The query for Sabres hit 47 record(s).

#2243 Weekend in Buffalo
Posted : March 18, 2013, 11:29 am
Tags : Sabres

The Homeland home marathon continues. In under two weeks we have blown through all of season one and are now half way through season two. Claire Danes is quite impressive in her role. There have been a few unexpected twists in the plot. We are both really enjoying the series. This weekend I went to Buffalo to see the Sabres/ Sens afternoon game with a few buddies. Since it was a 3PM game start, I got going early Saturday and was on the road by 11AM with Nivek. We met up with JJ and Captain at my parents. I got a very short visit with them then we were on our way toward the U.S.. The border was pretty slow, as usual, but we didn't have any issues getting in. Phew. You never know. JJ got a room at the

Watching : Sabres suck and a bunch of series

#2242 Car catastrophes
Posted : March 11, 2013, 9:39 am
Tags : Hiking Sabres Home

Strange Friday for both of us commuting. Bdot was getting gas, stopped, and someone backed into her. She was honking and stopped and still.... bam! While there isn't a ton of apparent visual damage, there actually was significant internal damage done to the hook. It looks like the Subu will be in the shop for a few days... at least the airbag didn't deploy. She is fine. More pissed off than anything. Not to be outdone... Somehow I raised the ire of a trio of kids driving home Friday night. I was nearly home then I heard honking and some idiot was suddenly beside me waving and swearing etc.. They followed me around a corner continuing profanities and running signs, speeding and driving and acting like a complete douchebags... Which is ironically what they were accusing me of. Eventually after nearly causing an accident, they sped away. How very strange that incident was. The seasons have changed. Winter is gone. We had a long walk in Palgrave forest yesterday... we were both wearing just T-shirts 10m into the walk. While the temperature was perfect, walking on slushy uneven ground isn't. It is by far my least favourite conditions (other than a downpour :P) to walk in. The dog sure seemed to enjoy it however. An update on the plumbing situation. After being told that chemicals won't harm our pipes, bdot picked up some nasty shit. I think it actually has sulpheric acid in it... *blink* Anyway... she dumped a bunch down the drain and waited. Nothing. Well... 90m later.... the pipes gurgled and belched up a stinky mess of rotting drain gunk. So wow... it took sulpheric acid 90m to eat away at whatever was blocking the drain! *bleck* Afterwards the drain seemed to work fine... So one of our showers is back in business. *joy* Ha ha. Well the Sabres are now 1 point from being last in the NHL. The dreams brought by Pegula and his desire to bring Cups to the franchise could not be farther from being a reality. The team is bad, scary bad. They are so fragile and inept at battling against any type of adversity and lack such competitiveness that they are bordering on being unwatchable. The compete that Ruff urged from the players is still absent... Clearly some of the players have to go. Stafford, Pomminville, Hecht, Myers, Ennis.... would be a start. But really, how many players can you get rid of? And for the love of God and all that is holy... when this team is rebuilt, and it must be rebuilt.... DO NOT LET DARCY DO IT. More than anything else the franchise needs a new GM and a new direction. Frustration and misery abounds in Sabreland, and will continue to into the immediate future. I've finally become 'emotionally detached' from this hopelessly embarrassing team. Lovely Douglas Adam's birthday tribute by google today. *grin*.

Watching : Vikings, Walking Dead and a ton of Homeland... We are quite enjoying Homeland!

Playing : Torchlight II (PC)

#2241 Water, water, everywhere...
Posted : March 5, 2013, 12:23 pm
Tags : Winter Sabres Home

Huh. Strange to think it has been over a week since we were in Quebec. We are both back to the grind. *sigh...* Mother Nature gave me another snow day last week however. Thanks ma! It is remarkable how much more I enjoy a four day work week compared to five. Ho-hum. Winter is on its way out. I don't expect I'll get another snow day as temperatures are on their way up above zero. At least we were able to ski a few times this Winter. We may look for new cross-country skis this spring. I know bdot wants new skiis. She has expressed her loathing for her current skis a few times this Winter. *cough* The joys of homeownership. A house always seems to cost you money when you can least afford it to do so. We've been using the guestroom shower for a few weeks now since our ensuite bathroom has a serious clog. (Which bdot refused to treat with chemicals like the rest of world because she believed they would hurt the pipes... A plumber told her last night to give 'er with the nastiest stuff we can find...it would not hurt the pipes...so I'm sure there will be an update to this in near the future....*smirk*) Anyway... yesterday morning I hear loud swearing from bdot coming from the basement. This isn't that unusal...but, it turns out that now the guest bathroom is leaking! It was clear from the water damage on the ceiling that there was a leak in this location sometime in the past. Last night bdot ripped apart the ceiling and the drywall (lols) was soaked and moldy in a few areas. It was pretty rank. After some testing we found the cause of the leak is a crackline in the bathtub grout . The tub is actually on a slight angle that draws the water to one side... the side with this crack.... *eyeroll* So, we are hoping that after it dries we can recaulk the tub and hopefully end the leaks. Now about that hole in the ceiling.... Well the Sabres have at least returned to playing .500 hockey with their new coach. Even still... at best it mean a heroic run to eighth place again. Still. Hockey is more enjoyable when your team is competitive.

Watching : Walking Dead (AMC) and Vikings (History) - Sunday night is the new must see TV night for me!

Playing : Finished Borderlands 2 (PC) loved that game! Next is Torchlight II (PC) I guess. :]

#2240 Quintessential Quebec
Posted : February 24, 2013, 11:50 am
Tags : Winter Sabres bdot

Here are the Photosfrom this entry. Wow. It feels like a loooong time since I've been home. Perhaps because it has been. Bdot and I headed North last Friday evening for a week vacation in the Ottawa region. We got home last night and I was home for an hour then I was off to the Sabres/ Leafs game. So really I don't feel like I've stopped yet. I don't know how parents with multiple kids pack for trips. Just getting bdot, myself and the dog loaded and on the road always takes longer than expected. We eventually got ourselves set and left for our friend's place in Bethany. It is a useful stop for us because it gets us going and is a good distance to stop at. As usual our hosts put out a spread for food for us as we arrived late. We met their new dog, a Jack Russel they named Pepper. I took to calling her Eddi(e) from the dog from Fraser. After the initial yapfest Eddi calmed down and became very submissive and was looking for attention. I pet the dog once or twice, I guess. The evening was full of talk and pondering the merits of Hasenpfeffer in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Alcohol may have been a factor. We pushed off early the next morning since we did have several hours to drive to get to Killaloe. After getting settled at bdot's parent's place we ventured over to the Opeongo Nordic ski trails. It was our first time skiing there. There have a good number of groomed trails that are fairly well marked. We found an enjoyable, relatively easy route for a 2hr ski. It was a beautiful afternoon to be skiing. After skiing we got together with the Bethany crew, Trish and her two daughters at another one of our friend's that also lives in the area. I've never been to Jess' home. It's a lovely cottage with big open kitchen, lots of exposed wood and tons of space. We were greeted by their OCD dog who dropped an orange ball in front of us and stared at it. I tossed it, the dog brought it back. Repeat. Repeat. Okay... going inside now... dog brought the ball inside and dropped it in front of me... You can see where this is going. Later that night the dog had chewed the ball apart and was dropping a small piece of the ball in front of people. *whistles* After a massive dinner the lot of us crammed around a table to play Apples to Apples. I've never played it before. It was a curious game with words and prediction. *cracks knuckles* Yup. I won. I could see the game being fun when alcohol was involved, as it was. It was another fun night full of chat. We were focused on assisting Jess with her many man problems in the new digital age. Since there was more driving to be done, we headed to Quebec shortly after breakfast the next morning. I'm quite sure we didn't take the most direct route to Wakefield. We travelled around the western side of Gatineau park. Sometimes a little extra driving is worth it however. The roads around the parks are on some gorgeous lands full of ponds and forests. Not surprisingly we passed many cottages. By the time we arrived in Wakefield we were starving. Unfortunately we quickly found our options were limited. We wandered around the little town for awhile. There are a few restaurants but a Monday night is not a time you'll find them open. The grocery store in town is decent and the beer store Depanneur Bonne-Heure was an incredible find. I think we dropped a ton of cash on local microbrews, there were so many options! After the long day we relaxed in one of the hotel's outdoor hot tubs. Our hotel, Wakefield Mill was a charming looking four story brick building. I guess bdot was originally impressed with some of the room photos she saw online. We ended up getting a room on the fourth floor, which seemed to be an addition. The rooms on that floor are cramped and lack the charm of the rooms below. So that was a little disappointing. Tuesday we got passes for Gatineau Park from the front desk. Gatineau Park is incredible. The trails are all well marked and the ski tracks were set so it was an awesome experience. Oh, did I mention it snowed hard the entire time? We had time to see only a fraction of the park. We got caught in a mini-blizzard while we skied. Good times. We'll have to come back in the Fall to bike... for outdoor lovers this area is a dream. Interestingly we met an older couple that was skiing (ha, from Kitchener) who said they have been coming to the area for years. No wonder. There were tons of people from Ontario in all the parking lots. Language was never an issue. I think everyone in Wakefield is bilingual. After an afternoon of skiing it was nice to have a massage then soak in hot tub at the hotel. Awww. The hotel is beside a river and from the hot tub you could hear the running water. Lovely, even with a fireman talking off our ears for 20m. After the extended chill out session we had dinner in the hotel. Before dinner we ventured down to the cozy lounge in the hotel. We should have done this the night before. They had a fire going, pool table, large comfortable chairs... it was quite relaxing. A nice place to hang out. I tried a local beer on tap called ESB 1821. I thought it would be too bitter, but I tried it anyway... No sir! It was perfect balance of tart and smooth. I looked for it afterwards at 'the beer store' but apparently it isn't bottled. Hmmpt. This was our formal sitdown dinner. I enjoyed onion soup, an amazing tenderloin steak and bdot had scallops. The dessert was also very good we shared the chocolate and coffee options. Oh and coffee. We asked for a decaf at the end of our meal but clear when we were still up after 1 it was not. *eyeroll* Quite an enjoyable day. It was sad to leave Wakefield Wednesday morning. We should have stayed three nights. Oh well, next time for sure. We stopped in at the Pipolinka on the way out. Soon our bank account was on fire. Danish and cookies and croissants and Maple trail mix... Damn. So good. Even their coffee was amazing. Yes Wakefield we'll be back. We left early to stop in Ottawa for the afternoon. Wakefield to Ottawa was maybe 20m via the highway. The plan was to skate on the Rideau canal, and skate we did. We were both impressed by how well maintained the 7km skate trail was. Benches, stairs, signage, maintenance staff clearing the ice all the time. It seems like a wonderful resource that people of all ages seemed to be enjoying. After feeling very Canadian on the ice we opted for some tasty Mexican in the Byward Market to warm us up. Lunch was delicious food from Corazon de Maiz, they had a "XX" rated spicy sauce which was perfect for this white guy. I think you get the impression we really like the Ottawa region. Perhaps we'll move there one day. The drive back to Killaloe was punctuated with the news of Lindy Ruff's firing from the Sabres as head coach. I didn't think it would ever happen. I certainly thought it should have years ago. I like Ruff but gawd, 15 years as coach in the NHL is unheard of. This season the Sabres are an absolutely embarrassing tire fire. They got shutout at home to the fracking Islanders last night. THE ISLANDERS! Disgusting. Ruff needed to go sure, but some of these spineless half-ass pussy players need to go too. Stafford, Pomminville, Hecht, Myers, Leopold, Leino... that is a lot of wasted cap space. Both Miller and Vanek's contracts are up soon. I can't see them sticking around to suck in Buffalo. The team is so very disappointing right now. They can't seem to do anything right. Siiiiiiiigh. The new coach inherited a grenade with the pin pulled. Good luck. The evening was quiet as we celebrated my Father-in-law's birthday with an Apple pie. The rest of evening was on the couch with our disowned dog. It was a fun winter trip... and to think we pondered about going to Cuba. Ha! I got a last minute invite to the Sabres and Leafs thursday night from my Brother in Law. So I spent a ton of time in cars on Thursday. He is great company too bad the Sabres suck. Sabres didn't put up much of a fight. Their crap play continues. I bet these guys would have played better. Sigh. The seats were good at least. Thanks to my mother for watching the cats during the weekend. Although it sounded like she enjoyed having the house to herself. :)

Watching : Sabres suck!

Eating : See above. Oh gawd we ate well, or badly.

#2239 Snow comeith
Posted : February 10, 2013, 5:53 pm
Tags : Hiking Winter Sabres Weather

Thursday morning I went to Brampton for a bunch of medical tests my doctor requested. The first was for an ultrasound. I've never had one before, and I've never been to this ultrasound clinic either. It was close to downtown and finding parking was a bitch as usual. The test was conducted by a middle aged Russian women...her accent was very strong, I didn't understand her all the time. The test wasn't painful in any way but I was *covered* in a cold gel. It was quite uncomfortable. She gave me the end of a roll of paper towels to wipe it off. It wasn't enough to do the job. Meh. My legs and chest were scanned. You could hear the audio of my bloodflow. It sounded like it was flowing okay to me. *shrug* Next was the bloodletting. I've done it before. The most irritating part is the wait. Hopefully nothing turns up. You don't seem to get a call if they don't find anything. A storm was expected to arrive Friday, and it did in spades! The biggest snowfall in probably a decade. My first snowday in ages! And did it ever snow... I got up at 7am and it snowed all day through to late afternoon. I shoveled twice. It was exhausted. By the end of the day my body was giving me the what for. We took the dog snowshoeing in Edelweiss Park.. it was quite a trek trail breaking all that snow. Phew. A epson soak helped a bit. I'm still feeling some strain... I took it easy Saturday since my body was in full revolt. Bdot visited her sister. I did some housework. Ho-hum. Today we finally got to Palgrave to ski! It feels like forever since we've been able to ski. We took a pretty technical route. We skied for about one and a half hours. It was cool and sunny, the conditions were perfect. Interestingly this same section a few years ago completely turned me off skiing as I found it immensely frustrating. Today I found it enjoyable. Yes the dead vegetation along the trail snagged the ski poles all the time and it was annoying... but overall it was fun and quite a workout. Sadly our Winter fun won't last. It is suppose to be above zero tomorrow. Goodbye snow.

Watching : Sabres win a game. Wow.

Playing : NWN2 (PC)

#2238 A Blue day in Toronto
Posted : February 3, 2013, 1:18 pm
Tags : Music Winter Sabres relationship

Yesterday we spent the day in downtown Toronto. We went down to see Blue Rodeo at Massey Hall. Naturally to take full advantage of the time in TO we went early. We've been doing a fair bit of skating and found a few interesting places to skate. The first of option was Nathan Philips's Square but after searching we found a cool option a stones throw from the Lake. There are 'DJ hosted' skate nights at harbourfront. It is pretty cool. Music, lighting, heating rooms to get your skates on...and free!. After finally finding the place it was a enjoying skate. There is a ton of construction going on along the shoreline and there are detours everywhere. I don't know why I liked the ice there but something about it was better than the ice at the ponds & arenas I've been skating at lately. It seemed faster, solid... *shrug* I'd certainly go there again. It was busy but the rink is a good size so it wasn't too conjested. After a bunch of loops we made out way up to Sukho Thai for dinner. There were tons of restaurants in that area. We passed the Pravda Vodka bar it looked really interesting inside. It looked like Soviet Union HQ; it was awash in red drapes and Huge posters of Lenin. If we had more time I would have checked it out for sure comrade. This was my first visit to Sukho. The inside is somewhat dark, it looks hip and modern and was full of people. I think we were lucky to get a table. When we left we had to weave through people waiting to reach the door. They were all waiting because the food is very delicious. All the flavours of Thai seemed to be captured as I've experienced them before. Yum. For something different I tried a Thai Singha beer - I quite liked it, I'd certainly get it again. Clearly we were hungry we polished off a Shrimp Sukhothai Pad Thai, Spring Rolls and a Chicken Gaeng Kiaw Wan. I don't think we left a grain of rice behind. I've been to a lot of gigs. Shows never start at the time listed on the ticket. Well, I guess Massey Hall shows are an exception. We arrived maybe 5-10m after 8pm (the listed time on the ticket) and Blue Rodeo were already playing... I don't think I've ever sat in the wings at Massey Hall before. I would surely have remembered. I've never sat in a tighter, more uncomfortable chair in my life. I must have fidgeted the entire show. I wouldn't be surprised if the chairs are the original wood chairs from 1894 or if they were designed for hobbits. They were torture. It really detracted from my enjoyment of the show. The sightlines from the wings are also horrible. If you don't get seating in the lower area then expect that 1/3 or more of the stage will be completely hidden from view. With our luck, the 1/3 of the stage that was hidden was were the drummer, lead guitarist and a good portion of where the show took place. We had an excellent view of the Engineer and roadie however. Sigh... Okay complaining over. Massey Hall is the landmark it is for a reason (clearly not the seating) it's the sound in the hall. It is amazing. Clear, rich, full clarity sound for every instrument, which is good because Blue Rodeo have a ton of musicians on stage. I'm not sure how long the keyboardist and lead guitarist have been with the band but they were clearly virtuosos. Every musician was given multiple opportunities to solo and solo they did. Wow... They played a lot of the expected 'hits' : Try, Diamond Mine, Hasn't Hit Me Yet, After the Rain. Encore was Lost Together. What struck me the most was how amazing Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor's vocal harmonies sound together. I like to think of them as the Canadian Simon and Garfunkel. It was a solid show with a fair bit of audience interaction. We ended up getting a thumbs up from Keelor to close the show. Fun time... it is crazy to think this is their 25th anniversary tour! An enjoyable day with the wife. Sabres continue to be Jekyll and Hyde. With a completely Hyde no-show performance against the Habs yesterday. How embarrassing.

Watching : Blue Rodeo

Playing : Borderlands 2 (PC)

Eating : Thai!

#2237 Huge win!
Posted : January 31, 2013, 10:31 pm
Tags : Winter Sabres

Ahh the highs and lows of being a sport's fan. I've been down on the Sabres after their four game losing streak. I was expecting it to hit five in Boston tonight. The undefeated Bruins have been looking like a wrecking ball so far... but... wow... I'm not sure who the guys wearing Blue and Gold tonight were but they pushed and pushed and got this biggest win of season. The Sabres were led by a massive 5 point effort by Vanek and crucial saves by Miller. Finally something to smile about Sabres' fans. The crazy winter weather continues... White-outs and black ice all over southern Ontario today. I bet tomorrow will be 20 and sunny.

Thinking : We were going to get crushed

Watching : Sabres v. Bruins

#2235 A little Skating
Posted : January 21, 2013, 12:31 pm
Tags : Sabres Marriage

Wow. Hockey. Go figure. It's back. As with the start of every new season the unknowns and hope for the playoffs and a shot at the Cup is the goal. The Sabres have been projected by hockey pundits to finish anywhere from 6th to 13th. Clearly there are a lot of unknowns. How will Miller play? Who will score goals? Are the centres good enough? Will Grigorenko last past 5 game? Team toughness? Well... the Sabres played their first game yesterday against a traditionally tough Flyers' team. The Sabres did play tough, the pinnacle of which was a shocking out of character fight by Stafford! (Wow... Stafford finally made my blog for something positive.) Ott was a warrior in his Sabres' debut and the offensive led by Vanek (a 5 point night!) was impressive as was the powerplay. Yes. One game. But what an impressive start. The Sabres play the Leafs tonight. Can't wait! Hockey is back! Yesterday we had a short visit to the Alton Mill. The first since the wedding. *sniff* Getting there was interesting as we passed through some whiteout conditions and some people driving like idiots. I thought bdot was going to smash one driver. Phew. We had hoped to skate on the Mill Pond but it sadly closed. So we walked around and perused some awesome art. I'm pretty sure we could drop thousands there if we had the money. Which we don't. It is fun to dream however. We still wanted to skate and found the only public skating available in Orangeville at the Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre. We thought there would be an outdoor rink but alas just indoors. It was better than nothing. The rink was full of kids and families so it was a very start/stop/slow skate. Not that I get going very fast. *smirk* Still, we got about 30-40m which was fun. And back to work. Meh.

Playing : NWN2 (PC) finally into the Second act

#2232 Hockey ups and downs
Posted : January 6, 2013, 12:11 pm
Tags : Hiking Bruce Trail Sabres hockey

It has been a hockey weekend. I got up, mercifully, for the last time at 4AM game to watch Canada v. Russia play for bronze. It was pretty clear to me that I was watching the 3rd and 4th best teams. The passing was off all game and the play was pretty broken. Canada never led and while they came back to tie a few times, ultimately they lost in sudden death. In OT things can go any way... Still it was disappointing, and Canada comes home with nothing. Salt in wound was that the U.S. won gold after both Canada and Russia beat them before the semis. The NHL and NHLPA finally came to an agreement so there will be hockey soon! I have mixed feelings about this. I love hockey so I'll watch... but I really feel the league and players held the fans ransom. All the PR BS was a ridiculous drama that undermined and fuelled fans' anger. My concern is the damage done to marginal NHL fans. Many of whom may, and rightly so, say goodbye to hockey. Good, bad or ugly I'm a Sabres' fan and will follow the blue and gold regardless what happens. Drop the puck! Had a nice walk in Glen Haffy with bdot and the dog yesterday. We walked the 'blue' trail. It felt like the whole hike was uphill. Gah... it really made me feel out of shape. We picked up groceries in Caledon East and settled in to watch Impossible Mission 3 which was on TV... I wanted to stay up but I was beat and crashed pretty early. Looking at getting a stereo receiver for the mancave. It is difficult being an audiophile without a good sound system. I think I have found the unit I'm looking for... The Yamaha RX-V471. I've found a local vendor too that has the unit for a great price as well. The music nerd in me is quite excited. ^__^

Playing : Borderland 2 (PC) I think I'm getting close to the end

#2207 Lie Lady Lie
Posted : September 7, 2012, 1:42 pm
Tags : Sabres Home hockey

I'm pretty disappointed by the NHL and the NHLPA. They sure aren't meeting with any urgency whatsoever... if they are even meeting at all. Both sides appear stubborn and uncooperative and are taking hockey fans for granted. In a 'marginal' sport that has only sporadic traction in the States, I don't understand how the hockey brass can have such a cavalier attitude. Do they want to close teams? Do they want to lose fans? Just because fans came back after last lockout doesn't mean that will happen again. All arrows are pointing toward a lockout. The only consideration will be how long. It makes me wish I didn't love hockey as much as I do... because if I didn't the disrespect from the league and players union would be enough to turn me off the sport. Beam me up google. Google Trekked out. Nicely done G. I think all work weeks should be four day weeks. We are getting a new mattress delivered tomorrow. Yeah, the timing sucks, but the price was right... and bdot's reoccuring back issues pretty much forced us to look into getting a bed. Also, it was time, the current bed is at least a decade old. I'm looking forward to see how they will get a King bed into the house.... Gasp. I love the delivery time... oh...sometime between 8AM and 5pm.... well alright then. The arrival of the new mattress has forced us to shift stuff around the house. The Queen bed will go to the guest room and the futon will go down to my lair. I do watch a fair bit of sports downstairs, so it will be nice to finally be able to lie down. This blog entry's ttle inspired by grammar girl.

Eating : California Sandwiches Chicken Sandwich ... oh gawd...

#2191 Drafting rain
Posted : June 25, 2012, 10:37 am
Tags : Sabres Home Weather Wedding

The NHL Draft was this weekend. I was highly opposed to the Sabres drafting Russians. With the risk of losing Russian players to the KHL and often their inconsistent work ethic - I was hoping for some good North American boys. So what do the Sabres do? They draft a Russian and Latvian for their 1st and 2nd picks. *eyeroll* It unfair to criticize them until they have played for a season or two in Buffalo but I'm skeptical. I'm hoping they prove me wrong. The Sabres first pick was Russian center Mikhail Grigorenko (6'3" 200lbs). Sabres desperately need size up the middle and they certainly went overboard drafting centers to address this. Wow. Done and done. They have the rights to a bunch of big boys now. Mikhail looks like a highly skilled, quick forward with great potential. Some have even said he could be Malkin 2.0 and could also be in the line-up as soon as next year. Malkin 2.0?! I want to be excited but... we'll see. The NHL is a different league and success doesn't always translate to the big league. The Sabres traded up for their second pick and grabbed Latvian center Zemgus Girgensons (6'1" 186lbs) at 21st. So another big center. (Anyone still thinking Roy will be in the line-up in October?) Girgensons is a hard-working, no-nonsense kind of player who will turn into an inspirational leader on this side, leading by example with his work ethic. I guess to be safe the Sabres also grabbed another big center with Justin Kea (6'3" 212lbs). Kea looks to be the replacement for Paul Gaustad, a fourth line checker with a big body and a willingness to drop the gloves when required, as can be ascertained from his portfolio at Hockey Fights. (reference link) The Sabres big need going into the draft was to get some big centers. They got a bunch of big centers... if even one of these guys turns into a fulltime player then I'd say it was a successful draft! Now Sabres' GM Darcy Regier will focus on free agency... I wonder if there will be another big trade coming the Sabres' way? Free agency opens up July 1st. The weather has cooled considerably this weekend. Really can it get hotter than 35+ for four days? So I was able to get outside and get some gardening done this weekend. We really have a Jekyll and Hyde property. I think the front yard is actually turning out to be quite nice. With bdot's creative planting and our refinement over this summer, I quite enjoy the gardens in the front yard. The lilies are looking spectacular! This weekend I filled the two front gardens both with black mulch. I like how the mulch keeps weeds down (a bit) and makes the beds look neat and the colour within the flowers pop. However, the backyard is still a soul sucking depressing mess that makes me sad each time I'm back there. We are toying with the idea of a MAJOR reno back there, possibly even adding a small pool. The interlocking patio is old and dated and it sure looks like it. It has heaved and no longer keeps weeds out. We make some effort to keep on top of the weed menace, but there simply isn't enough time. And the lawn in backyard... I think I've ranted about that enough in the past. Sunday we had a short-notice visit from one of her aunts. They were visiting friends in the area and decided to stop by. They are good people and are always hospitable toward us when we are at Round Lake so it was good to see them even if for a short visit. After the visit we went out to run a few errands. First stop was picking up some wine from the LCBO in Caledon East, or so we thought. We had forgotten that we need a Special Events permit to serve wine at the wedding. So we'll need to fill out some forms before we can buy wine destined for the wedding. Ho-hum. Government has to get its cut I guess. I think bdot has made some progress toward the wine she wants to serve. I'm of no help picking wines as I can't stand it. *shrug* After the LCBO we stopped at a market to get some fresh local produce. It is a little more expensive but it is nice to buy locally. I try to when I can. If not local then Canadian at least. The main reason for going out was to get to the driving range. The entire afternoon rain was threatening to fall. It was gray and cool but it was holding off so we thought we'd try to get a bucket of balls hit at Glen Eagle. The course is just down the road from where we live so it is a little surprising it was my first visit to the course. It looks like a great course, well maintained. I'm sure we'll play it sometime. Anyway, we get our tokens, get our balls, get to the empty driving range, hit our first balls then bam! DOWNPOUR, like we were pranked by Gawd. And it rained and rained and rained. We waited for a bit to see if it would let up and it did briefly but then there was thunder, lightning and it rained harder... it was no fun. So that plan didn't work out as well as expected as we both got uncomfortably wet. We had the usual Sunday night bdot hellfire shrimp for dinner. Yum. I tried a Flying Monkeys Netherworld Dark (can't direct link to a page since they use flash - eyeroll) which bdot picked up for me. It was pretty hoppy, smooth, flavourful and I found it to be quite heavy. I'm not sure I'd drink more than one at a time. This should be a quick work week... Thursday is work's Fun Day (an all day excursion with staff to a mystery location) and Friday is the day before a long weekend...

Playing : Borderlands (360) - got in a little bit of co-op with Modicus. I was impressed by how smooth the multiplayer was.

#2188 The Enlightened One
Posted : June 13, 2012, 11:36 pm
Tags : Music Sabres Politics Canada

Ha. I read this post from the Huff on twitter : Study shows that shoes reveal personality traits and I thought it actually made some sense. So I've decided to show you my work and home shoes. Yeah, I guess they do say a lot about me... most of it may not be good. *smirk* What are on your feet? I'm quite enjoying listening to BBC EURO 2012 coverage streaming audio with Alan Green. He reminds me a lot of my favourite commentator (and recent Hockey Hall of Fame inductee) Rick Jeanneret. Great stuff! I watched two interesting videos tonight. The first was sent to me from my concert buddy Raj. It is about the industrial bands Combichrist and Nachtmahr. Strangely I never really thought about it until the video pointed out just how blatantly hateful some of their lyrical and video content is. You can watch the video here. With regards to the accusations Combichrist commented: 'I have nothing to say in my defense for what I've done, I don't feel like I should have to defend myself. It's all fiction. Everybody who knows me knows that I am not the character.' I guess as long as you sell records you can cop out like that. Combichrist -1. It is a shame I do enjoy some of their music. This makes me enjoy it less. The second video was about the Canadian Omar Khadr who is being held in Guantanamo. The video is called You Don't Like the Truth. I bet the Canadian and American government sure don't like the truth. The video shows Khadr being interviewed by CSIS agents and the story of Khadr's life and imprisonment unfolds. Khadr comes across as a crushed soul that has beared unspeakable hardships. It raises many questions. What evidence has the American government given to hold Khadr? Didn't Obama say he was closing Guantanamo? Why has the Canadian government not asked for Khadr's repatriation? It is certainly a sad story. The Star even reported a story saying Khadr was innocent. Innocent or guilty, Khadr's story is a sad one and the video is quite eyeopening and rather disappointing as a Canadian.

#2171 NHL PLayoffs!
Posted : April 10, 2012, 11:48 pm
Tags : Sabres sports

Ahh, 'tis the season. NHL Playoffs. For shits and giggles, my pics are above. Playoff Pool Picks (Thanks Dad!) 10th Pick 1)Bergeron,Bos., 2)Z. Chara, Bos., 3)Marchand, Bos., 4)Biesksa, Van., 5)Kelly, Bos., 6)S.Kostitsyn, Nash., 7)A.Kostitsyn,Nash., 8)Corvo, bos., 9) Carle, Phil., 10)Pnikarovsky, NJ.

Listening to : Reviewing Sleepy Sun's new album Spine Hits

#2169 Sabres playoff hopes up in smoke
Posted : April 5, 2012, 10:36 pm
Tags : Sabres

Washington won. Sabres lost. That's it folks. The season ends up in disappointing failure. The Sabres will end up missing the playoffs by one or two points... one or two points in a year of blown leads and could have beens. Sigh. Poetic justice for a season where the effort was often lacking at times. Still... lots to be excited about next year. Some great rookies, getting rid of Roy, two 1st round and two 2nd round picks.... Next year will be better........ ........ ...... Right?

#2168 Dogs are okay
Posted : April 5, 2012, 9:51 am
Tags : Tanga Sabres

Yesterday Tanga turned seven. She didn't seem aware of this. She acted like it was just another day. Perhaps that is good advice. So I've been a dog owner for seven years. Eight years ago if you asked me if I even liked dogs I would have said no. I still don't I suppose. I tolerate other people's dogs. I like mine and a select few, that's pretty much it. I've lived with a cat nearly all my life. Dogs are a much different companion. While I believe I have (and who doesn't) exceptional cats; dogs, especially Vizslas, offer a level of interaction cats do not. Dogs always greet you with overflowing enthusiasm on Monday, Friday and every day in between. They act like 5 year old boys after two bags of Skittles. Go go go. Owning a dog offers some self-motivation to get off my ass and get outside. Which is begrudingly awesome. I wonder what my weight would be if I didn't own a dog. Hmm. Yeah. Happy Birthday Tanga, you are alright. A few posts ago I mentioned my toe's run in with a door at the spa. Well good times. The toenail fell off this morning. Bleck. I'm hoping the toe learned something from this experience and does not attempt future run ins with doors. Le sigh. Oh, and no you freaks no photos. I'm feeling pretty tired. I'm glad it is a short week (really two short weeks in a row!). I'm hoping to get some down time. I've been using my 360 a bit more recently. It is curious how much streaming content is available on it: movies, series, sports, trailers etc. it is pretty crazy. The Sabres playoff fate will be determined tonight or Saturday. I think there are pretty slim odds for the Sabres to make it. They need Washington to drop at least one or more points. Go Sabres!

Watching : Season two of Game of Thrones... a little disappointed with the first episode

#2167 Sabres stay alive
Posted : April 3, 2012, 11:51 pm
Tags : Sabres

Phew. I think the final Sabres home game of the regular season was an incredible ride for fans on both sides. Sabres were behind 3-0 after the first, got the game close in the second and closed the gap in the third. There were numerous times I thought the Sabres were done. However, they kept battling and found a way (ugly perhaps) to get two points and stay alive in their playoff hunt. It might all be for nothing, but at least they didn't lose to the Leafs. Incredibly exciting and strange game. And hey! A long weekend is coming! We are both off Friday and Monday.

Watching : Gut-wrenching Sabres/ Leafs game

#2166 Looking like Golf Season
Posted : March 31, 2012, 10:17 pm
Tags : Sabres

Ahh Sports.... Epic highs and crushing lows. The Sabres have been dancing on the edge of the playoffs for weeks now. The season is winding down with only three games left. The Sabres dropped a critical game tonight against the lowly Leafs. The team they are fighting for the final playoff position won.... So.... things are not looking good. They had a great run to get back into contention but... I think tonight's results will make post-season for the Sabres quite unlikely. Oh well. Brave face. We looked at more wedding rings today in Bolton. I didn't mind the hammered look. I still think this is really handsome too. The local jeweler is getting more rings in soon, hopefully something will grab my eye. I think bdot has decided on a channel cut band, but it seems to change more than the weather. Celebrated bdot's brother's birthday over at her sister's this afternoon. The adults all seemed to be running on fumes unlike the nephews. It was another delicious meat fest. It was fun to see the nephews as usual. Going to go cry now.

Watching : Sabres embarrassing loss to the Leafs for a must-win game

Eating : Meatfest at the in-laws.

#2165 Statement game.
Posted : March 27, 2012, 9:34 pm
Tags : Sabres

WOO! What a win! Sabres play an incredible road game in Washington in their biggest game of the year! Playoff odds now at 66.4% and the Leafs mathematically eliminated. I'm so hockey happy right now I could cry! Legendary play by Pominville beating Ovie for the shorthanded goal. Oh now do you believe!

Watching : Sabres/ Caps

Playing : Nada, preordered Legend of Grimrock (PC) to be released in April.

Eating : Yummy eggs, thx hon!

#2163 Bad Blood
Posted : March 23, 2012, 10:21 am
Tags : Sabres reflection

I hate going to the Doctor. They never have any good news for you. 'You're as healthy as an ox! You should drink more beer and eat more cake! You should sit on the couch and watch more hockey too!'... No. That never happens. Instead it is always a list of things you can't do because you are doing your body harm, bringing yourself closer to Death. Quite the incentive, can't really blow off your Doctor's advice can you? So I had an appointment yesterday and more strange news, apparently I have high blood pressure. This is pretty shocking as I thought I've been taking decent care of myself (mainly bdot takes good care of me). Normal ranges for blood pressure are 100-140 systolic (contracting) and 60-90 diastolic (rest). Anything above 140/90 is bad. I believe I was at the top end of both normal ranges. Reading the wiki page on High Blood Pressure is disturbing. There is not a whole lot of good news about having high blood pressure. So I had my blood sampled yesterday, and I had an EKG done... I get the results in a few months. My doctor didn't seem alarmed, he merely said I should cut back on salt and caffeine. Hopefully the results don't reveal anything worse. Sighhhhhhh.... Some prevention tips from the wiki page: ·maintain normal body weight for adults (e.g. body mass index 20-25 kg/m2)

Watching : Hockey on the amazing NHL Android app. Runs like lightning on my Prime!

Playing : Borderland (360)

Eating : mmm Roti.

#2161 OT Win at First Niagara!
Posted : March 13, 2012, 6:48 am
Tags : Sabres

My co-worker GMoney (G$) and I ventured to Buffalo last night to see the Sabres/Habs game. Last night was my first time to the First Niagara Centre since Pegula took over. Getting to the game, as always, was a chore. First getting out of Burlington/Niagara during rush hour was miserable then hitting the U.S. border was even worse. Of course we got the keener Dudley Do Right over zealous border guard. Good Lord. The rows to the left and right of us were letting cars through at nearly a 4:1 ratio compared to ours. It felt like an eternity sitting there. The minivan in front of us (from Ontario) was searched and he poked through everything in their trunk, they must have been sitting there for 7m... Seriously, security is important, I get that... but if you are going to search a vehicle PULL IT OVER. Unreal... John Wayne even asked me to take off my glasses. I'm shocked he didn't ask me to grow my goatee back to match my passport photo. *eyeroll* It is rarely ever a smooth, enjoyable crossing into the States. This might explain why I'm so reluctant to do it. Shame that. In spite of the various delays we still arrived at FNC in time for anthems and the opening face-off. As I expected, the Habs were well represented in the crowd. I figure maybe 35% of the crowd. The atmosphere at the game was very different than a Bills game. I recall the only Bills game I've been to... there was a guy wearing the opposing team's jersey and he swore at all game, had stuff thrown at him, challenged to fights... I'm sure he had a horrible experience. By contrast, I saw Habs and Sabres fans talking about hockey all game long, joking with each other and enjoying the rivalry, not abusing it. The game seemed to go by really fast. There were maybe two powerplays each and very few whistles. It was a great night for the Sabres' Tylers. Ennis scored two goals, the first was a beautiful highlight reel solo effort, the second a deflection... (it looked like Folingo tipped it in from where I was sitting - but I guess not...) The entire game was close. The score was 2-1 Sabres with a minute left. The Habs pulled their goalie. The Sabres had the puck to centre once but didn't get a shot at the open net, no that would be too easy I guess. The Habs then scored with 3 seconds left forcing overtime. *eyeroll* Another blown home win I thought... but no! Myers ripped one past Budaj in oooooooooovertime for the win! It was a fun game and G$ is good company. Getting back to the Motherland was much less painful. The post-game parking lot was a chaotic jam of cars. Everyone was gridlocked and pointing towards the I90 exit ramp. Curiously the GPS said to go the opposite direction that no one was going... Well... G$ tried it...and wow... it was a miraculous route! It must have saved us 30m of sitting in the parking lot. We drove right through to the border. +1 for GPS. The Canadian border crossing, by comparison, seemed more efficient and moved along significantly faster. I got home close to 1... which is crazy late for a work night since I get up at 6. Additionally, the time leap forward was this weekend. Bottom line : I'm fracking bagged. Today will be tough to get through at work. I hope the Keurig doesn't breakdown.

Watching : Sabres/Habs at First Niagara Centre Section 123

Eating : Crappy hotdog, the ACC jumbo dog was waaaaaaaaaaay better... Come on Pegula... :P

#2159 Nearly Friday
Posted : March 8, 2012, 9:19 pm
Tags : Sabres pets

A busy month for the Sabres... so lots of time chillin' with my hockey cat. I think she might just be hanging out for the scratches though. Sabres lost tonight, oh well... better bounce back next game as they can't afford to drop too many if they expect to make the playoffs. Going to the Sabres/ Habs game on Monday with a co-worker! Should be fun! Weather has jumped up in temperature dramatically... Hopefully it will remain nice outside for the weekend.

#2158 On the edge
Posted : March 5, 2012, 11:22 am
Tags : Gaming Sabres

As I expected, it was a pretty low key weekend. This suited me just f-i-n-e fine. I was pretty exhausted after staying up late during the Sabres Western road trip. It turns out with the Sabres win in Vancouver, it was the first time in franchise history the team got six points on a Western road trip. That's crazy and very well timed! So the Sabres have given themselves a legit shot at making the playoffs this year. Yes I scoffed at this a few weeks ago. Mmm delicious tasty crow. With a win tonight in Winnipeg the Sabres will be tied for eighth in the Eastern Conference! Regardless what happens... I'm quite impressed with the run the team is on. They found a way to beat the best team in the league and shutout two great Western Conference teams. No small potatoes. That said, I'm planning the parade, but I'll give credit where it is due. The Sabres are currently playing like beasts, I hardly recognize the team. Big game tonight, can't wait! Saturday bdot met up with her friend BBB to go shopping in Newmarket. I ran a few errands. I finally got my harcut and picked up Borderlands from EBGames. A few friends who game, who's opinions I respect, recommended the game... typically I wouldn't be interested in a non-fantasy RPG but wow, I'm glad I took their advice. Borderlands is insanely good. The world they have created oozes gritty frontier, mad-max, on the edge dystopia. The enemies literally are psychos, midgets and yes, some of them are on fire... and they are always screaming and chanting... the voice acting in the game is brilliant. The art style reminds me of a well coloured comic book with lots of round soft edges, with slightly muted colours. The gameplay is challenging and mercifully gives you some 'second chance' save-you-from-death options which I've already taken advantage of several times. Interestingly, the enemies scale with your level... so they will always remain competitive. Simply put, the game is blast to play. Borderlands is the most fun I've had playing a game in years and that is saying a lot. I guess finding this franchise late is somewhat advantageous... maybe by the time I'm done Borderlands, Borderlands 2 will be out! Now please excuse me while I kill a few more annoying scrags. I'm not sure how I managed to miss it *eyeroll* but there is a new season of Spartacus! I really enjoyed Season One so I'm looking forward to diving into Season Two. (Apparently there is a prequel too!) I'm also watching Walking Dead - really who isn't? The character Dale posed quite the ethical question in last night's episode. Is respect for life a fundamental aspect of humanity? More so than even survival? 'Isn't a human life worth more than a five minute discussion...' Powerful stuff. ...then the ending, Sorry Brother, damn, didn't see that coming. (Yes trying not to spoil it) Great entertainment.

Watching : Sabres, Spartacus, Walking Dead...

Playing : Borderlands (360) - Kicks ass.

Eating : All of the Superkids popcorn from Kernals in two days. Addictive much? :P

#2157 Thank gawd for coffee
Posted : March 2, 2012, 3:55 pm
Tags : Sabres Wedding tech

It is very rare that I stay up past midnight during the work week. The last two nights were a exhausting exception. The past two nights the Sabres were playing West coast teams, so locally both games started at an eye-reddening 10:30PM... Ugh. The Sabres are in a tight playoff race heading up in the standings with their sights set on 8th place. Additionally the Sabres just acquired a new 2nd (maybe 1st?!!) line centre so I wanted to see him play. Well, apparently a trip out West means it is Millertime! In only the fourth time in Sabres franchise history the team posted back to back shutout wins! I'm glad I stayed to up watch the return of the Miller miracle - he has been truly outstanding. Regardless what happens this season, the Sabres have, at least made the end of this disposable season interesting. Playoffs also look possible... especially now that the Leafs have returned to being the Leafs. Really big game Monday night against the Jets....GO SABRES! I installed the Microsoft Windows 8 public trial... It is curious, very curious. Comments: -It has integrated MSN/hotmail into the logon screen -the default screensaver is much nicer, it reminds me of Android with, clock, big landscape picture and number of e-mail waiting... simple but very effective -the start screen is a curious bunch of boxes - not sure I like that as much... most of the boxes contain useless info -where the hell did they still my applications?? it took me 5m to find my applications buried in search on the right side? What sense does that make. Fix this. -the file manager now has MS Office like ribbon along the top. Not sure what I think about this yet. Has some promise... The Windows OS is getting better. I actually don't mind W7. More thoughts later perhaps. Since we are still sorting out wedding colours we cancelled our meeting this weekend with the invitation designer. Until that is finalized a few things are on hold. Huh... otherwise a pretty quiet weekend.

Watching : Late night Sabres' games

Playing : Amalur (PC) - hope to pick up Borderlands (360) this weekend

Eating : Amazing pizza from Fortino's in Burlington

#2156 Sad goodbyes
Posted : February 27, 2012, 10:08 am
Tags : Friends Sabres Wedding hockey

It is an exciting day for hockey fans as it is trade deadline day for the NHL! The Sabres could potentially be big players today as they possess some highly coveted pieces other teams desire. Will Darcy find trades he likes? The rumours around Roy and Gaustad have been swirling around for weeks. As I've said before... I'd trade Roy for a lemon Danish, Gaustad is more difficult for me to cut loose, as he is one of the few bigger guys on the team - that said, a first round pick would be impossible to pass up. We will wait and see sports fans! The decision to buy or sell was further complicated by the Sabres taking 3 of 4 points vs. the top teams in the Eastern Conference over weekend. Playoffs this year still remain a pipe dream so... *shrug* I'm shocked to see the Habs in last, no rioting has been reported so far.... Anyway... the weekend... somehow I managed to double book myself on Saturday with a massage and a haircut at the same time. *eyeroll* I decided to rebook the haircut, I'm not sure that was a good decision as my hair is starting to get pretty unruly. Hopefully my stylist will get back to me soon with a new appointment. This weekend was the final weekend our friends Kev and Suz will be in Ontario. We took off for Guelph for the goodbye party right after my massage. We decided to stop at the Alton Mill hoping to find a parting gift for K & S. We lucked out and found a nice piece of pottery for them. After that business was dealt with with looked around at some of the artisans at the Mill. We spent a lot of time look at rings at Gallery gemma. Bdot found a bunch of interesting options for herself including some three ring combinations and some very unique artistic rings. It looks like I'll need to ask for a raise. *frown* I looked at the solitary display case for Men's rings and actually found one ring that felt really nice on my finger - shown above. It was the first ring I've actually liked the feel of wearing. I guess what looks good on my finger is not what I thought I'd like. I liked the idea of a rounded, dark, thick ring... but rounded looks odd, dark doesn't work with my skin tone and a thick ring also didn't look right... So essentially the opposite of what I initially thought I wanted is what actually looks right. Gah. I think more investigation will be required... I do want something very unique and distinctive, I'm not sure the Mirell ring fits the bill. Maybe. *heh* I'm surprised this is such a tough decision. After looking at rings we looked at the art galleries and naturally found several impressive pieces... I think we will add Alton Mill gift certificates as a wedding gift option. *grin* We finally arrived at K & S' place late in the afternoon. It was immediately apparent they were moving. The lawn had a sold sign on it and there was a pod in their driveway. *Phew* *InstaSad* We hung out with them for a bit then drove over to the party across town in Guelph. I didn't have anything to do with the planning of the party, I was a little surprised to find that it was held at one of K & S' friend's parent's house... It was a great place but getting drunk in front of Mom and Dad wasn't going to happen. It was more of a dinner party than a typical booze and music party. It was still fun. There were a lot of stories and memories shared of times spent with K & S by everyone present. My favourite involving Suz at a wedding and Kancho! Damn Suz. Dinner was amazing and dessert was cupcakes. I think Kev requested a special bacon and maple cupcake for me. I nearly cried. It was delicious. The Guelph friends pulled money together and got them a stunning print of the Church of our Lady in Guelph. The night wound down pretty early as K & S were getting tired by midnight... They have had a pretty long week of packing and moving stress I'm sure. In the morning we had a delicious breakfast at eggcetra in Guelph. Finally a place that understands what scrabbled eggs well done means, also their bacon was amazing. Yum. After breakfast we returned to K & S' house to meet Alex who is taking their dog Cairo for a few months as K & S adjust out West. After talking for a few hours there was a tearful goodbye. We don't have many close friends so it was hard saying goodbye to K & S. We have always had a unique and very comfortable friendship with them. I'm sure we will see them at some point out West, but they will be dearly missed, we've had a lot of good times together. *sniff* After getting home we indulged in Thai for dinner since it was finally open. My parents stopped in for a short visit as they were in transit home from my sister's. (Thanks for the lovely blanket sis... it is beautiful!) We wanted to get a visit in since they will be in away for a month down in Myrtle Beach. Hopefully they will have good weather and good golfing. Fore! In disturbing local news, a VIA train derailed in Burlington (the city I work in)... the cause isn't initially known and sadly several VIA staff died in the tragic accident. Sad news. I've decided to cancel my World of Warcraft subscription. I guess if I found the right people to play with it would be fun, but I never have... I still enjoy PVP. I will miss it, but it is the only aspect of the game I enjoy so I could no longer justify keeping my account active. It can be a fun game. I may return at some point but for now I'll persue other more interesting games. For the Horde! I guess Blizzard will keep my character on ice. Trade Deadline Update! : Huh! Darcy trades Gaustad and a 4th to Nashville for a 1st! I'd say that is a deal! Goose is a UFA at the end of the season, so if the price is right he could return to Buffalo. I'm a little concerned about losing some team toughness, and he was great on special teams... but it would impossible to pass up a first round pick for a role player. Disappointed that Roy remains a Sabre and nothing else was done... I guess the next deadline is July 1. Whoa! Darcy wasn't done! Sabres traded Kassian and Gragnani to Vancouver for Hodgson and Sulzer. Well... I'm concerned about the immediate lack of toughness... but Hodgson sounds like a brilliant acquisition. A strong, young, CENTER with great potential... I'm very eager to see him play in Buffalo. I'm a little sad to see Zack go... He is being judged a lot on his short stay in Buffalo. I'm not sure what he will develop into... but I thought he was exactly the type of player the Sabres so desperately need... A strong gritty forward who can drop the gloves if needed. That said, Darcy has acquired enough picks the he should be able to get whatever the Sabres are lacking in the next draft or trade the picks for a player. I can't believe Darcy has impressed me. Again... time will tell on trades, but they look very promising!

Watching : Walking Dead

Eating : Bacon topped Maple Cupcake, Thai and more bacon.

#2154 What the...
Posted : February 18, 2012, 10:27 am
Tags : Friends Winter Sabres Weather Wedding

Awoke to find a winter storm has passed through. Huh! I thought we were done with snow for this season... Looks like we could get a chance to ski after all! Bloody hell... I burned through all the remaining episodes of American Horror Story last night. All four of them.... I was up pretty late. Once again I blame KK. It will be curious to see what direction they take the second season as I believe I read the entire cast will be replaced....? Hmmpt. Not sure how I feel about that... In not surprising news Sabres lost again, Darcy STILL hasn't decided if the Sabres are buyers or sellers... In spite of every team around the Sabres already starting to make trades and prepare for next year. Being a sports fan sometimes brings such joy. Sigh.... It will be a busy weekend. We have an appointment with a florist in Orangeville later this afternoon. Sunday (and possibly Monday) will be spent with K & S who are sadly moving out West... This will be the second last weekend they are in Ontario before they leave. *sniff* Thanks to bdot for picking up some jeans for me. In a related story... Lunch from Friday was California Sandwiches. I tried the sausage and onion. It was good, but I think I'll stick with the chicken.

Watching : OMG ALL OF AHS!

Playing : Enjoying Reckoning (PC)

#2153 Sabres Season of Suck
Posted : February 16, 2012, 8:32 pm
Tags : Sabres Food

Well... as it is looking like the Sabres third loss in a row.... I'd say it is time to stick a fork in 'em because their season is done. The Sabres look like they will be lucky to avoid ending up in last place in the Eastern Conference. Sure injuries played a roll in the failure of this season... but even with a full roster, they drop two crucial games at home. (Crucial if there was to be any hope at post-season play this season) Many players had the worst season of their careers. I'm hoping the following players are NOT on the roster next season: -First and foremost, Derek Roy. Dipsy-doodle Derek. Well I think Roy got wind that the Sabres were trying to get rid of him because he's played with no heart and been an absolute albatross for team with stupid penalties and lackluster play resulting in goals against. Pathetic. Some professional. YOU SUCK ROY! -Boyes : He has been invisible 90% of the season, what a waste -Stafford : Apparently he is having some 'family' issues this season. While I empathize to some degree, his degree of underachievement can't be ignored -Hecht : Concussions, injuries... I just don't see any reason to keep him around occupying a roster spot someone else could take advantage of So far Darcy has done nothing... Sabres management better stop talking about the goal is to win the Stanley Cup when this bunch of misfit toys couldn't even get a playoff berth. It is time to get rid of the gutless core of this team, anything less will bring another season of the same in my humble opinion. I'd be more inclined to get rid of Darcy before Lindy... but wouldn't be too disappointed to see both positions cycled with some new faces. I almost typed feces... Sigh... I picked up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning after Purolator finally delivered it. I haven't played it much so far, but I've enjoyed what I have. The world looks really big too. I blame KK for my American Horror Story addiction.

Watching : American Horror Story (up to S0107)

Playing : Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC)

bunch in the pics section under Nature. - pics/dcam/nature/flare01.jpg ' title='Photo from Saturday's walk. There a bunch in the pics section under Nature. - pics/dcam/nature/flare01.jpg ' style='border:1px solid #000;' />

#2151 Walking and Walking Dead
Posted : February 13, 2012, 10:59 am
Tags : HVHT Music Sabres Wedding

Friday night I watched the Sabres come back from two down to win in Buffalo. They have not played well this year once they get behind, so it was a nice win. Again, it will fall in the too little, too late category but... it will be nice to see the team end the season on a positive note at least. We lazed around most of Saturday morning, eventually getting out for a long walk with the dog on the Humber Valley Heritage Trail. It was a great day for a walk... cool but not freezing and very sunny. Bdot took a bunch of photos (including the above shot) with her new iPhone 4GS. It takes remarkable photos for such a small device. In the evening we debated about going out to a movie... but nothing playing seemed worth the money. We ended up watching Lincoln Lawyer. Bdot has seen the movie before but watched it again with me. Gee, maybe to see Matthew McConaughey? :P Matthew played a slick and sleazy L.A. defence lawyer. He was quite convincing. One of his cases begins to involve him personally and an intriguing story unfolded. I'm so accustomed to seeing McConaughey in comedy fluff that seeing him in a serious dramatic role was curious. I loved the atmosphere of this film... the music, the camera angles, the secondary characters (like the driver, the bikers), the script... it all worked for me. Did I just like a Matthew McConaughey film? Yes. Yes I did.

Playing : Finished Dragon Age 2 (PC)! The name Meredith will be scorned evermore!

#2149 Small Victory
Posted : February 8, 2012, 11:46 pm
Tags : Sabres

There hasn't been much to celebrate this year as a Sabres' fan... but tonight was certainly an exception. With a remarkable complete effort the Sabres crushed their most-hated rival the Bruins 6-0. There were fights and checking and the 'compete' that Ruff has been preaching all year. Yes, it is just one game and it may not mean anything for the Sabres who are well out of the playoffs... But tonight the Sabres asserted their will and kicked the Bruins around for a change. And my gawd as a fan that was wonderful to see. The cover for my tablet finally came in. The Prime looks great encased in black leather. *purr*

Watching : The River (New series, very creepy... might give it another episode or two...)

Playing : Dragon Age 2 (finally got by the fracking Arishok)

#2148 A Super weekend
Posted : February 6, 2012, 10:41 am
Tags : Hiking Family Sabres Wedding

The weekend started off right with an hour massage. I really believe the fastest hour on Earth is the hour spent on a RMT table. It feels so good to get dekinked, it is as if they release stress with their fingers. If you aren't getting a professional massage, you are missing out. Go. Now. I'm pretty sure I blog this every time. The rest of the day felt like a lot of running around. Maybe because it was. Our first stop was at our mechanic for a long overdue oil change on the Vibe. I'm not a car geek. So for me having a mechanic I feel I can trust is paramount. I guess I wouldn't know if our mechanic was screwing us... but it doesn't feel like he is. I've always felt he has been honest, doesn't overcharge and really just does what is necessary to keep our cars running smoothly. No you can't have his name :P After the cars were dealt with we ventured over to Palgrave Forest to run the dog. Well... the crappy Winter blues continue... not only is there no snow but there is ice everywhere on the trails. The ice in Palgrave made walking so treacherous we decided to bail and try the flat railtrail in East Caledon. Neither one of us felt like taking a tumble on the ice... it really was that bad. The parking lot for the Palgrave trails on a Saturday afternoon is usually full. This weekend it was empty. Sigh. It has been a horrible Winter for outdoor recreation. So disappointing. AnyWAY, the trail in East Caledon was better. It had sections that were still slippery but it was a tolerable walk. We have noticed post-op the dog has been walking with a strange gait. During today's run she seemed to be running normally... Strange, a bit of a head scratcher. It felt good to get a good walk in and a big dose of fresh air. While the East Caledon trail is flat, it borders some lovely parkland. After the walk we treated ourselves to some food from our wedding caterer Gourmandissimo. Sweet zombie Jesus their samosas are incredible. Then groceries and finally home. I guess we didn't do that much... but my legs felt like I dragged logs up a hill all afternoon. We both crashed after we got settled at home. The evening was laundry, the Sabres' game and a little Dragon Age 2. It is amusing that the Sabres are finally stringing some wins together yet they remain in the basement of the Eastern conference. It certainly looks like a effort in futility, too little, too late. I saw a stat saying the likelihood of the Sabres making it into the playoffs is now less than one percent. Woo! Get excited sports fans. The problem with winning now is the GM can say... look! look! the team is healthy and we don't suck anymore! Keep me on as GM! Gahhhhhhh.......fffffffffffffuuuuuuuu... Superbowl Sunday! I enjoy watching football. The spectacle of the Superbowl being the ultimate marketing and entertainment sports extravaganza. With the Bills long out of the playoffs the final was down to the Giants and Pats. I find Manning more interesting and likeable than Brady - GO GIANTS. The plan was join my parents at my sister's to watch the game. We left early afternoon and stopped at the Upper Canada Mall. Bdot recently upgraded her iPhone and wanted a cover so I sprayed my body with a repellant and ventured into the Apple store. I quite enjoyed setting all their demo laptops to the Asus Transformer Prime webpage. *smirk* Bdot decided on a purple Otterbox which she found at a kiosk by the food court. The Apple store didn't have the colour she wanted. As we were on our way out we stopped at People's to look at Wedding rings. Ha. I find it funny that there is one small display case of Men's Wedding rings in the entire store. Men's wedding rings are also available in metals a woman would never dream of wearing...'You want me to wear tungsten? What?!' *slap* I thought a few of the rings were interesting, but nothing really caught my attention. Wearing a ring will also take some getting use to, it felt very alien to me. This was really my first time looking at rings... it may be more complicated to find a winner I thought. I figure if I'm wearing this forever I better like it. By the time we arrived at my sister's I was hungry. Fortunately there was a ton of food. My parents brought wings and pizza, JP had meatballs ready to go - so I filled up a plate and shut my stomach up. Family gatherings have become a curious sight. The majority of us were playing with some sort of gadget. The family that geeks together stays together? *shrug* I'm glad my Dad is enjoying his tablet. They are going down to Mytle Beach for vacation soon and he is bringing his tablet. He is planning on skyping us while he is down there. That would be pretty impressive IMHO. It wasn't just a Superbowl visit, it was also my Brother in Law's 40th.... so we had a delicious Death by Chocolate cake my Mother made and cupcakes. We left after Madonna's safe but interesting half time show. What was with the gladiator theme? It was a relaxing afternoon with great food and typical family comradery. I also finally tried the yummy German Chocolate Cake K-cup! Which has it's own webpage. Hmmpt! The Giants ended up winning the Superbowl in a tight game! Apparently the ending was exciting but getting home late on a Sunday would suck more than drinking instant coffee. We both must have been zombies by the time we got home because we watched The Voice and thought it was intriguing. *whistles* Oh crap. RIP BTJ.

#2145 Bottom of Barrel
Posted : January 24, 2012, 8:49 am
Tags : Sabres

Yup. The fall has ended. The Sabres are last in the Eastern conference. Lindy Ruff on WGE today said no changes are coming. I'm absolutely apoplectic with this team and how it is being run. Complete embarrassment. What else is there to say. *shrug* Wow....I past making 'hockey heaven' jokes. This is ..... gah... *explodes*

Watching : 12 straight humiliating road losses

#2143 Wait, what weight?
Posted : January 20, 2012, 2:18 pm
Tags : Sabres Wedding Marriage

It seems I'm expanding and gaining some weight. Nothing alarming ...yet, but I'm certainly up a few pounds. The weight seems to be gathering speed in typical male middle belly area... much like my Dad. There seem to be different ranges for ideal weight but I'm certainly well within the normal range according the BMI chart above... but I'd still like to drop a few pounds, otherwise I can see a slippery slope to becoming Homer Simpson shaped. D'oh. I think the wedding meltdown has past. We are now focused more on looking at new options and finding a way to get within our budget. Even if we do met the budget we will be stretched very thin... There is choice and options...I'm confident in time we'll be back on track, with a financial plan and in a better frame of mind. I've been a Sabres' fan for about 25 years... Sure I don't recall the early years well, but I can't say I've ever witnessed a sorrier state for the franchise. They are not ever competitive and are outclassed every night. It is a test of faith in the Pegula era. So far hockey heaven has been hockey purgatory... every day is the same horror repeated over and over... Bdot is away this weekend. She is going up north for a friend's birthday party. So the boys are coming over for Steaks and Sports. Should be a good time! My loooooooooooooooooong awaited tablet is finally in stock... I'm being forced to wait for it. :(

Watching : Worst Sabres team to ever take the ice

Playing : Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC)

Eating : Only available in America! Candy Cane Tootsie Pop! (thx MF)

#2140 EEEK! Snow!
Posted : January 13, 2012, 3:05 pm
Tags : Winter Sabres Weather

Every year the first snowfall always creates a massive melodramatic overembellishment of the actual driving conditions. It's like people as screaming 'Oh shit! Snow! Oh my gawd! Oh my gawd! What do I do!??!' in their minds. Don't get me wrong, I don't drive like the dumbasses in their Hummers would in a blizzard, but during a light snowfall there is no reason I should be driving less the 80km/h... Drive according to the conditions. If the conditions aren't bad, don't drive like they are! Yes, I was very late this morning for work. Apparently all my co-workers were as well. All of which echoed the same sentiment. You would think us 'hardy weathered Canadians' could handle 5cm of snow in stride. I guess not. *eyeroll* It sure has felt like a long week. I'm hoping to do very little this weekend... Big game tonight for the Sabres. The rematch against the Leafs. They were shutout last game... maybe trying improving on that. Sigh........

Nicolas Steno's 374 birthday. - pics/doodles/steno12-hp.jpg' title='Google's doodle celebrating Nicolas Steno's 374 birthday. - pics/doodles/steno12-hp.jpg' style='border:1px solid #000;' />

#2139 Skype good, Sabres bad
Posted : January 11, 2012, 11:02 am
Tags : Family Tanga Sabres Home Remi computers pets sports

I may have mentioned it before, but we got my Dad a tablet for Christmas. He has used it mostly for playing games, which is fine but I thought we'd try taking greater advantage of the tablet by trying to Skype. I've used Skype periodically throughout the years and thought it was pretty sweet tech... but seeing my Mom and Dad live remotely was very special. They also seemed quite impressed and my Dad (who I normally have a 3m convo with on the phone) stayed on Skype for close to an hour. Now that the 'test' was successful, my Dad is hoping to skype us from Myrtle Beach when they go on vacation. How cool is that? My Dad wants to skype me while on vacation. The nerd in me is glowing. Wow... the Sabres. When Pegula took over I was excited and giddy... he said all the right things... Stanley Cups! No financial restrictions! Hockey Heaven! Premier hockey destination! Darcy signed a bunch of talent, the season started off great then a few injuries, then a few more and the Sabres just kept dropping down the standings, to where there are now... well out of a playoff spot, losing to the worst teams in the league, losing at home, losing on the road, no goal scoring, suspect goaltending... the suggestion of Buffalo being hockey heaven a joke. Fans are pointing at everything, the Coach, the GM, the players.... rightfully so... the Sabres look absolutely inept. I'm not sure what, if anything, will be done... they are very hard to watch. I feel like they are out of the playoffs and there is still 40 games to go. It could be 40 very long games punctuated with missing the playoffs. Ughhh. The dog is healing and progressing well. Mentally she is already acting wacky like pre-op, then she'll do something overly physical, strain her scars and stop after a yelp. Bdot is taking her to the vet tonight for a post-op review. Remicat has been battling with food over the past few weeks. Some days she will refuse to eat anything, her weight has been noticeable fluctuating... so she has also been on meds to increase her appetite. It is a strange see-saw relationship with food... It is sad to watch. I'm not sure she is doing herself any favours by always refusing to eat. It has been a crazy month for us humans caretaking these animals. Our PVR/Server computer hard drive died. It has been on its way out for awhile, I think all the on and off of power during the weekend finally killed it. So I'm looking for a new solution. I'm thinking of giving Mythbuntu a try!

Watching : Sabres continue to suck, shutout by the Leafs... THE LEAFS! :(

Playing : A little Skyrim (PC)

#2138 Let there be light!
Posted : January 8, 2012, 9:18 pm
Tags : Family Tanga Sabres Home Wedding hockey

It was a busy home improvement weekend! We had the Mac family over for most of the weekend. They arrived late Friday. Mac Daddy is an electrician and we had a full days worth of work lined up for him on Saturday. The main goal was to have potlights installed in the living room. The living is bright with the big bow windows during the day, but at night it was lit by a single lamp. Bah. It was a pretty long day for me being the electrician's bitch. I think I wore a path going up and down the stairs to the breaker. I shouldn't complain... Mac Daddy had a nasty time crawling around in the attic, even with respitory protection he was still coughing pretty badly. The end result is very impressive difference! Let there be light! We also replaced all the living room outlet covers, added a dimmer switch to the potlights in the great room, put up a new light in the downstairs washroom and a new dimmer for the kitchen. We got a lot done. I never really thought about the impact good lighting can have on a room... but I'm very happy with the living room at any time of the day now. While the Men worked at home the Women were at a Wedding show. Bdot went down to the Toronto Bridal show with Mac Mommy. She didn't get much out of the show other than a led on a wedding invitation vendor in Bolton. A sign of the times, Bdot and Mac Mommy were mistaken for a couple a few times. *smirk* For dinner Saturday night we went to Wild Wings for the um, kids. It was a fried food feast. We split an order of Hot and Honey Garlic boneless wings and Dry Cajun wings, onion rings, fries and pickled Willies. Yeah, delicious and horrible for you. I felt okay afterwards, bdot, not so much. The bar is pretty cool and is a great place to watch a hockey game. Im sure well come back sometime soon to do so. When we got back home the Men watched more hockey in the great room the women were upstairs. I don't know what they were doing, but I heard a lot of giggling. After breakfast Sunday morning, Mac Daddy dealt with a few final electrical problems. After things were done and everything was working properly, we had a short walk in Palgrave with the kids and leashed dog. The rest of the evening was down time. We finally took Tanga in for her hysterectomy last Thursday. It went well. It was nerve wracking for both of us until we heard she was okay. You never know, and she is a very sensitive dog. Not surprisingly she is hyper-sensitive to being bumped or having anyone (other than B. and I) near her right now. She is sleeping a lot and occassionally will yelp when jumping off or onto something. Hopefully there won't be any issues as she heals, about two weeks. Pretty crazy playoff game between the Steelers and Broncos. Tebow with the win. I'm undecided whether I'm a fan or not, but it was an exciting win neverthelsss.

Watching : Sabres suck the entire weekend. Still nothing from the Sabres brass. This season is slipping away... Hockey heaven my ass.

Playing : Skyrim (PC)

Eating : See above

#2137 Momentous comeback falls short
Posted : January 4, 2012, 9:13 am
Tags : Sabres Canada hockey

Ahh yes. Hockey and Canada. Canada and hockey. The proverbial measuring stick of our nation's pride, the success or failure in international competitions. The World Juniors tournament has been pumping out Canadian chests for close to a decade with numerous gold medals and final appearances... This year it ends. The best Canada can do now is bronze. I do hope they win Thursday. The gold or nothing expectation, while wonderfully ambitious is unrealistic. The hockey world is getting crowded with many great hockey powers and new ones are emerging... Canada is no longer dominant. I do expect our national reps, yes even if they are just kids, to compete... I have no problem at all with the compete in the Junior Canadians this year. As one of the millions of over zealous Canadian hockey fanatics I watched with dismay as the Russians kicked Canada around, in our own building, for two periods. The Russians excelled everywhere on the ice and it ultimately showed in spades on the scoreboard. Going into the third the score was an embarrassingly lopsided 6-1 in favour of the Russians. Even at that point I was thinking of how many missed opportunities Canada had and their lack of finish. (Was I watching a Sabres' game?!) I thought if the score ended being such definitive failure that Hockey Canada would explode. Then Canada starting mounting a comeback. They pushed hard in the final 15 minutes of the game and got within a shot of tying the game. That, unfortunately would be the closest they would get. Yes, I'm disappointed they lost, but the comeback and drive in the Canadian boys made me proud. It would be pretty easy to skate around and sleep the third down by five goals, but they didn't. They battled and made a game of it. The Russians pulled their starting goalie and looked to be on the ropes the final minutes of the game. It was a dramatic and exciting ending. I enjoy international hockey, it always seems much more intense than NHL games. More skating, more passion, more energy... Hopefully the Russians will taste defeat in their home building by our hand next year. Ironically the Sabres ended up winning at home last night, a faint silver lining on my sports evening. Back to work. Gah. At least the schools are still off so traffic has been great this week so far. I was ridiculously early today. I've decided to look at other options instead of the Asus Prime. I'm starting to feel like I don't want to give Asus my business for boggling the release of the tablet and continually keeping consumers in the dark. (Not to mention some underhanded business going on with Wifi and GPS settings...) So, options: It looks like Acer is releasing a quad core tablet this year. Hmm. I was hoping for a higher end manufacture... Acer. Ho-hum. HTC Quattro? Hmm, that might worth a look, the specs are somewhat disappointing however. I don't think 16G is anywhere near enough storage. My phone is always maxed with 8. I do love my HTC phone however. It also looks like Toshiba and Lenovo are looking at making Quad Core Android tablets this year. Hmm. I'd still be giddy with a Prime of course, but I hate feeling so dicked around by Asus. They better get shipping some product.

Watching : Sabres and Canadian Jrs.

Eating : British style Shepherds's pie which did not taste like barf.

#2135 Lazy Daze
Posted : December 31, 2011, 12:21 am
Tags : Sabres Wedding

It has been a few very lazy days since Christmas ended. I can't say I've done a whole lot. Yesterday bdot and I were out most of the day tracking down some wedding decorations and doing some post-Christmas returns. Otherwise I've been chillin' like a villian. Sabres continue their .500 pace of mediocrity and continue to drop down the standings. They are presently out of the playoffs. Lindy must be running out of excuses. I wonder when Pegula will start acting on his loftly pre-season promises. Buffalo is a joke on the ice and this hockey heaven is red with brimstone. At least the Canadian juniors are doing well so far... Another year passes by...Good-bye 2011.

Watching : Hockey

Playing : Skyrim (PC) since Dark Souls (360) is maddening without being able to save anywhere

Eating : Lots of chocolate

#2133 At least the hotdog was delicious
Posted : December 24, 2011, 12:16 am
Tags : Sabres Food Work

Back in November I got tickets to see the Leafs and Sabres at the Air Canada Centre. The game was last night. I got off work early and the night unfolded according to schedule after that. I met up with my Brother in Law at the parking lot at King & the 400. The drive in was pretty typical for heading into downtown Toronto... slow and frustrating. *shrug* We parked very close to the ACC. I think there is a correlation between the severity of the financial rape you receive with the proximity of how far you park from the ACC. Unfortunately I don't think I'll walk for a week after last night. Sigh. Anyway... We decided to simply grab some food from inside the arena. We traversed the entire concourse and settled on Bacon Wrapped hotdogs with Honey Mustard Onions. Yes, it looks like something a coyote puked up, but it was delicious. Beers were also stupid expensive. Two large draft beer were over 30$. Gah! Brutal. Well, the Leafs are no longer the Laughs. I could see all six games between the Sabres and Leafs being one goal games and last night was no exception. The ACC was full. Unlike Sabres/Leafs games in Buffalo, that are full of Leaf fans, the same doesn't happen in Toronto. I think there was maybe 10% of the crowd in Sabres attire. Hmmpt. It was a entertaining game. Lots of hits, powerplays and goals... Unfortunately the Sabres came up short losing 3-2. My tweets about the game: Back from #Sabres #Leafs... decent effort, but the shot count is misleading... not many great chances. Miller was okay. Stafford ...disappointing... Miller chant after second goal was deafening... ho-hum. Also, Vanek really missed in the 3rd. #Phaneuf is a big pussy. Goes after Roy & Vanek, wanted no part of Regehr or Kassian... *eyeroll* It was a fun night, JP is great company. Today was my final day of work before the holidays. We had a nice lunch in downtown Burlington at Honey West. I'm quite ready for the holidays to begin.

Watching : World Junior Tournament - Go Canada!

Playing : Might get some Skyrim in

#2132 No snow at home
Posted : December 18, 2011, 10:23 pm
Tags : Gaming Tanga Winter Sabres Home

It was a pretty quiet weekend. Well, other than Friday night. KK came over with his axe. By axe I mean electric guitar. We had a few beer, watched the Sabres/Leafs and had a little musical jam. Double kick is fun, and awesome when done right, but I'm no where near at that level. After playing double kick for a night, I've gained a ton of respect for many drummers that I like. Playing double kick is bitching hard and exhausting. Still, it's a lot of fun. The hockey game was exciting. I guess it takes FNC to be full of Leaf fans for the arena to have a pulse. Scary to think it was just their first meeting of the season...Saturday night the Sabres embarrassed their owner letting in eight goals and showing absolutely no life. Blah. Saturday and Sunday were pretty tame. We mostly did stuff around the house. Bdot did an assortment of prep for Christmas. She got the Winter urns done and a bunch of Christmas baking and wrapped a few presents. I did a bunch of laundry. I think between us we also make three trips to the grocery store.

Watching : Sabres and bits and pieces of a few Christmas movies

Playing : Skyrim (PC) - it is finally losing a little of its lustre

Eating : Bdot cookies

#2131 Prime Annoyance
Posted : December 14, 2011, 12:31 pm
Tags : Sabres Canada bdot

If you've been reading unsung you know I've been looking forward to the release of the Asus Transformer Prime tablet for months. I've been following the bits and pieces of information as they have become available and read and watched countless reviews online. The tablet should be killer. The specs are innovative and trendsetting. It will set a new standard for tablet computing with its new quad-core CPU. So being the uber Android geek I'm, I've put off getting a tablet to get this one. It is #1 on my Christmas list. (Poor bdot has been burdened by this mess) Well since the tablet was officially announced in early December by ASUS... there has been a cloud of uncertainty in Canada as to exactly when it will be released. It seems to have become a bit of a drama. The major distributors: FutureShop, BestBuy and NCIX all have different release dates or no dates at all. I've messaged @ASUS on twitter with no reply (great customer service guys... WhyTF do you have a twitter account if you ignore potential customers? Idiots.) So the release date now seems to be in limbo. ASUS says everything is fine. The distributors are saying it isn't and the consumer once again is left out in the cold wondering WTF is going on. It is a shame that this is happening... I'm trying not to let it turn me off of this great piece of tech... but this seems silly, easily avoidable and unfair to tech geeks across Canada. I don't care if it is delayed or if there are some final tweaks being made... I'd just like a definitive answer on when it will arrive in stores, which seems to be elusive. Just feel like I'm getting jerked around here. A further annoyance is brutal home play of the Sabres. They get leads and lose them all the time at the FNC. They have one of the worst home records in the league and of the points available from home games this season, the Sabres have missed the most. This isn't hockey heaven. The season is no longer early, and simply blaming injuries (which every team deals with) is a cop out. The mistakes they are making are mental. Not covering a man in overtime, bad passes that turn into odd man rushes, bad late penalties... Since Lord Ruff the Untouchable can't be moved, I can only hope for Darcy to make a trade or two... A good chunk of the core players have been brutal this year. I'd love to see Roy and Stafford off this team... if they aren't scoring - which they aren't - they are liabilities on the ice. They are cough-up machines, penalty takers and dreadful in the defensive end... so what is the up side here? Frustrating. And no snow. Sigh.

Watching : Sabres continue to suck at home

Playing : Skyrim (PC)

#2129 Two trees are not sour
Posted : December 7, 2011, 10:27 am
Tags : Winter Sabres Home Canada

Sometimes bdot says I'm oblivious. Well, clearly there is some truth to that... I've been drinking sour milk for two days and didn't notice. I had it twice with my cereal... It made the cereal taste 'burnt' not 'sour'... I thought it was the new cereal I was mixing with my staple cereal... It was 'burnt' tasting this morning too so I blamed the 'staple' cereal. I'm not a morning person at all. The milk! The milk! It's the fracking milk you idddeeeeeeeotttt! I would have figured it out today *at the bottom* of my coffee was a lovely curled milk blob. *gag* Useless taste buds -1 Iron stomach +1 I've been playing with a tablet at um... work for a few days and wow, what a cool piece of technology. I know tablets are nothing new, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and use one for any length of time until this week. The device is all solid state, no moving parts, it is light, thin and has a beautiful screen... what is not to like? It certainly makes me wonder if PCs will be gone in 10 years as CPUs get smaller and faster they will be capable of doing a full PC work load. Not to mention the portability and battery life. Hmm. I'm looking to get the Asus Transformer Prime tablet... when you can actually find one anywhere in North America. (The first shipment is sold out everywhere - which doesn't surprise me at all). It is a lovely geek toy. Christmas is marching along. The first tree is up. Yes, we put two Christmas trees up. A fake one in the front bay window and a real one (which we are getting Saturday - let it snow!) in the great room. A lot of people seem to think this is weird or excessive or whatever... *shrug* Now that the living room is decorated we are spending more time there and not where we usually would, in the great room. I like seeing it when I come home in the window too. And hell, more festivus, why not? Bdot really enjoys having two trees, maybe not deciding how to decorate them however. Speaking of Christmas... I just got the e-mail saying the office will be closed from the end of day December 23rd through to January 3! Woohoo! Ahh, my Sabres. Win one. Lose one. Look good for a game, embarrassing the next. I guess that is going to be the theme of the season. At least the addition of the rookies are making things interesting. What is not to love about Kassian?! He is huge, fights, checks and has a great scoring touch. Vanek better pick up his game or I'm dropping my bromance (as iNom would call it :P) on him and moving onto the toothless monster. *smirk* McNabb also looks like he'll be a great asset as he looks like a natural hitter. *FINALLY* the Sabres have some big boys that can crush the other team. My big concern is the lack of scoring on the team. So many multi-million dollar 0-for forwards it makes me sick. To list them would be more than half the forwards on the team... Big game tonight versus the Flyers... It would be nice not to have our goalie run. Unfortunately, Filthy is just the type of team to ignore my hopes.

Playing : Really enjoying Skyrim (PC)

Eating : Sour milk? Blecck!

#2127 Entering 5th decade....*gasp*
Posted : November 26, 2011, 1:56 pm
Tags : Gaming Sabres Home

Yup. It's true. The big 4-0 today. Just taking a short break... Having a bunch of friends over tonight so, lots to do...I'll add more later. What a great birthday weekend! Sure the prep was crazy... almost to the extent that you are too tired to actually enjoy the evening... but I think bdot and I did okay. I was happy to see so many friends turn out for my birthday party. I know how busy people are, especially those with kids... and Bolton is close for well, probably no one one, so appreciate the effort people made to attend. It was a fun night for sure! I don't recall the last time I laughed so much. My buddy Dean who I've know since grade 7, so well over two cough decades met my sister for the first time Saturday! Ha! How did that happen? I didn't even know... I thought that was pretty weird. We spent a ton of time getting the upstairs living room ready for the party. The night of the party I don't think the living room was used at all... somehow we managed to cram everyone downstairs into the Great Room. The men were all glued to the Habs/Pens game, the women huddled together in front of the fireplace. I don't think everyone knew everyone at the party... hockey seemed to be a good conversation starter amongst the men. I don't know what the women were talking about... I would guess shoes, purses, shopping, painting their nails, kids, hair and Kim Kardashian big booty. (kidding to some degree :P) Bdot put a lot of thought into the evening and it showed. The food (I thought) was amazing and plentiful. She even made two punches (wine cranberry and apple cider) both seemed to disappear rapidly. I guess the word got out that I like Rum. I received several bottles of aged or premium rum (including one from my sister-in-law et al who stopped in earlier in the day for a short visit with the kids) so I'm set for awhile! Especially since I don't think I'll be drinking 7 (or is it 12?) year old Rum any old night. Hmm, well, maybe. *smirk* The cake was incredibly decadent. Everyone had a piece. There was only one left over. Enough said? Damn. I also received many thoughtful gifts... I won't mention all of them but Captain (AKA Pass out Patrick - ha! ha! :P) found me a Learn drums DVD and a book written by Police drummer Steward Copeland one of my favourite drummers both very personal, thoughtful gifts, well done mate and bdot got me the piece de resistance for my drum set... wow.... a Pearl double bass pedal set! As KK likes to mention, most of the music we listen to has double bass in it... It opens up so many musical options, and hell, double bass is just fun. Thanks hon! (Yes, I feel very lucky to have a spouse that will buy her mate something like that...I've felt very blessed all week by the lengths she has gone (to exhaustion) to make this occasion memorable and special for me. XOXO @ bdot) People left at various time throughout the night. Only Captain, Jenn and Big Jeffer stayed the night. The offer was open to anyone who wanted to stay however. Unfortunately we didn't take any photos during the evening. Bah. Oh yeah, have to mention Suz also brought me some yummy sugar cookies. There is only one left. *smirk* Sunday was slow moving. I didn't really drink to excess so I was feeling decent post-party morning. One of the few benefits I guess of aging is that you have been there and done that and usually know your limitations. After breakfast and goodbyes with Captain and Jenn (Big J took off before I was even awake!) bdot and I reluctantly went out to do some shopping. We got Christmas greenery for the urns bdot decorates for the front of the house. This involves decisions that seem to take forever. After that we drove into Brampton to stop at Future Shop. Bdot wanted to compare e-readers. Apparently it was a bit of a hassle getting the salesman to open a boxed e-reader so we could look at it... he did though, and was actually quite helpful. Bdot has decided the Sony 6" eBook Reader with Wi-Fi model (PRST1BC) was the winner. It was an impressive little device and e-ink is amazing to read by. To milk the birthday weekend we decided to get Thai for dinner but stuck to only three items. We can do some serious damage to our bank account ordering Thai... so we've tried limiting the number of delicious dishes we ordered. The rest of the evening I finally had some gaming downtime and wandering around Skyrim. The visuals continue to impress as do the random little gameplay events that occur. Such as a bandit taking an arrow in chest and falling off a tower in front of me very dead with a big thud. I also watched the Walking Dead season finale and it was very entertaining and sets up for an interesting next season! Apparently new episodes in February. That will be a long wait!

Watching : Sabres suck ass in Columbus

Playing : Skyrim (PC)

Eating : Cake, booze, Thai... yes it was a birthday weekend. ^_^

#2126 Becoming a home
Posted : November 24, 2011, 9:30 am
Tags : Gaming Sabres Home bdot

Sweet zombie Jesus! Our interior design consultant came over yesterday to assist bdot with the final touches on the living room makeover. Wow... the end result is phenomenal. It has been so long in coming it feels a little alien to me. The living room is now painted, art is up, curtains are up... the overall impact of everything far exceeds my expectations. We've had art sitting in boxes for years that is now finally on our walls. I believe adding our personality to this room is helping the house become our home. A big thanks to bdot for all her work on this... slowly our imprint is moving throughout the rooms of our home. Of course there is more to do, and we seem to dream big... so the evolution is slow moving, but it has certainly begun! I'll post a shot later... I'm not sure it is worthwhile if there is no daylight however. I think we are on track for Saturday's party. Hopefully we'll have some zots left to be able to enjoy it. Speaking of 'phenomenal'...I finally got the long awaited RPG Skyrim installed. Damn! You immediately notice the graphics are drop dead gorgeous. The clouds in the sky, the reflection on the water, *gasp* aurora borealis!, blowing snow... the world is so immersive. The details in buildings, runes and art on walls in dungeons and even the detail in the inhabitants of Skyrim are all done with care and consideration. I've only played a few hours (I think I'm level 4)... so I'll reserve an evaluation for later, but I can't see this dropping below 4 stars. The intro cut scene was awesome (I won't spoil it) and got you right into the game. I think this is a landmark release for 'sandbox RPGs', and it raises the bar for playability, graphics and fun. The quests don't seem as forced as in previous Elder Scroll games, so far they seem to have flowed together from the initial cut scene like a logical progression of events. Anyway, I'll post a few screen caps tonight so you can see the visuals. Initially impressions are highly favourable! Skyrim will clearly be a Game of the Year candidate. More on this later I'm sure. Screencaps : One, Two. So... the big Sabres v. Bruins post-Miller/Lucic rematch. Considering the roster I have no complaints about the game. The Sabres are not a big physical team, I think to think they are or could magically and suddenly be one is delusional. That said, they can play harder and not get taken advantage of physically. I think that was achieved. As for the fights... I don't think Goose won, but he showed up, and I applaud that. Did anyone really think a meatball like Lucic would get a beating? I sure didn't. I thought goose was just trying to survive the fight. He was outmatched. It could have been pretty ugly for him but he mostly held his own. Overall I like the response from the team... Strange things happened, did I actually see Stafford fight? There was more of a team response after the whistle. And, most importantly they took a point and had several shots at a second. Overall a big improvement from the previously embarrassing non-response game vs. the Bruins. It will make for four more very interesting games as well. Hopefully this play becomes the norm not just a one game spectacle. Time will tell...

Thinking : I need some time to game. I won't get any soon. :(

Playing : Skyrim (PC)!

#2124 Let it snow, we're ready!
Posted : November 13, 2011, 11:52 am
Tags : Hiking Tanga Sabres Home

It is a good feeling to be ready for Winter and not scrambling around after the first snowfall. We got the snow tires put on the Vibe yesterday morning so both cars are done! I guess one of the few benefits of aging is an increased sense of responsibility. I also put the Christmas lights up on the house. Red and green again, same as last year. I think this will be the last year using the energy sucking 'traditional bulbs. Next year will be the switch over to LED. The neighbour has red and green LED lights so we'll be able to get an idea of what they would look like. There seems to be a good variety of LED lights as well... we took a look yesterday at Canadian Tire. There were three different whites, bulbs that faded into different colours and numerous types of bulb coverings like ice cubes and snowflakes. I wonder if we will be the only house on the block that hasn't changed over to the modern efficient LEDs. After some running around in the morning we ran the cold dog in Palgrave Forest. Cold dog? Yes somehow princess was left in the backyard for some the morning. She seemed very grateful to be let in the house. It was a beautiful day for a hike. We came across a 'construction site' along the main trail. There are several newly planted trees and they have re-landscaped along one of the major ponds. It also looks like they are diverting one of the streams. I'm a little surprised to see any work being done in the Forest, I wonder who is paying for it? Regardless, it looks great, I'm happy to see one of our major hiking routes getting some love. Alright. The Lucic hit on Miller. I find it hard to decide what I think is worse... A forward creaming a goalie he outweighs by 50 pounds or the team that did nothing about it. The Yahoo headline says it all. 'Buffalo Sabres go soft in response to Lucic's run at Miller' I've been a supporter of Ruff for a long time but this is inexcusable and embarrassing. No response at all? There was plenty of time for some sort of payback and nothing, NOTHING. Gutless and shameful - both the lack of response by the Sabres and the initial hit by Lucic. I have to wonder what Miller must be thinking of his team mates. Wow. My post on SabresFans.com: The one positive from his hit is exposing the truth about this team. Now let's see what, if anything, the response is from Sabres' management and the team. This soft team has no chance of a deep playoff run. If the sole existence of the team is to win the Cup... then something has to be done. Thanks Lucic. This should serve as an impetus for improving the Sabres and ultimately knocking you out the playoffs. But so far, I'd say that won't happen this year. Read more: here. We are hosting a birthday party for me later in the month. My um... deep breath breathe out, breathe in 40th... There I said it. In preparation bdot has been finishing the living room painting so we can finally get some of our art up. I'm looking forward to that...the walls have been bare since we bought the house. *eyeroll*

Watching : Brutal Sabres game.

Playing : WoW (PC)

Eating : Candycane Oreos. Mmmm.

#2123 8-bit Leaves
Posted : November 7, 2011, 6:39 am
Tags : Family Review Gaming Fall Sabres Weather

Last week was another long week at work. The hard drive that hosted our main websites died... we lost a bunch of data and the sites were down for several days. Pretty unreal. I've been in web development for many years and have never seen failure at this scale. I've mentioned how ridiculous I think it is to stay with this host. Not my decision. *shrug* Saturday we had a birthday party to attend for one of our nephews. We made a few stops before going to the party. The first was to get Winter tires put on the Subaru. Bdot had sourced out tires from a small tire dealer in Markham. So that was our first stop. She has quite the knack for researching odd subjects and quickly becoming an expert. She ended up finding some strangely named Scandinavian tire. I'm confident the Sweds, Fins and Nords know their snow tires. We also stopped at Costco before going over. As usual we spend more money than we should have. Cogeco is an evil evil place. Bdot's brother and Mom had already arrived. Her brother-in-law is a techy geek in his own right, often builds things and has home projects on the go. He was eager to show off his newest creation. And it was badass. For any older gamers (such as myself) he built the ultimate arcade cocktail machine. So I enjoyed (indulged) in an afternoon of awesome sit-down joystick retro gaming. I played Zaxxon, Qix, 1942, Pooyan, Dong Kong 3, Time Pilot, Galaga, Space Invaders, Dig Dug, Ladybug, Xevious and Gunsmoke. Phew. I'm certainly going to look into getting one of these at some point down the road, it was so much fun. Good games really do stand the test of time. The rest of the evening was enjoyable, some highlights include : chocolate fondue, TR Racers and the kids opening their presents. Yesterday was a long day working outside. The plan always was to rake the leaves on Sunday... yesterday morning our neighbour's very elderly mother was outside with a broom sweeping leaves off her lawn onto ours. It was an odd sight. *headslap* So, raking got bumped up to top priority. I have one of those mulching leaf suckers. The mulching is nice since it reduces the number of bags I need (with four Maple trees can be a ridiculous number) but it makes a lot of mess and taking the bag on and off and on and off is pain in the ass. I wonder if just raking and bagging would less of a hassle. After raking, I finally finished cutting down all the limbs from the tree we cut down into smaller bagable pieces. I have a big pile of firewood now and no firepit. Ho-hum. Fortunately it was nice working outside as it was a beautiful and warm November day. As I was coming in from this bdot got home with her Mom (who stayed the weekend) with groceries. Apparently one of the bags of milk broke at some point and created a mess everywhere and ruined a bunch of stuff. Blah. The rest of the evening was pretty tame. I finished laundry and watched Walking Dead and Thor. It was an entertaining action film with some wonderful settings and spectacular special effects. With the Portman bonus the film is ! The inconsistent play of the Sabres at home has made the start of this season unexpectedly challenging. Additionally Miller let in three goals in 6m v. Philly and got pulled and Bronx cheered. I may have cheered too, that said, I don't understand why people appear to hate Miller. I listen to Sabres radio 550 a lot and some of the things people say are so ridiculously myopic. Do you not remember who was in net in Montreal a few weeks back when the team was flatter than a desert? Miller kept the team in the game and they still came out with two points. I like Enroth. What isn't to like? His numbers are very impressive, but he is still the backup. Should he play more? Sure. But Miller is the Sabres #1, stop trying to run him out of town. Fall back burned me this morning. I'm up an hour earlier. Lucky you, I finished this entry with my bonus time.

Watching : Sabres win two games this weekend!

Playing : WoW (PC)

#2120 Polar Bears, Sabres and Media
Posted : October 28, 2011, 9:23 am
Tags : Sabres Weather Politics Canada

Must be a slow news week for the media. The CBC (and most Canadian media) are running on and on with the This Hour Has 22 Minutes/Rob Ford story. They showed up at his house in the morning as he was going out the door to take his daughter to school. Apparently upsetting his daughter and freaking Rob out. I know if anyone shows up on my driveway at 8 in morning as I'm trying to get to work they'd be lucky if the only thing they got was my bad attitude. Yes he is a public figure, blahblahblah... so why not ambush him at City Hall when he is acting in his public capacity? Now I'm not a big Rob Ford fan... he seems like he can be an abrasive prick... but he was dealt a steaming pile to deal with in Toronto. Cleaning a mess of that magnitude (and having the balls to try to) is worth something. It is silly to think you can cut out the gravy without pissing some people off. And the CBC...well... it is nice to see the light on them right now. Taxpayers are giving them over 1B$ and it seems they are largely unaccountable for it and pad critics pockets and spend lavishly internally. Idunno, but for the average programming I've seen from the CBC, perhaps they should spend more time at work and less running around Toronto gagging political figures. Another odd, it must be a slow weed for newsarticle. Really? Hating on the Beaver? I don't mind the idea of the Polar Bear... but I see no reason to get rid of an icon, that IMHO stands for an industrious, hard-working, stubborn and steadfast animal. Sabres finally won a game at home! Vanek looked like a machine last night. Strong on the puck and determined to make plays. Now if only Leino, Stafford and Roy could appear... they were very invisible last night. Enroth is looking good and has looked good since he came to Buffalo. Some people, for reasons I can't understand, want to create a goalie controversy for some reason. Perhaps some deep seated undefinable hatred for Miller? I don't know? I wonder why some fans can't just be happy to have two great options between the pipes? Would you rather be the Flyers? *eyeroll* It is getting cold. Frost this morning and Sunday night is going to drop to -1. Brrrr.... Bdot's friends Bonnie and her family are over tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow we are heading to Collingwood with them for a spa day. I can't freaking wait to do nothing. I hope I don't fall alseep in the hottub and drown.

Watching : Sabres win their first home game!

Playing : Some WoW re-gearing my Rogue's PvP gear.

#2117 Killing in the name of
Posted : October 21, 2011, 3:51 pm
Tags : Sabres Politics bdot

Not sure what I think about the murder of Gaddafi. I often wonder what a top politician like him would have to say if they were made to stand trial. I'm sure there are many influential people and entities that would want him dead, and more importantly, his knowledge to die with him. I think it is a momentous occasion. It will be fascinating to witness the results of this 'Arab Spring' evolve. Ultimately it isn't surprising that he was killed in the streets. Human nature being what it is, being under his oppressive thumb for decades the sense of wrath and vengeance would have to be overwhelming. Hmm. Sabres are off to a 5-1 start! Miller got a shutout last night. Vanek is becoming a crazy scoring threat. Beware of #vanekslapshot. Myers is amazing. He seems to be everywhere when he is on the ice. Now if Leino and Boyes could start producing... So far it has been an impressive start to the first full season of the Pegula era. Ironically the only loss was at home. Not sure what is going on this weekend. I guess it depends if bdot is going huntin'. Boris on Sunday.

Watching : Sabres on nhlnetwork!

Playing : Neverwinternights Heroes (Facebook game)

Eating : A&W mmmm

#2114 Picturesque Thanksgiving
Posted : October 10, 2011, 10:53 pm
Tags : Family Friends Fall Sabres Food Home Canada

I left work early Friday so we could get a head start on the traffic headed North. Work was having our final BBQ of the year so I grabbed a burger to go. Yum. As usual we took a long time to drive up. Bdot's back was nagging her so we stopped in Bancroft at the Shoppers which was thankfully open. We arrived late in Killaloe and stayed at bdot's parents. Saturday we spent most of the day with bdot's family and various local friends. In the early afternoon we picked up Bonnie. We then drove into Wilno to pick up two paintings we bought before from Joyce Burkholder. They are amazing paintings...soon to be viewable in our home gallery. The hills in the area were ablaze with colour we wanted to get some photos. Bonnie knew an old back road to park on a lake. We stopped there for awhile and took some photos. The weather the entire weekend was ridiculous for October. It often felt like July... very hot. After will filled our photographic needs we stopped at another park and grabbed a few more. I don't know where any of these parks are or their names - I was just along for the ride. I quite liked the second park, it had a nice stream and some hiking trails. There wasn't much time to investigate the park... enough to grab more photos. We dropped Bonnie off at home and were heading to Round Lake for dinner... when we saw a little white dog walking down the road right at the car. If bdot didn't stop we would have ran the dog over. I don't know what the dog was thinking but it was the dog's lucky day in spades. Bdot is a big animal lover and we drove up and down the road trying to locate the dog's owner. Eventually someone suggested going to the Centre - the local store... so we did. The staff there suggested a house just down the road of a woman that loves animals and would likely help find the dog's owner. (It turns out a neighbour of hers had friends over... it was their dog. Nicely dog irresponsible dog owners, your dog was very nearly killed) Insert rant here about it being sad that anyone can own a pet. Anyway... after this run around we were later than we wanted to be to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner. One of bdot's Aunt's cooked up a feast for twelve of us. Before dinner there was a lot of drinking - included some select individuals taking -pulls- of Grey Goose Whiskey,some bocce and a lot of mingling. It was chaotic outside. There were three dogs on long lines constantly getting tangled and barking and fighting. It was a bit much for princess Tanga so we cabined her for the evening. One of dog's was Ali's new dog shamrock, Tanga didn't mind her, but they left before they could play the next day. After dinner the Men watched the Leafs edge by the Sens. The Sabres were one of the teams sent abroad to Germany and Finland to start their seasons. The Sabres won both their games in Europe and should be heading back home soon. After the game there was further revelry at the neighbour's. They wanted a fire so I built one. People were sitting around the firepit waiting for someone to make a fire... *shrug* The night wore on and eventually we called it a night. I'd certainly had enough to drink for one night. The cruel morning came... bright and loud. I was in a haze most of the day. We debated about heading home but, neither of us were in any shape to drive. Bdot's cousins had bailed by the time we returned to the cottage. So we chilled on her aunt's deck most of the afternoon. I had a glorious nap with the dog and plenty of restorative Round Lake air. Sunday was pretty chillax. We eventually headed back to bdot's parent's and crashed for the night. Not before some delicious chocolate truffle cake which her mother forced upon us. *cough* We left early Monday morning. (Well early for us, before 8:30...) It was a long seven hour drive home. We made numerous stops to take photos or grab food. We got home just before 3 and worked on the yard with the remaining light. Now I'm pretty tired. Zzzz...

Watching : Camelot (CBC Ep.4)

Eating : Chip truck!