fatwabbit

not bullet holes...just the damage from the hail... city estimates about $100M worth of damage to private owners only... not including whats happened to schools, parks, etc... even the cemetary wasnt spared during the storm. Lots of tombstones with angels missing wings... Yea.... Wilson appeared... my buddy sent me the photos, so I dont know if it was him or someone else who put it there... Newspapers reported that all the major car dealers were hit, and none of them had hail insurance (why would you when the last time was 50 years ago). They listed the Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin dealers were badly hit... The Audi showroom had a glass roof I believe, which is why the car in the showroom were damaged.

Here's a link to some of the pics of the storm damage around Perth. Not as bad as other areas of the world, just a weird storm that turned up on Monday just passed. Anyone want to take a trip to the local Audi dealer and get some cheaper 'storm hardened' cars for a cheap price? (pics are of cars IN the showroom)

The Stoll is similar to the Ovechkin, but with a lower lie. The Irmen is also the same as the Ovechkin, with a more squarish toe. I havent played with the Titaniums yet, but the blade feel is very similar to my Irmen... blade is a little thicker, but very solid. The Stoll has a more rounder shaft, similar to the Vapor. As for the Gryphon, its my lucky stick... found it at the rink, and after asking everyone who was there that night who it belonged to, and even posting a 'found' sign, no one came forward. I've just kept it mainly as a backup, but its a little hard to describe the stick. The shaft itself is a little thicker, and even though you can put a standard plug/blade tenon in the top end, you would have to put a few layers of tape for a snug fit. The feel of the blade is pretty good, and I can really feel the stick flex when taking shots. I do use it in rougher games, but the blade and shaft have held up extremely well... no paint chipping (hardly any) and the blade has not cracks or chips even though I take a lot of face offs with it. Gryphon is more of a field hockey manufacturer, but they make decent sticks. They have changed their stick design for 2010, with white fading to dark blue. Quite a number of the local guys play with the stick, and I've yet to see someone break one.

Some stuff came in the mail this week... not taking pics of the gear until my grafs get here... Still using the Mission Matrix on the bottom left. Been using it for 6 years, and the top hand palm has finally gotten a hole. This is a longer fit 16inch glove, very good against slashes. Trying to break in the black NBH 4 rolls at the same time. Mission ... gotta love their stuff. 2 x Mission Titanium Sundin 2 x Mission Titanium J Stoll Prostocks 1 x Mission Ti Pro Irmen prostock... pucks rocket off this thing, if only I could keep the shot lower by about 1 foot I would be hitting top corners 2 x CCM Vector V10 Ovechkin Grips... very nice curve 1 x Gryphon P88 Clone

HUGE storm today... and I mean HUGE. You could barely see about 10m in front of you with the heavy downpour... and it was freakin hailing! Small ice balls coming down hitting the roof of the car sounds like gunshots... pissed down so much that it blew water into the house thru al the open windows... This is in the sweet spot as its the first rain for i think 3 months?

Father-child campout on school field over the weekend... about 50 or so tents set up, some looking rather majestic rather than functional. Kids had a great time, fathers had an AWESOME time catching up. We had the 'best' setup, with all our tents surrounding our picnic table and folding chairs... lots of food as well, to the point we had to roudn up other kids to help finish all the cookies, cupcakes, snacks etc... and that was even before the official dinner bbq started. Father-child campout on school field over the weekend... about 50 or so tents set up, some looking rather majestic rather than functional. Kids had a great time, fathers had an AWESOME time catching up. We had the 'best' setup, with all our tents surrounding our picnic table and folding chairs... lots of food as well, to the point we had to roudn up other kids to help finish all the cookies, cupcakes, snacks etc... and that was even before the official dinner bbq started. The funny thing was it was supposed to start at 430pm, but when I went to pick my son up after school at 245pm, there were already 4 tents set up, and the MOTHERS were setting up another 2 or 3. It was also good to walk around and see which family had the most functional tent, something that was easy to setup/down... gonna get me a proper tent if we decide to go more often... Asked my son after the campout: 'should we go camping with mommy?'.... and the reply was: "no way! she'll cry".... haahahhah

You should be able to get some from the local hardware store or home depot...

shucks... sorry for your loss...

so am i the only one who gets my hair butchered by the wife every month?

No problem... hope you find your cat though.

maybe it was kovalchuk71's cat?

Awesome... i love it when you can relate hockey to your studies. Puppy dog Yoda is finding all the right spot to do his business... now if he can stop smashing all the barricades I put up to cordone him into the living area.

Take a cue from the movie Hangover and tell us the results... congrats to you and your brother

hockey season has finally started up again. First night was great, we won the first game, then got asked to stay behind and play another game as one of the teams didnt show.. for free! We played pretty well, but obviously were tired from the first game (back to back with about 5 min to grab some water). Ended up losing, but it was good to be back on skates playing again. Fast forward to this week, we had a number of players missing (one had to pick up his mom from the airport, the other went to the AC/DC concert)... and we only had 6 skaters against a team that averaged about half our age, and had more than 2 full lines. Played a pretty solid game, with us peppering the goalie with about 10 shots in the the first few minutes. I had about 10 shots on goal that night, scoring two low glove side, and one that I batted out of mid air past the goalie. Even the girls on our team were out hussling their guys, and putting their bodies hard into every 50/50 chance... we could have scored more, but ended up 5-2 winners. A LOT of fun, with a lot of good passing done. Playing against Darkbyte's team next week, which should be more than interesting.

Sorry to hear that... its 1 and 1 for me as well... :(

midmight edition... I think Fletch did something similar with his One95, but I think he also colored teh axles blue to match the blue hues in the skate.

Yea... thanks guys. My wife has already called him xiaoxiong in chinese, which means 'little bear'... We had a discussion at home, and he's not going to 'replace' our previous dog... I just thought along the lines that we needed soemthing to keep the household busy together as a family, and he has already made my wife smile many times in the last few hours compared to the tears she's shed for our beloved girl. Never easy, but trying to do whatever I can to make this home happy... anyone else need some gear? Still need to buy a few more things for the dog, and hopefully enough for daddy to buy some new skates that finally fit.

Got a new pup yesterday. "Yoda" is a Maltese/Shitzu crossed with a Australian Terrier. Looks more like an Ewok to me since he looks like a teddy bear, but my son insists on him being named Yoda.

sweet mother of pearl!... those look sexy. Keith, I assume you mounted with 3 rivets at the back?

thanks for the replies... we might have to look around anyway. Having only one child is not easy when they want to play all the time. Also, I think with a move on the cards, my son might miss having all his school mates around and might need some comfort in a familiar furry face. We will look for something different, but it would stil have to be a small dog.

Tough two weeks... got a call last evening during a meeting. Wife was hysterical on the phone, couldnt understand what she was saying. A guy takes over and says 'I'm sorry sir, I just ran over your dog' Cut meeting short, rushed back to find our beloved "fatty" all wrapped up in a towel, eyes glazed over. Wife was in tears, me close to it... we didnt have her long, just over 18months... but she was part of the family. The hard part was breaking the news to our 6yr old son who loved her like a best friend... now we have to think about whether to get another one... How soon is too soon? We might be moving in the next few months across the country, so do we look for one now so that the transition for our son is not as bad, or do we wait till we get there to find one.... She was a loving lap dog.... always wanted to be where everyone was... she'd even come into the toilet while you were there just to keep you company. She would happily sit on your lap and snooze away, and she loved pasta. RIP fatty... we'll miss you lots.

holy smokes batman... great pics of the goalie gear!

Not a vent, just need to post this somewhere. came back for Chinese New Year to visit the family, had our usual family photo taken. Supposed to celebrate my granny's 85 birthday and she passed away... she lead a long life, suffered from Alzhimers for the last 5 or so. Very frail, lost a lot of weight... At least we had almost the whole family in town for the New Year...

Amen to that! I took the plunge to mount sprungs on my skates a few years ago. Not having the right equipment or tools (didnt even have a drill), I had my skates sent to Keith to have him mount them for me. Since then, I've had sprungs on all my skates, self mounted with many hours in the garage (and ranting wife)... Never going to use another chassis... like some have said, i've only considered skates knowing that they can be mounted on sprungs.