It's become something of a ritual for me and an English friend (he's in his early 70's, immigrated here in the mid-1980's and grew up in Manchester) to meet at the local bar/pub on Sunday morning to watch football. We're beginning to make noises about heading to England to, among other things, go to a match. Ideally, my club (Chelsea) against his club (Man U). It's early planning right now and with the fixture schedule for next season not due out until June, we haven't decided whether this will be pre-Christmas or post-Christmas.

Up until the last few years, I rooted for Chelsea, but wasn't nuts-into-it until last year. I've been a rabid hockey fan since I was eight years old, but especially this year with Chelsea tearing things up, if I were honest, I'd choose watching just about any football match over any hockey game (including those in which my decades long favorite hockey teams were playing). When I told my English friend this he said, "Oh God. You've been bitten. There's really no cure for that."