Posts in Category: Uncategorized

Ovie and the Caps, One Win Away

After leading the Washington Capitals to three President’s Trophies, Alex Ovechkin may finally be ready to lead them to their first ever hoisting of Lord Stanley’s Cup.

With their bonafide 6-2 blowout of the Vegas Golden Knights in game 4 on Monday night, the Capitals are one game away from winning it all. The game was effectively over after Washington went up 3-0 in the first period.

The swarming offense and fusillade of shots that marked the offensive onslaught Vegas rode in to the finals seems to have met its match in Washington’s great goaltending, solid defense, and favorable goal posts.

The Capitals can win it all on Thursday.

Infinity and Beyond

Finally saw Avengers: Infinity War this past weekend. It’s definitely a blockbuster, and over all I enjoyed it…

But…

I almost thought it was too big. For the most part it’s just one, long, continuous fight scene while almost every hero gets a cameo. I recognize that these movies started out to appeal to hard core comic book geeks, but this mega-movie seems to demand that everyone needs to know the Marvel Universe to that degree. You really need to know what’s happened in just about all previous 18 movies to fully get what’s being referenced in the brief interludes between the constant barrage of action. At times it kind of felt like I was watching the season finale of a television that I’d missed key episodes of along the way.

I was actually kind of glad for the ending. Now I don’t have to keep track of every single character in the Marvel Universe. While I can appreciate what they’re trying to do by having all the movies tied in with each other, they should realize we’ve not only got our favorite characters, we’ve got ones we don’t give a rat’s behind for as well.

They Call Them the Streak…..

The Detroit Tigers are most definitely in rebuilding mode. With their 6-2 win yesterday afternoon over the Los Angeles Angel’s their record over the last 10 games is 6-4. That seems to be the way this season is going to play out for the Tigers. A ten game stretch where they play pretty good baseball followed by a ten game stretch where they remind us all the good major league players got traded away last year.

So far this season, the hot and cold streaks have balanced out and kept the Tigers near the .500 mark despite a rash of injuries during May. As we move in to the heart of summer it’ll be interesting to see if we keep going back and forth, or if one side, not or cold, starts winning out.

Here’s hoping the hot streaks win out, and speaking of streaks….

Fake Bread and a Tasty Dessert

I have been really watching my carbohydrate consumption since my doctor gave me the news I have type 2 diabetes. I’ve done the Atkins diet before with pretty good success, so I went back to it again. I have stuck mostly with the initial induction phase for maximum weight loss but I’ve started adding in phase 2 foods like nuts and berries.

One of the first things I gave up was any kind of bread. That, along with no sweets, was the hardest part about getting started. With yesterday’s dinner I decided to try this recipe:

Muffin in a Minute

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 tbsps Flaxseed (Spectrum) Organic Ground
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Powder (Straight Phosphate, Double Acting)
  • 1/2 individual packet Sucralose Based Sweetener (Sugar Substitute)
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 large Egg (Whole)
  • 1 tsp Unsalted Butter Stick

Put all the dry ingredients in a microwavable mug, then add the egg, and I used a tsp of olive oil instead of butter because I didn’t have enough soft butter available. Mix it all up and pop it in the microwave for about a minute. Viola! Something to fool you into thinking you’re getting bread. It tastes like a bran muffin with a hint of cinnamon and comes in with 4 grams of net carbs.

Back to Work!

Holiday is over and it’s back to work today! Didn’t get cars washed and didn’t learn any new banjo song (I just practiced bluegrass rolls), but I got most of my other tasks accomplished. I’m going to consider it a weekend well spent.

Speaking of needing to go back to work, it looks like the Washington Capitals are going to have to work their butts off against the Vegas Golden Knights after all. Neither team seemed all that interested in playing defense in Vegas’ 6-4 win over the Capitals, and I’m not sure that even if Washington had played better they would be able to shut down the Golden Knights. The Knights seemed destined to be the first franchise in the NHL to win it all in their first season.

Part of that success has to do with this statement being entirely incorrect,

Just 342 days after the Knights selected the backbone of their first roster in the expansion draft, Vegas had another party on the Strip with its remarkable collection of castoffs.

Vegas didn’t assemble their team with “castoffs,” they assembled their team with guys every other team agonized over leaving exposed for the expansion draft. Every single team had to face the dilemma of not being able to protect every player they wanted to protect. Give Vegas credit, they expertly nabbed the best player form every team that was exposed.

TGIF! May 25, 2018

Hurray! Made it to the end of another work week with the Memorial Day weekend coming up. Nothing but fun and leisure for the next three days!

Well, fun and leisure mixed in with laundry, house cleaning, carpet shampooing, car washing, etc. Hmm, seems like I work more on my fun and leisure days than I do on my work days!

Oh well, one of the things I think I’ll be working on is a version of this song:

Fairly simple, comprehensive lesson (as usual from Mr. Hicks) that sounds and looks like fun to play.

Have a great holiday everyone and don’t work too hard!

Stanley Cup 2018 Finals Are Set

Well, it’s official, the Tampa Bay Lightning have folded up and sent the Washington Capitals on to the finals. I was really expecting this series to go the other way, but you can’t win if you don’t score any goals. The Lightning picked a lousy time for the offense to disappear.

Not sure who I’m rooting for in the final. I don’t think Vegas should win because no team should be this good this fast. The Vegas fans need to learn how to suffer through rebuilding years like the rest of us.

On the other hand, fuck Ovie!

Giving a Tough Answer to a Tough Question

Today marks the one well anniversary of my induction in to the “Officially an Adult Club.” That’s the club my mother told me I joined by getting my first ever colonoscopy. The procedure went well, and, according to the doctor, I’ve got one of the top five nicest bung holes she’s ever seen.

Ok, I made that last part up, but she didn’t say it wasn’t so I can still indulge my ego 😉

Having a video shoot for my guts wasn’t the only first that occurred that day. It was also the first time I had to answer this question, “Do you have diabetes?” since being told by my doctor that I do, in fact have diabetes.

For years I’d been able to hide behind “you’ve got pre-diabetes” to answer that question with a confident no, but now things had changed. I was lying naked on a hospital bed with a few layers of thin cotton/ polyester blend covering my modesty when the inevitable question came from the attending nurse.

“Do you have diabetes?”

“Um, not yet because I haven’t officially gotten the diagnosis face-to-face yet (I get that the first Monday in June),” was my actual first try at answering that though question.

I guess I should be grateful it sounded like the copout, weak, stupid response it was. By about the third time being asked the embarrassment of ducking the question led me to I finally came to acceptance.

“I have type-2 diabetes.”

“But she did say it’s diet controllable!” I was quick to add. Have to keep hope alive somehow 😉

So now I’ve admitted it, and now I’m back on a low carb diet and doing Atkins. I’m down 20 pounds in the month since finding out, and I’m actually feeling better than I have in a while. The words still don’t come easily out of my mouth yet, but I’m getting there.

Dang!

Almost a year and haven’t touched this place once. Guess I better get my rear in gear!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Left Foot

My Left Foot by Carey 1964
My Left Foot, a photo by Carey 1964 on Flickr.