Monday, March 23, 2009

Great Couple Of Days

So there are several reasons why I have not been updating much recently:
  • Work has been busy
  • The family, including me, has been sick
  • and let's face it, I'm lazy
But also, something really cool happened last weekend:



So the family was in Walmart, and the boy and I took a spin through the toy section because I like HotWheels and the boy likes toys in general. We come out through sporting goods, and they have some Senators Jersey-style sweaters (or whatever the "official lingo" for these things are) on sale from $45 to $40. Not a huge discount, but they do have one that looks like the classic away jersey that we all love. And they only have one.

So I bring the wife back to show her, because I want one of these things, and I figure the best thing that I can do is show her an example so she'll know what to get. It isn't often I know what I want, which makes it difficult to get things for me. And she says, well why not get it?

So we did.

Being a smarter shopper than I am, she notes that this is the last example of these jerseys, and there are small stains on one of the shoulders. So she asks the cashier if we can get a discount on account of it not being perfect. The cashier checks with the supervisor, and we get green-lit for a 10% discount. The jersey get scanned, and it comes up as $30. So all said and done, I got a $45 shirt for $27.

It came up on the receipt as a 2007 Jersey, which makes me think it is the last of the stock purchased during the Stanley Cup run.

But I have one now, and that makes me happy. The only thing better would be an actual game to wear it to!

So speaking of that, the next thing that happened was that on the Monday I went to Tim Horton's on the way to work. And they had a stack of cards next to the cash which advertised up to 50% off game tickets for some games -- including Tuesday's game against Buffalo. So I grab the card and start spinnign through the website, and what do you know:



...for $75. A row up from the glass. The day before the game.

I think part of this is that I wanted only a single; if I'd wanted a pair then I'd probably be much higher up, maybe in the nosebleeds. But as it was, *woot* premium seat.

Due to chaos in the parking lot I didn't get to my seat until halfway through the first (memo to the nice lady in the SUV who showed me her finger several times: I have not been sitting in line for *45* minutes just to let you merge in in front of me so GO TO THE BACK OF THE LINE!) so I missed the opening goal.

Fortunately the line-up at the concessions was short, and for $10 I got a single slice of pizza and a large drink (price two days later at a regular Pizza Pizza: $3.50, no markup there boys) and from there I slid into my seat at the next break in play.

The game has been adequately covered elsewhere, but I really felt lucky at the second break as all four goals had gone into the net in front of me. The highlights at the first break were funny: Ottawa chance, Ottawa chance, Buffalo goal, Ottawa chance, Ottawa chance, Buffalo goal... but things turned around. The refs were really picking on Buffalo for some reason, and Ottawa took full advantage.

All in all it was a great couple of days.