My Wife Understands This About Me...

When I got married last September, my wife promised that she'd stick by me in sickness and in health, for better or worse, till death do us part. I'm about to test her limits.

With the creation of oilersinsider.blogspot.com, it's quite possible that she's now truly discovered my sickness. That it's going to get worse before it gets better and that something 's going to need to die to take me from my love of the Oilers.

When I was 9 years old, our family adpoted its second dog. I was so enthused by the Oil at that time, that I begged and pleaded that I get to name her. After all she was the second dog and I was the second born child. Tentatively, they agreed, but to their delight and the agreement of my parents, Tikannen did not grab hold as quickly as I might have liked.

Somewhat destroyed, I suggested a comprimise. One that no one on earth could dispute. If we brought home man's best friend, and the "man" at the time was named Wayne Gretzky, it only made sense that Jari Kurri fit. Scratch the Jari and we'd found a winner. In hindsight of course, the dog being female and all, it might not have been fair to Mr. Kurri, but I'm hoping should he ever hear this story, he'd be flattered by my ode to scoring mastery.

At least I didn't name her Pronger, in which case I'd have been apologizing to the dog...

Simply put, I love the Edmonton Oilers. My day often involves the typical "hey, how's it going? Good. You? Not bad. What you up to?" style phone calls with my friends and family; but two things either come out when I answer the "what you up to?" part. 1) Work or 2) reading about the Oilers -- and often involved in the latter when I should be involved in the former.

I spend so much time filling people in about what I read and hear that it dawned on me at about 2:30am, perhaps a blog. My guess is that I'll quickly find out if anyone beyond my immediate circle of influence gives a damn; but that's ok. I've always wanted to started a blog and I simply can't think of a better topic. In fact; I've even convinced my father - an author of some dozen or so published works of educational greatness, (he'll love that part) to join me with the odd article every now and again.

So honey... here's my promise. I take you in sickness and health, for better or worse till death do us part. I promise to keep these updates to a fair and acceptable level (with the exception of draft day, free agency and should the Oil ever make the playoffs again) and will immidately look for assistance if for some odd reason this happens to become even remotely popular.

I love you, and I love this incredibily frustrating and often underachieving team called the Edmonton Oilers. My hope is that we can all just get along.