4 Scattered Things

I have started and stopped about ten different post today, but I have absolutely no focus or clarity of thought. It occurs to me (and this qualifies as a MAJOR “duh”) that my lack of focus might have a little to do with the fact that I’ve been breathing paint fumes for two weeks, and I’m living in the midst of total chaos.

This is the mess I can see from where I’m sitting right now.

This is the mess I can see if I stand up and turn my head to the right.

So, this is my excuse for my piss poor blogging of late.  Everything is crazy in my house, and I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT.

1. I read Bucky’s column today and I had two thoughts:

First, Bucky Gleason made me laugh with this line, “By the sounds of things, Ruff was ready to deliver breakfast in bed to his players and thank them for beating the Islanders.”  Heh.

Second, while I liked the column (seriously!  Some of that information was interesting and hilarious!), I disagree with Bucky’s conclusion which seems to be, “FINAL ANALYSIS: Lindy is the best coach Buffalo could ever hope to have”.  I do NOT understand why everything is so black and white when it comes to the Lindy discussion.  In my opinion, a coach’s job performance grade is going to change over the course of a season- possibly multiple times.  Why is everyone around here so eager to be all, “LINDY IS GREAT! CASE CLOSED!” or “LINDY SHOULD BE FIRED! CASE CLOSED!”  What the hell?  If the Sabres play consistently well all season, then Lindy should keep his job.  If they suck, or they fall back into the same old habits they’ve had for the past two and a half years, well, then he should be fired.  We don’t have to decide his fate for life right this minute, in fact, IT’S COMPLETELY DUMB TO TRY.  Right now, I’m perfectly happy with Lindy, but I absolutely will start squawking for his removal if the team takes a nosedive.  If we are thinking critically about Lindy, our opinions will change over time.  Right?

I think an article about how Lindy is taking conscious steps to morph his coaching style is both interesting and relevant, but it’s waaaaay too early to declare that he’s a “better coach” now.  Lindy deserves a lot of credit for the fast start, but let’s just hold our horses, especially in light of the games played over the weekend.

2. The games played over the weekend were worrisome.

3. Adam Mair is on waivers!  Holy Toledo!  Do the Sabres still have a glut of players at forward (I’m seriously asking- I have no idea), or is Darcy laying the groundwork for another move?  It’s a drag for Mair that he lost his job while he was injured, but I don’t mind this move at all.  This is the kind of move we were begging for last season.  Combined with the Paille trade, it’s a shot across the bow of the locker room, “If you don’t play well enough to make the line-up, you’re out of here.”  I like it.  Now, the Sabres just need to trade one of the top six and then I think even Derek Roy might be convinced to start playing hard every night.

4. Finally, just so you don’t think I’ve been sitting around sniffing paint and stewing in my own filth, here are a few pictures of the house progress I’ve made.

Before

After

Before

After

Don’t even get me started on the Sunflowers….

.….they were a major pain in my ass.  But they’re gone now.

Sabres vs. Flyers 11/06/09

Pregame

Mood: I am super tired, and super happy.  I got an unexpected evening off tonight.   While my colleagues in the BPO are playing a concert at Hilbert College, I find myself “rotated off” the concert (That’s BPO-speak for “the stage is too small to hold all of us, so the string sections have to be reduced”), and plopped in the comfy chair, SUPER pumped to watch a Sabres game.
Favorite Sabre: CRUN-CHY!  CRUN-CHY!  CRUN-CHY!  If you don’t love Crunchy right now, you are not my friend.
Least Favorite Sabre: It’s difficult to choose a favorite Sabre when they are chugging along like this, so I’m going to pick on Toni Tone Tony Lydman.  Dude, I’m sorry your groin hurts, but you should ask Adam Mair what happens to guys when they are injured and the team is winning.  Lindy scratches your ass even when you’re healthy, that’s what.  Godspeed, Toni Lydman’s Groin.  Godspeed.
Prediction: Let’s face it, the Sabres have been playing the dregs of the NHL for the last month.  Tonight feels like “Sabres Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.  This Time It’s Personal”.  Unlike everyone else the Sabres have played recently, the Flyers are supposedly good at hockey.  I’m nervous, excited, and eager to see how the Sabres look.  I think this game will be feisty and fun.  I feel like Mike Richards scored at will against the Sabres last season, so I’m hoping someone punches him square in the face tonight.
Home improvement project representing this game: My downstairs half bath.

The plan for today’s post was to run around, taking pictures of all the unseemly nooks and crannies in my house so that I could use them for this post, but unfortch, that didn’t happen.  I have NO idea where the cord that connects my camera to my computer is right now.  It’s packed up in a box, and frankly, that’s all deterrent I needed to scrap the plan.  I’m sorry that it didn’t work out though because it was going to be cute.

All I do lately is paint, scrap, drill stuff, open boxes, and stand back and wonder how in the hell I’m supposed to fix THAT.  It feels like it’s never going to be acceptable in this house.  Ever.  Right now my house is not a very conducive environment for living, but it IS ripe for comedy.  You’re just going to have to imagine the hilarity though, because I don’t have any pictures.

Except this one….

This is what my downstairs bathroom looked like on the day of the house inspection. The previous owner packed up all his knick knacks and took them away, but unfortunately he left a LOT of wood paneling behind.  The bathroom no longer looks like this.  I’ve painted everything and changed all the fixtures.  Now it’s just a bland little bathroom.  It’s a bit sad, actually.  Truth be told, while I don’t want to have this bathroom in my house, I LOVE this picture.  I plan to frame this picture and hang it in the bathroom as decoration.  Heh.

After the 1st (1-0, Flyers)
Mood: Grossed out.  Carcillo is just completely disgusting in every way.
Favorite Sabre: Crunchy is just on fire.  Such a pleasure to watch.  His legs look extra frog-like to me, and that’s just how I like him.  Extra froggy.
Least Favorite Sabre: Roy-Z is tucking his sweater into the back of his pants tonight.  I don’t like it.  I don’t like it a bit.
Summary of events: Well, I’ve seen worse periods, but I’ve also seen MUCH better.  I’m getting the sense that the Sabres are still trying to decide if they want to to be brats all, “HEY!  You guys aren’t letting us win like the Islanders do!” or, if they want to be men.  Ryan Miller had a few nice saves- the kind we are just taking for granted at this point.  And Tim Kennedy did some REAL foxy back checking on a Mike Richards breakaway.  Then, the ugliest man I have EVER SEEN scored a goal on Crunchy, and I added “Carcillo” to the list of people I irrationally hate.  At the start of the intermission report, while I was rattling around in the kitchen, I heard Roby say, “knit one, purl one” for some reason, and then I added “MIKE ROBITAILLE TOTALLY KNITS” to the list of things that are so awesome that I couldn’t care less if they are true.
Home improvement project representing this game so far: wallpaper in the stairwell

This wallpaper is not in my house, but I DO have striped yellow wallpaper IN THE STAIRWELL.  How the hell am I going to get THAT off?  I can’t reach it all, and I can’t use a ladder on the stairs.  Stupid, Flyers.

After the 2nd (3-1, Flyers)

Mood: Oof.  Remember that whole “rotated off” thing?  Well, I wasn’t rotated off, off.  I was an alternate player in case someone called in sick.  As it turns out, someone DID call in sick, and at 5:30 I got a call telling me I was supposed to go to work tonight.  Trouble is, I didn’t realize my phone was out of juice.  I didn’t get the message until 8:30ish, otherwise known as “30 minutes after the concert started”.  Basically, I didn’t show up for work tonight.  This is VERY bad behavior.  I feel awful.  I’m completely horrified that I screwed up like this. This game?  Isn’t helping.  :(
Favorite Sabre: :(
Least Favorite Sabre: :(
Summary of FUTURE events: I am TOTALLY going to hear about this at work tomorrow.  I am going to be accused of purposefully not picking up the phone so that I could watch this game.  (Um, it doesn’t help that I was making jokes about doing EXACTLY that at rehearsal this morning.  I SWEAR THIS WAS AN ACCIDENT.)  My only saving grace in this debacle is that I didn’t actually GO to the game.  Thank GOD I didn’t actually go.
Home improvement project representing this evening so far: mold in the basement

This is not my basement, but it is how I feel right now.

At the end (5-2, Flyers)
Mood: VERY GRIM
Favorite Sabre: Stupid Sabres, stupid phone, stupid everything.
Least Favorite Sabre: Meh.
Summary of events: I definitely got what I deserved with this game tonight.  Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but crockpots are miraculous.  I put a bunch of raw vegetables and meat in there this afternoon, and somehow it’s stew now.  I think crockpots must use witchcraft and black magiks.  Delicious witchcraftery.
Plan for the future: Let’s just pretend this entire night didn’t happen.  Tomorrow is Friday again.  Sigh.

7 Things

1. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

2. You guys, the Sabres are, like, my favorite. (Have you ever seen “Elf”?  For some reason tonight I kept thinking of that line, “I like smiling.  Smiling is my favorite.”  That’s how this game felt.)  This Sabres game was just so pleasant. I went with Heather B, and the game was never stressful or even particularly exciting, so we chatted happily, and it was just a nice time. I, for one, appreciate a nice mellow game from time to time.  I’m still getting adjusted to this new season of going to the games and then watching the Sabres….play well.  It’s weird, and wonderful.  Like I said, I just kind of let this game wash over me and I didn’t dwell much on the details, but the Sabres looked pretty good to me.

3. Marty Biron jumping Kaleta was pretty darn funny.

4. They played the baseball game on the jumbotron during the 2nd intermission at the arena tonight.  I thought that was a nice touch.  We happened to be watching when the Phillies knocked in their first run, and I was pleased that a healthy cheer went up in the crowd.  I do NOT understand Buffalonians who cheer for the Yankees.  The Yankees do not represent Buffalo in any way, shape, or form.  The Yankees are the opposite of Buffalo.  Cheering for the Yankees is totally lame.

5. Thomas Vanek scores goals when I complain about him.  It’s happened three times at the arena already this season.  As soon as I start calling him names, he starts scoring goals.  I like it when this happens.

6. About five minutes before the end of the game, I said to Heather, “You know what it’s time to start thinking about…?” and then I nodded at the scoreboard to indicate Crunchy’s looming shutout.  At the time, the score was 2-0, and we immediately started joking that if the Sabres scored again, it would allow Miller to relax enough to let in a softie.  And then, just like that, Goose scored! (Actually, it wasn’t “just like that”.  That goal required the longest goal review EVER.)  But Crunchy did NOT let in a softie, and so instead of a “Ryan Miller Shutout” he got a real shutout.  I’ve never seen him do that before.   I like it when he does that.

7. Please welcome the amazing, hilarious, and FABULOUS Jessica to the Sabres blogosphere.  Jessica is…well…she’s the best.  You’ll see.  Go to her blog.  You won’t be sorry.  Running with Sabres is TOP NOTCH.

8. 11:58 pm UPDATE: Hey, I just found a BONUS THING!  Roy-Z went 14 for 14 in the faceoff circle.

Seriously.  Dang.

5 MORE Surprises of the New Season

1. This is actually Drew Stafford. Everyone assumed this was a fake account until Staffy went and broke the news of the Paille trade on Twitter.  Staffy’s current habit of calling every city “Hot[name of city]” in the style of Hotlanta amuses me.   My favorite so far is Hotronto, but Long Hotsland is pretty good too.  Staffy is a weirdo.

2. Lindy Ruff should NOT be fired (yet).  I’ll admit that I was fully prepared to pick up where I left off last season with the constant “IDON’TCAREIFHE’SAGOODGUY,HISTEAMSUCKS” ranting, but as far as I’m concerned, Lindy can keep his job for now.  Before the season started I was getting annoyed with all the talk about how Lindy went to Canada’s Olympic camp and came back refreshed and full of new ideas, but perhaps there is something to that theory.  Sure, the power play still blows, but Lindy does seem to be enjoying the mojo of renewed inspiration this season.  Maybe he’s been watching lots of Oprah and keeping a journal.  If we could just get Babcock to teach Lindy how to manage a goalie rotation, we might be good to go this year!  Woo!

3. Raking is a LOT harder than I thought it was.  Actually, raking is not that hard, but getting the dumb leaves in the bag is SUPREMELY annoying.  I wish I could just go in the back yard, open a lawn bag and say, “All you leaves, GET IN HERE.”  Yes, I’ve been reduced to wishing for a magic lawn bag.  I’m not ashamed.

4. Jason Pominville has a baby! – actually he has several (pommerdoodles have litters).  TWC has obtained exclusive rights to the first picture of the twins.  I think there were five babies in all, but the family has been referring to these two as “the twins” because they both like beef jerky and watching Mad Men.

I’m not sure which is the evil twin, but the one on the right looks pretty shifty.

5. Like you, I never bothered to look up the definition of “truculence,” but one thing we know for SURE is that it doesn’t mean, “capable of playing hockey”.  Heh, heh, a THOUSAND times, heh.

5 Surprises of the New Season

1. The Sabres are good at hockey! Whaaaa?  Up is down, and black is white.

I’ve read and heard a LOT of discussion about whether fans are “buying in” to the new Sabres.  Everyone is asking themselves the hard questions.  Do I believe these guys are for real?  Or, having been burned (hard) in the past, am I skeptical?  Do I believe?

My answers: Yes, yes, who cares.

The Sabres have been weirdly good at hockey so far.  I use the word weird because…..dude, I did NOT see this coming, and at the same time I’m not even slightly surprised.   The changes that Darcy made this summer seemed so inconsequential in the face of what appeared to be major problems, but somehow everything feels different.  They’re playing hard, they seem defensively responsible, and the scoring is balanced.  (The one major difference between this year’s fast start and last year’s fast start is that last year Thomas Vanek basically singlehandedly scored all the goals in the month of October.  This year, everyone is chipping in. [Seriously, TV had TEN goals in October last year. Wowza.)

I’m in no rush to declare that I believe this team is “the real deal,” but I’m oddly proud of them. (Surely my fandom is playing some role in this hot start, right?  The Sabres have been reading this blog for years, and that’s why they’re suddenly good.  They’re taking my advice!  My advice has consistently been “stop sucking,” and they’re FINALLY taking it.)  All I know for sure is that I’m really enjoying watching the Sabres play hockey.  Hockey is awesome.  Good hockey is, like, megaSUPERawesome.

2. Goose is a FACEOFF WIZARD!

My Goose Appreciation sometimes clouds my judgment.  I actually think I’m a little harder on Paul Gaustad because of my affection for him.  I’ve over compensating.  Truthfully, I’m always a little surprised when he turns out to be good at hockey.  I’m like, “Goose’s job is to be all handsome and blinky and to occasionally attack various Devils….YOU MEAN HE’S NUMBER ONE IN FACEOFF PERCENTAGE TOO?!”  Be still my heart.  (About the “blinky” thing:  Something about the way Goose blinks amuses me.  Whenever I watch a Paul Gaustad interview I wish someone would edit in a sound effect every time he blinks.  Goose’s blinks should sound something like this.)

3. The Hurricanes totally suck!

I was looking at the standings this morning (What?- looking at the standings is fun when the Sabres are 8-1-1!) and I was shocked to see that the Hurricanes are the suckiest sucks in all of Suckville for some reason.  I doubt it will last, but it’s still funny.

4. Mike Grier seems nice.

I wasn’t a fan yet during Mike Grier’s first tour of duty as a Sabre.  All I really knew of him was the way he left the team, which in the retelling sounds kind of diva-ish.  I always imagined Mike Grier tossing his hair on the way out of town, as if to say, “Not only do I not love you anymore, I never loved you in the first place.  Buffalo.“  I know, I know.   His reputation is one of a hard working, grinder, leader-y type, but I think I half expected him to pout his way through the season.  He’s been such a pleasant surprise.  One of the funnest things so far this season has been watching his very charming and smiley goal celebrations with Tim Kennedy.  Mike Grier is exactly who this team needed.

5. Tim Kennedy is badass, but not in the way I expected him to be badass.

I thought Kennedy was going to be a slick, speedy, pint-sized goal scorer, a la Danny Briere, but instead he’s a feisty, sometimes punchy, seems-right-at-home-on-the-third-line, defensive minded, pint-sized grinder.  I will give Lindy Ruff full credit for this one.  Putting Kennedy on a line with Grier and Hecht was a very clever move.

Surly

I am a Surl-a-saurus Rex.

Terrifying, I know.

Right before I moved, I said to myself, “Self, this is going to suck.  The house is not move in ready, and there is no way around the fact that you’ll be living in chaos for a few weeks. There is nothing to be done but grin and bear it.”  So, with the knowledge that everything would certainly suck for a while, I took pains to ensure that I had a few comforts so that I could relax in my new house, even in the midst of chaos.  One of those comforts was DirecTV (so far I don’t miss Versus, but ask me again in a few weeks when the Sabres are on and I can’t see them), the other was DSL.  Well, the DirecTV is humming along quite nicely, but the internet is NOT.  What I’m trying to tell you is that even though I called Verizon THREE WEEKS ago to set up DSL service “as soon as possible” I still have no interwebs at my house.

Now, ordinarily I’m a “roll with the punches” kind of gal, but I’m having a difficult time recovering from this setback because today was supposed to ROCK.  You see, today was the day I had circled on my calendar as the first Sabres game I could watch in my new house with both my television and internet operating at full tilt.  Tonight was the night when I was going to ignore the chaos all around me, put down the paint roller, and blog my ass off while watching my favorite slug-clad heroes play hockey.

But nooOOoooOOoooOOoo.  There will be no live blog tonight.

The good news is that even though it’s a crazy scene right now, homeownership is kind of a hoot.

Home Sweet Disgusting Home.

The other good news is that as soon as I get the interwebs, I will return to blogging about hockey and stop droning on and on about my death trap house.

The OTHER good news is that the Sabres have been extremely sassy lately.  They’ve been so sassy that I have almost nothing to say about them.  Tim Kennedy’s roster photo pretty much sums up my feeling about the Sabres of late.

Adorable little angels.

In closing: I have no interwebs, my house is strangely lovable despite being filthy, unpainted, and most likely about to fall down, and the Sabres are so good at hockey that I have nothing to bitch about as far as they go.

According to Verizon, the interwebs should be up at and running at Casa de Katebits on Friday, but they’ve made promises before.  We’ll see.

3 Things

1. I didn’t see much of the game tonight because I was working, but it turned out to be one of those evenings where being at work enhanced the game experience.  I got word of Staffy’s last second heroics on stage during the applause at the end of the concert.  A handful of us scurried down to the break room to watch the final minutes of overtime and the shootout.  Those kinds of wins are fun in the break room.  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  The Sabres are never going to lose again!

2. Tyler Myers with the shootout win.  Sweet, tall, oddly-foxy, wonderful Tyler Myers.  I hope he never leaves us.  And I hope he never start sucking.  I wish there was a way to extend his trial period so we could watch him try to win this job forever.  We need to enjoy this period of Tyler Myers’ babyhood while we can.  He’ll grow up in an instant.  (Look at me getting all sentimental!  I’m sure I’ll be calling him a slag-faced whore in no time.  Heh.)

3. Have any of you ever sanded your own hardwood floors?  (That question sounds weirdly dirty to me right now for some reason.)  I finally pulled up the (DISGUSTING) carpet in the living room and discovered that my floors….need some work.  I’m tempted to go for it.  How hard can it possibly be?

Dear NHL,

Scheduling all 30 teams to play at the same time is neither cool nor sassy.  It’s incredible lame.  It’s like broadcasting an entire new season of Mad Men on ten different channels during the same 3 hour period.  It’s like eating all three meals at lunchtime.  It’s like sleeping for 48 straight hours and then trying to stay awake for the next five days.  It’s the stupidest plan in the world.

Sincerely,

Katebits

No Blogging Required

I know that this blog has been total donkey butts lately, but I’m busy and sore, and most often covered in paint.  I promise to pick it back up around here once my furniture in is the same place as my internet access.  Until then, I’ll just keep doing the “This made me laugh” style of blogging that is the hallmark of busy and lazy people.

This made me laugh:

So much to love.

Thanks Empty Netters for bringing this to my attention.

(While you’re gazing in awe at Darth Vader dropping the puck, and laughing outright at Craig Rivet’s expression, don’t forget to notice that the Panthers appear to have a BABY PANTHER mascot.  I really want a baby Sabretooth now.  [Please do not confuse that with "I want to have Sabretooth's baby," because I assure you, that is not the case.])

So Tired

I am in the middle of moving into my new house (and by “new” I mean “old and rickety” and by “middle of moving” I mean “painting and trying to figure out how to use all the tools I now own”).  I’m not technically living in the house yet, and it still has no cable or internet service.   When I’m there (which is every minute that I’m not sleeping or working), I feel very cutoff from everything, including the Sabres.

Tonight I got to do something that I’ve been looking forward to doing since I first put the bid in on this house.  I spent the evening painting and listening to the Sabres on the radio (I don’t have my DirecTV hooked up yet).  It was awesome.