BMWR100RT

It took me far too long to find Scotch. It's now my go to beverage. Just a glass or two, sipped over the rocks. Not having to get up to pee away beer all night especially when I'm camping and dealing with much less cooling needs (yes you can drink it warm) are all pluses. "try an islay, namely Lagavulin or Laphroaig or Ardbeg" - This. Ardbeg is my fave. The other two have a slight "tire fire" ruggedness that isn't for all, kind of like a seriously hoppy IPA isn't for everyone. I like them both, but if you want to go down the islay road, start with Ardbeg.

Rent a bike at Fishermans Wharf if the weather is nice and ride across the GG bridge to Sausolito instead. It's not hard and really fun. Put bike on Ferry and ride back past Alcatraz. Usually if you haven't pre-bought tickets to Alcatraz they package other stuff to make it really expensive or are sold out......I could be wrong. Bike ride is awesome.

I wasn't trying to get on the stat sheet, but I had that story to share for years and the good reading of this thread inspired me to drop it. Last night I was sitting at my Dad's retirement home having dinner with him and a bunch of seniors. Some lady that looked like she could have been old enough to be Seymour Knox III's wife blurted out "who's watching the Sabres tonight?" from another table. I yelled "I am!" much to the annoyance of the others. After dinner was over I saw her and we talked hockey before I raced home to catch the Sabres/Rangers. Being the Myopic fan I texted a buddy when we were down 3-1 "We got them (Rangers) right where we want them". I was jacked when they tied it, but then my phone lit up shortly after.....ha! The romance of hockey for sure.

He was great when teamed with RJ. A true gentleman with great hockey knowledge. I miss him on the broadcast.

Great thread. What is it about the romance of hockey........ I was ten when the Sabres were an expansion team. I was lucky as I had some new neighbors who had moved from Chicago and were giant Blackhawk fans and were passionate about hockey. The family had four brothers and I was between the ages of the two youngest. They had a farm pond about one hundred yards from their house. By the time I was 11 or so, lead by the older brothers, we were stringing every extension chord we could find together and running a little pool filter pump so we could flood the ice at night. That hard fresh ice the next morning was magic. I was a lousy skater but I didn't take crap from anyone. Often my skates would get so froze up with slush I'd put my runners on and walk all the way home crying. My mom would put me in the laundry tub and spray hot water on the laces so she could untie them. She would put my skates on top of the furnace. I can still smell that combo of leather, sweat and fresh outdoors rising off the drying skates. The neighbor kids all started playing organized hockey, but our family didn't have enough money. That didn't stop me from playing hard and one of the kids would work with me on skating backwards and gave me pointers he had learned from his coaches. Meanwhile, we had a WT Grant department store in East Aurora and I got a little transistor radio there. I listened to as many games as I could and often fell asleep only to run upstairs in the morning to ask my grandfather to read me from the Courier Express what the final score was. When Terry had bought the Sabres and was talking about listening I sat in my office at work with the door closed and I couldn't stop the tears. I especially remember the Montreal Canadiens Ken Dryden pad measurerment game. I was watching the game on a black and white TV and remember feeling every emotion of sports in that one game. I couldn't sleep that night. I was hooked. Meanwhile I hadn't been to a game. Our family was happy, but in looking back there is no doubt we were hardly wealthy. Four kids, Dad working two jobs, mom making my sisters clothes, wasn't the recipe for seeing the Sabres. My Dad wasn't a sports fan, but my Mom loved the Bills, and while she never found the love of the Sabres I did, she grew up off Hertel Ave and was as true a Buffalonian as you can get. My Dad had just started a new job with NYSEG. They were running new electrical service in the Aud and his contact gave him two tickets to game 4 of the SCF against Philly. He let my mother take me. So yes, my first Sabres game was the fog game. We had a crappy Polaroid camera and film was expensive so my mom only let me take three pictures. The quality is bad but to me they mean everything. I'm 14 and I am sitting with my mom on the ice right next to the players entrance. I loved Schoney and I tried to take his picture as they walked out of the players entrance. I obviously missed. But I got a picture of him on the ice. Lost in the accounts you read is that the Sabres were down two goals, tied it up at 2, again at 3 and 4. It was almost too much for me. When Rene Robert scored in overtime it was absolute bedlam. I've been to some great games played over the years but nothing will ever eclipse that moment. I remember they had a monitor on top of the TV cameras and they had frozen the goal on it and people were nuts. We sang the "Ooh Ahh Sabres on the Warpath" chant (kids, remember it starts real slow and gains speed) and I could have cared less that I was with my mom. I thought we would win a Stanley cup many times in the next forty years but it matters to me little. I've watched nephews play the game and made the trip from Rochester to see the Sabres many times and I go to my share of Amerks games and I still feel the passion. I get frustrated, but the game is always beautiful. Go Sabres.

I have a sister who drove my parents crazy and the music she listened to at the time included Bowie. I couldn't like him because I thought somehow he was a bad influence on her and it was tough to see my parents suffer from her bad choices. And then I saw him on TV doing Little Drummer Boy at Christmas with Bing Crosby when I was about 15. This was a time when music was filled with over produced music that begged for the real rock and roll of the Clash, Ramones, Television, Brian Eno, Nick Lowe, Buzzcocks, Joe Jackson, Pistols, Elvis C and so much other stuff I loved. In reading many interviews at the time I was struck how many true artists mentioned Bowie as an influence. I started listening. And hooked I became. In a world of formulas and invented stars, there are very few true artists that just don't fit any mold. Ashes to Ashes, Funk to Funky.

Things that are awesome......the last two pages of this thread. In this day and age of negative media and doom and gloom, reading this just puts me in a happy place. Happy New Year to all you kids.

This. I was shocked when I bought "Home buying for dummies" 20 years ago and it talked of the folly of home ownership. For years all my elderly relatives were pestering me about throwing rent away. What the Dummies book said was that home ownership was only good investing strategy in hot economic markets, and even sometimes that was fleeting. Google "Is home ownership a good investment". And don't read the answer from Realtors or banks (or property tax collectors). You need to look at it as an expensive hobby and not an investment. I love our house and I have made many improvements, but unless I was married with a child on the way it would be the last thing I'd invest in. I'd be renting and enjoying my free time which you will give up when every problem becomes yours, every home and garden show ill make you feel inadequate until you upgrade, etc. When ever I'm working on something instead of relaxing I humor myself by saying "Ah yes, the American dream!" You two are some of my favorite posters as I am mostly a lurker........I don't want you to take this as negative. My wife with child and one on the way moved into a house in 1998 and it's almost paid for (get a 15 or 20 year mortgage if you can) and it's been an excellent adventure. But think it through. You've got some excellent advice on PMI and other stuff.

Isn't that a liger?

I don't post much, but I always enjoy visiting this thread at Friday's end, just to read about all the good. It's like backing into your parking space. It just makes me leap into the weekend positive. Anyway, I missed last Friday and seeing this post today just opens a flood of emotion for me. I have three kids and my oldest is heading to college next year and reading this post brought back all those "I'm gonna be a dad" emotions. I was out in Denver earlier this week and I got home late Wednesday and I looked at my kids sleeping faces when I got home and I was so happy to think about the great young adults they've become and how much fun we've had together. When you get sick of people saying "It goes by so quick", just play along. You won't get it until your kids are about to walk out the door. Anyway, Congratulations!

Most people are decent. That is clearly born out in this lengthy thread. The thing that makes this thread so powerful is it's not written from one point of view, but by many. I remember drinking (1979) with a group of my college buddies at a bar. This was in the days when the drinking age was 18. I met a girl who joined us and we were having a great time. I would even say there was flirting and more drinking. A few of her girl friends showed up and took her away to "protect" her. They were way more sober and I was totally offended at the insinuation that she was in a bad situation. I didn't see it that way at all. But they weren't going to leave her with a bunch of guys when she was drinking. She was clearly annoyed to be taken away. The next day I had a talk with one of her friends who gave me a version of what Josie wrote and it was an eye-opener. I'll never forget that.

She is only a bit into it. She lives a charmed life and probaly hasn't been around this kind of behavior Josie was talking about, but I have been around it. Humans can be cruel. It's best she knows that.

I'm more of a lurker. I come to Sabrespace everyday and really enjoy you kids. I don't feel the need to comment much. But I'll say this. I just had my college bound daughter read this entire thread. Thanks Josie.

I love this idea..... I'd key up this verse, Springsteen style, right in the middle of the verse. "One more trip and back we'll go Right back home to Buffalo Low bridge, everybody down Low bridge, we're comin' to a town You'll always know your neighbor And you'll always know your pal If ya ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

As soon as I heard Andre's dis of Johhny football, I thought of ZFG.

Matrix and Vibe have a chain. No timing belt. Belts are silly.

I am 52 years old, 6'0 and about 185. It's great to see all this activity. It was really frustrating when I hit about 35 and couldn't get any of my college buddies to get off the couch to do anything more than golf, and even then they'd ride a cart. Now I'm dealing with one after another with heart disease and they have diabetes and no energy. After an odd conversation I was thinking "hey, maybe if you could see your package you wouldn't need a pill", but what do I know. On my golf league last night most of the young people rode a cart to play 9 holes and then they ask how I stay so thin. I went to Darien lake Saturday because my kids were in a chorus competition, and it was so sad to see how obese this area has become. I work out 4-5 times a week and when I don't, I start feeling lethargic. That makes it easy to keep working out. Tis morning I ran 4 miles before my kids woke up and I feel great. I plan on getting 300,000+ miles out of this vehicle!

Like ROC_EMT (condolences, I'm not ashamed to say I miss mom everyday three years later), my mom is gone, but I will tell you guys that as I got older realized that the most valuable thing that we could give each other was time. We stopped buying each other gifts and for awhile I'd go over and work a few days in her garden. Eventually I started buying her a ticket to a Bills game every year. Just her and I. she was a huge sports fan, and I remember rolling into RW stadium and tailgating with her and getting teased by the folks around me about my hot date, but my mom would tell all her friends and truthfully she really enjoyed herself. The last game I took her to before her health failed was the Miami snow game. What I wouldn't give to do that again.

I'll say it. Since the big announcement I've been in a better mood. Strange how that works. Top the feeling of optimism with the Sabres with a game against Toronto to start off the weekend. Awesome!

TSN.Ca Power rankings.....dead last with this tidbit "The haul of draft picks has begun and it's going to be fascinating to see how this season turns out for the Sabres. Right now, it looks like they could be one of the worst teams in recent memory, only to get worse once they deal G Ryan Miller." The front office must be proud of how they spent our ticket money.

Just made me think of one of my all time favorite songs of optimism!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-H0uIH5HHQ

My great friend Jane, who passed away a few years ago and I miss dearly, once said to another colleague who was going through your situation, this rather harsh nugget....."Pick another girl off the girl tree". At the time I was in a difficult relationship myself and those words weighed on me until I took Jane's advice. 21 years later, with three kids and the best wife ever, I realize how right she was. It always hurts, but better days are coming.

Listening to this makes me want to float around my office with a lackluster effort for the rest of the day.

I just had my kids watch "Rudy" after PK referred to Rudy Rudeger (sp) in a recent postgame. Upon watching the movie with my kids (hadn't seen it in awhile), there is one scene where Rudy irritates a teammate for practicing too hard, and the coach demotes him to third string and wishes everyone had the heart Rudy has. My 13 year old son looked at me and said "that remeinds me of the Sabres". He kind of abandoned the team after they fell out of playoff contention, so I reminded him that its a team game and it only takes a few bad apples, but he must hear me complaining, because he said "like Drew Stafford"? I realized I need to stop thinking out loud! BTW.....I'm keeping my avatar, and dream of Schoney leaving the Rangers and coming to Buffalo in management, only to sing a duet with Gilbert.....those were the days my friends.

I threw a pillow at my TV during the Jersey game. My wife laughed at me. I remember leaving the Winter classic after Crosby punked us again....I was still fired up. But now? Despair is Jauron after three years.....the day they acquired cement footed Bledsoe.......even the "No-Goal" loss.....but those low sports moments were nothing were nothing compared to the despair I feel about Darcy. Letting him acquire draft picks for the failed players he picked before and leaving him to manage those picks while ownership watches this all go down? When did the dream turn into a nightmare? Would I boo in person? Probably not, but Ghost of Dwight Drane nailed it. Ott can be forgiven as he's too new. Terry P can't, and if I could figure out a way to boo management, well sign me up for that. When an expensive well supported product goes defective, it's your right to complain.