Super Troopers - Shenanigans

I hope this video makes you laugh as much as I did.

Trying new things......

There were a lot of things that I had no interest in before I met Chris. Baseball, NFL football, golf. I love all 3 of those things now. It is funny what happens when you open your mind up to knew things instead of always sticking to what you know. One thing in particular I think of when I think of "things I didn't like before I met Chris" is wine. Now don't get me wrong. I enjoyed a glass of blush wine now and then but for the most part I didn't like it.

Chris and his family are big wine drinkers, his moms side of the family that is. His uncle Kevin (the first profile when you click on link) is a Viticulturist, so the wine flows freely. They have their own small vineyard on their property and recently in the last couple of years put in their own cellar in their house. Chris and I had the opportunity to see it when we were out there last September. Any family function with that side of the family will always include a bottle or 5 of great wine. Which brings me to my original point of this whole blog and the story I want to share.

Not long after Chris and I started dating I was down in Seattle for the weekend. Chris's grandparents were coming over for dinner and it was going to be the first time I had met them. As expected with a family dinner there was wine involved. If I remember correctly there was 3 different bottles of wine on the table. As we started to eat and talk Chris's Grandma Williams noticed I had an empty wine glass and asked me if I would like some wine. I replied with a "no thank you, I am not much of a wine drinker." She would not however take no for an answer. So not wanting to be rude I found myself with a glass of wine I had no intentions of drinking. After dinner I realized that I was not going to get out of it and so I slowly began to sip my wine. At this point Chris and his brother Bryan had made their way downstairs with our nephews to play. So there I sat with Chris's folks and his grandparents. I had barely gotten down the last sip of wine from my glass when Grandma Williams was asking me if I wanted more. She insisted I try one of the other kinds that sat on the table. Again, not wanting to be rude I took another glass of wine. Finally after that glass and another I excused myself from the table and made my escape downstairs. Chris took one look at my glossy looking eyes and my flushed face and said "whats wrong with you" and I replied "your grandma wouldn't stop feeding me wine, I feel a little dizzy and my face is hot." For those of you who aren't wine drinkers, it tends to hit you a little fast especially if you are not used to it.

So there I was tipsy from drinking too many glasses of wine given to me by Chris's grandma. It is a funny memory that I like to look back on. I now THANK Grandma Williams for encouraging me to drink all that wine that night. I now have a great love for wine and most evenings you can find Chris and I sipping on a glass with our supper.

PRIVACY --BLOG OFF FOR BREAST CANCER

I like to think of myself as a relatively private person. I don't share my most personal thoughts with just anyone. I am a little more cautious than some about who I air my "dirty laundry" to. I am not sure why I am that way. Perhaps some of it is pride and some of it is fear of it being used against me. One area I am very private about is the goings on in the bathroom. For this reason (aside from them being dirty) I HATE using public bathrooms. I mean who wants to pee next to 5 other women. I don't, but sometimes you have no choice. I remember one time I was in the bathroom at a restaurant and the lady beside me had her small child in the stall with her. I would say he was probably 3 or 4. Before I know it this little head pops right under my stall, looks up at me, smiles and says HI!! Here I am mid tinkle with some strange child saying hello to me. My first two thoughts were this--please do not let your children crawl on a public bathroom floor that is just disgusting--and why are you laughing its NOT funny, its creepy. I don't care how young your child is its NOT funny. (I should note that I find this funny NOW, I didn't then)

I don't think I would survive one day in the limelight like celebrities. The other day I thought it was pathetic that our local news channel had to use air time to tell us Britney Spears had checked in to a local LA area hospital with a toothache and was seen leaving an hour later. Are you kidding me? While I don't give a hoot about Britney my point is still the same. Have we become that pathetic in our society that a person can't even go to the doctor without us all hearing about it? How about going to the grocery store, out for dinner. What about a simple argument with a loved one that turns into national news. I get that these people know what they are getting into when they choose the careers that they do. But it doesn't make it right. I still think it makes society in general sad when people cannot live their lives in peace (regardless of who they are) because we are so worried about what the hell they ate for breakfast. As a society we have decided that because they are celebrities they have given up their rights to privacy. Who really do we put them blame on for the invasion of privacy these people have to live with everyday. Some will say the blame lies within the paparazzi, some will say the writers and publishers of the magazines. I say the blame lies with the people who buy the magazines in the first place. If we don't buy them, then the companies who produce them have no business and the paparazzi have no one to sell their photos to. Maybe then they could get real and respectable jobs as photographers instead of stalking people who are just trying to go to the grocery store like the rest of us.

There are just so many issues surrounding privacy. There is the issue of work and personal emails. What rights should companies really have to access those personal emails before it becomes too much? How much say should a boss really have about what your write in your personal blog or journal? Thankfully since I work for myself I do not have to worry about such things, but I know it is a real concern for a lot of people. When I was looking for pictures to use for this post I came across a picture of T-shirt with the words Privacy is not a crime. At first I didn't really get it but the more I thought of it the more it began to make sense to me. It started to make me think about the effects certain things in our society has had on us and our privacy. My thoughts immediately went to 9/11. So many things have changed since that day. While I am thankful for most of these changes to make it safer for us to fly etc, there are some that make me really wonder. I remember the last time I flew on a plane they hardly gave us a glance as we were checking in and going through security. There have been times crossing the border to and from Canada where our ID has never been asked for. Yet if someones name is Abdul-Rahman it is automatic reason for the government or police to invade every aspect of that persons privacy and rights as a human being. It makes me shake my head and wonder what we are really trying to achieve. But that is a blog for another day.

Privacy is something that we all have the right to. It is our choice to exercise that right or not. But there are those people who take it upon themselves to make everyone else's business their own. It is those people that try and take away our freedom of privacy like it is some sort of moral obligation to keep them in the loop.

Please take the time to head around to the other blogs in our contest and check out their posts on this topic. Please also taken a few minutes to stop by and say hello to those who have left us so far. You will find all their links in my sidebar. And as always if you would like to make a donation to Courtney's fundraising effort please click on the banner above.

2007 Seattle Mariners

The 2007 baseball season officially got under way on Sunday. For me however the season didn't start until 6:35 pm yesterday when the Seattle Mariners went head to head with the Oakland Athletics. What a game it was, well if your a Mariner's fan that is. Our young pitcher Felix Hernandez became the youngest opening day starter in the history of the Mariners, 6 days shy of his 21st birthday. And boy did he deliver. He was unbelievable, throwing 8 shutout innings, giving up only 3 hits and struck out a career high 12 batters. This kid has some crazy stuff and I think he is going to have a monster season, they don't call him King Felix for nothing. Big Richie Sexson hit a 3 run home run in the 6th inning to help us to the 4-0 win.
I have talked before about how I was never a baseball fan before I met Chris. In fact I HATED baseball. At least I thought I did. I had never really watched it and I really knew nothing about it. My mother in law Linda changed that quickly. There is nothing like going to the ball park on a sunny evening. The smell of hot dogs and peanuts and popcorn filling the air. The kids with their baseball mitts hoping to catch that foul ball or home run. The sound of the pitcher throwing a strike and hearing the thud in the catchers mitt. The crack of ball to bat on a home run. The roar of the crowd during a late inning rally. The feeling when someone hits a game winning home run and his teammates all crowd home plate waiting to congratulate him after he rounds the bases. There is nothing like it.

And so a new season begins. New faces take their places in the clubhouse. A new beginning for a team that has struggled. New hope for fans and players alike that this just might be the year. 1 game down, 161 to go.

LET'S GO MARINERS!!!

Boy so I suck. It has been 5 days since I last posted. How did you ever survive your weekend without knowing what I was up to, it must have been rough;)

There are a few things I want to touch on today. The first thing is that I am happy to say I made it through to week 3 of the blog off. I am a little happy about that because I am having a fun time with it. Sadly we had to say goodbye to two more bloggers. Yellow and Orange and Subarban Princess. Go on over and say hello to them if you get the chance and check out their blogs.

I hate mice. And we have mice. And it sucks. This has been going on for far too long and I am about done with it. Since Chris and I live in a basement suite we can hear the damn things at night running around above our heads. We can hear them making sounds and squeaking, I am convinced they are laughing at us. The worst part of it is when we are dead asleep and Belle hears them she freaks out and starts barking which makes me jump damn near through the roof every time. It's not her fault, she hates the mice too. She is so funny, whenever she hears them she runs to her food bowl and eats whatever is left in there and then immediately looks for any rawhide laying around so she can eat that too. I can't blame her, it is her food and stuff. I just think that it's funny that she is so concerned about it.

Ever since last summer our landlords have had the same useless guy from the same useless company come to deal with the mice. Not ONCE has he gotten rid of them. He really is useless. He walks in the house and asks if we have been hearing, seeing, or finding signs of mice. We tell him yes. And then he proceeds to ask us (every time) to keep the dog food sealed (which we do) and then he puts some bait bags in the ceiling and he is off. OK here is the thing, these mice are SMART. They are like super mutant mice or something, I am not kidding. Either they don't eat the bait cause they are so smart or they are so immune to it they grub it down with no ill effects. Snap traps don't work, glue traps don't work, NOTHING normal like that works on these buggers. The exterminator guy that comes every few months KNOWS THIS! So tell me why he does not do something different, why does he not use some of his tricks that he knows, and why for all that is holy do our landlords keep paying them to do NOTHING. He is coming again this week, I am going to tell him he needs to approach this from a different angle. Let me tell you, EVEY IS DONE LIVING WITH THESE DIRTY LITTLE CREATURES!!!! The only thing I am thankful for is that they don't leave poop all over the joint. In fact, we almost never find any which seems so weird to me. But whatever, I am not going to complain.

As usual since Chris and I are such exciting people we didn't do much this weekend. We did go for a nice drive yesterday. We drove out to Buzzards Bay which is down in the Cape Cod area. We had a late lunch at a cute little family restaurant. Nice and relaxing:)

POLICE--BLOG OFF FOR BREAST CANCER

When I was thinking over the past few days of what to write about I threw a lot of ideas around in my head. My first thoughts were what I do and don't like about cops. Like how I hate cops who abuse their power. You know the ones, the ones who speed and tail you. The ones who turn their lights on to get through the traffic light just because they think they can. Yet the same cop will not hesitate to pull you over for going a few miles per hour over the limit. But then there are the ones who actually do what they do for the right reasons. They risk their lives every day to help keep everyone else safe. Those are the ones I respect, the rest I could do without.

My thoughts then turned to my own personal experience with cops. But then I realized none of them were very exciting or interesting for that matter. A few speeding tickets and one not so fun run in with the law many many years ago. One that resulted in me wearing handcuffs, riding in a police car and spending a whole day in a holding cell. Fun times. And no I am not a criminal for all of you who are now worried and locking your doors, it was a lifetime ago. As I was thinking of my own encounter I was reminded of a an old friend of mine who had quite the encounter and realized his story was MUCH more interesting than mine so I decided I would share that with you instead.

A friend and I rented out Ed's (we will call him Ed to protect his real identity) basement suite. During the time we were living there we became really good friends with him. We learned all sorts of interesting things about his life and past. One thing we learned was that a few years earlier he had gotten involved with some shady characters who ran a "chop shop." Ed not really knowing what he was getting into went to work everyday like a normal guy, at the end of the day he went home like everyone else and every two weeks he got a paycheck. One day however when he was leaving for work his apartment was swarmed by police officers and he was arrested on 5 different charges in relation to the "chop shop." Ed who really didn't know a lot about the things he was being arrested for was very confused when he realized that he was the only one arrested. Everyone else had packed up shop in the middle of the night, cleared all items from their names etc... and left Ed to be the "scapegoat." Long story short it went to court and under the advisement of his lawyer he accepted a plea bargain to avoid jail time. Ed ended up with 2 years probation and 1 year house arrest. Could have been much worse, so he sucked it up and continued to live his life.

When we moved into his basement suite he was well past his house arrest and probation period of his life. He was working as a bartender and was a happy guy. He had however lost his drivers license to a past DUI. But as a bartender he worked late and needed a way to get home. So he got a car from a "friend" that had no registration or insurance and he drove that car to and from work everyday and all was good.....or so he thought. You see Ed was still at a place in his life where any other sort of trouble could land him in jail.

One night at about 4 am my phone rang. I let it go because I was sleeping and figured if it was important whoever it was would call back. A few minutes later the phone rang again. It was Ed and our conversation went a little like this...

Ed - "Hey, sorry to call you so late but can you feed Spike (name also changed to protect the cat’s identity) tomorrow?"

Me - "Sure, but why can't you?"

Ed - "Well I am not sure I will be coming home for a while."

Me - "Why what the heck happened?"

Ed - "I kinda got in a high speed chase with the cops."

Me - "YOU DID WHAT!?!?!?!?!"

Ed - "It is a long story, we will talk later."

Ed proceeded to ask me to bring him some clothes that he could wear to court later that day. So my roommate and I gathered his things and drove over to the police station. As we were waiting we saw Ed's very distraught looking girlfriend Rachel (name changed to protect identity) come out from one of the doors that led to the back. Assuming she was just there to see Ed we were shocked when we found out that she had also been arrested. And so she told us the story from beginning to end and it went a little like this.....

Ed had been at work like every other night. Rachel had been at his bar with some friends earlier that evening and decided to stick around and wait for Ed to get off work and just get a ride home with him. By the time he was all closed and cleaned up it was almost 1 am and they got into his car and headed home. The bar was in Edmonton and they lived in Sherwood Park and so like a lot of people they took the back roads to get home instead of the main highway. Ed being the mischievous guy that he was decided it would be fun to pull over on the dark secluded stretch of road and make out for a while. And so they pulled over. We won't go into details of that part of the story but let’s just say Ed was no longer clothed. Next thing they know they see lights behind them, Ed realizing it was a police car panicked knowing he was not licensed, insured or registered. For fear of getting caught with none of those things--as well as none of his clothes--and risking the consequences he would face he made a rash decision and as the police officer was approaching his car he hit the gas and was off. Naturally the police officer was also back in his car and off after them while radioing others for help. So there Ed was--naked, mind you--driving at speeds much too fast, running red lights and putting in danger the lives of him and Rachel as well as the police officers chasing him and the innocent people who may be out driving on the roads. After a chase of about 35 minutes Ed knew he had to get away, his plan was that they got far enough ahead of the cops and then dump the car in a field somewhere (since there was nothing to tie his name to the car). Before he had that chance he noticed police cars now coming up ahead and realized what was awaiting him. The spike strip police put out to stop cars in a situation such as this. Ed being the smart guy he is and knowing that driving over those would pop his tires and realizing that at the speed he was going it would probably cause him to lose control of his car and cause injury or worse to Rachel he made the smart decision to finally pull over and face the music. Naked.

Within seconds there were 4 officers surrounding the car. Ed was pulled from the car first--naked, of course--at gunpoint, thrown to the ground and cuffed. As Rachel opened her door to get out she was also pulled out of the car (fully clothed) at gunpoint and throw down on her stomach, cuffed and thrown in the back of a police car. At first I wondered why she was removed from the car with such force but then quickly realized that at the time those cops had no clue as to why they were running from the cops, they didn't know what weapons they may have had and they were just acting quickly to protect themselves. Rachel was held over night and questioned before they decided she had done nothing wrong and was simply just a passenger and so they let her go and no charges were filed. Ed however, was not so fortunate. I never saw Ed at home again for another 8 months. He was once again advised by his lawyer to take a plea bargain and plead guilty to 2 of the 10 charges against him and take a lesser sentence. So he pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle without a license and reckless driving. He was sentenced to 1 year in jail and 3 years probation and had his license taken away for 3 years.

Ed ended up serving 8 months of his 12 month sentence. One Saturday a month for 3 hours my roommate and I visited our friend Ed in jail. He was no longer naked. We sure missed having him around during that time. We fed his cat and took care of his house and we all had a big party the day he came home. He was a great guy who just made some really stupid choices. I don't talk to Ed anymore and haven't for a very long time but from what I hear he is doing well, married to Rachel and wears clothes often. And thank the Lord he has had no more run-ins with the law.

Moral of the story – DON’T RUN FROM THE COPS!!

Also to all of you reading this and have husbands who are cops and who are probably the kind I like, tell them thank you for what they do.

This was a post for the blog off for breast cancer. Please feel free to click on the links on my side bar for a peek at the work of the rest of the competitors. Also if you would like to contribute to Courtney's fundraising effort please click on the banner below.

**Sorry this post was so long, but leaving out the details wouldn't have done it justice**

Weekend Ramblings

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I totally meant to post yesterday but I got caught up in a million other things and I totally forgot. But have no fear, I am here now to entertain you all. Ok well, I can't promise the entertainment factor but a post regardless.

Chris and I had a nice weekend. Nothing too exciting and most definitely relaxing. Friday we were out running some errands and decided to get some supper at one of our new favorite restaurants, The British Beer Company. Of course being British myself and being at such a place it was important I have a traditional British dish. So as if you couldn't guess, I went with the fish n chips. I actually had the same thing the last time we were there and boy was it good.

Chris was on call this weekend, but luckily after only 1 call we were able to go to the movies like we had planned. On the way we stopped off at our favorite burrito joint for lunch. I swear they are the best burritos you will get anywhere. If you are ever in Boston you NEED to check out Anna's Taqueria. After lunch we headed downtown to the theatre. We probably should have taken the subway instead of driving downtown on a Saturday and try to find parking. We lucked out however and found a meter not too far from the theatre.

Let me just say that you MUST go see this movie. Reign Over Me was the best movie I have seen in a very long time. When someone like Adam Sandler plays a role like this you always wonder "will they deliver?" Did he ever, he was amazing from beginning to end. There was one scene where he was talking about his family and crying and WOW was it powerful. And his tears were SO real, it was an amazing performance. Don Cheadle was the perfect balance to Adam and his character, they had great chemistry together. It is a pretty intense movie but they add just enough comedy to lighten it up a little. You will laugh, you will cry and I guarantee you will love it. It is an awesome story of a journey of loss and healing and is a great reminder of so many things.

Sunday was spent at home catching up on some house cleaning and some quality relax in front of the TV time. Speaking of TV, Chris and I watch a lot of shows on Discovery and Discovery Health channels. One of our new favorites is a show called Man vs Wild. It is crazy, he basically strands himself in all sorts of places. Each episode he is dropped off at a remote location such as the Costa Rican Rainforest and he has to find his own way out, find his own food and make his own shelters. He has nothing but a small knife and the clothes on his back.

"In each episode of Man vs. Wild, adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in popular wilderness destinations where tourists often find themselves lost or in danger. Once there he finds his way back to civilization, demonstrating local survival techniques along the way."

So if you ever get a chance check it out, its a pretty cool show. You never know when you might be lost in the Alaskan mountains and need his tips to find your way out;)

Well, that's all for today boys and girls. The laundry won't do itself and the dogs can't walk themselves;) Have a great Tuesday, and be sure to tune in tomorrow for my second posting in the great "blog off."

Evey's lives to blog another week...........

We found out this weekend who will be continuing in the blog off. I am happy to say that I was not voted off the island....PHEW! So I live to blog another week. Our word for this week is "police." I have yet to decide on what direction I will go with this post but like I said last week, we will just have to wait and see what my clever mind comes up with.

Having to rank the posts sucked. I thought everyone did a great job. Two people were actually eliminated this week. You can check out their blogs and posts at Super Duper Fantastic and Motivated Motion. While I think I can say we are all sad to see you go we are happy to have found new blog friends in you.

Chris and I were going to go see the new movie Reign Over Me this afternoon but decided to wait until tomorrow. I am really looking forward to see this movie. If you haven't seen the previews go check the trailer out HERE. It's about a guy (Sandler) who lost his wife and kids in one of the plane crashes on 9/11. I am really excited to see Adam Sandler in a role like this and Don Cheadle is always good. I will be back tomorrow with a review:)

LAUGHTER--BLOG OFF FOR BREAST CANCER

When I think of laughter I think of a lot of different times in my life. I think for all of us laughter has a a lot of the same meaning and importance. Who wants to live a life without laughter?

On November 21, 1996 my mum passed away from cancer at the age of 49 years old just 26 days shy of her 50th birthday. What does this have to do with laughter you ask? Well for me, it had a lot to do with it. In the months leading up to and after my mum passed away it was a very very hard and emotional time in my life. Sometimes however, you need something to take you away from all the crying and all the other emotions that come along with such events in ones life. I spent a lot of time with 2 of my closest friends, Lori and Tania. A lot of that time was spent laughing. Not really at anything specific, just laughing. In my personal experience laughter definitely can help you heal. Those nights spent laughing until my side hurt were so monumental in my grieving process and I am thankful I had friends who could bring that laughter into my life when I needed it the most.

What are your favorite kinds of laughter?

I love the purity of a child's laugh, it always makes me smile. I love the laughter that makes your stomach hurt so bad yet you just can't stop. I love when you are so tired that everything is funny, and once you start laughing there is no stopping it. I love the feeling of being with an old friend and being able to laugh together about old times.

No matter how you laugh, whether its a simple snicker or a laugh out loud split your gut outburst that has everyone looking at you, it tends to be contagious. And I think we all can agree it is good for the soul.

People say laughter is the best medicine, I tend to agree.

If you would like to make a donation to Courtney's fundraising effort please click on the above banner.

**I posted a little something below that I found on YouTube that definitely had me laughing, I hope it does the same for you. Enjoy!!**

Tuesday Ramblings

So tomorrow is the start of the blog off that I spoke about in my previous post. I am not the greatest writer under pressure and there is a good chance because of this I will be eliminated the first week. That is totally fine with me, I am just happy to be a part of something that will help raise money for such an important cause. Our word for this week is laughter and I will post tomorrow with whatever my clever mind comes up with.

Chris's parents are heading off to Arizona tomorrow for just a little under a week. They will fly from Seattle to Arizona tomorrow and spend some time with Chris's grandparents. They will also attend a Mariners Spring Training game and I am SO jealous. I sure love my Mariners. They then will fly over to the Los Angeles area to spend a few days with Chris's sister before heading home. Ah, fun in the sun.

I love movies. Chris and I have Netflix which allows us to always have movies coming and going. I am not one for politics, in fact I couldn't give a flying pig about any of that stuff. We had the movie Good Night and Good Luck for about 3 months and I kept convincing Chris to watch something else and it kept getting pushed to the side. Finally I decided we needed to either watch it or return it. We settled in to watch it and I was convinced I would soon head over to the computer due to total boredom while Chris continued to watch it. To my surprise I sat and watched the whole thing and even enjoyed it. It was done in black and white and the acting was very good. It was a true story and they made it as such. Sometimes even though movies are true stories they are not presented in a way that gives it that feel. It was a very well done movie and I am glad we ended up watching it.

Blog off for Breast Cancer

So since I am a big blogger slacker it was suggested by my friend Carly over at http://queeniecarly.typepad.com/ a while back that we challenge each other to blog something each day. She posted about it on her blog and in her comment section and idea was born that I am very excited to be a part of. Carly's friend Courtney is participating in the Breast Cancer 3 Day (http://www.the3day.org/site/pp.asp?c=pmL6JnO8KzE&b=2182495) for the second time to help raise money for breast cancer in honor of her mom. The idea was to have a "blog off," each participant would pay 10 dollars to enter and would be required to post something each Wednesday. Everyone would choose a topic. Each post would be about that topic and then ranked by the other participants. People will be eliminated each week until there is one blogger left standing. There are (I think) 19 participants so that makes the total pot 180 dollars. Half the pot (90) will go to the winning blogger and the other half will go to Courtney's fundraising. We start this Wednesday and I am excited to be a part of it even if it only ends up being for one week. The breast cancer issue is close to my heart as my mom had it and later had it return in another form which eventually took her life.

I know that it is too late for any of you to join in on the blog off itself but if you would like to still help support Courtney's fundraising effort please go to her 3Day page here....https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=202295&supid=125459871 and leave her a donation.

If there are any of you that really would like to enter the blog off let me know in the comment section and I will see if we can squeeze you in as a last minute contestant.

You will also notice I have changed our blog background. During the duration of the "blog off" I will leave this background up. I will post a link on the side to all the blog off participants.

Paramount Showdown

While Chris and I were driving in the car today we were reminiscing about a trip we took to Southern California a few years back with our friend Trish and her daughter. It was a fun trip, we drove down to Los Angeles and spent a week enjoying the sun and all the tourist attractions southern California has to offer. Of course we went to Disneyland, Universal Studios and spent a significant amount of time sight seeing in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Bel-Air. Being that it was my first trip down there it was a very memorable one for me. But for all the things we did and saw nothing was more memorable than the afternoon spent at a friend of Trisha's house.

You see, when we first arrived down there the plan was to drop Trish off to spend the weekend at a friends and then Chris and I would continue on down to Palm Springs to spend a few days with his grandparents. Trish's friend lived in a place called Paramount which is part of the Greater Los Angeles area. Paramount is bordered by Compton to the west. For those of you who do not know of Compton it is know to have one of the highest violent crime rates in the United States. It is known for its gang violence, you may have heard of the street gangs the "bloods" and "crips." Not the most pleasant place in the world. When I realized where her friend lived I was a little scared to even have to drive through the area. We arrived mid afternoon and helped Trish unload her luggage. As we were unloading things from the car there was a car parked across the street and there were two young black guys hanging around. Chris and I decided that since his grandparents were not expecting us until later that day that we would have a nap and relax for a few hours before we headed back out for the drive down to Palm Springs.

Once we were in the house I realized I needed something that I had left in the trunk of the car. I didn't want to go back out because those guys were still hanging around and they made me a little uneasy. Chris was quick to tell me I was just being paranoid and stereotypical because of their age and the fact that they were black and the area we were in. I agreed with him and realized it was silly of me to assume every black male in the area was a gang member ready to shoot things up. So out I went to the car to get what I needed, as I was walking to and from the car I could feel them watching me. It was really creepy. Once back inside Chris and I settled in for a nap in the spare bedroom while Trish and Ashley got comfy on the couch.

I don't know how much time passed before we heard the loudest noise. Chris and I immediately were on the floor. All we heard was "pop, pop, pop, pop" !!!! There must have been about 10 of them. We ran out into the living room to peek out the window with Trish and sure enough the nice young guys who had been lurking around the car across the street were now jumping in the car and peeling off down the street, tires squealing and all. It was insane. Within minutes cop cars came tearing down the street and spent the next half hour or so walking around the property collecting stray bullets and checking things out. CRAZY!!!

It was insane. My heart was racing and I was terrified. I could not believe for the life of me that right across the street there was a drive by shooting. I could not believe that the same young men that had been watching me had just filled a house with bullets. Perhaps one of the scariest and bizzare things I have ever experienced. It was crazy and I could not wait to get in the car and head to Palm Springs where all I would have to worry about was friendly seniors telling me stories about their grandchildren. Which reminds me of the the few days we spent there, but that is a blog for another day:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!!

We wish we would be there to help you celebrate. I hope you didn't have to work too hard at work today. We love you and miss you tons!

*Bryan is my brother in law by the way for those of you who didn't know who I was talking about.

So right before we were sitting down to supper last night I bit my tongue. I tend to bite my tongue a lot, but last night was a doozy. I chomped down good and hard and let me just say OUCH! I got it good and boy did it bleed. Fun times! I guess the lesson in my story is that you should try not to bite your tongue cause it hurts.

Avalanche v. Bruins

On Tuesday we went to the Bruins game as they were playing the Avs, my favorite team. We tried to get tickets through eBay, but the only ones we found that we could afford we ended up losing the auction. So I decided to look on craigslist on Monday, and sure enough, I found a guy selling his two season ticket seats to the game. Of course, its a little more sketchy doing a deal through craigslist as there is no rating system or feedback, so the tickets we got could've been fakes. But after talking to the guy, he seemed pretty legit, so we met him at the Braintree Mall to do the deal. Evey said she felt kind of dirty like we were doing a drug deal or something as we handed this guy money and he handed us an envelope...

So anyways, the tickets were fine. Our seats were quite close, in the corner to the left of the net that the Avalanche shot twice at:

As you can tell just from that pic, there were a ton of Avalanche fans there, which was nice to see. Here are a couple of pre-game skate and in-game action pics:

The game was great. The first two periods were full of action, but not a lot of scoring as it was 0-0 going into the third period. We scored early in the third and held on as well as scoring an empty-netter to seal the deal 2-0. My record in attending Avalanche games is now a perfect 3-0 with wins over Vancouver, New Jersey and now Boston. Evey had a much better time as 1) The team she was rooting for didn't get shut out, 2) Her ankle was significantly better and she didn't need crutches to get around the arena.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!!

I will be back with a longer post later but I just wanted to take a second and wish my big brother a very happy birthday. We love you tons!

Happy Monday

I have no exciting stories to tell. I have not fallen out of any buses lately so I suppose that is a good thing. Chris and I had a pretty boring weekend, what else is new.

Friday we watch The Lake House, which I actually kinda liked. The storyline was kinda cool. Saturday we went out for breakfast and to the craft store for some scrapbooking stuff I needed. Sunday we lazed around and did nothing all day. We watched the Amazing Race and I was sad to see the Kentucky people David and Mary go home. Oh well!!

Have a great Monday and hopefully I will be back tomorrow with exciting stories for you all.

FAREWELL TO 94!!!

I know a lot of you have no clue what my title to this post means and I know a lot of you couldn't care less. Those of you who do know what I am talking about perhaps you feel the same sadness I do today.

As most of you know I am a very very passionate hockey fan. I love everything about the game of hockey. You also probably know that even more than being a passionate fan of the sport in general I am a passionate Oilers fan through and through. All the years of not making the playoffs and all the years of watching great players leave and I am still crazy about the Oilers and that will never change.

On August 9 1988 the Oilers traded "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings. I was not old enough to really remember how it felt when that happened. What I do know is that a city was devastated by the loss of the greatest player to ever play the game of hockey. The Oilers did win one more Stanley cup in 1990 without Gretzky but it was essentially the beginning of the end of the "glory years" for the Oilers and their fans.

In 1994 the Oilers drafted a hockey player by the name of Ryan Smyth. Before 3 pm EST on Tuesday he was the the longest serving Oiler on the roster. For over 12 years he was the heart and soul of the Edmonton Oilers. He bled copper and blue and he gave his heart and soul to the team and the city every night. He doesn't score the prettiest goals but since when did how they go in matter? He is perhaps one of the best in the game at what he does on the ice. Not only was Smyth an Oiler and a great hockey player but he IS my favorite hockey player and that will not change.

I think back to what it felt like for me and all the other Oiler fans out there when we lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup final last year. It was heart wrenching. Such joy turned into devastation as we got to watch the Carolina Hurricanes parade around with the Stanley Cup. It was a crappy time to be an Oilers fan and the offseason and the way this current season has gone didn't help matters. And then Tuesday was the punch in the gut I never saw coming. The Oilers traded the face of their franchise Ryan Smyth in the final hour leading up to the NHL trade deadline because they couldn't agree on a contract extension and the Oilers didn't want to lose him for nothing as a free agent this summer.

I am shocked and I am sad. I will miss what he brings to the Oilers, I will miss his mullet but most of all I will just miss him being on the ice every night for my favorite team.

Before he boarded a plane yesterday headed for New York Ryan Smyth held a press conference at the Edmonton International Airport. It was hard to watch and the tears were a plenty. Ryan struggled through the press conference choking back tears and you could see his devastation and shock to be leaving. In the end it doesn't matter who was right or wrong or why they couldn't agree to an extension. No matter which way you slice it, the Oilers lost a great person and a great hockey player this week. It will be hard to see him wear anything but the Oil drop on his chest. One of the things he said in his press conference.......

"I'm going to go there and do my best to make the playoffs and win that cup so I can bring it down here to Edmonton because that's where my heart is." You gotta love the guy!!

The only good news for me is that he got traded to the New York Islanders and its only about a three hour drive. Chris and I will be heading to New York in late March to see him play in Long Island.

So farewell to Ryan Smyth the Edmonton Oiler. It will be weird to see him in anything but an Oilers uniform but the player Ryan Smyth is my favorite player not Ryan Smyth the Oiler. And it could have been worse he could have went to the Canucks, the Flames or the Red Wings.