I have been in Canada too long...

Yep, thats me up there in the pic, standing on ice, with a curling broom in my hand. I know, that is one of the signs of the apocolypse. I even sometimes slow down with the clicker when I go by a curling match on TV. The past few years I have taped the Brier for Marty, maybe that is the reason for my madness. I don't know.
Tuesday night the local sports radio, Team 1260, which I am friendly with a few of the jocks. Well, I guess they know me because I call in and run my mouth a lot. Imagine that, me running my mouth, on talk radio. Anyway, the have an annual match with the Ferby rink (that is what they call a team that curls). I know you now are thinking that I know way too much about curling. They call the match the Death Match. This year it was held at city hall in the reflection pool. In the winter it is not much for reflection, just ice. I went down to get some autographs, thats right, autographs of curlers. I am truly crazy. The guy in the middle with the stogy, cuban, is Randy Ferby, the skip (captain or leader of the team. I know, I need to get out more).

I had a broom( that is the tool that a curler uses, again I know too much about curling) to have them sign it. Not for myself but for a charity auction that I hold in conjunction with my golf tournament(yet another sport that I have learned to play, poorly). Anyway, next thing I know they have me out on the ice throwing stones (That is the object of curling, like a football, or baseball. I am starting to creep myself out with all this info). Just picture shuffleboard on ice. It is called curling because depending on the speed that you throw the rock and the rotation you put on it, it will curve or curl. Imagine a curve ball thrown by a pitcher, that is what the rock does on the ice. I definitely have been here in Canada too long, I am explaining curling to you. Like it matters.

The Ferby rink is representing Alberta in the Breir this year. The Brier is in Edmonton this year. It is like the superbowl of curling in Canada. They have won 4 in a row and 5 total. They also won the world championship. Like it matters. So technically I was on the ice with the worlds best curlers. Marty knows who they are. The rocks that they used in this match were Tim Hortons coffee cans. Real rocks are granite and round. Like it matters. Anyway, I kinda had fun. Usually you don't curl outside, you do it in a bar. That's right, every rink has a bar and that is a major part of curling, beer. So, naturally I am drawn to it, because of beer. I believe that is why Marty does it. Nordic Man is a curler also. Marty does not do too much of it in Cali.

Here I am watching the rock head toward the House (Where you want your rock to go. Kinda like a bullseye on a target). I called Donna and told her that I was going to be late but did not tell her what I was doing. She about fell off her chair when I told her that I was curling. She can't believe that I actually gave it a go.
Well the death match ended in a ass whupping. The Ferby boys put up 7 points in the second end (that is the rounds that curling goes. Usually 10 ends. Man I need to come back to the states and watch more football.) We got one in the first, and not to many after that. Maybe I need one of you to come up here and perform an intervention, or an exorcism or something. Me curling, what's next soccer? Hell no!!!!

Have a good day and GET BACK TO WORK.

Hockey, Beer, and Old Ladies....

Hello and welcome to just a little love on a friday,

Well the NHL is toast, do you care? I do. It is amazing how this labour dispute mirrors the one I went through, minus the athletes and all that money. It is like they are reading from a script. When Bettman said "Consider our offer off the table" I looked at Jordi and he knew exactly what I was thinking. We heard the same thing from the Management of the A-Channel. They do that to scare the marginal employee. The one who isn't to keen on being locked out or on strike. Scare them into thinking that it will never end to put pressure on the committee to give in. Funny. It is all just a bluff.

Johnny H says of the latest love......"Thank you I feel 23% more loved" You are welcome Johnny, I do what I can.

Got a message from Shane K about the Leinies gift from Ivy.....

"Leinies, what a GREAT gift. We used to build furniture out of the returnable cases when I was going to school in Mpls. He who drank the most got to sit on "The Thrown" which reached almost to the ceiling of our crappie apartment (allowing for headroom of course). The good old days... now I build furniture out of empty bottles of Malox!

Thanks for the memory,
Shane"

I agree with Shane. Killer gift. Oh by the way, my anniversary is in June, My birthday is in December, and Fathers day is also in June. Just in case you want to plan ahead.

I tried a new thing this week. Audio Blog. Just click on the icon below and hear a song that I posted by phone. It is a song from the movie Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou. Funny movie, and the song is from the part of the movie where I laughed the most. If you haven't seen the movie, go if you want to see a quirky movie that is way out there. Listen and enjoy.

I was reminded of a funny story this last week by reading a post on B-Roll. A photog telling his story about being cocky and knowitallish, but getting shown up and being really embarassed. It reminded me of a wonderful day at the North Dakota State Fair in about 100 degree heat. That would be around 38 degrees celcius, give or take a few degrees.

I was driving my golf cart from one shoot to another, probably from a pig show (not The Judds), to some kid who plays violin with the rest of his oppressive family. If you know the state fair lay out you know that there is one meeting point in the middle where everyone hangs out and basically jams traffic. It is right in front of the KX remote studio. Kind of a crossroads with out the good blues music.

So it was one of those days where it seems every one in North Dakota is at the fair drinking the overpriced root beer and really bad corn dogs. I was making my way really slowly in the golf cart when I came upon the traffic jam. I decided that I did not need to be on time for the violin playing kid so I sat to the one side of the jam and just chilled for about five minutes. I saw my opening. I decided to make my move. If you have ever driven a golf cart, and I know Ivy and Chad have spent too much time on them, you know that to get the engine to start you just lightly push on the gas pedal. I did just that. Right at that moment a lady about the age of 80 or 90, you know the average age of EVERYONE in North Dakota, stepped off the curb right in front of me. Well, she missed the curb somehow and fell. RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY CART. Thank you very much. To make matters worse the crowd immediately dispersed. All you could see was my cart and this old lady screaming in front of it.

Nobody did anything. I ran to the KX building and called 911. I came back out and she was still screaming. I heard this person in the crowd whisper to another person "That's the guy who hit her." No thank you very much. As we were waitning for what was about 5 minutes but felt like 3 hours for the ambulance to get there all I could do was lean against my cart and inconspicuously push it away from the old lady. I did not get it far. The EMS people finally showed up and took care of the lady. But one did ask her where the cart hit her. REALLY LOUD. I could not win. I did not hit her.

After a new hip and a broken ankle, I think, she absolved me of any blame. Thanks, why didn't she speak up at the incident. I was labelled Granny Killer by my boss, and if I remember right Nick lived on that for about 6 months. Nah, that doesn't sound like Nick.

Anyway that was my most embarassing moment, so far.

Here is another WM XIX photo....



Have a good day and GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!

Audio Post

Don't hate the Playa, hate the game.

So it is friday and the NHL is still not playing. I know most of you out there do not care, but I kinda do, because I am getting tired of being stay at home dad. Cleaning is cool, sorta, for a while, but it is getting old. I kinda want to have an excuse if I don't get the cleaning done. Right now the only excuse I could come up with is I just didn't do it. OR the dogs made that mess. Donna is smarter than that. She knows that I spend the day at home, unless I am out goofing around. I need to be working a bit more. It is nice to have a routine that a person can rely on. Don't get me wrong, I do not wish I was still working at A-Channel. NO FREAKING WAY. That place is mess. The NHL needs to get their problem fixed and play some hockey so Jordi and I have something to do.



Anyway I hope they end it soon. What did you think of the big game? I thought it was great. I enjoyed the commercials where the guy was supposedly robbing the mini mart and cutting up the cat. The Burt Reynolds one was great also. If you want to see them go to http://www.ifilm.com. The game was good. My chili was amazing. Here is a pic.

I just want you to know that I recieved a bunch of funny Packer pics after the Queens beat them in the first round from Shane Keller. I am publishing one to show that I am not completely biased toward the Pack, oh yeah I am. Anyway here is my favorite....

Thank you Shane. If you wish to see the rest of them send me an email and I will forward them to you. Some are just bad, most are funny.

I just got some new books in the mail the other day for my birthday. I have read one already, and am barrelling through the second. It's not like a wrasslin' book has ever claimed to be a tough read. Ole Anderson, how corparate America ruined professional wrestling. Great book. Nick you need to find this book. He told lots of stories around the glory days of WCW and GCW back when I was glued to the set every Saturday. He really has nothing good to say about the Nature Boy Ric Flair, which is suprising. Speaking of the Man. I drifited by Raw on Monday and they were in Japan. What a different show. The fans over there sit and watch the whole match and clap and cheer at appropriate times. No fans trying to be on TV or calling their friends on a cell from the front row. They are truly old school. When Slick Ric does his famous nose dive, it just gets better with time like fine wine, they all clapped politely and waited for the next high point in the match. It was like a breath of fresh air watching on Monday. Then they had some lame 'fashion show' and I changed the channel.

Now I know some of you may know about my 'retirement' from wrestling. And me watching flies in the face of that. Let me assure you that Monday was an abnormality. My 'Retirement' did happen during the hiatus of the Love. I made a deal with Donna in 2003 that if I retired from watching wrestling every Monday and Thursday, and going to the live events in town I could go to Wrestlemania 19. Deal. Done. I went to the show with Nick Chase, Steve Iverson, and Chad Weiser. Chad made it all happen because he lives in Seattle and had an in to get the duckets.



Well let me tell you it was worth it. Great time with the boys. I have for the most part given up the weekly ritual. No Really. I have. I do, on occasion stop and watch for a minute or so when I am flipping, like on Monday, but I do not watch the full two hours. Really. And to tell you the truth I don't miss it all that too much. Which gets me back to the books. I do not consider reading a book now and then crossing my promise. The second book is Bobby Heenan, Chair Shots and lifes other challenges. Good so far, and the third is Positively Page. I am looking forward to that one. Speaking of books, Nick, you need to send me those books you borrowed back. So to end this wrestling note I will tell you that I heard a rumor that WM 22 will be held in ...... Wait for it....wait for it..... CALGARY, Alberta, Canada. Just 2 1/2 short hours from here. The rumors of Bret Hart coming back have already started. Did you know he is doing a stage play of Alladin, where he plays the Genie. He sings and dances also. Really, I am not kidding. Google it. But now here is where we test my retirement. Any of you boys want to go? Let me know. I will give you details when I get them. I am retired you know so, oh hell, just let me know.

I will leave you with this.....

Ivy you are the champ. I got a package from Ivy last night. Three of my favorite things in the world. Leinies, Dakota Kids, and Funyuns. All of which are not available in Canada. Dude, you RULE! Except using the Funyns as packing material is not the best idea, and I think it is illegal to ship beer accross borders. I can't believe that the customs man believed that it was 'soda' in the box. You are a thinking man.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!!!

Super Bowl Sunday

Hello and welcome to Just a Little Love On A Friday, late. Sorry about that, I was busy today and just could not get to it until late. But better late than never. So I spent this evening working on cutting up the ingredients for the best chili ever made. Brett Favre chili. We make it every year for the super bowl party that we have here at the house. I was thinking the other day about how many superbowls I have seen. I have been around for all of them. I was born on the day of the Ice Bowl, December 31 1967. Super bowl I was held 15 days later. I think the earliest super bowl I remember is Super Bowl VII between Miami and Washington. I would be 5 at that time and I don't think that I have missed to many since then. If any. Well there is the one... I know some of you that worked at WGBA will remember this one. Super Bowl XXXII. Green Bay versus Mr Ed and the Broncos. What? Chris missed a super Bowl that the Pack was in? Yup that is right. Well technically I didn't miss it completely, I had to watch the first half at work. That blew.
Our genious of a News Director at the time, I won't name names, oh hell, I will, Joel Bernell. He thought it would be important to have anyone who was not at the game in San Diego work on that day. Oh yeah, brilliant. So I came to work that day and did not even pick up my camera. Because it was Super Bowl Sunday. Everyone in Green Bay was watching the game. Maybe that is one of the reasons why JB is not employed there anymore. His brilliant ideas. Buy I will give him credit for getting us a nice meat and cheese tray for us to have at work. No, it sucked. It was old and dry and really small. He sucks. AND to add insult to injury just before kickoff, he walks into the news room and says "I will see you guys later." A producer asks him where he is going and he says, and I kid you not, "I am going home to watch the game. I don't want to miss any of it with my family." Dick. It is okay for all of us to miss it and not watch it with our family, but not you.
Of course you all know that the Pack lost that game and I blame Joel Bernell completely because he broke tradition and made us watch it at work. Had nothing to do with John Elway.
I hope you all enjoy your super bowl and are not forced to watch it at work.
Also I hope all you Viking fans enjoyed all the billboards that a Packer fan put up in Madison Wisconsin. I really enjoy them. As long as Randy Moss is wearing purple you will never win a trophy, hell, you ain't winning one ever anyway.

Green Bay Packers 12 time NFL champs and 3 time Super Bowl Champs

Have a good day, and get back to work!!!!!