7/3/07

Ouch!

USA Men's team not looking too good in the Copa America. They got trounced against Argentina, and were made fools again against Paraguay. I simply do not understand the logic here, playing their best players against sub-par competition in the Gold Cup, then trotting the youngins out against the better South American teams. I understand the Gold Cup has ramifications on CONCACAF qualifying, but couldn't we have beaten a lot of those teams without our best players? Wouldn't they be best served playing against stronger competition? Sigh.

The Domestique would wager Argentina to win it all, if only he had a booky.

7/2/07

Jesus Sandals, etc.

What a momentous weekend we had here at the Domestique, folks, here's the run-down.

Friday night at the saloon with some 5 great friends and one really really lame/weird middle aged man who tagged along somehow to hit on the 3 ladies in our troupe. Descriptors for "Jay" ranged from: "creepy" to "gay?" to "pill-popper" to "big fucking loser." For the record, home slice was not gay, unless my gaydar is broke. He was definitely interested in flirting with the ladies and closed the night by inviting two of them back to his place to "pop open some champagne." As an aside, this is why middle-aged men can land women in their 20s: they have the disposable income to keep around chilled bottles of bubbly for those lucky nights when they run into some younger lady drunk enough to go home with them. This is hardly fair. This lame-O went home alone though, thankfully.

Saturday I picked up some Jesus sandals and an REI membership. These may go down as two of my bigger accomplishments this summer. By Jesus sandals, I of course mean Chacos. These ones here on the left, to be exact. I call them this for a couple of reasons, listed here in no particular order. (1) So comfortable, Jesus would surely wear these if the day of reckoning were tomorrow. I have no doubt he is already an REI member though, so they probably couldn't up-sell him like they did me. But really, these things are amazing. I haven't taken them off yet, except to sleep and play soccer. So comfortable, it's like walking on air, which only Jesus can do. (2) They probably look better with a Jesus-esque robe or tunic, and yet I do not hesitate to rock them with blue jeans, as I do not wear my Jesus-esque tunic outside of the house. (3) They are expensive, not so expensive that only Jesus can afford them (because I clearly purchased a pair), but it would certainly help to have His water-into-wine move to turn all this office paper in my recycle bin into a big stack of Benjamins. If I had that, I'd buy a pair of them for everyone in my life. Which Jesus would want, because he is all about spreading the love. (4) They're primarily marketed as water sandals and hiking sandals. Well, He is the only one I know who can walk on water (beat that Angel Moroni), AND he loooooves hisself a good walk thru the woods; I mean, what savior doesn't?

Clearly, they are some nice sandals. I highly recommend them.

Also on Saturday, I played in my final co-ed game, in fact my final soccer game, here in the District. We were in the finals against a team we tied in the regular season and got handled, 4-2. But we did have three fans in attendence, so that was pretty cool. You know who you are, and thanks for coming.

It'll be sad to leave all my soccer teams here in the district. I had a really successful spring season though, so I feel like I left on a high note. Check out these stats:

  • Combined record (two men's teams, one co-ed): 20-5-4 (win % of 70%) including payoffs
  • Men's team 1... 1st out of 158 teams in the state (DC/NoVA/MD) in goals against average (0.78 per game), 4th out of 158 in winning percentage (88.9%)
  • Men's team 2... 3rd out of 158 in goals against average (.89 per game), 17th in winning percentage (77.8%)
  • My co-ed league doesn't track stats as closely as the mens leagues, but by my calculations we let in 11 goals throughout the season and playoffs, so over the course of 12 games that is a GAA of 0.92... not too shabby.

Now, the two mens teams are actually ranked against eachother, so on the two teams I play for, we are in the top 5 in GAA. Guess where I play on the field? That's right, defense and/or keeper. Now I ain't saying I am the reason our teams don't give up goals, but there is a correlation there between me and three teams with GAAs below 1. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin...

Anyways, enough about me on my own blog, let's talk about the Raven. The Raven is a pretty awesome bar in DC and among my posse, is generally considered in the top two (Saloon being the other one, in fact this was an argument that Beta, Steff, and I had this weekend, which bar is better and why--I vote Saloon). So we went there on Saturday night and drunkenness ensued and that was fun.

Sunday I awoke to the urge for buckwheat and blueberry pancakces. Which were amazing to the taste, but pretty ugly to the eye. I am not the pancake maker in the house. I try, but can never quite get it right. I blame the hardware, we just don't have the right pan for the job in my opinion (Alton Brown would agree, I am sure).

The weather was amazing on Sunday, so after spending the morning packing and whatnot, I went for a nice ride in the hills of upper NW DC. Basically I went and found the biggest baddest hills I could find in the area and attacked them. I can't wait to get out in the real mountains out West. I think I'll get my ass kicked, but that is the fun part. We then capped it all off with a BBQ /housewarming event up in Tacoma Park.

Busy weekend, eh? Did I mention I did it all in my Jesus sandals? As a matter of fact, I am blogging to you right now, live from my office, with my Jesus sandals fit comfortably on my feet (and if you already own a pair of these lovelies, you know exactly what I mean).