My blog n'at

But not in July. I took a well deserved break from the interwebs and focused on work and my family.

August 2011
I sat down with Pitt Girl… err Jane Pitt… err Ginny and gave her a quick education on craft beer while we mocked each other for 2 hours at Bocktown. It appeared in her August column in Pittsburgh Magazine.

September 2011
I drank a box of Franzia. I provided, served the beer and attended Podcamp Pittsburgh 6 briefly and made the most out of the after party in true SIDT fashion which included tailgating the party. The Teaspoon Project took shape and also forced me to buy a new digital camera. Craft Pittsburgh had a nice spot of us in their latest issue. I had Dave’s Hot n Juicy in my mouth. Yes, I’m still giggling over it.

October 2011
I planned and executed the perfect homecoming concert with the help of 76F weather and Scott Blasey playing a standing room only show. Hockey season started which lead me to eating a $12.50 burger. The infamous (That means more than famous, Dusty) Jim Lokay said farewell and left Pittsburgh for Bawwwstun. Yinzer traffic hasnt been the same since and Beantown got classy. Kadhafi was finally held accountable for Doc Brown’s death while his people shoved many things up his ass. I really don’t understand my kids some days.

November 2011
I finally learned how to home brew. I’m proud to say that as I’m typing this that my stash is just about gone. Google Plus proved it’s absolutely insane.  My ongoing battle with a root canal started and still isn’t  finished.

December 2011
Chris Cornell played one of the best solo shows of any artist in the history of music. I fell in love with LuLu’s Noodles. Dealt with a very emotional day as I celebrated the 5th anniversary of my dad’s passing by cracking open my very first bottle of homebrew with him. I visited the Golden Corral for the first time and was left speechless. The kids took down Santa and O-man turned 1.

So there is 2011 in a nutshell. 2012 the world is supposed to end of the world so I’m debating if I should plan to do things or kick back and take it easy. Who am I kidding, I’ll be running between work and kids activities while bitching my basement still isn’t clean.

Stay thirsty my friends…

One thing that I’m bad at is remembering the year. I kept thinking it was 2010 for some reason and have no idea why 2012 doesn’t seem far fetched. Maybe I have a thing against years with odd numbers? This past year was eventful personally but when it came to blogging it was kinda meh. Either way here’s a quick recap so my kids don’t have to sift through archives.

January 2011
Year started off great with the Winter Classic (even though Pens lost) and spending the first 2 weeks home with my new baby. I also decided that I would attempt to go a full year without drinking a Bud/Miller/Coors product. Not to be some elite prick but to see for myself how tough it would be. With the amount of picnics we attended and moments of weakness for going cheap I’m proud to say I’ve made it a full year and some days.

February 2011
Kept the busy pace with a quick trip to Baltimore to pick up the first of what would be many awards for a website I made. Even thought it was winter I was falling in love with the city. I will be going back soon. I also hit my mid 30′s while only suffering a minor “oh shit, I’m getting old” moment and Teaspoon got his first haircut while hitting the terrible 2.

March 2011
2 things happened, we got sick and I ate a lot of fish.

April 2011
My mom wanted to know why I didn’t invent Facebook, the internet or cure cancer. I had some views on the sale of Iron City which turned out to piss off a bunch of yinzers and Pittsburgh purists. Eh, it happens.

May 2011
Should I Drink That turned 5 years old on the 5th and we had a whirlwind bash in Boardman, Ohio as we took over the Big Tap In after party. We cracked open a 101 oz bottle of Double Arrogant Bastard that we have been sitting on for 4-5 years. It came with a padlock. Nuff said. I figured out how you can take a trip with Megabus to Erie (or Pittsburgh from there) and have a very low cost time. I celebrated national Craft Beer Week and if you haven’t heard me talk about it yet, am on the planning group for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week coming in 2012. This month also was record breaking numbers as we raised money for March of Dimes which helps preemies such as my boys.

June 2011
After many years of hard work I graduated cum laude from college. It was incredibly stressful when I threw work and the family into the mix but the support was fantastic! I’ll probably have my student loan bills paid off when Teaspoon is starting school.

 Its been a long summer but the time has come.

Nothing else in Pittsburgh matters now but hockey.

DO IT!

I’ve never been a fan of the current MLB playoff format. I liked it better when it was NL/AL West vs East and it came down to the final weeks to take out number 1 (Baseball should not be played in November either but that’s a different post). The invention of the Wild Card awhile back was great for some clubs to squeak into the playoffs but what this also means is that teams celebrate like they won the World Series after every round. If you’re going to keep it, the AL/NLDS is a waste of time and should be a 3 game “whew we’re lucky to be here” fight to go to your league title.

Does the NFL celebrate excessively after each round? NO. Does the NHL? NO. Does the NBA? I wouldn’t know since I don’t watch basketball. Come on its hockey season!

Texas won their ALDS and a trip to the AL title game. Not the AL title itself but the chance to play for the title.

(if this doesnt load, thank the MLB. click here to watch the flash file)

I get that you’re happy you won. You’re the defending league champs, to celebrate as though you’ve never been there is amazing. You haven’t won anything yet fellas but you spray enough bubbly that you have to water goggles.

You accomplished part of the final goal so have a beer and congratulate your teammates. Champagne showers are meant for champions, not for job that has to be finished.

Once the puck drops tonight at 10pm nothing else matters.

Steelers season is over.

Did the NBA ever really exist?

Baseball is… come on its been 19 years since I’ve cared about games in October. Next year, right Pirates?

Tonight the Penguins season starts in Vancouver and with it 8 months of non stop hockey coverage in my house. Trash talking has already with my cousin Heather whom happens to live in Vancouver and is a season ticket holder. I’ve got my jersey and caffeine ready to stay up for the lat night west coast session all in anticipation for the home opener next Tuesday, which for me, is better than Christmas morning.

Strap in Penguins fans, this is already shaping up to be the most interesting season ever and when you mix in some college hockey with the Colonials I’ll be impossible to be around until mid 2012.

Enough already, lets get this started!

7pm – Pens vs Flyers (Preview)

LETS DO IT!!!

I probably could have worded that better but I won’t. That’s exactly how I feel right now.

I will not being going to the Winter Classic with the ticket I was offered through the Pens by the NHL. If you know me I would go to the ends of the world for my Penguins (I’ve been a ticket holder for 10 years and sat through the no playoff debacle, I can say they’re MY Pens) but here is why I gots to do what I gots to do… n’at.

When the email came out I was getting a ticket because of my season ticket holder status it was like Christmas morning. the details were sketchy but I was happy. Early August came and the invoice showed up. $140 for 1 ticket! Heck it’s the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh I cant miss this! Then I continued to read. I’m in the 500 level at the top. That’s right, the far back corner at the top. Lovely eh? Whatever, I was still happy because I was going. Then the shocker. Money was due August 25th (that would be today). That’s in between pay periods for me. UGH!

I called the Pens to see if there was anything they could do with the due date since I would get paid in a couple days. I thought maybe some Ticketmaster giftcards I had or add it to my ticket package would work. A very snippy ticket rep (she was probably tired of these calls) told me this was an NHL event, not a Penguins one and that if I didn’t pay by the 25th I would lose my seat.

Lushie and I sat down to see if we could make it work. I had sold some school books online so there was extra income but I thought about it and finally stopped. Why am I going through all of this trouble trying to figure out how to get money together for a game? Its not that I don’t want to go bad enough, it comes down to responsibility. I just finished moving, we still have a lot we need for the house plus a kid on the way in January. I could borrow it but since we started saving for the house last year its been a “If I don’t have the cash, I wont do it” mentality. No charging. Yeah I’m missing out on some things but so what, I need to do whats best for the house. (Holy shit, when did I become an adult). Now the NHL thinks they can give me 2-3 weeks to come up with $140 without any prior indication of what we may be paying besides rumors on the internet?  Screw that.

The NHL doesn’t care. They know the seat will get sold and that’s what counts. I’m tired of how half assed the league keeps doing things. It sucks when you get 2-3 weeks notice that you have to make a payment on playoff tickets for the Pens but we know what to expect to spend at least.

So thank you NHL and the decision makers for this. Thank you for having an unrealistic approach for ticket holders of the teams involved.

I’ll find someway to get into the game but it’ll be on my own terms. I’ll still buy the hat and the shirt because I support hockey and am a cheerleader for Pittsburgh. Besides, sitting on my couch with Teaspoon is a great way to watch hockey.

I just hope Lushie doesn’t go into labor…

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

I, like so many others I read online yesterday, thought the NHL All Star game has taken a long walk off a short pier. A waste of time. The NHL All Star Game will take a break next year for the Winter Olympics so they have 2 years to fix some serious problems that I saw over the weekend and would like to share.

1) Take the voting away from the fans until they can play nice – This is supposed to be the BEST of the best. Instead some jagoffs from Montreal spammed the ever living hell out of the voting so it would be an all Montreal team. Pens fans came out in forces to get Sid selected but Caps fans failed to get Ovechkin starting. Slackers.

SOLUTION: Until integrity can be restored to the game have the players, coaches and GM’s vote.

2) Make the game mean something – There’s no hitting, no defense and not effort to make plays. It’s become a lackadaisical spin off of what hockey is or what the “hockey is too violent” freaks want wrapped up in a hug. What I saw Sunday was 3 periods of watching pre-game skating without the drills. Do some skating and fancy moves then shoot.

SOLUTION: Follow MLB’s style and have the winning league get home ice for the cup finals. Some may bitch that it’s not fair when teams work so hard during the season. Try playing 162 games and then playoff games to not have home field. MLB can do it, suck it up buttercup. You fought to play in the game, not to host it. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy then get rid of the All Star Game completely or move it to the end of the season like the NFL when no one cares.

3) Fix the Skills Competition – I don’t think the clock for timing players skating around the rink has ever worked. The trick shots (which should the equivalent to the NBA Slam Dunk and MLB HR Derby) was harder to watch than SlapShot 2 sober. The only saving grace was the accuracy competition which is as exciting as watching someone pitch a ball through a tire hanging from a tree.

SOLUTION: Find players with actual skills to do trick shots. I saw MAYBE 3 decent shots while the rest were sloppy puck handling, unmotivated, drunken Stars on Ice quality attempts. You want accuracy? Put Randy Quaid in net and be the ball. Speed skating should hire the people who time trials at the Olympics.

4) Versus needs an upgrade – WORST.CAMERA.WORK.EVER!  The game was decent but the skills competition was a mess. It was like someone with A.D.D. was working the boards. You’re watching the net, then the skater, then the far end of the ice, then from the stands, from the men’s room, WOOHOO NACHOS, from outside, a fan laughs, back to the ice, over to the goalie, overhead shot! All within a minute. That’s what it felt like.

SOLUTION: Talk to the guys at NBC. They don’t have much coverage but they do it right. No matter what happens don’t let Fox take over. I can’t deal with a glowing puck or robots fighting.

Let me know what you thought of the weekend. What would you keep or change?

go pens!

P.S. – Check out this sick goal Malkin made. Just about the only highlight from the game

I geek out every year when this day comes around and with the coverage online you can’t help but notice the change the NHL has made since the lockout ended. If possible I would be sitting at home with my laptop checking out trade rumor sites and watching ESPN. instead I have the live audio feeds and trade ticker from tsn.ca.

I admit, I’m addicted to the trade deadline day. This is like NFL Draft day to football fans. I will suck in as much coverage as possible.  Unfortunately, this happens during the day while I’m at work so no Trade Deadline party. Trust me, if this was on a Saturday I would have something.

I’m not expecting much out of the Pens today for deals. If anyone goes I expect Sabourin and a draft pick for a D man. Overall everyone is watching to see where Marian Hossa is going. So far things have been quiet with a couple small name trades and I don’t expect new to pick up until 1pm EST. Listening to Hockey This Morning on XM today they reported that Hossa was told not to attend this morning’s practice. The ironic thing, Montreal is rumored as a tea trying to land him and that is who Atlanta is playing tonight. Imagine that, you wake up on one team and that night you just walk down the hallway to play on another.

I’ll update if the Pens make a move until then keep watching tsn.ca