Afternoon Hockey Concerns

Well, it's a pretty slow day at the office... all I'm waiting for is something to do and/or some uplifting news on the hockey front.

With the Canucks opening the stretch drive here in Calgary tonight, I can't help but practically crap myself overlooking the situation on the blueline. It doesn't help that today, the Flames acquired defenseman Cale Hulse from the Blue Jackets for next to nothing... an on-the-market defenseman snatched up by our number one rival. I don't know what's goin' on there in Vancouver, but if the math is adding up there at the moment, the cap room is looking at roughly $3 million.

I was also looking at some trade rumours on the net as well and even those don't look overly promising. I saw a deal with Phoenix sending Ryan Kesler, Kiril Koltsov and a pick to the Coyotes for Mike Ricci, Denis Gauthier & Sean O'Donnell. I mean, c'mon... the Coyotes are pretty well not making the playoffs because of these guys... why do we want 'em? Yes, beggars can be choosers... especially in this case.

I really wish I knew what Dave Nonis has been doing over the Olympic break, espeically since the big 3 guys have now gone down. All I need to know is that he's inquiring about some of the top-level talent available through the rumour mill and/or picking some other names that he fancies and inquiring about them as well. Maybe he has a blockbuster in mind...

The rumours out of Florida have been great, since they have a lot to offer and generally speaking, Panthers management are not overly picky in what they get in return. The Panthers have a lot of young talent that would fit in nicely as have some of their previous gifts in the way of acquisitions... i.e. Ed Jovanovski in the Pavel Bure deal.

The prospect of picking up Brendan Witt from the Washington Capitals also intrigues me... especially when the big 3 are back. Witt would definitely provide some great size and defensive responsibility the Canucks desperately need. I can think of quite a few games this season where a little bit more responsiblity in our own end would have easily changed the result in the Canucks favour.

With a lack of glowing talent from the previous few drafts, I think the Canucks can afford to get rid of future talent for talent right now. Building through the draft doesn't seem to be working at the moment, besides the picks of Luc Bourdon and Ryan Kesler in the past 3 drafts. Cory Schneider will have to surprise to make an impact in the NHL. Let's trade these "important" picks for established talent... it just seems to make a little bit of sense... OR make some moves in the scouting department.

C'mon Dave... I'm counting on you, man.

Where's the Orange Light?

I thought I would chat and do a bit of filing before I sat down to write my entry this morning. I have one important filing to file... which I'm in the midst of now, stupid transfer rates. Gotta make some changes to another filing this morning and send it for proof as well before getting too far along here. Luckily, it's a really easy change that I've done once before already.

Just a sec... maybe I'll do that first before continuing. (Left at 8:14)

(Returned at 8:17) Now that wasn't too long, was it? It's almost too easy.

Well, what I didn't notice last night, 'cuz I hate my phone, is that I had actually missed two calls from Barb before I actually posted my sad, digusting post last night... so in essence, I could have called her back and had avoided all sorts of horrible, horrible comments about myself. But that's what self-growth is about, right?

I did end up calling her back after collapsing into bed with my mp3 player nice & early... picked up my phone and had to open the flip to see I had missed calls. There's a tiny little light that flashes (incredibly bright, mind you) generally and it flashes orange when I have a text. Well, why doesn't it do it when I miss calls?? I mean... that's equally important. So, I had no idea for the longest time that I missed her call... and blah, blah, blah... I called her back.

It was actually the first time I had called her and she told me that she had no idea what she was doing over the next few days. Well, holy crap!! This may in fact mean that I might get to see her this week. Actually, I'm hoping to see her tonight... she'd be a fun person to watch my Canucks lose to her Flames... then she might beat me up... woo hoo!

I'm trying my best to not look forward to it too much... trying not to pin my hopes on it at all. There is a small chance she'll have to work tonight, she didn't know her schedule, since she had all sorts of time off... not that I would know it though. Nevertheless... I keep one pair of extremities crossed... and we'll see what happens.

Otherwise the only other thing I can hope for tonight is a miracle of a Canucks win... or possibly a trade to bring a defenseman to the Canucks to sure-up some depth. Kinda desperate, Mr. Nonis (Canucks GM).

Anyhoo... I shall be off. Devin will be here soon... best get the rest of the day sorted out. It could be a desperate dash for some companies today.

Yawning Monday

I am so bored. I've really hit a lull here on this Monday night... no plans, no goals, no beer... just nothing at all. I have the will to go to bed... but meh... even that has its limitations.

I find myself sort of reflecting a bit... none of which is too pleasant, but probably needs to be done. I can generally look at myself in an objective manner... think outside the head really. Try and get into other people's heads... and I would probably say I'm right or close to some of the time, so I continue doing it.

The quiet weekend left something to be desired... maybe a resolution of some sort. Just one... be it Jeff, Barb or even TL... some sort of resolution would have been nice. Since there wasn't anything, I'm kinda left with nothing to show for it and probably a little more bored because of it.

Heh heh... mid-post test result for "What's Your Type of Girl Test"

The Girl Next Door
66% Sexy-Cute, 57% Dark-Light, 44% Artsy-Stylish
Cute, neither Dark nor Light, and neither Artsy nor Stylish. This sounds like a blah category, right? Oh, my, no. The Girl Next Door has been the subject of more dirty fantasies than you could possibly count. She's so sweet, and innocent, and infinitely corruptible. Every morning you glance out your window hoping she'll have forgotten to draw the blinds. You may feel bad about it, but you know you'll be doing it again tomorrow.

Sounds about right.

Anyways... I'm sorta sitting in limbo at the moment, just generally speaking. I should really sort myself out, but I think I have to look at where I am exactly and then decide what the hell I'm gonna do.

I would love to have some things sorted more than others... but then again, I'll probably need some things before I do anything else.

I would like nothing more though to get the Barb situation sorted out though. I would like to make her my number one priority without actually scaring her away. With other girls before her, I have become a tad gun-shy in going over the top in telling them how much I like 'em. It's my own damn fault and I am beginning to second-guess what I have to do to get more time (than once a month, it seems) with Barb.

Hmmmm... another mid-post test result, "The Beautiful Faces Test."

Alyson Hannigan
53% Eyes, 47% Nose, 61% Mouth, 60% SexyCute

You seem to like big eyes and lips, a smaller nose, and a general trend toward cuteness. Awwww... it doesn't get much cuter than Alyson Hannigan, though we're sure she can be sexy when she tries. Best known as Willow from Buffy, and 'that girl from American Pie', Alyson has big eyes, a cute nose, and a big grin.

That's also about right. She is my kinda girl (in the face). Cute as a button. So is Barb... cute as a button. Ha ha ha... I just have to laugh at myself now. I am so sad... pathetic sad... bored sad. Hell, I'm doing these tests aren't I? That's how bored I am.

Anyways...

I should almost go to bed now... I'm tired of reflecting and test taking. And writing near-useless posts.

And to finish... I wanna make up a quote. I'm probably not making this quote up, but hell...

"What kind of fuckin' self-help tape is guy?"

You Scratched My CD!!

You know, I've never seen a larger group of drivers be so afraid to get up to the speed limit than in Calgary. And it doesn't just take the fog (that we have this morning) either... I mean, all the time. There are lot of people in the Calgary area that are afraid to use their cars to their potential and reach the government set standards of driving velocity. I know there are some people who drive cars with only 4 cylinders, but I know, 'cuz I drove a few, that they can, in fact, reach the speed limit in a reasonable time. What is so possibly dangerous about driving at 60km/h on bare roads that people have to be scared about? If it's a medical condition, they shouldn't be driving in the first place. If they can't see the signs to know that it's, let's say, 110km/h on the highway, then they shouldn't be driving in the first place.

Exceptions... wintery conditions. Fair enough... I have felt my car slip from time to time, but I was trying to keep the flow of traffic by doing the speed limit. Yes, there are icy patches and blizzard conditions that may warrant taking it easy on the roads, that's reasonable... but this morning... bare roads, a little bit of fog through the route in, but it was bare roads!! On the highway!! Have we not seen the sign Slower Traffic Keep Right? No? Then you shouldn't be driving in the first place. If you have and still choose to do less than the speed limit... the right line was made for YOU.

Ahhhh... that makes me feel a bit better now. I was afraid there for a moment that I would have to use diagrams and little dinky cars to illustrate my point. Luckily, it didn't have to come down to that.

Yesterday was a pretty solid day... pretty quiet with ol' Benny. Went down to Southcentre Mall to look at some girls and just browse the shops. Mostly for the girls... and maybe the food court too. Then over to the White Spot, hoping for girls and a beer... and didn't get the girls. Did get a beer though. Then down to Canyon Meadows to catch the Ringer (with Johnny Knoxville) and have a couple beers at the pub. Then to the "Wildflower" for one as well.

The Ringer was a hilarious movie... Benny and I were dying in our seats laughing at the handicapped humour. That'll definitely be a DVD purchase to remember all the awesome lines in that show.

"When the fuck did we get ice cream?!?"

Johnny Knoxville himself wasn't really all that great... I don't necessarily find him funny, but the supporting cast in the film was absolutely awesome. Now, Katherine Heigl... yeow! I remember her from an excellent issue of Gear or Maxim some years before. She's grown up really well.

Yeah, it's definitely a keeper.

Well, I'm ready for a busy couple days here at the office, so I best be gettin' on... plus, Basil wants to chat... later!

Know Thine Readers

Hey!! I got another BlogMark on BlogExplosion... man, I'm so vain when it comes to this shit. I dunno why, but I would probably have to harbour the guess that I'm excited when people give a crap about what I write. So, in celebration of this, I have updated my link section on the sidebar of people who read my Blog.

Well, in all honesty... my body just didn't want to get up this morning at 6am to catch the game in its entirety. My alarm went off and my mind said, "fuck you." And then proceeded to fall back asleep for another couple hours. I did manage to catch the last half of the third period and the medal ceremony... congratulations to Sweden, didn't think it'd happen, but they have historically been better than Finland in these respects.

Another congrats goes back to Cindy Klassen, as she'll be the flag-bearer for Canada tonight in the closing ceremonies. Talk about a deserved honour.

I don't have any plans for the day today... like none. I don't even fancy doing too much at all either. I could just stay in my pajamas all day and drink coffee 'til I can't drink it no more and call that a perfectly good Sunday.

Awww... I just read that Don Knotts had died. That's a shame... he was a funny guy.

Hey... this is another Sunday post too... man, life must be slowing down a bit of late. That isn't necessarily a bad thing either. How slow is it, you ask? Well, I also haven't shaved in over a week... the shadows are looming large on my face now. You know, I just can't be bothered to shave unless I'm actually trying to impress someone. I can go out like this, no problem... I'm not out to pick up random girls or anything and even if I did, I wouldn't rely on my clean-shaven face to do it for me either. The only way I'm gonna shave it now is if I've actually got some sort of date or the itchiness gets to be too much. The latter being the more likely of scenarios.

And currently, just before 9:30am... my feet are cold, my mug is empty and I have nothing else to really Blog about. Welcome new readers... I hope you have enjoyed my slow Sunday morning.

Quiet Saturday Night

This is my 400th post tonight... boy, these go quickly. I'll see if I can make it a gooder...

Yup, it's a quiet night. My MSN Messenger is quiet (my address is belial74@hotmail.com, if you want to message me), my cell phone is quiet (only Lars left me a text message), I'm already in my pajamas and I'm considering heading to bed early so I can get up early and watch the gold medal game between Sweden and Finland. But for my post tonight, I think I will put on a ton of Technorati tags and see how many of them get used... just out of curiosity. Let's also use some hot tags this hour on my weblog.

I'm also doing some BlogExplosion surfing tonight... earn some credits, bring the readers! What better way to see the world then through the Blogosphere.

Watched Zathura tonight... that was mildly entertaining for your buck. It's pretty much exactly like Jumanji though, except in space. Still... for mindless entertainment, it was okay. The folks are watching Million Dollar Baby, but I don't have much interest in that show. Not tonight anyways.

Sigh... I'm a tad bored at the moment. Benny has just climbed online... but the conversation is going nowhere. Ha ha. That's what boredom is gonna do... shut the mind down.

Well, since the Olympics are almost over, the NHL season will resume on Tuesday. Sadly, I'm not looking forward to the restart for my Canucks as they have been hit hard by the break, not to mention the injuries before the break. With the loss of Ed Jovanovski before the Olympics and now the losses of Mattias Ohlund and Sami Salo for an undetermined amount of time, the Canucks are left with little to no depth on defense come the restart in Calgary against the dreaded Flames. I honestly don't know how they're gonna cope without making any of the necessary deals that they needed to do before any of the injuries have now plagued the club.

I need some tunes on... just a sec. I think I'll make some Neo Citran while I'm away as well.

Alright... a little David Gray and some Neo Citran. Perfect for those quiet nights.

What else could I do tonight for my 400th post? How 'bout a test? Yeah, you guys love those tests. I do find quite a few of those OKCupid tests kinda entertaining... for those who do them as well, you should sign up so you can keep track of your results.

Okay, I took "The Where You Should Travel Test" and the results were:

Explore the Alps

You scored 64% culture, 42% social, 59% activity, and 41% adventure!

You are independent and are looking for that fine line between going somewhere culturally rich and somewhere you can get physical. (I mean activity-wise you perv) The Alps offer you both. Even if you don't ski, there are plenty of other activities to do, like climbing, cycling, hiking, white water rafting, golf, hot air balloon rides etc...it all depends what time of year you want to go. You can choose between (or all of) several cultures and gorgeous towns to visit in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria or even Lichtenstein. Here is where fun activities meet culture and you can travel independently quite well. A similar trip would be to Hawaii where there is a rich culture to see as well as many physical activities to enjoy. If you had fun dreaming about where you might go, don't forget to rate my test. Thanks!

Yeah... that sounds about right. I would really enjoy the Alps and the countries it passes. That's a good test. You can go see the rest of my test results if you look for my profile (opiatedsherpa, no surprise there).

Ooooh... found another intriguing test.

Aw fuck... I just lost the rest of this post. Dammit, I hate my net connection.

Okay, the intriguing test was the Personality Defect Test. It was pretty good... I'm a hand raiser, for all the right reasons, I guess. Oh well. I'm not goin' back to post it again. G'night.

Been A Couple Days, eh?

Geez, it's sure been a while since I've actually posted anything... but in actual fact, there really hasn't been too much to post since... Wednesday? Yeah... that sounds about right.

Both Thursday and Friday mornings, I kicked right into gear at work and I really didn't have much time to post anything. There had been a few annual filings on the desk, I'm still trying to sort Devin through the paces and Lee was off on Friday, so I was doing half of his job while still doing my own. So... it's been a tad too busy to Blog as it was.

Now I'm trying to think what I had done during the back-end of the week to sort of the recap...

Wednesday afternoon... watched Canada fall to the Russians. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I wasn't writing too much at all. Didn't really want to display the horror as it was. I place the blame mostly on Pat Quinn and the coaching staff. I felt they were not getting the players in the right system to play against the faster, smaller Europeans. Sure the players were a tad sluggish, but with their size, they could have still found ways to make the Euros pay.

Wednesday night... Barb did actually give me a call. She had made herself busy through the rest of her time off. She was out boarding during the day, but was too exhausted to do anything that night... Thursday was busy... Friday was boarding somewhere... Today was out in Fernie... and tomorrow, I think she's back to work. So... that's about that. I really haven't put too much thought in her lately... sort of out of sight, out of mind. Tammy-Lee on the other hand was not picking up the phone.

Thursday day... well, if I remember correctly, that was a pretty sombre day. Our wounds still healing from the day's event yesterday, we weren't all in much of a mood to have too much fun. Plus, it was a pretty busy day. Lots of work that needed to be done. I made another call to TL on the way home from work... but my only resort was to leave a message. I told myself that'd be pretty much it until she called me back.

Thursday evening... Benny and I met at the Wildfire for a couple... and yup. That got shot to hell in a hurry. We got ourselves really caught up playing pool... we ordered some ribs... and then John showed up at the bar... then we were all sitting around shooting the shit until about 11pm. It was still an early night, but man did we drink a lot. The highlight of the night was Benny and I hiding our empty bottles in the triangle table menus all through the bar. It was really dead in there, so it allowed us to put bottles all over the place when Bubbles and Megan weren't looking. What a great laugh for us drunken fools that was.

Friday morning... hurting. With Lee not there, the hangover somewhat kicking in and having to do his work... geez, that made for somewhat of a long morning. It wasn't too bad though... there was quite a bit to do and since it was still relatively new to me, the learning curve did make the morning go a little bit faster. I had also impressed Fred quite a bit with my organization of all the work that needed to be done in the EDGAR room and Devin didn't disappoint me with his effort in getting what he had to do done.

Jeff had called me several times during the day yesterday, but I'm still a tad hot under the collar from my ranting on Wednesday morning. He wanted to know what I was up to for the evening, but Benny and I discussed a quiet one for Friday night, so I wasn't too interested in making any plans to go out on the town. A quiet one actually sounded really good.

Friday lunch... picked the DVD for the flick, Domino with Keira Knightley (drool!). That was gonna be the quiet plan I had envisioned for the Friday night. A Friday with Keira... mwah!

After work, I gave Jeff a call and he told me where he was... Cactus Jacks or something like that and then they were headed down to Moxie's near the Black Swan. Well... I told him he wasn't interested and he told me, the bugger, that both Benny and John were going down to meet him.

WRONG!

I said to him that Benny wasn't going down there and the backtrackin' began. How to burn me up even more, eh... fuck that. I mean, you don't have to friggin' lie to get me down there, especially so blatently. I was not impressed.

I got home, had a bite to eat and was gonna go meet Benny to watch Domino and maybe get a round of golf in. Well... Benny's mind had changed after he left the Wildfire for home. He wasn't quite up for it, so we struggled to come to the conclusion that we should go see a movie in town, since his roommate's girlfriend was hogging the TV and he didn't feel like playing on the computer. That's what a few beers will do to ya.

I eventually met him at the Wildfire, since he had to shower and change and then we went into town. Off to Chinook we went... in the deepest, darkest, thickest fog ever... and we headed down there. Well, we were an hour too late for most of the early shows and a couple hours too early for any of the later ones. Shit. So... we decided to pub crawl it.

Riverbend Station for a couple... which was kinda dead. To Chestermere for the Landing for a couple... which was actually dead. And then back to the "Wildflower" for the last couple. By then it was already after midnight and I was growing pretty weary of continuing on. Back at the Wildflower though, I chatted with John a bit and told him how Jeff said he had talked to him and John was gonna go meet him... talk about also not impressed. He shot down Jeff when he called as well on the phone, citing he couldn't get away early. Makes me shake my head...

So, I home I went... made a bag of popcorn, tried to watch Domino on my crappy laptop with a broken soundcard (Thanks Mark!!) and failed miserably, so I passed out.

This morning, I got up in time to watch the Women's 5000m long track speed skate... saw the Gold and Bronze for Canada, including Cindy Klassen's fifth medal of the games. Athlete of the Year, she is!! Looks like we're up for another medal in the Men's short track today too... which is awesome... another possible two medal event.

Other than the Men's hockey... these Olympics have been great for Canada! Way to go team!!

Anyways... gonna go down and see the boys this afternoon. Josh has got a new mp3 player that he needs help to setup, so I'll go and do that for him today. Gotta get dressed and get going... fill up the car and head out. Don't know what's goin' on tonight, but I'm sure you'll hear about it soon!!

A Lesson For You

A nice slow drive this morning to work... lots of snow fell overnight and is still falling now. And yeah, it will probably continue to fall all friggin' day. Hooray! It'll probably be a slow drive home too tonight. Maybe it'll become really, really busy and I won't want to leave when all the traffic starts up. Oh, I dislike sitting in traffic.

Pretty quiet night last night... met Benny after work for a couple beers. This is where the local soap opera continued. You just gotta love the small town life.

Unfortunately, this soap opera troubles me. Poor ol' Jeff got himself into trouble by doing something he shouldn't have when he got really, really drunk. You know, something that all the lads will give a great ribbing for. Well, I've never seen anyone be such a wimp when it comes to receiving a good ribbing. Yeah, it was a major 'oops' and everyone is having a good laugh at his expense, but now he's opening himself up to more ribbings the longer he waits to get this one. He's planning on boycotting the bar, 'cuz he knows Greg will give it to him hardcore, which he will... but it's only laughing. Jeff is one of the worst guys for laughing at people when they screw up... he loves to dish out the good stuff as does most of the lads. But he and Greg are actually both really wimpy when it comes down to taking it. They're all sensitive & shit... putting their pout on... swearing up a storm... acting like the apocolypse is upon them... the whole weight of the world.

Suck it up... don't be a wuss... and if you don't want to talk about it... DON'T BRING IT UP. I don't feel sorry for ya for what ya did... you're the one who got drunk, you're the one who did what you did, you're the one who could have avoided this madness. But ya didn't. Lie in the bed you make, my friend... we all have to. And if you don't, the bed you make gets bigger and bigger and you won't be able to get off of it, even if you try.

Don't be a sensitive hypocrite. This is the lesson for all of us... if you're gonna give your friends a ribbing, be prepared to take it. The whole world isn't against you... it's just making light of a drunken situation.

He'll probably read this and be really mad... but it really needs to be said. I have met too many people who are like this and it drives me nuts... so it's really for all of 'em. A dedication to all those who can't take what they dish out.

Well, that felt really good... a remedy to some of the stress that's goin' on. Well, I'm preparing for an avalanche in the workload in the next couple days... pardon the snow pun, 'cuz there's gonna be a ton of it.

Hopefully gonna get a call from Barb tonight after she gets back from snowboarding today... might give Tammy-Lee (or TL) a call tonight as well. Gonna see what I can setup for the weekend. Otherwise... that'll be what's goin' on for now. Canada vs. Russia at 12:30... can't wait. The medal round begins!!

Canada 3 - Czech Republic 2

The Canadians bounced back after two tough 2-0 defeats over the weekend to beat the Czechs in a good nail-biter near the end.

Canada can thank their lucky stars that Martin Brodeur was still steaming after his loss to the Swiss on Saturday, 'cuz his focus was amazing. Easily the number one star of the game, Brodeur made tons of key stops, even after tweaking his knee in the second period.

Canada still lacked consistency in their play, which has got to be addressed. The first period was great Canadian hockey... dump and chase with a touch of physical presence that kept the Czechs running scared. But once the second period started, already up 3-0, the Canadians failed to grasp the style of game which allowed them to dominate the period previous.

With the impending opponents of Sweden or Russia, the Canadians should get it through their heads that if they continue to focus on physical play and then the game after that, they will force their opponents to make bad decisions and unforced errors in the neutral zone or in their own end. Only then, it seems, do we use the country's great talent to punish mistakes and capitalize on errors. The smaller European opponents flourish in open Euro hockey... but once the Canadian game kicks in, then the domination can begin.

Don't be afraid to take physical penalties... our penalty killing has been good.

My player of the tournament thus far... Shane Doan. Talk about a guy who hasn't given up the style of play throughout the games. Top forward of the bunch... it's a shame others don't follow in his footsteps.

And in the hindsight is 20/20 department... the inclusion of Eric Staal and Dion Phaneuf would have been key to the Canadian style of game in both ends of the ice. Faster, stronger and like to put the puck at the net... they would have been perfect.

Bring on the knockout round!!

The Sun! The Sun!

Ahhhh... there was a good feeling in the sky this morning when I left for work... the sun was creeping up over the horizon! Thank goodness. I can't wait until the sun is up before I am... it'll make it so much easier to wake up in the mornings, that's for sure.

It didn't look like a busy day at all yesterday... so Devin must have gotten on alright. There's a few filings to do this morning. I think I'll finish one or two before the hockey game in 50 minutes.

I have a strange feeling that this afternoon may be a tad busy... Tuesday has generally been our busiest day... and tack on the holiday Monday... so, watch out!

Not a lot more to say this morning... kinda used it all up last night.

Thank Goodness For Another Day Off

As it is Family Day in Alberta, quite a few people had the day off from work... not Filing Services Canada though. Ha ha. Well, not Lee & Devin anyways... I'm off because of George Washington's birthday, which closed all the markets and servers in the States... so yippie!! It'll be busy tomorrow though, I'm sure... but we'll see how the new guy has looked after the day.

The day off wasn't too bad... didn't really get up to too much. Slept in nicely... and then when I finally really came to, it was about 11am... and needed to come up with a plan to watch the Women's Gold Medal game... preferrably with someone.

I had left a text with Barb and surprisingly, she got back to me right away. Probably shoulda called then... but nah... she couldn't come out and I really wasn't going to call and prolong that at all. Benny was online already, so I chatted with him for a bit. I came up with the cunning plan to go down to the Landing in Chestermere and watch the game there... and see if Tammy-Lee would come out as well.

Well, Benny and I got ourselves ready and I went to go pick him up. On the way out, I left a voice mail message with Tammy-Lee... and that was the best I got. Yay... at least I'm practicing my voice mail etiquette while I progress, eh?

Down at the bar, Benny and I ate and watched the real lack of an actual game on the TV... the food there was pretty good, I must say. Both of us were drinking rather lightly... there was obviously no rush to drink any faster. At the end of the second period, my phone rang to see that Tammy-Lee was returning my voice mail message (see that... it actually happened!!). She was just around the lake watching some tykes play hockey at the rec centre in Chestermere and was gonna join us. Hoorah!

She showed up lickity-split and sat down in time for the third period. We sat and chatted... all was pretty well. It seemed a little subdued since Benny was sitting right there... it seemed there was an air of shyness around the table... not to mention, we weren't exactly sitting on the most ideal chairs. It was sort of a weird separation between the two high-arm rested chairs... but there was a "vibe," to quote Justin, about the whole thing. Although she only stayed for the period, as Benny and I weren't gonna stay for too much longer, she left with a "call me" and a fantastic walk out of the bar. I mean, although subtle... it meant something.

After that, I dropped Benny back off at his place... went to the Wildfire for a couple as my social appetite hadn't been fulfilled, had a chat with Bubbles... he told me some funny things... I went and rented a flick... Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which I didn't find too bad... and that pretty much leads me to here.

A pretty decent holiday Monday... which is slowly winding down into a possible early night again. The Canadian men finish up the preliminary round tomorrow at 8:30am... so I don't have to get up too early... just the normal time.

Oh yeah... and a congrats to the Canadian women on their gold medal. I'm sort of at an impasse about this situation though... although I want to see better hockey with more skilled opponents... but I am enjoying this domination the women hold. I don't honestly believe that I can have both... just look at the men. Once other teams catch-up, you only feel like biting your nails during each game until it's over... and now we expect nothing but domination. Figures.

Sunday Post

Wow... I'm actually sitting down in front of my computer on a Sunday night... of a long weekend!! Geez... it must have been a good weekend.

Was it?

Oh yeah.

Let's see... Friday... meet Jeff after work at Joey's in the NE. It was thought that we were going to have ourselves a relatively quiet weekend... being the long weekend and all. But no... of course not. The lightbulb came on in Jeff's head and BAM! A plan to head to Banff that night was brewed and was ready to pour. And once one idea gets into that boy's head... they just don't stop. Granted, it's gotta be said... I think he was on fire that night.

Once the ball was rolling about the Banff plan... he found a hottie sitting with what looked to be her Mom & Sister (again, just assuming) and we came up with a saucy plan to hit on her. It included a note, a bottle of wine and a waiter that looked like Clark Kent. Unfortunately, as it turned out... she was engaged (with a giant rock, says Kent) but looked as if she was flattered nonetheless.

So, we kept Benson waiting for a bit... and then headed back to Langdon to get our shit together and head out to Banff.



And then there we were... the looney tunes that we are. Goin' to Banff... Jeff drove this time... took his gas-guzzlin' Jeep and away we went.

We were in Banff for just after 10pm, I believe... got into the hotel and from there we went... we went in search of good times. Between Mel's and HooDoo, we did find some good times. There was lots of talent around and lots of booze to make the talent look even better. Ha ha.

Mel's had it's cheaper vodka specials... which made for some good drinkin'. HooDoo had it's Quebec-born minx Genvieve (spelling is only a guess and a little of how she explained it). Lucky Benny did get a lap full of that too...



Good man! He loves it.



We also met a couple girls from Vancouver... Jen & Sam. I had walked over to there table, when Benny wouldn't and chatted with them a bit. And then sat down... and then the guys came over. And then the night sort of ended at HooDoo and then they came back with us to the hotel room.

And no... no one got lucky, despite Benny being allegedly sent for condoms... ha ha!! That was quite the discovery in the morning. 'Where did these come from?'

Anyhoo...

I ended the night with walking the two ladies back to their hotel, which was on the main drag. On the walk back to the hotel... Jeff was outside wandering around. I don't know what he was looking for... I'm not sure if it was even me he was looking for. He was a bit of a rambling mess when I found him... nor could I actually remember what we were goin' on about when we walked back.

Saturday morning... I wanted to get back to Calgary for the evening. I had the New Pornographers concert to go to that night... so I had no intentions of anything more than going home. Well... I was the only one who had those sort of intentions. Both Benny and Jeff had decided, after I passed out, that they wanted to stay another night in Banff and ended up pre-booking a room at the Banff Springs Hotel. Gah!

So there it was... they wanted to stay... I said I didn't want to... I mean, the concert was a high priority for me. The New Pornographers are wicked... and deserve to be seen, since they're not really a full-time band as it is. I wouldn't even begin to imagine when they'd tour again. So, with that being said... I really wished that I had driven to Banff, 'cuz then I would have been able to just leave the boys to their excess choice of another night. I did have an inkling that there was a chance that I'd head back to Banff after the concert... but I wasn't too sold on the idea right then and there.

We had a shitty meal at Wild Bill's in the morning... that's not the place to go if you want breakfast. They don't have one. We should have left when we heard the bad news. But we didn't. After that we went up to the hill and I let the boys get their room at the Hotel... yeow! That was a lot of money dropped on a hotel... yet another reason why staying didn't fit with me. Geez, I make half or less than what these guys make... I don't think I'll be getting myself into more debt by staying in a fancy-ass hotel. That actually scares the life outta me.

The drive was remarkable on the way home... crystal clear blue skies and a lot of new snow on the mountains. We absolutely motored on the way home as well. The trip from Banff to Langdon was an even 90 minutes. It was sure good to be home though. Granted, I didn't stay in too long, 'cuz I had some running around to do before heading out for the night. Including calling people to see if they'd want to go to the concert with me.

Yeah, another free ticket on the day of the concert. How like me is that gonna be from now on?

I literally called everyone that I knew wasn't working, in Italy or on their way to Banff... if I had their number on my phone, of course. Well, that didn't work. I did my running around, called everyone and still had no one to go with... so I was resigned to the fact that I was going to another concert by myself... which isn't too bad in the end. Oh yeah, Tegan didn't want to go since she was super-depressed... which was fair dues, but I was hoping that sort of thing would cheer her up a little bit.

I called Tammy-Lee to see if she was still busy... she was. I called Barb to see if she'd go to Banff if I decided to go after the concert... voice mail. Geez, my options were not turning up much of anything then.

So, I went to the Wildfire to have a beer before heading to the concert by myself... sort of a last ditch effort to see if there was anyone I wouldn't mind taking with, just to use up the ticket. My effort went in vain, of course... 'cuz there wasn't really much of a chance that it would have happened anyways. I had a couple beers and a chat or two with some people there and that was about it. Good enough... off I went.

Now, the New Pornographers... like I said, they aren't a full-time band. So, they weren't really tight... and it was their first stop on their new tour as well... so there were definitely bugs to work out in the show. Nevertheless... I got a lot of the tunes that I really wanted to hear and sing-along to. The Bleeding Heart Show and Mass Romantic were definite highlights. I was kind of surprised by Miss Teen Wordpower as a concert selection... pleasantly surprised of course. I made up mix discs of New Porn, but that song wasn't on the 21 track selection. 'Twas cool though.

During the show, I kept receiving text messages... Jeff egging me on to go out to Banff. Calling me a sell-out if I didn't... needing his wingman... which, I suppose was partly true. He does need someone to keep him on the straight and narrow. I don't know which text message it was exactly... but I caved in. So after the show had finished, I hopped in the car and was off.

Driving the Trans-Canada in the dark is certainly an adventure... you know, when you get out of the city lights and into the darkness of the transition from prairies to mountains. It gets dark out there!

Halfway out... Barb finally returned my phone call. She'd finished work and was out for her drink to start her week off. She called to let me know that she wasn't ignoring my messages... which was nice of her to say. I told her to give me a ring when she knew that she had some time to spend with me... and hopefully she will.

I was in Banff around 11:30pm... all the park gates to pay the park pass fees were closed and I parked in a lot with "no overnight parking." Amazingly, got away with both offenses... woo hoo!! Met the boys in Aurora and it sorta went from there. There was more great talent in there... but our luck wasn't quite as great. We got some nice pics of the bartenders and such, but there wasn't really any sufficient and/or available talent to take back to the guy's rooms at the hotel.



The night ended for me when the boys went looking for food and I passed out in bed. I was pretty schwhacked again and needed to just fall asleep... which I did with the greatest of ease.

My plan for Sunday morning was to head off and make sure I got back to Langdon in time to see my sister off back to Victoria... which I had woken up just after 8am, got my shit together and didn't even wake Jeff... like he had asked... and was gone.

The traffic was pretty dead on the highway... and since it was really light out, I could really concentrate on where I was going much easier and that allowed me to pin it quite well. I think I probably averaged around 150km/h for most of the way, except through Canmore and a few of the bends that are a little treacherous through there. I thought luck was on my side.

I was wrong.

Coming through the construction on Glenmore Trail, I was coasting down into it... my foot not even on the gas, actually more slowing down 'cuz of traffic, but I was still doing 72 in a 50 and got busted. Fuck me! My 1st speeding ticket handed to me by a cop. I had a photo radar ticket once... but not anything like this. Shit. $150 or something like that... geez, what a pain in the ass.

Then the day was sort of a lazy waste... watched the piss-poor Canadian Men's team lose again to Finland. That'll be for tomorrow's post, I'm sure. Watched quite a bit of the Daytona 500 as well. Fixed the brakes on my car... topped up its fluids... got a tad dirty... and that was pretty much my day.

Tomorrow... no plans, just gonna make some phone calls. Wanna hang out with one of the girls I think tomorrow... if I can. And that's that. Thanks for comin' out!

Cold, Cold Friday

Holy shit is it cold out there... even moreso than yesterday. Geez... not exactly the weather to go out in with wet hair still... ha ha!

It was -26 when I left the house this morning... and there was a deathly windchill as well. Thank goodness for remote car starters... if it wasn't for that, I don't thin kI would have been able to leave the house. Dad tried to get in his car and start it up the old fashioned way and the key wouldn't turn in the steering column. Eek. I'm sure that having the car warm up a bit helped me out a bit... 'cuz even my key was still tough to turn in when I got in it finally.

Along with being cold this morning, I am a tad hungover AND tired... although I think I got home before midnight or just after... but I did drink quite a bit, me thinks.

I wanted to take Tegan out and have a couple drinks yesterday. We made it out... but I was the only one drinking. She did kick my ass in pool a few times... Benny showed up... Mom & Dad showed up... so overall, it was still a pretty social night. Oh yeah... Jeff showed up for a beer, but took off right away... he wasn't overly social. Oh well, Benny and I made up for his lack of socialness ourselves. Ha!

I couldn't get a hold of Barb in a social call after work yesterday... but Tammy-Lee decided to call me last night. I don't remember how she got my number... I'm pretty sure I didn't give it to her. I'm thinking Jeff did, no matter how much he tried to deny it... even moreso, I didn't really believe his denials anyways... he's sorta transparent that way... or so I think. I was actually gonna give her a bell last night, 'cuz I wanted to sort out who's goin' to the New Pornographers with me on Saturday... but she beat me to the punch. Gotta say that the shock still hasn't really disappeared... so, I think I might take advantage of a lady who calls me and take her out next week as I agreed to call her on Tuesday.

Today looks like it'll be pretty constant work-wise... I'm gonna see how Devin does with a few 6-K filings this morning. There's five of 'em sitting here... plus, the ones that he was left with yesterday... this'll be a telling sign of how he'll handle the pressures of the deadlines approaching.

Friday... yay!

Canada 5 - Germany 1

Well, I'm not too sure if I'm quite convinced of the power of this Canadian team... the test of playing Finland on Sunday will better suit any judgement.

The Canadians eased their way past the Germans early this afternoon (Calgary time) to go 2-0 in the tournament. The first period being far and away their best period in the tournament with responsible checking and good transitional play... but the second was taken down a few notches and the third was just a morning skate for most of them.

Simon Gagne's hard work in front of the net to power in his goal of the game, plus his assist, clearly made him the best Canadian on the ice.

The defense was caught flat-footed at times, being too aggressive with pinching and not really staying in position in the offensive zone to force a lot of sustained pressure on the sapling Germans.

The Germans on the other hand could sense a slower shift in pace in the second when they picked theirs up, which I think caught the Canadians by surprise. Much like the women's squad, I would like to have seen a very dominate men side that makes me believe we're best in the world. We didn't bring our best players to the tournament to play like our weakest opponents.

Next up... the 1-1 Swiss, who upset the Czechs today... hooray!

February's Here!

"Well, I've got some good news and some bad news... the good news is it isn't cold outside. The bad news is... IT'S FUCKING FREEZING!"

Geez, it's almost like it's February outside here in Calgary this morning. After being completely spoiled with chinooks and such, it's only now that we pay the piper, as it were. It's a good thing that it doesn't take too long for my car to warm up.

Well, yesterday was a tad odd... after watching the game, everyone sort of filtered in through the day... it wasn't overly busy work-wise, but it wasn't necessarily slow either. Managed to catch the Slovakia/Russia game as well, watched quite a bit of the medal round events on TV as well and accomplished what I needed to at the office.

In the morning, Mom caught me for a moment on MSN to tell me that Tegan was coming home... she has been having some domestic problems and wanted to come home for a while. That was very disappointing to hear... she was flying in just after 7pm in the evening.

I had let Barb know that I would call her after work and when I did finish, all I got was her voice mail... again. So, I left a message saying that if she could catch me in town then I would go and see her... but although I bummed around depositing cheques and buying a DVD, I didn't hear from her, so I went home.

When I got home... I was kinda sure that nothing was gonna really go my way... Mom & Dad were gonna pick up Tegan, I was sure that Barb wasn't gonna call by then... so I took a nap. After the 4am start and a beer... a nap was a pretty good idea. Thankfully, I got 90 minutes of quality napping in and that made me feel a load better.

The folks and Tegan didn't make it in until after 9pm... I hadn't seen Tegan in what could be almost 4 years... so, it was a great big hug for her, 'cuz she really needed one. She was pretty quiet coming in the door, probably all cried out by then... but it was sure good to see her.

We sat up for a while... but it wasn't too long before I had to pass out again. When I was just about out for the night... a text message came in from Barbara, saying she had a rough day and slept all afternoon. I'm thinking something like that should just chip away at my patience, but it doesn't feel like it did. Mostly 'cuz I fell asleep... ha ha.

Since it's after that stupid Valentine's Day though, I feel a little bit more compelled to chase her down a bit... but what is that really gonna solve?? As history has taught me... I'm not very good at it. Well, I sent her a text this morning... see if I can get her for lunch.

As for the New Pornographers on Saturday... I think I might take Tegan... she'll enjoy it, I'm sure. If she doesn't want to go, I'll give that Tammy-Lee a call... and if that doesn't work... I'll drag Benny out there with me. He may not enjoy the music so much, but he'll enjoy getting out... right Benny???

Anyways... got a couple filings in the inbox that need to be done today... well, one for sure and the other one isn't due 'til Friday, but I'm still in working mode this morning, so I'll do it today. Sweden/Russia is gonna start too... so, I'll listen to that as I work. Canada/Germany goes at noon... so, I can't wait for that!!

Go Canada Go!!

Where I've Been

create your own visited countries map


This is kinda cool... you should get one too!!

Canada 7 - Italy 2

Gotta love that 4am wake up call... I'm sure yawning like a bastard... now that the game is over of course.

A lucky break for Canada was that they got scheduled with Italy for their first game in the tournament as the legs on the team were not really below them for all 60 minutes, rather the first 45 or so. The defense was a tad suspect, but the passing was pretty decent and Martin Brodeur was pretty solid in net, despite letting in two goals to the weaker Italians.

There is no reason for Italy to feel bad though... another strong performance against Switzerland or Germany could yield an upset win.

The Big Big Bert watch shows that he earned a pair of assists and the second star (according to the CBC) this morning... he looked pretty good. He didn't have many scoring chances himself, but setting up both Jarome Iginla and Brad Richards and cycling well in the corners made him look really good.

Although the Olympics isn't my favourite tournament in the world (the World Juniors kick ass!!), I will still get up for these guys any day of the week! I think I will have to get up really early once next week too. Tomorrow, the Canadians will play Germany around noon our time.

Fuck Valentines Day

Yeah... it was kinda shitty today.

When I left the house this morning, I thought I would get a chance to see Barb... thought the day was gonna go fine.

Got into the office... turned on the TV... Canada vs. Sweden, women's hockey. Yup, that's good. Through 2 periods, an ass-kicking from the maple leaf was in progress... good. Had to work through the first two periods... meh... alright. Lee came in, turned the sound down... oh, that wasn't so good. Devin... showed up late because of the buses... meh... no biggie.

By 11am... it all went to hell. All my arch-nemesis clients dropped bombs on me... it wasn't 'til 2:30pm that Barb left me a text saying 'hey?' Oh, did I feel shitty. I mean, fucked up. But I had to plow on... I couldn't stop.... I didn't stop for lunch... I didn't stop for big moments in the Olympics on TV... I mean, I didn't stop. I wanted to... but I couldn't.

I wanted to see Barb so bad today... I thought what better day to do something big, right? Nope. I'm getting more aggrevated just thinking about it now. I hope she'll see me tomorrow... her best friend from work is coming back from holiday tomorrow... might lose out to her. I guess that'll be a good sign (or bad one) when the decision comes down.

Anyways... watched Garden State... with Zach Braff (from Scrubs) and Natalie Portman... yeah, that was a damn good film. Really hit home a bit... kinda touched my less-than tragic side... or something like that. Can't really get the proper vocabulary out for that sentence.

Up at 4am tomorrow... get up, shower, go to work, flip on the tube and catch the game. Then I'll be on time for work, caught the game and a little more hopeful for the day. Or something like that.

It's sort of been a shit day... and I've moseyed through a good part of a small case of Keith's tonight... so I'm feeling rather ready for bed. My fingers are crossed for tomorrow... that I get up in time, that Canada wins by at least 10 and Barbara will see me (even for the smallest bit). Hopeful.

"I'll get up early in the morning for a few things... hardcore hockey watching, travelling and maybe a few others will make me do it; but I'll only want to stay up through the night afterwards for you, m'dear."

Somehow that came to me while watching the movie tonight.

Sure Gonna Miss Ya When...

Good morning Monday... oh, how I'm almost glad to see you... well, not really.

Everything this weekend, went so overly well... everyone had a good time, there was much hockey to play and quite a bit of beer to drink. Fantastic! I think this post may be a little long, so do go grab something to eat or drink before we really get started here. I should start a pot of coffee or something... but you know, I don't really fancy much coffee this morning.

Okay? Are you ready now? Yeah, so am I.

Friday night was sort of the calm before the storm. I met Benny & Jeff over at the Wildfire... the St. Louis/Calgary game was on the TVs and it was good to antagonize the Flames fans once again. Jeff had gotten himself sorted out with a new digital camera on Friday... a neat little Canon deal... nice & thin... easy to lose.



How would you like that as one of the first things you're camera sees?? Ha ha ha... silly Benny... Beers are for people!

The Street Hockey Tournament went through it's last bits of planning as well on Friday night. Greg and I sat down and worked out what was gonna happen when... the Saturday was gonna start somewhat early. The parking lot was gonna be cleaned off... the lines were gonna be painted on... the chairs and tables would be setup... and bam! We'd have ourselves a street hockey tournament. We ended up getting 8 teams in the end for the big show on Saturday, which was gonna make for a really good tournament.

After the game, the planning and the goofing around with the new camera... Jeff and I went back to his place to watch a movie or two and have somewhat of a quiet one. We went and grabbed a few beers, I went back to the house and grabbed a few DVDs, then it was back to Jeffs for that quiet one. We only ended up watching one movie, Very Bad Things and had only a few beers and that was pretty much the end of the night for me. I was sure beat. I think I was in and in bed before midnight... which has got to be some sort of a record for a Friday night these days.

Saturday morning came reluctantly... I'm not really a big fan of having to get up earlier than desired on the weekend. It just doesn't really float my boat so much. Anyways, I dragged my ass outta bed for about 9am... I had to get some posters, scoresheets and schedules done before heading off to the Wildfire for the day's preparation. Greg was to be there at 8am, which I imagined he was. When I eventually got there, just before 10am... he was out with a leaf blower, clearing off all the dust and rubbish off the pavement for a good clean surface.

Everything came together really well in the morning. The plan went pretty well according to schedule and there wasn't much for problems... actually, I can't really think of any problems at all.

Benny finally showed up with water bottles filled with Vodka & Rockstar... much better than water... and the glorious trophy, the Slurpee Cup. Benny, the perfectionist, wasn't too proud of his metal creation, but man... everyone else sure thought it was a cool trophy. Especially myself... that trophy is wicked! And it's fuckin' heavy too... I don't think anyone had a chance to weigh it, but I'm sure if you dropped it on someone, they'd be close to death. Ha ha.

Actually, there was some sort of a problem to start the day... I remember as I run through everything on an event by event basis. The scheduling was kind of useless as there were a few teams that decided to show up late or in pieces, so they weren't ready to play come the time on the schedule. This did make things just a tad frustrating, but shortly (not exactly sure when) after noon, we finally dropped the balls to start the Slurpee Cup Challenge.

I looked after reffing one of the first games, while Greg reffed the other... we had a couple timekeepers and most of the teams were responosible for keeping their own scores through the day. The games only lasted for about a half hour each... and we were kind of hoping that each game with breaks in between would only take 40 minutes a piece.... that, in hindsight, was very hopeful. I'm not too sure that clockwork could have helped that schedule at all. By the end of it all, I was just creating matchups that weren't on the schedule in order to keep everyone playing, or keep the games going, period.

The bar team, Sure Gonna Miss..., was not very good. But we sure did have cool shirts.



Each shirt for the team had the team on the front and an individual slogan on the back...

Jeff (pictured) had "Sure Gonna Miss... My Balls On Your Chin."
Greg had "Sure Gonna Miss Ya... When You Turn 23."
I had "Sure Gonna Miss Ya... When Your Mom Finds Out."
Benny and Bubbles swapped shirts, 'cuz ol' Bubbles wasn't too confident about his sexuality and wearing pink shirts...
So Bubbles wore "Sure Gonna Miss Ya... When I Sober Up."
And Benny wore "Sure Gonna Miss Ya... When I Get A Clue."

They were all pretty awesome shirts. Unfortunately, that was the only thing awesome about the team as we didn't win a single game (of the three we played) on Saturday. We ended up finishing seventh, eighth was the Molson team... so at least we weren't last, because of goals scored. First, was Benny's brother's team, Captain Morgans and second were Team Shocker. Those two teams got a bye into the semi-finals when the playoffs started on the Sunday afternoon.

Until then... time to have a drink!

There wasn't very many people left around the bar after the games had finished... a few of the teams had stuck around for the night, but others took off home or to their tent trailer around the corner and made their own nights. I grabbed a drink or two and moved from table to table chatting with all the people who were playing during the day... having some good hockey chats and such.

Joe, Kelly & John all showed up eventually through the night. When they all showed up, the party was definitely dying down a bit in the Wildfire, so someone made mention of going to Chestermere and go to the Boathouse Pub at the Landing. Sounded good to me... so we all piled into the Hummer and Joe drove us down to the bar.

Mike (who picked up the shirts for us), Benny, Joe, Kelly, John, Jeff and myself headed down for a drink (or several). There we found ourselves a nice booth which had a pretty good view... and I mean good view. Through the demi-window, behind Joe in the picture, there was a table with a great looking brunette with a excellent ass and a decent looking blonde in a party having a good time. So, the view was so good... that I just had to poke myself through the window to chat with 'em. Actually, the guy that they were sitting with, Ryan, I chatted with him for quite a while... had a pretty good laugh. I was just my usual chatty-drunk self.

For some reason, John, Kelly, Joe & Benny took off... don't know why... but they settled up and took off. It was really strange because I thought ol' Benson was getting on pretty well with our waitress, Amy... she actually posed with him for a few great pics, but no... they left. Since I was chatting with the table of hotties, I wasn't prepared to take off... and Mike & Jeff didn't really care either way. Mike was absolutely drunk & tired... but was a trooper. Jeff was having himself a grand ol' time.

Once the boys had left, we got the invite to head over to the hottie table and before I could turn my head back around, Mike was already there chatting. I laughed my ass off... it was so funny. So Jeff and I straggled over there and sat down with the group. I had obviously made an impression as I sat with the hot brunette, Tammy-Lee, (and danced with her a bit as well) 'cuz by the end of the night, the pictures were sure telling some tales.



I'll save a few of the other ones for later... well, not on the Blog anyways. All in all, it was a pretty productive evening... I ended up with her phone numbers, both home & cell numbers (huzzah!) and was really, really drunk.

We managed to cab it home... although I don't really remember too much about leaving. That kinda sucks... but oh well. Mike, Jeff & I headed back to Jeff's place where we plugged in A Clockwork Orange... which we were only a quarter of the way through, I think before Mike started to snore like a bastard and I took off home for the night.

Sunday morning came way too quickly for me. I'm pretty sure I was still drunk when I arrived at the Wildfire for 10:30am... good thing I walked there, since I had left my car at the bar. The morning came with quite a bit of paperwork to do up all the scheduling for the afternoon's games. The Molson team didn't even show up (poor losers!) and none of JC's team showed up... except for JC. Apparently, they couldn't hold their drink in the morning and were all too sore to compete during the day. Which wasn't exactly a bad thing... it allowed me and the bar team to play with JC and get a couple games in.

Since I had been giving Greg shit for sucking all day on Saturday... which he did, so I felt compelled to jaw at him... he took it to heart and played in goal instead. With breaking the straps on my leg pads, he actually won us a game... where I scored a pair in the game and another pair in the shootout to send us to the semi-finals, where we eventually lost to the tournament winners, Captain Morgans.

The Sunday went off with very few problems... there were a lot of kids retrieving balls in the construction site next door, which was wholly frowned upon by Gord (Team Lowes Racing), the superintendant of the jobsite... but otherwise the scheduling was so much easier.

I reffed the final game between Morgan's and Team Shocker, which proved to be a pretty awesome game. And once the trophy was handed out, I sat in the pub, chatted with the teams that stayed and just became so very exhausted...

I was home & in bed around 7:30pm... there was no way I could handle being up for too much longer... so I wasn't.

I'm sure I'll get some more writing in tomorrow... I sorta got busy today... I have some other quandries that I will share tomorrow... as it's finally home time at work!!

Later!!

Listed Day

This is gonna be a short post... for a couple reasons.

1. I have quite a bit of work to do today...
2. Benny said I can't Blog about his drunken behaviour last night
3. Yesterday was sort of uneventful
4. That's about it for reasons.

But, ya know what, Benny?? You probably don't remember me even showing up to the Wildfire after floor hockey... 'cuz you were smashed into tiny little alcohol pieces. Yeowswers!

Favourite Benny quotes from last night:

1. "AM I BEING LOUD?!?"
2. "The new waitress... she's bangable."
3. "You can't Blog about this..."

It was great... he was on repeat all night... at 12 on the volume dial... which only goes up to 3. Ha ha ha.

Well, there's lots to do today... a few more filings came in to compound my day... I have to finish off the scheduling for the Street Hockey Tournament, call the participants to tell them when to come out... update the Hockey Pool... oh, it's gonna be a long day.

"Fancy a shag, love?"

A Pretty Good Evening

Who's ready for some over-analyzation?? Nah... I'm not really either... not for the Blog anyways.

Right after work yesterday, I called up Barb and said I would come pick her up and take her down to Eau Claire Market for dinner, thanks to the advice from Jeff. I thought that was a pretty solid plan... nice & easy. Fantastic!

So, I called her up and said that I would swing by and pick her up... oh yeah, sure... I'm pretty sure I remember where you live. How much more wrong could I have been? Let's face it, the only time I had dropped her off at her house was months ago and it was dark out... so, believing that I could actually remember what it was like in the dark was a serious mistake on my part... ha ha!

I managed to get so, so lost... so much so, that I thought that I turned onto a road that I actually didn't turn onto. D'oh! When I called her three or four times (before even coming close), it was only then that I realized that the road that I thought I was on... wasn't the road that I wanted to be on and therefore got me severely lost.

There was also some communication lost in the directions giving... I think she had a little too much faith in me to get through to step 2 of the process, which was where I really sorta lost out on in finding her place. Nevertheless, she was having a good giggle at my lack of direction, so it wasn't all bad. It's a good thing that she's easy-going like that... man, if I was trying to pick up some sort of prissy princess, I would have been done right there.

So, FINALLY I was able to make it to her place... just to make sure, I had her come outside and flag me down, just in case. Ha ha. There is truly very little worse in Calgary than it's traffic system... especially in the downtown core. I mean, what a shit storm. Luckily in the time it took to actually make it around Eau Claire, we had more than enough to chat about, to keep the converstaion flowing and all... so, that was pretty excellent.

The good thing is that, we never seem to be too silent for too long... which can be a bad thing, I guess... in reference to the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has that friend who he never slept with, 'cuz there was never any long, uncomfortable pauses that you fill with lust.

We really didn't walk too far around Eau Claire as I might have hoped... with Barb still being somewhat under the weather and shivering really badly when we got out of the car, I didn't even really make any mention of going for a walk around. Instead we took the warm route over to Brewsters for dinner and a drink.

We kept each other laughing and chatting for a few hours in Brewsters... quite a pleasant evening, really. The bar actually had the California coverage of the Ducks/Flames game from NHL Centre Ice... so , we sat together and watched the first couple periods of that game as well. Well, we sat in its direction... I don't actually remember watching too much of the 2nd period anyways... all of a sudden there was 3 minutes left and I had sorta made a point of it... 'cuz it went so quickly in our chatting.

Unfortunately, since she had booked the entire week after the 18th off, she wasn't able to get the evening of the 18th off to go see the New Pornographers at Mac Hall... so, that leaves me looking for someone else to take again. I'm sure if someone was to really listen to the band, that they'd want to go see them as well. Oh well... but I did make mention of an evening in early March to take her out again... details to follow there.

By the end of the evening at Brewsters, it really looked like her swollen glands were getting the best of her again... so we eventually took off. I dropped her off at home, which was much easier to find the second time, especially since she wouldn't let me forget about my "track record" of finding her place earlier in the day. A peck on the cheek each... I gave her a copy of the CDs I made for her (including a mix of the New Pornographers and a copy of the Arctic Monkeys CD) and called it a night.

All in all... a pretty good evening.

Boredom

Well, isn't this just friggin' boring...

The things that I had to do this morning turned out to be the only things to do today... one of them just being finished about 10 minutes ago, as it was more of a scheduled release than most other filings that I do.

So, now I've decided to Blog a little bit to kill some time. I don't know how it's really gonna help, I don't have too much to Blog about.

I am currently listening to some of David Bowie's greatest hits... I was chatting with Basil on MSN and Jeff is on there right now... I think he's pretty bored too.

I caught up on all my sports highlights on TSN.ca... so that's done. It's been somewhat interesting watching the Rick Tocchet case... what a bunch of numptys. I'm really anticipating the replacement names for Scott Niedermayer and Ed Jovanovski on the Olympic Roster... since Bryan McCabe got moved from the Taxi Squad to the big team... I'm hoping to see Jay Bouwmeester on the team... I'm a big fan of his.

Only a couple hours to go until I'm outta here... woo hoo! Now, I have to start thinking of things to do with Barbara tonight. Hmmmmm...

I can't really think of anything... I'm so bad at choosing shit. But I have a feeling that I will be the one stepping up here to do something. Eeeek! Where can I take a girl with swollen glands and a sore throat for a little bit of cheering up fun??

Hmmmm... comment if you can in the next couple hours. I'll keep an eye on my e-mail... I have nothing better to do.

Wednesday Morning... Ugh!

The fine line between being hungover and exhausted was crossed ages ago and the backlash is quite apparent at the moment. Last night's combination of pints and street/floor hockey has led me to such situations and I can't really choose between the two... which one I am more. Nevertheless, I'm not overly hurting... just "ugh!"

Yesterday, we interviewed Devin... a younger up & comer from Quebec who has quite a bit of the qualifications that we needed and the go-getter attitude that will make him really bored in a hurry... ha! Ernest gave him a ring yesterday, I haven't quite heard if he'll actually start on Monday or not... I kinda hope so. He should prove to be a pretty good guy for working purposes... not too much of a leaning curve for him. So, thumbs up to that!

I also made some good progress with Barb last night on the phone after I left the bar... I'm gonna go pick her up after work, despite her swollen glands, and take her out for the afternoon/evening. It's pretty obvious that I'm gonna have to do or die here in the selling process, so I'm pretty determined to get some sort of concrete idea of what's goin' on. I will have to conspire towards this during the afternoon hours... I work better when it gets closer to crunch time.

Should be a relatively busy one today... I have 4 or 5 sitting here waiting to go... but I'm really sort of putting them off. It's the symptoms spoken earlier that is fuelling my procrastination... what is a guy to do?

For Those Who Search For It...

... I will post KT Tunstall's lyrics to "Other Side of the World."

I'm kinda surprised that I haven't posted them all yet, this song is so awesome... one of my favourites of last year. I really should go out and buy the album, as of yet, I've only bought the single when I was still in England.

So, for all those search phrases in Google coming here... here are your lyrics! Please leave a comment, if you've come here to find them!

Over the sea and far away
She's waiting like an Iceberg
Waiting to change,
But she's cold inside
She wants to be like
the water,

All the muscles tighten in her face
Buries her soul in one embrace
They're one and the same
Just like water

Then the fire fades away
But most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's too hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're.... the other side of the world
to me

On comes the panic light
Holding on with fingers
and feelings alike
But the time has come
To move along

Then the fire fades away
But most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's too hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're.... the other side of the world

Can you help me?
Can you let me go
And can you still love me
When you can't see me anymore

Then the fire fades away
most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's too hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're.... the other side of the world
Ohh.... the other side of the world
You're.... the other side of the world
To me.

If you want to find a ton more lyrics, I suggest going to: www.lyricsforall.com

Sleep Through

Before getting started with actual work this morning, I thought I would stop in and say hello on the Tales. I've already updated the Hockey Pool this morning, I wanted to see how the Sherpa's Yaks ended up last night after the Canucks beat up on the Blue Jackets 7-4... and the Yaks did just fine. Man, have they suffered though... injuries have not been kind to them at all.

Anyways... it was a pretty "meh" kinda day again yesterday. I came up with a makeshift solution for my broken tooth problem and that's just to chew gum... or just have a piece in my mouth separating the jagged edge from the side of my tongue. I had one in all night last night and my tongue is a lot less aggravated... so thumbs up to that!

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday as Barb started texting me around lunch time... sorta out of the blue. I had left her a message on Sunday night, which was kind of humourous (to me, anyways) and she was inquiring more about it. So, we ended up having somewhat of a text conversation for a bit, which again, was somewhat surprising. She said she was gonna be really busy with school and all... but I will try and get her out once this week at least... as long as she's caught up with school.

Had a couple more interviews yesterday and I think there are a couple more to come today. There really isn't much coming through that I would actually want to work with. There are a lot of database specialists sort of filing through, which isn't overly helpful to our cause... I am beginning to think that the ad that is running is really appealing to the right people. I might have to mention that to Fred and Ernest when they get in this morning.

Last night was another early night... I had rented the Brothers Grimm after dinner last night. I chose that instead of going to the Wildfire and watching the Flames/Sharks game. It's so much cheaper to stay at home. But unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with the movie... it didn't really keep my attention with it's poor blend of ideas and below-par acting... I think I nodded off once before actually dropping myself into bed for the night. I don't know why I was so tired... maybe it was boredom, but bed was a great option.

I slept through the night again last night, which is now becoming a regular occurrence again... it's nice to have the good sleeping habits back. It sure did allow me to wake up a lot more fresh this morning. I was surprised that the piece of gum was still in my mouth as well... so two bonuses this morning. Then I got out of my room, where I left the Canucks/Blue Jackets scoreboard running to see the final result... three bonuses! It has already been a pretty decent morning, I must say.

Tonight, I'm heading up to the Wildfire for our practice for the tournament... apparently we're looking at 5 or 6 teams for the weekend... a far cry from the 8 to 12 Greg wanted... but I'm beginning to think more and more that Greg is useless when dealing with people. Quite possibly it's his condescending ways of dealing with people... it does get rather tiring.

So, that's the story of the day... gonna run with that and make a new pot of coffee. Woo hoo!

Too Many Titles To Choose From

What did this weekend solve if anything... okay, nothing. The only real result of this past weekend has been somewhat of nagging injuries. This morning, I have woken up with a jagged edge on my broken tooth, a bruised hip, irritated skin in my armpits and tired legs. You'd probably think that I had a pretty poor weekend... but no, it was pretty good.

Friday night was pretty good... Benny and I watched the Flames/Canucks game down at the Wildfire after dinner. I didn't really spend much time drinking, 'cuz I was hoping that Barbara would call after the game, since the lucky girl was actually going to the game that night. So I managed to keep my sobriety during a Canucks 3-1 win over said Flames... which made for a generally profitable evening. Greg paid me the $20 he bet me and John, the next time I see him will owe me $10... woo hoo!!

During the game, Benny was pretty hard on me on actually waiting for Barbara to actually call me... since he had his problems with Theresa and all, he was very critical. And rightly so, for that matter... hey, if he's not the one infactuated, he'll probably give the best perspective... no matter how many Mai Tais the guy had. So in his critical-ness, he wagered me that Barb wouldn't call within the hour of the game ending... of course I thought I would take that bet.

I lost the bet. Now, I wasn't really all that fussed, surprisingly... I probably should have been. I probably should have sat there and gotten drunk and depressed at the bar... which I didn't. Instead, I went and bought some mix and Benny and I headed over to his place to go sit in the hot tub for a while.

An hour and a bit later... only one drink inside the house... a good lil' chat about all sorts of shit... it was pretty much time for me to head off. We were still planning to head off to Banff on Saturday and since I wasn't really getting overly drunk that night, I thought I would head home and get a load of sleep.

Saturday came and went in a non-rushed, vaguely planned blur... which was pretty excellent. Was up and about around 9am... just milled about the house until 10am, when I finally started to get myself ready to go for the day. Between the 3 S's and preparing the car for the journey, I was pretty much done just after 11:30am. I picked up Benson and Jeff and we were out of Langdon just before noon. It's a shame that it took over an hour to drive through Calgary on the long expansive route that I decided to try... in error. Next time, it'll be like the first time... Glenmore through town, to Sarcee, and out the Number 1. Easy peasy, lemon squeezee.

Once we finally made it out of town, it was a pretty good sprint to Banff. I think we were actually at Lake Minawanka (spelling?) just after 2pm... but I could be wrong. It didn't take too long to get there in the car... the traffic was pretty low and what was in our way, quickly got out of the way... which is more than I can say about traffic on workday mornings.


We arrived to a blanket of snow on the ground and some pretty cool winds in the air. After all, it is winter in these hills, y'know.

I gotta say that this picture makes me look SUPER fat... but I was wearing two jackets... my Chelsea light one underneath the big black thing. Holy moly... the first picture in weeks and I look like something the Ghostbusters would blast.

Anyhoo... it was a pretty good hike through the snow. Not quite as tough as the one weeks earlier, 'cuz this one we weren't climbing any hills. We walked around the paths, occasionally leaving the paths to engage in cockney voiced snowball fights in the trees.

And you know that I am always good for a goofy picture of some sorts, right? Right. This trip was certainly no different. Hey, climb into those logs and make it look like you're stuck.

Okie dokie... I can do that!

Ta da!!

The wager for the day was if anyone was to slip and fall on their own power... then they'd be the one buying beers when we finally got into town.



Unlucky!!

Shortly after rescuing "Pouchy," we climbed off the rocks we were stationed on and the first one down, Benny, obviously lost his footing and landed in a good tuft of snow. It probably just hurt his pride more than anything.

The rescuing of Pouchy though is worth another story... when climbing on the rocks, I was in some prime positions to get some really cool shots on Jeff's Aunt's digital camera. Jeff threw down the camera to me and when I was trying to take a picture, the batteries in the camera had died. So, the batteries were in the camera pouch that Jeff was to throw down to me as well. Moments earlier, the ice that was frozen over top of the lake had begun to crack and cave into itself... which was quite cool. A tad concerning since I was out on the rocks on the edge of the lake. Needless to say the rescue of "Pouchy" needed to be done when Jeff overthrew me on the rocks and the camera pouch landed on the frozen lake. Jeff wouldn't listen to Benny and myself try to dissuade him into saving Pouchy, but he was determined to get the pouch with the batteries, just so he didn't have to go get a new one. Benny and I were concerned that we couldn't reach it with anything or walk out and get it on the obviously weak ice that covered the lake... still he had to try. We did manage to find a giant, heavy stick on the ground... Jeff climbed down to work the poking end... he got it over Pouchy and dragged it in. I climbed down to the jagged ice as well to go and pick it up... we had rescued it, finally!

We climbed back up to the rocks in a big hurry though... the ice was starting to creak underneath us. Yeow!



And one more picture to illustrate the hike. Ha ha. We eventually turned back about an hour and a bit in, 'cuz we saw some pretty big Mountain Lion tracks on the ground. Jeff figured they were fresh and wasn't gonna stick around.

So, into town we went for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening... a stop for a couple beers and a walk around town before heading to the Hot Springs for a dip in the pool. Had dinner and watched the first period of the Oliers/Canucks game at a pretty lousy pub along the main stretch and then proceeded to head back to Calgary for the night out.

The night took us to the King's Head Pub... to Jill's house to pick her up... then to Ranchmans for a few hours there... then trying to get back into the King's Head and getting rejected... to heading downtown to the Bar Fly and watching one tune from Jill's heavy metal mate's band... to dropping Jill off back at her house... and then taking our weary selves back to Langdon for the remainder of the evening.

Now... what did I forget. Oh yeah... after the hot springs, we visited an ice sculpture castle. A life lesson for you kids... don't slide down and ice castle's escape slide unless you absolutely have to. I mean, the walls to keep you on the slide are good enough to bruise your hips if you're not careful... trust me.

When at the King's Head... Barbara did give me a ring and told me she got exceptionally drunk at the Flames game and hence didn't call. She was also heading home for the night as she was really tired as well... and that she'd call on Sunday between her choir practice and work. Okay, good... that was taken care of.

It was a pretty entertaining day and evening... everyone was well-behaved and nothing went terribly wrong.

Sunday was fairly lazy... didn't really fancy getting up to too much... which I didn't. I went and filled up the car again, since I did 428km the day before, thus consuming most of the fuel in the car. I thought I would fill the car up, just in case I got a chance in the small window on Sunday to go see Barbara... that way I would be prepared and ready to go if it were to be true.

It wasn't.

She texted me after lunch saying that she had woken up feeling kinda ill again and wanted a nap before heading to work in the afternoon. I'm again beginning to wonder about her...

For the Super Bowl, I was over at Jeff's for the afternoon and early evening... drank a few Brandy/Red Bulls and then a few more bottles of Keiths... ended up getting fairly drunk, but not too bad. I got home at a decent hour and was not hurting this morning... except for the injuries already mentioned.

Oh yeah, my tooth... while watching the halftime show and having a bread bowl with chili, my tongue got caught on a jagged edge... which was my broken tooth. It seems that a piece of it came off during dinner... and now it's really bugging me. I guess I might actually have to go see a dentist finally to have it removed. About the only thing I think Dentists are actually good for.

Dental hygiene is a scam in my eyes.

My tooth was broken because of a sports injury... the rest of my teeth are fine without dentists.

Well... that was my weekend. The week looks unclear at the moment... don't really know whats gonna happen. Tuesday night, I have a practice with the Street Hockey team... the tournament is this coming weekend. I'm gonna need some pics from that... that's for sure. Thursday is floor hockey again... another good tune-up before the tourney. I might have to go get some new equipment for the games... we're gonna be using frozen orange balls... and well, that might just hurt a little more than normal.

Adios!

Quick! A Big Big Bert!

Well, I finally got my Bertuzzi jersey yesterday... I picked it up after work. Woo hoo!! She looks pretty sweet, if you ask me. Only another week before the Olympics start, so I have got it in good time. I also picked up a brand new Team Canada hat... I thought I might as well make the whole thing an outfit, right??

Man, did I ever get shelled last night in floor hockey... the team in front of me wasn't really as young as the other team, but the other team had Leo in net and he doesn't wear much for pads. He looked like a goalie from the 1920's... except with his shirt off. Ah well... I certainly got my load of exercise last night, despite winning only one of four games.

Pretty much had to kill time by myself yesterday... no one was about. Benny was at home... Jeff was busy with other stuff... Julie had the worst week and was up to it... couldn't get a hold of Amber... didn't really try Barb... didn't have Kelly's cell number on my new phone... so, I pretty much bit the bullet and hung out downtown by myself.

As it happened though, I did miss a call from Barbara just after 5pm... which seemed kinda odd, 'cuz I didn't feel my phone vibrate at all when it happened. Granted, I was walking around already in the core. I did try to call her back, but again, I got her boice mail... left a message, 'bout all I could do.

I would really like to shake the thought of this girl... but I can't. I haven't physically seen her since the World Junior tourney... so, that's well over a month. In that month, I haven't really spoken to her on the phone much... I'm usually leaving voice mail messages. It's quite aggrevating... to say the least. So, to shake the thought of her would be rather relieving.

This isn't to say that I don't like her... which is probably why I can't shake her. But I've already sent a few idiot text messages, which can't be a great sign... I've done it before and I'm sure I remember how those instances ended up.

Got some files to finish up for my week here at work... have another interview today. I think it's with the guy who's resume I liked the most, so here's hoping. I was in one other interview yesterday, Duane... nice lil' fella, but he wouldn't have fit in or been really right for the job. I'm sure Lee and I would have made him the 'new record' for fastest to leave, although Hideo's record will be a tough one to beat. The other interview for the afternoon never showed up... so, that wasn't too promising.

I will update the hockey pool sometime today... looked like I got a good chunk of points in the Senators/Penguins game last night, so I can't wait to see how that pans out. I also have to do a new voodoo blog for Kiprusoff this afternoon... Canucks/Flames @ 7pm at the Dome tonight. Gotta put my hex on.

So, until the next time I write here... this will be that.

A Wise Mistake?

Well, I think I've gone and done it now...

I have made the mistake of making my expressive fingers do the talking on the ol' text messages when I've had a couple wobbly pops. Combined with that feeling like I can't lose, like it's such a great idea, to just kind of spill some beans to the girl that you fancy and expecting some sort of result out of the whole thing.

Now, I can't say that I was overly demanding, rude or obnoxious... I think I was trying to just get through that I would like to see her, but it's hard to get anything out of her voice mail.

I said what?!?

I think that was a fairly good paraphrasing of what I said. She actually responded right away... but my phone wouldn't stop making it's noise for a new message. As soon as I heard it the first time, I thought to myself... 'I did what?!?' I didn't want to read the response... I didn't want to own up to myself that I did that. I knew I shouldn't have. I said to myself at the pub... 'don't use your phone tonight, Clayton. Don't do it.' But nevertheless, I came up with this great idea that I thought would work some sort of miracle.

Did it?

Oh... no. She had meant to return my phone calls, but has been too busy juggling work and school and whatever else. Well, at least that cleared up some questions... but it does come down to the idea of even just picking the phone up and just saying, 'hey, I'm still really busy... just wanted to return your call... we'll get around to doing something soon.' Even as open-ended as that... just the phone call goes a long ways.

No real excuse for me to send a 'calling-out text' like that though... and even a semi-apologetic response. It's really good that I don't keep copies of what I sent on this Samsung phone or else I'd feel twice as bad as I do, 'cuz then I can look at the mayhem I've caused. Yeah, I actually tried to call her... with no idea what I'd say, but I thought I would try to talk to her at least. She didn't pick up the phone... so I ended up sending her that other text.

That one didn't really garner a response.

Last night was mildly behaved until that point... I stayed in the pub last night after work. Greg wanted to sit and chat more about the details of play during the Street Hockey Tournament... so we discussed that. There were two hockey games on the tube there as well... so, I watched them. Benny came in too... so, I drank with him.

I was giving Theresa a hard time last night... actually, we had a pretty good laugh at her expense. I always give her shit about taking breaks and what not... so, before she actually started her shift at the bar, we were sitting together discussing how good of a 'break-taker' she was. You kinda had to be there, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Yesterday at work, I received 1/5th of my January volume of work on the 1st of February. What the?!? I mean, the e-mails pretty much didn't stop at all... it was kind of sickening. It's good though, 'cuz I'll still be busy today as I was yesterday. So, that's good.

This morning, some guy in a van was giving me the one-finger salute... he wasn't very happy when (only speculating) I came up behind him on the highway as he (and a few other cars) were slowly passing a school bus. This was on the TransCanada coming into town... I mean, people... it's a highway. So, as I came up from behind, I shifted to my left to see how many cars were in front of this van I came up to... there were a few. As we got past the bus, the van pulled over into the slow lane, the guy stuck out his arm from the window. At first I couldn't really tell what he was on about... so I slowed down thinking something was the matter. When I realized he had nothing really to signal me for... I decided to finally pass him and as I did he stuck his arm out again and then I found the bird he had flipped. That was kinda odd... but whatever. So, I got passed him and he decided to go in behind me and shift over to the left, obviously in protest of my maneuver... puzzled, I just kept on going. I kept on going, he caught up, pulled right beside me... here I thought, just ignore him, which I did... but does that mean I won't see the bullet from his road rage?? Chance I was willing to take. I couldn't really see why he was mad... maybe just easily angered... so I didn't really give his protest the time of day.

Sorry dude... don't see what you're on about... so screw off.

Anyways, that has been my entertaining time away from the Blog... busy day today, 2 interviews, lots of filings, floor hockey... and probably continuing to wrap my head around text-message-gate.