Doin' the bull dance; feelin' the flow. Workin' it; workin' it.

It's been a good several weeks for me. As such, here are a few things I'm pretty pumped about.

1. Hockey is fun: I went to my first Washington Capitals game yesterday. A guy at work had four tickets and gave me two of them. So Rachel and I happily attended. Man, hockey is SO much more fun in person than on TV. I enjoy hockey on TV, don't get me wrong. But it's a completely different experience in person.

The crowd was NUTS, and the Caps are actually, ya know, good. So that helps. And I gotta say, Ovechkin is just unbelievable to watch. The things he does -- he just makes everything look so easy. The Caps won 5-3. When the Caps score five goals in a home game, everyone in attendance gets 10 free wings at a restaurant in the area.

Here's the best part: the fifth goal was scored by Ovechkin on a penalty shot. Co-worker Conor (the guy who got the tickets) said it best: "It was like being in the Roman Coliseum with 18,000 people all standing, all knowing what was going to happen and all screaming for blood. It was AWESOME."

And it WAS. He scored on a sick backhanded move, and the place went berserk. Really, really excellent. I will be going to more Caps games, for SURE.

2. I have a huge TV now! I keep forgetting to take pictures of my set-up. Here's what I've got:

-55" Samsung HDTV, 1080p, 120Hz, 100,000-to-1 dynamic contrast (hollaaaa)
-1,000-watt Samsung surround sound system with built-in bluray player and wireless rear speakers

YES. SIR. I still need to get an HD cable box from Comcast (we'd just been running it from the wall downstairs) to really take advantage of the HD capabilities, but my God bluray is excellent. Fire and explosions are bordering on life-changing experiences on bluray high-def.

I now have five bluray movies: Star Trek, Terminator, Terminator 2, Gladiator and Goodfellas. Very cool. I also got a Wii just so I could get the new Super Mario game. And it is also excellent.

Xbox360 games look unbelievable when you actually take advantage of everything the system can do. I am a FAN.

3. Skiing! Sometime in the next few weeks, I'll be going skiing for the first time ever! I'm so excited. Someone at work is organizing a day-trip on a Saturday for co-workers and significant others. Rachel has been skiing before, so hopefully I can get a few pointers.

Basically, I'm planning on spending most of the day on my ass and/or back. I feel like that's really the best-case scenario for me. I'm not exactly known for my coordination to begin with, so adding skis, snow and mountain to the mix isn't likely to improve matters. Whatevs. It'll be excellent.

4. CHICAGO!!! So here's the deal: Rachel's sister lives in Chicago and goes to DePaul. Technician sports editor emeritus Tanner is living in Chicago while he works with Americorps. Yeah, they live like four blocks away from each other. Crazy.

I don't know that it's ever taken LESS to convince me to do something, but Tanner goes, "Whoa come visit!" And I thought to myself, "Well why the hell not? What exactly is stopping me from doing this?" I asked Rachel if she'd like to go to Chicago (of course she did, she loves the city), and we booked our flights last night!

We'll be flying to Chicago on April 9 and coming back April 11 -- a nice little three-day weekend. I've never been to Chicago, so I'm extra pumped about it. HOLLA.

Like I said, doin' the bull dance; feelin' the flow. Workin' it; workin' it.