Much Ado about NOTHING...

... but am I really surprised?

Today was the holiday that should be a Statuatory one, NHL Trade Deadline Day! I couldn't help but check every few hours/minutes to see if there were any new surprising trades reported. Sure, as a Leaf fan, I don't have much to be excited about on these days, it's true... the Leafs typically suck on these occasions, and didn't dissappoint in that regard this year, but there's always hope that this will be the day that Antropov, Hoglund, Kristich, Renberg, (Insert scapegoat's name here) will be dealt away never to be seen again. However, the Leafs have a bad habit of giving crap players too much of a chance... their problem is that they're too nice...

oh well

Farewell Mr Klee... you were cool in your early days, but more of a chump recently... So long Mr Czerkawski, I never liked you anyways... And goodbye mr conditional draft-pick... you probably wouldn't crack the nhl lineup anyways.

In with the old...

Welcome Mr Richardson, I hope your stay is short and more Leetch-esque than Housley-esque. Good Day Mr Suglobov, I hope your tenure with the Marlies is fruitful.

Anne of Green Gables is playing a victim on CSI Miami tonight...

Here's to hope... that the Leafs will get their collective heads out of their collective keesters and make the playoffs...

Booyah

We're Baaacck

Well, that was quick. We just got back from a 9 day mission trip to the Czech Republic. It was both long and short and a lot of fun and work. The following are a few examples of things we did, if you want to see or hear more, come over... I filled our new digi-cam with 450 pictures and videos...

A big part of our time there was playing hockey. Playing hockey used to be the good excuse to get a visa to enter the country, but now it's more of a good way to get people's attention. We've noticed that if we play better against a Czech team, they are more likely to listen to what we have to say and will likely respect us more for our game. It's strange playing hockey against them cause we've been taught the Canadian style of hockey, safe plays and crashing the net. They've learned that a long pass up the middle that will result in a breakaway 1 out of 15 times is the way to go and they really enjoy the drop pass inside the blue line. We found that the breakaways didn're really bother us playing against them, but I got the rare chance to play with a Czech team against a Czech team and boy, did I feel out of place. This photo was taken on Monday when we played the HC Skulls, featuring a bar-code instead of a name on the back of the jersey. We won 18-11, but found that there were a couple players on their team that I had met 4 years ago in the same town. They invited me to play for them on Wednesday, so I donned the HC Skulls jersey for a game. It was a lot of fun, but me being a Canadian, I crashed the net waiting for the puck to arrive and the rest of the players were still farting around inside the blue line. I felt a bit out of place, but I did score a goal, which made me feel better. We won 6-5. It was funny to me that some of the Czechs on the other team hit me a few times, spotting me as the outsider... I laughed because I never get hit in the non-contact league I play in so it's funny to me when I get rocked. This photo was taken with a guy who rocked me late in the game when I had my head down. I lifted my head only to see orange and then I was on my can... he's a good guy. On the week, we won 3 games and lost one in a shootout. After the game we won 18-11, we had a shootout for fun with everyone from both teams, so I scored my patent pending goal with my stick between my legs... it was priceless. Hockey was good.

Another really cool opportunity we had was to go into local public school classes and talk for a class. Some classes were English classes so we helped them practice, some were classes in Grography so we told them about Canada. The class in the picture was a lot of fun, we shared about Canada, they shared some of their culture and I made balloon animals for everyone. I'll never forget when the teacher (the one in the red turtle-neck with the whie poodle on his head) showed us the Czech version of the hokey pokey song and did the "put your bum in... put your bum out... shake it all about...." Very hot.... It was a lot of fun talking to kids, telling a bit about why we were there and entertaining. This was the first trip in Hlinsko that got to go into the schools and the Principal gave us an open invitation to come back anytime, a big door opened to the missionaries in the town. Very cool.

Prague was very cool, we had a day to experience the city, do the tourist thing and have fun. My feet still hurt from all the walking, but it was a good day. We saw the castle, ate lunch at the patio of the Lubkowicz Palace Cafe in the Castle. That was very cool, with a very nice view of Prague, and very good food. We saw a girl get her foot smashed by the Castle Guard's rifle because she got too close during a photo. Very funny, I mean, where's her head... you just don't get too close. One thing I found weird, especially during the olympics, was that I could not find a single good quality Czech Hockey Jersey for a reasonable price. There were lots of cheap cheap ones and there was only 1 place I found that had Nike Jerseys with no name or number for about $200 cdn... crazy.

Woke up at 4:30 am in Prague to catch our flight at 7am and ended up in Kitchener at 8:30 pm (2:30am Monday in Prague). Such a long day, with a 6 hour layover in the mostly forgettable Amsterdam. I mean, the red light district was gross, the uncooked big mac's were gross and all the nice buildings had construction blocking any good pictures... blech... We're home now, and I'm sick and tired of being jet-lagged, sick and tired... good trip though. Want to do it again.

I hate the wind...

I don't know why I can't get back to sleep if it's windy, which happened this morning. No one should be up at 6:15am... I've slepth through more tumultuous weather than today's, like when I slept through the tornado in a tent while camping with our youth group... Oh well

Leave today for the Czech Republic to play hockey and do some missionin'... I was hoping to have saved enough optimum points to take a big chunk out of an ipod video purchase, but there haven't been any real 20x the points days since December. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy for the 9+ hours of flying. Sleep perhaps? I doubt that... that's silly...

I went to Czech for the same type of thing 4 years ago. To this day, I remember the flight home so vividly, listening to the only good music channel they had and hearing Desert Rose by Sting about 4 times on the flight back. And on the way there, there was a freaked out movie about "famous" czech composer, Mahler... Any SCI&TS Music alumni will remember him as Ms. Catton's license plate and fave composer. He was one messed up dude.

Anyways, we'll be back in a week or so, we've got people house sitting, so you can go to their place and take their stuff... otherwise, catch you on the flip side.

Brian Williams must be 90 years old...

But he's still mesmerizing...

Ski Jumping is cool.

Wednesday's Would You Rather

Thursday Edition

(p53) Would You Rather...

have a ketchup dispensing navel

OR

a pencil sharpening nostril?

This Just In

The hard-hitting journalism of "Jooje Is A Cat" has changed the seasons in K-W. A recent article on Jooje is A Cat has forced the "powers that be" to change the weather pattern for the better. The recent snowy situation in Kitchener can only be the result of the pressure put on the weather makers to "get real" and act normal.

So, that said, you have me to thank for the white stuff, but I don't need your thanks. The smiles on the faces of children as they frollock in the snow is thanks enough.

Jooje The Cat, the People's reporter.

Sorry, our relationship has been reduced to this

what's with the friggin weather...? I know, it's sad that all we talk about is the weather, but get over it... this isn't bloody Vancouver. Come On, flippin RAIN in FEBRUARY. I'm not just mad because of the wasted money on my Chicopee lift pass, it's just that I like winter. If it's gonna be cold, I don't want rain, I want snow! gah, I'm so sick of this that I have to fly 9 hours to get a real winter.

That's right, Faith and I are going to the Czech Republic later this month for a week long mission trip. I'm gonna play hockey and we're gonna do all sorts of things. And maybe, just maybe we can experience some real winter for a change.

Wednesday's Would You Rather

Thursday Edition

(p46) Would You Rather

have skin that tans upon hearing the voice of Al Gore

or

be able to make Amish people break dance?

Oh boy, another...

SO, it's here again, the affliction of Thursday Evenings, and a reason to watch CSI... Survivor's back with the most shocking twists EVER!!! This time they are starting with 4 tribes, old chicks, young chicks, old guys and young guys. Booyah. I don't know if I'll get into this one or not, however I am intrigued by the exile island concept and new tribal starting setup. Looked like the characters were pretty bland.

CSI's on afterwards, so I have a reason to pay attention to it.

In other news, the Leafs sure have been impressive lately.

In other news, sources have revealed that monkeys aren't real.

In other news, Jack Layton's moustache speaks up regarding years of emotional abuse.

Wednesday's Would You Rather

Thursday Edition

(pg 57)Would you Rather...

be able to successfully avoid doing chores and facing minor relationship problems by hiding under some coats for a while

or

be able to bake chicken pot pie in your pants

Toronto vs Ottawa

Wow I hate goal horns...

Leaf game

This is painful... 5-0 now... ouch

LOST

So, Matt and Faith and I are watching the LOST recap thing last week and listened extra close to what Walt was saying to shannon when he appeared to her the few times after he was kidnapped and before she kicked it. We thought it couild be backwards, so in an act of computer-wizardry, I took the audio from those stretches and reversed it, probably expecting to hear a message from satan or something. Here's what we found.

When Sayid and Shannon try to make Island baby 2, he leaves the tent to get water, he says "They're coming, and they're close"

When Shannon is running after the dog, Walt shows up and says "press the button, no button's bad"

Something to think about.

Wednesday's Would You Rather

Would you Rather (pg 55)

have glow-in-the-dark body hair

OR

be immune to the lethal combination of Pop Rocks and Coke?

Things to Consider: completely gratuitious reference to "Pop Rocks and Coke" myth

Are dogs and horses smart?

I read a stupid book of stories about animals at work today for "Story Time"... The book was trying to find out whether animals are intelligent at all or if they just act that way sometimes. I read about Midnight the bucking bronco, Stubby and Chase, dogs who did some crazy things. Stubby the dog was a good story, he was a war hero, with no training as a war-dog... How could an animal such as that be smart enough to save people's lives?

I know my cat's pretty stupid... that's it.

Wednesdays Would you Rather

(pg 52) Would you Rather...

be able to walk on pudding

OR

be able to project holograms of the Mexican super-group Menudo?

things to consider: street performing, convincing primitive cultures you're a god

What's up with that?

The Leafs take the first West Coast swing in a long time and they only have 1 Late game which wasn't all that late (9:00). I'm kinda T-O'd about tomorrow's game, as it's on Leafs TV (which I have) but it's on at 7pm and I teach til 9:30, leaving me unable to watch. Ah well

In other news, LOST returns this wednesday at 9... booyah!

That'll teach me to say stupid things

So tonight I got a speeding ticket. 27km over limit, knocked down to 15 over about 1/3 the cost and no points... that's a relief. I was just saying to someone yesterday that I usually get a feeling about when COPS are around so I don't get tickets. IDIOT!

What makes it worse is that the whole reason for me leaving the house tonight and driving fast on the highway was to go to play some pick up hockey with the guys Faith and I are going to Czech Republic with. After getting the ticket, I arrived at the arena to find the arena empty of anyone for the 11:00 time. Our name was on the board for the 11:00 slot, but no one was there. I waited about 20 minutes, only to find that I was apparently the only one not in the know.

And so I muttered unpleasantries all the way home... That's all I have to say about that,

Wednesday's Would You Rather...

Would you Rather... (pg 17)

have skin that doesn't tan upon direct contact with the sun, but rather plaids

or

have a vocal cord deformity whereupon attempting to utter any type of greeting, the Happy Days theme blasts from your mouth?

Happy New Year!

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I don't find New Years to be all that exciting of a "Holiday". In the past I've always gladly offered to work Newyears Day to get the time and a half pay on the biggest copp-out Stat holiday there is. Why accomodate the collective hangover or most of the world? Why not make St Patricks day after a stat?

Anyways, I'm not much for big parties. I enjoyed the company of people we met up with, but 2005 ended with a big melodramatic finish and a kiss on the cheek. We saw all the people in Times Square squealing like idiots and kissing anything in range, but I really didn't find any desire to be part of that.

In with the new I suppose. Back to listening to people's resolutions and watching them continuously break them until February when they say "screw it" and forfeit. Time to contuinually ruin cheques and write 05 by mistake in the date portion. Maybe I'm just not sentimental enough to want to reflect on last year and re-focus on this year. oh well.

I hope your new year is fruitful and fruitcake-less...