Christmas Village

Thought I'd show off Our first Christmas Village! We got all this stuff last year a Zellers for half price right after Christmas. Amazingly so far the cats have left it alone! As you can see we're have a bit of a problem with the keeping the trees standing. Hopefully next year we can put it someplace where we can use fake snow (away from the cats).

Tracy's in Newfoundland

This weekend I'm on my own! Tracy left for Newfoundland on Thursday morning and is back on Monday. She missed the big Friday morning snow storm. I wish I could say I've been having a good old boy's weekend but so far that hasn't worked out. I spent Friday night working out at the gym, clean out my fish and then doing 3 days worth of dishes (brings back bachelor day memories). Yesterday I spent helping Couto move to his new house and when I finally got home I just collapsed from exhaustion. Today I gotta do laundry, clean the house and do some shopping. I can't wait for Tracy to be back! LOL

Getting Ready for Christmas

This week Tracy and I set up our Christmas tree. We got it on Monday night and it took a bit. We first stopped at Canadian Tire to get a proper tree stand but when we got in there we got everything else on our list except the tree stand. We also took some time to look at a few of the trees at the tree lot in the parking lot. We didn't notice until we were driving out to Ikea that we forgot to get a tree stand. Once we got to Ikea we right away noticed that there were no trees left, the place was so bare it looked as if someone had even swept up the pine needles and took them. That meant that we had to stop now at a bank since I only had $20 on me and what ever tree lot we stopped at was going to be more than $20. We stopped in at a Loblaws to use the bank machine and noticed that there was a tree lot there. After finally getting the money out we walked over and only then noticed the tree lot was closed and was only open between 3pm and 8pm! How the hell do you stay in business only open for 5hrs a day and 3 of those hours are when people are working or driving home from work. Off to the tree lot at Canadian Tire parking lot. We got there just as the lot was being closed and managed to get a pretty good tree (see photo above - lol). After we got the tree in the SUV we went into Canadian Tire to get the tree stand and - they were sold out of the one we really wanted. We wanted the BIG metal ones but instead settled for the new Swivel Stand and I gotta say it was really good. It was probably the fastest I've ever set a tree up. With all the running around I didn't really feel like decorating it since by the time we got back and got the tree in the house and standing up it was 10pm. We finally got around to decorating it on Wednesday night and I think it's one of the best trees I've ever seen. Tracy and I spent 1.5hrs decorating it and we both really pleased with how the tree looked. Anyway just wanted to put up a photo and brag about our tree.

Good Weekend!

Had a great weekend out in London visiting Noah, Tracy's new nephew, Chris and Laura. Noah's so cute, I hope to have a few pics and a bit about the trip up tomorrow.

WOW

WOW It actually worked from my email.  Think I'll try my phone next!

Just Testing

Just testing publishing a post from my email.  If this works it'll save me logging in a posting in blogger.  Anyway just want to see if this works.

Friday Thoughts

It's Friday! Well I lost 3.5 lbs this week on Weight Watchers. I'm both happy and concerned about that. Your only supposed to lose 2 lbs a week on the diet. The way I figure it, I'm not losing fat as much as muscle in the last few weeks as I haven't been doing the weight machines at the gym much lately. I now think it's very important to keep it up with the weights as much as the elliptical machine. Back to my old plan of one day on the elliptical for 45min and the next day on the elliptical machine for 20 then at the weights for 25min. Anyway since the middle of October I've now lost 25lbs - got another 25lbs to go to get to my goal of 170! I gotta say at 195 I feel a lot better about myself than I did at 229 earlier in the year.
Today Tracy and I are off to London Ontario to see her brothers new baby Noah! I'm looking forward to seeing the baby, just not that crazy about the 6 hour car ride there tonight and the 6 hour car ride back on Sunday.

The Weekend that's past and some thoughts

Had a pretty relaxing weekend last weekend. Tracy wrote another Accounting exam Friday night wile I took it easy. Saturday Tracy started studding for her next exam wile I headed out to my parent's place to pick up our Christmas decorations. We spent Saturday night setting everything but the tree up and I gotta say the place looks really good. I did manage to chip one of my front teeth just a tiny bit on a beer bottle, I'll survive. It's such a small chip you can't even tell unless you run a finger nail along the bottom of the tooth. Been really busy this week, as I've had to work late Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Not really too sure what to think about the guy that got shot at the Miami airport yesterday. If he was yelling he had a bomb then that's one thing but from what I've heard there are conflicting stories as to weather or not he did say he had a bomb. It's a tough one to call. I know in the end I don't feel any safer.
Here's hopping for the safe return of the hostages in Iraq. I did here that the american has apperently been killed.

Busy Weekend!

I had a very busy but amazingly good weekend. Friday night was the best. Brent, Joyce, Tracy and I had tickets to see U2 at the Corel Centre and were surprised to find ourselves 3 rows from the stage. Ok we were kinda behind the stage, but the view was awesome. U2 rocked! I has to have been the best concert I’ve ever been to.
Saturday night was Tracy’s office party and I must say it was a lot of fun. We even got up and danced a few times. It’s was a lot better than the office parties that my office holds. Tracy’s office party was for the staff and I feel that’s the way it should be. My office’s Christmas party is all about the clients and we are pestered into “mingling” with them. It ends up feeling a lot more like work and a lot less like a party.
Sunday was the only downer for the weekend. We were supposed to go to my mom’s birthday party but the forecast of freezing rain kept us at home. On the up side the Grey Cup game between Montreal and Edmonton was perhaps the best game I’ve seen since the Hamilton/Saskatchewan Grey Cup. Edmonton won it in overtime 38-35.

Just thinking

So today's the big day - U2 tonight. I wish I could say I'm all excited but I'm not. I think it's the fact that we got the tickets soooooo long ago. I don't even honestly remember when it was we got them.
I've lost another 2 pounds this week, I'm down to 201 pounds now.
That's it for now, might write a bit more later.

Hockey - Oiler Tid-bit

I saw this on the TSN web site today in the power rankings and thought it was a pretty neat stat:

" Since activating Ryan Smyth from injured reserve a month ago, the Oilers are 9-5, with the Smyth scoring 10 goals and adding six assists in those 14 games. Key Injuries: None."

The Oilers are ranked 10th on the TSN Power Rankings this week. Smyth was held pointless last night and was +1 with 2 shots on goal.

Hockey - Oilers 4, Wild 3

The Oilers have now won 10 of their last 14 as last night they beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in a game that saw a lot of back and forth action. The Oilers powerplay continues to struggle as it was 0-3 in the game. Torres, Hemski, Stoll and Moreau all scored a goal each for the Oilers as Mike Morrison won his 3^rd strait game and is 3-0 so far. Morrison stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced. Edmonton plays Calgary next on Friday night.

Tracy IS an Aunt

Just thought I’d give a bit of an update on Tracy becoming an Aunt yesterday. Tracy’s sister-in-law gave birth to a happy healthy baby boy and the new mother is also doing fine. Here’s a nice little pic of the new baby who’s been named Noah Ethan (I think it’s such a cool name).

Tracy's about to be an Aunt!

Tracy’s about to become an aunt! This is really exciting for Tracy (and myself), Laura (Tracy’s sister-in-law) is scheduled to have a “C” section (is that how you spell it, not sure) sometime this afternoon. We can’t wait to find out if it’s a boy or girl!

Jiri Fischer and the Oilers

I almost never write about anything other than the Oilers when I comes to hockey in my blog but I couldn’t ignore last nights news about Jiri Fischer. Jiri Fischer collapsed and had a seizure in the middle of the first period of last nights hockey game. He had to be revived thanks to the quick work of the trainers on hand with CPR and on site Defibrillators. As of right now the word is that he is in stable condition and is going to be OK. The game of course has been canceled and a make up date has yet to be announced. This drives home my belief that everyone should take a first aid course and know how to give CPR and work auto defibrillators.

The Oilers last night managed to slide by the Sharks 2-1. Marty Reasoner scored in regulation at the end of the second period to even the game at 1-1. Hemsky and Smyth scored in the shoot out as Mike Morrison stopped 21 shots in his second career game. The Oilers have now won 9 of their last 13 games.

Oilers Stuff

Well the Oilers continue to plod along, earlier this week they beat the Avalanche 5-2 as Mike Morrison made his first NHL start and looked really good. Perhaps now, after posting the best record in the preseason, the lowest goals against average in the preseason and the highest save percentage in the preseason, Mr. MacTavish will give him a serious look instead of over looking him. I'm not saying the Morrison should be the Oilers new starter, but it was clear to me in the preseason he was the best goalie the Oilers had.
Tonight the Oilers look to win their second strait and get their record on the season to 2 games above .500 as they take on the Red Wings. It won't be easy as the Wings lost last night to Calgary and will more than likely be a bit more focused for tonight's game.

Update!

Man it's been a long time since I've posted a blog here hasn't it? November 2^nd, hmm well since then the Renegades ended their season, Paopao was fired and some clown that is possibly the worst dresser of all time, John Jenkins, has been introduced as headcoach.

The Edmonton Oilers managed to stretch their winning steak to 5 games before dropping the next 2 games. They turned it around last night with a 3-1 win over Columbus. Smith, Pisani and Dvorak all scored for the Oilers as Jussi Marrkanen made his 12^th strait start stopping 29 of the 30 shots he faced. Marrkanen was the difference in the game as the Oilers pulled another one of their classic first period no shows as Columbus out shot Edmonton 13-2 in the first frame. After 2 periods Columbus held a 23-10 lead in shots.

And last but not least the Chicago Bears have managed to get them selves into first place in their division. No they're not that good, the division sucks.

Oilers Update

The Edmonton Oilers have recalled centre Kyle Brodziak from Iowa and have placed Igor Ulanov on the injury reserved list. Ulanov fractured his toe in the Dallas game and in my mind won't be missed much as he always seems to be coughing up the puck. Brodziak will replace injured Mike Peca who suffered a mild concussion in the Columbus game. Secretly I'm hoping that Nash knocked some scoring touch into Mr. Peca who hasn't scored to much yet this season.

Just some Sports Stuff

Oilers Win 5-1 over Columbus

The Oilers have now managed to win 3 in arrow again, lets hope they don't repeat the 7 game losing streak thing again. Jussi Markkanen looked good making 23 saves as Edmonton out shot Columbus 35-24. Ales Hemski had another big night for the Oilers scoring 2 goals, he now has 13 points on the season giving him the Oiler scoring lead. Harvey also scored for Edmonton, the goal was his first as an Oiler. Harvey and Laraque seem to be finally starting to click together. Also scoring for Edmonton were Torres, with his 8th of the season, and Smyth, who scored his 4th of the season. Edmonton's next game is Thursday night in Detroit. This will be a big test for Edmonton as the Red Wings are flying high with a 12-1-0 record.




Renegades News

It seams that the Renegades will not be brining back Joe Paopao for next season. Not much is being said by either side but reports are that John Jenkins has been given a conditional contract to coach next season should Joe Paopao not be signed and right now that doesn't look likely. I have always said the Joe Paopao should be fired but not for John Jenkins – this guy isn't exactly a good coach, he was the offensive coordinator for the Calgary Stampeders in 2004. How was Calgary's offence in 2004? I don't remember exactly but I do know it was bad enough to finish last. He also apparently isn't all that popular with players or the media. He's been described as erratic – not exactly what some one would look for in a coach that is being looked at for building up a team.
The Renegades close out the season this Saturday against the Argos and apparently Joe Paopao is going to give back up QB Bank some game time. Hmmm ......... maybe you should have done that earlier in the season Joe.

How's Ty Conklin doing?

If your wondering how Ty Conklin is doing on his “conditioning” stint with the Hamilton Bulldogs, he hasn't played since Saturday night when Hamilton was hammered 4-0 by Rochester and he now has no wins in the 2 games he has played. So far he has managed to cough up 7 goals on only 61 shots. I'm guessing he needs a bit more conditioning.

Big Sports Weekend!

Had a big sports weekend. First off, Friday the Oilers finally broke there 7 game losing streak by beating the Dallas stars 5-3. Radek Dvorak was actually useful scoring the tie breaking goal as Jussi Markkanen made 19 saves. The Oilers then went on to beat the Nashville Predators 5-1 on Saturday night. Jussi Markkanen made 23 saves as the Oilers scored on 3 of their 6 powerplays (no that's not a miss print – I checked the stat twice). Todd Harvey was back in the line up and it looks as it Ryan Smyth is getting going having now scored in back to back games. Tonight the Oilers play Columbus as they try to stretch their 2 game winning streak into a 3 gamer. I hope this doesn't mean that they will then tank the next 7 games tho. With Harvey back in the line up the Oilers are healthy for the first time this season and are 4-0 with Harvey in the lineup, it's a nice stat but it means nothing. It's funny how just 2 wins in a row and suddenly no one is talking Oiler trades any more.
On Saturday afternoon I was at the Renegades game to watch their playoff hopes be crushed by the Montreal Alouetts. The first half was entertaining enough and I was hopeful and Ottawa didn't give up a big play in the last 3 minutes of the first half. Then came the second half as Montreal started to pull away and from there I started paying less and less attention to the game. At least there are no more “If they could just do this........ and then this happen....... they could make the playoffs” talk anymore. I really hope that the Renegades shake things up in the off season and get rid of Paopao. I have nothing against him, it's just become obvious in the last 3 year that they always give up a big play in the last 3 minutes of the half and then come out flat in the second half and in my mind that's due to bad coaching habits.
After the game Tracy and I met up with my parents and we headed back to our house for dinner and then watched the Sens dismantle the Leafs 8-0. Nothing beats watching the Leafs get blown out on the CBC with Bob Cole doing everything not to start crying on live TV.
Sunday afternoon I sat down and watched the Bears beat the Lions in OT 19-13. It's kinda sad that the Bears are 4-3 and sit in first place, says a lot about their division doesn't it? In the NFC South there are 3 teams tied with a 5-2 record and if the playoffs were to start now Dallas who is 5-3 would miss the playoffs and the Bears would have home field advantage against either Atlanta or Carolina, both of whom have better records than the Bears – Ahh the NFL! The rest of the season the Bears play a much tougher schedule and the real test will come when they play Carolina, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta, all of whom have winning records. The 2 time the bears have played teams with winning records so far this season they've lost both games and were out scored 33-14.
Sunday evening Tracy and I went to the Sens/Philly game. The Sens lost 5-3, but our seats were great, we were about 10 row back from the Flyers bench right on the blue line. The game was never really in much doubt as the Flyers came out hitting hard and the Sens seemed a bit tired from giving the Leafs a beating the night before.

Conklin Update

Wonder how Ty Conklin's “conditioning” stint is going? In his first game Tuesday nigh he lost as he was only able to stop 25 of 28 shots fired at him. Not exactly inspiring, confidence building stuff is it? It's the AHL, these are players that their respective teams have deemed not yet quite ready for the NHL. They Bulldogs next play on Friday night, here's hoping they play Conklin again, I for one want the Conklin mystery to be solved sooner rather than later.

What a Sad State

What a sad state the Oilers are in now. I think it's time to admit that the wheels have fallen off the wagon and the horse is getting away. With less than 5 min to go and up 3-2 the Oilers let in 3 goals and lost 5-3. What the hell Radek Dvorak was doing in front of the net tipping a shot past his own goaltender is beyond me. What the hell Igor Ulanov is thinking throwing the puck carelessly around in his own end and passing to to players on the other team not once but twice is beyond me. What Ryan Smyth is doing passing the puck back between his legs into the slot infornt of his own goal to, well, no one (luckily) is beyond me. We can't blame bad goaltending for this one – this was another example of a bunch of brain dead players skating around. Luckily they only showed up for the last 5 min of the game.
This is truly a team that has to be shaken up. I don't think we can wait any longer to push the panic button. What would I do if I were the coach? Well, after pulling my self out of the fetal position and I stop crying, I'd cut Igor Ulanov. He's been an unmitigated disaster. In only 7 games he's managed to get his plus minus rating down to -7. He's too slow and the game has passed him by.
The next thing I would do is sit Radek Dvorak out for the next game. You have to send a message to your players that playing like your still in junior hockey isn't going to cut it. What the hell is he thinking standing in front of his own net with his stick on the ice with less than 2 min to go in a tie game.
As far as Ryan Smyth, I'd have him sit out the next game as well. He has a history of doing stupid things like that and again you have to make it clear that you expect your players to actually think and stay focused for 60 minutes.
If I were Kevin Lowe, again I'd get out of the fetal position and try to stop crying for a bit and start looking around for another desperate team that is willing to give you players for almost nothing, and right now all the desperate teams are desperate for a reason – they don't have anyone and I for one don't really see the point, yet, in making a trade for the sake of making a trade.
The next Oiler game is Friday night against Dallas..........I hope they actually play for 60min this time.

Cloudy Again :(

Just thought I'd post another little thought or two that's not related to sports. It's cloudy again today and it's really starting to get to me. I don't think I have that lack of sun disorder but I am starting to wonder. I really don't remember the last sunny day that we had here, yesterday it was just cloudy and Sunday it was dark and rained all day. If memory serves me correct it was cloudy on Saturday and it rained on Friday, I really don't remember what Thursday's weather was but rain is what I'd bet on. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I don't live in or around the Gulf of Hurricanes (Gulf of Mexico). Apparently it's supposed to be cloudy with showers again tomorrow only they've thrown in the chance of wet snow so it's doesn't look like they just copied today's forecast and pasted it in to tomorrow spot.

OC Transpo

It's looking more and more like there will be some kind of a strike or lockout in the dispute with the city of Ottawa and OC Transpo. The union representing bus drivers is apparently recommending that the bus drivers reject what the city is calling it's final offer. Either side must give 72 hours notice about a strike or lockout so that means the buses could stop rolling as early as the middle of next week. No date has yet been set for the drivers to vote but it is expected to happen in the next few days. I have no idea what I'll do if there is a bus strike, the price of parking downtown is crazy and my office doesn't have enough parking spots for everyone. Even if I do decide to drive down town, the traffic will be crazy and good luck finding a parking space. This has left me with the only option of walking to work which would likely take me an hour to do.

Oilers have a big game tonight against the Colorado Avelanche and it's on TSN at 9:30pm eastern time. Raffi Torres is expected to miss the game wile Todd Harvey is finally expected back in the line up. Let's hope this is a good game.

Oilers Game Tonight

Tonight is a BIG game for the Oilers, they look to show that they can, at the very least, compete in the very competitive Northwest division and are also looking to take out a bit of there frustration on the Colorado Avalanche. Yesterday the Oilers sent a very strong message to the rest of the team by sending Ty Conklin down to the minors and bringing up Mike Morrison. I've said it 1,000 times on this blog and I'm going to say it again – Ty Conklin has been horrible. His play hasn't been the direct result of any of the loses but he hasn't been able to win any game either. With the way he played I wouldn't be surprised if we never see him in and Oiler uniform again, and if we do, it will be 3 games with which he can prove himself. If it was left to me I wouldn't be wasting any more time on him and I'd start looking for a goalie some where eles. One crazy idea I keep thinking of as a band aid solution is to talk to Tommie Salo. Why not? He's still good enough that Sweden has invited him to their Olympic team, I don't think Conklin's going to be on the American Olympic Team. Sign him for one year and add an option for a second year. Any other solution involves trading players away and most likely one of the players leaving won't be Conklin, no one is going to want him, so now your trading away good players to get a good goalie and good goalies don't come cheep.
Having said all that the Oilers don't need to push the panic button yet, lets give Mike Morrison and Jussi Markkanen a chance and hopefully Chris Pronger and Mike Peca, both of whom have been inviable and a big disappointment, will break out and the Oilers can start rolling again. Hopefully the breakout happens tonight.

Oilers - Morrison up, Conklin down

The Edmonton Oilers have just announced that they have recalled goalie Mike Morrison from Greenville and have sent Ty Conklin down to the Hamilton Bulldogs for “conditioning”. I'm not surprised at all by this move as Conklin has been horrible so far this season. I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Morrison actually sees quite a bit of game action and I also wouldn't be surprised if we don't see Conklin back in an Oiler uniform any time soon if ever again. My gut feel is the Oilers are about to make a move in the goal tending department in the way of a trade very soon.

Man I cheer for some BAD teams

Last night I watched the first half of the Renegades game - it was all I could take. After that Tracy and I watched the movie "The Interpreter", which was entertaining enough. I guess I just expected more out of a movie starring Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. Don't get me wrong it was a pretty good movie, it just left me feeling "hmm" after it was over.

Renegades

You would think when you opponent turns the ball over 5 times in the first half you'd have quite a lead and be able to withstand your usual 3:00 to go to the half let down but not Ottawa. Good teams don't have to worry about giving up a bunch of points just before the half every game. Good team build up huge leads when their opponent turns the ball over 5 times in the first half. Ottawa is not a good team. Ottawa has given up a lot of points with 3 min to go in the first half this year, too many points. I did a bit of digging and found out the Renegades have been out scored in the last three minutes of the first half 64-41 this season. That's a lot of points to be giving up in a 3 min span of a game. The 64 points is 12% of the points they have given up this year. Three minutes of game time is only 5% of the game. I'm actually glad the Renegades are out of it now, maybe they can now get a head start on working things out for next year. They can start by getting rid of coach Poapoa. When a team constantly gives up a lot of points at one point in the game it usually indicates a problem on the coaching side of things. It's about keeping your players focused and Poapoa has demonstrated this year, last year and the year before that they he can't keep his players focused on the task at hand, which is not letting the other team score a bunch of points right before the half. It's like watching a bunch of kids in class right before recess, they can't wait to go out and play, only in Ottawa's case they can't wait to go inside and stop playing. It's not Poapoa fault entirely, it's the culture surrounding the team - they have always sucked in the last 3 min of the first half.

Oilers

I'm starting to think that just maybe, perhaps, that the Oilers should send Mr. Conklin down to the farm team and bring up well, anyone else. Last night, as far as I'm concerned, Ty Conklin just bought is one way ticket out of Edmonton. Not that Jusse Makkanen is much better, Conklin is just that bad right now. You can't trade him, who's gonna want a goalie that right now doesn't look like he could stop a beach ball that's half deflated. He played so bad last night in relief of Markkanen that MacTavish pulled him and put Markkanen back in the game, I don't remember the last time I've seen that.
Last night Markkanen started the game against Colorado by allowing 3 goals on only 13 shots before Conklin came in and allowed 4 goals on 14 shots, not surprisingly Markkanen started the third period and stopped all 5 shots he faced as the Oilers were pounded by Colorado 7-1. Let the trade watching begin.

More Ramblings

Ottawa tid bits

The Ottawa police announced that they had arrested a 25 year old man, Chris Myers of Ottawa Ontario in the Ardeth Wood case. He was in jail in North Bay on a sexual assault charge there, he sounds like an outstanding citizen and a prime candidate to argue for gene pool skimming program of some kind. The police sketch played the key role in his arrest as the Det. Const. Noel Coulas of the North Bay police department recognized him from the police sketch. Here's hoping they can solve the Jennifer Teague as fast or faster.

On another interesting tid bit of Ottawa news a Lebanese family claims that they were assaulted by Ottawa police as they beat family members with batons and pepper sprayed them. They also claim 20 police officers descended on there house to back up the original police officers. I don't know who to believe 100% in this case but I have a hard time believing the 20 police officers descended on a house and pepper sprayed the crap out of everyone in one house.

Hurricane Wilma

Right now it's a category 4 storm pounding the crap out of Mexico. Here's hoping that it weakens quite a bit by the time it gets to Florida.

Oilers

The Oilers have now dropped 5 in a row as last night they lost to the Flames 3-1. The Oilers outshot Calgary 14-4 in the first period and broke with tradition by actually scoring first. That first goal would be the only goal they would score on the night. It now looks as if Markkanen has pretty much won the starting goaltending position as Conklin hasn't seen any game action since allowing 2 goals on the first 7 shots in the Dallas game. Having said all that, I still expect Conklin to start tonight against Colorado since this is the second game in 2 nights. Shawn Horrcoff did make his return last night leaving just Ryan Smyth and Todd Harvey on the injury list.

Renegades

The Renegades play "must win" game number 4,882,457,889 tonight against the Tiger-cats in Hamilton. Ottawa will likely win extending all the "hopeful" talk that they will make the playoffs. If Ottawa loses tonight they are out of the playoff chase and who ever wins the Saskatchewan / Calgary get a playoff birth. The game is on TSN and since I like punishing my self I'll likely be watching it.

Just thinking - and it kinda hurts

Oilers

The Oilers take their 4 game losing streak in to tonight's game against the Calgary Flames. I haven't heard yet who will start in goal but I have a sinking feeling that it will be Ty Conklin since he hasn't seen any game action since getting pulled a couple of games ago, here's hoping that Marrkannen gets the start. Conklin has been horrible so far and that's putting a positive spin on it. The last time Edmonton played Calgary the Flames were outshot, outhit and outplayed for 2 of the 3 periods but the Oilers couldn't put the puck past Kiprusoff. The Oilers penalty kill doesn't look all that great either, it's ranked 20th according to the NHL website, however there are media stories (TSN etc.) that indicate the Oilers power play is last and has allowed 14 goals in only 44 short handed situations. I'm thinking some one at TSN has their numbers wrong since from my memory and looking back at the NHL's official score sheets the Oilers have only allowed 9 goals on 48 chances. It's not much better but there is no reason to make the penalty kill look worse than it is.

Aradeth Wood

If you live in Ottawa you'll no doubt remember the case of the young woman going for a bike ride on a sunny afternoon and not coming back. Apparently according to CBC the Ottawa police are about to announce they have made an arrest and will hold a 2:30 press conference.

Can't Help But Laugh!

Well apparently according to CNN the person that gave the US government it's big tip that the NY Subway was about to be attacked has admitted he was lying. I can only laugh and be relieved that this joke is now over. Only in America can one lone idiot say something false and send the whole country running for cover and panicking. Doesn't any one bother to check to make sure these allegations are even remotely based on fact before jumping up and down and yelling the "sky is falling!". How many millions of dollars were wasted only because one nut case told the Americans that the NY subway system would be attacked. No one bothered to check to see if the allegations were true because no one wanted to, it fit. It fit in George Bush's new world where "the evil doers" are everywhere and want all of us dead. It fit in George Bush's agenda of scaring the hell out of Americans. It fit in Bush's hopes to get his popularity up by "winning another battle" against the "evil doers". It almost makes me sad and laugh at the same time. There is only so many times that you can yell "The sky is falling" Mr. Bush before most people just ignore you and then when the sky really is falling no one will believe you! Maybe you should read that little book about "Chicken Little".

Just some Stuff

I don't know why but I decided to throw this little pic up, it of a Python in the Everglades that figured it could swallow a gator hole!
Tonight the Renegades play the Tiger-cats, I'm almost sick of watching this yearly collapse of the Gades and I'm hoping a bit that the Ticats win and put an end to all this "Ottawa could still make the playoffs" crap I keep hearing. Even if Ottawa make the playoffs all that's going to happen is Montreal will pound the hell out of them.
On another topic, the NY subway system is being threatened. I've done a bit of reading and as usual I'm a bit suspect of these "creditable" threats. Hopefully nothing happens but my paranoid little mind can't help but wonder who the creditable source is, and once this threat passes of course the US right wing will declare victory and say it was the war on terrorism that saved the subway system. It's almost like keeping a rock around to scare away tigers in downtown Ottawa. There are no tigers around so the rock must be working.

Oilers 4, Avalanche 3

Oilers beat Avs 4-3
The Edmonton Oilers won their season opener against the Colorado Avalanche and it didn't take overtime or a shootout, and get this, they never trailed in the game! Yea, yea I know, the Avalanche aren't exactly as good as they were at the end of the last season and they don't have Oiler killer Forestburg and this is only the first game of the season.
The Oilers carried most of the play, outshooting Colorado 31-17 and Ty Conkin played well enough (stopping 14 of 17) to get the win. Sean Horrcof played really well, and was the first star of the game, and hopefully it's a sign of thing to come from him, as he netted the first goal of the night and got the game winning goal. Horcoff's opening goal set a team record for fastest first goal of a season at 24 seconds. Ryan Smyth, who earned a second star, also played well notching a goal and adding 2 assists as he finished the night with a +2 rating. Stoll also played well and earned a 3rd star for his performance.
Ty Conklin's performance, wile good enough to win, wasn't exactly a game breaking performance, and hopefully with Jussi Markkannen being activated some time either today or tomorrow, it will give both of them the push they need to start performing better. If the Oilers have a weakness, and they have enough really, it the big, BIG, question is around goaltending. I really don't think the goal scoring one that everyone keeps bringing up is a really valid question mark. The Oilers have always been able to finish in the top 12 in goal scoring in the league, and the last season the finished 10th, so if the Oilers have a goal scoring problem, most of the teams in the NHL have a goal scoring problem.
You can't really ask for a better way to open the season then beating one of the best teams in your division. The Oiler's next game is this Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks, which should provide another clue as to how the Oilers stack up against the rest of their division.

Hockey Night in Canada is Back!

Only in Canada would this be even considered news but the CBC and it's union have an agreement in place to ensure that there will be a Hockey Night in Canada for this Saturday night. I'm excited now but wait a few weeks and I'll be back to complaining that it's just Leaf games that they show.

Hockey is Back!

The NHL is back and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to see how the new rules work out and how long the NHL sticks to it's zero tolerance policy. The zero tolerance thing will likely only stick until January, don't get me wrong I really hope it sticks but it likely won't, it never does. I'll be glued to TSN tonight all happy the game is back, I figure this will last until December when I get sick of watching the Sens for the 4,000th time and wonder why I don't see more Oiler games. GO OILERS GO!!!!
That's it from me today, kind of a slow one.

Weekend at Home

Tracy and I actually got to spend a relaxing weekend at home. On Friday night we celebrated getting out of debt by putting ourselves back in debt and going shopping, LOL. Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Gatineau Hills and toured the Mackenzie King Estates. Later that evening we went to the Keg Manor Restaurant and had a really good meal, they all seem to be really good meals at the Keg Manor. Sunday was another quiet day in which I decided to upgrade my current 1 gallon fish tank into a 5 gallon fish tank. I still have to return the water filter, it's too noisy. Sunday night Tracy and I headed over to Brent and Joyce's for a few drinks. Just a nice relaxing weekend.

Sens Game

Last night Pete and I went to the Sens game, well ok we saw 2 of the 3 periods. The congestion in the Corel Centre parking area is insane and the most poorly organized thing I've ever seen. We got off the Queensway at 7:05 and slowly inched our way to a parking spot, it kinda felt like we were trying to get away from Hurricane Rita. Pete managed to cram his Ford F150 king cab between a couple of cars and we managed to "wander" our way through the parking lots and finally made it into the building at 8:20. We missed all of the first period and most of the intermission before we made it to our seats.
One would think that leaving an hour before a game would allow enough time that you MAY miss the opening face off but still see most of the first period, but not in Ottawa and especially not the Corel Centre. If they ever give out awards for the "Worst Designed Parking Lot" the Corel Centre would win hands down! There was a wile where we didn't know if we were going to make the start of the second period. Here's a little tip for the idiots that the Corel Centre - Forcing 5 lanes of traffic into 1 is not a very bright thing to do. From now on I'll just have to leave 2 hours before game time to see the opening face off. Tracy thought I was nuts when I told her we were leaving at 6:00 to see the game. Even leaving at 6:00 we still would have missed the opening face off. You shouldn't have to spend an hour and a half in a parking lot trying to park your car.
The game it's self was really entertaining and fast paced. I like all the new rule changes except the shoot out part. I wasn't all that excited by it but then again the game wasn't on the line. Sidney Crosby played well, but I think he's in for a long season and doesn't seem quite ready on the defense side of things but show a lot of promise. I'm not ready yet to jump onto the "Sens Cup" bandwagon yet, after all it is preseason.
After the game Pete and I decided to hang out at Finigans bar and have a few beers and wait for the madness in the parking lot to end. We left after an hour and had no problem getting out, I guess that's what they want you to do, show up early have a few beers and then stick around after the game and have a few more beers.
Overall it was just nice to be back out at a NHL hockey game. GO OILERS GO! Hockey starts next week!

Weekend Fun

We had a busy, fun weekend. Friday night we were over at Deb and CraigÂ’s house for dinner. Craig must have been cooking all day, it was a great meal of stuffed Cornish Hen, vegetables and one of the best tasting deserts IÂ’ve had in a long time. The whisky coffee was great too.

Saturday I got up and was at the gym by 8:00am doing my workout of 20min on the elliptical machine and 30min of weights. By 11:10 Tracy and I were on the road to Trenton to visit her friend Tonya and her boyfriend Dan. After driving non stop at speeds of 115 to 120km/hr, we got there at about 2:00 (I make note of this since Tracy is absolutely convinced you can drive from Ottawa to Trenton in just less than 2 hours). We had a great time there playing cards and drinking until 1:00 in the morning. The next morning we got up around 10:30 and had breakfast at a local dinner and were back on the road home by 2:00pm.

It was a fun weekend, just a little to much drinking and eating.

A fun Sunday

Had a fun day on Sunday, didn't to much and that's what made it fun. I sat around and watched the Bears play then went to the gym after the game, came home and had Fish and Brews that Tracy had made (really yummy). I love Sunday's like that.
I've started up a sports blog to keep track of my favorite teams, check it out if you want to. I hope to keep it as up to date as possible.

http://djfsports.blogspot.com/

Have a good one everyone!

A Fun Saturday

Yesterday, despite the constant drizzle and rain, was actually a fun day. Tracy and I headed out the Smith Falls to visit the Hershey Chocolate Factory. The tour was really interesting even though there wasn't any candies being made, the factory is closed on weekends. We did see the huge chocolate holding tank mixing chocolate (mmmmm..........Chocolate). After that we were like a couple of kids in a candy store running around looking at all the cheap prices for candy. Gotta love quality control, there was a lot of bulk bar pieces on sale for really low prices. It's the only place you can go and walk out with a grocery bag full of candy and not feel bad.
That evening Tracy and I headed out to one of our favorite restaurants "Carmello's", the food as usual was excellent. Carmello's is located on Sparks Street between Lyon and Kent Streets. We started our meal by splitting a Insalata Carmello's, which was by far the best salad either of us has ever had. I believe Tracy had the "Umbriana" dish which had grilled chicken on a green pasta with a cream sauce, it was very tasty and filling. I had the "D'Angelo" dish which had chunks of Salmon, lots of shrimp in angle hair, all in a olive oil and garlic sauce. The "D'Angelo" dish my just be my new favorite dish. It seems every time we eat at "Carmello's" we try something new and are almost always blown away by how good the food is.

Renegades/Oilers

Winnipeg Blue Bombers 37 Ottawa Renegades 21

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Ottawa Renegades 37-21 in a wet mistake filled game in front of 17,567 fans. The Blue Bombers snapped their 3 game losing streak and the Renegades extended theirs to 4 games now and may be out of the playoffs. This was a must win for Ottawa and things looked good at half time with Ottawa up 21-19, the third quarter saw no scoring and then Winnipeg scored 18 un answered points in the 4th quarter. Ottawa almost had a field goal to make things interesting, but the ball hit the cross bar and bounce out rather than in. That single play seems to describe the whole game for Ottawa, the whole season for that matter, almost there but not quite. It wasn't the kickers fault, it wasn't the holders fault and it wasn't the snappers fault either, it was a combined effort. Losses in Ottawa are always combined effort of mistakes. A lot of players played well, but for every good play they made they also shot themselves in the foot too. Winnipeg wasn't without it's mental mistakes either, I can't count the number of times they were called for offside on defense.
In the end all that this game managed to tell fans is that Ottawa is about the same level as Winnipeg - and Winnipeg isn't exactly a team that you want to compare yourself too.

Edmonton Oilers 2 Calgary Flames 1

In the first NHL game for both teams in over a year the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames 2-1 in an overtime shootout under the new NHL rules in front of sellout crowd of 16,839. Calgary got the scoring under way in the second period with a short-handed goal from Lombardi. The Oilers finally got there powerplay clicking midway through the third period as Stoll scored on goalie Brent Krahn. The 5 min. overtime decided nothing and all 3 shooters for both teams failed to score in the shootout forcing a sudden death shoot out. Calgary has first chance at it and Nystrom missed leaving it up to Ryan Smyth as he scored a nice back hander to win the game for the Oilers.
Mike Morrison played well in goals stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced as Edmonton out shot Calgary 31-25 overall in the game. Other notables, Chris Pronger had an assist in his Oiler debut and Rob Schremp got the first star of the game for his gritty performance.

More Sports Talk

Hockey

It all starts again tonight. The NHL opens up it's pre-season schedule with the Edmonton Oilers facing their hated neighbors the Calgary Flames. This game should be interesting just to see how the new rule changes affect the game. The elimination of the red line and smaller goalie equipment should open up the scoring and make the game entertaining. The NHL is also ending all pre-season games with a shoot out no matter what the final score is. Now that I think of it, both Edmonton and Calgary are speedy teams that don't trap, maybe a better gauge of the new rules would be a game between the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers.

Football

Well - I'm off to the Renegades/Blue Bombers game tonight, hopefully we all won't get washed away in the heavy rains that are forecasted. The Renegaes are starting the usual suspects so here's hoping that most of them show up and play. I'll have a review of the game posted tomorrow.
Saying this game is a "must win game" would be using that statement too many times. It seams every game, every year at this time is a "Must Win Game", but if Ottawa loses it will be 4 strait losses and one step closer to once again not making the playoffs. For Winnipeg, who are winless on the road, it is (everyone now) "a must win game", they also have lost 3 strait coming in to this game. If you look back Ottawa has a history of "helping" teams break these sorts of streaks, so with Ottawa being 3.5 point favorites I'd take the points and Winnipeg.

Football Talk

Well it seems the Ottawa Renegades have announced they aren't going to bother trying to pry Jesse Palmer from Montreal. Apparently the asking price was just too much and I'm not really surprised. Don Mathews isn't stupid and knows that Ottawa is desperate for anything that could boost attendance. (How about actually winning games instead of stinking the place up?) I'm kind of glad Ottawa isn't going after him, knowing the Renegades they would have given up half the offence to get him and then where would they be.
Now the Renegades are after Tim Couch and Ryan Leaf. Ryan Leaf, "Cryin' Ryan" as he's affectionately called, is described by former team mates as immature, divisive, and confrontational. Sounds like a perfect player to go after and just what the Renegades need in their dressing room, another distraction. I hope that they get Tim Couch if they get anyone, he would be a better "team" player and less likely to start problems in the dressing room. The last thing the Renegades need is another distraction. Personally though I think they should bench Kerry Joseph for the next game and go with Brad Banks and forget Cryin' Ryan and Mr. Couch Potato.

Sports Time

Anyone that knows me at all will tell you I'm a big sports fan and I love hockey. That's why I'm so happy the NHL is back this year. It won't take you long to figure out what my favorite sports teams are - LOL.

Ryan Smyth Signs a 2 Year Deal

Today the Edmonton Oilers announced that they have signed Ryan Smyth to a 2 year deal that is worth $7 million dollars according to TSN. With out the deal Smyth would have become a free agent at the end of the upcoming season. Ryan Smyth had already agreed in principal to the one year deal the Oilers had earlier offered. I'm really looking forward to this season as it should be quite exciting with the additions of Mike Peca and Chris Pronger. What the Oilers really need to do now is go out and get a proven goal scorer at center and they could go from a team expected to make the playoffs to a team that could contend for the Cup.

Renegades Friday

Looking forward to Friday night (I think so anyway), my dad and I are heading out to see the Renegades take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Here's hoping Ottawa shows up for this game and breaks their 3 game losing streak in which they have looked really bad.

The Big Weekend In Newfoundland

Thursday September 1^st

Our flight took off on time and we got to Halifax on time and from there to St. John'’s the flight was also good, we got in around midnight and Tracy'’s parents were there to pick us up with Tracy's Aunt Jean and Uncle Barry. We got back to Tracy's parents place just outside of St. JohnÂ’s around 1:00 am and by 2:00am we finally got to bed.

Friday September 2^nd

The day started with Tracy figuring out that her brother and his wife was coming for a surprise visit. The secret was out when Tracy'’s father complained that his back was bothering him and Tracy suggested that he call Chris, which Tracy'’s father answered "He'’ll be here later to have a look at it."” Tracy picked up on this right away and her father tried to cover up by saying when he comes down for Christmas. Her Uncle Barry also hinted at it the night before by saying "“At least you have a bed tonight, don't know where we are going to sleep tomorrow night"” but I think Tracy was too tried to pick up on it. After Tracy'’s father and uncle left she managed to pry it out of her mother that indeed Chris and Laura were coming for a surprise visit.

The weather was lousy, we started the day with thunderstorms and heavy rain. The rain let up a bit and it looked like we were going to have a nice day so Tracy and I headed out the St. John's. Tracy took me on a quick tour of St. John'’s and showed me where she went to University and where she lived in St. John'’s, She also took me up to Signal Hill, which overlooks the city of St. John's, but the visibility was bad due to the fog and pouring rain.

That night we had the first of several big family meals and the food was great. After supper we all headed back to Mr. Cole's house and had a nap before getting up and going to the air port to pick up Chris and Laura.

Saturday September 3^rd

The weather was a lot better on the second day and the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth II was anchored in the bay near the house. Tracy and I took a nice walk out and took a few pictures of it. The walk was actually kind of challenging since we didnÂ’t see the path and we ended up walking along the "“beach"”. In Newfoundland beaches are not sand they are just areas of large rounded stones that are hard to walk on. It took us a wile the find the path and we had to climb a wood ladder to get back onto the path but all turned out well.

That afternoon was another family gathering, this time at the Cole'’s house. Once again the food (sandwiches and deserts this time) were great.

That evening Tracy and I headed out to her friends Katherine and Bill'’s house and had a great steak dinner on the BBQ they had just purchased for an awesome price and Katherine had managed to put together just before we arrived. We sat a round drinking and talking for a wile and then headed down to George Street and I had a fun time getting screeched in at local pub. We spent the rest of the night out drinking and we crashed at Katherine and Bill'’s that night.

Sunday September 4^th

After getting picked up the next morning, Tracy and I along Chris and Laura took a quick tour around St. John'’s again and with the great weather the view from the top of Signal Hill was amazing. I took quite a few pictures. We then headed out the Cape Spear which is the most easterly point of North America, and again I took quite a few pictures.

That evening we had yet another big family dinner with yet more great food. The celebration this time was for Tracy's Grandfather'’s 84^th birthday.

Monday September 5^th

We got up and had a huge Cole family breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon, it was really good. Once again the weather was great and Tracy and I headed out to Bill and Katherine'’s house to see their daughter Julia (she was being baby sat on Saturday night). She was a really cute, friendly, outgoing kid. We only visited for an hour or so before we had to leave. The rest of the day was quite relaxing. That evening we had cab legs and scallops for supper which were really good.

Tuesday September 6^th

More great weather and another relaxing day, Chris and Laura had an emotional departure around noon. That evening Tracy, myself and her parents took a boat tour that departed from St. John’s Harbor, through "The Narrows" and out to the Atlantic Ocean (my first time on a boat out in the ocean). Even thought the sea was relatively calm the boat rocked quite a bit, but it was still a really nice tour that took us out to Cape Spear. Once again I took quite a few pictures (OK I took over 320 on this little trip – LOL). I didn’t see any whales but I did see quiet a few jelly fish.

Wednesday September 7^th

We got up early and had one last breakfast and headed to the Airport for our flight back to Ottawa. It was a great trip and I can't wait to go back to St. John's again!

Back From Newfoundland

Got back from Newfoundland on Wednesday, had a great time out on the "Rock". Got Screeched In, met Tracy's friends Katherine and Bill and their daughter Julia, visited Signal Hill and Cape Spear (most easterly point of North America) and ate Ches's fish and chips. I also had a great time visiting with Tracy's family (and eating a lot). Anyway, I'll have a bigger blog about the trip later.

The 40 Year Old Virgin/Rolling Stones

This weekend Tracy and I saw the movie "40 Year Old Virgin" this is by far the funniest movie I've seen in a long time and would highly recommend it to anyone. There wasn't the 15-18 year old crowd that I feared would be there, instead it was a more adult crowd and a funny movie that didn't insult your intelligence.

Sunday night my parents came over for dinner and then we took the bus to Super Ex and listened to the Rolling Stones as we wondered the Ex's grounds. Just for fun we got on a ferris wheel right next to Frank Clair Stadium and got to peek in on the concert as we reached to top, we got to see the Stones performing their Opening song "Start Me Up". We hung around until about 9:30 and decided to take off before the crowds got out of the concert. Wile we were waiting for the bus out side the Ex we got to watch the Stones on a large screen that was pointed out to Bank Street. There must have been 1,000 people just on Bank Street. Wile it was all fun and exciting I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay $300 a seat to see the Stones.

Big Blog Update

Man it's been a LONG time since I updated my blog hasn't it? Well been up to lots since the last update so I'm just gonna post one big entry.

Upper Canada Village (July 30th)

I dragged poor Tracy up to Upper Canada Village (she had fun) and took a tour. Its been at least 15 to 20 years since I was last there. It really hasn't changed much (why would it?) and the bread was a great as I remembered it when I was a kid. We were going to go to the Chrysler Beach but when we got there they had posted a sign saying "No Swimming due to high bacteria levels" that put a damper on swimming and renting khaki, oh well maybe next time. Got to go back for more bread some time tho. That night we went to see the movie "Must Love Dogs". It was a really funny entertaining movie that I really enjoyed. Tracy loved it.

Mamma Mia (Aug 6th)

We went and saw the Broadway musical "Mamma Mia" at the NAC. We had great seats and the show was really entertaining. Tracy LOVED it and now wants to see a lot more musicals. I thought it was really good, just not sure it's really my form of entertainment but I would defiantly go see another musical.

Camping - Bon Echo

The weekend of Aug 13/14 was another camping trip. We managed to get out of Ottawa by 4:30 and drove throughout the rain and got to Bon Echo by 7:30 and set up in the rain that was supposed to stop. We had a small camp fire and called it a night by 10:30. The campsite it's self wasn't great but it was pretty good and besides we were right next to flush toilets and that made Tracy happy - LOL. The next day we were greeted by sunshine and a beautiful day. We didn't do any swimming as there were signs posted about the risk of swimmers itch being high, but in Bon Echo there is lots to do and we took a walk around and saw the huge cliff walls. It gave us the idea to rent a canoe and paddle out but then we discovered for some reason they don't rent canoes on Sunday and we were out of time to rent them that day. In the late afternoon we took a drive out to see Tracy's brother, who had rented the same cottage we had rented earlier in the summer. It was only an hour and half drive there, and once there we decided to stay and drive back the next morning. We had a great time playing "bochi ball", eating supper, drinking beer (of course) and sitting by the campfire. We drove back to our campsite the next morning in the rain again, folded up the tent and started our long journy home. Even though I had a great time at the cottage with Tracy's brother and his wife, the next time we go to Bon Echo I'd love to spend more time in the park.

Anyway that's enough catching up for now - Later.

Camping at Fizroy

Tracy and I spent last weekend camping at Fitzroy Campground. We were really impressed by how nice our camp site was and how nice the campground all round was. We had a great “premium” site that was almost totally private, and the best part was NO IDIOT NOISY CAMPERS. This was the first time this year that we were able to go camping and not run into some group of morons that were up all hours of the night. The main beach was also very nice, with beautiful sand that you sank into as you walked on it. The water was also very clean except for the seaweed if you went out too far.
On the Saturday night we decided to take a drive around the area and see what Fitzroy Harbour was all about. This was a huge disappointment; Fitzroy Harbour is a really small town with nothing really exciting to it other than a fudge factory. The harbour is hidden behind houses and the only park that looks into the harbour consisted of a sign, a flag pole and a park bench and was located at the end of a dead end road.
After deciding that Fitzroy Harbour wasn’t much to look at we drove out to Constance Bay and stopped for a bit at the amazing beach they have. It too was hidden at the end of a dead end road, but it was well worth the stop.
All in all it was a great relaxing weekend I’m hoping that we get back to Fitzroy again soon.

Bluesfest is Over

Well it's been a wile since my last post so I thought I would catch up on last weekends events. Nothing really big, Bluesfest came to a close, Tracy and I went on Friday night and saw The Trevor Finlay Band. He put on a pretty good show. After that we headed over to the Grassroots stage and watched Steve Row from Montreal and then local blues artist Tony D, who put on a great show. After Tony D's show we headed over to the Acoustic Days/Cuban Nights stage and listened to some pretty good Cuban music. Don't ask me the name of the band, I don't think I could pronounce it and it sounded pretty long.

Sunday night was the end of bluesfest, Tracy and I just went to see John Prine play, he was pretty good, I'm not much of a folk fan so that must mean he was really good.

Here's hoping that Bluesfest is even better next year!

The War on Terror?

This Picture and caption really caught my attention today.

"The body of an Iraqi civilian at a hospital in Kirkuk. A study by Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group found that almost 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since US and British troops invaded the country two years ago, an average of 34 every single day.(AFP/File)"

Bruce Springsteen Concert!

Last night Bruce Springsteen brought his Devils and Dust Solo Acoustic Tour to the Corel Centre and what an awesome show it was. I had awesome seats for the show being only 8 rows from the stage. Tickets said the concert start time was to be 7:30 but The Boss didn't make it out onto the stage until 8:20 or so, not that anyone minded at all. He opened up with "My Beautiful Reward" and it just got better from there. He followed with a "distorted" acoustic version of "Reason to Believe" which I thought was really good, then played the title track from his "Devils and Dust" CD. Other notable performances (they were all notable - lol) were a lively rendition of "Lonesome Day", "Long Time Commin' " and "All the Way Home".
Before performing “The River” on piano he observed that it took him 14 years before he wrote a love song because his father always told him that love songs were just government propaganda designed to get you to settle down and pay taxes. Bruce Springsteen’s humor also came out after his performance of Reno when a power outage at the Corel Centre was experienced. When the house lights came back on he was sitting in front of the piano and just shrugged and laughed “I think we are in the middle of a fuck up.” He then commented that the power outage would be the best part of the show and couldn’t help noting that the next song seemed fitting considering it was called “I Wish I Were Blind”. The gremlins were still out when half way through the song he switched from pump organ to piano only to discover the piano’s sound wasn’t on. In true Springsteen fashion he just laughed and joked “See this piano’s supposed to be on”. After finishing the song he joked “When the lights go off the people behind the stage just get scared ‘Why did the lights go off’, there just back there running around scared right now”. After the next song, “Racing in the Streets”, he announced “They tell me it was lightening that caused the lights to go down”.
The rest of the show when off with out any more problems. He did great acoustic versions of “The Rising”, “Spare Parts”, “This Hard Land”, “The Hitter” and “Matamoros Banks” before leaving the stage for just a few minutes.
His encore included a lively acoustic version of “Ramrod” and “Bobby Jean”, then before rapping things up with a great acoustic version of “The Promised Land” he commented “We’ve had a great time tonight, the lights went out, they came back on, they went out again, they came back on, we were stuck by lightening…….what more could you ask for in an evening?”.
This wasn’t really the end of the show however, as Bruce Springsteen was taking his final bows and shaking hands with people by the stage he suddenly picked up his microphone and said “OK, I’ll do one more song”, which was a great performance of “Dream, Baby, Dream”. With that the night was over, Bruce had spent two strait hours entertaining us with one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, even Tracy (who wasn’t much of a Springsteen fan) thought it was a great concert.

Here is a complete set list below:

My Beautiful Reward
Reason to Believe
Devils and Dust
Lonesome Day
Long Time Comin'
Silver Palomino
Tougher Than the Rest
The River
Part Man Part Monkey
All the Way Home
Highway Patrolman
Reno
I Wish I Were Blind
Racing in the Street
The Rising
Spare Parts
Jesus Was an Only Son
This Hard Land
The Hitter
Matamoros Banks
Ramrod
Bobby Jean
The Promised Land
Dream, Baby, Dream

Bluesfest Lastnight

Was all ready for a good night at Bluesfest last night, but it wasn't to be. Got there just in time to see David Gogo hit the stage and as usual his act was great. He's blues player from Vancouver and always puts on a great show.
ZZ Top hit the stage with their usual enthusiasm and started out with crowd favorite "Got Me Under Pressure". I was only able to listen to a few more songs and then Tracy got pretty sick and we had to leave. She's fine now.
I'm all pumped up today, Bruce Springsteen brings his solo acoustic tour to the Corel Centre and I can't wait to see him. Picked up the tickets this afternoon, should be an awesome concert.

Bluesfest Break

Took a break from Bluesfest last night and spent a quiet night at home watching one of my all time favorite movies "Meet the Parents". Ben Stiller does such a great job in this movie, the sequel was just as funny in my mind.
Back at with Bluesfest tonight, David Gogo and ZZ Top are performing, can't wait!

Sunday at Bluesfest!

Sunday afternoon once again found us at Bluesfest! Man what a HOT day. Luckly we found some shade to sit in and enjoy the show. We showed up just in time to see Omar and the Howlers take the stage. I saw him last year at Bluesfest and he was just as good this year as he was last year. His show was followed up by classic blues artist Carl Weathersby. Weathersby put on a great show in his trademark orange suit. My only complaint was his set was too short! An interesting fact that I didn’t know was that between his last show in Ottawa (in 2000 I think) and this show he has suffered a stroke and was told he would never play the blues again. Thank god they were wrong!
After Weathersby’s show WC Clark took the stage and kept the blues coming for the crowd. WC Clark played an awesome set of blues music.
Tracy and I decided to take a break after WC Clarks show and returned later in the evening to see K-O’s. We didn’t realize that he would only be doing a hardcore rap concert, which neither Tracy nor I like. After about 4 songs we wandered over to the Grassroots Stage and listened to the Neville Brothers. Their area was so packed that they couldn’t let anymore people into the drinking area. The non-drinking area was not as full due in large part to the fact you couldn’t really see the stage. The Neville Brothers were putting on a great show, and if we could have seen the stage and we might have stuck around for more than a couple of songs.
We then checked out the Black Sheep Stage and listened to Do Make Say Think perform a few songs. This is a really neat band that I would encourage anyone to check out. They are all over the place musically with a violist, a couple band members on various horns, as well as band members on acoustic guitar, electric guitar and base guitar, not to mention the drummer. There wasn’t any vocals, just mostly instrumental music. It all comes together in a very interesting and surprisingly entertaining package. If they are back at Bluesfest next year I’ll likely go check out an entire show.
Before we left for the night we stoped by the Acoustic Days/Cuban Nights stage and listened to a bit of the Havana Ensemble (they are on stage most nights at Bluesfest) which was quite good and we plan to go back again some evening and listen to more.

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith"

Saturday night Tracy and I went to see the movie “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I was really surprised by how good this movie was. I was expecting a mediocre action movie with today’s hottest stars as the main attraction with a bad plot. Instead what I got was a really funny comedy/action movie with some pretty witty comedy and some pretty good action. This is a great movie to go see, not that it has to be seen in theaters.

Black Eyed Peas @ Bluesfest

Last night was Black Eyed Peas turn on the main stage at Bluesfest and man what a show they put on. Tracy and I met up with our friends Brent and Joyce and it was a great time. The opening act, Talib Kweli, was horrible. I hate rap so I may be a bit bias but it all just sounded like noise, and judging for the reaction of other people not many were really interested in what he was doing.
The Black Eyed Peas were supposed to hit the stage at 8:45pm but didn't show up until 9:45pm and I don't think anyone really minded much at all. They hit the stage with "Hey Mama" and kept the energy up all show. "Where is the Love" had the crowd hopping. One annoying thing was the constant repeating of "Ottawa" by the band members. It was like they were trying to remind themselves where they were!
The show had a 15 min break after an hour or so and then they were right back at it with more enthusiasm. "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was great and the last song of the night "Let's Get Retarded" was also great and a lot of fun. The Black Eyed Peas put on a great show and finally left the stage after the City of Ottawa turned on the lights around the park.
As Tracy and I were leaving we saw the biggest stretch Hummer limo either of us has ever seen with New York plates, weÂ’re sure that was the limo for the Black Eyed Peas.
Probably gonna be back at Bluesfest again tonight - LOL

Bluesfest Opening Night

Went to Bluesfest's opening night last night. The big performer was a band called War. Their big song, and judging from the crowd, the one everyone was waiting for was "Low Rider". They put on a great show and had quite a few other tunes that I liked and recognized, songs like "The World is a Getto", "The Cisco Kid", "Gypsy Man", "Why Can't We Be Friends" and "Slippin' Into Darkness". All in all a great start to Bluesfest 2005, can't wait for Black Eyed Peas tonight!

London Bombings Update

The top picture is of an American Police Officer "patrolling" a subway car in Washington D.C. The Bottom photo is a picture of people evacuating through one of the subway tunnels in London. The death toll from this horrible tragedy is now over 50 with more than 700 injured.
One morbid bit of humor for me yesterday was the over reaction of the U.S.A. They actually had police officers patrolling subways and subway stations armed with machine guns in several cities! Come on really? It doesn't make me feel any better or safer.
My worst fears now is George W. Will use this as an excuse to step up his "war on terrorism", and they will link it to Iran and then start bombing the crap out of them. I don't know why the Americans can't see that the more they run around "imposing" them selves on other the more people hate them. If they really want to free people, go after North Korea! They have weapons of mass destruction and have said several times they would use them.

London Bombings

Just thought I make a quick comment on today's terrible attack on the city of London. I can't imagine the horror and pain people on those subways and the bus must have gone through. The photo of the bus and the picture of the blood splattered building across the street really hit me. Right now the death toll sits at 37 with more than 700 injured.

World's Biggest Catfish

World's biggest catfish - caught in Thailand. Man that is one big fish!

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test - trying to use the photo upload thing. So far it's not working!

The Week at the Cottage

Tracy and I had a great week at the cottage despite the deer flies, mosquitoes and dragon flies! Most of our days consisted of getting up around 9:30, eating breakfast, canoeing, eating lunch, relaxing, napping from 2:00 until 4:00, drinking, eating supper, drinking some more and then drinking some more wile sitting by the campfire, then going to bed and doing all over again the next day. It was great.
The cottage was just at the southern tip of Algonquin Park on Benoir Lake. We got to the cottage Saturday afternoon and unpacked. This is when I dropped the beer and smashed most of the bottles. This forced us onto our first road trip to Wilberforce (which I constantly miss pronounced much to Tracy's displeasure - LOL) to find the LCBO. This is when we discovered that it likely would have been a better idea to just buy our food and beer AFTER we got to the cottage. Once back and our beer supply was up again we fired up the BBQ had some burgers and then lit a nice campfire. The campfire didn't last as long as we had hoped. Either the mosquitoes don't care about fly repellent or it just doesn't work up there, but we were eaten alive and by 10:30 we ran back into the cottage.
Sunday was a great day, sunny and low 30's temp. We had a canoe ride in the morning and basically sat around all day and relaxed, went for a swim, took an afternoon nap. We found that we only got one radio station and luckily the Moose, as it was called, played perfect music for sitting around at the cottage. The advertisements on the station were of horrible quality.
Monday was more of the same basically. We decided to venture into Bancroft (we figured it might be big since they had a radio station) after we had gone canoeing. Bancroft isn't all that big but it seemed like a really nice town. We did a bit of shopping and then took a look at an hawk lookout that was supposed to overlook the entire town and you may be able to see a hawk too. Well, it didn't overlook the town and we didn't see a hawk (it never occurred to Tracy and I to actually look up in the sky tho, we kept looking in trees - LOL). The view from the lookout was really nice tho.
Tuesday was another day of canoeing, relaxing, and swimming and at this point the 2:00 to 4:00 nap was fully entrenched - LOL.
On Wednesday we got really ambitious and decided to go for a bike ride in the morning and a hike in the afternoon in Algonquin Park. We got the park permit and parked at the High Falls parking lot and that's when I discovered that I didn't bring the keys for the bike locks so we decided to walk to high falls and go for the bike ride in the afternoon. I think we got maybe 10min down the walking trail when the mosquitoes and deer flies got so bad we couldn't walk any farther. We decided when we got back that the bike trail later in the day would be just as bad so we abandoned that idea. We did take a drive up to Kingscote Lake a do a bit of sight seeing. We got back and rested in the afternoon and then after supper took an evening canoe ride where we paddled up close to two loons that were on the lake. They are really beautiful birds.
Thursday was another day we attempted to do something. We decided to try golfing at the golf course that was 5 min down the road. We paid $30.00 and managed to play one hole of golf before the deer flies, dragon flies, bees and wasps became just too much and took the fun out of golfing. I shot a 7 on a par 4. After the golf and hiking experiences we decided that horses back riding that we had planed to do on Friday afternoon wouldn't be much fun since the bugs were just driving us both nuts, so we canceled the horse back riding.
Friday was another beautiful sunny day and we decided to make the most of our last full day at the cottage by doing what we did best on this vacation. We relaxed and drank beer - LOL.
Saturday morning we got up and watched the sunrise and went back to bed then woke up and packed and left. I couldn't help but to feel sad that our vacation was over, it was the best and most relaxing vacation I've ever had.
There are a few pics on my MSN Spaces site if your interested http://spaces.msn.com/members/darrellfisher/

Capitaltickets.ca Sucks

Capitaltickets.ca is nothing more than a mickey mouse organization run by half wits!

Capitaltickets.ca has violated my privacy rights! The not so bright bunch at capitaltickets.ca broadcast the e-mail address of everyone who bought Bruce Springsteen floor seats in an email reminding people who purchased floor seats to pick them up the day of the concert. Instead of filling out the blind cc area for everyone on the list they filled out the cc area everyone who gets the email can read it. They did send out an e-mail to apologize for it - but all that really did was call attention to it in my belief. Then in another move of astounding stupidity they sent out 2 more emails with everyone's email address clearly displayed again! How stupid can you be?

Now that my email address has been distributed, some idiot or idiots (which ever the case) have been running around signing me up for every web page they can think of. If this continues I'm gonna have to abandon my gmail account and trash it.

Believe me, it wasn't long before I was complaining to Capitaltickets.ca about it and was deleting my credit card info from their site. If they can't protect my email address they really don't have my confidence in protecting anything. So far I have heard nothing back from them, not that I expect to, they are probably just hoping this all just goes away.

So the bottom line is Capitaltickets.ca sucks. Don't trust them with anything and it will be along time before I'll be buying anything from there website or getting tickets for Sens games. I don't think I've ever come across such a mickey mouse operations as capitaltickets.ca

White Stripes New Album

Had a listen to the new White Stripes album today. It sounds awful. I don't get why anyone likes the band at all.

I'm Going To See Springsteen!

I got them! I got tickets to see Bruce Springsteen when he comes to the Corel Centre in Ottawa in July! I'm gonna be 8 rows from the Boss Himself! I can't wait!

Another Great Weekend

Wile the weather was kind of depressing this weekend (what the hell happened to the sunny beautiful day we were supposed to have on Sunday?) Tracy and I had one of those great weekends where we just relaxed A LOT. The entire day on Saturday was spent lying around watching TV, mainly episodes of "24" on DVD. We are currently watching Season 2. Really what we should have been doing was cleaning the house but we told ourselves that we would have lots of time Sunday.
Sunday was a cloudy day but nice anyway. Tracy and I went to the gym (first time for me in almost a month) and then spent the rest of the day out at my parent's place for Father's Day.
So I guess the house cleaning will have to happen sometime this week - LOL.

Camping at Sandbanks

Went camping at Sandbanks Provincial Park last weekend. I've never been there, what a beautiful park. The sand was amazing (even with all the shells in it). The water itself was kinda disappointing, there was a lot of scum floating on the top and lots of algae patches on the bottom. Our campsite was great. It was in a wooded area and not far from the beach (about a 2 min walk).
The fist night was kinda funny and scary at the same time. Tracy and I were sitting around our little fire drinking beer and eating chips when all of a sudden Tracy jumps up and screams "What the fuck is that?" I turned around quick and there was a raccoon 2 feet away from my chair. I jumped up and just stared at him. It kinda just stared back and eventually raised a single paw as if to ask for a chip. Looking back he/she did really cute, but I wasn't all that amused at the time and chased him off our site. Around 11:30 we decided to go to bed and get some sleep, that when the idiot campers across from us decided to start getting loud. They started yelling and screaming and laughing as loud as they could. Tracy and I were pretty pissed as this was the second time in a row this sort of thing has happened to us and neither one of us has ever had it happen to us before. Actually the whole campground was pretty noisy, some idiot had let off fireworks at 2:00am and there was a lot of yelling going on all over. One jack ass was wondering around yelling at the top of his lungs "Party on all night duds" and his other favorite expressing was "What's going on big guy?" I put up with the noise until 2:30am and that was when I had had enough and looked for a number for the Camp Warden. I had to drive all the way to the Camp office at the main gate to find it. I called and complained about the noise coming from the jack asses across from us, about 30min later the warden showed up and told them to be quiet and spent 10min talking to them. I figured anyone with an IQ above 30 would get the message but not these idiots. Not more than 5 min later they were right back at laughing and talking as loud as they could. At 4:30 one of them set off their car alarm and everyone had a good laugh at that and then the moron with the really loud laugh thought it would be a good idea to imitate the sound of the car alarm really loudly. I had enough again and call the warden, no answer this time but I left a message. At 5:30 the people in the campsite directly across from us has had enough and packed up and left. For the morons this still was not enough of a message and they still kept it up. At 5:45 I called the Camp Warden and complained yet again. At 6:00 the morons finally decided to go to bed and let the rest of us sleep. By 9:00 Tracy and I decided to have breakfast, as we were cleaning up our breakfast dishes a Camp Warden patrol car pulled up and 2 Camp Wardens stepped out and ripped the sign of the morons camp site post and then took there pink slip from their car and kicked them out! It was great to see jack-ass morons getting what they deserved. As Tracy and I left for the beach at the other end of the park the morons had all gathered around to figure out what went wrong and what they would do next. As we were approaching the main gate we met a camp patrol car followed by 3 OPP police cars and another camp patrol car. I don't know for sure what they were in the park for but I can only assume it was to escort three campsites out, all I know is when Tracy and I got back from the beach the noisy morons across from us were long gone.
The rest of our day was great. Tracy's friends Tonya and Dan came down and we went to the beach again, had supper and sat around drinking by the campfire until about 11:00pm. That was when the really loud music at the cottage next to the park started! Didn't matter Tracy and I managed to fall asleep by midnight. I woke up once at about 2:00 or 3:00 and there was not one sound coming out of the park. It was great, we slept in until 9:00am.
Sunday wasn't the best day weather wise but it was still a beautiful day. We left Sunday afternoon around 2:30 and it felt like we had had a long weekend. I can't wait to go back to Sandbanks.
Let me just say this in closing:
If you want an all night bush party - go do it in a bush and don't bother other people!
Your just being really selfish by disturbing all the other campers and your just gonna get kicked out anyway.

Check out my MSN spaces if you want to see few pics of Sandbanks - http://spaces.msn.com/members/darrellfisher/

Ottawa's War Museum 

Ottawa War Museum

Took a tour of the new Ottawa War museum last Thursday. It a beautiful building and the displays inside are amazing. The best is the area with the tanks, army jeeps and bikes. Not all the signs are up and it's a bit confusing with out them but we still managed to get around. The paintings on the walls and old war posters are also neat to look at. The museum also has a gift shop with just about anything you would ever want to read about the war and lots of other stuff (mugs, caps, pens). Overall I was quite impressed with the layout and the building. The park at the rear isn't quite done either. I can't wait until they are finished putting on the final touches, I'll defiantly go back for an other visit.

Relaxing Weekend

Had a nice relaxing weekend and it was great with the beautiful summer weather we had. Saturday was spent biking around the little village of Burts Rapids. We had a relaxing Saturday night with a couple of our friends. We had a BBQ, the burgers and sausages were great, and then we had planned to go out when then someone (I don't remember who) broke out the cards and we ended up drinking and playing cards until 2:30 in the morning. Sunday was another great relaxing day. We when over to another friends house for yet another BBQ (no drinking this time - LOL) and had some more great homemade burgers. You have to love lazy summer weekends with great weather. Lets hope next weekend will be great too!