Penguins @ Canucks 11/04/2017

Vancouver 4  Pittsburgh 2

Jake Guentzel, Greg McKegg - G each

Matt Murray allowed 4 goals on 21 shots

Penguins @ Flames 11/02/2017

Calgary 2  Pittsburgh 1  OT

Patric Hornqvist - G

Pittsburgh out shot Calgary 41-33

B365 V4.20 - Christmas list (the 2017 edition)

As long time readers know, I usually write a Christmas list which makes its way onto the blog.  What can I say, if you ask me what I want or need, I will tell you, I am not one to be shy about such things.  Not that I expect anything on my list (nobody is buying my next vacation to Vancouver, I know that much), but being honest, there are things that I want, including some things that are unattainable.  This year's list is late because, of an unexpected job search, which resulted in two jobs and drains even more time and the fact that I am not all that festive this year, since it is my first Christmas without my mom.  With that being said, the unveiling of this year's list commences right about now......

Money

Lottery tickets

A trip back to Vancouver

Groceries

Some more time with my mom

An air turkey fryer

A maid

Books (David Thorne, Andrew Vachss, Robert Parker to name a few authors)

Wins for my fantasy football and hockey teams

A massage

One job that pays enough that i don't have to work two jobs

Amazon Prime

Fixed glass on my ipad

A belt

Shoes

A Joe Sakic Quebec Nordiques jersey

The glass fixed on my ipad

More free time

Raises at both my jobs

B 365 V4.19 - The winds of change this way blow

     So, since I have been slacking in the blogging department, it is about time I bang out one of these here things, don't you think?

     There have been a couple of changes of note, which I will get out of the way rather quickly.  First, the employment  status has once again been changed to hired albeit in two different places.  One I am working at the gas station/convenience store up the street from where I live (mostly mornings) and at Uncle Sam's in Squirrel Hill evenings.  It isn't the most enjoyable set up and honestly after doing radio for 12 years and then managing a store for the better part of 8 years, it feels like I am taking a step back.  But pride doesn't pay the bills, so I am better off sucking it up until I can come up with a better plan.  Not that the whole fiasco with my mom's funeral didn't leave me tapped to begin with, but I can't afford to sit around and just hope something glamorous knocks on my door.

     Speaking of work, for those familiar with the page you might have noticed something different, the background photo has been changed.  Since the old one was taken at my former place of employment and I want nothing to do with those fuckers whatsoever, the photo came down and was replaced with another of my photogenic masterpieces.  I know, you care, right?  Yes, I can be petty at times, and yes I do hold grudges, so sue me.

     Also, among those changes I am going to announce a change in the change meter policy.  For those not in the know and stopping by here right about this time, the change meter is as old as the blog itself, the general rule was any time I found money on the ground or something, I would keep a running tally of said monies.  The change meter expanded when I started finding things of which I could place a monetary value on.  No, I didn't go all American Pickers and start picking up shit to be resold some place else for a profit, but say I find a gift card on the ground, I can call the 800 number on the back, find out how much is left on it and add that to the total.   New rule, since I am getting tipped out at my one new job (Uncle Sam's) in what I would consider an non tippable job (I mean fuck, I am making sandwiches, right?) I didn't earn that money, it isn't figured into my wages, so I am adding those tips as found money as well.  Now for the updating part, last time I did a change meter update was early in 2017, and the total was $676.69.  Well now we are finally going about the business of changing that total, considerably adding all things considered, to bring us to a new total of $823.30.

     Since my last post regarding fantasy football, which was my last non hockey video post, my fortunes have changed  quite a bit.  Currently in first place in one league with a 9-3 record and in second in the other with an 8-4 mark.  What can I say, when you aren't working you have time to focus on stupid shit. 

    Speaking on stupid shit, the war on Christmas has come to my blog.  Seems that every year we are treated to the same nonsense from red meat Christians about how offended they are because someone said Happy Holidays  to them or designed a fucking coffee cup not to their specifications, so allow me to bring the actual war on Christmas home to them.  You do realize that your holiday is just a glorified rape fantasy don't you.  Your so called God, impregnated a married woman (violating one of your "Rules of Ten" about adultery) without her consent.  I don't know about anyone else but a much older man (presumably, since it takes a man and a woman to make a baby and God has been around since forever) impregnating a much younger woman without consent falls somewhere along the Roy Moore meter of tastelessness.  Worse yet, after impregnating her, he left her to have his kid in a barn someplace, too fucking lazy to even provide a box of diapers and even higher on the irresponsible scale, to be raised by another man.  Talk about absentee fatherhood, at least my dad cut a check every couple of weeks.  I am sure he didn't like it, but he at least did that.  By the way, Happy Holidays.

Penguins @ Oilers 11/1/2017

Pittsbugh 3  Edmonton 2

Kris Letang, Phil Kessel - 2 A each

Evgeni Malkin has a goal in the last three games

Penguins @ Jets 10/29/2017

Winnipeg 7  Pittsburgh 1

Evgeni Malkin - G

Pittsburgh has been outscored 21-10 in the first period this season

Penguins @ Wild 10/28/2017

Minnesota 2  Pittsburgh 1

Evgeni Malkin - G

Pittsburgh has scored a PP goal in all 7 road games this year

B 365 V4.18 - 72 hours

     And maybe now it is all finally over, I know I sure as the hell hope it is as I have been bouncing between gratefulness and wanting to unleash some "Squirrelly Wrath" .  For those that pay attention to this page, you may remember some things that happened in July, in what was a 72 hour span of suckage, where my relationship fell apart, my mom was hospitalized with a stroke and I learned my place of employment was being sold.  Well this past week finally saw the end of all of it, I think anyway.  To keep you all abreast, my mo passed away, the relationship did end and as of Tuesday I am no longer employed, despite assurances of the new owners that they were keeping everybody on board.  Not that I ever believed them, I expected they would want their own people in place, but you would like to think that after working someplace for 8 1/2 years, you might get a two week notice, so you could at least ready yourself for the coming layoff, but that wasn't the case.  Instead it was three weeks of me showing them everything I did and how to do it (a big clue that I knew my days were most likely numbered and I would urge people that are still there to look at things the same way) followed by being called in the office at the end of my shift on Tuesday to say don't bother coming in Wednesday. 

I think that about covers all three items from that torturous 72 hour span back in July, though like i said, there have been times where I have been somewhat grateful recently.  Mostly it was after my mother's passing, when I didn't even recognize the support system I had in place from friends and family, most recently it has been from my long lost internet friends.  I used to play in Yahoo games, a little game called Pyramids, which for those into card type games is usually called Tri Peaks Solitare or something similar.  Anyway, the thing about yahoo games back in the day, they had a chat option connected to it, so there was a group of about 30 of us or so that would frequent the same room.  As time went on, we got to know each other, a couple of marriages came out of that room actually (no I was not one of them) but then Yahoo being yahoo, they fucked up their games much like they fucked up their blogging platform, their messenger service and even their internet radio.  Everyone kind of drifted apart, though it was amazing who stayed in touch with who.  Now it turns out, one of the people, Lee, has set up a group on Facebook for those of us who frequented that room (sorry, it isn't open to the public, so you can't join) an now my Facebook everyday is getting blown up with messages and pictures and memories of a much easier time in my life.  Which is most needed these days given the way I feel about some people, places and things.  A little emotional decompression.

For now though, I need to set about fixing some things, starting with my employment status, then maybe balancing my anger for the people who have fucked me over recently with something more positive, but right now positive is a hard place for me to be.

Jets @ Penguins 10/26/2017

Pittsburgh 2  Winnipeg 1

Matt Murray - 30 SV

Second straight game Phil Kessel scored the winner in overtime

Oilers @ Penguins 10/24/2017

Pittsburgh 2  Edmonton 1  OT

Matt Murray - 29 SV

Pittsburgh scored two goals despite taking 44 shots

Penguins @ Lightning 10/21/2017

Tampa Bay 7  Pittsburgh 1

Jake Guentzel - G

Making his third start in goal for Pittsburgh, Antti Niemi allowed 7 goals on 32 shots.  His season numbers are now 0-3-0  7.5 GAA, .797 SV%.

Penguins @ Panthers 10/20/2017

Pittsburgh 4  Florida 3

Phil Kessel - 2 A

With a second period goal, Sidney Crosby has a goal in 5 straight games against Florida

Penguins @ NY Rangers 10/17/2017

Pittsburgh 5  NY Rangers 4  OT

Evgeni Malkin - G, 3 A

Matt Murray moved into 10th place on the team's all time wins list for goaltenders with 45

Panthers @ Penguins 10/14/2017

Pittsburgh 4  Florida 3

Sidney Crosby - 2 G

Pittsburgh was outshot 46-33 in the win

Penguins @ Lightning 10/12/2017

Tampa Bay 5  Pittsburgh 4

Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust - G, A  each

Niemi has allowed 9 goals on 42 shots in two starts for Pittsburgh

Penguins @ Capitals 10/11/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Washington 2

Patric Hornqvist - G, A

Pittsburgh outshot Washington 36-22

Predators @ Penguins 10/07/17

Pittsburgh 4  Nashville 0

Olli Maatta - G, A

Including the Stanley Cup Final, Matt Murray has shut out Nashville in his last three starts against them

Penguins @ Blackhawks 10/05/2017

Chicago 10  Pittsburgh 1

Phil Kessel - G

Antti Niemi allowed 4 goals on 13 shots in his Penguins debut

Blues @ Penguins 10/04/17

St Louis 5  Pittsburgh 4  OT

Sidney Crosby - G, A

Pittsburgh scored twice in 54 seconds in the third period to force overtime

B3654.17 - The Tragedy of Tragedy

So here does this blog begin?  Obviously not with fantasy football,, where I have been sucking something severe this season.  It could start with the change meter, but that would require me going back through the blog in order to update it, and that is a level of effort I am not prepared to exhibit these days. 

Instead I am going to simplify to a degree, something moinor taht pissed me off.  At least I say minor in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that huge of a deal.  But because it happened to me, it relevance ultimately gets magnified, after all this is my blog.

Our story begins on Sept 21st, or thereabouts where I saw an ad on my Facebook feed.   Mind you, not one of those off on the right hand side ads, more like it showed up in the actual feed.  It was for a concert, and better yet, a free concert.  As everyone knows, I am all about free.  The idea of the concert struck me as kinda cool too, a metal band (Tragedy) that does disco covers.  Honestly, I had never knew such things existed.  It definitely piqued my curiosity, so I clicked on the link and the show time was 9:00pm on Saturday (Sept 23rd).  I thought it could fit into my schedule, given Saturdays are a me day, I go in when I want and leave when I am done, I figure if I go in early enough I can have everything done, come home, grab  a shower and then head out to the show.

So I roll into work about 10am on Saturday, start doing my thing, which included on top of my normal paperwork, I had cigarette price changes to deal with as well as making new batches of chicken, tuna and egg salad for the coming week.  So I start banging away on my work when my phone rings around 12pm, it was Brian calling to say the overnight person on Saturday was trying to get off because he had to study for a test.  I called bullshit on this excuse, why would you find out on Saturday you have to study for a test? and who the fuck studies from 11pm-7am on a Saturday night?  I explained to Brian on the phone all of this and if this person did not show up, I would come in and work the shift and fire them at the same time, erasing them from future dates on the schedule and covering them myself.

So the 3-11 person comes in, I explain everything, saying if the 11-7 person doesn't show up, call me, I will get there as soon as I can.  I go home after finishing my first batch of work, I go home, shower, change and eat, the I walk to The Rex on the South Side, which from my place in Oakland is faster than walking up to 5th Avenue to catch a bus which will not get me there anyway, I will still get off and have to walk.  So I leave my place around 8pm, the show starts at 9pm (or so I thought, ha!), I walk down over the hill and cross the Hot Metal bridge, I stop at Unimart and get a coffee, as my day has already been long, and I knew it could get longer.  I get to The Rex about 8:45 or so, I go to will call and show my ID(even though tickets were free, you still had to sign up in advance  to get in), get my hand stamped and get in. 

Nothing seems to be set up yet, they have the generic biding time music playing through the sound system. It wasn't until almost 9:30 that the show got underway, with an opening act that was an Alice Cooper cover band.  Not that they sounded bad, but I am not an Alice Cooper fan, so the fact someone went to the extent to cover him is far beyond anything that I would consider good or relevant to me.  So I helped myself to the merch table where I bought a shirt and cd (I previewed the band online, shout outs to Youtube and Spotify for the help) so I knew if they sounded half as good live I would like them.

The first band played about 45 minutes, so Tragedy didn't make the stage until after 10:30, which is where iI knew a problem was going to occur.  The overnight shift at work starts at 11pm, even giving a little time until for the overnight guy to show up or not show up, there is a very good chance that I will not get to see the whole show.  The band came out to their namesake, Tragedy by the Bee Gees and we were off to the races.  All kinds of metal takes on disco and some post disco classics .  I say that because I would not put Toto's "Africa" in the disco category. 

I text into work about 11:15 after not hearing anything, about 10 minutes later my phone rings, sure enough the overnight guy had not shown up yet.  Till I got out of the South Side and into town on a Saturday night it was 12:15, I imagine the show was still going on at that point, I just was no longer enjoying it.  So I get into work, the first thing i do is take him off of the schedule permanently, which meant not only was i picking up the remainder of the overnight shift (12:15am-7am) but I was now picking up the 3pm-11pm shift Sunday as well. 

I make it through the overnight shift, go to get home and we have that stupid Great race going on, fucking up traffic everywhere, so it takes almost an hour to get home, i get settled in and am about to go to sleep when the phone rings.  It is the mom of the guy whom I just fired, she is apologizing for his behavior and what not, i just say he isn't on the schedule any more, if he wants back on the schedule, he needs to talk to the owner, then I doze off into slumber land for a few hours.  As for what I missed out on, leaving the show early, I am sure it looked something like this.......

B365v4.16 - And so it ends

So anyway, my last blog was a tad depressing, but at least the main reason for that was because of mostly stupid decisions I made, this will not be the case today.

Remember long ago blog readers when I wrote about my grandmother's passing and how divisive it ended up being for the family, well, i can say that my mother's passing had an almost reuniting effect, if because there is a shared dislike of my mother's husband.  And it didn't take long for that to come forth during what will be called Funeral Week.

FW began last Monday, bright and early, if one could say that 2:20 am is bright (which it isn't) or early (which it is).  It was at that point that I got the phone call from my mom's husband that she had passed away in her sleep.  It was something that I have had ample opportunity to prepare for, she had had multiple strokes previously, each one stripping another piece of her away, to the point where she would see hallucinations and she couldn't remember how to perform the simplest of tasks.  So when word was first received that she had had another one, my thoughts went to is this the final one? or what will be left of her? if she pulls through this one too. 

The signs were there when i went to visit her, both in the hospital and at the nursing home she was moved into.  She had a palsy now on the left side of her face, she was going to need therapy to be able to talk and swallow properly after this one, as well as the expected physical therapy that they would most expectedly do.  In that regard I am glad she went into a nursing home, i know she would not have gotten that level of care and attention at home. 

But her condition continued  to deteriorate, she was put in the DNR list, so should she have another episode that was going to be it for her, plus she wasn't eating or responding to any therapy attempted.  Finally last Sunday she was going into hospice care, having been through that with a number of other relatives, at that point you are just playing out the string until they die.  Hospice care didn't last long, from Sunday afternoon until the 2:20 am phone call Monday morning.

I immediately texted my bosses, letting them know i would not be in Monday morning, made my way home where i got to my mom's house and waited.  I had to pick out the outfit she would be buried in (my aunt Carrie helped with that, because my fashion sense goes as far as shorts and comic book t shirts) and a 2pm meeting at the funeral home to schedule how this was going to play out.  My mom's husband tells us, they have a $10,000 life insurance policy to work with as far as arrangements go, which alleviated some of the burdens on my mind. 

So we get to the funeral home, my aunt Carrie came with us, probably a good thing she did, otherwise i might have made a scene with what transpired.  We go down into the basement of the funeral home where they have the planning office located and the funeral director starts talking and says I understand you have a life insurance policy you want to use to defray the costs of this, to which Mike says yes and hands over all of the policy information.  Turns out he got the policy after her stroke and subsequent hospitalization, probably after she was put on DNR status.  The director said he would talk to them, but chances are they would contest paying any claim, as well they should, the policy didn't become active until Sept 1st, my mom died on the 8th.  Of course they are going to launch an investigation into what amounts to fraud.  But his carelessness at best, criminal behavior at worst, doesn't solve the problem of burying my mom.

The funeral director looked at me and asked if i could help with the cost of the funeral, i said probably but needed to make a phone call first.  I called Ed in Florida, who spotted me a $2000 loan on my future paychecks to help with the cost, which turns out I am on the hook for $3700 worth of the funeral, unless we just want to keep her alying around above ground indefnitely..  Anyone who may end up planning my future funeral, just strap a cement block to my ankle and toss me off a bridge into the river, it would be far cheaper and easier.  The decision was made for one viewing, with the service immediately thereafter on Thursday. After the meeting Mike asked if i was going back to spend time with him, to which i said no, i have to be back in Pittsburgh to work in the morning.  He asked if i got bereavement time off, I said I just asked my boss for $2000, I think he has done enough, I need to get back to work paying that off now.

Not that I couldn't cover subsequent payments, and/or paying off my boss, but a bunch of family members also kicked in, stating on their donations that their money was only to cover my half of the funeral, seems as none of them were all that pleased with the insurance scam bullshit either.  Plus they did lots of other things that i didnt even think of, my aunts (Carrie, Mary and Amy) put together photo boards.  I saw pictures of my mom as a little girl that i didn't even know existed.  Mary also opened her home to everyone prior to the service, so the family had a nice little get together before everything.  For my part, i guess I was there (where else would I be after all) and I made the decision  on one viewing followed by the service at the funeral home.  I didnt see the need on dragging this out over a few days.

The service and what not went off without a hitch, I kept my mouring to myself, but then I am always like that.  few people get to see me cry, so if you are on that list consider yourself lucky, or at least close enough to me to witness something as rare as a yeti sighting. 

Mike has since called me, he keeps thinking the insurance claim will pay out, I keep thinking it pays out if he ends up in jail for his stupidity.  But he asked me when i was coming up to go through my mom's things to get what I wanted.  On one hand I probably should, but I have a level of anger right now that a face to face between us is not a good thing.  with my affinity for holding grudges, not sure that is going to subside any time soon.  As long time readers of the blog well know, which would be none of you, most likely you stumbled upon this place all happenstance and stuff, I haven't spoken to my father since before i started blogging many, many moons ago.

B365v4.15 - Summer of '17

Okay, when I last left the blog, some months ago, things were looking somewhat rosy for yours truly, I had just come back from seeing a concert in June that was epicly awesome, got back from my vacation in Vancouver, which may be my favorite place on Earth, though truthfully I haven't visited much of Earth, so there is that to consider as well.  And, what is certainly unique to the blog, or at least readers of the blog, I was, dare I say it, in a relationship.

We can scrub the good news from your minds now kids, the beginning of the end happened right around July 26th, or one month into the relationship.  Allow me to explain.  My partner in crime in this endeavor was someone I knew for a while, as she used to be a coworker, was smitten with for like 3 years or so prior to our coupling, but she comes with baggage.  I know this because of the reasons why she no longer works with us (drinking on duty) and other things that came up in passing conversations with us, legal issues and substance abuse issues.  So I knew any path for us was going to have some obstacles, but being the bigger man, or deluding myself into thinking I was a bigger man, I assumed we could get through or past them.  Piece of advice, any time you think you can fix somebody, don't, they need to fix themselves.

So I started giving her money, originally it was for what I believed were legal fees and doctor's appointments for her son, later I was to find out only some of that was true, it snowballed into me giving her money for drugs, in a stupid attempt to keep her from being dope sick around, especially around her kid.  Sure there was talks of stopping, going into a detox and what not, but they were just words, with no meaning behind them, those steps were never taken, instead there was a litany of excuses as to why they couldn't happen this week. 

Somehow we reached the one month plateau (July 26th), I am using one month here because things went from bad, and I could recount stories of that month but for brevity's sake I will not, to worse.  On our one month anniversary, I asked if she could meet me in town around 4pm, little did she know I had plans for us, i had bought a dozen roses and a stuffed bear, and was looking forward to taking her to dinner and a movie.  I suggested 4pm because it would allow us time to get from town to the Waterfront and catch a not too late showing of a movie she said she wanted to see.  The clock keeps ticking closer to the time when I suggested we meet, she is still at home, she is waiting for someone to bring her money she is owed so she can set up another meetup to buy  her daily supply again, I am thinking this night is going to get shot to hell, which was not what I wanted in the least.  Finally I gave up and asked her what she needed, she said $50, which I said I had and then hopped a trolley to go catch up with her.  I get out to her stop on the trolley line, and at least give her the flowers and bear and money she needs, but she still needs to see her guy at Station Square, I am looking at the time on my cell and cross checking transit schedules from points A B and C and realizing none of what I had planned is going to happen.  We get into town way too late to make connections via PAT transit, and she hasn't even met her guy yet.  We did make something out of nothing though, at least catching the free movie in Schenley Park, dinner ended up being snacks that we picked up along the way.

The movie ends, she is complaining about the quality of stuff she got, and suggests that I just let her go, she knows a pizza shop in the Hill District where she can score, to which I say, that ain't happening, I wasn't leaving her to wander around the Hill District by herself, so I get her back into town to do the transfer thing onto her trolley to get home, she starts approaching strangers on the street asking if they are holding.  When that exercise in futility failed we walked to the trolley station and I put her on a trolley home, then I rode back to my place in Oakland. 

I can't recall if anything happened on the 27th of note, we probably hung out for a bit with more of the same, her getting money from me, saying she was going to be dope sick and she was getting her son later that day and she didn't want to be sick around him.  I would have preferred she not be sick around him as well, but the only solution available to me at that point was to give her money to buy more shit.  Friday the 28th rolls around, and I get the woe is me story, her so is there but she isn't feeling up to doing anything with him, she needs more stuff, which again I offer to pay for.  AS she is coming into town she texts or calls me and asks if she can borrow my laptop, there is an online game her son likes to play and she had previously sold her laptop for her habit.  I say sure, we would have to go get it though, it was in my apartment and not on my person.  That wasn't going to work, she did not have her son with her, so she couldn't be gone all that long, I say fine, I will have it when I work on Saturday if they decide to come into town to do something.  So we meet, I give her money again, she does her thing and then goes home. 

Early in the morning of the 29th, I get a call from home, my mom had fallen in their kitchen and she was being taken to the hospital, i would be kept updated on what was happening and details became available.  So now I have a dilemma on my hands, do I drop everything in Pittsburgh and go home, where I may or may not be needed or do I stay in Pittsburgh, work my Saturday shift and be here in case more of the "I'm  so sick" stories come in.  I opted to stay in Pittsburgh, at least here I could do things,if I went home I would just be sitting around waiting on what others might or might not be able to do.   I do my work shift, she comes into town with her son, as well as a request for more money.  It actually turned out to be a really good day, we took her son to the arcade downtown where we tried teaching him skeeball, and won enough tokens to buy him a few crappy prizes from the arcade .  I say crappy, but he seemed to like them, so there is that.  As an added bonus we make plans to go to the museum on Sunday, which seemed a pretty cool thing to do.  It was also on Saturday when I decided to let her borrow my laptop, even though she was resistant to the idea, I thought if her son decided he wanted to play whatever game he was into, it would be far easier to just let him play it than to try to explain why he couldn't. 

So we go into Sunday, I get an update on my mom, she had a stroke, but was resting comfortably in the hospital, they wanted to run a CATSCAN to see if they could determine the damage done by her most recent episode.  For now though, everything was just in hurry up and wait mode, until they ran the test we knew very little, save for my mom being her stubborn self and wanting to go home.    It kind of put a smile on my face, picturing her fighting to leave, it is a bad family trait in that we don't like hospitals very much, but then who does.  We meet up for the trip to the museum, things go well, not great but certainly not terrible, again I ws asked for money, and again rather than have her sick around her kid I agreed, later I would give her money for a magistrate hearing on Monday,  All told this stretch of days right hre would total up to $300, and I explained in a text that night I was officially tapped out, after paying my own personal bills plus that additional expense and money I laid out for us to do things that weekend, I was pre-oil Jed Clampett kinda broke, though I used more colorful language here for the blog.  Poetic license and all that jazz.

Monday rolls around, the news on the CATSCAN is good, Mom could be going home in a couple of days, they just wanted to keep her for observation, so I am thinking I dodged a bullet on that front.  I get a call from Ed in Florida, they are selling the business, so the hits just keep on coming in my life at this point, so  I text the girl and ask what she is doing after her magistrate hearing, she says nothing, so I ask if I can bring her some stuff from work, like cigarettes or what not (we both are social pariahs that way in that we both smoke), and I throw together a few things to have a mini picnic in the park near her house.  Just as I am leaving work, I have a system crash on one of the registers.  Not just blue screen of death here, it ended up being the black screen of death, which waylayed my departure by an hour from work, when I went to text her again, she tells me she has plans that night, not to bother coming out, which was news to me until she said it, but knowing her like I did at that point, I figure she is probably going out to find heroin again to keep from being dope sick (I had this routine down to a science by this point) and while I knew I couldn't help her in that regard, it was probably better I didn't anyway.  The only thing I asked was that she texted me when she got home, because seeing some of the things I had seen over the past month, I was scared she might try something similar.   We exchanged a few messages as the evening progressed, until about 10 pm or sso.   I knew if she took the last trolley from town about what time she would get in 1:30am , so I just sit here and wait and worry, my head goes to all kinds of bad places, what if something happens and I am not there, what is going on with my mom, what will I be doing for a job in a few months time, it was all rattling around in my cranium t the same time.   We blow well past the 1:30am mark, past the 2:30am mark and it wasn't until after three when I finally get a message, so I asked if I was even wanted in her life at that point.  Because it is something I never would have done, I would not leave people to just sit around and worry about me if I could let them know i was okay.  It turns into a big fight, a fight that goes on for hours, until around 6am I go out to her place before my job in the am to pick up my laptop and I get all kinds of excuses why she can't give it to me, because in her mind returning personal property is a crime or something.  Finally I had had enough, I figure she probably sold it like she sold hers for drugs or something so I said, it's okay, I'll just report it stolen.  I was done playing, my head was full of worry about so many things at that point that this was one thing I wasn't going to add to the pile when it could be easily solved. 

I did get the laptop back like a day later, my mom's health in the meantime also was quizzical to me as the talk of a day's observation turned into two days, then maybe she could go home for therapy, which she did eventually do, only to get put in a nursing home a day later, develop an infection and go back to the hospital, then back to the nursing home, then get put on DNR status, then get moved to hospice care before passing away this past Monday morning.  While her maladies were continuing I did make it back to see her 4 or 5 times while juggling fights from the now defunct relationship and trying to find ways to keep everyone (or at least the good ones) employed at work with a potential ownership change into my social calendar.  So the summer that started out all promising has instead become quite miserable, I am so ready to let this one go. 

B365V4.14 - Whose life is it anyway?

Two things about me and alcohol; when sufficiently lubricated I am much more sexually inadequate than my normal state of inadequacy and truth starts spilling from my mouth like a fountain.  With that being said, allow me to tell a story.

About a week before I ventured off on vacation I had the fortune of commenting on a friend's blog post, mind you this is a friend whom I been interested in pursuing something more with for quite some time.  It dealt with how to get over breakups so I regaled the audience of this particular thread with some stories from the Crazy Canadian Incident.  Long time readers know what I am talking about, short time readers need to keep up.  Not rehashing that story here.

Anyway I hear back about how I am such a nice guy who deserves better, which is all well and good but a pre vacation trip for some libations and Facebook made for an interesting commentary from me, as I sent her a personal message saying how I was previously interested in her, but then things got in the way and I had accepted how that was how things were going to be now.  Then I ventured forth on my Vancouver vacation.

Vancouver is awesome for me, it is like the girl that can't take a bad selfie in it's beauty.  Nature and civilization intersect there in such a manner that I have taken to calling it my Pittsburgh detox.  Anyway, I wake up in my hotel in Vancouver one morning, put on my hotel slippers and robe and grab a shower, when I come out I fire up the laptop and I see a personal message from this person, so I check it out and it says "Can we talk?"  I replied perhaps when I am not 4000 miles away that could be arranged and I continued with my vacationing, but that message was stuck in the back of my mind.  Did my drunken scribblings offend?  I read them and reread them, until I had convinced myself that they might have or they might not have.  It was a mental tug of war with neither side winning, so I contented myself with the fact that at least what I wrote was honest.  The truth will set you free and all that jazz.

I went back to my vacationing, dreading coming home, not because of the potential outcome of the talk, but because I was so happy in Vancouver.  I feel like a better person each time I come back, as if their kindness and hospitality rubs off on me somewhat.  It hurts to leave,   Plus the flight back is not that much fun either, leaving Vancouver at 6:30 am their time (9:30 am Pittsburgh Standard Time) and not being back on home soil until 10:30 pm, but make it back I did and set about the business of finding out how much work would be left for me after not being in the office for a week.  Surprises abound, everything was done and the office was cleaned in my absence.  It made me wonder why I evere came back in the first place, I had become obsolete during my vacation.  Nonetheless, I fell back into my routine, as opposed to some poutine had I stayed in Vancouver.

I went ahead and notified my friend I was back, and we set up our meeting for what for how will be called "The Talk" for a week later on Monday, as she had errands downtown anyway.  So we picked up some food and headed to Point State Park (which has nothing on Stanley Park, for the record) on an almost picnic like excursion.  "The Talk" was one of those nice, heartfelt one on one things, where we did not so much talk about us as a unit, but us as people and what we wanted.  And maybe that is where things started to gel between us, a mutual understanding if how much more we wanted out if life than what we have gotten thus far.  Or maybe it was my remaining Canadian charm rubbing off on her.  I know better than to chalk it up to good looks, I see myself in the mirror every morning and you dont get to be 48 and single while being typically handsome.

But perhaps there was magic in that old silk hat they found, as what started as a message about what I had hoped for previously and a sit down heart to heart chat seems to be turning into something more. Then I started thinking about the last month, a month that kicked off with a killer show at Stage AE (Coheed & Cambria, holla), a nice birthday sendoff for vacation at work, complete with Prantl's cake, landing in Vancouver on my birthday and doing things that I could never do here, like going to the tops of mountains (Mount Washington doesn't count), catching a sunset on the beach, riding a seaplane over the city, and then coming home to being involved in something that I had considered off of the table for me just a few months ago.

It sounds sad, but I was resigned to geing alone as a permanent sort of thing, I even had math to back me up, figuring if I were to meet someone on say, my birthday, we were to get married and have a kid that very same day, I am 64 teaching that kid to drive, probably 67 when that kid starts college, 71 if they graduate on time and for me the numbers didn't add up.  Now I am not thinking about numbers as much, I am thinking about what tomorrow brings.  Pinch me, because this isn't the life I had when I left here on vacation a couple of weeks ago.  It is something new and different and dare I say hopeful, which coming from a person who often says "Expect nothing and you will never be disappointed." is quite a change in temperment.

B365V4.13 - Vacation

    Well, what's new kids?  This may be my first Canadian blog entry, which makes me a foreign correspondent to my own page.  But it has been a hectic month. 
     I got to attend my first ever Stanley Cup Final game. I actually had two tickets, but the minute I had an extra ticket and posted as such on Facebook I knew it wouldn't last long.   The game, which was game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, was pretty much a snooze fest, Nashville dominated play most of the night, holding Pittsburgh without a shot for a span of over 39 minutes.  Had it been a regular season game, it would have been one I would have considered walking out of to beat the traffic, but it was the SCF after all (plus 7 Up was springing for the refreshments, free eats and drinks are always a plus when trying to lure me in).

     As evidenced by my first sentence, I am currently on vacation and once again I opted to vacation in Vancouver.  After my trip last year I realized there were lots of things I wanted to do but did not get the chance, so I spent some time looking for other sights and sounds I missed out on during my first visit, then I hit my big scratch off ticket (well, big for me anyway) of $5000 and set about the business of booking everything, I snagged a trip to Squamish as well as a a Seaplane ride over the city and tickets to a CFL game.  That being said, the trip has not been all wine and roses this time around.  Last year when I came, there was a $100 charge to my debit card, a deposit on the room I was staying in.  So I figured that would be the case this year as well, and since I was using the same everything in my booking, I made sure I left over $100 in my account before flying out.  So I get on my first flight, no issues whatsoever, same with the second flight.  I managed the subway ride into town from the airport with no problems as well, everything is going swimmingly, I get to the hotel, the same one I stayed at last year, presented my id, they had my booking, they needed my debit card, which I gave them and they couldn't get it to work.  The only thing that might be different is switching me for the old card to the chip card, not sure when that happened, but it may have been between my last booking and my current booking but because it did not work, and even though that card paid for the current booking (through Expedia, not directly through the hotel), my deposit this time was $500 in cash.  So yes it pisses me off, but it is not a fight I want to have while staying in the hotel that is pissing me off, but should I come back again in a year or so, which is possible, I do love it up here, i will not be staying at the same hotel.  There are plenty to choose from, and i know my way about town now pretty well, at least Vancouver proper, when you get out in the neighboring communities like Burnaby and Metrotown, not so much.

     Thankfully I had most of the events I wanted to do planned and paid for in advance.  I still did not kick everything off of my bucket list of things to do here, and I added some new things for the next trip, like taking BC Ferries out to Vancouver Island to spend a day checking out Victoria, but I did okay on this trip with a trip to Squamish, which has to be seen to be believed, it was that beautiful, a sea plane ride over the city, which not only was it awesome in it's own right, but the girl who sat it the back of the plane with me, all I can say is wow.  She was Chinese, not that that matters one way or another, but she was all kinds of sexy punk, with the black t shirt, leather shorts, leather studded bracelets, fish net stockings, all of my guy weaknesses rolled into one.  Also, while waiting for my tour bus to Squamish, I learned that there are free shuttles to both Capilano and Grouse Mountain, which made them way more accessible from the city.  I also learned there are $35 day trips to Whistler, but I had too much planned to spend a day in Whistler this trip.  Tomorrow i will be attending my first CFL football game, just to close out the vacation festivities.  Well that and I ant to make another trip around what I call the neighborhood, which is pretty much everything within walking distance. 

     Since last time i was here I blogged about how much better the transit system was, only to have Pittsburgh switch to a one fare system a couple of months after I returned (and blogged about it) so I will pass along another cool idea that I ran into here (feel free to implement it at your leisure Pittsburgh).  The have a program called tickets tonight in Vancouver, where you can go to a Vancouver tourism office and they have tickets to any show that night that went unsold, and you can buy them at half off.  Perhaps Pittsburgh does have such a program, I don't know, I  have never dealt with our tourism office, and see no need to now. 

     I am not looking forward to coming back, i know there will be at least a week's worth of work piled up, plus anything that got screwed up while I was away, plus I was offered a new job before I left and I am unsure of whether or not I want to take it.  If I do, I will need to know a few more things there are still too many unanswered questions before making career adjustments.  Rather than ramble on about things I know little about yet, how about a couple of vacation pics instead?

                                                                        Shannen Falls

                                                  Some of the mountains in Squamish

                                                                     Howe Sound

                                               Vancouver Skyline from Granville Bridge

                                                               Queen Elizabeth Park

                                                                    Olympic Cauldron

                                                        Vancouver from the seaplane

                                                           Sunset over English Bay

                                                           Capilano suspension bridge

                                           Mt Baker (Washington) from Grouse Mountain

                                                   Vancouver from Grouse Mountain

SCF Penguins @ Predators 6/11/2017

Pittsburgh 2  Nashville 0

Patric Hornqvist - GWG

Matt Murray - 27 SV

Murray posted shutouts in the last two games of the series, Pittsbrgh becomes the first team to win back to back Stanley Cups in the salary cap era



Pittsburgh wins best of seven series 4-2

SCF Predators @ Penguins 6/8/2017

Pittsburgh 6  Nashville 0

Phil Kessel - G, 2 A

Sidney Crosby - 3 A

With an assist, Jake Guentzel tied the rookie record for playoff scoring with 21 points



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-2

SCF Penguins @ Predators 6/5/2017

Nashville 4  Pittsburgh 1

Sidney Crosby - G

Brian Dumolin - A

Crosby's goal was his first in a Stanley Cup Final game since June 4th, 2009



Best of seven series is tied 2-2

SCF Penguins @ Predators 6/3/2017

Nashville 5  Pittsburgh 1

Jake Guentzel - G

Ian Cole, Sidney Crosby - A each

Guentzel continues to lead all post season goal scorers with 13



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 2-1

SCF Predators @ Penguins 05/31/2017

Pittsburgh 4  Nashville 1

Jake Guentzel - 2 G

Chris Kunitz - 2 A

Guentzel now has a rookie record 5 game winning goals in the playoffs



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 2-0

SCF Predators @ Penguins 05/29/2017

Pittsburgh 5  Nashville 3

Nick Bonino - 2 G

Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz - 2 A each

Pittsburgh managed just 12 shots on goal and went for over 37 minutes at one point without a shot



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 1-0

B365V4.12 - Job losses

     So I guess our saga begins two Mondays ago.  I was sitting in the office, sorting weekend monies and paperwork and what not.  That us a process where I have to match the dropped amounts of money with what is listed on the cashiers sheet at the end of the shift, first I have to match the numbers and drops, then I have to sort the food stamps, the credit and debit cards and the overrings.  Overrings are when a cashier mistakenly hits the wrong key or a customer decides they don't want something that has already been scanned in, then the transaction has to be cashed out and labeled as an overring and dropped with their paperwork, then I get to go in on Monday and void out all of the overrings to get to our true sales number.  I imagine some people think I don't pay attention to such things, but in my stack of overrings was one for 8 Wicked male enhancement pills.  I could see maybe one, but in order to have 8 you either have to scan the same item 8 times or select 8 as the quantity before scanning and because it is a pill, it isn't an item we would take back after it left the store.  So I went all CSI Pittsburgh and took the time from the receipt and cross referenced it with our camera system.  Sure enough, someone did come in and purchase 8 pills (retail value of approx. $85), but the cashier took the money and the customer left.  This is why we do not let cashiers do voids on their own, theft is always a potential problem.  So I show the receipt to Brian as well as the camera footage showing the transaction did take place unlike what the overring stated, because my authority does not allow me to fire people, even over the obvious.  Hell an employee could shoot someone in our store and I still would need approval before anything could be done.  After seeing the case I had laid out, Brian called said employee in to explain himself.  The first excuse was that the customers credit or debit card didn't work.  That is funny simply because it shows on camera the customer handing over cash for payment, then he couldn't remember why he turned it in, so he leaves and calls Brian and says well Matt has it in for me, as if that explains anything we saw, then a few hours later he decides to remember that the customer brought them right back, which I watched the tapes for almost an hour afterward and he did not in fact come back, so with my detective sleuthing skills I managed to catch another thief and got him fired to boot.

      If that were the only job loss I were responsible for, it would have been an okay last couple of weeks, but I screwed up.  As you all know by now, I post little game recaps of all of the Pens hockey games, complete with the NHL.com video  recap.  I have tried to stay more on point during the playoffs, just because the Penguins luck seems to be better when I am on point (6 years doing this, 6 playoff appearances, 2 Stanley Cups, don't fuck with what seemingly works), then came the Pens - Sens series.  After Pittsburgh lost game 1, I got the recap up the very next day, after game 2 the series was tied and I got a little too comfortable, game 3 saw the Pens lose again and Marc-Andre Fleury get pulled.  Of course I scrambled to get the next two recaps up, but by then the damage was done.  If game 3 was the last MAF plays in a Penguins uniform, you all can blame me for not doing my due diligence.  That is a distinct possibility with the Penguins going on to win the series and the expansion draft looming.

     I should explain why I am doing a Friday blog on a Sunday night, that would be in part because until today, I have worked 13 straight days and 20 of the last 21.  I did sneak a concert in during that time frame, Coheed and Cambria at Stage AE.  It was my first outdoor show there and I like their outdoor venue more than inside which is colorless and boxy.  They put on a killer show, better than the 2016 show at the same venue, and while I never heard of the opening act before, The Dear Hunter, they played a pretty killer opening set as well.  C&C played some stuff off of their new album/CD/mp3 or whatever the kids call it these days, but they played enough of their older stuff that those of us closing in on SSI could appreciate it.  Being outside meant I wasn't cramped in the inside venue with a bunch of drunks, last show I was at I saw two people vomiting on the floor.  I've never understood the need to drink so much at a show that you cant remember it the next morning.  Sounds like a waste of money to me, but what do I know.

      There was some good news to cone out of my run of work days, I like to use them as bargaining chips when so needed, so as I was talking to Ed the other day on the phone, after game 5 of Pens - Sens to be precise, I asked him if he could check with 7 Up to see if they had any Stanley Cup Final tickets left.  I know, putting the cart before the horse, but the alternative was to leave time and potential tickets slip away.   Ed talks to the regional manager at 7 Up, they have the beverage contract at PPG Paints Arena, and we are one of their larger customers for an independent store, lo and behold they do have tickets left, two for game 1 and 4 for game 2, I said listen, I am not trying to be greedy, the two would work just fine.  And that, my friends is how I am getting into my first Stanley Cup Final game Monday night.  Truth be told, anyone could have went with me, usually I will post on Facebook that iIneed a "Partner in Crime", which means I have an extra ticket(s) to a sporting event.  Luckily someone responded, I hate eating tickets that I have finagled my way into.  Plus these are in the 7 Up  box, I cant just scalp and extra ticket on the street, 7 Up management will be there, last thing they need is some unknown stragglers meandering into their seating area and me trying to explain how they got a ticket in the first place.

      Well my laundry is just about done, I am multi tasking here, so I guess this entry is just about done as well.  Toodles.

ECF Senators @ Penguins 5/25/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Ottawa 2  2OT

Chris Kunitz - 2 G, A

Justin Schultz - G, A

Pittsburgh is now 13-2 after a playoff loss under Mike Sullivan



Pittsburgh wins best of seven series 4-3

ECF Penguins @ Senators 5/23/2017

Ottawa 2  Pittsburgh 1

Evgeni Malkin - G

Matt Murray - 28 SV

Pittsburgh lost despite out shooting Ottawa 46-30



Best of seven series is tied 3-3

ECF Senators @ Penguins 5/21/2017

Pittsburgh 7  Ottawa 0

Carter Rowney - 3 A

Matt Murray - 25 SV

Pittsburgh has held Ottawa to 0 for 29 on the power play so far this series



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-2

ECF - Penguins @ Senators 5/19/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Ottawa 2

Sidney Crosby - G, A

Jake Guentzel - 2 A

First game in the series where Pittsburgh has scored more than one goal



Best of seven series tied 2-2

ECF Penguins @ Senators 5/17/2017

Ottawa 5  Pittsburgh 1

Sidney Crosby - G

Matt Murray - 19 SV

Marc-Andre Fleury pulled after allowing 4 1st period goals



Ottawa leads best of seven series 2-1

ECF Senators @ Penguins 5/15/2017

Pittsburgh 1  Ottawa 0

Phil Kessel - G

Marc-Andre Fleury - 23 SV

Fleury now has 62 playoff wins, most among active goaltenders



Best of seven series tied 1-1

ECF - Senators @ Penguins 5/13/2017

Ottawa 2  Pittsburgh 1  OT

Evgeni Malkin - G

Marc-Andre Fleury - 33 SV

This is the first time this post season Pittsburgh has trailed in a series



Ottawa leads best of seven series 1-0

B365V4.11 - Peeling back the layers

      Is it just me or do we all have places where we just put shit?  Nothing important mind you, not talking bank books or passports r anything that some day might be important, but just knick knacks and what not and god forbid the day you need them, you know exactly where they are, the place where you just dump shit.  For me, one of those spots is on top of my refrigerator.  I have a box on top with a bunch of old tax forms and what not, I have a few boxes of Christmas cards, should I feel the need to do Christmas cards again I know where to find some without going shopping, I think there was a couple of candy canes up there at one point, like I said, a place to dump shit.

Anyway, I come home from work today (today being Thursday) and settle in, crack open the laptop and was watching the most recent episode of "Arrow" on the CW page, when I start hearing faint jingling music.  At first I thought maybe there was an ice cream truck coming up my street.    Why an ice cream truck?  Because I was trained in Elderton, PA and one of the things about growing up there was once in a while, though never on a regular schedule, an ice cream truck would cruise through the town.  That music led kids to racing back to their homes for whatever money they could get, in order to buy frozen treats from said ice cream guy.  Because he had no regular schedule, spotting him was like a Bigfoot sighting, the only evidence one could obtain was a frozen treat that would melt pretty quickly, thus eliminating any evidence of his existence whatsoever. 

Honest to god, this shit does all go together.  So I am sitting in my apartment and I start hearing these musical chimes.  I don't know where they are coming from, but it would seem to be my apartment.  I am not playing music, so I know it s not me.  I meander my way to the kitchen, the music is louder there, though it is not coming from outside, so I can rule out a ice cream truck guy sighting (as well as a Bigfoot sighting), so I am left with the fact that there is music coming out of my kitchen and I don't now why.  So I powered up my Chris Hansen investigate skills to solve the mystery of the musical kitchen and after some searching I found out what happened.  I had went shopping the other day at Scratch N Dent (Grocery Liquidators in the Strip if you really need to know) and one of the things I bought was a box of Tiny Toast cereal ($1.99 a box, holla!).  Of course when I came home I put the cereal on top of the refrigerator, with all of the other useless shit.  I had taken it down a few times and feasted on the deliciousness of cereal and at one point I put the box back on top of the fridge, and I also knocked of a little stuffed animal that was up there, a stocking stuffer type thing my mom gave me a couple o years ago, one where you squeeze it's tail or something and it plays a Christmas carol.  By knocking it off of the fridge it fell right into the garbage can next to the fridge, so my garbage was now playing music.  Hopefully Tuesday I can now freak out the garbage man, much like I was freaked out this evening, because I was not fishing out the stuffed animal, covered with food and other garbage like materials, from the trash can, I simply filled up the bag with more trash and tok it outside.

I trust most readers of this blog (all two of you, by the way, hello and all that jazz) I am taking full credit for the Penguins game 7 win.  As you know by hanging out here, I post videos and updates of all Penguin games and as you also know I got way behind before the playoffs, in fact I was two moths behind, but because since I have started doing this on my blog, the Penguins have won two Stanley Cups and have yet to miss the playoffs.  Leading into game 7, I was still most of the Pens - Caps series behind, so Inthrew together a few more entries and got the blog up to date in regards to hockey prior to faceoff of game 7, which of course the Pens won (i have since added game 7, you don't fuck with something that works after all) in part because I had the blog caught up to date.  So yes, I am taking credit for the win.

One thing that is rare these days is a Pittsburgh Pirates win, but I can top that.  I had tickets for the Sunday game a couple of weeks ago, against the NY Yankees.  Not only did I get to see a Pirates win, but I also got a sun tan/ sun burn in the process and am now in the midst of peeling already this year and it is still May. 

I have taken to having my Amazon deliveries shipped to work.  Since I am there more often than not, it just makes sense to me, plus it removes the possibility of someone stealing packages off of the front porch before I get home, (again, given how much I am at work, that is a distinct possibility).  Plus there is the added bonus of breaking up a routine work day with presents, at least i my feeble mind that is the case.  Twice this week i got to disrupt my week with presents.  One was the newest Robert Parker/Ace Atkins Spencer novel, which I had preordered on Amazon before it was released.  As an added bonus I got $2 back on the book as it decreased in price from the time I ordered it and it became available, which Amazon does on preordered items, you get them at the cost of when they actually go on sale if it is lower, if it is higher you still pay the price you bought it at.  That arrived on Wednesday.  Then I went and ordered shoes, in part because my current ones are falling apart, and I have worn down the tread on them to the point where walking in the rain is much like walking on ice, plus they are killing my feet.  Thanks to some saved up points on Swagbucks, I cashed in for a $5 Amazon gift card, so I managed to get a new pair of Fila running shoes for $24.99.  Those arrived at work today (Friday, yes it is taking me two days to write a blog, what of it?)  I jokingly call them my vacation shoes, hopefully they hold up for the month and change until vacation actually happens. 

Well, this was a disjointed, convoluted mess.  Good thing #cheetotwatwaffle didn't release it in tweets then.

ECSF - Penguins @ Capitals 5/10/2017

Pittsburgh 2  Capitals 0

Marc-Andre Fleury - 29 SV

Bran Rust - GWG

Pittsburgh was out shot 29-28, meaning they were out shot every game in the series



Pittsburgh wins best of seven series 4-3

ECSF - Capitals @ Penguins 5/8/2017

Washington 5  Pittsburgh 2

Jake Guentzel - G

Evgeni Malkin - G

Guentzel leads the NHL in playoff goals with 9



Best of seven series tied 3-3

ECSF Penguins @ Capitals 5/6/2017

Washington 4  Pittsburgh 2

Carl Hagelin - G

Phil Kessel - G

Pittsburgh surrendered a 2-1 lead after two periods



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-2

ECSF Capitals @ Penguins 5/3/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Washington 2

Jake Guentzel - G, A

Marc-Andre Fleury - 36 SV

Pittsburgh wins despite being out shot 38-19



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-1

ECSF Capitals @ Penguins 5/1/2017

Washington 3  Pittsburgh 2  OT

Evgeni Malkin - G, A

Justin Schultz - G, A

Pittsburgh scored twice in the final 1:53 to force overtime



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 2-1

ECSF Penguins @ Capitals 4/29/2017

Pittsburgh 6  Washington 2

Phil Kessel - 2 G, A

Marc-Andre Fleury - 34 SV

Fluery has stopped 67 of 71 shots through the first two games of this series



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 2-0

ECSF - Penguins @ Capitals 4/27/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Washington 2

Sidney Crosby - 2 G

Marc-Andre Fleury - 34 SV

Pittsburgh was outshot 35-21 in the win



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 1-0

ECQF - Blue Jackets @ Penguins 4/20/2017

Pittsburgh 5  Columbus 2

Marc-Andre Fleury - 49 SV

Phil Kessel - G, 2 A

Fluery has set a team record with 57 career playoff wins



Pittsburgh wins best of seven series 4-1

ECQF Penguins @ Blue Jackets 4/18/2017

Columbus 5  Pittsburgh 4

Phil Kessel - 3 A

Evgeni Malkin - 2 A

Second straight game where Pittsburgh spotted Columbus a two goal lead after one period of play



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-1

ECQF - Penguins @ Blue Jackets 4/16/2017

Pittsburgh 5  Columbus 4  OT

Jake Guentzel  - Hat Trick (3 G)

Bryan Rust - 2 G

Pittsburgh came back from a 3-1 deficit in the win



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-0

ECQF - Blue Jackets @ Penguins 4/14/2017

Pittsburgh 4  Columbus 1

Marc-Andre Fleury - 39 SV

Sidney Crosby - G, 2A

Crosby's goal was his 50th playoff goal



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 2-0

ECQF - Blue Jackets @ Penguins 4/12/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Columbus 1 

Marc-Andre Fleury - 31 SV

Evgeni Malkin - 2 A

Fluery got the emergency start for Matt Murray in goal, due to an undisclosed injury



Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 1-0

B365V4.10 - Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

Where to start a blog entry with a title such as this?  Perhaps we will do the borrowed thing to start, as many moons ago on this here page I would do something called Karaoke Friday, and pull a music video from Youtube, then throw the lyrics on the page and invite the reader to sing along.  As luck would have it, I had my headphones on listening to Spotify on ye olde tablet on the way to work, and a song came up from 1987.  Not that 1987 was important to the story, (though it was the year I graduated high school, so no need to cut me open and count the rings in order to guess my age now), but the year popped up at the beginning of the video.  What struck me, besides I hadn't heard the song in ages, was ho well I thought it held up to the passage of time.  It still sounds, at least to me, somewhat modern.  And since as I am typing this we are approaching 3 and 1/2 hours until it officially being Friday, why not get a head start on the Karaoke-ness.  Ladies and gentlemen (or whoever actually showed up to read this) a little Lloyd Cole and the Commotions if you please;






 Hey I was walking my bag
Through a 20 storey non-stop snow storm
Pirrelli calender girls westling in body lotion
My head's swimming with poetry and prose
Excuse me one moment whilst I powder my nose
Me and my good thing are just about as close as can be
We gave up sleep at the age of 17
My world's getting bigger as my eyesight gets worse
I can't see the lines on my idiot board
What above love?
I don't let that stuff in my house
This is the glamorous life there's no time for fooling around

Lord have mercy I know what I'm doing
I don't need an alibi I need a fire escape and an open window
It's my problem it's nothing I can't deal with
I'm not chasing anything just jogging baby
What's your bag?

Hundred million dollar jam
Got some traffic yessir in my nose
Motorcycle speed cops burning up my dust roads
My baby left me heck ain't that a shame
She's over in the corner with my new best friend
I'm doing fine with my whisky and wine
And meet me in the john, John, meet me in the john, John

Lord have mercy I know what I'm doing
I don't need an alibi I need a fire escape and an open window
It's my problem it's nothing I can't deal with
I'm not chasing anything just jogging baby
What's your bag?

Spin spin whisky and gin I suffer for my art
Bartender I got wild mushrooms growing in my yard
Fix me a quart of petrol clams on the half shell
Feels like prohibition baby give me the hard sell
More give me more give me more more more
I'm your yes man yes ma'am I'm your yes man

Lord have mercy I know what I'm doing
I don't need an alibi I need a fire escape and an open window
It's my problem it's nothing I can't deal with
I'm not chasing anything just jogging baby
What's your bag?

Lord have mercy I know what I'm doing
I don't need an alibi I need a fire escape and an open window
It's my problem it's nothing I can't deal with
I'm not chasing anything just jogging baby
What's your bag?

And that kids, was how karaoke Friday was done back in the day.  Anyway onwards to bigger and better things.  After all, I still have three more things to cover in order to make the title complete.

I think I will do the blue thing next, well the sky is blue and technically the water is too, though not from this angle, but it is a shot of the Vancouver skyline, yes in NFL draft speak, Vancouver is on the clock,  as vacation is now just 52 days away.  I confirm my seaplane reservation last week, as well, so my city flyover and flight into the North Shore mountains is taken care of.  I am so ready to leave Pittsburgh it isn't even funny at this point.  I am stuck at the end of another of those ruts where I am working 14 days in a row, I am happy that I will be at a place where my cell phone doesn't work.  As an added bonus, Brian hasn't attempted to learn anything I do yet when I am away, Ed said he will come back for that week just to make Brian's life miserable if he doesn't learn it.  I find this delightfully funny for some reason.

Something new, let's see, I am officially a protestor to the new regime.  Sure, anyone who sees my Facebook newsfeed knows what kind of shit show #cheetotwatwaffle et al. are doing.  He is surprisingly easy to figure out, just stand up to him and he backs down.  He thrives on being the bully and getting the results he wants from using that type of behavior, so simply put, just don't let him get the satisfaction.  With that in mind, I participated in the March for Science with my aunt Amy and my cousin Christopher and his son on Saturday.  With a surprisingly good turnout of around 5000 people or so, it was nice to see so many like minded people in what wasn't the main march (that would have been in DC folks), who have adopted a course of logic and reason as opposed to what the administration would want, like minded sheeple who would rather lick salt off of a stick in the woods and be led along by the nose.  As an added bonus, I got to rock one of the cooler shirts at the rally,

I say cooler shirts because I was stopped on three different occasions for people to take my picture.  I almost felt like a GQ model but then afterwards I went home and looked in the mirror and no, Virginia, I am not a GQ model.

Lastly for something old, I finally managed to get all of the hockey games from this past season posted to the page (save for playoff games thus far), which felt like more of a grind than it probably was.  I should learn from this and never let myself fall three months behind again, but I never learn.  I will be scrambling again at the end of next season trying to catch up come playoff time.  It is just my nature that way.

Penguins @ Stars 02/28/2017

Dallas 3  Pittsburgh 2

Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel - G each

First loss of the season for Pittsburgh when leading after 2 periods

Penguins @ Blackhawks 03/01/2017

Chicago 4  Pittsburgh 1

Scott Wilson - G

Pittsburgh outshot Chicago 37-29

Lightning @ Penguins 03/03/2017

Pittsburgh 5  Tampa Bay 2

Evgeni Malkin - 2 G, A

Pittsburgh is 19-2-2 in their last 23 home games

Sabres @ Penguins 03/05/2017

Pittsburgh 4  Buffalo 3

Justin Schultz - G, 2 A

Marc-Andre Fleury came in the game in the second period and stopped all 28 shots he faced

Penguins @ Jets 03/08/2017

Pittsburgh 7  Winnipeg 4

Nick Bonino - Hat Trick (3 G)

Matt Murray set the team record for wins in goal by a rookie with 25

Penguins @ Oilers 03/10/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Edmonton 2  SO

Marc-Andre Fleury - 40 SV

Pittsburgh has won 4 games in a row

Penguins @ Canucks 03/11/2017

Pittsburgh 3  Vancouver 0

Sidney Crosby - 2 A

Pittsburgh outshot Vancouver  48-27

B365V4.9 - Zombie Jesus Day edition of the blog

Happy Zombie Jesus Day everyone.  Yes, I have been on hiatus from the blog again, though it would be hard to tell if someone were a frequent visitor to this page, not that any of those exist, but still.  I have been off and on the page somewhat regularly recently, posting hockey videos, which I know are everybody's favorite.  But they are a regular round these parts an since I have started posting them the Penguins have won two Stanley Cups and while I am not the superstitious sort, you don't mess with success.  Of course I got like two months behind and have been trying to catch up since the Stanley Cup playoffs have begun.  The process would have been easier had NHL.com been a little more cooperative.  The plan was to go back to where I left off in videos and start posting them again in chronological order, but that was not to be.  I would go an find a game, try scrolling to the next one and it wouldn't be available.  Not sure what the glitch was but it became such a tedious problem that I decide to go to the end of the season and work my way forward to the point I had left off.  So far the process has gone smoother that previously, occasionally I have an issue with the imbed codes on blogger, but it is far less troublesome than entire videos disappearing on NHL.com.

I think it was in my last entry where I mentioned I may have met someone,  Always leery of anything online since the Crazy Canadian Incident, I was not putting much hope on this either.  I installed a dating app on my tablet, figure worst case scenario I might find someone to grab a coffee with some day and hey, the app is free, so no harm no foul, right?  Right?  I get a message from someone, she is supposedly from Harrisburg, at least that is what her profile says.  We exchange a a few emails, she says she is working with UNICEF, in Africa right now, I ask where she went to school, and she emails me back that she lives in Baltimore.  After the Crazy Canadian Incident, lying to me is like making yourself dead to me, so whether the lie is on the profile or in the email doesn't matter, you're just dead.  Then I get the gimmick, I get an email, she is on a mission and she is sick, can I send money until she gets home.  Yeah, like that is going to happen.  I think I compared online dating to religion in the last entry, simply because it is just basically a bunch of lies written by man, and it requires a level of faith to wade through the bullshit to get anything from it, rest assured boys and girls, I don't have that level of faith in me. 

Sorry, fell asleep during my Zombie Jesus day typing, woke up and did another work day, and came home and did my me thing, now back at typing this.  I made a mistake last night,  while some people go to bed with a fan or, or listening to the radio, I tend to listen  to podcasts or a few different Youtube channels, and nod off, hoping some of what is being said might be retained.  Not that that form of information osmosis actually work, but I have noticed that in does infiltrate my dreams from time to time.  Like one of the Youtube Channels I will put on auto play, ComicsExplained, I will start listening to, next thing you know I am dreaming in cartoons or other such nonsense.    I will never get smarter this way.  Anyway, I should put a lid on this, only have a couple of weeks of hockey videos to go before I can get about doing playoff posts next.    Figure I will save them until Tuesday, since the Pens haven't lost yet when I have gone on one of my posting binges.  So it's not a playoff beard, it still works for me.

Penguins @ Flames 03/13/2017

Calgary 4  Pittsburgh 3  SO

Jake Guentzel - 2 A

Crosby moved within 1 assist for second place all time for the Pittsburgh Penguins

Penguins @ Flyers 03/15/2017

Philadelphia 4  Pittsburgh 0

Matt Murray - 24 SV

This was the last game in a 8 day, 5 game road trip for Pittsburgh

Devils @ Penguins 03/17/2017

Pittsburgh 6  Ne Jersey 4

Sidney Crosby - 2 G, A

Pittsburgh has yet to lose to New Jersey this season, going 4-0