Team player...

It's been warming up here in Ottawa the last week or so, and that's got me pretty excited!! At the same time however, I am a bit concerned because I now have to consider how to manage my acre and a 3/4 property with respect to the lawn. Maybe I should just let part of it grow wild...I suppose what I'll do is see how the neighbors tend to their lawns and then go off of that. I am however pretty excited to drive my riding lawn mower around. I was using it with my snow thrower attachment this winter, and loved it, but I'm even more excited to cut the grass with it because it'll be nice weather. I find great peace while driving it around, maybe it's because I can't hear anyone talking to me and can just let my mind escape in thought. Plus, it has a cup holder, so you know a cold one will be going in on a late saturday afternoon while the sausages are on the grill cooking!!

....Unfortunately with spring/summer around the bend, this means at least one of my hockey leagues is almost over. Yesterday was our second last game of the season before playoffs start. We lost 6-4 bringing our losing streak to 5 games. However we played really well I think, and yours truly was excited to snipe one 5-hole (when visiting this link only refer to definition #1, though I laughed pretty good when I read #3). The best part was that I was at a very strange angle in relation to the goalie.

So needless to say I am looking into some summer sports. One of which is definitely soccer. Growing up, when I wasn't allowed to play hockey (travel, costs), I played soccer and it was my favorite sport. The last time I played was 3 years ago, when I was playing for a travel team in the western ontario soccer league. Though it's been 3 years, I haven't really let up on my conditioning and if anything have only improved on it so I think the return will be an easy enough one. Besides, I would just be happy playing at a recreational level.

The one thing I have been wanting to do is play a sport with my wife. A lot of the times I feel bad because she doesn't really have a group activity like I have with sports. She used to be really into figure skating, and even though I play hockey twice a week, when we go public skating, she still skates circles around me and I'm pretty sure she could skate faster backwards than I can forwards. I keep telling her that she should get involved at the instructor level with the younger kids, but maybe she's not that into it. So anyways, I have tried getting her to join a recreational coed hockey league with me, because if she can skate like that, she's miles ahead of alot of people. Anyways it wasn't something she really wanted to entertain, and I knew that I wasn't going to get there out there, if I can't even get her to come out and watch one of my games. Well yesterday after work I swung by the mailbox to pick up the mail. There in my mailbox was a flyer for a local coed recreational softball league. Well needless to say I was excited. I knew that this was one sport she might actually consider, and upon presenting the idea to her she didn't shoot it down, her only concern was whether or not she was good enough.

So I think we will sign up, if anything for the social aspect of it. The two of us are a bit on the shy side. I supress that side of me when it comes to work, but in a recreational setting I wait to be invited to a group rather than seek one out. We are new to the area let alone our small community, so I think this is going to be a great opportunity to grow our friend circle. I just hope I can keep the amount of F-bombs under control while I'm playing. My little hockey mouth will probably earn me some nasty looks.

....In other news, my company laid off quite a few workers last week, it was definitely scary times. So far I'm riding this storm out, but would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.