Scooter Chronicles

Sweden Wins Hockey Gold
I didn’t get to see any of the medal rounds games, but it sounds like the gold medal game was good. Sweden, with four Red Wings (Lidstrom, Holmstrom, Samuelsson, and Zetterberg) and two Flyers (Forsberg and Kim Johnsson) on the team, beat Finland 3-2. The Czech Republic beat Russia for the bronze.

It was the only loss of the Olympics for Finland, who was anchored by the tournament MVP, Flyers’ goalie Antero Niittymaki (pictured below).

Though he lost in the gold medal game, this could boost his confidence. Especially seeing that Robert Esche’s performance in goal for the US (when he played) was no where near as stellar.

David’s Bachelor Party
On Saturday late afternoon, Andy and I headed down to Delaware for David’s bachelor party, set up by his brother Brian. There were two stops to the night.

The first was Conley Ward’s Steakhouse along the waterfront in Wilmington. It was a very nice and expensive place, not the kind that you go to frequently. The food was excellent. I had the 20 oz. Kansas City sirloin. We ordered onion rings for the table that were mega huge. You seriously could have shared one ring with someone and still had more than a serving. Some of the guys ordered dessert, and the portions were all very big, especially the chocolate cake. The pieces they served were literally a quarter of the cake, and it was three layers to boot. The only disappointment was the serving size of the side dishes. We got three orders of garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus for the table, and each order was really made for one person.

After that we headed to Brian’s place for pool and poker. He also had a life size R2-D2 PEPSI COOLER filled with beer. I surprisingly did very well at poker again. Like at Pizza Night BEFORE Nigel’s Christening, I won. Hey, it’s easy when there’s no money at stake.

It was a good time, though a late night. Because of the drive, I didn’t get to bed until 3:10 am. And the whole time at the restaurant, I was wishing that I could have taken Marcia out to eat there. She deserves a night like that given all that she has been doing for Nigel.

Marcia’s Migraine
Marcia has been dealing with a migraine now for a couple of weeks. It has gotten bad again today. Unfortunately I was not in a position to stay home from work, but I left early. She was feeling better as the day went on, but it still has her upset. Before the pregnancy, she would know when they were coming. Now they have been all over the place, and they have been much longer. As I mentioned before, we both figure/hope that it is just her system getting readjusted after giving birth.

Phones Are Down
We had a problem with two of our three phones on Friday. Two of them are linked, where you only have to plug one into a phone jack. But for some reason they were not working. I didn’t have time to look at them this weekend. But now the third phone is not working, which is also a cordless. Technology is great and all, but it also can be the biggest pain in the ass.

I have started the process to re-register the handsets and reset the system. Hopefully it works. For those of you that might need to call us, use Marcia’s cell phone number.

Oh Neil, What Are You Doing, Eh?
Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist for the band Rush, is listed to having an “introduction” to another author’s book. Now this in itself is not unusual. Publishers do this all the time. But I was always under the impression that the two authors respected each other’s work. The book that Neil wrote the intro for is a short story collection by Kevin J. Anderson. If there was ever an author in the sci-fi genre that was the definition of “hack” it would be KJ.

What has me wondering is why Neil did the intro. Does he actually like this guy’s work? I just can’t see that as true, unless it is total and utter brain candy for Neil, a man that usually reads Ayn Rand and Friedrich Nietzsche and the like. Well respected authors. I am sure that he reads some other “lighter” material, but Kevin J. Anderson? I am intrigued to find out what he says in the intro. The book is called “Landscapes” and I know I will be keeping an eye on Amazon.Com for there “Take a Look” option with books.

[UPDATE:] OK, I just found something on Neil’s website. He’s been friends with the guy for over 20 years and does like his work. Again, gotta be the brain candy factor here. You have to scroll down, but you can read his REVIEW on one of KJ’s book. Imitating Neil, here is my full disclosure: I started reading the first book of that series and could only get through the first 50 pages. It was really bad, in my opinion. I also barely got through an earlier trilogy he wrote. But it was Star Wars, which helped, and it also had shared events with another book that I wanted to read called “I, Jedi” by Michael A. Stackpole (a good writer). Oh well, to each his own I guess.