It's Been a While

It's been a little while since I've had the time to sit down and log back in. We've been VERY busy to say the least around where with traveling, school and just every day life. The last I left you was with a brief introduction and the NCAA Div III hockey playoffs were just starting. Well...we've been on the road every weekend since then traveling between Syracuse, Geneva and Plattsburgh. I've become quite comfortable at the border crossings as well as driving down to Syracuse. I have a travel mate that has a bad habit of napping in the car, so I am getting to know my reliable travel companion 'Tom-Tom' to direct me. The highlights of the past couple of weeks has to certainly be the on-ice results of our newly adopted Syracuse Crunch and Kevin Lalande as well as the forever loved Neumann Knights and Matt. Both teams are on fire as of late, Neumann running through each team they face in 1 game showdowns. We've been fortunate enough to see the weekend games in person and watch the week night games online. I don't know how the players play because I can hardly stand to watch. We visited Plattsburgh State University this past weekend and what a fantastic campus arena. The fans were a little mellower than I expected and the locker rooms were *&^%, but what matters most of all is the OT win the Knights got. Kevin has been on fire too in Syracuse. We have been able to watch him on Friday nights as of late (to not conflict with the Neumann schedule), and were there for his second consecutive start at home last week. He played great and just came a few minutes short of a shut-out. I fulfilled my promise from the previous week of my famous chicken stir fry and smuggled 6 meals worth down to Syracuse. Living in a hotel is only good for so long, but a little home style cooking goes a little further. I experienced my first poster board assignment of my young university career last week. It's been almost 13 years since I last produced anything close to a poster board assignment and set it up like an elementary school science fair. I went into the assignment a little unclear of the expectations or what others were doing, but in the end I wasn't too far off first base! It went considerably well for the low expectations and the fact that the teacher had to visit over 60 students throughout the class time. I was satisfied with my display and traditional display; time will tell with the teacher posting the grades in the next day or so. School is starting to wind down in the coming weeks. I don't have too much on the go before it all comes to an end, except for a few group presentations. I am a little worried about one, but I'm confident I will be able to pull everything together just in time. We're off to Lake Placid this weekend for the NCAA Div III Frozen Four. I'm getting nervous already, but it could be because I still have 12 dozen peanut butter cookies to bake!! If everything goes as planned, we won't make it to Syracuse, and we'll come home with self inflicted head aches! Maybe 'Tom-Tom' can drive home on Sunday! Let me know what's been keeping you busy?

My First Blog

Well...I've been putting this on the side burner for a while now, and I made a commitment to myself that as soon as my crush of midterms were finished I would get started on a blog. I've been truly inspired by all the other blogs that I have been reading that I thought that it's something that I could do and keep people up-to-date on my trials, tribulations and triumphs. These past two weeks have been a real test for me at school. It was the first time ever that I have had such a heavy work load between assignments, classes and midterm exams. It really made me think if school was something that I wanted to do while trying to balance a house and wife duties to the fullest. The brighter side of me prevailed (with only 1 melt down I might add) and I pulled through. I'm not sure how the exams turned out result wise, but I did the best that I could. Add to the mix a surprise trip to the US to watch my brother Matt play in his one game showdown. Marc called me mid-afternoon on Friday afternoon to tell me to skip lunch and to pack a little bag because we were going to Philly! I had everything packed and in the truck by 2:45 and we were on our way. Marc promised to drive all weekend so that I could study for my 3 midterms in 2 days once we returned. We made it to the border where we hit a real hard *&^ agent who grilled us about everything. He wanted to know what was in my makeup case for crying out loud! It was just as we were passing the border that I should check who Matt was playing...I said Utica, but it was Elmira. It then donned on me that I should make sure it was a home game before driving all the way to Philly to only find them on the road. Well...I was wrong again (I know 2 wrongs in 1 case!), they were playing on the road in Elmira. But where is Elmira? My ever so knowledgeable brother informed me that it was in Upper New York state somewhere...thanks but do you know how big Upper New York state is??!!! We had to let the cat out of the bag and spoil the surprise. In the end we had a great weekend of visiting past players in Syracuse, New York, watching the Neumann Knights beat the number 1 ranked Elmira Soaring Eagles and a shopping stop at the outlets. We're heading back to Syracuse this weekend to watch Marc's great friend Kevin who was traded today from the Calgary Flames organization to the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. Hopefully we'll be able to see Kevin in action or at least for a few drinks afterwards. Let me know your thoughts, comments or questions you may have!