I’m going to save you A LOT of time and sum up everything leading to this point. Your media insists on berating you with the same fluff piece because honestly if you’re not a hockey fan you really don’t care. The only coverage you need to read is over at The Pens Blog.
- This is a rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup. No one since the 76/77 77/78 Bruins has lost 2 in a row. If you’re old enough to remember that you probably still think Pittsburgh is filled with steel mills and smog.
- The finals schedule is apparently made by NBC and not the NHL. They fear going up against reruns during the week yet ABC has full coverage of the National Spelling Bee in prime time. Back to back games wouldn’t bother me if the league wasn’t at the mercy of a network with a joke of hockey coverage. You’ll think you’re watching a man crush porn with Mike Emrick’s love for anything red and white. Edzo, yeah we won’t go there. Drink a box of wine (Franzia Chillable red of course), snort a little horseradish and smash your head into a wall and your views of the game still wont be as skewed as Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury’s.
- Hossa played for Pittsburgh last year, lost and left for Detroit in the offseason so he can “have a better chance winning a cup.” Hossa’s return isn’t a major concern, karma is a bitch and Jesus hates him.
- One would think that Detroit, a city called “Hockey Town”, would be able to sell out a game. Well they can when it gets filled with Pens fans.
- Some random Detroit fan throws an octopus on the ice every game. That’s about as stupid a tradition as it is not to touch a trophy.
- I’ve known Stoosh since he was a wee lad. Commit to him and buy a shirt.
- Pens in 6. Stanley gets raised on home ice.
There are 3 reasons to celebrate sons today, well technically 5.
1) Teaspoon turns 3 months old today – Who would have thought 3-4 hours of sleep each night would be this rewarding. He’s somewhere in the 10lb range and getting ready for his big baptism day in June. Even though it has only been 3 months I can’t imagine life without him in it. BTW, Pens are 36-7 since he was born and are returning to the Stanley Cup Finals 
2) Tim (sizeoflife.com and infamous MeatShield from ShouldIDrinkThat) and his wife welcomed their first child into the world today. Ethan Michael was born at 11:06am EST. That’s 3 SIDT spawns in 3 months (Dangeta, myself and now Meat Shield). I’d be worried if I was sickpuppy.
3) 3 Sons Dogs n Suds celebrates 4 years – basically my second home, the good guys at 3 Sons are celebrating 4 years of serving the northern Pittsburgh craft beer community with the lowest prices around. For tonight’s celebration it’s the traditional free Chimay sampling from 6-8pm. Let me rephrase… FREE CHIMAY!!!
Photo gallery from Memorial Day 2009 – btw, these were all taken with my Blackberry Curve
Bella and Alex were on Quality Control.
My dad LOVED this holiday. Not like most people where you just have friends over for a picnic and lose the meaning of why we celebrate, he’d decorate it. In fact it looked like someone puked red, white and blue all over our house. Dad was in the army during Korea and while reaching the rank of sergeant he loved being the flag carrier (I did Air Force JROTC so that is the extent of my military familiarity). This would turn into an obsession with flags. American, sports, holiday, random day, hey it’s an egg, welcome… you name it and my dad had a flag for it. This also stretched into his clothing. American flag hats, shirts and running suits.
On the morning of his funeral in 2006 my wife and I went into the garage and grabbed all of his flags (50 to be exact that stick in the ground), that he used to decorate for every holiday, and dressed the yard one last time. Granted there was a foot of snow but we got those suckers in the ground. Flags decorated the walkways and where the flower beds would be if not blanketed in the white stuff. As the procession passed the house the hearse stopped in front as a final tribute, the snow stopped, the sun was out and the wind picked up so that all were flying in unison. Pretty surreal moment but we knew that dad was proud. His coffin was embroidered with an American flag, the suit he wore was adored with his favorite American flag pin and as you can see from the image above, his stone has the American flag also. He was a proud soldier and American citizen.
On this holiday I’m keeping tradition by placing his flags outside my house. We split up the amount of flags with the family so I only have a few from that day but they will be proudly displayed in my yard. Every year I’ll tell Teaspoon about the grandfather he never meet and the legacy he left behind.
Geno scores a hat trick leading the Penguins to a 7-4 victory and 2-0 lead in the Eastern Converence Finals
Sonni is a fan of the spoon. You know it Proving once again why their morning show is number one. The entire morning show is on Twitter and talking with viewers during the broadcasts. Check out who else is on Twitter from KDKA and follow the morning show here.
Original air date was 5/14/09
Empty Netters: Hurricanes at Penguins – Game 1 – Pregame – 5-18-09
1/2 way through the game I received a txt that a picture of me at the Pens pre-game terrace tailgate party was appearing on the Post Gazette’s website. Of course I was curious at first because I didn’t remember anyone taking my picture.
While reading the post I saw that Jersey Foul Bill of Rights was put together by Seth Rorabaugh and I thought I’d chime in since I’m apparently in foul of “Getting Personal”. His rule states “Easily the most common of jersey fouls, a personalized jersey is a blight on humanity. No one cares who you are. If they wanted to see your name, they’d dig it out of a phone book.” A blight on humanity… really… wow. I need to look into this. I should make that my new tag line. Honestly this is the one thing about hockey fans that I love seeing get bent over. They’re so passionate about keeping integrity to the most mundane things. I admit, I’m guilty of that also as the case of “A Steelers Fan Guide to the Stanley Cup Playoffs” 2008 and 2009 editions
Pens games are filled with personalized jerseys and from what I found out, if you dig deeper you’ll see that most jersey’s/sweater’s have a story behind them. Now if you’re wearing #66 and your name on the back, that is just asking for trouble. My jersey was a gift from my wife and Teaspoon’s jersey will sport his name have an “A” on the front. Plus if you’re going to go after customized jerseys don’t forget those dandy ones handed out to pre-game entertainment. They’re not players so they have to fit in this category also. What amazed me more is that this rarity of a jersey I saw on my way in was missed…
If you’re going to break a rule make it this one. There’s a good chance your jersey will have a longer shelf life than anyone on the roster not named Crosby, Malkin or Fleury. Just ask those owning a Hossa jersey.
Today Lushie, myself and Teaspoon walked the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides in North Park . Sadie is the daughter of my friend Shane whom you may have heard on SIDT EP 50 and also saw heading up Brewing Up a Cure.
The weather we had to walk in was impeccable. Sun was out, temp was around 58 and the wind only kicked up a few times. Eat n Park and countless of other sponsors made this a day to remember for the thousands of people who joined in. Added bonus was the generous amounts of delicious food which you’d see if I didn’t have a 9 pound teaspoon strapped to me
We’re becoming walking parents. When you’re in your 20′s and see people with strollers you tend to snicker thinking “that will never be me!”. I admit that in my youth I would cruise Presque Isle believing it and now in my 30′s I’m living it. In fact we’re loving it. Along side the event were a couple of NABA teams playing ball which gave me the itch to bring out my spikes again (I played NABA for a couple years as a Mauler).
Spring is rockin and I need to get out more!
A few weeks ago I bought my first Blackberry (Curve 8330) after much debate with Lushie. In the past I only used my cell to make calls, send txt and take pictures but now that I have to be more mobile, an upgrade was needed.
I’ve been stubborn when it comes to upgrading personal technology. I had the same computer for 6 years before I caved for a laptop, my cell phone would stay with me until the cell company would shut me off and I still have a Playstation 1 and 2 (thought I LOVE my wii). I grew up with the ideology that if it’s not broken, you keep it. Now I find myself asking why I didn’t have one of these before. I’m smart enough to know you don’t store your life on these things but good lord it makes life easy for someone who needs to be tied into a work environment on the fly. I guess 10 years at the same business has sheltered me from the necessary evils of today’s independent IT guy.
I’m still working on which apps I need to be functional and addicted. I haven’t found a Twitter app that I like and won’t crash my phone. I need something that will let me edit MS Office files and read them in a decent format (besides Google Docs) and I wish the email function was designed so I could set when it checks my mail. That last one is probably a setting I missed. Lord knows I never read the books.
So what do you have installed? What applications am I missing out on? Let me know in the comments section or shoot me a message.
cheers!
List of things I’m anticipating to be annoyed by in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals.
- Versus will beat to death the fact that the Staal brother are playing each other. Think I’m delusional? Why else would there be a Staal Brothers Drinking Game.
- Local coverage of who former Steeler’s head coach Bill Cowher will root for. People, he lives in Carolina now. If he doesn’t wan’t his house burned down he’s a Canes man.
- Canes have former Penguins’ Tom Barrasso (dick) and Ron Francis (not a dick) as coaches. We’ll be reminded of this multiple times. What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. The guys got jobs after playing for the Pens. Get over it.
- Erik Cole vs Brooks Orpik – OK this I’m looking forward to. Oswego, NY is still bitter Brooks destroyed their NHL son.
- Hurricane Evacuation Route signs all over Pittsburgh
- Not enough coverage of the Storm Squad. Seriously Pens… get an upgrade.
Pens in 6. Cole goes out in game 3. Letang is going to have a breakout series. Max Talbot will make a highlight film with 5 of the Storm Squad in Paul Maurice’s room just cuz he can.
Now for the Pens/Caps series that just ended. First off I didn’t think there were fans more clueless than those at Flyers games who boo for no reason and always chant “Cros-by Sucks” instead of “Lets Go Flyers”. Washington and that weeeble wooble Ted Leonsis proved me wrong. Do they even know someone plays besides Ovie? Do they understand what penalties are? From what I saw on TV there were probably Caps staff in the stands holding up signs on what to do.
That aside, anyone else notice how reckless Ovechkin is? If I shot the puck every time it touched my stick I would have 50+ goals too. He doesn’t great plays, he skates around like Happy Gilmore looking to hit everyone and shoot. Alex, your game is bush league goon. You’re lucky as hell you didn’t end someone’s career on this hit.
Your OWN teammate to… spaz
The semi finals of the 2009 NHL Playoffs have proven thus far to be the greatest round of hockey. 3 of the 4 series are going to a game 7.
Penguins vs Capitals
The Pens rallied from being down 2 games to the Capitals to go ahead 3-2 only to lose a nail biter in game 6. This series featured 3 OT games.
Bruins vs Hurricanes (not the classy malt liquor)
Carolina blew a 3 games to 1 lead over the best team in the East. excuse me, best team with Recchi on the roster. Never thought I’d see those 2 in the same sentence.
Ducks vs Red Wings
I hate Detroit. Hossa can suck it. Go Ducks.
Canucks vs Blackhawks
Chicago won this series 4-2. Know why they’ll probably win the cup? No one outside of Chicago remembered they had a team. They’re like Don Barden’s Pittsburgh casino bid. It would be a cold day in hell before he got the license… then the rivers froze and the city gave a collective “Who? wtf…”
Game 7 Winners: Pens, Hurricanes, Ducks.
I have my Pens/Caps rant ready for tomorrow.
Stay classy Pittsburgh
