Playing for a New Team

In the summer of 2010 some friends and I got together and formed an adult ice hockey team. We called ourselves the Net Crashers (I came up with the name) and began our first season at Ice Castle, going 0-10. The team has gone through many different players and seasons in the least 3 years. We've had a wholesale jersey redesign from red practice jerseys to blue ones with our logo. I changed numbers in the middle from 36 to 46. We've never had a winning season and somehow we kept on chugging along.

Tonight, that story of my hockey career ends. Tonight I take the ice as a Net Crasher for the final time. In the next couple of months I will be starting a new season with a team called Lokomotiva Hockey Club. We'll be competing at a higher level than I've ever consistently played in before. Our jerseys are going to look amazing. We even have a team website that I run (www.LokomotivaHockey.com) with a link to our schedule, player bios, and a running blog where we will have the latest updates from the team such as game recaps, point totals etc. All in all it's pretty a pretty exciting move in my hockey career.

After tonight the Net Crasher will live on. They may not even miss me very much. They certainly won't be retiring my number of anything like that. But tonight, I'm going to go out there and leave it all on the ice. I'm going to give it everything I've got and have fun doing it.

It's a hockey night in Pittsburgh!

Spontaneous Combustion

This afternoon at around 10 minutes after 5 Rivkah called me at work to ask if we could have a spur-of-the-moment afternoon barbecue. The weather was perfect, she was going shopping and could pick up some chicken, and we already had a bunch of veggies and a pineapple just itching to be roasted on a grill. I, of course, said that sounded great. I even invited my coworker and best friend Yosef to join us.

I got home around 6 and by 6:30 had the fire going and delicious food smells started filling the air. Rivkah set us up out front with a table and we already have a park bench in front of the house. The food was done shortly after 7 and Yosef arrived just as we were finishing our preparations. We even brought Sophie's highchair out so she could make a huge mess of herself with meatloaf.

We had an absolute blast. Conversation flowed, Yaeli made us laugh, Sophie made a mess. It was just a wonderfully spontaneous way to cap off a pretty tough day at work. I think this will be the first of many outdoor meals we have this summer. If you live in Pittsburgh and you'd like to join us maybe we can have a picnic in the park sometime.

Happy summer everyone!

Nasal Storage

Just a quick little cute story: On shabbos morning Yaeli finds a little screw in her room. Rivkah asked her to put it away. Yaeli says "Can I put it in my nose for later?"

Also, Sophie is now pulling herself up to a standing position and cruising everywhere she can. Great stuff.