Hello there. Nice to see you again. Welcome back to the Monday Blog.

There’s no deeper meaning to this week’s blog title other than I had no idea what to use as a title and it’s the generic text that WordPress writes in the title box.

I started drawing a new mash-up theme this week. Rebels was cool to draw but it’s always nice to start something new. In theory, you’ll be able to see the new theme on June 10th.

I’ll be drawing Funnies strip #400 this week. That really blows me away, especially considering that almost half of that has been the telling of one story that’s still in progress! I used to worry that I would run out of story ideas, but I figure that so long as I’m able and motivated, I’ll always think of something to draw.

I wrote some new material for Bandit Baby last week. The first time I got on a roll and wrote 19 strips’ worth of material. This time I got stuck after four. I’d like for the story to go at least 52 strips. At 24, I’m almost halfway there.

I tried King of Tokyo on Friday. I’m going to reserve judgement until I can try the game with more players. With only two players I don’t feel there’s enough back and forth to really force a player out of Tokyo and so the person who occupies Tokyo first will most likely win unless the opponent forgoes trying to score points and makes a concerted effort to drive him out or gets REALLY lucky with their dice rolling. I love the feel of the game though so I look forward to playing again.

I also tried Ticket to Ride: The Card Game. Again, I feel it would probably be more interesting with more than two players, but it plays better at two than King of Tokyo. I don’t know that I like it better than traditional Ticket to Ride. I think it just boils down to what mood you’re in. The card game plays quicker and without any preparation or clean-up. Just shuffle the decks and go. The board game is less abstract. You get to see your train routes developing.

Next on my list of games to try: Dungeon Roll and Tokaido. I’ll keep you posted on how they turn out when I get to them.

That’s all for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday! Carja V.

DISCLAIMER: This was the blog post that was supposed to go up on Monday. Due to a faulty modem I was unable to post it until today. This blog post was obviously written before the Montreal Canadiens got eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 on Tuesday night.

Hello and welcome to this week’s blog entry. Enjoy your stay.

I don’t know anybody who’s a bigger Montreal Canadiens fan than my mom. She watches every game, listens to every post game show, keeps statistics and interacts with other fans about the Canadiens on Twitter. The only thing she doesn’t do is attend live games because tickets are pricy and to a lesser extent because driving to and from Montreal is a chore.

For Mother’s Day, my sister and I decided to take care of the former and bought a pair of tickets to Game 5 of Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now, this plan was entirely contingent on the Canadiens MAKING it to Game 5. They were down two games to nothing to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday when the possibility of purchasing tickets arose. In order to make it to Game 5, they would either have to win Game 3 on Wednesday night or Game 4 on Thursday night.

Game 3 was a heartbreaker. The Lightning scored with one second left on the clock to win a game that looked like it was going to overtime. At any rate, the first opportunity to assure a fifth game was unsuccessful. Game 4 was much better. The Canadiens CRUSHED the Lightning 6-2 and so the plan to attend Game 5 was a go.

We sprang the news to my mom on Friday night and she was, in a word, thrilled. Plans were made for my mother and I to make a day of it in Montreal (my sister wanted no part in attending the game). This included a little shopping, attending the Fan Jam and of course, watching the game.

The shopping was great! We found new board games to play at Carta Magica. King of Tokyo, Ticket to Ride the Card Game and The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade for me, and NHL Playoff Team-Building Card Game and a Skip-Bo variant for my mom. Woowoo!

The Fan Jam is an event put on by the Canadiens organization (I think) to allow fans of the Canadiens to get together to celebrate their team. Local sports radio hosts broadcast from the Fan Jam and talk with fans on the air, local bands put on a live concert, there are make-up booths, as well as haircut and temp tattoo stands where kids can have the Canadiens logo painted on their face, arms or shaved into their heads. There was a mechanical bull to ride and I’m sure I’m missing stuff.

I’m not a big fan of live music that’s so loud you can’t hear the person standing next to you (unless the music is specifically what you’re attending the event for). I therefore had to get as far away from the stage as quickly as possible. The rest of the Fan Jam was nice…until it started raining. And when I say rain, I mean DOWNPOUR. The Fan Jam was about three blocks away from the Bell Centre and we were soaked by the time we got to the entrance. What a happy coincidence then that the Canadiens were handing out free white towels to all attendees to wave around during the game!

We got to our seats about thirty minutes before the game started so we got to see the pre-game warm-ups which is kinda nifty. The game itself was a good one, the Canadiens scored about midway through the first and were able to maintain their one goal lead until about halfway through the third when the Lightning tied things up. Carey Price made some great saves to keep the score tied and late in the third, the Canadiens were able to score the go ahead goal and win the game! Canadiens fans rejoice!

Okay, but how did I help the Canadiens win the game?

Before the game started and between each period, there were screens all around the building that reminded us that we, the fans in attendance are the seventh player for the Canadiens (3 forwards, 2 defensemen, 1 goalie and us). The Canadiens therefore count on us to do our part to help the team, i.e. Cheer our heads off and wave our towels.Which I did. Therefore, as the seventh player, I claim part of the Canadiens victory as my own.

Driving home from an event is always less fun than driving to it, because by the time the event is over, you’re already feeling drained from the event and then you have to drive home before you can even think of going to bed. Nevertheless, we made it home safe and sound. Sunday was a day of relaxation and then it was back to work today.

So that’s it for this week’s blog. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday. Carja V.

Salutations and greetings. Welcome to another blog post. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Today as I took a walk during break time, I was able to confirm that the bike trails are snow-free. That means that I will be able to start biking to work as soon as my current bus pass expires. Now of course, I COULD start biking tomorrow, but I like to maximize the use of my bus pass to make it as cost-effective as possible. (Or maybe it’s just laziness) I have three days left on the pass, so that means three more days of bus riding. After that, it’s Speedy’s time to shine (Speedy being my bike for those of you who aren’t regular blog readers).

Last night was WWE’s Extreme Rules PPV. It was an okay show. The tag team championship bout was the standout for me. Cesaro is tops in my book. I didn’t really watch the main event. I listened to it as I played games on my phone and peeked at the TV from time to time. The ending was illogical and thus disappointing.

The sale on Eon’s Elite Skylanders at EB Games is over. Shame that they only got Eruptor in stock after the sale ended. It’s really hard to justify spending $30 on one figure when they were on sale for $10 not too long ago (and possibly will be again). At $20 I’d think they were a little too expensive. $30 is just crazy.

I guess I don’t have much else to talk about so I might as well call it a day. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday. Carja V.