Last night Ed and I went to an ice hockey match. The Edmonton Oil-Men took on the Vancouver Sea-Whales in a rambunctious battle of wits and sticks. I ate an extremely expensive hamburger sandwich that tasted as though it were reconstituted from a gentleman hobo’s boots. There were fisticuffs.

I hadn’t been to a hockey game in nearly a two-year, because Ed has a bad habit of asking his girlfriends to go before thinking about asking me. We – okay, I – had many loud angry words to say about this, and this time Ed asked me if I’d like to go to the games (we’re going to another one next month) first. I don’t know if I was supposed to accept, but I did. Hockey for me!

I really do enjoy going, because he gets the tickets from work and they have crazy good club seats. Hockey from the 4th row is a different beast altogether. It makes me a little ill to look at the tickets and realize that we’re each sitting in a $150 ticket for a pre-season game, but I didn’t pay for it so it makes the $9 burger a little easier to swallow (or would have, if it wasn’t made out of hobo boot leather). Hockey games fun. Looking forward to next month’s game.

It’s a very Edmonton-centric week ’round these parts. Ed, of course, just got home from Edmonton. The minute he walked in the door on Monday night, he made me change the channel so he could watch the Edmonton/Vancouver game. Last night, we saw the two teams play again on local ice. Tonight the gang is going to the Black Frog in Gastown, an Edmonton-themed bar, to celebrate their birthday. Not sure how that all happened, but it’s kind of neat – as long as I don’t actually have to GO to Edmonton, that is. I like the city just fine, but I am none to willing to spend more time there this year.

I am planning a mini-trip to Seattle for December. Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls is playing Vancouver on December 10th and Seattle the following night, and I am going to both shows. I plan to drive to Seattle on Thursday, see the show that night, spend Friday doing secret Christmas-type things, then hopefully pick Ed and assorted others up from the train station that night. We’d be able to do fun Seattle things for the remainder of the weekend, then drive back up to Canada on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it, even if it’s many days away – I love Seattle. I know the city well enough to entertain myself for two days until the others arrive, and I can get all those pesky Kimli-only things out of the way that the others aren’t as interested in for some reason.

I took many pictures at the hockey tournament. Here are some: