Christmas Is Over!

Mark your calendars, kids. April 29th. Today was the day my last Christmas decoration came down. It's kinda sad.

Because My Hair Has To Look It's Shiniest

So, I bought myself some hair conditioner the other day. Not really on purpose, but the end result is the same. It seems Head and Shoulders (my shampoo of choice) has decided to start making conditioner too. They also decided to make the bottle look EXACTLY THE SAME as the shampoo (except that the conditioner is upside down). I didn't notice at the time and got a bit of surprise when I had a shower yestderday.

Of course, now I expect all of you to comment on how great my hair looks the next time I see you.

Record Tying Season Comes To An End

Another spring, another end to curling season.

This year the team with I play second on ended up with a fabulous 20-1 L-W record.

But I did get a snazzy self-centreing tape measure as a raffle prize.

My Greatest Fear

The Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us and something funny is going on. I'm not ready to suggest a full blown conspiracy, but I'm getting close.

The Montreal Canadiens have won a Stanley Cup in every decade. With there being only 2 years left, I thought for sure that this streak would be ending, thankfully. Before this season started, they were supposed to be fighting for 8th place at best. But it turns out that they finished 1st in the East. So, with time being of the essence, the Habs look to be a contender for the cup. Like I said, something funny is going on. Therefore, as much as I will be rooting against them, Montreal is my pick for the cup... because it's been predetermined. Huh, look at that... I did suggest a full blown conspiracy.

My first round predictions are as follows:
Montreal over Boston
Pittsburgh over Ottawa
Washington over Philadelphia
New York over New Jersey

Nashville over Detroit
San Jose over Calgary
Minnesota over Colorado
Anaheim over Dallas

I Can't Stands No More!

Some days the wind comes from a certain direction which causes air to be sucked out the windows instead of blown in. Of course, when the air is sucked out, the wonderful air from the hallway comes in... along with all the smells of my neighbours' apartments. Today is one of those days, and it's horrendous. What do these people eat and/or how do they live in such smells?

Curling Roundup

While the losing streak continues, at least my curling team has been doing much better recently. For the past 3 weeks, we've taken the game right to the last rock. Sometimes we had the hammer, and sometimes not, but we're only losing by a point or two.

This past weekend was the Big Brother's fundraising bonspeil. Our team went 1 win and 1 loss. There was only 1 instance of Joel highsticking Joe in the face. He drew blood, but the refs didn't see it, so there was no penalty. However, the evidence was left on the ice. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

It's Like Free Money!

As you may recall, I bought an HD-DVD attachment for my XBox 360. My rationale for buying the losing format in the High Definition media war were basically around what I got for my $129... namely 6 free movies and the hopes of a firesale. Well, since HD-DVD was beaten so badly, the price of the attachment drive just dropped to $49! Seeing how I was still well within my 30 day price guarantee windows at Best Buy, I went down there and got my $90 back! And (in theory) I'll still get all those free movies. I'm still waiting for that firesale on actual movies to start though.

So Long Champ Car

The news came out last Friday... the IRL had bought out Champ Car. The teams would be offered financial incentive to move over the the "League" and a few (it looks like 3) events will be attempted to be squeezed into the existing IRL schedule. It's the death of the series I loved and to top it off the end of the Toronto race (Molson Indy/Steelback Grand Prix). To say I'm disappointed is an understatment. A lot of casual observers to the sport would ask me, "What's the big deal? I can't see the difference between the two." Believe me, there was a difference. There were the venues (more road/street courses vs. oval after oval), there was the Canadian Content (3 races and drivers like Paul Tracy, the late Greg Moore and Alex Tagliani), there was the cars (just compare pictures of the two types of cars, paying special attention to the nose and sidepods), and the engines (the sound of turbos are so cool).

Of course there was also the fact that the IRL was started as a blatant power-play by the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway disguised as the protection of American grass-roots racers and oval tracks. Just look at what the IRL was becoming... adding more street/road races and leaving oval tracks. Now you'll say, "well, wasn't that what you wanted a series to be in the first place?" You'd be partially right, but it's the hypocrisies of it all that I can't get past. Not that the opinion of one guy will change anything, but it's something I felt I had to stick to.

Now I'm faced with a choice. Don't watch the IRL, or follow my favourite drivers and teams there and watch them struggle against the existing IRL teams all season (with 6 years of experience with the equiptment) and hope that magically the series is drastically altered for 2009 (there's talk the the Toronto race would come back after a year's hiatus... but we'll see). I'll probably watch to begin with, to tell you the truth, and see what happens from there.

Oh Yeah... Then There's Curling

So, as painful as it is to report on the adventures of my curling team this year, I'll give it a go. Our team is 1-9 so far this year, and that one win came when I was on vacation (but don't get any ideas... I'm not the weak link here... we just got a super-sub that week). But the last 2 weeks have been really good. We've taken both games down to the last shot of the eighth end... and lost by 1.

This weekend is the Big Brother's Bonspiel. I've sent most of you solicitations for donations by email. But if I haven't and you'd like to chip a couple bucks toward the Big Brother's of Sarnia-Lambton, it'd be appreciated. Click here to go to my donation page. Thanks.

I'm 10% of a Loser

I've reached the first major goal in my Weight Watcher's program. I've officially lost 10% of my starting weight. I weighed in at 243.6lbs last night, which is a total loss of 26.2lbs. It's taken me 21 weeks to get to this point, which is an average loss of 1.25lbs per week. Check out the Excel chart...

The cruise I took over Christmas didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would. I only gained 1.2 lbs from that despite not paying attention to what I ate. I credit that to the amount of physical activity I was doing while on board.

Speaking of physical activity, that's the next step I have to take in this whole process. I don't hit the gym very often (because I really don't like it there) and I've been quite inactive while the weather is cold. But, my plan is to soon go out an buy a bicycle and do some riding this spring/summer.

For reaching the 10% point I got a keychain for my efforts. Hurrah!

Did you see the eclipse last night? I tried to get some pictures, but they didn't turn out so good. I really need a tripod.