A snowy Winter Classic at Fenway Park on the New Year Day? Awww~ I couldn't even! It's good that I'll be at Hawaii at that time, otherwise I'd been torn between going or not going.

More videos giving me goosebumps!!
2009-10 Boston Bruins Holiday Open Video
2009-10 Boston Bruins Season Open Video

出场人物：
gg: 我baby的室友的gf的叔叔的朋友的同事
mm: 一个同事吃饭choke了之后她问人家: are you dying?的那只

事情经过：
刚才gg路过停下来跟我聊冰球。

mm飘过，突然问：你的皮带扣看上去不错啊，在哪儿买的？

大家的目光纷纷瞄准gg的脐下三寸。

gg摸着皮带扣回答，sterling shop。

mm说，不是tiffany？我在给我老公找圣诞礼物。

gg说，tiffany是280，这个180。

mm说，这么贵？我以为tiffany只要200。

这时gg用迅雷不及掩耳盗铃之势如破竹的速度把皮带解下来，再把皮带扣取下来，供mm
玩赏，说，这还有我的intial。

此处略去对话若干。

最后，gg一边在我们桌子边上穿皮带一边对已经被雷得内焦外嫩的我说，Bruins最近
打得不错啊。。

ORZ。。。

Tuesday night saw my third trip of the season to the Garden, which was also happened to be the first victory I witnessed and the first back-to-back win the Bruins recorded this season.

Both the B's and I had been on a rocky road since the season started. I was in house at the opening night, when the B's hosted and got badly beaten by the Caps at 1-4. I was also there on last Thursday as the Habs was in town - the B's tied the game with 51 seconds left in the regulation only to lose in the shootout later. To make things worse, the B's were no better without my presence. Hence this victory was certainly something both they and I loved to see and hoped to build on.

Like I said last season, it was all about packing the right mojo. Sitting pretty in a deep hole of a 4-game losing streak of the B's games I attended (my records was like: 2L-4W-4L), and being called "a bad karma" by my colleague (yup, Hunwick's buddy, that one), I needed to change a wee bit. Desperate times called for desperate measures. I didn't bring my camera with me, as I figured recording their shootouts in the Habs game might have jinxed them - I still wore my Wheels jersey though, trying to turn the tide for him and his snakebitten line. Moreover, instead of watching their warmups in section 1, this time I stayed beside the penalty box - Vladdie standing right under my nose for about 2 mins and Begin strentching on the ice just in front of me! The view was kinda overwhelming, despite the sad fact that Wheels decided to skate as far away from me as possible.

My actual seat was waaaay back, on balcony up against the wall, behind the goal that the visitors shoot twice. The advantage of sitting there was the ability to see how the plays built and unfolded. The drawback was, of course, it was just too far away from the ice. You couldn't beat the price though. The atmosphere back there was great too. And the best thing? I could stand up during the game whenever I felt like to. once again, you just couldn't beat the price.

The game itself was more exciting than what I babbled here. Oh, did I mention it was against the reigning champ Pittsburg Penguins? Our boys outskated their boys in the first period, kinda slowed down in the second, and then stepped up in the final period. A score of 3-0, including an empty-netter in the final 3 seconds, sent me home very very happy. It was also my first time to see Sidney Crosby live. He was great at stickhandling and skating as advertised, but it was just not his day, or maybe they just missed injured Evgeni Malkin.

Anyways, a shutout Bruins win + Rene Rancourt singing the US national anthem + standing up whenever I wanted = I should totally do it again!

Go B's!

昨天把一盒子肉馅拿出来化冻，打算试试做珍珠丸子。结果下班回来才发现家里早就没有糯米了。爬上万能的饭塔问大家能不能用普通大米代替，大家回答否。于是群策群力之后，我决定一大半做白菜丸子汤（没有冬瓜，很可惜），一小半做传说中的肉糜蒸蛋。

切碎了点儿葱酱，和着肉馅，鸡蛋，芡粉，香油搅拌起来，后来发现差点忘了放盐。在玻璃碗里自作主张铺了两篇白菜叶子（白菜太多了，汗～），把肉馅铺上去，中间稍微压低了点儿，打了个鸡蛋。蒸之前看那个小模样还是不错的。只可惜蒸好了之后有点儿面目全非。首先是因为没放加油，肉看起来白花花的有点儿触目惊心，其次是鸡蛋和肉一起蒸火候过了没法是糖心蛋，再次是端出来之后我咬牙淋了几滴酱油，看起来沟壑纵横不甚美观。

不过味道倒是相～～～～当的好，特别还有白菜叶的清香。

经验教训：下次多放点儿白菜；肉里提前放点儿酱油；先蒸一会儿肉再放鸡蛋。握拳。

* I hate Taco Bell's new black taco commerical. I hate it with a passion. Absolute hatred. I deem it stupid, awkward, and ill-fated. I'm not going to watch it ever again. From now on, I'll switch the channel right away whenever it's on.

* How do you spell CHOKE? Here's a hint: it starts with a "P", and ends with an "N". ALL YOU NEEDED TO DO WAS TO GET FOUR LOUSY OUTS, AND YOU BLEW THE SAVE AND THE GAME BY GIVING UP FIVE FREAKIN' RUNS?! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU WERE ONE FREAKIN' PITCH AWAY FROM GAME 4 AT HOME THREE TIMES?! ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME???!!!

* Poor, poor Clay Buchholz. With two year's ups and downs - much more downs than ups - and in the most important game of his young career, he was as good as it gets. But it wasn't enough. When the bats finally had some production and the starter somehow came through, the bullpen faltered and fell - face first.

* Josh Beckett and Jon Lester. Yeah, they are great, but they ain't superman, hence they AIN'T capable of pitching shutout games facing a team with the second run production in regular season. They lost their games partly because of some bad pitches, but mostly because of the bats who didn't do their job.

* Bats. I'm speechless. Besides 5 runs in the 3rd and 4th innings on Sunday, they only managed to score 2 runs in 25 innings. How could they even possibly do that? Can they be more lifeless?

* It has been an awful second half - the Sox got (I refuse to use the word 'clinched' here) the wildcard berth just because the Rangers were more determined to golf early - and a horrendous ALDS. The Angels are the better team, I get it. I haven't really expected the Sox to win the series. Just not a sweep, not in our house. Is this too much to ask? To put up a good fight, a nice show. Is THIS too much to ask? I suggest the players should personally refund the tickets to all the fans, who had to be there before noon despite all the traffic due to the game and a city marathon and a parade and a Tom Cruise filming in town just to suffer this (my poor, poor boss Bill). A note to Tom Cruise, you hadn't really had to overturn an 18-wheeler or land a helicopter on the Zakim Bridge for a disaster scene, in a park about 2 miles southwest you would have seen it all.

* Well, at least the Sox could sign Jason Bay with less money, bwee?

* And the over-time loss of the Pats at Denver three hours later? Just kill me already.

* A season-ending loss and a season-nearly-ending loss for two most beloved local teams in the span of 6 hours? People, it is official. God hate us New England sports fans.

* Well, maybe not, on Saturday night the B's did have an epic comeback against the Islanders to score three goals in 7 mins and win the shootout later on. Otherwise you bet I'm suicidal now.

* But basically it was just because the Islanders and their goalie sucked more. It's still a crappy situation all around.

* I think I'm already a little bit mental.

* Oh well.

The stars were finally in alignment as yesterday marked the first time in my entire life that I witnessed a walk-off win (actually I once passes up two free Red Sox tickets from my boss to a game that would end with Big Papi's walk-off homer, just because I couldn't find anyone to go with me. faily fail)! Too bad it wasn't the Sox, but I'd take it anyway.

Last night lh and I went to an Astros game as the Phillies was in town. It was lh's third and my first trip to Minute Maid Park. I'm still far from an Astros fan but they've now started to grow on me after this wonderful night.

I have to admit, as awesome as my Fenway experiences go, that watching baseball in “American most beloved ballpark" makes me more and more a masochist. You see, I would be totally thrilled just to be allowed in the park, no matter where I end up sitting and how much the seat costs.

For example, even if I am able to buy tickets at their face values to some games (thank you, the economy recession), a seat at the end of RF or beside the green monster would cost $50 or $90, respectively. In Minute Maid Park, however, $50 would easily land me in a DUGOUT seat, not to mention all those discount programs. Plus they always have promotions going on. For example, last night we got two 300th homer tees. On Monday the gifts will be aprons. Not that I need a tee or apron, it shows that the club actually appreciates ME, an average Joe, coming to the game. And there are stadium attendants greeting fans before and AFTER the game at the gates. They also give out lots of souvenirs during innings. The players sign baseballs for kids and actually acknowledge fans (Every time Carlos Lee walked back to the dugout after innings and some fans called him, he pointed at them like 'zup, man?'. When we passed by the lobby one hour before the game, Hunter Pence was signing autographs and taking pictures with fans - If I hadn't known he is a fan favorite before, I would have known it then, just by the star-struck looks on those girls' faces!).

Anyways, after getting lh a personal pizza and myself two hot dogs (I couldn't believe there are better hot dogs in this world than Fenway Franks, but sadly, there are), we settled down in our seats, 10 rows behind the home dugout and right between home plate and 1st base, happy as two clams. The Phillies were still having their batting practice. After a while, they retreated to their dugout and the Astros came out again to have some simple warm-ups. The trainers helped some players to prepare by stretching their legs to some degree that I was like: God I couldn't even do THAT back when I was a wee kid! After the national anthem, the players taking on the field and the miniature train moving along the track, the game was finally on.

Being a fake baseball fan, I didn't know any Astros players except for Tajada. As the line-up went I took some silly mental notes like Bourn is a good lead-off man and yeah he can certainly steal bases (in fact that's his NL-leading 50th steal), there's a Matsui here too, Lance Berkman is probably the most beloved Astros player if the applause and cheers he got were of an indication, the heart of their lineup is B (erkman)-L(ee)-T(ajada), and so on. The high point? Pence is definitely the darling of the female fans, and his bat, OH HIS BAT, is definitely as smoking hot as the kid himself is. At one point in the second inning I halfheartedly complained to lh asking when we were gonna to see runs. A few seconds later (LITERALLY!) Pence hit a two- run homer to the center field. I was absolutely dumbfounded in my seat. OMG he heard me!

Just like that, Pence added another RBI single in the 3rd to drive in Berkman, as the Astros starting pitcher, their ace Roy Oswalt was lights out. Things got a little bit boring as neither side could score in the following three innings, but thankfully they got ball girls and the Mascot Junction Jack (God is that a bunny, of all animals?) to keep us entertained between innings. It only took 1.5 hours for the
first six innings.

In the 7th, however, things went south for the Astros. Oswalt somehow got himself a tight back and gave up 2 hits before leaving the game - he only gave up 2 hits in total in the first 6 innings. He had been awesome as awesome could be and his performance definitely earned my standing applause. But unfortunately for Oswalt, I don't want it sounds too harsh, his bullpen kinda sucked. The three relievers combined for 2-inning's work and gave up four runs, two of which were on Oswalt, as the Phillies took the lead in the 8th. The Phillies also loaded the bases in that inning, but apparently when I pouted to lh saying I hadn't seen a double play, the Astros heard me again and finished the inning with a beautiful double play.

I'm not a snitch but I have to be honest to my blog that lh actually wanted to leave in the 9th, suggesting watching the bottom half in the hallway so we could beat the traffic once the inning was over. I said to him what if the Astros came back to tie the game? we are gonna have extra innings. He rolled his eyes like yeah right. Nevertheless, I won out and we stayed in our seats and would never regret for this decision.

The Astros closer Jose Valverde came out for the top of the 9th and pitched like a rock star. Well, he might not be as snarly as Paps, but boy was he dominant. He got a clean 1-2-3 inning and the rest of the business was left to the bats to take care. Sadly Pence struck out swinging (the kid just swung at anything!). But the next batter walked. A hit and another walk later, bases were loaded with only 1 out.

By the way, I have to say, man, the crowd was close to dead before baseloaded. I cannot believe everyone (at least in our section and nearby ones) remained sitting in the 9th. How could they still be able to sit in the 9th? Not to mention the fact that the team was down only 1 run! The 9th inning shall never be watched sitting. This should be a mandate rule or something. For this I have to give it to the Fenway. I don't recall once I watched a 9th inning sitting in that ballpark, even if it's a blow-out on the Sox.

Anyways, I stood up and the good people behind me also stood up (I sincerely hope it wasn't just because I blocked their view. lol). But Bourn was ground into fielder's choice and the tying run was out at the home plate. Bases still loaded but only one final out left. Everyone was like uh-oh so the game is over? Big NO. Matsui came up big and saved the night. He singled to right center, the ball dropping quickly to the no man's land. Two runs was in as the Astros had the walk-off win!

The jubilant players swamped from the dugout to the home plate to welcome their comerades home, and then to first base to congratulate Matsui. They jumped up and down, hugged with a lot of back-pounding and butt-clapping, and grinned to each other like fools. Poor Matsui forgot to take off his helmet and took a lot of big hits on it, but I think he totally enjoyed it. The crowd was electrified, dancing and clapping and chanting and high-fiving total strangers.

You see, that's exactly why you watch sports. Really. One victory like this could make you (temporarily, at least) forget all those heart-breaking nights. Even if you are not a real fan of this team, you would be still truly happy for the players and the fans from the bottom of your heart. You would still want to bottle all those smiles, all those laughter, and all those gleeful faces for later use in a raining day.

Thanks to a nice lady on Bruins forum giving me a free ticket, I went to the Garden for the B's last pre-season game against Blue Jackets. Although I'm gonna go to the season opener on Thursday night anyway, I figure it doesn't hurt to checkout our lineup 5 day earlier. Despite the final result - the B's lost 2-4 - I feel pretty optimistic on the new season, and my takeaway from last night's game are:

* The boys are ready although David Krejci, Macro Sturm, and Steve Begin are out for small injuries.

* YAY two fights at the same time. A BJ's player run down our goalie Tuukka Rash, but Chuck Kobasew and Shawn Thornton don't take no shit from no one!

* That one move Blake Wheeler did on the BJ's defender at the blue line was filthy, and he was flying all night. Keep it up bro.

* Dennis Wideman always shots wide. Argh.

* Vladimir Sobotka is definitely loaded. He can skate, score, play gritty, and is smart. Love to see him more in the coming season.

* Matt Hunwick looks more confident on the left.

* Patrice Bergeron is a beast!

* If Bergeron and Krecji ever had a kid, his name would be Zach Hamill. lol.

* Tuukka Rash! That's our future No. 1 goalie right there (yes he gave up 4, most of which I blame on the defense).

* No Phil Kessel? no problem. Mark my words.

The bear is ready. Hibernation ends in 5 days. Woohoo!