Sunday morning homily XV

Here at Hound Central 3.0's headquarters, we've been operating at a level just slightly below DefCon 4 over the past 24 hours. With the holidays over, we begin our busiest season of the year. Nope, it's not baseball. Spring training's about six weeks away.

Our double-timing, 18-plus-hour days are focused on one objective: family visits. While we welcome the chance to spend time with loved ones from back home, it always seems to catch us by surprise how quickly it happens after the holidays. That, and the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling cleaning that comes with it.

The late start to this morning's homily, still being written past the lunchtime hour, was brought about by an old lesson: do your chores before you play. That's why I spent the past three hours taking down and putting away most of our Christmas decorations, sweeping porches and tightening up rocking chairs.

It was only after completing those chores could I find the time for my weekly obligation. It just wouldn't seem right.

Our company starts arriving this afternoon. Colin's Nana and Babop fly down Wednesday. I'll soon have back-to-back four-day weekends. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now that the chores are done, it's time to kick back and play.

Boys will be boys

It seems that the University of Maine mens hockey team has a wicked-good sense of humor. The Black Bears, in Florida for a holiday tournament down in Estero, stopped by the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon on New Year's Eve day to practice before heading home.

According to the story, and I can only verify its ending, a freshman won a "raffle" at the end of a team meal/meeting and was "awarded" the opportunity to skate with the Tampa Bay Lightning later that morning. While everyone else wore their warm-ups, he was told to get into his gear.

When we walked into the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, recognizing we were surrounded by Black Bears, I thought it was strange that only one player was dressed. Soon enough, he realized, much to his red-faced dismay as his teammates roared with laughter, that it was a prank.

A good one, too, if you ask me.

To his credit, he took a couple laps around the rink -- by himself. It's the price he paid to be part of a team.

5 Big Sigs

Though Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and this season's poster boy for sophomore slumps, Jordan Staal, sit atop my Penguins' wish list, I'll be happy to add these to the collection:

~ Winter Classic game-winning goalie Ty Conklin, a former Sabre, on the American-born goalie stick and a University of New Hampshire puck;
~ defenseman Sergei Gonchar on a Penguins mini pennant;
~ defenseman Kris Letang on Penguins and Val-d'Or pucks.
~ winger Petr Sykora on Penguins and Devils pucks; and
~ defenseman Ryan Whitney on a 2002 NHL Draft Class photo.