All the news that's fit to print

I won me another game sunday night. 8-3 over the Red Wolves. Good playing by all the guys, especially since a couple of them were sick and a couple others couldn't play. My game was definitely on, except for the first goal, which I'd do differently if I could. The other two I can live with. It was a violent game too, but not in terms of fighting. Ben put a shot on me in warm-up that slipped under my goal pad and bruised the inside of my right knee... fun. I put it out of mind so I could play the rest of the game. Then at the end of the second period, I made a good save and was promptly bull-dozed over by two guys who couldn't stop. Nobody was hurt but it was a pretty powerful collision and it jarred me slightly. Probably looked alot worse than it was. The Wolves' player apologized several times, both then and after the game, which was very sportsman-like of him. It was kind of fun to play a rough game... made me feel like I really earned the win. Although I did... they put some decent shots on me. The bruise on the knee wasn't too cool though. I spent the evening at TJ's drinking with an ice pack on it. Before I left mom and dad's last night, I ordered a pair of Itech armored goalie knee-pads. Every couple weeks I discover a new part of my body that ought to be better armored, and I get to find out the old-fashioned way: bruises!

Things are getting goofy at the no-longer-so happy Hyatt. Last week Joe, the assistant banquet manager, was unceremoniously shit-canned. The man probably worked 60-70 hours a week, at least, and was well-loved by the banquet staff. So you can see why we're all rather upset about his removal. This past fall saw the termination of the banquet manager who I started working there for, and ever since her replacement took over, things have been changing. Naturally, there's alot of talk circulating about the situation there. The prevailing opinion I'm getting is that management is picking their favorites, right on down the line from Fat Luis the GM to our manager. For the first time in years they've resumed disciplinary write-ups, a precursor to being sacked, and half the staff has been written up at least once this past week-end. I managed to avoid this ordeal for now, but I can't assume it's because I'm anybody's favorite. In fact, I can already see what'll do me in. One of the new employees, who I hate, is buddies with the manager. This shifty weasel claims to have been a manager at a restaurant or two, and appears to want to be in charge of something. My words for him are: "don't tell me what to do." Actually I haven't put it in those terms yet, but he rarely tries telling me what to do. I think he's completely untrust-worthy, and he even tried to take one of my bars from me a week ago. We maintain a civil demeanor, but underneath it I suspect we know damn well that we can't stand each other. So I have little doubts that if this sneaky little ferret decides he doesn't want me around that my dismissal can be easily arranged.

This means that I'm off to find work starting this week. I'm going to enquire at all the other down-town hotels and the Riverside Convention Center as well. Actually, every hotel in the area that has banquet facilites and a bar will find me enquiring. And I'm also going to check out the Summerville Grill, as they once were tentatively offering me a bar job. It'd be a pain in the ass to commute, but any bar job would be good about now. I'm also emailing the guy at Nik Entertainment again, just to stay on the radar there, although they wouldn't really be good for much income.

Well, my hands tire from typing and I have to practice and scrounge for food.

Be off with you!