Mindless Juices

Lewis Black's HBO special is quite good. SO far, he's never dissappointed me with his specials. Sure they have their dry moments, but his good moments are so worth the wait. My particular favorite part is when he talks about being a Jew and the story of Christianity. I saved it in the hopes of converting to streaming video sometime soon. Just not tonight... Tonight, Tenna's coming over to check out our house. Hopefully, she likes purple and blue. I was thinking about it, and our house is simply perfect for a baby. I mean, the textured wall, the stripes, the bold colors... all very important to a babies mental stimulation. At least, I think so. Sooner or later, I'll need to move the office out of the upstairs bedroom to downstairs. I debated this move with myself to decide whether I was going to put up a fight with my wife over this move that was more ordered than requested. However, upon reflection of the situation, I realized why my wife is so brilliant and never really questioned her on the matter. Ultimately, it's the best place for the office to be. I can play my games as loud as I want without bothering my wife or coming child. Eventually, when we can afford it, we'll probably get a projector and screen. This means that a TV will probably end up downstairs JUST for game systems (or at least older game systems). The connections down there actually make for some interesting possibilities. As an example, with current gen consoles, two friends could bring over their Xbox 360s. One could hook up in the room downstairs, the other upstairs on the projector. They both can be networked by the CAT5 I ran between the two rooms. Resulting to multi-room multi-player gaming... yes, it's somewhat of a dream, but we are we without our dreams?

So, there's a storm camped out over the Raleigh/Cary area and the amount of lightning strikes is INSANE. It looks like Florida. This all translates to lots of work and lots of upset customers over the next few days. I'm REALLY looking forward to it. Meanwhile, I'm supposed to meet my wife at a store. I won't name the store, but we're going to look at stuff. This is stuff we haven't ever really looked at before. I'm a little weary, but I'm not sure why. I think I'm worried about pushy salespeople, but I think that's only in TV shows and movies. We went out to dinner last night and I got to hang out with Callie, our friend's 11 month old. She is quite adorable and somewhat fond of me. She smiles at me and stuff. After dinner, I got to hold her for a while and that was nice. Which takes me back to Daddy Boot Camp. Thats right.... it sounds weird, but as part of our education requirement for the adoption, I (meaning Sabrina) decided to attend Daddy Boot Camp last Saturday. This event was overshadowed by the NHL playoffs, but it deserves a mention. So, what I learned is: I'm not nearly as bad off as about 20 guys whose wives were literally a month or two away from birthing. It seemed like these guys had never held a baby before, never even seen a diaper changed, and really had not taken even a minute to pay attention to anything regarding being a dad someday. So, I got a big confidence boost. I know how to hold a baby... I'm not a big fan of passing a baby, but I'm getting better at that and I get less nervous with older babies. I know how to change a diaper. I've changed a few in my day, however, most were almost 10 years ago. But, I think it's like riding a bike. I learned some stuff like: 1.) "They" don't suggest using baby powder anymore. Apparently, it gets in the baby's nose and lungs and that's not good. 2.) Babies have flat noses so they can breathe while breastfeeding. This is somewhat useless information for our first child, but still something I learned. 3.) You can lay a child on its back and "bicycle" its legs to work gas out... burp 'em. 4.) Clinical studies have shown that babies enjoy watching football and hockey (not so much baseball and golf). They like the motion and colors. The Daddy Boot Camp specialists are working on trying to prove that this happiness is increased exponentially as the size of the screen increases (for both babies and daddies). Other than that, I've announced our adoption to my extended family via our family websites on MyFamily.com. So far, there's only been one person who has gotten on the site and she wished us luck, etc. It was nice and I hope the word gets around. If not, I'm sure there will be some talk when we go up for a wedding in July.

Well, guess what? That's right, The Carolina Hurricanes... my Carolina Hurricanes are the Stanley Cup Champions of 2006. After one hell of a year, this team deserves it. Why, you ask? In February, Erik Cole was boarded and suffered a massive neck injury. Specifically, he had three fractured vertebrae. He was on track to have a killer season. At the time, I think he had something like 25 goals in 50 games. It was a huge blow to the 'Canes' offense. Erik was our breakaway specialist and his chemistry with various lines was just starting to boil. Glen Wesley has played more playoff games than any other active player in the NHL WITHOUT winning a Stanley Cup... until last night. Cam Ward, this 22 year old rookie goalie, performed like a veteran throughout the season and the playoffs. His composure and skill was simply unbelievable. Keep in mind that his BACKUP, was the goalie for the Swiss national team in Torino. Moreover, Cam grew up admiring the Oilers... they were HIS team... he watched Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier win cup after cup. Ray Whitney used to be the stick boy for the Edmonton Oilers. Doug Weight was injured in game 5 and sat out for games 6 and 7. And, Rod Brind'amour who took the reigns from Ron Francis, our last captain who took us to the finals a few years ago... Rod led this team like no other captain has led. According to his teammates, he IS the leader of this team. On the ice, it's Rod Brind'amour who has either started or sealed almost every "come-from-behind" victory. During the playoffs, after Rod gave his captain's speech to the team, Peter Laviolette had nothing else to say; Rod had covered it all. And speaking of Peter Laviolette, he took our U.S. team to the Olympics... sure, they didn't do such a good job, but the honor of being the coach is huge. Also, keep in mind that he only had a matter of weeks, and in some cases, a matter of days to take individual hockey players and make them a team. My point is, the U.S. Olympic committee knew Pete was a fine coach and with a Stanley Cup under his belt, he's proven it. Last night, the 'Canes played their absolute best. Skating, passing, shooting, hitting and defense were all played the 'Canes way... hard & fast & accurate. The chemistry was as good as it ever looked throughout the season despite it being Cole's second game after returning, pulling Joe Vasicek and putting in Chad LaRose, Doug Weight being out on injury and a last minute line change to Eric Staal's offensive line. The Oilers played well and played hard, but it's tough to win three games in a row. The 'Canes had the energy and "the seventh man" of the fans at the RBC Center who remained standing throughout the entire game. Read some articles: Pay attention to the hospitality of Caniacs Cam Ward wins the Playoff MVP Trophy and honor Photos from Caniac fever sweeping the capitol Other blogs with pics: Nick's Angela's Josh's

So, tropical depression Alberto dropped a lot of rain on North Carolina. It has resulted in a lot of flooding in Raleigh and Cary. In fact, BOTH sides of the road that my office is on is actually closed off! Now, that may sound like I'm not going home today, but there's a parking lot on the corner that we can cut through and escape. Thank goodness... But some people weren't so lucky. A 13 year old boy drowned in a drainage pipe in Franklin Co. Also, Crabtree Valley mall is MORE than flooded, it's just screwed. I got this shot off a DOT traffic cam: Our next door neighbors had some vehicles in their parking lot that needed to get towed out because the flood waters were so high. We tried to order a pizza so no one had to go out in the mess and/or contribute to the traffic out there. Unfortunately, EVERYONE had the same idea and all three pizza joints nearby had 90-120 minute wait times. I ended up venturing out for me and my officemate. The waters are rising and getting out of this office MAY actually be difficult in not too very long. Wish me luck.

For the game tonight, some more TRUE HURRICANE FACTS! 11.) If you ask Kevyn Adams what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds 'til." After you ask, "Two seconds 'til what?" he checks you into the boards. 12.) Faster than a speeding bullet ... more powerful than a locomotive ... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... yes, these are some of Josef Vasicek's warm-up exercises. 13.) Time waits for no man, unless that man is Ray Whitney. 14.) Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Cory Stillman slapshot. 15.) Justin Williams once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink. Yes, these are just adapted Chuck Norris facts, but they're adapted well (if I do say so myself). The funny part is, you could put "Rod Brind'amour" in wherever you see "Chuck Norris" and "slapshot" in wherever you see "roundhouse kick" and you'd have some really great Rod Brind'amour facts... most of which would be completely true. Meanwhile, work is crazy resulting in a recent lack of posting. So, that's a big apology to my faithful reader. No, that's not a typo. You are the only one reading this. And, thanks. However, tonight, we are having a viewing of the game... yes, it's not a party... a party implies talking and socializing... tonight, there will be many people at our home, eating muchies and viewing the game. Instead of socializing, they will cheer on our Canes and yell at the referees' bad calls. Oh, Edmonton Oilers, don't worry... we lost the Stanley Cup two years ago... maybe in two years, you can win one, too. No, but seriously, Edmonton has won The Cup enough times... we're due and we're bringing it to NC, baby!

Carolina Hurricane's win! WOO! Woo, woo!!! We're up 2-0 in the series against the Oilers. In an unfortunate turn of events in game 1, a Oiler defensemen put a hit on a 'Cane in front of the Oiler net. The collision rolled into "Roli," the goalie, and injured his knee. That's a big blow to the Oilers game. It may have been a major factor in the 5-0 shutout in game 2. Now, we head to Edmonton and try to beat the Oilers on their home turf. For the road, I offer these TRUE HURRICANE FACTS: 1.) If you open up a can of whoop-ass, Bret Hedican will pop out. 2.) Before he goes to bed, the Boogey Man checks his closet for Mike Commodore 3.) Objects in Rod Brind'amour's mirror appear at the correct distances. 4.) Life is like a box of chocolates; You never know when Frank Kaberle is going to check you into the boards. 5.) Eric Staal *IS* allowed to ask about Fight Club. 6.) One time, Aaron Ward lost his keys. He then spent the next 30 minutes torturing himself until he gave up the location of his keys. 7.) Cam Ward does not sleep. He waits. 8.) Andrew Ladd is the reason Waldo is hiding. 9.) Matt Cullen can lead a horse to water AND make him drink. 10.) Glen Wesley can slam a revolving door.