Hurts So Good

John Mellencamp, or was it John Cougar...or was it John Cougar Mellencamp(?) stated it well when he sang "Hurts So Good". The playoffs are over for the Wild, and the possibility of that big old Stanley Cup residing in The State of Hockey this year is dead. The only thing that helped ease the pain was the fact we were having a good time watching the game with good friends uptown at the local bar.
Oh, and I guess the handful of Windsor 7s helped a little...
And so did the $150 we won in pull tabs! Woo Hoo!

To add insult to injury, I've decided this week is the beginning of a couple "self improvement" campaigns:

1) "Kick the Cup": aka, get off the caffeine! I'm a morning coffee fiend. We have free Starbucks at work. It's like open bar for a struggling alcoholic. I've been sitting at my desk all morning watching the clock. "If I can make it til noon, I'll be fine. Well, I made it to noon thanks to a bottle of water. Just finished lunch and now I'm looking at the clock again. Did I mention we have free soda machines as well? Damn! This sucks. If I can make it til 5pm, I'll be fine (repeat over and over while hands start shaking).

2) "Get Speedo Ready" effort: time to shed what I added during the MN winter and get ready for summer! No, no, no...I would never actually wear one of those things - it's just a figure of speech to get myself motivated. Time to reduce my portion size, quit eating crappy foods, and did someone say exercise? What's that? I've been told that 5k is 3.11 miles. Can I run that far? If I'm being chased by the cops or a grizzly bear, perhaps. Otherwise, it's not likely.

Another painful item today: I actually wore a short sleeve T-shirt to work. Have I ALWAYS been this pasty white? Holy crap!

Mondays suck.

Is someone driving a railroad spike through my temple, or do I just need a cup of coffee?

Mike-O? Mick-Oooh? Mikko!

Mikko Koivu (pronounced MEE-koh, KOY-voo), the fancy Finlander, busted his cajoles last night to show us how it's done. That boy deserves a cookie...and a Stanley Cup.

The Wild & Avs went to overtime again, doing nothing good for my blood pressure or beer consumption levels. Mrs. Wildman fell asleep on the couch next to me as I cringed, jumped, oohh'd and aaah'd with every breakaway, slapshot, and cheap shot from the Avalanche players. (How can you fall asleep during WILD PLAYOFF HOCKEY, honey?) I ended up waking her a few times when I launched off the couch each time we scored, and she shared a half-coherent mumbling "Yeah...go Wild..." to the mix.

Life is good. And will get better TONIGHT when we take #3 from the Avs in their own house. Game on!

Oh, just thought I'd also share a pic of last night's refs - do they look familiar? The Avs got a good return on whatever they paid for them to call the game to their advantage. Those guys were horrible!



Lastly, had to add one more pic that makes me smile. Forsberg...on the ice...where he belongs, getting a little "education" from the Wild's Sean Hill. Man, I love hockey.

Is your boss cranky?

Glad I don't have this guy barkin' down my neck, but I AM glad the MN Wild do! This crabby dude would certainly get me motivated, though I'd probably be busting my butt with a smurk on my face due to his funky French-Canadian accent. Hah!

I once worked for a guy who rolled his snowmobile in the middle of the night when he was drunk - on his way home from the bar. It threw him 30' off the snowmobile trail and he got wedged in the crotch of a birch tree. He couldn't move and only had one arm free - just enough to reach his cigarettes and lighter. He smoked the rest of the pack while trying to stay alert and watch for his buddies to come find him. They did...3hrs later, and he gave them a royal ass chewin'!

Moral of the story: we never pissed off Mr. Beer (ironic name, eh?) and basically lived in fear the entire summer. Did I mention he was trying to quit smoking that summer? I've never seen anyone chew so much Nicorette gum...or throw a riding lawnmower across the shop floor out of frustration during a nic-fit.

Ever had a boss like that? Drop me a comment about your "winner".

Oh, I almost forgot: GO WILD! Kick some Av-Butt tonight!

Garrison Keillor Love Child?

I loved the first couple seasons of The Office on NBC. Last year sucked, IMO. I think the writing went downhill and was pretty unoriginal. I caught about 5 minutes of last night's new episode, and looks like this year will be better...I hope...

On a related note, I saw a picture of Garrison Keillor the other day and it hit me like a ton of bricks: he must be Dwight Schrute's father! Perhaps the love child from some torrid affair? I don't know.

Take a look. You be the judge. The apple doesn't fall far from the nut tree.

Garrison Keillor:


















Dwight Schrute:


Eerie, isn't it?

Go Wild!

Take it as a carte blanche invitation to whatever, but "Go Wild"is the battle cry of our beloved MN Wild hockey team.

The NHL machine representing "The State of Hockey" has become one of my favorite teams to watch. Anyone who knows me will attest that I'm no sports/ESPN fanatic, but the Wild are different for me for some reason. I even kept a 2007-08 Season Schedule up in my cube all year, tallying the wins/losses! NHL playoff season always gets me going when my boys take on the usual rivals.

Yeah, so they took it on the chin last night in overtime against the Avalanche...so what? We'll smoke 'em on Friday! Sakic just moved up a couple notches on my "People I'd Love Boogaard to Level" list. Bertuzzi is still firmly seated on the top of that list, tho.

Go Wild!

Testing the automated email posting...

Decided to try the automated email posting functionality.
Does this thing work?
Hello? Anyone? Bueller?


















Looks like the darn thing worked!

Can you hear me now?

Here it is. My initial Blog posting. Yes, my opportunity to bore you to tears with the ever exciting upper-Midwest metro-suburbia life that so many of us find ourselves in. Yee Haw!

Guess we'll give it a shot and see what (if anything) this Blog morphs into. Stay tuned...