i am so said that the toronto maple leaf season has come to an end this evening...i just don't know what to say or do. i am completely in shock and i wasn't expecting this at all. here are two e-mails that i wrote earlier this evening...

the leafs played and won their game 7 on monday night. they gave it there all and knew that they had to win. normally, the team leading 3-2 that loses game 6 has a tough time in game 7. this year...not the same. this game was totally like game 7 of the second round between the leafs/blues 10 years ago in 92/93. the leafs beat the blues (with cujo as their goalie at the time) 6 - 0. you might remember that wendel had this wicked slapper that knocked off cujo's helmet.

anyway...about this game tonight. i am sitting here on my couch feeling like absolute poo. i really hate the flyers so much. i hate primeau, roenick, amonte, leclair, the whole damn team!!! i absolutely despise brashear. he is so damn annoying. don't know if cbc showed it but espn was such flyers-focused coverage. they showed brashear getting out of his yellow lamborghini. what a chump!

anyway, the leafs just didn't get it done tonight. they didn't come to play. you could tell in the first 10 minutes that the flyers were dominating (just like game 1, 2, 4 and 5). the flyers were strong but not moreso than any other game. i think that the leafs were just weaker this evening. they just couldn't pull it off. i'm interested to see what was really wrong with owen nolan. the one time he had any jump was during overtime in game 6 (he was on fire but that was the only time). and that concussion to mogilny in game 3 must have affected him more than we actually know cause after that game...he hasn't done too much for the rest of the series. i must say that sundin is unbelieveable - he is such a talented player...so many amazing moves. it is incredible to watch him. belfour was solid all season and bailed this team out so many times this year. he just had an off game tonight and lost his composure a few times but really, can you blame him? his team wasn't playing in front of him.

i don't know what else to say other than...
Congrats on a great season Toronto!
and

KICK SOME ASS OTTAWA!!!
GO SENATORS!!!

have a good evening boys,
i know i won't...

now for round 2 of my comments...

sundin - great player...lots of heart...but didn't really show the production that is required from your best offensive player. he had a lot of dazzle, was great on the draws but just was missing something. although i hate him, you can see the killer instinct that roenick possesses. we need sundin to display instinct like that.

quinn - gotta get out of one of his jobs. it's time to get a legit coach in there or a legit GM. we need to retool the front office

lumme/berg - give me a freaking heart attack whenever they are on the ice. damn, lumme has definitely gotta go. one thing that we are still severely lacking is the fact that we don't have a good defensive defenseman. we are missing the bob rouse's, sylvain lefebvre's, danny markov's and jason smith's of the world. truely sadly missing that element to the game.

next year - gone should be hoglund, belak (maybe keep him as a 7th or 8th defensemen), housley, lumme, tucker (i think that we can get a good defencemen for him), reichel, renberg (could be expendable).

hopefully gilmour plays another season...could be an effective 3rd or 4th line centre behind sundin, antropov and one more guy. wingers - mogilny, nolan, roberts are strong.

who is out there?
good night...

i'll leave it all at that for now...

i hate blogger

folks. it's getting late. it's sunday night. and that only means one thing. i have to go back to work tomorrow and my fantastic weekend has come to an end. i had a great weekend with my parents and friends. it was fantastic to hang with everyone and see as much as i did. i gots to tell ya more about it...but it's off to bed now....

night.

congrats to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. I just saw them sweep the Detroit Red Wings. Steve Rucchin just scored the game winner in game 4 of overtimne. I feel so bad for Curtis Joseph right now. And bad for Steve Yzerman. But, I definitely feel horrible for Curtis Joseph. Best of luck to you Cujo...

Off to bed...

i am so sad. triple overtime - and they just lost to recchi and the damn flyers. man, the last two games have been crazy. i watched game 3 in a sports bar at miller park cause i was at the brewers game. i didn't watch any of the baseball game. i had my back to the field the entire time and i was watching the tv in the bar. there was no volume on the tv though cause it was all muted. instead, i got to listen to bob uecker doing the play by play commentary for the brewers. everyone else in the bar must have been wondering who the hell i was and i was even there. the only reason, if you're wondering, was cause i was tailgating for the first time prior to the game with my classmates. that was fun. but i am so glad i got to watch the game.

now, the stage is set for game 4. i rushed home today...turned on the TV at 5:52 pm (6:52 pm EST) just in time for the game. right? WRONG!!! and all i got to say...is DAMN you MICHAEL JORDAN. because mr jordan decided to retire again after this season (can i add - for the 3rd time???) so, as a result - every network and their brother decided to show coverage of the MJ game. thus, the Leaf-Flyer game got bumped in favour of the Wizards-76ers. what the fugg??? so, i was frantic and i was looking around everywhere on every other channel to see where i could find the game. CBC Newsworld? Nothing. ESPN2? Nothing. it was brutal. then, i switched to an internet search...looking for live streaming tv but again, couldn't find anything that worked. so, i ended up listening to almost 6 periods of hockey on mojo radio - AM 640. it was so nerve racking not being able to see what was happening. one funny thing was that i was so productive during the game. i got so much stuff done. i made dinner, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the living room, clean my bathroom and did 2 loads of laundry, it was all very productive. and then...that damn mark recchi ended it. that sucked huge.

now, it's a best 2 out 3 series and the leafs really have to stop being so outplayed. they are relying on belfour so much (and he is playing amazingly).

so, the last two leafs games have been all eyes and no ears and then all ears and no eyes. let's see what saturday entails...
have a good night,

blogger is pissing me off...

Hey everyone. I'm back in Milwaukee now. Got back from Vegas yesterday afternoon (Saturday) and must say that overall, it was a really good experience. The training itself was nice cause it was about a couple new products that we are launching that I'll probably be directly selling so it's always nice to have exposure to new things early on in the process. As for the playtime after training - that was so good too. Vegas is truly the city of sin and truly the city that never sleeps. It's crazy but there are always people everywhere and people doing things (most notably, gambling).

My overall winnings (I mean losings) for the weekend was about $100 USD on Craps, Blackjack and a couple of games on the Slots (usually, just to kill time while waiting for someone). That was crappy to lose that money but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that bad cause I was up about $150 USD before going to Vegas after kicking butt in all the NCAA pools that I was in. I had the Kansas-Syracuse final and as a result, won $95 in one pool and $54 in another. So, in the end of it all, I was actually up about $50 so that is cool with me.

In my last blog, which I just re-read and saw how eloquent it was, I mentioned that I had just got back from Rain. Damn, I must say - that is a really cool club. The atmosphere inside was wild and the coolest part was the fire that they had coming down from the ceiling. It was so warm (which fire usually is) but what a cool idea...totally cool. On Friday night (after the Leafs Game 2 debacle vs. the Flyers), I went out to dinner (a buffet at the Luxor hotel) with two of my co-workers. It was fun and after, we played some blackjack. After that, I went to Paris hotel to meet up with my buddy Vipin and all of his Toronto/LA friends. They were all in town for a bachelor party this weekend so it worked out well - I got to hang with them on Thursday and Friday night so that was good times. We drank and chilled at Paris (their hotel) and finally left for Studio 54 where we had another AMAZING time. Studio 54 was off the hook! There were these acrobats hanging from the ceiling doing crazy tricks during songs. The go-go dancers were so wicked (especially this one girl in a cowboy hat - WOW!!!) There was easily 500 - 750 people there and it was so awesome. The layout of the club is really cool too and gives you a good mix of dance floor and chill space. We were at Studio 54 until about 4:30 and after we left that club, it took us a while but we finally got to Drais, an afterhours place. We had some hookup at Drais so managed to get a reserved table and bottles of alcohol like CC, Vodka, etc. It was pimpin', straight out of a rap video. I left Drais at about 6:30 cause I was tired. Got back to my room at New York New York and had about 25 minutes to sleep until I had to get up and pack in order to make it to the airport in time to catch my 9:14 flight back home to Milwaukee. So, as you can see - I pulled an all nighter on Friday partying and damn, I was tired after that. The plane home through Minneapolis went by quick cause all I did was sleep but it wasn't good sleep cause I was sitting up on the plane.

Last night when I got back, I went to Raymond's to chill out for a bit and then he and I picked up Joanne and we were going to go to Chicago to meet Dave and Veronica for Korean BBQ. On the drive there, I got pulled over by the Popo! It was my first time ever getting pulled over by the cops. It appears that he clocked me going at 69 mph in a 55 mph zone. I played the innocent game, pointed at my speedometre with kph instead of mph and kind of said some crap about thinking I had the conversion correct. In the end, after taking my licence and I guess running a check on me - he saw that I was clean as a whistle and didn't give me a ticket or anything. He just said that this was a warming and I should be careful.

Question for y'all - will the "warning" stay on my recond now?

I did know that I drive fast and I must say that it's a good thing that I got this warning. Now, I'm sure that I'll be more cautious cause I don't want to get into more potential trouble with the popo. After Korean BBQ, I went to a Jazz club in Chicago with Raymond and Joanne. It was great to hear some live music and the ambiance of the place was nice. It was called the Green Mill. One silly thing happened while we were there. We ordered a bottle of wine and I was about to give the waitress my VISA card when she said "We don't take VISA - we only take American Express". I was shocked. Who only takes AMEX? I thought out of all the cards - AMEX is always the one that people don't take. Not the other way around! Damn fools, cause of you - I had to go and use a bank machine and pay yet another crappy service charge (I've been paying too many of those lately).

Last thing cause this is a LONG blog. Congrats go out to Mike Weir today - the first Canadian to ever win a major PGA Tour event. And to do it at the Masters no less is amazing. I was so nervous watching his for his last 5 holes and the playoff. He had nerves of steel - that was so exciting to watch. I heard this story on TV that I'll share. In 1999, Weir was competing for the PGA Championship with Tiger on the final day of the tournament. He started the day tied with Tiger and potentially poised for victory. However, he shot a bad round and ended up losing to Tiger and a bunch of other people. A couple of days later, he got a call from none other than the Great One, Wayne Gretzky who basically said "Don't worry about it. Keep working hard. Keep practicing. Keep improving. Your time will come and you'll be ready for it". Mike always wanted to be a hockey player and idolized Gretzky but he was too small to succeed at the sport. I guess he then decided to take up Golf but at least he doesn't have a swing like Happy Gilmore. Weir's stroke is simple and elegant - it is a work of art. I imagine that getting a phone call like that from Wayne Gretzky has got to be a pretty wicked thing and very motivating. Now after all that - look at him now. On top of the golfing world. Congrats MIKE!!!

I am in my hotel room right now in New York New York on the strip in Las Vegas. It is 2:13 am local time and I just got home from a club called Rain. It was AMAZING. I wish i didn't have to leave early but I have to get to my work training thing tomorrow morning at 7:30 am so I have to get up in a few hours. That sucks but what can you do? I am going to to out hard tomorrow night after the Leaf game so that is going to be tight. So far Vegas is really tight. Other than the fact that I lost $66 USD (which is like $100 CDN) tonight on Black Jack and Craps (Which I played for the first time). I will have to WIN IT BACK TOMORROW NIGHT!!!

Good Night all.
Sweet Dream.
You are the bomb!!!

quick ramblings...more to come:

1) weekend in Sault Ste. Marie with the boys from school (Kris, etch, etc) was OFF the HOOK
2) my border experience with Ravin (crossing into the U.S.) was not a very good experience at all - they were looking through our computers and cell phones for gob knows what.
3) going to LAS VEGAS tomorrow morning for training.

later all,

I had a wonderful weekend. Went out with friends. Partied hard. Met some new people. Ate some great food (Crawdaddy's and EE-Sane). Watched some great basketball games AND I got some work done (stuff that I really needed to finish too). So, I would have to say that all in all...this was the prototypical Work Hard, Play Hard weekend! Today...I had the craziest, hardest aerobics class ever! It was kind of like a high paced cardio workout combined with some weight and strength conditioning. There were jumping jacks, skipping, lots of dips, push ups and sit ups/crunches. It was all quite intense and after, I definitely felt like I worked my ass off.

Then, I came home for dinner and Dave, Veronica and I made yet another feast:
Baked Salmon with lemon, dill, parlsey, salt and pepper
Pan-Seared Steak with garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil
Baked red potatos, spanish onion, spinach and garlic drissled in olive oil and fresh herbs
Homemade apple pie (crust and all) with coconut gelato
a nice Merlot

It was a fine evening and now, I'm just getting ready for bed.

This weekend - it looks like I'll be going to Sault Ste Marie to hang out with the Popo. It should be a blast...I am totally looking forward to it. Quick randoms before I hit the sack. The Leafs are starting the playoffs next week! Should be sweet. The Final Four is set. All I need is a Kansas - Syracuse final with Kansas winning it all and I'll be raking in some good cash next week. SWEET. The SARS scare is getting to be quite freaky at home. I was talking to Tchao and my mom and they were telling me somet of the stuff going on in Toronto. Now - 4 people have died, there are about 50 cases, 3 hospitals closed - it's getting bad!

There are some funny things on this site. Take a look...
Good night.