Pics from the weekend

I just posted a mess of pics -- 24 of 'em -- from this weekend. They can be found in the Image Gallery in the June 2005 category...

What a great weekend...

Despite putting 1800 miles on my car this weekend and being exhausted today from all the travel and play -- I am completely and utterly pleased with the result of this week/weekend.

I'm now -- according to the laws of the State of Illinois -- officially and finally divorced. I'm poor, but pleased. It really is all pretty anti-climactic -- fifteen years, two kids and several heartaches later. I'll pay a handsome chunk of my paycheck to the ex (most of it being support for the kids), but in the end it'll be far better for everyone involved.

I spent a lot of good quality time with the turkeys this weekend too. We played, talked, had a sleep-over -- it was fantastic. They had so much fun they didn't want to go home! It was hard to take them back on Saturday afternoon and hit the road again, but we'll all have some great memories to go with the 185 pictures that Kelsey took! :P

In addition to spending time with the kids, I saw some of my family (Dad, Bry, Colin and Carolyn), visited mom's grave on the way out of town and got back in time to play hockey last night. We won a hard-fought match, and as a bonus I scored and got an assist in the 6-1 win over the Skateful Dead.

Leaving...in my Mazda...

...and I'll be back on Sunday. Why do I always think of that song "Leaving on a jet plane" when I'm going on a trip, even if it doesn't involve an aircraft? Funny how the mind works...

Tonight, Kels, Doogan and I will depart and head northward. We'll make our first stop at my sister's loft in Springfield, Missouri this evening. Sleep (some) and then head on up to St. Louis. Plans are to meet my dad and brother for lunch and then head on to Forsyth/Decatur, Illinois afterwards. We should hit the "Soybean Capital" around 3pm -- yahoo!

The trip, despite its true purpose (the final hearing in my year-long divorce) will be a nice escape from work and an opportunity to see my kiddos for an extended length of time. They're excited. I'm excited. Everything should be great -- even Friday morning at 9am.

So, if I don't post much over the next few days don't be surprised. I may not have many opportunities to "get connected," although I am taking my laptop with me. There is always Panera and their free-WiFi, but we'll see...

Fall from grace

Was an interesting hockey weekend.

Saturday night I was involved in a "knock-down drag-out" fight on my I-League team. A player on the opposing team decided to take a swing at one of the girls on our team and call her a few choice names. So, I stepped up and gave the guy a cross-check. We both got penalties and I thought it was over at that point. Apparently, it wasn't because as we went to shake hands at the end of the game, the same guy whacked me over the head with his stick. It was uncalled for and I retaliated with a jersey-pull over his head taking him hard to the ice. Another of their players piled on and when it was all over, I was being dragged away from the scrum by the refs. I got a 10 min game misconduct, and he got the same plus a one game suspension.

Sunday was game #3 of our Plano Ice Dogs season. Delsey and Akkerman were gone, so I skated with Thibault and Pellegrini. I scored on a hard slapper from just inside the blue line, but it was the only goal we "officially" scored, in that one of my other shots actually was a goal that was waved off. Both of their goals came on defensive miscalculations that ended up in breaks for them, which was frustrating after the first two games of solid defense. We had many opportunities, but the Tornadoes goaltender stood on his head, and handed us our first loss of the season -- 2-1. It was a nail-biter from start to finish...

Confident and it shows

I've been on some good hockey teams in my career as an amateur hockey player. I've been the goaltender for championship teams, I've skated out on teams that went to the playoffs every session. But never before have I felt more confident about the team I've played on, than I am of the Plano Ice Dogs.

This team is the combination of a number of players that have played with our coordinator, Allen Eastwood, on different leagues throughout the area. We have players ranging in age from their late 40s to their late 20s, and each and every one is quite talented. Some of these guys have only been playing hockey for a few years, some for most of their life. The mix of experience and talent makes for a great team.

My line has a number of years of play behind it. Our center, Brian Delsey, hails from Ontario, Canada -- where the kids are born with skates on their feet. At left wing, Ryan Akkerman, is from Wisconsin and is a friggin' rocket on skates. I'm at right wing and loving it. So far, our line has generated 6 of the 14 goals scored by the team in the first two games. Last night, Delsey was gone so we substituted Joe Thibault into our line and I played at center. We each scored a goal, the team won 4-0 against the Screaming Beavers. Mas Kono -- our goaltender -- stood on his head and deserved the shutout.

I love this team and I can forsee us doing great things this season.

I freaking hate hackers!

For the second time in about a month, one of the websites that I developed and host -- Word of Mouth Productions -- has been hacked by idiots. The first time it was hacked by "snowman" with what I suspect was a SQL injection attack. That happened just before Memorial Day on the 23rd of May. Last night or perhaps yesterday afternoon, despite preemptive coding on my part (because of the last time), the "T.H.A." hacked the site, altering database entries and deleting files. I take regular backups of all the sites I support -- their files and databases -- but it's just a pain in the arse to do because some dumba$$ haXX0r l33t thinks it's funny to deface the website of someone they don't even know.

This leads me to the topic of today's blog post -- "I freaking hate hackers!"

First off, these people (and I use that term loosely) need to learn that doing what they do should be done so for good, not evil. What's the point of hacking the website of a theatre company based out of Dallas? There isn't any vital information on the site. I don't store credit card numbers. It's just content about up-coming shows, auditions and such.

Secondly, are they trying to teach me a lesson or something? Yes, I have taken measures to avoid future attacks, but why should I have to?

Lastly, why aren't there steps that can be taken to put these dumba$$e$ out of business? Right now, I report the hack to my host, they say "Oh...sorry that happened" and then blame me for making my passwords to easy. My passwords are NOT easy...

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. Sorry that happened...

:P

I'm older today than I was on Saturday

This weekend was another busy hockey weekend, plus it just happened to be my birthday on Sunday. "Another year older and deeper in debt..."

Friday:
I was feeling crummy, so I stayed home. I played WoW and spent some time with Kels. We went and saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith on Friday night. What an entertaining movie. I laughed more than I expected and the action scenes were top notch. Very good movie. "Branjelina" -- quite a couple and a lot of chemistry. Plus, she's just so much hotter than Jennifer Aniston...

Saturday:
I played in the morning, got a haircut (buzzzzz), took a nap in the afternoon and then went to my hockey game in Frisco at 10:30pm. We won 3-1 and I narrowly missed having a shutout. As I was leaving the ice at the end of our game, the team playing after us asked me to stay and play for them -- as their goaltender failed to show. They had seven skaters and me. I agreed and we went on to win 10-0. I got my shutout for the evening...

Sunday:
My kids called and sang "Happy Birthday" to me over the phone...it was hilarious. They kept on starting and stopping and Baylie got a bit frustrated with Hayden's lack of tempo. What a great birthday gift. I love those turkeys...

Kels worked in the morning, and I fought with my computer which suddenly went wonky following the download and install of the demo for Battlefield 2. Nothing was working right in the video department. I went to a couple of places, got video cards came home, installed them, watched my computer blue-screen about 10 times before I finally decided to just wipe every driver on my machine and start over. Finally, around 2pm I got my dual monitor system working again. Kels and I then went back out to return the second of my video card purchases and we ended up picking up some "birthday" clothes & shoes for me. Plus, Kels gave me Gift 1 of 2 -- a mess of Steely Dan CDs, which I absolutely adore! We got home around 5pm, hit the pool for a bit and then came home and I cooked dinner before I had to head off for my first "official" game with the Plano Ice Dogs -- the D-League team that I'm skating with.

The game was awesome. This team is so much better than its previous incarnation. The first period was interesting, with us bolting ahead 3-0 only to find ourselves at 4-3 in the middle of the second period. But then, with about 6 minutes left in the second period we opened up the floodgates. The other team (the Vikings) didn't score again, and we tacked on six more goals for a final score of 10-3. I had a goal and two assists and everyone on my line scored atleast once. I took a hard fall in the second, slamming the back of my noggin to the ice. Fortunately, my helmet stayed on enough to take the brunt of the blow, but I've got a bit of a headache today and some resulting whiplash. We play again Tuesday and I can't wait!

Oh...and I had a birthday yesterday too. I'm 34.

WoW Update:
Early Saturday morning I finally reached the first big milestone with Nepah the Orc Hunter (my character on the Burning Legion [PvP] server). Level 40! Mount, mail armor and a new lease on life. Plus I rolled out a website for my guild on that server -- the Black Label Assassins.

Owww, I ache

As I alluded to a couple posts ago, I'm working out again. Arms, chest and back on Mon/Wed/Fri; Legs and abs on Tues/Thur (although the first week or so this got all screwed up because I skipped a day or two). All this working out has my muscles in a state of shock. They're happy with the fact that they are getting exercise, but unsure how to deal with all of it. The result is something I like to call -- "the two-day ache". Two days after I work a muscle group I finally feel sore there, which is annoying because that's usually the day that I have to work that group again.

Last night I took a night off from my workout to play hockey in Plano. Pick-up hockey is always interesting around these parts. It's either feast or famine. Last night, was good. Lots of people showed up, we had two goalies and I had a good time. However, this morning when I woke up I had a very sore bum (yes, my gluteus maximus) and my calves were tighter than a drum.

That was when it dawned on me -- "This is how it feels to get back in shape." *sigh*

More from Hayden

Although Hayden has never been to Washington, D.C. but he's seen it quite a bit on the History Channel. What better place to depict in a paper, tape & popsicle stick diorama than our nation's capital? Here is his description:

"On the west side of the city: the White House, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The White House is where the President lives and the Lincoln Memorial is a museum. The Washington Monument is the place where you can take an elevator up to the top and look out windows and see all the other places like the White House, Lincoln Memorial and the monorail that runs behind."

Love,
Hayden

Four new pics have been uploaded to the Gallery page under the heading 2005 June.

My son, City Planner

My boy, who just turned seven this past March, continues to amaze me. I believe that he's already started planning his future career in city planning. The kid loves cities, the way they are laid out and the way that they function. This from a boy who lives in the country -- where tall buildings are limited -- although, he has been to St. Louis and Chicago and loves skyscrapers. Today, I was not surprised when I got an email from his mother with a mess of pics of his latest creation and the following text that he dictated to her:

"This city is made out of paper, tape, cardboard and permanent pen. Where the ship is, you can see there is a tsunami. The tall building is the Capital building. The bridge crosses over the city and the lake. The small area located in the left-hand corner of the city is the airport. The city is Washington state. There is a volcano in the right-hand corner."

Love, Hayden

The pics that where attached to the email are HERE in the June 2005 section...

In addition, I got a scanned copy of Hayden's report card from his mother today, all A's and S's (Achieved & Satisfactory). Reminds me a lot of my 1st grade report cards...

Working out (again)

Last week, Kels and I resolved to get back into the gym.

This resolution was spurned on after I realized that I'm getting fat and much of the formerly muscly me is fading away. Much of this can be attributed to the lifestyle that I'd started to fall into -- working and playing at a computer for most of the day and night, with limited exercise. Sure, I play hockey once or twice a week, but that just wasn't burning off the "winter chub" that seems to happen to me now that I'm in my mid-thirties. Guess I got more of my mom's genes than my dad in that respect...

I created a strength & conditioning program based on a couple of hockey training programs that I found online -- and boy oh boy -- this stuff is working! I start out with a 10 min warmup on the elliptical machine -- to get my blood pumping and prep my muscles and then turn to the weights and machines. An hour later and depending on the day, I leave Bally's Total Fitness exhausted, but energized. Plus, I noticed that when I workout I feel better throughout the next day and sleep better. With this program, I hope to build muscle, burn fat and get back into the condition I was about 12-14 years ago when I could actually run a 6 minute mile with no problem...

Kels is keepin up with me too. She's tough and stronger than she lets on. I'm really enjoying having her as a workout partner. Plus she looks really cute when she's pumpin' iron...