E- 1 man too many on the ice!

Today Molly had her first professional development day, giving us a very short respite from the "system". With Les heading up to Whistler for a work retreat and me working tonight, we didn't feel the need to do much and had a nice lazy, rainy October morning together at home.

However, after both papers were read (for some reason we have the Vancouver Sun and National Post) and I couldn't handle any more Dora, Bernstein Bears or Arthur, I took the girls for a skate and a swim. It's always a bit of gamble.....getting kids dressed, packing their skates, mitts, helmets, jackets, etc.... then driving to the rink and cramming their little feet into skates........because you half expect to hear "I'm cold" or "this isn't fun, let's go home" within 5 minutes of arriving. And who can blame them? Skating isn't really fun when you have no concept of using your blades. It's really just a painful, dangerous and totally unstable walk on frozen concrete. Have fun kids!

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Zamboni come on the ice and realize that we had been out for over 45 minutes without a complaint. The girls used the metal frames for balance- which supposedly isn't the best learning tool, but made the whole experience a lot more pleasant for me....especially for my back. In fact, I was free to cruise around and work on my skating and slap shot.

Given the fact that I fell down on two of the shots I took last game, I could really use the work. Oh well, we won the game in spite of this and the "too many men on the ice" penalty I took in the dying seconds of a fairly close game. The bad parts of my game are too many to list. The good part is that, for the most part I can read the game well and know where I should be. If I can only get mobile enough to get there, I could be okay. And I am sure that everyone I'm playing with will be happy to have one less 6'6" body- attached to an extra-long hockey stick- flailing around on the ice.

After we thawed out with a swim and a hot tub, Les and Luc headed up to Whistler, I went to work and the girls got a night with their Omi.