The TSN Monkey likes us! He really likes us!!

This is a picture of a crab I took in Barbados. No real story behind it, I just really like the picture.

The boys in ‘The Police’ are back together again and you could win a trip to see them in either Montreal or Toronto! ‘BOB GET ME THE POLICE’ is the phrase you need to know, and you want to keep your radio on 939 BOB FM, as always!
I’ve been reading a lot of buzz about the Police, who are feverishly rehearsing for their upcoming tour in Vancouver. Word is they’ve never sounded better! But, as we know, all good things in life are created from conflict. Apparently Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland have comfortably returned to their age-old habit of fighting constantly. As legend has it, while on tour many many years ago, Stewart Copeland painted the words ‘Sting is An Idiot’ on one of his drums. He strategically placed the drum so that Sting couldn’t see it while on stage, but the entire audience could read the message. Don’t you just love rock ‘n roll?

What’s going on with the Tulip Festival? It starts next week, but this year there are NO bands! NO concerts! NO live music! Its really a shame….but the Tulip Festival has had back luck with weather on concert nights. Its hard to have a concert series be financially successful when your showcase acts are on stage in driving rain, thunder, lightning, high winds, and bone-chilling cold. So, we can’t exactly blame Tulip Festival organizers for pulling the plug on live shows.
But how have they replaced the concerts? With ‘spoken word’ gatherings. So instead of seeing Randy Bachman or 54-40 or The Trews perform, there will be speakers on-stage ‘talking’ about the bands. And what it would be like if they played. Oh well, at least its free.

I ran my first 10K this week. I finally got this running thing all figured out. When I start to run, I’m in instant pain. Then after about five minutes the pain goes away. Then, pain again. Then no pain. Pain again. Then no pain. So the trick is to just keep going through the pain, because eventually it goes away, and before you know it, 78 minutes has gone by, and you’ve just accomplished your first 10K.
Well, it took me 78 minutes. But I didn’t have the wind at my back.

So, Don Cherry has picked the Ottawa Senators and Anaheim for the Stanley Cup Finals. That’s good! And the TSN monkey has picked Ottawa to take this series over New Jersey. Also good! I was also surprised to see the story in the Ottawa Sun this week, pointing out that each and every city of Ottawa councillor says that the Senators are going to win this series! Yahoo!!! Our City of Ottawa councillors are predicting that the Sens’ will be victorious! That makes me feel much better about our chances.

Go Sens Go! I got a pair of tickets for Wednesday’s game, bought them on-line and boy, are they ever high up in the stands! I think we’re sitting about 2 rows from the last row in the place. You know you’re up there when the Scotiabank Place organist is lower than you are. But I’m not complaining, I can’t wait to get to the game, nice and early so we can enjoy all the fun that’s outside the arena before-hand. See you there! I’ll be the one wearing red!

Don't Forget Your Lucky Underwear

Here in Ottawa we have been ‘in our glory’ the past few days. It’s a proven fact that Canadians love two topics. One, is the weather. The second, is hockey. So it was pretty exciting that right smack dab in the middle of our first play-off series between the Penguins and our beloved Senators, we also got one heck of a spring snow storm. Its not unusual to get the odd snow-flake in April, but we were on the receiving end of a good old fashioned snow storm yesterday, 17 cm!!!! Enough to cancel school buses and send workers back to bed. Of course, the ‘work from home’ people were completely unaffected.

I have a couple of friends who work from home. I can see why it would be great to work from home: no need to battle rush hour traffic, you can stay in your teddy bear pyjamas, get a bit of work done, grab a free coffee anytime you want, have your dog lie at your feet, check in on Days of Our Lives, get some work done, go to the super-box and get your mail, make a salad, do a bit more work, write captions under last summer’s vacation pictures, stare out the window, surf E-bay, walk the dog, do some more work, pressure wash the walk-way and maybe even the house, call it a day, have a glass of wine. I think that must be what its like working from home. Let me know if I’m wrong.

I’m starting to seriously think about staying away from Ottawa Senators home games during the play-offs. I love play-off hockey. I love the Senators. I love going to Ottawa Senators play-off games. But every time I go to a game at Scotiabank Place, they lose. If I’m not at Scotiabank Place, they win. Am I prepared to stay away, for the good of the team? Should I be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice….no live action Sens play-off hockey for me, unless I watch it on tv or listen to the radio? Hmmmm……let me think about that…….hmmm….not a chance. Besides, how do I know its not the guy in section 101 row 29 who forgot to wear his lucky underwear to the game? How do I know its not THAT GUY that caused the Sens to lose?

I have an official ‘food’ of the Ottawa Senators play-off run. Its spicy jerk chicken on a bun with mango salsa. It has absolutely nothing to do with hockey. I just really like it. Its healthy, too. Last year, the official play-off food in our house was chicken wings. 2 pounds a game. By the time the hockey season was over, neither me or my husband could fit into our shorts.

Next week, April 22nd to 28th, is ‘Organ Donation Awareness Week’. On Thursday April 26th at 6 pm, the A-Channel is hosting an event in conjunction with the Kidney Foundation. There will be an auction of t-shirts, each painted to promote the ‘Living Green Ribbon Campaign’. The Living Green Ribbon is the symbol for organ donation. Everyone is invited to the party, come on out – and please….if you can….please bid on our t-shirt. Yes, ‘the Morning After’ painted a t-shirt for the cause. The artwork is not good, not good at all. But it’s the thought that counts. For more information, www.kidneyfoundation.ca

Rocky Balboa Rocks!!!

Happy Easter! May there be many chocolate bunnies to consume today. I was at a shop the other day that was selling all kinds of traditional Easter treats, including chocolate Bart Simpsons and chocolate Homers. They were right next to the chocolate Nascar race cars. Now..’that’s’ Easter!

There’s a staff NHL play-off pool taking place tomorrow evening. I work with a lot of people who take their sports knowledge and love of hockey statistics quite seriously. These are the kind of guys who can watch a hockey game and size up the drama with a doozy of a statistic. For instance….did you know that if the Penguins are down by one goal in the second period, and the Senators Chris Neil has already had 3 fights, and Sidney Crosby has broken 2 hockey sticks with his slapshot, and the referee got a puck in the ankle just before the buzzer, that 77 percent of the games where this happens, the first goal of the third period is scored by Ottawa within 43 seconds.
I work with guys who talk like that.
It might be kinda fun to enter a play-off pool, where my player choices are based on their hair.

I’m not sure why I didn’t race out to see the movie ‘Rocky Balboa’ when it was in theatres last fall. Considering the fact that the original ‘Rocky’ is still my favourite movie of all time, I should’ve gone to see this one. But I didn’t, and I guess it was because I was too scared to see it. After the original ‘Rocky’, all the other Rocky movies just seemed to be attempts at ‘cashing in’. They were ridiculous. And each new Rocky movie just seemed to chip away at the integrity of the original. But, when I saw the DVD ‘Rocky Balboa’ staring back at me at the video store yesterday, I grabbed it. My husband and I watched it from the comfort of our couch….I could turn it off at any time should it start to be inane like Rocky 2, 3, 4, and 5. Well, I didn’t turn it off. I loved every minute of it. Sylvester Stallone completely re-captured the decency of his beloved Rocky character. Rocky as an aging fighter was pure grit and passion. If you haven’t seen ‘Rocky Balboa’ yet, possibly for the same reasons that I took so long to see it, do yourself a favour and rent it. You’ll love it. And keep Kleenex handy.

Genesis fans are already a-buzz about the big show coming to Scotiabank Place on September 15th. Tickets go on sale in a week but we will be giving a pair a day away all this week on ‘the Morning After’. Genesis has not graced a stage in Ottawa since their Abacab tour in December 1981. Were you there? I’d love to read a review of the ’81 show. This September’s Genesis show should be one of the biggest concerts of the year in Ottawa. But once you have your tickets, try not to think about it too much, because the show is in the FALL, and no one wants to wish summer away. Not everyone will agree with this last statement, but some people will. I hope.