After last night’s game, my hockey team actually has a winning streak!  This may actually be enough to move us out of last place for the first time this session.  Our opponents last night were another team at the top of the standings, so things are definitely changing for the good with our team.  We’ve added a really good player to our roster, and even if he isn’t scoring a ton, he really opens up the ice for the rest of us.  He did finish the game with a hat-trick last night, after putting in a last second empty net goal.  I can’t remember the exact score, but it was another high scoring game.  I didn’t get any of the goals, but I did have an assist off one of our player’s face-mask to help with the first goal of the night.  I’ll take it.

With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I forgot to mention yet another website that I am currently putting the finishing touches on. Greater Cincinnati Housing Evaluation Service’s website is now live at www.gchomeinspector.com. This is the website that I created a flash graphic for a couple of months ago.  The layout and content is pretty much finished, though I may try to get some additional images added. Recently I’ve just been spending time getting the sitemap submitted to Google, along with Analytics setup, and other things to make sure that the site ends up getting some traffic from search engines.  I’m pretty much caught up on web projects, so feel free to spread my name around to anyone looking.

I’m so glad that Chuck is back on the air again, finally!  If you don’t remember, there was a big online campaign to keep the show alive late last spring.  The third season started earlier this week with a two-hour special on Sunday night followed by an hour-long episode last night in its normal time slot.  I was a little nervous that the show might “jump the shark” but I have been really impressed with the storyline so far this season.  I don’t want to give much away, in case there are those that still have it on the DVR.  All of the action and comedy that was there before is still there, and perhaps even improved upon.  If you haven’t started watching this show, there is still time to get addicted, all the episodes are available for viewing on the official site.

After my hockey team’s disappointing shootout loss last Wednesday night, we quickly rebounded the next night.  We were scheduled to take on one of the top teams, a team with some players I used to play with, in a makeup game from a cancellation a few weeks ago.  We actually won our first regulation game, with a huge score of 9-3.  None of our players had a hat-trick, but a few of them had two goals.  So the scoring was spread around pretty well.  I added an assist to my stats and now have one goal and six assists, good enough to be in the top five point scorers on the team.

Unfortunately, the winning could not be extended to the University of Denver hockey game we attended on Friday night.  We arrived just a few minutes into the game, and DU was already up by a goal.  While waiting to climb the steps to our seats, we watched the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves score a goal to even the score at one.  This was all before the first five minutes of the game.  However, the scoring ended there, and the game even went through a scoreless overtime period.  I was expecting DU to crush UAA, so the tie was a big disappointment.  We watched the same UAA team unexpectedly beat DU last year too.

If I had to pick a current favorite band, it would absolutely be The Avett Brothers.  Their latest release, I and Love and You, has been listened to countless times, and one of their tracks made an appearance on this years NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music.  I hope that you have heard at least that track, and I would highly encourage purchasing the entire album.  Their Wikipedia page describes the band as a mix of “bluegrass, country, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock and roll, honky tonk, and ragtime…”  It really is an album full of nearly every style imaginable, and everyone should at least find one song that they enjoy.  My bet is that you will fall in love with their entire catalog.

Last night my hockey team had our first game in a few weeks, and it went surprisingly well. The other team came out fast and scored a goal just a few shifts into the game.  However, we quickly rebounded and had a 4-1 lead around the start of the third period.  Unfortunately, our juice ran out there and we allowed our opponents to crawl back into the game.  With just a couple of minutes to go, they evened the score at 4, and that’s where it stood at the end of regulation.  We had our second overtime shootout game in a row, but unfortunately this one did not result in a win.  With none of the early shooters scoring, it went down to the fifth shooters.  The other team got a goal, and our player nearly missed his.    We were tied for last with this team, and unfortunately we are all alone in last place now.

I am happy to report that I won 1st place in a few fantasy football games though.  I won both NFL pick’em games.  And even though I was finally eliminated in the survivor league with my Broncos over Chiefs pick, I still ended up winning that game as well.  I also finished 3rd in the salary cap game.  Keeping it in the family, Kim had a big 1st place finish in yet another regular fantasy football league.  I ended up finishing in 4th of 8 teams in that league, so at least I was in the top half.  I’m happy to add some more trophies to my trophy case!

With the break in TV shows, Kim and I have been playing the New Super Mario Bros. game on Wii.  We’ve probably only played two or three hours total, after all of our recent travels, but it’s definitely a fun game. So far I’m pretty impressed with the difficulty of the game-play. Even with all of the new power-ups and moves, the new enemies and bosses are pretty difficult to beat. Fortunately it seems as if players get unlimited continues, at least it seems that way as we approach ten continues.  We haven’t made it past the second world so far, even after spending all of last-night there.  It was pretty frustrating, but I hope we will give it a try again soon.

I guess I neglected to say it yesterday, so Happy New Year!  Here is the list of cities I visited in 2009 with at least one night spent in each place.

• Denver, CO *
• Breckenridge, CO *
• Eagle, CO
• Cincinnati, OH *
• Loveland, OH *
• Keystone, CO
• Austin, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Vail, CO *
• Eiseman Hut, CO
• Kansas City, KS
• Melbourne, KY
• Canon City, CO
• Hill City, SD
• Winfield, CO
• Indianapolis, IN
• Covington, KY
• Anchorage, AK
• Denali National Park, AK
• Seward, AK
• Homer, AK
• New York, NY
• Lee’s Summit, MO
• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
• Grand Forks, ND
• New Orleans, LA

Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

See also: 2008 | 2007 | 2006

We arrived into New Orleans around 3pm on New Year’s Eve, thanks to a flight change on United which put us on the first available direct flight.  We weren’t expecting to get in until 5 or 6, but were so glad to get there early.  We dropped our bags at our hotel and immediately headed to the Jackson Brewery area for the Fan Fest and Bearcat Pep Rally.  There we saw the voice of the Bearcats, Dan Hoard, take the stage for the pep rally, along with coaches, players, cheerleaders, and the band.  Along with firing up the crowd and introducing the large gathering of Cincinnati fans to New Orleans, Hoard gave this tidbit of advice, “A hurricane is like a woman’s bosom…one is not enough but three is too many.”  We spent the rest of that night testing that theory with multiple rounds of Hurricanes and some Hand Grenades as well.  I can honestly say that I haven’t seen 5am in a long, long time.

I guess there were some other events thrown into the mix that night, it was New Year’s Eve afterall.  After having some dinner at the Crescent City Brewhouse we met back up with my parents, a large group of their friends, one of my roommates from college, his family, and even more friends.  The black and red of the Bearcats had definitely taken over the streets of New Orleans.  Eventually we made our way over to Jackson Square for the annual NYE celebration there.  We were told of some baby statue that was supposed to fall.  Obviously we thought it would be like the ball in Times Square.  Unfortunately, the baby never fell.  And to make it all worse, we couldn’t even see the fireworks from where we were standing.

Obviously that wasn’t the only letdown of the trip.  After finally making it back to the streets of the French Quarter the next day, we eventually found our way to more of the aforementioned drinks.  This led up to the big team sendoff at the official hotel.  Once again, half of Cincinnati’s population was inside the hotel and flooding out into Canal Street.  Eventually the team all made their way on to the buses and en route to the big game.  After the first bus pulled away, I was able to see the large crowd that was also gathered on the other side of the street.  Everyone went crazy at that sight.  It was shortly after this when the biggest letdown came.

We all grabbed a couple more drinks and headed off toward the Super Dome for the big game against Florida.  There is no need to tailgate in a lot, as you can legally drink on the street of New Orleans, as long as you use a plastic cup.  Plus all the tourist stops and even the stadiums are within easy walking distance.  We arrived at the dome and made our way all the way up to the last row in the place to find our seats.  Yes, this was pretty disappointing, but we were surprised at how well we could see.  It wasn’t until the next day, after I could barely walk, that I realized just why the sight-lines were so good, the stairs up to the seats were gigantic.

And then the big disappointment finally came.  The game started off great, with the Cincinnati fans easily doubling the number of Florida fans.  This energy even transferred to the team with a great opening drive for the Cats.  But after a great run, a holding penalty sent the team back to their own side of the field and it all went downhill from there.  I’m sure many people saw it, if you weren’t there in person, so I probably don’t have to give a play-by-play.  It was a disappointing game, but I think everyone there was proud of how far the team had made it.  We could have easily taken off our red and black, but I continued to see it throughout the streets for the following two days.

The day after the game was Saturday, and we weren’t leaving until Sunday, so we once again spent the day walking around the French Quarter.  We first made it down to the French Market area, and then worked our way back north to Royal where we enjoyed some of the street performers, and later back to Bourbon Street for even more of those colorful drinks.  We actually spent a good chunk of time at Pat O’Brien’s this day, out on the patio, enjoying the sunshine.  The weather was pretty awesome the entire time we were there, but I can imagine that it could be pretty hot and muggy in the heart of summer.

We had an evening flight out yesterday, so again spent time exploring the River Walk, some of the Central Business District, and eventually back to the action on Royal and Bourbon.  The crowds were obviously thinning out quite a bit, but I was still shocked to see people enjoying more and more drinks.  I knew that my body had already had enough.  Though I did buy a package of hurricane mix from a souvenir shop, so I can try to make my own sometime in the future.  I’ll probably wait for the summer, as the snow back here in Denver doesn’t put you in the mood for the fruity drinks.  When we do give it a try, I’m sure I’ll be quickly reminded of our great trip to New Orleans and all the great times shared with our closest 25,000 family and friends.

New Orleans on Dwellable