sabres meet n' greet

went for the last game of the season, sabres at bruins in boston. unfortunately no luxury box seats this time, pepsi hospitality only goes so far when you're merely a lower level executive. anyways, we had pretty good seats up on the balcony..

the sabres won 3-0, which was awesome, unfortunately we missed the playoffs so that was that for hockey this season. the real bonus was that i knew someone who knew someone and after the game we got to go down and meet the sabres leaving the locker rooms. we got to speak to most of the team, take pics and get autographs too! here's us with the sabres star goalie ryan miller, and with star-to-be drew stafford

shuffle-o to buffalo

so one day i'm browsing through the bookshelf, and suddenly i realize i cannot find any of my andy mcnab's!! now those of you who don't know me too well probably also don't know how much i love his books, and so it really bothered me to also realize that the books were still in a box back in my old apartment in buffalo! so then i got a-thinking about what the heck else i had left back there! it appeared that there was actually a good chunk of my wardrobe and books and other important documents still back at old 122H..

then i also got thinking, that it would be fantastic to go go check out the Buffalo Sabres play at home, surrounded by raving raging buffalonians rather than in the stodgy confines of boston, in enemy territory! by the miracles of ebay and travelocity, credit card info was transferred and tickets were bought, and before you could say "let's go Sabres" we were headed off to buffalo to watch the Sabres play the Capitals, with the added bonus of watching Ovechkin play - his rugged jawline makes the gf swoon, apparently..



unfortunately the Sabres lost, but the rest of the two-day whirlwind trip was fantastic, despite the snowstorms and biting cold. i retrieved all my missing stuff, had strong sensations of deja vu walking the streets of University heights, past 33H and 122H, eating at Just Pizza, dropping by the library i worked at, peering into classrooms that i rarely sat in and finally meeting up with my thesis advisor and being surprised by how warmly he welcomed me back!


one final note, these small puddle-jumpers for local direct flights make for some rough flying in bad weather, definitely not for the queasy ones!

the luxury box

after months of nagging the bosses at work that i'm a huge Buffalo Sabres fan and wanted tickets to go watch them in Boston when they came to town to play the Boston Bruins, finally they relented.. and how! i mean, there's a five foot by three foot flag of the Buffalo Sabres hanging in my office, how much more of an indication could i give!!

anyways, the Pepsi luxury box was fantastic, top notch food - prime rib, shrimp cocktail, etc.. beer in the mini-fridge.. the view was awesome too, with exclsuive replay tvs and the works..




of course, it was all the sweeter that the Sabres won!

NB:- I'm headed to Buffalo tomorrow for a short holiday, to catch the Sabres play the Washington Capitals.. now that should be a helluva game

#750 and other notes

for the last hundred or so posts, pretty much since i started working, updating this blog has been as tough as pulling teeth, kind of like that piece of leftover pan-fried steak from last night that you shoved into the fridge and were dreaming of eating this morning with eggs, but it was as chewy as Clint Eastwood's leathery hide in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.. and after you're done you spend half an hour picking your teeth and trying to elicit a half-satisfied burp. that's how i feel about this blog now, cos i barely have any fun stuff to say in it

• i could talk about air compressors at work failing and the winter rebuild program we're implementing, but who am i kidding, it's enough hearing about that at work every effin' day without bringing shop-talk home
• i finished part 1 of the project management degree, only eleven to go - heh! it was pretty hectic and quite tough, involved lots of reading and then some more for the exams and projects. the week break between courses is over, alas, so back to the grind we go
  
• there's the Sabres @ Bruins game i went to with my boss, who was good enough to buy me dinner and drinks too, but he spent most of the game heckling the Sabres and we did eventually lose in overtime so that was nothing to write home about (fantastic seats though, 9 rows behind the goal, right up in the slot). but i like that i can always get free tickets from Pepsi to go watch the Sabres everytime they swing by Beantown.
• and then this weekend is the supposed game of the century, the Patriots travel to the Colts.. but there is enough of that in the press to read and pick apart without sullying this blog
• fall is here and winter is close behind. summer daylight savings ended last night so i got to sleep in an extra hour, which is always great. fall is beautiful - the leaves on the trees vary from pale shades of gold to deeper shades of maroon. that's the good thing with being in the Northeast, and in my case living in central Mass., lots of nature trails all around and it's a great time to be up and about.
• i have been listening to loads of music, as there's lots of new stuff out. get up to date with who what when where at the rock blog..

hockey's back!

The NHL season skates off tonight for the Buffalo Sabres..
my evenings are accounted for from now through April!

blue n' gold

in case i didn't make it abundantly clear in the previous post, this blog's new look is exclusively for the Buffalo Sabres' playoff run. the colors blue and gold have always been the traditional kit of the Sabres, and this year we're aiming for the Stanley Cup.. let's go Buffalo!

in-between

i don't blog much these days.. i don't find much to write about. feels like my creativity is being stifled and my energy is being sapped.

work is insanely crazy. the good days are when i can get out after 12 hours. i don't mind the long hours as much as the timing of those hours.. from 3am to 3pm and beyond does not allow the body to settle into either a day schedule or night schedule. it's an in-between schedule, and therefore i have become an in-between person.

i do things in-between nowadays. i sleep in-between the hours dayshift and nightshift people sleep. sometimes i prefer to stay at work because when i'm at home i'm getting calls from the plant. so actually i sleep in-between being at work and being on the phone to work. i eat two meals a day, in-between doing some desk work or falling asleep on the couch. i live on gravity, machines, steaks and Gatorade. in-between i try to spend some quality time, cook, clean and go grocery shopping.

the only thing that makes my eyes light up and brings a smile to my face is the Sabres. of course, i have to break my sleep time into two 3-hr shifts to catch their games, so i watch them in-between. such a pleasure to behold the Sabres in full counter-attacking flight, silver skates glistening as they leave molten ice in their wake, the puck caroming in-between their sticks like a pinball.. then a quick flash and the black disc whirrs into the net past flailing goaltenders and flaming defensemen.. only to nestle safely in-between the goalposts, setting off the goal buzzer and a million blue-and-gold Buffalonian hearts. let's go Sabres!

this is turning into an "i this.." and "i that.." post, the kind i don't like. oops, i again. it is ridiculous the extent of punishment the human body can take - the people at work don't ask me what shift i am on nowadays, cos i answer "all shifts". almost two months into doing both my job and my boss'job, i do feel like i'm growing older much faster than i should be, in no small part due to the hedonistic college lifestyle i had adopted before i started working.

pretty much the only positive point here is that i'm keeping pretty fit n' trim. i cycle to and from work, am on my feet for most of the hours at work, and a quick romp or three in the sack never hurt anybody.

there is no point, moral, lesson, purpose or wisdom in this post - it's just in-between.

he scoooooores!!

ahh, finally something that should help the cold bleak winter pass by more easily.. i got Digital Cable with all it's 300 channels to go with the kick-ass, self-built and hopefully-working home theater you see here..

and of course, the one package i had to get was the NHL Center Ice, so that i can watch yet another league-dominating and ice-sweeping season for my beloved Buffalo Sabres..

there are still sixty-odd games left, and then the inevitable playoffs too.. there's a certain joy in laying back blazed on the comfy couch, floating in my cloud and watching the Sabres whiz up and down the ice kickin' ass.

oh yeah, this is how i chill out on weekends :-)

so what happened last weekend..

for all of you who are absolutely dying to hear about our bachelor party shenanigans.. there will be no details leaked here. leave if you must but if you keep reading you might be able to glean some info about what we really got up to! hey, i might let a thing or two slip as well! as i write this, the groom-to-be is probably very jetlagged and landing up at home, ready for the engagement, about to be besieged by the family and relatives that descend in hordes from the hills and everywhere around everytime a wedding comes around. nats started working on a little site.. drop by and leave some best wishes!

anyways, going back to the weekend. i landed up in Buffalo and it was a great autumn day. just a slight nip in the air, and nice and warm too. it had been a while since we'd all gone on a hike, so we went to the Devil's Hole State Park (minds out of the gutter folks!).. this is located just downriver from the Niagara Falls, which we've all seen so many times by now that any further mention of them could lead to instant upchucking of swallowed food-type material. a pic from the hike..

after we got home, we laid back and chilled out for a bit.. it was time for.... hmm, we did some stuff. then some more stuff. then we were hungry, so went to a fancy-pants place.. the groom's choice, and definitely very awesome. Shogun is one of Buffalo's best hibachis, and a really good experience, with the food and warm sake playing a huge part - check out chef Tom's stunts!

after dinner we were all really full and kinda whacked out.. but this being the last night before we all dispersed our own ways, we had to make the most of it! so let me get some things clear - there was intoxication involved, much hilarity and fun too.. women were present in various states of dress and undress at different stages.. pounding trance music and flashing laser lights too.. sweat-soaked shirts clinging to backs and very happy smiles lighting up faces ended the night. make what you can of all that info!

we woke up really spazzed (whoever taught me that word knows herself only too well!).. somehow dragged ourselves to the nearest Buffalo Wild Wings and planted rear ends on the first available table in front of the wide screen tv. the wing sauces we had were super hot, and really tasty too - Mango Habanero and Caribbean Jerk. unfortunately while the wings sizzled, the Buffalo Bills fizzled and we were disgusted enough by halftime to head home.

and thus ended the bachelor party weekend.. fare thee well sank as you head into the hitherto uncharted marital waters. luckily we know nats well enough to not have to send you off with a lifeboat! (i know, my jokes suck today.. deal with it!) congrats again buddy!

of course, i absolutely do not believe in paraskevidekatriaphobia, hence my writing this post today.. when you work at the job i am at, every day you go in is the worst day, and every day you leave the day becomes the best!

go long, go long!

yes, it's that time of the year again when Fall starts to tinge the leaves, and there's a nip in the air.. and the sounds of crowds roaring fill living rooms throughout the nation on sunday afternoons. yes, the NFL is back, and football season is upon us yet again. for the next seventeen weeks, i shall not be available from noon onwards on sundays, as the gridiron and the grill fires up, the beer and icecream cools down..all in the pursuit of the ultimate goal - the SuperBowl!

so it's time to brush up on your lingo - 'no-huddle offense', 'shotgun', 'blitz' and the like, and also check out who went where and is playing for whom now.. drop a few bucks into your office pool, you never know when you could get lucky as well!

from the heart of New England, the home of the old enemy, as always yours truly will be right behind his boys from Buffalo, even though we aren't expected to be contenders this year either.. the blue and red will always run in my veins

am figuring to make some dough on the side too this time, lets see if all those hours poring over football trivia and watching games pays off.. the office pool should be pretty huge, nearly 80 guys are going to be in every week, a hefty payout if i pick the games correctly every week. if things go well, i'll drop some cash with a couple of bookies as well.. who said passion can't bring home the bacon! so switch on the tv, sit back in your favorite armchair, pop open a cold beer, roll out the wings and pizza, and say with me.. let's go Buffalo!

the times they are a'changin'

i was gonna title this post 'good times'.. but then checked and saw that it would be the sixth time i have had that title for a post! now that wouldn't be good form for an aspiring columnist would it?

so vip drove down from detroit for the weekend, and we officially inaugurated sank's new pad as the brownie party destination! unfortunately the weather did not hold, so not much town-painting was done.. we kept it pretty quiet and clean. this will no doubt be of great disappointment to a lot of you, but i promise to remedy that situation very soon!

it was a bit of a hectic weekend, so much beer to be drunk, so many things to talk about.. ate out late at the Jim's Steakout on Elmwood on friday night, then ended up catching up on life and things until 5 in the morn. we were up bright and early then, taking vip's case as always. such a shift in balance.. once upon a time a-rod was everybody's bunny, but now vip being the 'senior' citizen it's always more fun to bug him!

after a pretty heavy lunch buffet at 'Taste of India' we came back home to watch the basketball and hockey playoffs, and passed out! threw the football around in the evening just like old times, then watched the Buffalo Sabres manhandle the Philly Flyers in the hockey playoffs. went out bowling after that.. we wanted to do the 'space bowling' thing (with black lights and fluoroscent pins), but the alleys were booked. did a late dinner at Denny's and then went home to crash. at some point later in the intoxicated phase we remembered we just had to play a game of Monopoly. a long long time ago, it was a tradition that we'd get buzzed every night and then play! with our own rules of course, using credit limits, free stays and exchange deals to keep the game fun and alive for as long as possible. and once again we proved the rule, that the 'orange' set will always win you the game. always. finally crashed at 6 after that.

sunday was lazy.. took things easy. caught lunch at our new fave chinese place Red Pepper,and then before we knew it vip had to leave to make the long drive home and that was it for this round of brownie parties. as farewells go, this was definitely one of the better ones :-)

spring has sprung

Daylight Saving Time kicked in this weekend, so we moved our clocks an hour ahead.. and it seems spring kicked in with some verve and gusto. had some really pleasant weather, the light rain was welcome and sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day! i finally pulled out my shorts and my pale legs got their Vitamin D shot after ages.

A-Rod's best buddy N was in town for the weekend, so we hung out and had some fun. went to the Niagara Falls (again!).. i should seriously consider getting a volunteer guide position there for the upcoming summer, i almost know my way around blindfolded! chilled out at home and drank some.. ok, i lied. drank a lot. heh! i spent the whole weekend starting friday afternoon in a kind of happy haze, the kind that a couple of quick beers brings.. a gentle smile wafting around the countenance, eyes slightly squinty and leg-pulling galore.

we were up till really really late on saturday night.. and a couple of hours of sleep later were up early sunday to go hiking after a quick bite and a breakfast beer(or three!). went to the Allegany National Park, and it was awesome. the weather was great, not too warm and not too cold.. perfect for some solid hiking. we chose a pretty tough trail, and it was a total of around 8 mi. (13 K).. good workout, and especially with my new no-smoking resolve, really helped purge the body. will have the pics up soon.

rounded off the weekend with an early dinner at Chili's, and another beer to top off the tired limbs.. and an early-to-bed night that still ended up stretching beyond midnight.. hope this week is as good as it promises to be.

break the ice

the NHL ice hockey season is reaching a crucial stage, with the playoffs looming fast, and the top teams jostling for position. this time around the Buffalo Sabres find themselves in a very lofty standing, and well-placed to make a run for the Stanley Cup, the holy grail for all things hockey. today, they come up against perennial division rival Toronto Maple Leafs. over the last few years the blokes from up north have been lording it over us, but this year change seems imminent.

apart from the fact that Toronto is just over the border from Buffalo, we share a lot of common traits with our brothers and sisters from across the (Niagara) Falls.. primarily an easygoing nature and a love for pretty women, beer, hockey and a good time, not necessarily in that order either. Toronto has long had the reputation for one of the most welcoming cities, and is said to have a cultural diversity that well matches New York City.. can't wait to get my papers in order so that i can go visit! oh yeah, the Canadians make two good beers (Labatt's & Molson) which easily kick the asses of anything Budweiser or Miller can come up with.

to that end, a very good friend of mine, the Sassy One, and her significant other will make the trip down south to hang out with us and watch the game. friendly wagers have been placed on the game, but i will leave it to her to tell you what these are! so here's looking forward to a great game, and a great night out partying!

saturday night fever blues

went downtown to the Tudor Lounge last night, a nice enough little dive bar in the heart of the Chippewa party district. renowned as a blues location, a pretty good band was on last night, the Blues Hounds. they had all the hallmarks of good blues music.. good drummer, capable guitarists, good vocals and an excellent harmonica. the native american kid who was playing the harmonica looked a bit incongruous, and hardly twenty, but he sure rocked the joint with his rhythm.

blues music has always been one genre where both white and black folk have agreed on. historically from the south, and developed by the poorer black slaves of the time, it rapidly spread to the guitar-based music of the white parts of the south too. places like Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi being the hotbeds of blues culture. blues went on to influence several other genres too, including jazz, rhythm n' blues (Rn'B) and southern classic rock. read more here.

so what did you get up to on saturday night?

artsy-fartsy!

how often is it that you anticipate a friday night, planning it for a while, thinking of things to do, and then when the time comes, go ahead and jump into it headlong, carpe dieming it?! well, friday night we did.. planning a great night ahead, which started with a trip to an art museum, then dinner at a lebanese restaurant (including bellydancing!!), followed with possible hanging out at a pub somewhere.

now i'd like to say that i am a step above your average engineer, in the sense i try to appreciate the more artistic things in life, and that i don't view everything i see in newtons and meters per square centimeter. so confident in the knowledge that i would be in touch with my more art-appreciative side, we ventured to the Albright-Knox Museum. 45 minutes later, all i was really glad about was that it was free friday, and that i had paid no money to get in there. there was nothing there that caught the eye, nothing i found interesting. in fact, most of the 'art' there was stuff i could make while scratching my left ear, and would not even raise an eyebrow. how spectacular do you find this?

this is 'Untitled', by XXX (name protected for reasons of safety, his safety!!)

i just whipped this up on MS Paint in a matter of two minutes. i hear this piece of art was donated to the museum, and is in the range of some five figure sum (in dollars, with the decimal point after five digits mind you).

now you can see why i left this edifice in quite a huff. it also didn't help there was some latin dance shindig happening there, which i find quite the odious punishment, especially when most of the attendance comprises geriatric folk not far removed from a one-way ticket to the big dancehall in the sky, and also the fact that i would rather be there with the gf.

so A-Rod and i landed up back at home, with some buffalo wings and pizza, and a movie to watch.. and definitely no belly-dancing et al. sometimes it's good to make a change, but mostly i wouldn't mind being myself, the non-artsy-fartsy guy.

March Madness is here!

in case you didn't know what March Madness is, it's the month when all the college basketball games get to the playoff levels.. and it's time again to wear your team colours with pride! the UB Bulls made the playoffs again this year..

i am gonna be off today to Cleveland with the Mighty Maniacs, decked in blue and white.. chanting "Let's Go Buffalo"!! and yeah, meet our friend Victor!

Fat Tuesday!

yeah, it's Mardi Gras baby.. so let the drinking and associated activities begin!! for those who want to know the history of Mardi Gras, click here, and if you wanna see what the folks in New Orleans get up to, click here.

so in case you didn't know, today's the day as well when street parties happen, pub crawls take place, girls bare the boobies in exchange for beads (oh yes, they do!), shouts of "throw me something mister!!" fill the air, and a lot of alcohol is consumed! here's the recipe for the Mardi Gras special drink..

The Hurricane
- 2 oz light rum
- 2 oz dark rum
- 2 oz passion fruit juice
- 1 oz orange juice
- 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
- 1 tbsp simple sugar syrup
- Garnish: orange slice and cherry

i'm gonna be out partying all evening and night long too, so i leave you with a few more pics, and a happy Mardi Gras to all!