Hello? Is Anybody There?

Where have we been for the last few days?

Well, between the two late games on Wednesday and Thursday - the Oilers did win one of those games in a dramatic shootout victory - and the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics on Friday and watching the TV all day yesterday. It's been a full schedule with nothing written at Oilers Jambalaya. Sorry. It's been crazy.

But I'm/we're back and it's time to get back on track.

The Edmonton Oilers will be playing tonight at 5:00pm MST and it's a PPV game. Ugh! Pay for a game that lacks any relevance AND it's on Valentines day. Good luck convincing the significant other on watching the game tonight. You better have a good explanation on why it's romantic to watch the Oilers get their collective asses handed to them. I know I have no good reasons, but I'm sure we will watch it anyways. She loves me. I think.

The 2010 Olympics have started and it hasn't been without it's problems. First, in the Luge training runs on Friday, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvil died while on a practice run. This prompted VANOC to make changes for the safety of the luge riders and for the best interest of the Olympic games that another tragedy doesn't occur.

Next during the opening ceremonies, it seemed like one big ball of strange. Read on for highlights.

THE STRANGE/BAD PARTS
- First the brutal lip syncing by the performers (Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado).
- Then the weird stuff that VANOC planned was making all of us laugh on twitter (SEE BELOW). Like the Batman playing the fiddle in the moon. This was the East part of the show.
- Or the Peter Pan kid that flew all over the stage during the Prairies part of the show. He made me laugh pretty darn hard. Poor Saskatchewan people. I know your not like that. lol
- The massive fail of the hydraulics that lift the cauldron up. One beam didn't lift up.
- The hooligans that chased Gretzky down were probably freaking the Great One out. Where was the planning and security?
- Seriously... the protesters need to fu*k off. Leave the games alone. You look like teenage dumb-asses.

THE COOL/GOOD PARTS
- The snowboarder that dropped into the Olympic rings and landed it looked impressive. I would imagine it would be tough to do that considering it was fake snow. It looked like plastic.
- I did like the (east) fiddle part of the show. Ashley MacIsaac was awesome.
- At one point when they were showcasing the West, they had orca whales swim across the floor. It was so realistic and they even had the whales blow out as they swam. Very, very cool.  That was my favorite part of the opening ceremonies. (If I was a Canuck fan, I would be asking for that as my intro for the hockey team. How cool would that be?)
- The fat guy with the funny looking beard made a great I AM CANADIAN type speech.
- I liked the choices for the flag bearers; Betty Fox, Bobby Orr, Anne Murray, Jacques Villeneuve, Barbara Ann Scott, Romeo Dallaire, Julie Payette and Donald Sutherland.
- I really enjoyed how they selected the final torch bearers. Great picks; Rick Hansen, Catrina LeMay Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene and Wayne Gretzky. And to top it off, Mr. 99 took the flame to the main cauldron and lit it, on his own.
- The special effects were truly unbelievable.  I could only imagine what they looked like in person.

FAVORITE THINGS PEOPLE SAID DURING OPENING CERIMONIES via TWITTER
- @JayB4 said.. Apparently I missed out on the free 'shrooms they gave out to anyone watching this thing.
- @dchesnokov said.. Did Forsberg make it to where Sweden has to stand without injuring his knee or something?
- @Lord_Bob said.. Well, VANOC, this is what happens when you wait until the last minute to recruit Skytrain station buskers for your opening ceremony.
- @amckie said.. Dear Internets: I have lived in Canada my whole life and I have no effin clue what is happening with these opening ceremonies.
- @TravisDakin said.. I never thought I'd ever see a tap dancer that could kick my ass.
- @LOOUIS said.. I have never been so excited for commercials in my life #winterolympics
- @natemuhly said.. Tonight's safe word is "quatchi"
- @JonJordan said.. "Dad, Dad! I made the Olympics!" "Yeah, son? In hockey? Skiing? Curling?" "No, I'm going to be running in place in Huck Finn pants!"
- @bruce_arthur said.. Little known fact: Peter Pan was apparently born in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan
- @JohnnieOil said.. well I figure six more beers and a few shots of crown royal and I just might understand WTF this has to do with Canada
- @Tennath said.. "Excuse me Sir, but how do you get to Canada?" "Second star to the right and straight on till morning."
- @wyshynski said.. "Please" and "thank you" and "zed" get a pop from the crowd. Canada, I can't love you enough right now.
- @JSBMrevolution said.. Holy shit. They should get this guy to talk to the Oilers before their games. He's pumping me right up.
- @canadasportsguy said.. this guy is awesome...go Canada!!
- @Lord_Bob said.. Vancouver: where the only word of French we know is "bienvenue".
- @OilersJambalaya said.. TO THE REST OF THE WORLD: That's a woman singing. #notkidding #KDLang
- @JSBMrevolution said.. hahaha oh man I thought that was fat Clay Aiken for a second.
- @dantencer said.. I just asked my producer who the male asian singer was. He informed me that it was K.D. Lang.
- @TravisDakin said.. In very glad they stuck with the distance angles. The lip syncing was getting embarrasing.
- @mc79hockey said.. Kd lang and Bryan Adams? What was this, some sort of Expo 86 contingency plan?
- @JonJordan said.. Scary Spice is Canadian?
- @tricksnard said.. I wonder if they added "without drugs" for our snowboard team?
- @HockeyCanada said.. Our own Hayley Wickenheiser pulls off athlete's oath like an ace ... Well done! We r all so proud!
- @elliottbaseball said.. They couldn't find a figure skating judge to take the judge's oath?
- @vojha said.. Hard to get more Canadian than Wayne Gretzky. He bleeds Maple Syrup and Poops Timbits.
- @OilersJambalaya said.. #EPICFAIL
- @TravisDakin said.. And that's embarrassing.
- @JSBMrevolutionsaid.. Oh I see, they ALL lit it. Except Catorina Lemay Doan. I bet she feels just awesome right now.
- @JSBMrevolution said.. Shouldn't Gretzky be riding in the back of a Ford?
- @keltieneville said.. What's more Canadian than hitching a ride in the back of a pick up?
- @oilerslove said.. well, that was a great 3 hour build up to a fail.
- @redteamleader said.. Opening ceremonies were better on Twitter than CTV

THE BEST ADVICE I HEARD IN A WHILE

@PaulinaGretzky said.. "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take" - my dad my hero #waynegretzky .. goodnight everyone xoxo