Christmas Wish List

At the risk of spoiling the "surprise" (not that there really is one), I'll let you know that all of my Christmas shopping was done on-line, through the World Vision Gift Catalogue.

I know that I promised this yesterday already, but weather was my nemesis (again).  And so, here we have it.  The winner is: "the mother and child reunion".  The only problem, this morning when I drove by, the child had been driven over, mom's skirt was missing, and her lower half had obviously been visited by the stray dogs several times (gross).
A few reasonably priced items that I would be interested in (other than the things that I already bought in honour of others) are:
$40 - (each) piglets
$100 - stock a medical clinic
$30 - 3 soccer balls
$30 - 3 warm blankets
$50 - art and music supplies, and
$75 - water filter for a family
On something like stocking a medical clinic for $100, you might even say out loud "that's not even possible".  But, World Vision has so many corporate sponsors that will match what they raise, that your donation on medical supplies are being multiplied 18 times!  $100 from you, equals a total donation of $1,800!  Just do it.
I'm flying out to Kuujjuaq and back tomorrow (weather permitting), and if I actually make it back, I'll provide a snowman honourable mention, and a few other goodies.

Stay tuned.

What's Wrong With Christ/God?

I'm actually getting fairly annoyed with the increased vigor surrounding the removal of the words Christ or God from every mainstream thing that the words have managed to entrench themselves in.

The first runner up, and next in line to take over, should the winner be unable to fulfill their duties - "Snowman with life-saving vest, cheering after scoring street hockey goal".  Yes, that's his actual name.
During this last week, I have noticed:

1. Business News Network (BNN) referring to Christmas gift shopping as "the retail year end shopping rush"
2. Canada AM asking the question "have you finished your holiday season shopping"
3. Rice Krispie commercials referring to their red, white, and green Rice Krispies as "holiday coloured treats", and
4. A CBC morning news poll surrounding the discussion of taking the line "God keep our land, glorious and free" out of the Canadian National Anthem.

What is wrong with these people?  Nobody seems to be overly concerned with how often the word "hell" is used, but somehow somebody might find it offensive to mention Christ/God.  Is there somehow a possibility of having one without the other?
I do, for the most part, attempt a certain amount of politically correctness, but if someone is offended by me wanting to mention my love of God, or my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they can go to hell (not literally directly to hell of course, since only God can determine what the fate of people denying their faith, or not having any at all will be).
Totally unrelated - why does the Grey Cup have to start so late (7et)?  By the time all the introductions are done, and the game is over, it'll be close to 11 my time.  That's too late for an old-timer like me.  Don't they know that I have to get up in the morning?  Whatever, I just hope that the game is good, which of course means that my fellow Quebecois win, while the Riders lose.

Stay tuned.

Snowmen in Salluit

We've had a few days of heavy snow, and today was barely zero, which creates the perfect day for snowmen.  As Rory and I drove around town, we came across quite a few, prompting me to run back to the house for the camera.

I've been kind of slacking off with blogs, and on the last one I couldn't add a photo, but now that it's back, I thought that I'd start off with a shot of some kids in action.  Then I'll follow it up with second place tomorrow, and the winner on Monday.  Now that I've said that, I'll be kind of forcing myself to make sure that I get something in on the next two days.
The Christmas rush has set in, sales are through the roof, and we're all busier than ever, leaving little rest time left over for blogging.  Some time next week I'll probably be taking a one day trip to Kuujjuaq, we'll be getting a guest from Inukjuaq for a couple of days, and we're supposed to have a grocery inventory done by the end of next weekend.  All this, while the Christmas rush is in full swing.  Should be pretty hectic.

Stay tuned.

Is The Hitler Stash Back?

You may or may not have seen those commercials on TV with Michael Jordan, and a carpet salesman on a plane.  They're talking about the guy across the aisle, and the fact that his T-shirt collar has "baconed".  The phrase for the Hanes brand, is that their shirts won't "bacon" (referring to the way older T-shirt collars get all wavy).
I was going to throw my winter picture in here for a dramatic pause, but once again they have taken away my ability to put in photos.  Now I just have to throw in these two sentences, to attempt the same effect.
Now, back to Hitler.  The next time you see the commercial mentioned above, pay some close attention.  Is Michael Jordan sporting a Hitler mustache?  And, why is Hitler the only person that you've ever seen showing off that look?  Is it the mustache that made him evil?  Are you somehow being compared to him just because you have the same mustache?  There are so many different styles, and very rarely are you compared to another person that has the same mustache style as you.  Why is the Hitler style on an island unto itself?  Who knows.  It's not like I really care, it's just one of those questions that I've always asked, but Fran is the only person who has ever heard it.
The weather has been pretty stormy for the last few days, and there was an unexpected cheque for everyone (except for the white people, of course), which has resulted in our sales here going crazy.  It was only three hundred dollars, was totally unscheduled, and yet everyone needs their cheques cashed right now.  They waited in line at the rec. centre to get them, and then waited for hours at our store to cash them.  Our sales for the last two weeks are way more than 50% higher than over the same period last year.  Bring it on!

Stay tuned.

South Korea - Who Are These People?

South Korea is now the 8th country on the board.  The title of this thing was that I don't care, that you don't care what I'm writing about.  Now, I'm a little bit caring about the opposite.  Why do you care?  Why would someone from South Korea want to know why we now started using the back door instead of the front door?  I don't get it, but obviously it doesn't matter that much.
Did you see the CFL division finals today?  It's only fitting that there would be a rematch from last years most exciting Grey Cup final of all time.  I wonder how many Riders will be on the field this year?
Obviously I wasn't paying that much attention to the schedule yesterday.  I was fully expecting to see Ian's debut yesterday, only to find out later in the afternoon, that he already did that on Friday night.  As it turns out, he did a little better in his real debut than he did in last night's game.  On Friday, he got an assist, a penalty, and was plus one, while getting 33 shifts and 27.5 minutes played.  Saturday wasn't quite as good with a minus one, but he has managed to log over 53 minutes in just two games.
Our construction guests did manage to get their flight out this morning, so we got our furniture moved back to the way we were comfortable with, and life might return to some degree of normal.  I was going to add a new picture that I took this morning to show off the view of the winter wonderland that I have out of my front window, but it's a little late in the blog by now, so you'll have to...

Stay tuned.

Weather Permitting - The Arctic Mantra

Our guests were leaving us this morning... weather permitting.  We brought them to the airport at 9:00 this morning, only to see them heading back into the store to buy some snacks at about 2:00 this afternoon.  It's not so bad, Fran was making a beef roast that was too much for us anyway, so now she just needs to throw in a few more potatoes and carrots to feed two more.  We had made some of the post departure changes already, but it was actually just as I was about to bring the arm chair back downstairs, that I saw them out of the window.  Not like it's that important to you, but I'll tell you of the most major change for us anyway.  In the front of the house, the stairs are on the outside of the house, and that's the door that we had been using, since the back door had lots of daylight showing and was propped shut by a table leaf.  One of the things that they did was to replace the back door, together with the deadbolt and door knobs.  The theory being, that with the back stairs being indoors, there would be less shoveling, less ice build up, and therefore much safer all around.  This small change of course requires us to move all of the jacket hooks, outerwear, and footwear, as well as going off to the Co-op to buy a slush mat for the doorway.  We didn't realize until we started cleaning up the stairway that we hadn't been using, how much they had used the basement during the construction phase, and therefore how much re-cleaning we had to do in the basement now that we were going to walking past it several times a day.
I was certainly planning for my few hours of allowed remote control ownership, to watch Ian's debut with the Carolina Hurricanes tonight.  I guess that I still will, only with several guests and plenty of interruptions.
Yesterday, my blog officially went over 400 hits, with one page "The Joke's On Me (I Guess)" hitting 50 all by itself.  Russia has also really picked up on the hits, taking over fourth place behind Canada (of course), US, and Slovakia.  I don't know and don't care why all of these strangers are tuning in, but they keep doing it.
Anyway, I might be able to cash in a few hours tomorrow, to watch some of the CFL playoffs in peace, since our guests are scheduled to fly out tomorrow at nine in the morning... weather permitting.

Stay tuned.

Ian White - They Beat Me To The Punch

I had actually spent the last two days researching a bit of a topic that I was planning on blogging about today.  It was all about the insanity of offering Mark Giordano a five year/20 million dollar contract, while only offering Ian 3M for one year.  Ian has slightly more experience, and way more points overall than Giordano.  It was making me wonder what Ian may have been thinking about the whole thing.  They may not talk about that sort of thing in the dressing room, but obviously they watch sports centre and read the papers, so there's no way to avoid thinking about it.  But then, while I was putting the finishing touches on relevant stats and comparisons, I see on the news that they ended up trading Ian to Carolina, beating me to the punch.
On the up side, Ian now gets to join his former minor league coach, the coach that brought him up to the big leagues in the first place (same guy obviously), who is also the same guy that ended up giving him some prime ice time, and lots of it.  They do have a pretty set first powerplay unit, but there's always a chance that he can prove himself and take over one of the two available roles.  Good for him!  Hopefully everything works out well.
The guys are finished with the flooring, and have installed a few light fixtures.  Apparently, the debate rages on about whether or not they'll take a shot at leveling the house again next summer.  Until that decision gets made, they probably won't finish the bathroom.  As such, they may be almost done here.  Not that they're bad guys, but it's not like I'll miss having another two guys around the house that haven't been trained in the fine arts of putting down the seat, or cleaning up after themselves.  That being said, no decisions are final.

Stay tuned.

Visible Progress

They finally officially gave up on straightening out the house, got down to business, and today we could actually see some results.

This is the end of the inlet that our town is on.  Off towards the back, you can see the river that leads into the ocean water.  I enjoy the end of the mountain that's right in the middle.  If you use your imagination a little, it kinda looks like a gorilla's face.  Do you see it?
They put down the flooring in two of the bedrooms and the hallway today.  It's kind of a fake hardwood, that's supposed to look like oak.  Cheapness aside, it's miles ahead of the rust, puke, and bong water stains that totally covered the carpeting that was there this morning.  We also had both of the guys over for supper today, although it's hard to take too much credit for it, since we just heated up the supper that Karen had made for my birthday, but we had put it in the freezer.  Knowing that we were feeding five, we took it out last night, and had Rory throw it into the oven when he got home.  It was pretty good.  Thanks Karen!
With so much activity going on in the house, and a little too much hosting (especially considering what recluses we are, if you recall... we moved to the arctic), it gets a little tricky finding time to blog.  Not that I'll let that stop me.

Stay tuned.

Winter Finally Reaches Salluit

There has now actually been five consecutive days with snow up here.  That, together with some definitely sub-zero temperatures, and it finally feels like winter.  Our work crew arrived yesterday, but they haven't really gotten started yet.  They checked out what it would take to get the slant out of the house, and then waited for confirmation as to what they should do if they can't straighten the house.  We did get three crates full of stuff on the last sea lift, and as it turns out, there is new flooring, a tub, vanity, low-flow toilet, light fixtures, doors, and a few other things.  I guess that the point would be, not to bother getting any of the other things going, and then straightening out the house afterwards.  That way, everything that they do will get thrown off kilter when the house gets straightened out.  But, now that they seem to have been given the green light to ignore the slant of the house, and just go ahead with the other renovations.  The problem is, the beams are sunk right into the ground, and the frost is right solid.  Now, there's no way to get the jacks under the beams to lift up the house.  It's really no big deal to us, since we have gotten used to the slant by now anyway.  My biggest beef when we got up here, was the pathetic shape that the rest of the house was in.  If the guys do manage to get most of what came up in crates installed into the house, we should be in pretty good shape.  I guess that the down-side of the whole ordeal, is that a few weeks ago, there was just me a Fran in the house (which we have gotten quite used to), but now not only do we have Rory in the house, but we have our new guest Peter as well.  It's a bit of an adjustment.
On unrelated matters, our sales are up enough that if we didn't even open the doors tomorrow, we'd still be up for the week.  There definitely are some bright sides going on up here, it's just that I'm not always 100% convinced that the pros are outweighing the cons.  Oh well, I'm sure that we'll persevere.

Stay tuned.

Blue Bombers - Was There a Silver Lining?

It's hard to imagine, with a season so dismal, that there was a silver lining... but there was.

This shot was taken at the same place as the one of the seagull standing on the rock that you may remember.  I just happened to turn slightly to the right, and aim the camera towards the break in the mountains that leads off to the ocean.
The silver lining?  First of all, Fred Reid ended up leading the league in rushing.  This shouldn't be that shocking.  Not only has he done this before, but in a season with such upheaval at the quarterback position, you would tend to lean very heavily on the running game.  Hence, leading the league in rushing.
The much more impressive silver star, Terrence Edwards.  While hauling in grabs from... count them, four different starting quarterbacks, he ended up in second (only 8 little yards back) for receiving yards.  I don't even see how that's possible.  This is obviously one guy that we need to offer a contract extension to.
Tomorrow will be the first time that we're actually hosting guests (Paul & Karen from next door).  Then, on Monday, we're expecting a team to arrive for about two weeks to work on leveling out the house.  I doubt that they'll be able to do it, but at least is appears as though they're trying.  Might work... might not.

Stay tuned.

Remembrance Day - Lest We Forget What?

I'm generally not accused of being "wishy-washy", or not having an opinion, but I'm really on the fence on this one.  Up here, we were given very direct orders that Remembrance Day is not a Statutory Holiday in Quebec, so it is imperative that we stay open for business.  Everyone else in town (Co-op, schools, municipal offices) was closed.  But, they were not closed for Remembrance Day.  They were all closed for the anniversary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (signed November 11, 1975), which is the treaty that created the Nunavik Region.
I find it offensive, not only that there are still areas within Canada (Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba) that don't think that their fallen soldiers are worthy of a National Holiday, but that Quebec would take the stance of - Remembrance Day (as listed in Wikipedia) is a day celebrated by the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the Commonwealth of England), and Quebec, while part of Canada (who knows why), does not consider itself part of the Commonwealth, and therefore does not take part in Remembrance Day at all.
Did you notice that the last paragraph was all one horribly run-on sentence.  So what!
I'm equally offended that in all of the areas that do respect the day as a National Holiday, most people don't pay any respect to the fallen anyway.  Don't get me wrong, I don't either, but that's beside the point.  And another thing, simply buying and wearing a plastic poppy doesn't count either.  What percentage of people actually attend a memorial, or even recognize a minute of silence at 11:00?  Not even worth one minute of our "busy" day?  Come on!  The only reason that I'm on the fence with this one, is that for most, the National Holiday idea is simply that.  A holiday.  Another day to sit around doing nothing, and getting paid to do it.  If you're not going to respect the day for what it is intended, then you don't deserve it!
Pay homage, or get to work!

The end.

Stellar Steven Stamkos

After really roughing up Sidney Crosby yesterday, I thought that I might give another positive shout out to another youngster, who's doing much more than living up to expectations.

I don't even recall exactly which part of our journey this came from, but at the time, I obviously thought that this would make a very pretty shot.  And now that I'm flipping through which picture I want to put up on the blog, once again, this one just really looks like a nice shot.  So there it is.  Awesome!
Back to Steve.  Two years ago at this time, there was very regular talk around the league and through the media, about how Steven Stamkos hadn't earned his way onto the team, wasn't pulling his weight, and didn't deserve to stay on the team.  It would certainly be best for both Steve and the club, for him to be developing in the minors until he was ready.  His coach was in regular battles with the GM on the topic, right up until the point of where he got fired.  To his credit, the GM was sticking to his guns, that he had made this high draft pick, and he was going to play on the big club.  So, he went ahead and hired a coach that was willing to go ahead and give Steve all of the prime ice time, and not beat him up when he didn't flourish.  Boy did that pay off!
From the all-star break in that first season, till today, nobody has scored more goals than Steven Stamkos.  After hearing that he didn't belong in the league all the way through his first season, his second season finished off with him winning the Rocket Richard Trophy, which is given to the player who scores the most goals during the regular season.  Now, 13 games into his third season, he leads the league in goals, points, power play goals, and game winning goals.  Here's a guy that had every opportunity to throw in the towel and pull a Alexandre Daigle (top prospect that never lived up to expectation, and packed it in before even giving it "the old college try").  Instead, he pulls off way more than expected, when he really should have been overshadowed by all-star teammates like Lecavalier and St.Louis.  This guy deserves all of the accolades, while I don't believe that I've seen him getting any lucrative endorsement contracts at all.  Way to go Steve!
I should take a break from the whole thumbs up/thumbs down thing for a few days, but that doesn't mean that I will.

Stay tuned.

Sidney Crosby - Thumbs Down

I wish that I had a boatload of stats to back me up on this one, but I don't.  Therefore I have to resort to childish name calling instead.  Is this guy a total flamer, or what?  I might be all alone on this one, and it's not up to me to judge, but...

While we were out for our ride, we stopped right along the shore.  The wind was howling, and we were both reflecting on how close to hypothermia we were, when this little guy (who had just been swimming) hops up and stands on the rock.  Our first thought was: how does this guy's feet not freeze to the rock?  Sure, the water in the picture isn't frozen, but only because of the high salt content and the wind caused waves.  That, to me, shouldn't preclude such a small amount of water (such as what would be dripping off of this fellow's feet) from freezing, upon contact with a sub-zero rock.  The other thing, was the fact that most of my photos are landscapes, which, to everyone who's not here to know the difference, probably all look the same.  Therefore, a seagull sitting on a rock.
Now that you're wondering why I seem to have a "thing"  against Sid the kid, that may or may not have anything to do with homosexuality, I'll give you a few observations.

1. Ever since he was a small child, he has been touted as the next face of the NHL.  Now that he's here and established, it doesn't seem to be wearing off.  That, together with my natural urge to cheer for the underdog, makes me want him to lose at everything that he does.
2. If you'll recall the year that he won the cup, he was totally invisible during the finals, and the MVP went to Malkin.
3. He was once again totally invisible during the gold medal game too, except for the fact that on a crazy, impossible angle, he just threw the puck towards the net, and somehow accidentally scored.

Don't get me wrong.  Obviously I wanted the Canadians to win, just not by having that guy score.  Now, all we get to hear about, was how Sidney Crosby won us the gold medal.  If he hadn't been skating around with his hands in his pockets for the first 70 minutes, we wouldn't have needed OT to do it.
I do give him credit for being very particular about what he puts his name to for endorsements.  He does Timbits (because he was one as a youngster, and he believes in the program), and now he's doing Dempster's 12 grain bread (because it's a healthier alternative to bleached white).  He endorses Nike, but only after he puts his stamp of approval on the merchandise that carries his name.  But, that's where all credit to him stops.  Prove me wrong Sid... show up for a big game once, and then tell me that you actually deserve the Mark Messier trophy for exemplary leadership.  And another thing, the third fight of your career does nothing to make me stop thinking that you should be replacing Toucan Sam as the official spokesperson of Fruit Loops.  Take that, and...

Stay tuned.

Arctic Air Care

You never know what you're going to run into up here, so you always have to be ready for everything.

This, of course, is back in Repulse Bay again.  But, it's from August 23rd, and we had been ice free for several weeks already.  The wind just happened to be in the right direction for a few days, and the ice (from who knows how far away), just happened to blow in and clog the bay.
The point of that little flashback, was the fact that we had a drastic weather change yesterday, I mentioned that I had been sick as a dog, and a reminder from George Lessard "the Media Mentor", that the dry air of the arctic can give you an awful tickle, which may not have anything to do with any illness.
We had a brutal wind storm last night, with gusts up to 100 km/h.  Some of the gusts actually bowed out the picture window in the living room, and we could hear the squeal of air getting pulled out of the house, right through the window.  I'm supposing that some of my feeling ill was due to the change in the weather.  The other precautions that we took, were to clean the filter for the furnace, give the dogs a bath, and make myself a great big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup (aunt Betty's recipe).  Apparently, Grandpa Penner had commented that Aunt Betty made the best chicken noodle soup, so I knew where to go for a recipe.  I had something totally different lined up for today's blog (including the much anticipated who gets the thumbs down, and a picture from our trip out on the land from yesterday), but I was so pleased to be feeling myself again, that this is the most important thing that crossed my mind.  That being said, there's plenty more to say, and more pictures to show.

Stay tuned.

Saturday Salluit Salutations

Woke up this morning in a huge sneezing fit, after only a few hours of sleep, sicker than a dog.  It's not like I didn't know that it was coming.  I sneezed about five times on my way to bed, and had an awful tickle in my nasal cavity.  For me, that always spells disaster.  So, even though I was feeling pretty good, I made sure that I had a box of Kleenex beside the bed, and my sweats handy, ready for an early exit from the comfy cozy confines of the bedroom.  Judging from the title, and that last line, today is obviously alliteration day (is that a paid holiday?).  Anyway, I was bolstered by the view (once the sun rose two hours later) as I gazed out the living room window.  The tide was high, the wind was blowing north (which always brings the high tide even higher on our side of the bay), the river was backed way up, and pushing great big blocks of night time ice back into the ocean.  It was the majesty of it all, that brought me to my next topic.
What's with those stupid Tim Horton's commercials?  I realize that they are trying to capitalize on the great Canadian wilderness, and that it's the bond that holds us all together, but get real!  The three guys going fishing, all meeting at the lake with coffees in there hands, the skating rink in the middle of the forest, and now the guys in the lake bringing the dock in for the winter.  Does their coffee stay hot indefinitely in those little paper cups?  How long do you think it takes to get from downtown Toronto to a secluded lake?  And, why would anyone travel more than five minutes to get a bowl of instant oatmeal that you can make at home in less than four minutes?  It's all fine and good to try to paint a romantic picture, but wouldn't anyone know that a minimum of 99% of all the "Timmie's" (would you please come up with a less gay nickname?) sold would come from a major urban centre (seeing as how I haven't found too many donut shops in the wilderness)?  Enough about that.
Bomber lost... big whoop.
Flames lost... inconsistency seems to be the only thing that they can do regularly.
Obviously I jinxed poor old Tim Thomas.  Last night he let in three goals in the first period and got yanked.  Fortunately for him, Boston came back to tie the game (only to lose it anyway), so that he wasn't on the hook for the loss.  Bad game - still undefeated.
Still expecting to have a chilly, but eventful afternoon on the quad with Rory.

Stay tuned.

Tim Thomas - Thumbs Up

Even for non-hockey fans, Tim Thomas is the ultimate story of perseverance.  Here's a guy that was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques (remember them?) in 1994.  Other than a few spot appearances due to the top goalies' injuries, he wallowed in the minors for eight seasons.  Expecting that his shot at the NHL was most likely come and gone, he signed with a team in the Finish Elite league in 2004.  After one season there, he was signed as a free agent by the Boston Bruins in 2005, only to be assigned back to the minors.  It was not until January 2006 (at the ripe old rookie age of 32), that he finally got called up to the NHL, and earned himself a full-time job.  In only his second full season in the NHL, he was selected to the all-star game.  At the end of his third full season, he was awarded the Vezina Trophy (given out to the league's most outstanding goaltender).
Which brings us to today.  At the age of 36, after seven games played, he is 7-0 and has only allowed five goals in total.  He leads the league in shutouts, save percentage, and goals against average.  In the only other major goalie category, he is second in wins with seven.  The season is young, but at this stage of the game, it would be very hard to argue that anyone other than Tim Thomas is the top goaltender in the league.  All this from a guy with an extremely awkward playing style, that had to wait twelve years between getting drafted, and getting a full time gig at 32.  No wonder there's still a bunch of thirty-somethings out there that still haven't given up their dreams of making it to the bigs.  It's been done before.  Play on Tim, play on.
Just wait till you see who gets the thumbs down...

Stay tuned.

Panormous? Are You Kidding Me?

Have you seen the panormous commercial from Pizza Hut?  I know that it's not new, but it's been bugging me for just about long enough now.

Is that a massive bone... or what?  I don't know what part of the bowhead whale this actually is, but it's huge!  That's back from Repulse Bay, but I know that I hadn't shared it yet.  So there it is.
Now, back to the commercial - you know the one with the mayor, the hockey goalie, the astronaut, etc.  First of all, the mom said "dinner's ready", like as if she actually has something to do with it, while she's clearly holding one pizza box.  The claim is that it's "enough to feed the whole gang".  They actually show the pizza out of the box, and it very obviously has eight slices.  When you put all the little clips of the commercial together, it's fairly apparent that there's a minimum of ten people there.  Even if everyone was totally satisfied with only one slice (which obviously no teenager or professional athlete would be), there's not even enough there for everyone to have one.  Are we all supposed to be idiots?  Obviously that question was rhetorical, because clearly all advertisers believe that the average TV watcher is hard of learning.  I have a had time arguing with them (considering some of the crap that passes for entertainment these days), but seeing as how I am also a TV watcher, I find it insulting that they think that I might believe some of the outrageous lies that they are somehow allowed to tell us.  Isn't there supposed to be some sort of law about false advertising?  Obviously it's never being enforced.  Oh well, the average American ordering that pizza, is probably eating the whole thing by themselves anyway.  What commercial might get a piece of my mind next (I know, I know, not too big of a piece... there's not that much left)?

Stay tuned.

Is It That Time Already?

Today I got informed that the next two days were set aside for the 2011 action plan.  It seemed to me that we just got started with this year, and I already have to start planning for next year.

I know that this picture isn't mine, isn't totally recent, and I'm not taking credit for it.  I borrowed this one from James.  It's a picture of the waves caused in Newfoundland by hurricane Igor.  There were some other ones that showed a lot more damage, but I thought that this one with the waves would have been awesome to see in person (although I'm glad that I wasn't there).
If you've ever put together an action plan, you know exactly how terrible and boring it is.  What are you going to do, how are you going to do it, who's going to be responsible for the follow-up, and by when are you going to have it completed.  Blah, Blah, Blah... who cares?  They know exactly how they want it to look, and exactly what you want to set as your goals, but you have to do it yourself.  Then when you're done, they send it back to you to change over and over again, until it looks exactly like they wanted it to look in the first place.  Later on, if you don't happen to complete everything, they'll say something like "Well this is your plan.  You put it together.  Why aren't you able to finish off the plan that you put together?"  Like you actually have anything to say about the plan that they make you type up.  Whatever!  On the upside... I have the next two days to complete it, and I'm already done 12 of the 13 categories.
While not hanging on every pitch, I did watch the world series.  It seemed odd to me that everything that Texas did for 173 games to get to the world series, totally went out the window.  The bullpen rotation wasn't used the same, batters weren't used in the same situations, everything was just off a little bit.  Doesn't everyone realize that you need to dance with who brung ya?  If what you did got you there, why wouldn't you keep on doing the same thing when you get there?  Idiots!  Now it's time to get back to focusing on hockey.  Can't wait for world juniors already!

Stay tuned.