roncli.com blog

Well, I've been back from vacation for a few days now, and figured I'd update everything that went on.

First of all, this was actually one of my better Christmas vacations. I tell Kathy every year to remind me to take short vacations, because spending extended amounts of time with my family tend to irritate me. So this year, I went for a 9-day vacation, one of my longest.

Truth be told, it wasn't half bad this time around. Aside from one of my mom's many, many dogs using my chest as a spring board the first day there, and plenty of moments of boredom having to sit through watching television when there wasn't anything good on like a Sabres game, I actually enjoyed my stay overall this year.

Speaking of the Sabres, my brother Ryan got me tickets to the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day. So we went to Ralph Wilson Stadium after I picked him up from the airport. Took us over an hour and a half for what normally should be a fifteen minute drive thanks to ridiculous amounts of traffic. It was snowing lightly that day with temperatures in the lower 30's. We get to the stadium, pay $25 for parking, and get to the gate. They scan the tickets, and it tells us "Reprinted". They send us to the ticket booth. Uh oh.

Turns out that the tickets were reported stolen, and were from a block of tickets set aside for Penguins fans. After lots of arguing, Ryan finally got a new pair of tickets for face value - $39 each - and we got to see the game despite missing the first half of the first period.

Overall, the game was kind of slow, but the atmosphere was just spectacular. The Sabres really should have won the game, but their 4th straight loss was the same as any of the others, they couldn't score goals. They didn't even allow a shot in the 2nd period until there was less than 3 minutes left, but only came up with one goal. In the end, Sidney Crosby wrecked an otherwise wonderful day of hockey with a shootout victory.

They talk about playing that kind of game every year, but I hope they don't do it. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and repeating it annually would make it lose the luster and specticle that it was. Really enjoyable.

By the way, Chicago is frickin' freezing. When I got to O'Hare on the 2nd on my way home, it was -6 degrees. Fahrenheit. Brr.

Labels: Buffalo, Buffalo Sabres, Life, Pittsburgh Penguins, Winter Classic

Monday, October 15, 2007

Niagara Falls Roundup, eh?
Posted: 5:14:00 PM 0 comments

Kathy and I spent the week of September 24th in Niagara Falls, NY. We stayed at the Seneca Niagara Casino. What a beauty that place is, much more upscale than most of the stuff in Vegas.

Granted, Niagara Falls, NY is still a dump, perhaps even more so now than it was when I left the area back in 1999. The Rainbow Centre mall is completely closed, and the awesome indoor garden they had next to it was replaced by a kids fun center. Stupid.

The falls itself was awesome. We took the Maid of the Mist boat to within the horseshoe falls and got thoroughly soaked, enjoying every minute of it. The Falls really is an awesome power. I read somewhere that the American side of the falls will eventually flatten out and become rocky rapids, because the water can't erode the rocks that collapse fast enough. But the Canadian side has no such problem right now.

I once again met up with Martin Kilner of Outpost fame along with his "grl"-friend. We had a blast on Cliffton Hill playing Minigolf, enjoying the food, and riding the huge ferris wheel with a falls view. Then we went over to Casino Niagara where Jenn won thirty bucks in like 15 minutes. Martin finally got his hat back that he left in our rental car in England 2 years ago, and couldn't be happier.

We went to Toronto to worship the Hockey Hall of Fame, and dined atop the CN Tower. Wow, what a massive view from an incredibly tall building! They had a glass floor that neither me nor Kathy could bring ourselves to walk on.

Of course, we gambled throughout the week. While I went home $150 short, Kathy managed to make $250, the highlight being her winning 10 hands in a row! With the progressive betting that we do, she would have easily pulled in $1,000 if her last hand hadn't been a loss while doubling. That hurt!

Finally, on Saturday, we saw the Buffalo Sabres beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in preseason action 4 to 3. Sidney Crosby wasn't playing, but the game had tons of exciting moments, including one point where the Penguins goaltender was out by the blue line, playing a puck, and getting knocked over by a Sabres forward. The atmosphere was amazing, almost playoff in nature. For a preseason game! Buffalo's fans are hungry for hockey, and it was awesome to be a part of a game. I'm hoping to go to the 1/1 outdoor game against the Penguins, but we'll see if I can scrape up the money for that.

Next vacation, believe it or not, is back to Buffalo in December for Christmas. Gonna be a long one for me, too, as I play to be there from 12/22 to 1/2.

Labels: Buffalo Sabres, grl, Life, Niagara Falls, Pittsburgh Penguins, slammy, Sports, Toronto