Monday, 23 APR 07    


Stark Reality - 'Comrades & Dreams (Peanut Butter Wolf mix)' - Stones Throw Ten Years (Stones Throw)

Last Thursday I got out on my bicycle for the first time since I broke my ankle. I only rode the 'short' loop of about 9 miles around Diamondhead after work, but it felt really good to be out riding in relatively pleasant weather instead of inside on the stationary cycle. It really wasn't painful on my ankle, although I'm still an out of shape fatass from not riding in three months, so it will take a little longer for my stamina to increase. I'm planning to do some hard training this next month and ride in the Tour de Cure in early June in St. Francisville, LA and ride the 55 mile option.

Through the past week and over the weekend we've been watching NHL playoffs, but unfortunately for me I didn't pick so well and am 1-6 going into the final game in round one tonight between Vancouver and Dallas, which was forced to a game 7 after Vancouver failed to take advantage of their 3-1 series lead and finish Dallas off. If Vancouver has a total meltdown and can't solve Turco and Dallas tonight, ending up losing the series, I'll be 1-7 overall in the first round coming out dead last in our playoff picks game going into round two (I'm probably already dead last in points anyway). Pretty bad. On Friday night my physical therapist, Matt, came over to watch the Nashville/San Jose game with us. I got him to join the H.P.P. League this year and it was cool to have him over away from his office. He was rooting for San Jose along with Kelly, so when Nashville lost the game (and the series), I heard it from both of them (although not too much).

It wasn't all hockey over the weekend (just most of it). We slept in until 9.30am on Saturday morning, then I got up and mowed the lawn. It was warm, but not too uncomfortably hot outside, and our yard looks so much better now after I finished it. The front looks even better than usual probably due to Kelly using some Weed & Feed on it a few weeks ago to fertilize it. I also made some cookies to take to poker that evening right before the face off for Detroit/Calgary game 5. The game got really physical and Detroit ended up blowing out Calgary 5-1. Unfortunately, at the end of the game, a particularly nasty hit by backup Calgary goaltender, Jamie 'Noodles' McClennan with his stick to the chest of Johan Franzen really left a bad mark on the game of hockey overall for the repeated footage of the hit all weekend on various sports/news programs. I guess it's only fitting justice that Franzen scored the winning goal in game six last (Sunday) night in the second overtime period to clench the game and the series for Detroit.

After hockey on Saturday I showered and we headed to Gulfport, grabbing a bite for dinner at McAlister's Deli. I also got coffee at Barnes and Noble and Kelly got a smoothie at Smoothie King, and we met Lauren to ride with us to Kevin's house. It was fun to play poker again, although it wasn't a huge group with everyone and Kelly and I didn't play that great overall. I was 5th out of 11 players, but made a really stupid move out of overall boredom and some exhaustion which gave all my money to Dwayne, so we left.

Sunday morning I rode my bike 12 miles around Diamondhead and we rean down to Bay St. Louis for lunch after showering. We went to our new favorite regular Sunday hangout, The Mockingbird Cafe. We've gone the past few weeks before going grocery shopping at the redneck Walmart in Waveland. It's a cute cafe/coffee shop that sells the local brewery's beer on tap in the evenings until 7pm or later(?). They have great coffee and sandwiches, plus a nice atmosphere with music and free(?) wi-fi access. We played gin rummy last weekend, but forgot our cards and scorebook this time. Oh, well, we wanted to get home and watch hockey anyway. Some weekend I want to park the car on the beach and ride my bike around Waveland/Bay St. Louis, just like I used to do when we lived in Waveland, and then finish my ride with a refreshing iced coffee drink at the Mockingbird. After lunch and shopping we came back home to watch the third period of the New Jersey/Tampa Bay game six where NJ ended the Lightning's playoff season. Next was light housecleaning and watching a couple more Tivo programs before Kelly prepared some burgers (turkey and a couple of beef) to grill along with potatoes I had prepared for dinner as the Calgary/Detroit game was starting. I of course mentioned the result earlier above.

I'm down to one day of PT per week and should be discharged in a couple of weeks. I did more jumping exercises before Matt measured my feet to have some insoles made for my arches which don't have much support (I'm kind of flat footed). Those should be done in a couple of weeks. After tonight's game there's only one day without hockey to catch up on some of our Tivo programs before round two starts on Wednesday night. Friday we're heading to New Orleans to have our overdue anniversary dinner at Stella!, maybe meet up with our friends Press and Hope, and then Calexico at The Republic courtesy of Neal who won tickets and put our name on the guest list since he's living in Austin now (thanks, Neal!). Calexico is also playing the next day at the Fairgrounds as part of Jazz Fest, but we're skipping the big crowds and going to some of the night shows like this one and Ween/Dirty Dozen Brass Band the following weekend. I also may go to Medeski, Martin, and Wood, but haven't decided for sure yet. It's good to put a bit of variety into our schedule. It's a four day weekend for me because of the state holiday 'Confederate Memorial Day' (!), so Gary and I are having an anime fest on Monday to catch up on some of the shows we have yet to finish up.

-posted by Chris

Wednesday, 18 APR 07    


Riverdales - 'Blood on the Ice' - Johnny Hanson Presents Puck Rock vol 2 (Sudden Death)

We had a nice time on our hockey road trip this weekend. We started off early Friday, stopping off at a couple Starbucks along the way for lots of caffeine on our 8+ hour trek to Nashville. We went straight to our hotel, checked in & then headed out to the arena. We got there a good 1.5 hours early and just as the weather was turning to shit. The arena is downtown right near the Country Music Hall of Fame and lots of bar & grills. We ended up getting a snack at some funky diner who's name I can't remember. It's a block away from the arena & was tres cool. I got chili cheese fries and Chris got mac-n-cheese while we sat and listened to some guy singing Johnny Cash tunes in the bar. Then we headed over to the game...our seats were pretty good. Kind of in the nose bleed section, but in the first row of the nose bleeds. The game was Nashville vs San Jose. Chris is cheering for Nashville & I'm cheering on San Jose (based on our hockey playoff picks). Well, I cheered for the first goal...but then kept pretty quiet as the crowd grew volatile. I've been to at least 9 different NHL arenas & I've got to say that this arena, those Nashville fans and that particular game was the scariest. First off the fans were totally whiney and rude. Everytime one of their players even got looked at they were screaming at the refs for penalties. On top of that they were booing everytime Cheechoo (San Jose) stepped on the ice (because he had the nerve to get injured by Nashville's Hartnell the previous game). Then when the obviously brutal hit on SJ's Bernier resulted in Radulov getting a game misconduct, the fans booed even as Bernier was being helped off the ice. Complete assholes. And did I mention that Vince Gill has a scary high-pitched voice (he & Amy Grant sang the National Anthem). The game ended up with Nashville winning. I'd like to say I had a great time, but it was a really brutal game (over 140 penalty minutes) and the fans just made it worse.

hockey stuff

The next day we got up relatively early and got on the road to Atlanta. We ended up getting into town with just enough time to park & have 40 minutes before the 3pm start between Atlanta & New York. This game was a little more fun. For one thing I had my "rally towel" and got really obnoxious with it (Chris will verify). The game was pretty decent, but neither team looked like it was going much further in the playoffs (not a lot of heart). Jagr was a big, whiney baby. The only real star for NY was their goaltender, Lundquist, who made some awesome saves. Atlanta's goaltender did alright, except for that first flukey goal. Unfortunately the Thrashers lost - but at least the game was entertaining and the fans were decent. After the game we headed to Little Five Points for coffee, record shopping and Indian food. Then we went to our hotel & chilled out for awhile before heading out to Barnes and Noble for late night snackage & shopping.

On Sunday we slept in and then headed on the road, after shopping for groceries at Whole Foods. It was pretty windy the whole way back....and the last part of the trip was spent listening to the Pens vs Sens game on Sirius. Go Pens! All in all, a fun hockey road trip. Don't know if I'll be wanting to go back to Nashville anytime soon - at least not to see the Predators.

In other news...I'm sick again. That's 3 times in one month. The first two times the doctors put me on antibiotics. I have an appt Friday, so we'll see what happens this time. In the meantime...here's a nice shot of my CT scan. The doctors think it's chronic sinusitis. I'm not a doctor, but my sinuses look pretty normal to me. I like the refraction of energy around my metallic fillings.

sinuses

Anyway...that's all I've got to say about that for now. Time to watch more hockey!

-posted by Kelly

Wednesday, 12 APR 07    

This will be a quick update. The Stanley Cup playoffs start tonight and Kelly's watching in the other room as I write. I usually include a song from the Johnny Hanson presents Puck Rock compliations, but I'll save that for next week. Instead I'm going to include a bunch of playoff links on the web. We're heading up to Nashville on Friday for game two between Nashville and San Jose, so next update will be next week sometime. Oh, the 'Grindhouse' double feature movies by Rodriguez and Tarantino we saw over the weekend were TOTALLY over the top, but really entertaining and during the Tarantino film (the second one) I was laughing so hard at the end I was in tears. Literally. That's the 'Deathproof' feature with Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, and muscle cars. Awesome! Anyway, here are the hockey links:

Sydney Crosby story on Yahoo

Jon Buccigross's (of ESPN) weekly column

ESPN analyst's ('experts') picks

Maggie the Monkey's picks

TSN (Canada's ESPN) analyst's picks

Jeremy Roenick's thoughts (plays for Phoenix, analyst for TSN during playoffs)

Enjoy the opening match-ups and look for our own Hockey Playoff Picks (H.P.P.) League website to go live soon. We're not putting it together, but my friend Andy in Boston who is a creator of the league has someone out in California setting us up. I love this time of year!

-posted by Chris

Saturday, 7 APR 07    


Yo La Tengo - 'I Should Have Known Better' - 'I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass' (Matador)

It's been a good run, but the Avalanche lost tonight to Nashville, spoiling their hopes of edging past Calgary for the #8 playoff seed in the Western Conference. So close, yet so far. That's pretty much how we've spent the last week, watching the Avs every other night getting closer to Calgary in points for the ultimate showdown tomorrow night in Denver against Calgary for the final game of the regular season. The Flames will probably not bring many of their top line players since they've already secured a playoff berth against the #1 Detroit Red Wings, and give them a rest after playing at home in Calgary tonight. Well, if nothing else, the Avs can put some hurt on the Calgary players since they are division rivals. Most of the match-ups are set, or at least in the West I think all of them are set, so tomorrow's games will finalize the Eastern match-ups. Both Nashville and Atlanta have home advantage and will start the playoffs this week at home, so our roadtrip next weekend should be decided by tomorrow night after the schedule is released. We're thinking that we can make it up to Nashville for game 2 on Friday night, then we'll see when Atlanta is playing. We have NCAA gymnastics in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night, so we'll have to see what the games on Saturday and Sunday afternoon are.

I made another couple loaves of sourdough bread last Sunday, and this time they turned out much better. Still not perfect, but using white flour instead of whole wheat made them less dry and a bit less dense. I also let the dough sit out for a while before adding all the final ingredients and that gave it a bit more flavor. Kelly said that it would make good pizza dough. Maybe in a couple of weeks when we're home I'll try it again.

Monday was a rigorous workout with the physical therapist. I was doing squats, jumps, and balancing exercises again. It caught up with me later in the day and after riding 5.5 miles on the stationary bike I was sore. I iced my ankle that night. Tuesday I was walking up and down the stairs at the PT and doing more balancing. Thursday at the PT I was doing some new exercises to work on my back and lower hips because Matt was saying part of my body sways when I walk, which in the long run could affect my ankle. It was kind of odd, but less intense than earlier in the week.

Thursday night I went to New Orleans to see Yo La Tengo at Tipitina's. They're one of my favorite bands, but this wasn't their best show. Kelly was going to go originally with me, but she caught some kind of crud in her chest and didn't want to go hang out in a smoky club. It turned out that it was a 'per request of the band, this show is non-smoking'. Bummer. I had contacted our friend Eli who lives in New Orleans to see if he wanted to go to the show. He was happy to come along. I met him outside the club at 10.45pm, just as the opening act Times New Viking was finishing. I didn't really get to see/hear much of them waiting outside, but what I did hear sounded alright. I think that as I get older I'm much less intolerant when it comes to shows and crowds. There were obvious fans towards the front near the stage, but in the back of the room were a bunch of fuckheads who were talking the whole time. Hello, can you shut the fuck up or leave and go somewhere else to gab? I mean why the hell would someone pay $15 to go to a bar where a band is playing, then gab the whole night? Sure, it was a crowd full of indie hipsters, many who probably hadn't seen each other in awhile, but still, don't ruin the show for others with your reunion catch-up. Go outside with all the smokers. It made it worse with the expected 'quiet' songs that the band plays where with 1/4 of the audience talking, it's very difficult to hear the music. I did feel kind of bad because Eli wasn't too familiar with the band and wanted to chat since we hadn't seen him in awhile, but I was there to see the band. He asked me a couple of questions about how things are going while they played and I gave very short, brief answers, yet trying not to be too rude to him. We'll catch up and go out to eat another time. The band started at 11.15pm and played until 12.45am with songs mainly from their newest record, but some other old ones from various albums thrown in. I'm not sure how long or what was played during the obligatory encore since I left to drive home after the main set, but maybe I'll catch them again the next time around. I did listen to ESPN News on Sirius on the drive home and found out the Avs had won 3-1 over Vancouver with Milan Hejduk getting a hat trick and Calgary had lost to San Jose 4-3 to put the Avs only 3 points behind Calgary going into tonight's game. That was exciting to hear as I drove home.

Oh, Kelly told me that Edmonton actually ended up defeating Calgary tonight 3-2, which is what we had originally hoped for along with an Avs win. Edmonton did their part, but Colorado didn't. That makes the loss to Nashville more of a sting since it could have been an 'all or nothing' game tomorrow night against Calgary.

It's cooled off the past few days after a front moved through Thursday. It was breezy and chilly today with overcast skies, but kind of a nice change after temps in the low 80's early in the week. It was like it went from winter immediately into summer without a spring. At least it's been good for our garden. Our herbs, peppers, tomatoes, and watermelons are all growing nicely. Kelly picked up a bunch of butterfly bushes yesterday and was hacking some of the weeds/bushes growing in the area she plans to put these flowering plants. She did some more this morning while I went to the gym to ride the stationary bike. After getting our haircuts and eating lunch we went to Lowe's and picked up some bricks to form more of a garden border. Since we're not doing anything else for Easter, we'll be spending time working in the yard, at least in the morning. In the afternoon we're planning to go see Grindhouse, which should be over the top and entertaining. Perfect for Easter Sunday.

-posted by Chris