It’s been a while since the Hockey Dad has commented on the state of Tampa Bay sports teams. That’s because in the summer we do not have a major team. Oops, I guess the Devil Rays count. But they suck and have no pitching and none in sight. The big news around here is NFL training camps start next week and everyone is watching what the Bucs will do, especially since Jon Gruden is on the hot seat. But for me, I’ve been happy with my Tampa Bay Lightning off season moves. They did not make any sexy signings, but they did make some that makes them a better hockey club. Training camp begins September 13!

Wife not only raised $2200 for her own 3-Day goal, but she helped her sister and her cousin meet their goals too!

Thanks to the following people, I don’t need to break open my wallet to fill in the blanks this year:

Alli
Carolyn
Mike from Sinus Infection
Robyn
Matthew from Blog About Your Blog
Funny Junk
Cybercelt from the Texas RV Travel blog
Karen from My Road
and Sian Lun Lau

Wife’s still working hard on getting donations for her sister’s 3 day campaign. She snagged another $200 in donations this week for her! Find out how you can help here, and you’ll be getting the link love too!

Thanks to:
Kitty
Kelly at That’s What She Said.
Vedis
Barnett Associates (Marysville WA homes)

Wife tells me that her sister got a few more donations this week, thanks to a deal wife is offering bloggers who donate.

Props to Greg Watson, Thinking Outloud, and Surviving NJ, for stepping up to the plate. You can get in on the deal too, just click here to find out more.

My wife and sister in law are walking in the 3 Day walk again this year, and my wife just met her goal last week! She’s helping her sister finish her fund raising now, and you can find out about a special deal she’s got offering links for sale she’s doing to raise the funds. Charles from C.Whyte’s blog has already taken advantage of the deal!

How about it, eh? Some of you know I recently completed a family vacation to the Great White North. One of the delights of the trip was fighting every night with Wife over what unknown restaurant we would eat at. Montreal was especially fun because everywhere had crepes, however, my little guy is picky. Finding good spaghetti recipes in a French city is sometimes hard. Please, save the snarky comments about the French being great chefs, I’m talking about appealing to a kid’s appetite. Not some haute intellectual.

Since we are home now, I think it might be time to have a summer Italian dinner, with my son’s godfather as chef. I swear he has the best spaghetti recipe ever and his meatballs taste the best, if I may say that. Now people who are raised on bland sauce and Prego would not appreciate his cooking, but if you like flavor, garlic and fennel, his stuff in top notch. Throw in a couple of bottles of red wine and you have some good eating.

We’re off for vacation tomorrow. Pretty excited about it too. Our last vacation was to go skiing back in January, so we packed up our ski bibs and snowboard goggles and heavy winter coats. This time, we’re definitely traveling a lot lighter! Shorts and t-shirts are what we’ve got, and we’re ready to enjoy some cooler temps. Highs in Toronto this week are in the upper 70’s - sweet stuff after sweating it out here in Florida. And the rain that Weather.com was predicting seems to have gone away as well, so here’s hoping for cool, dry days.

We’re going to be in Montreal this weekend, and while the humidity is high (56%) the weather there should be cooler than here in Florida too. And if we get too hot, it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to Niagara, where we can get wet in the falls. I’m stoked.

How do you think George Steinbrenner feels knowing the highest payroll in professional sports has virtually the same record as the lowest in Major League Baseball, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays?

Try not to hurt your brain.

Wife took the kids to see Pirates on Sunday. I’m just not a big fan. I saw the second one and it felt like it took forever. I had the choice of going to Pirates or going shopping at the mall. Tough call, but I took the mall. I knew I could find beer there. Wife made me go buy some new clothes for vacation.

I typically read the newspaper every morning, if it’s arrived before I leave the house for work. I don’t typically watch the news, just because I’m not usually home when the news is on, and when I am, I’ve got better things to do. I tend to get a lot of my news online instead. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s quick. I don’t have to listen to 5 minutes of weather and consumer reports in order to find out what the score was in last night’s hockey game.

Now, thanks to The News Room, I can not only get the news for my own benefit, but I can share it and make some cash. Because this is an advertising supported product, I can embed relevant news onto my blog and get paid for sharing it. For instance, I was able to find this neat video of the play of the night (Rob Neidermeyer) from the Stanley Cup Finals to share here. It’s relevant, timely, and I make money!

You can also earn prizes for using the service. Putting that video up was easy too - you just find a category of news, pick a story, and share it. The layout is easy to change, and all of the code is provided to you.