realized that another one of Tom's dreams had gone down the tubes, although there's a slight hope if the whole article is true.
As for Friday, December 26th's party...I haven't quite decided whether I want to a.) just mention that I was there and give a brief overview. b.) spill absolutely everything all at once. or c.) draw the details out over a period of a few weeks. I will say that it was quite an interesting party both for those participating and for those of us watching. Oh well, I guess I have some time to figure it out.
So, even though I'm not the pregnant one, it's still my son too, right? Doesn't that give me the right to want to slap someone's hand away from my wife's stomach and ostensibly our child? It's really starting to annoy me.
Anyway, I guess that's about all for today. I'm going to see if I can see the size of that chicken from here or if I have to be in the spirit world to see it.
I also wouldn't mind putting together a list like Craig has, but that would have required me to have started keeping the list last New Years. So, maybe at this point next year, I'll have a list. Although, I will say, much to Craig's dismay that I was rooting for the Mighty Ducks to go all the way.

Alright after not posting or reading for a little over a week, it's time to get back into the swing of things. This will be a short post now, with hopefully a little more later. Once I get home from work, I'd like to catch up on everyone's blog and then do a little supporting/witnessing on my own.
Oh, and Happy New Year, is the political thing to say at this point I guess.