The Amazing Race 7--"Courteous? This is a Race!"

Here we go again...and I can't say that quote makes me think we have fewer heels this time around. But maybe it's just one team. I, personally, will be hoping that that the Survivor couple hangs around awhile so I can hate them. They've won enough money, but if they go out too soon I won't be able to have fun rooting against them...

Season 7 commences Tuesday at 9pm, for another 2 hour premiere... presumably camping in the Andes.

Checking In

Ay, it's been too long since I really wrote anything. Been busy, trip to Chicago, and was sick this week.

I meant to blog a while ago that I found the used bookstore and went nuts, picking up copies of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash, the "uncut" version of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (though I assume, like most things, that restoring material makes it a little less cohesive), a copy of Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland and three Bradbury short story collections. I also found the comic store on the way home and picked up Alan Moore's From Hell and The Essential Harlan Ellison. This should keep me busy fora while. I have now finished Snow Crash which I really liked, although like most not-quite-perfect sci-fi books it invents a world it can't quite wrap up. But it's quite the interesting world he's conjured up.

We got sent home early from work due to the 3-5 inches of snow. Since I've been sick and not sleeping well, I just came home and crashed. Horray to two-hour naps. Schools didn't even open today, having been canceled before the snow started. Wusses.

Getting My Hockey Fix

With the NHL officially about to call it a year, I decided to get my live hockey fix somewhere last weekend. Turns out the closest home game on Sunday was the Reading Royals of Reading, PA, a 3 hour drive. (It's pronounced "Redding" or like the past tense of "Reading", btw. I suppose if it were "Reeding", the team would have to be the Reading Rainbows and the uniforms would be a little too Queer Eye for the working class town.)

Reading is in the ECHL, essentially two levels down from this NHL everyone keeps telling me about. And the play was about that level. Toledo, a Red Wings farm club, played the night before (although so did Reading, but not as far away) and they gift-wrapped more pucks than the Sutter family as Reading won 6-2. But it was still a fun night--for $15, I was right on the blue line, four rows back. Now if only it didn't cost me $22 in gas to get there...

The Amazing Race 6--"4 Continents, 24 Cities, 40,000 Miles"

Here's the finale. And here's to a less whiny Season 7, as well.

Bold Predictions:

First half: Hayden & Aaron, Kris & Jon, Freddy & Kendra, Adam & Rebecca
Second: Kris & Jon, Freddy & Kendra, Hayden & Aaron

Super Bowl Prop Bets--for entertainment only, no wagering

Football Outsiders has their usual runthrough of Super Bowl Prop Bets. You can risk moolah on some stupid, stupid things.