Truckloads of Nothin'

Word up. Dashing out a quick post on a Tuesday night when I would normally be playing hockey. Getting up this morning, I fully expected to be skating tonight, but after my six-mile run, my right Achilles was killing me and it didn't ease up the rest of the day. So I figured I'd play it safe and take the night off. Of course, I ran 18 on Sunday and felt great. Sucks, because this is a big mileage week for me and I'll have to ease up a bit. I iced it a little while ago, so hopefully that will help.

The only good thing that came out of not skating was I got to watch the Leafs knock off Carolina, 3-2, to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. They're chasing Atlanta and Montreal for the last playoff spot in the East; Montreal lost tonight and Atlanta came back and beat Boston in a shootout. On Saturday, Deb and I had a great time at the Bruins-Hurricanes game in some awesome fourth-row seats; the B's won 4-2.

In other hockey news, UNH managed to make the NCAA tournament despite the drubbing they took at the hands of BU last Friday. They travel to Albany to play Michigan State on Saturday. Hopefully, they'll be able to redeem themselves.

Top story at 11:

• Holy crap! The Colts just signed Adam Vinatieri. There's just something really wrong about that. Even more so than Johnny Damon playing for the Yankees.
• Whoever said having two extra legs is a good thing apparently never met this six-legged lamb.
• So you're a Nirvana fan. You bought all their albums, you were lucky enough to see them live before Cobain blew his brains out, you bought the box set and the Cobain journals. Naturally, you must buy the Cobain action figure. Or maybe not. Wonder if Courtney's got a piece of that action.

Granite State Destroyer

Hola. Sorry for the state of bloggio silence this week. Things have been extraordinarily busy around here. Last night, I went to the Hockey East semifinals at the TDBanknorth FleetBostonGarden. My friend Rick had a last-minute cancellation and hooked me up since my alma mater UNH was playing BU in the first game; Boston College and Maine played in the second game. This had all the makings of a great night of college hockey. Unfortunately for me, UNH just fell apart after the first period. They trailed 5-2 going into the third and there was still a glimmer of hope. But the third period was just ugly. BU totally dominated them and UNH ended up losing 9-2. Terrible. BC took out Maine in a much more competitive game, 3-1, setting up the final tonight between the Beanpot rivals. Meanwhile, UNH waits to find out if its season was good enough to get it into the NCAA tournament.

I'll be back at the rink today when Deb and I go to the Bruins-Carolina game at noon; I won fourth-row seats in a raffle at work. Carolina's been one of the best teams in the league this year, so hopefully it'll be a good game.

Speaking of the NCAA, the March Madness hoops tournament is underway. It's the only time of year I really follow college basketball because I fill out the brackets for our office pool. I'm just mad because I left my picks at work, so I'm not sure how I made out in last night's games. I think I'm in good shape; only the Iowa upset yesterday is really damaging to me because I think I had them winning again in the second round.

Drop the puck:

• It's hard to believe South Park has been on the air for 10 seasons (although not quite 10 years), but the controversial animated show has made some noise lately. First soul legend Isaac Hayes--who provided the voice of Chef since the show began--quit the show, claiming it had gone too far in lampooning his religion, Scientology. Then Comedy Central this week pulled a repeat of a show making fun of the religion and its main proponent, Tom Cruise, purportedly because Cruise had threatened to skip all publicity duties for the upcoming Mission Impossible 3, which is owned by Comedy Central's parent Viacom. This is interesting to me because I used to love South Park the first few seasons, but haven't watched a single episode since I saw the SP movie, which was absolutely hilarious. I don't have any good reason for not watching it; I'll have to rent the show on DVD one of these days. As for Hayes and Cruise, they need to lighten the hell up.
• CBS finally announced who the "secret band" is for its upcoming Rock Star show, and it's not Van Halen or Alice in Chains. Instead, it's Supernova. Who, you ask? It's a new outfit formed by Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and former Guns 'n' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. They'll be auditioning singers for their new band, which I would hope would rule out the musical theater twits who showed up on the previous edition of the show trying to take over for the late Michael Hutchence in INXS. One good thing about this is the new person won't have to fill the shoes of someone like Hutchence or David Lee Roth. I'll check out the first few episodes at the very least.
• This woman in China redefines the term "tall drink of water." She's about 7 foot 9. Dang. Wonder if they added an annex at the Dress Barn Beijing for her.

Happy

We had the big second birthday party today for Lily. Around 20 kids aged 4 and under running rampant, although I must note that the party was expertly run by Deb and Tricia, who had games and activities going throughout to keep the kids occupied and for the most part happy. An impressive showing. In all, the party was a whirlwind and by 2 p.m., everyone was gone. Now THAT's how you throw a kids' party.

That's the Punch Line

Back at ya on a Friday night. We had ourselves a little heat wave today. Temps got up into the mid-60s; of course, I was stuck in the office all day, so I never got to actually go out and enjoy it. But it's supposed to stay warm well into next week. I'll take it.

Here's mud in yer eye:

• I've seen mixed reviews of Jon Stewart's performance as host of the Oscars last Sunday. I think some people were expecting him to trash everyone and do some big anti-Bush rant, but that's really not his style. I thought he was really funny, made some good points without being overly harsh, and kept things moving. The awards pretty much went as expected, with the exception of Crash winning best picture over Brokeback Mountain. I was shocked. Crash was the only one of the best picture nominees I've seen (I catch about 99.99% of my movies on DVD these days, usually about a year after they come out), and while I applaud the sentiment, it came off as heavy-handed to me.
• Holy crap, what happened to Eddie Van Halen? He looks like someone's deranged aunt.
• Speaking of freaky photos, here's the latest strange species discovered by scientists: Furry lobster-looking crustaceans. I sure hope this doesn't lead to the furry lobster roll. Yecch.
• My buddy Bob tipped me off to this cool comics-centric blog today. Basically, it's a dude reviewing selections from his comic book collection, complete with scanned-in art and funny commentary. Good schtuff, if you're a dork like me.
• Supposedly, Osama Bin Laden's niece is going to star in a reality show about her search for stardom; she lives in NYC and is an aspiring singer. In about 20 years, there will probably be more people with reality shows than without them.

The Art of Everyday Communication

Word up. I've been crazy busy this week, which sort of explains the lack of communiques. Please forgive me.

Lily celebrated her second birthday on Wednesday. She's kind of aware of what it means, although I think the bottom line for her is it means she gets cake. The big bash is happening tomorrow, which meant Deb and I were in housecleaning mode last night. The theme is Dora the Explorer, so it should be a noisy good time.

Some quick hits to the head:

• The NHL trade deadline came and went yesterday and the Leafs sat on their proverbial hands. They made a couple of moves Wednesday, including reacquiring aging d-man Luke Richardson, who was a Leaf draft pick way back in '87, and trading much better defenseman Ken Klee for a prospect. Just seems like a waste of a few draft picks. Besides, they're eight points behind Montreal for the last playoff spot and they're playing terribly, so these moves make little sense. Another lost year in Toronto.
• Kirby Puckett died Monday after suffering a stroke. He had some problems after his career ended, but I'll always remember him as a great ballplayer who seemed to have a lot of fun out there. And his homer to win game 6 of the 1991 World Series was unforgettable.

I'm running late. More later.

Human Technology Will Render You Obsolete

Ah, Saturday morning. Just hanging out for a bit before I head out on a 17-mile long run. I've been feeling some Achilles tightness lately after longer runs, so I need to make sure I do all the stretching and the icing and the glaaaaaayven.

Bounce to this:

• This week's dominant figure in the news: Paula Abdul. First, she appeared to be drunk on a live American Idol show the other night. Then, she caused a security breach after she was allowed to board a flight in Las Vegas without going through a screening checkpoint. And, of course, there's this frightening image of Barry Bonds' "tribute" to Ms. Abdul. What's next? I'm guessing it'll be the return of MC Skat Kat.
• A new study encourages women to lift weights to reduce body fat. Not a revolutionary finding, but maybe it'll get some more people exercising. Still, I've known plenty of people who lift regularly but don't seem to lose any weight. I'm betting they go home and shovel the food in, which of course negates any benefit derived from weight training. The best approach is to combine weights, aerobic exercise, and a sensible diet. Just sayin', is all.
• Just surfing the InterWeb can be a massive time-waster, but if you want to focus your wastage, you've got to check out YouTube. It's basically a repository for uploaded video, be it homemade clips of 12-year-old boys slapfighting and more unsavory stuff, or more importantly for my purposes, old rock videos and TV clips. It's pretty hit or miss and the image quality is often lacking, but what the hey, it's free.
• Hey, so you don't say I never gave you anything...here's MC Hammer's sports blog. Seriously. Enjoy.

Walking on a Wire

Got some sad news yesterday. Dan Peterson, a great guy from Beverly who we've known for years, died yesterday morning at the young age of 55. He was diagnosed with cancer several years and continued to run the Boston Marathon every year, even last year (his 24th consecutive) after he had his right arm amputated. He had every right to be angry, but he to the end he remained the most positive person you could imagine, always with a smile and a kind word. We saw him about a month ago when we took the girls out to breakfast at a local diner and he was in pretty rough shape, but still came over to say hi. Ironically, the Boston Globe published a nice feature about him in yesterday's paper; I only read it after hearing of his death. I'll miss seeing him around town. I first met him through the Beverly Y, where he and group of buddies would meet to go running every afternoon. The world's a little darker without him.

European Oils

A hearty congratulations to the Swedish hockey team for their impressive victory over previously unbeaten Finland in the Olympic gold medal game yesterday. Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg and the rest of the Swedes battled against a tough Finnish squad, holding on for a 3-2 win. Sundin and Forsberg set up the game-winning slapper from Nicklas Lidstrom 10 seconds into the third period. The team went back to Sweden to party before everyone headed back to North America to rejoin their NHL teams. Here's hoping Sundin and countryman Mikael Tellqvist can bring some of that golden luster to the Leafs, who sorely could use some good mojo as they fight for a playoff spot. NHL games resume tomorrow night with about five weeks until the playoffs begin; the trading deadline is next week.

Ay chihuahua:

• The surviving members of '90s hard rock icons Alice in Chains are reuniting for a summer tour, according to Billboard.com. Singer Layne Staley died of a heroin overdose in 2002, but had been struggling with his demons for many years before that; the band hadn't played a show since 1996. Jerry Cantrell, the musical driving force behind AIC, has released a couple of pretty good solo albums in the intervening years since the band ground to a halt. They're playing as part of a tribute concert for Heart next week with Will Duvall of Comes with the Fall as their singer, after which they plan to settle on a singer for the tour. I saw them back in '92 at the old Channel club in Boston; Staley was in a wheelchair because of a broken leg, but he belted out a great performance and was even hanging from the exposed pipes of the place at one point. Cantrell's an excellent guitarist, so I'll be interested to see where they go from here. One encouraging sign is AIC apparently turned down CBS's overtures to become the next guinea pig band on the oh-so-lame Rock Star reality show.
• One of my favorite podcasts of the past few months has been the Ricky Gervais show, which featured the creator of The Office bantering about this, that, and the other thing with writing partner Stephen Merchant and producer/idiot savant Karl Pilkington. Funny, funny shiznitt. Well, they did 12 episodes produced by the Guardian newspaper and now are trying something different: a paid podcast through Audible that costs $1.95 per episode or four for $6.95. This bears watching simply because nobody's had the cojones to start charging for a podcast yet. Gervais certainly has the star power, especially in Europe, to try something like this; if he does well, no doubt others will follow. I'm not planning to pony up the dough just yet, but I'll follow this with interest.
• I'm as critical of the Leafs as any fan at times, but the Toronto Sun went too far by publishing a list of the 50 worst Leafs of all time. The list, attributed to "Sun staff," doesn't even provide any rationale for their choices; it's just a list of names. I'm sure it was all done in fun, and a lot of those guys were pretty bad, but just running a list comes off as mean-spirited and lazy. I wouldn't want to be the Sun beat reporter who has to cross paths next with big Wade Belak, who made the list.

Rise Up With Fists!

Hey there, ho there. Just got back a little while ago from a 15-mile run. I normally do my long runs on Sundays, but we're expecting some snow and extreme cold, so I figured I'd do it a day early to make sure I got it in. Felt pretty good until the last mile, when my Achilles started getting a little sore. I definitely need to stretch more; I've been pretty remiss in that department because I've been doing longer midweek runs in the morning before work and barely have time to run, shower and head right to work. But I need to stretch to prevent injuries from getting worse.

Sweep the leg, Johnny:

• Watched the Olympic hockey semifinals last night. Sweden dominated the Czechs, 7-3, to advance to the gold medal game Sunday against undefeated Finland, who easily rubbed out Russia, 4-0. Should be a great game: the two countries have a bitter rivalry and it'll be a good test of Sweden's superior talent vs. Finland's suffocating team defense. Even the bronze medal game this afternoon should be a good grudge match between the Czechs and the Russians, who both want to make up for their lackluster performances yesterday. I want Sweden to win the gold, but it's hard to not pick Finland because of their flawless play so far in the tourney.
• They may be old and fat, but the Sex Pistols are still punk. They are among the acts to be inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame next month, but they don't plan on attending and left a barely intelligible note slagging the hall on their InterWeb home page thingy. Good on 'em. Of course, the story is made even funnier when an official from the Hall of Fame called the Pistols "outrageous punksters." Punksters? The whole "hall of fame" thing seems pretty lame and arbitrary; there are so many deserving acts who didn't sell a lot of records or are simply out of the mainstream that are neglected by these self-appointed purveyors of taste. The only good thing that has come out of it is some cool performances over the years at the induction ceremonies, although those 30-person jams have got to go. Black Sabbath is also going into the hall, so it'll be interesting to see if Ozzy shows up, since he's repeatedly criticized the hall for ignoring Sabbath over the years. I'm sure Sharon will pump him full of sedatives and force him out there to smile for the cameras.
• These paratroopers face courtmartials for changing the Army motto from "Be All You Can Be" to "Do All You Can Do." Hey, after seeing some of the stuff going on in Abu Ghraib, does this really come as a surprise?

Somewhere to Nowhere

Helloooo, Cleveland! I'm a tad bummed because I just watched (on TiVo) the Canadian men's hockey team get bumped from the Olympics by the Russians, 2-0. It wasn't a total shocker because the Canucks had been sleepwalking through the entire tourney, never really getting things going. The team was stacked with NHL stars, many of whom played on the 2002 gold-medal winning squad, but watching them get outskated by teams like Finland and Russia, I wonder if they would have been better served if they left some veterans behind and brought young stars like Eric Staal, Sidney Crosby, and Dion Phaneuf. No doubt there is plenty of weeping and gnashing of teeth going on in my homeland right now. The U.S. also got the heave-ho in today's single-elimination game against undefeated Finland, a 4-3 defeat that I was unable to see. I did see highlights and three of the Finnish goals seemed to be a tad soft, with Rick DiPietro getting a piece of each one before it dribbled in. The Americans also had difficulties scoring throughout the Olympics. Now it's done to the final four on Friday: the Czech Republic vs. Sweden and Finland vs. Russia. I'm rooting for Mats Sundin and the Swedes...

Speaking of hockey, caught a great game in person last Friday night as UNH came back to beat BU, 7-4. I went with my buddy Rick, who has season tickets, and as we were in line for beer, I spotted a fellow UNHer and good pal, Bob and our UMaine-lovin' friend Justin. As we yapped for a bit, BU raced out to a quick 3-0 lead and it looked like it would be a long night. Fortunately, the Wildcats woke up and made things interesting. Of course, the two teams played up in Durham, NH, the next night and BU won 3-2.

Not a Cheney joke in sight:

• Wanted to give a so-called shout out to my good friend OJ, who after doing yeoman's work on Junkmedia's World of Sound blog has moved his indie rock reporting back to his own Clicky Clicky Internet home page. As if doing that and holding down a full-time job isn't enough, he also contributes to the excellent Two and 1/2 Pounds of Bacon (mmm...pounds) MP3 bloggity blog blog. And he still breaks out the orange pants every once in a while.
• Congrats to my lovely wife Deb, who has successfully raised the $2,500 she pledged to the fine folks at Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange in return for a Boston Marathon number. She's not done fund-raising, though, as she set a goal of $3,000. So please donate some coin to a good cause if you haven't already.
• My marathon training is picking up as well. I ran 44 miles last week and I'm on my way to another 42 this week. Add to that the 90 minutes of 4-on-4 hockey with no subs I played last night and I'm pretty sore.
• We should congratulate any woman who has just had a child, but if said woman is 62 and has 11 kids, 20 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, all I can say is WTF?

I've Hardly Been

We're in another of our bizarre weather swings again. We've gone from a blizzard Sunday to temps in the 50s, and a cold front is supposed to sweep in on Saturday and chill things off. It's both wiggity and wack.

I'm going to see the UNH hockey team play BU tomorrow night, so that should be fun. UNH has been pretty inconsistent this year, so I'm just hoping they make it competitive.

In other news:

• So, have you heard any good Cheney jokes lately? The White House press corps has been having a blast with this story, but jeez, can you blame them? The poor schmuck that Cheney shot ended up having a heart attack after some of the bird shot was lodged in his heart, but the local police have cleared the veep of any criminal wrongdoing. Wonder if Dubya is secretly glad the heat's off him for once.
• I've been enjoying the first two days of Olympic hockey. The ice surface is larger than standard NHL rinks, and the boards are higher, making the players look smaller. Normally Todd Bertuzzi is a hulking brute, but I didn't recognize him at first because of the boards. Canada took on host Italy yesterday and early in the second period, the game was tied at 1 before the Canucks woke up and blew the Italians away. A big reason for Italy's early success was the play of goalie Jason Muzzatti, who was Calgary's first-round pick back in '88 and bounced around the NHL for much of the '90s before heading to Europe. He also holds the distinction of being drafted fourth overall in my fantasy hockey league several years back by a poor misguided soul; the fact that he was a backup for Hartford at the time didn't deter the guy who drafted him. Muzzatti ended up being pelted with 50 shots in a 7-2 loss. The US squad, meanwhile, battled to a 3-3 tie with a pesky Latvian team led by former NHL netminder Arturs "Like Wall" Irbe. A great skating team, the Americans seemed to have the game well in hand before they let down in the second and coughed up a couple of goals. No such problem today against weak Kazakhstan, whom they easily beat 4-1, while Canada beat down Germany. I've been TiVoing the hockey coverage during the day and watching at night, so I've had to avoid media (sports sites and radio) so I don't hear the scores before I watch the games. It's not easy to do in these days of on-demand information.
• Looks like Wayne Gretzky won't have to testify in the alleged gambling ring case that saw charges brought against his assistant coach Rick Tocchet. His wife will likely not have to appear in court, either. The media feeding frenzy surrounding Gretzky will hopefully die down. It's been hard to watch, especially all the rampant speculation about the guy.
• I've made up for missing my long run Sunday by logging some serious mileage this week. Eight Monday and Tuesday and 10 this morning; I have to do 14 on Sunday in Joisey. Suppose I should limit my beer intake Saturday night. Maybe.