I didn’t see any of the Bruins/Flyers game last night. I did listen to a few minutes of the first and second here and there, and then I listened to the entire third period on the radio.

Savard scored the OT game winner in game one.
Lucic scores the game winner late in the third in game two.

Heroics? From the 2009-10 Bruins?

Who would have thought?

Jen and I went out last night. Sure it was a playoff night, but it was also a night where I wasn’t on call and we wanted to spend some time together. I’m a modern man. I can have my happy sweet time with the love of my life and I can have my hockey too. I just know which one is more important.

We had Indian food. The chicken was green. Really. Bright green. It was also gooooood. There are pictures. I’ll get to them eventually.

Game three is Wednesday night. All I can say is…

Go Bruins!

You are looking at the wife of the new mayor of Kashmir. By Kashmir I mean the Indian restaurant in Salem, NH, and by mayor I mean on Foursquare.

I’m a nerd.

Bruins are up one to nothing.

Go Bruins!

Last night was the first night.

The first night where the temperature rose high enough to make sleeping difficult. I stayed inside most of the day waiting for the phone to ring/hoping the phone wouldn’t ring (it didn’t). I snuck out to the gym in the morning (and added 10 minutes on a stationary bike to the normal 25 minute routine) and it wasn’t terribly warm at that time.

Later in the afternoon we decided to order out for dinner and I had to drive to the bank to get some cash. Our car has a thermometer on the dash. It read 93 degrees. It wasn’t bad though. We had a few windows open in the house, and a fan on. Sadly one of the two fans we bought when we moved in quietly died on us, but the other one is still cranking out the breezes.

It wasn’t until just before the kids went to bed that the humidity started being a factor. We all started feeling it. The kids went to bed and immediately were soaked in sweat. Jen and I went to bed a couple of hours later and I managed to fall into a light sleep, but she had a really hard time. Just before two I went downstairs and got the fan. That helped a little, but both of us woke up tired and feeling worn out.

There is a plan in place for this evening to pick up a new air conditioner. We have two little ones that do an okay job cooling things off at night, but this year will be the first year we are using all three bedrooms upstairs. Opening the windows and putting on the fans has done well for us downstairs, but upstairs we’ve all grown a little dependent on air conditioners. Maybe the time has come to get one for the living room too. We’ll have to see.

Yesterday the four of us took a poll. The question was, “What Magic Kingdom rides and attractions are you dying to see when we go on our Disney vacation?” Jen used each person’s answers to compile three lists. The Must See list, the Nice to See list, and the If We Have Time list. Here are the results:

Must-sees:
Pirates of the Carribbean
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
It’s a Small World
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
Haunted Mansion
Mickey’s Toontown
Thunder Mountain
Splash Mountain
Peter Pan’s Flight
Mad Tea Party
Dumbo

Nice to see:
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Jungle Cruise
Enchanted Tiki Room
Country Bear Jamboree
Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor
Tomorrowland Speedway
Space Mountain

If we have time:
Tomorrowland Transit Authority
Astro Orbiter
Hall of Presidents
Swiss Family Treehouse

What do you think? We’ve all already thought of something that we should have had on our personal list that we forgot, so these results may change in the coming weeks. It also does not include Nana and Papa’s input so these can’t really be though of as definitive at this point. Still, it’s a pretty impressive to-do list.

Both kids are doing a great job of scaring the bejeezus out of themselves over some of the rides. We still have weeks to go and over a thousand miles to cross before we even get there and they are already chickening out about things. The major sticking points right now appear to be The Haunted Mansion (we actually had a nightmare about that one last night) and Space Mountain, although Space Mountain is more out of curiosity than fear.

We’ve promised them that we will not force them to go on any ride that is going to scare them or be dangerous for them, but we’ve also told them that they have to trust us. If we tell them they have to try a ride then they have to be brave and do it. They do trust us, but they also have a tendency to let their imaginations run away with them. They believe us when we tell them that the rides we want them to go on will be fun and not scary, but they are already whipping themselves into a panic state and it may be tough to handle once the moments of truth arrive.

Of course, once they ride any ride that they are afraid of they will immediately want to do it again. That’s always the case. Fear, panic, maybe a few tears, followed by, “Can we go again? Can we? Can We?”

I can’t wait!

Finally, the Bruins and Flyers play game two tonight. I only hope things go better for Boston than they did for Pittsburgh yesterday. Their series with Montreal is tied at one a piece now. We had the game on the television but we were all in the living room doing other things. At one point I looked up and commented that they were five minutes into the first period and Pittsburgh wasn’t winning yet. I then looked down at what I was doing (we were all playing a marathon game of Trouble – R2D2 edition) and almost immediately heard cheering Penguins fans as they scored their first goal. Almost exactly on queue. Of course, that would be the only goal they scored.

Go Bruins!

Secret Mission #2 was also a big success.

The kids and I went to a craft store to get something for the kids to make for Jen for mother’s day. We ended up getting a couple of sun catcher sets. I set them up in the dining room and they painted like crazy people. It was pretty impressive to watch.

Today we waited until early afternoon to present them. They were a big hit. Mom said she loved them. We also got her Happy Mother’s Day cards and she said she loved those too.

Secret Mission #3 wasn’t quite as successful. We bought a cake at Market Basket and snuck it out today for dessert. The cake was okay. The frosting… not so much. Pretty disappointed in my cake purchasing.

Hopefully Jen had a good mother’s day celebration. She’s a wonderful mother and an amazing wife. I am so happy that she has let me be a part of her family.

I love you Jen. Happy Mother’s Day.

Yesterday I mentioned a couple of secret missions that the kids and I went on. I can’t give away all of the details, but the reason for the secrecy is related to Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day is next week but we don’t have the kids. It’s funny how it turned out, but we don’t have the kids on Mother’s day and their father doesn’t have them on Father’s day. We switched next weekend with this weekend because their dad is getting married soon and they have a bunch of wedding related things to do. It’s all right though, we just celebrated Mother’s Day today.

Which leads to secret mission #1. The kids suggested making Jen breakfast in bed today. Great idea! So one of the things we did yesterday was go food shopping for today’s breakfast. We got eggs and bacon. This morning we got up early and told Jen that she needed to stay in bed to rest her sore back (also the kids’ idea).

We snuck downstairs and took turns cracking the eggs. I then scrambled up the batch, made some bacon, and some toast, and we took it all upstairs to Mom and surprised her. She loved it! (or at least she said she did. I am not that much of a cook after all. I half expected retching.)

(I should warn people who are thinking of doing this next week that it is really hard to hide a box of eggs in the refrigerator. Jen actually tried to give me some hints on scrambling eggs this morning. We don’t have to tell the kids about that though. By reading this you are officially and legally sworn to secrecy. Dig it?)

So the paniced work issue from Friday has been cooled down and we won’t have to deal with the rest of it until Monday. That’s good. I didn’t get any calls yesterday and hopefully won’t get any today either. My fingers are crossed. I think I am going to be daring and go to the gym. Wish me luck. May my phone stay silent (except for the iPod function, I’ll be using that.)

Did I mention the Bruins won in over time yesterday? I am still shocked. Totally shocked. I feel shocked.

Go Bruins!

So the whole thing about the expected phone calls from work appear to be put off until Monday. That makes me happy. Not getting called when I’m on call makes me happy.

The whole scheming and secret mission shopping trip things have been completed. More or less. We still have one very minor sneak to complete.

So did you see that Bruins game? The reason I’m writing this now and not two hours ago is because I had to wait for my blood pressure to come back down and for my heart rate to normalize.

What a game. The entire game was fantastic, apart from that whole the-Bruins-never-make-it-easy-on-themselves-and-hold-onto-their-leads thing.

The first 2:12 of over time was probably the most intense hockey I’ve ever seen. The Bruins were all over the Flyers. Boucher had to stand on his head for the onslaught and he played fantastic. It was incredible to watch. Then the Flyers stopped play and things calmed down a little and it turned into constant trading chances. Shot at the Flyers end, then they turn around and take a shot at the Bruins end. Quality scoring chance after quality scoring chance. It was unreal.

And then… for the win… Marc Savard in his first game in about two months… it was just perfect. It was unreal. What a game!

The Bruins are now up one game to none in the best of seven series. I think it’s going to go the distance, but I also hope for more games like that.

Unreal!

Go Bruins!

1. At some time this afternoon I am going to have to work for a little bit. At some point after that I am going to have to work for another little bit.

2. Take the kids out for some covert shopping time. More on that another day.

3. Watch the Bruins game at 12:30. That will probably be interrupted by calls from work, but I should get to follow, if not watch, most of it.

4. After game the work I know I am going to have to do is done spend some more covert time with the kids scheming on some sinister plot. Again, more on that another day.

5. Hope, hope, hope that the phone doesn’t ring from work apart from the couple of calls I already know I am going to get.

Go Bruins!

We almost never get calls when we are on call for customer go-lives. I am on call all weekend covering three customer go-lives.

I got a call at about 8:30 tonight… three hours after getting off the clock.

It might be a looooong weekend if this becomes a trend.

Oh yeah, and the task I had to complete was really simple but we had all sorts of problems connecting to the code that needed to be worked on. Not just me but everyone. Worse? I am guaranteed two more calls out of this.

Whoopie.

Go Bruins

I am coming up empty on topics this morning. That doesn’t happen often. I think I’m going to have to force it by talking about hockey. I guess…

Is this the year that the San Jose Sharks don’t choke? They opened up the second round last night by beating Detroit 4-3. I didn’t watch the game, but by the sound of it Joe Thornton and Danny Heatley played well. Pat Marleau was out with the flu, but Joe Pavelski continued to be the dominate forward for the Sharks.

In the past few years they have choked nearly every time I picked them. I want to root for Joe Thornton but he is so consistent in his April disappearing act that you can practically set your watch by it. I want to be a Sharks fan. There is so much there to like… but they choke every year. Could this be the year they finally don’t? Now that I am not rooting for them at all they will finally stop embarrassing themselves?

Just my luck.

I am on call this weekend. I don’t know if I will be able to get to the gym, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch my step son’s baseball game. I want to do both, but I get paranoid about the phone ringing when I am out of the house. I will definitely go to the game, but if the phone rings I’ll have to leave. I don’t want to be one of those grown ups who doesn’t make it to the kid’s special things. Baseball, softball, and everything else that comes down the line. I want to be a part of it all. I don’t want to miss anything.

We also are trying to do some yard work at my parent’s house. This weekend is the only one that my brother and brother in law can do for a while, and here I am being the one who is stuck missing out. I haven’t been able to get my laptop connected to work so I can’t rely on that. I am going to have to be within 10-15 minutes of my desktop. I feel like a schmuck. I don’t think we’ll have another chance to do the work until June.

Today is pay day. That’s a plus.

The Disney trip is getting closer. I want it to be here now. RIGHT NOW. I want to go see the Mouse. The Great Mouse. THE Mouse. Mickey is one of my all time heroes. I want to go visit him and bask in the glow of his glory.

I met him two years ago. I was really pleased to see that he’s a down to Earth sort of Mouse. Not the super star ego you would expect from some one as famous and brilliant as he is. He was a good guy.

Go Bruins!