Eddie

R.I.P. Eddie

Eddie went missing today sometime this afternoon. Upon much searching, his body was found early this evening in a treed area not too far from his home. It seems as though coyote's took his young life.

We will miss you buddy. You were the best.

Future Superstar

Yesterday after the blue jackets practice, Danny Gare went out onto Nationwide ice with Derrick Brassard and Derek Dorsett to show them some things about shooting that he had learned over his career (an NHL all-star and a two time 50 goal scorer). It was recorded and up on the CBJ's website.

Danny can still really shoot the puck! The coolest thing about the whole thing is that Brassard sought Danny out. Brassard is leading the rookie race in scoring and also leading the jackets in points, yet he still is trying every day to get better and better. Not only that, he is a really nice, polite, and respectful kid. I sat and watched the whole thing and afterwards grabbed Dany's stick and gloves and shot the puck around with Brassard and Dorsett. Even though these guys are in some cases, 15 years younger than me, as a hockey lover I am still a fan and that was quite exciting for me...even though I didn't really show it.

Go Jackets!!

What are you waiting for people? Why haven't you bought yourselves a mac computer yet? Are you seriously still worrying about your adware, spyware, virus, and hacking software? Is your virus software up to date as you read this? Are you still worried about downloading things from certain sites because there could quite possibly be worried about a Trojan Horse attached? Geez...what a shame.

Using a mac computer is the difference between using 'Suave' shampoo and 'Pureolgy'. Yes both will get your hair cleaned, but over time one will leave you feeling brittle and dried out and the other will just make your hair feel smooth and silky.

I am a little excited right now because I just made the coolest book in my iPhoto that I am going to order and give to Rick Nash, Pascal Leclaire and Jason Chimera--three players who competed in the World Championships this May. It was so easy to make and it looks highly professional all for 12.95 plus $5 for shipping!

I was a Dell owner, then a Gateway owner...one day I went into an Apple store and I haven't looked back. The PC's were great for the first few months of use, but before too long they started to slow down, and if you aren't particularly savvy in the world of computing (yes, that includes me) it is difficult to diagnose the cause. My mac, until very recently (hardware, not software issues--eventually the hardware will fail in everything) has run without hiccup for 2 years. No slowing, no stalling and best of all, no virus and next to no worries about becoming infected.

There are so many things within a mac that make them so smooth to operate and there are many little tricks that you can pick up along the way. Not only are they sleek and contemporary looking, there is a lot of neat things you can do with them. I, admittedly, likely know how to use about 10% of it's potential, but it is also about 8% more than I knew just a few weeks ago. Apple offers free workshops for its applications and the iphoto workshop I took was most helpful.

I understand that the vast majority of businesses are run via PC based software which makes it difficult for some people to change, but if you get the chance, head into an apple store and take a look. I warn you though: once you go mac you will never go back.

No Rest

Sunday was our semi-final game in our ball hockey playoffs. It was a 9:30 game which was about a half an our or so earlier than normal, but we all got emails alerting us of the time change so it was all good...or so I thought.

We get to the game and we knew that 'Copper' would be missing but nothing prepared us for Lisa and Ben being absent, therefore we had 5 players and a goalie--no subs. Yeah, that's right...no subs. On the floor the whole time at ball hockey. No rest. Nada. None. Meanwhile the other team started with 3 subs and then two more showed up part way through the first so they were always fresh.

We had to play in a defensive shell for most of the first part of the game and only went for specific chances. We ended up going up 1-0 part way through the first and held onto that lead until the 2nd. It was 1-1 after 2 and the score ended up a 3-1 final. We had two teammates show up for the third period but by then it was too late the damage had already been done.

I jammed my right toe again leading to another case of 'dek' toe. I hit the post and the crossbar all on one shot, and another post later. We put up a good fight, but when you are forced to run around all game long with no rest while the other team is always fresh it is bound to catch up to you. The winner of our game had to play in the finals at 12 noon. I was thinking to myself: "if we somehow win this, how in the world are we going to have anything left for finals?" Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, it never came to that.

The 'Heeb's'

Now that my Christmas tree project is finished, I have settled into doing very little all over again. I started working out again and it feels good (?). I have been sore every day this week so that is good I guess???

My ball hockey team won it's first 'one and done' playoff game last week (I scored a goal, short-handed no less :)) and we have the semi-final game this sunday vs. a team that beat us pretty handily two weeks ago. We'll see how that goes.

The other day, I was driving home and noticed birds. Not one, not two, not three, but maybe three hundred thousand! Seriously, it was incredible and I don't recall seeing anything like it. Luckily I had my camera with me and snapped a few photos while I was at the stop light. Look for yourself and tell me that it doesn't give you the creeps:


























Tell me this doesn't give you the creeps.

Tah-Dah!!

After several days and several hours of pouring myself into this Christmas Tree project, I finally finished it yesterday at about 6 pm.

Here is the much anticipated finished product:


I added some small, subtle details that some might appreciate (note the white hair on Hitch):



And Claude's glasses:


I think my favorite part of the whole thing are the ties on the coaches. I mean never in my life did I think I would think of something like that and then for it to actually work out? Come on.

I know this picture is a bit blurry, but have a look at Mason's goalie pads haha:



Here are some of the details of the bottom 'winter scenes':


Each of those little bulbs are autographed by the players. They look really cute.

...another section:


Take note of the two different formation of '2's. The '22' for Commodore was the first set of two's that I made. As you can see they are very rounded and a bit awkward looking. As I moved along, you can see the 2 in Chimera's '25'. A much sharper, cleaner looking 2.

...the final section:


This is a bit of a sledding scene...I used marshmellow's for the snow bank and covered it with that icing. It actually worked out quite nicely. I then just planted some little guys' all over the place to make it look festive and jolly!

Of course the topper, a tribute to the late Mr. Mac:

Finally, here is the finished product:

I CAN do it

Well, I watched the jackets smoke Buffalo 6-1 and then promptly got back to the baking. What a delight that was.

I am not sure why, but I expected the dough to be soft and easy to work with once out of the fridge. Wrong. It was hard, very hard and I wondered if I left it in too long. I thought I had ruined the whole batch and would have to go through that whole process again, immediately thinking about how I was going to avoid the smell of the molases.

As I started working with the dough it began to soften up and spread out. I took my handy rolling pin and rolled it out on the fancy parchment paper I bought for the occasion. Once I got it all rolled out to my desired thickness, I used my cute little cutter to cut out the shapes of the men. Here, have a look:

As I was punching them out, I was concerned because the dough had a bit of a wood grain type appearance and it didn't seem right. I still thought I might have mucked up my whole project. I just decided to keep going and see what would happen. After I got them all punched out, I then baked them for about 8 minutes and voila! They looked like real gingerbread men!


After a few batches of the men, it was time to give them their gear. Have you ever seen the show 'Ace of Cakes'? It is on TLC and it is a show that takes place in a bakery somewhere in NJ or PA. Anyway, they make the most amazing cakes you can imagine and they are always using this stuff called fondant. I saw some in the store the other day and felt like this would be a great way to decorate these little suckers. Fondant comes in these packages that look lik 'Das' (remember that clay stuff from when you are a kid?) and it is basically an edible type of play-doh that you can roll out and use it to either cover a cake or make all kinds of decorations on for your cookies or cake. In my case, it was going to become a jersey and hockey pants.

I rolled out the blue fondant and began cutting out the jersey's. It was quite easy and it was going to work out great. Here is a look at the process:


I then rolled out the red fondant and did the same for the pants:



The most tedious part of the whole process was making the numbers. I used the white fondant for that and had to roll out a 'worm' and then shape the numbers. It wouldn't have been bad if more of the jackets numbers were 11, 14, 17, etc...but there were lots of 2's, 5's, and 8's which made it difficult. In the end, however I think it was worth it! The finish product looks like this:

Tomorrow I will get the tree and decorate it up and let you all see a picture of the finished product. I think this tree will definitely trump our last years' tree in terms of decor, but I have a strong suspicion that we will need to add the 'lunch with the coaches' as our ace in the hole.