Muy Caliente!

Doug got me thinking about conspiracies the other day in his post, so I thought I would write about one of mine. The Pittsburgh Penguins will win the Stanley Cup. As a fan of the NY Rangers, you may think I am biased. Well – you can ask any fan of any team they have played since early this year. I think the National Hockey League has a deal with the refs, coaches, whatever and will do whatever they can to get the Penguins to win. Why? The NHL loves their boy toys Crosby & Malkin. Look at all the money they are making from ads for the NHL, Gatorade, etc. I personally, don’t even think they are as great as we are all led to believe by the media. They were so hyped up in the series vs the Rangers, when Jagr had the best stats so far in the playoffs and was barely mentioned except that it looked like he was trying. I’m not even a huge Jagr fan, but come on and give the man some credit! I don’t think Crosby had more than 2 assists and no goals in the entire 5 game series. Malkin played well but was certainly no superstar. Marion Hossa was really the star as he was picked up at the trade deadline. Other than that, the Penguins are ignorable and their defense is poor. How else could they have come so far? Every announcer on Vs or NBC I guarantee will mention their two names no matter which teams are currently on the ice. Why do I have to hear about them when I watch Montreal & Boston? I think the NHL is doing everything they can to get these youngsters a cup as it will improve their image and create a story for them. The Rangers played the Penguins eight times during the regular season and won 5 times. So what happened in the playoffs? Well, we won once, lost twice, and the other two games the refs gave to the Penguins with some of the worst officiating I have seen since the Rangers playoff series last year versus Buffalo. Call me crazy but that’s my conspiracy theory. Let’s see what happens in the finals…

PS – I really hate Penguin fans. To show how dumb they are, when the Rangers come to Pittsburgh the whole stadium boos when Jagr is on the ice and cheer when he gets checked hard. For years and years when he played with Lemieux he was their hero. Now he is their most hated. News flash morons – Jagr didn’t leave Pittsburgh to go to Washington for more money like you all think, Pittsburgh traded him. He wasn’t a “traitor”, they traded him!

Sorry it’s been so long! Well, to get back up to date quickly since my last post:
October: Cruise with Sara & Family was awesome (pics below) & Sara quit CUH2A and entered the world of real estate.
November: Thanksgiving was at my parent’s this year. Good food, good times.
December: Holidays were a blast it’s always great to see family and saw some old friends from California & Florida as well.
January: work work work! Sara also started working at the Olive Garden doing lunches because she is slow midday and the real estate is slow.
February: I slid off of the road in the snow and into a telephone pole, totaling my civic. I was OK, just some bashed ribs. Got an ’03 Mazda Protégé with the insurance check. Since buying the car it has soaked $3500 in repairs the POS. I also am fighting the careless driving ticket, court in June.
March: Betsy’s birthday was fun; great to see the nephew’s growing up.
April: When I got the brakes done at Midas, they forgot to reconnect my parking brake. I found out when my car failed inspection. With the big red FAILED sticker on my car, I got a ticket for failure to make repairs. I didn’t have the paper from the DMV because nowhere it states to have it in the car. The cop told me to go to court on May 13th and just bring the paper and they will dismiss it. I did and they basically told me the cop was an idiot (to which I agree) and that I have to plead not guilty and go to court, again in June.
May: Sara’s birthday was fun, Brad & Lauren had a baby and my birthday is just around the corner. Sara also quit the Olive Garden (today actually) and will start working for the Jewish Family & Children Services of NJ on Monday which she is pretty excited about. So far, so good!!

I updated my Photos in my gallery. I have to go back and start putting in descriptions now. Here is the link.

But that’s OK because it took me a while too. I’m talking about the whole situation of why we still have troops in Iraq. It seems really obvious to me, but let me know if you think I am on the right track or not. Here goes:
After 9/11 I’m pretty sure that the US new exactly who attacked us and where they attacked us from. They also new which countries in the Middle East had a realistic threat of WMDs. They also had a good idea of who in power in these countries were supporting and harboring terrorism. It was not Afghanistan. It was not Iraq either. No, these countries, while holding genocidal regimes and terror cells that were dangerous and a threat to the US, democracy and freedom in the world, they were just stepping stones to what I believe will ACTUALLY be the war against terror. The country that I believe the US has been going after since 2001 is Iran.
I think the Iranian government is now the most threatening force to entire world. If you take a look at the mess in Iraq, most of the violence is not Iraqis killing Iraqis. It is extremist militias from around the world, but mostly Iran. Most of the weapons and explosives brought into Iraq are also from Iran. Now just going and trying to wipe Iran off the map is a very bad idea. Over half the country does not support their leader (sound familiar USA?). But what to do with a regime that has pointed out numerous times of its wish to wipe Israel off the map, praised the 9/11 attacks, is enriching uranium for nuclear power and/or weapons and has missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads? What Bush decided to do was surround them. We invaded Afghanistan from Pakistan and now hold Iran’s Eastern border. To the west, the US has air bases in Turkey, support from the Saudis, and are now in a holding position in Iraq. Saddam Hussein, while an evil leader and general threat to the US was just in the way for us to secure Iran and his regime was overthrown. We now sit between Iran and Israel - ready to intercept anything that happens to fly that way - missile, bomber, or otherwise. If it comes to it - we are now in the position to attack although I hope it never comes to this. I hope the people of Iran take matters in their own hands. If we go into Iran, the Middle East will become very very messy. You think Iraq is bad? I believe it would be 50% worse.

So I haven’t been blogging nearly enough. I know. I’m sorry. I am only writing this because Green Bay already won (woohoo), hockey hasn’t started yet, and the Yankees won’t be on for another hour. But here I am. Not a big news updated, so it is a sNews (snooze) update.
-Well, actually there is some really exciting stuff going on with Agent Orange, but I will just point you to his blog so you can get the good word straight from the tiger’s mouth.
-As you can probably also tell, I’m using a new theme. It’s a little more cohesive than trying to spice up an oriental theme. Although I still cannot do simple things like changing colors, reorganizing my list of links, adding simple things like TTLB, or any sort of general editing (because I am just not that smart) - I think it is passable. Let me know what you think!
-Less than a month until our belated summer vacation! Sara’s parents had their 40th wedding anniversary this past May and they wanted to celebrate by taking all their kids (including me!) on a cruise. We are going on Royal Caribbean and here is our itinerary:
12-Oct: Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey
13-Oct: New London, Connecticut
14-Oct: Cruising
15-Oct: Halifax, Nova Scotia
16-Oct: Saint John, New Brunswick
17-Oct: Bar Harbor, Maine
18-Oct: Portland, Maine
19-Oct: Boston, Mass
20-Oct: Cruising
21-Oct: Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey
So I’m really pumped because I have never been on a cruise before. I went on a 3 day, 2 night sail boat cruise in the Tobago Cays, but that boat was (only) 90′. This thing is bigger than an aircraft carrier! Anyway - for all my friends which have moved away from NJ, I have not visited recently because I have been saving all my vacation time for this. For all my friends who do live close by, I have no excuse other than being very busy for not getting in touch more often.
-Speaking of visiting friends I will be going up to see Matt Stouffer with Sara, my friend Tom and his wife Sarah in a few weeks and I’m pretty pumped for the road trip. I can’t wait to get a Beef On Weck and maybe do a brewery tour. Anyone know any good brew pubs in Buffalo??
-I guess some other big news is that Sara is leaving CUH2A on October 26th. She has just finished her state required training to be a NJ Realtor and just needs to pass her exam in a couple weeks and then she will be a Realtor with Long & Foster starting 10/29. If you need a house on the East Coast give Sara a call and she’ll hook you up. She can only buy and sell in NJ but she can do referrals anywhere L&F has coverage.
-I have recently added a tripod and backpack to my digital camera setup. Although I have not uploaded anything to my online photo album (because I am lazy) they have both become indispensable for photo specific ventures. The tripod is a rock and solidly built. The backpack has enough room for my camera, my tele, wide and macro lenses, plus 3 extra sets of batteries, raincoat, memory cards, a toolkit, plus straps to hold the tripod.
- I also picked up a pair of sweet hiking boots from Raichle. These are by far the best and most expensive boots I have purchased. The are so light and comfortable, I spent 6 hours on my feet on Saturday with no fatigue. Although I was just breaking them in and not doing any serious climbing, I can tell they will be great when I hit the trails in Maine, the Appalachian, and some other local stuff.

Well, I’m tired of writing this post as you are probably tired of reading it so I will continue later but more frequently than recently; I promise!