Family Update – 8 April 07

It has been quite some time since I have posted, as I have been out of town for awhile and then very busy at work.  We have also had a lot of family visitors in the last two weeks.  I spent the last week of March in San Diego.  Late in the week, Karen’s parents visited on their way from Florida back to Vermont.  Unfortunately, they could only stay a few days and since I was in San Diego, I missed them.  They had been looking at houses in Florida (around Ocala) as they are looking to sell their home in Vermont and move south. 

They left on Friday, 30 Mar, and on Sunday, 1 Apr, my parents arrived along with Karen’s sister and brother-in-law and their 7 kids.  To say we had a house full is an understatement!  My parents are staying until tomorrow morning.  Karen’s sister and family only stayed 2 nights and departed on Tuesday morning.  On Thursday, Karen’s other sister and her 2 kids (and possibly a friend) will be coming to spend the weekend with us.  After that, things should quiet down around here!

This past week, the kids have been on vacation, but since i had to work we didn’t do anything exciting.  Karen had planned to do some fun things with the kids, but Delaney came down with strep throat.  That pretty much put a damper on things!  I managed to take Friday off, but we stayed pretty well close to home and visited with my folks.  We did go out and look at a few model homes for fun.  We went to one that was 4,700 sq ft and had 10 acres of land with it.  It was a mansion!  All I need now is $998K to go buy it.  I guess we won’t be buying it! 

I have also spent a lot of time watching hockey in the evenings.  Today is the last day of the regular season.  The Penguins finished in 5th place (for playoff purposes) in the east and will play the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the playoffs which start on Wednesday.  Pittsburgh finished with 105 points (tied with Ottawa for the 3rd highest points in the east).  However, because there are 3 divisions in the east, the three division winners take 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the playoff seedings.  So, even though Atlanta only had 97 points, they won their Division and finish ahead of Ottawa and Pittsburgh (both of whom have 105 points) for the Eastern Conference playoff seedings.  Also, since Pittsburgh and Ottawa were tied for points, they go to a secondary stat (wins) to see who gets seeded higher.  Since Ottawa had 1 more regulation win than Pittsburgh, they took the fourth seed.  So, this means that Ottawa gets the home ice advantage against the Penguins.  Nonetheless, Pittsburgh won 3 of 4 games against Ottawa this season, so I am hoping they will prevail in the first round.  It will be interesting to see how this young team responds in the playoffs.

Sidney Crosby ended the regular season with 120 points, the most of all 856 players in the NHL.  As such, he will win the Art Ross Trophy, making him the youngest player to ever win a scoring title in any major professional sport.  Evgeni Malkin finished with 85 points (in 76 games), leading all rookies in the NHL, making him the likely Calder Memorial Trophy winner for the NHL.  The Pens also posted the 4th biggest season-to-season turnaround in NHL history improving over last year by 47 points.  Sergei Gonchar fell one point shy of tying for the league’s highest scoring defenseman.  All in all, a great season.