Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!
A while ago I found a fun application on Facebook that lets you make Flash puzzles from your own photos. It works really well, and makes me wish we could make a “hard copy” of some of the cool photos we’ve taken across the country. (They’re pretty pricy, however.)
So for now, they have introduced this embed feature, and I can now share a puzzle or two here. Just one for now. 🙂
Enjoy!
It’s that time of year again, in fact this year it’s one week of craziness in my two favorite sports.
On the one hand, the NHL has set tomorrow at 3pm as the deadline to deal players. A couple trades have already occurred, more will come tomorrow. The NHL is pretty good at keeping things fresh, to be sure. People get caught up in the frenzy of the deadline as Sabres’ GM Darcy Regier says above.
The main name on the board for the Sabres is all-star defenseman Brian Campbell. (Note: had my sister have been a boy, that would have been her name!) Campbell is fantastic, and could be a foundational piece for the Sabres for years to come, but for some reason, they have not come to terms on an extension. He’s set to be a free agent come July 1st of this year, so the Sabres are certainly considering a trade in order to get something out of losing him (if he were to choose to leave).
On Friday, we have the other side of things. Free agency begins Friday Feb 29th for the NFL. That means players whose contracts have expired can shop around to the highest bidder. Last season the Bills knew exactly who they wanted, and they got them within half a day of the free agency period starting gun! Will that happen again? Not sure. We had some big name guys who were set to leave last year, not so much this year. And there aren’t a lot of big name players on the market who have generated the press you might expect leading up to such a deadline.
One deadline ends with a frenzy, the other begins with a frenzy. And all in one week!
So, stay tuned, I’ll probably have a report here, and definitely on my Buffalo Bills site.
Not really sure why, but this week’s episode of Mr. Deity made me laugh. So, here I shall share. 🙂 This show can be a bit “sketchy” at times, but I happily approve of this one. Funny stuff 🙂
(By the way, if you haven’t seen this show yet, visit their site for more info on who these folks are.)
Quick story before bed…
Tonight I was talking to Julia (our almost two-year-old) about an event at lunch today. The lady behind the cash register thought Julia was a very cute baby (turns out she has a two-year-old of her own) and just gave her a friendly greeting. Well, Julia who is normally very friendly decided to not reply to this person, and hid her head in Dad’s shoulder. A few attempts to get a response from her were in vain.
Finally, as we were leaving, she mustered a smile. (Maybe it was the free toy [read:bribe] that the lady handed out…)
That was the end of that, and I apologized for Julia, but of course the cashier thought nothing of it. “I have a two year old, also!”
So fast forward to the dinner table. I told Mom the story, half re-telling it to Joodles. She was listening intently (people don’t give two year olds enough credit!) and finally I repeated what had happened (acted it out) and Julia sort of laughed, but then I asked her if she would like it if someone did that to her? Surprisingly, she immediately said, “Nooooooo!” I think she really did understand (though I know there will be PLENTY more training to come…) 🙂
It was pretty amazing to see how even at not-quite-two, Julia understood the concept of, “Treat other people the way you want to be treated.” And right there I said, “It’s so crazy how simple the idea is… every thing is better when we think of other people that way… but how hard it is to actually do it.”
Even when you’re one.
Jen (the pregnant one) has been sick (on top of the discomfort of pregnancy) over the past couple weeks with a few various ailments, but it didn’t stay with her. Kirstie has been complaining of ear/head/neck pain off and on for almost a week now. This morning, Kirstie was still very lethargic, and her oldest brother Ian joined her in her illness-induced lethargy.
The sickness canceled our plans for today. Which were quite plentiful.
Well, the two other kids and myself were not feeling sick at all – in fact quite the opposite for the “evens” (kids #2 and #4…). They were quite loud, boisterous, and generally making life more miserable for their sick siblings.
I decided to take the healthies out to Wendy’s where a group of friends generally gather every Sunday afternoon. Was even hoping to catch our nephew there who turned 20 today! (Yes… I am old…) 🙂 No luck there, but there were about 6 or 7 families represented, so it was definitely a nice visit for Dad who is a “people person.” 🙂
Untill…
Half way through our time there, Alex started showing signs of lethargy as well, and even ended up laying his head down on the table at one point. 🙁 He removed himself from the group (sat at a nearby table, not very like Alex with his friends) and just seemed to be getting exactly what everyone else had.
Scary thing? So did I.
As we were leaving, all of a sudden, my neck started aching, and I just felt very weird… maybe light-headed, but not that bad. Just tingly all over. Made it through that, enjoyed lunch, but felt a little strange all the way home. When we got home we put the new sickie in bed, and that’s when it hit me.
COLD!!! I could not have been colder! I got under 6 or 7 blankets, all the way under, and turned the heat up! If you know me, you KNOW that something is wrong! 🙂 I really didn’t feel lethargic, but still had an achy body all over, and had the chills som’n fierce!
So, I had some tea, put on my warmest sweatshirt, and took the rest of the day a bit easier.
Dinner was funny. I just reheated some leftovers for all the sickies (which is all but Julia!) and no one really wanted much of anything. 🙂 I still ate a decent amount, but definitely didn’t taste right.
Right now, at a VERY early hour for me, I’m gonna down some NyQuil® and hit the sack! Might not wake up till 10 tomorrow! 🙂
Here’s hopin’!
I made a quick trip to our grocery story tonight (the local IGA is about 1 mile from our house) to get some baking cocoa for some chocolate icing I was making for the chocolate cup cakes I had already made for my pregnant wife. 🙂 I really didn’t want to go – too much other stuff to do before the kids’ bedtime – but Jen really needed those cupcakes, and she really needed them to be chocolate.
So I went.
It was actually kind of peaceful. It had been a (mostly) day off full of kids, and I think that little bit of peacefulness was kind of enjoyable. 🙂 I found what I needed, and since what I needed was strewn across the store, I found a couple other good deals as well. It was a relaxing – yet fairly short – stroll through the market.
I was standing in the check out line when I saw a young guy – late teens, early twenties – come running up to his friends, although it was more like “bounding” than running. He came to a stop with one final leap. I smiled at his youthful energy.
Almost simultaneously, I chuckled at how old I must be. I had none of that vigor this night. I just felt very tired and worn out from the day. I was happy to just be standing there. “Am I that old??” I thought. Then just smiled, realizing that I probably am. 🙂
I took solace in the fact that I do at times still have almost that much energy. I would say it has dwindled a tad (not to mention that I am definitely out of shape as well) but there are still many moments that I feel that level of energy.
But not tonight. And for some reason, it was just a humorous glimpse at how I am definitely no longer in my early twenties.
And you know… that’s actually a really good thing. It’s kinda nice being old. What will be really funny is when Jen & I have watched our kids grow up, and maybe even our grandkids, and as we’re standing in line at the grocery store… maybe only able to walk very slowly… we’ll see some youthful character bounding down the aisles, and we’ll just laugh.
Maybe you are only as old as you feel. (Or is it, you feel as old as you are?) 🙂
This morning as I was sitting here doing a few things on Facebook, I heard a little voice from the other room say, “Moooooommmm….” So, since Mom was not quite awake, I said, “Yes??” The voice responded, “I need helllllp.”
I didn’t really want to get up right then, and Alex was standing in our doorway, so I said, “Can Alex help you?”
The voice calmly and matter-of-factly responded, “Well, if he can get the poo poo off.”
Which for some reason just cracked me up. (Enough that I had to type this story before I went to help her!) 🙂
Two nights ago we decided at the last moment to spend our evening celebrating Ian’s birthday (yes, he’s the Christmas boy…) at Chuck. E. Cheese. We have made a tradition of celebrating birthdays there (even mine!) and so though not actually on his birthday, we wanted to do the same for Ian. (As did he!) We planned a day in January, and invited our friends, the Vs. Problem was the day we picked was a super windy day… that knocked power out in some places, including the block where you find Chuck E. Cheese.
SO, about a month later, we packed up the van and headed out! Had a nice little dinner at Wendy’s first. Always a good time. (My favorite fast food place, I’d say…) and then we were ready for the real fun! We got to CEC and were grateful that they had power this time. A bit less grateful that there was a vacation week crowd (forgot about that…) but we figured out a good game plan (Dad took the girls, Mom went with the boys) and we headed out to have some fun!
After a little while of singing with Chuck E. in the other room, I decided to reunite with Mom and the boys. We made our way back and when we did, Jen had a surprise! An employee had approached her earlier and offered her FREE tickets to the Amerks game the next night! FREE??? Free. And not only that, they had a TON of them. So we could have as many as we wanted, and give them out to friends! We’re in!
We’d never actually gotten to go to an Amerks game. They are the local AHL team, affiliated with the Buffalo Sabres (at least for now they are) and for many years have been quite good. Most of the current Buffalo Sabres have come through Rochester. For whatever reason, we’ve tried, but never been successful at getting to a game. But now it looked like we were going to finally make it!
We left CEC with 18 tickets. There are only 6 of us that fill seats. And one of those doesn’t need a ticket. That means there were 13 available tickets!! We phoned a couple families we thought of first thing when we got home. (Yes… it was late.) The first were our friends, the Vs. It was Scott’s birthday that next day, so it seemed like a fun birthday thing to do! BUT, he was sick. As were a couple more in the V house. So, no go there. And in fact, no go with the other family I called that night. More sickness.
So the next morning we tried to think of some more people who might like to go. One friend was able to go. Steph was going to come with her three girls – not big time hockey fans, but Steph remembered going to games at her college. Next, we invited some friends from the other side of town who weren’t available, but they knew some people who were big Rochester sports fans… and perhaps we could give the tickets to them? Why not?! 🙂
Surprisingly, we have another friend whose birthday is February 20th, so I called him to see if he and his family would like to go. But, alas… they already had some family plans for the night… so no go there. Still had a few tickets to hand out… but running out of ideas for who could go.
Finally, I thought of my friend with whom I play basketball once a week. We haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time with their family, but I knew they sorta were into sports, and just might be able to go. They were! With our friend Steph bringing their 8-year-old neighbor, the tickets were now fully accounted for! 🙂
The adventure had only just begun however.
Just before we were to leave, Steph calls and says, “My van won’t start!” She said she’d keep trying and call us back. Well, she called back, but to tell us it just wouldn’t work. I said, “OK… no problem. But, just in case, I’ll bring the tickets with us, if you can get it started, and you’d still like to come!” She agreed, but it didn’t sound promising. So, that was too bad.
Add that to our lateness, and the night was not starting as I had hoped.
We got to my basketball friend’s house to begin our van caravan with them. They were just sitting in their driveway waiting for us… who were now at least 15 minutes late! Oh boy. They have been to the Blue Cross Arena before, so they led the way.
On our way, Steph calls and says, “I’m on my way! We got it started!” Ha! Perfect! Things were shaping up!
Just as we were getting to downtown Rochester, I remember that we were meeting our friends’ friends at the arena at 6:45 to get them their tickets. It’s well past seven at this point, so I checked our phone and sure enough there were two missed calls!
I called them back to reassure them that we were almost there. Left a message. I hoped they had stuck around.
We got to the parking garage and parked for four dollars! Great deal! Wasn’t expecting that cheap! Bonus! We quickly got out of our vehicles (the game had already started!) and briskly walked through the cold streets (around probably one big city block) to the place we were to meet our friends’ friends.
(Are you with me still?) 🙂
Finally got there and I recognized Shane from a previous meeting at Cross Creek a few months back. (That was a funny encounter. Not sure we had met before that. He saw our oldest son Ian wearing an Apple shirt, and some other distinguishing clothing that made him realize that Ian must be the son of Greg Campbell, whose blog he regularly reads.)
Yes, I’m famous. 🙂
So we all meet up there, and have a good laugh (at least I did!) at how little we all know each other. In fact, none of the others we invited had even heard the name of each other. They all had a connection with us, but to varying degrees. Pretty funny!
After hearing of this assortment of people who were joining us at the game, my basketball friend’s wife (who is not the most socially outgoing person you’ll ever meet) said of me, “They don’t come much friendlier than you, do they?” Guess she thought it was odd that I was giving tickets to a hockey game to people that I really didn’t know (Shane and his fam…) But I thought… why not? 🙂 Seemed like a fun plan to me!
And it was. We all finally got there, and watched a decent hockey game. There were plenty of snacks. Plenty of children! A little bit of hanging out with friends, meeting new friends, and watching some live hockey! Nothing like it! Love watching hockey in person. My boys were instant Amerks fans. Cheering and – as much as possible with many friends there – watching the game intently.
Sure hope we can go again!
The night ended with a pretty cool view of the lunar eclipse while we crossed over the rushing Genessee river which flows right by the side of the arena! Beautiful. Fun! Superb evening.
And all cause we went to Chuck E. Cheese at the last minute, on a whim!
Next whim that comes along will be taken more seriously… 🙂
The week has gotten away from me. The urgent has taken over. A few lingering projects continue to puzzle me. A new discovery has enthralled me. But I did manage in the busyness to catch the new continuing adventures of the K.I.T.T. and the Knight Rider.
Overall, I did like it. Jen had to leave before the first scene was over. Too scary. Too dark. Too intense. And on the whole, I’d say KR2 was a bit more edgy that KR1. But, isn’t that pretty descriptive of all of TV these days?
I think I need to watch another episode to better formulate what I think about the show, but I must say, I’m looking forward to seeing another.
The writers did a pretty good job recapturing the banter between K.I.T.T. and his human counterparts. There are some similar characters between KR2 and KR1. (Not the same people, only Michael Knight makes an appearance from the old show.) There’s the genius girl, who may end up being this version’s “Bonnie”. There’s the driver whose name just happens to be Mike. Perhaps you could paint the designer of both K.I.T.T. cars as the Devin character (or a combo of him and the FBI girl…) But it’s a new twist on “The Foundation” and should be interesting to watch unfold.
I did like the way the show was tied into the previous series. Some personal details about the main character tie very nicely back to KR1.
I’m not a movie or tv show critic, so I’ll just leave it at this: Overall, I really did like it. That’s saying something, as I am a fan of the original. 🙂 Perhaps they have won a new fan?
Definitely going to TiVo another episode 🙂
I can’t really believe this, but someone is making new versions of THE GREATEST VIDEO GAME EVER! My boys and I are quite excited to have found a 2006 version of the classic Nintendo game. But I just noticed today that they are working on (and have a sort of “beta version” of) a 2007 version! Ha!
This means that our Bills have Trent Edwards at QB, Marshawn Lynch tearing up the field, and Paul Posluszny striking fear in the hearts of opponents.
All at 8-bits. It’s a beautiful thing. 🙂
Not sure of the legality of it? (Are Tecmo, and the NFLPA sanctioning this?) But man is it fun. It would be so cool if they could somehow release current roster versions to play on an actual NES, not an emulator on my Mac. 🙂
But… anyway… for you classic gamers out there. Check it out! 🙂
