Debra
Are you settled in at the new apartment? Are your sore all over and exhausted? They always go together when you move. And you're spot on with George Carlin's "stuff" monologue. You never realize how much stuff you have until you move it.
Lily
Martha arrives tomorrow morning and I'll be waiting for her at the airport
. I'm very ready for her visit, that is, after I tidy up the place a bit.
AmyBeth
I understand being sick of being sick. Do take is a bit easier than usual as you get better and feel yourself again.
Cam
So Jen is home. Is that Howard man done with it all today?
Soccer talk coming, skip it all if you like
Due to popular demand (okay Debra, Jackie, Frank, and Steve but I'll take it), here is the scoop on England v. USA Wednesday evening at Wembley.
New Wembley is huge (90,000 capacity) and beautiful. The pitch looked like a golf fairway, and the stands came pretty close to the pitch. They did have wire fences to keep the fans off the pitch, but instead of standing up they pointed out to the pitch. It looked like climbing across them to get on the field would hurt a lot.
The England fans were fabulous and gracious. Several of them asked me if I was enjoying myself and I told them absolutely. We were in the visitors section, but since this was a low key friendly the interior concourse fences weren't closed to segregate us, and they just had 2 empty seats on the left of our section separating the US fans from the England fans. Stewards sat at the end of each row just to be sure. They were needed, see later.
Before the match they had a little ceremony for David Beckham, recognizing his 100th cap last month against France, and his Order of the British Empire he was awarded by Buckingham Palace for this achievement. He was given a gold cap in a glass case, and the England fans (who vilified him in the past) cheered lustily, as did we American supporters.
The US roster was quite a disappointment. Wolff and Johnson up top, and 2 defensive mids, Clark and little Bradley. Obviously Coach Bradley had no intention of playing attacking football. Dempsey and Beasley on the wings, so his plan was to counter. It didn't work. Problem was, England had the ball probably 2/3 of the time, making it hard to counter. The technical ability of the English side is so much greater than ours, and when we won the ball they quickly took it back.
It was only a matter of time until England scored, and a stupid foul by Clark (one of many) led to a Beckham free kick, a real good one, headed in by John Terry. Beckham curled it away from the first cutter, Lampard, to the second cutter, Terry, and Tim Howard had zero chance. Goal.
The second half saw lots of substitutions, including my favorite NAT, Frankie Hejduk. If you want to know how I played, watch Frankie (I wasn't that fast, but I swear I was better at serving the ball). England still dominated, and Steven Gerrard was put through beautifully, clean on the keeper, and slipped the ball past Brad Guzan, goal #2. The rest of the game was great to watch, but it wasn't a good sign for the future that the best US field players were Eddie Lewis and Hejduk, both in their early 30's.
It was a friendly no doubt, some instense and some lackluster play, and England owned the match. That mattered zero to me. I loved every minute of it.
Also, I don't get the Wayne Rooney thing. He was total rubbish. He can run fast and straight, and can shoot hard, and not much else. And he obviously doesn't have 3 IQ points. If this had been a real club or country match he would have been red carded for his 2 legged lunge from behind through Hejduk. Then he barked at the ref for daring to show him yellow. He also did a fair amount of pouting and waving his arms. Living proof that you shouldn't give a yob millions of pounds. *******.
The crowed was amazing, even with 18,000 empty seats in the 3rd level. The lower 2 levels were completely full. They sang their songs all match and the place just shook. Any time the Yank fans made noise they started singing and drowned up out. It literally sent chills through my body.
And if you've been to a US Nats match there are always a few fans who spend the entire time being stupid, and this was no exception. We had 2 males, aged late 20's in our row, and they were doing stuff that you see whevener the US plays Mexico or another CONCACAF team. Pointed heckling of the English side (okay), standing all the time (gets tiresome), and pointed heckling of individual English fans (bad idea). After 10 minutes a group of stewards came to our row and told them to sit down and ease off the comments. The guys gave the stewards attitude, the stewards told them again, the guys gave more attitude, including the fact they "paid a grand to get here," and the stewards told them "it's your choice, sit or else." Well they sat. But within 5 minutes they were back at it, and the stewards were back for them several times in the first haf. Each time they gave it all back to the stewards. The 2 guys were also creating a bit of a stir in the closest English section. At halftime the 2 guys went up to bathroom or concessions, and a few minutes later a steward came down with their tickets in hand, picked up their possessions, and went back up. It seems at halftime, when there would be no scene, the stewards found them, took their tickets, and threw them out. Smart guys there, pay $1000, fly to London, and get tossed from the match.
It was so cool. I cannot imagine was an important English nats match versus someone like Germany or Italy would be like in Wembley. I guess when that happens I need to go over and continue my research.
This ends the soccer portion of today's program. My sincere apologies to the majority of my friends who have other interests.
Craig
...
. How is the move coming along? I don't envy you that, it's always amazing how much we collect over the years, especially noticeable when we move LOL! Anyway, glad you had an enjoyable time at Kennywood even though it's hard after returning so recently from an incredible Disney trip!!!
Woo-Hoo for th Steel Phantom! 
My sister lived in Pgh for years so I would visit her frequently and Kennywood was a favorite! 
Sounds like you have some great goals!
You continually amaze me!!! Hope you had a great workout tonight 
, but since I had organized a group bike ride I felt obligated to show up for it. The weather was beautiful and we rode nearly 16 miles, so I'm pleased that I managed to get out there. Tomorrow I plan to do a gentle yoga class and hopefully get a 4 mile run in the books if I'm feeling better.
. BTW...I love that you engaged your core muscles to make that 3rd mile the other day feel a bit easier!!!! I love when you can draw from them...it means what you're doing for core work is truly helping. YAY!!!!
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(Oh, and Howard is completely done and his graduation is tomorrow; cocktail party tonight)
That is so awesome, I know I wasn't around for the beginning of your journey, but I am glad to see how far you have come!! You are an athlete and don't let anybody else tell you otherwise and you are a runner!! Good for you!!
Perhaps that was my punishment. Dependign on what the shop says, next week may be trianing via car shopping. Yay.
