I received an email from my dad tonight and felt I needed to post it here.  Ironically, tonight while I was coming home I decided to drive through the old neighborhood where I gre up.  One of the sights is always Granny's house.  Well, these days it's where Granny's house used to be -- they've since torn her house down and replaced it with a newer larger one but the lot and the memories are still there.  So the contents of the email I received from my dad was a letter I wrote to my grandmother "Granny" for her 75th birthday which was in Jan 1999.  I miss you Granny -


My fondest memory of my Grandmother


When I was first told about this idea of writing down my fondest memory of you I thought it would be easy. No big deal…just jot something down, right. But when I stopped to think about it there are so many special memories I have it was hard to pick just one. There are the obvious ones like going food shopping together or "Christmas Eve at Granny's" but probably what I remember most about you is simply spending time with you at your house be it on a sick day, a snow day or just in the afternoon until my mom came to pick me and Tina up. I think back now about how great those days were and only now can I really appreciate them for what they were. When I think about it I'm surprised I didn't go insane from boredom. All there was to do was color in the coloring books that were stashed under the coffee table and watch tv….that is if it wasn't wash day. Oh, and I can't forget about the daily trips to Geiger's for milk, bread and Raleigh's Plain. Sometimes I would actually do homework…other times I'd sort through my hockey cards. I think it was one of these days that I came up with my hockey pool that you always graciously participated in even though I think you really had no interest in it.  Remember the one where you picked a number from a cup and that number had to match the total score in the Flyers game? I remember you always let me watch tv most of the day until Sally Jesse Raphael came on. Then it was your turn to watch tv for a couple hours until Little House on the Prairie came on. I remember you making Macaroni & Cheese for lunch just about anytime I wanted. Plus if we were lucky enough to stay for supper you always had something great to eat…always with a slice of butter bread, of course!  There are so many memories I have of you Granny that I could go on for pages and pages. If you get anything out of this letter let it be that you know how much I love having you as a grandmother and that I hope to make many more memories with you in the years to come.

Which is worse?

Much to do is being made of a comment Wayne Simmonds made about Sean Avery during last nights Flyers / Rangers preseason battle. I don't say allegedly as many news sites are almost required to say - he made the comment - I have no doubts. If there is any doubt in your mind - play this video

Simmonds

For some strange reason, not much press is being given to this little tid-bit that happened seconds before.....

Avery

So I ask you - seriously - which is worse? Calling someone a name (remember sticks and stones growing up?) or threatening to kill someone?

And don't tell me Avery didn't really mean to kill Giroux. That would imply you were able to read Avery's twisted thoughts and say that he meant he was just going to beat him up or something like that...right? Well, I just so happen to have that same clairvoyant ability and I was reading Simmonds' mind at the very time he uttered those nasty horrific words that everyone is so shocked about. He wasn't saying anything about Avery's sexuality (as if there is any doubt) and how dare you have such terrible thoughts anyway...what's wrong with you for thinking that? Naturally when he called him a faggot he was referring to this -

Faggot

Someone who goes by the name Freudian put it best when he posted a comment on a message board that read "I'm sure some gays will be offended by being compared to Avery, but I think most don't care."

And there you have it. Case closed.....let's play hockey.

EDIT: Just as I was about to publish this post - I received an alert on my phone indicating that Simmonds would not be punished by the league.  Thank God.....there seems to be some common sense left in this world afterall.

20 - 17 - 18 >= 20


Carter scored last night … on a rebound … during a two-man advantage. Yawn. I also noticed he changed his number from 17 to 7 and is apparently once again suffering from a "bruised" foot. Naturally it occurred in the offensive zone - off a shot from his own player - Nash. Also worthy or mentioning, he's a -14 in his 5 years of post-season action with Philly. Time to finally put this guy down and put us all out of our misery.

As for Richards -

"Off-season acquisitions Mike Richards and Simon Gagne played with captain Dustin Brown on the second line and the three were a combined minus-6. "

In return, the Flyers acquired Voracek, Simmonds and Schenn and indirectly Bryzgalov.  All three have been having decent starts to camp with Simmonds probably being the most impressive.

I was going to say something about Jody Shelley but I already wasted enough time just thinking about him.  Last but not least - Jagr.  Very strange to see him in the Orange and Black but a goal and an assist in his first game with the Flyers?  Not a bad start at all.....not bad at all.

It's very early but at least so far the post-trade scales seem to be tipped in favor of the Flyers. So much hype is being made of the fact that 40-some percent of the Flyers goals were either traded away of lost to free agency with a good share of that going along with 17 and 18. I contend that when the other 18 guys on the ice are given an opportunity to handle the puck more - the goals will come - maybe even more than before.

Flyers / Rangers tonight 7pm. The lineup will be pretty close to what we'll see opening night. Don't miss it.

Tonight I was tidying up some of the images I have saved on my pc and stumbled upon something pretty amazing.  The guys (ladies too, I just HATE the word folks) have done it again.  I found this picture

 

that I had taken back on June 24, 2009.  I remember it clearly - this giant thing came out of nowhere and landed on my shoulder.  My dad was there and he bravely flicked the thing off me and onto the picnic table.  The monster was a good 3-4 inches long.  Neither of us had seen one before so we were both fascinated.  I tried a few times to look for it's name via the web but came up empty.....until tonight that is.  I pointed my browser to http://images.google.com and before I even had a chance to type anything in I noticed a message:

"New! Now you can use an image to start your Google search."

Really?  Ok....I'll give it a try.  I drag the picture from my Windows Explorer window onto the Google Images search page - wait a couple seconds while it uploads and ...... awwww.  It found a lot of black and grey pictures but not of my bug.  Not even of any bugs....mostly rocks.  But there's still hope - in the search box at the top I'm instructed to

"describe image here"

so I do just that - I type in "bug false eye"

And BAM - I now know that my shoulder was attacked by a pretty large EYED CLICK BEETLE.

Thank you Google.

Aug 12-14, 2011 was the 6th annual Hockey Fights MS tournament held in Bethlehem, PA.  I played for the "Free Agents" team - a rag tag bunch of guys (and two girls) thrown together for the sake of playing hockey, raising some money for MS research and just having fun.  For the first time, I was on the winning side!  That's right, we won our division.  I played defense for all four games...not sure if that helped us along our journey or if we won despite that fact but I had a good time.  Not as fun as VT but fun nonetheless.  Details of this and previous tournaments can be found at Hockey Fights MS website.


This first set of pictures is from the championship game against the Black Holes:

 

 

 

Time to shake hands

 

 

Holding "The Cup"

 

Group shot

 

More shots from earlier in the tournament

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago we decided (the kids were begging) to take a rafting/tubing trip down the Lehigh.  We drove up to Treichler's bridge and floated down to just a little north of the power lines that cross the river from the Northampton sub-station....I think it's called Seigfreid?  Anyway, the kids had a great time, Christl was cold and we ended up walking back to the car in the dark because....no surprises really....it took longer than we expected.

 

 

The kids got a little excited when this happened.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christl's mom found this guy walking on the side of the road directly across from their house. We grabbed it and took it over to the pond and as soon as it saw the water it immediately wanted to get in. We'll have to keep an eye on the fish - if they start disappearing - time for the turtle to leave.

 

 

 

 

Another very fun and exciting trip to Vermont to play in the 4th Annual Hockey Fights MS Hockey Tournament. We came close to winning the championship in our division of 8 teams. Fell just short - we had been ahead 2-1 for most of the game until the other team (Designated Drinkers) scored two late goals to win the trophy. There's always next year.

From JT's Essay - "My Dad"

JT surprised me with this paper tonight. His assignment at school was to write an essay about someone who has changed his life. Needless to say - it made my week.

This little clip was taken at the "Unangst Fall Fest" on October 9, 2010. I can't remember the name of the instrument you hear - all I remember is my uncle Gary calls it a 'dizzaradoo'.

I was perusing my old posts and saw my Thanksgiving turkey from 2009 so I decided I'd dig up a pick of the one from 2010. The big joke was that it had been in the sun too long wearing a string bikini. Everyone raved about the flavor....as I remember I did the least to it that time. I also think is was a Giant brand rather than the standard Butterball.

It's been awhile. I haven't been on here in a little over a year which is about the same amount of time I've been working at PPL.  So much has happened since my last post....I'll start with the job situation.  My stint at Schuylkill Medical Center lasted a little less than two months.  I really enjoyed the job and the people.  The only real drawback was that it took me about 1hr and 10mins to commute each way.  But I was doing ok with it because I enjoyed getting up each day, getting in the car, stopping for a coffee (to enjoy on the long journey) and heading to a job I liked (and a place I was appreciated).

But one early spring day I received a phone call from someone from ComputerAid asking if I was still interested in a position I had last discussed shortly before Christmas.  I had gotten the impression that there was a position open at that time but it had been filled by a contractor already working inside PPL but for another contracting firm.  I had put it out of my mind and figured it just wasn't meant to be and accepted the offer at Schuylkill.  But now the offer was thrown back at me.....I could cut my commute down to 1/3 what it was and I could opt to be paid hourly and be eligible for OT pay.

I truly struggled with the decision because I was really starting to feel like I was part of the little group out the in Pottsville.  There were many challenges ahead of me - I was the "interface guy" there.  No one really had any experience with supporting interface engines - it was all hosted and "supported" by the vendor.  I say "supported" because one of the issues they were dealing with was a vendor who didn't seem to fully understand the impact of having one or more critical interfaces unavailable.  I sensed a tremendous opportunity for growth for both my career and the hospital as well.

I waited about two days before laying the news on my boss, the CIO.  Karen - if you even stumble upon this - know that I am sincere when I say that I struggled and felt horrible that I was leaving you guys after such a short time.

But just as I believed that "things happen for a reason" when I was hired in Pottsville - I thought the same had to apply in the case of PPL.

So I've worked there since sometime around mid-April of 2010.  I have met many nice people and generally enjoy the work I do.  I'm back to UNIX admin after a few years of focusing on interface development at Lehigh Valley Hospital.  But what makes it interesting for me is the technologies at PPL that I only dreamed about at LVH.  New servers attached to SAN storage....linux servers - both physical and virtuals....DR procedures that actually work.....lots of good stuff.

So I guess I'll wrap it up for this post.  Not because that's all that happened in a year but because I'm getting tired of typing and if I'M tired I can only imagine if anyone is reading this, how he/she feels.!