19 Oct Update

Well, the updates have been slow this week as I have been out of town in Dever, CO, for meetings and the web access has been spotty. It has been a busy week with lots of “seat time” in the meetings. Colorado has been beautiful, what little I have seen of it. Tuesday’s snow melted off with Wednesday’s and Thursday’s warm sun. Tonight I drove past 8-10 caribou on the way back to the hotel. It was a cool sight to see as they were right on the side of the road and I could have rolled down the window and touched them. Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 4AM to catch a flight back to DC.

Karen has had a busy week with me being gone. She usually doesn’t sleep well when I am away and this week has been no exception. The kids have taken advantage of my absence and have taken up residency in our bed, edging Karen out of her usual pillow space! The dog has aggravated matters by pacing the floors at night….probably feeling obligated to walk sentry patrol in my absence.

Tomorrow night Delaney and Karen will be attending a Birthday party for Delaney’s friend Jillian. I told Ben to think of something fun that he would like to do so that we men-folk could have some fun as well. I am not sure what he will dream up, but I expect it will be to either go to the movies or play some games. I am looking forward to getting home to everyone. Being gone for a week after being home for 3 months was a bit hard to get used to again.

The Penguins had an up and down week. They played last night and lost 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils, despite outshooting them 38-34 (the most shots on goal all season). The bright spot in the game was the debut of Evgeni Malkin, the ultra-talented 19 year old rookie from Russia. He lived up to his hype and scored the lone goal for the Pens. Tonight, the Penguins beat the New York Islanders 4-3 in overtime (36 shots on goal). Malkin scored another goal tonight for his second career goal in as many games. He also picked up an assist. Sidney Crosby picked up 3 assists. Sergei Gonchar scored the game winner in sudden death overtime, bringing the Penguins to 3-3 (wins-losses) for the season. The season is starting off much better than last year in which they dropped like 20-straight at the beginning of the season. I think the Malkin-Crosby duo is destined for greatness. It is young, talented players like these that make hockey so exciting to watch! The Penguins’ next game is Saturday against the Columbus Blue-Jackets.