Festivities for the NHL Winter Classic begin today, here’s some highlights to enjoy the next week or so:

Friday, December 24

Public Skate at the community rink (parking lot between Heinz Field and State AE): 3-9 p.m.  Santa will be there between 4 and 6 p.m.

Saturday, December 25

Public Skate at the community rink: 12-9 p.m.

Sunday, December 26

PAHL Youth Hockey: 8:40 a.m. – 2:50 p.m.
Public Skate at the community rink: 7-8:20 p.m.

Monday, December 27

PAHL Youth Hockey and Hockey is for Everyone games: 9 a.m.-2:50 p.m.
Public Skate at the community rink: 3-4:20 p.m.
PIHL (High School) Hockey: 9:40-11:40 p.m.

Hockey Hall of Fame and Pittsburgh Penguins Trophy Display at the Carnegie Science Center and Sports Works (Through December 31, times vary)

Ice Carving Displays at North Shore Riverftont Park (Through December 30, dawn-dusk daily)

Brighton Heights Deck Hockey: 8 a.m.

Tuesday, December 28

Penguins vs. Thrashers: 7 p.m. at the Consol Energy Center

PAHL Youth Hockey: 12-1:20 p.m.
Public skate at the community rink: 3-4:20 and 6:30-7:50 p.m.
Pittsburgh Firefighters vs. Police: 8-9:20 p.m.
Pittsburgh Celebrity Game: 9:30-10:50 p.m.

Wednesday, December 29

Elite Tournaments: 1-5:30 p.m. at the Consol Energy Center

PAHL Youth Hockey: 7:30 a.m.-2:50 p.m.
Public Skate at the community rink: 3-4:20 and 6:30-7:50 p.m.
PIHL (High School) Hockey: 8 – 11:50 p.m.

Thursday, December 30

Riverftont Park: Installation of two life-sized ice sculptures: 2-5 p.m.

Robert Morris and The Baby Pens doubleheader at the Consol Energy Center: 3 p.m.

City of Pittsburgh Pep Rally: 12 p.m., Market Square

PAHL Youth Hockey: 8:30-9:50 a.m. and 8-11 p.m.
USA Hockey (Clinics): 10 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
Penguins Skating School: 1-2:45 p.m.
Public Skate at the community rink: 3-4:20 and 6:30-7:50 p.m.

Friday, December 31

Alumni Game at Heinz Field: 9:30-11 a.m.

Penguins open practice at Heinz Field (ticket from Alumni game required): 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

NHL Spectator Plaza (Art Rooney Way, outside Heinz Field): 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

First Night Pittsburgh, Cultural District: 6 p.m.-midnight

The Art of Play Exhibit at the Warhol (time unknown, I’m guessing it will be presented all day and during the First Night festivities)

PAHL Youth Hockey: 8 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Elite Tournament: 12:30-4:50 p.m.
Hockey is for Everyone Game: 5-6:20 p.m.
Public Skate at the community rink: 6:30-8, 8:10-9:30 and 9:40-midnight

Saturday, January 1

2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field: 1 p.m.

NHL Spectator Plaza (Art Rooney Way, outside Heinz Field): 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Elite Tournament: 8-11 a.m.
PAHL Youth Hockey: 11:10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Public Skating at the community rink: 4:10-5:40 and 6-7:30 p.m.
PAHL Youth Hockey: 9:10-11:10 p.m.

Sunday, January 2

PAHL Youth Hockey: 7:30-8:50 a.m. and 1:30-2:50 p.m.
Hockey if for Everyone Game: 9-10:20 a.m.
Elite Girls: 10:30-11:50 a.m.
PIHL (High School) Hockey: 12-1:20, 7-9 and 9:10-11:10 p.m.

Click here to get a 2 for 1 coupon from PNC for the public skating rink and click here for the fan guide to the Winter Classic (including fulls schedule and map).  Full details about each days events are available here.

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The new manager (at least I think she’s a manger) working here tonight is really, really loud.  She’s at the far end and I can hear her around the corner and through my headphones.  Also, four of the five of you wearing jerseys are wearing 43, and that’s pretty awesome!

Remember when I posted about Conflict Kitchen and how they needed our help on Kickstarter?  I like to think I really helped.  That story got passed around by a bunch of people, even Bill Peduto (Thanks, Bill!), and they made their goal.

Now here’s the deal.  I gave money because it’s a really awesome project that I wanted to support.  I don’t want to sound ungrateful, that’s what charity is for, to help others.  However, I gave a specific amount because of what the backer gifts were.  I love music, and am interested as to what contemporary Iranian music is.  I also really wanted to read the facts and see the layout of the food wrappers, since I wasn’t able to get down during Kubideh Kitchen.

But still, I have not seen any of those.  I’ve tried contacting both Conflict Kitchen and Waffle Shop, but to no avail.  Maybe they’ll read this and maybe I’ll get my stuff.  I sure do hope this is resolved.

More cuts are coming, in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the chart.  No specific details yet, so we’re left to wonder what “Service Reduced” means for each of the 50 or so routes.  And to be fair, some will actually see “Service Increased,” so there is still reworking of the TDP going on (which from my perspective can only be a good thing).

We were told before, and I wrote about the fact (and at the time, I was optimistic that these cuts would not happen), that PAT loves to play the victim: but who they point the finger at has changed.  It used to be the State.  PAT wrote on their blog:

It is the most responsible option available at this time — short of resolving the statewide gap in transportation funding.Port Authority, along with other stakeholders in the Commonwealth’s road, bridge, mass transportation and overall transportation network, continues to seek a meaningful discussion with the new State Administration and Legislature starting in January about long-term transportation funding.

But if you read the FAQs about these cuts, we get a different version of the story:

The State Legislature took a bold step in 2007 by creating a dedicated transportation funding source in Act 44. Unfortunately, the federal government denied the state’s plan to toll Interstate 80, which has created this statewide shortfall.

I guess at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which government you blame, as long as you blame government.

But I think what saddens me the most, is this overlooked (and in my opinion, buried: it wasn’t even mentioned in their blog post) fact:

The buses I usually take come from Harmar Garage, and except for two, all the drivers I’ve met are awesome, kind and go out of their way for the riders.  There will be many that I will miss, not to mention the mechanics, traffic coordinators and office staff at Harmar.  I think this is the biggest shame of the whole situation.

More information will be released here as PAT makes it available.

Just a quick note to everyone: we’re back!

Something went kaplooie with the Metblogs database and we were down for about a week and a half.  We’re back up though, and I’m very glad to be back.  Five stories were lost, but I had saved copies of them elsewhere, so they now appear below (although one is missing a graphic I deleted, and another is missing the links to two videos).  Some things are still being worked out, videos that were embedded I don’t think are working at the moment, so I’ll adjust accordingly.  The comments from those posts are gone (at least I think), which is a shame, there were some nice conversations going on in the YinzCam and Conflict Kitchen posts.  But, we live to blog another day, so I couldn’t be happier.  Once again, I would like to make mention of my post, “A note on Metblogs.”

Also, in case you hadn’t noticed, the Steelers are playing in the Super Bowl this weekend.  I had a bunch of things to post about that, I’ll try to get a Steelers recap post up later today.

As always, thanks for reading.

Okay, I’m not a huge football fan.  Don’t get me wrong, I will only root for the Steelers, but as a general rule, I don’t like football, I’d rather watch hockey (or soccer, or the Olympics).  I’ve watched very few minutes of football this season, but of course, I’ll be watching this Sunday.

So I decided that this year, even if I didn’t watch the games (and since they were winning, I’m going to assume that me not watching is what propelled them to victory), I would still try to be more involved somehow.  Really, my goal was to be able to have a conversation at work about the games.  You know, instead of my deer in the headlights stare.

It was suggested that I check out ‘Yinz luv da Stillers’ on Youtube, and it’s amazing.  Also, I’m probably the last one to realize this, but Jim Shearer is on VH1, so that was cool to see him this morning while I made a sandwich.

Here is their latest episode:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q2idq2NPG4[/youtube]

I apologize for the lack of embedding, still getting all the dust settled…

Next up, is Coke Cheers.  Coke is going to donate a whole bunch of money to the local Boy and Girls Club, but right now, Green Bay is way out in front of us.  Go check it out and add your cheers and support a great cause.  Beating Green Bay.  Oh yeah, and the children.

And lastly, Twerrible Towel.  With a little bit of magic (that I will let Ginny explain through her interview here), anytime the hashtag #steelersnation is used on twitter, a real-life Terrible Towel is waved automatically.  It’s been fun to watch, which you can do here.  No go to twitter and get cracking!

I’ll be back next week with Pens news, a lot going on between goalie fights, the upcoming trade deadline and Malkin’s injury, there is a lot to cover.  But for now, we all bleed black and gold for the Steelers.

What a weekend.  Here is the list of Pittsburgh Fail:

• Pens lose 3-0 to the Caps
• Christina Aguilera botched the National Anthem
• Steelers lost to Green Bay

But we move on, as we must, and as we always have.  It was a fantastic season and we still have a lot more of the NHL season to go.  The weekend could have been better, but I hope you at least got to spend it with family and friends, like I did.

Congratulations to this year’s #PGH shorty awards, including second place Linsday of I heart Pittsburgh!  Also up there, Sally Wiggin’s Hair and Ginny from That’s Church.

Congratulations to everyone, and thanks to Lindsay and I heart Pittsburgh for spearheading the push for a Pittsburgh category!

Mario has made a statement in response to the Islanders game shitshow.  Here is a small portion:

“Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

From what I just saw, “Mario Lemieux” is trending worldwide on twitter, which is pretty awesome, so this is getting lots of coverage.

Bylsma will not be suspended, although, with enough of the team gone, this graphic by The Pensblog is still fitting (and awesome):