Collected Thoughts

Tampa won! They did much better than I thought and got a nice lead, although they fell apart in the last 5 minutes and the score ended up 4-3. But! they had a lot of young guys out there that did a good job. Paul Ranger, who came up from Springfield (the minor leauge affiliate) at the beginning of the year got his first NHL goal! In the after show Paul Kennedy (the color interviewer guy) gave him the puck.

Affy scored twice and almost got a hat trick. Came very close. I can't spell his name without looking it up, he usually plays on the 3rd or 4th line but they moved him up to the first and he stepped up. The power play also suffered with the lack of experience from Boyle and Kubina but overall everyone stepped up and played well.

I should probably use this time to get used to not hearing Kubina's name, he's an Unrestricted Free Agent this summer and from all the speculation I've read on various hockey/lighning boards the team won't be able to keep him with the salary cap.

The Thrashers tried to start a few things --- pushing and shoving--- but the team stayed calm and didn't get baited into a fight. I don't think there were any 5-3 situations either. The loss pushed them to 7 points out of 8th and killed their play off hopes. Unless Montreal, New Jersey, or Tampa totally fall apart and lose a bunch of games.

BUT Montreal and New Jersey won their games so it's still a three way tie for 6th place with the Tampa in the lead. Saturday all three teams play again, Tampa Bay plays Florida at Florida and then Monday they play in Tampa. They need those wins badly, I think over all Montreal and New Jersey have harder schedules, BUT! Florida- Tampa Bay is a huge division rivalry so Florida will want to win just for that.

So Saturday will be yard work and then hockey. There's also the spring festival/parade which is near the library (where I've been walking to on the weekends) so I may go to that. It depends on if I want to deal with scads of people.

Also I started a really stupid book that someone gave me (it'd been left at work), it's called the Chairman or something like that. I can't remember the guy's name. I got to chapter 3 (I think) and couldn't stand it any longer. Each chapter started with a definition from the finicial industry --which is fine since I don't know anything about it. BUT! It starts at some big wig's funeral and the new Chairman is looking around, etc and lists the names and positions of people there -- not just football coach, senator, etc --but totally name dropping fictional names. He did it later as well.

Then they leave the funeral and he's talking to some guy whose name should have been John Exposition because it was blah blah blah, like on CSI when the techs should know how something works but go "oh! that's right technical stuff for the auidence" and look kind of stupid. So after the Exposition they are walking near a limo that explodes! The Chairman isn't hurt, just a cut on his head, and some lady passing by is dead, and the Chairman (who has a name but I forget -- he's 36 and attractive, that comes up more than once) is cut, but he bravely goes on to the reception after the funeral. Everyone sort of leaves and there are NO COPS. Seriously. A limo explodes and some chick dies and he's all "no! no! I must solider on to the reception where we can Exposition some more!"

But, he shows compassion and tells his John Exposition (formerly his equal now his minion -- the New Chairman takes time to totally smack down Mr. Exposition and establish his Alpha Dominance) to find out who the woman was, discretely, he wants to take care of her family, but not get sued. Then Chairman takes out "his Blackberry -- a cordless email, internet, and phone device --" that's what it says! I sat there stunned that the author not only defined what a Blackberry was but did it in a stupid manner. Cordless? Shouldn't it be wireless? It felt like the author was name dropping -- look ! I use the coolest gadgets!

At that point I was about to quit the book but I decided to see if it got worse. Which it did, I only made it a few pages further.


So the New Chairman goes to the reception and wanders into the Ex Chairman's office his home looking around taking in the smell of leather and smoke and thinking "MINE!! ALL MINE!!" (only wordier), when some other guy (also a former equal but now a total minion, but he was almost the Chairman! he lost by one vote! And he says "fuck" a lot which makes the New Chairman mad) who comes in and says "our conspiracy didn't work!" and tells the New Chairman "yeah, we tried to kill you, John Exposition was supposed to get you closer to the limo but he failed". The New Chairman reacts with "I figured your nefarious plan out as soon as it happened! Take that! BTW here's my fresh new idea about how to make us more money, wanna hear it?"


Which is when I threw down the book in disgust.

I'm sure this guy has made lots of money on the book, stupid people should not be allowed to write stupid books.

Shallow Hockey Update.

Tonight Tampa plays Atlanta, and they really really need to win this game. They are in a three -way tie right now for 6th place (with New Jersey and Montreal-- Tampa has the advantage over those two). Atlanta is five points out, I'm not sure if they could sneak into 8th place or not.

Tonight will be a struggle, a few games ago (Sunday I think) Boyle went out with a hurt ankle, he was chasing down the puck for icing and hit the boards (I think, I didn't see it). I'm not sure why there isn't no touch icing because guys keep getting injured in various ways, Tortorella doesn't want no touch icing, when Boyle was asked about it he said he's now a fan. I wonder if that will effect his performance in the future, I wonder if it will be in the back of his mind that he might get hurt.

Then in the next game Sydor got hurt (he was writing on the ice kind of inch worming around) in the first period and then Kubina got hurt. Sydor went back in but Kubina didn't -- he has a "lower body injury". Freddie Modin has been out with an "upper body injury." Tampa called up two minor league players to help with defense. There is also Paul Ranger, in his first season in the NHL. The offense hasn't been that sharp, in several games it looked like they weren't attacking at all and just waiting for puck to get to them.

Supposedly they'll be back this weekend. I hope.

Tampa was the only team not to do anything before the trade deadline, there was speculation that they'd try and get a goalie (we have 2 back up goalies, John Grahame is very inconsistent and Sean Burke has off nights, he broke his finger and didn't play, they called up Gerald Coleman to be the back up...he even played after Grahame sucked so bad Tortorella pulled him and put Coleman in). But now it looks like they should have gone after a defenseman.

I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of tonight yelling "stay in the zone!!! Why are you going back wards?!?!?" and "Stop passing the puck so much !! Shoot!!" And if Grahame starts "Stay in your crease damnit! Stay!" He has a tendancy to wander and that's not his strong suit, plus he drops his stick just about every other game.

I know at least once I'll be yelling at Bobby "The Chief" Taylor to stop whining about the play calling. He does that a lot and it's annoying. Although the other night I actually heard him correct himself and say the ref was right in call against the Lightning. I was shocked. He actually calmed down for a game, but since it's so close to the play offs I'm sure he'll get upset. I swear sometimes he sounds like he's about to stroke out.

Speaking of playoffs, I haven't looked for the tv schedule, but Im assuming the bulk of the first rounds will be on OLN. I keep hoping their camera work will improve, but it didn't look so great the other night when I watched some of the Ducks/whoever they played game. Mom watched part of that, she thought the name was stupid, esp. after I explained the history. They had a quick little interview before the game with Teemu Selane. Mom thought he was cute until she realized he has some front teeth missing, "ewww!!" She's slowly getting understanding more of the game and gets interested in parts. But I think 1 hockey game a week is her limit.

As a new hockey fan I'm so sick of reading long time hockey fans bitch about the fact that hockey isn't popular in America and that there aren't enough fans and then bitch about hockey being in non traditional areas.

If you want the fan base to grow you have to increase the exposure.

Also, I don't think it's has hard to follow as people (esp fans) make it out to be. My 86 yr old grandmother watched a game for the first time a few weekends ago and deemed it easier to follow than football. She couldn't always tell who had the puck or exactly when the puck went into the net (mostly because of her 86 yr old eyes) but she said it was easier than the stopping and starting in football and that football rules were more complicated.

Of course I did compare hockey to keep away. Imagine it's just an elaborate game of keep away. Mom who just watches the games occasionally can follow it and understands the power play faily well.

Right now overall Im just frustrated that I don't have Center Ice, that I don't have cable, that I screwed up and taped 5 hours of CNBC yesterday and that I won't be able to go to a game this season. I don't really have the money to go see the ECHL team that's close by. I keep daydreaming that I have enough money left over every month to be able to afford to drive over and get a hotel room for the night and watch a game and then come back the next day. But I don't.

I taped the wrong channel. All day the wrong channel. CNBC instead of MSNBC. And then I see that I onlygot half the USA game (not that I've watched it all).
Tomorrow I'm going to get this right.

I'm not sure who the skater was but he did the James Bond music number. I realized tonight that it was like a bad vid in motion! He had the over literal interpertation of the lyrics (miming driving and throwing a bomb and ducking also the 007 on his costume just in case you didn't get it), bad effects (the stupid costume with the white dinner jacket front and the weird leather looking bits that probably should haven holsters), and unneccesary and crappy transitions (which would be him miming a gun during his spins. To hammer home -- it's a James Bond!! Look!!).

I liked Johnny Weir's program and the young guy who skated to the jazz. He didn't do well but it was interesting to watch. And the skater with the unfortunate choice of orange mesh in his costume.


Didn't get to see the last American guy skate I wish they wouldn't make it last so long. I'm not sure what they could have really cut, except commercials and I know that's never going to happen.

Tomorrow is a frustrating day for me. Men's Hockey!!! Tampa's represented in 4 countries! But with one vcr and no Tivo there had to be sacrifices and I'm taping USA, Canada and Czech Republic games. Tampa has 7 guys who will be active on teams and 1 back up for injury. The guys are: Vincent LeCavalier, Martin St Louis, and Brad Richards (with Dan Boyle as back up) for Canada. John Grahame starting in goal for USA. Vaclav Prospal and Pavel Kubina for Czech and Fredrik Modin for Sweden. As soon as I get home tomorrow I'm watching hockey.

This weekend was so much fun I watched Women's hockey for all day Saturday and then went and watched Tampa play and then more hockey on the weekend. Too bad I can't call in sick tomorrow.

Most of my stuff sold on ebay. I had one issue with a buyer because I couldn't take a credit card payment via paypal, but she's sending me a money order. That was the item I made the most money on. I have another batch of stuff I want to list but I need to list those so the timing is better for mailing things off.

I didn't make a ton of money but every little bit helps!

I'm finally getting around to listing things on ebay. This is very tedious. It's a mix of comics, novels, clothes, and shoes. My stuff is listed here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZlilllym

I've never listed anything before and I'm hoping some of this stuff will sell.

My car makes a horrid horrid grindy noise when I make a sharp right turn. Tomorrow it's to the mechanic and then to borrow money until I get my tax refund (I don't even have my w2 yet, the stupid work computers reverted back to my old address). GAH!!!!!

this is my 98 Accord. It's not supposed to do this.

I bounced three checks. But I got several "courtesy" payment things but I'm not sure what that is. I have to call the credit union. However, after I pay my car insurance and the health insurance and buy gas then, well, there isn't going to be a enough for my rent. I was late sending my rent check twice so I sent the one for Feb when I sent Jan. So she can deposit it right away, which now screws me. Also my credit card is nearly maxed out -- yes some of it on stupid stuff, but also on gas and I charged my medicine last night, because -- no money for it.

Tonight I was supposed to go out to dinner with co workers, but that's not happening. I'm going to Grandma E's this weekend (she so excited) and I'm leaving right after work. I've never sold anything on ebay before and I'm not sure I have anything that will sell. I've checked ebay against what I have, but who knows maybe I can sell of some of the questionable romance novels I got. Including that really horrible time travel sex games one.