TWO empty-net goals?! / Friendship and TV shows / Olive Garden Breadsticks

My dad picked me up a little later than we'd agreed upon, but the clogged traffic was understandable with Game 7 on at 6! Saw a newspaper article about autism: I think I'm only interested in it because of little Sean - let's just say that I had no idea the therapies would be so expensive! Eric came over a bit after 6, so we settled down to watching the game. The first period was BRUTAL: lots of penalties and a goal by Dallas! Grandma wondered why gwei jie was over, so Steph told her that he wanted to watch the hockey game with us. By the time I got back from the bathroom at one point during dinner, Eric's vintage jersey (he'd run home to change quickly) had a stain. Guess he'll have to Shout It Out later - I thought of Tears for Fears at once when he said that, heh. We saw Pavel Bure (1991-1998) on another channel: NEXT QUESTION! The game made everyone tense and such, but the Canucks turned it around in the second period: yay for 5-on-3, weird penalty situations that Steph thought was a CBC glitch, and finally breaking Turco's shutout streak! Mom was too nervous to watch, but did so anyway. She'd heard the announcers in the Calgary-Detroit series refer to Roman Hamrlik of the Flames, and thought they'd said Hemorrhoid! Oh, Mom... *laugh* The announcers STILL can't pronounce Kevin Bieksa's name correctly, and referred to the Canucks' uniforms as POWDER BLUE. Does this look like powder blue to you?



Then there was Don Cherry on Coach's Corner - stupid comments! Those two empty-net goals at the very end of the third were just icing on the cake, since we deserved to win 4-1 with vastly improved play! You could tell Smolinkski was all "hee hee, I scored a goal!" when Linden passed the puck to him - very classy guy, he is! Hey, my sister was wearing a vintage jersey that Linden and Willie Mitchell had signed for her on Raise-A-Reader Day last September! Pyatt got the first empty-net goal... the Stars pulled Marty Turco for the extra attacker too early, with 1:19 remaining in the game and the score still 2-1 at that point! Dad proved prophetic once again, too - "they'll score!" Lotsa penalties, too - I bet Nathan S. is wishing he didn't sell his Game 7 tickets! Now it's on to the second round to face the Ducks - maybe Brian Burke's team will kill us, but we'll see! For the first three goals, we stood and high-fived each other: I bet Eric was careful NOT to accidentally hit my glasses after the first goal, heh. I also noted some apostrophe abuse on CBC's part: SWEDES SILENCED should not have an apostrophe in it anywhere!

Thank goodness the game didn't go into overtime or anything - Jon called to say that Nathan would be driving him home after 24, which is what I thought since Nate wouldn't miss that show just to exercise his spiritual gift of chauffeuring. That episode was disappointing in some ways, ESPECIALLY the kiss between the vice-president and his assistant! EW EW EW, MARRIED MAN! Audrey definitely went crazy, and Cheng escaped! Karen also had to fire her husband Bill: she's too close to the president as the National Security Advisor, so Nadia's the acting director. Doyle screwed things up again from Jack's point of view, and Morris wants a transfer immediately: his ex-wife hit below the belt when she brought up his arming a nuke for a terrorist! Socially awkward, Chloe! Although I'd say that now is NOT the time to be jealous, Milo!

While we were watching CSI (about a nasty divorce which involves three murders and a lasered house plus a 17-year-old whose parents fought only over possessions and not him!), Jon and Nathan came home. Nate had decided he was thirsty on the way over, and told us that Chinese Eric / Dallas / Jeremy were at his house also for a dinner of Chinese takeout. Thank goodness white Eric could eat some of the stuff Mom got from Yaohan yesterday... his recent Mui's experience gave him some practice in guessing and being brave to eat certain things, haha! Mom decided to "order" (that was the word she used!) Nathan to drive me home since it was more on his way than Eric's - hey, things worked out for everyone involved, so I was happy! (as I told Nate on the way home) She gave everyone a copy of the Canada Food Guide, and I think the rainbow will entice little Sean out of his own world! (he seemed into his world for a bit on Sunday, even if he wasn't running around)

We talked about nasty commercials (my mom knows what Viagra is!), NHL 2004 updated graphics which Eric brought on a CD (things worked after he installed them on Steph's laptop, which is what counts), controls, editing, Dad asking me about my computer (weird), and the 24 finale dinner. After we told Nathan that he could bring Isabel since she's still at his house for the summer, he calculated and said that he couldn't make it after all since he's still in Ottawa / Toronto / Montreal on his trip! Then we joked about spoiling the finale for him by posting messages all over his Facebook wall, linking him to my blog post(s) on the matter, and filling his inbox with spoilers from other places! His solution? Staying away from the Internet, although of course he'll see if he can watch it at his motel room! Finished apricots, pineapple juice, and some mango juice - Nathan apparently couldn't open it when Jon was also in the kitchen for some garlic-honey treatment. (feeling light-headed from too much sleep, my sister says: he got up at 11 today) We also told Jon that of COURSE the Russian terrorist Gredenko was dead: do you really expect to survive after you chop off your arm, even if people are there to save you? Just die on the beach!

Steph was checking the church hockey pool, and wondered (again) who someone with a bra-related name was since it wasn't her or Viv. ("we're the only ones who would wear bras...") The guys eventually figured that the name sounded like what Angus would say, haha. Nathan drove me home, and we talked about what friends are for: hey, I simply HAD to loan someone a tape of a season focus-changing episode! Otherwise, he'd have been like: "Uh... where's Fayed? Who's this Audrey person and the Chinese people?" Then he'd have called me up / emailed me and wondered what the heck I'd done to the show, haha. Oh wait, that's only what Eric does whenever the Canucks lose hockey games - although he DID say he made Christon take the blame for Saturday's loss! But that's what this person would do were he LIKE Eric in the first place - he'd also pretend to pour water on my head, dance stuffed chickens around on my head (only at Nathan's!), pelt my stuffed animals at me, and do many other strange things! Ah, 20 years and counting with Eric as a good friend... gotta love that, after all. Speaking of what friends are for, he'll also tape the Monday episode we'll miss due to the cruise! We better watch it sometime between Friday to Monday - in between unpacking, catching up on (online) stuff we missed, and doing other things, it'll be interesting to see if we make it to Fellowship that night! Although my fears of staying over all day on the Friday may not materialize since Jon won't be out that day - no taxi!


Olive Garden Breadsticks

1 Loaf unfrozen bread dough (if frozen, thaw in bowl at room temp)
Pam or oil
Garlic powder
Dry oregano leaf -- rub between fingers

When dough is soft enough to knead, spray your fingers with Pam or oil and knead just until you can shape into cigar-sized pieces (about 8 to 10). Place these 3" apart on Pam-sprayed cookie sheets. Let rise in warm place until doubled - about 1.5 hours. Then holding Pam about 8" from sticks, lightly spray top of each and then dust with garlic powder and oregano. Bake at 375° about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. "Cool in pan on rack to serve within a day or two. Olive Garden Breadsticks are just brown and serve" soft breadsticks. Brown in the oven and spread liquid margarine over them, then sprinkle with garlic salt.