The National Hockey League staged what it called its fifth annual Winter Classic on Monday when the Philadelphia Flyers entertained the New York Rangers. Conveniently, the league has changed the name of the game from Heritage Classic, thereby, forgetting that Edmonton hosting the first outdoor game six years ago against Montreal. Furthermore, it's interesting to note that in this day and age of upper class families rising to the cream of the hockey crop, I'm betting very few of the forty players who participated on Monday had ever played an organized game outside prior to Monday. Still, I like the idea and hope that it continues.
There was a report in the Toronto Star on Monday detailing how the six Canadian NHL teams account for over 33% of the league's ticket revenue. In addition to the rinks being full, tickets for games in Canada can cost as much as two times more than similar tickets in American markets. With talk of Phoenix, Columbus, and NYIslanders being in possible peril, there is once again discussion of a team heading to Quebec City or Hamilton. Other short listed cities include Seattle and don't be surprised if you hear Hartford as a potential site within the next year or two as well. Wouldn't it be something if Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford all got their teams back?
The NFL playoffs begin this weekend and my Super Bowl picks are New Orleans against Baltimore. Green Bay and New England don't have a good enough defense.
Although this is the year of the offense. Oh, and after originally buying Tim Tebow stock, I think I'm ready to sell.
A few Yorkton residents remarked positively at gas being reduced to 115.9 over the Christmas holidays. Those same people tempered their enthusiasm when I had to relay, second hand, that gas in Swan River was being sold for 94.9. Gouge. The only way to combat this is to try and plan accordingly when you are traveling out of town so that you do not buy your fuel in Yorkton. I'm all for supporting local businesses, but this kind of discrepancy is unacceptable. I was in Roblin on Sunday and gas was 111.9.
I got caught up on some of my television watching over the Holidays. Of course, there are only a few shows I am keen to follow, but one of them is Person Of Interest. I had six episodes to watch and, I think, I knocked off four of them in one night as I simply couldn't bring myself to turn the tv off. I haven't been this captivated by a television program since Prison Break. I don't think I'll fall six weeks behind again when it comes to this show. I should point out that I like Blue Bloods, but haven't been able to watch and I'm still five weeks behind! Part of the problem is that I've discovered HomeLand. It's worth checking out.
There are many reasons to choose an iPad over a Microsoft product, but the biggest reason for me is simply the boot up time. An iPad can be turned on and used almost as quick as a television. It's very portable too.
For people that like to challenge themselves with a good trivia game, try out sporcle.com. There are a number of great brain teasers on there. The only downfall is that it's American based, so there are some exercises on there that are extra challenging for Canadians.
You don't have to go far away to enjoy a winter's day. Our family took in Asessippi and went tubing for a solid six hours. Our children, ages 10, 7, and 4 all had a blast. Sure, it's not Fernie or Banff. But, it's close and it's something you wouldn't ordinarily do in all likelihood either.
It's a new year and just about everybody makes a resolution or two. Dave Zinczenko from Men's Health Magazine suggests giving your resolution five weeks before it becomes a habit. Most of the resolutions concern weight loss, so here are a couple more tips from Zinczenko: put a squirt of lemon in your water because it will cause your metabolism to spike. Start paying attention to nutrition labels or content when grocery shopping. Taking this little bit of extra time usually means pounds will vanish.
Nice person mentions this week to Darryl Wolski, Taryn Romanowich, Connie Reeve, and Don Rae.
