Scheduling conflicts

I've got softball tonight.

And a 'Catters game. (By the way, the series is now knotted at two games a piece and could easily go 7)

The hockey game starts at 7 and the softball game starts at 9:30.

I'm hoping I can make both.

The hockey game should be over about 9:30 and it'll take me about 10 minutes to get to the fields. I can hope for a delay in the start so I get there when the game starts. If not, I'll be a little late and can be subbed in.

Of course, all that changes if the 'Catters game goes into OT.

Fun times, that's for sure.

'Catters update

My boys will be heading into Ford Arena tomorrow with the series knotted at 1 after exchanging 5-0 games with Florida.

Simply put, Tuesday night our guys looked awful and Florida took advantage.

I'm thinking the post-game interview with Coach Cameron went something like this:

The next night, the roles were reversed. Florida played like crap and we took advantage.

Games are Friday, Saturday, and Monday. I can't wait.

A little early, don't 'cha think?

Tonight the Democrats are hosting their first debate.

Am I the only one who thinks it's a little early? I mean, the primaries are still like nine months away.

I'll watch, but only to see if I can get an idea what Obama's made of.

Noodles loses his cool

Calgary Flames backup goalie Jamie McLennan was put in a game Saturday. He was roughed up a little and decided to go all Twisted Sister on Detroit's Johan Franzen.

Noodles is one of the members of the group that owns the Wildcatters. I'd heard nothing but great things about him from when he was down here during the lockout.

But man did he lose it there.

Put one in the win column

That's right, we won tonight.

We had two really close games. We won the first one 5-4 and lost the second one 7-6.

I had one plate appearance, but I don't want to talk about it.

There was a moment of confusion in the second game. We had runners on first and second and one out. The batter popped up towards third, triggering the infield fly rule. Since the ball wasn't caught, the runners both ran to the next base, and the ball was thrown to third and the runner called out.

End of inning, right?

Wrong.

The runner was never tagged, which I can vouch for since I was in the third base coaches box. Normally, it would have been a force out, but since an infield fly rule was called it wasn't a force play like the ump seemed to think.

One of our players talked it over with the ump, who admitted that we were right. We had runners on second and third with two outs. I'm a little fuzzy on what happened after that, but I do remember us bringing both of those runners in.

And that's the series, folks!

(Wildcatters Forward Olivier Proulx passes the puck during the third period of last night's game.)

Last night the Wildcatters beat Gwinnett 2-1 in overtime, allowing them to move on to face Florida in the South Division Finals.

It was a hard-fought game. Two periods of scoreless hockey, then the 'Catters took the lead on a power play goal. Gwinnett tied the game up with about three minutes left in regulation and the game was sent to overtime.

In the playoffs, teams will play 20 minute periods with 15 minute breaks until someone scores, so obviously you can get some really long nights. Since both goalies had only given up one in regulation and were standing on their heads, it was safe to assume that it could be a really long night

The referee decided to swallow his whistle and let the players play. We saw 19+ minutes of great hockey. Just as everybody was starting to accept that we'd be looking at another overtime period, Ben Thompson puts in the winning goal with 29 seconds remaining in the OT period.

The first game is at Florida on Tuesday night. If you're interested, you can listen to the radio stream or pay $6 for a video stream of the games. Both can be accessed from the team's website.

And, before you ask, yes I shot that picture up top.

I really hope we don't play on Sunday

Last night the 'Catters pulled out a 5-4 overtime win to take the series lead tow games to one.

Since it's a best of five series, that means the 'Catters can win this round on Friday night.

I'm hoping they do.

I'd rather not have to watch a do-or-die game five.

Sitting where I sit... right behind one of the goals... you realize just how close a lot of pucks come to going in.

Adding to that the fact that if you win you move on and if you lose you go hime... that's a lot to take.

I'm young and (relatively) healthy and I'm not sure if my heart could take it.

The solution to illegal immigration

From The Onion:

In The Know: The U.S. Moat

That's crazy enough to work!!!

Blogging will be light today

A panoramic view of Minute Maid Park that I shot in pieces at opening day last year and put together using some free program I downloaded somewhere.

Blogging will be light today because I'm planning on spending the day in Houston.

I'm gonna drive over, do some running around, and then head over to Minute Maid to see the Astros play the Marlins.

If you're gonna be there I shouldn't be hard to find, since I'll most likely be the only person there with a Wandy Rodriguez jersey on.

You know, just because I wanted something different when I shelled out all that money to get an authentic 'Stros jersey on my back.

Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

The return of dogblogging

Well, I finally shot some pics of the boys for y'all, and here's the one for this week without a goofy caption:

I just couldn't think of anything goofy for that cute little moment.

And  for y'all's information, the blue-ish tint in the pictures is caused by me not realizing that the white balance settings were set to flourescent instead of the default. I'd had it set on flourescent for a hockey game I was shooting and totally forgot I had it on there.

Oops.

My head hurts...

I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago: changing all my passwords.

The funny thing about doing that is that until you do them all at once you never realize just how many places you have to change it...

I swear I must have changed it at 30 places.

Oh, and on another note, I plan on resuming dogblogging tomorrow!

That big war-related post...

...that I hinted about on The Scratching Post follows:

Terry, a friend of mine and a member of the Marine reserves, has been called up to active duty and leaves Friday for Iraq.

Well, not straight to Iraq since he's got some training and stuff to go through first, but he will be.

I'm really not too nervous about him since he works in intel, but I know his mom enough to know that she's probably scared shitless. After all, she didn't want him in the Marines in the first place, although I think she came around when she saw him come back from boot camp.

Anyways, if it's your kind of thing, keep him and his family in your prayers.

Thank goodness for radio

I couldn't sleep, so I started flipping channels to see what's on.

I found the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks on Versus. I mean, I'm a Stars fan, but I'll admit I haven't been following them too closely with the 'Catters doing so well this year.

We're told that we're going to the fourth OT in just a minute by the intermission crew, but that's not what we get...

[WARNING: Expletive-laden rant below]

We get a fucking infomercial for some fucking workout machine.

I swear, I can't believe the NHL gave these fucking morons the right to broadcast their games to a national audience. With something like this, I wouldn't give them the right to broadcast it to my ex-girlfriend, much less an entire nation!

Thank goodness for the radio broadcasts being streamed over the web, or I'd be totally SOL.

I sent an email about it to Versus, but I doubt I'll get a response from that sorry excuse for a cable network.

Ok, maybe a "sorry for the incontinence" message, but nothing that will mean a flying fuck.

Naturally, as I was writing this, the Canucks got the game winner.

Just. Fucking. Wonderful.

I blame Versus.

Softball FINALLY resumed...

Yes... my wonderful softball league didn't rain out for once.

After a bye week and a rain-out, we finally got playing again, losing 12-9. It was a really good game, one we were in until the end (which is rare for us) We may be 0-for-forever, but we're having fun.

As far as myself, I got another fielders choice.

AB: 4
BA: .250
OBP: .250
K: 1
BB: 0
1B: 1
RBI: 0

These numbers are starting to look depressing... I'm really tempted to stop with them...

Oh... and next week... guess what...

ANOTHER BYE WEEK!!!

Seriously, are we ever going to get to play two weeks in a row?

Weeds

Yesterday we took Bruiser back to the vet to get the rash on his belly looked at.

The vet still thinks it's allergies, probably caused by some sort of weed in the backyard, and gave him a shot and two weeks worth of pills to help with the allergies, which seem to be helping.

Now I just need to weed the yard...

Blogging will be lighter than usual today

I keep getting told that I'm a year older today like it's a good thing.

22 just means you're another year closer to dying.

Oh well, at least I'm going to an Astros game today.

Regularly light blogging will resume tomorrow.

This is April, not February...

This is insane.

Usually this time of year we're starting to get into the 80's, not be like this.

All I can say is that it's really going to make tomorrow's trip to Houston for the 'Stros game a real blast.

Yes, I know, Minute Maid has a roof. But it doesn't have heat. Trust me, I've sat in there for the college classic with it hovering around 50 all day.

Fun times, indeed

NOTE: The above post probably makes no sense at all. That's what I get for blogging early on a Saturday.

The one thing we didn't need

The Wildcatters lost tonight and Florida's leading Augusta 5-3 with 6:24 left in the game.

Assuming Florida's score holds up (Augusta's a pesky third period team), that gives them the inside track on the division. The only way we can win it now is that my 'Catters have to win and the Everblades have to lose in regulation tomorrow night.

After spending two seasons as one of the worst teams in the league, It's been hard enough to wrap my mind around the idea that we could make the playoffs, much less win the division.

Funny how that happens, huh?

---

UPDATE: Florida won 5-4, so what I said up there stands.

Quick thought

The Iranians said they released the 15 British sailors as an Easter gift to the British people.

I didn't know Muslims celebrated Easter.

Let's face it, they did it to try to look like they're taking the high road... which is why they captured them in the first place, right?

Yes, their magic number went up

I screwed up...

With the way hockey standings work (getting two points for a win, one for losing in overtime) it's possible for a team to be in third and still have a higher magic number against them if the team in third hasn't played as many games as the team in second.

Which was the case.

I'd only done the math for the second place team, not the third.

Well, the third place team made up that game yesterday in a win over Pensacola, pushing them into second place. Since they own the tiebreaker against us as of now (they have one more win than us), the number had to be pushed up to six.

Confused yet?

Don't worry, I am too.

Basically we can clinch the division if:

• we win all three games we have left,
• we win two and Florida drops one in regulation,
• we win one and Florida drops two in regulation,
• or Florida wins all three they have left in regulation.

Of course, all that gets muddied up if there's an overtime loss by either team, but I'm not smart enough to figure out all the scenarios if that happens, so we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it.

I'm just hoping that the guys keep it simple for all of us and win all three, something I don't really expect since they're all on the road.

A new path

It is with a heavy heart that I am today announcing that I am leaving blogging.

It was a very tough decision to make, but I realized that I simply won't have the time for it with my new career in the male strip club industry.

It's been a great ride, with a lot of great people I've met along the way.

I'm really going to miss y'all.

Oh, and...

APRIL FOOLS!!!

You're not getting rid of me that easily.