Tampa Bay beat Calgary on Saturday, as I’m sure you’re aware. Tonight is game 7, so I’ll be firing up the projector, and kicking back to watch some desperate hockey. I’m still picking Calgary. When Jarome has turned up his intensity, it’s like a giant spotlight has been shined on him, and Tampa’s players can’t seem to handle the light. It’s almost like watching a guy play “NHL Hitz” and putting his player “On Fire.” I expect that we’ll see more of the same tonight, and the legend of Jarome Iginla will continue. It won’t hurt that Donovan will be back (they sure missed his speed Saturday night) and Kiprusoff will likely bring his “A” game.

It’s too bad that it will have to come down to a couple of bad bounces. Both teams have played pretty well, and it’s a shame that one of them has to lose.

Saturday afternoon, we went out to a couple of garage sales. No real reason why, but it was good to get out of the house and enjoy some of that sun. Saturday night, I played in the annual Cups tournament (this year they called it the Stanley Cups tournament) which was supposed to get underway at 6:00. Very few games got played before the hockey game was done. We did ok, winning 3 of 5 games.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I’ve gotta get out of this rut, and back into the groove.” - Homer

“Canada’s Team” won last night. I think it’s funny that there are more Canadians playing for Tampa than for Calgary, and yet Calgary is “Canada’s Team” right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m cheering for them, but it’s more because I’m a big fan of Jarome Iginla (as both a classy individual, and a phenomenally entertaining hockey player.) Plus, I like to see the underdog win.

Last night, I watched the news after the hockey game, and heard about the RBC financial fiasco. I had kind of a rough weekend last weekend at work, involving a small mistake that I made, that blew up to much larger proportions, so I can sympathise somewhat. While most people were probably reacting to the story with outrage, I react more with sympathy for whoever’s code was ultimately to blame. I wonder if they’ll get fired. I hope not, because it’s more of a failing of the system for not catching the bug before the code went live than anything. It’s a pretty simple equation - if you’ve ever written any code, you’ve made at least one mistake somewhere at some point. Granted, most people’s mistakes don’t make the national news, buuuut…..I still feel a lot of sympathy.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “What time and how burnt?” - Cletus

I had a dream last night that Don Cherry died of a heart attack. Apparently something happened in a game that got him so mad that after ranting on the air about it, he had a heart attack off camera, and died right there. The public’s last image of Don was a very very red face poking out of his trademark high white collar.

I’m not a big Don Cherry fan, but in the dream, I was quite sad that he died for some reason. Don’t get me wrong - I wouldn’t be happy that he died, but I don’t think it would affect me much at all, while in the dream, I was quite depressed about it.

So, here’s hoping that it’s not prophetic, cause that would be creepy and wrong.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “It’s all right, children, just ignore the murderer.” - Ms. Krabapple

My birthday is coming up in a month, and I’m constantly seeing thing that I think would make good birthday gifts for me. I think one of the first webpages I ever put online was a list of stuff that people could buy me for Christmas one year. It felt wrong somehow, and it still does, but I know that people want to know what they can get me, and a lot of people have no ideas. That’s not my style, but I recognize that it is a fairly common way to go. When I ask Erin what she wants for [Her Birthday|Christmas|Mothers Day] and she doesn’t tell me because she thinks (rightly) that I won’t get it for her. What she doesn’t realize is that I use her list as a jumping off point to come up with ideas of my own.

Anyway, I’m getting more into games as the days go by, and I spend all this time reading about various games, but there’s no way I can justify buying them, at least in our current financial situation (which isn’t that dire, but we are on a budget that doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room this year) So, to that end, I’ll list a bunch of games that I’d be happy to get as a gift, and even link to somewhere that you can buy them. Bohnanza, Rage, Mu and More (all card games) look good. Iron Dragon looks like fun too.[Edit - both those sites are Canadian]

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Hey, wait! I’m okay today! My mom bought me deodorant!” - Milhouse

I really enjoyed the game last night, it’s just a shame that it had to be decided by a stupid penalty. For the record, I don’t like Kerry Fraser, but I don’t think you can really blame him for the call on Clark. It really is too bad though, because I think both teams played a pretty good game (though, where was Iginla all night? Mostly invisible) It would have made for an interesting third period if it were tied at 0.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Hey cannonball, I like your statement: when life takes a cheap shot at you, you stand your ground. Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.” - Billy Corgan :)