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Jan 31
– As the first month of 2012 comes
to an end, the hockey “flavor de
jour” continues to be concussions or
concussion like symptoms. The whole
swirl around this subject covers all
aspects of the game from Minor
Hockey House League to Professional
Superstars to NHL team viabilitity
through the need or use for
enforcers to the role or need for
body checking and on and on and on.
The news around
Sidney Crosby is the harbinger of
activity at the NHL level – the
supposed revelation of “cracked
vertebrae” to the Penguin’s claim of
“soft tissue” damage – where and how
did that happen. Taking almost a
year off to recover, claiming to
come back healthy and then only
playing 8 games before going back on
the shelf raises the concern about
whether the games “best” player will
ever suit up again?
For the
Penguins, his loss on the ice is
challenging enough but then you
start looking at financial impacts
and an
article in today’s Star talks
about the risk that NHL teams may
face in their ability to even be
able to get insurance around
concussion or brain injuries to
their players. It looks like an
insurance company is going to be
eating most if not all of Crosby’s
estimated $9 million a year salary.
That takes a lot of premium money to
recoup and imagine if a team had to
eat it on its own? How many could
afford it and still ice a
competitive team.
With collective
bargaining coming up, look for
player contract security issue to
sneak to the forefront. Guarantees
versus no guarantees, cut versus no
cut, injury clauses etc.
On the minor
hockey front there is still debate
on the merits of allowing body
checking in House League or
recreational hockey – or not.
Regardless of personal opinions,
more and more associations and
governing bodies are banning body
checking at that level, leaving the
ones that are left in an ever
smaller and increasingly “out of
favour” environment. The PCMHA
(Pacific Coast Minor Hockey
Association) has joined the ranks of
those removing body checking as they
have eliminated it for next season.
Again the decision is not popular
with all, but it seems clear that
that is the way things are going.
Nanaimo is particularly against
the ban but seem to have fought a
losing battle despite all the normal
and in many ways legit arguments.
The PCAHA (the
Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey
Association), another BC governing
body representing 42 minor hockey
associations also voted Jan 2 ( 123
– 37) to
eliminate body checking from
recreational (house or C) level.
With this
movement afoot, the very clear
direction of the OHF, and the
“acceptance” by the GTHL (not my
favourite entity) of the no body
checking edict, you have to wonder
why the OMHA and by extension two of
its largest members (Oakville and
Brampton) have chosen, in my
opinion, to circumvent the clear
intent if not the absolute rule of
their governing body by creating
what many simply view as an
artificial “distinction” in the
Minor Development area. The teams
are House League, Minor Development
was not a feature of OMHA hockey,
Select was, Select are not allowed
to play with body checking and if
you care to look you will see that
the official OMHA rosters show these
teams as “SL”! I think you can guess
where SL comes from and it is
nowhere close to “MD”. Why?
Hockey Day in
Canada – is coming and so far I have
not heard too much to do about it.
Maybe that is because it is way off
in P.E.I. (Charlottetown and
Summerside). Hopefully the interest
picks up.
Back to top
Jan 30
– Friday night was another GO
(misnomer) Train special as my 5:34
Express – managed to get me to
Clarkson in just under TWO HOURS!.
Their was apparently an unfortunate
pedestrian incident near Port Credit
but TWO HOURS on a Friday night –
don’t need it.
Managed to wrap
up another weekend in which hockey
was only a peripheral component. The
“hockey” time was spent updating
content for the FSMT site to include
a bunch of photos and other stuff to
cover off the results of the 2012
event – FSMT #11. It does not seem
like 11 years / events have gone by
but they have. Kudos to the Beaver
for getting the FSMT results into
the paper last Wednesday – hot on
the heels of the Sunday wrap-up. I
usually whack them for their delay
in publishing house League stuff so
it is only appropriate to recognize
their efforts this time. My only
beef is that I have once again been
robbed of a photo credit for the
Eagles team picture that was
published. How am I ever going to
establish my new career as a
photo=journalist if I can’t even get
credit in the local paper.
I did manage to
not watch or display any interest in
the NHL All Star farce over the
weekend. I have really no interest
in supposed All Star games as they
are not games per say but rather
glorified shinny. A 12 – 9 final
score should make it clear to any
hockey fan that this “game” is just
a joke, so that I hope anyone who
did watch it, did so under no
illusion that it actually was
professional calibre hockey.
$20 – does make a
difference.
In getting ready for the FSMT, I had
snagged an old notebook that I
planned to use at the rink
headquarters to track and update
scores for the web as well as
keeping update notes and other
documentation. However, once I got
the necessary operating system (Win
7) and working software (Office and
Norton) installed it turned out that
the beast was unbelievably slow and
utterly useless for that plan.
Instead, I used my old notebook with
XP etc., but also with an alarming
and unpredictable tendency to
overheat and drop dead. However, we
managed with only minor stress and
got through the event.
On the weekend, I
decided to check out the old beast
and found that it only had 512 Meg
of RAM. An attractive number in
olden days but essentially useless
today. As it is a pretty solid
machine I went on-line to check it’s
specs – the joys of Internet, Google
and corporate sites, and found it
could take up to two Gigs of RAM –
replace the base 512 Meg chip with 1
Gig and add a second chip to an
available slot. Next, surf to Tiger
Direct and price out two 1 Gig DDR2
533 Mhtz SODIMMs at $12 each. Such a
deal! Off to TD I go just to run
into the classic “Bait & Switch”.
Guess what – no cheap RAM but we
have these wonderful – read more
expensive - Kingston 1 Gig DDR2 677
Mhtz SODIMMs that should work and
they are only $22 each! Stuck – so I
still bought two, in typical IT
fashion escalating the cost of my
upgrade to $44 from $22 (a 91% cost
overrun). I took them home and
rather than tearing the notebook
apart to get at the primary slot, I
just popped one in the more
accessible expansion slot and fired
it up to see if they would work.
Presto, it picked it up right away,
recognized RAM at 1.5 Gig and
actually ran Win 7 and my apps at a
reasonable (not lightning fast)
pace. Now I have to decide whether
it is worth the risk of tearing the
machine apart to replace the 512 Meg
chip or just leave it alone. And see
if I can refund my one chip? TBD.
Cultures
– While Jane
and I are thrilled to have a
granddaughter, in some cultures –
not so much!
Article in today’s Star about an
Afghan man who allegedly killed his
wife because she delivered a
daughter. Apparently it was his
second daughter and he wanted a son.
Just another wonderful human rights
story to stack up there beside the
Kingston murder trial and verdicts.
A Prince of a Guy
– In all the excitement, I forgot to
comment on my Tigers’ signing of the
Prince – Fielder that is for $214
Million over 9 years. I think this
is now the second highest baseball
contract ever, eclipsed only by
Arod’s Texas deal. How much do you
want to bet that big Daddy Cecil is
not a bit green on this one. He
could hit a few too but his
greenbacks were peanuts compared to
this. The numbers are “nuts” on a
rational sense, but an interesting
spin here is that the tigers owner,
Mikey, is 82 years old and likely
has little to no interest in what
happens 8 or 9 years from now. He
wants another Series and he likely
wants it now where it is still green
side up for him. Can’t blame him and
he is one owner who has not been
reluctant to sink his own money in
his teams and stay the course to
build and maintain a winner – as
evidenced by some of the tougher
times he went through with the
Wings. If nothing else it will
hopefully make for some “Power Ball”
in Detroit as they will need the
offensive stats to cover what will
likely now be a somewhat suspect
defence. All they need is no hit
pitching and all hit batting to make
up for no catch defence!
It’s almost
February – therefore almost spring
training – that’s how you wish
winter away.
Back to top
Jan 26
- Missed a day yesterday - BUT - for
a good reason. After a busy weekend
with the FSMT, I was bagged and then
Shaun and Becky asked Jane to look
after Ben on Wednesday so I decided
to take an R&R day and get some
quality time with my grandson.
What I have not shared with readers
is that Shaun and Becky were
expecting grandchild number two in
early February and Wednesday was
partially to give Becky a break . .
. BUT. . .
Guess who decided to go into labour
and:
at
approximately 9:15 PM last evening
the Moorehead clan expanded to
include Lilian Grace Moorehead, 8
lb., 2 Oz.
whatever the heck that is in metric.
We got to keep Mr. Benjamin
overnight and needless to say
yesterday's plans got knocked into
the proverbial cocked hat! My
apologies to the folks I was to meet
with last night as one of the
casualties.
Jane and I were over tonight to meet
the newest young lady in our family
and as Jane says "she's a
sweetheart". Jane got to hold her -
I stayed away and played with Ben as
I'm not too sure about what to do
with the little ones. Lots of
challenges for those two parents who
will now be chasing "Two under Two"!
Yikes!
FSMT - event post the
tournament there is lots to do to
tie up loose ends and get the info
updated and out to folks. Already
received photo requests for the few
shots I have got up on the site but
that's great. The more that we can
promote the event the better we can
make it for future years. We have
already been talking about 2013.
Anyway, the Champs and Finalists are
posted, Winners of the skills are
up, Still need to put up info on the
sportsmanship winners and a bunch of
other photos plus housekeeping
stuff. Just need to find time to do
it.
Sport Oakville - AGM is
coming up - February 9th in the
Oakville room at the Town Hall. Some
reports to prep for that. I have
been a director for the past two
years and had hoped to accomplish
more. Sport Oakville is a great idea
and can provide some great resources
or context for Oakville sport groups
and members but like most
organizations today, it is tough to
find volunteers or ways to make the
commitment to really move things
ahead. It will be interesting to see
the turn-out and response on the
9th.
Back to top
Jan 24
– two days in a row, classic
example of fits and spurts. Likely
won’t have much as still a boatload
of post game FSMT stuff to do,
especially around web site updating.
It is important to get that done
ASAP as folks like to check back
early and see what’s there. Note to
self – next year – get a video of
skills relay as this is a quick, fun
and very fan active event to
demonstrate some of the specials we
offer. I probably should have just
taken my mini-cam out on the ice and
grabbed one this year but a) wasn’t
sure what folks might think, b)
needed to be the “judge” and 3) did
not want to fall on my butt or get
run over!
As it is, I have
a couple hundred shots to convert,
web size, sort and post, not to
mention some editorial stuff,
scoring summaries, skills results,
sportsmanship awards, etc., etc.,
etc. Given we get to look after Ben
tomorrow, I think I will take the
day off for some R&R and updates.
Pink Rink
– there are emails circulating
around about the Blades game this
Friday and the Paint the Rink Pink
theme to raise money for breast
cancer research. Breast cancer is
something that has touched a lot of
lives, ours included as we lost a
great young lady and mother(our
niece) to this disease a couple of
years ago at only 37 years of age.
It is a worthy cause and I encourage
anyone who can to head off to the
Blades game Friday and make a
contribution. For those who can’t
get there, find a way to make a
contribution anyway and help us
fight this battle.
NHL All Star
Game - Will be without the
league's two biggest stars - both
head injuries - one a concussion -
to Sid the Kid and one "ego?" - for
the Crazy 8. Crosby is easy to
understand and accept - don't know
if he will be there for any of the
festivities but Ovechkin is another
story. The big guy picked up a three
game vacation for a head hit (not
penalized in the game) so he is p
&%&$#% ed and has advised the league
that suspended means suspended (he
has a point) and he is not going to
play or participate but will take
his toys and go home.. The league
not wanting a battle with one of its
stars lets it ride and the team
backs him. Too bad as he is a great
player, a bit of a clown and a great
showman . Regardless, he is a role
model for a lot of kids and is this
what you want to see?
So remind me
again why we bother with this circus
called an All Star game?
Back to top
Jan 23
– Hard to believe that I have not
posted in over two weeks. Despite my
best intentions time is flying by
and early January was an even bigger
blur than the Xmas season.
As an example, last
week was not blog friendly as among
other things it included a trip to
Halifax (with a nice dinner at one
of my favourite restaurants – The
Five fishermen), The annual Marine
Club cocktails and dinner and last
minute preparation for the 11th
annual Frank Sabatino Memorial
Tournament. Needless to say, the
blog got short shift.
Having said that,
it sounds like I better get back at
it, as over the weekend I had two
external prompts to get get my act
together. One, an interesting note
from a Saskatchewan reader who is
also an author with a hockey book
out and the second from an
“out-of-town” coach at the
tournament who chastised me for
being slack lately as he said that
the blog is the only way he hears
about what is happening in Oakville
MOHA! Poor Guy - Not sure about that
one.
FSMT
– As noted, this past weekend was
the 11th annual Frank
Sabatino Memorial Tournament – an
event near and dear to me. It seems
that every year the core organizing
group – Debbie, Shona, Hans and
Reggie do a superb job and end up
with a tournament that is even
better than the prior year even
though we never seem to think that
is possible.
They did it again
in 2012 with the "best ever" event.
The “goodie bags” were so bountiful
(and heavy) that we had to pack each
teams’ haul in a contractor’s
garbage bag – and that did not
include any drinks!
(Hans phoning for
help!)
The bags were so
heavy that in many cases we had to
help poor “Mom Manager” schlep them
to the room or her vehicle as there
was no way she could even drag it
that far let alone carry it. A
special thanks to all those sponsors
who contributed to the “loot” as
this year’s FSMT souvenir backpack
will be a hit in a lot of
households.
In principle,
“news” and pics should go first to
the papers – the Beaver and Oakville
Today, and hopefully they will run
stuff and then second to the
www.fsmt.ca site so I won’t
pre-empt stuff here – yet, but I
will relate one story.
Every year
after the event when we sign off
the last game, we get together
at tournament headquarters to
“share” some memorable moments
and, or stories about the
current year’s event. This year,
one of mine was:
I was alone
working in HQ when a “mom”
walked in and said she just
wanted to tell us how great this
tournament was, it was so well
run, so organized, the kids got
such great goodie bags, the
unbelievable skills competition,
the player of the game awards,
the Sportsmanship Awards, game
music and that the funds were
going to such a good cause.
She said she
had been to a lot of tournaments
and this one was the best she
had ever attended. She then
added that she did not know that
there were tournaments like
this!
Since we like
to know where feedback comes
from, I thanked her for her kind
words and asked her where she
was from?
Imagine my
surprise at her response –
“Oakville”!
The why we do it
is easy. First of all, I think we
all love the game of hockey, whether
that has been as a player, parent,
spectator, coach, volunteer, league
contributor or whatever or all of
the above. That “love” gets
reflected and returned in the happy
face of each kid that we see on or
off the ice with an active and
positive experience in the sport.
Nothing brings that smile and
sparkle out like the sheer fun of
tournament hockey at “the big
event”. The “out-of-town /
overnight” special for the house
league player. The surprises in the
goodie bag. The thrill of being
picked and awarded as the “player of
the game”. Participating in the
skills competition individually and
part of a team. Making the semis on
an overtime goal. In the FSMT the
unique personal touch of the
Sportsmanship award. And ultimately
as almost an afterthought, the big
championship win and trophy
presentation. So many chances for so
many smiles.
For many of our
participants I expect that this will
be the highlight of their hockey
season and maybe (stretching it just
a bit) their hockey career! Our
ability to provide that “fun” for
these kids is reward and
satisfaction for us all. That was
unfortunately really brought home to
me at this year’s event. As most
folks are aware from the media
coverage, an Oakville family tragedy
last week left three young boys
parentless. Two of those youngsters
(Thomas and Joshua) were
participants in this year’s event
and the third plays in the local
association as well. I hope we
provided at least a brief moment of
fun for them as respite from their
troubles. For anyone who is
interested, a trust fund account
(transit number #0006 398 6401) has
been set up for the three surviving
sons of Katherine Newman and Kyle
Newman.
Donations for the
education and care of Thomas, 12,
Joshua, 10, and James, 7, may be
made at any Bank of Montreal to
Account 3986401 or can be made
online at
http://www.NewmanBoysTrustFund.ca/
.
A tournament
highlight for me was Shaun and Becky
bringing Big Ben over to the rink
for a visit with Grandpa. Ben is a
real boy with this thing for
"trucks" so he was mesmerized by the
Zamboni and wanted to go rink to
rink to watch it and kept asking
where it was? I finally took him
into SM! the big bowl to watch the
flood and his eyes were glued to the
Zamboni through every lap. A special
thanks to the Zamboni driver who saw
Ben watching and honked the horn for
him!
Let see, he's 19
months old - when can I get him into
"the Game"!
10:30 PM - info
off to the Beaver, paperwork done
(almost) tired - time to call it a
day!
Back to top
Jan 4
– Leafs win and Juniors lose. I
would have much preferred the
reverse but twas not to be. I did
see the first goal and wonder how
deflating that was. Successfully
kill off a bad call penalty (high
stick – his own guy hit him) and
then make a bonehead move in the
offensive zone when you are carrying
the play that results in a turnover
and the puck in the back of your
net. Funny how last year when they
lost in the championship game
(meltdown) it was the topic de jour
at the water cooler. Today, I don’t
think anyone has even mentioned it.
Sweden versus Russia – there go the
ratings into the dumper. Will it
still be a redneck full house?
Meanwhile in Leaf
Land, Colton Orr gets waived (not
waved but it could be goodbye
anyway). Are the Buds trying to free
up a roster spot for someone or is
this a “statement” on “enforcer”
hockey. Don’t know, Leafs are not
saying and with no disrespect meant
to Mr. Orr who regardless is a much
better player than I, the Leafs
should be able to make an order of
magnitude improvement in that roster
spot.
Cat food
– on a whole new twist, you would
think that if you were a billionaire
you would not have to eat “cat” –
i.e., a hotpot of cat meat. However,
Long Liyuan a 49 year old Chinese
billionaire businessman, punched out
after dining with some “friends” on
the local delicacy. Apparently cat
meat stew is a good way to poison
someone with some delightful herbs.
Maybe not such a great idea though
as one of his luncheon companions
has been arrested for the evil deed.
He ate it and got sick as well but
not enough to kill him.
The Plan -
try to post more regularly -
probably not as much content - work
with my schedule. Cut-off for
tonight as I have a pile of FSMT
stuff to get done for our meeting
tomorrow night.
Back to top
Jan 3 – A
whole new year.
I went back to work today, a day
earlier than I planned as I was
ordered out of the house and was
caught up between going stir crazy
and a reluctance to get embroiled in
the “Honey Do” list. When I sat down
at my desk this morning and checked
my vacation times, I realised that I
had only burned 2.5 vacation days
this year as my Xmas holiday. I
can’t remember ever taking that
“short” a break before. I must admit
I had second thoughts when I dragged
myself out of bed at 6:00 AM and
realized I had to venture out into
the freezing cold – in the dark.
When I did get to the office though
I did end up having a quite
productive day in cleaning up some
old business and prepping for 2012
as a lot of my colleagues either had
not resurfaced or were playing the
same “hunker down” game I was.
Kobo
– Another one of
the electronic toys I picked up at
Xmas – great gift – the “Touch”
version. I am getting “touch”
screens everywhere – two tablets and
a Kobo. I find myself poking at my
notebook screen and wondering why
nothing is happening. I found too
that you have to lay off the jelly
doughnuts when dealing with these
devices or as Ben would say “Oh Oh”!
As a book lover /
inveterate reader, not sure how I
will take to the “paperless” reading
world but will give it a go. Already
discovered it may be a major cost
savings opportunity as rumour has it
/ reliable sources indicate that
there are freebie books out there.
Shades of the old mp3 world for
music. Of course, an upstanding
citizen like moi would never
participate in such a nefarious
scheme. (what was that URL again –
and by the way, Calibre is great
shareware for E-Book management).
Canada – Russia
– Instead of sucking up to the West,
this game should have been on
earlier. Us old geezers just don’t
have the stamina anymore to watch a
9:00 PM start and then get up early
for work the next day. I could even
live with an 8:00 PM but not 9. I
got to see the Swedes pull the
patented 3rd period
cardiac comeback and beat Finland in
a shoot-out, but I would much rather
have watched the Canada – Russia
game. I must admit though that
Canada’s lack lustre play in the
last half of the USA game does not
really fill me with confidence for
tonight. Especially if they are
nursing some key injuries and have
the flu bug making the rounds. Hope
I am wrong but I guess I will have
to wait until morning to get the
goods on that.
Leafs –
trade Caputi for Deschamps – who –
what? This is big news? The last ten
games or so the Leafs have worked on
their patented (second time same
blog) slide and are now in 10th
place in the conference – AKA – out
of the play-offs. This trade will
make zero difference and may be a
bit of a smoke screen for the
guardians of the hemp hut
controversy that is bubbling to the
surface. Storyline now is that
neither Reimer or the Monster have
the experience needed for “the
stretch drive”. Mayhap, this should
have been evident before the season
started, not halfway through as
classic excuse #106. What retread
wily veteran are the powers that be
going to pull out of the proverbial
hat as the messiah to lead them to
the promised land - top 8 - and more
games/ticket sales? Another Duck
Deal? If they don’t show some gains
in the current home stand, I think
it would be kind to hang the R.I.P.
banner on another season. Too bad
they are making so much money or
maybe they might feel a little more
pressure to produce. Extend the
contracts, fatten the parachutes and
bail out!
Back to top
Dec 31
– it's all a blur. My last post was
December 16 over two weeks ago. The
week before Christmas went by in a
flash with a lot of year end work
around the office, the normal
festivities, and some seasonal prep
work -- mostly around rolling my
eyes about the amount of decoration
going on at Chez Moorehead. A small
component shown below as I don't
want to scare you with ALL of the
stuff
And I mean ALL of the stuff -
location by location, room by room!
I worked a half day on the 23rd and
ended up using Friday night to get
ready for Saturday morning which was
when Shaun Becky and Ben were coming
over to open gifts with us. That was
also popcorn night as I made four
buckets - two double batches of my
secret caramel toffee popcorn. A
requirement for every Xmas, New
Year's and assorted other special
occasions.
Clearly the star of the show
Saturday was young Mr. Benjamin who
made out like a bandit. Notice him
playing "King of the World" standing
on the hassock with his pile of
gifts. And this was just at our
house and some gifts.
Grandpa still has it! The hit of the
day, as it should be, was the
stereotypical big yellow Tonka dump
truck -- followed closely by
Andrew's tractor. Only the dump
truck will be featured here as that
was one of the items that grandpa
put under the tree. It was in the
big box above and shown below with
Ben checking it out. Off course I
had to get him the front end loader
to go with it - but - he loved the
truck!
The same picture makes a nice screen
background on my computer.
Later that day, it was off to
Dietrich's to pick up the 28 pound
turkey -- fresh only -- as we have
scaled back from the 38 pound
monster that we cooked last year.
This one actually fit in the roast
pan without the legs sticking out
and getting burnt to a crisp. Then
it was back home and get everything
ready for the herd (known as
Jane's family) to descend on us on
Christmas Day.
Saturday night, I also caught on to
the online Boxing Day sales that
started early. Rather than get up at
the crack of dawn on the 26th to get
in line with hundreds of deal
seekers and yahoos and risk getting
trampled, frozen and, or shut out,
it was much easier to simply go
online Saturday night on the 24th,
order the same items, for the same
price, with free delivery. I managed
to play Santa Claus for myself -- a
little out of control I might add --
and get a new video camera, a
second projector (Andrew stole the
one I bought without getting
trampled last year for his basement
man cave and Sunday NFL football
with the posse), and a new external
hard drive as coincidentally one of
my existing ones decided to go
"platters up" the day before. So
much for having to even consider
Boxing Day sales -- they are now off
my list, hopefully forever
Sunday, Christmas Day was the big
"Powell side" family event at our
place with most of Jane's family
able to attend. I think I spent more
time in the kitchen on Sunday then I
had all year before that. I found
out we had a dishwasher (I did two
full loads and was not done) and
everything.
Monday was round two, as we were off
to beautiful downtown Toronto for
the Moorehead clan's annual Boxing
Day Christmas dinner, hosted this
year at Colleen's house. Part of the
festivities this year was a secret
Santa gift exchange where everyone
received a number and when it was
your turn you could either take a
gift from under the tree or steal
someone else's. Not exactly in the
spirit of Christmas and all and good
old Lucky me managed to pull number
one as my ticket. As the first one
to draw a gift, I had it stolen
almost immediately and then also
lost my second and third gifts as it
seemed like I was the designated
target. Anyway, all was in good fun
and a great time was had by all. As
part of the festivities, Colleen had
put together a Moorehead cookbook
with family recipes and pictures
which was a wonderful gift
especially as the lead recipe
features my secret caramel toffee
popcorn recipe -- I guess it's not
so secret anymore - but it is good
and always in demand. Other than
that, my photo "sucked" but I can
live with that.
I did have to feel sorry for my
brother Scott who ended up with a
Justin Beiber talking teddy bear as
his gift. It made my Nerf football
and stuff look good. He does live in
Stratford so I guess it was
appropriate!
From Tuesday until today has just
flown by. First, I had to wait for
my new toys to be delivered to see
if the pre-Boxing Day Boxing Day
sale plan worked out-- which it did.
Then I had to do some major office
cleanup to figure out where I was
going to put everything as well as
to figure out how it worked. Then,
as soon as the weather turned cold,
our thermostat decided to die on us,
creating yet another opportunity to
go shopping at Canadian Tire and
then fiddle around to try and get it
installed properly. Of course the
first attempt was unsuccessful as
one of the wires from the old
thermostat broke off when it was
connected to the new one and of
course that was not visible when it
was put together. When it didn't
work, of course the assumption was
that the furnace was now on the
blink which created a whole
different stress level - as the
temperature in the house continued
to drop requiring yet another trip
to Canadian Tire to get another
heater to try to keep the house
bearable until a service rep was
available (not until the next day)..
Fortunately when I took it back
apart in frustration and with faint
hope, and checked everything again,
I found the broken wire and managed
to fix it.
Fit into this spending time getting
material ready for the Frank
Sabatino Memorial tournament and
just general all around other stuff,
with a few work calls, and it has
been a very busy period. no wonder
there was no time for blogging and
the time disappeared. For the first
time ever, since we were involved
with hockey that meant I did not get
out to see any of the Richard Bell
Memorial tournament. Jane got out
briefly, but I missed it as I like
to get out to see some of the
European teams play. Hope it all
went well.
Oh yeah - to my toy list I can add
now also add a Kobo reader - so we
will see how that goes and I also
got and "cracked" my second TouchPad
(a 32 gig this time) so that it is
now a dual boot WebOS and Android
system device. I think that
technically voids my HP warranty but
what the "heck". Hopefully I have an
in there if something goes wrong. I
have to admit that it is nice having
access to all those Android apps but
I still think the WebOS is a cleaner
operating system.
Lots more I could cover - including
my candy making experience (note to
self - make sure you watch the
thermometer closely when it gets
above 260 degrees F as it then can
zoom up very quickly and stuff gets
really burnt at 340. But that's a
story for another day.
As my last good deed (maybe only)
for 2011, I wandered into the local
bloodmobile blood donor clinic this
morning and coughed up a pint. New
Year's eve and giving blood? Wonder
if that will impact my inbibing this
evening?
After tonight, 2011 will just be a
memory as we move on to 2012 and
whatever that brings. Hopefully, it
will be a safe, happy, and
prosperous year for the good guys --
and me.
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