the mad sports man

hockey is in the air. with the canadian orientation camp in calgary for the mens olympic team. selection for the team is later this year. meanwhile teh edmonton oil kings started training camp for the upcoming whl season. there are some changes already in management and some of the players from the two time whl finalists will be heading for nhl camps next month. fall is also in the air. the mornings have felt cooler and some of the trees have already started changing color. this morning it was pretty foggy which was pretty unreal and crazy cool. i had already got to work before it got really foggy in the west end. mmmmm fall. october baseball is getting close now.

it is the final weekend of 'to fringe with love' the title is james bond themed. there are still some plays going on and some outdoor entertainment as well. hard to believe the end of festival season is here and next weekend is the last long weekend of summer. the labour day weekend brings: 1. the end of summer 2. the cfl labour day games - featuring edmonton at calgary and winnipeg vs saskatchewan. toronto is hosting a game on the tuesday. and 3. kids go back to school although some schools that are year round have gone back already. where did the summer go?

alfonso soriano had six runs batted in tonight, this after he had six rbi's last night. he became the first yankee to do so. not even babe ruth, lou gehrig, joe dimaggio or even mickey mantle pulled it off. wow. that is run production.

in seattle's 5-4 win over tampa bay, tampa bay's ben zobrist and seattle's brad miller led of their teams respective first innings with a home run. they both added a home run each in the fifth inning to become the first lead off players to have two homers with the first homer leading off the first inning since june 5, 1994 when minnesota's chuck knoblauch and detroit's tony phillips led off with homering and adding another. they both became the third lead off pair to have a two homer game, with the first coming july 8 1965 when houstons joe morgan and milwaukee braves felipe alou having two homers, along with the 1994 game. wow. history indeed.

even though he lost 2-6, 2-6 to rafael nadal in the final, canadian milos raonic put on quite the run at the rogers cup in montreal. he became the first canadian to get to the final since 1958 when robert bedard won what was known as teh canadian open. raonic will be moving up to 10th in the world ranking, the highest by a canadian, and at 22, will be the youngest in the top 10.

i had what turned out to be a great birthday. had to do a couple things this morning, put together a shelving unit for my mini nfl football helmets. got half the league up. needed a couple of extra shelves to get the other half done. and i got back from an eskimos game about 45 minutes ago. got pretty close at the end, but hamilton beat edmonton 30-29. ended up meeting kerry koch's dad after the game. also met koch's mom and wife after the game. almost met simeon rottier. met a couple members of his family after the game as well. i should do that more often. go to a couple more games and hang around afterwards. all in all, a great night. and it was military appreciation night as well.

turned out to be a real nice day. few clouds hanging around. other than that the sun has been out. got to 24c here. feels warmer than that. i think its just me there. i think the warmer weather has finally returned compared to the cooler weather we had (not complaning about that either). nice start to what will be my four day weekend yaaaaaaay.

the end of july is here. wow i think it went by pretty quick. doesn't seem that long ago it was canada day, which happened to be a long weekend. this coming weekend here is a long weekend. that and i also took friday off for my birthday and i have a four day weekend woohoo. with loads of baseball, the cfl starting, nfl training camps in full swing, the street performers in early july, k-days that just ended this past weekend and the taste of edmonton also ending, it was quite the month. august has the fringe, my birthday, heritage days at hawrelak park. i think there is something else i cannot remember. eh what can you do. halfway through summer.

it is the last weekend of july already. today is my sister's birthday, and i already wished her a happy birthday. it is also the last weekend of k-days and the taste of edmonton. judging by the forecast, it's supposed to be a rainy weekend on tap. oy. end of the month is wednesday and my birthday is this coming friday. the weekend of my birthday is also a long weekend. i am planning friday off so i get a four day weekend. got the paperwork done for it. just got to wait for the foreman and the boss to say yes and sign the paper. i think the long weekend is the heritage days festival at hawrelak park as well. all is fair in birthdays and festivals.

the NHL, IIHF (international ice hockey federation)and the IOC (international olympic committee)reached an agreement that will send NHL players to play at the sochi winter olympics in february. the nhl schedule has a two week break from feb 9-26 for the participation of the players. at the same time, the nhl schedule was released and the season starts october 1st with three games. also the schedule was released for olympic hockey. the women begin their tournament feb 8th and concludes feb 20th. the men start feb 12th and end feb 23rd. im getting more excited for the games now. even with the time difference.

it's already half way through july. the street performers festival is done and k-days start friday with the parade beginning at 10am through downtown. also the taste of edmonton begins on friday. and with fireworks going off at 11pm from the 19th to 28th, i will be able to hear them, seeing as how i live north of there. july has already been interesting and not so boring. that to go with the hot weather and a couple of downpours, the entertainment value is up there. then there is the heritage festival and the fringe. but those are for august.

wow quite a change in the air compared to yesterday. yesterday was a muggy day, capped off by a doozie of a storm. there was hail as well. it looked like cherry sized hail in my area. oy. today it got to 19 and its been windy as well. far better than yesterday. supposed to get to 20c tomorrow. i will take that any day.

by beating novak djokovic, andy murray became the first brit to win in wimbledon since 1936 when fred perry won it.  he won in three straight sets, taking 3h 9m to play.  congrats to andy.

jimmie johnson leads 93 of 160 laps and wins the coke zero 400, and to go with his daytona 500 win, became the first driver to sweep both races since 1982 when bobby allison to do the trick.  congrats to jimmie, now with four races won this year.

wow what a difference 24 hours makes.  this time yesterday it got to 33c.  throw in the humidex (the summer equivilent to wind chill), the humid air made the ambient air feel like 43c.  ouch.  ugh.  and i wanna go to australia?  um.  i wonder.  on top of that, edmonton had a storm blow through, which cooled things off considerably.  made for a better day.  a nice breeze going, and it is 23c right now.  comfy.  and i wanna go to australia?

happy 146th birthday canada.  loads of festivities everywhere.  barbecues, outdoor swimming pools open, campsites galore.  lots of stuff happening everywhere.  fireworks to end the festivities.  here tehy should be about 15 minutes long.  happy canada day eh.

a long hot canada day weekend the first long weekend of the summer with canada day on monday, and its already heated up.  by monday it's supposed to get to 30c.  it's already warm out there now.  was outside earlier and i could feel it.  the forecast has it between 28c and 31c up to at least thursday.  gonna be fun working in it after the weekend.

chicago blackhawks stanley cup champions what a finish to game six.  chicago was trailing 2-1 to boston late in the third, and ended up scoring two goals in 17 seconds to win game six 3-2 and the series four games to two.  chicago ended up the better team this year.  patrick kane won the conn smythe trophy as playoff m.v.p.  congrats to the blackhawks.

vinyl cafe if you ever want a good show, listen to the vinyl cafe.  go to www.cbc.ca  and click on the radio tab.  then go to the schedules and programs tab.  click on the tab and it should get you to the program schedule.  you can look there or under the find a program tab.  you should find the vinyl cafe there.  it has podcasts of previous episodes.   the vinyl cafe features the adventures of dave, morley, stephanie and sam.  the storyteller is stuart mclean.

heat burn spurs the miami heat have repeated as nba champions with a 95-88 win in game seven and won the series four games to three.  quite a close series for most of it, despite two games being blowout wins - one for san antonio and one for miami.   that is it for another basketball season - at least until the fall.