Hold on... let us count the ways that the Carolina Hurricanes DO NOT deserve to go to the stanley cup finals.

1- there are a total of 18,000 fans of hockey within driving distance of the arena. Only if ALL the fans decide to go at once, is there a hope of a sellout.

2- Cheerleaders? CHEERLEADERS???? for hockey?????

3- the arena is 150 miles from the ocean. no real chance of a hurricane reaching that far inland.

4- They're the freakin' hartford whalers, for god sake!

5- Rod (Rob?)Brind'amour is the ugliest man on the face of the earth.

6- never before in the history of pro hockey has a head coach made so many in-game goalie switches without it coming back to bite him in the butt. Its gotta happen eventually, right?

So, why else do the 'Canes deserve NOT to win? Post your comments here!

PS- the picture is SUPPOSED to be the hurrican warning flag with the universal "NO" symbol in the old sabres colors.. but my photo shop skills suck, I only had 2 minutes to do it, and yadayadayada.

Toto, I don't think we're in DC (or Bflo) anymore!

So as you all know, I've been down here in the south for almost 3 months now, acclimating to my new environs. Most of the time this Buffalo girl does OK in the deep south, but every now and then something happens that reminds me that I'm not in Kansas any more. With all the clamoring for a new blog, I thought I'd do a quick posting to show you some of my new-found favorite places here in Scarlett-ville.

The Dixie Speedway is a dirt track in Woodstock GA, 40 miles and lightyears away from downtown Atlanta. Racing every Saturday night, and if you go after 9pm, corn dogs are buy one, get one free! Its only a 3/8 mile track, so there's not a lot of speed, but thanks to the redneckery on and off the track, people watching abounds. There's only four things I need to keep secret while there: 1) I'm from the North; 2) I'm significantly skewing the mean "years of education" of the crowd 3) I'm the only one wearing earplugs and 4) that's not coke in my "god bless the usa and jesus and our racers" commemorative cup! Best thing I've seen there? The sign on the condiment table that said "please do not eat pickles without meat purchase".

The Big Chicken is -- well, its a big chicken. It happens to be next door to my favorite pool hall, and it's quite the local landmark. You can see why! Most directions start at the Big Chicken -- go past the Big Chicken and take a left -- you know where the Big Chicken is, dontcha? It's even on Google maps -- go ahead, google map this address and see what you see! 40 Cobb Pkwy N, Marietta, GA. And yes, it is a KFC now, and yes -- the beak and eyes DO move!




You may be sensing a theme by this point, because my next new favorite place is ALSO related to food. Its called the Vortex, and how could you NOT want to go into a place that looks like this? The best burgers in the world, and a generous pour of my favorite libation. They have a strict "No idiots" policy that's posted as you walk in -- and trust me, I've seen people thrown out of the place in violation. Luckily I've escaped the wrath by using my mind powers, Swede, mind powers. Note: the eyes on this one do NOT move. Usually.

Finally, I've got to give props to the hometown favorite, AndrUw Jones. The creative spelling of his name ALONE makes me love him, but his fine playing for the ruthlessly efficient HOMETOWN Atlanta braves is also notable. Add that to the fact that we have TWO "Jones" (we're not supposed to like Chipper. He's a philanderer, I hear) and the Ted is the place to be this summer. Especially since no one else in Atlanta seems to care! By kdh

Part III of our Disney Vacation or You're Not 29 Anymore

By Sandra "Stll Hot"

Poor Zach woke up this morning with a wonderful reaction to the heat (4 times). Thank goodness it was on Nana & Papa's bed and the chunks were big enough to scoop up--Mr. Fix-it is soooo handy! Well...like the concerned parents we are, we showered him, clothed him, rented him a stroller and made him come along. Afterall...we had another park to conquer!



The good folks at Animal Kingdom must have heard that The Rices were in town because they greeted us with style! It really was an exceptional welcome I must say! It is amazing how Jeff can turn from sports fan to musical man on a dime. He is seen here (center stage) at the Lion King show...oh, no, wait...that's not him...he's over in that wheelchair accessible section...that's right! Just another reminder of his incredble strength...hmmm...anyways...



One of the "homework" assignments given to the kids that ditched school was to take a measuring tape and measure different items. The measured both Koda the Bear & Mickey's foot and the bears then took over and measured the kids feet, height, heads...


They also measured the entire length of Goofy-hat to foot-and Pooh bear's tummy. The Mad Hatter also got into the game at breakfast one morning but for some reason, didn't think it strange at all.










The Pocohontas show was a peaceful show reminding us to "take care of the earth". The kids got to sit in front and the show included candids by many small animals. Mr. Fix-it was having a few issues with the fact that he couldn't sit up front too since he was first in line...we tried to remind him of the "peacful" thing but...for some reason it just made him crazy. For some reason, after the show, he just couldn't keep his hands off of Mrs. Fix-it... hmmm... I wonder what exactly it was that turned him on...

I'm not sure if it was Jeff trying to get him away from mom, or Zach feeling under the weather, but the guys went back to the cabins...leaving the girls to conquer the water!

Emma had her first ride on the rapid ride & her first swim under water without a lifejacket...quite a day! I can't believe I'm saying this...but I miss the 94 degree weather!

SBR

Part II of our Disney Vacation or How I Learned to Love the Meatball Bomber

By JT Pilaf and his #1 squeezebox

Boxcar Willie Is Not Dead.
I thought that would grab your attention. There are so many things to do down in Disney World. We just have to keep going back. The day started with a refreshing dip in the 82 degree heated pool. Considering it was 90 degrees outside the kids probably thought nothing felt better. I missed swimming. I REALLY MISSED SWIMMING.

As the kids swam, the rents walked through the campground to pick up the golf cart for the day. When they finally got to the rental spot, they decided to reserve the cart for the rest of the week. Nothing like a good 20min. walk to get your head on straight! The campground is huge!

As soon as we got situated at Fort Wilderness Campground we took off for our first destination of our trip, MGM. We hopped on the provided transportation and rode the bus over to the park.


Lights, Camera, Action was a stunt show from Paris Disney that Zachary, Papa, and I really enjoyed. It was loud, they had car chases, Herbie the Love Bug, a stuntdiver jumping off a building, and they were showing us how they do stunts in the movies. Of course Mr. Fix-it knew all the tricks. Emma spent the entire time holding her hands over her ears yelling, "Is it over?"

Passing through the streets of MGM Zach and Emma were asked to join some public workers and help them with a dilema that had arisen. The kids were more than willing to help out . Both were made Junior Public Works employees. I'm so proud! See how well they took out that gator?!





Emma wanted to see Disney's Playhouse and Zach, even though he's nine now, didn't put up a fight at all. Here, Emma is posing with Jojo and Goliath (very close to Davey and Goliath don't you think?).

Everyday the weather was beautiful, but our first day there just seemed extra special. We had been waiting so long for the trip to come and now we were finally there. We spent the whole afternoon at MGM, but finally it was time to race over to our reservations for dinner. Disney gives you exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds past your reserved time.

After a long day we finally settled in at our table. It was a buffett style eatery and it was delicious. Both Sandra and I started our meal off with a cold refreshing beverage. Nana and Papa went the freebie route and just got a pop. Sandra also was kind enough to bring me my food. I left explicit instructions with her on how much I wanted and where it should be taken from on the serving plate.
More importantly the food could not be touching. God, I love her. I'm sure she feels the same.

The night was topped off with the famous laser show Fantasmic. It was awesome and well worth the wait! We couldn't believe how many people were at the show considering that the park didn't seem that crowded. The show consisted of a show on water and on the stage behind. It had lasers, animation clips projected onto sprays of water, fireworks, fire, and all the characters. Thanks to Jff we had great seats too!

The cabin had a seperate room for the kids & us to sleep in which was pretty cool. We could put them to bed, close the door, and join the folks for some ole' fashion sport center...oh, come on, you didn't think that we could skip that did you!

More to come concerning mother's battle with the Intergalactic bird flu. Or as we like to call it, "Woosie Girl Go Home".

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

WISHING ALL THE MOMS OUT THERE A DAY TO REMEMBER, MAY YOU BE ABLE TO SHARE IT WITH YOUR DAUGHTERS AND SONS.

TO MARY AGNES DOWNEY HOLTZ, AND HER MOM CATHERINE,
AND TO VICTORIA ROSE GRACYK, AND HER MOTHER VICTORIA ROSE, YOU ARE ALSO IN OUR THOUGHTS ON THIS DAY AND EVERY DAY.

Disney World 2006

A Family Vacation Part I
"The Departure, The Arrival, and Gregory Hines' Ghost"
by JT Pilaf

Like family vacations of yesteryear, this one was no different. The kids were jumping out of their socks just days before we left with expectancy and overjoyed animation. It's tough keeping control of a situation before a vacation, fathers don't want to be the bad guy and "go see your mother" can only be used sparingly. We woke up bright and early on a beautiful morning in Buffalo, the sun was a vibrant red spilling with life and energy. We had our suitcases already packed in the van and we were ready to for our flight to Orlando.

The boarding was smooth and went without a major incident. Unlike Gramma, who received the "Mexicali special", on her flight to San Antonio, we were greeted kindly by Charity Van der Pol in the employees line (thank you cast and sympathetic look of need), handed coffee and bagels, and received hugs and kisses by all the TSA employees at the Buffalo airport.
We once again received presidential treatment by our friends at Southwest because of my untimely inconvenience and were seated first on the plane, I chose the first row, it had a cup holder and extra leg room. The kids immediately dove into their Disney journal created by their loving mother to compensate for school assigned homework. The only thing that would keep us from a perfect flight would be our unscheduled detour to Pittsburgh to refuel. But even that only added an extra 30 minutes; and who doesn't want to stop off in Pittsburgh, home of the Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Captain Dan, our pilot, was an experienced aviator and landed the plane in Orlando with precision and creativity. The sunbathing onlookers were very impressed and gave him standing ovation, one even tried to high five him as he passed.






Our destination was Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney World. The Disney Magical Express picked us up at the airport, showed us a video, featuring Mickey Mouse and all his friends, of all the fun we were entitled to have, and dropped us off at Fort Wilderness; it was now our responsibility to continue the week of fun.






We entered the cabin, ooohhed and ahhhhed, and quickly threw our luggage in our rooms. Geckos ran amuck outside the cabin, tapping a soft shoe on the deck, giving Gregory Hines a run for his money (RIP).
The kids turned the TV on and settled into their daily routine. My old man, immediately wanted to start a campfire, sing, and roast marshmallows. He had to be reminded that we weren't neccessarily roughing it and it might be wiser not to start a fire considering the state of Florida was going through their worst drought in years and were battling brush fires for two weeks straight and not winning. My old man paid no attention to us and built a fire that could've hailed down a 5 plane search party heading up a rescue mission in the Bermuda Triangle. He started it by rubbing two pieces of his hair together and four gallons of gas at 2.85 / gallon.


In an instance I was blinded by the explosive flames, Zachary's hat flew off from his head from the violent burst and landed in the next lot, and both Sandra and my mother's eyelashes were completely burned off and they were inside the cabin.
A funny coincidense followed, we never saw another gecko.




My mother, always looking out for the welfare of her children, rented a scooter for me so I could get around the parks easier. I offered to reimburse her for her generousity and that she didn't have to do that, but I'm not sure if she heard me. My throat was still hoarse from the gasoline fueled campfire.

I was a little hesitant at first to use this transportation, what would the chicks at Magic Kingdom, like Ariel and Cinderella think. But, after putting on the helmet, the body suit, and protective gear, I felt manly again. Zachary wanted his hand at it. I told him no, this isn't a toy, and then I went out and did some jumps on my old man's campfire rubble.






Disney Trip 2006 will continue with parts II and III



Part II:
The Night I Spent With Jasmine







And the story everyone is waiting for;

Part III:
Sue versus The Volcano

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTEN DYAN !!!!

Where has the time gone? Have a day filled with all the things you love the most!

Posted by Mom

Red Sox Sweep Yankees!!!

And the first series goes to the Red Sox by a Sweep! Read 'em an weep, Rices/Kochs!!!