Catching You Up

I know, I said I would post again last night. It's sort of true...I just didn't do it here. Damn, what a great segue that was...

So, I have this pending gig as a blogger for a Dallas pro sports blog aptly named DallasProSports.com. They needed a piece on the Dallas Stars, who they want me to cover each week, by Monday night. Well...we had some family stuff come up and I didn't get to it. But, last night, between helping my wife study for a big test she has today and trying to get some food in my stomach, I managed to scrawl out 7 paragraphs on the upcoming training camp the Stars are set to open, and that is the post I sent. I'm hoping it won't be held against me, and they'll let me keep posting for them, cause it sounds like a lot of fun. As of the time of writing this post, however, it was not posted. Maybe later tonight?

Now, other than that, I figured I would catch you up on what life has been like. Mrs. Monkey and I have finally come up with a plan for getting up with the Monkeyling that doesn't involve us wanting to kill one another every morning. It's revolutionary in it's scope - get this.... We alternate days. I know! I know! Don't spread the idea too much - we're planning on patenting it. So, yeah...we each get to sleep in (8:00 AM) every other day. It's wonderful.

I'm still working a lot of hours for my wonderful company and Mrs. Monkey is still going to school lots of hours. Those hours not taken up by work & school are ravenously consumed by the Monkeyling. But that's a good thing - just peek at the photos that have been posted. How can ya not love that face?

AND, on a random tangent that has nothing to do with previous subjects, there was this new study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association saying that bisphenol A (BPA), a common ingredient in many plastic bottles, might be linked to more health issues than previously believed. I first found out about this issue when trying to find bottles for the Monkeyling. Mrs. Monkey was adamant on the "No BPA" rule, and after studying up, I agreed. For those who don't know, BPA is used in hardened plastics in a wide range of consumer goods including food containers, baby bottles, water bottles, eyeglass lenses and compact discs. Many scientists believe it can act like the hormone estrogen, and animal studies have linked it with breast, prostate and reproductive system problems and some cancers. Fun stuff! Well, the new study that came out has shown there may be a link now with heart disease and diabetes in adults. It's really not good. So, avoid bottles with BPA (or with the recycle number 7 on them, as they are most commonly found in those). Or, you can do what I did yesterday, and pick up a Sigg bottle. These things rock. I want another one already.

A Bit of This...A Bit of That...

Oops - missed a few. Well, you didn't think I'd make it all the way through the month posting everyday anyway, did you? I actually thought I might be able to, but oh well. Hey - I'm still going to do my best to finish out the rest of the month strong.

So, the Stars made a few moves today. They fired Doug Armstrong as the GM and replaced him with Les Jackson (who I think was the director of scouting operations - could be wrong) and Brett Hull, who will be "co-general managers". It's an interesting twist, and I didn't see it coming, for sure. I saw the writing on the wall for someone, and had a feeling it would be either Armstrong or head coach Dave Tippett who would get the axe, but I didn't think that Hullie would be one of the replacements as GM. He's definitely loved by the fans...maybe owner Tom Hicks and team president Jim Lites wanted someone in the front office that the fans wouldn't get angry at. Hard to get mad at the man who gave us our one-and-only (so far!) Stanley Cup.

In non-sports news....well, there's just not much non-sports news right now. My buddy Trog (I'll call him that for reasons known to him and the world of WoW) and I are going to see a theater screening of The Menagerie, which is a 2-part episode of the original Star Trek series. It should be pretty cool - we're both Trek fans (and not Trekkies...just don't have that kind of time to devote to a TV series....any TV series). That's on Thursday. Will let you know how it goes. They reportedly have cleaned up the film and turned it into a high-definition projection with stereo surround sound. It's hard to do something like that when your original is mono (I think it was recorded mono) and in "Panavision". But, fingers crossed....

Random fun video of the day: Wanna Buy a Ghost?

Where's My Staple Remover?

I posted this site about two years ago on here, but I had COMPLETELY forgotten about it. GO. Become an NHL superstar, and then we can rule the league together!!

Whip Out Da Tongue and Squirt That Mofo!

A lot of my posts have been kind of Apple-centric lately (sorry to those MS fanboys & fangirls that might be out there), but what can I say - I work at an Apple-centric job and it's been moreso lately.

Anyway, today I got to take apart the LCD Screen on a 12" iBook G4. Wow. Man, it's really impressive how they orchestrate everything inside of those panels. The planning and coordination that goes on to make those things work as slickly as they do is really impressive. And I learned something - Apple was using Philips/LG flat panels when they made the G4 iBooks. Didn't know that - putting in the new one was lots of fun but, MAN....time consuming. Two hours flew by like it was 30 minutes. I get part two of the re-assemble, therefore, on Monday morning. I just couldn't wrap it up in one day.

The Stars dropped another game last night - was tough to watch, but I couldn't tear myself away. I just can't make myself believe that Phoenix is good enough to put up 10 goals against us in two games, but it's hard to argue with reality. But, so far on the four-game road trip, Dallas has gone 2-1, so the worst they can finish is .500, and that's not too bad for a Pacific Division road trip.

Time to get back to my iTunes library. Still trying to get it back in shape after the horrible accident. *sigh* All the music is there now, at least...it's just not in the Smart Playlists I had it in or rated. That's where more time at the computer comes in... Give it up for the big Pale Indoor Kid.

Oh - here's a funny for you: Word.

Hockey, Music & Monkeys

It's been rough watching the Stars play tonight. Currently, the score is 3-0 Phoenix with 5:27 left to play in the 2nd period. What's sad is that the Stars have had many more scoring chances than Phoenix. The Coyotes are just getting all the lucky bounces. Things just haven't gone the Stars' way this season so far, and I think one of the big reasons it hasn't happened is management's decision not to put all the money they had at their disposal to go out and get a big scoring winger this off-season. It's showing now.

Other than that, though, it was a good day. The weekend is here, finally. I don't think I posted about my misfortune with my music collection the other night. Tragedy struck when I came home from work to find that my CAREFULLY saved music collection that I had reloaded onto my new operating system just the night before, was missing. There was just nothing to be found. I'm not sure if I did it, or if someone else accidently deleted something (I left my account logged in, and a couple people had access to it...I don't blame them - it's my fault - but they might have accidently done it). Luckily, I got together with some friends a few months ago for a big music swap, and so all of that music is also on one of their hard drives. I'm getting together with one of those friends tomorrow to restore the collection. I miss it!!

I'm getting back to the game. Enjoy a preview of what could possibly be the worst movie ever (but, it does have a monkey skateboarding and playing hockey - still not enough though...yikes).

Monkey out.