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.