Twelve Down Four To Go

Ottawa - check
New York - check
Philadelphia - check and double-check.
Detroit - Here we come.

I'm already weary of the time between series. I want to see hockey and I will tomorrow night. I'm tired of listening to the broadcasters talk about the precision, the puck-possession, and the shut-down defense of Detroit. Detroit's about to get a taste of what depth looks like on offense. Of the forwards only Tyler Kennedy hasn't scored at least one goal for the Pens and it isn't for lack of trying. The Pens aren't going to have the easiest time in the series, but I say they close it out in 6 on home ice in front of 17,132 screaming fans.

When The Puck Drops, The Cradle (Of Liberty, That Is) Will Fall

Bye Bye New York. Tee times vary by clubhouse. Please call ahead. Don't worry about getting enough guys together for doubles, the Flyers will soon be joining you.

That's right, in 6 short games or less (hopefully less) the Flyers will be giving statements to the press wondering what happened to their season.

I'm also predicting that Dallas will push their series to 7 and come out over Detroit.

The four remaining teams are halfway to the ultimate goal, but only two will survive to keep going.

One of the local sports talkshows has a host (and I'd love to have this soundbyte) and he opens a lot of segements and goes to commercial break with "The only thing better than advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals is stepping over the dead carcass of Philadelphia on the way there."

And, of course, there are other things going on besides hockey, but I just haven't had the energy to log on recently in trying to get the house ready for baby and get Gage's birthday invitations out and getting stuff ready for Adam's wedding and etc. etc. etc. Everyone seems to be well so that's an update at least.

I've Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway, Or At Least I'm Gonna

Alternately titled: I'm Not In A New York State Of Mind
Or maybe: Running On Ice
(Can you tell Terri and I attended the Billy Joel concert Friday night?)
There's much in the way of past weekend wrap-up, but I'm a little too jumbled in those thoughts at the moment so here's the round 2 hockey action. I went 5 for 8, which is a little above my normal 50%.

And, in case anyone's forgotten, the remaining teams are 4 wins closer to holding this.

In the West
Detroit
vs.
Colorado

I'm disappointed that Nashville didn't make it out of the first round, but they shouldn't fret because Detroit won't make it out of the second. Once again, they're showing their age with visible wear and tear. Dominik, I'm retired, no I'm not, yes I am, no I'm not, Hasek is playing like he's already looking forward to summer forcing Osgood to come in and spell him. It's anyone's guess as to who starts round 2. Colorado, even with all their respective aged ones should be able to pull through this in 6 games.

San Jose
vs.
Dallas

It's a shame Calgary didn't make the most of game 7, but then again, no one I wanted won the game 7. I'm predicting that since Turco has a taste of what it's like to win a series, Dallas in 7.

In the East

Montreal
vs.
Philadelphia

Well, after taking their foot off the gas and allowing Boston to make a series of it, Philadelphia liked what they saw and did the same thing for Washington. Turns out Boston missed the memo on what they were supposed to do after getting everything all tied up. Washington made a bit more of a game out of it. Huet just couldn't catch that last one. Two very tied clubs, but I don't think Biron can stand up to Montreal's firepower. I'm saying Montreal in 5.

Pittsburgh
vs.
New York Rangers

Both teams are well rested so one team being rusty shouldn't be a factor. Neither team took major injury losses so that won't matter. And, even though the Rangers aren't quite Pittsburgh East anymore, they still have Jagr, Straka, and Rosival. All in all, it's going to be Pittsburgh in 6.

And, if you didn't get the title...see here and here.

Sweepin Up The Competition

That's right I said Sweep. 4 games for the Penguins to 0 games for the Ottawa Senators. I picked the right outcome, but I was off on the number of games. I thought Ottawa would put up a little bit of a fight. I guess I was wrong. Unless I miscalculated tonight's game, Ottawa held the lead less than 5 minutes in the entire series. (For perspective, 4 games would total 4 hours). Granted, there are times when no one is playing with the lead, but for comparison, the Pens led during the series for well over 2 hours. The 3 stars for the game tonight included Martin Gerber, who, in my opinion, was the only Ottawa player who bothered to show up for the series. Most of the games could have easily been a lot more lopsided if not for him. The series in the West are mostly going my way, although I'm horrible about picking the number of games. I'd still like to see Nashville and Calgary pull it out, but who knows. The games in the East aren't quite as nice to me. Washington hasn't bothered to show up for the last two games. I guess Ovechkin's back isn't as broad as people had hoped. So, if Philly manages to close them out, they'll face Montreal, who has Boston on the ropes. That leaves us with the winner of Devils/Rangers, which right now looks more and more like Rangers. I'm not looking forward to facing Lundquist. But for now, I'll just enjoy the sweep. And, I'm going to game 1 of the second round, dammit.

Other Assorted Items and Hockey Of Course

Okay, I'll start with hockey. Most of the series are headed the way I like, with the exception of the Rangers and Jersey. But, sooner or later, the Rangers will realize that they are, the Rangers, and that will be the end of that run. Pittsburgh has put up two incredible efforts dispelling any notion that Ottawa has the psychological edge on them. After blowing a three goal lead in game two, they hung on and managed to get a beautiful wrap around game winning goal from Ryan Malone, who then proceeded to put in an empty net goal about 45 seconds later. Monday will be the true test up in Ottawa. If they can put Monday's game away, they have a great chance of sweeping and gaining some rest before round two.
I'm growing to like the commercial from the perspective of the goal posts.
Several items have brought about memories of college days recently. It started with reading the 4th novel, Murdered By Mumia by Maureen Faulkner. Not wanting to get into it again, Maureen Faulkner is the widow of the Philadelphia police officer that Mumia Abu Jamal killed in premeditated cold blood in 1981. He's been on death row ever since. When I was writing for the school paper, I was given the assignment to do a story about Mumia since his defense attorney du jour Leonard Weinglass was coming to campus to drum up more support for their "political prisoner" image. Now, I didn't know anything about the case before receiving the assignment. In the span of 4 days, I quickly brought myself up to speed and made my own mind up about the case. However, I spent the next day and a half agonizing, writing, re-writing, editing, reading out loud, scratching, typing, and finally came out with a non-biased account that I was fairly proud of. Turned it in, mentioned to my editor that it was a bit of a task to do a news story on the subject and proceeded to go about my normal set of weekend events (namely buggy). Monday I grab a copy of the paper and I'm thrilled to see top slot above the fold front page. Then I read the article. My editor took the opportunity to use his "editorial pen" to do a slight rewrite on the article and slanted it in favor of Mumia. I was livid since my name was attached to the article. I called immediately and asked where he got off. Three minutes later I had ended my affiliation with the news section of the paper. I continued to submit to the entertainment section doing movie and cd reviews and interviews, but I never submitted another news story. Anyway, reading the novel brought back all those memories and taught me even more about the case. It just amazes me that he's still alive 26 YEARS after being found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers. It's probably one of the few political issues I take an actual stand on.
The second thing that took me back was the death of Dith Pran on March 30th. I interviewed Mr. Pran when he spoke at Carnegie Mellon. I can't even imagine going through the things that he saw both in and out of his camera lens. He was a diminuitive soft spoken man, but highly articulate and intelligent and he and I had a great conversation that turned into a great article.
Then, of course, there's the ever looming Spring Carnival that occurs next weekend. By this time next week I'll know where my old team finished.
And, Smart People came out this week as well. So, all in all, it's been a blast from the past. I haven't seen smart people yet, but I'll probably see it soon.

Cup Fever, Lord Stanley, and the Beard

Tonight begins the best tournament in sports. Forget the NFL playoffs, the World Series, The Chase for the Cup (although that sounds quite similar), The Final Four, Whatever nonsense Basketball calls their crap, this is it. 16 teams, 7 game series, 16 wins over the course of 2 months and you can hold the Holy Grail of Hockey.
So, here are my picks for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (as well as a whole lot of hopin.)

Western Conference

1 - Detroit
vs.
8 - Nashville
Nashville is the huge underdog in this series and not just because Detroit won the President's trophy with the best record in the NHL. They are under-experienced in the playoffs even with the addition of Jason Arnott. I'd love to see Nashville pick it up, but I don't think they have the playoff motor primed and ready. Even though they beat Detroit 3 times in the regular season (and came close to making it 5) I think it's going to be Detroit in 6.

2 - San Jose
vs.
7 - Calgary
I don't know much about either team in this series, beyond the fact that a lot of analysts seem to think it'll be the Sharks and Pens in the final (though I disagree with their outcome). I think San Jose is going to make short work of Calgary. San Jose in 5.

3 - Minnesota
vs.
6 - Colorado
Don't know much about this series either. I'm not sure how much of an impact that Forsberg made in the regular season, but I do know he's a handy guy to have around in the playoffs provided he's healthy. I'm going to have say that Minnesota has their number and will take them in a 7 game series.

4 - Anaheim
vs.
5 - Dallas
Anaheim is the defending cup champ and Dallas is known for early and often playoff exits. I think Turco has decided that this is his year to turn that around. Dallas in 7.

Eastern Conference

1 - Montreal
vs.
8 - Boston
Montreal shouldn't have too much difficulty with this series. Tim Thomas isn't ready to carry a team deep, though neither is Carey Price, but with Kovalev filling up the net like he used to, I think it'll be Montreal in 6.

2 - Pittsburgh
vs.
7 - Ottawa
Ah, the rematch from last season. Although the tables are turned and Ottawa is scattered to the injured reserve winds, they have a yappy jackass coach and the experience to dig deep. Unless the Pens can get to them early and often in the first two games, I think this will a little farther than most people think. However, it will be the Wizard of Cros standing at the end of 6 games.

3 - Washington
vs.
6 - Philadelphia
This series will probably be the most brutal in the East. Ovechkin, the face of the Caps picked up the team and carried them into the post-season by kicking Carolina out at the last possible minute. Philadelphia has had an up and down year from sitting atop the division to being on the outside looking in during the last week of the season. They're also a little battered. Biron is not the wall they need him to be and with Ovechkin, Backstrom, and the late acquisition of Federov I think Washington will walk away in 7.

4 - New Jersey
vs.
5 - New York Rangers
Ug, can they both lose? Even though the Rangers have beaten up on New Jersey throughout the season, Brodeur has the ability to put up the invisible force-field in front of his net which will frustrate Jagr to no end and a frustrated Jagr is a whiny cry-baby Jagr and so long have a nice day. Jersey in 7.

So, there you have it. My predictions, half speculation, half hoping, half informed (as usual...I mean what do you expect from a guy with three halves.)

And, though I'm going round by round, you're cordially invited to Pittsburgh in late June or early July for the Stanley Cup rally. I wonder if Snowball will be around to watch?

To Count Or Not To Count

Hmmm, I know that one of the stipulations that I had for the 150 movies over the course of the year is that they were movies that I hadn't seen yet. Whether or not they were at the theater, on dvd, or on satellite didn't seem to matter. However, one thing I hadn't taken into consideration was how they were released. I'm wondering, do I count made for TV movies? I'm curious because this weekend I can either count 4 movies, or 1 depending on how the vote swings. However, the one that definitely counts is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
When I was growing up, it was in a small town with very little in the way of culture. I believe the bowling alley was probably the mecca of civilization. So, I tried to, in essence, "collect" as many different experiences as I could. I tried to venture to Pittsburgh as often as I could to help me out in my quest. This continued right up until college, actually, it hasn't ever really stopped, but my freshman year in college I was exposed to so many different items at different levels it felt like culture shock. One of the things that sticks out vividly in my mind was almost a fluke. My junior year of high school they decided to begin doing musicals. Outside of The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music, I wasn't really acquainted with musicals. So, I sort of dove in headfirst. But, until my freshman year of college all I had exposure to were the "normal" musicals. Then, a dramat (drama major) on my floor gave me tickets to Sweeney Todd. I was hooked. At that point, I realized that just like everything else in the world, musicals could be twisted and outside the norm. I had the soundtrack within a week and to this day it's still one of my favorite musicals. However, given it's graphic nature it doesn't get many runs in the traditional sense. So, when it came to Pittsburgh earlier this year, I was there. So, I've seen two very different stage versions and had every intention of seeing the movie when it came out. Of course, with a three year old, making it to the theater for an R rated movie. So, it passed out of the theaters and I almost missed my chance. Then I noticed that one of the cheap theaters in the area picked it up. So, yesterday, we headed down to the 1:15 show thinking that maybe Gage would nap through most of it. Since the theater was also showing The Bee Movie, Terri opted to take him to see that while I went to see Sweeney Todd. I'm glad I went. Johnny Depp did not diappoint. From the minute the score started pumping through the surround sound, I knew it was going to be a good movie. I'd definitely see it again in the theater given the chance. I will be picking up the soundtrack for the movie, even though they shortened or cut some of the songs. I'll also be picking up the DVD when it comes out.
After taking the assessment of made for tv movies, I'll update the counter on the right.
Oh, and today Gage and I got to see the Pens flatten the Flyers 7-1. Gotta love it. That brings the season series a little closer.

"I'll Take The Rapists For $200 Alex"

"That's therapists, not the rapists."
Yes, certainly Sean Connery has his favorite categories on Celebrity Jeopardy. And, an old episode of Cheers had Cliff see his stacked board on the game show. Yesterday, for the first time in a while, I managed to get a chance to sit down and watch Jeopardy. It was a pretty normal game til they announced the categories for
Double Jeopardy. One of the categories was something to the effect of, Quotes from Bruce Willis movies. Terri started laughing and remarked that it was my dream category. And, I did go 5 for 5 on the answers of, "Look Who's Talking," "The Sixth Sense," "The Siege," "12 Monkeys," and "Armageddon."
So, that's 1 out of 11 categories for my dream Jeopardy game. Although I would have used quotes from "Striking Distance," "Hudson Hawk," and the Die Hard movies.
I'm currently watching the Penguins crush the Buffalo Sabres. The score now is 7-3 in favor of the Pens. Gage must be loving the scoring. I'm sure Mommy is getting a ton of high-fives. I was doing some quick figuring on the 150 movies and realized that my movie watching would certainly pick up after hockey season. Hopefully, hockey season for the Penguins will drag on til June. I'll take that.

It's Been A While

Well, of course, I blame work. That lovely catch-all. But enough about a crappy subject. So, I hit several milestones on the lists. I got the first season of TV out of the way, I finished my first novel, and hit 10 movies. All in all, slow progress for it being at the beginning of the third month. But I still have 9 months for 14 more novels, 140 more movies, and 4 more seasons of TV. I have started the next novel and the next season. If all goes well with the seasons of television, I will complete two series with the 5 seasons. Two seasons of F-Troop and 3 seasons of Arrested Development. I would like to finish The Baby Whisperer (book 2) and then head into the 7 Dark Tower books, the Mumia Abu Jamal book Tom gave me for Christmas, and then fill in with 5 other books I've been meaning to read. Although that list fluctuates a lot more. I'd also like to pull several more movies out of my collection to finish as well, but I haven't gotten there. I'm guessing I'll have more television/movie watching time once hockey season is over.
Speaking of hockey, interesting trades. We'll have to see how everything works out. Right now, the Penguins are atop the Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started today, we'd be matched up against the Flyers. Ick. Perhaps the Flyers will lose a few more and fall out of contention all together. Anyway, Crosby is back, Fleury is back, all we need to see now is a healthy Hossa and perhaps Gary Roberts. Hopefully they can ride March into a great playoff match-up and we'll see how deep they go. Oh, and if anyone knows any good girl names, we'll certainly take them under consideration. But they have to be better than Snowball and Broomhilda.

Retratction!

I guess I should pay more attention to the comments section. I opened it up for revising the answer and then promptly forgot that Randy had upped his guess to 3,500. So, he was the closest to the actual number of books without going over and I guess he gets to keep his showcase showdown. Not much else is going on recently. I watched the Daytona 500 and saw lots of old race footage since it was the 50th Anniversary running. That was pretty cool. I also had 6 of my 8 drivers finish in the top 20 which is a decent week. The other 2 finished in the low 30s, which doesn't go well in the points standings. I'll have to wait for the results to come in to see. And, the Pens managed a win against Buffalo so all in all it was a pretty good weekend. I didn't get to install the light in the nursery like I wanted to, but that will come with time. I mean, I have a ton of time left. Counting down to the current due date, I have a whole 133 days. That's a lifetime, right?

With An Ankle Sprain Here And An Ankle Sprain There...

Let's see, Wednesday night into Thursday there was no sleep to be had. Too much work to be done. So, work on Thursday didn't let up at all and it spilled over into Thursday night as well. By the time Friday morning rolled around, I was working on about 7 or 8 hours of sleep between three days. Finally at around 5:50ish on Friday we put the whitewash on the fence and gave up the ghost. I wanted to go straight home to watch the Pens game, but I needed to run a few quick errands. It was 1-0 Tampa Bay when I went into the store. When I came back out, I couldn't get a score because all people were talking about was the fact that Crosby hadn't returned to the ice. That's when the alarm bells started going off in my head. Crosby + Not on ice = bad stuff. Turns out Mr. Crosby, much like Susie had an ankle sprain. Now Susie didn't pick hers up by crashing into the boards during a hockey game, but I'll be it hurts just as much. So, now two games without him, they are a plus 3 points, but it's gonna be a long haul if he's out for too long. Atlanta is quite upset as well. Sidney is not going to be able to play in the All-Star game. That can mean quite the revenue loss for them down there.
Anyway, Saturday rolled around and that enrolled us in babysitting duty. The Warners had relatives visiting and they were up for a dinner out and visiting the new glass exhibit at Phipps Conservatory. That left Terri and I (since Susie had the aforementioned ankle sprain) with 5 children under the age of 5 to babysit. Ok, technically one of those 5 is really under the age, since he/she is now -5 months old. So that one wasn't going to be too much trouble. Then we had Mary who is just a shade over 4 months old. Next came Andrew who just recently turned 2. Then Gage who will be 4 in a couple of months and finally Katie who just turned 4. Terri and I didn't think it would be too much trouble. Hang out, play for a little while, feed the kids some dinner, put Mary down for a nap, plunk the older kids in front of a movie, then get everyone ready for bed. Ah, well laid plans. Mary decided against the nap, opting instead for an alternating method of crying and eating. It's amazing to me how much you take for granted when a child can articulate their needs and wants. You forget little tell-tale signs of a small child's needs. So, it ended up being one of us with the three older children and the other with Mary. Finally, after 3 bottles and just about every song I had in my head (which is quite a few), I got her into a lulled sleep. The older children weren't really any trouble at all beyond the normal trials and tribulations of kids their age. "I don't want to eat my peas." "I want to finish the whole movie before bed." "I want to wait for mommy and daddy before sleeping." So, I'm fairly certain all involved slept well Saturday night. Except maybe Mary :-) Following are some pictures.

What Were You Doing In Canada?

Well, we made it back from the great white north. The game was, in a word, awesome. The spectacle was all they made it out to be. I'll give a quick travelogue and save the resolution post for tomorrow, I guess.

Monday - Terri went down to her parents to drop off the little man and I headed to work for a half-day. I quickly ran around trying to accomplish everything I needed to have done before leaving and then just as quickly headed back to the house. I hurriedly packed (since I had procrastinated the night before). We got on the road and after an ill-advised stop at the local Barnes and Noble we headed up toward Canadia land. After stopping for dinner and a restroom break or three we arrived at the hotel. We checked in, got to the room, and realized we didn't get what we asked for. Instead of a queen sized bed, we were confronted with two double beds. Annoying. So, I went back to the front desk and asked the woman why I didn't get what I had reserved. Some excuses later and I gave up and hauled in the rest of the luggage. Then I booted up the computer and pulled up the available rooms at the hotel and then called customer service. They looked at the records and found out that I had guaranteed my room with my credit card and absolutely should have gotten what I asked for and had a print out of. So, they said I had three options. Option 1: If the hotel couldn't accomodate me correctly, I could find another hotel in the area and the stay would be on them. Hmmm, tempting but I'm in another country, no clue what's nearby, it's New Year's Eve, and 73,000 people are fluxing in for a hockey game. Not really an option I guess. Option 2: They could see what the hotel could do for me and if that was acceptable it would be finished. Option 3: If it wasn't acceptable, they would file a complaint for me and the service department would review and do something retroactively. I chose option 2. The front desk came back with 10% off the room which was ok. It wasn't dire. Just an annoyance. We could either sleep separately or very very close together. The customer service gentlemen, by the name of Philipe, decided he was going to file a complaint anyway. 1/2 hour later the front desk gave us a student travel rate and basically we ended up with about a free night out of the deal. After all this we opted not to venture out to either the Buffalo celebration or the celebration at the Falls, or the casino celebration. So, I watched Canadia land television (which, by law, incorporated part of Strange Brew) and then we found Dick Clark's rockin' Eve which was done in a split screen with the Buffalo celebration and ball drop. I found out that Buffalo has the second largest ball drop in the United States. Apparently about 40,000 people were there. Terri was asleep by 12:05. I watched some more hockey highlights (which was about the only thing Canadian television was good for) and then went to sleep.

Tuesday - We got up, showered, and got on the road by about 10:15 or so. We got to the border and were singled out and examined both front and back. The question that puzzled us the most in the string of questions was the fourth one. 1. What country are you citizens of? Um, United States. 2. Where do you live? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 3. Why are you traveling here? We're in town for the Winter Classic hockey game. 4. What were you doing in Canada? Um, sleeping? 5. How do you know each other? We're married. 6. Whose car is this? Terri's. Fine, go ahead. I would have thought the fact that we were in town for the game had pretty much answered what we were doing in Canada. After making it through Customs we followed the directions and got within two miles of the stadium and stopped for lunch. We got back on the road quickly, but ended up in a ton of traffic. We sat in traffic for over an hour and were just waiting to park anywhere. A gas station one block from the stadium was waving people in and just before we got there they paused. Then the guy held up his hand for 1 more. We slid in, parked, and basically sprinted to the stadium. We got through security and luckily had walked in the gate right next to our section. We found our seats and were enthralled by the show the NHL put on. I have to give Buffalo credit, they were great hosts. Yes, we had to endure all the chants and horn blasts of "Let's Go Buffalo" and the booing of Sidney Crosby, but the rink was great. Inexplicably they sang "O Canada" and "God Bless America" and then had a Blackhawk helicopter formation fly-over. I'll direct you here for pictures since my camera decided to erase mine (more on that later). The Pens fans were present and even managed to get a sustained chant of "Let's Go Pens" going a couple of times. The weather was great and I'm told the game was excellently translated to the television but I haven't gotten my copy from Tom yet since he won't be in town til the weekend. So, I'll be excited to see the game from the television prospective. Just an aside, I loved the AMP commercial with ex-Pens goalie J. S. Aubin. It's nice to see he's still freezing in clutch situations. I won't rehash the whole game since you can pretty much hit any sports site and get the highlights. But, you have to wonder who Gary Bettman paid off to get a 1-1 tie, sudden death overtime, and a shoot-out that's won by your league's most valuable player. During the overtime I pulled the camera out one last time to get some player pictures. Then I hear the bing of the camera, look down and see it blinking "Disc Error." I put the camera away and finish watching the game. You can click on Section 143 at this site to see the vantage point from our seats. It's taken from row 10 and we were in row 12 so it's close. After the game we headed out to find a souvenir for Gage. We decided on a mini-stick since we knew he'd love that based on Tom's gift from the Phoenix game he attended. Stand 1, sold out. Stand 2, sold out. Stand 3 outside of stadium, sold out. Stand 4, sold out. So, we gave up and headed back to the car. Then we saw one last stand. We walked over and there they were. So, we started making our way to the front. Just as Terri got there the last one got sold. Thankfully she didn't move since they had more on the side that we didn't see right away. So, Gage got his mini-stick and loved it. We got back to the car and ordered sandwiches from the Subway inside the gas station where we parked. Then we asked the attendant for better directions and avoided 80% of the traffic and got back to the hotel pretty quickly. After a quick trip out scouting for snacks we were watching more Canadia land television which included a ton of highlights and clips from the game. I won't get tired of watching Crosby go five-hole on Miller. We turned the camera back on and it said, "Repairing Disc" for about 20 minutes. Then when it was finished we looked at the pictures and the last one shown was taken at our house on Christmas morning. So, all the pictures of my family's Christmas and everything taken leading up to the Winter Classic and all the pics at the Winter Classic are currently gone. I'll see about recovery, but I don't hold my breath. I even had a picture of the two retards that didn't understand the concept of sitting down to watch the game. I imagine it would look something like this.

Wednesday - not much to report. Got up, had breakfast, packed and got in the car. We explored the duty free shop for a little while and I'm curious as to why, if you can only bring about 1 litre back per person all the specials were for 3 mix and match litres on most sales. Other than the sales, I wasn't impressed with the prices there. They weren't all that cheap in my opinion. We stopped for a late lunch in Erie and went to a sports shop and came close to buying a pair of skates for Gage. The salesman recommended getting them fitted, though so we'll have to find a place around here. I'd also like to find a used sports store like Play it Again Sports to pick up a pair for me. We finally got to the in-laws, picked up Gage and then headed out to run some errands making it home fairly late.

So, there's the travelogue. I'm sure there's more detail, but that should suffice. Resolutions and such to follow. Hope everyone's New Years was fun and fulfilling.

A Rebirth?!?

Alright, alright. Yes, it's been about 260 days since my last post. And, if I went into detail about all that had happened since, it'd be another 260 days before I finished this one. So, basically here's the condensed spiel we sent in our holiday cards.

Change was in the works for us in 2007. We left the house we'd been in for 6 years, got pregnant with a second kid, I got promoted again, etc. etc.

The house story would take days and days in and of itself to plunk down in a post and anyone who actually still visits this blog has either heard about it, been there in person, or can call for updates.

As for the child, well it's still too early to tell if it's a boy or girl, but Mommy and baby are healthy and happy (when Mommy's not throwing up that is). Gage is excited about the prospect of being a big brother and for a long time was set on having a baby brother because he's a boy and that would work out. Then he changed his mind and wanted a little sister. Then he got the idea that if we had one of each, Mommy could play with the little sister, he could play with the little brother and then they could switch. Apparently I wasn't included in that master plan. Once the doctor confirms that we're having a boy (since no girls are allowed in my family), then we'll be able to give Gage more concrete details to assimilate. He'll eventually have a name and a nursery will take shape. That won't happen til late January, early February, though.

Promotion is a promotion. Nothing interesting there.

The first half of the holidays were nice. Gage got his zamboni from Santa Claus so his Christmas was made. New Year's Day will find Terri and I outside in Buffalo watching the Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres. I'm sure given the chance most people head for the beach and we're driving to Buffalo, to sit outside. Maybe the doctor can examine our heads when they do the sonogram.

Ok, I don't want to be too wordy on my first day back. I'm sure there will be the requisite resolution type things for the coming year shortly to follow with the first one being started today...namely, posting here a lot more often than once every 260 days. Hope the rest of your holiday season goes well.

Tonight I will do something that I have not done for 6 years. I will go home, grab a cold cider, lean back in my recliner and watch the Pittsburgh Penguins play playoff hockey. Game 1 is against Ottawa.

I know I haven't posted in a long long time and there are myriad reasons, but I wanted to post tonight to get my hockey picks on record to see how I do. This season, I'm picking more heart than head, but stranger things have happened.

Oh, and Lord Stanley will be home in a few months, be sure to stop by and visit.

East

Buffalo (1)
Islanders (8)

Buffalo in 6

New Jersey (2)
Tampa Bay (7)

New Jersey in 7

Atlanta (3)
Rangers (6)

Atlanta in 7

Ottawa (4)
Pittsburgh (5)

Pittsburgh in 6

West

Detroit (1)
Calgary (8)

Detroit in 5

Anaheim (2)
Minnesota (7)

Anaheim in 6

Vancouver (3)
Dallas (6)

Dallas in 7

Nashville (4)
San Jose (5)

San Jose in 7

Ok, there you go, better or worse. Though I hope Buffalo, New Jersey, and Detroit prove me wrong.

"It's a great day for hockey!"