The Bruins appear to have done it again.  Last year Zdeno Chara broke Max Pacioretty’s neck and managed to avoid a suspension.  He did not manage to avoid the public uproar and calls to 9-1-1 in Montreal though.

Now it’s Milan Lucic’s turn.  On Saturday night he plowed over and through Sabers goalie Ryan Miller.  Miller finished the game, but has since been diagnosed with a concussion.  Earlier today Lucic had his hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety and hockey operations Brendan Shanahan (sounds impressive, eh?) and no suspension was assessed.  Are the phones ringing in Buffalo’s 9-1-1 call center?

Probably not.

I saw a replay of the hit today.  It was pretty rough.  I would not have been the least bit surprised if Lucic got one game off without pay.  He clobbered Miller.  Could he have gotten out of the way?  Maybe… I thought he could have at least made more of an effort.  I guess.  He was penalized on the play, correctly, and he had his day in hockey court and he got off.  I think he should have gotten something, but I’m not complaining.  That’s the end of that story, until Boston and Buffalo meet again.

My question to Brendan Shanahan though is this, When are you going to evaluate the punishment to Miller for what he did immediately after the hit?  After Lucic wrecked him, Miller sat with his ass on the ice and swung his stick, baseball bat style at Lucic’s legs.  He did not hit anything (strike one) but still, that was pretty egregious, wasn’t it?  How is that not suspension worthy?  How is that not worthy of some supplemental discipline?

Now before you Buffalo fans (who will never even see this post because no one ever reads me) get all a-tizzy over this, remember I said that Lucic should have received a bigger punishment.  Lucic was at fault for the hit.  Lucic was totally in the wrong.  Don’t forget that I already said that, Buffalo fans.  But also don’t forget that Miller swung his damn stick at Lucic like he was George effing Washington trying to cut down the cherry tree.  Both actions should have resulted in suspensions.

I like Ryan Miller a lot.  Really.  If we didn’t have Tim Thomas I would want Ryan Miller to be our goalie.  When he’s on his game he’s unreal.  You haven’t forgotten that USA silver medal in the Olympics, have you?  We owe a huge chunk of that medal to Ryan Miller.  He’s an awesome goalie.  But he swung his stick like Babe Ruth swinging for the fences and that action needs to be addressed by the NHL.  I don’t care if he hit Lucic or not, that was awful and he can’t get away with that.

That’s my two cents.

So how about that weekend, huh?  It’s one big blur now, but it was a much needed break.

On Friday I got to spend the day with the kids.  We went to Jen’s office to take her to lunch and much to our happiness she came home with us and worked from home.  So we got to (sort of) spend the day with Mom too!  We took the kids back to their Dad’s and got to see their new house.  The official move took place this weekend.  The kids took us through every room and showed us all of the things they helped with.  They have been doing a great job helping their father and step mother set up the new house.  Later Jen and I took care of our itch to go out to a place where there was music and we went to New England Seafood in Methuen, where they have live music on the weekends.  We just hung out and listened and danced a little (I can only slow dance, even to fast songs.  I think my wife was a little embarrassed).

On Saturday we went to my parents’ to invite them to Thanksgiving dinner.  We hung out for a while and got caught up on all the goings on.  It was a nice visit.  After that we spoke to Jen’s mother and invited them to Thanksgiving too.  Jen’s mother and step father have recently become owners of a pair of iPhone 4S.  Jen and I are still thinking about upgrading.  I’m all for it as the button on my iPhone 4 is a tad on the twitchy side.  It still takes a couple of weeks to order them though as the demand still massively outweighs the supply.  On Saturday night we went back to New England Seafood where the crowd was much smaller, and the band took a little more time hitting their stride, but once they did they were excellent.

Oh yeah, and in between all of that I was sending a flurry of Facebook messages out trying to get people to start a new band with me.  It looks like Sunday will be the first meet up.  I need to get a list of songs that Steve and I used to play out to Mike and Kevin, and I need to check out the myspace page of the singer that Steve knows… even though I’m 99% sure I’ve listened to it in the past.  Then I need to PRACTICE and get some new cables and batteries and all that good stuff.  Oh, and don’t forget to change the strings on the Les Paul!

On Monday Jen and I both had to do some working from home.  I also managed to do something I rarely do, and even more rarely do successfully.  I went clothes shopping… for myself.  My business casual clothes are all old and starting to disintegrate so I went to a fat guy store and a department store with a fat guy section and got some clothes.  When I showed my purchases to Jen this morning she didn’t laugh.  Either I didn’t buy anything ridiculous, or she was really good at holding the laughter in.

Today I took the morning off to go with the kids to their first day of school in their new town.  They were waffling between scared, nervous, and excited over the last week or so.  Today it was mostly excitement.  I was hoping Jen and I would get to meet their teachers, but we only got to meet some of the office staff. 

Now the long weekend is over and I’m back at work.  Thanksgiving is next week though, and another four day weekend is on tap.  I’m ready, right now.  Right.  Now.

On Friday we stopped at Best Buy for a quick shopping trip.  Some video games were purchased by my wife and my two step kids.  Earlier tonight Jen and I were watching Horrible Bosses when I got called back to today’s on-call issue.  We paused the movie as I went to see why requisitions were printing to the wrong printer.  While I was poking around Jen took out one of her new games.

Plants vs Zombies.

She has been playing like a maniac for about an hour.  I think she might be developing a new video game obsession.  I think it’s awesome!

She just said, “ARGH!  This is so much fun!  I want to stop playing but I can’t!”

hehe

Another culinary experiment gone perfect.

I officially went on call at close of business on Thursday.  Thursday night, all day Friday, all day Saturday, not a single call.  I thought I was going to make it through this long stretch without being pulled in for anything.

Then at 1:00pm I got a call.  I was in JC Penny trying to find some fat guy pants that I could wear to work.  When the phone rang I assumed it was Jen, the love of my life, but when I saw the number was blocked my heart sank 10 miles.

I almost made it.

Looks like Steve knows a singer too! Is this the dawn of a new 5-piece band?

Things might be happening!

There are two holes in the wall by our table, and whatever is behind them seems about two feet away.

Why? And what is back there?

Two nights in a row we’ve gone out to a place where a a random band was playing and two nights in a row we’ve heard Bryan Adams songs.

Is there something I should know about? Did I miss a memo?

Messing with a new camera app.

Things may be happening… Musical things.

While I have made no progress on the November album in a month project, today has seen some real progress toward playing music with actual other human beings.

Steve is interested. Mike is interested. Now we can add Jen’s friend Kevin, a drummer, to the list of interested people too. We are still short an actual vocalist, but we are not short a potential date for a first meet up.

Steve has even tossed out potential band names. Can you believe it? Awesome!