I don't have Matthew's photgraphic gifts, but here are a few looks from the Sabres game last night. From the empty arena before it gets started to the sea of people who got to sit, wish I was one of them after the 1st Overtime.






And then the paying customers showed










If you're not a hockey fan, it was kind of cool to feel the building alive. A shared sense of excitment was definitely present, even if it left me drinking alone.

at the Sabres game. The build up was exciting. The arena had an electicity to it. You could feel the antipation. I've been sort of crushing (How pathetic is that??) on one of the women who works the games as well. She told me "we wait out the traffic at cobblestone's, you should come." Being no fool, this seemed like a signal. My inner refrigerator light was flickering on. I got a few customers, made a few sales, answered a question or two and then the game wouldn't end. Security doofus forgot that I'd been there for almost 20 games this year. Suddenly I'm a distraction? I had to move. THat caused the Flyers to tie the score, which caused overtime, which caused my usher to go home which caused my morale to sag, which is drectly related to my cd player skipping and sitting here at home posting and drinking on my own. Such a cruel chain of events is proof, god does have a sense of humor.

I'll post a few talentless pics of the spectacle tomorrow

The News is fact challenged.... and they are driving me to drink. Good thing I have a parking space already. With the Sabres in the playoffs, I've had to be king fact checker for how American TV is covering them. That part is okay, but I hear myself in my sleep. So, I'll make estrip your hockey source. Here you go:

Round 1 against the Flyers all on MSG, except for Game 5 (if there is one). That would be on WGRZ

Round 2, all on MSG except two games that MAY be on OLN

Round 3, all on either OLN or NBC (CBC will have them all as well)

Finals -- First two games will be on OLN, everything else would be on WGRZ (CBC will show this in its entirety as well.)

People must not read like they used to or listen, because the same chucklehead had to have it explained four times and I'm still not convinced he's got it. It's enough to suck the hockey fan right out of me.

They are among the "special" people......

I think this is my last official recounting of this for the day.

Beer and a veranda.....I so need to get out more.....

FILE NAME: Town Called Malice.mp3.mp3
DESCRIPTION: Paul Weller Acoustically Remakes his own "A Town Called Malice"
TRACKING NUMBER: 0444750001145330509

This is on the same cd I got the That's Entertainment mp3 from. Your Ipod will thank you.

Enjoy peeps

I have two of them. They in their own ways are good people, very generous with others, etc, very talented and so on. They just don't seem to like each other much. I suppose siblings driving each other crazy shouldn't be news, but you'd think time would help that stuff along.

I am stuck in the middle. Now, my older sister is going to be 46 this year, the younger just turned 37 and they still are always one insult away from all out stupidity. It may have happened. In December, sister the younger came home to her 89th street apt in Manhattan to find it charred. A fire took out her living room and everything in it. Everybody felt awful, but there were limits as to what we could do from distance. She has a good network of friends for the scutwork and immediately running to manhattan would have just put me in the way, so I stayed put and repaired her laptop. She, being pretty together, assembled a patchwork of places to stay while she fought insurance companies and her landlord. Sister the older lives in the Chelsea District and pitched in with laundry, storage and all the stuff you could ask for.

Both are very particular folks and awfully set in their ways. The day before both were going to come up to Buffalo for Christmas. Younger calls the Older and asks for one more night since her plans for that night fell through. I think she was about one last nerve away from coming unspooled. Older starts to talk her way through and doesn't answer quick enough so younger loses it.

Younger calls my dad and says she may just have to leave abruptly because older was such a bitch. My dad tells me this and I kinda of cringe because I still want my kids to enjoy Christmas (stoopid ass that I am). The Witches of Eastwick put on a good show for my mom and my daughters so it all passes without incident. A week later, I'm at my younger sister's boyfriends house. She is randomly announcing that she is sure when she is going to talk to our older sister again. A voice in my head is saying "just let her vent." I listen to my voice and study the bottom of my beer glass. I want to point out that that won't achieve a thing, but a mouthful of guinness ensures that I remain neutral in this dispute.

The reason this comes to mind on this holiday is that savvy younger sister fought the authority and won and her apartment has been restored and she gets to from her temp surroundings and go back home. The first call she placed was to our geeky father. Dad has a wiring knack and some time on his hands. As he and my Mom are telling me about heading into New York on Thursday, they simulataneously developed this look of "Oh Shit." My folks are reasonably worldly, but doing the dance of the fragile egos in Manhattan put them in the state of such befuzzledness that they asked me for advice. Me, who is freshly divorced, not frequently dating enough, semi tangible social life, is suddenly the pillar for intrapersonal relations.

I came to the conclusion that it wasn't for my folks to get in the middle of. The siblings are way too frigging old for this shit and their spat was not for my folks or me to get in the middle. Tell them both the exact same thing in terms of plans and let the them figure it out.

Dad gave me a case of guinness for my wisdom. I told him it's easy to be wise from a distance.

The Drama

Something about last night's rain (before the winds and whatnot) was soothing. It's like my apartment building got hosed off. The fresh air was a welcome change from the artificial fresh air. It was perfect for sleeping. After laundry, I made a lazy dinner and plopped down in front of the sabres game. They won, so I figured I could postpone taxes till tonight. Sleep came real easy. And it was the good kind, as a bonus. I was almost ready to go to work until I actually got here.

Nothing like a heavy workload to kill the good mood. For a place that doesn't want to keep me much longer they are working me. When you get your paper this Sunday, there is a cable supplement (one of those annoying one sheet thingies) that is my handywork and they want me to do more. Perhaps a job hunt could be postponed. Good thing as I need to work on those other things, like a life....

If filling out turbo tax with a chocolate rabbit nearby is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Anybody want an ear?

I have to work Easter Sunday -- something depressing about that. If you're going to the Sabres game, stop by and say howdy. I could use a friend.

I am without a demographic. Okay, I'm starting to randomize.

Must need more sleep.

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are flying on Air Force One.

The President looks at the Vice President, chuckles, and says, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy."

The Vice President shrugs and says, "Well, I could throw 10 $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy."

Not to be outdone, the Secretary of Defense says, "Of course, then, I could throw 100 $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy."

The pilot rolls his eyes and says to his co-pilot, "Such arrogant asses back there. Hell, I could throw the three of them out the window and make 56 million people unbelievably happy."

Got home last night and it was too nice to just collapse, which is what I mostly feel like doing after work these days. Changed out of my boring work clothes and put on some boring play clothes, strapped on the IPOD and started schlepping down Delaware to get some exercise and see if a spring day can revive me.

It did. I followed Delaware down to Lincoln Parkway and veered over to Elmwood by the gallery and just worked my way back of Elmwood to Utica and back to my humble abode again. No great shakes that, but it was just good to get out with a decent soundtrack in my ears. It was one of those nights that make you happy to be glad in the village, plenty of folks were out, but it was without the weekend tourists, ya know. I stopped or was stopped to chat a few times, snafed one of Spot's patented italian sodas. Almost no money fun.

It wasn't very remarkable, but a jaunt like that was able to free my mind from all the intellectual bullshit of work, the possibility of needing to look for work and sundry crap.