Tonight, after a not terribly satisfying "bad movie" night with Stew and all his girls, or almost all them, and a fairly satisfying game of Munchkin, I am now engaged in a very Canadian tradition. I am drinking beer (though it is neither Molson or Labatt) and watching Game Seven between Toronto and Ottawa (Hockey, here folks). Ottawa is losing and there are only three minutes remaining in play, the Toronto fans have begun chanting "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye", and it's fairly safe to say that Ottawa won't be able to catch up those three goals to tie it up. A small part of me wishes it were not the case, I wanted Ottawa to go down with a greater fight, but what can you do? One of them has to win, the other has to lose - that's the way it works.

I don't usually watch hockey. Most of the season I only pay passing attention, though in previous years, because I was part of a pool, I did pay some. I love playoff hockey, though, it's fast and tense and the meat-heads prove their worth and for once, Toronto fans make noise. If I lived in my old neighbourhood people would spill out into the streets from all the bars and make a lot of noise, but here, in this predominantly Italian soccer-loving neighbourhood, there will probably be very little noise made. Rick might go whoop it up on Yonge Street, he said. I've done the whooping, albeit for baseball, but I know what it's like and I don't need my arm nearly pulled off by a drunk again, thanks, once was enough.

I just whitnessed something that was pretty interesting, I must say, a melee broke out between two players and it was essentially broken up by the ref and one of Ottawa's players who took hold of one of the Leafs and just talked him down and kept him out of it until it was settled. I'm not used to seeing that sort of sportsmanship.

Anyway, it's official, Toronto won and a single person just came out on my street and rang a hand-bell. And then he went away again. This really is a soccer street. My neighbours woke me up every morning during the World Cup, in case there was any doubt. The game was won by the beginning of the third period as Ottawa couldn't get it together to score any more and as their confidence slipped, Toronto managed to broaden the win even further. In the end, it was 4-1 and Toronto will go onto play Philadelphia.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to make it public that when Toronto picked up Belfour, their extraordinary goalie, Rick said, "Nah, he's OLD." I was a fan right from the start and said something along the lines of, "Ya, but he knows what he's doing and he's good at it." Boy is he ever. Yay !

Well, my beer is finished, and for you who care to know, it was a Rickard's Red, the hockey game is over, and company is still over. There remains a small portion of my room that still needs cleaning, though it's all vacuumed and swept and tidied and whatnot, so I should attend to the details before they start to pile up again. Or, I'll pop a new cloth on my Swiffer Wet-Jet... yes, that is what I will do. And it will be wonderful. Goodnight.