Sabres Game VS Preds
February 28, 2008
Filed under Games, Places, Sports
Tags: sabres game preds fight score goals trade
Usually I go to a Sabres game now and then with my pops, but today he was feeling ill and I had a pair of tickets all to myself. I took my friend Adam and got a ride to HSBC Arena from my buddy DJ who brought along my other good friend Jon. He got the tickets from his folks as a birthday gift. I also had the pleasure of meeting up with my friends Tom and Paul, who by the way, has written a solid total of two blogs. Way to go Paul! Woo!
Today was the first game for our new player, Steve Brenier (I hope I spelled that right). He was traded to us from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defesman Brian Campbell. At first I thought this was a very unfair trade, even with Soupy’s contract expiring at the end of the season, but with the way Steve played today it could end up as an even deal. He ended up scoring two quick goals in the first period and made his presence felt on the ice. One game does not make a season or a career for that matter, so let’s hope he keeps this up.
The game itself was great too. Lots of action, tons of goals, and lots of fighting. The Sabres and Predators really did not get along too well throughout the game. Punches were being thrown left and right. The goals never let up either, which all got the crowd pretty pumped up. I also didn’t make my friend pay for the ticket I gave him, but I did make him pay for parking and my two hot dogs. Boy they filled my tummy good and keep me full for remainder of the third period.
The score ended up being eight to four with a solid victory for our Buffalo Sabres. Overall it was one of the best games of the season.
Hopefully the Sabres can build off this great game and head upon a nice winning streak. With the races for a playoff spot so tight in the Eastern Conference they will need every point the can muster. Nothing would make me happier than to see our team play in the playoffs and into the summer.
Super Bowl Weekend
February 5, 2008
Filed under Food, Friends, Games, Sports, Telivision
Tags: super bowl ads funny
Well if you have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, the Super Bowl occurred over the weekend. On Sunday the New England Patriots faced off against the New York Giants. The Patriots went undefeated during the regular season and were strong favorites against the G-Men. I believe they were 12 or 14 point favorites before the big game began. I was a strong believer that we would witness another terrible Super Bowl in which the Pats would simply blow out the Giants. Boy, was I wrong.
The Giants came out fighting right away holding the ball for majority of the first quarter, which led to a field goal. Eventually, Plexico BUress scored what became the game winning touchdown which followed a miraculous scramble from Eli Manning and an even greater catch by a guy who had more tackles than receptions during the regular season. The Patriots, who are well known for their unbelievable game winning drives were unable to capitalize and the Giants pulled off what was the second greatest upset in Super Bowl history, behind the Jets when Broadway Joe Nammoath defeated the Baltimore Colts many years ago. Not to mention that it ruined the Patriots run of perfection, which made me happy.
I was very happy to see such an entertaining game.
Well enough about football. Super Bowl Sunday is great for many other things as well. Spending time with a group of my friends laughing and cheering is always a great time. Not to mention the food is good too. Chips and salsa to start off, and then a big sheet pizza for everyone to share. Its like heaven in your soul after eating all that stuff. I was very pleased with the quality as well. The pizza place was so busy that people were lined up out the door for their pickup. I figured that they would have rushed my pizza and it would have came out terrible. Kudos to Pasquales for providing myself with such great food to eat.
The commercials were also very entertaining well. That Godfather remake where the guy finds the front of his old car in his bed made me giggle. Then the advertised that new Audi R8. What a beautiful car that is. I had chills when the engine started and the car drove off. I was also very happy to see Danica Patrick in the GoDaddy.com ad for obvious reasons. She looks very pretty. Will Farrel always keeps me laughing. That commercial which covered his new basketball movie and Bud Light was very funny stuff. As much as I hate Justin Timberlake’s music he really seems like a funny guy. After seeing that episode of SNL which he hosted I figured he would never do anything funny again, but that Pepsi commercial was pretty good. Andy Samberg should never put on a blond wig again. I felt very violated after they showed his face and revealed that it was him and not a hot blond. Honorable mentions include the dancing lizard commerical, classic immigrant Bud Light commercial, and the House ads.
The Super Bowl is pretty much a national holiday in the United States. It’s just too bad that the Bills haven’t gone to it since that Imfamite 4 straight loses over ten years ago. Sorry I had to bring that up, but I would just love to experience having your favorite team play in the big game.
A Weekend In NYC
Well I took a trip with a friend of mine to New York City this past weekend to visit some colleges. This was the first time I had ever been to The Big Apple. What an awesome place it was.
It started off with our flight being delayed due to the harsh wintry conditions. They had to spray the plane with some anti-freezing fluid before we could take off.
We then arrived in the big city. After I picked up my bags we hopped in a cab and I got my first glimpse at the city. It is quite incredible. The tall buildings, diverse people, and lots of nice fast cars. I saw a Ferrari race past us. Along with about 50 Mercedes, BMWs, and Land Rover’s. I guess cars like that are not as rare as they are around here in Western New York.
After we dropped off our bags we headed out into the city. People walking everywhere. The sun hidden behind the tall sky-scrappers. We got on the subway train and headed off to Grand Central Station. A pretty cool place with a 125 foot ceiling and 60 foot windows. How I remember that, I have no idea.
We then headed off to the Empire State Building. I took an audio tour in which they gave some pretty interesting facts on what I was looking at from the top of the building. You could see the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, along with many other interesting places.
The next day we proceeded to spend most of the day shopping and sight seeing. We went to Times Square which was packed with people in the freezing cold. I did a lot of shopping simply because my dad gave me his credit card “in case of an emergency.” I figured being in New York City and needing some new clothes and shoes was a big enough of an emergency. Pretty much every store you can dream up of is in New York City. There is an NHL store, NBA Store, Nike store, Apple, Burton, and many many others. There was even a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. store/restaurant from the Forrest Gump movie. The Nike store was five stories in which they have shoots which shipped off the shoes people wanted to purchase to the cashiers. I never go shopping simply because I hate spending my money, but when your dad gives you his credit card for, “emergency purposes,” I pretty much tripled my wardrobe.
We also saw Trump’s Tower. Pretty incredible building. It was very well decorated in gold with a huge waterfall over marble in the lobby. Trump has it pretty good with all that money of his.
That night was also the first time I have ever tried sushi. It will also be the last time. I love food, but not raw fish. The eel wasn’t bad though. I would probably try that again.
The next day we spent vising colleges and eating New York style pizza. I ate five slices. Pretty good stuff that thin style of pizza is.
New York City is a very amazing place to be.
I forgot to Blog
Well I broke the streak for weeks not writing a blog at three. This is kind of hard to do when you realize you forgot to blog right you put on your pajamas and are ready to hit the hay for bed. I do not think I will make five hundred words for this post.
I really don’t mind blogging as much as my fellow classmates. I have read some of their blogs on, “Why we Shouldn’t Write blogs,” and some of them make a good case as to why we should not be on here doing all of this. There are times, like now, when I also find it silly.
Personally, I usually don’t mind it so much. Basically what I do when I am on here is I write about what I did or expienced over the weekend or write about a movie I saw on television. I basically could look at something and write a five hundred word essay about what it is, why I like it, or don’t like it, what it reminds me of. I could pretty much write a whole heap of garbage on a topic and make it my blog. But that would just be dumb and who would want to read about an inadequate object I see on the desk. Wow, that was a big word I used in that last sentence. Did you see that Mrs. Skotnicki, I should get some extra credit for that one right there.
Two hundred and fifty words. I am half way there.
Well let’s see here what else can I write about?
Last week I went to the Winter Classic which featured the Sabres and the Penguins. It was a very awesome time. The weather was perfect with a lot of snow falling from the skies. I ended up spending over $200. I haven’t spent that much money in a long time. Which is especially rare now that I am strapped for cash. I got a jersey and spent a ton of money on food and beverages. I’m a growing boy, I have to eat. Anyway the Sabres ending up losing from a heart wrenching goal by Crosby in the shootout. Now the Sabres are on a seven game losing skid, which isn’t good when the race for a playoff spot in the eat is so tight. Hopefully they will turn things around soon.
Let’s see, oh, what did I do this weekend? Well Friday I got home from school and ate nine or ten pancakes with a few tall glasses of milk. I basically went into hibernation mode and fell asleep till later in the day. They were some good pancakes if I do say so myself. I hung around with friends and called it a night. Saturday I pretty much did the same thing, minus all the pancakes. And today I played hockey and football with my friends. Your pretty typical weekend.
Well I think I am done writing here. I’m going to head off to bed and wake up tomorrow at seven for school.
Bills Lost, Good bye Playoffs
Well as I am sure you and all of the fellow Buffalonians already know the Bills lost earlier today eight to nothing by the Cleveland Browns. This dashed all hopes for the Bills to make a spot for themselves in the playoffs.
There was a lot of hype put into this game. Like I said, a victory would put the winning team in great in a great position to make it to the playoffs. The weather also played a factor in the game as well. The news providers were referring to the game as “The Snow Bowl” and “The Battle of Lake Erie.”
Both teams were huge long-shots at the beginning of the season to even have winning records by the end of the season.
The Browns always seemed to be perennial losers, but that changed this season after week one. They, like the Bills, had the odds stacked up against them as well. After benching their starting Quarterback after week one, and the releasing him to another team, having their coach on the verge of losing his job, and being totally disregarded as a good football team before the season started, they sure overcame some diversity. They became one of the league’s best offenses, and even though their defense usually does terrible they came up big against the Bills. Hence, that big goose egg of a zero the Away team, Buffalo, had under their name on the scoreboard.
To be quite honest, I did not think that the Bills would win more than five games this season, but they did in dramatic fashion.
After Kevin Everett’s injury topped off with a heart wrenching lose to the Broncos, a Cowboys lose with just seconds left on Monday Night Football, to our leading tackler in Paul P. (I am not going to bother trying to spell his last name) going down with a season ending arm injury, along with 7 others put on injured reserve, plus 12 other players that were hurt. The odds were really stacked up against us to even make a push to the playoffs this late in the season. According to my standards I am satisfied with the outcome on the Bills’ season, which still has two games left to be decided. We could possibly end up with a record of nine wins and seven loses. Not to shabby, even though we will not be heading to the post season.
Next to the Arizona Cardinals, the Buffalo Bills hold the longest current streak of not making the playoffs. That’s not a statistic a Franchise would want to be part of.
Like the saying goes, There is always next year.” And if you are a fan of Buffalo sports, you have pretty much said that your entire life.
I hope the Bills can make a few off season moves to make the team better. I have high hopes for them next year.
Now we can all root for the Sabres to make a run to the playoffs and hopefully surprise a few teams in the post season. Who knows, maybe they will even end up with a Stanley Cup. Hey, you never know.
I Got Accepted to College, Hooray
December 3, 2007
Filed under Accomplishments, Goals, Places, School, Worries
Tags: college UB buffalo Oswego Hilbert education SAT SATS gr
Well I got accepted into college. Pretty exciting stuff I guess. I sent in an application to Hilbert College about two weeks ago. It was free too, so I saved myself the normal $40 application fee that most colleges give. On Friday I got a letter in the mail from Hilbert. I figured it was just a form I had to fill out so they could find out more information about me. Unbelievably it was a letter and the first sentence of it went something like, “Congratulations on being accepted into Hilbert College.” I was very happy and proud of myself. There was never any doubt that I would not make it into college, I just did not figure I would find out so soon. At the bottom of the letter was a little side note from the Dean of Admissions that said, “Benjamin, Congratulations on this excellent achievement.” It was written in pen too, so you could tell that he put in a little effort in congratulating me on being accepted. I took that letter and put it right on the front of the refrigerator.
I looked up the school again online yesterday. It seems very nice. Its located in Hamburg not far from my old house. I plan on attending Hilbert for two years and transferring to UB for my final years of college, but that’s only the plan as of right now. That could change by tomorrow. I do not plan on boarding there. And unless I find an apartment that has a very cheap rent and roommate(s) to help split the cost, I will probably be living at home for the time being. I also hope to play hockey there. They do not officially have a team, but they have a club that travels all over New York and Pennsylvania to play hockey against other colleges. The captain of the team was my coach in the clinic at Holiday Rinks. The great thing about the team is nobody gets cut, so everybody makes the team. Which is good for me because I certainly do not have the skills at hockey to play at the college level. Basically if I really do terrible they will just scratch me from the game. Either way, that should be really fun and I will get to play a lot of hockey for real cheap. The only downfall of Hilbert is it seems fairly religious. It was named after a saint, and I am not really not the whole religious thing. I doubt that will interfere with my college education. Hilbert seems like a great place to go for college.
I also sent in my applications for UB and Oswego. They are both SUNY schools so I will have to wait till late January to find out if I got accepted there or not. I think I will make it into Oswego, but UB will be a long shot. You need an 89 average and a score of 1200 on your SATS to make it into UB. I have an 87 average with an SAT score of 1000, so I am just a bit short of their requirements.
Now that I have made it into college, I feel a disease eating me up inside. I think they call it senioritis.
Preface For Anthology
I am writing the preface for my anthology on my WordPress web-log because I do not have a Microsoft Word or an AppleWord installed into my computer. So I will type it here for now and then I will e-mail it to my yahoo account and print it from there. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by doing this.
The topic I chose for my anthology project is, “things that make me think.” All of the articles I did research on are based upon things that make me think, which is how I came up with the topic, along with the help of Mrs. Skotnicki. All of the articles I have done anthology cards on relate to my life. Whether I have done them at a certain point, or tried them, or just wondered about them, they just make me think in my mind. Without some of these things I would have nothing to wonder or think about. Life could be very boring without some of these things.
Some of the pieces that I have collected have very strong relationships with one another. For example I chose to do my two multicultural pieces on Kielbasa and Pasta. The are similar because they are both foods and both of their names rhyme. More importantly the both resemble my two heritages, Polish and Italian. Polish people love Kielbasa, which is sausage if you did not know, and Italian people love to eat pasta. Personally, I am a huge fan of them both. I love going to both sides of my family and eating the two very different types of cultural devised food. These two pieces were highly related to each other and a perfect fit for my anthology because I think about them all the time when I am hungry. I also took pieces that are based upon hockey, which is my favorite sport. I think about hockey a lot because I play it all the time with my friends and teammates. I also chose pieces that were based upon things that I do not have a chance to experience but things that I wonder about sometimes. Things such as the ozone, soy milk, and the Cold War. I have never had a chance to have experience with any of these things but I have thought about them once or twice before. I also added in some random pieces that have no relations to each other at all, and yet I still wonder about them sometimes. Such pieces have topics that include the movie License to Drive, which I think about because I hope to get my license soon. My friend’s math homework, which makes my brain go into overdrive when I think about it, usually giving me a headache. Along with a cell phone battery ad, which I think about because I need one for my phone. Add in some random web sites such as yahoo, msn, and wordpress and you have a whole pot of soup on all these different types of things that I think about.
I really did not learn anything to special about myself. They only thing this anthology project did for me is it put all the things I think about into an organized perspective.
It’s My Birthday
November 12, 2007
Filed under Family, Food, Friends, Holidays, Places, Sports, Telivision
Tags: birthday 17 food family cake friends party
Well today is my 17th Birthday. Over the weekend I spent most of my time hanging around with family and friends to celebrate it.
On Saturday I went to my uncle’s place for my cousin’s Birthday party. He turned seven. He was born on the exact same day as I was, so naturally when we celebrate our birthdays we share the celebration. It was also the first time I had seen my uncle and some of my other relatives in almost a year, so it was really great to see all of them. We played poker, watched the Sabres lose, ate tons of food, blew out the candles on the cake, and opened gifts. My cousin got all these toys and I received a bunch of checks. I was very grateful cause I have been broke for a while now, so they pretty much made for the perfect gift. Seeing my family was probably the best part of the evening though cause I had not seen them in a very long time.
On Sunday I spent pretty much most of the day hanging around with my friends. We got to stay out late becuase we didnt have school the next day. Pretty nice Birthday present if you ask me, a whole day off from school. (Special thanks to all of the troops that served in our country’s defenses). So we ended up just hanging around and goofing off. We drove around looking for something to do and ended up at a party. It was good time and a nice way to spend time with some of my good friends.
So today, Monday November 12th, is officially my Birthday. I hope Mrs. Skotnicki does not realize that I wrote this blog about twelve hours late. I spent most of the day watching SportsCenter and the Fast and the Furious movies on the telivision. I did not have any chores to do and I was allowed to own the coach and the teliviosn all for myself for the entire day. I spent pretty much my entire Birthday being a coach potato. It was a great way to spend the day. Eventually my mom took me to pick out a Birthday present. We went to the mall and I picked out a nice chrome weight set and a new hockey stick. We headed back home and I went back to being lazy. My friends called me and asked if I wanted to go for dinner with them. I asked if they were treating me to a free meal and they said of course, it’s your Birthday. So of course I said yes to going. How could I turn down a free meal? I asked where they were going to be taking me and they said Hooters, but unfortunatly the only location that was around our area closed, and closest one is located in Pennsylvania. So we decided to scratch that idea for the sake of gas and time and looked for another place to eat at. So for now I am working up a big appetite so I can get all the food I want and make my friends pay for it.
So far it has been a really great Birthday.
Life Without Running Water
Well what an interesting way to end my weekend. I come home from a long day of work and watching sports to find out that my house is out of water.
I walked home from my friend’s place and in the distance I can see four or five real huge dump trucks with yellow lights flashing and lighting up my entire street. When i finally reach the pavement of my street I find myself standing in a huge pool of water and as I get closer to my house the water becomes deeper. When I reach the front yard of my home I see a bunch of guys digging a big hole into the sidewalk of the house across the street. Apparently while my neighbors were out enjoying the Bills’ game at Ralph Wilson Stadium the main water pipe in front of their house exploded causing a huge flood on my street. Not to mention that all of the neighboring houses were completely out of water as well.
So when I arrived at my home I continued on with my normal Sunday afternoon schedule. Basically what I do is I will exercise for about an hour, take a shower, and have a snack. What I didn’t realize at the time is all three of these activities usually require water for me to do them. When i exercise I prepare myself a nice cold water bottle. When you take a shower you pretty much need water, common sense really, and I usually prefer a tall glass of water with my snack.
I figured that I could go on with my Sunday schedule without water. Simple enough right? Not quite. I pretty much forgot that the water was out about four different times. I would keep on walking up the sink during my exercising, grab a cup, and try to turn the faucet on. Basically what happened was the sink would make a very loud and strange noise, which was a rude reminder that the water was still not working. I felt like an idiot every time I did that. Yet I continued on with my afternoon activities. I figured that the longer i exercised the more time it would give the guys working on the broken pipe outside to get the water fixed for me to take a shower after. So i exercised a little bit longer than usually and went to the nearest sink to test it out and see if the water was working. Of course, not a single drop of water came out of the sink. Plus, now I had to go to the little boys room to take care of some business. Well without any water the toilet doesn’t flush. So I trekked myself outside and picked out a nice pine tree next to my garage to tinkle on. So this is what life was like way back in the day huh?
Well here I am now. At least the electricity is working. I have not showered since yesterday morning. Since then, I have gone ice skating, worked in a parking at at the Bills’ game, hung around with my friends, and did some exercise. Lets just say I don’t smell very terrific and I just feel dirty. Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow and have the water running. If not I just won’t go to school. I figure nobody will want to be around me if I have not showered in over two days.
Halloween
Well Halloween is coming up in a few days and this will probably be the last time i ever go trick-or-treating. My mom has said for the past four years that I am way too old to go out and trick or treat, but of course I have to go out and get all the free candy that the neighboring people are willing to give to me.
Halloween is defiantly one of the best holidays of the year if you ask me. I love it when all the really good scary movies are on TV and the haunted houses are open in the old abandoned Ames stores. Plus the weather tends to finally go down in temperature so we don’t have to deal with 80-90 degree heat in school anymore. Plus snow is usually on its way and that’s always something to look forward to. Its just a great time of the year.
I don’t know what exactly I want to be for Halloween. I have saved every single mask and costume that I wore for Halloween since i was a young child. I have an old skeleton outfit, a devil mask, a cyclops mask, a werewolf outfit, so i have a lot to choose from. I don’t plan on spending any money on Halloween due to the fact that i am broke and cant really afford anything anymore now that college and a future car purchase are in the near future.
I was thinking about being Bag Man again for Halloween like I did two years ago. Basically the Bag Man costume consists of a paper bag, a towel, and some fireworks. I take a paper bag and cut holes into it for my eyes and mouth. I write Bag Man at the top of the bag just in case people don’t know exactly who I am. I tie a large towel around my neck to act as a cape and I use the fireworks as my “secret weapon.” Basically i attach some bottle rockets to the top of the bag and some firecrackers to my side. Unfortunately I had a little mishap with the bottle rockets two years ago. One of the bottle rockets did not launch and stuck to the bag when it went off. I did not realize it at the time but the whole left side of the bag was on fire while it was on my head. Fortunately my friends were around to have a good laugh and were nice enough to tell me that my head was on fire. So i ripped off the bag and threw it into the street and watched as the best Halloween costume ever burnt to shreds. Then a big pick up trick came and ran over the burning remains and that was officially the end of that. Hopefully if I decide to be bag man again this year I wont have any mishaps that ruin my costume.
Basically my plans for this Halloween are to help my family give out candy for a little while and then head out with my friends to collect some candy from trick-or-treating. Hopefully I will end up scaring some of my friends and get some really great candy that will last me until summer. I just hope i don’t end up on fire or in the dentist’s office because of a cavity.
