Saturday, February 25, 2006

Shut up, Idiot


Back in the 1990s I collected hockey jerseys. I managed to get quite a few, but at some point I stopped buying them. It might have had something to do with the lack of money I had after moving out of my mom's house. Of the last 5 hockey jerseys I obtained, I only paid for one of them. The rest were given to me.

Today I'm wearing my Boston Bruins jersey with Ray Bourque's name and number on it. I was always a Ray Bourque fan, so when I was in Boston shortly after Bourque moved on to the Colorado Avalanche I got to buy a jersey at bargain basement prices. So what if he was no longer on the team. He will always be remembered as a Bruin, even if that's not where he won his Stanley Cup.

The last time I wore this jersey, Tim and I met up with some of my friends at a bar. A drunk guy at the bar started giving me a hard time as soon as I walked in. "Boston Bruins? Why are you wearing that in here? This is a Blackhawks bar." I showed the drunk guy the number 77 on the back and explained that I got it because I was a Ray Bourque fan, and that he was a great player. I think I also mentioned something about the Bruins being an Original Six team. The dude just looked at me blankly, then kept going, "Boston? Boston?" It became clear to me that this guy was not a real hockey fan. When real hockey fans question me about my jersey choices, I can tell that they respect my purchase decision, even if they don't like the team or the player whose jersey I am wearing. This guy didn't seem to even recognize the name Ray Bourque. Anyone who at least casually follows the sport knows who Ray Bourque is. Those people shouldn't even open their mouth to me unless they know what they're talking about. Seriously.

I'm suffering from new jersey withdrawl. I have been contiplating which jerseys I want to get. I have decided that I want a Joe Sakic jersey, preferably a Nordiques one. And maybe Luc Robitaille, but a black and silver Kings jersey, not the purple one.

Waiter, The Berghoff, 2/11/06

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Mac 2/13/06

Mac 2/13/06

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Olympics talk


U.S.A. hockey player Angela Ruggiero has a great blog here.

I'm disappointed that Michelle Kwan had to withdraw from the Olympics, and she probably won't be back in 4 years. But why are TV commentators talking about her as if she died?

I hate the tape delay. Today I found out something that happened earlier today, and I'm watching NBC, and they haven't informed us of this yet. Granted, it's nice to see things in prime time since much of the action happens while I'm asleep or at work, but at the same time the spoiler stuff sucks. And I should say that this is one spoiler I didn't seek out. I stumbled across it on accident.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Flags, 4/3/04

Flags, 4/3/04

Image hosting by Photobucket

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Viva Las Vegas

It's been two weeks, so I guess it's about time for a proper post on this subject.

Image hosting by Photobucket

Two weeks ago today, Tim and I left for Las Vegas. We stayed at Imperial Palace. It wasn't, you know, a palace, but it was clean and comfy and in a good location. We arrived at the hotel shortly after 11am, and we were able to get into our room right away. Bonus! Our room was on the second floor, and there was a sliding door out to the pool area. It would have been nice if the weather were warmer, but it was nice to be able to step outside to get an idea of the temperature before leaving the hotel.

That afternoon we had hot dogs and beer for lunch at Barbary Coast. Then we walked around in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. I now have a stuffed gorilla called Gordon, courtesy of Tim and FAO Schwartz. We spent quite a long time there, so we thought we would rest up for a bit before getting ready for dinner. It was then that I realized we needed to pick up our show tickets more than an hour before the show. I wasn't sure how long we would be at dinner, so we decided to pick up the tickets instead of resting. We walked all the way to Wynn. That was a mistake. If it was the first thing we did that day it would have been fine, but we had just spent about three hours in the Forum Shops and were already tired. Wynn was probably about a mile from where we were. I was way too exhausted to walk back to our hotel, and I think that one decision to walk there is what made me exhausted for the rest of the trip.

Thursday night we had dinner at Michael's in the Barbary Coast. You have not eaten until you have eaten there. It's an amazing experience. After that we went back to Wynn (we took a cab this time) to see Avenue Q. I was really tired, and I briefly thought of not going, but we already had the tickets, and they were expensive. So we went. I think I dozed for a couple of minutes during the show, but it was because I was exhausted, and by no means a reflection of the show. It was so funny!

We spent most of Saturday morning at Bellagio. We went through the shopping area and the botanical gardens. On a whim we took the tram over to Monte Carlo. We didn't spend much time there, and we were about to catch the tram back to Bellagio when a t-shirt in a shop caught my eye. The store was selling t-shirts with Michael Godard pictures on them. They caught my eye because my dad and stepmom just received one of his paintings as a gift. Sure enough, there was a t-shirt with the same picture in the store. I bought it for my stepmom. I got a shirt for myself, and Tim bought two. We stopped for a crepe in Bellagio for Tim. It was the best crepe ever. Finally we made it back to the hotel to get ready for my friend's wedding (which was the whole reason we were in Las Vegas in the first place). Tim and I each took a nap while the other was in the shower and hogging the bathroom.

My friend's wedding was at Caesars Palace. The chapel was a room with the front wall painted, and several rows of chairs. It was nice and tasteful, not cheesy at all. The ceremony was pretty short, but it was nice. It was quite a nice set-up, actually. There were about 20 guests, but there was room for more people. I imagine the room would have held about 50 people if all the seats were filled.

We were supposed to meet everyone for dinner a few hours later, and Tim and I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and taking pictures (such as the two here). We walked around Paris and Ballys. Then we crossed the street to see the show at the Bellagio fountain. It was amazing as always.

Image hosting by Photobucket

Dinner was at Bertolini's in Caesars Palace. The food was excellent. It was nice that there were only 20 guests, because we were all able to go to dinner together, and everyone was able to talk to everyone else. It was much more personal than having 100 people there.

After dinner we wandered around Aladdin. Tim was having a lot of fun looking at cheesy Las Vegas souveneirs. He bought me some nice spa stuff, and he also bought a couple of cigars. I did not gambling, but I watched Tim lose some money to a Star Wars slot machine.

We didn't fly out until late afternoon on Saturday, so we decided to see as many places as we could before we left. We had breakfast at Bellagio, then went to New York New York, Excalibur, and Luxor. We didn't do much except for look at shops. I was too tired to do too much.

Here is a hint for eveyrone reading this. If you go to Las Vegas, spend more than two nights. We were unable to stay any longer than that, but because we were there for such a short period of time we felt we had to be doing something all the time. If we had been able to spend another two nights we really could have slowed the pace down, and got some rest every afternoon so that I wasn't exhausted the whole time. Still, it was a really fun time.