Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Freeks and Geeks! To the non-religious like myself, Happy Random Long Weekend!

I have some duties to attend to so I will keep this short. Just some random thoughts on random things...

The Masters is underway and Mike Weir is in good shape. I have him in our office pool so if he makes a run it will be nice to cheer for my favorite golfer without having to pull for some other schmuck for monetary reasons. We eliminated Tiger and drew names to select the draft order. 23 people @ $10 each. I was luck to be able to select 23/23. Yep, dead last. The guy who picked first went with Mickelson and wanted to make a side bet with me, but he wouldn't lay any odds. So I told him to get bent. I have a straight-up bet with the VP, Weir vs Luke Donald for $20 and I swapped 25% of Weir for 25% of Paul Casey. The prize structure is $150, $70, $20 so I figured it was best to not put all my eggs in one basket. If Donald hadn't went birdie, birdie, eagle on 13, 14, and 15 I'd already be looking at a guaranteed profit. As it stands I have a 5 stroke advantage in that little side bet so tough to complain.

The Tragically Hip's new album We Are the Same gets better with every listen. These guys never rest on their laurels and I love that about them. HMV just reported that it hit #1 in Canada. Congrats.

The Tigers were in town to open the season against the Jays and left with a 1-3 record. Unfortunately I did not make it down to any of the games due to the Tragically Hip movie on Monday and work obligations after that. It's looks like we'll be in Detroit for Father's Day weekend to see the Tigers vs the Brewers. I'll where my old Fielder shirt for that one. As for the Jays, they look like they're going to put a lot of runs on the board this year. Travis Snyder is going to be right there for Rookie of the Year. The injuries to Marcum and McGowan really suck because, but they have a lot of other young arms that need to grab their chance and run with it.

We leave next Friday for Albany, NY and Worcester, MA to see The Dead. I'm going with Sameer and Andy. Should be a blast. I will have more on this and of course all the ensuing shenanigans.

Here's the link of the day.

Chico @ The Brier > Fantasy Hip

My main man playing in The Brier, Kris Granchelli, along with his team from Nova Scotia just finished their 5th game and now sit at 2-3. They are around the middle of the table, but what has to concern them is the fact that their schedule is heavily back-loaded with the top teams. One way to look at it is they should be able to gain ground on those ahead of them with victories, however, they will be tough.

Sunday afternoon saw Nova Scotia in the feature match on TSN. I gotta tell you, it was pretty neat seeing my buddy's ugly mug up on the screen with all his data. Age, place of birth and job. That's 36, Sydney, NS & Allstate Insurance agent respectively. They didn't mention "Allstate" on the air though so I'm doing it here. If you need some insurance and live in Nova Scotia Kris is your guy.

The feature match-up was a debacle for the NS team. They were playing NWT/Yukon (I like how our third territory doesn't even get a mention). I personally was already counting this one in the standings which I guess is not recommended. Kris curled 82% which from what I can tell is OK for a lead, but not outstanding. Their 3rd, Bruce Lohnes chucked a 67% which I know really sucks. Long story short, they lost to the perennial door mats and fell to 1-2. On TSN. HD. Live. Plus Nova Scotia hosts the Brier next year. I might go.

Monday morning they were matched up against Russ Howard and New Brunswick. Now I know Russ has won the Brier with Ontario I think. I'm not sure if he has playing out of New Brunswick. He may even be a world champion. I'm not going to look it up because it seems to me like he pussied out by leaving Ontario where the competition HAS to be stiffer than NB. You do what you gotta do, eh? Anyway, NB won 10-7 with Granchelli throwing a sparkling 91% for 73pts. (I went to Wikipedia to try to figure this out. Nothing. I'm going to have to make a phone call.) Once again the NS 3rd chucked bricks like was Dontrelle Willis in a Tiger's uniform for 68% & 54pts. That dropped the team to 1-3.

They had to go right back out there in Draw 7 to play Northern Ontario. They should merge these guys with the territories. Seriously. They got the boot from Ontario because no one from the south wanted to travel that far just to lay the boots down on them. It always happened. We have Northern Ontario and Ontario. No Southern Ontario. Good stuff. Granchelli continues his torrid pace by putting up 90% & 61pts. NS wins as Lohnes finally puts his glasses back on and jumps up to 76%. Basically from what I can tell, if you curl in the 60's your team will loose. It's a Shore Thing!

So the team now stands at 2-3 and are probably sucking back a few Keith's/Alpines right now. Kris' stats put him just shy of middle of the pack for Leads with an overall 85% accuracy rate. I think his numbers today are a truer reflection of his abilities and hopefully the entire team can get hot as they begin to go up against what most would agree are the better teams.

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I just wrote one of my bigger articles over at my Tragically Hip Blog entitled 2009 Hip Tour > Song Selection > NOIS > Fantasy . Check it out if you get a chance and are a fan.

Cheers,
-mrjackstraw

Hip, Phish, Ball Caps

Still alive. Just been busy.

The Tragically Hip just announced their 2009 tour plans. All shows are to be 2 set affairs (the way it should be). Check out my Tragically Hip Blog. I did manage to score 8th row at Massey Hall for the opening night of that run.

Phish also kicks off their return this weekend in Hampton, VA. They are offering free downloads of the entire weekend to all their fans who were shut out on tickets (me). For more information on that have a look at my Phish Tour Blog.

And now a random list....

Last 5 Ball Caps I've Seen on the Toronto Subway

Note: They have to be in the same subway car as me.

1. Toronto Blue Jays (Black - The T)
2. Atlanta Falcons
3. Boston Celtics
4. Buffalo Bills
5. Team Canada Hockey

The hockey hat was the only one with a curve in the brim.

Maybe I'll try to keep an ongoing score.