Recently in Sports Category

A few months back Steve found out that the England football (soccer) team would be coming to Chicago to play the US team. Almost before he finished reading the announcement he was looking online for where and when he could buy tickets. The game was this past weekend — and we had a blast. Steve lived in Chicago (downtown on East Ohio Street!) for almost two years when he first moved here from England — so we visited a lot of our old haunts and enjoyed seeing the city again. Navy Pier, Michigan Avenue, Water Tower Place … the shopping! Oh my, the shopping!

The game had great atmosphere — with more than half of the 50,000 crowd being England fans. English flags were everywhere in the stadium — if you were to just look at the stadium you would think there were ONLY England fans there — there were that many flags. England won 2-1 in a great match. I love soccer (football) because it’s 90 minutes of playing time - not long and drawn out with time-outs and yadda yadda yadda. 45 minutes. 15 minute half time. 45 minutes. The game is finished. American Football could learn a few things from that!

We got a bit of shopping in, visited the Chicago Mac Store, Navy Pier; bought two pairs of the wonderful Clarks shoes (yes!); and on Saturday night we went to see Star Wars. Ah the tragic inevitability.

Sunday we stopped in at Frys (the only one in Illinois - how lucky it’s close to Chicago!) and enjoyed checking out one of the geekiest stores in the planet. I wish we had one of those in Nashville - it would be so handy!

Click here for our photo album of the weekend!

What? Huh? Injury Time? But ... it was England 1-0! Errrr? Zinedine Zidane did WHAT?

:soccer: Sounds heard at my house this afternoon:

[England scores]
Steve: Yesssssss!!! :bounce:
[Beckham misses the field goal]
Steve: Bloody buggers! What the ?! Bloody useless sod ... :headache:
[Zinedine scores]
Steve: Nooooooooooo! WHY is this happening? :yell:

The rest of the game isn't fit for print. :censor: Let's just say we have one unhappy englishman in the house. :mad:

The TITANS v. RAIDERS game last night was great. Titans had 14 points within about 3 minutes of the first quarter. The game ended Titans 24 -- Raiders 14. It's always better to go to a game when your team actually wins. The first few times Steve and I went to see the Washington Capitals play hockey in D.C. - they LOST. It was soooo disappointing. Then the 4th time we went, they stomped Carolina 7-0. That was a GREAT game. Babble Babble.

There wasn't a new Friday Five this week, so I pulled one from the archives to do.

:fridayfive: Friday Five time ...

1. What is your favorite restaurant and why?
Kan Pai of Tokyo -- (a Japanese Steakhouse). You go in and eight of you can sit around this huge table with the cook top in the middle. The cook comes in with his huge white hat and he cooks the food in front of you. He throws around knives and eggs and lights little onion fires. I usually have Hibachi Chicken with Fried Rice (and sometimes shrimp) .... and it's yummmmmy! On my birthday one year, our cook shaped the fried rice into a birthday cake and brought candles out and everybody sang. The food is excellent and it's a very FUN dining experience.

2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to?
Subway. 6" mozzarella cheddar bread with ham/turkey/lettuce/green peppers/cucumber. Yumm!

3. What are your standards and rules for tipping?
I don't agree with tipping at all (In Europe -- tipping is not expected. Servers are actually expected to do their jobs anyway. Amazing concept. LOL.) -- but we do tip. Usually we double or triple the tax amount depending on the service we received. If it's REALLY REALLY bad service, we'll usually leave a penny with a note written on the back of the check (because the manager will most likely see the checks .... and we want the server to know we aren't just being cheap... LOL)

4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert?
Nope. Most places we go to usually have bread, chips or something to nibble on while you're waiting for your food. I never order dessert because usually I'm too full to want anything else.

5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant?
I almost always order diet coke. If we're out and I know I don't have to drive, and my husband isn't up for a beer, I might order a few blue margaritas. I'm not a big alcohol drinker.

And the final score of the first USA World Cup Game is .... PORTUGAL 2 -- USA 3 !!! The United States shocked Portugal with three goals in the first 36 minutes, then held on for the upset at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Korea to move to the top of Group D with FIFA World Cup™ co-host Korea.

Woohoo! Go USA!

In other news ... I've been throwing around an idea in my head for a few months now (procrastination is a gift, you know) of opening up a "review" site. The entire site would be reviews (by me & others) on movies, books, computer programs, etc. Anything and everything. I'm still stewing on it though.

Back to the grindstone. I've got to be cleaning up my humble abode -- my family is all coming up tomorrow to spend the night before their trip to Hawaii. It will be a CRAMPED evening -- with six adults in a small 2 BR apartment. (On a side - but related - note -- I can't wait til we get a house. ARGH!!)