Holy Dynamite Batman ! It's been definitely WAY too long since I last posted. Anyways, lots has happened in my life and surrounding me, I hope I can recall everything.

First off we (as a country) are the greatest Olympic Winter nation ever ! Not only did we win one Gold medal but 14 in total with the record breaking one coming on the final day in the Mens Gold Medal hockey game. I was alone at home watching the game, and as a nation I believe we stopped all productivity that day. When the US tied the game up late in the 3rd, you could hear the nation exhale a collective disappointment that it was going into overtime. But as in the juniors game, where the Americans prevailed, we did it likewise on Crosby's 'Golden goal'. Just a quick low shot that beat Miller and forever locked him in Canadian hockey lore with Henderson, and Lemieux. That goal gave us the 14th Gold medal of the Winter games. I was so proud.

Onto the next major event of the Spring, the Stanley Cup finals. My team barely squeeked in but with keys injuries I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, especially playing Washington in the first round. Well, with Washington totally in control, up 3 games to 1 in the series, and Montreal being totally outplayed, they found a way to claw back. The absolutely sensational play of Jaroslav Halak in net, facing 40-50 shots a game, Hal gill in a shut down role against Ovechkin, and the sniper-like ability of Cammaleri, who was on a torrid scoring pace, suddenly it was tied in the series, with it shifting back to Washington for game 7. Now as a Habs fan, even I didn't think they could come back being down against this powerhouse of a team, that led the NHL in points and won the President's trophy. But the lack of production by Ovechkin, Green and especially Semin in the playoffs were their downfall. As Montreal managed to win it, mostly on the back of Halak. Next up, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Great, first the President trophy winners, now the defending Stanley Cup champions. We played well in the first couple of games, but again later in the series, were down to elimination. Cue Halak again. And Gill. And Cammaleri. Too bad Gomez, Gionta and the rest didn't really step up much. And with Markov going down with injury early in the series, trouble would be brewing. But the role players stepped up and the emergence of Subban, filling in for Markov, helped the team to beat the Penguins. Again, as a Habs fan, ok maybe we could get by Washington, but coming from behind to beat the Penguins too, I hardly doubted it. But there it was. Up next was the winner of the Flyers and Bruins. Now this was a special series for me. I hate the Bruins, and they were up 3-0 in their series, settting up the dream match against the Habs. But the Flyers would eventually even the series and force a game 7. Down 3-0 after the first period to them as well, they overcame adversity and tied it up. And eventually went on to win it! Only 2 other teams in NHL history have overcome 3-0 deficits to win a series. I was in awe ! Set up with the match up, I guess it was Philly's destiny to make it to the final , as Montreal ran out of gas. Halak looked ordinary, Gill couldn't contain anyone, Cammaleri's scoring dried up, and Philly played Montreal's game in blocking shots. Great run to say the least. Chicago cruised through in the West, and eventually beat the depleted Flyers. I would've liked to see them win it through everything they went through. But due to the fact Chicago won it, gave me a very outside chance to see the cup again. Kris Versteeg, brought to it to Lethbridge, and had a closed function at Boss Hogg's that night. Through Sheree, won got to bring a friend, all of whom cnacelled on her, I got to go see it, even though I had to work. I got Opi to cover me, and I got the opportunity of a lifetime to see it. Finally Kris came in with it, and everyone mobbed him and got to see it as he displayed it on the bar. Beautiful ! Then he takes it to the dancefloor and starts passing it around, for people to hoist and pose with. Are you kidding me? Shyly, I made my way there, he looked my way and asked if I wanted to. Sure, was all I said. I was SO nervous. This is the holy grail of all championships, the hardest they say to win, and here's me hoisting it above my head like I had just won it. I could have died in a auto wreck on my way to work, having done something that was the ultimate highlight in my life.

Wedding season was decent this year, but had none in June booked, but that should change next year when I hit the phone book. Still got 2 to go, one at the end of September and one I picked up in October for the long weekend.

So, what's left? LOL not much I guess. Just working 6 days a week again. Essies picked up Sundays and Studio 54 picked up Wednesdays from Blarney closing down in early July. Good for them, serves them right for not knowing how to run a bar effectively. Funny Lonny had it for 5 years or so and it did very well, Dan and Nathan then took it over for just over 2 years and it decreased in business, then Chris and Nathan ran it to closure. Bravo ! But as for myself, it gave me an extra 2 nights in other places.

Pulse opened up at the end of August. It would seem they are killing everone right now and are the busy place to be. However, all I hear from people that it's just like the Roadhouse with a fresh coat of paint. Nice dancefloor, and I hear a lot of complaints about the music being played there. We'll see how long they can keep that image up of being the "new" bar. Also Republik (in the old 911) seems to be doing good. The industry has changed a lot, with a few places shifting around , and some new ones opening and some old ones closing down. Gonna be an interesting school year.

Taking my daughter to see Justin Bieber live in Calgary in just over a week. Ugh. I might like a track or two, but it's definitely something I wouldn't normally buy for myself !!

So that's pretty much it for new and interesting stuff. Still boring as always, and still single as much too. Maybe it's time for a change, yet again.... At least I can post and should do a lot more of it.

GOLD !!! We got our first ever Gold Medal at home as host of the Olympics. Alexandre Bilodeau got it in Men's Moguls on a fantastic run, beating out a former Canadian who now skies for Australia. Even though I didn't see it live, I did watch the finals as they replayed it. Wow. What a run. Now we need more !!

Alas I believe winter is on the way out soon. It's been cool at night but that's to be expected, but the days have slowly been warming up. :)

Well, unfortunately the NHL is on the olympic break. No practice for any of the teams and most of the star players will be playing for their countries in the grandest Tournament of them all. Hopefully this break will heal up my team's injured and they can come back and make a playoff spot.

Speaking of which, the Olympics opened on Friday of last week. Beautiful ceremony with great performances and overall, was one of the better openings I have ever seen. A group of 5 athletes, Wayne Gretzky, Nancy Greene, Catrina Lemay Doan, Steve Nash and Rick Hanson, lit the big torch inside GM place. Gretzky ended up lighting the big cauldron outside near the broadcaster's plaza. No better person, in my view. Unfortunately there was a freak tragic accident, as the Georgian luger hit the last turn in practice and hit a steel pole, going 144 km/hr. RIP.

Work at Studio went well on Saturday. A bit of a slow start but the place was electric and I had a great dance floor all night.

Observation: Why is it when a person instead of walking 25 feet to a crosswalk, attempts to cross the road in the middle of a block, expects me to stop for him at his current position? Ain't gonna happen !! Stupid people. Grrr.

Officially it's Valentine's Day today, but I'm still lonely. All my prospects have wilted to be duds. I hate this day anyway, but it gets worse every year.

Work at Studio 54 went great tonight. The crowd was electric and there were no problems except a few underage kids and a few drunk people. Couple of potential fights could've happened but got broken up without incident.

Observation: Winter is cold, obviously. But my vision of winter is all the trees covered in a thick layer of hoar frost. Lately, we've had a lot of it and I love it. A thick fog rolls through and cakes the frost on the tree branches, with the end result of every branch having about an inch of frost on it and the definition outlined by it. God, that makes no sense, but it's SO awesome. It's as if everything is in a suspended animation of winter chill.

Work has been decent. Studio has been solid since Roadhouse has been closed. But along with it comes the stupidity that is. Prime example was last Saturday night. Stupid busy plus we got some of the fighters form the PFA fight card afterwards. But they weren't really the cause of everything. For the first time in a very long time, I actually feared for my life. The doorman lost total control of the crowd. There were a lot of fights, but thankfully it wasn't overly serious. It could've seriously erupted into something a LOT worse. But our Graffiti night went over well. Simple promotion that very fun. I hope and can't for another 90s night though. That was the bomb.

Monday at Essies was decent. Slow night overall but got really good feedback on the game show from it's participants. And afterwards, the crowd was very dancy.

And finally, I took part in 15% off Tuesday at Safeway. I've been before but was only for a gallon of milk. This time my original cost before savings was $72. But with my club card I saved $30 and an additional $7 with the discount. WOW. I will shop more often on this day, and freeze most, or buy dry goods. Saving over $30 was simply too good to pass up.

So had our Retro 90's party at Studio on Saturday night. Started off slow but built up to a crazy feverish night of pure delight and insanity. I played all the fan favorites and had people screaming and yelling when I played some of the most popular tunes form the 90s. Everything from the dance stuff (Culture Beat-Mr. Vain, Haddaway-What is Love, Bloodhound Gang-Bad Touch) to boy band and girl band stuff (Backstreet Boys, N Sync, and Spice Girls) to some alternative stuff early in the evening to some old school hip-hop. One of the best cheers was for Whigfield's Saturday Night. I also mixed in the current top 40 stuff, but the overall feeling was great and I'd rank that night definitely in Top 10 of my best nights ever, maybe very close to Top 5. Finished it off with Shakespeare's Sister-Stay, and Goo Goo Dolls-Iris. Fitting....

Tonight had our Lethbridge Lodge Christmas Party. It was held at the Coast Hotel. Jen Taylor was my date. Good turnout and the food was absolutely amazing. Hippodrome, a 12 piece band, including horn section, played retro hits of the 70s primarily but good upbeat party tunes. I actually won a door prize. A one night's acomodation to the Coast Hotel. Then later on, my buddy Mike offered to trade me a rice cooker his date or friend won, 2 years in a row. So I agreed, seeing as I've wanted one for quite some time. From there went to Blarney for one quick drink, then home.

Good night overall and great weekend. Hoep this next week goes as well.

I really gotta quit waiting so long between posts. I forgot lots of stuff I've been meaning to write. LOL

Well work is going good still. Studio's been busy as ever. Now with the fact that Roadhouse is closed for a while, we should be and have been busy. Scores, well, it's Scores. The place which should do good but the owners just don't seem to care about it. And the fact I feel like and pretty much am a human jukebox. Oh well, as long as I get my $125 a night plus a few shots, it's all good. Finally Essies. We just started our music game show as a way to get people in there earlier and start with a base crowd. The game show has 4 mini games in it: Music Mashup, Music Trivia, Complete the Lyrics, and Identify song & Artist. Stayed clear away from Name That Tune format so Cary can't bitch about anything. Hopefully it'll be a bit busier for the next one. Depending on it's success, I should get my raise there. Plus if things go very well, I can put the final touches on my music game show and introduce it in the fall somewhere.

The weather has been wonky lately. Went from that really cold snap to +11 temps, melted mostly all of the snow on the roads (except on my block of course!) and now it's suppose to snow again this weekend. But at least no -50 temperatures....for now.

Had the Cash Store Christmas party a few weekends ago. There was supposed to be about 88 people from all the stores, however one branch had a nasty cold rip through it's employees and 2 others canceled, so by the end of it, we had about 23 people. It was held at the Army & Navy club like the year before. The food was great and drinks were a bit expensive, and had a few of them dancing for a while. Was done, and packed up by 12:00, where I cruised over to Studio and helped out Opi who was working for me.

Now as for my personal life, it's ok, but there may be life. First off since I know Ryan WILL read this at some point, thanks for all the support man, and let's do coffee next week. I'll call you. My love life STILL sucks, but I got a few potentials. I realize that it'll just happen. I will still speak my mind to a girl, if I think she's beautiful and such. But I must concentrate on improving me, in all aspects of my life. Things will fall into place then. The Christmas holiday put a bit of a damper on me financially, but I'm able to rebound. I'm back on track after the end of the month. Lots of weddings and such getting booked and should be another fun summer. As for the club scene, this should be my last hurrah. Time to find something a LOT more stable. What exactly that is, is yet to be determined. Ok. No more procrastinating on this blog stuff. :o)

Well it's been a tremendously long time since I blogged last. Seems I survived Christmas this year but I really do think it'll be my last. Again I really don't like spending money one that I don't really have and second for what purpose. Maybe it's because I'm getting old but it has lost it's charm. I didn't even get a chance to go up and see Taia, because I couldn't afford it. But my brother came down and mom once again cooked for an army of 12, even though there was only 3 of us. LOL.

Another reason I really hate Christmas is that I lose out on work. Grrr. Boxing Day was decent at Studio though. Backtracking a bit, the annual Festivus game on the 23rd was great. Great turn out and people don't realize how hard it is to run on snow. I was SO sore at the end of it all. And it's been so nice not to have to work in retail on it's busiest day~!

New Years eve was busy at Studio with no cover. After the night was said and done, I'd finally got fed up. I talked to some of the bartenders and heard how much they made (close to $400 for most). So here I am in the booth, creating a frenzied party atmosphere, making my $100 a night, when a bartender makes $400/night and the bar makes $1000s of dollars. How is that even close to fair. Don't get me wrong about the bartenders, they have to work hard, but they expect tips. Tips are rendered upon service given. So I will still work at Studio but I am in the process of looking for something else. I still love and enjoy my job, but it's time for me to be adequately compensated for my efforts.

Seems this cold weather ain't going away anytime soon. Caused havoc at The Lethbridge Lodge as the city's water main broke and flooded the downstairs of the place, causing it to be shut down last Monday. So we transplanted Essies at Studio. It was very weird seeing their doorman working, but it was all good.

Not much else to say. Going up to see Taia the 17th of January. And thank God I have the Cash Store Christmas party this Saturday. I'm still gonna be screwed for cash but at least I'll have a bit extra to get back on track.

To quote a terrible singer, "...Oh the times they are a changin'...." Welcome to 2010.