Halloween

I've always liked Halloween. My parents always stressed that it was all pretend and it was fun. You get to become someone or something else.

A good while ago we started talking about Halloween to Corban and asked what he thought he might want to be. We're kind of into making costumes rather than buying those cheesy plastic ones in a store. We wanted to give ourselves some time if we needed. Corban loves to be read to. So he chose The Cat in the Hat. Easy. No problem.

So I borrowed a Cat Hat from a girl that's in the marching band. Marjorie made the bow tie. We got some white gloves and a black shirt. We stuffed a sock of mine for a tail....and some washable markers makes the nose and whiskers.

Well last week we got a box of clothes from some friends and in it there was a Christmas jumpsuit/sleeper for Tobiah. Marjorie (have I mentioned she's a genius) looked through the Cat in the Hat book and realized that Thing 1 and Thing 2 both wear red jumpsuits. So she made Tobiah a Thing 1 outfit and I got to be Thing 2.

Now we're headed to Pittsburgh tomorrow (actually today since it's 12:40 am) to go the National Youthworker Convention. So my parents get the boys for Halloween. BUT the nursing home Marjorie works for has Trick or Treat in the halls. Cool deal. So we all got dressed up and went together as a group. Corban kept telling Marjorie that she was Sally (the girl in the book) so Mari decided to dress as best she could like her.

Now here's the problem. Unless you have kids and read this book to them regularly or have seen the REALLY BAD movie they put out a couple years ago recently....you might not remember Thing 1 and Thing 2. Not many people picked up on it. But we were REALLY pushing the bounds of literary nerdhood with Sally. I'm pretty sure no one knew that Marjorie was suppose to be anything. She looked good too.

Sorry no pictures of Sally. We took these right before Toddler Time Monday (which was a special dress up one!)

OH I forgot....while in costume, Corban makes us call him Cat in the Hat and we are only allowed to call Tobiah, Thing 1 and daddy is Thing 2. No other names are allowed. He's very particular.....and hillarious

Health Part 2 OR I heart Tobiah

Late last week, we got a call from our pediatrician. He said that when Tobiah went to the hospital for an X-ray that discovered his pneumonia, they also did an EKG. They didn't like the looks of it, and he was suggesting we go see a pediatric cardiologist.

I took Tobiah today to Erie for that appointment.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know it's safe to say our little man is not in complete health. Today we got another wrinkle. It appears that he has a couple small problems with his heart. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal and they would let him try and "grow out of it". It appears he has a small hole between two chambers of his heart. Because of the hole it looks like one of the flaps on his valve is possibly weakening.

Long and short: He wants to give it another couple months. We go see him again in late January. Unless something miraculous happens in that time, Tobiah will need open heart surgery.

I serve a God of miracles. I serve a God who gets things done. I believe in the power of prayer. In a way I feel needy because I feel I keep having to ask for more prayer....but at the same time, that's what the Body of Christ is suppose to be doing.

If you have a prayer list, we'd love to be on it. If you meet in a small group, we'd love for you to be praying over Tobiah. Even hours after seeing this doctor we're praying that THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE is going to be doing miracles in our little boys life. And even if he needs surgery God will use that as a means to minister to people. Your prayers are a blessing. Thanks.

10/27 Monday update...barely

It's 11:35 pm so technically it's still Monday for a few more minutes...

the weekend that was:
-Friday I had the boys. Grocery store, bank, etc.
-I found a couple we met in Ethiopia! We only spent 2 hours with them one afternoon but they have been on our hearts and in our prayers since then. They told us about a blog they have up and we've been scouring the internet since we've been home and one Friday I did a quick search and got it in under 5 minute! God is good!
-Friday night Marjorie and I went on a date for the first time since Tobiah's been home. We ate dinner then went to a coffee shop and read the back log of the past two months of this couples blog. WOW. They're story mirrors ours in so many ways.
-Saturday was a rainy yucky day so we basically bummed around the house most of the day.
-Sunday was insane. Church in the morning. Left church to come home and eat before I left to play paintball (probably the last nice day to do so this fall). Played until 4:30 which gave me enough time to get home shower and leave for our YMCA youth program. Finished that and packed up my hockey gear to play in the league last night. LOST 3-2. (Can I just say how much I HATE LOSING!)
-Today was kind of like another weekend day...so I'm including it. Mari was home from work today. We went to Toddler Time at the library with the boys. It was a special Halloween one so we got dressed up (a post for later). Mari then ran to the lawyers office to work on paperwork for Tobiah. Home for lunch and quick naps. Then off to the doctors office for both boys. Shots all around. There will be a health update later this week too.

where i am at the moment: Home. Just got home from my small group. I love those guys. It's been a long day. Tobiah will be awake soon looking for food.

on my to-do list this week: I need to work more on that retreat. I need to get some music stuff done. This coming weekend is the National Youthworker Convention so I need to pack and get ready for that. Seems like I have lots on my plate this week and it's going to be a short week.

procrastinating about:For some reason I can get myself going with this retreat. I have lots to do and I just can't get fired up.

book I'm in the midst of: Ok two things here. I haven't started anything this week, but today I got a book out of the library that I"m stoked to get into. Also I"m planning on spending some money at the Youthworker Convention on some good reading.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Creep - The SKAndalous All-Stars (covering Radiohead)

grand revelations this past week: I HATE LOSING. Maybe this isn't that grand of a revelation. I've always known I have a competitive personality. I get it honestly from my dad. Last night at the hockey game though....man. I had played a stellar game. I kept our team in it the whole way. Then I let in one goal that wasn't really my fault and I was so bitter with myself. I did everything I could to prevent it...and BANG I was mad. I hate losing. (which also makes the previous song appropriate)

how i’m feeling about this week: On one hand I"m stressed by the work I need to accomplish before Thursday. On the other hand I just need to get through until Thursday when we leave for the Convention. I can't wait to get out of Dodge.

Where I Live: N. Warren Volunteer Fire Department

I grew up in North Warren (which oddly enough is a mile north of the city of Warren). When Mari and I moved here in 2000 we lived downtown (it's funny just to say that). ANYWAY....after two moves we found an awesome duplex in North Warren. We didn't intentionally move here, it just worked out that way. What you need to know about North Warren is that it's as quaint as you can get. The highway is on one side of NW and the Conewango Creek (crick or creek are both acceptable here) is on the other side. It's like an island. People walk the streets and say high to neighbors. They slow down when they see kids playing (mostly). It's cute.

So when I was growing up North Warren had it's own Elementary School. Actually the Elementary School was fully functional until a couple years ago when they built a giant centralized Elementary School. During Elementary School there was always a very special week called "Fire Prevention Week". Each class made posters and talked about how to be safe at home. The best part though was that the local Volunteer Fire Dept. would come down during school hours and give rides on the truck. It was the highlight. The winning poster from each class got to sit up front! (I either won one year or got second or something because I definitely remember sitting up front one year!)

So whatever night they gave rides that the Elementary School, that night they would also give rides to the community. You could go down the street to the VFD and line up and take a ride. Back in the day I remember lights and sirens, but they've cut that back...probably due to complaints.

With the Elementary School out, they clearly don't do Elementary School rides anymore. They do however go to the local Day Care and give them rides. Here's the best part.....they still give rides at night. So guess who went on a fire truck ride? ME AND CORBAN! We went late and were the only ones riding so we sat up front....which Corban thought was amazing.

The driver forgot to inform of some crucial information before we left. Corban was sitting on my lap. We get to the first turn and I put my foot out to brace us so we didn't slam into the door. Well SURPRISE!!! There are two switch/pedals on the passenger side. One for the siren and one for the blarring horn. I tramped squarely on the blaring horn. I didn't realize what was going on until the driver said "Hey...uh...your foot....uh...pick up your foot...." So much for making the neighbors happy.

Fun night for all.

Immediacy

Immediacy. Tobiah is all about immediacy. Surprise, surprise. When he wants his diaper changed, he wants it done right now. When he wants your attention, he wants it right now….not when it’s convenient for you. But most of all when he wants to eat, he wants it now. He wails. Granted his wailing is pretty quiet, but its still passionate and full of immediacy.
At 4 am the other night as I was setting with him giving him a bottle I started wondering where our immediacy is. What are we so passionate about that we need to yell? Or maybe it’s not yelling we need to do.
I wonder if we’re missing something. Do we overlook injustice? Do we rationalize evil because we’re “just one church” or “person”? Are we content letting the world just go on around us or are we willing to speak our minds because the Bible says right is right and wrong is wrong? Why don’t we get fed up with things and speak out? Or Yell? Or cry?
Why are only 2% of US Christians willing to do something about AIDS orphans in Africa (there are currently around 13 million children without parents in Africa)? Why do we turn a blind eye to child slavery and trafficking? The US bails out Wall Street for 700 billion but the entire G8 can’t find 25 billion to stop the 25,000 children that die daily from preventable disease (thank you Bono). Where are our priorities in the church? Why aren’t these the biggest problems in our lives?
These are some of the things we should be yelling about. Instead we complain because of the flower arrangements or the music or the lack of a drama team or how we don’t have a puppet ministry anymore or how the pastor changed the order of worship or why we’re not having enough potlucks or why we’re doing too many potlucks or why if we should call it a potluck or a tureen………
What happened to shouting the Gospel from the mountaintops? What happened to taking care of widows, and orphans and the least of these? When is enough enough? Where is our immediacy?

Drummers

There are numerous drummer jokes you can insert here. Feel free to add your own.

EDIT: If found this about an hour after my original post....needed to add it here.

10/20 Monday update

the weekend that was:
-I had the boys Friday. Because of what was going on the rest of the weekend, we had to go to the grocery store and run other errands.
-Friday night was the last home football game of the season. The band director (Mr. Lyle) did something different this night though. He talked with the Jr. High band director earlier in the week and they did a promo thing for Jr. High students. The idea was to get the younger students to come play with the marching band in the stands to get them hooked on marching band. I instantly loved the idea. I'm losing 6 really talented seniors this year and need some bodies to fill holes. After lots of fun and playing and loud drumming, I think we got most of Jr. Highers hooked on drumline for next year. Warren found a new and exciting way to lose the football game too.....after being ahead most of the night, they let Corry come back and were down by one. They drive the length of the field setting up a game winning field goal with 10 seconds left. The long snapper flicked the ball the whole way back to the 35 and Warren loses! YEAH!
-Saturday morning we're up and at um. Marjorie's sister Helena, her 5 kids and husband Martin came down for the weekend. They stayed at a hotel in Jamestown. We went up there in the AM but ended up just getting some Tim Bits and coming back home. Lots of playing all day Satuday...inside, outside, upside down....this small house isn't used to having that many people in such a small place, but man was it fun!
-Saturday night I subbed for a team in the hockey league. 5-2 winners!
-Sunday morning was slightly different because of a building project we're starting at church, the entire basement is off-limits so no Sunday School. This is excellent because it means I can now get to church an hour later!!! Another fun little kink was that they had turned off a bunch of power to the basement, but our overhead screen was on one of those circuits. It was fun trying to read words as they were superimposed over the giant cross on the front wall!
-Sunday afternoon was more family time. We went for a cool hike. I taught the older girls to whistle with acorn tops. Sunday night was YMCA again. Good turnout.

where i am at the moment: Home. Beautiful fall day. Tobiah's been sleeping all afternoon. I think his body is just trying to recoup. Corban has been really good the last couple days. He's playing quietly by himself for the moment.

on my to-do list this week: Amazingly enough I got a couple weeks ahead with music, so that's not on my list for this week. I need to do some work for that retreat still. I need to plan ahead some youth activities as well.

procrastinating about: See above.

book I'm in the midst of: Nada. I'm in a season of slack from a reading standpoint.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: We Intertwined by The Hush Sound. It's a surprisingly upbeat happy sounding sad song. If you read the words you wouldn't expect this music to accompany it. It's not exactly a sad song, but it's suppose to be.

grand revelations this past week: I love watching Corban interact with other kids. He had a blast this weekend with his cousins. He's a fun little boy. He couldn't remember all the girls names so he just called all of them "cousin". Man he was fun to watch playing!

how i’m feeling about this week: Lots of stuff to do on our schedule, but I don't know what time I'm going to have to get it all done. I hate weeks like that. Uh oh, Tobiah's up...gotta go.

Where I Live: Kinzua Dam

This will be a new recurring feature on my blog. I've been realizing that most everyone reading my blog hasn't been to the Warren area. This is both an amazingly beautiful and peculiar part of the world to live in. This section will feature both of those things. Enjoy.

To start this feature I thought it important to show the LARGEST and one of the prettiest areas of where we live. We live on the end of the Allegheny National Forest. In and of itself it's beautiful and allows lots of hikes and climbs etc. To add to that though, in 1965 the Army Corp of Engineers built the Kinzua Dam. This Dam creates a HUGE reservoir that goes the whole way up into NY state. Basically without this Dam every spring towns all along the Allegheny River would be flooded....and that includes Pittsburgh. It also releases water during dry summers to keep the Allegheny at reasonable levels for recreation and wildlife.

Because of glaciers that were here the surrounding hills are cut just so...and the reservoir is below it. This time of year as the leaves change colors it creates some amazing scenery. The Dam also creates electricity as well from the flow released from the Dam. There's a GIANT retaining pool high in a nearby hillside. At night water is pumped up there when energy is cheap and then released in the day as there is a greater need. (perhaps another "Where I Live" will be pictures of this retaining pool)

Also because of the glaciers there are some areas that have GIANT rocks. This particular afternoon (last weekend) we went to one of the Recreation Areas that have some of the rocks so we could climb around while we looked at the hillsides. (Again perhaps another feature will be my favorite one of these areas).

Come for a visit and we'll go explore!

Test Your Hockey Savvy

I ran across this yesterday. A fun little Quiz. You have 5 minutes to name all 30 NHL teams. I was close. 28 our of 30. How many can you do? I'm curious.

Health

Over the past couple weeks we've taken Tobiah to a series of doctors and had a slew of tests. Ultimately we'd just like to see our little boy healthy. Long and short of it is this: he's not a very healthy little guy.

Without going into great detail (mainly because I have not idea what I'm talking about....as many times as it's explained to me)...we're working on it.

Yesterday we went to the pediatrician to find out he now has pneumonia as well. So last night in the middle of the night Marjorie believe Tobiah is struggling to breath so away to the ER they go. He's now on a bundle of anti-biotics and we go back to the pediatrician tomorrow.

The cool part (if there is a cool part about your son being constantly sick) is that you would never know that anything has happened to Tobiah. They get back from the hospital this morning have a breathing treatment, bloodwork and other tests and he's chipper and smiling and wants to play with me. He's a champ. He's definitely holding up better than Mari and I are.

So needless to say we would covet your prayers for our little boy.

Rock the Vote

It's a political time of year. Everyone's all tense about the economy, the war, or Brittany Spears going on tour again. I think it's time for some levity. Chill out.

I'm voting for the guy with the most rhythm.

10/13 Monday update

New to this week's update: I've added a new category. See if you can spot it. We'll see if it gets used or not...

the weekend that was:
-Friday was boys day again. Have I said how much I love having two boys around our house? I do. Even though I sometimes struggle knowing what to do with them or how to be the best daddy that they need...man is it cool to see those two together.
So we ran some errands Friday....bank, church to help out the secretary and her daughter (put some of my mp3's onto her daughters phone for a band trip this weekend), some small groceries, etc.
-Friday night was cool! As I've mentioned before I'm the percussion instructor for the high school marching band. This is my 9th season doing this. I love it. Not only does it keep me drumming, but I get to come into contact with some really cool kids. I try to go to all the home football games. Well Friday, I took Corban with me for the first time. I wasn't sure how that would go. He's not a big fan of sitting still. But I figured there's enough going on that maybe he'd be super distracted. He was great. He was obsessed with the Dragon mascot. It's a brand new costume, so I guess it's super fuzzy and soft which in Corban's mind meant that it was a "good dragon". We had snacks, and listened to the band, and watched some football. The best part of the night was one of his babysitters (a girl from my youth group) who is just a super amazing girl won Homecoming Queen. I was pumped. She's just a genuine person and should've won...not because she's popular but because she just likes people.
-Saturday was play time as a family. In the AM Marjorie and Corban went to the local farmers market to get apples. Then she made some Apple Crisps (YUM!) After the boys nap, we packed up and went out to the Dam/Reservoir area to hike around. (more on this later this week) Then we went to church for a fish fry dinner that a couple in our church does free for our church. Good times.
-Sunday was crazy. Worship team, sunday school, church. As soon as church was over I jumped in the car and drove FAST a little more than an hour away (after a stop at Tim Horton's drive-thru) to a meeting about a retreat I'm doing in Nov. Then when that was done (5:45) I jumped back in the car and high-tailed it back so I could do our YMCA youth program. It made for a long 12 hour day. I'm tired just thinking about it.

where i am at the moment: My house with my boys. They just woke up from their naps...so Corban is watching his movie and Tobiah is sitting in his bouncer.

on my to-do list this week: I feel like every week my to-do list is pretty much the same. I'm kind of excited about this retreat coming up so I'm probably going to do some work there. I also need to pick more music out.

procrastinating about: I'm really bad about getting ahead in my music planning. I just can't seem to get beyond a week or two ahead. I have the list of themes/sermon ideas through the New Year....and I just can't get ahead.

book I'm in the midst of: Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox. Do you know about this series? Man I love them. They're for "young readers" but they target everyone. Marjorie hooked me on the first book in the series a couple years ago. She said, "read this book." Now she and I read VERY different books so I immediately said NO. She said, "Read the first page. If you're not hooked, you don' t have to read any more." Yeah we now wait for the next book in the series to come out. These are great.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: "What If" by Nichole Nordeman. A friend at church and I did this song this week as special music.

grand revelations this past week: I don't think I have a favorite snack. We played this silly get-to-know-you game yesterday and one of the questions was Favorite Snack. Most kids had a set answer....Oreos, Cheese-Its, Chocolate ice cream. I like food a lot. I think if I can eat it, I like it. Do I have to have a favorite? Maybe I'm just not thinking hard enough.

how i’m feeling about this week: Unsure really. I'm not really thinking much about it. I did great last Tuesday and Wed. with Tobiah though. We worked out a good routine of work and play and sleep. I think I can actually be productive on those days. However this week Mari is taking off Tuesday for another doctor appointment with Tobiah, so we're going out for breakfast and that's going to jack up my routine a bit. HOWEVER...I GET TO GO OUT FOR BREAKFAST WITH MY WIFE!!! YIPEE!!!! I can't wait!

Starting my Wishlist

Christmas is still a ways off. But there's no time like the present to ask for .....presents.

The other day Brandon (of buy me pizza from New Jersey fame) e-mailed me and told me I needed a T-shirt from Corban College. You can pick up some shirts and stuff on their online bookstore. You can see their clothing line here. However....being a college they charge an arm and a leg so that you can be proud to attend there. So even though I know full well that a T-shirt from a screen printer costs no more than 8 bucks to make, they're charging 20. Who do they think they are...every pop rock star in the country? There are some cool shirts though.

Well all this made me do some searching of my own. I came across this T-shirt. It's Corban in Aramaic. This one isn't 20 bucks though....it's only 19.99.

I need more t-shirts like I need a hole in the head. And there's no way I"m buying one of these by myself. Perhaps I'll ask my parents for it for Christmas.....

That's just embarrassing

As reported a couple days ago...hockey starts this week (tomorrow actually). My pastor just said, "No offense Aaron, but it's too early for hockey to start." To which I say, "nonsense." It's never too early for hockey. There's a crispness in the air, which means it's time to strap on the skates.

I just read this article this morning. The final pre-season game for the Philadelphia Flyers was a bust. They lost. They didn't get blown out...but they got embarrassed. For their final pre-season game they played their minor league affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms. Yeah, they got beat by minor-leaguers. That's not good.

I can hear a conversation going on between the Flyers coaches and management. "Um, coach, maybe you want to re-evaluate the guys you sent down to the farm team."

Paintball

If anyone is actually reading this blog, you will by now know that I play paintball pretty regularly. I am quite obsessed with old paintball markers actually. To that extent I frequent an online paintball forum called MCarterBrown where most of the guys and gals there are old time players who love these older markers as well. While I like those old time markers......I think this new invention is next on my "to purchase" list.....(make sure you watch the whole thing....I don't want the first one, I want the second one)

10/6 Monday update

the weekend that was:
-Friday was another "boys" day. We went to the grocery store. Corban loves the grocery store. They have these little carts that he pushes around and I put stuff in his cart. He gets a free cookie. It's pretty cool. We saw 3 or 4 people we knew there...which is fine...just that it takes more time...with an antsy 3 year old. Then because we couldn't get everything we needed there, we had to run to Walmart...where we saw half of our church.
-The best part of Friday was we invited two couples our age over for food and games. All of us got sitters for our kids so it was just us. GREAT TIME. So much fun. We played WIZARD (see last Monday's post too!)
-Saturday was rough. Marjorie had made arrangements to meet her sisters and her mother in Buffalo for the day to shop. They do that usually twice a year. She totally needed to get out of the house. So I had the boys for another day. The problem today was that Tobiah decided to get sick. So I had a few minor disasters on my hands. Everyone's alive. Corban and I had a "special movie night" that evening. We made popcorn and watched CARS...which is Corban's favorite.
-Sunday morning was good. naps in the afternoon and YMCA at night.

where i am at the moment: Home. I've been up with Tobiah since 6:30. I'm now waiting for the rest of the family to wake up. Soon.... (the remainder of this post was finished at 6PM)

on my to-do list this week: Calls, planning, music, prep work for a retreat I'm helping with in Nov., organizing my volunteers better.

procrastinating about: Reading last weeks post, I was excited to be doing work....yeah that didn't happen. I'm procrastinating everything this week. I just want to sit around and eat candy.

book I'm in the midst of: I'm back to reading nothing again. I really need to fix that.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: So Happy Together-Flobots (cover of the Turtles)

how i’m feeling about this week: I'm clearly still adjusting to having two boys around the house instead of one. I'm also trying to figure out how to work on Tuesday and Wednesday and still take care of Tobiah. When I have those two things figured out, my weeks will be smooth.

Guitar Hero

I found this while looking for something else. B-wack, David Crowder's drummer re-wired a Guitar Hero Guitar to effects so Crowder can play through a whole song. This is cool

It's just a funny picture

I feel compelled to post, if nothing more then for my wife's sake.

After leaning over my shoulder as I was writing last night Marjorie declared me blasphemous or sac religious or not cool or something. It's all over the picture I used in my last post.

It's just a funny picture. I'm not riping pages out of the Bible. It's not a big deal.

For that matter, this is my least favorite painting of Jesus to begin with....Caucasian Jesus with pretty flowing hair....

If you were offended by my previous post. Sorry you feel that way. I still think it's funny. All I have to say is.....JESUS SAVES!

It's HOCKEY TIME!!!!

It's that time of year again. The time when I start care significantly more about sports. Football is in full swing....which is nice.

But WAY more importantly than that...hockey starts this weekend!

Last year the NHL kicked off in England. This year they start the season off in countries that actually care about hockey. Tampa Bay and the Rangers start the year in the Czech Republic. The Penguins and the Ottawa Senators start the year in Sweden.

Now I don't much care for the NHL going abroad so much. Both these countries have their own leagues of professional players. They don't need NHL players coming there to play. It's a gimmick. It's an attempt to make the NHL relevant in Europe. The ultimate desire of the moron that is Gary Bettman (see my thoughts on that here), is to expand the NHL into Europe. Several problems with that. As stated, there are already leagues in Europe. They either don't charge at all for tickets, don't charge much for tickets, or don't have many people showing up for games. How is that atmosphere suppose to sustain the 100-200 dollar ticket prices that most NHL arenas need to pay their players? Also, have we forgotten that prices are higher on everything? A bunch of NHL teams in small markets are trying to keep their heads above water as it is. So how many teams in North America will be sacrificed to try this experiment in Europe? Again, none of this is official, but there has been talk....

On another note. You'll remember that last year, there was an outdoor game in Buffalo last New Years Day. As you may or may not recall (another blog backlog) I went to that game. One of the cooler experiences I have had. So since ratings were good last year and they thought they could make money and increase fan base....the NHL decided to once again do another outdoor game. There were lots of possibilities and rumors of possibilities. Yankee Stadium was for a long time the front-runner in the rumor mill. My favorite (and by that I mean the one I was hoping for the most) was a proposal that Governor Ed Rendell wrote up for Mr. Bettman. He suggested the Penguins and the Flyers play at Beaver Stadium on Penn State Campus. Now that would've been cool. A battle for PA, but a HUGE stadium and not too far for me to drive. (for the record this is one of the few things Rendell has done that I've liked)

Well you probably know by now that that's not going to happen. The outdoor game on New Years Day is going to happen, just not so close to home. The Winter Classic II (as it's currently being referred to) will take place on New Years Day again. It will be played at Wrigley Field and will feature the Chicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings.

Here is what I like about it. Wrigley Field will be a completely different environment than Ralph Wilson Stadium. Layout will be different, the number of fans in attendance will be different, and the feel of the stadium itself will just be...well for lack of a better term...different. Also, they picked two of the original six teams. These two teams have had some serious rivalry....in the past. Who knows what the season will hold...but as of right now Detroit is going to be the team for everyone to beat this season. As the Cup winners they have to defend, but they didn't really lose much and some would say gained in the off season with free-agency. Chicago is a young up and coming team that could give some teams a run for their money...but not yet.

While tickets are expected to go in minutes, and be pricey......who's up for a road-trip?