Life, love and music
Its been a while since I’ve posted anything that wasn’t hockey related. Stanley Cup playoffs aside, my life has been pretty hectic dealing with last minute wedding preparations. There seems so much left to do that it seems overwhelming. Luckily a few months ago my fiancee had the great idea of hiring a wedding coordinator and she has been a godsend. She’s given us some good ideas for decorations, and relieved us of the stress of having to deal with all the various people/companies for last minute preparations and the day of the wedding. I will admit that at first I did not see the point of having a coordinator, but as the big day gets closer I can’t phantom how more hectic things would be for us right now. We have the peace of mind knowing that she’ll be decorating the church and the hall, as well as coordinating everything on the day of the wedding. She’s also double and triple checking with everyone and all companies we hired, making sure everyone gets there at the proper time so that there’s no ugly surprises for us to deal with. This will allow us to enjoy the day worry-free.
We still haven’t gotten around to planning out our honeymoon to Paris. There’s so many places to visit and things to see that making a schedule is the only way we’ll get to see it all. Museums like the Louvre don’t have all sections open every day, so we have to figure out which days are best for us to go without missing anything. There’s only a few weeks left to plan things out, so we should get to it ASAP. So why am I sitting here blogging? 🙂
This is also the start of birthday season. Nieces, nephews, cousins all were born in the summertime. So we’re doing a lot of running around doing some shopping, visiting family, etc… Between that and the wedding/honeymoon planning, there isn’t much time for anything else.
Erin and I did manage to take the time and catch a concert last night. We saw Melanie C at the Bronson Centre. She’s currently touring small venues in Canada. If you’ve never heard her solo stuff, its very different from the Spice Girls. The concert was small and intimate, which is what she was aiming for on this tour. There was maybe 400 people at the concert, but that low turnout didn’t come as much of a surprise. There was next to no publicity for the show and the Bronson Centre is not the best venue for a concert. It was held at what used to be Immaculata High School‘s auditorium, which doesn’t really conducive to a concert atmosphere. That being said, the show itself was very good. Backed by a 5 piece band, she belted out songs from her last album along with past hits (in Europe mostly, where her solo work is a lot more popular than North America). Having such an intimate rock show allowed for great interactivity with the energized crowd. The size of the show and the crowd made the whole thing seem a lot more personal. I did manage to tape 3 songs (which she mentioned she doesn’t mind people doing, as long as its not ‘shit’ 😛 ). I’ll post them up on youtube sometime in the next few days. That being said, I would definitely catch her again in concert if she ever comes back to Ottawa.
Never be The Same Again
Northern Star
I Turn To You
Luc "Sandman" G. 
Quite a bit of excitement in the last couple of days. Tuesday was trade deadline day in the NHL. Murray didn’t do much for the Senators, bringing in Martin Lapointe from Chicago for a sixth-round draft pick. Lapointe isn’t expected to make a big splash on the ice (where he will likely replace the injured Chris Neil), but more for his leadership in the locker room. The big shockers at the trade deadline was Pittsburgh winning out in the Hossa sweepstakes. No one saw that one coming. Everyone believed Hossa would end up in Ottawa or Montreal. The Penguins will definitely be a team to look out for in the playoffs. They certainly won’t be pushed over like they were last year by the Sens. The lack of trades by Ottawa at the 2008 deadline said 2 things to me. Murray was giving a wake up call to the team, telling them they are good enough as it is. Secondly, that Paddock’s time as a coach was running out unless things changed. The Sens showed their appreciation to Murray by losing 4-0 to Boston. This was their first back-to-back zero goal losses since 2000! I thought they hit the bottom of the barrel with the 5-0 loss to Toronto on Monday. I guess I was wrong.