Schwarz und Weiss

Germany just beat Argentina on penalties, making it to the semifinals of the World Cup. Enjoy this little bit of Schwartz und Weiss (Black and White), the theme song of the team. Yeah, I know, the guy's wearing darkface. Somehow it doesn't bother me when Europeans do it.

Cole's Goal

England's Joe Cole scored an amazing goal against Sweden yesterday, but look at the video - he mis-kicked it! Look at his follow through, there's no way he intended the ball to go where it did.

Three years, three months

Just read this on Gene Weingarten's chat:

We are now three years and three months into the Iraq war. Three years and three months into WWII (our piece of it, anyway), we were racing for Berlin, and Marines were raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi.

Thank you, Mr. President.

What's up with that?

Has anyone noticed quite a number of Confederate flags in the stands at the World Cup? What the hell is up with that? I was watching the Spain - Tunisia game yesterday, and after Spain took the lead, the camera panned the crowd, and I swear I saw 5 or 6 rebel flags being waved by Spanish fans, one very large flag. I also noticed alot of Italian fans giving the fascist salute during USA-Italy game on Saturday. Aaah, tolerant, liberal Europe.

Van Persie

Oranje!!!

Tabblo

Hey kids. About a month ago, I came across a really cool site, Tabblo.com, which is basically a photo sharing site with a twist - it combines storytelling with photosharing. Anyway, it's really, really cool site. I've posted a number of Tabblos, and today, the folks at Tabblo interviewed me. They were "very impressed with some of the remarkable tabblos you have created (Honeymoon in Dominica was an example of great storytelling) and what an active member you have been. We would like to interview you about your experience at Tabblo -- what you love about it, what you would change right away, and anything else that we should know. " Pretty cool, eh? Here's the tabblo that they really liked:

In May of 2004, my Fabulous Wife (FW) Amber and I got married.  For our honeymoon, we rented a cottage on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean.  The FW told me she didn't want to go to a resort, she wanted the "True Caribbean Experience".  Be careful what you wish for. ... See my Tabblo>

ReJoyce

Totally Random

See my Tabblo>

"I'm 13. But I'm an old soul"

Watching "Beautiful Girls". God, I love this movie.

What to do?

The FW has been in Richmond all week for work, it's Thursday, and the weather is awesome. I led a pretty impressive training exercise at work, got a lot done and now I'm home. Hmm, what to do this afternoon? Why, sit out back with my dog, drink a beer, smoke an awesome cigar (C.A.O. Extreme - been in my humidor for about 7 years), read a good book (Iron Sunrise) and listen to Alice in Chains. It's like I'm back in college (except I'm not drinking Schlitz and playing Spades with Schwartz, Lilleleht, Schlenger and Greco on 15th Street). Too quote Ice Cube, "today was a good day".

Me, I Love Activist Judges

Yesterday was Loving Day, the 39th anniversary of Loving vs. Virginia, which made it illegal to restrict interracial couples in the United States. Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving were the couple behind the fight to give marriage rights to all interracial couples involving one white partner (a little known fact is that many of the states that prohibited a couple like Mildred and Richard from marrying would have had no problem with an Asian man and a black woman marrying. Similar to the one-drop rule, anti-miscegenation laws were meant to keep power and ownership of land and property within the white population. Once whites married people of color, the power would potentially be distributed/shared with spouses and mixed children). How long do you think it would have taken for these laws to be overturned if left up to the public? Or laws keeping schools separate? Think about that the next time some a**hole starts mouthing off about activist judges.

Silver Lining

Well, the USA is getting thumped by the Czech's right now, 3-0 with 10 minutes left. What possible silver lining could there be? Rosicky, who's scored twice for the Czechs, is Arsenal's newest player!

In other soccer news,

Just found out that my alma-mater, Gar-Field HS, has made the state semi-finals in boys soccer. They play W.T. Woodson tonight at 8:00 in Newport News. This comes almost exactly 20 years after my final high-school game, in which I scored the tying goal in a 1-1 draw with our arch-rivals, the Woodbridge Vikings. Go Big Red!!

(And that isn't me in the pic, that's Eber Martinez, a 2006 Parade All-American, and my former coach and current Gar-Field Athletic Director Rudy Zimmerman - he's a great guy, read his remarkable story.)

What a start!

Germany 4 - 2 Costa Rica

Some sick goals from Germany. For all those soccer haters out there who whine about 1-0 games, here's to you.

It's almost here!

Well, we're back from our travels and now I'm getting ready for what is going to be an excellent month. The World Cup starts on Friday and I'm am psyched. Every game will be carried live on either ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC. I've got the DVR set, the beer is stocked, and I'm ready to roll. While I will of course be cheering on the USA, my favorite team, as anyone can tell you, are the ORANJE - the Dutch national team. Why? One word - Cruyff. Johan Cruyff was one of the greatest footballers of all time, the man who brought "Total Football" to the world. Towards the end of his career, after playing on some great Ajax teams, he came to the States and played for both the LA Aztecs and the Washington Diplomats. While with the Dips, he took part in many soccer clinics here in the DC area, and I got to meet him in the 5th grade. If I only knew then that I was in the presence of genius. Here's a clip of him in action.

Wij houden van Oranje!!!

Another view

We can also see US Cellular Field, home of the White Sox. 

Chicago Skyline

Here's our view from State Street Village. Pretty nice, eh? 

What a beautiful day

The wedding yesterday was absolutely beautiful - beautiful weather, beautiful location and of course a beautiful bride. I can't describe how wonderful it was to see 2 awesome people like Lesley and Jeremy join together. And the reception afterwards - wow! I won't get into too many details, but let's just say I wound up doing the running man and drunk text-messaging my friends (including the bride)! I think we got back to our hotel around 1:00 am.

This morning, Lesley's parents hosted a brunch at their house. It was good seeing everyone again before we all headed our separate ways (though we'll see everyone back in DC). We are now visiting the FW's sister, who's a doctoral student at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in downtown Chicago. We're staying in a guest suite in the coolest dorm I've ever seen - State Street Village.

Here's a link to see the pix - http://app.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/8890/

On the road

Well, we're back on the road. Evanston, Illinois for the wedding of 2 of my favorite people, Leslie and Jeremy.

We got back home from the beach Thursday night and discovered that part of our ceiling was starting to cave in due to the folks upstairs. The unit above ours was recently bought and the folks are doing major renovations - starting 1st thing every morning and continuing until almost 8:00 at night. Pretty annoying, but not as annoying as finding that they're leaking water through our ceiling! We contacted the management of our condo association and they're fixing it while we're here this weekend. We also found out that the folks upstairs don't have a permit to perform their renovations, and the city has ordered them to stop.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... We landed yesterday and Chicago Midway Airport and had a horrible time getting our rental car. We waited in line for almost 2 hours, with no explanation other than "it's busy". The FW was furious and proceeded to let the woman at the counter know it. I'm Mr. Conflict Avoidance, so I was very uncomfortable. And I made the mistake of trying to intervene. Whoops!! Guys, if you're lady is mad at someone other than you, let her roll with it. Seriously!! Otherwise, her wrath will turn on you! We eventually got our car (actually, they were out of cars and gave us and SUV instead) and drove through downtown Chicago rush hour traffic to beautiful Evanston. Really, this is a gorgeous part of the country. We went to the rehearsal dinner last night (Carmen's Pizza - nothing like Chicago pizza, boys and girls). Today the FW is out getting all prettied up for tonight's nuptials. I'll post pix and stories tomorrow.

C out!