Game Over

Sea Wolves and the Ice Pilots both knocked out in the first round! Wow! No more hockey.

40 Things You Might Not Know

1. Money isn't made out of paper; it's made out of cotton.

2. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the varieties of pickle the company once had.

3. Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks -otherwise it will digest itself (eeww).

4. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

5. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a "tittle".

6. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

7. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

8. A duck's quack doesn't echo ... no one knows why.

9. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

10 Every person has a unique tongue print (no licking at the scene of a crime!).

11. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

12. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.

13. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily. (THIS EXPLAINS A LOT)

14. During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.

15. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

16. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.

17. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

18. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).

19. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants!

20. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

21. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

22. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time ( ... and multi-tasking was invented).

23. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

24. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

25. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!

26. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!

27. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

28. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

29. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

30. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar ( ... good to know .. ).

31. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless).

32. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb (sign of a true civilized society ... not).

33. American Airlines saved $40,000 in '87 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.

34. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

35. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples! (guess what I'm buying on my next trip to the grocery store!)

36. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!

37. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

38. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

39. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator game.

40. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages them (families taking long car rides should adopt this same policy).

Real or Hoax?

I only got 5 of them right. How many can you get?

Round 1

Mississippi Sea Wolves vs Gwinnett Gladiators 1-2
Game 1: Sea Wolves 1 Gladiators 5
Game 2: Sea Wolves 3 Gladiators 2
Game 3: Sea Wolves 1 Gladiators 8
Game 4: Sea Wolves 1 Gladiators 3
Final ( ; _ ; )

Pensacola Ice Pilots vs Greenville Grrrowl 1-2
Game 1: Ice Pilots 2 Grrrowl 3
Game 2: Ice Pilots 4 Grrrowl 5
Game 3: Ice Pilots 3 Grrrowl 2
Game 4: Ice Pilots 0 Grrrowl 4
Final ( ; _ ; )

ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs

The ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs kicked off last night! I have two teams that I am cheering for this year: The Mississippi Sea Wolves and The Pensacola Ice Pilots
Both teams are in the American Conference and both are in the Southern division. So there is no chance of seeing both make it out of the quarterfinals.
My first live hockey game was a Mississippi Sea Wolves game in Biloxi, Mississippi almost 8 years ago. My family lived there for a while and whenever I went to visit we would go to a hockey game (or two…or three). My parents bought me a jersey for my birthday one year and I started listening to some of the games online. In the 1998-1999 season, they succeeded in winning the Kelly Cup championship! In the 2001-2002 season they made it to the finals but lost to The Greenville Grrrowl from Greenville, South Carolina.
I now live only 40 miles away from the Pensacola Ice Pilots. When I first moved here, I only went to the Ice Pilot games if they were playing against the Sea Wolves and of course I proudly sported my teams gear. Eventually I started going to games against other teams and I started to actually like the Ice Pilots. Mississippi will always remain #1 and I will continue to cheer them on whenever they play at the "hanger" but I do call myself a Pensacola fan as well and I now have a jersey (thank you Christine & Richard!) to wear during the playoff games.
This year Pensacola has had a smokin' season. They have assumed the lead in the division, conference, and the league. They clinched the regular season point championship, the Brabham Cup, ending the season with a whopping 107 points!
So here we are at the beginning of the playoffs and I'm torn between my two teams. Since Pensacola has had such and outstanding year and they haven't won an ECHL playoff championship yet, I really would like to see them make it to the finals. But, at the same time, I'm devoted to my Sea Wolves and I want them make a huge comeback and win too. I guess the best thing to do is just sit back and enjoy some good ol' hockey.
Good luck to you both!

Attention all Floridians:

We're about to enter hurricane season. Any day now, you're going to turn on the TV and see a weather person pointing to some radar blob out in the Atlantic Ocean and making two basic meteorological points.

(1) There is no need to panic.

(2) We could all be killed.

Yes, hurricane season is an exciting time to be in Florida. If you're new to the area, you're probably wondering what you need to do to prepare for the possibility that we'll get hit by "the big one." Based on our insurance industry experiences, we recommend that you follow this simple three-step hurricane preparedness plan:

STEP 1: Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.

STEP 2: Put these supplies into your car.

STEP 3: Drive to Nebraska and remain there until Halloween.

Unfortunately, statistics show that most people will not follow this sensible plan. Most people will foolishly stay here in Florida.
We'll start with one of the most important hurricane preparedness items:
HOMEOWNERS' INSURANCE: If you own a home, you must have hurricane insurance. Fortunately, this insurance is cheap and easy to get, as long as your home meets two basic requirements:

(1) It is reasonably well-built, and

(2) It is located in Wisconsin

Unfortunately, if your home is located in Florida, or any other area that might actually be hit by a hurricane, most insurance companies would prefer not to sell you hurricane insurance, because then they might be required to pay YOU money, and that is certainly not why they got into the insurance business in the first place. So you'll have to scrounge around for an insurance company, which will charge you an annual premium roughly equal to the replacement value of your house. At any moment, this company can drop you like used dental floss.

SHUTTERS: Your house should have hurricane shutters on all the windows, all the doors, There are several types of shutters, with advantages and disadvantages:

Plywood shutters: The advantage is that, because you make them yourself, they're cheap.

Sheet-metal shutters: The advantage is that these work well, once you get them all up. The disadvantage is that once you get them all up, your hands will be useless bleeding stumps, and it will be December.

Roll-down shutters: The advantages are that they're very easy to use, and will definitely protect your house. The disadvantage is that you will have to sell your house to pay for them.

Hurricane-proof windows: These are the newest wrinkle in hurricane protection: They look like ordinary windows, but they can withstand hurricane winds! You can be sure of this, because the salesman says so. He lives in Nebraska.

Hurricane Proofing your property: As the hurricane approaches, check your yard for movable objects like barbecue grills, planters, patio furniture, visiting relatives, etc... You should, as a precaution, throw these items into your swimming pool (if you don't have a swimming pool, you should have one built immediately). Otherwise, the hurricane winds will turn these objects into deadly missiles.

EVACUATION ROUTE:

If you live in a low-lying area, you should have an evacuation route planned out. (To determine whether you live in a low-lying area, look at your driver's license; if it says "Florida," you live in a low-lying area). The purpose of having an evacuation route is to avoid being trapped in your home when a major storm hits. Instead, you will be trapped in a gigantic traffic jam several miles from your home, along with two hundred thousand other evacuees. So, as a bonus, you will not be lonely.

HURRICANE SUPPLIES:

If you don't evacuate, you will need a mess of supplies. Do not buy them now! Florida tradition requires that you wait until the last possible minute, then go to the supermarket and get into vicious fights with strangers over who gets the last can of SPAM. In addition to food and water, you will need the following supplies:

23 flashlights. At least $167 worth of batteries that turn out, when the power goes off, to be the wrong size for the flashlights.

Bleach. (No, I don't know what the bleach is for. NOBODY knows what the bleach is for, but it's traditional, so GET some!)

A big knife that you can strap to your leg. (This will be useless in a hurricane, but it looks cool.)

A large quantity of raw chicken, to placate the alligators. (Ask anybody who went through Andrew; after the hurricane, there WILL be irate alligators.)

$35,000 in cash or diamonds so that, after the hurricane passes, you can buy a generator from a man with no discernible teeth.

Of course these are just basic precautions. As the hurricane draws near, it is vitally important that you keep abreast of the situation by turning on your television and watching TV reporters in rain slickers stand right next to the ocean and tell you over and over how vitally important it is for everybody to stay away from the ocean.

Good luck, and remember: Its great living in Florida!

Spring Fling

Yippee, the sun is finally shinning! It’s time to get that spring cleaning done. I took the day off yesterday to get some chores done around the house. I bought an antique buffet from Christine to fill in a bare spot in the dinning room. This beautiful piece of Belgian furniture is 8 feet wide and has given us some much needed storage space. I would attach a photo but I left my camera at Lisa’s birthday party this afternoon. I moved some items around and made ½ of the buffet into the liquor cabinet and used the other ½ for storage of extra kitchen items. This created more room in the kitchen and I ended up cleaning/rearranging the entire room from top to bottom. It’s such an exhausting project but it feels so good to walk into a freshly cleaned kitchen. Today was lawn day. Jack and I spent the entire morning working out in the yard. We still have a long way to go with that but it looks much better than it did yesterday. Tomorrow we’re going to start on the pool. If the weather next weekend is anything like it has been over past few days I’m going swimming ~sploooosh! I really need to get to work on this years tan. I know that you west coasters are jealous right now ~LOL.

The Longevity Game

This is pretty interesting. It estimates how long you will probably live based on questions to basic health questions. Enjoy.

Fourteen Inches

Rain rain go away...
It's normal for this part of the country to get it's April Showers or more like April Downpours but the past few days I don't think I've ever seen so much rain. We even had hail last night. This morning it continued with no signs of slowing down. My speedometer remained under 30 MPH all the way in to work this morning. Most of the roads were flooded by 10:00 a.m. and all of the gates to the base were closed at one point. Traffic had to be rerouted through the flightline to avoid the foot of water that gathered on the main road to the back gate. By 3:00 p.m. all non-essential personnel were ordered to go home. I am considered essential, being the primary point of contact for the unit control center and I have to stay late tonight to ensure all of our personnel are accounted for and do not have any damage to their homes (yeah me-blah). The Weather Channel reported 14 inches of rainfall over the past two days.
This has brought back memories of Ivan the Terrible...
The entire state of Florida was hammered last hurricane season with Charley, Francis, and saving the best for last…Mr. Ivan. When Francis was out in the Gulf, activated the unit control center and the 8-8 shifts started. This was the first day of the 4-day Labor Day weekend and between 4 of us we pulled 12 hour shifts until Monday then Tuesday was back to normal duty hours. Ivan became our next threat and back to work we went. After a few days, we knew this was definitely coming our way and it was going to hurt. I worked an 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. shift, came home, packed, and evacuated. Luckily I had my roommate to drive me, since I had been awake for more than 24 hours. We went to my Grandmothers house in Mississippi until we received the “all clear” to come home. Since we knew the I-10 bridge was out, we ended up driving though back roads of Alabama. We noticed that every town we went through had no power…which meant the possibility of No Gas. Luck was on our side and we found a small country gas station that had set up generators. We got back in town to find a disaster. Trees were down everywhere, fences were gone, power was out, and boats were on the north side of the highway. I fought back tears when I thought about the people that hadn’t come home yet to see their destroyed homes. We both held our breaths as we weaved down our street (around downed trees and power lines). We had lost most of the fence but there was no other damage. Because the windows were boarded up prior to our departure and we had no electricity, we had no air flow in the house. I set up a tent in the back yard and spent a very, almost creepy, quiet night. You don’t realize how much constant noise is out there until the entire city is shut down. Most of the damage has since been repaired but there are still quite a few blue roofs all over the western panhandle.