Random Thoughts

Valentines Day is for the birds...

So I've really been slacking on this blogging stuff lately. To tell you the truth it's tough. It's a lot of pressure to churn out awesome blog after awesome blog. Once I start getting messages begging to me to update the blog I know it's been too long. One of the reasons I've been slacking is cause we have been playing so many games lately. Like our schedule is absurd. So whenever I get a chance to relax and do nothing, I literally do nothing. Like I barely get out of bed. But I also haven't had much to write about either so you guys haven't been missing out.

The last time I wrote we were in Alaska for an extended stay. So we were finally set to go home and we get to the airport in Seattle from Victoria, BC. We get on our plane and then they tell us there is a problem with the plane so we need to switch planes. So we grab our gear and get off and go to another plane. So we are sitting there for a half hour or so before we move, and an announcement comes on saying they are just de-icing and we'll be taking off shortly. Another twenty minutes later we hear we need to get off, while they fix some problem on the wing. De-icing my ass. We grab our gear and get off. We re-board that plane shortly after, only to have to get off again! The problem they thought they fixed wasn't. Finally, after three times of getting on and off we were able to get back on and take off. While on the plane the stewardess gets on the mic and announces "Alaskan Airlines is proud to have the Las Vegas Rangers hockey team on board." So naturally we start dying laughing cause they said Rangers instead of Wranglers. Then an older lady behind us asks why we were all laughing and her husband goes, "They're laughing because there's obviously no professional hockey team in Las Vegas!" Sweet. By the way, there has been no word of a lie stated in this paragraph. Everything I just said is 100% true.

As all of my loyal readers know, I am a huge American Idol fan. But since they changed the judges I didn't quite know if I would watch the show. I've tuned in a few times out of curiosity and I'm indifferent. Steven Tyler was ok, same with JLo. Randy is just Randy. The thing is for me though, it's not the judges that make the show for me. I enjoy watching the performances. I don't like the early auditions though cause I feel pretty bad for some of those people who actually think they are good singers. Which is why I wait for Hollywood week to tune in. This week I'll have to check out who my favorites will be. Also, one of my cousins has made it to Hollywood week, so this year American Idol gets personal! Wayne Smith, keep an eye out for him!

Another show I've started to tune into was The Bachelor...I meannn the Ultimate Fighter. No seriously. It's a good show with some real babes on it. Emily is quite the babe. If she were president, her name would be Babraham Lincoln. The guy Brad is kind of a square though. Oh well. Good entertainment. Now I should probably say something really manly to save face here and make sure everyone knows I'm straight, but I'm comfortable with myself.

The Wranglers/Rangers have been struggling as of late. The schedule, some injuries and call ups have taken a bit of a toll on the team. The weird thing is we are either still in first place or close to it in the league. Not too shabby if you ask me. We have a couple days off from games here so hopefully we can get healthy and refreshed.

Anyone else dissapointed with the Super Bowl commercials? Bud Light is usually great, but i guess they took the year off. The monkeys of CareerBuilder were classic. Best commercial by far.

The weather here has been pretty nice. Not too hot yet, but not cold, and not a cloud in the sky. Like a nice spring day. I hear the weather has been nice back home too...It's amazing how the weather can effect your mood. Waking up when it is freezing cold and raining and snowing does not to good things for your psyche. Walking out of the rink when it is 65-70 degrees and sunny does. I can't wait for pool season! Who's coming out to visit??

I thought this was funny:


(Need Sound)

Has anyone else tried this www.listentoyoutube.com? I can't believe I've been buying songs for this long.

BU lost in the first round of the Beanpot this year, and this just came in that they lost the consolation game to the Crimson of Harvard. Can't be a good time at the Dugout this week.

I feel like I'm missing a few things I wanted to talk about, but I guess if I think of them I can just write a new blog!





Take Care, Comb your hair! Get pitted, wapowwww!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Do you believe that it is 2011? Remember when it was turning year 2000 and everyone thought the world was gonna explode, that whole Y2K phenomenom. We were pretty dumb back then huh? Anyway, this New Year was unreal. Celebrating in Las Vegas could not have been any awesomer. My good friend Eric Thomassian came out from NYC and we went to the opening of the brand new club called Marquee. Only 150 people were invited, but Thomo had the hook up and we were one of the guests. Oh and we were rolling with Leo DiCaprio so that might've helped. Guy was an unreal dude. Paid for everything and was a real down to earth guy. Jay-Z and Coldplay were playing a private concert and then came over to our table when they were done and were just hanging out with us. It was surreal. I was ringing in the New Year with megastars. Just beautiful girls all around us thinking we were somebody sweet asking for our phone number. It was the best night of my life!


OK, that was all a big joke. That was something that could've happened to me on New Years, but instead I was on a plane for 6 hours flying from Phoenix to Alaska, after flying from San Francisco to Phoenix. See what happened was we were supposed to play in Stockton, California on Wednesday and Thursday, come home and celebrate the new year in Vegas, then head to Alaska for our games. Somehow we ended up getting bumped from our flights and had to fly directly from California to Alaska with a quick stop in Phoenix, (cause it's on the way right)five days earlier than we had to. So now I am sitting in a hotel room in Anchorage, Alaska writing, and not playing a game for another four days. Love of the game. It's quite a different town, not quite a buzzing metropolis as they say. A couple of guy saw a moose crossing the street, which actually would've been really cool. How many people reading this can say they have seen a moose cross the street in front of them? I'm guessing not many. Anyway, after being in Alaska for a week, we head down to Victoria, British Columbia for a couple of games and finally head home. All in all it is a 20 day road trip. Sick.



I had a nice Christmas Break at home although it went by way too fast. As usual. I had a couple of fun nights in NYC and spent some quality time with the family. It was good to be home and seeing some old friends and hanging out at 7 Ames Place again. Not much has changed really, so it is nice to go back to my old bed and have my parents yelling at me again. We went for a nice Christmas Eve dinner down in Huntington Bay and while it was a lovely place, my chicken parm was a HUGE letdown. Let me just preface this by saying I LOVE chicken parm, like bad. Like I never have a chicken parm I don't like. Until that night. The chicken was just extremely tough to chew and tasted like rubber. It looked really good, but tasted like junk. I figured I would redeem myself with a brownie sundae. Relax, I shared it with my sister. But the brownie sundae was bad too! Small scoop of ice cream, thick, dry brownie, poor texture. I'm no Iron Chef, but I know that was a terrible meal. Top to bottom. On to Christmas Morning, I woke up and couldn't move my neck so that really hurt my present opening abilities. I felt my neck spasm the day before and it got real bad overnight. Too bad Santa didn't give me a swedish masseuse the next morning. I did get a few really cool gifts though which I was stoked about. A fly new suit with some dress shirts and tie's to go along with and also got a Kindle. I sound really old. Remember when a good Christmas was all new hockey gear, ninja turtles, starting lineups, a huffy and three nerf footballs? I digress, but the Kindle is pretty cool. I'm reading "Where Men Win Glory" now, by John Krakauer. It's the story of Pat Tillman. It shows what kind of a person Tillman was and gives some behind the scenes info on what went on during 9/11. I look forward to reading a lot more.

I'm off to see "The Fighter." Nothing like a good Mark Wahlberg movie. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and will have a great new year. I leave you with this gem..(you might want to turn down the volume a bit)




You might want to turn UP the volume for this jam!



peace out folks!

It's Beginning to look a lot like...

Everybody start singing with me.."It's beginning to look a lot like...Springtime? Yes folks that's right. We had about two weeks of cold weather here in Las Vegas, and by cold I mean I had to put a jacket on. (Except the one night we did some volunteer work at this place called the Magical Forest. It was a Christmas theme park and we had to stand outside all night and talk to guests. The weather decided to be a brisk 36 degrees that night. Not cool. Good thing I have all my winter clothes out here. (Sarcastic)). Anyway back to what I was saying, the weather here has been pretty nice. I had a t-shirt and jeans on this weekend while doing my christmas shopping, for myself, and it just didn't seem right. I'm all for the warm weather, but when you're trying to get in the holiday spirit it doesn't help. When you're driving down the street with the windows down blasting Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" it a little odd. And yes I love that song. Find someone on this planet that celebrates Christmas that doesn't like that song and I'll give you a lot of dollhairs. This brings me to my next point. My top three favorite Christmas songs in no particular order are Mariah, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's Baby It's Cold Outside and The Boss's Santa Claus is coming to town. I die laughing when Bruce is like "Everybody out there been good or what?? Oh that's not many, that's not many, you guys are in trouble out here!" Not sure why I think it's funny, but it is. Baby it's cold outside is a great version of the often remade song and not sure if everyone knows this, but my good friend Sean Sullivan and I, almost came out with a live version we did ourselves. I thought we had something special on our hands when we performed it live, but I guess it never took off. I also really like the version of this song in Elf. Zooey Deschanel has a great voice, and so does Will Ferrell. Some have called Will the songbird of his generation. Speaking of Elf, a few posts ago I wrote about how I was so excited to watch Elf and Home Alone the next two months. I can't tell you how many times now I've seen both. Think about how many protein shakes Jeff LoVecchio has had in his life time and that's probably the right amount. For most people that don't know Jeff, A-They Should and B-It's a lot. (Google or Facebook Jeff LoVecchio, he has some revealing pics)




So I mentioned I was going to grow my mustache out for Movember. Well I did and pardon my language, but it just sucked. I have the worst mustache ever. I'm not even gonna waste your or my time posting a picture. It's blond so you couldn't see it, except when the light hit it just right. I looked like a cross between a pedophile and Larry Bird. Some of the other guys grew some pretty good ones, but mine flat out sucked. We just sucked. I felt like Tom Brady losing the Super Bowl in week 2 to the Jets.

What a dreamboat!

Not last week though Touchdown Tom!



The Wranglers have been arguably the hottest team in all of professional hockey recently. Just an all out effort from top to bottom. Currently sitting tied for first with 4 games in hand, we've more than made up for a slow start to the season. The boys have battled through injuries and are looking forward to a nice Christmas break. I know I am. Starting December 20th at 5:58amESD I will be in NY, either Huntington or NYC. I would've liked to get to Boston for a bit, but I just couldn't squeeze it in, so I apologize for that. For those readers in NY who would like to meet up, let me know as I will be bouncing around. I head back to Sin City on Christmas night. I am quite excited to get back to the Big Apple to celebrate the holidays with family and friends.

No other real crazy stories from Vegas for you, I actually did not go out this past Saturday night. I am getting soft in my old age. I did see a country concert last week with Rodney Atkins, Craig Morgan and James Otto which was pretty cool. All just JV Ball, until we get to countryfest, which is at the end of August this year and Kenny is back. Get excited. That's all for now. I will leave you with this....over

Lone Survivor

This past weekend as we were getting ready to get on the bus and head to California for two games I noticed my teammate and former UNH Wildcat Jamie Fritsch had a copy of "Lone Survivor." I excitedly asked him if I could take it on the trip with me to which he obliged, not knowing I was taking it no matter what. I heard so much about the book and actually started reading it while I was at a Borders Bookstore recently and was captivated from the start, but had to take off and never got back to the book, until this past weekend. I hopped on the bus and took a little pregame nap. Not knowing we had been stuck in traffic the whole time I was sleeping, we still had a solid 4 hours of road to hit before we got to our game when I woke up. (More on that later). I opened the book and started reading where I left off. I couldn't put the book down. I mean I had to at one point because I had to go play our game, but it was incredible how quickly the time passed as I was fully enthralled (SAT word!) in the book. I rifled through 100 pages without putting it down. After the game we took off to our next city and I was back in the book again. Another 100 pages down. I ended up finishing the book when we were on our way back home after the second game. Almost 400 pages finished in two days. That has to be some kind of a record. Anyway the book is about Marcus Lutrell, a US Navy SEAL, who is the only survivor in one of the worst tragedies in US military history. He tells the story in full detail about how his team was killed and how he survived. It is truly remarkable. I have to say that ever since I graduated college where I never read any books I was supposed to read, I have really started to enjoy reading. I have to put this book right behind Travis Roy's "Eleven Seconds" as the top two books I've ever read. It was THAT good. If you haven't read the book, do yourself a favor and go get it now. You will not be disappointed.


As far as the results of our weekend, let's just say sitting on the bus for 6 hours and then going to play a game right away without a proper warmup was not a good thing for the Wranglers. We ended up losing 7-1 and I finished off with a -3 rating. Tough night for the boys. I usually would be losing my marbles about being -3 in a game like that, but after the book I just read, things didn't seem to bad. We ended up winning the next game 4-1, so not a terrible weekend.


This guy I know Karson Gillespie came to Las Vegas this past weekend and said we should meet up on Sunday when I was home from our road trip. I honestly hate the guy, but decided to humor him and meet up. No I'm just kidding, Karson is a very good friend of mine and I was pumped he was in my neighborhood and we would have a chance to meet up and catch up. He treated me to a ticket to Blue Man Group which was a pretty cool show that I have never seen. I treated him by showing him the bright lights and bud lights that Vegas has to offer. We had a great time bullspittin and reminiscing about our glory days. Never a bad time when a couple of former Terriers are mixin it up.



So there is a song on Taylor Swift's new album that I was listening...my buddy told me about so I checked it out. It's called Dear John. Apparently T-Swift had a little fling with John Mayer and he broke her little heart and so she wrote a song about it. I must say I really like the song, BUT and that is a big but, I don't agree with Swifter writing all these songs about former boyfriends and flings or whatever. Like she talks about how much she loved John Mayer and he broke her heart and lied to her and all that jazz. How long were they possibly seeing each other where she fell in love? I never heard about it and I am like a chick when it comes to celebrity gossip. I just don't get it. There are a few songs on the album that do the same thing. Pretty soon no guy is going to date her or talk to her because she will write a song about how you somehow suck. No guy wants that and believe me she will write a song about you and it will be really good and catchy and be in the top 10 and I will probably buy it on Itunes for the uncalled for jacked up price of 1.29$.






My wonderful sister Kristen, bought me an Ipod Nano for my birthday. I can't believe how small it is. I've picked boogers bigger than this. I'm really excited to get it going especially with all the new songs I purchased like Dear John, by Taylor Swift. Keeping it in the family, I checked my mail today and had a package from home. I thought it was just some paperwork, but there was a little present in it. My Mom read my last blog and decided to send me my copy of Elf I had at home. Thanks Linda!!
And speaking of Christmas I just booked my flight home for Xmas so I have a full 5 days off the week before the 25th. Count it!

I think that's it for today. Remember, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose. Take care comb your hair.

Buzz, Your Girlfriend Woof!

It's getting to be that time of year. The holiday seasons are rapidly approaching which means a lot of good food, desserts, family time, presents and desserts. It also means the best television will be on for the next two months. Two of the greatest movies in the history of the talking picture are going to be constantly playing and I won't complain one bit. Coming in a close second is Elf, a masterpiece starring Will Ferrell. So many great one liners, catchy tunes and just a great story. Really gets you in the holiday spirit. In first place though is quite possible the best Christmas movie of all time. Home Alone. The original. There is not one bad part in the movie and it never gets old. Truth be told I'm watching the movie right now as I type. Just a timeless piece of cinematography and I don't even know if thats a word. I'd bet you all the money I make writing this blog that you can't find one person who doesn't like Home Alone. Poor Macauley Culkin,kid had some serious talent. Nothing worse than wasted talent.


Tom Morrow as Elf.


Classic


So this past weekend I finally was back in the lineup after not playing in a game since last May. I was pretty nervous going into the game, not sure how my ankle was going to hold up, or how I was going to feel conditioning wise. I felt ready though so it was all systems go. It worked out well though as I felt pretty good in the game. It might have been from the adrenaline or maybe it's the starbucks coffee. (I've been drinking a lot of Starbucks coffee lately. I'm starting to see why people are addicted to this stuff like crack). Unfortunately we lost the game in OT. Still got a point. The next night I was a little more tired, but the boys battled through and we won the game in a shootout. After the game I felt like I just finished a 7 game series. I had a tough time getting out of bed the next day. Not sure if going out after the game had anything to do with that, but we'll pretend that didn't happen. Looking forward to next weeked though and getting back into the swing of things playing full time.

The month of November is being renamed to Movember and a bunch of the fellas are growing out their mustaches for the month to raise awareness for prostate cancer. I'm joining in on this and will try and keep you updated on how my mustache looks. My 'stache is brutal though, so I may have to buffer it up with some Just For Men if it doesnt get better. Pictures will come to follow.


I saw this video floating around on facebook and my friend Tom Sullivan, owner of Sullivan Training Systems had it on his page. Pretty inspiring stuff. If you don't get all tingly inside or chills from this, you are dead.





My friend and talented musician Matt Lowell just came out with a new tune that is pretty legit...check it out here..

http://mattlowell.tumblr.com/post/1513080153/cross-the-line-here-is-a-tune-i-wrote-with



That's all for today folks. Peace in the hair grease

Post-Halloween Blog

So I waited to write this blog till after we had our Halloween Party. We went to a party at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. To say it was crazy would be an understatement. Thousands of people jammed into a concert hall rocking out and dancing all night long. There were a few DJs spinning some beats, while some other crazy acts were on stage. You weren't allowed in this party without a costume and there were definitely some good ones. I guess all of the Chilean miners were rescued because they all were at this party. I saw a few Borats, unfortunately wearing the signature bathing suit. Adam and Eve, Zach Galifinakis from The Hangover, Tiger Woods, an Avatar, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior and the list goes on for days. Some people decided their birthday suit was a good costume idea as well. I went as Wayne Campbell from Wayne's World and my teammate Craig Switzer was Garth Algar. We were quite a hit. We didn't break character all night either. There were many photo requests and we happily obliged. The night started with a pregame party at the apartments, and from there we took a stretch F350 over to the Hard Rock, set up by Jackie Moon (Ned Lukacevic). Time to get tropical! Great start to the night.


Maxim Magazine voted this magazine one of the top 5 things to do before you die and travel channel named it one of the top 10 parties in the world. It was definitely unlike anything I've ever been to before. The night ended with a delicious trip to Jack in the Box on our way home. And yes, we had practice the next day, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. (Like New Years Day, Circa 2006. I'm sure the BU guys remember that).


As I said in the last post we went to the Justin Timberlake Shriners Children's Hospital Open for the pro-am round, but went back on Sunday for the Final Round. We sat up on "The Hill" and watched the 16th, 17th and 18th holes. Apparently "The Hill" is the only spot on a professional course where you can see action at three different holes. As we were sitting there an older gentleman sat down next to us so we decided to strike up a conversation. Turns out this man is pretty much the Dos Equis World's Most Interesting Man. He was actually one of the founders of the Shriners Open back in '86. He lives on the golf course, he brought the Wranglers to Las Vegas, he is friends with the founder of a small hardware store called Home Depot, he went skiing over 100 times last winter while living in his small cabin in Deer Valley, UT that sleeps 22 of his family members, AND he bought us a round of beers. He was one of those guys that you wish you could sit and talk to all day. He was so wise.

The Wranglers are off to an average start so far this season. The team is 2-3 right now and scoring is an issue. The boys just can't seem to find the back of the net. We are getting chances, but some guys are just snakebit. A few costly turnovers turn into loses. We have the talent on the team, it's just a matter of putting it all together and burying some chances. A few more bodies will be in the lineup this weekend including myself. My ankle has been feeling pretty good in practices so I think it's ready to go for the weekend. Wish me luck!

I wish I had more fun stuff to talk about, but other than Halloween, not much has been going on. Hopefully I will be able to report back after this weekend with some good news on my return to the ice.

I Feel Pretty Old

I told you the next time I would be blogging I would be 26 years old. It feels really weird to say. You wonder where the time goes. I don't think I'm going to keep counting my age anymore though. I think 26 is it for me. Like I'll be 26 for the next 15 years, before people really start to figure me out. Even 26 seems old still though. I remember wanting to turn 21 so badly so I can finally get into the bars(legally) and not having to worry about using the old fake ID. It was worse when all of my friends were 21 and I wasn't and they decided to go to the best bars in town and I would have to pray the bouncer was half blind or just didn't care about his job. It worked most of the time, but there was nothing worse than getting denied from the bar and watching your friends go in. Oh wait, yes there is something worse. Never even getting carded anymore. Like do I look that old? I've seen guys with grey hair pulling out their license and then the guy just gives me the go ahead. I still like to think I have my boyish good looks and charm. My guess is that he knows I'm just a sweet guy and wants my business, but I would still like someone to humor me and ask for back up or something. For lack of a better term getting old sucks. In college everything was handed to you on a silver platter. Not a worry in the world. Need food? Swipe the terrier card for a meal or have mom and dad cook for you. Need some clothes? Hey Mom and Dad I need a new shirt. Bam what color do you want? Where am I going to live? Here's a brownstone apartment in Boston for the price of on the house. I used to drink a few busch lights with the boys before we went out, grabbed 40$ and had a great night with money leftover for a cab and a snacks from 7-11. My go to's were the microwavable ham egg and cheese sandwiches, the tacquitos or honey bun. Yummmmmmyyyy. Now I have to cook my own food, buy my own clothes, find my own places to live and 40$ barely gets me in the door on a Saturday night.(Side note: Craig Sanders, when he was not in the boot racked up the largest tab at a 7-11/Campus Convience I've ever seen after a night out. I want to say it was around the 37$ range. Kid LOVED late night food. Craig, I know this is 2 jabs at you in two blogs, but hey like you said, "if they're not making fun of me, they're probably not my friends" Make it 3 Jabs. I still love you pal.) Not sure where I was going with this rant, but ipso facto getting old sucks.

I'm sure everyone is sitting at the edge of their seats wondering, "Hey I wonder how Schaeff spent his birthday on a Saturday night in Vegas??" Well to tell you the truth, I didn't do much at all. The team was away at a game on saturday and since I'm hurt I didn't make the trip. I got to catch up with an old buddy and loyal blog reader Greg Manzi who has moved out to Las Vegas after leaving BU. I've known Greg since our days playing street hockey at Stimson Middle School. He is married and has a baby daughter out here and doing well for himself as a teacher. We chatted it up, had a few beers while watching some football and then grabbed a quick bite at Zaba's Mexican Grille. Zaba's has a great burrito and rivals the big boys of burrito places like QDoba, Cilantro, MOE's and Chipotle. Anyway it was a solid low key day while the boys were on the road. Sunday would be a little different.



We started out doing some day drinking at Todd's English Pub in Aria's CityCenter. I highly recommend this place. Good service, good atmosphere. They had a mini basketball hoop set up at the bar and if you hit the shot, you get a free drink. I don't think we need to discuss whether I made the shot or not cause we all know I drained it nothing but net. They had some other good drinking contests going on so we all had a good time. After that we hit the casino for a little bit and I won 70$ at the roulette table. I wasn't betting much but obviously 3 red hit. Always does! I then immediately gave half of it back to the casino. Still up though! We then slid over to Planet Hollywood to meet up with the rest of the guys before heading off the strip to a local country bar near our apartments. I'd rather go to these places any day of the week and twice on sundays. It ended up being a long day, but a fun one.

Yesterday, we went to the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Golf tournament at a local course here. We scored some tickets from a former terrier who is working for the tournament, so big ups to her! It was a pretty cool event. We got to see JT, Doug Flutie, a few former NFL guys and a few of the major golf pros like Rickie Fowler teeing it up. Good times.

Two Home games this weekend and then Halloween party. Hopefully I will have some good blogging material on costumes, parties, etc. That's all for now. I need to get off my couch cause I've been sitting in the same spot for the past several hours. Oh I almost forgot, I saw Jackass 3D today. It was really funny. Pretty gross at some points, but that's to be expected. Overall it was worth it. That's all for now. Catch you guys on the flip side. And Ghost Ride the Whip!!

Is this the real Caesar's Palace?

So last time I wrote I was sitting in a hotel in San Antonio, Texas at training camp. What I didn't tell you guys is that I was sitting there resting my ankle as I was the recipient of a slew foot heading into the boards and got a high ankle sprain. It hurt like a mother and they put me in a Craig Sanders boot and on Crutches. (Craig Sanders has the best work ethic in BU history and was forced into a boot after an ankle sprain of his own. Due to this work ethic he was out of the boot faster than anyone else). No more training camp for me. As I lay there in bed, I said to myself I have two options. I can throw a Kevin Schaeffer pity party, with a guest list of 1, or I can suck it up take some Alieve and start typing. Everyone saw the option I took. That's just the kind of guy I am. I'm here for you. The ankle is a long way from the heart, and fingers. Soon after I was sent to Las Vegas to get settled into my apartment and get going on doing some rehab with our athletic trainer. I must admit the trip down was a little embarrassing though for me. Since I had my foot in a huge boot, on crutches and had a few bags with me I asked if I could take a ride on one of those golf carts they have at the airport. Unfortunately they did not have any, so I was confined to being carted around on a wheelchair. Talk about depressing. Here I am a healthy, average looking guy with an above average personality, that plays professional hockey and works out for a living, being carted around in a wheelchair with the 90 year old grandmas and grandpas with the oxygen tanks hooked up to their noses. That was a real shot to the mojo. But hey, I did what I had to do. To add insult to injury I lost my ipod on one of my flights. I guess you can call that trip to San Antonio unsuccessful....to say the least. I am now nicely settled into Sin City though. Let "The Hangover" quotes begin!




My first time walking around the strip I felt like that little kid after the dentist. I thought to myself "Is this real life??"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs) Well I'll tell you what. This place is not real life. Las vegas is fake life. The stuff that goes on around here is incredible. Rules go right out the window. Gambling is all around you. I walked into a CVS to get some vitamins and there was a row of slot machines. You see some real creatures working these slots too. You can be completely wasted walking around with open beers or huge margaritas. There are illegal immigrants handing out pamphlets showing "Girls For You in Under 20 mins!" I saw Batman walking the streets next to a man with a snake wrapped around his head. As most of you know I'm severely afraid of snakes, but I love batman so I was really torn on what to do. Then I realized that the Batman was fake and the snake was real so I ran away. There is so much going on in one area it makes your head spin. Everyone is trying to sell you something, most of the time illegally. On the other hand there is a lot of awesome stuff going on here. My first weekend here I was able to see Rob Scuderi and the LA Kings play against Brandon Yip and the Colorado Avalanche at the MGM Grand Arena. That was cool as I got to see some buddies play in the game and and my sister and the kids came out too. I've seen some friends who were visiting and some other friends are in the area as well. I know more people are going to be showing up as well. I took in a show here the other night called American Superstars where people impersonate celebs. It was pretty cool as I saw Elvis, Carrie Underwood Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson. They were all pretty good performances too. I got to meet "Carrie Underwood" and "Lady Gaga" too. Maybe I can meet the real ones some day too. A lot of stuff going on here and I'm excited to take it all in. But let's not forget the reason I am here. Playing for the Las Vegas Wranglers.

We have a pretty good setup here. Nice apartments about 10 mins off of the strip. Great group of guys here too. You know why it's a good group of guys. Cause almost all of the guys here played in college. Lots of hockey east representation for the Wranglers too. Gotta love it. The arena is located in the Orleans Hotel and Casino which is about 5 mins off the strip. Practices have been going well and training camp is wrapping up with our first game this saturday. Unfortunately I can't play in it cause of my ankle, but I am making some real good strides in my recovery. The ankle is feeling good and I've been on the ice the past few days, so I'm shooting to be back for the home opener in two weeks. It's too bad I will be home alone in Vegas on a Saturday night, on my birthday. (Hint Hint). Ohh well, I'm excited for the season to start and to get back on the ice. Here is a quick mobile upload of what my ankle looked like a day after I sprained it...And it got much worse looking than this.




In unrelated news, everyone knows I'm a big music fan so here are my latest jams I've been listening to.

Great song, great cover.



You may have heard this in "The Town" during the ending credits:



This last song is making it's way around the internet. It's pretty funny.



And I downloaded some 50cent as well. Just to stay gangsta ya heard. In case you didn't hear me the first time my birthday is Saturday. I can give everyone my address for care packages and presents. Thanks. Also, I've used my signoff line here "take care comb your hair" a few times here. My coach here said it to the team the other day. Is Ryan Mougenal head coach of the Las Vegas Wranglers reading my blog?? I'll have to get to the bottom of this. When I blog next I will be 26 years old. Wow, where did the time go. I'm old. Not like for the earth, but for this club. Peace in the hair grease!

Welcome Back

I know it's not the original, but you get the point. I love that song still..

Anyway, I pretty much took the summer off from blogging. I'm sorry, but I was actually pretty busy and fact of the matter was I didn't have much too blog about. I didn't really do anything interesting this summer. I mean how many times can you write: So this week I worked out, worked at the gym all day and then went to whiskey priest on saturday night.(I knew I would be going to that place a lot). We had my sister's wedding which I last blogged about and that was really about it. Well it is hockey season again which means a lot of time spent in front of the computer, which hopefully will lead to a more consistent blogging effort.

To update my status to everyone I am sitting in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas where I am at training camp for the San Antonio Rampage. After training camp here ends, I will be heading to a small city in Nevada you may of heard of, Las Vegas. I've heard it's a decent tourist attraction, supposedly there is one road with a few shops and restaurants on it, I don't really know, but I'm sure I'll find out when I get there. The team is the Las Vegas Wranglers, which is the ECHL affiliate of the Phoenix Coyotes. The San Antonio Rampage is the AHL affiliate and then Las Vegas. This will be a new experience for me as I have never really been on the west coast. Ryan "Wild Bill" Weston will be with me so I have a partner in crime out there. (all good crime obviously). I am looking forward to the adventures that lie ahead.

So as I said I was pretty busy this summer which meant not a lot of TV time for me, but I did happen to catch this season of Entourage. Well I'll just say dissapointed is a bit of an understatement. In previous seasons all I could think about after watching an episode was, "wow, I want to go party right now, that was awesome!" This season after every episode I was saying "Sasha sucks and so does Vince" She ruined VInce and she ruined the season. Usually the season finale would tie up some loose ends and make everything ok again right. Well not so fast my friends. It was a terrible ending. I heard they are making an Entourage movie and what better way to hype up the movie then to end the last season with a huge dump. I just don't get it. I digress. I guess when I'm the creator of one of the best shows ever on tv I can end the season how I want. I'm just looking forward to the new season of East Bound and Down. If you haven't heard of Kenny Powers, please minimize my page (but don't forget to come back and read the rest), go to YouTube and watch clips from the show. You will not be dissapointed. Here is an example: (warning language NSFW)




To be honest, I actually did get to do something pretty cool recently. My sister Kelly scored two tickets to the World Premiere of Wall Street in NYC. It was a pretty cool event. We showed up and got our tickets and saw some celebs walked the red carpet. I thought we were going to get to walk the red carpet ourselves but unfortunately we didn't. We walked down some JV red carpet. What a letdown. I'm not sure what I would do though if I was actually walking down the red carpet you see on TV. I definitely would've done one of three things: 1. Walk/Sprint down the carpet hysterically laughing the whole time. 2. Stopped and posed for pictures that no one was taking and answered questions for an interview that no one was giving. 3. Threw up all over the place. That would've made E! News for sure. So we are in the theater and I'm looking around seeing who is in there/trying to get noticed. I saw Tyra Banks and she was tall. I think she is quite attractive as well, but not sure I like her whole snap your fingers in my face attitude. We were shuffled to our seats and continued to scope the audience for some celebs, which wasnt easy because they put all the peasants together and all the celebs far away from them. I got to see a few, but I was more excited to see the movie. This was the funniest part of the night. The movie comes on and everyone starts clapping. OK that's fine, we're all excited for the show to start. Then the maiin characters appear in the opening credits, and more applause. Ok, I understand. More characters, more credits, more applause. Ok I get it. It starts to get annoying when they applause for the guy who got the coffee for the director Oliver Stone. Movie ends, it was great. We then head to a reception with an unral spread and open bar. Kelly and I sit and have a cocktail and indulge in some delicious finger foods. We some more celebs, like Spike Lee. That guys to me is the definition of swagger. Just ooozes confidence. It was awesome. Other than that we headed home after a nice evening. We didn't get to talk to any celebs or anything, but that's cool. It was nice of Kelly to invite me. She probably just needed me for some arm Candy.
PS Good thing my main man and newly engaged Kevin Kielt, ordered the original Wall Street on demand for us so I knew what was going on. Thanks Killer!


For those of you who don't know this is my buddy Matt Lowell. SICK Musician. Listen to this little jamboni he's got. And check out the rest of his stuff as well. He's legit.




A quick anecdote: My Mother and I were eating a lovely dinner at Applebees cause we wanted to eat good in the neighborhood. And my mom loves that place. So we were enjoying a 2 for 20$ meal(Really a good deal actually), when I made a comment about the group of high school girls from my alma mater, St. Anthony's, sitting behind me:
Kevin: I wonder what crowd these girls are a part of in HS. Like the IN crowd or the nerdy crowd or just the average crowd, ya know the group that is friends with everyone but they arent the cool kids.
Mom: Well I bet they are in the IN crowd cause the girl I'm looking at is gorgeous! She might me a little young for you though Kevin. Too bad.
Well she wasn't really my type anyway. The search continues...


Well I think that's it for now...Feels good to be back. Keep the comments on facebook coming. (Only good ones please, not that there is anything bad to say about my blog) Tell me what you want me to hear or suggestions. HELP ME, HELP YOU! What movie?
Take Care comb your hair and drink your milk and take your vitamins, and knowing is half the battle!

Celebrate the 4th, with a 5th

My grandfather said that to me this weekend, so I thought it was fitting to use it for this post's title. This weekend was my sister Kristy's wedding in Boston and was a great time. This weekend was obviously Fourth of July weekend and everyone had today, the 5th off as well. I'm guessing that is what my grandfather meant when he said celebrate the 4th with the 5th. I took it a different way. 4th piece of cake? Celebrate it with a 5th. (2)4th beer? Celebrate it with a(2)5th. 4th bowl of ice cream? Celebrate it with a 5th. It was the theme for the weekend. We started the weekend out on Friday night with a rehearsal for the ceremony, which I did not attend cause I was busy making athletes better. Afterwards though we headed out to Concord, Mass for a rehearsal dinner at a very nice country club. I forget the name of it now, but it was nice. I promise. Everyone mingled and the Danes were meeting the Americans and getting to know our future in laws. (Kristy's husband Joen is from Denmark, and has been living in the states for quite some time, but still has a lot of family over there). There was a delicious spread set up along with an open bar and some appetizers. For some reason the caterers would come out of the kitchen and walk straight to me. I guess I'm an easy sell when it comes to food. It was a good night, with a couple quick welcoming speeches and introductions, then everyone headed home to get ready for the big day.

Saturday rolls around and it's the big day. The girls were busy with getting their hair and makeup did, so me and my old man pretty much had the morning off. We went for breakfast and then I headed back up to the room and watched some TV and dozed off for a bit. Weird, never happens. I decided to go for a walk up to City Sports on Boyleston because I wanted to get a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes. They are weird and people look at you funny, but I wanted a pair cause I love being barefoot. As I mustered the courage, and money, up to buy them I get a call from mom saying I had to be ready for pictures in 15 minutes. Oops. I put the box down and bolted out of the store. That was the 2nd time I had a pair of the shoes and couldn't pull the trigger. Anyway, I hurried back to the hotel and got ready. I shaved my face with a razor for what could've been the first time in a year. I couldn't imagine doing that every day. Yikes. So I'm ready, I look all dapper and 007ish in my tux from high school prom and we go for some quick pictures in the hotel before the ceremony. By the way we stayed at this small hotel, some of you may have heard of called the Four Seasons. We snap a few still shots and head over to the church on Newbury. Remember I said I didn't go to the rehearsal so I was unsure of my roll. I knew I had double duty walking my mom and my sister Kelly down the aisle. I felt like I was doing 150yd shuttles in the church. I dropped off my mom and sprinted back to the back of the church to pick up Kelly. Now from there I didn't know where to go so while walking down the aisle I kept asking Kelly where I was supposed to go. She wasn't saying much as she was focused on smiling and looking good for the camera. It just comes naturally for me so I wasn't worried. Anyway, she pulls me along side of her and we are up on "stage" at the church. Right next to the alter. Great. Right on center stage. I couldn't get away with anything. It's a beautiful church, but there was no AC so needless to say. I was hot. Real Hot. Like sweat dripping down my hands and back. I tried to keep it under control but it was no use. I even yawned too for some reason, but I don't think anyone caught that. Thank goodness. After the nice ceremony it was some more pictures and then off to the reception. OPEN BAR DUDE!! I got to catch up with some relatives and old family friends, many of who are loyal readers. Mr. Wathey and Mr. Giannuzzi actually requested this blog so this is dedicated to them. Cocktail hour was delicious and weird the caterers came right to me every time. The country club must've told them about me. Oh well, no complaints here. The reception started and Joen's brother in law was the toastmaster and he was hysterical. My dad, and two other sisters gave very nice speeches along with some speeches from Joen and Joen's family. Lots of teary eyed folks in the audience. After awhile the reception was jumpin and Joen's buddies asked me and Rob my other brother in law to participate in some Danish traditions. So we follow them wondering what we were getting ourselves into. We get into the elevator where we are told we are going to trash the bride and groom's suite. I was shocked at what I heard, but apparently it is Danish tradition. And you can't mess with tradition. I looked at Rob and he looked at me and gave a quick high five and we got to work and started bouncing ideas off each other. I don't think the Danes realized who they were dealing with. We've tornadoed a room or two in our day. It was hysterical. We did our job and headed back downstairs where the band was starting to fire it up. Cue the dancefloor. Some real movers and shakers out there and I certainly was one of them. I was complimented by several folks about my moves and as my mom said, I had some really "groovy moves." What can I say. The full course meal served throughout the night was delish, so why not cap off the night with a snack time consisting of an ice cream bar, strawberry shortcakes and sliders and fries. Diet starts monday! The night ended and the day was a huge success. Bruch yesterday morning and a little BBQ at Courtney and Rob's for the fouth to cap a great weekend. Back to "work" tomorrow. Could be a tough workout tomorrow. I might be sweating out Amstel Light and Sugar.

Sorry no pictures or videos today. Too lazy. There's enough material to keep you occupied.

OK OK, I'll write a new blog

So, I'm really slacking on this blogging thing. I've talked to many people who say "Hey Schaeff, I check your blog every day and I'm dissapointed every time I don't see a new update. My response is always "Ok ok, I'll write a new one." This is for you guys. It may not seem like I've been busy, but I have. Sort of. So last time we left off, I was just getting up to Boston and squaring away some housing stuff. I'm all settled in to the place now. Uncle Tony and I had some work to do as the previous tenants have never heard of windex or lysol wipes, so we spent some solid hours cleaning up the place. We're all set now, minus the fact that it has been really hot the last few days and AC was not in the lease plan. It's like I'm back at 7 Ames. I think I'm gonna have to head to the store and buy one as I like to sleep in the cold. The location is unreal with tons of awesome restaurants and bars around the neighborhood, and there's always something going on. Which is good and bad. The area is very Italian so these people go bananas for the World Cup. All in all it's a fun spot to be in. The boys have indulged in the local water holes (I feel like I say that in every blog) like Tia's, Joe's American Grill and the new spot Whiskey Priest. Both spots on the water where you can enjoy being outside. Really diggin this place Whiskey Priest and can see myself heading there a lot this summer. Tia's is fun but nobody wants to spend 50 bucks for 3 beers and a drink. Kidding, but not really. I guess everything has it's price.


Speaking of the World Cup. I don't get it. I'm sorry, but I just never was into soccer. Sure I was a star goaltender on the Stimson 7th and 8th grade teams, but I can't get into it now. It seems pretty boring. Like I know hockey isn't the highest scoring sport, but at least it's fast paced and intense. Soccer is just some running around and no scoring. The only thing I like about soccer is the goal celebrations and the diving. Dives are pretty frequent but the goal celey's are few and far between.







So I'm well into my workouts now and feeling good. BodybyBoyle has moved into a brand new facility so it's pretty legit. Check it out. www.BodybyBoyle.com. The summer camp started today as well so the gym was absolute madness. Probably about 400kids walking through the door. It's a factory in there. Just shuffling out Bodies By Boyle. That was gay. Let's move on.


Memorial day weekend I went to Nantucket. The place is a little heaven on Earth. Just a bunch of bro's bro'ing out. We had a sweet house that Ryan "Wild Bill" Weston set up for the guys. Well done by Westo. We hit up the local spots and of course the best bar in the world, "The Chicken Box." All roads lead to the box. Everyone from the island goes there and it's just a huge..well box. Live music, tons of babes and bro's. Going down to nantucket you're always bound to run into guys and gals you know, but it gets crazy sometimes. Actually all the time. The best part is showing up "early" to the bar at 8:00pm and seeing the line is down the street. Usually a good sign of things to come. The Rock is definitley my favorite vacation spot. It's hard not to have the best time there.


With American Idol being over and obviously Lee winning, I don't have any shows to watch. I tried watching the bachelorette, but I couldn't get over the tools on that show. But I guess I was the one watching so who is really the tool huh? We have OnDemand so I ripped through the last season of Entourage. I'm open to any other show ideas. The OnDemand is pretty awesome though. Anything you want at your finger tips.


It's time to go cook some dinner. I'm not near the cook that Tony is so maybe I can somehow weasel that little guy to cook some food for us. I'll hit you guys up on the next blog..whenever that is. Smell ya later.

It's Summer Time!

Hello everybody. I've had a lot going on lately the past few weeks so I would like to try and catch up a bit. I left off in my last blog with me getting back to New York. I spent two "fun filled" weeks there. I use the term "fun filled" loosely cause it is both true and completely false. I got home and started work the next day. Painting fences and sheds, cleaning the pool, washing windows, I did it all. As people started calling me Pedro word got around town that I was the best painter in the South Huntington area so I was called into duty at neighboring locations as well. I had the pleasure of painting one of the most complex fences for the Wathey family. The fence was beaten up with paint chipping off and a criss-cross pattern that left a smooth painting stroke near impossible. The good thing was that there was a thorn bush located directly in front of this fence making painting that much more fun! No, I am exaggerating slightly for the sake of the story, I didn't mind painting at all. I had nothing else to do with my time. On the weekends I would head into the city to hangout with my two good buddies Eric Thomassian and Craig "Ned Flanders" Sanders. We had a great time hitting all the local establishments and taking in all NYC had to offer. Unfortunately I needed to paint about 200 more fences to be able to afford another weekend in the city. Let's just say you're not going to find too many drink specials out in the big apple. Hey you can't take your money to the grave right? I keep telling myself that. While at home I had the pleasure of getting to the Matthew Giannuzzi Charity basketball game. I found I had two huge fans of the blog in Mr. Sutton (Eddie Sutton on facebook)and "The Dean" Mr. Giannuzzi. It was a thrill to hear from some loyal readers. This is why I sit down and write my butt off. For all the fans out there. As per usual while at 7 Ames I was able to catch up in pizza and dessert consumption skyrocketing the body fat percentage. Hey you only live once right. I tried to balance it out with some good dieting on the other days and a few trips to the NYSC to workout...and scope out the local talent. All in all I had a great time with the family, seeing my niece and nephew and catching up with the hometown. It was time to move on though as living with your parents isn't high on my priority list these days. No offense Mom and Dad.

I drove up to Boston to square away some apartment nonsense and I'm glad I did. The spot I had originally picked out fell through as I think the landlord was arrested. I then picked another spot where I had a friend to remain nameless take a look at to see if it was good. KATE GILFILLAN said it wasn't bad so I decided to take her word for it and told the landlord I would meet at the apartment to dot the T's and cross the I's. I show up and the apartment is not so hot looking. They had a new fridge, stove and microwave.....and that's about it. And it was half below ground with bars on the windows. Not quite what I was looking for. I told the guy I would be in touch and bolted. I started scrambling and pulled up at a Boloco (Unreal spot to eat BTW) to use the wi-fi and find a new place on craigslist. It's amazing how things can work as Iwithin an hour I ended up finding a sweet spot in the North End in the middle of all the downtown action. I visited, and shook hands with the sublettors and was relieved to get a place. Move in is June 1. Laser Show. Relax.

American Idol is down to two finalists! Crazy I know. We've seen Big Mike and Casey James get the boot with Bowersox and Lee Dewyze left standing. Last week we saw a performance that we won't soon forget. Simple Man and Hallelujah are two unreal songs and Lee smashed them. I consider myself a pretty good judge of music and his versions were some of the best these ears have heard. See for yourself. In my eyes he won the competition last week. Unless he takes the stage this week pulls down his pants and takes a Thomassian dump on the stage he will win.




I went to the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group Hockey and Basketball Symposium this weekend at Northeastern. It was a sweet two days with some good people and I was able to learn a lot. The strength and conditioning field is definitely something that continues to interest me and looks like could be a part of my future. Glad I was able to attend.



I'm at my wonderful sister Kristy's apartment watching Rudy as we speak..Or I write. I cry when he gets accepted to Notre Dame and jump up and down when he gets the sack. Everytime. No questions asked.


Thats all for now. I can't keep my eyelids open. Heading down to Nantucket next weekend so I'm pretty stoked about that. I'll report back later! Smell Ya!

Finally, I have come back to Blogging!

I apologize to the millions......and millions of fans of my blog. It has been pretty busy the last few weeks with playoffs and travel and whathaveyou. But no need to fret, you're fearless blogger is back.

Let's start with the ill-fated Checkers playoff run. The team had high hopes of making a strong run to the Kelly Cup, but couldn't make it past the second round losing out to the Cyclones of Cincinnati in a hard fought 7 game series. A few lucky bounces and a hot goaltender led to the Checkers demise. A sad ending as the team will no longer be together, as the franchise is moving to the AHL. With every season ending loss comes the season ending bender, which is always the best time. It's pretty much a race to see who can eat the worst food and drink the most beer over a few days time. The Jack-In-The-Box across the street from our apartments got some good business(They make a mean oreo milkshake), while the BlackFinn Bar in Uptown was pretty fed up with our antics after 3 straight nights of tearing up the D-Floor and pouring beers on each other's and our own heads. The Charlotte Checkers were a good hockey team, but a great drinking team. With such a bunch of beauties, we all had a great time and left our mark in the Queen City.

As the season ended, I made the drive back to NY to stay with my folks for a couple weeks. The trip was going great, I was jammin' out to some tunes, taking in the beautiful countryside. Then I started sharing the road with a bunch of huge trucks. Now their are two types of trucks. Fast ones and slow ones. (Thanks tips!) The fast ones buzz around weaving in and out of lanes like they're a mazda miata. They run up on your ass and flash you the brights and make you poop your shorts as you see a mac truck in your backseat. The slow ones drive 45 miles an hour causing a traffic jam as two of them are side by side blocking both lanes. So now I'm driving the West Virginia, singing John Denver, when the rain comes. And boy did it come, I could barely see my hood it was pouring so hard and of course the fast trucks are acting like its 80 and sunny and there's not another car on the road. Once I got past that, it was smooth sailing once again...until I got to the armpit of America New Jersey. Besides Kevin Kielt, Bon Jovi and The Boss, Jersey has nothing good to offer. It took me an extra hour to get through the GWB cause not everyone has an EZ Pass so the tolls were backed up. It still baffles me that people don't have these things. It saves so much time on your trip its unreal. Figure it out "cash only lane" people.
Another thing I noticed is gas is like 40 cents more expensive in NY too. Not a good start back home. While I'm ranting, another thing that grinds my gears is my parents still do not have AC at the house. It's like a chilly 85 degrees in my room and I guess Sears stopped making fans cause those are no where to be found too.


In other sad news, Siobhan Magnus was voted off American Idol. "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent." She had all the talent in the world, but just couldn't put all the pieces together. She was getting average while the rest of the group was stepping up their game. Casey, Lee and even Big Mike are putting on great performances along with that pipsqueek Aaron and the talented Crystal Bowersox. It's anyone's game now and everyone needs to be on the top of their game. I think it will be Casey, Lee and Bowersox sprinting to the finish line.



Song of the week:



I'm going to enjoy the next two weeks at home catchin' up with some old friends and then it's on to Boston for the rest of the summer! Stay tuned!

Road to the Kelly Cup

It's playoff hockey time! The NHL playoffs are underway and as usual the games are exciting as ever to watch. But that's not the most important hockey going on right now. The Charlotte Checkers are in the middle of their playoff push for the Kelly Cup. After finishing off the Toledo Walleye in a best of 5 series, the Checkers are taking on the Cincinnati Cyclones. After dropping the ball in game 1 and losing 4-3 those pesky Checkers bounced back with a 5-0 wiping of the Cyclones. The next three games are in Cincy, where the Checkers will look to continue their winning ways.


I know I posted this on facebook, but still think it's pretty funny.


It's been a while since I posted American Idol news, so let's take a few steps back. A couple weeks ago some serious drama went down as Big Mike was voted off and was forced to sing for his life. Well he did, and in dramatic fashion the judges saved him. I've been a fan if Big Mike since day 1. Just an all around great guy and the man has a set of pipes on him. And he can sing. (No Homo. He's jacked!) Tim Urban came out firing on all cylinders with his rendition of "Can't Help Falling in Love." As Simon said he did go from zero to hero and showed he actually has some potential. My girl Siobhan has been steadily good, but not great. She hasn't wowed the judges like the first couple of weeks. I used to get amped up to see her and she's just been blah lately. Expect big things of her in the next few weeks. Andrew and Katie were voted off last week which was expected by many. They just weren't up to snuff. Two of the favorites Lee and Casey are getting better and better each week as well. I'm excited for the next few weeks. God I love this show.



What else? It's spring time. I love this weather, it's fun going to the rink and leaving with a nice day out to do whatever you want. This also means I'll be heading back to Boston soon which I am pretty excited about. There's nothing like summertime in Boston. Get to reunite with some good people at the finest local watering holes and soaking up the sun down the cape and Nantucket. Ahh good times. Can't wait. Before that though there's only one thing left to do..



(sorry it's fuzzy..but you get the point)

Superstitions

In my last blog I told you I would write an entire blog on weird superstitions I have seen in my career. So that's what I am going to do today. I really don't have to look far either cause I could've been the most superstitious person in the history of life early in my career and in college. Hockey players are no no notorious for being very superstitious...Here are a few examples starting from pre-college days...

I would get dressed the same exact way everytime I put my equipment on. Everything left to right. I always had my stick to my left as well while getting dressed. I then would put my gloves on, left, then right, without touching anything else. So I would have to put my left hand into the glove without touching anything else. Then my right hand into the right glove without touching anything else. That was just weird.

During warmups and in between period I used to have to skate 3 circles, then stretch again. The refs used to get mad at me cause I would delay the faceoff, but I had to do it.

I used to stretch before the games in my dress clothes before getting dressed. I would be stretching out in my khakis, dress shirt and shoes. That was just uncomfortable. I probably did this once and played well that game so I continued to do it every other game. Yikes. I think I was the only person to have superstitions back then too.

During my college days our lives were much more structured so the superstitions would take on a whole new level. It all started from the top. Our coach was very very superstitious, to say the least. He wore the same "coaching shoes," said the same things all the time, came in to talk to us at precisely the same exact times. He would not use a marker in practice that was the same color of the team we were playing! PSYCHO!!! We had a goalie that never spoke on gamedays..not even in class, even if he was called on. One guy wouldn't talk to girls on gamedays, not even his girlfriend. How about eating the same Bertucci's meal every night before a game. (on the road he would call 411 asking for the local bertucci's seeing how far they would deliver). These were just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone would get dressed and do their own little quirky things while getting ready. One game I read a newspaper on the way to our pregame meal and played well that night so I continued to read a newspaper before pregame meal. Sometimes there were no new papers so I just read the same one over and over again. How weird is that! I also wore the same pair of socks for a long time before they got too many holes in them and were just pieces of cloth on my feet. Our trainer Larry Venis picked up on some of my rituals and just looked at me in astonishment. During the game, I would never use the gate on the bench, I would just hope the boards everytime. I would also squirt the water bottle, before I drank it, then spit half it out. Don't ask me how I started all of these, they just evolved and then it turned into what it was. Now since the pro season is a lot longer and a lot less structured my superstitious ways have calmed quite a bit, but I still have a few here and there that I'll keep to myself. I know this blog was kind of all over the place and there were no pictures but I was just typing what came to mind. Hope you enjoyed!

PS. It's playoff time now so the time honored tradition of growing playoff beards starts now. WOO!!!!

The Mike Maher Blog

(I was looking for a good picture, but couldn't find one without his better half in the picture)
My good friend Mike Maher wrote a message on my facebook profile asking when I would "split some wisdom" to the world with a new blog. I asked him for some material he wanted to hear and this is what he replied:

Mike Maher hmm..some topics:
-re-naming "March Madness"... perhaps, "Spring Shitshow" is more fitting.
-Your dad's opinion of Gilbert Arenas
-The greatest mascot of all time
-Best superstitions you've come across in your teams
-tiger wo- wait nevermind
-Cheerleading: Sport or extracurricular activity
-Names your parents were going to na...me you prior to deciding on the WASPY "Kevin"
-Condiment you can't live without
-Nutsacks; just silly or underrated?

No need to thank me. Just send me a check.


So here are my answers..
march madness should be renamed.."Expletive!!! Butler always does well in the tourney and the Big East sucks the house out. There goes my life savings. I hope that bookie doesn't try and kill me." Not sure how CBS would broadcast that though.
My Dad hates the NBA and everything it stands for. Won't even watch it. If he turns it on he usually just yells at the TV and all the players on it for not playing fundamental basketball and not playing defense. So I'm sure Gilbert Arenas is just another reason to hate the game for him. I told him I saw the Wizards coach Flip Saunders out to eat last night and my Dad asked if he was packing heat.
Greatest actual mascot of all time has to be the Stanford Tree. It's a tree, that just bombs around during the games. Thats funny to me. The greatest name for a team would have to be the University of California at Santa Cruz "Banana Slugs." "Here we go Slugs" Let's go get 'em!!"
The best superstitions I've seen while playing could be a whole Blog in itself. So it will be! check back later for that one!
Tiger Woods. I'll say something quick. He is playing at the masters, but I don't really care about that. I can't wait to put the Masters on TV and take a nap on the couch. PERFECT sleeping noise. Instant snooze button when that comes on.

Cheerleading-Activity. But the male cheerleaders I respect. We all know why they are there, and they are usually pretty jacked. No Homo.
My dad legit wanted to call me Hubble Gardner Schaeffer. I think he heard it in a book or a movie one time, but I probably would've never left my house if that was my name. Or talked to my Dad. Both. Ever.
I absolutley cannot live without Ketchup. I put it on EVERYTHING. When in doubt put ketchup on it. Eggs, steak, potatoes. Check. I didn't like hot dogs when I was young so I would take the hot dog roll and pour ketchup in it and eat it just to fit in. Pretzels, dip them in ketchup. Potato Chips, dip them in ketchup. Ketchup, dip it in ketchup. I need to switch over to Organic ketchup now though cause there is way too much high fructose corn syrup in regular ketchup and I'm trying to watch my figure.


Nutsacks. Silly. I love when you see a truck with the nutsack hanging from the license plate. I laugh at that.


Thanks for coming out!