Jasper Jones

  Regular hockey season ends for all the NHL teams by the second week of April. Then, the best part of hockey starts - the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  The next week’s regular games will determine the final standings, which teams play against who.  The current standings are very tight, every game is a must win for the lower ranked teams, as a regular game loss could mean elimination from the playoffs or the pairing against a much tougher team. At the moment the top 2008 teams for each conference and division are:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

• Atlantic - New Jersey Devils (with the Penguins 1 point away)
• Northeast - Montreal Canadiens (with Ottawa right on their heels)
• Southeast - Carolina Hurricanes

WESTERN CONFERENCE

• Central - Detroit Red Wings
• Northwest - Minnesota Wild
• Pacific - San Jose Sharks

Some of the conferences are way too close to call.  Let’s see how this plays out over the next 2 weeks.

  This time of year the firemen throughout western and central Pennsylvania are hosting their mud sales to raise funds for the local fire departments.  The mud sales are a combination flea market, auction and sidewalk sale.  There can be some great bargains, they sell off all kinds of things, from antique tools found in an old barn to handmade quilts and homemade apple butter.  The Lancaster area has best hunting for homemade foods and handmade quilts. If you go further west you can find some really interesting antiques.  Pennsylvania is a great state with good roads and plenty to do and no sale tax on clothing. Lots of reasons to go for a long weekend and be a tourist for some adult fun.   If you have a favorite B & B in Lancaster, Harrisburg, or Gettysburg, leave me a comment with the name and reservations number so I can check it out next time.

   Man, I don’t have the money to go anywhere really cool for spring break and my parents won’t pay for it so I guess I’ll stick around here, maybe find a buddy that’s stuck here too and find something to do.  Living where we do, I’m sure something will come up.  I know, I bet James is stuck here too so we’ll just go out cruising for some girls that are stuck here too.  These darn gas prices are messing everything up.  Airline tickets have gone up too to pay for their fuel.  It really sucks!!!  I wish the oil company executives had this crap ’stuck where the sun don’t shine’ because I don’t believe for one minute gas has to be this high and keep going higher.  There’s some greedy Bas—ds in those companies.  You can fill in the blanks!!!!

   Today is Passover Sunday.  I am a spiritual person but don’t really attend church much at all and never have.  I hate to admit it but I’m not really sure what ‘Passover Sunday’ really is about.  I think it has to do with when Moses was trying to free the people in Egypt and there was a plague sent.  The only people that were safe were the ones that had the blood of a lamb on their doors.  If they did, then the plague would ‘pass over’ their houses and not harm them (or their children which was what the plague was sent to do).  On top of it being Passover, there’s a full moon.  Imagine that.

   Canada has always held an allure for me.  I’ve never had the chance to go across our northern border to visit, yet that is.  If there won’t be a business reason for me to travel that far north, I can think of several reasons to go on my own.  I would love to go to a hockey game in Canada to watch one of their good teams.  Perhaps Vancouver.  I would love to go to New Brunswick and take the ferry boat over to the island for the weekend, stay in a Bed & Breakfast, and talk to the locals. I know New Brunswick was the entry point for my relatives who came over to North America from England. Both side of the family had come to New Brunswick and work their way down the East Coast.  Most of all, I would love to go to the Calgary Stampede.  It is the biggest rodeo in Canada, held every July.  It is chock full of concerts, rides, competitions and something fun for everyone regardless of age.

   I just realized that yesterday was Thomas Jefferson’s birthday.  Funny how this country decides who is worthy of a celebration or paid day off for people from the past that made a difference.  Well if you ask me, Thomas Jefferson is one of those people.  Not only did he sign the The Declaration of Independence but he also helped write it.  Not to mention, did you know that he is the one that brought tomatoes to this country?  He traveled to Italy and discovered them, brought some seeds back and is the one responsible for us having tomatoes in this country.  Interesting little tid-bit wouldn’t you say?

   I’ve held off commenting on this story until I heard that Spitzer actually resigned.  He had to.  There was no way anyone would take him seriously anymore.  You can’t have the highest public office in the state held by a criminal and a morally corrupt guy. Not in today’s world, bubba.  I just wish his wife had left him to stand at that podium alone.  She should have had enough self respect to make him admit his dastardly deeds by himself.  But then again, she’s been married to this loser all those years, so we shouldn’t expect her to have any self respect left.  What a waste.

I see Consumer Reports has released their findings on the top vehicles for 2008.  They used strict criteria to sort through the 260 contenders, including:

• Road Tests
• Reliability
• Safety

And after careful consideration, these are the winners as announced today:

Green car:            Toyota Prius
Small sedan:        Hyundai Elantra SE
Family sedan:      Honda Accord
Upscale sedan:    Infiniti G35
Luxury sedan:     Lexus LS 460L
Fun to drive:       Mazda MX-5 Miata
Small SUV:          Toyota RAV4
Midsized SUV:    Hyundai Santa Fe
Minivan:             Toyota Sienna
Pickup truck:      Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab

  OK, I’m about to break my rule about not talking about work here, just this one time.  Peter has a blog that goes into great detail about cross-browser widgets.  Excellent post, dude.  That’s all I’m going to say here, if you want to know about work stuff, you’ll have to check out my other blog.  I’m just so enthralled with his method, I had to give him kudos. I can’t wait to get on it.

Heard this on the radio and couldn’t believe Michigan women’s basketball coach Kevin Borseth:

1. went off to the press like this knowing he was being recorded.

2. went off like this at all.  It was a GAME, dude.

Video

Maybe he didn’t hear my second point. It was a GAME, dude.