Slight Delay

I haven't written in the past few days, mostly for the fact that I haven't had much to write about. I did find it interesting that most of the ads I allow Google to place on my blog are fairly feminine focused... like bras and strip aerobics classes to name the notables. Other than that, it's mostly been working, where I'm doing a bunch of reading, and not much more, and then spending nearly every waking moment with Kirsten, which, while very fun and enjoyable for me, would probably be boring to anyone still reading this.

So, what else to talk about? Well, why not start by trying to up the manliness of my blog at the moment... And by that I mean, talking about hockey and the impending Stanley Cup playoffs. If you can argue that hockey is not manly, please, let me know so I can laugh at you.

The Caps beat Tampa last night, 4-2, and in so doing, locked up the second seed in the Eastern conference. A quick look at ESPN.com shows that, as of now, the Caps would start the playoffs facing the Rangers. Considering how the series has gone this season, I am very comfortable with this scenario. The Caps won three of the four, and lost that fourth in a shoot out, which doesn't happen in the playoffs. One of those wins was arguably one of the more dramatic of the season, with the Caps pulling even after rallying from being down 4-0 in the second and 4-1 to start the third.

I'm not sure how locked in ESPN's seeding is, since each team has one game remaining, but I'm hoping for them to remain unchanged. If they do, then the next most intriguing match up (in my very biased mind) would be Pittsburgh and New Jersey. They split their regular season series 3-3. It will also be interesting to see if the sliding Devils can regain enough footing to have a showing out the gate in the playoffs. I will be rooting for them to take the series, mostly out of my dislike of Cindy Crosby.

As itstands, assuming Boston (the number 1 seed) takes care of Montreal, then the caps would be looking to face the Devils should they beat Pittsburgh. However, if they don't then the Caps will face the winner of the Flyers/Hurricanes matchup. Of course, that's all changed if Montreal puts up a fight.

Man, I am so looking forward to playoff hockey.

Anyway, moving on. My mom and sister, along with Kirsten's parents are coming into town this weekend. Should definitely be an interesting experience, particularly talking with Kirsten's dad... if I get the chance to do so privately. Which scares the shite out of me, but I need and want to do it too. I have no idea what we'll be doing, other than eating lots of cake... so much for losing weight.

Looking forward, it looks like I might be challenging last year's concert attendance this summer. I have tickets (or have paid for 'em anyhow) for Lupe in a couple weeks, Chili Cookoff in May, and Incubus in August. And we've talked about going to the Virgin Music Festival again, partly pending who's playing. I'm just not looking forward to paying for those tickets.

Speaking of tickets... Ticketmaster is such a load of... well, shite. You can't get tickets for most anything anywhere else, and they charge you royalties like crazy. For Chili Cookoff I had to pay 11.45 a ticket for convenience charges, in addition to a few other charges. In all, I payed for another ticket and then some in fees when I bought three tickets. Lame. And then they tried to get me to pay for them to ship it some way other than standard mail, and would have charged a shipping fee per ticket. Why the hell should I have to pay shipping per ticket? It's not like they're made of gold and weigh 20lbs a piece. They're freaking piece of paper that can all fit in one envelope...

Ok, enough ranting about how lame ticketmaster is. Not worth getting that bent out of shape over...

Moving on...

I'm not sure what else to talk about. I've been toying with the idea of doing some investing, but I'm not sure who to go with... They all charge fees for x, y, and z, actions and try to veil it all in crazy amounts of jargon that is time consuming to sift through. So, I haven't had time to make up my mind on who to go with.

On the financial topic, my new savings account with ING has already given me more interest in one week than I had gotten in over 3 months with Wachovia, so that's cool. If anyone is interested in getting a higher (most likely) interest savings account with ING, let me know. I can refer you and, so long as you open the account with at least $250, you get $25 and I get $10. They also do anything else you could possibly do with money, and so far, I am very satisfied with their process. Their checking account sounds interesting, and I might get one once I move out of the place I'm in now and no longer need my Wachovia account to get Wes's rent each month.

Anyway, hope all is well with you and yours, and if you're reading, I'd love to hear from you.

-TES