Delete from IR: Me

After a 45-minute open skate today, I declare myself fit to play again. I'm recovering from the longest illness I've ever had -- four weeks of a sinus infection. If you've never had a sinus infection, consider yourself lucky. This was my first one and it kicked my ass.

As my favorite contestant on Project Runway said when he was struggling to make a prom dress for a difficult client, "I'm not feeling fierce right now."

You don't truly appreciate the sense of taste until you've lost it for a couple weeks. Two doctors, two kinds of antibiotics, and some prescription cough medicine -- finally I'm almost back to normal though woefully out of shape.

I sat down on the bench to rest for a bit at the rink today and overheard a skating instructor telling a little girl what she needed to do now to earn her Basic 3 badge. Ah, skating badges. Fond memories of my youth. I tried many different activities before I found some I liked. Gymnastics -- too dangerous. I always thought I was going to break a wrist or my neck. Softball -- too boring. The ball never came to you.

But skating was fun. My parents first put me on roller skates when I was like 3 or 4. Apparently I had a rough first time out. At the end of the night, they put the rental skates in the return slide, and one just sat there -- one of the wheels was broken and that's why I was having so much trouble. I was too young to know or express it though. My mom still apologizes to me about that -- and still laughs about it too.