So long Vince...good riddance

So, he is finally gone. Check out any media outlet - The Star, The Globe, TSN, ESPN, whatever. It's the same story everywhere. Vince is now a New Jersey Net. In exchange, we get Alonzo Mourning, Erik Williams, Aaron Williams and 2 draft picks. In a nutshell...we get a disgruntled big man, a pretty serviceable forward who is averaging good minutes and points, a useless spare part and potentially two decent picks.

I guess the question is...did they get the best they could? People will always question if they could have gotten more. Mourning, Williams and Williams are spare parts and used cars. So, is that a good thing? Does it make the Raptors better? Only time will tell but on first look, it doesn't seem that great

They now have more flexibility with their payroll. The contracts they get back are not long so we'll see what they can do with them. GM Babcock can work with this and see what options are available.

One big thing is that this is a huge moment in Toronto Sports. Vince Carter has been a defining superstar in Toronto (definitely on a decline but nevertheless). In no other sport, have we (meaning Toronto teams) ever had one of the top 3 players in the league (I'm not saying recently). But now, the Carter era is done. Enjoy the swamp you chump!

People are saying that this deal fits very well with this team. The two Williams' will do well in Coach Mitchell's system and will support Chris Bosh quite nicely. Bosh is definitely the new face of this organization and they are building around him. We'll see what that does.

I was on a message board just now and came across this post:

"WHATEVER! Another day. Another deal. But in the end, nothing; like sitting on the toilet and only making some noise! No substance!"

That is beautiful. Very beautiful.

Later folks.

Friday night in London, Ontario

I've had a very chill evening tonight. I am sitting in my hotel room right now so let me tell you about it.

First off. I should be in Montreal right now for the beginning of a bachelor party.
Instead, I am sitting in London, ON because I had to work today all day and I'll be at the same conference againg tomorrow.

So, I stayed here tonight (also skipped out on the Company Christmas Party cause that was all the way back in Woodbridge). Tonight, after working, I came home and watched some TV, then I went to the gym and worked out. I wanted to go in the pool/hot tub after but there were TOO many people and they didn't look too friendly so I said fugg it. Came back and did some e-mail for work. Then, got ready and went out for dinner to Take Sushi. I've eaten at that restaurant quite a bit (almost every time I come here for work). I was sitting alone at the sushi bar and there were two Japanese guys sitting beside me. They were progressively getting drunker and drunker as the evening went along. It was hilarious. The chef gave me a complimentary unagi hand roll which was okay. The China roll that they have is definitely money. It's got tempura, hot sauce, toasted sesame seeds and salmon. So yummy. Came back to the hotel and now it's time to start packing and get ready for bed.

I gotta get a decent sleep so I'm able to party all night tomorrow in Montreal!

Until we meet again...

So long Carlos

Well, it looks like the end of the Carlos Delgado era as a Toronto Blue Jay is upon us. The Jays decided not to offer him arbitration at midnight tonight so now, Carlos is a free agent and will likely sign elsewhere. It'll be sad to see Carlos go because he was such a great player for this team and also the heart and sole for the fans. Carlos was ALWAYS smiling and such a solid individual for the community. One of the only athletes in Toronto you could probably compare to Pinball Clemons but not quite at the level of Pinball (he is at a bar totally his own). Delgado never got along with Jays GM Ricchardi and the writing has been on the wall for a while. The time is actually here now though. I wonder where he'll end up.

And when the hell is one of Toronto's other superstars leaving? The fanfare surrounding that chump is quite different, eh?

Guess Who's Back...

Well ladies and gentlemen. After a long hiatus. I am back. There probably is no one reading this blog anymore anyway so if you're out there, enjoy but if you're not - you are missing out on the literary event of the year!

Guess what? It snowed in Toronto today. About 1-2 inches fell. The first big snow fall of the year. So as a result, Toronto drivers forget how to drive and screwed up all the roads and got into so many fender benders today. I had the luxury of working from home today so that was good. I think I am actually doing the Toronto public a favour because that is one less car stuck on the road sitting in gridlock. I am a good person...at least that is how I will rationalize it. I think that more people should be allowed to work from home because honestly, sitting in 2.5 hours of traffic just to get to work late and then leaving early to try to beat it so you can be home at a decent time just doesn't seem to be a very good thing.

My last post was October 25 and man oh man, a lot has happened since then.

Right around that time, I was starting out on a new path, growing exceeding happy and content with everything. Life was damn good if I do say so myself. And just as fast that got good...it went the other way. That's that. It's crap right now but I'll learn from it and figure things out.

In the past 6-8 weeks, I've done a lot of stuff but some of the highlights definitely include:

1. Going to the Argos game (first round vs. Hamilton) and getting down on the field with "medical" passes and then into the dressing room. I got to meet Pinball Clemons AND listen to his pregame peptalk in the locker which was absolutely WICKED.

2. I also got to try some fun circus activities. I went to the Toronto International Circus School for the Arts. What a really cool experience and totally freaky. I did the trapeze and damn, I was SCARED. I can't believe that I actually did it (3 times actually). Man, that was nuts just standing on the edge and then jumping off and swinging. I don't think I could skydive or bungee jump. I am just too chicken.

3. This past weekend, Ruth and I hosted Ruth and Aneil's Cooking Extravaganza for our Waterloo posse (along with our annual secret santa). We had a great menu and it was an awesome time. The menu was as follows... (just so you can salivate a bit).

Appetizers:
Guacamole and Tortilla Chips
Carrot Hummus and Toasted Flatbread
Sev Puri (small chips topped with various goodies)
Butternut Squash Soup

Mains:
Chicken Tikka (boneless marinated pieces)
Grilled Fished topped with an Indonesian Coconut and Coriander Chutney
Chole (chick peas cooked in a savoury onion and tomato sauce)
Indonesian Salad (long beans, bean sprouts, carrots, tofu and peanut sauce)

Desserts:
Fried Bananas in Brazilian Rum
Vanilla Gelatto
Ginger Ice Cream
Lychee Ice Cream
Chocolate Cake
Tea and Coffee

It was a feast...totally wonderful and definitely something I can't wait to do again. I definitely learned a few things. One - IT IS SO DAMN EASY TO OVERCOOK CHICKEN AND DRY IT OUT!!!

4. During my absense, my mom was in India for a month. She just got back last week. Man, the time she was gone went by so fast. While gone, my dad and I were doing the bachelor thing and took good care of the place (and our tummies). We ate very well (cooked a lot) and were invited to a few places for the odd dinners.

5. I also did some volunteer work over the past while. I helped at a Habitat for Humanity build in Scarborough which was great. Thomas helped out that day as well and the two of us had a great time. I also went to a Grade 7 class in Markham and taught them about the economics of staying in school. That was a really rewarding experience and great to hear what the kids had to say.

Well...I'm back and hopefully gonna contribute more regularly. A separate post shortly will be dedicated to the Raptors cause I am quite upset with that team right now. Some nights they look good and are playing well. But more nights - they are looking like chumps...not giving 100% effort night in and night out. Vince and Jalen have to go so that we can start fresh.

Night all...

Congrats to Canada

A big congratulations goes out to the Canadian National Dragonboat team that placed First overall at the World Dragonboat Championships on the weekend in Shanghai. They won the Nation's Cup by winning 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal.

Cristine was there competing as well. I am not sure how her team did but what an honour to paddle for your country! And I know that she has worked VERY hard for this so I am so proud of her.

Spam on Cell Phones???

I got a text message tonight from "No Name, No Number" and it said something to the effect of "La Rouge Niteclub open this Sunday and every week for Live to Air. No cover before 11:00. Call XXX-XXX-XXXX for guest list"

What the hell is that??? How do I get spam as a text message? I didn't know they could do that? Man, spam is coming everywhere. I sometimes get spammed by Telus but I expected that because they are my service provider. Are they selling my info to other third parties now?

Something silly is happening.

Oh yeah, I finally finished "The Life of Pi". I started it last month and finished it yesterday. Good book. Just don't think it lived up to the lofty expectations I had set for it. Now, I am reading Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald and so far, it is great.

Time for a new week...

The 3rd and Final U.S. Presidential Debate

This is quite hilarious. It is about serious topics. But man, the two of these guys are arguing with one another about points like little kids. Issues I've heard so far include Home Economics, Healthcare, Veterans, Gay Marriage, Abortion and Terrorism. When Kerry speaks about certain topics like healthcare and economics, they do a split screen and George W. has these really stupid "I think I said something wrong" coy smiles and it is absolutely hilarious seeing his reactions. All they do is blame each other and talk about what the other did wrong in the past. They spend way more time on that and much less time on what they are actually gonna do if they are President. And if they do say what they are going to do (better the healthcare system, etc), they rarely explain how it's gonna happen and how they are actually going to make it happen.

Canada has come up a few times now. First was regarding the flu vaccine shortage in the U.S. According to Bush, they were dependent on some company in England that "contaminated" the vaccine. Canada is now who they are turning to in order to provide the vaccine. Canada was also brought up when talking about border protection.

I also learned tonight that the Minimum Wage in the U.S. is at $5.15. And it's been that way for 7 years? Holy crap. That is damn low.

Both candidates support the Second Amendment that says any American can own a gun. The difference between the two of them is that Kerry doesn't support Attack Weapons and Bush apparently does (not in those exact words. What I actually mean is that Bush didn't support the Anti-Attack Weapons Bill during his administration. Bush's quote is as follows: "I believe that Americans should be allowed to own guns. The best way to protect Citizens with guns is to prosecute those that commit crimes with guns."

I'm donw with this thing...
I should really find out some more about Canadian politics rather than watching this crap.

Reality Television

Just sitting here in my hotel room flipping channels. On TV, the commercials I just saw were completely stupid... "He's a Lady" and "The Real Gilligan's Island". What the heck is this crap? There is a new reality television show popping up every hour of every day. There is so much junk on tv now... The only ones that I like to watch are The Amazing Race and The Apprentice but the other stuff is just plain stupid. I guess the thing with Reality Television is that it is cheap to do. There are no actors to pay and sets to worry about. It makes sense economically and I guess the other thing is that people who watch TV feel that they can somehow relate to the characters cause they are more "real"

Only in America I guess...

Long Weekend? What Long Weekend???

I am sitting here in Lake Geneva, WI right now. Arrived this afternoon around 2:00 pm and I'm here until Thursday for training for work. If you didn't know, it's the Thanksgiving Long Weekend in Canada this weekend but unfortunately, I have to work on my long weekend so I don't get it. Stupid Americans never consider us Canadians and went ahead and planned our training for the week starting on the Monday of Thanksgiving. Do you think a sales meeting or training would ever be over any American long weekend? I think not.

This weekend...what I had anyway was great. Friday night started with All you can Eat Sushi for Etch, Krix and I. We went to a place called Asahi at Carlton near Sherbourne (close to Cabbagetown) and had a laugh filled meal including the raw beef that Kris ordered cause he thought it sounded good. Overall...there were some amazing Makis and a couple others that weren't so good. All you can Eat Sushi is definitely a cool concept though and awesome to eat some good food. After dinner, we walked for close to 45 minutes down towards the Paramount cause we decided to watch a movie.

We watched The Motorcycle Diaries which was a phenomenal movie. It was very powerful and offered a lot of incredible imagery. The scenery in South America (Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Columbia and Peru) was absolutely stunning and totally beautiful. I have wanted to go to South America for a while now and after seeing that movie, I can't wait until I can finally go. Che's life (prior to his Political Activist days) was really quite full of experiences and opened and shaped his mind. The people he met along his journey impacted him and really made a difference.

Saturday, I got to hang out with my niece Ankita. It was great to see her and play with her yesterday afternoon. We carved a Jack 'O Lantern which was fun. I've never done that before and I know Ankita had a great time scooping out all the goop from the pumpkin. At night, the boyz came by with a couple of the ladies. It was and always is great to hang with G, Ashwat, Kdot and Samp along with the new additions to the posse - Raq and Andrea. I made chicken fajitas and Ash brought a nice salad. Andrea provided the dessert (chocolate brownies) and together, we had a feast. I must say though that we are getting old. We all sat around eating and drinking and we were talking about marriage, weddings, politics, real estate and work. Crazy how things have changed.

Well...guess I should get to bed cause I have to work tomorrow morning at 7:30. For all of you in Canada...enjoy your day off. Guess I'm the sucker now.

Weekend Update

I had a really good one. It was quite busy but I got to see a lot of buddies and have a lot of fun. Friday night was pretty chill. I just went out to Madras Palace for some Masala Dosa with the 'rents. Then, I went home and watched the final 2 episodes of 24, Season 2. It wasn't as good as season 1 in my opinion. Lots more wholes in the story and discontinuity (is that a word?). The thing is though...that show is built and aired in such a way that I wouldn't be able to watch it on a weekly basis. I have to watch it when I have all the DVD's of all episodes cause they keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through.

Saturday, I satisfied a craving. I have been wanting Dim Sum for a while now and I finally got to have it. Once again, I was the token brown guy among my Asian friends and we went out to a nice Dim Sum restaurant in Richmond Hill. The food was good but damn, we had A LOT of it. After food, we tried to figure out what to do and eventually settled on the driving range where we proceeded to have driving and putting contests. I'm sure we disrupted all the other hardcore golfers around us but screw 'em!, we were having a good time. At night, I went to a concert with Sachin and Etch. We saw the Afro-Cuban All Stars, a Cuban lounge band with a wide array of instruments including trumpets, trombones, a sax, bango drums, piano, violen and dancers. It was a great show although it started out slowly cause there weren't that many people into the dancing. Evntually though, the crowd came around and it was fun. There was even an 80 year old man that joined them on stage. He used to be in Bueno Vista Social Club so he came out and performed. He was singing and dancing on stage. After, I went to a lounge called Lily in Little Italy which had some cool music playing. Was there till late which probably wasn’t a good idea cause I only got about 4 hours of sleep.

This morning, I had to wake up at around 8:00 cause I did the CIBC Run for the Cure. It was a good time (so many people – almost 40,000 I think). I completed the run in 24 minutes which was great since my goal was 25 minutes. In total, I raised $520 which was awesome. I only decided to do the race on Thursday night so to raise that much is such a little time was perfect. It was a really neat atmosphere down there and tonnes of people to share a special occasion with. After the run, I took the subway home and then on the bus, had to listen to the entire conversaton of this damn chick who was talking so loudly on her cell phone. I don't think she knew how to use her "inside voice". Man, she was a tool. Got him, ate some lunch and then took a nap cause at 4:00 pm, I had a beach volleyball game. It was our team's second game of the season in our Fall League. We kicked butt today.

Oh yeah, two other quick things from the world of baseball. My condolences go out to the family of John Cerutti (former Blue Jay Pitcher during the 80's). He was found dead in his Skydome hotel room today. He is now a TV Commentator for the Jays and was supposed to call todays game but never showed up for work. Apparently he died of natural causes.

Also in baseball news, it appears that Carlos Delgado has just played his last game in a Toronto uniform. What a classy athlete and truly an ambassador to Toronto and his native, Puerto Rico. I wish that idiots like Vince Carter could watch and learn from a guy like Carlos. He will certainly be missed.

That is all. Now I must sleep. I need a massage!

CIBC Run for the Cure

This Sunday October 3, 2004 - I will be participating in the CIBC Run for the Cure. This year, I came into contact with a few people affected by breast cancer and realized how close it really can be. I have wanted to do this run for years and now, I finally feel like there is a real motivation behind completing it. I'm sure that you may already know people who have been affected by this awful problem or will know someone in the future.

I'm sure a lot of you have already supported others so if that is the case, I completely understand. However if you can spare a donation, I would really appreciate any support that you can provide. The even better scenario would be if you could complete the run yourself. Alternatively, you can follow the instructions below and help me out...

It is very SAFE and EASY to make a donation using a credit card or an e-mail money transfer. The donations website is secure and will accept your credit card.

- Simply go to https://www.cibcrunforthecure.com/rftc2004/html/login.asp and click on DONATE in the bottom right corner.
- Search for me
- Select my name from the search results.
- Choose your donation amount and click on Support at the bottom.
- Then, it will prompt you for your contact information, relationship to me, etc.
- After entering all that, click on continue and it will prompt you for credit card info or you can do an e-mail money transfer

If you don't want to use the online system, but would still like to donate the old fashioned way, please email me and I will collect the money from you to submit it on race day. If I can't get the money from you by Sunday, I will front the cost and then you can pay me after (by cash or cheque).

If you want a tax receipt, you will automatically receive it for any donation of $20 or more. If you require a tax receipt for a donation below $20, simply request it. In both cases, the tax receipt will be e-mailed to you.

Thanks a lot and I really appreciate your support.

Sushi = Bad???

Okay, what the heck is up with this news story? And how true is all this. I have a feeling that his is going to be a truly loosely monitored law. It just doesn't make sense. Are city councillors (or perhaps provincial people) trying to tell me that Japanese people (WHO HAVE BEEN EATING RAW FISH in SUSHI) for centuries are getting more sick all of a sudden cause of the fish? I find that very hard to believe. I can't see this sticking around. Or better yet, I can't really see hardcore Japanese chefs following this process to the T. I am sure there will be some "creative interpretation of rules".

Stalled Productivity?

I just saw something funny on CFTO local news. They were talking about that huge crash on the 401 today. At the end of the news story, this funny graphic was shown. They said that it was estimated that the delays caused by today's accident resulted in $280 Million in lost productivity. What the heck does that mean? They have nothing to compare that too. They didn't state of their assumptions or reasons for choosing certain parameters to come up with that calculation. That is just such a random number...purely for shock value. One of those "Oh my god, that accident cause a loss of $280 Million??? Wow, that is crazy!" It's not yet certain if there was driver fatigue that caused the driver of the truck with garbage to swerve and eventually hit the truck with the paint. It is amazing to see how dependent this city is on the 401 though. Check out all the people that were negatively affected by the accident today...

Random TV Moments

So, before I blog...let me just say that the last couple months of blogging on my part has been sub par at best.

I just watched a couple of things...

1. The Apprentice
2. The last home game of the Montreal Expos

In terms of the Apprentice tonight, that was a good, but very annoying episode. Actually, this is now two annoying episodes in a row. Cause, last week Stacie J got ganged up on and booted off the show when she shouldn't have. This time around, the leader Jen C was an absolute fool and deserved to get dumped. As Trump said - "That was easy". Trump's Associate (Carolyn Kepcher) was all over Jen C, telling her that she failed and that she brought in people to the boardroom for personal reasons. Jen C also kept interuping everyone and she just wouldn't shut up. She was very very very annoying. The girls teams keep losing. Man, that is pitiful to watch. They are so katty and just can't get along. It is quite sad. On the other hand, the guys team is really kicking it....last week Kevin led them to victory and this week, the man with the boy tie, Raj pulled out victory this week.

This week's task was to come up with an idea for a restaurant, make it happen and score higher in the Zagat survey. That was an awesome task and I really wish they showed more of the work that went on behind the scenes cause I was totally interested in the task...not all the BS that the girls' team was putting up with. I would love to do something like that. Well, most of you know that I want to do that at some point in my future. But if I was given that task and I had to turn it around that fast...man, that would be awesome.

Now, let's talk about the Expos. They lost 9 - 1 to the Florida Marlins tonight but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that this was the last time the Monteral Expos will be playing a game in Montreal. They just couldn't sustain the team in this city. Attendance was horrible and as a result, gate revenue was down and thus, they couldn't get very much talent. The Expos have been playing some "home" games in Puerto Rico for the past two years so the writing was definitely on the wall. The team started in 1969 and moved to Olympic stadium in 1977. The most glorious year for them was in 1994 however that ended up being the strike shortened season. That year...the Blue Jays were looking to 3-peat and were at the top of the American League at the same time as the Expos who were the best team in baseball, and leading the National League. Unfortunately, there was a strike that year and the Jays and Expos didn't get a chance to play for the World Series. In 1995...the year after the strike, the Expos started up and had lost Grissom, Hill, Wetteland and Walker (the core of their team) so there was no chance for them to do anything more...

Over the years, the Montreal Expo farm system was kick ass with people like Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Moises Alou, Gary Carter, Larry Walker, Dennis Martinez, Pedro Martinez and Vladimir Guererro but the crap thing is that they just turned into a "feeder team" for the rest of the league. And that is just the way it was.

Really, I guess I am being a bit of a hypocrite though cause I haven't supported baseball in years. I watch every now and then (especially in the playoffs) but I haven't bought a ticket to a baseball game in a long time. I guess though...people say that the strike of 1994 really took it's toll on this game. And the other problem that exists is that there is a two-tiered system in this league with no revenue sharing. Constantly, teams like the Yankees and Red Sox can spend so much money to buy players. That said, the Twins and A's continually play well and make the playoffs so money isn't the total answer.

I guess the other thing that upsets me is just to see a Canadian sports franchise getting shut down. We've already lost the Jets and Nordiques in the NHL. The Grizzlies in the NBA and now the Expos in MLB. The crap thing is that there are so many struggling American teams that won't shut down (especially in the NHL) and that is definitely one of the causes of these problems.

Guess who's back...

What you can't guess? Well, let me give you a hint. I HATE him and want to shove speakers down his throat? Still can't remember? Well, how about the TOOL that I want kick repeatedly in the head? Oh...now you have it...the stupid-ass neighbour with the loud music. On Saturday night, he went out and left his damn CD on. I think he purposely left it on. Anyway, it was on all night from 11:00 pm until 6:00 am the next morning (when he got home). CAN YOU #@#%$#@%@# believe that? And right now, it is so loud that I can hear his music clearly and can't even hear my own which is on in my room right beside my damn computer.

I am not that impressed at all. It actually was a quiet summer. BUT NOT ANYMORE.

Crime at the Beaches

For those of you that live in Toronto, you've probably heard about the story that broke yesterday. For the rest of you...check out this link.

I was playing beach volleyball on Saturday in that same sand but we all played pretty poorly that day. Sunday was supposed to be our day of retribution so Tchao, Danielle, Stan and I hopped into the car and drove down to Ashbridges. We met up with Mike who told us there was police tape all around the courts and no one was allowed to play. Confused and interested...we went over to the courts and began to walk around. We slowly started hearing stories and seeing news reporters talk about the crime. Seeing the cops out there with there metal detectors and rakes was quite weird. The process was taking forever too. In the time we were there (30 minutes), they probably covered at most 2% of the whole beach volleyball court area. They continued all afternoon and apparently today, they are back out there (This time with more manpower, metal detectors and a high strength magnet).

I was listening to the Bill Carroll show on CFRB this morning and it was very interesting. He was calling this an act of Terrorism because it had the deliberate intent to hurt (or kill) someone and has caused a sense of fear among residents of Toronto. The crazy thing was that no one was calling in. He compared this to the issue from a couple months ago when someone poisoned the park so dogs got sick. The lines were jammed and people couldn't stop talking about it. Now, in this case when it affects humans - no one is calling and there just isn't that same sense of fear that there was with the dog incident.

I am not sure what to think about this crime. Someone actually conceived this plan. Bought wood and cut it up into 2 by 3 inch pieces. Then, cut grooves in the wood and glued pieces of razor blades into the grooves so they would stay face up. Then, they went to the beach late at night b/w Saturday and Sunday and proceeded to lay these things (blade side up) under the sand in the courts. Who would do something like that?

What a crazy story. I'm glad no one got hurt though...



http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1095631809993&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

Trip Update

Sorry guys but I don't think I got a chance to tell you about my Europe trip. I went to Amsterdam, London and Budapest and had a blast in all three cities. All were unique and had their own little charm. Stories in Amsterdam are funny. It all started with my crap $2 dollar shop umbrella that I bought for my trip on the day I left. It was raining in Amsterdam and quite windy the whole day I was there. So, as I was walking - my umbrella kept getting blown inside out and I was getting laughed at by all these local Dutch people. The coffee shops in Amsterdam are EVERYWHERE and the redlight district is right in your face too (no matter what time of day) - would you like something else with that breakfast of yours? Generally the people were quite nice and easy to get along with. I didn't go to any of the "shows" cause I thought they were too expensive and I also didn't want to go alone. Overall...I got a good feel for the city and don't think I need to go back anytime soon. Visiting a coffeeshop was a must and I did that. Ordering was interesting but I eventually figured it out.

London was grand. Raj was TOTALLY surprised when I knocked on his flat door and he opened it. He couldn't believe that I was there standing right in front him. Definitely a great surprise and awesome to see someone's jaw drop like that. I totally wished I had my camera ready...that would have been a priceless photo to have. My first couple days of London on this trip were spent celebrating the London Caribbean festival called Carnival. It's just like Caribana in Toronto but I think it might even be bigger. Raj's flat is located right on the parade route so it did get quite loud at times but the views were amazing. We would just sit in his chair on the window ledge so it was great. Throughout my trip to London we ate amazing food - italian, middle eastern spanish (the best tapas and paella ever), indian and english. And, I also had several other toxins throughout my body at various times during the trip.

Now, as I was in London - I was looking to find a cheap flight somewhere else so I could take off for a few days and check out another part of Europe. I found a flight for 90 pounds to Budapest so I took it. My trip to Budapest actually started on the wrong foot cause I was late leaving Raj's flat. I left the flat and was walking to porchester road to hop on Bus #36. I waited for a couple of minutes but realized it was going to take WAY too long... so i hopped in a cab. the cab driver raced and got me to Victoria station by 12:46 (so i was 1 minute after the Gatwick Express train left) so I had to wait until 1:00 pm. The cab cost 9 pounds. The train ride is about 30 mintues to Gatwick airport. I got off, ran to the above ground subway that took me to the North Terminal and ran to the British Airways check in desk. Got checked in at around 1:51 and then raced to the customs line. Got through that...saw that I was 10 minutes from my gate so I had to run to the gate for my flight (that was already boarding). I got there with about 3 minutes to spare (wow, that was close)...

On my flight, I was sitting beside a nice Hungarian woman who was just in paris/london visiting her daughter and niece. She spoke limited english but managed to tell me a couple of things to do while I was in Budapest and give me some good tips. She corrected me on some of the Hungarian i was trying to learn...like "kosonom" which means "thank you". I wasn't pronouncing the "o's" correctly. When we arrrived at the airport, she told me to wait for her and she would take me to the correct bus (which you ride for 25 minutes to get to the subway). After we passed through customs and she got her bag...we both changed some money. The currency there was quite low in value. 1 HUF (Hungarian Fuiret) = ~250 euro and ~195 USD.

When we got outside, the ladies' son was waiting for her to greet her (cause she had been gone for a month). Together, the three of us made our way to the bus (they bought me my ticket which was very nice of them). We chatted on the bus and then when we got to the metro station...the lady helped me buy my travel card for the metro. We then said our goodbyes (took a photo and exchanged e-mails (the son had e-mail, not the lady)) and that was it.

I got on the subway and within a minute, started talking to a guy from Israel who was flying home from Portugal. He had about 7 hours stopover in Budapest and decided to go in and check it out for a few hours. He came with me to my hotel...and i dropped off my stuff. It was a clean hotel, had a huge courtyard right in the middle with live gypsy music. I had a HUGE room (with 4 beds in it) but they only charged me the Single room rate (27 euro/night) which is really cheap compared to a lot of the others I saw that were 50 and 60 euro per night. Also, It is very close to the main city centre which is awesome. Me and the guy (Varana) left the hotel and walked around the city for the next few hours which was great while partaking in some "extra-curricular" activites. The sun was just going down and the skies were clear so we got to see some neat stuff. After dinner, Varana and I parted ways and I made my way back to my hotel. Prior to doing that, I stopped at an Internet cafe and then after, I ran into a nice Irish couple from Cork (southern Ireland). They were good fun and we had a blast.

More about Day 2 of my trip in a subsequent post.

World Cup of Hockey?

Well, it's that time of year again. You know...there is that traditional sports tournament that travels from country to country every 4 years and celebrates the competition within a wonderful sport. Well, this year it's Hockey and who is thw host country you ask? Well, actually it's Canada and the US this year. And yes, Canada made it to the Championship game. Canada played Finland tonight for the final and I must say - the game just lacked a certain level of intensity. I was finding that I couldn't really concentrate on anything. It was a fun game to watch and Canada pulled out a 3-2 victory in the end. So, then again - watching Canadians win at hockey is always a good thing. One sad thing was the trophy. It was designed by Frank Garret (sp?) - a world famous architect. Methinks he should just stick to building commercial and residential structures. The funny part was watching each player do their little skate around with the trophy (as if it was the Stanley Cup) but they all had the same "what the hell am i holding up and i don't think it's out of it's packaging yet" kinda looks. Strange. Very strange.

Have a good one...I defintiely have loads to write but I can't even keep my eyes open right now.

Back to School

Wow my friends. It is that time of year already. 1 more day of the CNE. Labour Day Long weekend or one of the busiest days at the airport - you take your bet but this year...September 6 is that day. i am in London right now, just finished packing and I'm heading to bed soon.

Sadly, my vacation is over and I must fly home tomorrow. It's been a great time hanging around Amsterdam, London and Budapest - had a blast everywhere and met a tonne of great people from all over the world. I've got some funny Budapest stories about meeting random people - including the Irish couple who taught me how to pour the perfect pint of Guiness. The Israeli guy that I chilled with. The Mexican architect who shared a lot of history. The Hungarian 16 year old boy who ended up being my impromptu tour guide for about 4 hours. And lastly, the American girl who was originally from Scarborough but who now lives in San Francisco. I'll share more stories with y'all at a later date.

I've gotta leave my brother's flat tomorrow morning by about 9:00 am and I don't reach Toronto until something like 8:30 pm in the night. I don't have a direct flight (the wonders of Aeroplan) so instead, I am flying via Pitsburgh and I've got a 3 hour lay-over there. :o(

Time for bed. See you when I get back.

Greetings from the UK

Crazy. I am in London, England right now in my brother's apartment just getting ready for bed. London, England you ask???

Well, I am on vacation. I left Toronto last week on Thursday night (August 26). I flew on Aeroplan and had to go via Amsterdam so I stopped there for a few hours (from about 10:00 am until 6:00 pm). I left the airport and took a train into the city centre. Just walked around and saw the city and got a feel for the people, culture, architecture, etc. Unfortunately it was raining quite a lot and one stupid thing that happened was my cheap ass $2 umbrella that I bought at the dollar stor didn't quite last more than 10 minutes. I got laughed at by some Dutch girls as the umbrella was blown inside out. While in Amsterdam, I visited a coffee shop (as expected) and saw the red light district which was a very weird experience. I didn't go into any of the shows but there are parts of the area where you are just walking down the street and there are girls behind these glass doors in these little rooms on the sides of buildings. There is this cheap red disco lighting inside - it is very weird.

I arrived in London around 7:45 pm and by the time I got through customs, picked up my bag and hoped on the tube and bus, I got to my brother's place around 9:30 pm. This is where the fun begins. You see...it was a surprise that I was coming. I hadn't told Raj and just wanted to show up. That I did. I buzzed to get in their flat and his gf opened the main door but told him to open the door to their apartment when I knocked. She told him that it was probably her cousin (who lives in London). So, he came to the door not expecting anything. When he opened it and saw me...he was in utter disbelief and completely dumbfounded. He just couldn't believe it and screamed - it was priceless. The perfect entrance.

The last few days have been phun but a total blur. We've been waking up around 12:00 noon every day and just chilling and passing the time. Have done A LOT of eating and have done NO exercise. It's kind of a bad combination.

I just booked a flight to Budapest, Hungary. I will be going there for a couple days later this week from Wednesday until Friday so that should be a good time and I'll be able to visit another country and do some exploring. any of you ever been there? got any good suggestions of places to stay, people to meet, stuff to see.

Lemme know...
Word


THANK YOU for a Wonderful Beach Party
To all my buddies that came out to my beach party 10 days ago...thanks. It was a blast to chill down at Ashbridges that day. In total - somewhere b/w 40 and 45 people came so that was wicked. We had enough food. Two awesome volleyball courts set up and a great spot on the sand.

Thanks to Flo, Art, Eric, Cris, Kev, Stan, Jen, Tai, Ruth and Byron for the volleyball net. That was a FANTASTIC gift - you guys are totally thoughtful.

Overall...a perfect day capped by a perfect evening. Can't ask for much else.

updates coming

i apologize in advance but i can't write a lot right now. i have a bunch of experiences to summarize from the past week. most importantly is that i had a birthday bbq and beach volleyball day on saturday (the 21st). in total, there were about 40 - 45 people there (over different times) and everyone (to the best of my knowledge) had a great time. it was awesome to have all my random groups of friends (university, high school, work, marathi) all hooking up and hanging out...

right now, i am in chicago in a hotel. i am just watching olympic coverage on nbc and man, it is so biased here in the US. i guess that canadian olympic coverage is probably biased as well but damn, this is brutal. i am watching gymnastics right now and these commentators are completely pissing me off.

gotta finish work and get to bed. it's 11:30 and i've gotta wake up tomorrow morning at 6:30.

night,

Blackout Anniversary

So, as a community or city or province or country or continenent. Have we actually learned anything from last year's blackout? I think we are still using a lot of power and not really conserving as much. It's probably slightly better but no where near where it should be.

Thursday was actually the annivesary or when the blackout occured. Tonight is actually the 14th of August (the actual time that it happened). What a weird occurance but very cool to be a part of. I'll never forget that bbq we had at Kris' place that night and seeing random civilians direct traffic at major intersections.

Tonight is the Whiteout at the Whitehouse. The Phun Popo bbq that had become an annual event. It should be a good time - good eats, good tunes, good people. Can't wait.

Nanda and Steve are getting married today! Congrats guys! Can't wait to see you...

Birthday news

My 26th birthday came and went on Thursday August 12th. It was a beautiful day outside and turned out to be a pretty good day. The night before, our volleyball team lost our first game so that wasn't very good but we know where we screwed up so I think we'll be okay (gotta practice tomorrow though). After, Eric, Mike, Danielle and I went to Johnny's for a little post game meal. That was perfect! I can't believe that was Danielle's first time to Johnny's (she liked it so that's good).

Thursday morning, I woke up and had to head to the office for my mid-year review with my boss. That went well and some good things were said. Then, I headed out to a customer meeting and after the meeting, had a nice lunch with a co-worker where we had a couple of pints and I got a little tipsy so had to wait a while before driving home.

Got home that afternoon and hung out with Ankita (my niece). Her family moved to NYC today (August 14th) for good so I am quite sad about that. I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible on Thursday and saw her again yesterday (Friday). She is such a special girl and I am truly gonna miss her. We played a lot on Thursday and again on Friday so I have nothing but fond memories. Not sure when I'll be making my first trip to NYC but I'll see you soon Ankita!

That night, I had dragonboat practice and my parents came down and brought Ankita and her mom. I'm glad they got to come cause she always heard about my paddling but didn't know what it was. She had a great time running around in the park and near the water and even got to sing me happy birthday with my teammates when they ramdomly decided to sing to me while we were paddling. After practice, we had a couple of drinks and some food on the patio down at Sunnyside and it was cool to chill with my teammates. Cristine came by and hung out and then the two of us went for a really nice walk along the boardwalk. Thanks a lot Cristine! That was perfect.

After practice, I met up with Romi and we went up to see the Perseids Meteor Shower. We drove up to the Kennedy and Major Mackenzie area and found a driveway where we parked. We laid on top of the Escape and looked up into the night sky. It started to get a little cold but we roughed it out and eventually saw about 5 shooting stars (actually, I only saw 2 but she saw the other 3). It was cool to be out there for the Meteor shower. It's an annual birthday present that I get from Mama Nature and I hadn't been out to see it in a few years so I'm glad I got to go see it (although my other plans to go see it were changed). Romi - thanks a lot for coming out with me and spending time on my birthday. It was great to chill out and I really hope that all the stuff going on in your life works itself out. You've got some big decisions ahead of ya but I'm sure that you will make the right ones. You got the support of family and friends so it'll be great.

Have an excellent Blackout weekend everyone!

My first post of August

Days are gettting a little shorter. And nights are slowly starting to get a little cooler. Wow - the summer is winding down. That is not a good thing. I always know that the summer is winding down cause of my birthday and the CNE. Once August rolls around and those two things happen - well, it's time for back to school sales for those note totes or finder binders.

I'll be sending out some more information shortly about my birthday bbq/volleyball party. It's going to be on August 21st down at Ashbridge's Bay. I am thinking of asking you guys to come down around 12:00 noon and we'll stick around until the wee hours of the night. There is a volleyball tournament going on that day down at the beach so it is going to be VERY crowded - parking will certainly be a problem. But we'll manage - and it's all about car pooling and the TTC!

This Saturday (August 14th) marks the one-year anniversary of the Blackout. Crazy to think that that occured a year ago. I wasn't greatly affected by it like the elderly or disabled who lived in high-up apartment buildings so there was no problem for me. So, I actually enjoyed it. Looking at the stars, hearing about all the people walking around downtown. Kris and I even had an impromptu bbq cause I didn't know if I had enough gas in my car. Overall - a great experience.

Played a lot of v-ball yesterday in the rain for a good portion of it. We were hitting balls (spiking and serving) like no bodies business - it was wicked. Playing in the rain was pretty refreshing for most of it. Although it did get really annoying for a bit. There was this group of people playing beside who were spiking like crazy. They were really good. The girls (especially this really small one) were getting up there and hammering it as well. Man, that was awesome to see!

Been doing a lot of dragonboat for the past few months. I just raced in Woodstock on Saturday and will be in Huntsville this weekend for another race. I am slowly getting tired of it. Not the actual racing - it's just the travel to and from the races. In Woodstock on the weekend, we lost the A Final by about 80/100ths of a second. Man - that was close. Hopefully we'll do well in Huntsville next week.

My niece Ankita is leaving on August 14th. It's come time for her and her family to make their move. She's moving to NYC cause that's where her dad's job is. I really don't want her to leave. She's still a Canadian but I think she's going to grow up as an American kid (hopefully she'll keep many of her Canadian values). I really hope that one day down the road, they decide to return but I don't really think it'll happen cause once you start earning USDs, I imagine it's hard to turn around and say no to it. I will definitely do my best to convince her to come back to Canada for university though (but that is like 10 years away). I will certainly miss her.

Have a good week folks...

11 days have passed

Well, I kinda fell off the wagon for a while. It's funny with this whole blogging thing. I guess you go through spurts. Cause, there were times in the past that no matter what I was doing, I would be thinking "I've gotta blog about that" but for the past couple of weeks, I have been so unmotivated with doing this. I just kinda felt like it was a bit of a chore. Not sure why I would feel that way but whatever. I'm here now.

I saw the Bourne Supremacy this week. I liked it. Just kept going from the first one although I did enjoy the first one better. Rarely are the second movie of a sequel as good as the first. I guess cause the first always catches your attention and it's something new or unique. Then, when the second one comes, it's more of a "been there, done that" type of feeling.

Thanks to Ado for letting me know about the Future Shop sale. I bought the 24 Season 1 DVD last night for $28.00 plus taxes. Normally, it's like $75.00 so that was a super score. I have a feeling it's just gonna sit on my shelf collecting dust but that is one of those TV series DVD's that you've gotta have. I am still on the lookout for Season 2. I am kinda scared to start watching it though cause I have a feeling that it will overtake my life just like the first one did a month ago. That wasn't all a bad thing though...

Was in Montreal last weekend for Dragonboat. The team didn't do that great so that was kinda dissapointing. It's a really good festival. Only problem is the lack of shade. Damn, that was a hot sun and we had NO WHERE to hide. Hung out with Sherman most of the weekend in Montreal and he showed me his former hangouts. I had those chien chaud Montreal famous hot dogs. Didn't have Montreal smoked meat this time though. Special thanks go to my friend Danielle for letting me stay at her condo the whole weekend. That was so awesome and I truly appreciate it.

Also been playing A LOT of vball over the past while (well, pretty much for the whole summer). On Wednesday night, my Ashbridges Bay team called Sun of a Beach stayed undefeated. So now we are 14 and 0. We are playing WICKED. It's true though that our competition hasn't been that great throughout. Some teams have given us a run for a little while but we always manage to pull it out. Our serving is kick ass. Everything is great. Can't wait to play next Wednesday night. But before that happens, I'm sure we will set up a game or two this long weekend.

I love long weekends.
Enjoy folks...

Weekend Recap
 
Waterloo Dragonboat Festival - we did pretty well. My old team (Fox 22) had a chance to get back in the boat together for a little reunion race. Our first race was okay but the rate was too high. We posted a 2:18 and it was about the 6h fastest time. Tempest (Cristine's team who won the Toronto Island festival) was at the festival and posted the fastest first time (2:11). We ended up in the A division and raced Tempest along with some other crews in our second race. We were neck and neck with Tempest but they pulled it out in the end with a 2:14 and we had a 2:15. Then, in the last race (the A Final) – we were against Tempest one more time and we had them for about half of the race…until the finish. They turned it up a notch and edged over the line first with a 2:16 and we were a 2:18. All in all, it was an awesome day and for us to be competing with Tempest was really quite wicked.
 
Golf at Markham Greens - nice day with G and Ashwat but overall, the golfing was brutal. It's not a very forgiving course at all and regardless of how many times I've played that course, I still have a brutal round. Afterwards, we paid a visit to the tree that was planted in honour of Kama kaka so that ended the morning nicely.
 
Beach Volleyball at Ashbridges - once again it was perfect. Actually, it was a bit too hot and muggy but we had some good games going. I love playing 4's and 2's. I'm no longer a real fan of 6's. I have totally seen improvements in my game since the season started so that is totally good. I am starting to serve quite well overhand and my spiking is definitely getting better. I can't wait to play in our league game on Wednesday night.
 
Tomorrow, I have a bidness trip up north for a couple days. Should be nice to get up there (although I am not looking forward to the drive). When I'm on the road, life is pretty easy. Check in to the hotel, work out at the gym, eat dinner alone at a restaurant, back to the room, check e-mail, watch tv, sleep. Wake up the next day and start driving to the next customer.
 
Vince Carter can $ucK my #@!*. I am fed up with this fool.  This article on tsn.ca just speaks to how much of a fool he is. He continuously says he's not going to make a comment. He won't deny the rumours but he won't fess up to them either. What are his fans supposed to think? Meanwhile, he wants them all to spend money so they can go to his stupid charity game on the 30th. I also read this interesting article last week saying that Vince and the newly signed Rafer Alston didn't get along when they were teammates in Toronto 2 seasons ago. So, the fact that Alston was resigned by the team is just another reason why Vince might be looking to leave. In a day and age when McGrady, O' Neal and Francis have all been traded - anything can happen and I won't be surprised if Vince is gone shortly. The only thing that pisses me off is that he has played so poorly over the past few years that his market value has completely dropped. And you know that the second he's dealt - he'll improve his game 10-fold (including defence) and play his heart out. The aggravation asscoiated with this guy is so annoying. 
 

It's already been a year?
 
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the death of my uncle, Kama Chitnis. I can't believe it's been over a year since I last saw Kama kaka and spent time with him. Last Sunday, we attended a Hindu ceremony that marked the occasion and it was really great to think about him. Today, my thoughts were with him and his family.
 
My news of late is as follows...I took my niece Ankita to the zoo this afternoon/evening. It was great to spend time with her as always. This weekend is going to be busy. I am dragonboating in Waterloo all day tomorrow. Playing golf on Sunday morning and playing Beach Volleyball on Sunday afternoon.
 
Talk to you all soon and enjoy your weekends.
Kama kaka - I'll see you on the golf course on Sunday morning.
 

Sun of a Beach

Ladies and gentlemen, my volleyball team had our first games tonight. We played pretty well and could have been 5 and 0. Instead, we were 2 and 3 but again, we played WELL.

I love my team. I'll write more about our first experience playing v-ball together (when I'm not so tired)

Good night!

NaViGaTe ThE sTrEeTs

I opened my e-mail yesterday only to find a random e-mail from a stranger. It wasn't spam. It was a response to one of my blogs from a few weeks ago. Remember when I was talking about that amazing "City Chase" event. Well, it turns out that there is another one happening in Toronto in August.

It's on August 21st and the cost is $35 per person or $70 for a team. Check out the details...

Navigate the Streets (sorry the site is kinda slow)

Also, you can check out some sample clues for the Toronto race last year (just navigate to the bottom of the blog)

Who's in??? I am definitely very interested in doing this.

Now, I gotta start thinking about a teammate. Please apply within. I am looking for someone in good shape, with directional sense, someone who can read a map, someone with a cell phone and lastly, you must enjoy long walks on the beach.

Thank you very much to the random e-mailer who passed on this information. I really appreciate it! Maybe I'll see you at the race. Let me know if you're going (or if you did it last year)...

stuff on the mind

It's really interesting how you can be so preoccupied with other stuff that you start screwing up things that you should be focused on. Case in point. Last night at Dragonboat practice - I was paddling in the front right seat. I've been there for most of the season and have been improving my storke and reach so it's been good. However, last night I proceeded to STINK the joint out. It was easily my worst practice ever. I kept fouling up (especially by the breakers) and as a result screwing up Karen beside me or Anita behind me, not to mention soaking Andrew (the coach) in the process. Why was I so crap last night? Some say it was cause the boat was very left heavy, others comment on the wind and water conditions. I think it may have been those things to a lesser degree but also, my mind just wasn't in it. There were a million things racing through my head last night - most notably, changes at work, some personal life crap and the fact that I narrowly missed getting a speeding ticket when I was coming off of the Gardiner onto the Lakeshore. I was totally speeding (going about 80 in a 60 as I was coming off the onramp). There were 2 cops with a camera watching cars coming off the road and telling them to pull over. Luckily...both of those cops were writing tickets for a couple other people so as I zoomed pass (and quickly slowed down), I passed the unoccupied radar camera. Wheew...that was close.

Anyway, I had a good night sleep. Woke up on the right side of the bed today and now, I will say it loud - TODAY IS A NEW DAY!!!

Chilling with Kris and Tchao at the Toronto Street Festival tonight so that should be good.
Playing some beach vball at Ashbridge's tomorrow afternoon if you are interested.

Have a splendid day...

sparks...

Looks like we were in Montreal at the same time on the weekend. It was CROWDED, eh? I was there on Thursday night (July 1) and walked around the Jazz Festival but I was on my own so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Jimmy - your blog is absolutely hilarious...especially the worm stuff. Nice job with the wrastling as well. See you at volleyball this weekend buddy!

And for the rest of you, we are playing beach volleyball at Ashbridge's Bay this weekend. Saturday the 10th at 12:00 noon. Forecast should be around 30 degrees (with a 30% chance of rain)

catching up

I've been back from holidays now for a couple days. First off. I finished watching 24 on Sunday night. So, that was 24 episodes in 1 week. averages about 3 or 4 a night. I was up till about 1 or 2 in the morning everyday last week but when you're hooked on something, I guess that's what happens. Now I have to search out Season 2 and start watching that. Damn, I am totally hooked. I am even thinking of buying the DVDs. We'll see about that.

Quebec City was really nice. Tonnes to see and do. The little neighbourhoods were quaint. The Quebecois were all very nice as well. And of course, the Quebecois women were quite beautiful especially with their French accents. The funniest part was my sorry atempts at French and everytime I would start speaking, they would just answer me in English. They must have thought I was some American butchering their language. Little did they know that I was a Canadian who had learned French for 10 years butchering their language. Of course the food was great on the trip. I love crepes. I need to learn how to make those. I suppose they are quite similar to dosa for you Indians out there. I guess though that I don't know how to make dosas either so perhaps I should learn that as well.

I am planning a bbq/summer fun party for sometime in August. I am initially thinking of August 14 or August 21. Haven't finalized the dates yet but I'll let y'all know as soon as possible. I should probably put the word out sooner rather than later I guess. Hope a lot of you are around on either of those weekends. Actually, can you tell me if one works better than another?

I must welcome some new readers to my blog. You know who you are (if you found it okay). Please take a look around. Sorry it's just words and no text but my continual efforts (although limited) to include more than just text are falling by the wayside... We'll see if that changes in the future.

Vince Carter is really starting to piss me off. Actually, he has pissed me off for quite some time now. But the latest rumblings that he's asking to be dealt (and they weren't confirmed or denied by his STUPID mother) could be the last straw. It will be interesting to see what Babcock (the new GM) does but he is not in a very enviable position b/c Carter's stock is very low right as he has done next to nothing since the 2001 season.

Also - congrats go out to Greece for winning the Euro Cup. That was huge. I wish I could have been at that party on the Danforth - that looked like a lot of fun.

greetings from la belle province mes amis

i am in quebec city right now. the last night of my vacation to montreal and quebec city with ma and pa. it has been a fun trip. we`ve done A LOT of walking and site seeing. ate some really good food as well so that has been nice. stayed in a pretty nice bed and breakfast here in quebec city right on a happening street so that has been great. i`ll fill you in on more during the coming week. i just wanted to pass on a hello to all you lovely people out there. i hope that those of you who had a long weekend enjoyed it. nice thing is that you`ve still got one more day of it so enjoy your sunday. i`ll be in a car driving home tomorrow for about 8 hours so that is no fun at all. but i guess i could probably doing a bunch less fun things.

have i told you all yet that i am ADDICTED to 24. i knew i would be. i just kept putting off watching it. i borrowed the season 1 DVD from kevin and finally started watching it last Sunday night. i watched 3 episodes that night, 3 on monday, 4 on tuesday, 2 on wednesday, 2 on thursday and 2 yesterday. so now, i`m at 4:00 pm on the show (so i`ve got 8 episodes to go). man, it`s such an amazing show and i can`t get enough of it. totally a great concept and now i`m stoked to watch season 2 and 3 once those DVD`s are available. it`s 11:30 on a saturday night here in quebec city. i am a nerd and not going out so i am going to go up to my room (my parents are already sleeping) and i`m going to watch a few episodes of 24 now. i brought my lap top with a DVD player and head phones so i`m all set.

a bientot.

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day folks. Take the time to enjoy the day and enjoy this wonderful country. We often complain about so many stupid insignificant things. A day like today - we can sit back and think about everything that is good in our lives. I'll never forget my Canada Day experience from last year when my family joined my cousin Suhas as he got his Canadian Citizenship at Centenial Park on the morning of Canada Day. Truely a great experience to see how happy all the people receiving their citizenship were.

Chinese and Japanese Food

Did you guys hear about this. That is disgusting.

I found a good sushi restaurant in Scarborough today at Kennedy and Sheppard. They had this Caterpiller role with cucumber and something else inside and on the outside, there was avocado and unagi. It was awesome. Definitnely going to go there again. Who wants to go for some Japanese food?

Random event I wish I participated in

City Chase 2004. Doesn't that sound like the coolest event? It's The Amazing Race meets Fear Factor meats Survivor...all in your very own city. I was driving around downtown on Sunday afternoon and came across random people all wearing the same black and green dri-fit shirts with numbers (like they were in a marathon). The shirts said "City Chase" and they were all running around (in groups of 2) following instructions/directions on a sheet of paper. I was talking with my friend Mona who did the event on Saturday. Yesterday, she was telling me all about it. There were 400 teams of 2 people. Each pair had to run around the city as far east as The Beaches, as far North as Yonge/Lawrence and as far west as Parkdale/Highpark. They had to walk, run or take the TTC every where they went and at each "Chasepoint", they had to do something (a word jumble, solving clues to a puzzle, pick up gross things from an aquarium with snakes and mice, panhandle for $5 for charity and chip a ball into a golf hole (and strip if they missed)). All sorts of random activities. You had 6 hours to complete 10 out of the 15 tasks that were scattered around the city and then the fastest team won. This event was sponsored by Bell and has already taken place in Vancouver and Edmonton and is going to Montreal and Ottawa among other cities I think. Registration for the event was $150/team but I think well worth it given the amount of fun it must have been. The oldest team was a combined age of 109 or something like that and the youngest were about 39 (I think you had to be minimum 18 years old).

I totally wish I had known about that event. It sounds amazing and like something I would definitely want to do. I've always wanted to do a big scavenger hunt type game in the city. Perhaps this will give me some ideas to plan something in the future.

Beach Volleyball - episode 6 or 7

Yesterday, we had another steller day of beach volleyball. It was awesome - we had almost 20 people turn out during the day. There were friends from grade school, high school, university, my childhood and a couple that I just met 2 weeks ago. All in all - it was a lot of fun and the weather totally held up for us (thank you mama nature) although it was a tad on the hot side (very unexpected, actually). I really love beach volleyball and hanging out at Ashbridge's Bay. It's such a great sport and an awesome area to chill.

Movie Opinion - Fahrenheit 9/11

Great Movie. Very interested to see all the goings on in the film. I was very surprised to hear about all of the corporate and business connections b/w the Saudi's and the Bush's. I agree with a lot of Michael Moore's opinions but I'm not sure if I completely like the way he goes about saying it. At times, it was a bit too much on the sensationalistic side but I guess he does that to prove a point. The satire, "western themes" and random snipits of old footage are absolutely hilarious and definitely added to the look and feel of the movie. One downside was that I was in the third row of the theatre (cause we got there a little on the late side). Overall, a good film and a must-see for all. I wonder how much it affected Canadian election results. We'll see in a few hours I guess.

By the way, if you are Canadian and you haven't voted yet - you've still got 1 hour and 7 minutes left so get your ass out there and vote!

Was it a fix?

What were the chances of this happening? In Euro 2004, Italy had their backs to the wall and had to win against Bulgaria. They won the game 2 - 1 on a last minute goal (actually, a goal during injury time).

Now, that was half of the equation. They also had to depend on a Sweden win over Denmark or a Denmark win over Sweden. The way this tournament works is that they look at overall records and then goal differential. So, for Italy to move on, they needed to win (which they did) but they also needed either Sweden or Denmark to win. What they didn't need/want was a 2 - 2 tie between the two Scandavian countries.

And what happened you asked? Well, just that. Sweden tied Denmark 2 - 2. The Swedish goalie let go of a rebound with 2 minutes left and Denmark pounced on it and scored. Then, the final 2 minutes of the game went by without any action.

Many people are screaming that this was collusion on the part of Denmark and Sweden to get rid of Italy from the tournament b/c they think that the tying goal was cheap and shouldn't have happen.

I think you have to look at why the alleged powerhouse (Italy) tied Denmark 0 - 0 in their first game and tied Sweden 1 - 1 in their second game. Also, why did their star, Francesco Totti get suspended? Pretty much idiots all the way around... And, they don't deserve to move on in the tournament.

But, that was quite an interesting (and somewhat ironic) turn of events today.

Another Excellent Weekend (well, almost)

I was dragonboating for most of this weekend at the Toronto International Dragonboat festival on Toronto Centre Island. My team did really well in both of our final races on Sunday. We won our E division final by about 2 100ths of a second. So that made us overall 25th place out of about 150 Community boats (so that was pretty good). Then, about an hour later - we won the Education Cup race as well (so we had two wins and some hardware to show for a successful weekend). I am paddling stroke in this boat and I think it's really helping me feel the water and understand the little nuances and changes I've gotta make while paddling. Special congrats go out to Cristine's team (Tempest). They were the overall A division Community Champions. They had an amazing race where their final surge took them just over the line right before the Hammerheads.

You can check out all the races results here. I was in race 88 and 96 on Sunday.

After the races, I went to a party on the Island at the restaurant for teams who wanted to stay and have a good time. There were quite a few people there and we definitely had a great time. Food was crap and overpriced. Drinks were expensive too. But, I was hanging out with a bunch of cool people from another crew and we had an excellent time nonetheless.

Saturday was spent racing in the morning but in the afternoon/evening - I went to the company golf tournament and it was a complete flop. The woman from the office that normally handles these types of events was not around so someone else took over for her - it just wasn't the same unfortunately. We were so delayed cause the foursomes in front of us were BRUTALLY slow. It was a scramble (best ball format) and they still sucked. The prizes were lame (to say the least) and I didn't get a single one. What ever happened to everyone at the company tournament gets a prize. Food was sub par (as usual as mass dinner functions). Drinks/snacks on the course were OVERpriced. Overall, not a fun time. I wish I had stayed at the island to watch DB races and play some Vball.

Happy father's day pops...

Have a good week everyone.

election funnies

So, where do I start telling this story? As Canadians now - we are in the process of a Federal Election right now. In my riding (Agincourt East is the name I think), the incumbant for at least 10 - 15 years has been Jim Karygiannis (sp?) from the Liberal party. This year, he is getting some heavy competition by some Andrew Faust guy (Conservative candidate) as are many Liberals around the country.

On Tuesday of this week, I was working from home and some Liberal rep came by asking if they could count on our support. I told them that I was undecided. He then asked me if they could put their sign on our lawn. Again, I said I'm undecided and I thought are you deaf buddy?.

The next day (Wednedsay), my father told me that Jim Karygiannis the candidate himself came to the door. Dad was on the phone in the kitchen so he didn't have much time so they spoke for about a minute. Jim asked if he could count on our support. Again, my dad said that he is undecided. Jim then asked about the sign and again my dad said, "No, we are undecided". Then, Jim proceeded to "beg" and I'm not kidding when I say beg. He must have said "please, please" so many times (at least 5 or 6) and he was trying to plead with my dad to put this sign on the lawn. Jim said things like "It's a major street - it would really help us out because there is a lot of traffic, etc". My dad finally gave the standard..."Let me think about it and if I want to, I'll call your office."

That night (still Wednesday), my dad was going for his usual walk. He was about 15 minutes away in another subdivision still very close by. As he was walking down the street, who does he see canvassing up ahead? Of course, it's Jim Karygiannis again. Jim was going door to door interupting people during their dinner. As he passed my dad, he must have thought this was some guy who lives in the neighbourhood going for a walk so he proceeded to ask if he could count on dad's support, etc. He wanted to know where dad lived. Dad said "close by". All in all, he totally didn't recognize my father (and it was only about 4 hours since they had met at my house). I just can't believe that a politician, whose job it is to meet people and work for the people didn't recognize my father after only about 4 hours. I don't care how many people he met during that time - that is just stupid.

Then, the kicker. I'm working from home again today. It's Friday. ARound 2:00 pm this afternoon, I hear some banging outside. My dad and i look outside and see these two guys hammering a big Jim Karygiannis sign on our lawn. What the hell are they doing? I went outside and I said that we hadn't authorized that. I told them to take it down. They said that our address was on their list. And I said that we didn't saw yes to anything. They took it down and left.

I was just thinking though that this guy is truely an idiot. As a politician running for office, who acts like that? Begging and lying to get your sign up on someone's lawn? I guess that is a common trait among many politicians though, eh? Anyway, it should be an interesting completion to the election race.

Wireless Goks

I just connected my wireless card on my laptop all by myself. I've been trying to figure this damn thing out and now, I've finally done it! So, I am back in the wireless world of the Internet. Man, I love not having to be tethered to a cable. Now, I can sit out on my deck and chill. Look at recipes while I'm cooking in the kitchen. This is perfect. Tai/Kevin (my tech support peeps) - you must be proud. I figured this ish out on my own.

In unrelated news. I've had a really good week. Work wise - not really but personally...it has been quite fitness filled, I've eaten well AND i've met some really cool new people.

It's 1:15 in the morning now...methinks that is well past the time for bed. Night all.

Don't know what to call this one...

That bastard Michael Briere was sentenced to an automatic life sentence with no chance for parole for 25 years today. He, if you remember, is the @$$hole that murdered Holly Jones. Here is the victim-impact statement by Maria Jones, Holly Jones' mother, read out today in court after Michael Briere pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the girl's sex slaying:

May 12th 2003 at approximately 6:30 p.m. our daughter was unwillingly taken away from us and murdered. Since this day, our lives have changed forever.

It would be impossible for me, as Holly's mother, to express in a short period of time, how this has so impacted our family. It is also very difficult to express the pain that now lives inside of us, the torture of having to wake up every morning, the torture of the emptiness that we now live with in our home. You can only try to imagine the nightmare. The agony of having to see her bedroom door reminding us that her bed will always stay empty. The family pictures that hang throughout our home is just another painful reminder of knowing that there will never be another family picture to add to our collection, a reminder of where she is and how she got there. Never to hear her say the words ``Mommy" or "I Love You" ever again.

This person that appears in court today has affected all of our family's hearts in a way no one can imagine. I live with a fear that surrounds me day after day.

It is complete agony to know that Holly's brother and sister will also have to live with this nightmare for the rest of their lives. My children now have different parents. I am unable to be the mother they once knew. It is a daily struggle and fight to continue as a mother. But my children are the reason why I felt I must keep on going.

I have many beautiful memories of Holly and clearly remember her most beautiful smile. However my memory is now distorted. Our last memory of Holly is of her lying in her coffin knowing that her body parts were there, however her legs were missing.

I know that I will never attend another funeral, a christening or a child's birthday party. Some of my very good friends have children that were Holly's close friends. It is very difficult to see them now knowing that we will never get together as a family anymore. You could only imagine that agony of our own family functions and to see and hear Holly's cousins. It especially breaks my heart to see my 10-year-old niece, her distraught face when looking at me, both painfully so aware of the absence that surrounds us.

Mother and Father's Day will never be the same. There is a sickness that now lives inside my stomach, pain that lives in my heart, horror in my mind and a hell that surrounds my body. We know that we will never get that complete feeling of happiness again. This person has made us suffer for the rest of our lives. Sadness will now live with us forever.

There can be no closure for us here today. We will always continue to think of Holly every waking moment. Our hope is that Holly's tragic death will be not an end, but a beginning. Our demand is that Holly's life and legacy will live on long past this day.

A good day

Well, I'm starting to make some revelations of late. Have been doing a lot of thinking and nothing is concrete as yet but I know that I am starting to sort some things out in my head...

How do you start your day out well? You wake up earlier and take a run. I did my 7k run at 7:30 this morning. I was tired as it was going on but after, I felt so great. It was really energizing and I definitely notice that I'm not "falling asleep" this afternoon like I sometimes do (for those that know the story from my Intria days - insert laughter here).

The weekend was great. The Saturday June 12 First Annual Invitational BBQ and Vball tourny hosted by yours truly and Mr. Tchao was a great success. We had a fantastic turnout of about 18 people, some good grub and some good vball. I guess you can't ask for much more, can you? I also got to see my buddy, Mr. Roppa (after a long time = over 2 years) which was great. Hopefully he and I can connect more over the summer. (But I'll avoid his dog Nova cause I hit her with the volleyball square on the head and I don't think she was that impressed).

This weekend is some dragonboat action at Centre Island. I haven't done the Island festival in years but I hope it goes okay. Every year it's always so slow and delayed - I expect nothing less this time. I also still have alot of stuff to do around the house (after the painting adventure from a few weeks ago). I was cleaning out a bunch of papers yesterday and came across a bunch of proposals and direct mail pieces I had done for Bell ExpressVu when I worked there. Also, the stuff from my first job - a Toronto Star paper route I had back in 1988. There was a bunch of recruiting stuff from a bunch of companies that I was looking at back in my final year of University - the Deloitte's, Accenture's, McKinsey's, IBM's, Microsoft's etc. And then there was the fun from co-op - all the random jobs (whether it was the International Marketing site at the Ontario Science Centre, "Inventory Counting and Moving" at Intria or tonnes of cool stuff (including commercials with Wrestlers at Bell ExpressVu)

Memories oh memories...
Time to make more.

June

April showers brought May showers.
However now, there are June flowers so all is good.

Man, the weather is getting hot...just like what we're used to in good old hot and sticky Toronto. Get ready for July and August...they should be a treat. Speaking of nice weather - Tchao and I are hosting a BBQ/Beach Volleyball/Dodgeball and whatever else day this Saturday June 12 from 12:00 - 6:00 down at Ashbridges Bay. It should be a good time. We are definitely looking forward to it and the weather is supposed to be GREAT.

Congrats go out to my friends Ketan and Raquel who announced their engagement last week. That is awesome news guys! It's nuts...you guys are getting "all grows up" right before our eyes with your house, the engagement and all those responsimabilities... I'm looking forward to the celebratory bbq in a few weeks!

Also, congrats go out to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames on great seasons. It's too bad the Flames couldn't pull it out. I must say that in Game 7 - they looked surprisingly similar to the Toronto Maple Leafs throughout stretches of this season - inept power play, taking bad penalties, no forecheck...

We finally finished all the painting at the house a week or so ago. Now, it's a lot of spring cleaning. I am throwing out a lot of stuff. Now, I've gotta go through old clothes and papers and stuff. I guess I can throw out a lot of my high school and university notes now. I am also trying to figure out my vacation plans for this summer. One idea is South America (Brazil or Peru). Another idea is Egypt. And, my last idea is the Maritimes cause I've always wanted to travel the East Coast of Canada.

We'll see what happens.
bedtime. night.

What a beautiful weekend

It's Sunday night and as I often - here is the weekend update. I played about 7 hours of Vball in total this weekend. Nearly for 4 hours yesterday and another 3.5 today. All beach. All afternoon at Ashbridges Bay. It was absolutely great. Yesterday I played with complete strangers (we had about 15 people in total) so there was some subbing going on. Today, I played with buddies - some Marathi posse, UW posse and High School posse. There were 12 of us so we had perfect 6 on 6 and it worked out so awesome. Other than the ghetto volleyball net that we were using. I can't wait until next weekend. I hope the weather is even nicer cause I wanna get out again.

I was spiking really well today - much better than I've ever spiked before - it felt so good. Sparks, Tchao and I were a solid team in the last game of 3 on 3. We had some nice bump, set, spike - 3 hit volleyball and it felt great.

Can't wait to get out again soon! Beach Volleyball is my new favourite summer sport.

I am whiped out though and I've got a 4 hour drive to visit a customer tomorrow. I guess that means...time for bed.

It's Saturday and there is NO rain

I can't believe it. I woke up this morning and it's like Christmas in May. Every weekend for the past month has been gross but today it is beautiful. I am going to play volleyball down by the beach and then I might go for a run. Then, tonight it's all about Game 3 of the Flames - Lightning series.

Last night, I watched two movies. I saw Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I thought it was quite an entertaining movie. It had this serious element of the story but it was done in kind of a parady format which made it amusing. Johnny Depp was hilarious - his character of course was unique like all his other roles - he got to put his own style into it. The scenes of Mexico were quite nice as well...

I also saw Spiderman yesterday for the first time. Also, an entertaining movie and now I wanna see Spiderman 2 in a month. The story was good and I've heard from comic books fans that they were quite accurate to the original story. Tobey Maguire did a good job in the role of Peter Parker. I liked the film.

Well, enough of sitting at my computer on such a nice day...Time to get outside!
Have a good one.

Notice of Omission

I was reminded that I failed to recap one of the events of last weekend. I am sorry to all involved and hope that you accept my apology. What I missed talking about was the much anticipated KKK weekend extravaganza. Now, you may be thinking...what is that brown boy doing talking about that acronym. Well, it actually stands for Krazy Ketan's Karnival. It was a Marathi reunion of sorts with Kdot, G, Ashwat and Myself chilling out for an evening. Except this time, it was in a venue other than one of our parents homes. We were at Kdot and Raq's new place. Our first venture over there as a group since the painting weekend back about a month ago. We had a great time bbqing, playing Xbox (me at tennis, them at halo), playing poker (g continued the theory that first timers in texas hold 'em almost always win) and watching some movies - especially Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Great weekend with the boys as always. We were lazy and pathetic at times which made it even better. Didn't sleep till about 6:00 am on Monday morning so that really killed most of this week as a result. However, it was totally worth it.

Now, it's bed time cause I gotta be in London tomorrow morning by 9:00 am. It's 12:00 midnight now so that means I am only going to get 6 hours of sleep. That really sucks!

What Happened?

I was back on the blogging tip for a while and then fell off the bandwagon once again. The last little while has been a little hectic so I guess that explains. This weekend was May 2-4 Weekend and definitely great. It was the perfect chill out weekend. I didn't get enough sleep but I will be going to bed early tonight so hopfully I'll catch up a little.

My cough is back so that is no good. And, I've been sneezing like nobody's business cause of my allergies.

We are painting the main floor, upstairs hallways and 2 bathrooms in our house starting this week so the last while has been a lot of packing up stuff and moving furniture around (mostly to the basement). The painting starts tomorrow and will probably go on until the weekend. I think we'll be doing a lot of spring cleaning next weekend when we are unpacking everything and putting it all back. I also wanna try out my interior design skills - let's see what I can come up with.

I've got a number of dinner reviews for y'all but no time to right them now. The restaurants include Oro, Springrolls and Deerhurst resort.

GO FLAMES GO!!!

so long folks...

ER is killing me

Okay...so that was quite a season finale. In case some of you are big fans of the show, I won't ruin it right now but man - that was quite an ending. I can't believe I have to wait all summer and into next Fall until I find out what happened. I was thinking about it tonight...this show has really changed in terms of quality over the years. No longer is it a medical show. There is more going on outside the hospital - custody hearings, affairs, love triangles, drive-bys, gang issues, family stuff - it just never ends (only when someone's gotta perform some medicine every now and then). I hope that Neela (Parminder Nagra's) character is back again next year.

Indian Election Results

There will be a new government in India. Today, the current Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee resigned as the early results of the vote came in. It was clear that his party had lost and the Congress party would be taking over (but not by a majority). Sonia Gandhi (the widow of the late Rajiv Gandhi, daughter in law of the late Indira Gandhi and granddaughter in law of the late Nehru). All of those mentioned previously were former Prime Ministers at one point (in the past 60 years). Nehru was the first. Both Rajiv and Indira were assassinated. Based on what I'm reading and what I've heard from my parents, people are skeptical of how Sonia Gandhi will do. Her entire campaign seems to have been focused on the "untouchables". Basically, that is the lowest caste in India - all the homeless, illiterate, famished, etc. By sheer numbers alone - a strategy like that should work (and it did). Many of those people who voted can't read or write so I have my suspicions on how they can actually make a fair (unassisted) decision. We'll have to see how things play out over the next little while...

One more thing

Happy Birthday yesterday Flo! I'm looking forward to chilling old skool styles this weekend in Udub.

Beach Wolleyball

Had my first game tonight as I mentioned this morning. I am playing in the Toronto East Sport and Social Club and decided to join the league as an individual this time around. Figured it would give me a good chance to work on my game as well as meet some new peeps. I got there early so I was waiting around for the rest of my teammates. Slowly they started trickling in. Some promising players, others not so much (I fit in between those two categories). So, how was my team you ask? Not so good, I answer. We lost all 5 games today so we will be seeded quite low (since today was a round robin). That might turn out to be in our favour though because we'll be against some easier teams. Once we get our act together, we might hopefully click cause we definitely had flashes of brilliance.

When it comes to beach volleyball, I've noticed that I LOVE to dig and dive everywhere. I was covered in sand by the end of it...in my eye, in my mouth, up my nose, down my shorts - sand everywhere. And as a result...it got all over my car too.

Hopefully our next games go a lot smoother.

E-mail Issues

As has happened to others...my uwaterloo e-mail address is all done. I was having problems connecting to the server and downloading mail so I recently just bumped it from out Outlook Mail Servers. Two things have happened as a result. My junk mail has significantly dropped (a good thing) but my regular mail has also gone down. I'm not sure why though because everyone uses my "canada.com" address to the best of my knowledge. I don't know anyone that was using my uwaterloo address. I suppose I just like getting e-mail and now that I'm not getting as much...it seems less.

Now I still have that little issues of a website that I have to take care of... Rather, stuff I need to change like adding the ability to view/store pictures, make comments, etc.

I've got my first beach volleyball game tonight at Ashbridge's.
Hopefully it doesn't rain! But, I think it will...

Colour Blind and Apartment Blind (if that is possible)

I just spent the last hour looking at different Benjamin Moore Colour Swatches. We are painting many rooms of our house this month and have to select the colours. Man...it is difficult to decide b/w colours like Arctic Sunshine, Auburn Mist, $hit $tain, Burnt Toast and Blue Thunder. You look at one, envision it in light and then realize that you've gotta look at it in natural light as well as darkness as well. There are so many permutations and you have to make sure they go well with your furniture, carpet, etc.

Un a somewhat related note, my dad and I looked at several apartments tonight. We saw a couple interesting places but for the most part - nothing really jumped out. Anything around that Queen's Quay/Harbourfront area is cool to look at but functionally, the units are so small and they are asking for too much. Some of the newer buildings are especially tiny while they try to compensate by having nice fixtures and newer appliances, etc. I really feel like I am back at square one when it comes to this apartment/condo search. I am still trying to decide b/w buying or renting. Can't really make up my mind. And in the end...it all comes down to location, location, location.

Monday...the day after Sunday

Happy Belated Mom's day mom. I know we didn't really do too much for ya yesterday with all the chaos going on. I guess it must have been okay though to at least have your two sons home. I certainly enjoyed having the whole family together for the first time in a while. For those of you that don't know, my brother was visiting from London, England all of last week. He just went home yesterday. It was cool to have him around and fun to hang out. One of his best friends, Anand, was getting married so all week there was a tonne of stuff going on for the wedding. The Kelvaan, Haldi ceremony, Catholic Wedding, Hindu ceremony and finally the reception. It was quite a busy week but also a very fun one.

Tonight, I went to Ankita's place after work cause I wanted to go for a walk and play with her. We went to the park with her mom and grand mother. There were a bunch of kids all running around the park so that was a lot of fun to sit back and observe. Kids are so innocent. They are also very mischievous and tricky. I absolutely love Ankita and don't want her to leave but her family is moving to New Jersey in a couple of months and she'll be gone pretty much forever. I will only see her a few times a year (if that) so that really stinks. Tonight she kept saying "I love you" and "I want to give you a kiss". It was great. Long time now...since a girl said that to me :o)

Last week in talking to my brother, I was trying to get ideas of my next vacation. I am thinking Peru (Inca trail, Macu Pinchu) or maybe Costa Rica or perhaps Brazil. Still so many ideas. Gotta keep thinking of it and decide shortly I guest. It'll probably be in July or August (depending on my vacation schedule).

Captain Mats

All those tools who say that Mats Sundin is not a true captain deserve to cheer for the Phoenix Coyotes or New York Rangers. They are not hockey fans and don't know what they are talking about. Sundin showed his true leadership skills in this year's playoffs. Yeah, he took a dumb penalty at the start of the third last night but he also helped out on the first goal and scored the tying goal himself. I just read this interesting article about Sundin in Toronto Life. Take a look...it's a bit of insight into his past (in Sweden and with Quebec prior to his trade to Toronto).

Mats is the captain of this team. He needs a supporting cast and this summer...there will be plenty of changes to the roster. I hope that Niewendyk and Roberts are both back although I wouldn't mortgage the team to resign them. I hope they are reasonable in their salary demands/expectations because only that will allow the Leafs to get some other very needed pieces of the puzzle.