GISHWHES began a few minutes earlier than expected. My local teammates and I brainstormed for nearly 8 hours after viewing the list. I thought so hard I think the part of my brain that's abnosome is done for the night!

I'm pretty much done with LJ if they don't fix these comment pages soon. I can't read fics on these pages with the font and spacing as it is. I literally can't. It hurts my eyes and I can't follow the stories I'm trying to read because I'm so busy trying to just focus on the words. The pages are unreadable. I really hope most of the communities and people that I follow on LJ decide to finally move on to sites that actually care about having us as customers. I don't want to stop following people and communities I really enjoy, but I'm not going to have the option to continue to do so on LJ if they don't fix the comment pages. :(

I am absolutely at a loss for words. But I have to say something somewhere so I guess my LJ will have to be that place. I'm just stunned. I went to Facebook earlier and was reading through my friends' updates. A girl I was good friends with all the way through school (from Pre-K through graduation) just welcomed her first child two days ago after years of trying and multiple miscarriages. I'll call her A for purposes of this post. A and baby are both doing wonderfully and everyone who knows their family has been just overjoyed for A, her husband, her twin sister J, and the rest of their family. When I saw a post from J saying that A's dog died today, I was really upset for her. To lose your beloved dog on the day your bring your long-awaited first child home from the hospital would be really hard. But then I read on and realized THEY HAD THE DOG PUT DOWN BECAUSE OF THE BABY! I am IRATE. J posted that "It just wasn't working out with the new princess. They tried but Boston had too many anxiety issues and couldn't go to a shelter. He was 8." I am sick to my stomach. How could they do such a thing? Without even trying to rehome him! They tried?!? The baby was home for less than 6 hours!!! I am just shocked and appalled that someone I know and have always considered to be a nice person could do such a barbaric and heartless thing. My heart weeps for that poor innocent dog who thought he was loved only to be betrayed in the worst possible way by the people he trusted to be his guardians.

I don't understand how people can be so cruel.

‎"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King, Jr

So I went to the Wings game last night with a bunch of family. My mom bought tickets for herself, my aunt, uncle, cousins, plus my husband and me. We had a really good time. We were split in allegiances. Four Wings fans, three Hawks fans, and one independent (well, my cousin L's husband is really a Boston fan but was neutral last night). My uncle rented a twelve passenger van so we could all ride down to the Joe together. It was a lot of fun.

Great game to watch. Joey MacDonald was incredible. Holy cow. I felt bad for him that he wasn't on the winning end of that overtime situation but I knew when they called Hank for the penalty at the end of regulation that it was pretty much the game. 4 on 3's are so hard to kill with all that open ice. But he made over 40 saves to keep the Wings in that. Highly entertaining to watch but for fuck's sake, D! Get it together - it's almost April!!! Yeesh. And Hudler made a number of bad passes in the offensive zone to give the puck away. Was not happy watching that. But Hank's finally got his game back. I don't know what his deal was there for awhile but whatever it was he's appears to have snapped out of it. Guess cutting his hair worked. ;) I had to watch the replay of the Bertuzzi hit on the DVR when I got home. It happened in the corner we were sitting above but I didn't see it as my eyes were following the puck. He did get the elbow up but I don't think it would have been a game misconduct prior to the latest crackdown on headshots. And I'm all for getting the headshots out of the game/punishing them severely when they happen. But I don't think it's suspension worthy. We'll see what happens. And Johnson? Tighten that chin strap. Helmets don't do you a lot of good if they go flying off like that. What if that elbow had knocked you out and you hit your unprotected head on the ice as you fell? Hate that shit.

Back to MacDonald... I still don't think he's probably ever going to be NHL starting goalie material, but he's definitely been a late bloomer (as some goalie's just are). He made me feel a lot better last night about having him back-up Howard for the playoffs. Because I think, unfortunately, that Ozzie's done for good. Joey didn't make me feel any better about Howie starting in the playoffs but that was going to happen no matter what and he's the Wings' guy for the foreseeable future so I'm just going to have to get used to it. :/

So we had three happy Hawks fans in our van on the ride home. My cousin K's been a Hawks fan for many years, ever since Belfour tended goal for them and was K's favorite goalie growing up (... yeah, IDK either. He's related to me so it's a given that he's kinda strange... he's also a former goalie himself so, yeah, weird). And I think my uncle and aunt adopted the Hawks through him. K's also good friends with Brian Campbell so that was an added perk for him to see his buddy play last night.

And finally... Wings fans at the Joe? Please shut the fuck up and quit booing Hossa. I mean, seriously? The guy signed a one year free agent contract and then moved on. He didn't do anything to you! I understood the booing of Fedorov for a couple of years there because I really felt he did pretty much flip off the Wings' franchise on the way out of town, but even that has gotten old and I'm sure Feds is glad he almost never comes to the Joe since he's in the East now. Because it was getting ridiculous. But booing Hossa has been ridiculous from the start. Cut it out.

Commenting on all of my journal entries will be disabled until LJ figures out their shit. That's the only way I can see keeping my journal right now as I CANNOT and WILL NOT accept the risk that ANYONE will crosspost their comments on my journal to other social networking sites. Additionally, I will not be making any new posts until this issue is resolved. I know that doesn't mean much since I haven't posted anything of consequence in a long time, but I have been working on a story in one fandom and still plan on finishing my WIPs in two others at the very least. But they won't be posted here because I enjoy feedback on my work (as any author does) and have no desire to post new writings but disable comments and remove most of the likelihood that I will find out of people like what I've posted!

I realize most people are planning to continue to post but warning other users that they will be banned if they crosspost against the journal owners's wishes. But I can't even accept that for my own journal. To me, that's closing the barn door after the horse is gone. I need to be proactive in keeping all linkage to my LJ off of Facebook and Twitter. Thank you for understanding.

Not surprised and not gonna cry. Actually somewhat relieved that Ilitch and company didn't do anything stupid in an attempt to get him to stay. Wishing Steve all the best... except against Detroit.

LIGHTNING INTRODUCE YZERMAN AS GENERAL MANAGER

Round One Prediction Results:

Washington vs. Montreal -- Caps in 5 Wrong team, off by two games (-2)
New Jersey vs. Philadelphia -- Flyers in 6 Right team, off by one game (+1)
Buffalo vs. Boston -- Sabres in 7 Wrong team, off by 1 game (-1)
Pittsburgh vs. Ottawa -- Penguins in 5 Right team, off by 1 game (-1)

San Jose vs. Colorado -- San Jose in 5 Right team, off by 1 game (-1)
Chicago vs. Nashville -- Preds in 7 Wrong team, off by 1 game (+1)
Vancouver vs. Los Angeles -- Kings in 7 Wrong team, off by 1 game (-1)
Phoenix vs. Detroit -- Wings in 5 Right team, off by 2 games (-2)

So I was 50/50 in predicting which teams would win. Hey, at least I didn't do worse than random chance.

I think it's kind of interesting that in the West teams seeds 1, 2, 3, and 5 advanced and in the East seeds 4, 6, 7, and 8 advanced. So the West is shaping up about like you'd expect (1 vs. 5 meeting and 2 vs. 3 meeting) while the East semi-finals will be a 4 vs. 8 matchup and a 6 vs. 7. Guess it wasn't a good year to win your division in the East!

And for the heck of it again --

Round Two Predictions

Pittsburgh vs. Montreal -- Pens in 6
Boston vs. Philadelphia -- Bruins in 5

San Jose vs. Detroit -- Wings in 6
Chicago vs. Vancouver -- Hawks in 7

Okay, just for the heck of it...

First Round Predictions

Washington vs. Montreal -- Caps in 5
New Jersey vs. Philadelphia -- Flyers in 6
Buffalo vs. Boston -- Sabres in 7
Pittsburgh vs. Ottawa -- Penguins in 5

San Jose vs. Colorado -- San Jose in 5
Chicago vs. Nashville -- Preds in 7
Vancouver vs. Los Angeles -- Kings in 7
Phoenix vs. Detroit -- Wings in 5

Oh Olympics how I love you... and hate you... and love you.

I'm very happy for Evan Lysacek. He earned that gold medal and I believe he deserved to win. Of course, I'm of the school of thought that I prefer to see a clear program with a slightly lower degree of difficulty than one where the skater just barely holds on to every jump. So he didn't throw a quad. He didn't need to. He outskated Plushenko in every way that matters, IMO.

( Of course, my feelings about the judging of the skating tonight are not without conflict.Collapse )

Okay, figure skating's ability to make my blood boil aside... I frickin' love the Winter Olympics. I enjoy the Summer Games too, but not in the all encompassing way I love the Winter. There's a lot I don't care for in the Summer (track and field for the most part, volleyball, water polo, that weird cycling thing on the tilted track... just to name a few). But there's pretty much nothing I won't watch when it comes to the Winter Olympics. Curling? Don't mind if I do! Skeleton? Those people are insane, yo. But I love it. Short track speed skating? Why not? The X-Games type of stuff like snowboard-cross has also really grown on me, to my great surprise. And even the somewhat occasionally dull things like long cross-country ski races aren't bad enough to make me turn the channel (unless it's to another channel covering a different event). I am very sad I don't have Canadian coverage this year since the CBC was outbid by Rogers for the Games. But NBC has been doing a very nice job and with USA and CNBC in the mix they're doing almost all the hockey games so that makes me very happy. And HD is so pretty. Yay Olympics!

I've started writing Nuke drabbles based on the prompts at drabbles100. They'll be posted there as well if my claim is ever approved (I think the mods may have abandoned the community, which is a shame). Here are the first two. Dawn, your b-day fic has gotten longer than I intended and still isn't done. I really hope you'll think it's worth the wait. In the meantime, hopefully these can tide you over. *g*

( 056 - BreakfastCollapse )

( 067 - SnowCollapse )

Trey Alexander arrived at 3:03pm on 7/15/09 weighing 7lbs 10 oz and measuring 22 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great as are dad, big brothers, proud grandparents and so on.

I didn't make it in time for the delivery because once he decided to come this little guy was in quite a hurry. SIL went from 3cm to 9cm in a couple of hours. She actually progressed so fast she wasn't able to get an epidural because by the time they checked her she was almost ready to push. Fortunately for her, she only had to push for about 10 minutes and he was here. I got to the hospital around 6:45 (my BIL had called just as I was getting on the road to let me know Trey was here so I was in no rush driving over). Everyone had gone off to WalMart to shop for SIL and the baby so when I arrived it was just me, SIL, and Trey for almost an hour and a half. That was really nice. We just chatted and Trey slept in my arms the whole time.

He is so precious. So small and warm and he makes those cute little newborn baby noises. And his hair and skin are so soft. He even smells good. I am totally, completely, 100% head over heels in love. I guess it really is true that your love just grows as each new child comes. Even though they aren't my own, I love my nephews and my niece like crazy. When Joey was born I wondered if I could love him as much as Andy. But I immediately did. Same thing happened with Trey. One glimpse and I was hooked. ♥



( More pics behind the cut. Please indulge the proud auntie. He's just too cute for words.Collapse )

SIL is in labor. My wonderful mother has agreed to let me borrow her car so I can head over to the west side of the state (only reason I couldn't go today was my husband needs our car to go to work). Hopefully I'll get there before the baby does!

So according to her OB, my sister-in-law should be in active labor within 72 hours to deliver my third nephew. I'm really hoping he comes on Thursday or Friday because then I can travel to the west side of the state to be there when he's born. I would love to be there when she delivers him or at least be able to see and hold him within the first few hours of his life. I didn't get the chance to do that with either of my first two nephews or my niece. Andy was born while my husband and I were separated so I didn't meet him until he was 16 months old. Joey came a fairly surprising 10 days before his due date so I missed his birth as well. And Constance was born in Louisiana because that's where her dad is stationed so I didn't get to see her until she was 6 weeks old. So I really want to be there for this one. I hope it works out. I still have to get big brother gifts for Andy and Joey but I have the new baby's gifts all set to go. I swear, my cell phone won't be out of reach at all for the next few days. *crosses fingers and repeats to herself "Not tomorrow... not tomorrow... Thursday or Friday... Thursday or Friday..."*

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a great series and they earned the right life Lord Stanley tonight fair and square. Their team and their fans deserve to celebrate this all summer long. Well done.

I'm disappointed. I'm not as crushed as I thought I was going to be if they lost. I'm not sure why. It really sucks. But they had two chances to close it out. And they didn't do it. I guess that's it. They didn't deserve to win. So it's easier to accept that they didn't. Not that I'm not going to be pretty bummed out for the next several days, because I will be. But this is still a really good team. They weren't hungry enough to win it in back to back years. And that's frustrating. But honestly, it's also not all that surprising.

I will be interested to see what happens in the off-season. I pray to the hockey gods that I just watched Mikael Samuelsson play his last game as a Red Wing. Ericsson and Helm have clearly earned full time roster spots in Detroit next year. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Franzen are all signed long term. We should have a really good shot again next season. As good as anyone. And that's all you can really ask as a sports fan, I think. To have your team have a chance every year.

If Marian Hossa takes a big money contract come July, then his coming to Detroit was just a stunt and karmically, he deserved what he got. If he really believes Detroit is a superior club and decides to stay here for less money than he could get on the open market to be part of the tradition of excellence this team has, then I will respect that a bit more. We'll see. It'll be interesting.

I've really stayed pretty calm the last couple of days waiting for this game but now, a half hour from puck drop, I'm freaking out. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I've never watched a hockey game that has meant more to me. I'm going to be elated or I'm going to be devastated. No middle ground.

I have a lot of confidence in this team to win the big game and this is the biggest. But in a one game scenario anything can happen. Hockey can be a game of inches, a game of bounces. I actually had a dream while I took a nap earlier today that the Wings were trailing by a goal, scored to tie it and then scored to take the lead and somehow both goals (??? It was a dream, okay?) were called back on a goaltender interference call on Holmstrom and I was absolutely livid! So am I nervous? Oh you bet.

I know all the odds. Home teams in the NHL win 80% of Game 7s. In the Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals all-time home teams are 12-2. The Wings are 11-1 at home in this playoffs. The home team is 6-0 in this series. No road team has won a Game 7 for the championship in the NHL, NBA, or MLB in 30 years. It hasn't happened in the NHL in even longer -- 38 years. But none of that changes the fact that tonight two very, very good hockey teams are going to take the ice with the chance to win the Stanley Cup, the hardest trophy to win in professional sports, by winning one. single. game.

Which team is going to want it more? Will the Red Wings' desire to deliver for their fans, their city, this state that so desperately needs something, anything to feel good about be stronger than the Penguins' desire to win their first championship as this group, their first championship in 17 years, and rub it in the faces of the Wings and their fans by winning it on Detroit's home ice the way Detroit did to them just last year?

I want to believe the Wings will not let us down. That they will celebrate their 5th championship in 12 years tonight and that the people of Detroit will party long into the night. That a million people will pack downtown Detroit for a victory parade and be allowed to forget about auto companies and bankruptcies and foreclosures and a 13% unemployment rate at least for a few hours and get to bask in the enjoyment of one thing this state does have going for it -- we have a kick ass hockey team.

In a few hours we'll find out.

Osgood is the only reason the Wings were even in that game through the first two periods. The Conn Smythe is his if the Wings take Game 7, no question. The Wings have to want it more than the Penguins. They didn't have their backs against the wall tonight and they played like it. But there can be no excuses if they don't win Game 7 on home ice in front of their fans. The people of Detroit (heck, all of Michigan) need this and this team has an obligation to deliver.

I'm going to bed. It's a long time until Friday.

Okay Wings. Finish it. I wanna see Lidstrom and company lifting that big shiny silver thing and skating it around the ice in Mellon Arena tonight.

I usually would have had so much more to say about this series but I've been so sick for the last week that I really haven't been able to organize my thoughts enough to make them into posts. Doesn't mean I haven't been having them though. ;) I'm just tired and cranky and have pretty much used up all the energy I have just to watch the games and study for my finals which are this week. I am really ready to start feeling better soon. But at least I didn't start feeling sick until after Game 2! Being at a Stanley Cup Finals game and watching the Wings take a 2-0 series lead was one of the most exciting experiences of my life.

Oh dear... They're letting Carmen Harlan talk about hockey on Channel 4. *headdesk*

I'm sure this game is going to be a tough one. The last thing the Penguins want is to watch the Wings skate the Stanley Cup around on their home ice for the second year in a row! But if the Wings play their best, they should win. I don't think my nerves would be able to handle a Game 7. Anything can happen in a one game scenario. So for my sanity the Wings need to finish it tonight. They look calm. They look poised. They're fairly healthy. They know what it takes to get it done. Now it's just time to do it.