it's been a while. i'd like to say it's because it's been a busy week, but really, that would be stretching the truth just a LITTLE. is there anything 'busy' about my life in prague? not so much. but it's still purposeful and i am truly enjoying the slower pace of life. working two days a week is the WAY to go. maybe not realistic. but i am going to enjoy it while it lasts.

on tuesday we said farewell to jason. jay was here for a month, looking for work and a ball team to play with. but things didn't work out and he headed back to america on wednesday. jackie, sara and i spent a lot of time with him as he wasn't working and well, we barely do, so naturally it worked out! he became the brother in the group and a great friend, so it was tough to say farewell to him. we'll miss him tons. i don't think we'll be able to find a replacement as funny. so for the final evening, we went for a dinner at a quaint little place in prague centre. a cozy little date place, actually, not that we were using it for that purpose with 6 of us in tow... but just for future reference! there's even a "private" room couples can reserve. the pic shows the dinner crew on tuesday, from left to right: jason, sara, heather, ernie, me and jackie. dinner was great. most of the crew shared a plate "for two". it included two of: stuffed chicken, sausage, steak, hamburgers and another kind of sausage (which i think everyone steered clear of), not to mention vegetables and potatoes. again, the mystery of the sleek physique over here continues. it was quite a meal! i enjoyed some stuffed chicken and called 'er a night. i don't know how they managed to eat it all - but kudos to them! we ended the evening with some rousing games of CatchPhrase and MUCH laughter, as usual.

we had a really good conversation with our agent on thursday. or i should say, sara did. she did a stellar job of communicating with michal. we made some breakthroughs in our contract negotiations, realizing why things hadn't progressed as they had. apparently, michal didn't think we were using him as our agent and so everything he was doing us was just out of the kindness of his heart - and at his convenience. when we told him that we were paying him and had been expecting him to be our agent, all of a sudden the light went on and things started happening. it's amazing what some clear communication will do! so we are very thankful that that has been cleared up. thank you for your prayers - they have clearly been answered!

in sports news... literally, sara and jackie were on prague TV last night. on monday of last week (a night i'd taken off of practice, to reevaluate whether or not i wanted to be there and to have a little chat with big-g) they were both interviewed. there were a few clips of sara in net and jackie doing drills. they were also both interviewed and we watched them speak as the czech voiceover translated what they both said. it was very cool to know that anyone watching channel 1 news in prague got to see two small-city regina girls! michal taped it for us, so those at home can see it when we return home.

this weekend we play three games. today and sunday are against czech league teams - today's being at our home ice in kralupy, and sunday's being at the home of czech's very own jaromir JAGR in a town called kladno. tomorrow we play in salzburg, austria. we'll be leaving early in the morning, driving 6 hours, playing the game, driving back to prague, and hustling home to bed to get rested up for the game on sunday. i'm really looking forwad to the game against salzburg. they have a few canadian players - two of those being former alberta pandas i played against in the CIS as well as a former teammate of my sister's from Ohio State - erika vanderveer. i've been in touch with erika and i think both teams are looking forward to a challenging game.

it hasn't stopped raining here all week. this morning the skies opened and literally dumped on the city. it was beautiful - and the smell of rain is wonderful. i'm loving it. fall here is stretching out in all its glory. here's a picture of a neighbouring street. the rain had stopped for a bit and the trees, the cobblestone, and the general feel of this scene just had to be captured. wish you could experience it first hand... a picture truly does not do it justice!