Thanksgiving

So we headed over to the Bartlett residence for another Thanksgiving dinner. P. Bart had graciously recorded the Chelsea v. Newcastle match for us and gave us free reign over the new 50in. Sony LCD Projection HDTV. NICE. Ahhh.

Fairly dull 1st half by both clubs, but the 2nd half started briskly with two Chelsea goals in the first 10 minutes. Then John comes in. “Who’s watching soccer when there’s football on?” Uh, that would be me. Still I knew the final score already (I couldn’t wait) so we switched it over the the Lions-Falcons game. Falcons win and over to the Dallas-Denver match.

Desiree and Juan show up with Jenika and Jovany, their new twins. The babies were cute. Wanda came with Marcus and later Sherry showed up with Eric, Amber and Alexis. Gene showed up just before dinner was ready but Andy never showed.

We sat and ate, sharing plenty of stories as usual and making the usual irreverent jokes and everything else. Basically my way of saying blah blah blah we ate dinner blah blah. Turkey wasn’t dry, the potatoes were mashed nicely, the stuffing was perfect and my stomach was satisfied at the end of it all.

So yeah, Thanksgiving was as entertaining as always. A few jokes, a few stories and good food. Sure, I don’t really have anything great and amazing to share but that’s just because while I had a good time, nothing of note really happened. I came, I saw, I ate turkey and watched football. That’s about it.

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Caption Contest

Come up with a caption for the following picture. C’mon. Make someone laugh today.

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Y’all said no one watches Football

Well Norwich City beat Luton Town behind the stellar play of Hughes and Huckerby. Dean Ashton and Peter Thorne both had great games, though Ashton was taken with an injury late in the game.

Now I read somewhere that I was one of the 18 that watches the MLS. I’ll have you know the Galaxy alone drew over 20,000 in every match this year but one and that match was a mid-week match in May. That’s just one team. Granted they play in the best stadium in the league (for soccer) but that still impresses me for a sport that they said would never be popular in the United States.

Well if I’m one of the very few who pay attention to the MLS, then tell me how many people in the United States fervently follow the English Championship League? No, that’s not the Premier League with Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. No this is the Champsionship League with Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County and Luton Town. This is a league who’s games are only televised in the cities of the local teams. They show EPL matches on Fox Soccer Channel in the states. You’ll never see Millwall vs. Leeds unless they are both in the premiership (which won’t happen next year at least).

I’m sure there’s even fans of the Premiership who don’t know names like Dean Ashton, Cameron Jerome, Steven Kabba or Warren Freeny.

I think I very well could like watching soccer much more than baseball.

GASP! Did he just say what I think he said? I don’t know. I mean, maybe he we’re just not sure what he meant by that. Hey, what do you mean by that?

What I meant by that was that of all the sports I could watch on TV at the moment, I’d rather watch a good soccer match than a baseball game. I know the history and players of baseball MUCH MUCH better than soccer and I have a passion for baseball that soccer hasn’t reached yet. But, it’s closing the gap and it’s closing fast.

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Los Angeles Galaxy 2005 MLS Cup Champions!

First I need to thank Scott, without whom I still wouldn’t be paying much attention to soccer other than the World Cup every 4 years. Now I know all about the MLS, the English Premiership and I know teams and players, formats for playoffs in various international leagues and other things. I still have a ton to learn about leagues in the Americas outside the United States and other European Leagues and how they play together for the Champions League Championship.

It started with Scott mentioning his love for Arsenal of the EPL and the Galaxy in the MLS. I started doing research on my own of the EPL and the team that eventually called to me was a team that wasn’t at the Premiere level. It’s the Norwich City Canaries of the Coca-Cola Champioship Legue (one level below the EPL). My family history runs through Norfolk and Norwich in particular. We had some religious affiliations there with our ancestors. Something high enough to have been granted arms at some point. Of course that line turned off so the right to arms in our family has died but my love for Norfolk has grown.

September 4, 2005 Scott took me to my first live MLS match in Los Angeles at the beautiful Home Depot Center. Great soccer-only stadium. The Galaxy lost to the Chicago Fire 2-1 that day but I learned some of the players and my love for them grew.

I followed them through the rest of the season, culminating in the last match of the regular season which was a really disappointing 3-1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes. We did see a heart-stoppingly pretty goal by De Rosario. He got a free kick just outside the box on the far right side. The Galaxy defense built a wall of players and De Rosario’s kick went just over them and bent right into the upper right hand corner of the net. Sadness ensued but I just have to respect that kick. What a goal.

That set the Galaxy up for an opening round contest with San Jose who were 18-4-10 this year and led the MLS in points by far. For those unfamiliar, the opening round is two games. One at home and one on the road. The team that scores the most goals over the course of those two games wins. The Galaxy went up 3-1 in the first match and then held the Earthquakes to a 1-1 tie in the second, leading to an aggregate 4-2 victory. They then went on to defeat Colorado in a one-match Western Conference final and defeating them 2-0 in a wonderful game.

That set the Galaxy in the MLS Cup for a match with New England Revolution for the big trophy. The Revolution had a great record themselves this year, being 2nd in points with a 17-7-8 record in the regular season. The game had TEN yellow cards, countless great shots and great saves, breakaways, great physical play, aggressive action and it all played out to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation. “El Pando” Ramirez was brought in as a substitution and near the end of the 1st half of OT he scored off a corner kick from Landon Donovan which was deflected off the fist of the Rev’s keeper Reis and right to Pando who pushed it home. The Galaxy held onto the ball well the last 15 minutes and won the Cup. First since 2002.

Now…Canaries…when will the board dump the donut? Will Huckerby and Ashton be willing to stay with a club that continues to struggle after being relegated last year? C’mon! Let’s be ‘avin you!

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What Tree Are You?

I thought this was pretty interesting. I know, you could say these things about anyone and they’d come close enough to be scary.

Still look at this:

ME – Very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent,
hates contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be,
loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, few sexual
relationships, great sense of humour, has artistic talent and great
intelligence.

My dad – Intelligent, hard working, accepts what life dishes out, but not
before trying to change bad circumstances into good ones, hates
fighting and stress, enjoys getaway vacations, may appear tough,
but is actually soft and relenting, always willing to make sacrifices
for family and friends, has many talents but not always enough time
to use them, can become a complainer, great leadership qualities,
is jealous at times but, extremely loyal.

Annam – Of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is not
egoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads a reasonable
and disciplined life, looks for kindness and acknowledgment in an
emotional partner, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with
its feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions,
very conscientious.

What are you?

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Top 5 Diggs of the week

Motorola introduces RAZR now with iTunes. Next stop, RAZR with BitTorrent and the ability (and battery power) to watch your favorite movies on the go!

Bones of ancient sea monster discovered. For any dinosaur buffs, this is a big WOW. While I’m not into dinosaurs as I was when I was a boy, this is still pretty cool I think.

Go Netflix! First Blockbuster, then Hollywood Video, then the World!

Humans controlling the weather? I saw this in a movie once. I swear I did. They tried to make it rain in some po-dunk town in Kansas and it cause massive tornadoes in India and earthquakes in Brazil and all sorts of nasty stuff. This is bad. This is real bad.

I’m not sure when this will ever come in handy since I don’t suspect I’ll ever be able to afford it, but hey if anyone out there is interested, here’s the top five HDTV mistakes to avoid.

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You’re a cheater, Number 12!

That’s right Blaine Smith, I’m talking to you. Scott and I went to USD to catch the Toreros vs. his UCLA Bruins. The Bruins had recently clinched the Pac-10 championship but obviously left their starters in Los Angeles. The Torreros dominated with the help of over 20 fouls. A good number of them coming from Midfielder/Defender Blain Smith. Good ol’ Number 12 got a good ol’ ribbing by Scott in the first half. If it wasn’t for the 10 mile line for food he would have gotten another half of smack talk but after going up 4-1 midway through the 2nd half, we decided to just pack up and head home. One of the only times I’ll ever root for an LA squad over a San Diego squad and they have to embarass me.
I like Torrero Stadium though. Small and quaint. Reminds me a bit of Southwestern College but the courtyard between it and the Jenny Craig Pavilion is really nice. The architecture of the press box and the Pavilion screams SPAIN. I’d go there again for a football game I think. Whether that’s American Football or Soccer doesn’t matter. Just as long as I get to rib Blaine Smith. Dirty cheating player that one.

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Memorial recap…

PICTURES INCLUDED NOW!

Met at my Aunt and Uncle’s around 9:30 and by 11am everyone had arrived.

We all headed to Heritage Community Park in Rancho Cucamonga and while quite informal, the event was deeply spiritual. It’s hard to explain but I know she was there. It was really very emotional as one might understand.

On the front table set her picture and a portable CD/Radio playing some of her favorite Tori Amos pieces. We each spoke about our memories of her, how much we missed her and how great a setting this was. She never was one for formal events. We were at a park with an equestrian trail and she loved horses. A regular cowgirl, that one.

Anyways, we said our bits, hugged and went our way to B&Js for lots of food, drink and chitty chat. By food I mean party platters and some of my Aunt’s great tortilla soup and chili. By drinks of course I mean plenty of Pepsi, Root Beer and orange soda. Anyways we stayed, got full and had a lot of good conversations, laughs, and all the sorts of things she would have loved.

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Memorial for Stephanie

Due to issues beyond our control, I will be e-mailing everyone invites and calling those I can reach who I know for sure want to be there. Please check your boxes for invites. If you don’t have one by the end of the day, chances are I don’t have your e-mail. So e-mail me and I’ll add you to the list. Well, there’s no list per se. Anyone who knew Stephanie or wants to be there for the family or whatever can attend. So e-mail me if you don’t see an e-mail in your box by the end of the day.

My apologies ahead of time if you don’t get an e-mail, don’t have mine or I can’t reach you by phone. I’m sure there’s going to be someone out there like that and I can’t really do much. My e-mail address or at least a link to e-mail me should be one this page somewhere. Anyways, there’s breakfast to be had, pictures to be scanned and something else…I can’t remember.

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RIP: Stephanie Lynn Womack (4/9/1982-11/1/2005)

Stephanie Lynn Womack passed away tonight at 5:42pm Pacific Standard Time at Irvine Regional Hospital in Irvine, CA. Family is asking that in lieu of flowers, donations instead be made in whatever amount you’re confortable with to the San Diego Zoological Society or other wildlife foundation (WWF comes to mind) as well as any reputable local or national diabetes foundation that funds research. She loved children and animals dearly. Anything for them would honor her greatly.

The next few days are going to be as rough on me as the last week has. Please forgive me if I don’t post for a few and I’m hoping the family can forgive my giving so much info on this blog. It was one good release I had, and I knew friends who might be able to help me understand what she was going through.

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