Margret Sloan

My favorite way to spend a few minutes on a mental health break is to play online backgammon or some of the free card games on Yahoo or other online game sites. I first discovered online games way back in the early 90’s, when Microsoft launched their “Village of Games.” Now there are dozens of different sites, some with excellent graphics and large numbers of regular players from all over the world.

If I have a full hour to spend on R&R I’ll try to find a good partner and play one or two Spades games. If I only have a few minutes I’ll play something fast, like backgammon or cribbage. Sometimes I like the cutthroat strategies of Hearts to sharpen my mind. These are not time wasters as much as they are mental exercises to keep me alert and sharpen my critical thinking skills.

Tonights Round 6 game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be a “must-win” for Pittsburgh. If they lose to the Red Wings tonight it’s over and Detroit will have the Stanley Cup. I’m cheering for any team that plays against Detroit, so obviously I’m hoping that the Penguins will win tonight and have one more game to play in the final round of the Playoffs.

The last game was one of the most awesome, exciting, cliffhanger games I’ve ever seen. Pittsburgh took the game to three sudden death overtimes to pull the win out from under Detroit. That kind of hockey game is what hockey is all about - pure adrenalin and the guys playing with their hearts on their sleeves, giving 110% to the game.

Saw a short headline yesterday that the NFL is going to give Pacman Jones a break and reinstate him with limitations. What a bunch of sissies that run today’s “pro” league! The integrity has evaporated and it’s nothing but money money money anymore.

I’m going to join in at work with all the NFL pick ‘em games and maybe even join a fantasy team this year. The corruption in the league is getting so obvious that even I can predict the winners of every game, so I might as well make some money off it, too.

Found a website called Addict Sports that has bulletin boards for discussions on the different sports and even has college and NFL football picks on their site. Registration is free and there is a ton of information for people serious about picking the winners when this year’s preseason “games” start up again in August.

Look out, boys! Marge is playing for your money this year!

There is such a flurry of excitement among the women here about the hottest new movie of the summer, Sex in the City. There are at least three parties based on the SITC theme this weekend and I can’t possibly attend them all but they do sound like fun.

One of the parties is being held at the new luxury condo high rise downtown as a fund raiser, and that one has peaked my interest. They are having a menu based on the movie, with chinese take out, bottomless cosmopolitans, and cheesecake. There will be a fashion show and a surprise guest appearance - so now I REALLY have an interest in going. It would be fun to have a girls night out and celebrate a fun new movie - I think I’m talking myself into it!

My step daughter got a Cricket phone when we refused to add her to our home account. We had to take a hard stand with her and stop helping her financially - she just took advantage of us over and over and I finally put my foot down and said no more money. So she has a Cricket phone that works three weeks out of the month - the last week of the month it always seems to get shut off for non-payment and we won’t give her the money to turn it back on. Aren’t we the big meanies?

So the days when she does have cell phone service, she has a ringtone that she downloaded and it plays in the ear of the person calling until she answers the phone of it goes to voicemail. I knew the ringtone had to be a rap song - she loves that stuff - but I’ve heard the song maybe 100 times and I can’t understand the words. Then it occurred to me that I can look up the lyrics for any rap song and also listen to free ringtone samples by going to the web site called rapartists.com.

I found the song she is using for her ringtone by Kanye West called “Touch the Sky” and sure enough the full Rap Lyrics are there on the web site!