The Hilton Chronicle

After almost a week, the Heritage Classic Hockey event is still the talk of the town. Just glancing through the Edmonton Sun last night I noticed many articles about how this thing has touched lives all around the world. So, it was obviously a good thing to chance, and of course now everybody is trying to figure out how to make it an annual event. Trust someone to try and wreck a good thing! Many people have remaked that it was the cold weather that really made the day magical, in a rather obscure and bizarre way. Probably true. We Edmontonians must have looked a sight to some of the warmer climes as we sat there for nine hours freezing while a bunch a guys played hockey. I happened to drive by Commonwealth stadium this morning where they are still dismantling the rink and various other accoutrements. It has been suprisingly mild all week making most people wish the hockey games were this weekend.
Had my six month checkup with my urologist this morning and everything looks great with not a trace of any suspicious activity down there. It's hard to believe it's been six months since the surgery already.

Posted 3:10 PM by Jeff

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Another Game To Waste My Time

In the process of scouring the mountain of flyers we get for Christmas gift ideas I came upon the fact that a new episode in the MYST series has been released. It's called Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and is a continuation of the spellbinding game franchise that I have been enamored with for several years. I went to the website and downloaded the demo version which kind of gets you started in the game and whets your appetite a bit. I was amazed. It is now a full fledged 3D interactive game where you create your own character to explore the worlds that are part of the game. You can even modify how the character looks so that you can make it look like yourself or how you would like to look. The interface is pretty easy once you get used to the navigation controls and the graphics are, as usual, amazing. I am very tempted to plunk down the $65 for the game. And I guess they are making an online version in which you can explore with other users and interact with them while doing so. So for anyone into puzzle gaming, this is the one to try.

Posted 12:46 AM by Jeff

Sunday, November 23, 2003

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

We watched with some nostalgia this afternoon as the Heritage Classic outdoor hockey extravaganza unfolded in the frosty air of Commonwealth Stadium. Even though I am not much of a hockey fan it was still moving to see the likes of Grant Fuhr, Marty McSorley, Yari Kurri and the Great One once again enrobed in the Oiler blue and orange. It was quite a spectacle to see these gentlemen, some pushing 60 I'm sure, to put a great effort into giving the fans of Edmonton and all the hockey nuts across the country a real fine show. There wasn't much hitting as I'm sure those elderly bodies are a bit more brittle now, especially at -20 degrees. Hats are off to the organizers, the players and all those involved in putting on this historic event. But I have to give more credit to the more than 57,000 fans, my daughter included, who showed up to sit in the frigid stands for up to eight hours in sub freezing temperatures. Where else are you going to find people crazy enough to pull a stunt like this one? Only in Canada, eh? Hopefully pictures will be forthcoming in future posts. As for the second game of the day... well Montreal won so it's congrats to them, but it would have been icing on the cake if we had taken that one as well. Oh well, the icing would have been frozen by the end of the game.

Posted 12:33 AM by Jeff

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Big Game This Weekend

I was just looking over the schedule of the festivities for this weekend's Heritage Hockey Classic do. The stadium opens at 12:00 noon and the last event is at 8:00 pm. The weather is supposed to be getting cold this weekend, probably -12 and lower, so I'm wondering how that is going to feel sitting in those stands for over 8 hours. The buzz around the office is that most people will only go for the old timers game, the only thing worth watching, which is around 4:00pm and then leave before the game between the Oilers and some kind of team from Montreal or somewhere. But I'll bet there'll be some hard core fans equiped with their liquid heat and lots of cash for the $6.00 hot dogs who will stay to the bitter and probably frozen end (unless they also spring for the $50.00 Heritage Classic commemorative bum warmer). I have to admit that it'll be interesting to see Gretzky in an oiler uniform again. Angela has managed to score some tickets to this thing, so she and her boyfriend Lee will be going. They are quite excited. I think I may watch a bit of it on the big screen from the warm comfort of my recliner.
And speaking of line ups, the line starts here for the Lord Of The Rings: Two Towers extended version which was released yesterday. Again, a flurry of activity from the LOTR fanatics at work who rushed out to get their copies. As much as I am anxious to get my paws on one, I am exercising restraint and waiting until just before Christmas to pick up a copy. That way I won't be tempted to crack it open before it has had a chance to mellow under the tree for a while. As usual, we will probably wait for a quite matinee in January to watch the third installment in the theatre.

Posted 9:37 AM by Jeff

Monday, November 17, 2003

Making Plans For Next Year

As the hoopla of yesterday's Grey cup festivities winds down, tickets for the 2004 shindig are already on sale here (GREY CUP 2004 - Tickets). Boy if that isn't jumping the gun. And I have been not so subtly remided that kudos go out to those fine folks in "Pile O' Bones" Saskatchewan (that would be Regina to youse Easterers) who put on a tremendous show last week hosting the 2003 Coup Grey soiree. Yes siree bob, they can actually put on a pretty good party in that little hamlet, but I wouldn't go so far as to say their little football club is the King of the CFL. The Eskimos have just been letting every other team win for the last ten years because we are such good sports out here. But don't think we are pushovers when it comes to hockey. Those Habs are in for it this weekend. We are not about to retire the "City of Champion" signs yet. More to come on this...

Posted 10:09 PM by Jeff

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Esks Rule!

We watched a fairly good football game tonight as Edmonton did it to les Alouettes de Montreal and brought la coup Grey home after such a long time that the "City of Champions" sign on the highway was beginning to looka little faded. It was a fairly close game, I think, but what do I know. Everything I know about sports I learned from reading the back of a Pro Stars box, in fact I didn't even know Edmonton had made it to the big game until two days ago. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the game and look forward to woomping Montreal's butt again next week in the Classic outdoor hockey match that is all the tongue wag in this fair burg. I guess tickets for that extravaganza were snapped up in no time. But we'll probably watch it on the tube if for no other reason than to watch Edmonton's adopted golden boy Wayne Gretzky in an Oiler's uniform again. Meanwhile there's a long week of work in between to get to before we can paaatey again.

Posted 10:37 PM by Jeff

Friday, November 14, 2003

We were watching the news last night and were horrified by the footage of winter blizzards in Ontario and other places east as we languish in virtual springlike weather here in the favoured west where daytime temperatures have been above zero all week. I took advantage of the legubrious weather to install this year's edition of the Hilton's Christmas Light Display and Extravaganza, which, admittedly, looks exactly like last year's Extravaganza with the addition of three new strings of light. It always seems like the special lighting effect designs you dream about in July never reach fruition in the bone chilling cold of Novemeber, you just want to get em' up have have done. They're only lit for a week, for Pete's sake!
And from the "It Had To Happen Sooner Or Later" dept, a great deal of anguish was forthcoming on the discovery of a huge crack in the windshield of the Camry that spread the entire length of the glass. I think it was a result of temperature variances during a cold snap we had as I don't remember any wayward rocks hitting. Fortunately it is down low close to the dash so its not in line of sight. After crying the blues for a few minutes I resigned myself to the fact that stuff happens and that there was not a thing I could do about it.

Posted 4:14 PM by Jeff

Monday, November 10, 2003

Celeste & Adam's Wedding Pics

I have just posted some photographs of Celeste and Adam's wedding this last weekend in Saskatoon. For those who didn't get an email invitation you can check them out here.

Posted 12:34 PM by Jeff

Sunday, November 09, 2003

Puttin' On My Top Hat....

We just returned from another whirlwind trip to Saskatchewan, this time to Saskatoon for the wedding of another niece, Celeste Lynch. We left early yesterday morning in hopes of getting there for the ceremony at 3:00 which we did with time to spare. Then after a couple of hours of visiting with family in the hotel room we headed to the hall for the banquet and dance. In summary, a good time was had by all, lasting till the wee hours, making it difficult to arise this morning to go to the gift opening before heading home.
Now, I have nothing against the choice of hiring DJ's for wedding dances, Lord knows that hiring a live band is so expensive it's out of the question these days, what with all the other expenses involved. But I have to wonder if there is some unwritten code somewhere compelling every DJ, no matter what the occasion, no matter what city, to play the same group of songs. It's almost as if there are DJ "standards" and judging from the crowd's response, they are quite welcome. There are, of course, the requisite "silly" songs like the polkas and the chicken dance and that obnoxious "Macaroonia" thing. But then they play some pretty obscure stuff that seems to be almost in a cult standing of their own. There's the YMCA song by a bunch of "swell" guys, (why is this so popular?) and then that flirty thing from Grease that I don't even know the name of. Then they drag out that "Rasputin" dirge that I swear, I never heard on any top 40. Of course at Christmas time you get Boney M and the "Jingle Bell Rock, but that's to be expected. So I got to wondering what they played before all these popular tunes came out. Did they drag out "Minnie The Moocher", or give "In the Mood" one more spin? But then, I am forgetting, in my day we were treated to "live" bands, some of which were so bad that it didn't matter what they were attempting to play you could never recognize it anyway. If I am ever in charge of arranging the music for a dance (say for instance a wedding in this family) I think I'll throw in some of my favorite music, Big Band Swing, and see what kind of a response I get. Whatever it is there'll be at least one person dancing.
Next time I should have some pix from the wedding for anyone interested.

Posted 8:43 PM by Jeff

Friday, November 07, 2003

I Hate Those Meeces To Pieces!

I thought changing the decrepit and malfunctioning mouse on the 90 meg Pentium machine would be a snap. Even picked up a nice little scroll mouse for five bucks from Superstore! Wait a minute, what's this funny little plug on the end. Oh, it's a PS/2 mouse, silly me. Well I'll just trot down to Compusmart and for another five bucks pick up a PS/2 to 9 pin din serial adapter. That should work. Ah,... dummy, you have to have a PS/2 port to run a PS/2 mouse. So it's back to the old mouse with it's finicky buttons and sticky scroll ball. I'll have to look around the second hand stores for an old serial mouse. In the meantime, it's back to Superstore and Compusmart for refunds. Best $10 I never spent.

Posted 12:30 AM by Jeff

Home