Week Two Playoff Beards

It's just after 2 weeks since the playoffs (18 days)...The Sabres are in Round 2 v.s. the Rangers, up 2 games to none.

Here's a story from the Buffalo News about playoff beards in Buffalo...

Week 2 playoff beards...Gettin' kinda scraggly...scraggly good.


Baker (Could be a stunt double in one of those pics)


Franklin


Pete


Ashok


Josh


Wilson


Playoff Puppy?

Cup Build 2007

This weekend fellow hockey enthusiast Don Ferlazzo and I decided to build our own Stanley Cups to help cheer our teams on through the playoffs. We both chose different materials and methods of construction.

From good 'ol trusty Wikipedia... "Commonly referred to as simply "The Cup", "The Holy Grail" or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as "Lord Stanley's Mug", it is one of the most-recognized symbols in North American sports and is at the center of several legends and superstitions."

You too can impress your girlfriend with your very own Stanley Cup. Here's a brief photo essay on how we did it...


The materials (Mine on the left, Don's on the right). You haven't lived until you've walked around Home Depot with a bucket of Stanley Cup.


Don decides to hammer the air while singing "If I Had a Hammer" as I discover that the Super Glue is only sticking to my fingers, not the plastic buckets.


Just before I realize the metal bowl won't work. Don discovering drain piping can also be used for the Cup.


Damn tin foil just isn't working, time for a last minute re-design. Don concentrates on his gluing.


Super Glue and tape isn't holding up my Cup. Don suggests using the dozens of Ithaca pins Zach took from "Ithaca Night" at the Riviera Country Club. Shockingly enough, the pins do work and hold my Cup tiers together.


Thanks to Ithaca College my Cup stands tall. Good thing I also bought a plastic bowl. Don finishes his Cup.


My cup becomes silver along with half of the other patio furniture.


Don walks off, pretending the New Jersey Devils just won the Cup. Pretend is all he can do this year because he knows the Sabres are just too good to beat.


Goodnight Cup...dreaming of the Chippewa Cup Celebration 2007...

Click on the photos above to make bigger, or check out the rest of the photos on my Flickr site...

Week One Playoff Beards

It's the NHL playoff's, which mean playoff beards (which also include less women, less job opportunities, less razor burn, less time to get ready in the morning).

My friends and I are not going to shave until Chris Drury hoists the Sta-ahhhhh okay...here are the rules...

April 10th, 2007
Ok guys, get in that final shave by 11:59 EST...You hear that Pete? Eastern Standard Time! That is the last FULL shave for any of us until the Sabres win the cup! If any of us do for some ridiculous reason (i.e funeral, wedding) need to shave it, that reason MUST be approved by a majority. (Remember doctors note needed or obituary(no copy, original ONLY!)

Rules
1. Cleaning up the neck- I am fine with this, honestly about a week in my principal will probably make me. But only CLEAN UP work. Hence, no full shave.

2. No dying- I am very tempted to get a J.P Dumont red tint going on mine, but, I digress, alas, I decide, don't mess with it. (Look at that tricky comma work...grammar king!)

3. Be Proud- Gentlemen, your beard is a work of art! Be very proud and show it off to anyone who will look! There will be the nay-sayers, we say "go to the playoffs pinhead."

Have at it boys!

Beard General,
Steven James Baker


Before

After Week 1 of the Playoffs....

Baker


Franklin


Me


Ashok


Josh


Wilson

Things I Am 97-99% Sure Live Outside My Bedroom Window

I have been living in an apartment in North Hollywood for almost a year now. It's a nicer development compared to the rest of the area. I can't say a day or night goes by without hearing some sort of strange noise bellowing from outside.

Here's a small sample...

Auction Guy

In a nearby lot, Auction Guy finds it necessary to auction off cars about twice a week in the morning for about 3 hours each time. Thanks to his giant sound system, we can clearly make out what cars nowadays are going for. Thanks Auction Guy!!

The Pterodactyl

I was ecstatic when I first heard the Pterodactyl squak in the early hours of the morning from a couple houses down. I love dinosaurs, and I love even more that they apparently exist now. But morning after morning of squaking leads to sleep deprivation as I ponder things like "Wait...Why can't I have a Pterodactyl myself? If I had one I'd train it to not squak so much. I'd train it to make funfetti cake from scratch"

The Crying Baby 2007

It just cries and cries and cries, all night long...and cries and cries and cries. Shut up baby, get a hobby or a job.

Cats

After living here a year there are not many noises I haven't heard coming from a cat. I can now tell when they're fighting, crying, molesting each other, paying taxes. Oh then there's the sound they make when they realize getting Arby's at 10PM on a Tuesday night just wasn't a good idea. I hate cats.

Ghetto Bird

How exciting a helicopter circling around my neighborhood with a giant spotlight skimming the gorund can be! I wonder if it's chasing a convict on the run who just broke into a bank, ran over a couple pedestrians, jaywalked and is now looking for cover in my neighborhood. At least I am protected by the walls of this townhouse and it's windows. I'm safe.

Revving Infiniti Engine Guy

Thanks for revving that engine, guy. I hope it makes you feel mighty powerful. I hope all the onlookers in our deserted townhouse alley are throwing themselves at you in awe.

The March 29th 11:05PM Creature
It was late. Windows open. It had been raining for a couple days. Zach and I were in my room talking. Then we heard the sound. A sound that can only be described as "an evil, menacing, creaturish laugh" ringing from directly below my window. Whatever made the noise scampered away immediately, fading into the night. Zach described it as "clearly being pissed off at something."
I just hope it wasn't this...

If it was, I'm moving. I'm confident it wasn't the creature above, though. The one we heard sounded furry.

What's outside your window?

Welcome to My Junk

Everyone uses their first blog post to welcome anybody to read their blog, as well as a brief description of what he/she will be blogging about. I'll go against the norm and do that in my 2nd post.

Here you will find my junk. That's right, all my junk in all it's glory. What exactly is my junk? Many things, but some to mention are my photos, my videos and my thoughts.

So get ready to dive into my junk. Here at http://petesjunk.blogspot.com/.

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy my junk!

1:43am and Bleeding Blue and Gold

It's time to blog. Hello blog.

It's nearly 2am the night before Game 1 of the Sabres-Islanders playoff series. I can't sleep because of the anticipation and the excitement. Might as well start to blog. Could it be? Could all the years of pain and suffering losing Super Bowls and Stanley Cups be over? If there has ever been a Buffalo team to end the misery, it's this one.

I lay in bed thinking of all the times growing up going to the games at the Aud with my dad and all the excitement. The crowd literally making the entire building shake in chants and cheers. The goal horn going off. The Oranges and the Blues. Brad May, Pat LaFontaine, Rob Ray. The final game at the Aud, the first game in the Arena. The new jerseys and red and black. The Jumbo Tron crashed onto the ice. The times watching the games on TV, and then the re-cast of the game in Ashok's basement. The posters I would save that the Buffalo News printed of Zhitnik, Hasek, Peca and Stuuuuuuu Barnes. The trips to Damon's Bar with what seemed my entire high school, cheering on the Sabres in the '99 Cup which ended in a heartbreaking Brett Hull No Goal. BS, he was in the crease! Baker getting fired from Ted's for going to Game 7. Coming home from college and going to all those near-Christmas games. Golisano buying the Sabres, keeping them in Buffalo. The return to the blue and gold but ushering in "the slug." Creeping up to an empty conference room at work last year to listen to the Sabres dismember the Flyers on WGR online. Being on Chippewa St. during the playoffs last year and hearing the Buffalo chants ring through the streets, the car horns beep "Lets Go Buffalo" and Rick Jeanneret calls blaring out of SoHo every couple songs. Maxim Afinogenov! Chris Druuuuuury, Danny Briere, Milllllller. Pominville's OT shorthanded goal. Winning 10 games in a row to start this season, the 6 goals the Sabres scored right in front of me in under 10 minutes vs. the Caps at Christmas, watching the Sabres sweep the Canes this year after they beat us in the Eastern championship last year.

With all those great memorable times in the past, there can only be more added to them. Hopefully this year will go down as the year. Hopefully my greatest Sabre memory is coming in June...

It's time to...