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May 30, 2006
Weekend Update
It's been very busy even before the weekend. I've been getting a lot of writing done for a project at work that has a really tight deadline. I worked at home on Thursday to take care of some other work that's been a little neglected because of this project. Pam came to clean the house that day and I just can't say how amazed I was at the job that she did! And she didn't even get to the entire house. Trying to describe how good she is is like telling someone about the best sex you've EVER had when that person has never had sex before. They just don't know what it's like till it happens to them. I mean, she cleaned things I would never have dreamed of thinking of cleaning! And the whole place is sparkling! She even fanned out the washcloths on the towel bars and folded the toilet paper ends like they do in hotels! WOWIE!! It's BEAUTIFUL! I hated to use the bathroom after she was done cause I didn't want to mess up what she had done. Well, that was Thursday.
Friday, went to work like normal, came home and had a little cookout with Pam and Nick. Greg and Sue showed up, but they'd already eaten, so we just all hung out. Saturday, I had to go back for another MRI cause the radiologist wanted to take more pictures. Don't know why. I was nervous that I'd be claustrophobic again, but I just kept counting silently in my head which helped a lot. Especially since each one took 4-5 minutes instead of the 3-4 minutes like before. They even gave me a $10 voucher for the gift shop for having to come back. Nice touch! Wouldn't have expected that from a hospital. So I bought a nice vase to use for these glass-blown flowers I found at Kilwin's for $5 each. After that, Don and I went for a nice long walk in the woods along the river (got a couple of skeeter bites-urgh) then just hung around the house and watched the Pistons. They're not doing too well in the series. They lost last night's game too--Dwyane Wade is just too hot of a player. He just kept nailing shots no matter what! ugh.
Anyway, Sunday, we went grocery shopping for the bbq we were planning for Memorial Day. Don finally got another salad spinner--he'd been complaining about not having one after we had to throw the last one out since it broke. Don spent the afternoon setting up stuff outside (and sweating his ass off since it was gruelingly hot). We went to dinner at Carlyle's. No bar fights this time, thank goodness. I had some really awesome fish and potatoes and Don had his regular burger. The bartender there, she sees us walk in and remembers what we like to drink and knows he's gonna order a burger. hehe. She's good like that. After that, we went to see X-Men 3: The Last Stand. I liked it, but wasn't as happy with it as X-Men 2. They did a couple of things I didn't like (won't say what for those who haven't seen it) and it seemed a little anti-climactic, like there could have been a lot more to the story. And they surprise you with Jean Grey's character--she's bad now. But if you do see it, it can be entertaining. Plus you have to stay until the very end, and I mean the END of the credits cause there's another little surprise waiting there. See it and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Then we had our cookout yesterday. There was Nick & Pam, Eric & Lily, Steve, Mary & Zoe, Jessica & Derek, and Greg. It was so hot though that we had to have everything inside. Just standing out there made you sweat like mad. Though I felt a bit guilty about being inside cause I haven't been able to enjoy the hot weather much for being inside all the time. Derek and Zoe kept entertained by chasing my cat Gabriel around. Mary asked me if I wanted them to stop, I said, no. Gabriel needs the exercise. Besides, he would have found a place to hide if he was too annoyed. Nick & Pam were the last to stay. Don and Nick watched the Pistons while me and Pam sat talking. I showed her the wedding and honeymoon pictures. I love hanging out with them. And I can't wait to see Nick's new dojo once it's finished...it is gonna look SOOOOOOOO cool. I'll take pictures and video during the grand opening and post them.
So there's my update for now. Hopefully, I won't be too long with the next one. :-)
Posted by Amy at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2006
Youtube
I'm just now discovering this hot new site called www.Youtube.com. They have a bunch of viral videos that people upload and they can be unbelievably funny! Especially this one called Korean Madness. These two girls go into a karaoke booth and just get completely crazy. When one's singing, keep your eye on the other one in the back. And the girl who's on the left is clearly the crazier of the two. I laughed so hard, I nearly peed my pants.
A few more of my favorites:
Urban Ninja--this guy's gonna be huge in movie stunts!
The Evolution of Dance (beware--it's 6 minutes long, but good)
Robot Dance--the incredible contorting man...WAAAYYY better than Napoleon Dynamite!
5 Feet--another long one; just a bunch of girls who can dance like crazy! (I wish I could dance that well!)
ENJOY!!
Posted by Amy at 08:00 PM | Comments (2)
May 22, 2006
Busy Bee, Tired Bee
First, my apologies to all my readers that I haven't been able to update my blog in a very long time...over a week in fact. I've been incredibly busy and thus too tired to get to posting anything. (Warning: this entry is a freaking novel...you might want to read it when you have lots of time or keep coming back to it to finish.)
This past week, work has been making me crazy. Tuesday, I actually wen to work out at the dojo and used the heavy bag for the first time in my life! It was fun though...I did some punching and lots of round-house kicking. I now love that kick the best. hehe. Even Wednesday, I came to the dojo again. I wanted to work on the bag again, but I was kind of tired from the workout the day before, so I opted to just do kata (choreographed sequence of moves). Kata's great because it can be like meditation when you focus enough. It's been so crazy for me that I even skipped karate on Thursday because at the end of the day, I was so tired, I almost didn't make it to my car!
I've been working on a project that has a very short deadline. In fact, I came into the game a bit late because the way the project was going, no one thought to ask me for my help. Needless to say, it's not being managed very well. The people running it don't really know what they're doing and they're all muddling around in chaos. They had all kinds of non-writers trying to write copy as well as a print writer trying to write web copy and no one thought to come to me...the web writer. DUH! That is, until one of my team mates who's also working on this, brought it up that they should be coming to me. They finally did. I had to wait until they figured out what they could and couldn't say about the product...the copy "bible" if you will. I got it last Wednesday afternoon. Then one of them came to me Thursday afternoon (when I had only just begun to look at the specs to try to figure out what I had to do) and asked me, "So when will you have it done?" Hell, I didn't even know what I was supposed to DO let alone know how long it was going to take me! When they finally told me later that day, I realized how much I had to do. So I decided to work from home so that I would have more time and less distraction. But even without having to spend an hour driving or being distracted by everyone at the office, I started at 8:15am and didn't stop until 6:15, taking only about 20 minutes or so to eat! Of course, when I got in today, I got hounded by everyone again from every which way. Luckily, I had gotten most of the work done Friday. JEEZ!!!
Anyway, that was the work portion of my life. Needless to say I was really tired after work on Friday, but we had to meet Nick & Pam for dinner at Seoul Garden for sushi. Nick was surprised at how tired I seemed. He said he'd never seen me like that before. After dinner, we came back to the house to watch a martial arts video that Nick had brought. Not the most exciting video...just a documentary talking about all kinds of different arts. We knocked off a bit early which is good cause I was exhausted by then.
Then Saturday, I was still tired that I nearly decided to skip karate class. But I forced myself out of bed only to get to my first class and throw my back out right at the beginning of class--during our stretching! UGH. It wasn't bad, but I did feel something pop in my lower spine. I sat out for a while hoping the pain would go away, but when I realized it wasn't going to, I decided to get dressed and skip both classes. I stopped at the Asian bakery next door to get my favorite Chinese baked pork bun snack. I ran into Jona, a friend from work and chatted with him and his daughter for a few minutes before I left to go home.
I was going to take it kind of easy just vegging out and putting a heating pad on my back, but I got a message from Pam who said she wanted to go shopping. I had told her earlier there were a few things I needed, so I decided to go with her. No power shopping, just picking up a few things. So I took a hot shower, letting the water run on my lower back as long as I could and went to pick her up. We went to the pet store so I could get a couple of kitty beds and cat food; then to Circuit City to pick up a wireless mouse for my laptop (so I can work at home without having to reboot every other hour cause my mousepad freezes up); then Old Navy to look around. After that, I took her to the new Asian grocery store Hua Xing in Ypsilanti. We also went to Target and Jo Anne's Fabrics--I wanted to get some cool Chinese silk fabrics to make carrying bags for my Iaido weapons. Oh, they're gonna look so cool! I got some black silk with a Japanese bamboo design on it and some scarlet red silk with black Chinese circular prints. I'll post pictures when they're done...shouldn't be a long project. I've already cut out the pieces and just have to sew them together.
But by the time Pam and I decided which fabrics I needed and how much, I remembered we were invited to Jessica's barbecue. Boy, they couldn't have picked a more perfect day...it was clear, very sunny and warm--the perfect spring/early summer day. I met her friend Cheryl who she's been writing about in her blog as well as her two kids. Of course we had to play with Derek who was being cute as ever. He couldn't get enough of Uncle Don hanging him upside-down. Hehe. We left after a couple hours or so, just cause I was pretty tired. I was kind of hoping to go home, but Don wanted to see a movie. I figured that'd be ok, since I'd just be sitting there watching, not exerting myself. We saw the DaVinci Code. I wouldn't say it was a great movie, but it wasn't bad. I know the book would have been a lot better. But I figured out part of the ending about 1/3 of the way through the movie. Eh.
Then Sunday, I couldn't sleep in cause I had an appointment to get an MRI (magnetic resonance image) of my jaw because of the painful TMJ I've been suffering from. I got up at about 8:30 and got to the hospital on time for my appointment. Let me just say that it's not a horrible experience, but it certainly isn't pleasant. They ask you if you're claustrophobic. I'm not, but I now have a new appreciation for what it's like to be claustrophobic. They put you on the platform that slides into the machine and you're in a VERY enclosed space. In fact, the walls of the thing are literally only about an inch and a half or two from your nose. They had to take about 6 scans, about 3-4 minutes each. By the time she got to the 5th one, I was starting to get nervous. I thought to myself that I had to focus on something, so I just started counting the seconds in my head...one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand,... About every 10 seconds, I had to take a deep breath. It's not easy breathing in such a tiny space, even though they had lots of cold air blowing through the passage of space and you have to be really careful not to move at all or else the scans will be blurry. If they had to take one more scan, I think I was going to go nuts and start freaking out on them. I was so glad when I felt them pulling me out. Even after I left, I felt nervous for about half the day; I didn't even like getting into the elevator right afterwards.
Anyway, I came home and even though I wasn't feeling tired before, I crashed for about 2 hours. Must have been the stress of my appointment coupled with the fact that I hadn't slept in at all this weekend. When I got up, I was starving and had to go get tacos. I didn't even care that I had a huge sleep wrinkle going down my face. Ha! Oh well. Just gimme some tacos, man! I felt better after I ate. We came home and Don rearranged some stuff in the garage and put stuff on the new shelving unit he assembled while I cleaned off the laundry room counter--what a mess of mail and junk! I have a bad habit of not opening my bank statements and credit card bills because I take care of all that online. Then I cleaned out the guest room where we'd been storing a bunch of boxes and junk. All this while I did a few loads of laundry. (Jeez, I'm tired again just listing out what I did this weekend!) After that, we went to meet my parents at the Chinese restaurant in town on their way back from Kalamazoo. My brother was there too. Then it was over to the hot tubs for a nice soak. But the water was actually too hot to enjoy very much...we ended up spending half our time in the shower trying to cool off. Oh well. Then of course, we had to finish off our Sunday night with the season finale of Desperate Housewives.
So I haven't really had a break in the last week...it's been a flurry of activity. I skipped karate again tonight so that I could take it easy on my back just in case. It felt ok yesterday and today, but I didn't want to take a chance on straining it. I go to see Dr. Jay tomorrow afternoon, so he'll fix me up good. And now I see it's 11:30, so I should stop typing and go to bed. Again, sorry for not updating for so long. I'll try to post again soon.
Posted by Amy at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2006
Croft Hill
I found this picture on my brother's Wikipedia site and wanted to post it cause it's a cool old picture of my family. This was probably taken in 1972 or 1973 so I'm probably about 1 1/2 or 2 years old in this photo. This is the house we lived at on Croft Hill--I think this is in Troy. I don't know how long we lived there; we moved only a few years after I was born. In fact, my first memory is arriving at our new house on Fox Chase in Troy, walking up to the house and thinking, "Hey, my birthday is next month...I'm gonna be 3 years old!"
If I remember correctly, my dad's brother Kosol bought the house from us. And I think it's in the same neighborhood that Rosie (his daughter) lives in now!
Posted by Amy at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2006
Spitting Venom
Well, today was a pretty interesting day. One of the programmers actually got let go today. He had been very unhappy and was treating people pretty badly, as I heard. Apparently, many people didn't like him. I'd heard that he'd given his two-week notice yesterday, but ended up leaving today.
Now, I'm not sure of the exact details of why he was unhappy or why he left. All I know is that he was full of venom today and was not shy about showing it. In fact, a bunch of us were on our way to a meeting when we passed him. He points me out and snidely says right out of the blue, "You gotta watch Amy; she's a backstabbing psychomaniac bitch!" Now, immediately, you say, OHMYGOD! I can't believe he said that. But the way he said it seemed (at least at first) like a joke, like he was just being snarky. So I joked back with him and said, "Yeah, you DO gotta watch out for me cause I can be a bitch. Haha!" But then as I turned to walk away, I thought, wait...was he really joking or did he really mean that? And after a couple more moments thinking about it, I realized he was just spitting venom because he was on his way out the door. He obviously figured that since he was on his way out, he would say anything and everything he wanted. And apparently, he caused another scoffle right as we were entering the room for our meeting. I'm speculating that that's probably the moment he was escorted out of the building.
I've never worked that closely with him at all and don't really know him that well, so I didn't take his remark personally at all. In fact, it didn't injure me one bit. So I found it a little amusing that several managers involved with his team as well as mine were so very concerned about my feelings and even apologized for him. But the way I see it, they weren't responsible at all for what he did; he was just being his jerk self. So I didn't think any apologies were necessary from the managers. Besides, by the time I got out of my meeting, he'd already been escorted out of the building. When I got back to my desk, his team leader had sent out an email saying he was gone and that we should call security if we saw him on the premesis! Wow! And someone noted that he was escorted out so quickly that his computer was left unlocked...he wasn't even allowed to log out!
Later, after talking with my good friend Zack (another programmer), he told me that the guy who got fired was just lashing out at me because he was trying to get Zack mad and knew that we were friends. Another person thought perhaps he might be racist since I was the only minority of the group when he made his remark. Now, whether that's true, I don't know either way.
But whatever. On the brighter side of life, one of my managers closed out my day by giving me a really nice Pistons jersey...not the cheap replica like I bought, but the expensive real jersey. He gave me Ben Wallace's #3 jersey. Cool! But it was really funny cause it's a man's size 44 which is probably like an XL. The thing literally comes down to my knees!! hahah!! I'm not sure if I'll be able to actually wear it...maybe I'll just frame it or something. Boy, the Pistons are going to wipe the floor with the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight!
Posted by Amy at 08:39 PM | Comments (2)
May 08, 2006
Gino & Gina
Went out to dinner with the family last night. Don and I drove to my cousin Rosie's house in Troy to go see her new baby, Gina. My aunt and uncle were there and it was really great to see them...seems like I only see them about once a year. They're kind of like second parents to me.
I think it's funny (as in haha) that they named their son Gino, and the new girl Gina. She's only 3 weeks old right now, cute, but still kinda squishy looking, the way newborns are. But I think she'll end up being just as cute, if not cuter than her brother. I got to hold her--she seemed so light in my arms. Well, at least compared to our fat-ass cats who weigh between 16-18 pounds! I think she's ticklish too. When I stroked her back, she'd arch it away from my hand. Hee hee! But she was very sleepy cause she'd just been fed, so all she did was lay there with her eyes closed.
Afterward, we went to Benihana for dinner. Unfortunately, my aunt wasn't able to go to with us...she stayed home with Gina so that Rosie could go out to dinner. The food was good as usual. We had so many people in our party that we almost couldn't fit at the hibachi table. Gino sat next to me. He seemed so happy to spend time with me. He kept playing with me, hugging me, wanting me to carry him, etc. He's very affectionate too...when he hugs me, he strokes my arms. What a sweetie! I let him drink from my water glass and I held it for him, then he'd turn the glass to me as if he was feeding me water. Ha! So cute!! He got antsy after a while, so I walked him to the front of the restaurant. He was so fascinated by the plastic sushi display and kept asking me (in Thai), "What's that? What's that?" But then some of the questions he asked, I couldn't understand. There were a few origami birds in the case and I said to him, "That's a bird...the bird says 'tweet, tweet!'" And he'd go "hoo hoo!" haha! Silly guy!
Then I took him to the wall of pictures where they showed famous people with the owner of the restaurant. I pointed out the one with Jackie Chan (cause he's so freaking cool) and told Gino, "Look! Jackie Chan!" and he'd repeat, "Jackie Tan!" haha! I was very sad to have to leave him after dinner. I swear I have THE cutest nephews in the world!!
Posted by Amy at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
May 07, 2006
Eating Dirt
UGH! I'm pretty sore and very tired! Don's friend Dave Orosz came to Michigan, visiting from Indianapolis. He came over to go mountain bike riding with us after we got home from karate. (I went to both 11:00 advanced class and noon regular class.) We had to stop at Meijer's to get me a helmet--one of Don's unwavering rules--and more athletic tape for my knee just to make sure I didn't aggravate it. I had to get a kids' sized helmet because my head is too damned small for an adult size. Dave was joking that I should get the pink one with the My Little Pony on it. haha! I opted for the electric blue one with the cool flaming bees on it. ;-P Once we got that, we were on our way to the trail. I think we went to a trail in Brighton, not sure which.
Now, even though they knew I'd never gone mountain biking before, I stil felt it necessary to warn them that I might only barely be able to keep up with them. And once we got started, I said, "Do me a favor and keep checking behind you to make sure I'm still there."
Now, the entire trail is probably 18 inches wide which is not a lot of width to work with at times. So you have to be really careful. Don told me at the beginning to watch the trail right in front of me, which I did...kept my eyes about 5-8 feet ahead of me and watched Don in front of me to get warning of whatever lay ahead. He also told me to watch for small tree stumps and roots which are everywhere. Well, that wasn't my problem. I did fine avoiding those as well as the trees themselves. Everytime we hit a hill of any significance, it was either the sand that stopped me or I just didn't have enough energy or strength to get up the hill.
It wasn't long before we hit the first hill. Well, I knew I'd have to downshift, so I hit the shifter a bunch of times until it wouldn't shift down any further. I pedalled up the hill as hard as I could, but I hit a sand patch right in the middle of it. It was like pedaling on a stationary bike! Or more like when you're driving an older rear-wheel-drive vehicle and you get your rear wheels stuck in the mud. You put it in drive and hit the accelerator, but your wheels just spin and you don't go anywhere.
Then I think it was the second hill I hit where I sort of wiped out. I was coming around a curve uphill and couldn't seem to steer myself away from the wall on the right. I felt like if I leaned away from it, I'd fall. But maybe that's what I should've done cause I ended up going up the wall because I was trying to keep from stopping. Well, I didn't actually wipe out, it was more like I just tipped over because I think I only fell sideways about 45 degrees. Dave said, "Well, there's your wipeout for the day." And somehow I couldn't help thinking, "God I hope I'm allowed more than that...cause I know there's gonna be another one coming!" Well, I was right.
I got through the rest of the trail ok, except that I had to make us all stop everytime we hit a hill--I think out of about 8 hills there were, I only made it up one on my own. Kind of funny because when I did it, I was really determined to do it. I downshifted all the way, stood on the pedals and cursed at myself "Come...ON...Get...your...ass...up...that...fucking...hill!!" I was so proud of myself! And THEN....
We were probably about 1/2 mile from the end of the 8 mile trail Dave and Don had stopped again to let me catch up to them. Dave motioned for me to go ahead of them, which I wasn't sure about, but shook my head and said ok. So I'm coming down this hill, not too steep, but I can see a giant sand trap coming up. Dave had warned me that here's where it becomes a two-way (the rest of the trail is only one-way, thankfully) and as I'm coming down the hill, I see 3 bikers coming toward me. They were moving at a good clip and I just didn't want to collide with them, so I instinctively tried to move to the right, but that took me right into the sand trap. They passed by me just as my front wheel gets caught in the sand and turns, digging into the ground. So of course, my bike stops cold, I attempt to shift my weight backwards, but the momentum throws me right over the handlebars. I go flying into the dirt face first and do a faceplant. PAAFFF! Well, thankfully, no broken bones or any serious injury. Just got the wind knocked out of me a little and a little bruise and scrape on the knee (good thing I wore my yoga pants, not shorts). So I'm just laying there like a dead dog in the sand and right away, my muscles just said, "You know what? We give up. Wanna lay here in the dirt a minute? Sure, go ahead!" My response to that was, "P-tooey! P-tooey!" I was covered in sand...got it in my mouth, up my nose, up the crack of my ass. Haha!! So Don had to help me up. He tried to hug me, but I said, "Ugh, don't squeeze me!" After rinsing out my mouth, dusting off and a few minutes rest, I was anxious to get going again, just to get to the end.
Unfortunately, they forgot to mention there was one last hill. Ugh! Just as Don passed me, I told him, "I think I'm gonna end up walking this one...in fact, I'm going to walk this one!" After that, it was a long straightaway--whew!--then to my delight, the trees opened up to the parking lot. I made it to the end! Wow. And that was supposed to be the EASY trail. Yeesh!
Afterwards, we came home so I could get cleaned up. Then we went to The Quarter Bistro for dinner. Dave said he was going to go back to Indianapolis in the morning, but Don convinced him to go mountain bike riding again. Dave asked if I would come along again, and I just laughed. Funny thing is, when he came to pick up Don today, he thought I was kidding about not coming along. I think he was convinced once he saw me still in my robe. The trail they're going to today is most likely harder than the one we went to yesterday. Forget it! I mean, I'm really glad I went yesterday and I had a pretty good time even though I didn't make it up most of the hills, but I'm just too tired to go again! But at least I gave it a shot and did the best I could. I might go again, but not for a while and it has to be another easy trail.
Posted by Amy at 01:45 PM | Comments (3)
May 04, 2006
Say Aaaaah!
Don had to have an endoscopic procedure today...that's when they put a scope down your throat and look at your esophagus and stomach. He's been having a lot of problems with acid reflux, so Dr. Jay told him to get one to make sure he doesn't have too much damage. And because they drug you up, you have to have someone drive you home. So I left work early today at 1pm to come home and take him to his appointment. It was at St. Joe's hospital in Ypsilanti near my old apartment.
They took him in about 3:15 and he came out again about 4pm. Not too bad. They called me in to go see him in the recovery room. I could tell he was still a little loopy from the drugs. Heheh. I asked him how he felt and he said "fine," and when the doctor came in, they had a conversation about what medicine to take and such. It was really funny because Don kept asking the doctor the same question and kept forgetting that the doctor answered it. Even the doctor was chuckling at him. hee hee! I also asked Don whether he was still half-awake during the procedure and he thought about it a minute and said, "yeah, I think I was....wait, no I don't think was. Wait...haha I'm not sure I remember. Yeah, I don't remember!" Then he kept repeating that he didn't remember whether he was awake or not. Ha! Drugs...must've been some good stuff! But they told him he couldn't do any physical activity, drink alcohol or operate heavy machinery for at least 4 hours afterwards. So no karate, no scotchy-wotchy, and no tractor driving. haha!
Anyway, after we left the hospital, we went to Arby's to get Don some food since he couldn't eat anything all day. And as we were driving home, we passed this new Asian grocery store: Huaxing Asia Market. Nick & Pam, take note...this is the most AMAZING Asian market I've ever seen and it's HUGE!!! They have almost EVERYTHING! Most markets are pretty small, this was as big as a small Krogers. They had all kinds of packaged goods, cooking pots and stuff, a whole WALL full of rice cookers, even live fish, crab and eels! Just about anything you could want. So those of you living in the Ann Arbor area and need to go to a good Asian grocery, this is the place to go! It's located on Washtenaw between Hewitt Rd. and Golfside Rd., northeast of Michigan Ave and US-23. So we stocked up on rice and more soy sauce...2 major staples in this house.
So that's been my day...thankfully, it was a beautiful sunny day. Man, I wish it was this nice all year long cause I can't wait to start hitting the park on the weekends. Hopefully we can go this Sunday.
Posted by Amy at 06:04 PM | Comments (2)
May 01, 2006
Cheaters Sometimes Prosper
OH MY GOD, I have never seen such horrible officiating in my life!!!!!! You know that saying, "Cheaters never prosper"? Well, it's UNTRUE! I caught the game tonight cause it was a very important game because if they lost, it would mean that they'd be eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. When I first checked the score, they were down 2-0. Not good. Then I caught the last period and they were tied 2-2. Better!
But then to my utter disbelief and shock, the Edmonton Oilers scored against the Wings, taking them up 3-2. Now, this was a COMPLETELY bogus goal! First, before it even got to the crease, one of the Oilers high-sticked the puck out of the air...that should have gotten a whistle right there. Nope. The puck gets shot toward the goal, hits the post, then goes into Manny Legace's glove. Think it's over then? Think again! It hits Manny's glove, he falls to the ground, it comes out, there's a shuffle with 2 or 3 guys at the goal, plus the goalie. The Oiler closest the goal has his stick ON TOP of the goal net, holding on to the goal to steady himself and...(you're not going to believe this) KICKS, yes KICKS the puck into the goal--a completely illegal move as I understand it. You cannot kick the puck into the goal. If you do, it doesn't count.
So the ref watching the goal line starts emphatically pointing to the goal saying the puck is in the goal. The goal siren and light goes off, and the Edmonton home crowd is going nuts. But Detroit contests the call, so the refs go to the tape. For 10 minutes, they review it. Meanwhile, Mickey Redmond is discussing the situation with the other commentator saying that regardless of the high stick (which is not reviewable because it didn't go directly into the goal from the high-stick), the issue is whether or not the guy kicked it into the goal. And from the tape that us home-viewers are shown, we can CLEARLY see that he kicked it! There is NO DOUBT he did. And yet the refs STILL came out and said the goal was legitimate! UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE!!! And of course, Edmonton goes on to score another goal and win the game, eliminating the Wings from the playoffs.
If it hadn't been for that complete bullshit call, they would have tied 3-3 and gone into overtime. But NO! They cheated their way to a win.
Now, you can NOT tell me that referees aren't biased because THEY ARE! And I strongly believe that when it comes to Detroit sports (which gets absolutely no respect nationally--though Lions don't deserve any), I think the refs must get paid off or something because they absolutely hate us.
So after I disgustedly walk away from the Wings game, I go downstairs to see how the Pistons are doing and Don tells me that during that game, one of the Milwaulkee Bucks blatantly grabs Chauncey Billups' shorts on his way to the net. Instead of calling a flagrant foul where we would have gotten 2 free-throws and possession of the ball, they just call a regular foul. We still get 2 FT's, but no possession. More bullshit! Then Don goes on to describe how the refs are doing everything in their power to give the game to Milwaulkee. Fortunately for us, the Pistons are so damned good at what they do that even with the help of the refs, the Bucks still can't win the game, eliminating the Bucks in the first round of NBA playoffs. At least that's SOME good news for Detroit. UGH!!! Stupid refs! It's no wonder they get so many death threats.
Posted by Amy at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
Where the Sidewalk Ends
No matter how many times I see it happpening, I can't seem to figure out why. Seems everytime there's a pleasant evening, my neighbors like to take walks through the sub. What's so odd about it is that they walk down the actual street and don't use the sidewalk which is 3 FEET AWAY! What is UP with that?? First of all, it's just stupid. Second, it's dark and there's a good chance that some idiot driving too fast could easily clip them. I mean, it makes NO sense WHATsoever! There's nothing wrong with it...it doesn't have any uneven cracks that anyone could trip on; it's not covered in ice or snow; and there's never anything blocking the path. I think my neighbors are just morons.
Speaking of sidewalks, I had to post this poem by Shel Silverstein. He's always been my favorite poet. He writes for children, but his poems are so damned clever, cute and funny. So this is called "Boa Constrictor" and is perhaps my most favorite one. In fact, I memorized it to recite for my 6th grade class.
Boa Constrictor
Oh, I'm being eaten
By a boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor,
And I don't like it one bit.
Well, what do you know?
It's nibblin' my toe.
Oh, gee,
It's up to my knee.
Oh my,
It's up to my thigh.
Oh, fiddle,
It's up to my middle.
Oh, heck,
It's up to my neck.
Oh, dread,
It's MMFFFF!!
- Shel Silverstein
Posted by Amy at 10:46 PM | Comments (1)