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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

Friday, March 09, 2007

An Apartment Divided
Posted: 4:01:00 PM 2 comments

Now playing: Scorpions - Hurricane 2000 (5:38)

Tonight, the Buffalo Sabres play host to the Minnesota Wild. It's just a regular season NHL game, right?

Well, first, the way the current schedule's set up, the Sabres only play Minnesota once every 3 years. Second, being from Buffalo, the Sabres are my favorite NHL team. And Kathy, being from Houston, calls the Wild her home team, as the Houston Aeros are their AHL affilite.

Needless to say, me and her are going to be at odds throughout the night as (hopefully) the Sabres steal the show and send the Wild packing. As I have decided that safety is the primary issue, we are going to need to have our own "zones" tonight, like so:

The penalty for travelling outside the zone is, of course, 2 minutes for delay of game, unless you're headed for a neutral zone. Going to the neutral zone when someone is already there will be a 2 minute instigating penalty. For disrupting the cat, it's a 2 minute misconudct penalty. And for trying to tickle me when I'm in my zone... well, that's a game misconduct right there, so watch it, Silly. hehe

Labels: Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild, Silliness, Sports

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Hockey Season
Posted: 3:31:00 PM 0 comments

Ever since the Buffalo Sabres had their amazing playoff run ended by eventual Stanley Cup champs Carolina last year, I've been an avid hockey fan. Hockey is definitely the sport of choice lately, and I'm following more teams and players this year than I ever had.

The best part is, Kathy's into it, too. Ever since we got on a Houston Aeros kick last year, we haven't been able to shake the hockey bug.

The three teams I'm following are the AHL's Aeros, and the NHL's Sabres and Minnesota Wild.

First Buffalo. They are on the verge of their most successful season ever. All-star MVP Daniel Briere has been a goal scoring machine while Ryan Miller continues to dominate in goal. It's a shame they had to let go of one-time starter Martin Biron (and especially to Philadelphia, Biron can't be liking going to the worst team in the NHL), but it allowed them to make some key moves, including picking up Zubrus from Washington to help cover their injured players. Buffalo had this problem late last year, especially with Jay McKee's bizarre shin injury that left him out of Game 7 of the Conference Finals. Fortunately, it's not just the defense brunting the blow this year, so they are able to shift people around better. And the people they are calling up from Rochester this year have just performed amazingly. If they can beat up Toronto 6-1 with 7 missing starters, they're going to coast to the division championship, and quite possibly the President's trophy as well.

The Minnesota Wild started off hot but have cooled down since, and are now in the midst of a 3-way battle for their division title that seems to have gone on for months. As I write this, Minnesota, Vancouver, and Calgary are within one point in the standings. There are still 18 games to go, but if this tight race can continue to the end of the season, each game is going to feel like a playoff game, and if they can pull through they will be ready to give Minnesota fans something to cheer for. Their main problem right now, however, is their goaltending situation. Manny Fernandez is out with an injury, and has been out for a month. Just last night, Nikolas Backstrom went down to injury, leaving their third-string doing the starting role. However, Josh Harding has proven himself well in the AHL, and is one of my favorite Aeros players. I have no doubt he'll be able to succeed at the NHL level.

In the AHL, the Houston Aeros are our only local hockey team. They play in the Toyota Center, the same place as the NBA Rockets, and play to crowds that average about 6,000 to 7,000 in attendance. After finishing 2nd in the division and making it to the division finals last season, they are having a terrible season this year, tied for last place in their division. They lost Kirby Law to Europe and Eric Westrum to the Toronto Marlies, and no one's stepped up to take over leadership on the team. It's getting so bad that Matt Foy's taking out his frustration every game, usually getting into fights, unsportsmanlike penalties, and even misconducts for throwing some guy's glove into the stands. The head coach hasn't placed the "C" on anyone's sweater so far this year, which I feel is the base of the problem, no one is being expected to be the team leader. Adding to that, their top two goalies are out, because the injury chain falls upon the Aeros to replace Minnesota's goaltenders. Both Harding and Miroslav Kopriva are playing for Minnesota, while in the meantime we're stuck with Kochan, who's decent, and Quesada, who I personally don't want see playing in net and giving up 5+ goals ever again. Apparently he's been terrible in the lower leagues as well.

Despite the badness of the Aeros, Kathy and I still have fun going to their games, as hockey is simply the most exciting sport to watch. There's action, hitting, fighting, and now there's even scores with the rules that have really opened up games. It's not uncommon anymore to see 2, 3, even 4 or more goals scored in succession. And as in any sport, it's ALWAYS fun to yell at the refs.

Labels: Buffalo Sabres, Houston Aeros, Minnesota Wild, Sports

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Astros Swept in 4
Posted: 12:20:00 AM 0 comments

Now playing: The Cranberries - Ridiculous Thoughts (4:31)

What a terrible series for the Astros, particularly for Morgan Ensberg, who arguably had more opportunities to change the tone of the series than any of the other offensive players on his time, and failed to come up big nearly every time.

But still, kudos needs to be given to the White Sox. They had the clutch hitting that we didn't and, with the exception of Game 2, a remarkable bullpen that made Brad Lidge look like a AA player.

Labels: Houston Astros, Sports

Sunday, October 09, 2005

How 'Bout Them Astros?
Posted: 6:38:00 PM 0 comments

Can you believe it? Down 6-1 in the 8th, two swings of the bat tie it up 6-6 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and then the game goes... well, another game. Roger Clemens relieving in the 16th? Burke with the game winning homer in the 18th? Just about the best game I've ever watched. I only wanted to see how it was going to end. Wound up spending half the afternoon doing so.

Now let's get them red birds!

Labels: Houston Astros, Sports