I bear the mark!

Every once in a while life makes things interesting. In school we get the lesson and then take the test. But life prefers to give you a test and then teach you the lesson.

Case in point...

Last night was game 2 for my Ajax league. We were fresh off an 8-4 win last week but facing the league's comic relief team, The Pylons. They're a good bunch of guys with a great team spirit and in spite of the fact that they usually own the league basement we seem to have trouble with them.

The game actually went well and was pretty balanced and both of us goalies were keeping things interesting by frustrating the shooters. In the second period we were up 2-1 and I took a shot fairly high on my chest. Normally this isn't a problem but this time it really hurt. Sometimes that happens but the upper part of my sternum was really sore. I didn't think much of it and figured I'd have a pretty good mark where the puck had obviously hit me between two blocks of padding.

After the game I pulled off my chest protector and felt down inside my shirt. My hands made contact with my Celtic cross and it was BENT! I walked over to a nearby mirror to look at my chest and I had a lovely imprint of the Celtic cross outlined in red just slightly right of centre on my chest. Ouch...

Penny says its like I've been branded and I really should take a picture to show the mark, cuz its a good one.

So, kids, when you're playing a contact sport...take off the bling. Avoid the brand and the devil's mark.

(And for my next trick, ladies and germs, I'll be figuring out how to unbend my cross...coming up next!)

Muggy Monday

I swear the fall is supposed to be cooler, but with how I was sweating from the humidity today you would think it was the height of summer.

Even at home we're in this great personal comfort conundrum. Its too hot to be enjoyable in the house, yet the thermostat says it shouldn't be hot enough to require the A/C. Applying some logic to the situation, we know its not exactly a wise use of energy to be firing up the cooler air. So we try fans inside. They work. Unfortunately, that lovely air circulation doesn't extend itself to the GO train. I was regretting my choice of a dress shirt both on the way to work and on the way home.

Back in a moment....must tidy the kitty box

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I'm back. Miss me? (I swear that cat is suffering from some internal necrosis...that was nasty!)

Sorry...TMI, I know.

I know for a fact that my evening is guaranteed some air conditioning, because hockey starts tonight. Hockey also starts on Thursday night. (I love playing 2 nights a week...) Unfortunately, both starts are late ones (1o:30) so I'll be a mite sluggish for my 9:30 meeting tomorrow, but I'm told this is what caffeine is really for.

I hope your evening finds you cooler than this one...

Tidbits

Straight out of the "WTF?" file, hockey fans will be aghast to see that the New York Islanders have engaged in their latest round of silliness. Not content with signing Alexei Yashin to his 10yr-$70M contract, or with replacing easy come, easy go GM Neil Smith with their backup Goalie (Hello, Garth Snow), but the Isles finally went off the deep end. They had drafted Rick DiPietro as their goalie of the future a few years back and, well, its tough for a guy to play well behind a bad team. Just ask Marc-Andre Fleury. Anyway, Charles Wang (owner) decided that he really wanted to hang on to DiPietro. So he offered him a new contract.

A 15 year contract.

Worth $67.5M.

Guaranteed if he suffers a career-ending injury.

Holy crap.

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In other news...NASCAR officially created a new racing series in Canada - the Canadian Tire Series - by purchasing CASCAR (the small-time Canadian Stock Car circuit.)

Because Canada needs this. Really, we do. Because there wasn't enough reason to put a "3" sticker, complete with halo and wings, on your Monte Carlo or other GM product. News flash, folks. It was a race. He's Dead. Get over it. You don't see people doing that for Greg Moore or Gilles Villeneuve, do you? ~sheesh~

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A shout out to the folks over at Boatmen Blog (see links). I tripped over them today (first useful link I've found from the Red Star of Toronto, I mean Pravda, I mean, The Toronto Star. All those crazy-ass Argo fans can get their Frank D'Angelo bashing joys there.

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Condi Rice was apparently in Halifax yesterday to offer her thanks to the many Haligonians who took travellers in when flights were diverted because of 9-11. Wonder if she had to look for it on a map.

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The Steph actually Audioblogged. Colour me floored.

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I'm generally in a Fuck You kind of mood today. Could you tell? Oh, and, Larry? Lemme know how that new relationship is working out for ya. ;-)

Remote Friday

Hello from a not-too-distant place. Penny and I are out for a quick getaway and while she's tied up I thought I'd blog.

Got some nice news back from school with an update on marks for the big presentation my team did while I was in Victoria and the paper I had to submit after I returned. The marks were good and I got lots of constructive feedback on how to keep improving things, so I can't really complain. (We even had a blog assignment and I managed an A-. Do with that what you will.

Hockey is starting soon and the playoff runs for football are starting. My Argos are only 2 points behind Montreal for first place in the East and if they keep playing as well as they have recently, first place is not out of reach. dtrini, his DW and Penny and I will be attending the final Argos home game...fittingly against Montreal. Can't wait for that one.

Anyway, not a whole lot else to say. My next school course is going on and a lot of my writing energies are going there. Blogging for school? Who knew!

Hope all is well with everyone out there. I'm still lurking around and reading when I can and commenting when the mood strikes.

Best Time of the Year

(yes, my paper is done so now I can concentrate on more important things....at least until my next one is due)

My favourite sports weekend is this weekend. The Labour Day classics mark the run up to the playoffs for the CFL. I plan on spending Monday absolutely engrossed in the Calgary-Edmonton game, and then the Toronto-Hamilton game. Tonight is BC at Montreal (and although some experts are billing this as a potential Grey Cup preview, I don't think Montreal will get there. BC will definitely have its hands full with Calgary, if Henry Burris keeps playing well), although Saskatchewan looks like a dark horse.

Unfortunately, Monday also marks the start of my next course at Royal Roads. Apparently we don't worry about holidays when we do distance courses. ;-)

However, very little will get between me and football this Monday.

"It's the most wonderful time...of the year..."

On another note, I do plan to spend some time in the workshop this weekend, finally getting my workbench done. All that remains is the fitting and installation of the drawers and the final fitting of the top.

Then I get to dismantle the old one.

"Queequeg? Fetch me my pry bar!"