The last two mornings here have actually been cool, in the lower sixties. It’s about time! I expected fall weather to come earlier to Dallas than it did to Houston, but at least this year that hasn’t been the case.

Dallas does have one climate advantage over Houston though, and it’s not the “oh, but it’s a dry heat” that I was promised. No, Dallas has the NHL! Ed is very excited to have hockey in his life again, and I must say I enjoy going to hockey games, too. They are nice and cool and I think hockey should be played all summer!

I was amused at the first game we went to to hear the crowd shout “Stars!” during the Star Spangled Banner whenever the words “star” or “stars” were sung (the team is the Dallas Stars, the former Minnesota North Stars). I didn’t quite get why they shouted “you see!” at the beginning of the anthem, though. At the second game I got it. We arrived in time to hear the team introductions, and I was just thinking “wow, there are a lot of Finns on this team” when they got to number 36 …. ah ha!

Anyway, the preponderance of Finns was also the reason for the hokey “game” broadcast on the scoreboard during one of the breaks: Finnish or gibberish? in which one of the Finnish players says a sentence, and a lucky fan gets to decide whether it’s, well, Finnish or gibberish. (Hint: no matter what your instincts tell you, it’s Finnish.)