Bye For Now

Sorry I've been so lax on posting. The last minute details & packing have me very busy. We fly out early in the afternoon on Thursday. Please keep us in your prayers for a safe trip. And say an extra prayer that I'm able to communicate in Czech when we arrive in Prague. But even more important to me, keep our family in your prayers that they don't worry too much. Also, say a little prayer for my co-workers who have to do my job while I'm away... and that they don't hate me by the time I return.

Check back here around the 1st of August. I plan on posting pictures & recapping the trip so much that everyone will beg for more hockey news:)

Later!

Cat Blogging

Scully's in rare form tonight. On top of the usual stuff she does to irritate me, she somehow shut down the computer at the power strip... she's never done that before. I think she knows she's going to visit her grandparents for a few weeks & is letting me know that she's NOT happy about it.

I missed it

The first episode of Rock Star... that is all except the final 3 singers. :( I thought the show started at 8:00 so I didn't think to record the show since I knew I'd be home at 8. Unfortunately it started at 7:00.

Last summer, when they were finding the new lead singer for INXS, my cousin finally convinced me to watch the show. I didn't want to at first because you just can't replace a lead singer of a band. But there were some really good singers on the show & I got hooked. Granted I just didn't think some of them, especially the women, were right for the band.

So when I saw the commercials for the new season, I was excited. This time, I can actually pull for the best singer including the female singers. That's because it's a new band, so I don't feel like the singers have to have a certain kind sound. Actually, that's not true, I do think there has to be a certain sound. This is a band formed by former members of Motley Crue, Metallica, and Guns N Roses... the lead singer of this band has to really rock! I did get to hear the reminder snippets at the end of the show. There were a few that I knew right away are not right. You just can't sound like John Mayer (& I love John Mayer) and front this band.

Another signing

While I was posting about the Mason signing, the Predators were taking care of the biggest hole on the roster. Word is that Jason Arnott, previously with the Dallas Stars, is now a Predator!

Now I can happily go on vacation knowing that all the big glaring needs are filled. Anything else they do will be icing on the cake... at least in my eyes.

Mason Re-signs!

I guess the birth of your first child changes things? A few weeks ago, Chris Mason, the Predator's back-up goalie, had decided to test the market to see if he could get a starting job elsewhere. So I was a bit surprised to see that he had decided to re-sign with the Predators just hours after the signing period started yesterday.

I'm having mixed feelings about this. As much as I like Mason & wanted him to stay, the fact that the Predator's went so hard after him after saying they would let him test the market makes me more worried about the starting goalie's health. Then again, maybe the Predator's just didn't like any of the other back-up goalies that were available and were willing to offer a bit more money to entice the new father to stay in town.

On a side note, I'm shocked that the word "goalie" is not a part of blogger's spell check!

For the Nashville Area Folks

We lost a very good local reporter yesterday. Dana Kaye at WTVF lost her battle with cancer.

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!