Chico's Journal

09/12/2006 17:46 #21197

I guess I'll never understand...

I'll never understand how the mind of Charles Wang, owner of the New York Islander hockey club, works.

The New York Islanders signed Alexsei Yashin to a 10-year deal, and the only thing he does consistently is underperform. Of course, with a big fat 10-year contract, he's basically untradeable.

Lesson learned... right?

Wrong. I like Rick DiPietro, I do. He's an exciting netminder and not without talent. But to sign a 25-year old goalie to a FIFTEEN YEAR CONTRACT? Whaaaaaaaaaat?!

This, on top of canning general manager Neil Smith and replacing him with Garth Snow. As much as I hate the Rangers and dislike Neil Smith, the guy is a pro with experience building a team. So hey, why not fire him right after hiring him, and replace him with a backup goaltender.

These are strange times for my beloved Islanders. Anyone remember the old Paul Newman flick "Slapshot!"? I'm wondering if it's beginning to come true on Long Island.

Oh, and apologies to all you wonderful e-strippers who helped us out...I still want to meet you all, but the job's got me swamped. Once I'm out from under, I'll be lurking about Elmwood looking for you.

08/01/2006 17:28 #21196

Buffalo or Bust, part I
Category: road trip

Hey -- if you spot the hottest 5-foot-one, 29-ish brunette you've ever seen in Buffalo strolling around on Elmwood Avenue tonight or tomorrow night, yell out "Hey (e:chicoschica)!" -- she's due in town this evening and will be around till Thursday morning. She's likely to be with her mom and her (taller) younger sister.

Chica and I will be up in B-lo permanently in one week!

See you all soon...

libertad - 08/01/06 23:44
oh she will be your new neighbor. She told me about the apt.

libertad - 08/01/06 23:43
Hopefully you will meet my friend Lynn soon. She is awesome!

jenks - 08/01/06 19:15
tell her to give us a shout if she needs anything...

mrmike - 08/01/06 17:39
Countin on it

07/30/2006 10:40 #21195

everything and nothing

So it's been a while ... seems like an eternity.

(e:chicoschica) and I are gearing up for the big move -- eight days and counting down!! It's starting to feel really weird, we have made a life for ourselves in NJ and now it's time to move on.

We've been too busy to reminisce though -- last two weeks have been a whirlwind. My sister's wedding in Baltimore two weeks ago, last week a really nice going-away party thrown by my buddy Bill and some other good friends, plus a family party the next day...this weekend we had our niece Camille's one-year birthday party (yesterday) and today we have chica's friends coming over for a homemade Indian feast (fortunately, cooked by our friend Sayandip, not by us! haha).

Tuesday or Wednesday I think chica will do an advance trip to B-lo to clean the apartment, which means she'll miss my dissertation defense (Wednesday)...but that's OK, our defenses are kind of boring anyway. So she cleans; I defend, get rip-roaring drunk, then finish packing all our stuff while hung over. :-) But wait! I still have to finish my syllabi and lesson plans for my courses, write my paper for an upcoming conference, revise the dissertation.... aaaaack! Oh, and did I mention that I'm completely broke? *sigh*

Aw hell, it's not as bad as losing $400 and a wallet full of credit cards and ID ( (e:jenks,200) ) but I'm feeling just a little overwhelmed right now. But soon we'll be in Buffalo, and that will make everything better, right? ;-)

leetee - 07/30/06 10:51
Moving is stressful. Moving long distance is even more stressful. Sounds like the loose ends of life for you guys in NJ are a bit stressful on top pf everything else. In a couple of months, once you guys are all settled in, i bet you will be able to laugh about all of this...

Hope the move is as stress free as possible!

I hope your dissertation defense goes well, too.

07/14/2006 10:10 #21194

damn proud of my sis

My sister Liz is getting married this weekend. I'm happy for her but pissed about the fact that we have to drive to Baltimore on the final weekend of my big push to finish my dissertation, and with only 3 weeks left till the big move to B-lo. *sigh*

Nonetheless, I'm excited for her, not only because of the wedding, but because she has lost a ton of weight and looks fantastic. She's even featured as a success story on e-diets! Check it out:

I'm so proud of her. :-)

leetee - 07/14/06 22:22
Congrats to your sis for dropping weight she wanted to. Hope the wedding is a good day, and that her marriage is a happy one. :)

07/13/2006 18:00 #21193

Bad juju
Category: middle east

No that title is NOT meant as an ethnic or religious slur.

In case you haven't seen the news, the Middle East is on the brink of war, thanks to what many see as an overreaction by Israel to the kidnapping and killing of its soldiers by Hezbollah.

Video of the attack on the airport in Beirut:

I'm intensely interested in this not only because I study war, but because I have a friend who was in Lebanon when the Israelis bombed the Beirut airport. Fortunately she's nobody's fool so she scampered back to Syria, where she is studying Arabic this summer.

Her recent blogs

give an interesting first-person take on the crisis from the point of view of an American political scientist in a country hostile to Israel. If I know Emily, she'll keep the news coming. She uses fifty-cent words but she's perceptive and the posts could be really intriguing.

At the moment, we're just hoping that the crisis/war doesn't escalate to include Syria...

metalpeter - 07/14/06 19:13
I know this is going to sound hatefull but this is what needs to happen. All of our US troops need to come home from iraq now. All americans need to leave all middle eastern countries. For all I care they can all kill each other and bomb the shit out of each other. The middle east has been a war zone since before we where a country if they want to invade each other fine. If they want to have holy wars fine. We have enough problems in our country and shouldn't worry about what is going on over there. In fact we have made things worse. We put Saddam in power then didn't like him so we pulled him out and iraq fell apart. We Put Bin Laden in power and you see how that worked out. We are buddies with isreal. Don't evern get me started on the Iran Contra trading hostages for weapons. Who are we to stick out nose in where it isn't wanted. I'm not saying anything negative about anyone who you know. But lets get all the americans out of that area.

chico - 07/14/06 09:51
I'm not so sure Russia has all that much credibility in tsk-tsking Israel for using disproportionate force, given what the Russians have done in Chechnya... but then, that's a whole different ball of wax...

imk2 - 07/13/06 23:58
i've been following this story for the past few days and now am getting seriously worried. the whole middle east is on the brink of war, and all our president can talk about is roasted pigs? but seriously, he is standing behind israel on this, saying that they have a right to defend themselves. i however, donâ€™t see why they feel the need to defend themselve, since this started over a kidnapping. russia nailed it right on the head when it stated that israel is using "disproportionate force" in it's attacks. um ya, you think!?!?

ajay - 07/13/06 21:38
Thanks for posting the link to your friend Emily's blog. It is always interesting to read first-hand news, instead of the crap filtered through several layers of spinning filters...

Israel opens 2 fronts; Iraq still burns; bombings in India; there's a lot of killing going on.

I think it's time all San Franciscans got together to hold hands and hug each other (the standard response....)

ajay - 07/13/06 21:29
(e:Zobar), with that much spam, a heart-attack would get you long before any "enemy" did... ;-)

chico - 07/13/06 19:00
Zobar, thanks for bringing some serious levity to the situation.

As much as I'd like to see a photo of you huddled under your bed with 60 cans of Spam and some AK-47s, I understand that for security reasons you should probably refrain from posting such photos.

Oh, and you'll probably want some recipes for all that canned meat: :::link:::

and don't forget the Spambalaya: :::link:::

zobar - 07/13/06 18:47
Holy fucking shit.

This whole shit's fucked up. You will find that many people will take sides in this conflict and defend them vehemently. I cannot join them, because what it comes down to is that nobody is right, and the only goals war could achieve are political.

My thoughts are with your friend in Damascus. She is smart and can take care of herself. As for me, I have stockpiled Spam and am blogging from under my bed, where I also have several Kalashikov rifles.

- Z