the mad sports man

new years eve excitement less than 5 and a half hours to 2005 and im excited already. going to churchill square in downtown edmonton to watch the fireworks. i havent seen the renovations yet. hopefully i'll be imressed with the fireworks more. it may be -20 with a possible windchill, but there will be a few hearty edmontonians that will show up downtown. meanwhile at the world waterpark at w.e.m. there will be a new years party there with fireworks as well. i rather freeze outside than spend new years inside sweating like a pig. maybe thats just me.

canada vs finland canada defeated finland 8-1 and got an automatic bye into the semi finals. who they will play is still to come.

more world jr hockey canada has just defeated germany 9-0. next game is thursday against finland. a win there gives them first place in the division and a bye into the semi finals.

world jr. hockey championships canada has already played two games in the tournament and won them both. they beat slovakia 7-3 on christmas day and won 8-1 over sweden today. next game is tomorrow against germany. GO CANADA GO!

boxing day madness i hate boxing day. well, working it anyways. mass wall to wall shoppers looking for bargains. the kind of day that would make anyone working go mad. (hence how i got my mad man moniker. the sports part is my hobby). if i ever get a boxing day off (the rule for boxing day - everyone HAS to work), there is no way i'll ever visit a mall. i'd hide. just happy to survive it.

happy holidays merry christmas to all this weekend. may it be a wonderful one.

a chilly walk just got back from a nice, but a little cold walk. not complaining though. a clear night, snow on the ground, the crunching of my footsteps on the snowy sidewalks - at least i heard them in between songs on my mp3 player, listening to trooper, and thinking this is the perfect christmas scenery. strange thinking that and listening to trooper. somewhere along the way i thought back to my childhood at christmas time and it was the same for me then too. it was an enjoyable walk tonight

a christmas classic i am watching a christmas classic. i am watching "a christmas carol" starring alastir sim as scrooge from 1951. cbc is airing the movie in color. i have this very movie taped when global (formely itv) aired in 1996 in black and white. (thanks darren for taping it for me). anyways, its a classic and i always make a point of watching it every christmas.

typical alberta weather we went from one extreme to another the last dayand a bit. heading to work yesterday morning, it was gorgeous. by the time i left west edmonton mall (where i work) it was blustery big time. even a few of the glass window in the pyramid roof of city hall was found cracked or completely blown out. city hall was obviously closed. plus we got a bit of snow and cold air overnight. it was windy and it had already quit snowing when i left for work this morning. the wind died down this afternoon. it was +8 yesterday. its around -15 now with a low of -17. drastic change in the weather.

the apprentice kelly perdew has just been hired by donald trump as the apprentice. he gets to pick one of two projects mr. trump has in mind. a luxury suite highrise in las vegas and trump place in new york. that project has a stretch of several buildings stretching down the hudson river. when they are done it would cover 13 million square feet. he has decided to go to new york. i thinke he'll do well.

10 days to christmas good grief. i cant believe were this close to christmas. before anyone knows it, it'll be 2005. getting scary. thats the crazy part. christmas comes so fast, by the time you realize it came, its gone. happens every year. my favorite time of the year too.

survivor finale chris daugherty is sole survivor of survivor:vanuatu islands of fire. he was literally last man standing with six women and SOMEHOW won one million dollars. talk about insurmountable odds. he deserves it.

the edmonton cracker-cats edmontons new northern league team unveiled its name and colors this past wednesday. our norleauge team is the cracker-cats, and its colors are blue, black and white. the mascot even has a resemblance (even seeing the logo shows it. it's in yesterday's edmonton sun) of sylvester of looney toones. the team name is derived from an oil-related term used in fluid catalytic cracking or "cat cracking." they were to go with the latter, but they would have had issues with PETA. so cracker cats it is. the first home game is may 27 against the sioux falls canaries. mmmmmm baseball. cant wait

survivor and the apprentice the second to last episodes of the apprentice and survivor is tonight. (im watching survivor now). the 3 hour series finale of survivor is sunday night. (with reunion included). the apprentice finale is one week from tonight. that is also a 3 hour episode. (reuinion included). oh the fun.

snowy saturday it finally snowed, plus it cooled off too. i don't know what the temperature is, but the wind thrown in there makes it colder. curses the wind chill. well, at least it's looking like christmas. about time

a christmas feeling im getting that christmas feeling. not much, but a bit. just walking around my neighbourhood and in northgate mall, i got it. come this weekend, it may look like it. supposed to be -6 saturday and -16 sunday and snow thrown in there. maybe a white christmas.

TROOPER musings here i am wasting a tuesday night listening to trooper and just doing a little head clearing. while doing this, i get a notion to check trooper.com to see which c.d's (unless they are still albums. i still want the c.d's) i'm missing. i have 6 of the 10 released. the four i need: trooper (self titled, relax), untitled (don't ask, i don't even know), money talks and ten. they wont be in any canadian stores, it is explained somewhere on their website. theres songs on those albums (or c.d's) i've never heard except for 2 from the trooper album. the 2 on that album i know. they are "baby woncha please come home" and "general hand grenade." who knows where the albums are.

end of november already already the end of november. i still haven't figured out where it went. and no snow on top of that. december should be interesting. i'm not looking forward to boxing day (i wonder why) smd im looking forward to new years. new years day im off so im staying up new years eve.

a very unenergized day i didnt have a great day. i felt so physically exhausted, i felt unmotivated to do anything at work. i almost had to force myself to work. even some of my co-workers noticed. once i started to head home after my shift, i got to relax. now that i'm home, i can relax some more. i've got my christmas lights on, which will help.

christmas stuff part 2 the rest of my christmas stuffwent up last night. well lit room with all the lights. hmmm i wonder if i should add more to my room. hmmmm

christmas decoration attack part 1 my annual christmas room decoration has begun. just put the wraps on part one tonight. part two tommorow. christmas season has begun.

provincial election ralph klein is returning as premier of alberta. th progressive conservatives have a majority in the legislature. they lost some seats, but still has over 60 seats going. most of the polls have been counted, yet its enough. another 4 years of ralph klein.

nascar season finale and grey cup kurt busch is the 2004 nascar nextel cup points champion. he won it by finishing 5th in todays race (the season finale). he won by 8 points over jimmie johnson and 16 over jeff gordon. greg biffle won the final race of the year. the toronto argonauts are the 2004 grey cup champions by defeating the b.c. lions 27-19 in ottawa today. the game was pretty close throughout. so two different seasons are over. now my sundays became a little more free (like talking to my girlfriend in delta b.c.)

a sad day for air farce fans john morgan has passed away. he was an original member of the "royal canadian air farce." (dont get it confused with air force). he was 74. some of his best known characters were "jock mcbile" and "mike from canmore." he retired from the show in 2001. roger abbott, luba goy and don ferguson are also on the show. i think there'll be an "air farce tribute" for john hosted by roger, luba and don.

rememberance day (veterans day in u.s.) remeberance day was observed today. memorials happened all over the city and the country. good to remember the sacrifices the vets made in the wars. i just hate working it. i know this is gonna sound cold, but it was just another wasted holiday that i had to work. any holiday that i work i consider wasted - except for christmas and new years. christmas is obvious. new years is the only time i can get away with stayng up half the night. until then...

the northern lights wow. a late night blog. i was out with a friend and we ended up seeing the northern lights. i love the northern lights. they are so fun to watch when they light up the night sky and dance the way they do. neat.

a man and his laundry not much happening here. getting my laundry done and enjoyng a free saturday night and playing some tunes. so far ive played trooper and rebecca st. james. i just may decide to go to bed early tonight as well. with no nhl hockey happening, a free saturday sometimes helps. geez a strange thing to say coming from this sports fan, doncha think.

u.s. election george w. bush was re-elected as president of the u.s. i just hope he re-opens the border for our cattle. i doubt that will happen for awhile though. the results were announced this morning. i guess its okay. i just didn't know enough of john kerry to want to have him as president. i guess its bush for four more years.

christmastime already? i show up for work yesterday morning, and what do i see? christmas stuff hanging from the ceiling on both floors at west edmonton mall. personally, im not ready for it AT ALL!! i've even noticed some of the stores have their christmas stock out. (by the way the store christmas stock comes out at the beginning of october. i guess they need a head start to sell it). im not ready. there's like 3 nascar races left and a grey cup game on the 21st. well, let the christmas games begin.

happy halloween happy halloween to all. too bad i had to work it. i hated it. i would have preferd to hand out the candy than work. could have used a football game or two as well. what can ya do though.

time change tonight is the night to change our clocks back an hour. at 2 am most of north america changes their clocks. few places (such as saskatchewan) don't change their clocks at all. the upsude - an extra hour of sleep. mmmmmmm sleeeeeeep.

lunar eclipse there was a lunar eclips wednesday night all over north america and parts of the world. its pretty cool when the moon goes red. here's one thought: this was the first lunar eclipse during a world series. this was during game four. an odd fact.

red sox world series champions the boston red sox have done it. they beat st.louis 3-0 tonight and swept st.louis in four straight. the curse is dead. this is boston's first world series in 86 years. no more "curse of the bambino." time to celebrate. now where's that champagne?

world series game 3 boston is one game away from "reversing the curse." they beat st.louis 4-1 and lead the series 3-0. what do i mean by "reversing the curse?" the red sox "sold" babe ruth to the yankees prior to the 1920 season. by that time boston had won 5 world series, the last in 1918. since then, the yankees won 26 world series and the red sox - 0. by the way, what boston did to the yankees in the a.l.c.s is still fresh in my head, so there's no way im relaxing here.

world series game 2 boston won game two tonight. curt schilling pitched a great game, while matt morris kinda struggled. boston won 6-2 and goes up in the series 2-0. game 3 is tuesday in st.louis.

world series game 1 this one was a seme-sloppy game - well, on boston's side. they commited 4 errors and STILL won 11-9. a few 3 run rallies for boston and st.louis. a slugfest for sure. game 2 tomorrow. curt schilling for boston vs matt morris of st.louis for the pitching matchup

n.l.c.s. game 7 the st.louis cardinals are in the world series with a 5-2 victory over the houston astros tonight. the world series starts saturday in boston. boston and st.louis has met in the world series twice before (1946 and 1967) and st.louis won both times. st.louis last wrld series win was 1982 and last vist was 1987. bostons last world series win was 1918 and last visit was 1986. let the games begin.

n.l.c.s game 6 and a.l.c.s. game 7 st.louis tied their series with houston, thanks to jim edmonds' walk-off 2 run homer that game them a 6-4 win. game 7 tomorrow. in new york, the boston red sox has just beaten the new york yankees 10-3 and has advanced to the world series. the first team to come back from 0-3 down to win a post season series (l.c.s. or world series). they stuffed this down all yankee fans throats. good for the red sox.

a.l.c.s game 6 this was some game. boston won tonite 4-2 and has tied the series at three and has become the FIRST team to come back from a 0-3 deficit to tie their series in baseball history. game 7 is tomorrow night. houston @ st.louis, game 6, is tomorrow afternoon

snow weekend and game 5 of a.l.c.s. and n.l.c.s we got slammed with snow this weekend. it has been snowing of and on since saturday. talk about a winter wonderland here. heck of a game in boston. boston was trailing 4-2 going into the bottom of the 8th. david ortiz hits a home run. they added another run later. the finish the 8th tied at four. it stayed that way until boston's half of the 14th. with runners on first and second, david ortiz sends home the winning run with a base hit. boston wins 5-4 in a 14 inning marathon that took 5 hours and 49 minutes to play. boston trails the yankees three games to two. meanwhile in houston st.louis and houston went scoreless until houston went to bat in the bottom of the 9th. with two on, jeff kent hit a three run homer to win it for houston. they now lead st.louis three games to two. quite the night

a.l.c.s. game 4 and n.l.c.s. game 4 houston tied their n.l.c.s series with st.louis at 2 with a 6-5 win. meanwhile the red sox saved their season with a dramatic 6-4 win in 12 innings. boston tied it at 4four with a run in the ninth inning. and david ortiz won it with a two run homer in the 12th. that series is now 3 games to 1 for new york.

a.l.c.s game 3, n.l.c.s. game 3 and car race the n.y. yankees are one game away from making another appearance in the world series. they defeated boston 19-8 (not a typo). they're up 3 games to 0. meanwhile in houston, the astros got back in their series with st.louis after beating them 5-2. they trail st.louis 2 games to 1. in charlotte jimmie johnson completed the charlotte sweep by winning the uaw-gm quality 500. he earlier in the season won the coca cola 600 in charlotte. there's your charllote sweep. last driver to win both races in charlotte was 1986, when dale earnhardt accomplished that feat.

a.l.c.s. game 3 tonites game 3 between new york and boston was postponed due to rain. damn. it will be made up on monday, if it gets that far. monday here would be game 5. tomorrow would be game 3 and sunday would be game 4.

n.l.c.s game 2 and nba exhibition overseas st.louis won game 2 tonite 6-4 on a drizzly cold night in st.louis (perfect october weather, doncha think). meanwhile in china darren is going to his first nba game, albeit exhibition game, in china. even bigger when hometown hero yao ming is playing for the houston rockets. hopefully he'll enjoy. i've been to an nba game in 1995 between the grizzlies and the celtics. it was also the same night the atlanta braves won their world series.

a.l.c.s. game 2 and n.l.c.s. game 1 the yankees have won game 2 3-1 and is now up 2-0 in the series. an l.c.s. fact - no team trailing 0-2 in the series has come back to win. meanwhile in st.louis beat houston 10-7 and leads 1-0 in the series. houston and st.louis play game 2 tomorrow. boston and new york play game 3 friday. the playoffs continue.

a.l.c.s game 1 this was some game. mike mussina of the yankees had a perfect game through 6.1 innings before boston started a rally of their own. at that time new york was up 8-0. by the wime both teams went through the 7th and 8th, boston was trailing 8-7. the yankees ended up winning 10-7. boy did the yankees get away with one here.

houston @ atlanta the houston astros have beaten the atlanta braves 12-3. they will go to st.louis to play the cardinals starting wednesday night. could be an interesting series. i'm looking forward to watching the yankees and the red sox. heck of a rivalry. series should be fun.

more ball st.louis advanced to the n.l.c.s. by taking out l.a. 6-2. meanwhile atlanta tied their series with houston with a 6-5 win. the winner of the atlanta/houston game plays st.louis starting wednesday.

another baseball night the yankees took out the minnesota twins and is now in the a.l.c.s. against the boston red sox starting tuesday. l.a. beat st. louis 4-0 to stay in their series. they trail st.louis 2-1. houston beat atlanta this afternoon 8-5 and lead 2-1. a key day tomorrow, st.louis and houston could end up going to the n.l.c.s. which start wednesday.

baseball madness baseball playoffs at its best here. boston eliminated anaheim earlier tonite. yankees beat minnesota 8-4 and is up 2 games to one in the series. they win tomorrow and they face boston in the a.l.c.s. starting tuesday. a st.louis win over l.a. tomorrow will put them in the n.l.c.s. atlanta and houston play game 3 tomorrow with that series tied at 1. an exciting baseball weekend.

prairie pickin' fundrive cjsr is having a fundrive that started on friday and i totally forgot about it until i started listening to prarie pickin' tonight. d-oh! i wanted to drop by too. by the sounds of it rob and doug are enjoying themselves (rob a little more though). sounds like fun.

first day of m.l.b. playoffs some beginning of the baseball playoffs. 2 day games and a night game. boston beat anaheim 9-3, st.louis beat l.a. 8-3, and tonite the twins beat the yankees 2-0. this one was a great ball game and well pitched. boston, st.louis and minnesota all lead their best of 5 series 1-0. more baseball tomorrow. good, its my day off too.

ichiro has done it ichiro broke george sisler's hits record. he went 3 for 5 tonight to end the night at 259 hits (and counting). meanwhile anaheim beat oakland 10-0 to go up a game on them for the a.l. wast crown. anaheime wins tomorrow, its theirs. san francisco beat l.a. 4-2. they trail l.a. by 2 games in the n.l. west. an l.a. win, its over there as well.

last day of september means... geez baseball playoffs are almost here. final weekend of the season. starts tomorrow. ichiro had one hit and now sits at 256 hits. two more to break george sisler's record. geez an 84 year old record could be broken this weekend. an interesting october coming.

ichiro and end of an era in montreal ichiro suzuki had one hit tonight and is 3 hits away from breaking george sislers record of most hits in a season. ichiro now has 255 hits. george sislers record is 257. the last ever game in montreal was played tonight. florida won 9-1. montreal finishes the season at shea stadium versus the mets. they wiil start next season in washington. 36 seasons in montreal. its gonna be wierd not seeing a team in montreal when 2005 starts, unless somehow something drastic happens. i doubt it

baseball o' plenty - kinda it was a baseball kind of day. barry bonds went hitless tonight, ichiro suzuki is now 3 hits from tying a 80 year old record. the record for most his was set by george sisler in the early 1920's with 257 hits. ichiro, after tonight's game, has 254 hits. four games to get four hits. it can be done. the montreal expos, after tomorrow's announcement, will start 2005 in washington. they are more than likely moving out of montreal. tha last time a team moved was after the 1971 season when the washington senators moved to arlington and became the texas rangers. official news tomorrow.

barry bonds, busy sports day and aselin debison barry bonds hit 703 this afternoon. not too far from "babe" ruth's 714. this all part of a busy sports sunday. lots of football and baseball. this time next week is the end of the baseball regular season. mmmmmm i can smell post season. got to meet aselin debison. who's that? first time i heard of her, she had a special on cbc. she can sing pretty well. i ended up getting her cd afterwards, about the summer of '03. apparantly, i didn't know she was to be at the mall for today until yesterday when i was flipping through the edmonton sun. went to watch on my half an hour break thinking she would sing for an hour or so, so i left the cd at home. she sang for 20 minutes. at least i got her autograph - with a pic of her and her tour sked. better than nothing

#702 barry bonds hit #702 tonight, leaving him 13 hrs to pass babe ruth (12 to tie) for #2 on the home run list. with 8 games to go getting there this season might be pushing it.

olympic territory check out these pics of my room with the olympics. very cool, eh?

this is by my room door. the greek and canadian flag, news clippings of "the last call at the phone booth," and the home run list top 3 (under small greek flag) 

1980 to present. plus torino 2006, beijing 2008 and vancouver 2010. i have the summer on the top and winter on the bottom 

this is 1976. even the olympic rings make an appearance 

more olympic posters, emblems and torches 1936-1972 

the posters, emblems and torches 1896-1932 

home run roll barry bonds hit another home run this afternoon.his 43rd of the season and career #701. only 13 behind "babe" ruth to tie and 14 to pass. who knows about tomorrow.

he's done it barry bonds has done it. he's just hit his 700th career hr in the bottom of the 3rd inning joining henry aaron (755) and "babe" ruth (714). he hit his h.r. into the left-centre field seats. so someone has the specially marked baseball.

no hockey the c.b.a. is close to expired and the team owners aready decided to lock out the players. fine with me, i don't care. the owners are greedy, the players are greedy. all they are worried about is the money. the only people who gets shafted are the people who work the games and the fans. especially the fans. it deja vu from 10 years ago, and its the same issues. mostly the salary cap. if theres no season, so what. i just dont care.

world cup of hockey final canaada defeated finland 3-2 tonight in the world cup of hockey final. a great game tonight. this could end up the last we'll see of hockey for awhile. the collective bagaining agreement expires at 11:59 pm tomorrow. who knows when there will be hockey again.

quite the night where to begin here. barry bonds hit career hr 699 tonight. next game is tuesday when the giants face milwaukee brewers in milwaukee. first sunday of the nfl season went today. 13 games there. 2 cfl games this afternoon. montreal beat hamilton and winnipeg beat saskatchewan. this statistician was busy today. kansas city is playing denver at this moment. the score is tied at 24 late in the 3rd quarter.

a great saturday night some saturday night. canada beat the czech republic in the world cup of hockey semi final in overtime 4-3. jeremy mayfield won tonight's chevy rock and roll 400, which also decided the final top ten spots in the final ten races. gonna get exciting. plus laundry on top of that. tennessee beat miami 17-7. this game got moved to today with the threat of hurricane ivan. a great day.

a productive evening WOW! a great evening already. 2 hours of prarie pickin' tonite, of which i missed the first hour. not payin attention to the time there. first nfl regular season game is under way as well. indianapolis is at new england, and the score is 10-10 nearing the end of the first half. "the apprentice is on at 9:30 tonite on global and nbc. donald trump is gonna fire someone tonite.

snow day now ive seen everything. woke up to see snow on the ground. well, it was cold enough for that to happen. good thing this is my lieu day. sure feels like october. ha ha ha.

barry bonds and rainy weather barry bonds, last night, hit career homer 698 against colorado. didn't hit one tonight. san francisco has a 3 game series against arizona next. maybe in arizona he hits 699 and 700. rain has been raising some hell lately. with hurricane frances wiping out ball games in miami and tampa bay, and rain the last couple of days in new york, detroit and pittsburgh, there's been some postponed games and double headers. milwaukee @ pittsburgh won't make up their game, kansas city @ detroit has a double header tomorrow, tampa bay @ n.y. yankees maybe has a double header, if it doesn't rain. they even lost a game when their double header today got rained on. little confusing there. philly @ atlanta got their double header in today after rain washed out their game yesterday. so ive grown a hurricane sized headache. this statistician is suffering.

saturday night hockey yep, a saturday night hockey game. canada vs russia in the world cup of hockey round robin game. canada won 3-1 and finished the round robin at 3 wins and 0 losses. russia and slovakia play their last round robin game tomorrow. the u.s. ended up 1 and 2. on the european side, sweden and finland tied for first with 2 wins and a tie. finland gets first seed with goals differential. the czech republic finish 1 and 2 and germany 0 and 3. the quarter finals: finland vs germany and sweden and czech republic. the russia vs slovakia game will decide the qf matchups on this side. this tournament could be the last hockey for awhile. all depending on the c.b.a talks.

barry bonds barry bonds hit another home run tonight in a game thats so far gotten out of hand. san francisco is winning 18-5 in the bottom of the 7th, and bonds is done for the night. he's not hurt, hes getting a rest. he has now 697 hr's.

a soggy end of an era its an end of a baseball era. the edmonton trappers played their final home game - well played an inning. until the rain ended it. the rain came off and on until the las vegas half of the second started. then it started raining heavily to which the head ump got everyone off the field. the game got called off to soggy and unsafe conditions. the rain by that time let up. there was some fireworks to end the festivities. at least we have a northern league team to begin in 2005. the trappers played 24 seasons, had 7 million fans visit, 4 p.c.l. championships, and a 10 year old beautiful ball park - TELUS field. by the way - tonite (and all season) was "last call at the phone booth." TELUS field was nicknamed "the phone booth."

end of august and lori-ann muenzer. good grief. end of august already. lots happened. my birthday, darrens visit, the athens games, and the world cup of hockey tournament began yesterday. canada played its first game today and beat the u.s. 2-1. got to meet olympic gold medalist lori-ann muenzer today. very cool.got her autograph and got to check out her medal. its heavy. gourgeous medal. a once-in-a-lifetime chance and i fulfilled it. great end to august.

a great sunday night what a night! the closing ceremonies happened in athens tonight, and it was fantastic. the u.s. finished the olympics with 103 medals, then russia with 92 and china with 63. canada finished with 12. next up - the winter games in torino, italy in 2006 followed by the summer games in beijing in 2008. meanwhile in atlanta, barry bonds hit 2 more home runs to bump his total to 696 career hr's. san francisco has a 6 game homestand against colorado and arizona from august 31 to september 5. he might hit the 4 hr's to make 700. then its babe ruth with his 714 hr's. there is a ways to go to the end of the season. he MAY get to babe ruth. well see.

two more medals and night racing from bristol canada picked up two more medals today. a silver from ross mcdonald and mike wolfs in sailing star class and a bronze from caroline brunet in womens k1 500m kayaking. very cool. we now have 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze. great race from bristol, tenn. dale earnhardt jr won on the 0.533 miler. dominated the race and led the most laps. a great saturday for sure

how about a gold to go adam van koeverden just picked up a gold medal. WOOOOHOOOO! that to go with his bronze at this time yesterday. wow. what else can i say? wow. we now have 10 medals. 3 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze. atta boy, adam.

a silver, a night at telus field and barry bonds canada picked up a silver way earlier today (more like early this morning here). marie-helene premont in womens mountain bike cross country cycling. heard about it at 6:30 this morning. went to watch the trappers at the ball park tonight. the trappers beat salt lake stingers 3-0. andres galarraga is with the stingers. anaheim angels signed him to a minor league contract. i hope to see him in the majors again. got his autograph too. a great night there. barry bonds hit one home run against atlanta tonight. he has 694 home runs now. getting there slowly.

canada just got a bronze adam van koeverden picked up a bronze in the k1 1000m finals. just happened 40 minutes ago. meanwhile steven giles finished 5th in the c1 1000m finals. lori-ann muenzer came home with her gold. she landed at the international airport at 10:52pm and got to meet up with family and friends. hopefully more medals.

a golden greek moment WOW! fani halkia of greece wins the womens 400m hurdles. a great moment for her and for greece. ive been pulling for any greek athlete. moreso when i get to watch on t.v. i turned to the cbc halfway through the race and iinstantly heard the cheering crowd. i instantly knew there was a greek up front, so i started rooing for her too. the greeks are celebrating (i think they still are - they are 9 hours ahead) and im happy for her. go greece.

2 medals today canada got 2 medals today. a gold from lori-ann muenzer in womens 500m sprint and a silver from alexandre despatie in the 3m springboard diving. great job guys.

a silver lining and october weather canada won its third medal today. tonya verbeek won it in womens wrestling in the 55 kg class. way to go. it sure felt like october today. rainy and windy on top of it being very cool out. got up to 11c. world series weather, and its only august. very unisual to wear a winter coat in the middle of august. obviously hasn't been much of a summer.

a golden day and another home run canada got its first gold today. kyle shewfelt wins it in mens floor exercise after, if i heard right, a complicated tie break. meanwhile in the mens 100m. it ended up the closest finish since 1980. the winning time was 9.85 seconds, won by an american. 2nd was 9.86 and 3rd was 9.87. barry bonds, with one homer today, now has 693 home runs. i can almost smell 700 here.

another medal for canada and part 4 canada got their second medal in womens trampoline. cangrats to karen cockburn. that gives us 2 medals - a silver and bronze. track and field events begun today. hopefully more medals. all the hacked up branches are gone. the cherry tree will be trimmed up tomorrow. by the end of the day, all the branches that got put on the truck today and the branches that'll go tomorrow will be buh-bye.

barry bonds and a late back yard makeover part 3 barry bonds hit one homr run in the second game of their doubleheader against montreal. he had one at bat in a pinch-hitting role and popped out in the 8th inning in game one. his home run gives him 692 in his career. the giants next game is friday at home to the n.y. mets to begin a 3 game set. the yard overhaul happened on sunday. the remainder of "the growth" between the sidewalk and the house is gone. there's a lot more room in the "forest" in the backyard. it's called the forest because it makes the backyard look like and reminds me of being at a campsite. lot less branches. the trees are still there - except the spruce tree is gone. the "crew" will be back friday. at least thats the plan. the cut up branches should be gone and the cherry tree will be trimmed. the whole yard should look good. part 4 to come soon.

barry bonds, mark texiera, ray houghton and my 100th post barry bonds hit 2 hrs tonight. he is at 691 career home runs. the giants play a double header tomorrow. meanwhile mark texiera of the texas rangers hit for the cycle. thats a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. he also drove in 7 runs in a 16-5 win over cleveland. a good friend of myself and darren is heading for south korea in a matter of hours. yep ray is heading there to teach english as a second language (i think thats what he's doing). a 13 hour flight leaving at 6:25 tomorrow morning. ouch. how do i know? he just phoned me and told me so. a great finish to my 100th post with these events. i already looked all that earlier info, so you dont have to. the countdown is at 0. let's go racing.

canada's first medal in athens canada won its first medal. a bronze in women's 10m syncronized platform diving. congrats to blythe hartley of vancouver and edmilie heymans of greenville park, quebec. hopefully more to come.

olympics and racing day 2 of the olympics happened. puerto rico beat the u.s. 92-73 in mens basketball. ouch. got the car race at watkins glen going. the race was this morning, but with the olympics on, the race got taped and it is now being aired. what can you do?

a great opening and barry bonds a wonderful opening of the 28th olympiad in athens today. 4 plus hours of coverage. 202 nations in this years olympics. made for a long night, but that doesn't matter. it's all about the athletes. it was worth watching and its on tape. hopefully the olympic games go well. barry bonds hit his 689th career home run tonite. yes, only 11 more to 700. periodic updates will happen. he will get there.

hours away from athens yes we are hours away from the OFFICIAL opening ceremonies in athens. could be a very cool experience. they will begin at aprox. 20h athens time, which i figured out it is a 9 hour difference between edmonton and athens. i must tape the opening ceremonies. of course competition started already with womens soccer and archery. let the games begin.

2 days to athens and 2002 memories the olympics are close. little more than 48 hours to the opening ceremonies. im excited. im raring to go here. im excited now as i was in 2002 in salt lake for the winter games. at least the 2002 games i got to watch. of course that was helped when darren and i went to saskatchewan for his china farewell tour and my holiday from work. that was fun. great memories for sure. even darren watched some of the olympics. whether it was at his grandparents in north battleford or at his aunt's and uncle's in saskatoon, the olympics were on. quite the trip and quite the olympics.

major yard work part 2 and brickyard 400 more major work yesterday. the "mutated" bush in the front got cleaned out. no more dead branches, needles on the ground, and other growth - like another tree by the sidewalk. as far as the growth between the house and the sidewalk, bigtime eyesore is gone except for the bit in the corner. no bush either. some in the back dissapeared too. there WAS a tree growing there too, and now its gone. geex there sure are a lot of branches and bags. i dont know when they will be back. probably within the next day or two. jeff gordon won yesterdays brickyeard 400 in indianapolis and yes the home of the indianapolis 500. what makes his win remarkable - it was his 4th brickyard win in the race's 11th running. added to that the fact that four drivers have won the indy 500 four times as well, and that race has been running since 1911 (interupted a couple of time by two world wars). the indianapolis motor speedway was opened in 1

a beginning of major yard project a major undertaking began today, with help of some friends that we know here. a major tree removal started this afternoon. it was going when i got home from work. lot of dead branches removed from one of the trees in the front yard and the grass and bushes between the sidewalk and house going to the back also. more will be removed during the week. front tree made the front yard a little more wide open. looking forward to one tree in the back to come down. make more room and create more daylight. gonna look good.

a bluegrass evening and unfinished business 3 hours of bluegrass tonite. yeehaa! not minister faust for "the phantom pyramid" so rob baker has 3 hours of bluegrass tonite. no doug richie tonite either. he is at the folk fest, so rob is going solo. hmm he probably feels lonely, ha ha. a wonderful thursday night i got some "unfinished business" completed today after work. yesterday i STARTED mowing the lawn, but after two rain delays (and an attempt to mow the side lawn - wet) i decided to postpone it until today. good thing it was a nice day. otherwise i would not have been happy.

san francisco evening san francisco giants beat cincinnati reds 11-0, helped by barry bonds 2 hr's. he is up to 687 career hr's. getting closer to 700. after that milestone, babe ruth's 714. that may happen late this season or early next season. right now, we worry about 700.

a great birthday today is my 30th birthday. the day i dreaded ended up being a pretty good one. got to hang with a few friends after work today, which made it even better. of course my co-workers made my birthday pretty good too, so i can't complain. almost time for bed though. i'm wiped.

almost time to dread, baseball and car racing aaahhh car racing. taped it while i was working and now i'm watching it. racing in pocono. my favorite track - its 3 sided. meanwhile im keeping an eye on st.louis and san francisco. barry bonds is 15 hr's away from 700. he may get there come the end of the season. i'm dreading tomorrow, being my, ugh, 30th birthday. i may or may not like it, who knows.

THE LAST DAY OF JULY final day of july already. hmmm lets see now. an interesting occurence happening today - a "blue" moon, which means a second full moon this month. doesn't happen that often, though. a sad tragedy 17 years ago today. july 31, 1987 will be forever remembered as "black friday." a pretty big tornado. my family and i left for our holidays that day (we were living in leduc at that time). started northest of leduc and made its way through eastern edmonton. by the time it was over 29 lives were lost.

WILD WEATHER, DISAPPEARING GOLF BALLS AND AN APOLOGY wild weather again last night. thunderstorm rolled through last night and knocked out power here. i ended up asking one of my roomates to get me up this morning since he ended up with a battery operated alarm clock . by that time power came back. what could be more challenging on a golf course than a few extra sand traps, water hazards and squirells running off with golf balls. yep, thats whats happening at riverside golf course. squirrels are running off with golf balls shot in the fairway, driving golfers nuts. squirrels are running off with the golf balls thinking that they are nuts. insane there. an apology to darren for my rather uncalled for rant yesterday with him postponing. what else can i do? he had double booked himself and had to cancel someone. besides, there are other thursday nights we can go to cjsr and watch prarie pickin' live.

what's a thursday night without prarie pickin'?  not much of one, if you ask me.  darren and i were SUPPOSED to go, but he couldn't make it, which was a total pain in the ass bummer because i was looking forward to going.  i ended up deciding to stay home.  not much else to do afterwards.  what else can i say for someone whos in the shits?

today is my sister's birthday.  cool.  she turned 25  today.  gee i almost feel old.  and my birthday is coming in a hurry too.  im just looking forward to the athens olympics - a mere 17 days away.  woo hoo.

klondike days started thursday tight. i usualy try to make it a couple of times per year.  last year on opening night i went, along with a couple of friends, went to see trooper at the telus stage. i went home happy.  i like the fireworks too.  wont be a problem with those, since we got all that rain a couple of weeke ago.  its all good. i may go again this year. well see.

hmmm, another fun day off today.after picking up my paycheck, i ended up paying the remainder of my july rent, my bills and my august bus pass.  the wierd part is leaving for the mall at 9:20 am to catch the bus to begin my trip.  usually im still snoozing at that time.  the upside is i got everything done by mid afternoon.  lately ive turned into "the mad branch hacker." ive been pruning trees here at home for awhile. it's getting almost bad. i have an already mutated bush in the front yard (its been like that since prior to me moving into this house, which has been over 9 years now). im almost tempted to just go mental on it, but we already have a pile sitting by the fence in the back yard and i dont want to add to it.  yet i find yas to add to it.  i guess its time to retire the tree clipper - for now.

a rare sunday without a car race.  not much to do, except maybe take a nap, go to bed early, or both.  not sure yet.  nasty thunderstorm last night.  rained heavy, too.  if this keeps up, we could end up with a tornado like 1987.  geez, almost 17 years to the day on that one.  the conditions are ripe for nasty weather.  just gotta keep watching the skies.

geez!  the same storm that unloaded on edmonton ended up unloadin on peterborough, ontario yesterday.  even calgary got slammed on.  meanwhile it got to almost 30 here.  a little on the hot side for me.  a memory from 1976 montreal summer olympics.  bruce jenner winning the decathlon (10 events over 2 days).  he ended up being called the greatest athlete ever.  by the way, olympic stadium is now used for the baseball expos home games and the cfl's allouettes football team (for playoff time. even hosted a greay cup game in 1999 or 2000, cant remember).

day off today. a good time to relax and sleep in. 1994 winter olympics in lillehammer, norway. the first time that the olympics were held 2 years apart. since then its been alternating every two years between summer and winter games. the best olympics i ever watched too. well organized. i hope they host again.

what a nasty storm yesterday. the rain came down like you wouldn't believe. up to 125mm in the wastend. west edmonton mall had to evacuate after a pipe burst because of all the rain and hail. the ice palace (our ice rink) had to be our makeshift dam so all the people there could move the water into it. with all the hail that came down, snow plows had to move it to the side. rain rain go away. three major storms in a week, the ground is saturated, underpasses got swamped, and tornadoes near andrew and in grande prarie. all this rain is making me feel waterlogged.

grande prarie had an f1 tornado yesterday. and the nasty weather still lurks. as of 4:40 pm a weather statement was still here. so the potential still lurks. plus the rain still hanging around. i wonder if anyone else in edmonton feels waterlogged yet. hmmmmm.

great finish to the toronto blue jays vs seattle mariners game tonite. bottom 9, 2 on, toronto trailing 8-7, carlos delgado at the plate, first pitch swinging, BYE BYE BASEBALL HOME RUN CARLOS DELGADO GAME OVER! that 3 run homer gave toronto a 10-8 win. i got over excited to the point where i could have waken the dead. and i think i did too.

here is a thing to check out on msn. it's got a featur on cassini's ride around saturn (the planet not the car). the photos that were released were pretty cool. they showed pics of saturns rings and titan, one of saturn's moons. i havent done an olympic moment for awhile so here's one. 1980 winter olympics from lake placid.in the hockey semi-finals it was the u.s. vs the soviet union. the russians, it seemed, were unbeatable.next thing ya know, the u.s. pulled of the BIGGEST upset ever beating the russians 4-3 and later winning the gold. that victory as billed "the miracle at lake placid." how it was called the miracle - if you watch the tape of that game, you can hear al michaels (he called the game) say "do you believe in miracles? yes!" as the clock tick down to no time left. i saw that tape, and even though it was from 1980, it gave me chills. it was pretty cool

geez, were getting rain bigtime. got 12mm today and already had 62 mm a few days ago and possibly more to come. even manhole cover got blown off with the amount of water and pressure from the sewers. talk about yikes. can you say major ass clean up? i sure can. and i just did.

another monday night! 1924 winter games in chamonix, france. the i.o.c. staged "international sports week" in chamonix. it was such a success it was decided it would be renamed the first winter games. all was good there.

great race in daytona tonite. jeff gordon wins the pepsi 400. end of the race got pretty good too. an olympic moment. 1896 - the summer olympics that started it all using some of the events that date back to ancient greece. hmmm if i could go back to 1896 to witness this. hmmm

pepsi 400 tomorrow night. looking forward to it. saturday night car racing at its best. hmm ther's something about racing under the lights in daytona. theres that mystique. another olympic moment from 1936 sumer games in berlin, germany. this was at the time adolf hitler was running the country. (thats another blog and i dont want to get too much into politics). in the 100m race, jesse owens, a black man, won it all and stuck his gold medal into hitlers face (figuratively speaking). to add insult to hitlers injury, owens made friends with a german, which was pretty cool there.

bud pole qualifying for the pepsi 400 is happening. jeff gordon is sitting on the pole - for now. qualifying isnt done yet. 1976 summer olympics in montreal, at least i think, will have the great moment of those olympics. nadia comenici's perfect 10's in gymnastics. no one had done it before and i dont think noones done it since. i could be wrong on that. mmmmmmm the olympics.

geez. the final post of june. canada day tomorow. pepsi 400 in daytona saturday night. hmm there's something about car racing under the lights. it's the mystique. its great. an olympic memory from 1980 summer olympics in moscow. it will be remembered for the jimmy carter led boycott. the only countries (it seemed like it) were the eastern bloc countries. theres one thing - politics and spotrs dont mix.

olympic memory from 1988 in seoul, south korea. the summer games here will be remembered for the ben johnson scandal. he went from hero to zero in a couple of days. the hero part - he won the 100 metre dash in at that time a world record of 9.79 seconds. the zero - 2 to 3 days later it was found that he had annabolic steriods in him, which was a banned substance. his gold medal was taken away fron him and the world record was no more. that overshadowed everything good that happened. quite the memory for the wrong reason.

another olympic memory. 1998 nagano winter olympics. tara lipinski became the youngest gold medal winner in winter games history when she won figure skating gold at 15 yrs old. great moment for her. she's my favorite. womens ice hockey was added and the u.s. beat canada in the gold medal game. nhl players were used in mens hockey for the first time and the czech republic won gold there.

hmmmmm. saturday night. not much happening tonight besides football and baseball. eskimos are at home to b.c. tomite. they lost in montreal last week 33-9. tonite theyre trailing b.c. 25-17 at the half. with the olympic flame going around the world heading for greece, here's a memory! two of them, actually, from the 1988 winter olympics. the first - eddie "the eagle" edwards from great britain. great britain isn't known for ski jumping. so here is edwards, figuring he had nothing to lose, gave it a shot. he never won a medal, but him just going to the olympics to try is worth something. the other memory is the jamaican bobsled team. this is a true story made into a movie. jamaica is definitely not noted for snow. after immense training and getting used to the rather cold weather (none of them had experienced such weather. imagine how they felt). their first run - not great. their second run - fantastic. moved up to 8th (i think). their third run was going g