I hate Henrik Zetterberg

*Updated 5/29/13 to replace the dead link with a working video of Emma Andersson and the music video for "weightless"....Almost 5 years later and I till hate you Henrik!

Whoopeedeedo

I just filled up my gas tank in the CLK500. With Premium. For less than $4 a gallon. And guess what my mileage for the first 330 miles came out at? 23MPG. Boom. Right there I got 10MPG more than the Yukon and all this with a tank of 7 fewer gallons. This is cool. 

Each time I back out of the drive I pass the Yukon. Its still covered in Mud from going to Mid-Ohio (Mud-Ohio) last weekend. It needs a bath and a serious cleaning inside. It will get both today and I need to replace the DVD player as its been dead for 3 years and our trip to Kiawah takes place on Saturday. Its time to clean.

I Got One

Ok I can breathe easier now. On Tuesday I signed the paperwork for my new car

A 2006 Mercedes Benz CLK500

In fact its the first one I tried to buy about a month and a half ago and then 3 weeks ago. To make it even sweeter I got MY price even when they tried to squeeze an extra $500 out of us. The deal came about quickly as the car was listed on ebay and I called in and talked to a different sales guy. One who actually wanted to help me. Ultimately the bill of sale listed the first guy I talked to, but he did not help me at all. The car is awesome to drive. Tons of power and it looks good too. So far I'm getting more than 20mpg driving around town and thats much better than my truck. The car also was a Certified Pre-Owned MB which adds warranty and it guarantees the car has been thoroughly inspected. They even took the floor mats out of a new CLK when they couldn't find the ones from the car. Needless to say I have a smile on my face and the wind in my hair as driving a car after 12 years of SUV driving is a welcome change. Now I just need to score a set of Xenon headlights as this one did not come with them. Odd on a $60K+ car. Thats another issue for another day......

This week has been Turcotte Stickhandling School at the Easton Chiller for Frudoch. He is loving it. I am getting sick of the ice rink. At least the smells at Easton are good--McKormick and Schmicks, Brio, Ocean club, Cheesecake Factory........

Last Sunday I took the kids to Mid-Ohio for the Indycar race which was won by the Penske team of Ryan Briscoe. All the excitement was about Milka Duno giving it to Danica Patrick. Its about time someone told DP that she is not the end all of the IRL. There is no other driver that could have done what she did and I applaud her for it. Go Milka. Now there's something that I never thought I would be saying. Honda must have given away about 35000 tickets as that crowd was HUGE. Of course the 4 tickets we used were freebies too. The rainstorm in the middle was not cool. Rain+dirt=Mud. Lots of mud and smells.......

Summer

Its full on Summer here in central Ohio. Hot and humid. Days meant for sitting around the pool. With the difficulties using my arm it makes swimming very difficult. Add in the pain meds and well forget it. The side effect of my meds is that I sweat. A lot. Yes the air conditioning is back on in the house so its cool in there, but the kids like to swim. So off to the pool I go. Not in a new car... I did find out that the dealer had a second buyer lined up and they went ahead and sold to them first thing monday morning. While I was making plane reservations to fly down of course. So the search continues-- sort of. FFO awaits and more hockey camps next week mean there is no time to go get a car outside of anything local. I will resume my search in mid August and maybe I'll get lucky.

Missing Out on the Big Prize

Tonight I feel like I've been run over by a steam roller. I got the green light to buy a car and it slipped thru my hands. I was on the computer booking a plane ticket to go get it and before I hit the button to send my money to US Air I checked to make sure it was still available. You guessed it--NOPE. The dealer had agreed to hold it thru Saturday and was closed Sunday. I was flying down in the morning to get it. Almost the car of my dreams. That dream car is a Mercedes CLK63. One badass machine. This car is its brother---a Mercedes CLK500. This car looked perfect and sounded perfect, but I wanted to have someone look at it for me before I flew down. I had someone contact an in-law to go look at it for me and I never heard back from this person--or the person I asked for help. Kinda strange as this person was going to look this morning and now the car is gone and nobody is returning my calls or emails....I smell a rat as the person who was looking at the car has a couple MB's in their garage.

I'm really just mad at myself. i should have just gone on my own. I wanted the car and my wife said OK. Why couldn't I have just got on the plane and gone? This car had only 14000 miles on it and had all the options I wanted. Sure there is still the one up here that I tried to buy last week. I'll wait a few more weeks and when they realize that car is $5k too high maybe they will call, but its not the same car. I wanted this other one you see. I broke my own first rule in car shopping. Don't fall in love with a car. Even if its the little brother of your dream car. I gotta move on, but I feel like I'm moving on without a piece of me.

A few more thoughts

I've had a few days to calm down from the Free-Agent signings of the CBJ. Zherdev was traded along with Dan Fritsche. Niki Z will fit in with the Rangers. He is from Moscow which is one of the worlds most cosmopolitan cities and coming to Columbus was a shock to him. Just look at how he dressed. That stuff did not belong on any man in Cbus. In NYC it won't get a second look. Good luck Nik and Dan. Fritsche will really have to step it up to stay in the league. He has the ability and I hope he surprises us all. Kristian Huselius *might* replace Zherdev in the lineup, but he wants to be here so I see this as a bonus. We'll see on the 3 new defenseman. I need to watch some youtube clips on them before making a judgement.

One more thing. Would all the experts quit using the word upside. What the heck does that realy mean? Please.

CBJ and the Benz

Campbell to Chicago and Hossa to Detroit. 

Get this... People still think the CBJ have a chance. I say a chance to once again finish in the basement and get a top 5 draft pick. God this is depressing. Scott Howson is the guy that said to prepare for the press conferences and big news. I bet he regrets that statement now. OK enough Hockey as I am seriously depressed about that at the moment.

I drove a couple cars yesterday that I would like to own.

2006 Mercedes Benz CLK500

2008 Mercedes Benz C300

I want them both. The problem is I liked the C300 a bit better and there are none anywhere within 300 miles equipped with the options I want. The CLK500 makes a great consolation prize, but after driving the other I'm not sure I would be able to see a C Class and say Damn! My little bro has the C63 which is the C on MAJOR 'roids and I like having the younger brother to that car. OTOH the CLK500 is a rocket and I like rockets. Anybody out there wanna lend me like $7500 so I can get the C350 and land right in the middle?

Oh Well There's Always 2010-2011

Brule to Edmonton for Torres is an Ok deal. IF IF IF his knee is rehabbed.

Mike Commodore? Are you kidding me. This is the "Big Splash" on UFA's? I think our worst fears have been realized. Nobody wants to come here. The past is destined to become our future. Get used to low to no scoring games for the foreseeable future. At almost 9pm of UFA day 1 Howson gets a solid D. Some of it is not his fault, but he has had a year to make this franchise more of a destination. All that sitting back and doing nothing has now caught up to him. But hey you can buy partial season tickets (10 or 20 games) without a PSL AND get Playoff tickets if they ever get there. Hmmmm.

Do we really care that Dan Fritsche for Pavel Kubina is the current rumor? Will it matter?

Sure we have more money to spend, but the talent is gone. The big name players that will attract fans to the arena are not going to be traded here. We have no #1 center and in all likelihood have no hope of moving up with the moves that Chicago Blackhawks, Phoenix Coyotes, and Edmonton Oliers have done in the Western Conference. Hell we may be contenders for the first pick in the Draft next year. This is really not the way things were planned out. As a pessimist i must say this is how I saw it playing out today and for Scott Howson its only going to get worse. Can the man do a trade without Edmonton and Kevin Lowe?