Finally Christmas has passed... What a relief! I must say that I'm not the biggest fan of the Holiday. It has just seemed to loose lots of its luster that it had from when I was a little kid, and all it seems to do now is just put me into a panic of what I'm going to be getting for other people. As stressful as it can be to buy for your family it always seems 100 times harder buying for your significant other. My girlfriend and I took a slightly different approach at it to help ease the stress a little. We decided that we would go shopping on one of our common days of following Christmas to take advantage of the Sales and get something either for the house that we need or something fun for us to use. After chewing on it for a few days Sunday 12/28 we decide that we're going to get a Nintendo Wii. Being that we were out to Breakfast and in the shopping area that morning we proceeded to go to some stores to get one. First stop Bestbuy: Sold out, second stop Circuit City: Sold out, third stop GameStop: Sold out... Needless to say you can see the pattern that is starting here. After disappointing myself with the thought that I could get a Wii in Stores the Sunday after Christmas I decided to call it a day and go home and watch the Patriots Final game of the season (Thanks Brett Favre). Well watching the game I noticed that a phonebook had been left on the coffee table. I flipped it open and figured I'd try to call a few stores while sitting there. Figured I would just give one of the half dozen Wal-marts that are all within 30 minutes of me a try. First one I called... Big surprise, Sold out. I call the next and Receptionist asks me to hold while she forwards me to electronics. After waiting on hold for about 5 minutes I debate whether or not to hang up since I was more than likely going to hear what I've heard over and over again today. "Electronics, how can I help you” I finally hear from the other end. "Yes do you have any Wii's in Stock" I ask. "Actually I have an unopened one I just took back from a lady whose son received two. If you can hurry down I'll hold it for about a half an hour" I dam near crapped my pants when I heard this. Hoped in my car drove there and had the Wii in hand within the half hour time the clerk set it aside for me. I was pumped. Got it home, created my Avatar and my Girlfriend made hers. We then proceeded to Bowl the night away... Let me tell you that it was well worth the hassle of tracking one down, even though it practically fell in my lap. Be really nice when the Fit comes in. That’s what we were really after, but looks like that will be hard to come by in Stores till May or so... Got to love Ebay though, thanks to that I'll have mine in 10 days!

Finals preview Christmas Day....

Finally got all my Christmas Shopping done. What a pain in the butt it was. I went on Sunday 12/21 to do all my shopping right in the peak of a Blizzard. One of the worst storms that we've had this early in the season. We got about 12" of snow just after receiving 8" two days before. I stayed home from work yesterday and cleaned up the yard and racked all the snow of the roof. Feels like I have been doing pushups for about a week, must have pulled off close to 1,000lbs of snow if I was to guess. Needless to say I'm glad that I have the shopping done and the roof cleaned off. They're calling for another storm here on Christmas Eve. Which is awesome since I have to go to my Dad's for Dinner and presents after work. Hopefully I won't get snowed in there or take 3 hours to get there. I'll be at work from anytime from 2-5pm. yes I am the Chosen One that gets to work on both The Eve as well as the Day after Christmas... Lucky me! It’s not really a big deal, its actually kind of fun working. Everyone is in a good mood, you’re not expected to do squat and the few people that do work bring in a bunch of food and we have a small party. I'm going to try my hand at Meatballs and Sauce. I'll also pickup some rolls or something to serve with it. First time I'll have ever brought anything in so I figure I better keep it easy. The next few days will sure be busy, but I'm definitely going to find time to watch the Celtic's vs. Lakers game on Christmas Day. Comes on at 5:00 and I'm hoping to be plobbed on my couch for this one. Should be intense unless the C's stumble against the Sixers tonight they'll be shooting for 20 in a row. They have been playing lights out so it should be one of the best games so far this season. Rondo had a Career High game in scoring the other night with 26 points against Knicks and the C's themselves are off to the best start in league history. Quarters of the way through the Season are on target for the 72-10 all time record... Watch out Chicago!

And then there was light.... Finally

So only five days went by without power, water & electricity, that's not too bad. Really it was awful, but it is over now for me. Some folks are still not that lucky and may not have power till Friday or Saturday. This has been one of the worst starts to the winter season that I can remember. To think that with the coldest crappiest part of the year still to come. I hope it doesn't get much worse then this. The real kicker is that today we got about 3-4 inches of snow fall, so hopefully they'll be able to get the people who are still without power up and running. It’s going to be nice to get home this afternoon and catch up on all the happenings in the World. It's amazing how far out of touch you can be on things with out power for a few days. Unfortunately I'm going to have to clean out the Fish Morgue(tank) tonight as well when I get home. They put up a good fight, but after day 3 with no heat and water temp about 15 degrees they couldn't hold on any longer.... R.I.P.: Larry, McQueen, Carmelo, Yella', Sweeper & Mini Sweeper - You'll all be sadly missed....

So here it is day 4 after the great Ice Storm of '08 and I still have no power. The humor of the situation has now worn off. Being that every possible place with in a 5 square mile radius of my house has power and I still do not. Friday night when this all started I thought this would be kind of fun, like camping out. That was sort of the case and with temperatures dipping in to the single digits the next day there was no way I was staying at home. Felt bad even leaving the cats there so I loaded them into the car to bring them to my mom's. With no cat carrier this can be a pretty daunting task. The younger of the two took an unexpected tinkle on my girl friend while the other proceeded to do a deuce in the back seat of her car. After that the four of us were on our way for a very crowded night sleep at my mom's apartment. Some how she was in a cluster of people that kept power through the whole or deal. Sunday we woke and my girlfriend need to head to work for a few hours to see what could be salvaged there after two days with no power. I had her take me to the house on the way to check the status of the electricity as well as to grab some work clothes. I really didn't expect to see the power on and to no surprise the power was still out, but to my surprise all my fish as well as Larry (a fresh water lobster) were all dead... Well maybe not, the power is still out and I'm very optimistic that they might just be in a hibernation state.... Wish full thinking I guess. So here it is Monday afternoon and I decided to run home on lunch and see if the power might be on now and as expected, no power. I did however run in to a neighbor as well as the park manager for where I live and the word that they have gotten from the CMP is that, well there is no word and they don't know when will be fixed. If the News is anywhere close to being accurate with this one, it's probably going to be a few more days. It's amazing how much we take advantage the luxury of being able to turn a light on, or turn the thermostat up a bit to warm up on a cold night and how could I forget TV, man do I miss it! Either way I guess I should be grateful lots of people are far worse then I am. I at least can go to my mom's or a few of my friends places that are on. If I learn one thing from this whole situation it will be to set a side some extra money to buy a generator this summer, so this doesn't happen again.

Got to love New England

Well I thought today was going to be a fairly decent busy day at work, but boy was I wrong. At this moment I'm sitting at work with nothing to do. We're in a State of emergency with an unexpected Ice Storm that we had last night. Let me tell you, if this is something you never have experienced you not missing out on anything. Much worse then snow, it collects on all the trees and power lines and usually wreaks havoc on anything it collects to. I woke up around 4:30 am this morning to the sound of a HUGE pine tree going down just outside my bedroom window. By the sound of it didn't quite come down the whole way, so I laid awake in bed for the next few hours wondering if it was going to crash through my house or not. When I woke up at 4 with the sound of the falling tree is when I saw that our power had already been taking out.... Fun! Cold shower and trying to get stuff accomplished in the morning in the dark is a real pain. The only Flashlight I have is a hand crank one that can run without batteries, but never seems to put out more then 5 minutes of dim light no matter how long you crank. The way into work was an absolute ghost town. Not even a place to stop for a morning coffee. Oh well guess this is what it is like to rough it. Could be worse I could be at home instead of work with no power at all. At least here I can entertain myself with the Internet for a bit. And they decide to get pizza for everyone that braved it in today, so I guess that's some sort of bonus. They're saying that we could be up to two days without power, Should make for a great weekend. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the power is back on when I get home, if it's not probably have to find some place to go for the night.

'08/'09 Celtics better then '07/'08

So the Celtics are on the cusp of franchise history with the best start in team history with a win tonight. The Washington Wizards are the final hurdle to clear while in doing so. With the Wizards having a tough time putting anything together that looks like good basketball this should be an easy mission for the boys in green to accomplish. The true question is this team better than the team that we had on the floor that won the Championship last year. All the key parts are back in place for another title run and now being a battle-tested team I personally think they're slightly better. Sure they lost the "Heart and Soul" of last years bench in James Posey, he did give Celtics that veteran presence off the bench that is hard to find. But now is the true test of some of these guys that Ainge held onto like Rondo & Perk. I know it early still in the season, but it truly looks like those two have come into there own. Rondo's assist are up about 3 a game and he has nearly doubled his steal per game average. He has definitely come in to his own as a floor leader with a true lock down presence on the opposing teams Floor General. Perk has increased both his points and rebounds by a couple and is showing more confidence at the line. Not to mention he is 5 years in the league, about the time frame it takes for a Big Man to develop in the NBA. Considering he came out of High School that's not too shabby. After all you can't expect him to put up numbers you'll see Big Al put up in Minnesota, but you don't exactly need another scoring threat when you have the Big 3, you need a presence. With there playoff run last year they gained lots off valuable experience for the guys on the Bench like: Powe, E. House and Scal. This said the one vital part they're missing is a back up point. Not something to be super concerned with right now, but come playoff time we'll need someone that can come in for about 10-15 minutes a game to give Rondo a breather. I don't think Cassell is going to be the man we need, and this is where they could use an improvement. I've never been a big fan of having a guy in the wings coming back for the last 20 games or so and for a playoff run. Hopefully there will be some names available come the trade deadline. Either way they seem hungry to repeat and I have yet to see a game this year with there is no fire in their eyes. Lets face it 66 wins last year is a tall order to top, but with a quarter of the season over is sure looks like something that they can achieve. I feel if they can make it to the All-Star break with 6 losses or less there wouldn't be any doubt in my mind they could contest for the best record of all time 72-10. We'll just have to see what happens...

What to do with Varitek?

So I was just on my lunch break and was listening to some WEEI while enjoying my food and they deep in conversation on what to do with Jason Varitek. Is he over rated is he underrated and so on. I myself know exactly how I feel about the situation. One of my first Tek moments was at a game against the Yanks in Boston where Tek went 4 for 4 with two homers. From that day on he has always been one of my favorite players on the Sox. His intensity and work ethic are unmatched, and it is impressive to see a team that is usually filled with a few Superstars respect him the way that he does. Sure he can handle the pitching staff, but we can't overlook the struggles at the plate this year. Sure he had some off the field issues this year but he also isn't getting any younger. I agree with the Sox and think that they're handling the situation perfectly. By offering Tek arbitration it forces any team that signs him to give up a draft pick. The guys we have had behind the plate have been doing a fairly solid job. In fact there isn't that much difference between his Catching ERA and the others behind the plate from time to time. Cash seems like he could to the trick but I think they would still want to have a solid veteran in house with him. The fact the Tek can handle the staff isn't the most important issue, and there are a few guys available with at least average defensive skills with a bit more pop at the plate. With the guys the Sox have been bringing into man the bump there shouldn't be to much concern on handling the staff. I think the big names like Beckett, Dice-K can handle it, Wakefield has at least a light-year of experience and Lester is a stud might even be the new Ace. I know the Sox will do the right thing, if they bring Tek back it will be on their terms, and if wants to cash in he'll need to take a one year deal and prove he can turn it around at the plate. But in this day in age with no salary cap I guess you should never say never, there always be that one idiot looking to over pay for something.

1st of many more

Here I am sitting at work on a slow Wednesday afternoon just hoping the day will speed up and 5 will get here so I can go home for the day. This time of year seems to be extremely slow at my work and it's a struggle getting through the day with out wanting to kill yourself from boredom. Through out the day i find myself surfing the web trying to wasted time. Since I'm at work there are only a few sites that I can visit with out having to worry that I'm going to be caught and disciplined. I discovered Blogger about 2 years ago I'd say. one of my good friends I don't see too often anymore has always been well versed on the Internet and has had a page set up here for friends and family to keep track of his growing family as well as his political career. For me I thought this would be a a pretty good way to pass the day and see if anyone out there has an care in what I might have to say. I watch sports and try to stay up on current events and hope this is a place I can share my thoughts and wisdom with the world. Give a point of view on the things that are going on through my eyes. My biggest interest is our Local Sports teams and get a majority of my Local Sports news here http://www.weei.com/ and I find myself more and more disagreeing with what these "Homers" have to say. I'd like to think that I view whats going on out there in the sports world with "open eyes". Yes there are teams like the Yankees that I hate for good reason, but they also have had players I respect. This stands true to a few teams like the: Lakers, Canadians, Giants. Mainly cause they beat up on my teams at some point. So here is where I plan I sharing things that I have seen or read about. With the hopes that some people will be interested in what I have to say. Sometimes I may reflect on a time in the past and other times I will write about what is currently happening. Don't know how many people are aware of this but the C's have a chance to have their longest win streak since the Bird days with a win tonight. Scary to think how good this team that Ainge assembled last year can get. Maybe they'll challenge the best record of all time 72-10 Bulls. They got the talent, but in my opinion the league has definitely become more competitive the last few years so it maybe a record that is untouchable. And with the "Hot Stove" getting even warmer..... The Yankees just signed C.C. just a couple of hours ago tops http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3759182 Can only hope he falls on his face when he gets there..... This means the Sox have some work to do. Not only answer the question on what to do behind the plate, but they s till need at least one more solid arm to strengthen up the starting rotation. Specially with Tampa Bay bringing back pretty much there full squad next season is going to be a true test. With this said I hope to give you insight from a true fan on all these matters and more to come. Feel free to give me feed back or just disagree, I'm always up for knowing your take on things as well.