Ice on the birdbath

As a title, that's not really as evocative as 'Rain on the Scarecrow', nor as poignant as 'Dust in the Wind', but appropriate for this morning.

Yes, the birdbath was frozen over, and we turned the central heating on for the first time of the year last night. Both of which were fitting, considering it blizzarded yesterday. Well, ok, heavy flurries, for about ten minutes. We all got a nice view of the weather from the office, on the fourteenth floor of the building. Then it all went away and the sun came out. Go figure.

Picture, if you will, about fifteen people goggling (not 'Googling', for a change, but 'goggling') out the window at the snow, as if we'd never seen it before. Well, that might actually be true for the bioinformatics guy from India - but he didn't seem any less enthusiastic than the rest of us. To tell the truth, the home-grown Canadians were a bit gigglier than everyone else. Talk of skiing was rampant.

Downside - the walk to the subway was bloody freezing. Perhaps eventually they'll get around to building the third tower of this complex, which will have direct access, but right now it's a rather dismal patch of (increasingly frozen) mud. Ah well, at least we didn't get walloped like some other places nearby did.

Other sign of impending winter: the office hockey pool has started, and I'm already regretting at least one of my picks (goalie Martin Gerber of the Ottawa Senators, in case anybody cares). Considering my previous track record in these things (one victory, one second-last-place finish), I'm hoping to end up anywhere above the middle of the pack. And I'm looking for a name for my virtual team... my best idea so far is 'The Bag of Pucks', which is Canuck-speak for a useless player (as in, 'they should trade that guy for something useful, like a bag of pucks'). A friend of mine once had a pool team called 'Icelandic Jihad', which at the time seemed clever but might be a bit too political these days.

So... any suggestions? 'Ricardipucks?' 'The Mighty Scaryducks?' ' The Ice Ice Babies'?

Eh, I got nuthin'.