Good/Grief 1

There are so many little things going on right now, I don't even know where to start. Here's a fairly random synopsis of the recent goings-on.

SPORTS: The Devils miraculously won the Atlantic Division, after winning -- that's right, winning -- 11 straight games. That's no ties and no overtime losses, but 11 wins. That earns them the third spot in the East, and they'll play the Rangers on Saturday afternoon. It could be on NBC, so do yourself a favor and tune in. In other hockey news, the Des Moines Buccaneers are in the Clark Cup Championship, and play game one (of a best-of-five series) in Urbandale on Saturday night. And finally, the Iowa Stars start their seven-game series with Milwaukee (which everyone and Alice Cooper knows is "originally an Algonquin term meaning 'the good land.'") on Friday and will play game three on Monday night in Des Moines. Be there.

HOBBIES: I went disc golfing in my third different state in the past year, playing at a park in Rochester, Minnesota over Easter weekend. It was windy on an open course, and I didn't have my discs with me. That equals disaster for me, who can't throw a good drive without my beloved "Pinky," and can't putt without my Innova Birdie. Throw the windy conditions in the mix and I'm worthless. So I spent a lot of time combing the nearby river for discs, wanting to add to my running total of 43 discs found in the past ten months. I didn't find anything, and walked out of there with what felt like hypothermia and a minor puncture wound on my foot. I was fasting at the time, adding insult to injury.

PERSONAL LIFE: We came home from Easter break to find a plaster udder hanging from our ceiling. Apparently we had some rain over the weekend and our roof took the holiday off. There was some water on our living room floor, which sort of messed up the wood. But the biggest issue for us is the fact that we have two problems to fix -- the roof and the ceiling, and no professionals can come out and look at the damage until potentially next week. Of course it could be worse, but it's just one of those problems you don't want to have to worry about. And strangely enough, last night we had a quasi-monsoon that brought about a third of an inch of rain and then disappeared, and I expected a deluge to fill the bucket I'd placed there before we went to bed. I woke up to find the bucket and the udder as dry as a bone. Go figure; it's a mystery.

FAMILY: We celebrated Easter in Rochester and Chapin, spending time with both sides of the family. I got to see my cousins' babies, which was cool. I wish we could have spent more time at each of our parents' places, but anyone who's married knows how difficult it can be juggling schedules on holidays.

MOVIES/TV: We haven't been to the cinema in some time. Not only has nothing sparked our interest (though we went to V for Vendetta on its opening weekend), but we haven't had time since we've been getting caught up on different TV shows of interest. I'm currently involved in season four of The Sopranos and season two of ER, and Dawn and I have been using the Internet to get caught up on Lost. We're finally ready to watch it "live" when it airs tonight. I also am working on the complete series of Firefly, and Da Ali G Show season two. It sounds like entertainment overload, but it really isn't -- this has been going on for weeks. And it slows down every day the weather improves, because we do more and more outside.

MUSIC: Right now I'm checking out the new Mat Kearney CD, which contains six songs off of his first album. The repeat songs are worth repeating though, and the new album is pretty good. He's kind of a "you've heard one, you've heard them all" type artist, but that also translates into "if you LIKE one, you'll like them all" for me. Other than that, I am slowly weaning myself off of the latest Umphrey's release (which is excellent) with lots and lots of Supergrass (including their latest, Road to Rouen) and sprinklings of artists like John Vanderslice, Aqualung, Elbow, Doves, and Coldplay. James Blunt works his way into the mix every so often as well.