Ryan Miller: Blingee'd

by Anne

For the amusement of Alix, who is drunk on the joy* of Luongo's massive 12 year contract signing, I have blingee'd our very own netminder.

Ryan Miller: He's so hot right now

*Actually, Alix appears to be drunk on her newly created beverage "Roberto" which is described as follows in a recent Tweet: Apple rum, lime cordial, soda water, gin, and a tiny bit of vanilla syrup. Sounds like the beverage of champions.

Buffalove

by Anne

On Sunday I went to the Allentown Art Festival with Jimmy. My entire purpose for going was to buy this shirt:

It really does.
Especially down by the Arena when they're putting sugar on the cereal
Mmmmm

I don't think its much of a secret that I'm a huge fan of the City of Buffalo and Western New York in general. Therefore, I had no problem trucking down to Allentown and then weaving my way through the throngs of people to track down this tiny stand way off the beaten path.

Support your local businesses!

BorninBuffalo.net

They, of course, have at least one hockey t-shirt on there, because, let's face it, Buffalo is a hockey town. Maybe one day it'll be a football town again.

We ate the largest order of curly fries I've ever seen, drank some tasty lemonade and tried to go to the Wilcox Mansion/Teddy Roosevelt Historical Site but the house is closed until next week. Boo. They have a nice exhibit about the Pan-Am exposition and for our $2 we got a coupon for $2 off admission to the mansion itself when it opens back up next week. I went there a few times when I was a kid and I think its pretty neat to show the youth of WNY that our city and region have some historical significance, as sad as a Presidential assassination is.

107 days til the season starts.

I just discovered they have it in yellow for toddlers:

Love it.
Love my city.

How Ryan Miller Is Filling His Time

by Anne

It would appear Ryan Miller is turning into a Stormtrooper from the left ankle up:

On the right: snappy Converse All-Stars
On the left: the footwear of the personal army of Emperor Palpatine*



How long until we have this in net?:

Go ahead.
Shoot the puck.

* I realized when starting this post I knew absolutely nothing about Stormtroopers past the basic knowledge of their existence, now I know two things. oh. snap.

Guest Blogging

by Anne

James O'Brien who's started a new blog, Cycle like the Sedins, asked us a few weeks ago to write a post in a series he's doing called "Hockey Orphan". Basically the premise is: if you knew nothing about any of the 30 NHL teams and you had to pick one to cheer for, why would you tell people to cheer for your team?

So after an email glitch where my pictures ate the majority of my post, it's all been straightened out and posted over on his site.

Link!

Check it out. I'd post it here, but while you're over on his site you can check out his other stuff. He's doing a series of posts about creating an All-Decade All-Star team. Its interesting to think about the players that aren't just good this season, but have been good for the last 10 years or more. So, check it out!

A Year in Review

by Anne
Seeing as how today is the 1 year anniversary of Sabretooth's House, we decided to take a look back on the last year in highs and lows of site traffic, etc.

Number of posts: 557

Day with the most hits: December 18, 2008, 478 hits. That was the day of this post which I assume is what drew you all to this little blog. Did you all just sit there continuously hitting "refresh"?

First runner up was October 9 with 369, which was a day that featured links to this blog from other sources. Thanks peeps!

Post with the most hits: "Don't Shoot the Hockey Player" 1,054
This was my "OMG people, stop freaking out on Craig Rivet for not immediately loving on Buffalo" post from July. The post was linked to by Puck Daddy, and is where most of those hits (622) came from. I have to say, when I wrote that post, I hoped lots of people would read it because I think it was important stuff to say, but I didn't think over 1,000 people would read it.

Label most often perused: "Paul Gaustad"

I don't feel as though we really say that much about the Goose other than he's wicked sweet at this thing called life, he makes us feel like the world is a little better because he walks amongst us and we're glad he's a Sabre.

Website that sent us the most traffic: My Safety is Harvard.

Anything that brings us closer to M.J. has got to be GOLDEN.

Most popular search term that has nothing to do with Buffalo or the Sabres: "Jordan Staal middle name"

Ok.

Now THAT'S Commitment Award: Someone searched for "Ryan Miller, Sabres" and then stayed on this blog long enough to read what one can only assume is every single post tagged "ryan miller" and were on this blog for over 38 minutes. This was followed closely by "Paul Gaustad's girlfriend" with just over 37 minutes of perusal time on only 5 pages.

Top 5 most frequently used labels by we who are posting:
1. Jason Pominville
T2. Ryan Miller and Winning (COINCIDENCE?!)
4. Drew Stafford
5. Anne is Crazy

Its been a fun year. I really never thought this blog would last very long or that anyone would read it. However, like your Uncle Dennis who just won't leave after dinner is long over, we've hung around, blathering away to whomever chooses to click on a link.

Over the last year we've had many missteps, more typos than I'd care to think about, copied many people's ideas or phrases (most of the time unintentionally and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that jazz). Remember when I was going to change the name or shut down the blog like 2 months ago? That wasn't fun, and I'm glad I didn't buckle under pressure from jerks.

Now, a selection of some of our favorite pictures posted over the last year:

Thanks for reading and commenting and being sweet and maybe we'll be around for another year?

Mmmmmmm

by Anne

After my one and only class today, I decided to take up some pie baking. I didn't take pictures during the process because 1. my hands were covered in pie making ingredients and 2. I was teaching a 10 year old and an 11 year old how to bake.

Anyway, my Aunt recently moved to Florida to live in some wacky all-inclusive they drive around golf carts kind of retirement community and ALAS she will not be bringing her pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving. Me being the domestic diva that I am, offered to make it. Some how, some way Mom allowed me to make my own pie crust. Like, from scratch. I'd say if my Mom has made 100 pies in my life, 97 of them have been completely from scratch. That's how we do it in this house. Anyway, I decided I didn't feel like doing it myself, so I kidnapped my other aunt's kids and made them help.

One made the pumpkin pie filling (we conceded defeat and bought canned pumpkin, but mixed the spices in ourselves) and one rolled out the crust, then they switched. Our pie crust recipe makes enough for either 1 pie with a top crust or 2 bottom crust only pies. Therefore, we made 2 pies. Pumpkin (personally, my least favorite) and pecan (my absolute favorite).

Oscar decided to jump up and investigate.

Mmmmmmmmm. On Thursday we make the fresh whipped cream.
MARTHA STEWART, EAT YOUR HEART OUT.

Anyway, Big Bear has sustained a bruised shoulder and also a bruised toe. :( He's day to day, but probably won't be out for too long. Provided the injury isn't more serious and they just don't realize it yet, I bet he's back for the game against the Blue Jackets or the next one against the Red Wings.

Sigh, ok so after watching video of his injury, its kind of not totally Brett Lebda's fault that Stevie Bear was hurt. He hit the net and started to fall as he was coming in to check Lebda. Ok, so its technically not Brett Lebda's fault that Big Bear is hurt, but morally, I still blame him.

Back to this blog's name sake team:

I just feel like something's got to give on the Sabres' roster. If Mancari can keep playing the way the played this weekend on at least a semi-regular basis, on what grounds can we justify keeping him out of the line-up and Max and Staffy in? He does their job only Marky Mark does it BETTER. The only nod to Staffy is, of course, experience. He's got ten times the games Mark does, BUT, at the moment only 1 more goal this season.

Big Bear needs some TLC

; )

On a Sunday

by Anne

Last night after the "game" S(h)ara and I (plus some other friends as well) went to Fat Bob's for some delicious tasty food and darts and it was wwwaayyy more fun than that "sporting event".

I can take away 2 positives from last night:

1. Mark Mancari scored his first NHL goal!! Yay!!

2. I did really well in sales

3. ............ if we had been so inclined we could have gone to Level and booed Derek Roy in his face. Even though he scored a goal, it would've been symbolic.

Speaking of symbolic, apparently changing the name of this blog had no effect so I decided to resort to other tactics around the house to express my displeasure.

I have a standings tracker. It hangs over my bed.


I keep track of the divisional standings.
But where is the slug?


He's in the corner, thinking about what he's done.

But my symbolic rage wasn't finished there.

The other day, my Mom went on a field trip with the folks at the workshop for developmentally disabled adults where she works. They went here:


Delish.

They have many fun shaped cookies, including several Sabres' jersey cookies. The choices were Miller, Rivet, Paille, Pominville and:

She opted for Vanek because he's leading the NHL and the one I hate the least at the moment because of that very reason.

However, in spite of the fact that he hasn't done anything to personally offend me recently I was forced to sacrifice him in hopes of catharsis:



I didn't feel that was quite enough...

... so I ate his arm.

I feel a little better.

This 30-17 Bills score at the half is also helping my mood immensely. Trent is looking pretty DARN swaggery, whoever just said that on 97 rock, I wasn't paying attention to who it was.

Aaaaaand as I was uploading photos the 2nd half started and Trent ran in for his 2nd TD of the game. OWWWWWW!!!! That's a 20 point lead, baby!

I'll either write later declaring my immediate plans to move to Chicago or about how much I love Buffalo and my strong desire to make babies with Trent Edwards. WOOO!!!

I Was All Set To Leave Until I Realized the Game is at 7:30, Not 7:00

by Anne

2/3 of the band is back together!
Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I went there

I love this ad from a random website I was just cruising:

You can lose 12 pounds and dramatically change your skin color!

I'm killing time because I'm all ready to leave at 5:00 to be there at 5:30. However, the game is at 7:30 which means I don't have to be there until 6:00. SWEEEEEET.

So I know there are a few of you that will be in the Arena tonight, I'm assuming most likely in the 300s unless you are wealthy... and if that is the case... why are we not better friends?

I work in sections 311ish- 322ish, aisles 14-23. HOWEVER. Before the game I wander aimlessly around the upper level and mostly talk to the ushers. I pay no attention to the people around me unless they flail frantically because they want popcorn and considering that happens.... once every 3 games, I basically zone out. Please don't think I'm ignoring you if you're there before the game and I'm wandering but don't say anything. If I make no wave or smile or say "hi" chances are I did not see you. I'm REALLY good at zoning out and still looking attentive. I'm a stage manager and college student, two trades where you can truly hone those skills.

Another note, please do not feel obligated to buy anything from me. $3.50 is totally ridiculous for a bottle of Coke, even if you DO get to keep the cap this season. I don't want people to avoid me because they don't want to buy anything, hahaha. BUT, if you do buy food, keep in mind that vendors work on commission and concessions people do not. That goes for beer and packaged food. WOO! Vendors wear black and white refs shirts, concessions people wear red shirts and there are LOTS more concessions people. Oh and there's like this great rivalry apparently between vending and concessions? I don't get it, but apparently it exists.

There's nothing more annoying than showering and doing your hair only to have to put on unflattering clothes and a baseball cap. Gross.

New Format

by Anne

So I changed to a 3 column format to give it a try. I think I like it, but it doesn't matter to me really, it matters to me more what you guys think of it.

The motivation for the reformat is that the left column was getting too long and there were lots of things that were getting lost at the bottom of the page.

I'm posting a poll in case you feel bad telling me that the new format is gross in comment form, hahaha.

Let me know. I can just as easily switch right back to the old format, homeslices.

Hey There, Peeps

by Anne

This blog was linked to on Sabres Edge which BTW made me smile this afternoon.

Anyway, on the off chance any of y'all happen to be here because of that, let me tell you a little bit about the place.

We have nothing to do with the actual Sabretooth's House in the Arena. I cannot get Sabretooth to come to your child's party or one of those awesome foam sabres they sell (but those are pretty righteous, and IF YOU WANT TO SEND ME ONE I WOULD TOTALLY ACCEPT IT.).

Most of the blog posts come out of my (Anne's) brain but S(h)ara kicks in when she's driven to the brink of insanity (good and bad) by our boys in blue and gold.

Let me just start out by saying that, believe me, I know my hockey. Stats, analysis, rules, etc. I have a great memory so I can basically tell you any players stats from the last couple of years because they just stick in my brain like that. However, I don't find it interesting to read the facts and figures regurgitated over and over again. Other bloggers do it better, so I tend to write about how in love with Buffalo and the Buffalo Sabres I am. And I mean the Sabres as a whole, I'm not "crushin'" on any of them. I think they're perfectly nice boys who bring a lot to our community and that's that. The current love of my life is a guy in one of my classes. MORE DETAILS TO COME, REGULARS!!!!

I'm an English teacher to be and I make typos and spell words wrong, but its a blog, it ain't perfection. I highly HIGHLY recommend you check out the blogroll on the left for some of the blogs that might not have been mentioned in Sabres Edge, and to check out blogs from writers from other teams.

If you're here as per usual, my next series of posts will be about choosing players to worship and adore to help me become more emotionally invested in the Western Conference. Any suggestions?!?!!!

Oh and a nickname key:

Sissy= Jaroslav Spacek
Rosie= Craig Rivet
Soviet= Max Afinogenov
Britney= Thomas Vanek
Doof= Mike Weber

The rest of the nicknames are pretty self-explanatory and used by everyone (Millsy, Royzie, Goose, Pommer, Betty Boop). Oscar is my cat an our fearless mascot. S(h)ara's name is actually spelled Sara but pronounced Shara (its Hungarian) so that's why we write it S(h)ara.

Welcome aboard, and feel free to blogroll us and come on back!!!

Reading For Hours Makes My Head Mushy

by Anne

The new version of Firefox and I are in a fight because whenever I have more than 2 tabs open and try to play a video from Sabres.com, Firefox crashes. So I'm back together with my old browser boyfriend, Safari, he isn't as flashy and some websites don't support him, but he gives me the space I need. There's "Private Browsing" which is basically so you can look at porn and no one will know. COME ON, YOU KNOW THAT'S WHAT ITS FOR!!! Also, Firefox had a tendency to make websites I log into all the time forget my password. It's been suuuuper annoying, so until they come out with Firefox 4.0 or whatever is next, I'm going to stick with Safari.

In actual seriousness though, peeps:

I'm seriously thinking about changing the name of the blog. Honestly, the name was probably a bad idea in the first place considering there's a store *IN* HSBC Arena with the same name and people might think this is somehow associated with it. I've never been 100% thrilled with the name choice, but I've stuck with it for like 10 months-ish.

Would you still read this blog if it had a different name, and you had to go through the hassle of changing your blog rolls? It'd be same blog, just with a different name? 

Srsly let me know peeps. Comment away!!!

DRASTIC CHANGES AHEAD...

by Anne

I have made a LIFE-ALTERING decision. LIFE. ALTERING.

I am completely abandoning my previous top 5 list and I am STARTING FRESH for the 2008-2009 season. I'm sure the list will look startlingly similar, but I don't want to be so TIED DOWN to Jason Pominville WHOM I LOVE MORE THAN MOST PEOPLE I HAVE ACTUALLY MET IN PERSON. I'm also not committing to a 5 player format. It might be 3 it might be 6. Why does it matter how many and in what order? This way, when you all are presented with the opportunity to present me with a Buffalo Sabre of my very own to love and cherish, you will be able to determine which one to bring home to me first. However, if your only options are Connolly, Afinogenov and Kotalik, I'll just pass. Really, its fine. No, really ITS FINE. I'LL PASS.

STARTING ANEW ON FRIDAY!!!

No! Pie! Wait! Don't worry! Don't look at me that way!
(between you me and the blogosphere, you're on my very shortlist for a new #1)



Lookit that floppy hair! How cute!



Lookit that goal celebration with Sissy!
(Sissy, I'm not as confident about you being on the top anymore, you're going to have to REALLY up your goofy quasi-English language interviews this season to hang on, I can also be bribed with coffee and offers to do my laundry and clip my cats claws which I have to do today and I REALLY don't want to because he hates it, ugh, but I digress...)

It doesn't look promising for you, Tyler Bouck

I Only Got 4 Minutes to... Update This Blog

by Anne

I've been so FREAKIN busy this week. I barely have enough time to cheer on my OBF in the All-Around! What a terrible fate.

I'm still teaching and the show is on Friday so things are that much more ramped up, and THEN on top of that, I'm working at the shows at night at the membership table, so its a long day, from like 1:30-10:45.

That leaves precious little time for the IMPORTANT things in life, such as trying to get myself to hold off on panicking about my #1 man's contract, Mats and Joe (they should think about a buddy cop movie), Michael Phelps, men's gymnastics and how much I love almond M&Ms.

However, yesterday Jimmy, my now ELEVEN YEAR OLD (OMG WHEN DID HE GET SO OLD??!) cousin came over. Jimmy is the cousin who accompanied me to the Richard Zednick game. GREAT. He loves Ryan Miller and is convinced that Ovechkin plays for the Sabres. I never claimed he was "with it".

Anyway, I have my NHL standings tracker hanging up in my room, and Jimmy and I were reviewing NHL logos and team stars. He thought it was hysterical to constantly answer with "Pominville" or "Ovechkin" if he didn't know a players name. He also considered it hysterical to refuse to refer to Nicklas Lidstrom as anything other than Nicklas Flamel. Most importantly was the moment he couldn't remember the Vancouver "Canucks" so the word he pulled out of his 11 year old brain was the Vancouver "Cankles". In case you're wondering, I don't think Jimmy knows what "cankles" are, but I nearly wet myself laughing about a bunch of really self conscious men taking up hockey because the skates would mask their chunky ankles.

I DID purchase the Jonas Brothers album, which I'm sure you were ALL wondering about. Its pretty fun and rather enjoyable, and, yes I do occasionally feel like a creeper while listening to it. The only comfort I take is that two of them are at least 18 and the oldest one is only like 2 years younger than I am, and I don't feel quite as creeped out any more. FORTUNATELY they're all about being sexually pure or something like that until they're married so there's no risk of stumbling upon any kind of freaky sexually suggestive song being sung by a 16 year old boy who has curls that most of his female fans would kill for.

When did this become a Jonas Brothers blog? Does such a thing exist? I'm sure it does, why do I doubt that for a second? I have absolutely no interest in looking for them. I think they're going to be in Buffalo on Friday. I have to work, but I wouldn't go even if I didn't have to. I'm sure that all you hear through 90% of the concert is 14 year old girls screaming and carrying on like if they scream loud enough Nick (the 16 year old with the curls of a deity) will leap out of the audience and marry them on the spot. I can see the joint bank accounts now.

HOCKEY. WOOOOO!!!

Bryan McCabe's future is up in the air. WOW. WHAT A SHOCK, ANOTHER PLAYER WHO MAY OR MAY NOT MAKE A DECISION THAT WILL AFFECT WHERE HE'LL BE PLAYING NEXT SEASON. He Mats and Joe should just form their own band called the Indecisives and tour the world. They can visit Jagsie in Russia.

Yes Bryan, you can play the tambourine

Someone broke into Beth's (the head teacher of my classes) car last night and stole half of our costumes and stuff for our show so now I have to go find towels and bedsheets to act as weapons (yes, weapons) for our battle and some other stuff because we now are down 5 of our 10. Awesome.

Check ya later.

Our 2nd Round Draft Pick is better than YOUR 2nd Round Draft Pick

by Anne

For loving Mr. Popper's Penguins, for wanting to be a fan favorite and agreeing to be interviewed by the boys at The Goose's Roost and for being compared possibly the most ADORABLE hockey player of all time in his draft ranking on TSN (why in GOD'S name was I looking at draft rankings yesterday... I just don't remember, especially because the draft was almost 2 months ago...) CHECK IT OUT. He's #34 under Tyler Ennis, actually. Look for the comparison under his picture.... I'll wait.....

dooot doooot doo, I'll look at this picture of him I found on Facebook while specifically looking for a funny picture of him for just this purpose until you get back from reading the draft analysis:

Ha. Nice hair.

Oh, back already? So you saw that they compared him to BIG BEAR!?!!!!!! I ALREADY HAD HIM IN A NECK AND NECK TIE WITH TYLER MYERS FOR FAVORITE 2008 DRAFT CLASS PROSPECT BUT NOW HE HAS BECOME THE CLEAR WINNER!

Oh yeah and he's awesome because we're Facebook friends which means we're like BFFL at least, right? Right. Although Tyler Myers and I are Facebook friends tooo. WHATEV. LUKE ADAM RAWKS.

Here's the next 25:

50. I hate being outside when its raining. These people who like taking walks in the rain must be freaks and wackos because I absolutely hate being outside and getting cold and wet and sloshing around through puddles

49. When I was younger (like high school) I thought people who loved sushi were just doing it because it was trendy. I didn't try sushi until I was in college and now California rolls and Crunchy Shrimp rolls are in my top all-time favorite foods

48. My Grandma really was the best cook ever. I know most people think their Grandma was the best but you never had dinner at Dea's house with the fresh garden peas from the family farm in Georgia and her chocolate chip cookies and all that deliciousness

47. I love to cook and I like to cook for others, basically so they'll eat it and it won't go to waste. WHO WANTS TO COME OVER FOR DINNER?!

46. Even though I'll basically have 2 bachelor's degrees and a masters degree by the time all is said and done, in my perfect world I'd be a stay at home wife and mommy venturing out to direct plays for high school students and such. What a great life that would be

45. Whenever someone pulls out the "Would you rather be blind or deaf" card I pick deaf every time. The thought of going blind freaks me out to no end

44. I hate canned chocolate frosting. It's completely disgusting to me. I like homemade chocolate frosting (especially when my friend Jenn makes it) and chocolate cake and chocolate in basically all other forms, but a can of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting makes me gag

43. At this point I have so many girlfriends to put in a hypothetical wedding party that I might just say "forget it all", slap a maid of honor dress on my sister and call it a day. Also, no one can complain about their dress either... well, she can, but that's because I'm finding the ugliest dress in creation to put on her

42. I almost moved to Detroit for grad school like a year ago. There's a bullet I'm glad I dodged

41. I spent most of my college career being the therapist for my department, so now when friends try to reveal their most personal thoughts and fears when they have not been solicited by me or are not necessary to the conversation, it makes me incredibly uncomfortable

40. My parents instilled in me a little too well not to answer the door when they weren't home. To this day, when I'm home alone during the day, I tend to hide in my room if someone comes to the door and I'm not expecting anyone

39.When I'm riding the bus and a young guy gives up his seat for a person who needs it more without being asked, or offers a seat to a lady or any able bodied person before sitting down himself, it makes me smile a lot because there are still considerate people in this world

38. I absolutely HATE when I'm out at a restaurant with someone and the service is slow or the waiter is rude and they allow it to affect our conversation and drag down the mood

37. I also hate people who don't tip well

36. I have never been a waitress

35. I hate faxing letters. Every time my old boss asked me to fax something for him my blood pressure started to creep up, especially if it was a new fax number. It never works. Unless its a major corporation, I'm convinced its not going to work the first time

34. Both my parents are on Facebook and its AWESOME. JIM JUST WROTE ON MY WALL

33. I used to have a myspace, but one time I clicked on the profile of someone who wanted to be my friend and my PC shut down. It might've been a freaky coincidence, but I deleted my account anyway. I re-joined a few months ago but never look at it

32. I had a LiveJournal that I wrote in EVERYDAY when I was a freshman in college and it was totally dramatic and I was miserable about my life. Now I ramble about hockey and tomfoolery in here

31. I love playing boardgames. LOVE. THEM. Always will say yes to playing them. Especially Catch Phrase and any games involving words

30. Last night I had dinner with some college friends and we exchanged bad date stories. It makes me want to go on CraigsList and find a wacko to go on a date with just for the story it would provide me. S(h)ara has a great first date story that isn't appropriate for retelling on here, but just know that it involves an abandoned Wegman's parking lot

29. I hope to meet Jason Pominville one day so then I can meet a straight man named Jason who isn't a douche or a weirdo

28. I have a freakish ability to make any child fall asleep while I'm holding them

27. I took Spanish for 8 years and still cannot speak it fluently. This frustrates me greatly

26. My dad wanted to go into acting but his parents said NO so he became a lawyer (and recently started acting again) My mom wanted to major in vocal music in college but her parents said NO (and still sings with choirs and some gigs around town). Interestingly enough, my sister has a degree in music education and her instrument is voice and I have a degree in theatre. I'm sure my sister and I will breed nothing but lawyers and speech pathologists, and thus the cycle shall continue

Wow. I have to think of 25 MORE? This will never end. But at the same time its kind of fun. To recap the things not touched upon:

1. Still no Pommer
2. Bucky Gleason hates Teppo and is therefore my sworn enemy
3. Mats had better make a decision before training camps start in like a month
4. I hope y'all enjoy whatever Olympic sport you choose to watch and become emotionally invested in
5. DREW STAFFORD IS TRYING REALLY REALLY HARD TO WIN BACK MY LOVE BY DOING CUTE NON-HOCKEY THINGS TO GET HIMSELF ONTO THE TOP STORIES ON SABRES.COM. Duly noted, Drew. This will go towards your ranking in my selection process for most adored Sabre #5. Your efforts are to be commended. I know it was a stinging blow to be so unceremoniously YANKED from your top seed in my heart, but I can see that you're intent on rebuilding our fractured relationship. Well done Staffers, well done.
6. Bye Mike Ryan! Have fun in Minsk and play well!

Brett's a Jet

by Anne

I'm sure I am not the first or the last person to come up with a WITTY title like that one, but its true.

So Mr. Favre is now a New York Jet. Great, in our division. AWESOME. WE HAVE ENOUGH TROUBLE WITH THE PATRIOTS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I can't handle how weird this makes me feel. I love Brett Favre, and I like the Green Bay Packers because of him. I'm not going to act like I followed the Packers extensively because that's just not true but they're always my NFC playoff team. If its going to be weird for ME to see Brett in a Jets uniform, I can't IMAGINE how weird and upsetting it'll be for Packers fans.

Stay strong Green Bay! It'll all be A-OK in the end! I bet Aaron Rodgers is even BETTER than Brett Favre! (maybe if we keep saying that we'll believe it)

Every news outlet was saying the following:

"Brett Favre will DEFINITELY going to Tampa Bay. It is all but GUARANTEED that Brett Favre will be the Bucs starting quarterback this season. WHEN WILL BRETT FAVRE GO TO TAMPA BAY?!?! Oh, but the Jets are interested too."

So I was like "Ha, I bet he goes to the Jets" because they were always an afterthought and HA he did.

Oh Brett, you kind of make me sad, but here's hoping this all turns out for the best in the end. (fingers crossed)

No hockey for today, there's nothing new to say about anything that I care about. Ryan Clowe signed an extension with San Jose, is this a good thing? Do people care? I'm so out of the loop now that the season is over that I don't know. Although this season I became much more familiar with the Western Conference, before this season I couldn't have named more than like 2 players on any Western Conference team. I'm doing a little better now. Not GREAT but I know a little bit more about the left coast.

Here's some more stuff about me, BRACE YOURSELVES FOR A WILD RIDE:

74. I have really sensitive skin I get razor burn if I think about shaving my legs too much. Schick Intuition: BEST RAZOR EVER. Good thing I'm not a boy, I'd have perma-5 o'clock shadow probably

73. It drives me insane when a song or artist isn't capitalized properly on my iTunes and I take extra care to go through every single song so it looks right... yet my room is a pigsty

72. I own about 3 articles of clothing with a print, I wear solid colors about 95% of the time

71. I have 2 Sabres phone numbers. One I got from work and one I literally accidentally found online. Once in a bar (I think I talked about this when it happened) a guy offered me Paul Gaustad's phone number, I declined, that's weird even for me

70. I don't care how perfect a man he is, if he's a lawyer, I won't go out with him

69. When I was about 12, my laundry room door broke, locking me in there for like 45 minutes until my dad could get the door off the hinges. My mom thought I was kidding around. When I initially turned the knob and the door wouldn't move, I thought my sister was leaning on it to keep me in there

68. Three days in a row this week I've tried to see Wall-e and all three times the plans fell through. First my sister decided she didn't feel like going, the next night her rehearsal dragged on and then my BFF broke up with his boyfriend, so I've decided there are cosmic forces keeping me from seeing Wall-e and I shouldn't interfere

67. In eighth grade I won the school spelling bee. My winning word was "ludicrous"

66. Currently my favorite song is "Monkey Man" by Amy Winehouse

65. My upper arms are incredibly sensitive, like pushing on them as hard as you would to dial a phone hurts a lot and they bruise incredibly easily

64. I have nothing but high hopes for Britney Spears

63. I get really really disturbed and upset by gory or violent movies. I can't stand watching someone be killed or tortured on film. I can disassociate myself from a movie if the acting is terrible, but special effects are so realistic these days that I even if I don't believe anything about a movie, I get as grossed out by blood and guts as if it were real. Yet I enjoy watching Adam Mair beat someone's face in

62. My least favorite word is "creamy" especially when spoken by someone who chooses to make their hard "c" sounds in the back of their throat and its all phlegmy and wet sounding. YUCK

61. I just splurged and ate like 5 brownies and now I feel kind of sick

60. My favorite Disney movie of all time is the Sword in the Stone

59. I've read at least 4 books about Queen Elizabeth I. She fascinates me. I got a little emotional when I visited her grave site when I was 15, yes I am a huge loser

58. Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire is like the sexiest thing I've ever seen on film. I don't enjoy violent abusive men, but he's completely sexy in that movie

57. When I was a teenager I couldn't understand why women appreciated a nice behind on a guy. Then in college I started to hang around extremely straight men who danced and wore very tight dance pants and I saw the light. Pictures like this that I stole from Katie completely distract me:

One of Poz's many good sides

56. .........Wait, what were we talking about? Oh right, things about yours truly. Whenever I go out, its extremely likely that if a man is going to hit on me, he's probably going to be black or latino, its the booty

55. Speaking of which, on Cinco de Mayo, a latino soldier named Anthony offered to fly me to Staten Island to "visit" him. He described a few things we'd do on this "visit" in great detail. I took his number but deleted it the next morning because he was leaving Buffalo anyway. PHEW

54. Throughout my 4 years of college I shared a living space (rooms and apartments) with 11 different people most of them were from Buffalo but one was from Las Vegas and one was from Nigeria

53. As is typical of most females, I have 2 boys names and 2 girls names selected for my future spawn, I hope I don't have more than 2 of either, then I'm screwed

52. I have no problem killing bugs or dealing with spiders, but when my fish died in like October my sister and I freaked out because we had to pick him up off the floor of her room (my cat knocked over the bowl which was in MK's room) we were 24 and 22 at the time but we were running around the apartment squealing, shuddering, and making deals with God and with each other about what we'd do if the other one would just pick up the damn fish. We even called our Dad to try to get him to come over to our apartment and pick it up. In the end, I had to pick it up with my kitty litter scooper and in return I got dinner and a tank of gas

51. I hate washing the dishes so much I will do basically anything to avoid it. I would rather scrub a toilet with a toothbrush than wash the dishes. I have no idea why, I just really really really hate doing the dishes. Almost any other chore is fine with me, but washing the dishes really annoys me

I'm sure you're all reeling from writing down all these important tidbits about me. None of which are appropriate for Christmas presents, but I'm sure you'll use your intuition and come up with something for me.

For some reason, there is an ad for a telenovela on Telemundo on the top of the Sabres website. What an excellent way to start the day.

Oh yes, and:

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY SIDNEY CROSBY!!!!

Number 87 can legally drink alcohol in his adopted city of Pittsburgh now. Hooray! Yay!! Perhaps there is some residual playoff love left for Mr. Crosby after all...

OK NOW I'M STARTING TO GET A LITTLE WORRIED

by Anne

Ok, so I've been trying to be all "la la la they'll sign Pommer and Teppo soon, la la la, all is well, la la la doot doot doo" since Miller's extension was announced. HOWEVER. It's been like 3 weeks or maybe its been 10 years, (it feels like the latter) since then, and I'm starting to get a little worried about MY "top priority this off season" signing one Mr. Jason John Pominville.

O Captain, My Captain will be signed, I'm sure of it, it'd just be nice if it was sooner rather than later, the same is probably true for Teppo. I just don't have the energy today to get really worked up about it. However, if by the time classes start (August 25, FYI) we still haven't heard anything, I will begin to grow nervous.

The last hockey thing to give me true hockeyjoy was Miller's extension. My efforts to love the Bills are slow going, my manicure is chipping like crazy, much to my dismay, my student loan is taking FOREVER to be approved, I didn't get much sleep last night and its kind of gloomy out this morning. Oh, and I'm hungry and this new Crystal Light flavor I just bought is basically tasteless. Unlike its brethren which are still to sweet when diluted in twice the recommended amount of water, the Iced Tea really should be drank in 16 ounces, instead of my usual 32. Alack and fie.

I kinda feel like doing this 100 things thing but I don't know how interesting I am, so lets give it a shot-er-oo:

100. I hate 90% of female comedians with a few exceptions (Ellen Degeneres being one)

99. I'm left eye dominant but right hand dominant

98. My first real date was when I was 16 with a guy named Matt, I broke up with him because he was kind of lame. The bad news: He's going to be some sort of doctor. The good news: It appears he's still lame

97. I failed my road test twice before I passed it yet the only violation I've ever committed (or at least been caught doing) is parking tickets

96. Ever since I can remember, when something upsets me, I want to be alone. I've never been the type to want someone to comfort me or take care of me. Unless I'm sick and my mommy is there, then there is much whining and carrying on until she makes me soup or reads me a story or something mommy-like, but for the most part, I like to handle those things on my own

95. I'm allergic to skim milk, just skim milk, I can eat all other dairy products

94. I can't stand almost all holiday related foods, including: Peeps, candy corn, peppermint candy canes, egg nog, pumpkin pie, Jingles, etc. The notable exceptions being Cadbury Eggs and all Halloween candy

93. My left foot is slightly smaller than my right foot and my left boob is slightly smaller than my right. I'm a FREAK

92. As it says in my profile, I once saw Derek Roy at a bar and for some reason completely unbeknownst to me I squealed like a little girl. I don't even really like Derek Roy, it might've been the gin squealing

91. Speaking of gin, my drink of choice is a gin and tonic and the other night, as happens frequently, guys give me looks like I'm crazy because I drink that. BACK OFF BUDDY BOY, THE SUGAR IN COSMOS AND FRUIT JUICES MIXED WITH ALCOHOL MAKES MY TUMMY HURT

90. My sister is 2 years older than I am but for YEARS people have thought I was older probably because I'm taller and heavier

89. I have a tattoo of 4 paw prints on my right foot. On August 11th I'm going to get another added for my cat, Oscar. August 11th is the 1 year anniversary of the day I adopted him

88. There are some songs and bands I can listen to forever, but I have a habit of listening to current pop songs a million times in a row and then discarding them forever

87. Every time I see the number 87 I think of Sidney Crosby, isn't that totally lame?

86. I hate Keira Knightley as much as you can hate someone you've never met or interacted with in anyway

85. My handwriting is awful and I hate writing notes of any kind by hand, like I can't even read them, they're so bad. Typing is much faster and neater, and then I can goof off and go on Facebook

84. As of July 18th I don't eat meat, cheese or drink regular soda. I don't think I've lost much weight yet, but I feel better

83. We've had 4 dogs in my lifetime: Liberty (my parents named her, something about Pennsylvania, I don't get it), Lady, Lucky and Nicholas. Lucky got her name because we used to call our first dog Beah, so they were "Beah and Lady" pronounced like the song "Luck Be a Lady". Therefore we named our 3rd dog Lucky, to fill in the song title. THAT WAS ALL MY IDEA WHEN I WAS 10. Lucky and Nicholas are the only 2 still kickin'

82. When I was a freshman in college I HATED EVERYTHING ABOUT MY LIFE. So I changed everything: majors, friends, schools, and things turned out much better

81. Ironically, I'm going back to school to basically complete the degree I started at Fredonia before I transferred

80. The first hockey game I ever went to was in like 2000 and it ended in a scoreless tie, I don't even remember who we played, but it was cool

79. If Jarome Iginla showed up at my door right now and proposed to me, I'd say yes without hesitation. His wife might object, but that's her problem, not mine

78. I feel the need to re design this blog frequently, but I've decided to hold off for now. However, I may revamp before the season starts. Re-organizing things like this is something I do when I need to clear my head

77. When I was about 5 I poured water in one of my ears just to see if it would come out the other... it didn't

76. I get sick (like to the doctor sick) so infrequently that when I do its like a swift kick in the face, it takes me forever to recover and I'm a huge baby about it. My definition of infrequent: the last time I was sick was November 2007, I had sinusitis and tonsillitis, before that, the last time I was sick was December 2003.

75. My mother frequently needs me to help her copy and paste things, yet she texts me all the time and just joined Facebook, Oh Mama Peg. Dad Jim is now on Facebook too.

That was 1 too many but I don't think I'll be able to come up with any more, we may need to leave it at that, lol.

Woo, that took a while. Is Pommer signed yet?!?!!!!! NO?! WHAT THE HECK?! BRETT FAVRE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? MATS SUNDIN, MAKE UP YOUR MIND! JOE SAKIC, YOU TOO! COME ON PEOPLE THIS IS GETTING RI-GOD-DAMN-DICULOUS! I DON'T CARE ABOUT MANNY RAMIREZ PLAYING FOR THE ANGELS! Wait, lots of people do? Ok: WHAT'S WITH MANNY RAMIREZ GOING TO THE ANGELS?!

THAT'S IT! LET'S PROTEST! MARCH ON HSBC ARENA! BRING THE TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS! YAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Google Analytics OR It's Only Funny to Me.

by Anne

Google Analytics never ceases to bring a chuckle and puzzlement. For example:

Does Paul Gaustad have a baby (I don't think so?)

Wonderful wednesday on glornax-7 (glad to hear it)

snuff fetish stupid spoiled whore blogspot (Mom, is that you?)

Mike Millbury have another doughnut (seriously, what?)

bbbrrrrlllllliiiiinnngggg. we believe this knife is yours. (Apparently its the title of a Pensblog post...? How did they end up here?)

Over 11,000 visits to our blog since it was created in January. That's quite impressive to me. That means there are plenty o' people who ain't commenting. Say something! I love when people comment!!

WOOOO!

IS IT OCTOBER 10TH YET? NO? REALLY? CRUD.

Boo-YA

by Anne

Word up. I can also connect to the internet with the same password thingy that I could use in Chicago. $7 well spent.

Umm if only I had something to say.... hmmmmm.

I really want some coffee. I love coffee.

Yesssss. There's a girl? boy? (I can't tell) wearing a Pominville t-shirt. I think its a girl. Word up, I'm back amongst my kind. There's a restaurant here called "Slapshotz" in the Detroit airport, the first hockey reference I've seen in Hockeytown, USA.

For a hot second I contemplated buying a Michigan State tshirt and then I realized that's totally ridiculous. This is the 2nd time in my whole life I've been in the state of Michigan, the first was Monday.

A woman next to me is on the phone and she's kind of freaking out about something. She apparently is enroute to some city, maybe Buffalo, for something that she just found out was cancelled. Whoops.

So I entered like October - the begninng of February into iCal and I'm noticing a lot more gaps of like 3 and 4 days than we had this past season. Is this all in my head? We have a few weeks of a game Saturday and then not again until Wednesday. There are some longer road trips that seem a little crazy but who am I to judge the NHL's scheduling brilliance? January once again has some lengthy time on the road. But we'll get to see some IGGY! I really do like that we play all the teams now. It just makes sense that way. Woop! The "at large" thing is kind of weird, but eh? I don't particularly care one way or the other.

Anyway, I have nothing of relevance to say other than I'm still excited about Pie and I'm glad to be heading back to Buffalo. Wooohoooo! See y'all in Buffalo right soon!

Chi-Town Day 3

by Anne


So Chicago Day 3 started out with a little less gusto than Chicago Day 2. Mainly because Chicago Day 2 took a lot out of me. Walking around in flip flops is just a terrible idea and I should know better.

Anyway.

I decided to head to Navy Pier without really knowing exactly what it was all about. Anyway, I decided to forgo the bus and just walk the distance from the train to Navy Pier. What I did not realize is that it was about 10 degrees warmer today than yesterday and there was less breeze. Grrrrrreat. Therefore I wasn't as motivated to take pictures, so there aren't as many as yesterday.

I started out walking AAAAAALLL the way down Grand St. to get to the Pier. But that crosses the River, which I didn't get near yesterday. Some woman actually asked me for directions. I guess I blended in well. Perhaps it was the lack of fanny pack and large unfolded map. My map was far more discreet.

So you know how they dye the Chicago River green on St. Patty's Day? It's kind of always green:

This picture makes the water look slightly duller than it really is. It's pretty green.

Anyway, I went to Navy Pier which is basically just touristy stuff. However, they were having some IMAX premiere for the Dark Knight and the whole cast was there. Not when I was there, but they were setting up the red carpet while I was there. It was way too hot to give crap about Michael Caine. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael Caine, but about 1/2 way down Grand I wondered what would happen if I passed out from the heat and lay all willynilly in a gutter in Chicago. Would Dr. Mark Green or Dr. Doug Ross come rescue me?

Red Carpet. Fo' reals.

Also at Navy Pier I finally purchased some Blackhawks stuff that wasn't a t-shirt or a pint glass. Here's something to note: There are very few people in Chicago who give a crap about hockey. Baseball and Football alternate Kingship.

Sweet. In Buffalo you are completely inundated at all times with Sabres and Bills paraphernalia. It's unescapable.

There was also this wacky kids show featuring dancing pirates with some not so awesome stage combat, but whatevs, these people probably drink heavily to cope with the fact that they're a dancing pirate all day.

The guy blue with his arms crossed was super tall and wearing a crazy curly wig. Like totally ridiculous.

Then I rode around on this free trolley for a while. He took us by the foundation for the Chicago Spire. It's going to be wicked tall and apparently when completed it's going to block the new Trump Towers (not yet completed) from the skyline, whoops. When it's finished, The Spire will look like this:

I choose not to comment on the appearance of this structure.

As we zoomed by on the free trolley I snapped a picture of what The Spire looks like now:

Weeeell, they did say they'd be finished in 2012.

So I walked around for a bit and went into a few different stores. I bought a really cute trench coat and then ate some random food for lunch. Then, rejuvinated, I decided to attempt to find Wrigley Field. This is not as easy as it sounds. Wrigley Field is not at all in downtown Chicago. So I sat there and tried to compare 2 maps to figure out where exactly it was in relation to where I was at that moment. It took a solid 10 minutes of staring at the maps before I noticed that the description said that its at the corner of like W. Clark and N. Addison. So I hopped on the train heading in that direction and decided that I'd get off at Addison because it was way further away than the station that said "Clark", and just seemed more right. I was really trusting my gut here. So after a good 20 minutes on the train, I was like one stop away from Addison when I was like "Er, this doesn't seem right." So I decided to just get off at Addison and see if I could figure out how far I'd have to walk to find Wrigley Field. Here's exactly how far:

The view from the train platform. That's Wrigley Field. I am SO GOOD at this game.

For the record, if you're in Chicago and you need to get to Wrigley Field, the answer is "Take the Red Line to Addison."

So I snapped some photos. The only major league baseball game I've ever been to was a Cubbies game in 1998. I don't know who they played but I do know that they lost.

For the record, I didn't notice what the display said when I snapped this picture:


Wrigley Field: You WILL have your identity stolen.

This was only like 4:30. I wanted to find the White Sox field but I had to be back to go to some poster thing with MK so I headed back and didn't take any more pictures. Whoops. Tomorrow I'll regale you all with the details of my travels back home! Yay! Buffalo!!!!

I take off at 1:30 Central. Chicago is pretty sweet.