Murphy Brown, Is That You?

I have been a little bit under the weather the last few days. Last night, I used some NyQuil to knock myself out. I never use NyQuil, unless I know I can sleep all day. I woke up at about 8:45 a.m. and remember a few tidbits from a dream I must have been in the process of having. To set up the scene, I was in a very exclusive, imaginary restaurant, located near the ferry terminal on Staten Island. I don't know what I was doing there, or who I was with. All I remember is getting up to walk outside. As I reached for the door I hear a crash, look back and see Candice Bergen, yelling at a waiter, that I can only assume, has slipped and dropped all her food. What she was yelling, is the good part. Face glowing red with anger, she screamed, "I smoked a water pipe for you!". I turned around and walked out before things got scary, as I assumed they would. Looking out over the ocean, I see Manhattan in the distance. The weird part is that Alcatraz is situated near the shore.

That's all I got out of the dream. Interpret away folks. I really would like to know what is wrong with me, someday.

I Shed A Tear Or Two/Sometimes Stupid Is Funny

Part 1: I Shed A Tear Or Two

First, a big thank you to Big Joe for the ticket.

If you read the previous post you know I went to see the Blues retire Al MacInnis's #2 Sunday night. It was as cool as I thought it would be. Blues Alumni tough guys Kelly Chase and Tony Twist were in tears. And, I must admit, I shed a tear or two. I can't imagine being honored like that. Since I don't know how to convey how awesome it was I will show you a few pics of the evening and move on to the home opener on Monday.


Here is Al and his family watching as they started to raise the banner.


Here is a wider angle as the banner got higher.

Big Joe and I had to leave about halfway through the game to play in our own league game. But we did get to see the Blues take a lead that they would not relinquish before we left. I was beginning to wonder if the team was ever going to win a game.

We got to our game and the Iceholes mucked out another hard work win against a bunch of St. Charles area cops. Several of my teammates and I used to play roller hockey with one of the guys on the other team. I inquired as to whether he was going to be there and one of his teammates told me his brother had been killed earlier in the week during the storms that had passed through. If this wasn't bad enough news, this man had another brother die several years ago around this same time. I just hope he and his family are getting through it alright.


Part 2: Sometimes Stupid Is Funny

After Sunday night, I had lined up a visit to Deaver's, my local drinking establishment, for Monday's Cardinals home opener. The Steph, her cousin Betsy, and myself enjoyed some deep fried goodness and several refreshing beverages during the game. Toward the end of the game Big Joe and his girlfriend Lindsay showed up. We ended up hanging out and drinking until around midnight. Throughout the afternoon and evening we saw several old friends. My friend Brian was there for the game. I found out he is playing for a local low level pro arena football team, and had been spending the last six months working 6 and 7 days a week on the electrical workings of the new stadium. Later in the evening, one of my old lacrosse teammates from high school showed up. I had not seen the guy for about 8 years. As we were both drunk, a little hillarity ensued. Especially when they opened up the mics for karaoke at 10p. At this point, y'all will have to wait and see if the Steph posts about the rest of the evening. Since she was a witness to all the stupidity that followed and will tell it better than I could.

Tonight Is All About Hockey(and Drinking?)

Tonight I go to the one Blues game that I have been waiting for all season. I have been to quite a few games this seaon, but none better than this one. Tonight they retire Al MacInnis's number. I am rarely this excited about going to games.

Unfortunately, I will have to cut out early. I have a hockey game myself at 9:30 and will have to leave in the middle of the Blues game to make it on time. I bet the Blues end their 13-game losing streak, and I won't be there to see it. But, I gotta play me some hockey. I just don't get to do it as often as I want to anymore, and after the pregame ceremonies, it is just a meaningless game anyway(unless you are an Edmonton fan and need those points. Sorry, Dani, but I still gotta root for my boys.)

After my game I hope to go out and do a bit of drinnking at on of the local establishments. I have had a long week and missed my normal nights out. So, I need to make up for some lost time. Plus, yesterday was one of those days that I need to do my best to erase from memory.

Tomorrow, the Cards open the new Busch Stadium to some Major League Baseball, for the first time. For those of you who are not from St. Louis and/or are not baseball fans, the home-opener is always a big deal. And with this being their first game at the new stadium, it makes it even bigger. The Steph and I are gonna go somewhere to watch the game, as we are both off work. I hope we can get a few more people out with us, but I don't know who else is off.

Hopefully I will have some pics of the evening's festivities to post in the next few days.

Here's Sewage In Your Eye

Last night I got to a call at the really nice, older lady's house. I had been out there the night before and had to move her toilet. It wasn't seated properly to begin with and I had to move it to get access to her line, to do some work. When I was finished, she had said something about having to call the guy who installed the toilet to redo some work. I thought she was going to have him re-seat it.

Fast forward to yesterday. We had to reschedule her line for a different procedure and sent someone else out in the morning to do it. When the line opened up, it managed to close up a smaller line. So, when I got out to the house to re-seat the toilet, they showed me this floor drain that had backed up. After trying to plunge it for her, so I wouldn't have to charge her, it would not open. I had to bill her for another line(let me tell you, this was a sweet old lady, with limited means and the last thing I wanted to do was charge her for this line. But, I had two more calls waiting and my boss was on me to get this toilet reset and get out of there. So in order to get this line open it was going to take at least a half an hour of work and I didn't have time to do it for her as a courtesy). While I was cabling this line, circumstances caused the drain to spit a bit of water out. She had been dumping her laundry water in this drain, not to mention the other unmentionable crap(literally and figuratively) that was in there from the first back up that we had eliminated. Well, to make a long story end, since I can't make it short. I got splattered in the eye. I wear my glasses on the job for just this reason but that one drop was not going to be inconvenienced by a simple pair of glasses. Let me tell you, laundry soap and other dissolved muck sting like a sonuvabitch!

Thank God, one of the first things I learned about this job was to keep your mouth shut while you work.

Clinched!

Well, I was going to do a really cool picture montage of things being clinched(clenched). Such as sports titles, fists, assholes... I couldn't find enough really cool and/or funny pics to make it work how I wanted.

Anyway, my men's recreational hockey team, the Ice Holes, clinched 1st place in our league and we have one more game to go before playoffs. I love playing with this group of guys. I didn't think we'd win as much as we have, but most of these guys are good friends, or friends of good friends and it has been a fun season. WE clinched 1st place by beating the only team we have had trouble with in a convincing fashion. It was a pretty rough game, and yours truly was playing a bit dirty. But, I haven't had that much fun in a long time. And, like my coach always told me, "If someone is going to get hurt, make sure it is the other guy." No one got hurt, but there were more penalties than I can ever remember being called in any game I have played in. There were 5 game misconducts split between 2 players. One guy from our team got a double and one guy from their team got a triple. After their player got kicked out, things cooled off a bit and the game went back to being somewhat clean. Our next goal, is the league title. But, as long as we can keep the team together and play a few more sessions, I will be happy either way.