Wish me luck, folks

My parents are in town this weekend, I am going to need all the luck and positive vibes you can send my way. While I love my parents dearly, you all know just how high maintenance parents can be, and mine are no different.

My mother happens to be the pickiest eater alive, so that pretty much takes fun restuarants off the table. Fudruckers, here we come.

My father is the smartest person in the room. Always. This is a blessing and a curse for him, I find. Being uber-smart doesn't always mean the most open-minded, in fact it means you often are pretty stubborn. And he comes across as not really liking people; it's not you necessarily you that he doesn't like, it's non of us. Strangely, that always alarmed my friends a bit growing up (most common refrain: "man, your dad is intimidating").

We will have a great time, I don't even mean to begin complaining. They're coming to watch Mish and I play soccer tomorrow, we're going to the navy memorial museum to see my uncle (apparently his pic is up there somewhere) out to eat with some friends on saturday night. Then on Sunday we're going to the arboretum in the morning and down to Haines Point for an afternoon picnic. So it'll be fun, a great spring weekend in DC. But damn, it'll be tiring. Parents are hard work. Wish me luck.

PS -- Better wish Misha more luck, it's gotta be worse for her.

Gravel on Colbert

WOW, this is good. I can't quite tell what in the hell Gravel is doing in the race, but who cares, the man is entertaining. He's often described as that crazy uncle in the Democratic '08 field, and I am pretty sure his comments on Spartans encouraging homosexuality pretty much confirms that: "They were gay. Why do you think they fought so well?"

GGGGGOOOOOOLLLLLLLLAAAAAAASSSSSSSOOOOOO!!!

As promised. First, the amazing Kaka's goal:


Next, the Dutchman that ESPN's Dereke Rae eloquently said is aging "like a fine claret," Clarence Seedorf...


And finally, Gilardino's nail in the coffin...

Global Warming, Good For Gardners

Forget the jokes about beachfront property. If global warming has any upside, it would seem to be for gardeners, who make up three-quarters of the population and spend $34 billion a year, according to the National Gardening Association. Many experts agree that climate change, which by some estimates has already nudged up large swaths of the country by one or more plant-hardiness zones, has meant a longer growing season and a more robust selection. There are palm trees in Knoxville and subtropical camellias in Pennsylvania.

Interesting read.

Sad day for Manks

Manchester players and fans alike are sure to be disheartened by today's Champions League result. The poor saps never quite showed up apparently. (Full disclosure: Unlike last week when I was too sick to go to work but not sick enough to not go to the bar to watch the match, I didn't see the game today... BUT Slurry did and that's what he said.) I did see the goals though, as well as United's only real chance on goal, and have to say it sure seemed like Milan dominated from all I can gather. I'll put up the youtube link of the goals when its available. Kaka's goal was magnificent, as was Seedorf's in terms of the clinical finishing ability. The final breakaway goal was equally clinical, but you should score on a breakaway so I was a little less impressed. United's defense was nothing short of shiite. The announcers even referred to it as "schoolboy league defending," which is probably British for "horseshit."

Bummer. But, I do take some solace in the fact that we'll take the Premiership and can make it a double with a win over the dreaded Blues in the FA Cup final. There's only one United!

Luck is an odd thing

While Jose 'Pepe' Reina, Liverpool's Spanish goalkeeper (and probably one of the top 5 keepers in the world), was busy using all the luck he could muster to save 2 out of 3 penalties in 'Pool's match against Chelsea last night (see footage below), his house was being burgled. Quite unlucky indeed. Is luck one of those things that you only really have access to so much of at one time? Like if you use it all up taking down the house at the blackjack table, are sure to get a speeding ticket on the way home from the casino or something? I dunno. But apparently a lot of footballers are getting their houses ransacked while they are off playing games. This article goes into detail of the Reina incident, but here are some of the other notable burglaries:

The Merseyside home of Jerzy Dudek, Liverpool's goalkeeper from the 2005 Champions League final penalty shoot-out, was burgled in June 2006 while he was on holiday in Poland.
Daniel Agger, who scored for Liverpool last night, had his Wirral home burgled in September last year.
Reds striker Peter Crouch's house in Alderley Edge was targeted in the same month while he was on England duty.
Everton winger Andy van der Meyde was burgled twice last year, including one raid in which his pedigree puppy was taken.
Wayne Rooney also lost memorabilia, including his BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year trophy, when his parents' Liverpool home was burgled in July 2006.

Weird, eh? I've heard of heard that there are theives out there who scour the classified ads and internets for obituaries and/or wedding announcements of rich people, hoping to burgle the people while they are attending services. Pretty good thinking, really.

Anyways, check out the good luck Reina had in this shootout to determine who was going to Athens for the UEFA CHampions League Final (vs. the winner of today's AC Milan/Man Utd 2nd-leg clash)

Your 2007 Tour Preview

In honor of the upcoming big fight [potentially the last one like it ever] this coming Cinco de Mayo between the Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather (previously discussed here on this tube), I bring you the preview of another irrelevant, corrupt, scandal plagued sport's biggest event, the Tour de France. The only problem is, I don't really follow cycling at all. But I do love google. And here is what I turned up.

The race is starting in London this year, for the warm-up stage known as the prologue. It is referred to as the Grand Départ du Tour (here is a helpful guide for how to type letters with french accents), and it is the 6th non-Frenchie city to kick things off, after Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Luxembourg, and Dublin.

Below is a map of the tour. If you speak/read French, you ought to check out this cool flash with all sorts of info about each leg of the race.

Logistically, everything you need to know is here:

The route

+ Running from Saturday July 7^th to Sunday July 29^th 2007, the 94^th Tour de France will be made up of a prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,550 kilometres.

These 20 stages have the following profiles

+ 11 flat stages
+ 6 mountain stages
+ 1 medium mountain stage
+ 2 individual time-trial stages

Distinctive aspects of the race

+ 3 mountain finishes
+ 2 rest days
+ 117 kilometres of individual time-trials (including the prologue)
+ 21 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed

12 new stop-over towns

+ London
+ Canterbury
+ Waregem
+ Villers-Cotterêts
+ Joigny
+ Chablis
+ Semur-en-Auxois
+ Tignes
+ Tallard
+ Mazamet
+ Cognac
+ Marcoussis

But let's get to the only thing anyone in America actually knows about cycling. Well, other than Lance Armstrong. All cyclists (except the revered Lance), are cheats. They blood-dope, they take supplements, and are probably corrupt on numerous other levels that are naked to the lay eye and would take an actual cycling fan to know of. Of course it's always the team doctor's fault or the team manager's fault and players would never knowingly take anything (just like in baseball). But none of that matters, all we know is they are cheats. Jan Ullrich, Lance's once-great nemesis had to retire because no one would hire him because his cheating was so bad. Ivan Basso is also now out of a team, same reason. Shit, last year our very own Amish homeboy Floyd Landis drank some magic Jack Daniels the night before his fabled Stage 17 ride that turned him into Superman. All those guys, and others, will be missing from this year's tour. Who is supposed to win then? Good question. It doesn't really matter, as long as the guy is clean. If this tour has more scandal, that could just kill it as a credible professional sport. Sorta like boxing will finally be dead if Mayweather beats the pulp outta De La Hoya for 12 rounds, but the Golden Boy still ends up getting a split-decision victory (my current prediction). I just wish my parents weren't going to be in town this weekend so I could watch that fight somewhere.

Here are some Americans to cheer for in the 2007 tour:
George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) [Lance's most notable domestique]
Bobby Julich (CSC) [Aging team rider, once a badass]
David Zabriskie (CSC) [a time-trial specialist]
Christian Vandevelde (CSC) [who I like cuz he's a badass domestique]
Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) [all around badass]