Doing The Birthday Dance

Today is the only time in my life that my age will coincide with my date of birth. Turning 26 on the 26th, I certainly feel no older than I did turning 25. Most importantly however, when I am turning 40 years old I will still feel young at heart. Yes I pay bills, work full-time, and have to deal with the same everday BS that we all do. But inside, I just want to go outside and play!

So that is what I'm going to do! I'll be in my favorite place in the world: Ashe County in the NC Blue Ridge mountains this weekend celebrating and floating down the river (pictured above). Peace!

(ps - My normal saying for my friends on their birthday is: "I hope your parents had as much fun making you as I have knowing you..." but I couldn't really wish that upon myself.)

Harbingers of Good Fortune

Now I don't want to jinx our season or anything, but for the superstitious, I've got something to think about. A good omen, if you will.

You see, this afternoon, I had to go to my "select-a-seat" event at the RBC. Now before I explain the significance of the afore-mentioned omen, allow me to give you the history. I am usually a harbinger of doom for professional sports franchises. It seems like whenever I take a liking to a team, that team envariably tanks. It's well documented. The Washington Generals used to send me a letter every year begging me to start pulling for the Harlem Globetrotters. I decided that the whole jinx thing was nonsense, so I actively supported the Generals in 1994/1995. Of course, we all know how that turned out: The Generals got sh*tcanned and now the Globetrotters play the New York Nationals. I gave up basketball after that. I then became an avid Duke football fan. You can probably piece together the rest... I then turned my attention to professional baseball and my beloved Boston Red Sox. When I decided they had had enough, I decided to pull for the Yankees for a change, and you all saw what happened. Why just a couple of months ago, I was on an NFL message board posting my predictions for the upcoming season. I was predicting that this year was the year Michael Vick would finally silence his critics and the Falcons would get their due. It's almost funny.

Anyway, to get back to hockey, I was a Penguins fan for years (post cup years, of course) and finally decided to switch loyalties to the local boys (Hurricanes) after game one of the finals against Detroit in 2002. Sorry about that. But despite my history, I couldn't help but love the Canes. So I bought a 24 game ticket plan (mid row seats, down low in 124) the next year. With predictable results. We stank. No problema! I bought a 24 game plan the next year (mid row seats, down low in 124) as well. We stank. So I then realized that maybe it was unfair to the Canes to dump all my evil mojo onto them. I decided that I should not jinx just one team and that if I pulled for the entire NHL and just enjoyed all the games, no matter who was playing, I couldn't lose. Of course, this led to the first professional season ever lost to a lockout. Cripes...

So I thought: 'The Hell with it!!!' I like the Canes and this whole jinx thing is silly. So when I went to get my seats, there were two (2) empty seats on the aisle (down low in 124). So I bought them. And the rest is history. The Canes won the cup! Obviously, these are magic seats. I had found a tiny loophole in the delicate fabric of sports mojo. Thus, I was intent on keeping those seats forever. However, fate is a vindictive bitch. I mean a tire slashing, clothes burning, rabbit boiling bitch. You know the type. So, I went to my select a seat and found that some bandwagoner had slipped in and bought the magic seats out from under me.

I was livid.

And, as fate would have it, the only seats available were those mid row seats, down low in 124. So, hoping the curse on hockey was busted, I bought the mid row seats again. Once again, we stank. So I had little optimism going in to buy seats this year.

But low and behold, what should happen? Yep! The magic seats were available. And I snapped them up. This may just be the missing piece of the puzzle to getting another cup. I hate to be too confident in one omen, but you can't argue with history. The Canes have never failed to win the cup when I have had the magic seats. Rejoice Caniacs! We're back on our way...

Staals Get Schnockered Up

The NBA has a cheating ref, MLB has steroid abuse, NFL has dog fights, and we have:

Eric Staal, his little brother and cousins getting arrested the night of his bachelor party

No big deal here, I'll be the first one to admit I've done things much worse than what they did up there. Pretty funny, however. The important part is that nobody was driving!

Edit 7/26: Their mugshots are now out!

Justin Williams: The Steal Of The Century

With free agency this summer offering contract pay-offs equal to a drug czar's bankroll, now is the time to savor the fact that Jimmy Rutherford was able to sign his superstars to long-term contracts before inflation took hold.

Just based off of Bubba's Salary Chart, you can see that we have a strong group of forwards lined up for at least 2 more years at a bargain of a price. Especially, after you see the deals that Briere and the other free agents signed this summer.

Just picking one out - look at Justin Williams who is signed through 2010-2011 at $3.5 mil per.



What do you think Justin would draw were he on the free agent market this summer?

The Food Thread: Mimi's Creekside of Charleston, SC

With a few more months before we'll be head-on into the NHL season, we are going to take you to a few of our favorite restaurants throughout the Carolinas. Whether they be a secret getaway or well-known delicacies, there are quite a few post-worthy places being run across on our escapades.

My wife and I had the pleasure of joining some old friends at Mimi's Creekside of Folly outside Charleston, SC this afternoon for brunch. When you walk into this tiny and quaint establishment, you are greeted by the warmth of the staff and a mix of your "fresh-out-of-church" crowd & hungover College of Charleston kids adorned at their tables. While waiting to sit outside, we sat down at the bar for one of their legendary Bloody Marys. Served with a shrimp and a lemon, the taste is well worth the $5.50 going rate and a wonderful way to wet your pallet while you brew up an appetite.

We were seated outside on the deck overlooking the marsh and river. Might I add that the weather was spectacular all weekend (84 degree highs, sunny and not 100% humidity) after it being rather crap-tacular last week. Two old regulars are setting the mood outside with a mix of blues and folk; one with his guitar, shaggy beard and Panama Jack hat while his partner could challenge John Popper with his harmonica skills.

Some friends at the table had Shrimp 'n Grits that looked outstanding. The majority of us were there for the much-hyped eggs Benedict menu. Your choices are: Crab cake, Salmon, Steak, or Eggs over mouth-watering English Muffins topped with poached eggs and a Hollandaise sauce good enough to write home about. If you don't leave here happy, you just ain't right!

"Get Your Hands Off Of Me, You Damn Dirty Apes"

This picture is too good not to be seen by all. This is the governor of Tennessee and his wife holding a sign that was handed to them by a rallier in the crowd at yesterday's "Our Team" season ticket drive. I like it, if I had to pick a Western Conference team that I actually am a fan of, the Preds are it. I hope they can stay.

SaveThePreds.com

Keep the Predators In Nashville Petition

Nashville Predators: "Our Team"

ECU Pirates vs. NCSU Wolfpack Match-Up Set

I received this e-mail today from Brent Falcon of the ECU Club Hockey Team:

ECU has confirmed the scheduling of a regular season game with NC State. The game will be played in Greenville on October 19 at 9:30pm. It has been scheduled as part of a "Rivalry Weekend" which will include the ECU vs. NC State football game the following day (Oct. 20) in Greenville. Hopefully posting in on COI will get some publicity behind the game that is sure to draw a huge crowd. It will undoubtedly be the biggest home game in our short history, our biggest crowd so far was 675 for our match-up against UNC-Chapel Hill in our first ever season. This game is surely going to surpass that number and hopefully we can get some media to cover it as the
entire weekend is going to be one big ECU/NC State match-up.

Here's why they are smart to schedule the hockey game the night before the NCSU/ECU game. If they tried to do it Saturday after the game, you would have a bunch of drunk football fans who have been tailgating all day stumble in there (if they were to make it it all). Doing it Friday night gives the ECU squad a lot of exposure to potential alumni contributions. I'll put it to you this way. When I called over a month ago to try and book a hotel room the weekend of the ECU/UNC football game, every place was already booked solid. The town will be packed to the brim with football fans.

Is there a possibility of getting UNC on the schedule the Friday before the UNC/ECU football game this year?