The Streak Is Over. Shut Up.

Well, I got a few things to say hear… all of which pertain to hockey so those of you not into the sport mayve now move on.

First and foremost. Fuck New York. Seriously. The Islander fans are easily THE whiniest fans in the NHL. Honestly, I have never watched a game from Long Island where the fans were not retardedly pro-Isles. The fans should, obviously, be siding with their team but not EVERY Toronto hit should be called a penalty so STOP BOOING! They’re whiney little sheep who either don’t know the game well enough or are just stupid enough to believe that no one should touch their team. Harry Neil said it best during the broadcast after Darcy Tucker laid a hit on Kenny Johnsson when he said “If the Leafs ever traded Tucker to the Isles, the fans would think he’s just another agressive forward and be one of their favourites.”. That’s it on that. Just, fuck New York. I don’t think I really hate the team liek I thought I did, just the people that turn out to support them.

So, the streak is over. 16 strait games with at least a point. That’s great but I know fans will be phoning up the radio talk shows saying how poorly they played tonight and how Quinn should be fired and blah blah blah. You CAN’T win every game. You can’t even tie every game and most teams can’t even go 16 with at least a point. In fact only two teams have ever done that before them. So with that said. Lighten up. It was the second game of a back-to-back in a physical arena and the Islanders are a tough opponent who have turned it around in the last couple of weeks. There’s nothing to worry about in this loss and the Leafs should hold their heads high. They play Florida next and don’t be surprised if they start up another mini-streak. If there was one thing that bothered me about the Leafs tonight, it was…

The fact that Ed Belfour has given the Leafs a chance to win in almost every game this year… even the ones they have no business being in. The Leafs have won a lot of games this year where they were the second best team on the ice and its thanks to Belfour. He gives them a chance to win on their worst night…. So shouldn’t that be returned to him. Let me make this clear. I’m not upset that the streak is over… I’m a little upset that the Leafs couldn’t help out Belfour. You’d like to think that on a night where your goaltender is struggling (and he clearly was) you could do what he’s done for you and get him a win when he maybe doesn’t deserve it. He was clearly off of his game and not seeing the ice well. Don’t get me wrong. Both goals he allowed were gonna be very tough to stop but with the way he was playing the puck and some of his passes, you could tell he just wasn’t on his game. It would have been nice if the Leafs could have gone down and gotten him the goal or two that he needed to squeak one out tonight. But that’s really small potatoes I guess. I mean it really is the first time in a long long time that you could say Belfour wasn’t on top of his game… and even with him not on his game I wouldn’t say that he cost the Leafs the game by any stretch.

Top Ten Parties Of The Year

Ok, so this one won’t be of much interest to pretty much any of you but me. That’s fine. This is the top five parties, celebrations, shindings, so-ons of the year. Let’s roll.

5. Leafs/Flyers. Game 6. April. Lambton College Residence.
What can I say? This was one fucking sweet night. Just a few of the boys in one of the residence lounges with an abundance of beer, a great hockey game and an understanding that none of us would be getting to class the next morning. The Leafs ended up winning in the second overtime (I believe, possibly third) and it’s a good thing cuz we were almost out of beer. It was just a great night.

4. Canadian Championship Celebration/March/ Sudbury’s Comfort Inn.
So we (Ontario) had just won our 7th strait Canadian Goalball Championship and we’re in the mood for fun. We re-routed one of the shuttle buses on the way back from the venue to the hotel to the beer store and “stocked up.” After showerin’ up the team and coachs congregated in one hotel room and commenced the celebration. Despite it being Ontario’s 7th title, it was only my second since I had just joined the team and it was great cuz I had actually been a starter in the championship for the first time. Even better was the fact that, my buddy, Tyler was there and it was his first title. We’d trained together for a long time so that was cool. Then there was the champagne headstands in the trophy and then once we were nicely tanked… off to teh banquit to be presented our metals in front of everyone. The party carried on until about 3 or 4 complete with a power outtage and everything. Was a night not soon to be forgotten.

3. Steve’s Summer Suds-fest/August/Steve’s Apartment.
What can I say, Steve? Hell of a party. Good enough to be ranked number three of my entire year. Nothing to out of the ordinary for a house party. Lots of beer, lots of drunkin’ singing, the destruction of a once great Don Henley song, some guitar, some blind kid throwin’ up on the most comfortable chair in the place making the chair unusable. – Yes this party truly had everything. I can only hold out hope that New Years will be equally as great.

2. Post Quebec Home Coming Party/August/My House!!!
Really not much to say about this one. We had just qualified for the Olympics and I was coming home feeling no pain after a night of drinking in Quebec City. Truth be told, I left the bar in Quebec and went strait to the airport for my morning flight at 6am. I got home and went to bed and got a phone call to hear that we were having a company that night to celebrate. At first, ya, not real happy to hear it as I had no sleep and was now in hang-over land… and in there deep. The idea grew on me though and once it happened I thoroughally enjoyed it. Just some family and close friends out to the house to say congratulations and show off some pictures to and such. It was nothing big but it was a really cool feeling for me to have everyone there after something like that. It ranks up there with the highlights of my year… and only slightly behind…

1. Olympic Qualifying Party/August/Quebec City
So this was about a day or two before the journey home. We managed to squeak our asses in to the Olympics playing at a level that was just not our best which is really a testiment to our team… but not what this is about.
We went to the medal presentations and then high-tailed it back to the athlete’s village to shut out the rest of the world and celebrate with the just the boys that did the job. We got royally tanked and then…
Yup, then found out we had a meeting with Canad’as Minister Of Sport. Oops. We were about to go meet a man who directs all sport in this country who had come to check out our sport and now meet the players. We walked in to this swank little room hoping that we could have him leave with no vomit on his shoes. It turned out fine, though we were out of place. There was a violinist playing and people in suits and serving whine and such. We, however, were athletes half in the bag with bad mouths and … well. I don’t gotta say more. We got through that alright and then down to the pub. Or “Le Pub” as it was called in Quebec City. Seriously, that’s what it was called. Le Pub. It’s like finding a bar in Toronto called “The Bar.” Anyway, we started celebrating with some other Team Canada athletes from other sports and eventually the Minister of Sport walked in to the Pub. He came and sat down with us and ordered us a round. It was unreal. Turned out he hated all the swank bull shit too and he just sat there shootin’ the shit with us. It was great. That party ended with the sun coming up but it was a great night with real reason to celebrate and some pretty unforgettable moments.

So that’s my top five of the year. Shit, was that ever long. All I can hope is that Steve’s New Years bash is up there for next years list. I’m lookin’ forward to it.

That’s it for today.

Top Tens…. BOOOO!

Well i’m bored, slightly intoxicated and can’t sleep so I figured I’d come on here. I’ve been surfin’ around the net and it’s the time of year where everyone has to put up there Top 10/5/100/whatever things of the year. So, I wouldn’t want to be left out of the lameness so between now and New Years I will throw up a few different Top Five lists just for shits and giggles.

We’ll start with the Top Five Songs Of The Year. Now not all of these were released this year but I, either, stumbled upon them this year or rediscovered them this year or whatever. They are just kind of the top five songs that I was in to this year. Some of them may surprise you…. but probably not. Let’s go….

5. Spare Me The Details – The Offspring
4. Crazy In Love – Beyonce/Jay-Z (Yup.)
3. One People, One Struggle – Anti-Flag
2. About A Girl – Nirvana
1. Tall Cans – The Transplants.

So feel free to comment on my list or post your own. I’m sure most comments will be centered around Crazy In Love… but that’s fine. You can’t argue that it was probably the song of the summer and when I look back on Quebec City this summer (big event in my life) I probably heard that song 49 times while I was there so it sticks. The rest of them shouldn’t be too shocking.

More Later

Merry Ho Ho & Shit

Well Steve’s right. I am quite busy and don’t give a shit about any of you. So, I’ll just take a minute to say Happy Holidays and Be Safe and I’ll be back another time.

Also, don’t forget the World Junior Hockey Championship. Canada opens up tomorrow morning at 11am EST against host-nation Finland. It’s great hockey so try and catch as much as you can.

Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas From The Comet

Just a quick note to say merry christmas to those of you who care to be wished merry Christmas. However you’re spending your holidays, I hope they’re as safe and as happy as possible. Also remember that this note comes from me and me alone. Matt is perfectly capable of wishing you good tidings on his own time and if he doesn’t, keep in mind that it’s most likely because he hates you all and doesn’t give a shit about you or your holidays, or maybe he’s busy or something and just doesn’t have time. My guess would be a little of both. Merry Christmas to Matt too though, in spite of all the infighting and the fact that he’s responsible for most of it, he’s still a pretty good guy.

Before I get out of here I’d just like to remind you not to drink and drive. Drink first, then drive. Doing the 2 at the same time is just too damned hard.

Christmas Parties, I Quit Drinking, And Possibly Some Other Crap

Well hi, how’s it going? I’m doing pretty well, thanks for asking. My holiday has been fairly busy just like I thought but tonight ended up being a lot less eventful than I thought it was going to be so here I am. I’m pretty much making the family rounds all week, seeing everybody that I either don’t see much of or see too much of but have to see again because it’s Christmas and somehow that makes seeing the same people you just saw different, not really sure how that works. I have 3 Christmas dinners and 1 more get together left to go this week and then it’s back home to ring in the new year twice. Once with a couple of people who can’t come to the real party, and then the real party. Man, this is gonna be rough, but fun.

As busy as things have been there really isn’t all that much interesting stuff to post up here, other than that I quit drinking this week. Anybody who tends to have a few drinks every now and then probably knows what I’m talking about. You’re somewhere and you’re having a good time and you get a little carried away with the booze, drinking anything that anybody gives you, and pouring your shots a little bigger each time, whether you mean to or not. Then you wake up the next day and you’re not having such a good time anymore. God, I hate hangovers. Everything about the way they opperate just pisses me off, especially the unpredictability factor. I’ve had days where I’ve killed a 12 pack and gotten up the next day feeling just fine while everybody else around me who didn’t drink half that much is half dead. Then there are the times when I’m the guy who didn’t drink half that much and I’m half dead. I hate that.

But back to my main point. I had one of those hangovers a couple days ago that makes you rethink your entire life. I could hardly move, everything hurt, it was terrible. At one point I was just sitting there thinking enough of this shit, I’m done. Never again will I fucking pay money to feel like shit, this is stupid. I could be doing so many better things with my time, I don’t even wanna think about how much time I’m wasting on this crap. So that was it, I was officially off the sauce…for about 11 hours. Damnit, it’s Christmas and besides, rehab is for quitters.

I was checking the site stats this afternoon and I noticed that over the last few days a lot of people have been getting here from the search engines. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for sticking around if you liked what you saw but fuck you all for not searching for something weird thus depriving me of material. I did see somebody looking for naked pictures of Matt Stajan again though so hope is still alive. Thanks to everybody else who’s been checking out the site, the numbers haven’t gone down as much as I thought they would this time of year. You all must either really like us or have no lives to speak of. My guess is a little of both.

Anyway I think that’s enough for now. I’m out of random crap to write down so I’m gonna go watch the news and catch some sleep. I’m tired, and I need to get myself ready for the next week or so, it’s gonna be hell on the sleep cycles, which isn’t really something I need but I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything.

So happy anything you’re celebrating, I’ll talk to you all later.

Just Checkin’ In

Happy Holidays, All
Well as Steve said on Friday updates for the next little while will be few and far between as you’re busy, we’re busy and there’s just not much going on worth talking about as the hole world seems to kind of slow down for this few weeks.

There’s an interesting little discussion going on over at on the comment board of Scott’s Blog. They’re speaking, hypothetically, about if there were to be a Bret Hart 3 DVD set come out and what you would want to see included on it. Nothing’s been anounced for said DVD but it’s a neat thing to think about. Go check it out and chime in if you feel like it.

So, the Leafs win 2 more this weekend. Not too shabby. I think we’re at 14 strait games with at least a point. They have Florida on Tuesday before back to back games with the two New York teams in New York. They should do fine against Florida but the back to back could spell the end of the streak. Still, it’s been impressive.

There’s no Towel Snap or Notes from the Tone Deaf this week but still go and check out Salty Ham for all the other cool features. Things may not be thrown up there as frequently cuz of the holidays but there’s always newsbits and things to keep you amused for a bit.

I went to the Oshawa Generals game on Friday night with about 9 other members of the family. They were having their annual “Teddy Bear Toss’ where they ask everyone to bring a stuffed animal to throw out on the ice after the Generals score their first goal and all the animals are given to different children’s charities around town. It was a pretty cool thing to see. The Gens scored about 15 minutes in to the first period and down came the toys. Now. Here’s the problem. We were sitting in the first two rows of the crowd… guess what that means. Yup. Anyone who couldn’t throw their toy far enough ended up pelting us in the back and the head with their animals. It was poor planning on our part to be sure. My cousin actually got hit with one that came clear across the hole rink from the other side. In total, over 2400 toys were thrown down to the ice for charity. I thought that was pretty good out of a crowd of about 3000. That many toys can go along way. There were even people coming in with some of the huge 5 foot tall ones that you see at carnivals and stuff. And a few people just threw down entire garbage bags full of stuff toys. It took about 20 minutes for all the volunteers to clear them all off the ice before the resumed the game.

Well, that’s it for now I guess. I’ll try and get back with something else over the next few days. Work is a bit slow right now so I have a bit of time on my hands so if I get some content I’ll try and get some more up here over the next few days. Don’t look for much from me from Christmas through New Years though.

Later, All

The Holidays Start Today!

This morning when I got up and came to check the site, I thought I’d accidentally gone to the wrong place by mistake. Something was horribly wrong I thought to myself as I scanned the page trying to figure out what seemed different. Did somebody get hold of our passwords and put something there? Did the site get redirected somehow? Did I type the wrong address by mistake? Then I realized that it was just Matt posting something and I calmed down, until it hit me again that Matt posted something and I went into shock all over again. Welcome back, buddy!

Just as a small update to yesterday’s shower saga, I managed to shower this morning without incident. Yesterday I actually had a bath, how gay is that? I didn’t do it out of fear, I did it out of pain, and it seemed to help. I’m feeling a lot better today so I guess maybe it’s not quite as fruity as it would be under normal circumstances.

Now on to the real important stuff. Today is my birthday! Only 1 exclamation mark on that, and for a good reason. Any more than that and I might as well just start offering to suck dicks for some extra cash. A guy should only be so excited about his birthday and anything beyond that point should be questioned heavily by all of his friends and family, not to mention gay Seth from down the street who’s always had a thing for him, and may now be able to actually give it to him. Multiple exclamations are fine for the girls, but guys, not so much, at least not for special ocasions like this.

But seriously, I am happy about it being my birthday today. I like my birthday, probably because I’m not feeling old yet. That’s next year when 25 hits. The reason I say that is because of something my Uncle told me years ago when he turned 25. He said “now I’m part of the quarter century club.” That kinda freaked me out when I realized that there were 100 years in a century which meant 4 quarters, and he’d already used up one of them…and most people don’t live to be 100! I guess I should try not to think about getting old, even though putting it out of my head ain’t gonna stop it.

But with the coming of my birthday comes the beginning of Christmas. Because they’re so close together I usually end up having some sort of party on my birthday or traveling home to see my family and spend the holidays with them. So what does this mean for you, our loyal Vomiteers? Well, simply put, it means that I won’t be around much to update the site in the next while. I’ll try to check in now and then when computers and time are both at my disposal at once but I’m not going to promise the world when it comes to content from me in the next week or so. Not sure what Matt’s deal is, but I’m betting it’s going to be similar to mine. Keep checking back with us though, there may just be something for you to enjoy or hate, whatever your preference.

I might be back later to tell you about my birthday, but it all depends on amount of excitement and coherentness levels when the time comes. So if we don’t talk for awhile, have a happy holiday season, no matter what you’re celebrating.

OK. For Real This Time

I said I’d be back later….. It’s later.

So I haven’t really posted anything other than a cheap link to my column in like a week or something. That ain’t cool. But oh well. Steve kept the content going smoothly after we got through a weekend with not one post.

I should start by saying that I had a wonderful shower this morning with little-to-no climate change in water other than what I did myself and not one attempt on my shower’s part to toss me out. Things are looking up.

One thing that’s really pissed me off this week (and those of you who’ve read my Salty Ham Column will know where I’m going) is this hole thing with the NFL and Joe Horn. The guy made a nice play to score a big touchdown and he was punished for his choice of celebration methods. He didn’t hurt anyone and he didn’t mock anyone so what’s the big deal. The celebrations are what makes football unique to other sports and one of the big draws to the game. the league doesn’t realize just how important this is and trying to put a cap on players excitement and intensity will, in turn, hurt the game. I think the fact that he was fined $30,000 is a joke and I hope that he wins his appeal.

It’s less than a week away from Christmas, and as I suspected, my tollerance level for the rest of humanity is at a tremendous low. I was at the mall last night and it was absolute insanity. There was literally hundreds of people running through the halls and everyone had the same “where i want to be is twice as important as where you want to be” attitude. It made it very difficult to keep that Christmas Spirit in tact. Until…

After watching everybody in the place treat everyone else like crap and act like the end of the world was coming, I was pleasantly surprised as I went to leave the mall in a terrible mood. I decided to go outside and wait for the people I was with to finish at the bank machine since it had gotten so hot in the mall. I had only two bags in my hand and they were by no means huge or heavy. As I approached the door to the outside I was following a little girl (probably about 8) and what I can only assume was her father. The girl was carrying a small box that required her to use both hands. Her father pushed through the door and she followed but before she was out stopped and put her back against the door to hold it for me. As I walked through she looked up at me and said “I hope you have a Merry Christmas.” in probably the cutest little voice I’d heard in quite some time. I looked down at her and smiled and said “Well, thank you. I hope you have a Merry Christmas, too.” and walked through the door. As I stopped outside to wait she walked by me again and stopped and said, holding up the box “This is what I got my mom for Christmas”. She did not however open the box to reveal what was inside so I didn’t really know what to say. I didn’t have to. She kept talking. “I saved all the money I could since school started. I hope she will like it.” and then she turned and walked after her father.

You just can’t help but smile after things like that. My faith in humanity was re-affirmed before I went home. It didn’t hurt that she was so cute. She had that “Michelle from Full House” look and sound to her. It was definitely the highlight of my night. I hope her mom likes it, too. Kids are great.

Happy Holidays Everyone.