Greg’s weblog

William is growing at such a rapid pace, becoming a little boy right before my eyes. He has picked up a bunch of vocabulary, seemingly on a daily basis. Some of it is only vaguely recognizable by anyone other than me, but William and I have an understanding. He says stuff, and points at stuff, and I can sometimes figure out what he’s trying to say.

The most recent one is “doctor.” He’s taken quite a liking to photo albums, and one in particular has a picture of him with the doctor who delivered him. He says “doctor” when we open the album. I’m not sure if he recognizes that the little bundle of cloth with a tiny pink face peeking out is actually him or not though.

As Jason mentioned, we went to the batting cages yesterday. I tried out his new bat, and while it’s a good bat, I think his old bat is better for me. I felt like I had better control over the ball with it, and I felt like I made more solid contact. As I aspire to be a contact hitter :) that’s more important to me than more distance. Anyway, while we were at the cages, a local radio station was on location, handing out helium balloons, so I got one for William and tied it around his wrist. He chased it a bit, but otherwise pretty much ignored it.

Oh, and I think it speaks volumes that over 3 million Canadians tuned in to see game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but only 1 million Americans (and only 16,000 Tampa locals!) did. I don’t understand why the NHL feels this great desire to be accepted by the American public. Certainly there are American hockey hotbeds, but expansion to places like Tampa, Phoenix, Anaheim and San Jose clearly hasn’t caught on. I’d be willing to bet that more people tuned in to see the finals in Saskatoon (population slightly more than 200,000) than Tampa Bay. That’s probably the case if you count the people at the rink too. It’s all about following the money though, and even though Americans have demonstrated that they don’t care about hockey (and won’t spend money on it) the NHL continues to follow their collective noses South. While it’s certainly true that the current NHL cannot survive in places like Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Halifax and Quebec City, to me, that’s an indication of something severely wrong with the league. When large numbers of NHL players grew up in towns that were 500kms+ from the nearest NHL city, something isn’t right. [Edit - Erin's put up some more current pictures on William's site]

Simpson’s quote of the day: “On this cable system we receive over one million channels from the furthest reaches of the galaxy.” – Kodos (or was it Kang?)

When I checked the weather last night before leaving work, all of Western Canada was covered in clouds. When I look out the window today, I see blue skies. The forecast still calls for rain though. Very strange indeed.

I played Slopitch again last night, and I’ll be replaying that bobbled fly in my head until next week at least. It’s very like how I play cups – I knock that cup up in the air a dozen times, and then watch as it floats to the ground just past my outstretched fingers. It’s a heart wrenching experience for me.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “You should listen to your heart, and not the voices in your head.” – Marge

I haven’t given a whole lot of discussion to actual hockey lately, so I thought I’d talk about last night’s game 1. Calgary played the same game that they’ve played all playoffs (though maybe with a slightly different style) First, get an early goal by hook or by crook.

Lucky, unlucky, they’re the guys with the lead.

Second, play tight defensively. Be tough in your own end, win the battles for loose pucks, don’t get outhustled ever. This is never more obvious than when either goalie froze the puck. When Khabibulin froze the puck, there were between 1 and 3 Flames players hovering around him, waiting in case the puck squirted loose. Conversely, when Kiprusoff covered the puck, there were between 3 and 5 Flames hovering around him, making sure that no Lightning player was around if the puck squirted loose.

There were several occasions where the Lightning player skated nonchalantly towards the puck, only to be beaten there by a Flames player going full tilt. Calgary looked hungry, they looked ready, and they looked confident. Even though Tampa had good pressure in the third period, Calgary kept them to the outside mostly.

I know that they call the shootout/penalty shot “the most exciting play in hockey” but for my money, I’ll take a breakaway where the skater has to be going at top speed, because there’s someone on his heels. Plus, the rebound is still available. My heart was beating a mile a minute when Jarome jumped up with the puck short handed. Great shot that Khabibulin couldn’t control, and a great play to put the rebound in the back of the net.

So, yeah, you could say that I’m on the Flames bandwagon. Only to the extent that I think they’re a team that deserves to win based on their work ethic, and I love to see the underfunded teams of the league start to prosper. I’m a big Jarome Iginla fan, regardless of any of it though, the guy is just a class act. Hey, he plays video games too (scroll down about halfway.)

On an unrelated note, I’ve been making some changes to the site, so some stuff might not work properly, or might look different. Let me know if you spot anything that seems out of place.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Me fail English? That’s unpossible!” – Ralph

Tonight, the finals begin.

(1East) vs. (6West) – In some ways this is a tough one to pick – Calgary somehow managed to have a week off, despite only finishing their series one game earlier than Tampa. That will probably serve to cool them off somewhat. Tampa just had a hard fight with Philly though, and are probably feeling a little beat up. At this point, Calgary has beaten the top three seeds from the West, while Philly was the highest seeded opponent that Tampa faced, after knocking off the 7 and 8 seeds. Certainly Calgary has had the more difficult path to the finals, and nobody would have complained if they’d lost to Detroit after the thrilling series against Vancouver. All of that having been said – Calgary has been playing a great team game. They’ve been clearing the front of the net really well, and letting Kipprusof see the first shot, while clearing the rebounds. They’re playing hard nosed, playoff hockey, making sure their opponents earn everything that they get. Tampa had an easier road to the semis, and should have made quick work of a beaten up Philly team, but wound up taking them to 7 games. I just think Calgary’s intensity and will to win are better at this point, so I pick Calgary

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I don’t care if Ned Flanders is the nicest guy in the world, he’s still a jerk.” – Homer

I watched The Joe Schmo Show when it was on the air, and got into it. In theory it sounds like a terrible show, but something in it appealed to my sense of humour, and I was hooked. If you haven’t heard of it, or don’t remember it, it was a fake reality show, where all the contestants (save one) were actors playing a role. At the end of it all, the only real person on the show (Matt) wound up being surprised by the actors in a big finale. It was pretty good.

Anyway, apparently Joe Schmo 2 premieres June 15th, with not one, but two Schmos. Joe Schmo 2 details are available at that link. If you scroll down a couple of pictures, you’ll see Jonathan Torrens is in the cast. It should be hilarious.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Oh no… No no, I felt that. You didn’t carry the one you foolish person. Now you’ll incur the penalties with the compound interest and the wrath and the truncheons.” – Professor Frink

Suddenly the weather has taken a turn for the ugly here, which reminds me of a strange personality quirk that i have, and would like to share with you. (That is why you keep coming back after all.)

I predict the weather in the stupidest way possible, which still manages to be relatively accurate. I assume the weather will be exactly the same as it was the day before. For example, it was a little chilly on Monday, so I wore a jacket on Tuesday. It was beautiful and warm on Tuesday, so I didn’t wear a jacket yesterday. Yesterday was a bit nippy, so I wore a jacket today. You see how it works?

I only get burned when the weather changes dramatically over the course of a day. The funny thing is, I check the weather forecast daily, and pretty much ignore it, despite the fact they’re actually pretty accurate nowadays. The temperature range might be off by a few degrees, but by and large, Environment Canada could save me some uncomfortable days – if I’d only pay attention to them. I’m just glad that it cooled off some yesterday, or I could have been in for a nasty wait for the bus today – maybe in the rain too.

It looks like the weekend is supposed to be kind of ugly too, which fits with my prognostications fairly well.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Well, you’re certainly doing your job today, Mr. Sun” – Hans Moleman

As a followup to yesterday’s post – I’m not saying that I never give advice from my own perspective. I’m just very careful to make sure that the recipient of the advice knows where I’m coming from. I say things like “If it were me.” or “Here’s what I did, and here’s why I did it.”

Obviously, sometimes that’s what people are looking for. I don’t think those things are implicit in the advice giving process though, and a lot of people treat them that way.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Hey Ma! Look at that pointy-hairded little girl!” – Cletus