I wrote up a nice review of the game last night, but a website crashed my browser 🙁 I was looking for a video of Ryan Miller’s big save on NBC.com and some video on their site made my browser shut down 🙁
So, no good review… just click the photo above to watch the save (I recorded it myself!) And, check out the article links below:
Newsvine || NHL.com || ESPN (includes video)
With the warmer weather, we all headed outside today to get to work on some post-winter, outdoor jobs. I spent 3.5 hours cleaning out the winter “collection” from our van. Oh man, it was bad! But it’s not now. It’s almost like brand new! Sorta…
While I did that, Jen and the kids picked up sticks and raked the junk up around our back yard. I finished up with the boys in the afternoon, and now tomorrow we’ll tackle our front yard (and our tiny side yard.) As always, once the work was complete for the day, we enjoyed a nice tall glass of lemonade! You can’t work outside without topping off the day with a cool glass of lemonade! 🙂
I feel like, despite the blazing 72º heat, we pretty much accomplished what we set out to do today… so, that’s always good!
For tonight, Grandma (Jen’s mom) is here, so we’re going to have a little cookout … burgers on the grill!
We’re enjoying the warm weather… hope you are too 🙂
The Buffalo Sabres were the one team everyone figured was a lock to advance to the second round. The outcome of every other series going into round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs was at least a little bit in question. But almost everyone agreed that there was really no chance that the Islanders could actually upset the President Trophy winners.
So how is it that three teams have already advanced before the Sabres?
The Sabres have a chance to become the fourth team to advance to round two tonight as they host the Islanders in Game 5 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, leading the series 3-1. (Note: If the game goes into super overtime – maybe third or fourth OT? – then there is a chance that Buffalo would be the fifth team to advance, should the San Jose Sharks finish of the Predators in a game with a start time that is two hours later than the Sabres. But… that’s unlikely.) 🙂
The NY Rangers were the first, finishing off the higher-seeded Atlanta Thrashers in a sweep. (The only sweep in round one.) They are the likely opponent of the Sabres, if indeed the advance tonight, or any time in the next three possible games. Also moving on yesterday were the Ottawa Senators, making easy work of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks sent the Minnesota Wild home with a 4-1 win last night.
Just over a week into the playoffs and we’re getting ready for round two! It’s getting pretty exciting here! Let’s hope Buffalo can finish off the Islanders tonight and get a bit of a rest before suiting up to take on the Rangers, or perhaps the Tampa Bay Lightning? We shall see!
Chris Drury scored two more goals as the Sabres outplayed the scrappy Islanders, taking a 3-1 series lead with the win. The Sabres were the better team overall, but they never could put it away by scoring a few “buffer goals”. The lead was only one goal until Jason Pominville scored on an oustanding individual effort with 1:12 remaining.
There’s been a lot of whining by the Islanders, which I (as a Sabres’ fan) find interesting… from my perspective, many of the calls/breaks/whatever have gone their way as well. Problem is, they need them ALL to go their way in order for them to have a chance in the series. I like Ted Nolan, but I have not liked the way he has handled himself in the post-game press conferences so far. He definitely feels like his team is being treated unfairly, that’s pretty obvious.
But, no matter. His woes will soon be over as Buffalo should finish up the series at home Friday night. Game time is 7pm. With a win, the Sabres advance to round two, and most likely will take on another New York team, as the Rangers swept past the Thrashers with a win last night. If Tampa Bay can upset #2 seed New Jersey, then the Sabres would play them in round two… but that’s not that likely as NJ tied up their series last night with an overtime win.
I am of course getting ahead of myself. The Sabres still need to win one more game, but with three chances to do that… it’s pretty likely.
Go Sabres!
(read the game recap from nhl.com)
Every once in a while, I check the stats page for my blog here… and usually find some interesting things. I found an old friend, and a few more links to other friends’ websites. I see which pages (besides the main page) are viewed most (#1, #2, #3…)
But perhaps the most comical (and sometimes informative?) thing has to be the search terms people use to find my site. The list below is the top search phrases people usedthis month, and then clicked over to my site. Yes… the NUMBER ONE SEARCH PHRASE that brought people from Google (or wherever) to my site was… George McFly. 🙂 Haha. Here’s the list…
There were a few others in the complete list… several dealing with this website that caused quite a stir not too long ago. And a long-lost friend of my cousin, Kara, also found HER through my website… with a search for her name. Pretty neato.
Anyway… I thought #1 and #8 were funny enough to publish here. The internet is a pretty amusing thing at times. 🙂
Last night I took my wife out for dinner and a movie. We had a nice sandwich at Arby’s (we rarely, if ever, go there so it was a special treat) and then we went to the “Dollar Theater” (we call it that) and watched the movie “Astronaut Farmer“.
The plot is pretty simple… a guy dreams of going into space all of his life – enough to build his own rocket (he’s smart…) – and then everyone in his town calls him crazy, and tries to squash/stop his differentness. Even the federal government steps in and tries to put down this “dreamer”. Some of the story was predictible, but actually, there were many moments in the movie that surprised me. It was just a great story of a guy who didn’t give up on his dream, and who loved his family (and whose family loved him) and… it was just great.
I told Jen as we were leaving that there were “so many parts of that movie that I identified with.” From the guy being a husband and a dad, to him taking his kids out of school to “home school” for a while, to mostly the part where he’s different from everyone else, and not afraid to dream and do things that are bigger than most might attempt. The very clear pciture painted of the goverment (from the FBI to the FAA to even Child Protective Services) was that they (the experts) know best, and everyone else should just get in line. I know that’s just a broad-brush approach, and not every individual thinks that way, but that was the one part of the movie that left me a little sad. That is definitely the direction we have chosen to go as a country, as a culture, and it will lead to our eventual demise.
(Those were strong words, but I did say “eventual”…) 🙂
I highly recommend the movie. Click the movie poster above to view the trailer. And I recommend that you don’t give up on your dreams. No matter how you might have failed, no matter what other people tell you about it… just do it. It was a cool, inspiring movie, and a great message. You are you. Do what you do, baby! (NFL fans will catch that reference…) 🙂
I’m sure you have heard/seen/read the news from Virginia Tech of the ugly events from yesterday. When it happened, I immediately thought of a friend who is working there with a campus ministry group. We met her at Crosswinds several years back, so now a few friends from there have updated us on how she is doing there. An e-mail came in today, a forward from her, so I thought I would post that here. It’s an on-site update from the campus (from the perspective of a campus ministry, I suppose).
Here’s the letter from Terri: (unedited)
Hello, and thank you for emailing to let me know you were thinking of me! Each message is encouraging, and I am thankful to know people are responding to this tragedy in prayer. I apologize for not sending a more personal email, but right now, this is the best way to share.
THE DETAILS FROM DAY 1 – A brief synopsis: There were 2 shootings today – one that was a domestic type disturbance in a dormitory around 7am. The shooter there killed a student and an RA that entered the room to try to mediate the dispute. Both of those students have been confirmed dead. The RA was widely known on campus, and a friend of many people in [nlcf].
The 2nd shooting was on the 2nd floor of an academic building onat 10am. From what I understand, there were 3 different classrooms the shooter entered and killed and wounded people in. Most reports are saying that he lined people up and shot them in, others tell of classrooms in that hall that had barricaded the door that the gunman started to open and fire shots inside, and the class managed to shut the door on him. In several classrooms, students jumped out the window when they heard shots. In one classroom, a male student broke the glass and jumped – 5 other students followed him before the shooter entered. Everyone else in the room, including the professor, was shot. We know that guy – he’s the roomate of one of our [nlcf] leaders – and praise God that he survived. He doesn’t know Jesus yet, and his roomate has been witnessing to him for 2 years.
The stories break my heart, and they are just the beginning. So far, we know 34 people have died. We know 3 students names, and each are linked to people within [nlcf]… one of those students was an attender of an [nlcf] small group. There will be a full listing of names tommorow of the students who have been confirmed dead. The hardest thing right now for most everyone is waiting for that list of names to come out.
HOW NLCF IS RESPNDING:
Tonight, we had a prayer vigil at 8pm for [nlcf]. Several people came who are not from [nlcf], and they are considering getting into a small group this week. Later, our HG’s met in different locations where people spent time in a smaller, family like setting. Student leaders throughout [nlcf] opened their apartments to those on campus who didn’t want to sleep in the dorm tonight.This week, our staff will be on call & available to anyone who needs us. We are letting everyone know set places they can find us on campus, and intentionally going into the dorms as much as possible. We will be attending the convocation on campus Tuesday at 12noon, and we are working to plan a possible prayer vigil on Wednesday mid-day. We will also have this Sunday’s weekly gathering devoted entirely to responding to this week’s events.
HOW YOU CAN PRAY:
– for the staff – For our energy, our unity, and for us to be guided by the Spirit in how we respond to students this week. For our pastors as they decide how we will directly talk about this week’s events this Sunday in our worship gathering.– for the campus – Pray for the [nlcf] students to be a light even as they grieve their losses, and interact with their friends around campus who lost someone.
– Pray for a response of love, rather than hate to today’s events.
Pray for the school administrator’s interactions with parents, and for the press to be respectful in the way they interact with the students, faculty, and families of VT.
– for the spiritual battle we are in – I felt very clearly today that I was getting ready to go into battle as our staff gathered to pray and discuss our response. There is still a great amount of fear remaining for some students who live on campus… some are concerned that there were two shooters, not one, and they fear another shooting will happen. THIS IS NOT CONFIRMED… it is what people are afraid of. Please pray for truth about what happened today to shine clearly for the
investigators, and God to remove fear and bring peace to campus.– for me – rest, and the ability to ask questions & listen wisely.
Thank you – it means so much for me to be able to tell students that they are being held up in prayer by a whole army of people they don’t even know.
Terri Dewey
www.nlcf.net
(we will have updates on how we’re responding on the web)
It wasn’t easy, but they did manage to pull out the win, never trailing in the game.
Quite different from game two, Buffalo scored the first (and second) goal of the game, and then added a 5-on-3 power play goal to make it 3-1, holding on for the 3-2 win.
All of the scoring was in the second period, with Ryan Smyth scoring at 19:22 of the 2nd to make it seem close. It was lazy play by the Sabres (as though the period was already over) and great play by the Islanders… but NY just never quite matched up tonight.
The game felt close, right down to the finish, but this was another game where the Sabres were just better. New York played a great game, but never really caught up.
If the Sabres can win on Wednesday night, it would be really, really difficult for the Islanders to even win another game – let alone compete to advance to round two. Game Four is definitely important to both teams.
Things are looking good for the Sabres again! They now lead the series 2-1. Go Sabres!!
(Other Eastern Conference action… The Devils (2) lost tonight and now trail Tampa Bay (7) 2-1 in that series…. New York Rangers (6) are leading their series 2-0 against Atlanta (3) … and Ottawa (4) leads Pittsburgh (5) in their series 2-1. If they advance, the Sabres will play the lowest seeded team to advance to the second round.)
Can someone tell me how we can actually know that something is SIXTY MILLION LIGHT YEARS away? How is that even possible to measure? After a long internet search last night, the best I came up with was something called Parallax, but isn’t it just theory?? (It’s supposedly a similar process to how surveyors measure distances on land.) In space, it’s just untestable! How can you PROVE that you’re right, that it’s so insanely far away?? It can’t be MEASURED.
As I was searching for how we actually measure a light year, all I found was the theory behind it. I tried, but there was really nothing. The assumption that the speed of light is a constant across space, and that stuff just really was that far away (though there was no other proof save the movement of a star against the background, or something… but… how do we know how far the background is????)
That is the part of modern “science” that just perturbs me. I was telling Jen last night that I really am no “apologist” for any certain point of view, but those who promote the “secular” view tend to rub me the wrong way in how things are just “accepted” and stated as fact. The “conservative christian” folks rub me the wrong way with their need to have absolute truth (which I think is near impossible for us to know/have), but I must confess, when I read their stuff, I just see a way of approaching science that I am much more in tune with. I’m sure it has a lot to do with my starting point.
I did stumble upon some interesting reading though as I searched… If you’re interested. (Links below)
(And no, I’m not trying to stir up some crazy debate here. Just read and add your thoughts if you like, but I don’t care enough about any particular view point below to defend it ardently.)
One more hockey related item today…
We read this article yesterday about Sabres’ centerman Chris Drury. It was fantastic. Well-written, and just a great story. Makes us want to root for him even more (and hope the Sabres KEEP him, since he’s a free agent at the end of this year… and that’s sort of in question…)
A long article, but worth the read when you have time. I believe it’s in the latest SI magazine as well, if you get the paper version.
(PS… the photo is Kirsten standing next to a VERY large, lit up photo of Drury at HSBC Arena yesterday!)
