I am thrilled to report that one of the hockey teams I play for, Gates, won the league championship Tuesday night in a stunning 4-1 victory! We finished the season with an 11-4-4 record. This is the first championship I can remember winning (bowling doesn't count) and I am really happy and proud of it. Go team! My other team, One Under, plays in the semi-finals this Saturday night so stay tuned for a progress report there.

Also, I had a great birthday and wanted to thank everyone who wished me well and helped make it memorable.

So the Hawaiian newspaper Karin reads does this thing where readers submit pictures of Hawaiian references they find outside of Hawaii; it's called "The Search for Signs of Hawaiian Life". When we were up North a few weeks ago she asked me to take this picture at the "Aloha Station" to submit, and now we're famous!

A decent hockey fight.
The guy in the white, #71, is a buddy of mine from the Revolution. Now he's playing for the Evansville (Ind.) IceMen.

I've often heard of something called "new math"; now I understand.

And another thing... Dave sent me this and I felt like sharing.

I really like Joaquin Pheonix as an actor. He was great in Gladiator, Walk the Line, and my favorite of his work, his small part in U-Turn. But I have to say that he is giving me the impression he has completely lost it.

First, there is this video of his Hip-Hop performance debut in Las Vegas. After his song, he walks directly off the stage.

Then this week he shows up on Letterman to promote his new (and apparently last) movie, Two Lovers. All I can say to this is wow, what happened here? Dean, Steve, and I have developed two potential explanations for this:

1. Joaquin is preparing for an acting role by completely submersing himself into this crazy, eccentric character, or...

2. Joaquin is completely whacked out on heroin.

Personally I hope it is the prior, but honestly, the latter almost seems more likely. Either way, I hope he gets it together before he ends up following in his brother's footsteps.