wildone

Congratulations to Cynical Romantic for being the first ever winner of the unofficial NHL Hockey Pool. After messaging with out astute hockey team picker, she has decided to decline the offer to have a six month membership of Premium Services at GA and chose to have the money totally donated for the continued operation of GA . I want to thank her for her act to help keep GA going . Please join me in congratulating her. Steve BTW, as mentioned in the earlier rules for the pool, I had the right to change the rules at any given time . I've decided to amend the rules to give Cynical unlimited posts to tease her competition in good spirit, Mark Arbour .

Yikes, I missed it too . Was without internet for 3 days. Anyways.... Belated Happy Birthday Mark May your year be great. May your Blues do better over the next year. And may you get better at picking teams in hockey pools . Hope you had a great one. Steve

I will go with Yuri will be the only one to die. Yes CJ has said that their will be no sequel, but what if a couple of years down the road........ I'm sure we will all expect that The Scar is dead, but then again, we did after LTMP too. Edit to add: What about polling on who will be together at the end of the story, or even into the future? Brandon - Chase Eric - Jansen Jon - Keith (I'm holding out for Jon to say "Can't beat em, just join em) Helen - Barbara Jim - Linda General Bradson - Felicia Jerry/The Scar - Jane Brian - Horst (hey, give me a break, I ran out of characters) I think that about covers it

Lead balloon ??? So myself and some others take off a week of multiple posts harassing you about cliffs and other things totally not related to the story and you think it is below par ? I have to apologize, I have usually commented on the chapter by now, but living in a hotel for the past two weeks and having sparodic internet connection combined with a new job has my posting way down. Now, for the chapter ...... Thanks for sharing first off . I'm liking the idea of Brian and Keith warming up to each others. Too bad Helen is being such a control freak (all just because she has to deal with 3 nuclear bombs, geesh), that she forced Brian to bed by himself. Yeah I know that it was to get Brian, his dad, and Fel out of the way so Jim and her could hide the bombs, but what a party pooper. I know you were looking for a certification of being cliffhanger free, but...... Isn't The Scar suffering with a ankle sprain and just north of the resort watching and waiting to see what happens? Isn't Jim and Helen about to take two of the bombs to a storage facility just north of the resort to hide them? I guess if The Scar can't come to the bombs, why not have Helen just take them to him . Hence, maybe a bit more subtle, but most definitely a cliffhanger once again

Can I pick two or maybe even three

Personally I'd like to see the Blackhawks face the Penguins in the final. Unfortunately my actual love of the game is now being distorted by the hawtness of certain players . So, who is hotter? I know these are the roster mug shots and are nowhere near the caliber of pics or video of the three with their shirts off, covered in sweat for post game interviews . or Patrick Kane------Jonathan Toews------Sidney Crosby So what do you think ?

yep

Well I guess you are now out of the competition with 25 points. Unfortunately that first round had a few upsets, followed by even more in the second. Doesn't look like any more points can be awarded You kicked butt when it came to the first round . Guess 7 or the 8 matches is amazing. Second round saw you guessing 50%. Actually a lot of surprises out west. So you are sitting at 45 points with the potential for 5 more points. If I was able to play (dang, who made these rules ), I guess I would be at 40 points with a potential 5 more points. Maybe we will tie . So the question to ask, since it was a competition between you two, do you want the prize awarded or do you want to wait to the end of the season? Only two votes allowed

Happy Birthday Graeme Sounds like you had a great day. I guess it will be belated birthday wishes down under, but I think I have one minute to spare over here . Hope you have a great year ahead!! Steve

I find myself cheering for Chicago....does that make me a bad Canadian ? Actually, Chicago has really impressed me this year. Being such a young team and really the underdogs of the west. Should be an interesting game in Chicago.

Happy Birthday Patrick Hope you have a great day and many more over the next year!!

That would be Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, I do believe. I'm laughing at the memories of his look of disdain, at you now for forgetting the Emerson and the III, much like he always looked at Hawkeye and BJ. You know, as much as I watched MASH, I never really looked at any of them as being gay. The only memory I have of the show and anything gay related was that Clinger gave the impression that anyone who was 'gay' or 'trans' was definitely Section 8. Oh, and the name BJ (giggles)

Why would Helen be angry with Eric for bringing a couple of nukes to the resort? That is assuming that they make it back to the resort. I know that the General said that the nukes are pretty stable, but I'm wondering how they would react to falling rocks (in a tunnel), extreme heat (in a tunnel in a volcano), extreme shaking (an eruption of a volcano while in a tunnel inside a volcano). Don't forget that Brian has a hand grenade still with him, so the won't be totally unarmed if they do encounter The Scar and His Merry Mercenary Men. :ranger: Can't wait for tomorrow

On a much lighter note : It was said that pigs would fly before the United States of America elected a black president to the White House. One Hundred Days into Barack Obama's presidency... Swine Flu

Happy Birthday Comsie Hope it is a great one!!! Steve

Never hurts to hope

Well I guess I'm hoping that The Scar thinks that he and his crew parachute off the plane with the intentions of a surprise attack on the resort and then meet back at the airport with the nukes and the 'annoying one' disposed of. Wouldn't it be a pleasant surprise if he arrived at the airport to find that his C130 couldn't land at the airport because there was a disabled C130 blocking the only small runaway? Or even better, as The Scar's C130 cuts the engines he then realizes he can't land, or restart the engines, and lands in the ocean as his only other alternate. So much for the use of soaking wet JATO packs at the bottom of the ocean

Happy 35th Birthday jkeeling Hope you had a great day and have many many many more over the next year Steve

OMG, forget about my earlier predictions I was doing some reading of some back chapters and something came to light. First off, with or without Mike's traitorous actions, The Scar knows exactly where the bombs are going...I think. In chapter 33, Rendezvous', The Scar put two and two together when he told us this:

Well, since I am awarding the prize, I made myself ineligible to avoid the the accusation of a fix. Damn my conscience sometimes . <------Me with the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other . Good thing there is no goat smiley. Looks like you have the potential of 30 more points and Mark has the potential for 20 more. Good luck to you both.

Okay, jokes aside.... After Round One here is the scores: Mr. Arbour has 20 points Ms. Romantic has 35 points Mr. One has 25 points (but he can't play ) onto Round Two..........

Something still up in the air??? Heck yeah, The Scar and his Merry Band of Mercenaries are still up in the air. Why do I get a feeling that they will be dropping in on the General and Felicia and the remaining nuke? What's worse was the immediate idea that I got when Eric takes position of the two nukes with Jansen and Brian is how are they going to get back to the resort? This chapter had so many vehicles breaking down due to clogged air filters that I can't help but reason that this is foreshadowing for the future. If I were to guess the future based on the devious goats past ways, picture the flatbed truck making it's way up the side of the mountain/volcano, and as it enters the tunnel the engine finally gives out due to the strain put on it from the ash. Now stuck in the tunnel, a sudden tremor from the active volcano causes both entrances to collapse entombing the 3 guys inside an ACTIVE VOLCANO with 2 nuclear bombs!!!! :nuke: No cell phone reception, no way of Helen knowing what the collateral is, no wire transfer, parachuting in mercenaries, oh my !! CJ is setting us up for one of his doozies!!! I think, lol. Thanks for the chapter Cliff

Despite the fact that I'm going to probably pay like hell for this one, I will tell it anyway. A small plane is flying accross Canada with four passengers on board. A Canucks Fan, A Oilers Fan, A Canadiens Fan and a boy scout. Suddenly the planes engine begins sputtering and eventually dies. Since they are flying over northern Ontario, there is no where safe to land due to the vast forest. The pilot tells the passengers that they will have to jump out of the plane with parachutes but unfortunatly there is only four chutes for the five of them. The Canadiens fan reaches down and grabs a pack and tells everyone that since his team has been around longer than any of the other teams and that since he is part of the smartest fans and most knowledgable fans in the country, he should go first. He popped open the door and jumped out. Next, the Oilers fan said that since his team had won the most Stanley Cups in the past twenty years and therefore the most modern championship team and was from the city that produced Wayne Gretzky, he should go next. So he grabs ones and leaps out the door. Next, the Canucks fan says that since his team has never won the Stanley Cup he had to live another year in the possiblity that he may get to see them as Stanley Cup Champs. He grabs another pack and leaps out the door. The pilot looks at the boy scout and says "Your much younger than me and have a longer life to live. Since I'm an old man now, why don't you take the last pack and save yourself." The boy scout looks at the pilot and says that they both can jump and survive. The pilot looks at the kid and asks how they both can use one parachute and both live when the other three have already taken the three other shutes. The kid smiles at the pilot and says, "Well the guy with all the knowledge and claims to be the smartest wearing the jersey with the big C with an H in the middle just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.