Happy Valentine's Day

by Anne

I'm pretty much "whatevs" about Valentine's Day. I honestly don't feel strongly for or against it. To be honest, I kept forgetting it was even Valentine's Day today.

I have to work tonight so even if I had big plans they would've been negated by the Buffalo Bandits anyway.

Have one of my favorite flowers for you all:

Lilacs

There is no scent that I like more than lilacs. There used to be a lilac bush near my house and every time I rode my bike by it as a kid I stopped and smelled them.

Happy Valentine's Day! I may be single but I still love and am loved and that's what's important and I hope you all can say the same.

I Can't Wait for All the Posts That Will Be a Play on the Phrase "Shark Bite"

by Anne

Win or lose, I fully anticipate everyone to use a title for their posts that involves playing on the phrase "shark bite"

It brings me great joy to welcome another WCB to HSBC Arena tonight.

I don't pay enough attention to this boy because his team gets plenty of play in the media, but I shall love him up right now:

PICKLES!

We all know how sicknasty the San Jose Sharks are. They're destroying competition left and right. Firing Ron Wilson and hiring former Red Wings assistant coach Todd McLellan, along with shoring up one of the top defenses in hockey has proved to be a recipe for success that everyone who follows the NHL even casually is well aware of.

Their top young defenseman, who averages 24:26 a night, and leads the team in that category, is 21 year old Marc-Edouard Vlasic. His +18 ranks third on the team. Like a certain other player who is hurt and I don't want to talk about it, Pickles has missed very few games since joining the NHL on a full time basis. He's played in 215 out of a possible 216 games over the last three seasons, including all contests this season, the only Sharks defenseman who can boast that claim. The one game he missed was in January 2007 because of an undisclosed "upper body injury." So mysterious, Pickles.

Last season wasn't great for Pickles, he was a -12 and finished the season with only 14 points (2+12). However, this season he's already notched 26 points (4+22) matching his career high in 2006-2007. The San Jose Sharks players have been doing that a lot, Patrick Marleau is only 7 goals away from tying his career high and already has eight more goals than he did in the entirety of last season.

Yay Pickles!
I hope you lose tonight
Sorry, love

I feel as though I'd be an insensitive jerk if I didn't mention Flight 3407. I hope that there's a moment of silence tonight at the Sabres game to honor the people who were killed and injured and those who lost their home last night. Its so easy to let these kinds of things slip into the back of our minds when they happen far away but it never seems so real as when its literally so close to home.

Mid-Day Post

by Anne

I’m writing this sitting in an empty hallway in a building at Buff State. My last class was in room 215 in this building and my next one is in an hour in 115. I don’t feel like going outside where its ridiculously cold, so here I sit and wait for the next 56 minutes. Or at least until the class that’s in 115 lets out and I can go chill in there and wait. I considered joining the class that’s in there now, but opted against it considering I have absolutely no idea what class it is, and I’m afraid the professor might do a “let’s go around the room and tell everyone about why we’re taking advanced studies in biothermal engineering and briefly discuss our thesis topics.” My escape plan was just to repeat whatever the person said before me. Hopefully that person wouldn’t have been an exchange student from China. I’m pretty good at convincing people of things, but to convince someone I’m Chinese may be beyond even my powers of persuasion.

People keep looking at me like I must be lost, sitting in this random chair. Hahaha.

Why do couples feel the need to play tonsil hockey between classes? This isn’t high school. I bet you have a convenient dorm room or apartment or parent’s basement where you can go touch each other in ways that are inappropriate for public viewing. Ok, this might just be me but I am vehemently against public displays of affection that go past hugging or hand holding or a casual hand on the back or shoulder. I do not want to watch you swap spit or lay all over each other because you’re just SO IN LOVE and you COMPLETE each other and you HAVE TO press your bodies against each other at least for a MOMENT before class starts. Unless you are standing in a church or courthouse or city hall and some sort of officiant has just said “you may now kiss the bride” public kissing is just kind of awkward for those not involved. Are we supposed to watch? Are we supposed to look away? Just don’t leave me with these questions and uncertainties and I’ll be appreciative. And, by all means, get your swerve on, do your thang, do whatevs when I’m not around. Unless we’re dating. Then wait til I get there.

Imaginary Canadian hockey player boyfriend is in my 9:00 am class and he came in late and the only available seat was next to me. I pretended not to see him. He’s still pretty. Ok, let me clarify, the gentleman himself is not imaginary, but our torrid romance is contained entirely within my brain. Its a good time. I should hope all of your relationships are half as pleasant as ours. We never fight and he always brings me flowers and tells me I have pretty eyes and am an amazing cook.

I had his whole post written about how lame hockey stories are but I’m not posting it. Its too negative. Basically, I’ll just sum it up by saying I would’ve rather read a story about Mikkel Boedker and Thomas Vanek being the first players to represent their native countries in the All-Star Game and what that says about the NHL and European hockey players and how these days we just accept them as being there but it actually wasn’t always the case, kind of like wearing helmets and the presence of Chris Chelios. Instead I get an article about how Shane Doan and Carey Price are 8th cousins 12 or 13 times removed, that Shea Weber triumphed over adversity by tricking his genes into making him taller and Marty St. Louis had to drive into Canada from Vermont because one of his kids is an illegal alien or something. Basically I don’t find familial ties in the NHL all that interesting. It is of no concern to me that there are 45 Sutters in the NHL, a handful of Staals and a couple of Lundqvists. Also? The children of former NHLers, slightly more interesting, but still, not so much. Its kind of to be expected that an extremely talented hockey player would produce more of the same, and siblings tend to share similar interests and talents sometimes. I would be WAY more interested in reading about a hockey player born to astrophysicists or a lesbian couple from San Francisco; now THAT’S different.

Dude. Its 20 degrees. Why are you wearing shorts?

So the director of that reading has not returned my call, so if she still needs me, I will most likely be unavailable. Aw shucks. I was supposed to run a workshop tonight anyway.

A girl just picked up the empty chair next to me and moved it across the hall so we would not have to sit next to each other and ignore each other, now we must sit across the hall and concentrate on avoiding eye contact. Brilliant move, chicky poo. Thank goodness for iPods.

I’m going to be in college forever. I won’t be done with school until at least Fall 2010, possibly as late as Spring 2011. The typical college student who started college the year after I was finished with my first go-round will be graduating at the same time as me. Although, you’d totally hire the more experienced, two degree carrying 25 almost 26 year old before you’d hire the 22 year old, right?!

Anyway, I miss real hockey.

Clarification and Classes

by Anne

In the previous post, I stated the following: "Soupy looks... really good."

What I meant was "Soupy looks... really good... for Soupy." I know absence makes the heart grow fonder and I still have love for Soup, but no. Love ya, Soup, but no. But, kind of maybe. But NO. But the buzz around the NHL is that he's a really nice guy and I can get over the playoff beard resemblance to Youppi! Or can I? I'm so conflicted about this. Maybe its my longing for a puck moving defenseman and I'm just getting confused?! I said this in a comment but Brian Campbell is like your best friend from high school or college who told you that he was into you but you just weren't into him at the time and you both have moved on but you always think "What could've been?" and you constantly compare other boyfriends to him and most of them fall short. Only, in this world we've never met and I compare Soupy to other defensemen.

Classes start today. It has literally been six weeks since my last exam. It really feels like a lifetime has gone by. So MUCH has changed! Like...uhhhhhh... I own a 3rd jersey and I learned I can name at least 13 NBA teams. Maybe. If I'm not too tired.

Although I might be participating in a staged reading tonight? What? Like with professional actors? S(h)ara's the actor, I'm the director/teacher. This is unsettling at best. If its true, I'm totally posting info and I'll be sad if at least one of you doesn't show up, haha.

I didn't watch much of the All-Star Game because there's absolutely nothing at stake. Just like I don't watch the Pro Bowl. Who cares? If there was more than one Sabre present I might have watched the whole thing. However for the few minutes I did watch, I declared (in my head) how the stakes could be much higher in this game. What? Determining home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals? No. Here's how: Whichever team loses has to go wait in an undisclosed location until their respective head coaches can track them down based on an elaborate 'round the world Da Vinci Code style clue hunt. This way, the players will be more motivated to win... or less, depending on where they're sent to wait for Barry Trotz to come huffing and puffing his way to them, Shea Weber. You can wait in my house.

So, sorry Western Conference All-Stars, looks like you'll be hiding out for the next few days. TV is winging his way to Edmonton for Tuesday's game. Phew!

12-11? Ridiculous.

As stated before, Buffalo State College, the Easy Mac of higher education and my current educational institute, resumes classes today. Excuse me while "Taps" plays in the distance and I wipe away a single tear. I am not sure how this will pan out considering I normally go to bed at, oh 3:00 am and wake up at, say, 12:00pm and I have class at 9:00am. I maaaayyy fall asleep in the midst of it or in the hour in between. Last semester my schedule was amazing, I went until noon every day. This semester I go from 9-2 MWF and 1:40-4:20 TR. Quite different. However, Its less than 4 months, so I think I'll make it. I'm already excited for Spring and Summer... I like to think ahead.

Happy Chinese New Year! Traditionally, it is improper to eat meat on the first day of the Chinese New Year, its also considered bad luck to use knives or light fires. So no grilling steaks today. Sorry. Its also considered good luck to eat sweets. Woooooooo! This year is the year of the Ox, as was 1985, the year of my birth. I wonder if this is lucky. 1997 was also the year of the Ox and that was the year Jimmy was born, my ultra-awesome 11 year old cousin who loves Ryan Miller. 1985 was the year of the Wood Ox, 1997 was the Fire Ox and this year is the Earth Ox. This is very hockey related. Anyway, have a great day everyone!

How are you celebrating the New Year, Mr. Wang?

There's No Hockey

by Anne

The All-Star Break comes every year, yet every year I'm surprised at this mini off-season we have. I came home from a movie tonight, and is my usual "I just got home for the night" routine, I was planning on checking the scores from the games that had already happened or were happening. I was CRUSHED when I realized there would be nary a score to check.

Sad times.

Adam and I saw Milk tonight. I'll give it 3 stars out of 4. It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. There were sections of the movie I felt could have been condensed to make the film move at a smoother pace. The movie only covers eight years of Harvey Milk's life. I read one review that was like "an immense amount of time is condensed in this film" and I have to argue with that assessment. It was only eight years. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a slightly longer movie but covers many more decades than Milk. I came home and Googled Harvey Milk and found there were some interesting facts and incidents that were left out of the film. All in all the movie was interesting and engaging and Sean Penn and Josh Brolin gave well-crafted performances. I don't want to reveal anything about the plot, but both of these characters could have easily fallen into caricatures. I don't know how accurate they are at representing the real people, but their performances were great. This movie won't win Best Picture, and if it does, I think it'll be more about people supporting the issues it touches upon than the quality of the film itself. I'd recommend seeing it, especially so you can judge for yourself when the Academy Awards air next month. It depends on the person of course, but I'd still suggest if you had to see either Slumdog Millionaire or Milk, I'd say see Slumdog first.

So this guy who just started a blog asked me to do a write-up about the Sabres for this series of posts he's doing about each team. I happily obliged. However, talking about why you should cheer for a team is very difficult whan said team has decayed on ice the night before. Except Derek Roy. I should've just written the entire post about Derek Roy. Fortunately, I started the post during the day before the Lightning game so I had a head start on the good stuff. I didn't write anything that most Sabres fans don't already know, so its nothing too earth shattering. When he posts it I'll post a link to his blog so y'all can read it if ya want.

Alix has told me that Steve Bernier will be in Hawaii this All-Star break. :( Get tan, Big Bear! Don't get eaten by a shark, San Jose or otherwise!

This post brought to you by milk and honey hockey.
quite a tie

Housekeeping and the Kings

by Anne

I've been annoyed by the title of our blog for some time now. Ok, wait, not the actual name of our blog but rather with the way the title appears on the page. It was just so freakin' boring. I was supremely annoyed after Thursday night was just terrible from beginning to end. One way I cope with being annoyed is by distracting myself with something like this. Sometimes I rearrange furniture in these types of moods. Did I ever claim to not be a little weird? I hope I would never misrepresent myself like that. Tonight I'm super tired and crabby and I need to DO something rather than just stew over whatever is bothering me. Since I enjoy the layout of my bedroom and I don't think my mother would appreciate me rearranging the living room, I decided to try making a new title image for this blog.

I tried about 4 different images, most of them were just a joke, but I couldn't even live with having them there just for the laughs. I posted one that was like a crazy goalie image behind a crazy painted title and it looked totally ridiculous.

I'm pretty happy with it. Its nothing too fancy but its a little more interesting to look at than just the text "Sabretooth's House". Its still a work in progress but for now I enjoy it. Thoughts?

Hi Matt!
Good game tonight.
Kings beat the Avalanche 6-5.
You prevent the Avs from sweeping you this year!
Woo!
Greener had over 23 minutes of ice time. Yay!
The Kings had 6 goals on only 28 shots.
Aaaaand cue the goaltending questions going from being "asked" to being "screamed"

Because I'm a bad fan, I neglected to mention that Greener had TWO assists the other night against Minnesota. I watched that game but was way too tired to write about it after watching Obama-rama all day. His first assist was one of those bullet one-timers and for a second before the announcer said "tipped in front" I thought Greener had goal#2. Alas, he is still searching for that elusive multi-goal season. 

A Year in Review

by Anne
Seeing as how today is the 1 year anniversary of Sabretooth's House, we decided to take a look back on the last year in highs and lows of site traffic, etc.

Number of posts: 557

Day with the most hits: December 18, 2008, 478 hits. That was the day of this post which I assume is what drew you all to this little blog. Did you all just sit there continuously hitting "refresh"?

First runner up was October 9 with 369, which was a day that featured links to this blog from other sources. Thanks peeps!

Post with the most hits: "Don't Shoot the Hockey Player" 1,054
This was my "OMG people, stop freaking out on Craig Rivet for not immediately loving on Buffalo" post from July. The post was linked to by Puck Daddy, and is where most of those hits (622) came from. I have to say, when I wrote that post, I hoped lots of people would read it because I think it was important stuff to say, but I didn't think over 1,000 people would read it.

Label most often perused: "Paul Gaustad"

I don't feel as though we really say that much about the Goose other than he's wicked sweet at this thing called life, he makes us feel like the world is a little better because he walks amongst us and we're glad he's a Sabre.

Website that sent us the most traffic: My Safety is Harvard.

Anything that brings us closer to M.J. has got to be GOLDEN.

Most popular search term that has nothing to do with Buffalo or the Sabres: "Jordan Staal middle name"

Ok.

Now THAT'S Commitment Award: Someone searched for "Ryan Miller, Sabres" and then stayed on this blog long enough to read what one can only assume is every single post tagged "ryan miller" and were on this blog for over 38 minutes. This was followed closely by "Paul Gaustad's girlfriend" with just over 37 minutes of perusal time on only 5 pages.

Top 5 most frequently used labels by we who are posting:
1. Jason Pominville
T2. Ryan Miller and Winning (COINCIDENCE?!)
4. Drew Stafford
5. Anne is Crazy

Its been a fun year. I really never thought this blog would last very long or that anyone would read it. However, like your Uncle Dennis who just won't leave after dinner is long over, we've hung around, blathering away to whomever chooses to click on a link.

Over the last year we've had many missteps, more typos than I'd care to think about, copied many people's ideas or phrases (most of the time unintentionally and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that jazz). Remember when I was going to change the name or shut down the blog like 2 months ago? That wasn't fun, and I'm glad I didn't buckle under pressure from jerks.

Now, a selection of some of our favorite pictures posted over the last year:

Thanks for reading and commenting and being sweet and maybe we'll be around for another year?

Happy New Year!

by Anne

I hope everyone has an awesome New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and 2009!

2008 was pretty great, come to think of it, and this lil' old blog will be celebrating its 1st birthday in a few days.

From Anne and S(h)ara, Happy New Year and LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!

Tuesday Afternoon

by Anne

I didn't watch Sunday's Bills game. Not a second of it. Does this make me less of a fan? Maybe. I'm sure a lot of people would have a few things to say about refusing to watch and loving the Bills. All I have to say is a sure sign of going crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and looking for different results. Therefore, by that logic, all sports fans are crazy, because that's exactly what we do.

Season after season we sit down on our couches and watch the Bills vacillate between glimmers of false hope and tidal waves of crushing disappointment. Yet, every year we watch, hoping things will be different... and they aren't.

Remember all those 10-10-220 numbers for cheap phone calls from, I don't know, like the late 90s? Hahahaha, what would happen if you tried to use one of those now? What did those even do exactly? I just thought of those the other day and how ridiculous they were. There were several 10-10-### combinations if I recall. Who thought this up? Does your telephone service provider bug out and charge you less if you dial an extra 7 numbers before the 7-10 numbers required for making an actual phone call? Did some crazy voiceover message come on like "Thanks for using 10-10-936, now dial the number of the person you're trying to reach."? Because if it didn't and you messed up your 10-10-### code and then talked for like 2 hours, you'd be PIIIIISSED when you got your phone bill.

The phone company's last ditch effort to avoid the inevitable "Death by increasing popularity of cell phone."

It doesn't surprise me at all to read that Drew Stafford is not a superstitious guy. Superstitions are baloney. Staffy's "Your Sabres Delievered" is good but its better if you imagine him wearing the mustache and wig while answering questions.

Caps tonight. Their last game was a 4-1 home win over the Leafs and Ovechkin scored another 2 goals, as did Brooks Laich. Wooooo! (for them). It's amazing what a different team they are with AO out there. Without him we beat them 5-0, with him we lost 3-2. Of course, he's playing tonight.

I leave you with a shot of one of S(h)ara and Mama Peg's favorites, the Patrick Sharp All-Star Voting Campaign ad:

Post Christmas Bruhaha

by Anne

I'm sick. Blah. Fortunately, I didn't feel all that sick on Christmas, the germs decided to wait til Boxing Day. Thanks.

Ok, so I'm sure you're all DYING to know what sweet presents I got yesterday.

Well, let's begin with the present I got in the mail on the 23rd:

The end of 2008 and 2009 will be all mapped out for me.
No matter how many times I set the date on my camera, its still wrong


Santa Alix from waaaaayyy up North in BC heard my pleas!


THIS is why I can't wait til May
Owwwwww!!!

Big Bear and Co. are hanging in my room, ready to help me plan my year. I also got a Sabres calendar yesterday so I'll have to find room for them as well. Basically, the moral of the story is, Alix rawks hardcore and you all should bow to her greatness.

So there was really only one thing I asked for for Christmas. You'd think since I only asked for ONE THING I would get that ONE THING, right? Well:

I did!
"Santa" brought me a 3rd jersey of my very own!! Hooray!!

I can tell you're all more than little jealous that I got this totally awesome and random Sabretooth hat. Its fine, be jealous, I'll understand.
Its meant for kids so it just fits on my head, but mostly it looks hilarious on anyone that wears it.


Who doesn't need a hockey playing teddy bear?
I love his goofy little skate blades.


Its true.


Feeding my love of both alcohol and hockey. Could it get any better?


FEAST YOUR EYES UPON SUCH BEAUTY.
BIG BEAR.
He touched his pen to this photograph and now its in my bedroom.
Yyyyesssss.
My sister is the queen of random. hahaha


I didn't ask for a Pirates shirt but I was pretty pumped when I got it

The back:

Representin' the home town pride.

I hope all of you had great Christmases!!

Sabres at Caps tonight. 7:00. Wooo!

Cabin Fever

by Anne

I had a whole post written about angry things because being cooped up inside all day with an annoying cat makes me a little cranky. However, I have opted not to force you to endure my rants about why I hate Chuck Palahahahhaaniuk.

-I'm bored so I'm thinking about dying my hair really dark brown again. Yes, Anne, because it looked so good the other 6 times. I've decided to start living by the rule that if I don't have to dye my hair, I won't. Its cheaper and natural is (almost) always better.

- Also, I was considering donating my hair to locks of love again, but then I remembered that my hair looked like this for about 8 months and I reconsidered:

It may work on Posh, but not on this girl.

- When I have nothing to do, I tend to call people and IM people more often. However, I realize that this can be annoying after a while so this break I'm making a conscious effort not to excessively bother people

-I also think about road trips but unlike most of my college days, most of my friends have these things called "jobs" and most of my friends are not enjoying these lazy days of winter break.

- My sister had a concert today that we did not go to. Well, she didn't go either. I'm not sure if the concert happened or not but she's sick so she wouldn't have been singing anyway.

-The Bills actually won. I was the Negative Nancy around the house today, predicting with each of the Bills' scores what would happen next to negate it all. I was basically right until the end. I declared the Broncos get the TD and 2 point conversion and then Lindell would miss a field goal. Peg predicted an interception. The big winner here? JP Losman. Ahahhahahaha

-I know the win was meaningless in the playoff picture but it is nice to play the spoilers for once. even if Dick Jauron claims that wasn't on their minds. Really, I have nothing against the Broncos, I used to love John Elway, but it's fun to be at least some part of changing team's fates.

-Great games for Trent and Fred Jackson. There's definitely a lot more confidence in their games these days. Hopefully that will continue next week and build into the off-season.

-Reggie Corner's play at the end of the 4th to breakup Cutler's TD pass to Stokley was awesome.

-They played the kind of second half we were used to seeing out of them. Its really too bad they couldn't have dug deep for that kind of 2nd half a few more times this season.

-If Steve Johnson continues to improve as he has in these last few games, we'll have some nice depth and a few more options next season.

- Its unfortunate that some of these pieces seem to be coming together a few games too late.

-Marshawn hurt his shoulder. I care but not that much because 1. We won anyway 2. He basically has until August for it to heal up and 3. He was cheering and carrying on on the sidelines quite a bit so it doesn't appear to be too serious.

- My dogs adamantly refuse to go outside if its like 70 degrees and there's a slight drizzle. However, 16 degrees and 2 feet of snow? GAME ON.

- I hope the weather is clear tomorrow. I have some more stuff I need to pick up including a book for myself that no one will be getting me for Christmas because I didn't ask for it. I read Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs this summer and I've put off picking up another Klosterman book during the semester but on my list of things to read is another of his books. I'm leaning towards Killing Yourself to Live. Thoughts?

- The Pirates have put together 2 wins in the last few days, righting the ship that had started to steer off course ever since we ruined everything first by calling up Mancari and then Gerbe. Whoops. Sorry, Portland!

-Ok. Dinnertime. Then wrapping Christmas presents! Our tree is up and needs some stuff for underneath it. Yay!

Jingle *squeak* Jingle Bells Jing*squeak* All The Way

by Anne

Ok so on the advice of many, I've calmed the hell down, hahaha. All I have left to say about what was stressing me out is some boys are stupid and some boys are not.

The last 2 mornings I've dragged my sorry behind out of bed to head to my cousins' concerts at their respective schools.

Elizabeth (age 10, 5th grade) plays the flute and is in the chorus and her school is in the school district where I live so it took me, oh, 4 minutes to get there.

James on the other hand (age 11, 6th grade) goes to a school waaaaaaaaaayy over on the East side and I almost missed him play because the concert started early. But I heard his little beginner band play a few songs and he played a little duet in one of the songs and it was so adorable. Then his teacher took a picture with me and him and his mom and I will probably frame it because he looks so freakin' cute in his little tie. His goofy sister refused to smile for me when I was taking her picture. Booo!

They're so freakin' cute. Jimmy is especially funny, as I was about to leave he was like "When will I see you again?" He thinks I'm pretty much the coolest person ever. Please don't ruin this for him people. In a few years he'll realize what a dork I am and it'll all be over.

I have been Christmas shopping up a STORM over here, peeps. Yet I am still not finished. Boooooo.

WOW. MATS SUNDIN IS STILL NOT MAKING A DECISION. If anyone REALLY thought he was going to make an announcement today, I'm sorry for you. It was always possible but possible in the way that its possible that one day a man could give birth or someone could receive a facial transplant... wait, what? Both of those things already happened? Anyway, Mats is still unemployed. He just likes keep us on our toes and gets desperate when his name is not featured in the top stories on TSN. He's one panty-less getting out of a car shot away from being Paris Hilton. They guarantee in that article that he'll make a decision pre-Christmas but I'll believe it when I see it. $20 says he's back in Toronto after all this Canucks/Rangers blather. I like losing money.

I've been slowly writing this post all freakin' day long. Shopping and mailing and chatting is very distracting. I'm bored so I've decided to start closing posts with the latest Facebook status craze: Find the nearest book, flip to page 56, read sentence #5. I have a bazillion books so I will close my eyes and grab one off the shelf.

"David Petrakis is never, ever in trouble."

Yessss. What a great sentence. Hahaha. Um, so I have to see a play tonight and didn't realize until this morning that I never really asked anyone to go with me. Hmmmmmm. Well if anyone wants to see The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Theatreloft tonight, send me a message! Haha.

Signing off.... Sort Of

by Anne

My life is about to be fully dedicated to final exams. So until next Friday, my updates will hopefully still be regular, but will mostly be things like:

OMFG I spilled coffee on my laptop today. But, being the "keeping her cool in times of crisis" type of chick that I am, I avoided further damage to my computer by immediately flipping it over so the coffee would not drain into the guts of my computer. All in all, I have to get a new keypad installed, but my computer itself is fine. PHEW! I can still use my laptop by plugging in an external keyboard which I am typing on right now. It is no longer mobile but that's ok.

I increased my sales for like the 5th straight game in a row. I had to lie to a little girl and say we were out of cotton candy because I hid one for S(h)ara. I don't feel so bad about it because that's how I found out the pink cotton candy is kind of cherry flavored. Gross. I hate cotton candy. One bite is all I need for the next year or so.

Whenever I'm at the Arena I see at least 3 or 4 obviously pregnant women. There might be others who are walking the border between "pregnant" and "awkward tummy pooch".

MATT GREENE SCORED AN ASSIST TONIGHT AND I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT. It was a pretty bad-ass pass from the defensive zone through the neutral zone that set up Frolov to zoom in on Toskala with 2 Maple Leaf's defencemen lost around him. He got the puck when Matt Stajan turned it over with a pass that went right to Greener. Wooooo!!!

That game between the "Sabres" and the Predators was the single most boring 60 minutes of hockey I've ever witnessed. However, my sales were through the roof. Monday night Western team game does not usually mean big bucks. WHATEVS. That new keypad isn't going to pay for itself.

Aw Greener, don't look at me like that!
I'll be back! I SWEAR!

OK, PEOPLE ONE MORE THING!!!!!!! Ok, by "people" I really mean "girls". Look, I may love a good backchecking defenseman as much as the next dude but I also love men more than the next dude... unless the next dude is my BFF Adam.... he's a gay. S(h)ara and I are planning on writing an All-Stars of Hotness teams post again this year. However, reviewing last years choices, most of them sucked. Frankly, its because we were not well versed enough in other teams hottie boomba lotties outside of their roster photos and we all know roster photos are NOT adequate to measure a players hotness. Therefore, I ask you to come up with a few players from teams OTHER THAN the following because I know these teams well enough:

East:
Buffalo Sabres
New York Rangers
Pittsburgh Penguins

West:
Calgary Flames
Vancouver Canucks
Chicago Blackhawks

Please narrow it down to one or 2 players from each team and provide photo documentation if possible. We shall conduct the voting for positions by conference beginning on December 26. Thanks!! Oh, and please do not try to make a case for unattractive players just because they're good and lovable. I LOVES me some Jaro "Sissy" Spacek, but he ain't making this list.

I'm ALIVE

by Anne

I have successfully driven the 344 or so miles from Buffalo to South Central PA. Good Lord. What a drive. The entire trip we made 2 stops, once for gas and once for lunch. It was just me and Jimmy, my 11 year old cousin. He spent most of the time sleeping and listening to my iPod. I entertained myself at a traffic jam by pulling his shoes off his feet while he sat behind me. I'm such a good cousin.

Ah, good times.

So basically everyone I've ever met in my entire life who lives in the City of Buffalo and is not related to me is going to the game tonight. Well, except my Dad, he's still in Buffalo because his show opens this weekend and he couldn't make the trip with us.

I know that every year since 1985 I've come down here for Thanksgiving but this year is hardest because I know there will be so many good times going on up North. :(

Here's hoping that team can put together some bad times for the Boston Bruins instead of the Sabres fans that will be drunkenly in attendance. I'm sure the Arena is going to be CRAZY. Doors open in 15 minutes, I can smell the popcorn already. Speaking of popcorn, the smell of it now makes me sick to my stomach, thanks HSBC Arena.

I'm typing this on my Grandpa's computer which has DIAL-UP. I feel like I'm in 7th grade again and I'm only allowed to be on AOL for an hour because we get charged by the minute.

WTF is this:

I could not get the page that this comes from to load, so I suppose I'll never know...
or i'll have to wait until one of you looks it up... ;)

Yo, updating on my MacBook is so much easier than on a PC.

Have a Happy (hungover) Turkey Day!

Mmmmmmm

by Anne

After my one and only class today, I decided to take up some pie baking. I didn't take pictures during the process because 1. my hands were covered in pie making ingredients and 2. I was teaching a 10 year old and an 11 year old how to bake.

Anyway, my Aunt recently moved to Florida to live in some wacky all-inclusive they drive around golf carts kind of retirement community and ALAS she will not be bringing her pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving. Me being the domestic diva that I am, offered to make it. Some how, some way Mom allowed me to make my own pie crust. Like, from scratch. I'd say if my Mom has made 100 pies in my life, 97 of them have been completely from scratch. That's how we do it in this house. Anyway, I decided I didn't feel like doing it myself, so I kidnapped my other aunt's kids and made them help.

One made the pumpkin pie filling (we conceded defeat and bought canned pumpkin, but mixed the spices in ourselves) and one rolled out the crust, then they switched. Our pie crust recipe makes enough for either 1 pie with a top crust or 2 bottom crust only pies. Therefore, we made 2 pies. Pumpkin (personally, my least favorite) and pecan (my absolute favorite).

Oscar decided to jump up and investigate.

Mmmmmmmmm. On Thursday we make the fresh whipped cream.
MARTHA STEWART, EAT YOUR HEART OUT.

Anyway, Big Bear has sustained a bruised shoulder and also a bruised toe. :( He's day to day, but probably won't be out for too long. Provided the injury isn't more serious and they just don't realize it yet, I bet he's back for the game against the Blue Jackets or the next one against the Red Wings.

Sigh, ok so after watching video of his injury, its kind of not totally Brett Lebda's fault that Stevie Bear was hurt. He hit the net and started to fall as he was coming in to check Lebda. Ok, so its technically not Brett Lebda's fault that Big Bear is hurt, but morally, I still blame him.

Back to this blog's name sake team:

I just feel like something's got to give on the Sabres' roster. If Mancari can keep playing the way the played this weekend on at least a semi-regular basis, on what grounds can we justify keeping him out of the line-up and Max and Staffy in? He does their job only Marky Mark does it BETTER. The only nod to Staffy is, of course, experience. He's got ten times the games Mark does, BUT, at the moment only 1 more goal this season.

Big Bear needs some TLC

; )

A Snapshot of My Life, Basically

by Anne

I was bored last night and while making my bed before going to bed (yes, I make my bed before I go to sleep) I decided to lay out all of the books I've read this semester and all the ones I have yet to read. Here they are, no exaggeration, all the books I have already completed reading in the last 2 months:

Ok, let me be honest, in 2 of these books I just had to read a few stories, but STILL, COME ON THAT IS RIDICULOUS
I also only read most of the big text book so far
But, there is a text book missing that I read cover to cover, I think its in my car...
There's one novel missing too, that's also probably in my car.
Oops, I lied, I haven't read "Heart of a Dog" yet, that's still to come
Oh, and yes, that is my cat's food and water dish in the corner, he eats in my room.... its a long and annoying story.

And here are all the books I'm currently reading or have to finish reading this semester:

Apparently its February 15, 2080 and I am 94 years old
In retrospect, spreading these on my bed was a bad idea, because then I had to move them all before I could go to sleep. Now the "already read" ones are in a laundry basket. Next stop: bookshelf.

I'm not sure if I should be proud of myself for (mostly) reading all of those books or depressed over all the time spent on them??

This post can be considered hockey-related because the last book I read for fun before the semester started was "Rayzor's Edge". That's so lame.

Three full days with no Sabres hockey is no fun and we have to do it for three weeks straight. Ew. Gross.

Gentlemen, Please Look Away

by Anne

Ok, boys, seriously, you don't want to read this one, its just girly, spare yourselves and just look away.

LADIES:

In Anne's world, there is one surefire way to make any man look good. Well, to make them look good to ME anyway. That one surefire way is to put them in a suit that fits well. BUT, if you put a man in a three piece suit, subtract the coat and roll up the shirtsleeves and I'm completely overcome. I DON'T KNOW WHY, but for some reason there is no man on earth that does not look completely dreamy in this kind of ensemble.

Also, let's not lie, one of the perks of loving hockey is that some of the men who play this sport are pretty darn attractive.

SO COMBINE THE TWO?!?!

I. Just. WOO!

I know, I know, its the Rangers and Chris Drury, but lets try to put aside our differences and embrace the attractive attractive menfolk.

Sorry gentlemen, I know we ladies get all "Take us seriously as hockey bloggers, wah wah wah." and then I go and post something like this... it kind of undermines that but, hey, its my blog and I'll squeal if I want to.

Oh, and from Danny Paille's interview on Sabres.com:

What player on the current Sabres roster have you learned the most from and what did he teach you?

"Paul Gaustad. Since I’ve played with him in Rochester he’s taught me a lot on the penalty kill and every time things don’t go well he’s very positive. He’s taught me a lot on just how to play the game."

What television show are you embarrassed to admit that you watch?

"I watched one episode of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF. I thought it was horrible so I never watched that show again."

Oh, excuse me I just giggled a little and then laughed so hard I passed out. Danny Paille admits to the following: loving chocolate, having NKOTB on his iPod, and watching an episode of a Paris Hilton reality show. I'm pretty sure based on that criteria, Danny Paille is either a 15 year old girl or my best friend Adam.

Brilliant.

New Format

by Anne

So I changed to a 3 column format to give it a try. I think I like it, but it doesn't matter to me really, it matters to me more what you guys think of it.

The motivation for the reformat is that the left column was getting too long and there were lots of things that were getting lost at the bottom of the page.

I'm posting a poll in case you feel bad telling me that the new format is gross in comment form, hahaha.

Let me know. I can just as easily switch right back to the old format, homeslices.

JUST REMEMBER

by Anne

I've been super super busy but I just wanted to remind you all what you need to do tomorrow:

JUST DO IT.

Monday Mish Mash

by Anne


So the Sabres played some charity golf recently:

Hey Craig! Thanks for coming!

The whole team turned out, including Lindy, to play some golf before training camp starts on Friday. THAT'S RIGHT TRAINING CAMP STARTS FRIDAY!!!!!! Ahem.

Good to see that Staffy is in his usual preseason "I just got my annual haircut" mode:

Don't worry, by January he'll be back to his usual bulky hairy self

There were clips of Pommer and Sissy playing too, but I have to study so I didn't attempt to capture their images with my image capture software. Rosie the Riveter and Staffy were the only ones they interviewed so I had more options because they stood still longer.

Woooo!

In other news, Nathan Gerbe has finally accepted my Facebook friend request but has apparently discovered the sheer joy that is "Limited Profiles". All of my students view my profile on a limited basis, and apparently so too do I view Nathan Gerbe's profile, and probably Drew Stafford as well. Whatev, it makes me laugh that he finally accepted the inevitability of our friendship. We're BFFs in the making, Gerber Baby. I hate that nickname. Let's stop using it ok, Gerbmeister? Sweet. But, for serious, call me all the time, we'll watch movies and play Phase 10. CALL ME.

Prospect camp began today and Buffalo's own beloved "Mr. Awkard Interview" Tim Kennedy has started writing his blog again. YESSSSSSS!!! We've been so deprived since Millsey's Maxim blog ended in June and Pommer hasn't updated his with his thoughts other than answering questions in months and months. Not much happened at camp today it seems, so TK's entry was pretty short.

Even though we had to be up early, I actually got a lot of rest in and slept pretty well at the hotel.

Was he required to stay at a hotel? It is kind of LAME to be like "Hey guys, how were those commercial grade pancakes at the hotel? 150 thread count sheets? Yikes! My mom brought be freshly made belgian waffles and freshly squeezed orange juice to me in my Egyptian cotton sheet covered pillow top mattress king-sized bed. Hey, guys! Guys? Come on, guys! My mom made cookies! Yeah, that's what I thought, they come running back for the cookies. Pat Kaleta was right."

Hopefully tomorrow will be more of the "OMG EVERY MUSCLE IN MY BODY HURTS, HOCKEY IS HARD, YO."

I have so much reading to do. On that note, I'm going out to dinner, check ya later!