No Country For Old Men

My wife and I went to go see a movie with two friends of ours yesterday - No Country for Old Men. It was really good. I can't do a better job summing it up than the trailer does. Check it out below.

Elvis Has Left the Building

This past week has been a big week or so for us and Jozy. A couple of our friends had to leave town for Christmas week and left their Shih Tzu (Elvis) with us to dog sit. As you know, Jozy is not good around other dogs, especially dogs in her territory. Thus, we spent the whole week with the house divided in two, one dog allowed in one half and the other allowed in the other half. Noises on one side of the house invariably caused the McCoy side of the house to erupt into a frenzy.

Throw in Christmas, work, graduation, visiting relatives and soccer coaching and it has been a whirlwind of activity for Jozy to get used to. However, by today, I have to say that she was starting to beat my expectations and actually had moments of quiet around Elvis...and was sometimes able to sit in his presence. And then Elvis left this morning, his parents home from their Christmas vacation.

Jozy, depressed and saddened at the loss of her new friend, was immediately consoled by her first day of puppy obedience school.

Class was a trip. There were about 10 other dogs, almost every one was some sort of small toy dog that had been purchased from Texas or Mississippi and was about 1/3rd the size of Jozy. Jozy took to her role of bad girl of the class with ease, barking and freaking out until the instructor dropped two pig ears in her lap to chew on. Throw in some summer sausage and Jozy was as happy as a clam. Most of the class was spent talking and eating pig ears. No real instruction yet. However, by the end of the class Jozy was having some one on one time with another classmate, sharing summer sausage in the training ring with only occassional outbursts of aggressive play. It will be interesting to see how she does next week.

Textbook: Ronaldo Goal vs. Sunderland

About 30 seconds into this video is a textbook view of how to take a free kick from the top of the box. What a great strike.

Mon chien a un os verts

I thought this was a nice photo of Jozy. The colors on the iMac display are pretty amazing. It took me about 15-20 minutes to learn some basics related to resizing photos so they were suitable for uploading. I think that when I understand the file directory and basic disk structure I will feel better. Not sure how long that will take.

The green bone (un os verts) in the photo is from my wife's mother. Jozy was in love with this toy...until she opened the next...and the next...and the next. I think her favorite might be some sort of mallard or small wild turkey. I'm sure you will see it here some time soon as I play with the photo editing features on our new toy.

Retro NASL

Here's a cool site for the retro soccer fans out there. You can check out all of the old NASL jersey's - the one below is the San Diego Sockers. You can go to Toffs and buy some of your own, or for that matter, retro jerseys from european clubs as well. A 1940 Manchester United jersey? Wicked cool.

Starting Over...

I have a new toy.

...and I am learning how to use a computer all over again.

Joyeux Noël

Joyeux Noël!

Mon chien a reçu un nouveau canard.

Tiger Art

This is a photo of the tiger statue outside of Mike the Tiger's cage. It was one of the most popular spots to get a graduation photo after or before the ceremony. So popular that we avoided the line.

Mike the Tiger

While we were on the LSU campus for graduation, we got to stop by the tiger cage and see LSU's Siberian-Bengal mascot, Mike the Tiger (the VI). Mike weighs over 300 pounds. I'm not sure how many times in my life I have seen an animal like this...he was really impressive. Here are a few Mike links:

Wikipedia page
Official Home Page
Tiger Cam
LSU letter to PETA after being asked to not replace the last Mike

The Graduate

Update: Flickr Slideshow of complete graduation set now available.

San Francisco, Chinatown 1

This photo above was taken during our recent trip to San Francisco - at the part of Chinatown that borders the area where City Lights is located. I just started working with some of the San Fran shots I took, so there will probably be a few more posted here sometime soon. The photo below is a miscellaneous street scene taken from the same walk.

P.S. Some graduation photos should be coming up pretty soon for those of you who are interested. Right now though, it is time to go brave some traffic and check out lines. Only 1.5 shopping days left!

Congrats!

My wife graduates from her masters program at LSU today. I am not sure how she managed to do it all on top of all of the things she does elsewhere...including taking care of me and Jozy. She is truly amazing. Congratulations!

True Fan

To continue my spirit of semi-shocking soccer images for the day, check out this passionate fan for Feyenoord, one of the big 3 clubs in the Netherlands. It's a famous photo at this point, but that doesn't mean it is not worth sharing.


Here is another photo of the same kid, just from the side.

Celebrate Your Success

It is too bad the co-ed season is over as of this past Friday. I was just starting to get comfortable with introducing true goal celebrations to the league. I've never been someone who celebrates after scoring so this is a new thing for me. I grew up as a calm "I've been there before" goal scorer...even though goals were a rare thing with my role as a sweeper.

Needless to say, I won't be doing this particular celebration any time soon.

via Who Ate All the Pies

Silversun Pickups - Kissing Families

This tune has been on repeat a few times over the last couple hours at this point. Thought I would share it. It starts out a little slow but the intensity in the lead vocalist's voice picks up big time towards the end. Cool tune.

SSPU Website

Coach

We had a player on our JV score a hat trick the other day. I was warming up the Varsity.

Player 1: Hey Andrey has a hat trick!
Player 2: A Mexican hat trick.
Coach: What does the fact that he is Mexican have anything to do with it?
Player 2: Stop being so Northern.

Pretty funny exchange. And by the way, the player with the hat trick is from Cuba.

What's At Stake

I was watching the NCAA Men's Soccer Finals last night (taped from Sunday) and ESPN had a little graphic flash up on the screen entitled "What's At Stake," during which they explained to me that the winner of the final would be the national champion.

...

...


To be fair, I think their point was that this would be the first time either team would be a national champion, but still, it seemed like a silly graphic. Both Ohio State and Wake Forest played great soccer. Wake Forest ended up winning 2-1.

Green Thumb

It's been a while since we checked in on the lemons in our backyard. Since I know everyone has been wondering how they are doing, I thought I would show them off. It looks like it is just about time to pick them!

Casualty

Hunting

Lapira headed to MLS Combine

"Major League Soccer today announced the initial list of 54 college seniors from 33 Division I schools who have been invited to participate in the 2008 adidas MLS Player Combine. The annual player combine will be held at Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Jan. 11-15, 2008."

On the list is Joseph Lapira, Louisiana native who went to St. Louis High School. MLSNet did a quick profile on Lapira as a top college prospect for the MLS. For some reason, he appears to be choosing to play on the Irish national team rather than the US MNT. He is eligible to do so because of his Irish mother. If you were good enough to play international soccer, would you pick to play for Ireland or the US?

Here is his Notre Dame player profile.

Hitch

As I was walking off the field from high school practice yesterday, it felt like my lip was getting a little swollen. I assumed I had been bitten by a mosquito...but the itching never started. Instead, by the time I was about 2 minutes into the drive home, I looked like Will Smith in Hitch.

Ok. Well, not that bad. Just my lip was swollen. It was about the size of my nose and was covered with a ton of little white dots. To cure the ailment, I took some Benedryl and put ice on my lip. I wasn't sure how bad it was going to get so I tried to find out what it could possibly be by searching on Google. If you ever search Google for "little white dots on my lip" you should know that the only hits you'll get are related to Herpes. After some careful thinking, I decided I would rule out airborne Herpes or mosquito carried Herpes as a potential diagnosis. With no other potential ideas at hand, my friend "retired" suggested that it might be a brown recluse spider bite. However, I wasn't showing many symptoms related to a venomous spider bite so I ruled that out.

Unable to diagnose the issue, I took a second benadryl and had a beer. Wow. Combining those two was a bad idea. I went out to dinner with my wife and could not carry on a conversation that stayed in one single thread. Today, the swelling has gone down a little but it still feels like I am woozy from the benadryl. So I am taking it easy and getting some rest, working only occasionally. What a weird night. I wonder what bit me?

Erik Edman Goal: Spurs vs. Liverpool

Here's another - I'm must be in the mood to post goals today. And after a long day yesterday, I'm trying to take a mental break every 45 minutes or so by catching up on some soccer blogs. 55 yards out, upper 90. I love the announcer's brogue.

(Who Ate all the Pies)

Larsson Goal: Birmingham vs. Tottenham

This one is just fun to watch over and over. Upper 90 from about 30 yards out, in stoppage time. Sebastian Laarson.

Michael Bradley's Hat Trick vs. FC Groningen

If you have not heard, Michael Bradley, US MNT player on the SC Heerenveen team in the Dutch Premier division netted a hat trick in Heerenveen's recent 4-2 victory over FC Groningen. His goals are the 2nd, 5th and 6th in the video below. He seems to have a knack for trash around the net. An American with a hat trick in a European league? Wow.

Ornithology

We went to Girard Park this past weekend, taking Jozy for her first outing at our favorite place to walk. I've uploaded some photos of the various birds that we saw. Besides the duck, I am pretty sure the other birds are different types of herons. I'm not a birder though...so I could be wrong. Jozy was out walking with the dog whose face she tried to bite off a few weeks ago (Elvis). After the initial greeting, and given enough distractions in the surrounding area, Jozy appears to be able to tolerate the presence of other dogs. Baby steps.

Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks

A little PB&J for your Monday afternoon listening pleasure. This track was on a Monthly Mix long past...can't remember which one. Video is odd. But you can whistle along. C'mon. It's easy.

usually when things have gone this far
people tend to disappear

Casualty

Another "squeaky" bites the dust. One bear down, one duck down, and we are now on a "soccer ball squeaky."

AFC Update

Our co-ed league has dragged on this season due to various cancellations and rescheduled games. However, at long last, we entered the playoff portion of the season yesterday and started off with a resounding 5-1 or 6-1 thumping of our first competitor. Our first goal was scored 25 seconds after the opening whistle. The game was marred by two unfortunate incidents:

1. Prior to the start of the game, the league commissioner announced that due to the fact that we will be unable to complete the full playoff schedule, that the playoffs are now meaningless. Regular season records will be used to determine the champion of the league. All games in the post-season are being considered friendlies. Pretty weird right? Note: Our regular season record puts us tied for first place. We are scheduled to play that team next Sunday. Seems like it might make sense to make this a league final.

2. Things got a little out of control during the "friendly" game. It's normal for this to occur. The unfortunate incident was that the other team's fans started cheering for their players to hurt us. It got worse. The children who were watching joined in. Picture a 7 year old girl standing on the sideline yelling "Kick him in the shin!" and you'll understand what it was like.

Crouch and Special K

I really like Peter Crouch (6 ft 7 in). He is deadly up top and it is a shame that he doesn't get more time with his club. That said, this play on "lookalikes" was too good to pass up. Who Ate All The Pies does this lookalike thing all the time. This just happens to be the best ever.

Cajun Signs: Olde Tyme Grocery

Best poboys in town.

Layover

In my spare time this weekend I am cleaning up files from my laptop and organizing some photos. This one was photo taken from this past summer in the Lafayette airport.

Maine Signs: No Trespassing on Island

Scene from York, Maine this past summer.

Firsts

I've been traveling this week (thus the lack of posts). I got to see my first snowfall of the year when I was in DC though. The other first was a trip to my first ever NBA game. Unfortunately it wasn't a close game so it was a little slow. Still cool though. It was the Wizards vs. the Cavs. Lebron was not on the court. That would have been cool.

That Guy

Tonight I was "that guy" for about 6 hours. I was that guy who loses his wedding ring on a business trip. I traced my steps back to the office at 10 PM, crawled around parking lots, peeked under couches in the lobby of the hotel, peered down elevator shafts, moved all of the furniture in my hotel room, dug through the drains of the hotel sink, contacted cleaning staff and grounds crew personnel, all with no luck.

...and then, I am headed to bed and decide to wash my hands. Clink. I drops from a towel. Sigh. Thank God I am no longer that guy. I am way too sentimental to just go out and buy a replacement. It would never be the same.

It makes you...

This is just a random image I stumbled upon on FFFOUND!. It's 2 AM where I am tonight and this fits my mood for no other reason than I am tired and cranky.

Letdown

If you're like me, and completely disappointed by the 4th quarter victory of the Patriots...and you're still sitting there wondering why the Ravens called time out, here's a video from a HS game to help keep things in perspective. The video starts with 3 minutes left and Plano East is down 41-17.

David Gray - This Years Love

Here's a classic tune from David Gray. It's not new by any means. I am simply rediscovering it.