St Lucia Part III

Sorry I have taken a few more days to post - I had some things pop up. But some good news before I relive more vacation time - our soccer site for player profiles and coaches to search is almost done! And it looks awesome!! I am excited to grow our business and really see what we can do with the last pieces in place. Our shirts have come in as well. I will post soon a pic showing what our shirts look like so you can share in our excitedness!

Back to St Lucia. So you saw the pictures of around the place, and I mentioned the places to eat. So we had several choices of restaurant to eat at - all in the resort. The food was good - it wasn't great - just because you do all inclusive doesn't mean 5 star - but it means you most likely aren't getting Taco Bell either. :) But one of the things I love the most about the food - was the serving sizes. I felt like it was perfect for me! It was very small servings - but the great thing was - you got to have some bread, a salad, an appetizer, the entree and even a desert. And because you didn't have the American Supersize meal - you could actually eat all of it. It was awesome because I love to sample like that!

So we ate at the Pavilion 2 nights - the first and last, then we had Italian one night - and the irony about the Italian place was, you got yourself a wine list - but only the Beringer wines were part of the "all-inclusive". So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the wine list to see prices of $100 bottles. Then of course came the awkward moment of - excuse me sir - can you explain the wine prices please? Yeah - so note to you, if you ever do all inclusive and you see a price tag - be suspicious and make sure to ask - cause otherwise they just charge that right to your room and it's too easy to pay for it. I of course stuck with the free wine and champagne. :)

We also went to a Japanese Steakhouse which was fun and you got a great view out glass windows over the water. It was a 10 people sit down style and we had a lot of fun. We had the best waiter - Kennedy who was so polite that everything you said was responded to with a "No Pressure No Problem" in an island voice. This is us at the Steakhouse I believe after 3 glasses of champagne and a saki bomb:



Then there was the "5 star" French Restaurant. So we show up all dressed up, get seated and proceed to go through our courses. The tables were pretty tight so we were only 2 feet away from the next group of couples. We were finishing up with our entree and then a waitress came over to fill up my champagne. But as she turned the corner I saw her stop, get a surprised look on her face, recoil and then back away. And I think to myself - now what would make a person do that? Well I of course just had to look......what did I find?

This would be Larry the Lizard. Actually he is Leonard the Lizards cousin. We didn't have our camera on us that night so we snapped a picture of Larry by our patio so I could of course come home and tell this fabulous story on my blog.



Yes that is correct - there was a lizard eating dinner with us. However, Leonard's tail was broken - we think Tony stepped on him under our table and that is why he scurried from under it to hang out between our table and the next couple. As soon as they saw the lizard - they were like - ok we are done. So I of course think this waitress has told someone (which she had) and that someone is going to come over and remove Leonard. Hmmmm.....as the minutes passed and no one came, I finally motioned to a waiter to come over. I then politely asked if he could remove our friend. Me thinking he was a native, thought he would just pick it up by the tail and go take it somewhere. Yeah that would be a big fat negative ghostrider! What does he do instead? he shuffle kicks the lizard with his shoe - at one point turning it upside down so it starts doing his little leg wiggle that just creeps me out. And then he kicks it underneath the table behind Tony - AND THEN HE JUST WALKS OFF and says - he's gone!!!! ARE YOU FOR REAL?? So that was our interesting island story.

Other than that we ate at the bistro cafe for lunch most of the days - and we took a picture:



We then took some pictures of a few things:

Cruise ship sailing out of the Port of Castries right around the corner from us:



There was a pirate ship too and that I posted on flickr.

A cool picture of a Native on the pier.....


The catamaran that I really wanted to go on - but Tony got flambeed so that didn't happen.



The paddle bike that looked like a really fun idea until we thought about just how much peddling one must do to get out and back in. We decided that was probably going to be a little too much work for vacation!



And then comes the last oddity. Have you ever gotten those emails that show you pictures of odd nature things??? Well right in front of the Gazebo was this tree. And Tony made the statement that his ancestors believed that this tree would have been a fertility tree. Now I can understand why - it looks like it has a great big VAGINA on it! You can't tell me you don't agree - cause I know you would be lying to yourself. It's ok - you can laugh - I sure did! but it isn't too many times you get to see something with your own eyes that you normally see in those email forwards you wonder if they are photoshopped.



So that was pretty much our vacation in a nutshell. I got to lay out a lot, drink a lot, rest a lot and not prepare any of my meals - that was a pretty highlight. In the end, we got back home only to have most of our luggage not come out since it didn't make the flight from Atlanta - so they delivered it the next day. But we waked out to see.............

SNOW

Yes we came home to snow in Seattle in April. Odd. And then a few days later I cut off all my braids and hair - because I have been trying to grow out my natural color for Tony. I don't have a picture of it yet - but I will get one and post it up - Momma Susan said she wanted a picture cause she doesn't know what my hair color is either! So I figure, I'll take a picture and then we can all see. I think some of you might be surprised at what it is. :)

St Lucia Part II

So we get to our room and I have to confess. I was ruing a little bit before we got there about not being able to get the room with the private plunge pool attached. It basically was like a mini pool for two people. But it was $4K....so there was just no way we were doing that. The good news is when we got there, I was actually much happier with the room we got than if we had been in one of those rooms that has a private pool. And let me now illustrate why. This was our room. And yes, that is my passed out self lying on the beach chair. We are the bottom one in the middle.



As you can tell, it resembles an apartment or condo patio. Not real big but semi private. And easy access to the outside. Within 50 feet of us we have these things:

The Spa that I had my full head braided. Tony kept calling me a Caribbean Princess. :) You will see the braids in a bit. I also got a hot rock massage. That was needed and I have to say - it fixed my back until the flight back.



And this lovely Gazebo that we spent many an hour sitting in and enjoying the ocean and the surf hitting the beach.



I will discuss the tree in another post.



And then there was the hammock right next to it that had my creative writing juices flowing. I love hammocks. You can sit in one near the ocean, close your eyes, feel the breeze and you can actually feel yourself moving even when you aren't. It's awesome. I have always wanted a hammock. And check out my braids!



Don't forget the beach access to the left of the Gazebo.



And then 100 feet away there was the Pavilion and Pool with the Swim Up Bar. The pool was awesome cause it was like one big giant wading pool that you could swim if you wanted but could walk around it and with your drink. Or you could just sit on a tiled stool at the swim up bar. That was quite fun especially since you didn't need any money nor worrying about tipping the bartender. The pool also had a grotto style waterfall and enclosure and wrapped around a couple different ways. What I can tell you I loved was not hearing any screaming children. Not getting kicked in the gut by a little kid that swam underneath you in the water. Not worrying about the trace amounts of urine in the pool. No cannonballs next to you. And you want to know something great? There was no NO DIVING sign. Why? Because we were all adults and can figure out that one on our own thank you very much.



So the Pavilion is where we ate our breakfast which I loved! I got omelets every day. They had some great banana bread, coffee cake, and some type of custard bread that was like a bread pudding. It was awesome and if I can figure out exactly what they did - which I have an idea, then I am going to make sure and make it for you when you come out and see us. :) The Pavilion was an open air eating place where the roof was vaulted about 30 feet with pillars that supported the roof. You could also eat a buffet lunch if you wanted as well as dinner. The funny thing about the Pavilion was the birds. Since it was open air, there were these pigeons and black birds that would hang out and do these diving raids to scarf up food bits from the plates waiting to be bused. I kept waiting to be shat upon by one of these birds overhead - but I never did experience or see it so it must not be a problem. One of the ladies actually said when the birds get desperate usually off feeding hours, they will swoop down and grab the sugar packets and peck at those. Crazy man.

I digressed on the birds. So the whole point I was illustrating above was how close all the things that I enjoyed (including the ping pong table but I didn't think you needed a picture of that), was so much closer and easily accessible than the rooms with the private plunge pools as illustrated in the picture below.



Are you squinting trying to see what I am talking about? That's how I felt too.

Yes that is correct - those houses up on the bluff where your beach access is cliff diving. And you have to take a van for a little ride down a crazy inclined hill to get to brunch. Yes I am lazy and the walk would have done me good - but I wasn't at fitness camp! And this is a good illustration on when going to the beach - identify how close you want your beach access in your room selection. There were some people who only got a sliding door that opened - no patio. And the slew of patios facing the pool. So the room turned out great. It had a four king poster bed which was decently comfortable and get this - we had a 48 inch flat screen TV in our room that ALSO came with satellite that made it possible for this footy girl to see her monstrous United Arsenal game that she thought she was going to miss on vacation. Tony and I were pretty stoked about that!

To be continued...

St Lucia Part I

So we started out the trip by leaving on a red eye to Atlanta at 10:40PM Friday night. Now it wasn't that bad because we had first class tickets for this whole trip. Tony and I have decided that if we ever have to travel for an extended period of time like this again - we will be doing first class....or we just can't afford to go. I can not tell you how much it saved my knees and my back to have that extra bit of comfort and space. So after Atlanta we had another 4 hours to St Lucia. At one point through my travels, I noticed I was flying over some islands in the Caribbean and I wanted to know what I had flown over so i took a picture with my handy dandy IPhone. What I found is I was flying over the Bahamas. The Bahamas truly have some of the most beautiful water in the world - and it amazes me when looking from an aerial view.









When we landed in St Lucia at 2PM (one hour ahead of Eastern Time) we waited for our bags to come out and finally our big one came out. Only it turns out it wasn't OUR bag and we found this out..........oh.........back at the resort. Yeah - opened the bag and Tony asked me if those were our clothes and I thought........oh no way, those are too ugly. But you know, we really thought we were safe traveling with a big silver swiss army suitcase. Didn't think many people had those, much less traveling on our flight. So back at the airport we go through customs and as soon as you go through customs these large black men with luggage carts start belowing out 'SANDALS??" And you're like - yeah, Sandals - that's us. Now remember, our trip was an all inclusive - so we are thinking everything is paid for right? Well it it. As long as it is through the resort! So we give the guy our luggage - everyone is doing the same thing. He rolls through these two swinging doors and goes about 100 feet, stops, removes our luggage, tells us to check in at this makeshift booth and then holds out his hand and says "this is a tipping service".

Tipping service? For what? This dude rolled our bags 100 feet.

So Tony takes out the only cash we have which is $6. Gives him the $1, and the guy glares at him. Of course Tony just smiled at him. And then this happened to be a sore spot on how we got suckered on something in a different country right when we land. So learning lesson for you if you ever have that happen. Just carry your own bags!

We then proceeded to have an hour drive in a eurovan through the tropical island of St Lucia. We passed by their Olympic stadium that they use to play both cricket and soccer. We saw a lot of the countryside which was very much a third world country. And that was a good reminder. It was very tropical. We saw lots of women on the sides of the roads selling their various fruits and vegetables. Besides tourism, banana is their biggest export crop. So we were able to see banana plantations all over the place. We saw some prostitutes, drug dealers and then a slew of various people. Houses were shanties mixed in between nice houses or businesses. It was difficult to tell what a business from a house just by looking at the building structure. Lots of houses were on concrete stilts to help protect from flooding. We saw soccer pitches throughout our little trip as well - but no one was playing on them. They brew their own beer on the island called Piton as well as their own liquors and Cocoa Cola. As custom with many Caribbean islands, I believe St Lucians speak both English and French. Often interchanging languages mid sentence.

After arriving at the hotel we realized our luggage screw up and thank goodness found out the guy whose luggage we had was at the hotel. But we weren't sure how we were going to get it back, cause of some helicopter delivery service the guy had ordered for himself. So we went to the gift shop to get me something to wear temporarily cause after that much travel I was gross and wanted out of my clothes and we weren't even sure if we were getting our clothes back. However, that was an expensive trip to the gift shop to only get three items. Lesson learned...next time, check the name on your luggage tag!

I will continue this post tomorrow..........

I'm Back

Ok well I have actually been back for almost a week now but I have had a lot of little things going on. And it has taken me a spell to upload pictures and for some reason they aren't all uploading quite right. I plan to have pics for people to see this weekend along with some commentary on my blog.

As to how everything went - it went good. I have a nice tan - that is starting to fade already. And I cut my hair short after having it in braids for a week, resulting in seeing my natural hair color for maybe the second time in my life. I'm not really sure how I feel about the color but T wants me to keep it this way for awhile so......we'll keep it for awhile and see if it grows on me. No pun intended.

As to other events going on, the kitties are good of course. Other than being very needy upon our return. Those poor neglected little fluff balls. All the food and water then can have - a semi ok litter box. Warm house to snuggle and romp in. Toys to play with - oh the woe they must feel! LOL

Played in my women's game last night which I got to be a forward - I love that! Sometimes I have to play center mid and that is tougher. We played 11v8, then 11v9, then 11v10 by the second half. Needless to say we played with no insistence in the first half and as a result put ourselves in a bad position in second half. We went up 1-0 from a GREAT run that YOURS TRULY made all the way down the right flank, cutting in toward the box and making a great square pass in front of goal to our lone player that got forward with me. She got caught up with the keeper but the ball landed at her feet 1 foot from goal and did a back heel kick into goal. Then we had some poor defensive mistakes and allowed them to have some breakaway runs - so they tied it 1-1. Then......I pulled a Ronaldo.



I ended up battling for the ball with their sweeper in two small skirmishes in a row and then she took a bad touch and I realized – 50/50 in the box. I probably wasn’t going to get there but I was going to force it and see if I could get the ball or a call. We both went in hard, I angled my shoulder down into her and stretched my leg. Barely getting the ball - and she swiped me. Now the reality is, it was just a good hard challenge and most likely other refs would not have called the penalty - but you never know and if you don't try - you'll never know if you can get the goal. I got the call – although really, I probably shouldn’t have gotten the call. It’s a penalty!!!! At that moment, I was tired from battling and running. I had been knocked down pretty good – which I of course took the girl with me. But nonetheless - lots of times if you have been knocked down - you shouldn't take the kick. And my eye is all blurred – I have had some eye infection for two weeks and last night playing it got real bad. Driving home was not good either. So I asked three girls if they wanted to take it – seeing as I felt I wasn’t probably the best candidate at the moment. Everyone shrugged it off. So I set the ball, took my steps, looked at the ref, he blew the whistle. I ran up, struck and…………………………………………………….



Right to the keeper…........dead center. For crying out loud Athena – DO BETTER!!!! It would have put us up 2-1. We ended up losing 2-1 and I was so pissed at myself. Can you believe that? The only thing worse would have been if I shanked the ball around the goal. At least I got it on frame. Our keeper was joking at the end that if the keeper had just dived like they all do then I would have scored! True seeing as many PK's scored even in pro matches are dead center and the keeper dived - whereas if he had just stood still he would have made the save. So in the end - I hope I get another chance to make up for that mistake. I don't like making those kinds of bad mistakes. So just like Ronaldo in the second minute of the Barcelona game this week - I missed the penalty that could have saved the day and turned the match around.

Au revoir Mes Amies

In case I got my French wrong or you just don't know what that means it means Buh Bye my friends. I'm OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

St Lucia, here I come!

Ideology and Reality

Most have seen this before - and while I am not a Gates worhsipper, I do think it pertinent to life.

Bill Gates gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.


Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule: 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

USA 3 - 0 Poland

All in all a good days work for our MNT! Set pieces was the theme of the day for our boys in Poland last week - Im late posting is all. Bob Bradley has done a good job with our team so far and establishing international friendlies with decent counterparts. If we can keep this kind of momentum going - then World Cup 2010 looks like it has a bright future for the US! At the very least -w e get to play England at Wembley in June - ah, if only I could be there........

I finally gave in......

I've been fighting it for about 8 months now. The urge to buy the iPhone. It's expensive! But with my birthday came some money and since I get an allowance from work for cell phone usage - it really is not costing me anything extra on my plan.

So I did it - I bought it. I cannot even explain to you how cool it is. I mean, it is so easy - I have everything set up - and I never even had to use a User Guide. How cool is it you ask?

Well, for starters, I can access the Internet.

I can consolidate all my contacts including everything I would ever have in a day planner.

I can access my CSS email automatically as well!

My iPod music is consolidated in here.

And when I go on vacation in a month - we can upload movies to it and watch movies on the airplane through the iPhone.

Oh and wait - I can take notes and store them.

AND I even have quick access to YouTube - AND because of that........I of course already have my Michael Bradley YouTube videos book marked. :) I am in heaven.

iPhone

My Venting Session

So I am going to start with the sugar before I say the spice.

Sugar #1
US U23's not only beat Canada 3-0 in the semi-final to advance to the final - they qualified for the Olympics in Beijing and they won in good fashion. GOOD JOB BOYS and GOOD LUCK THIS SUMMER! So the irony is they qualify for the Olympics without having to win the qualifying final. But they will play regardless. And Honduras is in the final as well. Looks like Mexico goes home - YEAH!!!

Sugar #2
We got another customer! And we got our developer moving forward with our database. Exciting stuff. So by the end of April - we should be ready to really rock and roll with our web site.

Spice #1

Tryouts happened last weekend. In some ways I love tryouts. It's an ego thing with me. I get a high knowing I can in 3 hours identify a player's mental, technical, tactical, and physical ability. And knowing I can do this evaluating a variety of players. And then knowing further, that over the course of the year - I am going to prove myself right. Yes, that's right.........I am a right fighter. I love to be right. I love to win. I love to prove someone wrong. Is it a flattery asset of mine - no, I know it is a behavioral flaw of mine. But I don't care. :)

So moving on to the good stuff. So we promoted 2 players - always a good thing! We dropped one player and we picked up 5 good players - including a keeper that WANTS to play for us. Oh I can't tell you how happy we are about that.

The bad stuff. SO one of the players we kept - failed to contact us within 24 hours of posting the results. Actually it was past 72 hours before the parent contacted us informing us that the player would like to play for us again.

Here is the problem. We stated to contact us within 24 hours to reserve a spot. We then followed up with the family 48 hours after - because we have to start notifying alternates. You know where this is going correct?

So 72 hours later - we contacted our first alternate to offer her a spot. About 8 hours later - we get an email from the other parent. So now I ask you....what do you think we should do? And before you answer that, keep in mind the following aspects:

Our team/club is not cheap. If you want to play on our team - which is less than if you are on the A team - you pay a minimum of $2000 a year.......to the club. This does not count the money spent on uniforms, travel costs, tournament fees, indoor fees, etc. So realistically it's about $3000.

So think about how one person's lack of organization, could impact YOUR child's playing time? How do you feel about that knowing how much you pay for your child to participate.

So do we eat crow and accept the girl - we like her - but the mom has been like this the past year. Apparently she has a lack of organizational skills. The excuse - they were moving and didn't have Internet connection. The problem with that is we also had one of our players send the player a text message. And the girl is 14 - she isn't 11. So we also feel that this should not be the sole responsibility of the parent. After all - the girl is not only old enough to to contact us, she had means to do so even if her home Internet was not available. And we had agreed that after last year's tryouts, we would never let parents hold us hostage again. it's just not fair to us, the team or to the alternates that otherwise would take a spot on our team. So with all that said....how do you feel about it?

Spice #2
Customers are obnoxious - this would be my day job. I find it amazing that i work in an industry where people think you should fix their errors and shortcomings, for free. That their ignorance is unimportant, and your customer service should make their problem right. Because it isn't their fault they screwed up. And because they don't want to have to explain how their lack of attention to detail caused a fracas. Ahh mortgage brokers. I hate them.

The other day, we had a $732 charge we assessed to a customer's credit card for rescore charges he incurred. A rescore is when a broker takes data from the individual and their creditors and passes it on to the three credit bureaus in an attempt to clean up their credit file - so they can get a better FICO score so they can fund a loan or get a better loan term for the borrower. the consumer can do this for free to the repositories directly - but it takes about 60 days to go through this process. The broker can do it within a week - but for a hefty price tag.

So the guy signs off on the order form - one inch below where it discussed the pricing. We got billed, therefore he gets billed. Well of course he called. he was pissed. His problem? He didn't understand how much the total bill was going to be. But he has been doing loans for 10 years. his rescores have been partially comped at other CRA's because he had bundled service packages. So the bottom line was, he said he was only going to pay $200 and that he was going to charge it back. Go ahead buckaroo - you won't win the charge back cause your signature signed off on the pricing. So he failed to read the pricing and if he had a question on it, he didn't ask anyone for a total amount either - even though he was the one who checked what services to perform on what bureaus, etc. His gripe - no one told him the total before the services were performed.

And how is that our fault when you were responsible for doing the math - we gave you the prices. Ah but the CS person spoke with him twice about the services - why didn't she tell me? First off - it wasn't our CS, it was our credit agency's CS person. He didn't care. And he tried to tell me that good customer service to retain him as a customer would be to basically eat it on his behalf. Cause....he knows lots of originators and he can tell people not to use us...........oh no, a little bad press - alert the media!

I told him - that' ok, our CEO is friends with your CEO. And then I told him - it would take us over a year or 2 before we began to see any profit from his account if we ate the fee - only in the hopes that he didn't get upset at anything else and remained our customer.

We have people scream at us all the time because we won't fix the name information on the credit report they pulled - when they were the retards that typoed it in the first place and we even gave them a review screen. The reason we don't.....we just can't pull the report back in our system is all if we do fix it. But it pisses them off that we won't fix their mistake.

Do you see my woes?

I gotta lot to say today

Actually - it's been building up for a few days now. But I'll have to come back to this cause my boss is sitting in front of me - and i know he is going to look at my computer screen in a minute.

update on the U23's - they scraped through the group phase and managed to squeak out a win in the 95th minute against Honduras. Boys - you need to find your groove or else you won't make it past Canada today! Canada vs US update will be coming later.

Colorado

A friend sent this to me and I gotta say - it is SOOO true!

You're from Colorado if----

You'll eat ice cream in the winter.

When the weather report says it's going to be 65 degrees, you shave your legs and wear a skirt.

It snows 5 inches and you don't expect school to be canceled.

You'll wear flip flops every day of the year, regardless of temperature.

You have no accent at all, but can hear other people's. And then you make fun of them.

'Humid' is over 25%.

Your sense of direction is: Toward the mountains and Away from the mountains.

You say 'the interstate' and everybody knows which one.

You think that May is a totally normal month for a blizzard.

You grew up planning your Halloween costumes around your coat.

You know what the Continental Divide is.

You don't think Coors beer is that big a deal.

You went to Casa Bonita as a kid.

You've gone off-roading in a vehicle that was never intended for such activities.

You always know the elevation of where you are.

You wake up to a beautiful, 80 degree day and you wonder if it's going to snow tomorrow.

You don't care that some company renamed it, the Broncos still play at Mile High.

Every movie theater has military and student discounts.

Everybody wears jeans to church.

You actually know that South Park is a real place not just a show on TV.

You know what a 'trust fund hippy' is, and you know its natural habitat is Boulder.

You know you're talking to a fellow Coloradoan when they call it Elitches, not Six Flags.

A bear on your front porch doesn't bother you.

Your two favorite teams are the Broncos and whoever is beating the crap out of the Raiders.

You've been to the original Chipotle near the DU campus on Evans.

When people out East tell you they have mountains in their state too, you just laugh.

You go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels 'sticky' and you notice the sky is no longer blue.

US Women

Won the Algarve Cup - again. No surprise. It was their warm up to their own Olympic qualifying tournament. And no - I haven't checked the score.

However, it is listed on the FoxSoccer site that Hope Solo has been named as the face of Women's Soccer following her "World Cup fiasco" as some writers called it. Remember my lovely posts from last summer?

Ah...don't you just love irony.......

No mention of if or where Mr Ryan is now coaching...........I am sure he will show up as one of the 7 professional women coaches next year though - cause well that's how it works in our soccer industry - whatever......

Don't even get me started on our new 6 or 7 team professional women's league. At least it will not be called WUSA.......

US U-23

Beat Panama 1-0 yesterday to go 1-0-1 in their group. Now they need to win or tie Honduras to advance. Their performance yesterday was quite uninspiring and they won because they got a PK. Good job on the strike Freddy Adu! Personally I thought there was just a little too much flopping going on by our boys and not enough penetration into the box. But what do I know.......except if you can't put Cuba and Panama away - how they hell do you expect to compete with EUROPE when you get to the big dance!

And in case you haven't heard - 7 members of the Cuban U-23 team defected a few days ago. Since the teams are only allowed 18 players, and one was serving a suspension from the US game - that knocked the team down to playing with 10 men for the match.....they gave t a good effort but ultimately lost 2-0 to Honduras.

As to me...I played my first outdoor match in about 4 months. And I was awful. It was like I was back in 1st grade or something. Guess it was lucky for me I was not playing like that on a national team. LOL

The Funniest Thing

So the reality is - I think it is stupid the Heerenveen team were doing this in the middle of their season - they could have gotten seriously hurt. But my boy is in this video and he realy is the highlight of it so have a good laugh at his expense. He is at the very end - so watch it all - it's only a minute and a half long.

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Our Boys Didn't Get it Done

The US U-23 boys closed out their first game of Olympic qualifying with a tie to Cuba 1-1. Freddy Adu scored in the first half initially giving us the lead before the Cubans unfortunately - and luckily equalized in the second half.

Boys - you should have put this one away in the first 20 minutes when you had the Cubans up against the fence. Sadly my boy Bradley was not in the line up since Heerenveen would not release him. But I have a feeling we will see him in the summer.



And for those wondering - I am better now. Day 8 of antibiotics and still recovering - but I see the end of the tunnel - thank goodness!

Walking Wounded

Sunday afternoon I developed a flegmy cough out of nowhere. Weird I thought - must be that weird respiratory thing my coworker had. Monday came and the cough was about the same, just a little more frequent - but I felt fine. Tuesday came and the world started to not be such a great place by nightfall. Monday morning and I thought I was on the road to dying. So much that work was not an option and I actually found the local Urgent Care(which really happened to be a walk in clinic in a semi seedy part of town but whatever). Why didn't I just go to my primary care provider you say? LMFAO Uh that would be because I don't have one. As in why do I need one except in instances like this? I'm one of those people that goes to specialists for my problems, and since I don't have kids and Tony gets sick less often than me - it just never really makes sense to establish a relationship with one. Anywho, I digress.

I initially thought I might have gotten some form of Whooping cough since we just moved offices and the office I inherited was inhabited by a guy that just took his kids into the hospital for Whooping cough, but it appears that it is a little worse. Walking pneumonia is what the doctor thinks. So body aches, fever, congestion, cough, coughing up gross stuff, fatigue and a few others I won't mention have landed me in the current place I am - sick as a dog! I unfortunately have been here 12 years ago - only then it was worse. I really did think i was going to die and didn't have any antibiotics to help me. Luckily the doctor gave me some antibiotics so I will be on my way in a few days but it's one of those things where sometimes you feel comfortable enough and then sometimes you just can't find anything that makes you feel good - walking around for a minute fatigues you. Laying down makes your lungs junk up and a cough sequence occurs, sitting up means paying attention and then comes the slightly fatigued but awake feeling. Let's not forget the cough cough cough. Ironically there has been a little silver lining over the past two days.....

My furnace has been busted.

How is that positive you say? Well since it has been colder than green bay in my house.....ok so that was an exaggeration, it's been about 65 degrees - although today is was down to 60-62. So my fever hasn't really been playing too much of a factor cause I haven't been hot! LOL Although the furnace guy just came out and fixed the problem, so here we go. I'm not so sure I am excited by this new development. I may have been creating a false sense of feel good feelings because of it. I will let you know how I fare over the next few days

I didn't really have a point to this post - I was just bored.

I thought I had seen it all...

but this one just takes the cake! And if you look closely - they have a mini pool in the front yard too!

Bathroom Etiquette

Yes this is in some ways a typical post for me. But really, you may be a little surprised by what I say. But I have a bone to pick, cause this seems to be happening to me a lot lately. And this is really directed more to women than it is to men. Cause I know men don't care as much. They'll take a dump in a gas station bathroom and not use any toilet paper when sitting on the seat for all they care.

SO you know when you have to go to the bathroom in a public place, you enter and the first thing you think of is - which stall am I going to enter. For small places that have one to three stalls - this really is a no brainer on the selection. And for women a non written rule is that you pick one that allows a separation between you and the next party - at least that is the ideal scenario.

In my office bathroom - there are 10 - stalls. yes ...... I said 10. So you would think this should be a non issue. I mean, there are only like 10 girls on the whole floor. And well I sort of have an issue going poop in a public bathroom - I would rather hold it if I can't go in private - cause really, are any one of us looking to share that kind of moment with another person? I think not. But it is part of nature and we all do it.

So with that said there is an unwritten rule that if you walk into a bathroom with many stalls, you find one that is not right next to someone else. So I ask you now, if you are the second person coming into a bathroom - what on earth would make you think to yourself......hmmm I think I am going to enter the stall RIGHT NEXT TO SOMEONE WHO IS POOPING when there are 7 other better options. Seriously - what is the rationale behind this??? Do people enjoy sitting 2 feet from someone else during a private and disgusting moment separated only by a one inch piece of metal when they are in a space of ohhhhh 600 sq feet?

What on earth could possibly propel someone to either think or not think about this when using the john? And then you have the ridiculous people that do this only to have you realize - oh....I guess we are having a pooping moment together. Are you for real???? I don't want to sit anywhere near someone else doing that - so why on earth would someone want to come sit near you when they can have a much bigger space ALL TO THEMSELVES??? This is not supposed to be a public bonding thing - it is a private matter. If anyone has some insight into this - please let me know. Because I have racked my brain trying to figure it out and yet it just befuddles me.

One Ex: Yesterday, I had a girl come in the bathroom, talking on her cell phone (to a guy cause I could hear his voice through the phone), only to walk down past most of the stalls and try to actually ENTER my stall. And people, it's really easy to tell if someone is in the stall or not by the door being CLOSED. So she picks the stall NEXT TO MINE. Then she proceeds to continue talking and peeing - really loud too. Now she at some point also spoke in a different language so this might be where she was coming from on the toilet etiquette issue (3rd world countries have different standards I know - but who brings their cell phone into a public (corporate) bathroom for a conversation while you are having a moment???

Can you feel my woe here?

Attitude

As I am cleaning out copious amounts of folders, papers and the like from a multitude of offices around here in this great empty space in anticipation of our move over the next couple of days, I came across this piece of paper with insightful words that I felt was worthy of sharing....

Attitude

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gifted ability, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace from that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and this string is Attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you....we are in charge of our Attitudes.

-Charles Swindoll

Why Valentine's Day is Special to Me

So most people would think this is a no brainer. It's Valentine's Day - you get to spend time with your honey, you get some flowers, a card and dinner. Well yes those are all great things and I do love that aspect. But Valentine's Day holds a trully deeper meaning for me. And I can sum it up with the phrase from my mother's V Card "Its You and Me Day".

10 years ago from yesterday was the first time I spoke with my biological mother Lori. Most of you know I was adopted. It was the first time we were reunited after almost 21 years of separation. I remember coming home from a rugby match to find a message from my mom Susan left by my roommate. It said, your mom called, she got in touch with your biological grandmother. I had gone from telling my mother I needed to know and was ready a month and a half before, to all of a sudden it was close. I called and she told me she just got off the phone with my mother (that was a weird feeling when she said it) and said she would call me after 4:30. The reality that I had gone from - I'm going to have to hire a lawyer to figure this out to oh my god my mother is going to call me was quite the speeding bullet. I couldn't back out now. My mother couldn't wait however and we talked for 4 hours, which was the beginning of a fresh perspective for me.

It was a reunion that had been long in the making and one that I am so glad I went through with. You can't possibly understand what it is like to grapple with feelings of should I or should I not find this person. What the inherent outcomes you will find, are unknown at the time and you can only hope for the best, and yet prepare yourself for the worst. Most of you have no idea what it truly is like to not know where you come from. Who you look like, why you do certain things - that are uncharacteristic from your adopted family members. The idea that there is another family out there that you almost lived your life with, can be quite the surreal experience. Especially when you do finally meet them.

Growing up I would always look at my friends and their parents and try to see where they got features from or even their attitudes. And if you think that finding your biological family only deals with you and your feelings - you are wrong. You have your existing family and their feelings to think about. I remember my brother feeling scared he was going to lose his sister and the relationship we had. I remember my stepdad yelling at me 10 years ago that this was my family and I need to just leave it be. And that I was only hurting my mother by going this route. I will leave many a choice words towards him about this subject alone, but I am really glad I did not pay attention to him. However, it was an element that I dealt with for a long time - how would my family handle this? How was I going to handle my family with this?

In the end, finding my birth mother has brought me peace and clarity. It has been what I needed in order to feel ok about myself and who I am. I have a greater understanding of the nature vs nurture breakdown within my own being. But in moving forward with my quest to find my mother, it was marred with all sorts of internal torment that one usually never thinks about. You have trepidation, anger, hurt, confusion, sadness, anxiety, remorse, fear. All things that propel you to satisfy a need you feel you must face. But the biggest feeling you must grapple with in this quest...is rejection. Rejection before you have every been rejected and being able to cope with that concept in the event that is what happens. It's a difficult thing to do however. But when I finally got to that point - I knew I was ready.

In the end for me, it was all worth it. But there are many adopted children don't feel that need. I feel that if I had a much more stable and loving environment growing up, I would have not felt this innate desire to find my mystery life. But I am glad that I was strong enough to do it. I have met many adopted people whoes eyes light up when they hear my story but they tell me they are too afraid to do it. It's in these moments I really have felt a desire to write a book. I probably will at some point - the question is when. I actually would like to write several books - a children's book and an adult book - for people to grapple with both sides.

Yesterday was my mom and I's 10th anniversary, and every year we celebrate it like an anniversary. It was our time and our moment. And Valentine's Day will forever hold a special place in my life because of it.

He's only 20 yrs old - I've got 15 more years to drool

Because I just love to share.....here he is back in Heerenveen during training - about the size of my hometown Rolla. Video below is after his flight back to Holland after the US Mexico game and right before his game with PSV - leaders in the Eredivisie and whom Heerenveen tied this last weekend (1-1) with a Michael Bradley goal that pushed them to a 4 way tie for 2nd but int he lead nonetheless.



Dutch Eredivisie Standings - 2007/08

GP W D L GS GA W D L GS GA W D L GS GA GD P
1 PSV Eindhoven 24 16 5 3 51 18 9 2 1 31 10 7 3 2 20 8 33 53
2 Heerenveen 24 13 5 6 64 29 6 3 3 40 16 7 2 3 24 13 35 44
3 Ajax 24 12 8 4 61 33 7 3 2 34 15 5 5 2 27 18 28 44
4 Feyenoord 24 13 5 6 44 24 8 3 1 28 7 5 2 5 16 17 20 44
5 NAC Breda 24 13 5 6 30 26 5 3 4 13 15 8 2 2 17 11 4 44

Dutch Eredivisie Top Scorers - 2007/08
Rank Player Team Goals
1 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Ajax Amsterdam 23
2 Blaise N'Kufo Twente Enschede 18
3 Robin Nelisse FC Utrecht 14
4 Roy Makaay Feyenoord Rotterdam 13
Michael Bradley Heerenveen 13

HE'S A MIDFIELDER TOO!

Wait - there's more!!!

From two weeks ago..


Hold on - I'm not done yet!!!

As of this weekend I am the proud owner of
- a Heerenveen jersey - with 13 autographs - not sure who they are yet but will see if I can make them out.
- An autographed pic of Michael Bradley

Now let me tell you something - you have no idea how hard it was just to get ANY Heerenveen jersey. I even looked on foreign shops sites that I had to use Google translation tools to translate to English. And all jerseys either did not exist or were SOLD OUT. So the fact I got one for the price I did, plus it is autographed - I feel like a lottery winner! Now Michael is most likely on his way out to a bigger club at the end of the season - but that is ok.



And as to the picture - you can't find a Michael Bradley autograph ANYWHERE - so another score! And for pretty cheap too. So Michael Bradley will get a place next to Kasey Keller and Paul Scholes in my house.

See - I'm not the only one who thinks he is great......

And last night - US v Mexico - 2-2 in front of a sold out crowd in TX. Footy is growing in the states!

Quick Follow Up

For anyone who disagreed with me on a previous post relating to a HS girls BB game blowout, here is some extra facts.

The team in question was ranked 3rd in the state for 3A.

The team has been undefeated in both league and post season play this season.

The coach served a two-game suspension for his part in an eye-opening, 112-16 rout of Evergreen on Jan. 8.

I think it is crap that the coach was suspended but whatever. Good luck to his team and I hope they win it all.

I mean, he just keeps scoring!

Bradley on fire......

Again he scores?????

Michael Bradley extended his rich vein of goalscoring form with two goals in Heerenveen’s 3-0 win over De Graafschap on Saturday. With the victory Heerenveen move up to second place in the Eredivisie table.

Of Note: Undoubtedly inspired by his excellent podcast performance yesterday, Michael scored in the 20th minute before adding an insurance goal for his team late in the second half. The two goals give Michael 15 in all competitions, and five in his last four games. Meanwhile, Heerenveen jumps three spots in the table, though most teams around them play tomorrow.

Michael's goals today put him second all time for most goals by a U.S. international in a European first division domestic league season. With eleven tallies, Bradley passes former MNT players Eric Wynalda and Brian McBride who each scored nine times. Wynalda achieved that mark with Saarbruecken in the Bundesliga during the 1992/93 season, while McBride was Fulham’s leading scorer last year in the Premier League. Earnie Stewart, who scored 17 times in his debut season at Dutch club Willem II in 1990/91, currently holds the record.

This one is for Staci

New Kids On The Block Stage Comeback

After months of speculation and rumor, the Kids are coming back. A well-placed source tells PEOPLE exclusively that New Kids On The Block are indeed getting back together.

The band's Web site, www.nkotb.com, which had been dormant, is now back up and running in anticipation of the official announcement, which the source says will be made in the next few weeks.

The site currently features a television graphic with a fuzzy, flickering photos of NKOTB in their heyday, and a link inviting fans to sign up for info.

The boy band, which made legions of tweens swoon in the early '90s, selling more than 50 million albums, became a worldwide phenomenon before calling it quits in 1994.

Eighteen years later, they're still "Hangin' Tough." The oldest "Kid," Jonathan Knight, now a real estate developer, will turn 40 later this year. Since the band's demise, former members Donnie Wahlberg, 38, and Joey McIntyre, 35, have seen acting success, while Danny Wood, 38, has worked as a music producer and Knight's brother, Jordan, 37, has continued to record.

Baking Part II

Here is a pic of all the women for baking. Aunts, cousins, mom (taking the picture) and gram. This is the family I was almost raised with.

Better Late Than Never Part II

11 months after the wedding - I finally will have my honeymoon - so we decided to do it right and well with A LOT of assistance from our families and my boss (he's paying for airfare so we are going FIRST CLASS BABY!!!) Yes that was bragging, but really - if you are going to be in a plane for 12 hours, and someone else is paying and that someone uses his private jet to travel - wouldn't you think to yourself, self what would Athena do when presented with this generous offer from someone so wealthy......

Anywho with help this past year we are able to afford a vacation. And it just so happens that the place is having a sale at the time of booking!!! It also is all inclusive - including golf, scuba, drinks and more. We were going to do Hawaii - but the all inclusive was hard to find and well.....this just seemed better.

This will also be my first vacation in 4 years, 2nd vaca since college spring breaks. And I live in Seattle - so yes I need some sun.

Sandals Regency St Lucia

If I was cool - I would have scarfed some pics but their site is just much better.

Better late than never....

Ok so I finally got a couple pics that I can put up from the holidays. No they are nothing exciting and don't have my smiling face in them. :)

The first is the baking that I did while in Ohio the first week of December. Now mind you - I did not personally do all that baking - about 12 of us did. But yes - we had like 13 different recipes and the baking was all day long. That is my cousin Jesse in the back - she is two years younger than me (i'm the oldest grandchild). I still haven't figured out how to right the picture - sorry!



The second is my Xmas village - I do one every year and I love the village. Next year however I have a problem cause I won't have space and I don't want to put it on my table again - makes eating Xmas dinner a little tricky.



The third is - Look it does snow in Seattle! That would be my house with snow all around it. I believe this was Xmas day as well.

Boys vs Girls

So last Friday I had a new experience. It was a great experience however. On Fridays for 8 weeks Tony and I run Academy sessions for little kids (3 hours). I have 8 year olds. The first session is boys - I have 12 and the second session is girls - i have 10. It is in this scenario that I have 1) gotten to coach boys for the first time and 2) gotten to see the dynamics of boys vs girls in an even clearer light.

Let's just say it was fun and interesting and next week I will have a little better perspective on how to handle my groups. Out of both groups I have - half of the kids I think are fabulous - not necessarily because they are great little players though - and half that well would be good to push them off to another group. LOL

The biggest thing with kids is keeping them moving and interested. Keeping them interested takes some creativity however. It also kind of doesn't jive with how I "want" to coach (red light green light, sharks and minnows, cats and bulldogs, etc) - but, I don't coach young kids normally so it doesn't bother me much in these settings. But it is a good learning lesson for me. Starting any session with kids - my most frustrating thing is knowing their name. It is hard to give praise - if you don't know their name. It is hard to correct a problem or reprimand - if you don't know their name. In my boys group - half of them start with a C or Q - that whole "cuh" sound. So a little tricky. And next week they won't be wearing the same jersey or hats that helped me identify them like this last week - but luckily I can get names down pretty quickly.

As such I wanted to impart some noted differences between the sexes - cause I think it is an interesting dynamic. These are not listed in order of importance however.

Boy Vs Girl

#1 Asking them their name - Little girls will readily offer up their name and most of the time do it via one of two ways - they either are very proud of their name and bubbly and offer it up willing as in "you WANT to know MY name." Or they cock their head sideways and shyly look around and mutter their name - barely audible enough and since it isn't Amy - you usually have to ask twice. Boys - you ask them their name and all of a sudden they get quiet, pause for a moment and are pondering whether to tell you their name lest they be in trouble. It's like - what does she want to know my name for? What did I do? Is she going to tell my mom? but regardless - each group doesn't like it when you ask their name more than twice. And unfortuantely I have to in order to remember their names.

#2 Practical Application - boys may not 100% get what you asked them to do, but they got enough of a variation of it to try something out. So when teaching them how to do a scissor - which requires a step over and a cut - well, most did not execute properly - but they sure tried to pull something off that resembled what I showed them. So for example -the scissor is an inside out step over with one foot and a cut using the outside of your foot with the other foot. Half of my boys struggled with the cut - mainly because of the faint and most probably haven't been taught how to use the outside of their foot but so be it. On the step over - over half of them do an outside in step over or do some half flying concoction over the ball with a spin. It's in these instances that I just try to guide and correct some of them (while suppressing my laughter) and let the others just fly. After all - they are 8 and really, as long as they are trying that is good enough. With the girls - I don't think I got even one to try a step over. And cuts were tricky.

#3 Instructions - When giving instructions - boys want short instructions. After that, they take what you tell them and if they didn't quite understand - well who cares, I'll just improvise and pull something out of my 8 year old butt that seems good. This of course continues over time as they age. Girls - want to be told every last detail about the activity - lest they screw it up. Fear of failure or messing up is such a deterrent to little girls and their development. And even if you give them instructions - I gave them the same instructions as the boys - they struggled to even get the activity going. And of course because half of them like to be little chatty kathy things - they were talking while I was giving instructions and therefore continuously messed up the exercise and then got frustrated when I tried to correct them - because they didn't understand. (Talking while I am talking is a big pet peeve when I coach) And yes people, mean Coach Athena threatened kids in both of her groups with timeouts if they did not behave - Reece that would be you continuously kicking the ball against the backstop when I told you to stop - 12 times.

#4 Game time - little boys want to get the game on. It is where their competitive nature is able to come to the forefront and thrive. So as a consequence you always get asked are we going to scrimmage or when are we going to scrimmage or is it time to scrimmage yet. Little girls ask usually once - in the beginning. When game time does come around - different ball game. Boys are ready to play and play and play. There isn't any - I'm tired and bored with this now - when is it time to go home. With girls - half way through the scrimmage half of them are done and want to talk about Barbie. This is when the - how much longer do we have questions start.

#5 The push and pull - last night as I was falling asleep I was thinking about the dynamic of a group with young kids and this is how I felt. With boys - they have this unbridled energy that as long as you can harness and steer the ponies - you will get them to do what you want to do. There is that sort of let the wild pony be wild, but breaking them back in and then just kind of guiding them in the right directions. With girls - you have to push them to work. You have to push them to be motivated. You have to push them to try. You have to push them so they don't give up. You have too push them to have passion and motivation. You have to push them to be in shape. Boys - they will get in shape on their own by self motivating on a field of play.

My whole life anytime I have played or watched a guys team warm up - the boys always self motivate for warm up. They are out kicking a ball around, passing, juggling, moving. I saw a boys high school age team warm up a couple months ago and I loved it. The coach didn't have to interfere and structure a warm up - the boys just knew what needed to be done and went out and did it. They had balls flying all over the pitch to people all over the pitch - simply improvising with short passes and long balls to people. Girls - man I had rules with my girls teams and they still ignored them. The rule was you had to be juggling once you got your gear on. You could still talk - but you had to talk and juggle. Could be individual juggling or group juggling - i didn't care. Work on your first touch chickas. Well the majority of those times those slackers would be sitting on their butts when i drove up. Then comes the - oh no coach is here start juggling.

#6 Substitutions - I am going to use our girls team to illustrate this example best. Boys are much more win driven when it comes to sports. Girls turn into more it's all about me and my needs in sports. With boys - they have their own pecking order and their own pressure cooker. You can have a U14 boys team go out and play a game and do their own substituting. More so with indoor but still. If someone isn't pulling their weight or is too slow - out come the calls to get your ass off the field - you are now the last contributing member and you need to step off the pitch. And boys will do it. Girls - OMG - it's all about the amount of playing time and the quality of their time vs the team as a whole. I can't even tell you how many talks I had to have with my teams about the TEAM sport aspect. I once had a player come off after 20 minutes (I was just subbing so others could get playing time) and she got all pissy cause she didn't get to touch the ball once and she thought she should be in longer because of it. Our current girls team - Tony has trie the self subbing thing - doesn't really work with them. That whole - I didn't get as much playing time as so and so or why are you telling me to come off or I want to have more playing time. All about me me me me me me. This where that whole parity thing comes to bite us in the butt - as it relates to girls. Ok so i digress a little...........

So now you want to know who my favorites are of my 8 year olds don't you? Well that is easy. M two favorite boys. One is Ian and the other is Spencer. Ian reminds me of the child I may have and the boy I would probably pick if I could pick my kid. He is spunky and energetic. He gives a lot of effort - even if he doesn't execute great. He is one of the ponies I will have to bridle. he is a cutie pie with blond curly hair that is a little unruly. And Ian thinks I am great of course. Next would probably be Spencer. Spencer may not grow up to be a soccer play or an athlete. On the other hand - he just might. He is the kid that is a little stocky, doesn't seem to be quite a soccer player - but maybe he just needs coaching. Plain face with brown hair. But he has the most perfect disposition. This kid I think only said two words to me the whole time. he paid attention and was polite. he tried to execute what was taught and I didn't have to do anything to get this kid in line. He also picked up all my discs at the end and brought them to me without me asking. Now - I didn't ask cause I needed them for the girls sessions - but it was a very sweet 8 year old boy thing to do.

The girls - Lizzie is #1. Lizzie is going to grow up and be a fantastic soccer player. She is cute, smart, funny, motivated and determined. She also a a great 8 year old little player. Very coachable. I also dig how her mom does her bangs - does a little flip thing - so I kept looking at her hair trying to figure it out. Alex or Ace as I am supposed to call her is probably #2. Ace is Lizzie's friend. Both girls pay attention, are coachable and very bright. Ace is going to be a handful for somebody at some point however is my guess.

I've neglected the blog

I'm sorry. I actually have pictures from before Christmas that I want to share - but between my computer crashing and the holidays - I have just not gotten these things done. So until then, I want to harp on something else.

I think this is crap.....

Sports score blowout

I mean really, have we all gotten so soft in this country that we have forgotten that:

1. Sports are "meant" to be competitive - meaning somebody is going to win and someone is going to lose and you are supposed to give your best effort in the attempts of winning.

2. Not everything in life is fair and there is too much idealistic view that parity needs to happen at every turn when we deal with children (gee I can't imagine how that transcends to their adult life and implications stemming from that)

3. American sports are setup to always have a winner and a loser and have HIGH SCORING TYPES OF SPORTS COMPETITIONS. And people bitch about the low score of soccer .... "whatever"

Personally - I think it's good for teams from time to time to get their asses kicked. It's a good lesson in humility. it's a lesson that you aren't the best and if you want to be you have to work harder. It's a reminder of who is the best and what you need to aspire to. It's a reminder that sports is about winning. It's what fuels rivalries - which is a good fun positive aspect to sport.

Respect????? Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot of people I respect when I have played against them. Heck there are people I have played with on my teams (and still do) that I don't respect. I tell my girls that I don't care if they respect even their teammates - as long as they get along. Respect is something that is earned. It isn't a birthright or automatic just because you are old or because you do something like play a game. Respect brings with it your character. And if everyone is going to be a big crybaby about getting humiliated in a game - that is poor sportsmanship IMO. That's when I cease to have respect. Hold your chin up high and do your best. Those are the people I have respect for.

Maybe I am too extreme you say. But you know what? I coach for the best club in the country - and we are hated. Hated because we are the best. Hated because we win. Hated because we basically have a FU attitude if you don't like how we approach the game. Hated because the ploayer contract states there is no guarantee of playing time. And at the end of the day it is OUR club that is sending kids to college on scholarships. It is OUR club that is sending kids to play on national teams for our country. It is OUR club that is teaching our kids how to play the game at the highest level and what will be required of them if they go to the next level. It is OUR club that is teaching kids how to deal with adversity in sports competitions. People hate the best - when THEY aren't the best.

Basketball wasn't designed to be a game where you can take the ball to the corner and play possession to run out the clock like you can with soccer. It's a game that encourages you to score within 30 seconds or less. Run down and score, run to the other end and score.

And the worst part of this that people seem to forget. It's the coach's ass that's on the line when the team FAILS and LOSES. It's the coach that gets FIRED when the team fails to perform or perform well. It's the coach that gets BLAMED for all the problems with a team. This guy even offered some solutions to help run out the clock - which the other coach turned down. The coach had every right to start whoever he wanted and play them for however long he wanted. He has season goals and he is coming up on state playoff implications.

And honestly - if you have ever been on the losing side like that and the team decides to not even play because the competition sucks so bad so they dilly dally and don't take it serious and are laughing half the time and all it does is become one big game of keep away at their 50% best. THAT is more humiliating than truly getting your ass handed to you matching your best against their best. THAT's when I actually have respect for the other team. Otherwise respect turns to hate in those scenarios and that is worse IMO.

Our first wedding since our wedding

This was taken by a friend at a coworker's wedding a few weeks ago. It was the first wedding Tony and I had been to since our wedding. She had a snowflake theme and imagine how happy she was when it snowed on her wedding day - it doesn't snow here.

Nederlandse iedereen?

I mean really, you don't even have to understand Dutch...



And just why was My Michael Bradley being interviewed?

That's because he got a hat trick! (3 goals in a game for those that don't know)



I know - he's amazing isn't he.........

Continuation

To help back up my previous post......

The Fed makes lending changes


And in case I wasn't clear earlier this is how I assess the blame:

The government
Pres Bush stood up on a campaign of home ownership about 7 years ago and mandated that everyone should be able to enjoy in the freedom of owning a home. As a result, they gave an open pass to wall street to be as capitalistic as they wish (remember as you read all this I am a capitalist at heart). As more and more people started getting in homes it worked well for the economy as they also had a push to get more minority home borrowers in homes. The irony is they let Wall Street dictate the money boom with no restrictions, regulations or foresight. In the end, foreclosures are at the highest point in a long time and minority home ownership failed to grow. I believe it is still hovering somewhere in the 9% range. When banks started going kaput earlier this year - the government failed to react in a timely manner until the realized just how bad it was going to ripple the economy. One would have thought we learned this lesson once before.....

MBS/Wall Street
In a capitalist society where the leader is a capitalist beacon, if you let the inmates run the asylum - they will - and without a conscious. Wall street with its go ahead pass allowed mid tier (mid tier only in classification between brokers and Wall Street - not size of portfolio) lenders to create creative loan packages that allowed homeowners to get in homes. One of the more famous loan programs were Stated Income and Pay Option arms. Stated Income as defined in the article is where you basically are self employed and you tell the broker I make X - without providing documentation to back it up. Pay Option is where you have 4 types of payments you can make. One being a minimum payment which is below the principal and interest one can afford in a month - resulting in negative amortization. Reason Wall Street allowed these loans??? Higher payments off risk loans due to subprime originations. Allows for greater money to be made in the stock market trading mortgage bonds and portfolios.

Mid tier-lenders
30 fixed mortgage - what's that? A loan program that was the staple of the past, now pushed to the back seat - cause it is actually more expensive....ahem... I mean less affordable.Mid-tier lenders trying to make sure they keep up or out pace the competition pushed various loan programs off to brokers to get people in homes. And since they sell the loan usually within 60 days of funding - let's pump those mortgage loans through like a checker at a grocery store. Who cares if the borrower can't really pay - we have to have X amount of millions originated in loans this year.

Brokers
Acting like junkies needing a fix - who cares about the borrower - these no licensed (now they are in the past year) walk off the street from any other job such as a school janitor were funding your loans. If the loan funds they get paid their $2500 (approx)and the liability falls back to the lender that funded the loan. And to brokers - who really cares about referrals anyway - they had so much low lying fruit they didn't even have to understand how to run a business to be profitable. I could talk for years about this group - but will spare you.......

Consumers
Some of this is their fault - the eyes too big for the pocket book got some of these borrowers in trouble. Others - well they just didn't understand the booklet of crap to sign or that 1.5% interest meant for 6 months then it jacks up to 9% after that with a prepayment penalty lasting up to 2 years before you can refi.

And FYI - I was one of those borrowers on my first loan that had a bad broker. He told me 2 weeks before closing I would pay $500 LESS a MONTH than what came down at closing. AND he failed to tell me that my property taxes were NOT included in the loan. You say - well why did you do the loan then? Hmmmm well I had my cats, plants and now husband in a car after a two day road trip half way across the country to a house we had the movers already lined up to show in a few hours...........luckily, I refied before my lock went up and right before this bust became so bad. Otherwise I might be in the same situation as millions of other people.

Foreclosures on the rise

A report came out today that said foreclosures were up 93% over last year. 93%!!! That's scary. Now I have a beef of this on both accounts. Many people will take the old school approach and say - well it is the borrower's fault - they should have known what they got themselves into before they signed anything.

Well being someone who is in this industry, I can tell you with certainly that that is a load of crap. Have you ever seen the documentation a loan officer puts in front of you to sign - not only for closing but prior to? Do you know how long it would take one to read and understand all the legalese?

Does a borrower understand what basis points are, how much the interest rate truly is for and what it means to have 2% plus prime? What is the prime rate? How can one find that number? What fees are paid to the broker, the lender, why does the appraisal have to be paid for up front and outside of the loan if in fact the rest of the settlement services can be included in the price of the loan? When will the loan reset? How much really does that equate to when it adjusts? Why would I have a prepayment penalty and how much is it? What does negative amortization mean? What is escrow? Impounds? How does Mortgage Insurance benefit me, do I need it and can I get out of it? What is RESPA? What is a kickback? Why is there 200 pages of crap I have to sign?

Is anyone lost yet? And that was basically the layman's terms I used. And really, what happens if a borrower objects to something in the document? It's not as if the bank is going to alter the language for the consumer to satisfy them, more like - if you don't like it then go somewhere else. meanwhile the borrower just wants the house.

SO I don't feel the issue is primarily on the side of the buyer and it is "buyer beware". How the heck is a buyer supposed to beware when the system is setup against the buyer in the first place......

And no the government should not be bailing out all these lenders either. Part of the irresponsiblity that the lender had getting wrapped up in too much greed and not enough fiscal responsibility. They should not be rewarded for bad management.