The Voice Of Reason

Chuckled at this Facebook status on my news feed today:
"We are taking this opportunity to inform you that due to hockey, Canada will be closed from 12Noon - 3PM PST , Sunday Feb 28 2010. Thank you for understanding."
The Canadian women's team won gold the other night. Now it's the men's team's chance, playing against the U.S. It's a pretty good bet that even a lot of non-hockey people will be watching. We can hope for the best, and are guaranteed silver but gold, of course, will be better!

Ok, I just gotta rub it in just a little bit.

GOOOOLLLLLDDDDDD!!!!!

The Canadian women's Olympic team has just won their THIRD gold medal in a row, this time on home ice here in Canada. AND if that wasn't all, it was a frigging SHUTOUT! Score was 2-0! Both goalies were really hot though, and the American team really was good but Canada got in early with two goals and managed to hold them off. Everyone gets all hot and bothered about the men's team when the women have been winning and winning!

What's really nice, though, while they are giving out the medals, there are lots of cheers for the American players who really did put up a good fight!

I finally received my tickets for the NHL game in Montreal. I may not have actually told this story for some reason. So yes. We're going to Montreal and back in the olde days i used to watch hockey. Montreal Canadiens were My Team. I got away from it over the years so i don't follow it much at all anymore other than watching the occasional final playoff game. They're still My Team even though i have no idea who the players even are anymore. That doesn't matter, i was going to be in Montreal so it would have been very cool to go see a game if i could get tickets. I ran it by gramie_dee who isn't a sports fan at all. He was willing to go even so, though i have been warned that i owe him one ;) Fair dues. So i couldn't get through early enough on the day the tickets went on sale and when i finally did get through, sold out. Oh well.

But a couple of weeks ago i thought i'd have a look on eBay just to see what was out there. That's where the scalpers all resell the tickets these days. I hate to encourage that behaviour but i was curious. Hmmm there were two tickets in the general section i had been going to purchase and they weren't too expensive yet. I decided to set my maximum bid to just a little over what i would have paid online direct and lo, and behold, my bid, at about half my maximum, was the high bid! W00t!
But wait.... the afternoon that the bid was closing i get an "outbid" notice. Ah well.
But wait again.... when i got home, there was a notice that i did win after all, that the higher bid was retracted. Hmmm...... suspicious, sez me. A little game to bump up the price to whatever the max bid is, i figure. I did check out the seller, and he's selling tickets for a large number of games, all the same two seats so it's clear he's got a season ticket for two seats and resells them. Well, i didn't pay more than i wanted to so i guess that's not so bad. The guy emailed me for instructions on whether i wanted to pick them up in Montreal or have them sent. I preferred to have them sent but it took him over a week to send them. It seems like he was selling them for someone else because the name on the envelope was someone else's name. It all sounds a bit dodgey as far as the reselling stuff goes but the seller has all good ratings and i have the tickets now and they seem pretty authentic so i'm taking the chance. It also tu rns out that the section i wanted is a bit higher up in the rink than i thought it would be. Not quite nosebleed seats but in the topmost sections. They do seem to be hovering over center ice though so at least we aren't stuck back up in a corner. The view should be good. and the crowd is always a big buzz, from what i've heard. Go Habs!