Well, I got the list up and heard about it almost immediately. In the comments section, you'll notice I missed the Hooters which now seems like a pretty obvious choice. I also got questions as to why I started with the Bunny Hop. That's so easy to answer. Ray Anthony used to be Ray Antonini and he was from my hometown. Now, he's not like a local celebrity. I doubt you'd find anyone in the town under the age of 50 that a.) knew he was from the town or b.) knew who he was period. But, useless knowledge is the plague of my circle of friends and that's just my little nugget for today.
I watched the series finale. I came close to tears, but didn't actually cry. The last show is hard. The publicity was overwhelming and they were already under fire for spending most of the 10th season showing "viewer favorites". However, I think they managed to put together a good show. Nowadays 50 million is a pretty good crowd. Although it all depends on where you look. I've heard numbers from 45-55. But, who cares. It's over and the hype will continue for the majority of the summer while they release the last episode on DVD a mere 5 days after the showing. And season 7 is still doing well in the markets soon to be followed by Season 8 and in September, "Joey"
Why waste all this space on a sitcom? Because over the course of 10 years of watching the show it was the closest thing to the type of writing that I wanted to see more of on TV. Tom mentioned seeing the movie Oscar on my recommendation. I saw it purely by accident and now watch it anytime I happen to catch it on cable. Over the course of the hour and a half of the movie, it has some of the best jokes and subtle writing. Other examples that leap out in my memory are M*A*S*H (the TV series) and Radioland Murders.
Seinfeld was supposed to be a show about nothing and that sounds like the purest concept and I thought for sure I would love it. Anyone who knows me knows what's coming next. I can't stand Seinfeld. Each and every one of the characters annoyed me by being vapid, shallow, and completely lacking in any intelligence whatsoever. Okay, the show was supposed to be like that, but that didn't mean that the writing had to follow suit. Even the Dukes of Hazzard, which is supposed to be a backwoods, small town, hick show had smarter writing than Seinfeld. That's one of the reasons why movies made out of books or remakes of old songs, movies, or TV shows also have to pass a close scrutiny for me. I've been called a purist and our California (soon to be Michigan) readership says that nobody hates stars like I do. And both crowds are probably right. I came out of the first and second Harry Potter movies saying words that the children around me weren't supposed to hear. To take books that had that much hype and butcher them the way that they did is just crushing to an aspiring writer. I know that in the back of my mind on occasion I don't want to have a popular piece of fiction on the market because there's a chance it might get hacked to pieces. Alright, enough rambling for tonight. The cable people are visiting yet again tomorrow which is a story that I don't even want to get into right now. Maybe I'll be reminded of it later on.
Now, I've seen this on both Craig and Diane's blogs. It's a question and answer session. Craig uses three questions. Diane uses five questions. I'll be average and use four. So, ask any four questions in the comments section and I'll be sure to answer as quickly as possible.

Ok, after reading Dek's latest post, I decided to see just how hard it would be to come up with 30 songs by Pa. artists. In no particular order, here they are. Feel free to comment as you'd like

1. The Bunny Hop- Ray Anthony and His Orchestra
2. Penny On The Floor- The Clarks
3. Send Me On My Way- Rusted Root
4. Catch A Falling Star- Perry Como
5. Roses Are Red- Bobby Vinton
6. One Last Time- Dusty Drake
7. The Pink Panther Theme- Henry Mancini
8. Oh, Susanna- Stephen Foster
9. It's Such A Good Feeling- Fred Rogers
10. Parent's Just Don't Understand- DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
11. Wild Wild West- Will Smith
12. Mickey- Toni Basil
13. The Twist- Chubby Checker
14. Lightning Strikes- Lou Christie
15. Turn Me Loose- Fabian
16. I Love Rock 'n' Roll- Joan Jett
17. Nothin' My Love Can't Fix- Joey Lawrence
18. Volare- Bobby Rydell
19. Ain't No Mountain High Enough- Tammi Terrell
20. Sentimental Journey- Les Brown and his Band of Renown
21. Time In A Bottle- Jim Croce
22. Born Too Late- Scott Blasey
23. I Alone- Live
24. Beautiful- Christina Aguilera
25. Motownphilly- Boyz II Men
26. Head Like A Hole- Nine Inch Nails
27. On The Sunny Side Of The Street- Tommy Dorsey
28. Runaround- Blues Traveller
29. Every Rose Has It's Thorn- Poison
30. Can't We Try- Teddy Pendergrass
and a bonus
31. Bang The Drum All Day- Todd Rundgren
Now, it took me a little longer than I expected to compile the list, but there it is. I'm not saying I agree with all 31 choices, but they are all Pa artists in some form or another. And, that's probably enough blogging for today or at least enough typing. I may get to the whole ending of Friends, etc, etc a little later. Now, it's time to get the hell out of work.

Ok, there were probably quite a few things that went through my mind to blog about today. However, it's late and there are only two things that I can remember off the top of my head. Jessica Simpson's new version of Berlin's Take My Breath Away is, um, horrible. And, at least the baby Pens are doing well. They beat the Philadelphia Phantoms 5-4 in the first game of their series in the Calder Cup playoffs. And, the news seems to think that Mario Lemieux's status if there is a next season is a go! Woo-Hoo!

Today's post will be one of the short posts that I was talking about. I may post more later. How about the Flames? Knocking off a number 3 seed and a number 1 seed. And Detroit makes it's second quick exit from the playoffs in as many years. Wonder how secure Dave Lewis's job is now? I wasn't rooting for one team over the other, but it's a shame to see Robert Lang and Brett Hull go home early. And, after his comments made post-trade, I guess I was rooting against Andy Ference.
Hopefully the hockey action tonight will benefit me. I'd like to see San Jose close out the series against Colorado. I have nothing against Colorado and I like Tony Granato as a head coach and Rick Tocchet as an assistant coach, but I gotta go with the Sharks. And, it's no secret that Toronto needs to force a game seven and then whip the pants off of Philly. (sorry Matt) Philadelphia has advanced far enough. I don't think my head could handle a Tampa Bay/Philly conference final. It's already trying to comprehend how Tampa got there.
Anyway, I had my last Management test last night and aced it. I have my last accounting test tonight. I don't even have the will to study, but I do need to get a decent grade to keep my A. Wow, am I turning into a student or what?

Even if I just get on to say hello and goodbye I want to attempt a post of some sort every day. Why, you may ask? Well I recently had an interview for a writing position. It's been so long since I've had one of those I had to comb back through my portfolio and update it with new work, but more importantly go back and review old work. One of my old pieces was an interview with Robert Olen Butler when he was promoting Tabloid Dreams. One of the things that he said in that interview was that a writer has to write every day. If you aren't prepared to write every day then you shouldn't be a writer. This is something that kind of struck a nerve with me since I do purport myself to be somewhat of a writer. So, even though this is certainly not what Mr. Butler had in mind, it's a small start for me and for now I'll have to be happy with that.
Saturday May 22nd on QVC...Cure by the Shore is a huge sale on sunglasses with all net proceeds going to MS research. For those of you that don't know, this is a cause that is very near to me. My cousin Kathy passed away in December from MS related complications, Robyn is also affected with the disease as is Brian's mom. Terri and I walk in the MS walk every year (although this year Terri had to cut the walk a little shorter) Apparently 8 months of baby and 5 miles don't mix.
That's about all for this evening. One more blog to go and I'll be all caught up.

This morning somewhere between the ass crack of dawn and way too damn early to be mobile, the cats decided to fight. Not too much of a problem on the surface. However, they decided to fight on the windowsill at the head of the bed. They managed to make it sound as though someone was pounding on the window which for some reason snapped me to attention. It also snapped something in my neck which I haven't been able to move without pain all day. I can look right without too much of a problem, but don't stand on my left side.
That combined with the rain today made sure that I couldn't get outside for any more yard work. I guess it's just as well. I have enough stuff that needs to be done inside the house. I also have a test Monday night and Tuesday night.
We're almost completely done with the baby's room. I just need to get the electricity up and running from the wall outlet, but since I can run an extension cord off the ceiling light, I'm not overly concerned right away. Especially since he'll be bunking in the bassinet in our room for at least the first month. Terri arranged most of the stuffed animals in the "jumbo" net in his room and she'll probably finish up the rest either later tonight or tomorrow.
And, outside of the fact that neither of the sporting events went my way and we went had another interesting church experience today wasn't too bad. Stuff around the house got done as mentioned above and it was a mostly relaxing day which is something that I'm fast running out of.

Well, in four and a half hours and a lot of back and forth, I managed to get my lawn mowed today. Oh well, I guess it's true. The first cut is the deepest. Sorry, couldn't resist.
Anyway, I want to know why instructions have to be written (and I use that term loosely) in a fashion that not only guarantees that no one will read them, but if someone does happen to try, they won't understand them. They are trying to shrink them to smaller sizes and the other day I put something together that only had pictures and it looked as though my directions were photocopied from the original.
I had a professional writing professor in college who decided that my approach to the mousetrap instructions that we were supposed to create didn't serve any useful function and I was told to stick to the status quo. If the status quo isn't working, shouldn't it be changed? I'm beginning to feel as though I'm the only sane person on the planet.
Anyway, time to work on some other projects around the house that will invariably require me to read some sort of instructions.

Well, since I'm easing back into this slowly, I'll try to keep the entries short and sweet as well. That means that I probably won't gear up to full hockey rants til about the Finals. However, I will say that I'm glad the Leafs are finally working out their agressions on Philly. Let's Go Leafs!
Since the California contingency caught me on-line, I was reminded that I should probably inform people that hell hasn't frozen over and to date I have no viable offspring. However, the day is fast approaching with a super scary emphasis on fast.
Two quick commercial notes. I would never even remotely think of putting a bottle or can of Coors Light to my lips even if it meant dying of thirst, but damn they have funny commercials. Wingdog gets a nice nod. And my other new favorite is the DQ burger commercial where the guy ends up setting fire to his entire office. Maybe it's just because I've thought of doing that without eating jalapeno bacon and tabasco sauce. I've covered 2 1/2 blogs of the ones that I list on my site and I'm still continuing to plow through them. I wanted to finish them this weekend, but unless God sends extreme rain conditions I have to work in my yard. Anyone who's seen the house knows that it's out of hand on a good day and I have yet to touch it this spring.
And I would wish myself a happy one year of blogging, but since I basically blew off the last, almost two months, I'll just pride myself on returning to the world of blogging.

I'm in the midst of so many projects that listing them all would just simply create a new project for me. Over the past day or so I'm slowly starting to get caught up on everyone's blogs. I can't believe all the good hockey talk on Craig's blog that I could have been a part of. However, slowly but surely I will return to the world of blog. Although in three weeks or so that may all change again.

Well it's been several days since I was writing last and sadly enough I have nothing to really say. So, other than to just see some words on the web, today's entry is just a slight recap of the last few days. Tuesday was Cole's first Penguins game so now I've been to Jacob's first Penguin game and Cole's first penguin game. And, hopefully I'll be able to make my son's first Penguin game. The game was actually a pretty good one. The Penguins came from behind to tie it up and that's the way it ended after overtime. 3-3.
Wednesday night we headed to the Rhythm House in Bridgeville to see Lindsy's band. The sound guy (not their normal person) was horrific. The first set sounded like it was being done by a third grader using his dad's broken equipment in the room above a garage with the furnace banging and clanging and the wind howling through the cracked windowpane. And that doesn't even include the outside noise of the police sirens and firetrucks showing up at the house in question because the neighbor thought cats were being tortured and set on fire. After much deliberation and wire switching on his part, he finally managed to get it together for the second half and the band was excellent as usual.
Thursday we were back in the arena and watched the Pens have a nice 9-4 meltdown against Nashville. I understand that Nashville wants to keep the playoff spot it currently has, but they didn't have to rub it in. Chiodo had a very off night and I'm not sure I understand what rationale Edzo was following leaving him in there for the whole game. We had an interesting dinner before the game too. Ask Terri and Amy about the pie if you get a chance.
Thursday I also had to don a suit and tie for the office and teach an internal workshop class to all of my co-workers. I had to break the news to them ever so gently that they were not only making mistakes, but making them more frequently and to a larger degree. Then I had to explain the right way to do things. Ton of fun, let me tell you. Now I know what some of my teachers went through when I was in their class.
Today has been a return to boring. I've been playing phone tag with a gentlemen since Tuesday. Hopefully I can catch up with him on Monday. I think 4:30 on a Friday is a little too late to try and talk shop.
I think we're headed to see Lindsy's band again tonight. Although this place is a lot further away and in the middle of back woods nowhere. Ahh, a return to my roots. And, don't let them kid you it's the same story for Dwight Tom Joe.

Have no fear, I will be back to reading and writing soon. And, let's go Pens!

The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup! Ok, maybe not the Stanley Cup, maybe not even a spot in the playoffs, but they won a game. After going 0-17-0-1 it was a long time coming. It was kind of nice that we got to stick it to Wayne Gretzky's club, which is always nice.
Topics around the office today include the suspension of, what I consider to be, a morning annoyance on the Pittsburgh airwaves. I look for music in the morning and this guy didn't have it, therefore, I don't listen to him. And now thanks to Clear Channel communication, I don't even have to worry about accidentally listening to him. And, while this borders on censorship (a nice hot topic for me) I'm still willing to let it slide since it indirectly benefits me.
I also saw this article about another celebrity that I don't personally care for. And, it has nothing to do with her impending marriage. She lost me completely when she blindsided Tom Selleck on her show. Tom is one of the nice guys of Hollywood (at least in my opinion--he traveled over 3,000 miles to a funeral) and didn't deserve what he got. Now, I could go on and on with the list of celebrities that piss me off, but why bother. They aren't worth the time or the effort. Although, if there is any justice, every copy of the newly ruined version of this old favorite will spontaneously combust and then sweep up it's own ashes, and combust again.
Not much else is going on. I started checking out some job sites today and there are a couple that might actually hold my interest. I'll have to keep you posted. For now, that's about all. This is me, having never worn a skirt, signing off.

Yesterday was pretty good. We got to the ultrasound and they prepped Terri and started showing images. The technician took a bunch of measurements and then started on the pictures that they wanted to capture. They wanted a nice 3D picture of his face, but he was sleeping with his chin tucked down and to the side. So the technician decided she was going to jiggle him awake. She started bouncing the wand up and down on Terri's stomach. Watching the television monitor I could see him being jostled around. Finally, he decided that was enough. He shook his head, pulled back his leg and kicked Terri right in the ribs. It was so funny watching him. He's going to be just like his dad. Grouchy in the mornings and God help the person that has to wake him up. We got a cool 3D picture of part of his face.
The woman here at work became a grandmother for the first time yesterday when her son and his girlfriend had a little boy and her daughter is due the week before Terri. So, in the matter of 3 months she'll be a grandmother twice over. She's very happy. I hope our parents are that excited when the little one shows up.
I have finished 4 versions of my resume so if anyone hears of a good position, let me know so I can zip off the appropriate version.
The stupidity of some people just baffles me and let's leave it at that.

Ever notice the fact that when you actually have the will power to get something done, there's always that one little piece that someone else holds that prevents you from finishing what you started. Case in point, my resume. I'm almost completely done, but I'm waiting on someone in the tech department to give me the actual name of the financial accounting software we use in-house. It's all just sitting there waiting on that last bit of information before I can start zinging it out to other people.
Friday night on the drive down to Maryland, the Pens dropped another one to Florida and then Sunday they lost yet again to Ottawa. On the plus side, everything went well to Maryland, in Maryland, and from Maryland. The U-haul that we had apparently snapped what little shocks it had left somewhere around the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. So, everytime we had a slight wind, a car passing, or a curve to go through the truck rocked like a boat. Ray and I thought we were going to get seasick at one point. It reminded me of my old Cavalier that I had in high school. It had no shocks and would continue to bounce a mile or so after a big pothole.
Robin is mostly moved in. We had so much help in Pa. that it took less than an hour to unload the entire truck. After that we started assembling things like we were a squad of professional movers. So, by the time we left her apartment, she had the big stuff pretty much situated and in place. Now she has a week or so to get settled before she starts her new job over with Mark, Ray, and Diane.
Management class this evening. Hopefully he'll be in a good mood and let us go early tonight. I could use some time at home to get stuff straightened out after spending most of the weekend in Maryland and the rest hanging out with Mitch and Tom. We played Texas Hold 'Em and I cleaned house. When you're playing poker with Tom, make sure to look at your cards everytime you bet or think about betting. He'll take it as a sign you're holding nothing and bet big. Twice during the game yesterday I came up with straights. It felt kind of nice considering my usual luck with Poker. Then Tom and I got stomped at Euchre by Terri and Mitch. Oh well, time to go. Tomorrow is an off-day because of the doctor so you may see an update you may not.

I came to the realization today that if I don't blog about the abusive atmosphere at work, I have very little to talk about these days. Terri has another ultrasound next week, but other than that, there's no new news on the baby front (we do still have the name thing, but Matt is very stubborn)
I'm just pushing time once again til the end of the day. This is a bad habit and one that I don't want to keep up. Once I get the resume polished, I can at least slack by job searching, but I don't want to find a good job and have no resume to send, although if I find a good job, I'll be pressured into finishing the resume, which means that I can slack by job searching, but I don't want to find a good job...well you see where it's going.
I'll miss actually watching the Pens game tonight unless we can find some sort of sports bar or something mid-way through the trip. I'll get the scores on my phone, but tonight is the critical game 17. They've lost 16 in a row and 17 will tie them for the all-time NHL losses in a row record or however you want to state that. Maybe they'll win because I'm not watching. Who knows? Chiodo played fairly well against the Islanders, but with no defense in front of him, he was left hanging a couple of times. Although with the way things are going no one deserves any excuses. Maybe Edzo should run the Brooks drill until a few of these guys starting puking. I'd be willing to see anything tried at this point.

Alright, made actual progress on my resume today. I'll have to finish it up tonight when I get back from my parent's house. That way I'll be able to head to Maryland with a semi-clean slate. Which means that in addition to finishing my resume tonight I'll have to pack for Maryland. I'll only be there overnight. We (Tom, Ray, and I) are helping Robin move back to Pittsburgh. She worked with us at Lycos and now she's going to work with Diane, Mark, and Ray over at the company they work for.
Other than that, not much is going on today. Since Matt won't release his information, I'm still not releasing mine. Although I will say that I felt him kick the other day. That was a weird experience. He's been kicking Terri for quite a while now, but this was the first time that I could feel him from the outside. Kind of made the whole thing just a little more real.

There were a bunch of articles that I was going to link up today, but I'm too lazy and it's getting too late in the day. It was another typical day at work. I need to clear time in my schedule to finish up my resume. I need to get the hell out of here long before the baby comes and the "long" part of that sentence grows shorter every day. I don't exactly want to leave orientation to drive to the hospital for labor pains. This week it's kind of desolate around here after 4:00. The supervisor's been leaving early and the older workers who get here at ungodly hours are gone by 4:00. And two of the other regulars aren't here today which means that once again, I'm just pushing time til 5:00 and getting myself out of here.
I wish there was some sort of reset button for parts of my life. If I'm playing a video game, there's usually an option to restart the board or level or whole game. What if life had that? I could restart my college career and give a damn this time. I could restart my actual career and find a stable industry with a good paying job and coworkers. Perhaps I could even go as far as to restart my bicycle riding career and opt not to fly down the big red-dog road and lose part of two of my teeth. But then if I did that there might be a ripple effect and who knows where I'd end up. With the exception of the fact that my job neither appreciates me nor pays me enough to exist, my life is fairly good. I've got a pretty wife who loves me, a family who teases me incessantly, (wait, how is that good?), wonderful friends who incessantly tease me (are you starting to see a pattern?), and I've had some kick-ass co-workers over my much whined about career path. And let's not forget my son who is set to make his appearance in exactly 3 months from today. Ok, nothing is exact and he'll show up when he damn well wants to, but you get the picture. Oh well, time to shut down the computer and get the hell out of dodge or chevy.

Well, yesterday's test went well. I didn't get a hundred, but 97.5 is pretty close. I was disappointed. I wanted excellence. It's hard to be as arrogant as I am without excellence. And, if the rest of the tests in this class go like this one did, my old trick of skimming the material and half-listening in class will do just fine. And, I'll share it with you here because no one else will believe me, but this is an actual question from my test yesterday.
Management By Objectives (MBO)
a.) was popularized by the writings of England
b.) is an operational objective for ROI
c.) requires mutual goal setting by employees and their supervisor
d.) is Phase 3 of the gnomes' plan for success
e.) is a premium channel offered by TCI
I told the professor that if he had used Phase 2 instead of Phase 3 that's the answer I would have chosen. Everyone knows Phase 3 is Profit. Now, not all the questions were that easy, but that one just threw me. I've never had a professor use South Park in class before. He claims that it's the best show on television, but has yet to share his reason.
Anyway, enough about the test. I was just surprised about the ease of it all.
Not much else is going on around here. I need to take my tax forms down to my parents so they can drop them off at the accountants and he can tell me what mistake we made in favor of the government this year. And, I guess it might be nice if we actually tell our parents what name we chose for the little one. Though I could just tell them that Matt ruined it for everyone. I need to know if I have my goalie, dammit!

This weekend turned out ok, I guess. Friday night we headed out to play pool with Mitch and Tom. Tom and I beat Mitch and Terri just about every game.
Saturday was the sacchrine sweet holiday of Valentine's Day. I think Terri and I said Happy Valentine's Day in the morning and that was the extent of it for the rest of the day. We didn't even exchange cards. My Uncle Donny and Aunt Lu came down to visit their son (my cousin) who lives near Oakland. They had been reading through some old stuff on the city and decided that they wanted to eat at Primanti Brothers in the Strip District. I had forgotten how crowded the Strip District was on a Saturday afternoon. The sandwiches were good though. Sunday started the "Nextel" Cup Season. That will take some getting used to. The big one this year involved last year's winner Michael Waltrip. And, since DEI dominates the restrictor plate races that left Junior to step up and claim his first Daytona 500 win. It took his dad 20 years to win the Daytona 500. Junior did it in 5. He also made a really nice move around Tony Stewart to take the lead with about 30 laps or so to go.
Now, to clarify Friday's statements...I don't immediately assume that the kid with the 3 feet of boxers is an idiot (well, ok, in my head I do). The person that set this whole rant into motion was actually in the outer office. I never saw him. I only heard him. He might have had on a 3 piece suit complete with gold cufflinks and a leather briefcase. Or, he might have been the guy with the red mohawk. However, instead of stating his problem calmly and quietly, his voice kept escalating. Then he started tossing around the phrase, "You are disrespecting me. I have never been so disrespected in my life." He came here with some sort of a problem and when the solution presented to him was not satisfactory, he resorted to screaming and yelling about his lack of respect. My point was that I could never see someone like King or even Ford screaming that phrase. If boxer boy walked into the office with the same problem, calmly explained what he needed the solution to be and then not finding the solution to his liking simply said, "I'll be taking this up with your superiors." He would have earned a lot more of my respect. The guy that was actually in the office headed for the elevators saying that the supervisor here was, "a fuckin' shriveled old hag." Now, that's a lack of respect.
So, that counters what I actually meant. Although I do make snap judgements based on clothing, etc. I don't let that interfere with the interaction between our office and the customer. And Buntz, I feel your pain. When I did the tour of duty through fast-food, etc. I was treated like crap. I was actually taunted because I wouldn't work during the week because of college. However, I look at this office to be a little more grown up. Just slightly.
And, to jump on Matt's comment, I think the parents that felt they had it rough need to explain to their children why they felt that way. Terri's little cousins each have their own TV's and Playstation 2's and VCR's, etc. in their bedroom. They are just slightly this side of spoiled, but most of the time you wouldn't know it because her Aunt does a decent job of parenting. I would like my children to have a better (no that's not the right word) easier time than I did, but I don't want to hand them everything and a platinum credit card. Just my two dollars I guess.
Tonight's my first test in several years. I actually cracked the books for this one, albeit just slightly. I didn't think my old trick of skimming the material and half-listening in class would cut it this time. Though, it used to work pretty damn well. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Today has been the longest day on record in a while. I can't even do constructive slacking. I'm clock watching which is something that I usually don't do. I'm so damn bored, I don't even have anything substantial to blog about. The Valentine's day party in the office went well, I guess. There was a ton of food and people ate from 8:30 in the morning til, well, they're still eating now. I watched them demolish almost an entire sheet cake. There isn't even enough left to cover a plate to take home.
There was also a nice argument out at the front desk area. There was a younger kid screaming about how he was disrespected. I'm trying to figure out where I missed the boat on this one. The generation below me (God, that makes me feel old) seems to feel this sense of entitlement. And, I can't for the life of me, figure out where they got that idea. I was taught that respect was something you earned through your words and actions. Martin Luther King, Jr. commanded respect because of his principles and ideals. The young kid on the street with his jeans down somewhere around his knees and boxers up to his nipples (which are pierced of course) just doesn't hold the same standard to me. And yet, King never demanded respect the way that kids do. He had earned his respect and was very humble about it.
And, even those that aren't as humble about their station in life still have a backing for their arrogance. Harrison Ford could probably walk in somewhere and pull the "Do you know who I am?" ploy that would generate his respect and get away with it. Again, same kid on the street corner, probably doesn't even know his own full name can't get away with it, but he thinks he can. Ford is probably a bad example, because once again, he's pretty unassuming about the whole fame thing. If anyone else out there has any clue about where I went wrong on this one, feel free to let me know.

Since Terri and I had decided on a name yesterday, I was going to announce it here today, but Matt ruined that for everyone.

Today is more of the same. The office is having a Valentine's Day party tomorrow. Everyone is supposed to bring in some sort of Valentine's colored food. Being the office cake maker, I'm supposed to come up with a red-velvet cake with red, white, and pink icing. Sounds like a fun Thursday night. I'd prefer to just sit and watch the Pens game with a woodchuck in one hand and my management textbook in the other. Why the textbook, you ask? I have a test on Monday evening. I haven't had a test in a long time. Makes me wonder if I remember how to take them. I still have about 2 1/2 chapters to cover for the test. I guess reading the material beforehand is probably a good idea.
The job is still the job. They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I wish I could find the fence to discover this for myself.
Oh well, I'm not going to get bogged (or blogged...hehehe) down in that discussion again. I've decided I'm going to be more positive about my life. Ok, not really, but I can try. I don't remember which comedian said it, but hopefully this is true. "If all the good and bad times in my life balance, I'm gonna have one hell of an adult life."
Not to say that my childhood was bad, on the contrary it was rather good. It's been my professional life that has wreaked havoc over everything else. I always seem to work at a mediocre job with really nice people. Mabye I need mediocre people to go with a really nice job.
Looking back over the past few weeks, I've noticed that I tend to stick to the same three topics...baby, hockey, and work and not necessarily in that order. I think that means I need to get out and do a little more with my life. Except that that requires money and money requires a better job (see the sinkhole forming?). Today is finally almost over. You know it's been a long week when you're having difficulty slacking off. I did watch the leaderboards for the 125's at Daytona today. Junior won the first one and Eliott Sadler won the second one. The rest of the people stacked up pretty much where you'd imagine. Although newcomer Brian Vickers (who did fairly well at the end of last year) finished very poorly in the second 125. Hopefully his owner will have some provisional points to get him into the race. I guess that means since Nascar is starting back up I'll have a new topic. Whoopee! My life is a thrill-a-minute. Ok, enough bitterness for today.

At least the ads at the top of the page are getting better. Today anyway.

It's almost painful how much the day drags on when you not only dislike your job, but have reason to leave it. It's also a little difficult to job hunt while in your current position. Makes me wish I was still in my old office, but then again if I was still in my old office, I might not have reason to job hunt. What a nice vicious cycle. I guess that means I'll have to find some more non-existent time at home. I wonder if I could go insane by reason of insanity? The Pens dropped another one to the Bruins last night. I don't understand it. They stayed with them almost the entire game. Ryan Malone had 2 goals and probably could have gotten a hat-trick if they would have pushed a little more.
I don't know. It seems as though I rarely have any good news to post here. In about three months my son will make a grand entrance into the world. Seems like good news on the surface, but we have no furniture, no name, no daycare (or money to pay for daycare), and a very non-child conducive house. Everyone keeps saying it will all work out. Maybe if I lay odds and take action on that statement I will have enough money to make it all work.
Oh well, enough with the negativity. Tomorrow is a better day, right? It would have to be otherwise that's going to make today look awful tempting to return to.
I'm midway through the second of 5 parenting books that I've acquired through various means during the course of this pregnancy. One has been very good, this one is so-so. I hope the others pick up or I'll be really bummed by the time the kid makes his way into the world. Oh well, there I go being negative again. I guess it's time to sign off.

Well, I am officially on the hunt for a new location now. And, by location, I mean job. I took this University gig with the understanding that it was going somewhere, hopefully profitable. Two years later (and about three months from baby) I have yet to see any promise. They've been dangling a promotion in front of me for about 8 months now and I can't see them closing the deal anytime soon. And, even if they did I'm not sure the trust is still there for me to work in this environment. I like to be comfortable where I work. I like knowing that I can count on the people around me and I'm sure they like knowing that they can count on me. I don't really have that here anymore. I used to think the internet world was a little backstabbing. They have nothing on University life. The politics games around here fly thicker, faster, and heavier than a WMD discussion at the Iowa caucus. So, if you know of anything in the Pittsburgh area let me know. About the only thing I can't do is write code. And, I'm going by the Jerry Maguire philosophy..."Show me the money." It's kind of like a family motto at this point. I'm reworking my resume as we speak (or as you read) and I'll be sending them out til I find something better or at the very least more profitable. So, if you know of anything please drop me a line.

Miracle was one of the few movies for me recently that lived up to the hype for me. I'll admit that knowing so much about the team, Herb Brooks, and the games took a little of the suspense out of it, but that's about all that disappointed. I could have done with more "Brookisms" The only one that they used in the movie was "The legs feed the wolf, boys." There's not a whole lot of plot to give away. I think most everyone knows how it turns out. It was kind of hard to see the dedication to Herb at the end of the movie. He was one of those celebrity deaths that hit me very hard, almost like Herb was a distant member of my own family. Granted, I'm not from Minnesota and never met Herb personally. I think the closest I came to Herb was sitting several levels away in the arena when he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins. But, he still meant a lot to the game of hockey and more specifically, the American game of hockey. Watching the movie on Sunday made me realize that all the more. America sunk all their trust into Herb Brooks and those kids and they paid them back in spades. Kurt Russell came pretty damn close to making me believe that he was Herb Brooks. I'm glad he cared enough for the movie and the game of hockey to take it so seriously. Kurt is one of those celebrities that you see at the All-Star games and this year was no exception. He was there hyping the movie, but he was also there as a fan.
Which brings me to the other topic of the weekend. The All-Star break. Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik did pretty well in the Young Stars game. Ryan had a nice goal even though the East didn't pull it out amongst the Young Stars. The skills competition was pretty typical and even though I can't stand Philadelphia, I had no choice but to be impressed when Jeremy Roenick went 4 for 4 on the shooting accuracy drill. The East dominated the skills competition and then won the game surprising me. Usually the West is faster and more skilled or so it always seems. It was sad to have the Penguins shut out of the All-Star game, but they'll be dominate in a few years with the young talent that they've accumulated.

Why is motivation such a driving force in what makes the world go 'round? Why isn't motivation just some hidden source that I can tap into like the inner strength that David Banner tried to find? I could even deal with the freak motivation accident where when I get angry I organize everything in sight. And why, when I actually find motivation, does it leave me at the same time every day...week...etc.?
Did I mention that I have no motivation to finish out the work day? I am geared up to see Miracle this weekend. I don't think I'm going to be a geek and rush out and see it tonight (although if I was a super-geek I would have tracked down the sneak preview last weekend). However, it is about hockey and the underdog and Herb Brooks and you gotta love that. So, Terri and I, and whomever else wishes to attend will pack into some theater, probably on Saturday to witness the Miracle once again.
Part of me wishes that my parent's had watched that particular Olympic game back in February of 1980. I would have been a little over 5 and I have other memories from right around there. I remember people talking about the 4th Superbowl win by the Steelers and the World Series win by the Pirates (both being the last time they won the big trophy). Alas, my parents were not sports fans, so I'm guessing that we were probably watching something like the Love Boat or Fantasy Island instead. Such is life. Perhaps one day my son will look back and wonder why I didn't give a damn about football or basketball or baseball or boxing or...well you get the picture.
Terri's been pressuring for a name and she brings it up right in the middle of ESPN Classic's coverage of the 1980 Miracle team. For some reason Herb, Eruzione, and Brooks didn't get the nod. Guess I'll have to keep trying.

Ok, so I didn't bother with the other set of steps last night. I didn't do much of anything last night. I sat around, watched Magnum, PI., Jeopardy, Friends, My Wife and Kids, and Little Big League. Then I took NyQuil and went to bed. Eventful night, huh? Geek night is tonight and I'm headed down with Tom to see if there are greener pastures somewhere else. I'd hate to change jobs this close to baby time, but if I see something good, I'll take it.
Not much else is going on around here. Craig, Joe, and I'm guessing Tom have all done the states I visited map. I would do one, but it would pale in comparison to theirs. I haven't even been in half of the States and Joe only has 5 more to go. Though, I can't believe for all the places he's been he's never hit Florida. That still amazes me. I guess because I've been there 4 times. Ok, here it is. I told you it was sad.


create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide
I've hit a lot of east coast stuff, but never seem to hit west of the Mississippi much. Maybe we'll take baby on a whirlwind US tour to fill out the remaining states.

Well let's see. I survived my first two class sessions. One good, the other not so much. The Principles of Management class seems like a decent class, though most of the stuff is going to be review for me I think. The Financial Accounting "Professor" stumbles over his words and makes it clear that he's only there because they are paying him to be there. Wonder how he acts in his day job. I'm fairly certain I can ace both classes. I can drop my lowest test score in the Management class. I haven't been in a classroom where I could drop my lowest score in at least 11 years.
I would mention the Penguins, but it hurts too much. They seem to be playing a little better, they just can't seem to close. I'm gearing up to go see Miracle this weekend. Maybe that will make me feel better about hockey in general. And, there's always the All-Star game and skills competition. Although since none of the Penguins will be there, I have no one to root for. I certainly wouldn't want to cheer on a Flyer or a Ranger.
We've now set dates for Terri's baby shower, Alison's baby shower, Robin's move to Pittsburgh, and Lamaze class. Just when I thought I was going to get to relax. Such is life I guess. And, we still have no name, no crib, etc. I don't even want to think about the amount of work left to do in the house. And, the past couple days, I haven't felt very good which is due to a combination of man vs. nature as I worked to clear off the steps and sidewalks for the party. Adam and Tom did help towards the end. I still need to deal with the other steps leading up from the house. Maybe I'll look into tackling that tonight. And then again, maybe I won't.

Not much to say today. The superbowl party went well. Although all the guys that wanted to order the lingerie bowl actually missed out on the real entertainment. Such is life I guess. What I take from this experience comes directly from the commentator of the Lingerie Bowl. "With all the injuries, these girls are gonna have to play both ways." DEK will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but that sentence was said with total sincerity.
There were about 12 or so people there and we got a phone call from the California constituent. Other than that, things were pretty normal. I watched little to none of the game, saw some of what they called the better commercials and ate a lot of food.
Adam has departed for Philly and things are moving slowly at work today. I'm already tired beyond belief and I have 4 hours of class tonight. I hope I can make it to the weekend intact so that I can sleep.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday morning for the first time I saw my son.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make that 3-1 Pens.

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

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

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

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