That’s right, people: FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa is here! The month-long tournament started 11 days ago, and I have been soaking it all in. We are just 3 days and 12 games away from the end of group play and the beginning of the knock-out rounds. The competition and excitement is only increasing until the finale on July 11th.
I have been a soccer fan for 20 years now. TWENTY YEARS.
That girl in the pink t-shirt and super dorky shin guards? Yeah, that’s me on my very first soccer team. Twenty years ago. I’m sure my parents had no idea that that first team would spark in me a lifetime love of the game.
Me again (#15), approximately 14 years later. Senior night for my college team. Thankfully I picked up a few tips on shin guard fashion over the years.
So yeah… I’m a lifelong fan of the game. Here are just a few of the reasons I love watching the World Cup:
- It makes me glad to see people from every nation, culture, and economic background unite together. It’s the same warm fuzzies I get during the Olympic ceremonies.
- Unlike the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, or Stanley Cup, the champion of the World Cup will actually be a world champion.
- This year, I love seeing South Africa as host. For an American midwestern girl, I have a lot of connections to this beautiful country. A good friend of mine is currently living there and using soccer as a tool to share Christ. During one of my college summers, I worked with two South Africans coaching for youth soccer camps. In my first post-college job, my boss, the company president/CEO, the vice president, and many others in the company were South African.
- Soccer—football—is the beautiful game, for good reason. When it’s done right, it is a sight to behold. It takes my breath away and sends chills down my spine. Sport does not get any better than this.
A fellow footy fan shared a wonderful essay on the culture of the game: How Soccer Explains the World. It is a bit lengthy, but worth the read, even if you’re not a sports fan. Perhaps especially if you are not a soccer or sports fan. Here are a few highlights:
“Football is nationalism. Unlike the Olympics or other sporting events, the World Cup is hosted by a country, not a city. This breeds tremendous national unity, not just provincialism.
Of course Brazil and Argentina wear yellow & green, and blue & white, respectively, because those are the colors of their flags. But why does Italy wear blue? Or the Dutch orange? Or Korea red? Or Australia green & yellow? None of those match their flags! You have to be “in the know” to understand: Blue is the color of Savoy, the ruling house of Italy from 1861 until 1946. Orange stands for William of Orange, the Netherlands’ first prince who ushered in the country’s independence from Spain. RED is an acronym for South Korea’s economy: Resilient, Enthusiastic, Dynamic. And the Wattle tree is the national tree of Australia, which has green leaves and yellow flowers.
If you think that the greatest sports rivalries are Yankees-Red Sox, or Lakers-Celtics, nothing will prepare you for European and Latin American football (Brazil vs. Argentina is almost as intense as you can get).
Sport exposes American individualism. Why are we the only nation in the world that runs on Imperial units instead of Metric, and uses different cell phone technology than the rest of planet Earth, and plays American football instead of soccer? Is it arrogance or apathy or narrowmindedness? However you slice it, it is not good—and this tendency to not play by the rules of the world often gets us in trouble in other arenas, not just sport. Soccer also highlights Americans’ sports ADD (attention deficit disorder): we desire games that score 20-100 points (American football or basketball). But if the final score is 1-0, or a 1-1 draw, that is unbelievably boring to us. This also explains the decline of baseball in America for the same reasons: lower scores and slower pace of game no longer appeal to this ADD generation.
Sport is humorous. I remember in the ’06 World Cup when Germany played Sweden, and the German fans chanted toward the Swedes, “You are nothing but furniture makers!” (think IKEA and you’ll start laughing)”
Last week I gained a new soccer experience: watching a game in a packed-out pub with other U.S. supporters. It was unbelievable. I only hope that we continue to advance and play a weekend game so I can take Jeff to experience the atmosphere and excitement as well. I’d only seen the fan reaction on TV when the cameras cut to a crowded bar, and it is truly exciting to be a part of that atmosphere.
The time difference this year has worked out very well. The games here in EST have been on at 7:30am, 10:00am, and 2:30pm. Sure beats those middle of the night games of 2002 in Japan/Korea! We don’t have cable TV, nor does our internet service provider support ESPN3 (for online live broadcasts… grumble, grumble… that’s another post) so I have been watching many of the games online in Spanish at univision.com.
[Side note: The announcers on Univision are so much more animated when Mexico is playing! They speak too quickly for me to pick out many words, but the emotional difference is obvious.]
I have commentary on the games so far, but I will save that for another time and when group play is done. Tomorrow morning I will be at an Irish pub supporting my country vs. Algeria in their bid to advance to the second round. USA! USA! USA!
June has indeed been quieter than May thus far in the out-and-about sort of way, and for that I am truly thankful. However, two weekends ago, we still managed to book ourselves almost to the max. And by we, I mean I as I’m the scheduler/planner in the family. I’m often too optimistic about all that can be squeezed into a time period, and end up running around in a frenzied mess to make it work. I’m working on that, and my husband tries to help me be more realistic.
Case in point: Two weekends ago we were hosting a small dinner at our house for our church APLS (Adult PotLuck Suppers – say it ‘apples’) group. Guests were showing up at 6pm. However, I also volunteered both of us to run sound and video for a wedding at church that same afternoon. Wedding on Saturday = rehearsal on Friday (which in this case was a rather long one). Plus we ended up with a dessert fellowship/game night with our small group on Friday night, leaving little time to get everything ready. ‘Everything’ in this case also meant picking out, buying, and hand washing new drinking glasses since enough of ours had broken that we couldn’t serve all our dinner guests.
(Here you must understand that Jeff and I research and compare like mad before making any kind of major purchase. We are nothing if not thorough. This extends to new drinking glasses. And DVD storage… but that’s another story.)
Anyway, it made for a rather crazy two days. Those two days also happened to be the first two days of the World Cup and I am one of those crazy footy fans (more on that later). Once all of Saturday’s activities were done, I had a recording of U.S. vs. England to watch before getting back on the internet and talking to anyone who might know the outcome of the game.
This past week and weekend involved a lot more World Cup action, but also a 2nd birthday party for our nephew Max. We made the day-trip to Columbus this past Saturday (two hours there and back again) for his party, and it was definitely worth the trip. I didn’t get any pictures on my camera so you’ll just have to trust me when I say he is one cute kid. And active. Boy, is he active. And part fish. That kid fixated on the kiddie pool like a border collie fixates on… well, anything. We don’t get to see him that often, and we want to be a part of his life so any excuse is a good one to go see the little guy (and the rest of the family, too).
This week is VBS. I’m running the sound board and observing how our church does things, and figuring out how I might be more involved in future. Oh, and World Cup action continues.
Have I mentioned the World Cup is going on right now? Oh right, that’s another post.
Last Friday we went to a dessert party, where everyone brings a dessert to share and at the end of the night we divvy up all the leftovers to take home. Mmmm… such a delicious idea.
I wanted to make something new, relatively quick, easily transportable, yet impressive and finger-lickin’ good. Bonus points if I didn’t need to have the oven on for very long since we’re in the throws of hot, humid summer. Enter this no-bake bar recipe from a new-to-me cookbook I have out from the library:
Peanut Butter Graham Squares
(from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion)
These rectangles sport crispy graham cracker bottoms, a wonderfully smooth and creamy peanut butter middle, and just the right touch of chocolate on top. They look very grown up when cut and arranged on a plate, but the flavor appeals to children (of all ages).
11 whole graham crackers (6 ounces)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
Line a 9×13-inch pan with the graham crackers. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt, stirring until smooth. Spread the mixture evenly over the graham crackers and chill for 1 hour.
When the mixture is chilled, melt the chocolate chips over low heat, stirring until smooth. Pour the chocolate over the peanut butter filling, spreading it evenly over the top. Allow the chocolate to cool until set. Cut into bars and serve.
Cook’s note: I used smooth natural peanut butter, and probably closer to 1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips with a little shortening thrown in for a smoother, shinier finish.
I first discovered Alexander McCall Smith with his novel Corduroy Mansions, serialized on The Telegraph web site. You may be familiar with his most famous work, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (of which I have recently purchased the first novel and look forward to starting soon). 44 Scotland Street is another serial novel, and, after a bit of adjustment, I rather like the genre. AMS’s serial novels are episodic and character-driven. They take their time, like a meandering, scenic drive: more about the journey than the destination. That is not to say they are without plot or action! They are full of gentle, understated humor with little tidbits of commentary on life.
Fair warning: series such as these do not wrap up loose ends at the end of each novel. The threads weave throughout the entire series as a whole.
44 Scotland Street is about the lives of the residents at said building, located in Edinburgh’s New Town, and the lives of the people they touch. The novel focuses on Pat, a college student on her second gap year and working in a small art gallery. Her character really grew on me as the story progressed. I especially like the friendships developing in the group of Pat, Matthew, Domenica, and Angus Lordie.
And then there’s Bertie: the 6-year-old prodigy who plays the saxophone, speaks Italian, and loves trains. Bertie is a hoot and a half. I can’t wait to watch him grow up as he attempts to free himself from the dreadful auspices of his overbearing mother, Irene.
I picked up the audiobook from the library and found it to be the perfect accompaniment while washing the dishes and doing other household chores. I’m looking forward to #2 in the series, Espresso Tales.
My hard drive bit the dust on Monday. Kaput. Finito.
But hopefully not irrecoverable.
I came back from walking the dogs and the screen was frozen. Turned it off and back on again only to be greeted with a gray screen with a flashing question mark folder icon. Great. Booted from the install disk, but no hard drive listed. Crap. Tried some other stuff, still no HD showing up. The gentle clicking sound was not confidence inspiring.
Jeff thinks we can recover some data since my last backup; just waiting for a disk to come in the mail. Fortunately, I do back up the important stuff (just hadn’t done it super recently) and rarely delete pictures off the camera. And, seeing as how I’m married to a tech geek, we had an extra MacBook HD around the house so I’m back in business (sort of). Also, Jeff thinks we can get Apple to replace the fried HD for free. Apparently there were some problems with the model I had, and Apple put out an extended warranty for it.
Makes me realize just how dependent I am on my computer and information. I mean, I knew that already, but really. I felt almost helpless on Monday.
I had at least one picture-heavy post planned this week, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort with my lappy in limbo.
- It’s only the beginning of June, and my freckles are already out in full force. Shoulders, arms, even my wrists and the backs of my hands. I’m not exactly tan by most standards (not with all my Scandinavian and Northern European blood), but I don’t have the pasty “office tan” I sported most of last summer.
- I did 4 miles on the elliptical last night. Felt great in that kicked-your-butt kind of way. I’ve got a workout system now: swim on Mondays, elliptical on Wednesdays, run on Friday/Saturday.
- We tried the new spicy chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-a last night. Verdict: super yum. It will be my new go-to menu item. Jeff liked it, but said he’ll probably stick with the original.
- The rest of Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix. Woo hoo! Now we can finish the series before the first movie comes out this summer.
- I’ve recently posted a couple blogs via backdating. It was just easier to write that way, and they’re mostly for me anyway. If you’re interested, make sure you go back and read them.
- May was crazy busy. Fun, but busy. I can’t sustain that pace of activity indefinitely, and am looking forward to a calmer June.
- We are loving our new Weber charcoal grill. It’s amazing how much better food tastes on it. And it was free because my husband rocks at his job. 🙂
- We have new next door neighbors as of one week ago. Haven’t met them yet, but I hope they’re nice and good neighbors. We really liked the people who moved out—knew them the best of any of our neighbors. However, it has been quieter without their sweet, but noisy dogs!
This past weekend was our 5th consecutive camping trip up to Marmon Valley Farm (a Christian horse camp) near Zanesfield, Ohio. It seems to always be a hot weekend, and this year was no exception. For those who don’t know the history, Jeff proposed to me at Marmon Valley in October 2005, during our first camping trip together and with our good friends, Ryan and Kyna. In fact, Ryan and Kyna met and fell in love when they were both on staff at Marmon Valley. It’s quite the romantic spot. 🙂
We have fallen into an easy rhythm on these trips: lots of chatter and laughter around the campfire, shared meals cooked over the open flame, roasted marshmallows, many board games played, quiet reading, walks around the campground, and visits with the farm animals.
This year’s statistics were 7 adults, 4 tents, 3 dogs, 2 nights, 1 baby, and countless board games. Three more were originally going to join our number, but things didn’t work out. It was a first for the baby and three dogs—Keiko had been the lone canine on previous trips. Everyone did really well! Baby Ivy was a great camper and the dogs had all meet previously and got along great.
The biggest surprise was actually our dog #2, Mochi. We took her and Keiko down to the barn to see the other animals and she was terrified of everything (except the cats). The centuries-old cow, the horse, the donkey, the llamas, the goats, the pigs, the chickens, the BABY CHICKS. The only animals she mustered the courage to approach were the deer. Maybe because she watched Keiko approach the fence and scare them all away? She approached slowly and made a quick getaway back to the safety of the road a couple times, but she did make it all the way to fence to have a closer sniff. Guess she wouldn’t make a very good sheep herder!
And now, a few picture highlights after the break…
