I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.  I am working from home and the only time I go out is for groceries and other essential items.  How is everyone doing?

Just in case anyone is interested in commenting on the games.

So the league is starting a formal expansion process.  The fee will be a nice $500 million just to get the rights to a team.  Don't we have enough teams as it is?  Would that not thin out the talent that's out there right now?  Having said that I would love to see a team in Quebec City.  I loved the rivalry between the Habs and the old Quebec team. 

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-announces-start-of-expansion-process-1.3126239

When I saw this I had to share this.  its from an IT solutions company in the states with a great sense of humour.  They were advertising their upcoming Christmas lunch
********************
Disclaimer: Although this event is promoted as a "Christmas Lunch" BSI welcomes all other holiday greetings, opinions, wishes, and other salutations at our lunch. However holiday wishes made by BSI customers are those of the individual merry-makers and do not necessarily represent the holiday wishes of BSI and its management. All merriments are welcome. Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2014 but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this invitation, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Just had a birthday the other day and I was thinking of the good old days.

We didn't have commercials with the subtitles, "Do not try this at home".

The Looney Tune cartoons were just that, cartoons!  Not some promotional concept created to sell 'stuff'.

Politicians actually debated political points of view, instead of just slinging 'mud' at each other.

Television had 3, maybe 4 channels to chose from, not 1000+.

People were famous for what they did, not who they did.

The only time you ever saw 'buttcrack' was on a plumber, not on every young man walking down the street.

People had home phones, not cell phones.

People read books, not electronic devices.

I learned to do math in my head, rather than get to use a calculator.

Gas Station Attendants actually pumped the gas into your car, rather than hide in a bullet resistant glass cage.

Phone booths could be found around town, like in Superman movies.

One could enjoy themselves at a movie for $5 or less, including snacks, rather than paying more than $5 for just the darn ticket.

   I'm sure that there are a number of things that I haven't listed here, probably because I've forgotten them due to old age.... or something like that.

So do you think that the Sens will make some moves to help get into the playoffs?  I think that Spezza should be dealt for someone with better leadership qualities.  Vanek would be nice to have.

Canada wins their first game against Germany.  I hope its all uphill from there but I do so worry about the Swedes. 

My wife is one of those PSWs' that is into the 10th day of their strike.  Thier current living wages are very low, some of the single mothers are actually earning below pverty line wages.  So while the Red Cross is keeping their wages low their top brass are getting huge raises some of which are larger than some of the front line worker wages.  If you know anyone who has had a personal support worker at home then you will know the vaulable work they do.  Please go to http://www.justice4psws.ca and from there you can send a letter to your local mpp in support.
 
Thanks,
Rene

Sens placed 9th in the ESPN Ultimate Standings rankings of pro sport teams in North America which was highest of all Canadian franchises. The Leafs, aka the center of the universe of all sports franchises    , ranked 119.
 
For a description of what the rankings are about click here.  http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/teamrankings

" Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk strongly suggested in an interview with a local newspaper this week that his team was faced with a decision in July: either meet longtime captain Daniel Alfredsson's contract demands or go out and make a trade for an impact forward like Bobby Ryan.
Melnyk told the Ottawa Citizen in a report published Monday the club would not have been able to do both, but Senators general manager Bryan Murray said that isn't necessarily the case.
"I think Eugene's being a little hard on himself in that scenario," Murray told NHL.com. "We had talked about a way of doing Alfie's contract and still making the trade for Bobby Ryan, both financially and in terms of player return for [the Anaheim Ducks]."
 
For lots  more click http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=680100&navid=nhl:topheads
 
 
 
Can you imagine the strength of the team if that did happen?