Sabre Dance

There are times when Kaleta tries to do too much and winds up delivering a borderline hit. Then, there are times when he doesn't do enough (like being challenged and not dropping them because he doesn't want to take a penalty for instigating). For an "emotion" guy, sometimes he thinks too much. For those who remember, the old Broad Street Bullies had a player much like Kaleta: Dave "The Hammer" Schultz. (Who actually wound up as a Sabre later in his career). His style of play was to hit anything that wore an opposing team sweater. The difference is that whenever Schultz was challenged to a fight, he never backed down even if it was a guy who had 4 inches and 25 pounds on him. Now, I know this was pre-instigator rule, but you knew that if you even looked at Schultz the wrong way, the gloves would come off and your face was going to hurt very soon. Kaleta needs to take fewer bad penalties (watch those hits from behind) and drop the gloves more often. He is a very good fighter, and I think if he dropped them even just a little more, other teams would give him a wider berth. He has the bonus of being a very good penalty killer. Schultz managed to score a goal here and there, but his real skill (and the reason he was on the team) was to be, well, the Hammer.

Jack Sparrow. (Sorry, yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Savvy?) Seriously, Otter. He's got the fire in the belly and I think the younger guys already look up to him.

There has been speculation that this is a preliminary step to eventual advertising logos at the bottom-rear of the jersey. Actually, I always it would be a good idea to make the players wear their jerseys outside the pants in the back to prevent the puck from dropping in there and causing a stoppage in play (yeah, like that happens so often....) Oh, well....

As much as the old Aud was loved, don't forget that after they "raised the roof" and added the balcony (i.e., orange seats), it hung down so low it blocked the view of the scoreboard from the upper blues. They had to install TV monitors so that fans could see how much time was left in the period. Every arena has its quirks. Although most of them don't cost $1,000,000,000.00 :blink:

I know I already complained earlier, but this is a beaut. My screwy next-door neighbor bought an electric guitar a while back. As far as I can tell, he doesn't (and hasn't) taken lessons because he doesn't really play it. He goes into his garage, plugs it into his stereo and.....tweedles. He aimlessly strums and plucks and, well, tweedles. Even with the windows in my house closed and the air conditioning on, I can still hear him. That's bad enough, but Tuesday night he "tweedled" non-stop for FOUR STRAIGHT HOURS!! Serenity now......

Perhaps the school would consider hiring an off-duty police officer to politely direct those scofflaws away. The other more expensive (in more ways than one) way is to install one of those one-way prevention grates in the surface of the lane. You know, the ones that will pop up when they detect a vehicle going the wrong way and shred the vehicle's tires? Yeah, I know...too expensive and too extreme. But it's nice to dream. My complaint today is that I am constantly caught in the middle between parties that need to communicate directly with one another but use me as a middle-man even when I've put the two parties in touch with one another. I can image how a UN translator must feel...

At the risk of being too obtuse, a certain NHL player who hails from a certain part of the City of Buffalo is reportedly bringing a certain championship trophy to the area soon, as in VERY soon. My request to the Sabres front office: I'm sure that with your connections you can figure out where and when the Stan...er, this certain trophy will be. Please, go take a look at the number of people that will be surrounding it hoping to get a glimpse. Observe their enthusiasm and passion just to SEE the darned thing. Then imagine what those fans would be like if the Sabres actually won the...trophy. Finally, go take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, "Am I doing everything I can to bring a Stanley Cup championship to Buffalo?" If you even have to think about your answer for a moment, then you aren't. Then ask, "Why not?". Oh, and yes, science DOES rule. Glowing plasma in a glass tube - it even LOOKS cool. Nicely done! And although it's been since college that I tried gowing bugs in media, it's darned frustrating when they just won't grow. Awesome. On top of all that, the weather for the weekend looks freakin' fantastic! :clapping:

When I moved to Arizona, I went to register my vehicle there and get AZ plates. I knew they based the plate fee on the value of the car (not weight, like in NY) but when they told me my plates would cost nearly $300, I nearly fainted. And that was per year....back in 1993. NYDMV doesn't look so bad now....

Welcome to aging, my friends. Your body doesn't "let go" all at once; you notice little things here and there and one day you wonder why you're so out of breath climbing the same number of stairs you used to take two at a time. My advice to you is A) Slow down - your body will thank you. B) Get lots of rest - more important as the years pile up and C) Don't sweat the small stuff. (I was worried about a training class at work and the "exam" at the end. Then I found out my best friend's first cousin was just diagnosed with stage 4 brain tumors. Yes, tumors, plural. He has a wife, several kids and a great job. Median survival for this kind of cancer is 15 months. Suddenly, that exam wasn't so important. God bless this fellow and I hope he beats the odds...)

One of the comments posted on the Flyers board: As a longtime golfer, I have NEVER seen a club "shatter" in someone's hand. However, what I HAVE seen is a club break in two when a pi$$ed off golfer shanked his drive and slammed his club against a tree. Hmmmm....I wonder....

I took some Vicks Sinex on and off. I also loaded up on the Vitamin C (the jury is still out on whether that actually helps, but it sure seems to) and used Vapo-Rub at night. A lot. (Twice, I resorted to putting a heating pad on my forehead. It looked ridiculous but felt great. It did seem to loosen things up.) The ultra hot, humid weather last week (combined with an air-conditioned office) I'm sure made the situation worse. But today, I am (knock on wood) feeling pretty much back to normal. If that carries into tomorrow, I'll have something to post to the "awesome" thread....

Sinus issues. I've had a problem with my sinuses for years, but this summer I've been miserable. I probably had an infection, but every time I thought I should call the doctor I felt just good enough to hold off doing so. I've been bothered by this now for about four weeks straight. It has occasionally affected my balance, which means driving is a real wild experience and riding the motorcycle is out of the question. I think it is finally just about over with (of course, since I have my regular checkup scheduled on the 12th). What fun!

Expansion teams? Great, let's dilute the talent pool a little more. It's bad enough that the KHL (and the occasional other European elite league) has been siphoning off decent NHLers for the last few years. Teams currently have few enough stars on them; this will certainly reduce that number. Maybe one superstar per team is enough....

The Internet. Yeah, we tend to take it for granted, but it sure can be a boon when you really need to find something and don't feel like running around town searching. Last night, I did a stupid thing - after checking the rinse agent level in my dishwasher, I replaced the cap...but didn't twist it to lock it. Sure enough, when the dishwasher hit the "dry" cycle, the smell of melting plastic alerted me to the fact that the cap had fallen to the bottom of the machine, right onto the heating coil. It is half-melted (and actually a bit charred). Obviously, it no longer seals. A quick web search this morning allowed me to find the part and it has already been ordered. Yeah, it's going to cost almost $20 (including shipping), but it will come right to my mailbox. Imagine running around from appliance store to appliance store asking if they had the part, if they could get the part, etc. etc. (In fact, even if you wanted to do that, where would you find a list of appliance stores outside of the old-fashioned Yellow Pages? Yep, Internet.) On the down side, I went to a "big box electronics retailer" last Friday in hopes of checking out a new camcorder. Apparently, this store no longer displays any cameras or camcorders in the store. Oh, you can still get one at the store IF you order it online and specify 'store pickup'. But, the items are all in their "warehouse" area. Unless you buy first, you don't see 'em anymore in the store. Apparently, this is designed to cut down on "showrooming". I guess if I really needed the device immediately, I would go this route but in fact I can get the item online at a smaller price AND with free shipping. So, this "big box" store just maneuvered themselves out of a sale. Oh well, modern business.....

I highly recommend that this fellow switch to decaf....immediately.

I would not be at all adverse to just demolishing the darn thing. I always hated the way it straddled Main Street and acted as sort of a barrier between the harbor area and the rest of downtown. Plus, it would open up views of the harbor to buildings up further on Main. Then we just have to do something with the 190....

Most of our office staff is at a business meeting in San Antonio (I am one of the few left behind). We all laughed at the thought of them sweating their a$$e$ of in Texas in July, but a quick check of the weather shows that it will be warmer and more humid here in Buffalo today than down there. Yay.

Think about this for a minute and then compare it to the Sabres' front office "style" of doing business. Suffering indeed.

Yes, I've wondered this very thing. I often drive on McKinley Parkway in South Buffalo which has a bike lane. Joggers often run right on the white line demarking the edge of the bike lane. Cars are whizzing by 18 inches away from them and they too ignore the nice, safe sidewalk just a few yards away. Worse yet, I've seen joggers pushing their baby in one of those three-wheeled jog-strollers right at the edge of the bike lane as well. How anyone would purposely endanger their child by doing this is beyond my comprehension. BTW, all of the sidewalks in this area have "wheelchair ramps" at each cross street so the jogging parent wouldn't have to keep lugging the stroller up and down curbs. Oh, and today an eighteen-wheeler pulled out of a parking lot in front of me, the driver chatting happily away on his cell phone. Nicely done, sport.

So, we've already written off the 2013-2014 season and have gone straight to next years draft. Sounds about right. (Less suffering that way...) :lol:

Sure! Ovechkin will be here with the Caps when they play the Sabres at the FNC. Otherwise, no. You beat me to the punch... :)

Only if one of his priorities is an espresso machine in the players' lounge... :lol:

You mean there is pro hockey outside of North America? Does the NHL know about this? :lol:

That's because it is.... :P

The Sabres are "constructed"? They look more "disheveled" to me... :rolleyes: