Sunday, May 02, 2010
10:50:57 AM
Welcome to the day where everyone is trapped. There is sort of a harmoniuc convergence of suck taking place in Pittsburgh today that pretty much leaves everyone homebound, unless they want to detour miles out of their way to get from point A to point B.
First and most detrimental to travel is the Pittsburgh Marathon, a race that all but cuts the city in half with its course. Those looking to get from the northern parts of the city to the southern can all but forget it and if you tend to live in the city's central and eastern sections, the course is all but a noose that chokes off traffic entirely. Add to that that the Penguins are playing host to Montreal in game two of their Eastern Conference semifinal and you have about 20,000 people trying to puncture the numerous street closings that the marathon has created. It is very much a lab rat/cheese experiment, with the cheese being the Civic Arena where the game is being played and the lab rats being hockey fans. Third is the fact that today is commencement for the University of Pittsburgh, so you have a constituency that is trying to get into town to watch their offspring grab a diploma, but it also signifies the end of the school year, so many of the people that live here part time during the school year are in the process of pakcing and moving out in the midst of the clusterfuck that is going on. Don't get me wrong, I am happy they are moving out, the fewer of them that are here the happier by and large I am, but for the day it is keeping me homebound.
Not that I would have had a huge amount of plans today anyway, after all I would most likely be spending he better part of the afternoon watching the hockey game anyway, since I am not nearly fortunate enough, nor wealthy enough to afford playoff hockey tickets. I will be content to just watching on my TV, but sadly that will have to wait a bit, as it is too early for the game yet.
And let me be the first to say that there is absolutely nothing on TV on Sunday morning. Luckily I was able to get in a little early morning web surfing, my new Amazon gift card was posted to my Swagbucks account, which I added meaning I now have $19 in there to spend. I also had a good day swagbucking so far, 2 for the toolbar refresh, 2 for the daily special offers and searches which got me 10 and 11 bucks respectively. So I start my next two week period in trying to get prizes with 324 of the 450 needed for my next gift card. Now if only all of my apps worked this well. I checked my Mysurvey account the other day, I got my bonus 500 points for a survey I did a couple of weeks back. The survey was 4 weeks long, each week you got 125 points, plus 500 bonus upon completion. This would normally be a $10 survey, as the exchange rate was basically a penny a point, with you needing 1000 points ($10) to cash out. Plus they would cut you a check for the money, no paypal nonsense or anything of the like, just a simple check in the mail. It was the route I usually went, save for when I got my coffee pot because the prizes in there are mediocre at best. at least they used to be, but now tyhe prize catalog has been expanded, but the prices have went up as well. The charitable donations remained the same, but everything else has been increased, so s $10 check actually costs $11.50, but there are numerous gift cards for $10 that can be had for $11, like CVS, Amazon, Red Robin, iTunes, Outback, all prizes that weren't available before and places that I sometimes find myself going to. Most likely I will stick with the Amazon gift cards, I have become a pretty big fan of the site and have gotten plenty of goodies from them since the start of the year. Most recently I got Mark Morford's book, he of the columnist for SFGate.com that shows up here in stolen content from time to time. I am about halfway done, but my favorite part of the book would have to be the Mullet Haiku segments, which are small but incredibly funny.
I don't know if I am looking forward to work on Monday, Ed is going to be back from Florida and I made the mistake of coming in on Saturday to place the order for Monday morning when Ed called. He wanted me to order more school supplies, even though we have most everything in the store already and we can get orders three times a week. Apparently I didn't have enough for him, and now we are getting into the mess that I haven't been looking forward to, where Ed will want too much backstock, while Brian will want me to keep the billing down. Add to that I just pulled one of Ed pet products from the shelves the other day, and I am sure I will be in for an ass reaming. See Ed had this idea last spring of ordering a product called Isopure, a protein type drink that failed miserably as a sellable product, so much so that of the 6 or 7 cases he ordered I have already pulled 5 of them for running past their expiration date. To make matters worse, the cooler he put them in was space that apparently was contracturally obligated to Gatorade. One of the things that I am getting to learn about this ordering business is that many of the vendors pay for space in the store, including cooler space, so anytime a product from one company ends up in another company's cooler it tends to piss off their reps. In the case of Gatorade, while they don't have a cooler for themselves, apparently the contract we signed with them grants them one of our coolers, as well as an additional shelf in a second cooler. Now Ed has the authority to bully the vendors to get what he wants, I do not, so when a vendor comes in as says I owe them such and such space Ed may argue with them, I am just stuck saying "Yes massa". So to make way for the Gatorade I went ahead and pulled the last of the Isopure, which wasn't selling anyway. It wasn't like I was pulling a Pepsi or Mountain Dew, stuff that we can push better than a case a day, rather I was pulling stuff that I couldn't sell a case in two months.
Now I don't think the Gatorade is going to sell all that well, it will do better than Isopure and we are getting a discount on it, but I am not expecting us to become a giant retailer of the beverage, but I didn't sign the contract. I have to play by the rules I am given, even if I don't like the rules per se. We could easily have gotten away with awarding them half of that space, though it would cut into the amount they pay us for the space, but any time we are in vioation of the contract technically they don't have to pay us anything.
Sorry, just hopped over to Facebook for a second and there was a code out for Swagbucks, 9 more for me. Thats 34 so far this morning, much better than yesterday when I coudn't get anything.
Just checked the Post Gazette website to see if the marathon was over, and it seems to be, though they found a pipe bomb in a microwave oven along the course and had to detour the ending of the race. Let's see how big of a story that turns out to be as the day progresses.
1:57:16 PM
Okay, getting settled in for the hockey game, and yes it seems like I will be glogging this one. Quick recap on how we got to our current state, Pittsburgh, the 4th seed in the East, advanced to the conference semifinals after defeating the 5th seeded Ottawa Senators 4 games to 2, while the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens advanced by defeating the #1 seeded Washington Capitals, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit to win 4 games to 3. Pittsburgh is now the highest remaining seed in the East, after #1 Washington, #2 New Jersey and #3 Buffalo all fell in the first round. This is the second game of this series, Pittsburgh won game 1 by a 6-3 count, going 4 for 4 on the power play, after Montreal held Washington to just one power play goal on 34 attempts in the first round. Both teams suffered a significant injury in game 1, Montreal lost Andre Markov and Pittsburgh lost Jordan Staal. Markov's injury to this point is being called an "upper body injury" which is hockey speak for saying that the Canadiens aren't telling, while Staal suffered a severed tendon in his foot and underwent surgery, though again because of the vagueness of hockey injuries the team is calling him "day to day". Chances are it will be plenty of days.
I know that my hockey glogs and posting of hockey game highlights may annoy some readers of this here blog, but I have been doing this for two years now (at least the videos, the glogging has been hit and miss) and in those two years the Penguins made the Stanley Cup final one year and won the Stanley Cup the next. last I checked you don't mess with success, so the tradition will continue. Perhaps some other poeple that read this blog might want to do the same thing, if it helped my team, perhaps it can help yours as well. I better shut up before the Pittsburgh Pirates try to employ me to help their woeful franchise. Hey, I am not a miracle worker here. After all, they have a streak of their own to maintain, most consecutive losing seasons by a North American sports franchise, and they are well on their way, starting the season 10-14. Worse still, they are 28th (out of 30 teams) in batting average, and 30th in earned run average, a recipe for disaster if ever there was one. In 24 games now they have been outscored by 83 runs. That my friends is a skill set you just can't teach, you either have that inability or you don't.
Let me say that I am loving the Stanley Cup commercials "History will be made" series. Sadly they tend to appeal to people that already follow hockey rather than those that are new to the game.
Okay, we are just about underway from the Civic Arena here in Pittsburgh.
Early on, just a minute or so into the game the Pengfuins have the games first good scoring chance but Halak is up to the test and makes the save.
Icing called on the Penguins 3 and a half minutes in, the faceoff will come back to the Penguins end and Montreal gets their first shot of the game. Pittsburgh seems to have the territorial advantage in the early going and it pays off, a goal by Matt Cooke and the Penguins lead 1-0. Pascal Dupuis and Max Talbot get the assists. I have to wonder if Max getting an assist is "superstar treatment".
It is early on, but it is almost like Pittsburgh is playing on a power play here early on. And it shows in the shot total, Pittsburgh leads 9-2. First commercial break. Just what we needed, commercials for me to mock.
Damn, nothing mockable to this point. I must be losing my touch.
Man I am watching Montreal and I can't help but wonder just how the hell they got out of the first round. I guess a goaltender can steal a series, because I have seen nothing so far in this series that leads me to believe the Canadiens had any business beating Washington.
First penalty, interference on Ruslan Fedetenko and Montreal gets the game's first power play opportunity. Maybe this will be the spark that Montreal needs to get on track. A real good scoring chance by Montreal on a redirected shot by Brian Gionta but Fluery makes the save and it remains 1-0.
Mointreal is getting some shots on this power play, but nothing to show for it yet. And with that the Penguins kill off the power play, back to even strength hockey for the time being.
The aggressive pace that started this game, especially by the Penguins, has slowed a bit and the play has evened out some but as a result there aren't many scoring chances for either team.
A GoDaddy.com ad, where sex apparently sells, except it doesn't. All is does is ask perverts to get their web domains from GoDaddy, only when they go there they are vastly disappointed.
A defensive miscue by Pittsburgh leaves Brian Gionta alone in front of the Penguins goal and a pass by Scott Gomez to him results in a tie game, 1-1. Benoit Pouliot gets the second assist on the goal and Montreal is strating to play like they belong here, taking the lead is shots as well, 11-9.
End of the first period, the score is tied 1-1 and not much happened since I last wrote something, one more shot by Montreal to bring the totals for the period to 12-9. While we are in the first intermission I am thinking some food my be in order.
Well the bomb during the Pittsburgh Marathon has been picked up by the Drudgereport. I figured it wouldn't stay local for long.
A couple of fried egg sandwiches later and I am ready for period number two.
Second period underway and like the first the Penguins earn the first shot on goal, though nothing comes of it and the score remains tied.
Still only one penalty called in the game to this point, very much unlike game one in that regard, where Pittsburgh had 4 power plays and Montreal had a handful of them as well.
A flurry of acitivity in front of the Montreal netminder but Halak was up to the task to keep the game tied. The second period continues to reflect the first, Pittsburgh is dictating the momentum early on, they have 8 shots this period in less than 7 minutes after getting 9 in the first 20 minutes, meanwhile Montreal is still looking for their first shot here in the second.
And agaim the mirroring of the first period continues, Pittsburgh gets called for a penalty, Brooks Orpik gets two minutes for holding. Last period it was the penalty that seemed to change the momentum, and the same happens here as it takes all of maybe 10 seconds and they score on the powerplay to take the their first lead, Mike Cammalleri getting his 7th goal of the playoffs, with PK Subban and Scott Gomez getting the assists.
Another flurry of activity by the Penguins, perhaps going down a goal woke them up a bit, but again there is nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. The opportunities are there for Pittsburgh, it is the conversions that seem to be problematic.
15 minutes into the second period and still no change in the score. Montreal leads 2-1, scoring on one of only two shots they have managed this period, while Pittsburgh is now 0 for 12 in the shooting department.
A three on two break for the Penguins, with Crosby and Malkin leading the charge, but Crosby's pass to Malkin is on the mark but the shot is denied.
Another break in with less than 15 seconds left, and the Penguins, while not scoring do manage to draw a penalty on Hal Gill forn interference and Pittsburgh will start the third period with the man advantage, but for now we have two periods in the book and Montreal leads 2-1. Shots in the second were Pittsburgh 18, Montreal 3.
2nd intermission and while some people will say that I spend too much time on this blog talking sports, especially of the fantasy variety that I like to partake in, I was bored last night and popped over to Hulu where I watched "Fantasyland". I guess technically it is supposed to be a documentary about fantasy sports, but it tends to focus almost solely on baseball when in reality there are a variety of fantasy games for a number of sports, so it seemed to be very narrowly focused to say the least. the major story in it invloved something called Tout Wars, a fantasy baseball league that is comprised of nothing but "experts" in the field of fantasy baseball, the people who work for sports publications or those who author their own fantasy guides for the upcoming season. Except in ths particular season they were inviting an amateur to play in the league as well, Jed Latkin, and while he did okay in the league (he finished 6th out of 12 teams) the movie made him look like a dork of the highest order. I get that there are people who follow fantasy sports more closely than I and can recite statistics at the drop of a hat and will even spend their waking moments with faces buried in fantasy sports publications, looking for a little extra something but this guy was over the top. He literally went to spring training and regular season games harasssing players and coaches about what they thought, as though a coach is going to tell anyone, let alone a fantasy geek, what his plans are for his lineup on a day to day basis. He also went about having T shirts made and handing him out to the baseball players he drafted, as if they give a rat's ass how his team is doing or the fact that he drafted them. As the season progresses, Jed is literally bombarding other team owners with trade offers, to the point he is sending them hundreds of emails on an almost daily basis. When that doesn't work he climbs in his car and drives to see them, not a simple hop across town either, but literally hundreds of miles to show up on their doorstep unannounced. I will say that they were more tolerable than I, I would have kicked his ass. While his wife is giving birth to their first kids (she had twins), Jed is in the lobby of the hospital trying to make another trade for his fantasy team. It is all just too much, by the time Jed gets hit with a baseball while watching a game at Wrigley Field, you only hope it kills him to end his moronic existence.
Third period, movie review will have to wait.
Pittsburgh starts the 3rd period with the power play, a power play that registers 3 shots but no goals, so Montreal kills it off, something they couldn't do in game 1. But no sooner do they kill off the penalty than Mike Cammalleri is sent to the penalty box, 2 minutes for high sticking and again Pittsburgh has the man advantage.
Another penalty kill by Montreal keeps the score at 2-1 and with less than 15 minutes left it will be interesting to see if Pittsburgh starts taking chances to get the tying goal. On one hand they seem to be generating shots, but still they trail by one.
8 minutes gone in the third, Pittsburgh again domination in shots, 7-2 but just can't get the equalizing goal.
Pascal Dupuis makes a nice move that results in a backhand shot that is saved, but earns the Penguins their third straight powerplay, as Marc-Andre Bergeron gets called for holding Dupuis on the move.
Montreal kills off the penalty, they don't even allow a shot to the Penguins during the power play that time, which is probably the easiest way to protect a one goal lead, don't allow shots.
Halak just continues to make big saves here, 6 minutes and change left and he has kept the Canadiens in the lead with some stellar play in net, including denying Matt Cooke on a rebound chance.
4:15 left, Montreal leads 2-1 and Pittsburgh continues to be frustrated, they have thrown 12 more shots at Halak this period and have nothing to show for it. An odd stat, in games where Halak has faced 40 or more shots he is 12-0. Pittsburgh has 39 right now.
Well it happened, too many players pinched in which reults in a breakaway the other direction and Michael Cammalleri scores to make it 3-1. The goal was Cammalleri's second of the game and 8th of the post season. Tomas Plekanec gets the lone assist.
Craig Adams gets called for a major penalty, 5 minutes for checking from behind and this game is all but over at this point. I can't see Pittsburgh coming up with two short handed goals here.
And that is a wrap, Montreal wins 3-1 to even the series at one game each. Halak ends up stopping 38 of 39 shots, certainly the best player on the ice this afternoon, and without him the result may very well be different. Next stop is game 3 in Montreal. I don't know whether I will glog that one or not, really haven't checked my social calendar yet to see what is on the agenda.
09:17:12 PM
Okay, I will try not to make this a week long blog and confine it to just one day. As it is I still need to run out and and do some laundry tonight and while I could take my laptop and blog from there, they do have WiFi after all, I will probably just take my book and get some light reading in instead.
I should give an update, it turns out that the bomb during the Pittsburgh marathon actually wasn't, but you will be happy to know that the streets of Pittsburgh are safe because the police department detonated a microwave oven. Now if they could just get about detonating those chairs people use to save parking spaces the city would be completely safe.
And I still have to add some links to this entry, something I haven't done in a while but when I do it just makes the blog feel more complete, like you the reader can actually understand what it is I am talking about when I get all reference-y at times (like the max talbot reference).
By the way, in my last entry I mentioned how I was close to winning a prize on the Scratchix facebook app, well it turns out I didn't win. I got 9 of the 10 needed tokens but couldn't get the tenth, and the system reset so I am prizeless. Of course it didn't help that the app was down an entire day, and there is a side of me that wonders if they didn't do that intentionally.
Oh well, time to spell check and add some links and call it a night, since, well, it is night.
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