I’ve always told everyone I know as a manager, all I manage is expectations. Today’s Dilbert hit a bit too close to home for me and many people I know in the tech industry.

Wanna take your dog along for a weekend vacation? How about the trip to Grandma’s house?

http://www.dogfriendly.com/ allows you to search for hotels and other places that are dog friendly. My wife and I found a hotel for a weekend in July in Pismo Beach on the ocean for under $100 through this site.

Woof.

The idea behind this blog is to present interesting and useful sites and stories to the reader. It is just that simple.

The first site is: htp://www.zipskinny.com which provides information on whatever zip code you type in. If you type in my hometown zip code of 91302, you find that 0% of citizens are farmers. This isn’t too surprising since the zip code is for a town in greater LA.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Well, the Kings didn’t win 3 in a row but they played a good game against the Oilers. The game was a low scoring, pre-lockout affair, tied 1-1 after regulation. The Kings goal was scored by Pushkarov, a 21 year old call up from Manchester. It was his first goal. He’s been on a line with Kopitar and Brown. Brown is the old man at 23 years old, with Kopi coming in at 19 years old. Anyway, the Kings lost in OT but Garon and the D looked good, the offense had many chances but just couldn’t find the back of the net, and Pushkarov looked good.

Tonight has a strange story with it. Annette and I decided to go to tonight’s game because it was College night and since we have IDs from our graduate work at Pepperdine, the tickets were only going to cost $10. To minimize our hassle, I decided to call our ticket rep so he could get the tickets for us and save me the effort to get my credit card authorize while standing at the box office. I wasn’t sure he could do this but I figured it was worth a try. Good thing I did. It turns out that college night, contrary to the Kings website and ads on Fox Sports Net, is next Thursday and continues for every Thursday for the rest of the season. Crap, I thought, no tickets for the game. Our rep could hear the disappointment in my voice, I guess, and he told me that he would see if you could find me some comp tickets for me. He wasn’t promising anything and that they would probably be upstairs. Upstairs was fine, especially if they were comp. Turns out he found us tickets downstairs, at about the same distance away from the ice as our normal seats. Sweet. My ticket rep rocks.

Nope, there’s not a three point shot in hockey yet. The Kings managed to beat the Red Wings for their second win in a row. The Kings hadn’t beat the Red Wings since the Frenzy on Figueroa. Ok, it wasn’t that long ago but it seemed like it. October 12, 2002 according to the Kings website. This means that many of the Kings had never beat Detroit.

Garon looked good. Anze went by all 5 Red Wings to draw the penalty that lead to Cammy’s game winner. Avery had a number of chances and finally converted on an empty netter. All-in-all, a good game.

Well, the Kings beat the Blue Jackets. It was a nice game, 3-0 shutout, Cammy a goal and assist, a nice give and go between Aves and Frolov, Garon in goal. Overall, a good game. The game was a bit chippy and there were some pretty marginal hits by both teams. It seemed that neither team held back on any hit, even when the other player was in a bad position.

Saturday is the dreaded Red Wings. Here’s hoping for some wins.

Ok, it seems that we’ve gone back to the future. Last night’s 7-4 Kings win of the Oilers was almost like a game from the 80’s where the Kings and Oilers in the playoffs scored 18 goals between them. Most of my comments are only from what I heard since my Center Ice package decided to blackout the game since I’m in the local area for the Kings. Of course, the Kings didn’t broadcast it but at least Versus did online.

The good – Garon back in goal, 7 goals, Alyn McCauley played for the first time this year, another solid effort by Armstrong

The bad – 4 goals given up, Garon rusty in the first half of the game, no local coverage

The ugly – Scott Thornton going nuts and whaling on one of the Oilers

Overall, a good win, two in a row, and going for three in Calgary tonight.

Go Kings Go!

….and he wears Purple, Silver, and Black. Cloutier was placed on the IR today. This means that Brust and either Fukufuji or Garon will be the Kings goalies.

Last night, we were treated to a win over the Coyotes. For a good team, this wouldn’t be a cause to celebrate but for the Kings, any win is a good win. Avery scored the game tying goal with less than 1 minute to go on a nifty between the legs pass from Kopitar. Then, the Kings won in OT on the excellent goal tending of Barry Brust. In Brust We Trust. Or in Garon or maybe Fukufuji.

Well, as someone pointed out today, the Kings have 31 points with 43 games left. This means that if the last playoff spot needs 90 points to qualify, then the Kings will need to win 30 of their next 43 games. Damn. It is December and the Kings seem to be out of it already. If this is the case, maybe the Kings can start Fukufuji for a game or two. I’d love to be at a game and say I saw the first Japanese national play in an NHL game.

It is starting to get fun for the Ducks. O’Donnell is hurt, Giggy and Beauchemin left last night’s game early, Todd Marchant was scratch, Bryzgalov was already hurt. Maybe the injury bug that has affected the Kings will move down the 405 a bit.

One last thing. On the letsgokings.com site, it seems that Duck fans and Sharks fans have invaded a bit to bash each other team’s. Too bad that they don’t have a good site of their own.

Our next game is Jan 3rd. So here’s to a better 2007.