My hockey team had another win last night, and I believe we've clinched our spot in the playoffs, even though there are 3 more games left in the season. The best part of the game was my spectacular goal (the first of the game) from a spectacular pass. We may have been on a mediocre streak before, but we've won two games in a row and are looking to the post season. Unfortunately, because it's summer, a few of our better guys already have plans to be out of town during some of our games, including the playoffs. It would only be too perfect for us to be in 1st and 2nd place all season, only to lose in the playoffs.

I also subbed in with my old Pasadena team tonight. I'm not playing with them regularly this season, but they call when their bench is looking short. It was actually a fun game, and instead of the usual ass-kicking we get in that league, we won by a fair margin. We played a team that is new to the league called the Blades. The Blades were the first openly gay and lesbian hockey team in the United States and first formed in 1985. Now, they have teams that compete on several levels and also play in the Gay Games (I'm not sure if they use straight players or not). My point is, this was their very Novice level team, and they were far more horrible than us, but they had a decent attitude about losing, so it was fun. Also, the best part of this game was my wicked fast break away goal in the 3rd period.

Last week I finished reading Michael Ondaatje's book Divisadero. I think I've read everything Ondaatje has written and have thoroughly enjoyed his work. In case his name is not familiar to you, he's the man who wrote The English Patient, which the film was based on. I find his prose to be addictive and poetic and fluid in a way that separates a real writer from someone who happened to write a book. Divisadero is no different. It tells the story of Anna and Claire, teenage sisters who live on a farm in Northern California with their father in the 1970s, along with a neighbor boy named Cooper who the father took in when Coop was left orphaned as a child. A unique set of experiences between the growing teenagers sets off a spark of violence from the father that the family will never recover from. Years later, scattered across the globe and living separate lives, we learn who these three have become in the aftermath of their youth. Ondaatje simultaneously tells the story of Lucien Segura, a turn of the century French poet whose history has become entangled with Anna's present. It's all very interesting, and I enjoyed it until there was no type left. Unfortunately, the story never reached an ending. It felt truncated, as if cut off mid thought. I suppose everything doesn't get tied up in a neat little package in reality, so why should it in fiction? But it seems like Ondaatje got so involved in the second story, he completely forgot about the first.

The song of the day is "Do You Believe In Love" by Huey Lewis & the News off their 1982 album Picture This. While this wasn't their first album (they put out a fairly unmemorable first album in 1980) it was the first to spawn any hits. "Do You Believe In Love," written by producer Mutt Lange, became a huge hit and put the band on the map. A lot of people don't remember Huey Lewis & the News prior to their breakout with Sports, but Picture This has a lot of rawer, more innocent songs on it.