JohnF

What's real is the Habs have won more than 50% of their playoff games and they're over halfway thru the second round playing against very good teams. You can put all the negative spin you want on this but the fact remains that they're succeeding very nicely. I don't like the Habs but it's hard not to be more than a little impressed with them right now. The best part is that this is probably making Bettman puke every time the Habs win. JF

Just check the emails between Bettman and Terry Gregson. It's getting harder and harder to believe there's no pressure on the officials to keep the top seeds in the playoffs. As if Bettman hasn't already lost a ton of credibility for himself, this is just piling up the doubts about what he's doing to the NHL. Hopefully they get rid of him before he damages the league beyond redemption. How about Franzen tonight? Only four goals & two assists. Gonna be fun to see what Vancouver does around the net in the next game. They've announced they're going to hand out some goalie beating now that they know it isn't going to be called by the refs. JF

Funny. Don't usually hear guys rhapsodizing about the size of the moose nuts they harvested. I wonder why? They sound yummy. JF

Mebbe he was trolling? JF

Does a big prime rib count? JF

Sucks when the weather man rains on a perfectly good parade. Bet that'll drive you nuts having it just sit on the driveway. It would me. JF

I think if I was taking delivery of that puppy this weekend I'd just be looking for some flat water where I could make sure it's gonna burn gas okay at high speed and not chine walk me outa my undershorts. There's also the matter of determining that the GPS is functioning properly. That means getting into the best testing speed range - 75+ mph. This kind of testing needs to be done over a period of hours so it's probably best if the gas tank(s) is/are run dry just to make sure it's run long enuf. That might not leave any time for fishing. Besides, the rods and tackle may throw off the balance and/or make the boat too heavy for proper speed trials - but there's a whole lifetime left for that. JF

Well done, on the trip and the report. Thanks. JF

Right, but I have forgotten to look at the pressure until I'm suited up and in the water. I used to take about 8 tanks (2 doubles and some singles) with me and most days we'd do multiple dives. Those tanks are all heavy, full or empty, and there's always enough air (or whatever) left for a test blast when you hook 'em up. It's really embarrassing, and it does not go over well with yer buddies, when you have to climb back out of the water, lug the tanks to the van and put yer gear on a full set. That's when you usually find yourself left at the altar. Then you have to decide if yer gonna break the buddy rule and set off alone to find them. Definitely a pain in the butt when you jump off a boat in the lake or ocean. Fortunately it's only happened to me in quarries etc. JF

Oh, okay. That I understand. Me too, with the attention span of a 5 yr old. That's why I never get anything done. JF

Jeez. What were you kids doing when you were supposed to be playing with cars & motorcycles? You sound just like my son when he tries to describe problems with lawn mowers & snowblowers. It's easier to just drive over and fix it myself sometimes. And all he knows about his cars is how to fill the gas tank and the most mechanical thing he can do is push in the key and start the durned thing. I doubt he could start an old car with a choke and all on a cold morning. Yet he can tear his guitars apart and reassemble them just fine. JF

You're right, and I was usually pretty good at it, but when adults started getting into it physically with the kids I got mad. I remember one night I stood back to back with the referee (a cop in his day job) trying to protect my 10 year old players from a handful of fathers who didn't like the fact that we won. The game had gotten pretty rough for a game that was supposed to have no hitting and my guys didn't start the dirty stuff but they sure finished it. The ref/cop filed a report about it that supported my team all the way and he was from the same town as the losers and we were playing in their rink. Then there were the handshakes were the coaches apologized to each other for their parents behaviour. I won't name any cities but there were a few minor organizations that weren't noted for classy behaviour in those days. We've had bus tires slashed and players beaten up in the parking lot. I even had one of my own player parents come up behind me and sucker punch me for benching his kid. That was a class act. But hey, isn't that what minor sports is supposed to be about? I'm sure every guy who ever coached has tons of stupid war stories. JF

You're right. I don't really follow Major JR any more so I missed that detail. But there's enough other bush league stuff going on that they should all be a little embarrassed. I had my fill of hockey politics years ago when Barrie was still Tier II. I don't even know when the leaque changed. JF

I gotta admit that there were times when I was coaching minor ball & hockey that it took all the restraint I had to just reach out and shake some "adults" hands after games. I'd have rather spit on a few of them. There were a few interactions that I wasn't real proud of afterwards but I tried not to let them happen around the kids. JF

Sure but since he found out those damned trout got pointy little teeth he favours the minnow bucket - or were you talking about bait here? JF

Dave knows about the gators and the water moccasins, right? A friend of mine didn't and was doing a nice quiet little drift dive in a Florida river (Crystal I think). He was just cruising along at about 20' and saw a shadow above him, looked up, and saw a huge gator stroking across the river right above him. OOOPSY!!! That inspired him to pick up the pace a little to get to the exit point. He followed the rope from the bottom of the river up the underwater bank and when his head left the water he felt he had more weight than he should on his neck and shoulders. Those of you who have dived know how restricted your peripheral vision is in full dive gear. Well anyway, he put his hands up to see what was around his neck and grabbed a huge water moccasin, a very perturbed one at that. He flung it as far and as fast as he could and clambered outa the river in record time. He says he'll never dive a Florida river again. Another time I'll tell you about the little beady red lights in the mangroves. I learned all about them as I floated in full cave diving gear (140 # of it to be exact) in a Mexican cenote. JF

Other than the possibility of a league requested blackout I'd say something about how typically Rogers that is to carry it in Stratford but not in Barrie. As for the blackout I doubt many fans would feel compelled to make the trip to Windsor because they couldn't get it on tv. JF

I really enjoy watching Sid play but I gotta wonder how many get outa jail free does he get for being Sid. He's hacking and diving like a 4th liner. JF

The game's on Rogers local tv for anyone who gets that. It's channel 20 for me. JF

Please tell me she's like 3 feet tall and weighs less than 50#. Those are huge otherwise. Are there steroids in the water? JF

He probably said something like "It would look bad if we took you in the first round. They'd say it was only because you're the GM's kid. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the other GM's take the high road and let us take you in the second round where you're ranked." That's the problem with gentlemens' agreements. They only work with gentlemen. You're right about family getting involved in sports. It's tough for the coaches and the kid when family is involved. I've been there. My own son lost on both fronts. I had to be tougher with him than the other kids and he still took a lot of abuse for being the coach's kid. He got so frustrated with the second class treatment that he quit hockey after bantam and went to play house league. The funny part was that once he was playing house league there was a scout for a top Jr B team doing his damnedest to recruit him but he'd had enuf of hockey politics by then and was concentrating on his first love, volleyball. It wasn't as high profile but he said he had a lot more fun. JF

Message sent, Justin. JF

III's a great course. It's more about the real work than II which is more about law and history. Almost everybody likes it best. There's a great resource for the more commonly used forms on the TREB site. Check it out. Good luck with the course. JF

So where do I send the money? JF

You looking for a bird dog fee? Did you know they're actually illegal? Seriously though. Ryan's place is outside my trading area so I really wouldn't be helping him by listing it on my board or putting up my sign. What I would do there is steer him to someone I know to be reputable in the area and let them do the job properly. In fact we went thru that exercise and it turned out I really didn't have anyone I knew personally that could do the job. In his circumstances I understand why he would want to try to sell it privately. I'm happy to be his sounding board on it so he doesn't make a misstep. Housebuying out of my area is a little different, depending on what kind of property you're looking for. My situation is kind of unique in that I like to gather info about different markets to use in my classroom work. One of the things the students really like are war stories and as you may have noticed, I really like to tell stories. It would be perfect to have an excuse to go up to the Kawarthas on a property hunt for someone during bass season. I'd even pay my own gas and accommodation. The house hunting would happen after about 3 pm most days. There may be other areas that would serve equally well depending on the fishing regs and open seasons. JF