You Ever Do This?

I had a little note from FedEx on my door this evening. I ordered train tickets last week & apparently I needed to sign for them. Since I knew I wouldn't be home to get them when they would try to deliver again, & since it was an option, I thought I'd go pick them up. I looked up the address & glanced at the map. "Oh I know exactly where that is. No problem. 10 minutes round trip." And as a little aside - "Hmm... They've got that road connecting at the wrong place."

So, without printing the map, because I KNOW where I'm going. I get in the car but I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. The road I thought was it ended up not being it. Neither were my 2nd, 3rd, or 4th guesses. I finally stumbled upon it after I had decided to give up & go home to look at the map again. Long story short, 30-45 minutes later I finally found it.

So now I know, listen a bit closer to those little side thoughts.... and print out the map!

They Did It!

The Predator's selected the hometown kid! Who knows how well the kid will actually do on the ice but this selection was a slam dunk in the public relations game. When you have a sports media juggernaut like the Titans, anything that gives the team a bit more media attention is a good thing. Flipping around the local late news tonight, it looks like it's working... and it's not often that you get to hear hockey talk in June.

Quiz Time

I was listening to NPR's Morning Edition the other day & heard this story about American accents. Click on the "listen" button to hear the actual story. Being the amateur anthropologist that I am, I thought it was very interesting. I had to go take the quiz.

Suprise, suprise - my score was 87% Dixie. So what's your score?

If you're interested there are several links to other stories about language at the bottom of the NPR page.

Just a day late

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SABRINA!!!

You're one of the best two sisters in the world! But don't think I completely messed this up. I did call her yesterday to wish her a wonderful birthday.

Congratulations

The Carolina Hurricane's are the 2006 Stanley Cup!

Good fight Edmonton. Carolina was expected to make it this far. Edmonton barely made the playoffs as the 8th & final seed. They made history by being the only 8 seed to ever make it to the finals... that's nothing to hang your head about.

I have to say, it's a very cool sight to see these players in their home rink, surrounded by their families, carrying around the Stanley Cup.

And now, it's time to get ready for the draft... this Saturday.

Something about Marley

I'm ripping the last of the CD's (ok, parts of CD's due to hard drive space) & just realized... sometimes I just HAVE to listen to Bob Marley. It's usually during or after a very stressful day. As strange as it may sound, nothing mellows me out like his music does. And no, I'm no rastafarian so don't even try to accuse me... yes Marion, I'm looking in your direction=)

So what about you? What the one artist that's always able to de-stress you?

Ouch!

I finally listened to my mom & went to get some immunization shots today. I think with my fear of needles, I had just delayed it as long as I could. I ended up getting a tetanus & a hepatitis shot. I don't care what anyone says, THEY HURT!!!! And now, 6 hours later, it still HURTS! You'd think that by now, these pharmaceutical companies would've developed a pill.

By the way, I found out after calling several places, an international travel doctor's office is the only place to get some of these shots. And don't even try calling the health department. All you'll get is a rather rude lecture about planning ahead & then phone numbers for one of these doctor's offices.

We're just too clean

I saw this article in the paper this morning. Strangely enough, I had a conversation this past week about something similar to this. Now we weren't saying we weren't dirty enough but we were wondering about the sharp rise in childhood allergies in the past few years.

At first glance, this seems to make a bit of sense. If you were anything like I was as a child, you were constantly outside playing in the woods and mud. These days, kids tend to stay inside more because parents are so worried about idiots in the world. So whereas I was coming in constant contact with all kinds of germs, kids today are living in a much more sterile environment with air purifiers & such. I guess time will tell if this is a valid study.

Tennessee's first draftee

Sometimes you just have to go read the article. What a great PR move it would be for the Predator's to draft this kid! Then again, that's why I'm not in charge of the draft, I decide with my heart instead of my head.

LOL!

A few weeks back during the softball college world series, people were calling into The Wakeup Zone (a local morning sports talk show) wanting to talk softball because Tennessee had made it to the world series. Of course one of the guys had to be a bonehead & say that he could hit a homerun off of Monica Abbott (Tennessee's star pitcher). And of course that guy wasn't either of the media guys, who knew better. It was the ex Tennessee Titan, Frank Wycheck. After much smack talk by the other guys and callers, a challenge was born. Frank, being a good guy, decided to make it a charity fundraiser.

Yesterday was the day. Unfortunately I wasn't in the car & listening while it took place. I did get to hear Frank talk about it later. He did not do well at all & I believe he now has a bit more respect for these players. Of course the local media was all over it - check it out here.

Just in case you care...

30 Days Until the trip!!!!!

I just finished buying our tickets for the Tube in London. As well as tickets for the Tower of London & The Original Tour (you know those cute red double decker buses).

And the icing on the cake... tickets to see Mary Poppins!!!!

Chills last night

I thought about writing this last night but I really am trying to hold back on some of the hockey posts. But today I was discussing it at lunch & it still was giving me chills, so I'm sharing...

Like all sporting events in the USA, they play the national anthem. Only with the NHL, since there are some teams in Canada & some in the states, whenever teams from both countries are playing each other, both anthems are played. Last night with the game in Edmonton, the singer sings the Star Spangled Banner & I was shocked to hear the crowd singing along. That gave me a small case of the chills. Then the singer began Oh Canada. He got just a few lines into it & then just held up the microphone. It was absolutely stunning. The crowd & Canadian players just continued to sing the rest of the anthem accapella. You could understand every word.

By the way,I love when the Preds play a Canadian team. Oh Canada is a really great national anthem... and no hard notes to hit. I like to sing along.

The next game will be in Edmonton on NBC Monday night 8PM EST. I'm not asking you to watch the entire game. Just check out the national anthems.


Update: It wasn't just me. I found this via Kukla.

Is it irony?

Last week at church we started a series of sermons about the importance of becoming more involved with the church family. Last week was the importance of being regularly involved in worship. Today, during the sermon on group Bible study, it hit me. I'm going to be away from my church family for 4 straight Sundays. I thought that was a bit ironic. Then again, there was a reason I was nowhere close to being an English major. I can never really get what is & isn't ironic straight. Maybe I should just call it freaky coincidence?

Cat Blogging

This isn't my usual Scully post but check out this tough kitty!

What most people don't realize

I know I seem pretty much a fly by the seat of her pants kind of girl... but I'm really a bit obsessive about details when I'm planning things. I'm sure most people would feel very good about vacation plans when with a month left they have flights & hotels booked.

That wouldn't be me. I like to make lists & have several going on at the moment to hopefully help me make decisions. Here are a few of them....

• which sights to see in Prague
• which sights to see in & around Brno
• which kind of ticket to buy for traveling around in London
• which theater show to see
• which of the many sights in London to see & what day to see them
• which option to use to get to the hotel from the airport in London
• which train/bus to take to Edinburgh from London
• which outfits to squeeze into my carry-on bags
• which songs to load onto my player

Hopefully I'll be able to get these things sooner rather than later... especially the tickets (since I can get several of them cheaper here than if I wait until we arrive). I'm just thankful that Cindy's given me detailed instruction on how to get from the airport in Prague to the bus that will take me to Brno. So any advice... other than "don't worry so much about it"?

Pet Peeve

People who have their dogs ride in the back of their truck. It's one thing if you live on a farm & want to take the dog along to check out the back 40. It's a much different thing if you are driving around in the city. I was running an errand this afternoon & found myself behind a SUV towing some kind of flatbed behind it. In that flatbed, completely unprotected stood a newfoundland (gorgeous dog by the way). I just hate what could've happened if the driver had to break suddenly.

What a day

I admit it, I'm a bit sentimental about my teams. That being said, today was not a good day for the sentimental fan.

First I wake up to see the big, above the fold, article in the newspaper being that the Titan's were trading away #9 Steve McNair. And you know you're in Tennessee because it's not above the fold in the sports section... I mean front page above the fold. The sports section only had 4 pages of articles on the deal. I knew something like this was most likely coming. But it still stinks! McNair's the whole reason I became a Titan's fan. He's one of the toughest quarter backs I've ever seen play the game. I understand professional sports are a business, so management sometimes have to make decisions purely on a financial basis... but why did they have to trade him to the Raven's?! WHY??? Just about any other team would've been better.

Then this afternoon I discovered that the Predators had decided not to resign the team captain Greg Johnson. I started expecting this a few weeks ago when they re-signed a couple of younger guys a few weeks ago that play the same position. He was one of 3 original players left from the first season. I was really hoping that he would be able to retire as a Predator. It just seemed like the right thing to do for the team captain. Unfortunately the team has a lot of young talent ready for their turn & he wants to keep playing.

I don't believe what I just saw

I keep flipping over to game one of THE Stanley Cup Finals. Edmonton looked to be in control of the game. I was about to write an "I'm happy" post & decided I should know the final score. So I turn it over to OLN. And Carolina had tied it up at 4-4!? And the back-up goalie is in for Edmonton!? What happened to Roloson!? It's under a minute to go in the game, so I'm thinking overtime. Then the unthinkable, a bad exchange between Edmonton's goalie & a teammate & Carolina wins. WHAT!?!?!?!?!

Looks like we're going to have a good series. Even though I'm pulling for Edmonton because of Rem Murray, it wouldn't break my heart for Carolina to win either. I mean Carolina's representing all of the "non-traditional" markets. Shoving it in the faces of those traditionalists... what's not to like there?

My cool new toy

My Zen player came in last week. It's so cute & cool! Granted I haven't loaded any songs onto it yet. Silly me is still deleting songs and adding other songs to my computer. I did however copy photos from my camera to it... oh how cool. Maybe, just maybe, I may be geeking out a bit. Next I have to figure out how to use the organizer/calendar thingy. Then I can use it to keep all the travel information on. But before you say anything, I'll also have hard copies of everything - one for me, one for Trina, and one for our parents.

The 4400

For some reason I thought this show was canceled. But I was wrong. These USA Network shows are so strange in that they seem to start once all the other shows have their season finales. It looks like today they're having a marathon of last season's episodes.

So just in case you care, the new season starts next weekend. I highly recommend it... especially if you like a little sci-fi mystery. Granted if you haven't seen any episodes, you might need some help getting up to speed.

I think I've found it

The best band name ever... I was driving home from work tonight & heard a commercial for some concert festival. As they're listing the bands, suddenly the announcer says "Les Honky More Tonkies". How fun is that?

I did a search & found this but since I couldn't get the music to play, I still have no idea if these guys deserve to have such a great name. A part of me doubts it. The website says they've been around... in the same city that I live... since 1995 & I've never heard of them.

FYI

When you decide that you want to rip your entire music collection to your computer, 1st make sure you have enough hard drive space to do so. Of course, I had to learn that the hard way. Who knew music files took up so much space?