Congratulations Carolina!

Wow! The Hurricanes won it all. Pretty exciting. Being a Western Conference girl, it would have been nice to see Edmonton win, but after some of the grandstanding by Laraque.....well, he just kind of ruined it for me. He's the one reason I'm glad they didn't win. I feel bad for Pronger, Peca, Pisani and the rest of the team, but hey! Hedican FINALLY has his name on that thing! He came so close in 94 and it killed me! Well, what really killed me was the fact that my favorite player, John McIntyre (played with Hedican in Vancouver) didn't get his name engraved.
So, now the long summer begins. A long, very long 3 months for true hockey fans.

And let me say something about network television - they should never, ever be enabled to a pro sports championship game if they don't care about showing everything. By 'everything' I mean, the skating around of the Cup, the locker room party, interviews with players and staff etc. That 'everything'. I got all of 5 minutes of the Cup before NBC cut over to Extra. Because Christina Aguilera's photo shoot is more important. I had to search other channels and finally found a teeny bit of coverage on ESPN News. By the time I found it, they were done talking about it and were moving over to World Cup Soccer. Okay, who cares. No one has won anything yet, so its not a big story. Stanley Cup. The Stanley freakin' Cup is a big story. Sports oldest trophy and most revered piece of metal and they're talking about soccer. Sorry if you dont' share my enthusiasm for the greatest sport ever played and the most amazing athletes to play. Guys who have nerve damage in their necks and do whatever it takes to play again, guys who will do whatever it takes to win the game. Blood, sweat and tears. There was so much action in that game last night, a true hockey game. Not some 8-1 blowout like Gary Bettman wants to see. How exciting is a high scoring game? Its not. But a close game, like 2-1 is always exciting, on the edge of your seat exiting. Pee your pants exciting. Give me a one goal game anyday and I'll show you that it has more excitment than a blowout. Any day.

And Rod Brind'amour just taking the Cup. Amazing. Gary Bettman barely opened his mouth. As soon as the Cup hit the table, the Canes were drooling. They wanted it. They'd won it. It was their's. And Bettman had to come out with his microphone looking oh so important, look at me, I'm the Commissioner - blech. I'm so glad Rod just skated up and took it. I loved it. And the F bomb that was dropped. You couldn't have planned it any better than that. Bettman didn't even get to get his picture taken with the Cup. Dude, get a clue, you did not win this. You sat in your comfy office all year long and played 'Commissioner Gordan' to the fullest. No one wants to hear your nasily voice drone on and on about a game you could care less about and know absolutely nothing about. Did anyone notice that he didn't have a mic for the Conn Smythe trophy? He looked a little ticked about that. Made sure he had a mic for the Cup but he didn't get to use it. :)

So, congratulations Carolina on a great series and a great season. 3 long months, but we have the draft and Free Agency on July 1st to keep us all busy.

So, the Tuesday Blog Challenge:
What's on your summer reading list?

Whatever looks good on Barnes and Noble. :)
I have a couple that I need to get too.
Mostly, I'll be studying up for some Microsoft Certifications that I need to get in before September. Can't see myself sitting in Staples Center between periods reading up on the latest in Group Policy and Active Directory.

Willbe posting some pics tomorrow. I finished my Concroption Kit for Fathers Day. A little late, but who's counting? Sort of copied some of Ali E.'s ideas, but I used more of the BG Hang 10 paper and ideas of my own. Loved her idea to stagger the page sizes.