I Think It's Time to Call It a Week

timberwolf1212 on flickr

My apologies for the lack of updates lately. It's been a hectic couple of days. I've been taking finals, moving out of my apartment and am headed to Las Vegas to cap it all off tomorrow morning. It's been a whirlwind to say the least.

I do have some good news, though. There are a great bunch of folks who have graciously volunteered their time to guest post over the next couple days. I'll be back on Saturday, but they'll take you through the week (their identities are a secret) until then. Ryan will be in and out as usual, including the Thursday drinking game. Many thanks to him for all he's done for the site in the last few months.

So yeah, I'm off to Vegas. I'm going to try my best to come back with money and a shirt on my back. I promise when I get back things will be back to normal. Except for the whole holidays thing. But if you don't like spending time with the in-laws, you know where to go... And that's here, just in case you didn't.

One last thing... This week only there will be a special Wednesday edition of Buys and Sells over at AOL. That's going to be the only other place daddy pops up this week. Except maybe Nevada. Anyway, have a great week and I'll see you all on Saturday!

This doesn't make it any better

You have to be smarter than the snowblower

The details are coming out in the Sakic v. Snowblower incident. It was revealed that Joe had been trying to remove a clog in the chute when he injured his his hand. By removing the clog, the blades turned and smooshed (medical term) his hand. So, no, he didn't hurt himself by diving headlong into the snowblower. That doesn't make the incident any less silly.
First, I have a general rule that I love by: Just be cause my arm CAN fit their doesn't mean it should. The only thing I ever put my arm in is a sleeve.
Second, what could possibly have clogged your snow blower, aside from, you know, snow? If it wasn't snow, then what did you have in your driveway? Better take a quick count on the kids, Joe. I'm assuming, though, that it was snow. Or ice. Either way, I can think of a couple solutions that don't involve reconstructive surgery. First, why not just wheel it in the garage? The ice and snow will melt, no worries. Of course, I'm sure you, like the rest of the world, don't have that kind of patience. What you would need then, is something long enough to reach the clog, but narrow enough to reach down the chute, something that isn't flimsy, in case you need to break apart the clog. Do you have anything like that, Joe? Do you have anything like that laying around the house?
You'll still be back on the ice before Gaborik

Be Glad You Do Not Work for the Humanitarian Bowl

I try to keep things strictly hockey related around here, but sometime there are things that I just have to share with you. Take for instance, the college football bowl season that is upon us. There are probably way too many bowls and some of them, and the schools that attend them, lose money on the deal. I get the feeling that the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho is one of those.

BSU ticket agents say don't let the lack of lines fool you. They say their phones have been ringing off the hook, not only for Poinsettia Bowl seats, but also for the H-Bowl match up.

"Now that we know its Nevada and Maryland people are excited about that match up," said Anita Guerricabeitia, assistant director for ticket sales.

...

As of Monday afternoon the University of Maryland says it's sold about 16 tickets to the game. The University of Nevada says it's sold 8 so far.

A look at a snowblower

At right is a snowblower. A Honda, to be exact. Being from Minnesota, I'm quite familiar with their machinations. The spinning blades at the front help cycle snow up through the chute and out away from your driveway or walk. The blades, as I said, spin and could potentially cause injury to anything that finds it's way up there. Fortunately, there are safety precautions. The handles are equipped with a kill switch that, when you let go, kill the engine. Really, if you want to injure yourself with a snowblower, you would have to have someone else operating it and dive in front of it. The most common way to injure yourself is to slip and maybe get nicked in the leg (or worse) if you have long legs, or, God forbid, you slip and get stuck under the machine. To injure your hands, you would have to be a special kind of stupid. Actually, if you have been able to injure your hands via snowblower, it would be more surprising if you haven't had another boneheaded injury in your past.