Homecoming and Round of 32

On Friday night, The Girl went with her friends to see Twilight, the much anticipated movie extravaganza. She had a lot of fun and spent the night with her friends.

Saturday, we drove down to Cal State Univ Long Beach to see The Boy and go to the game. He was really cute, showing us around and introducing us to everyone he knew. His girlfriend was there, of course.

K had said he wanted to buy stuff for Christmas, but he forgot all about it when we were there! He kept stopping to film us instead, so I called him over and reminded him. So we looked at some shirts and he said he wanted to get one for The Boy. So I held one up and asked if he thought it would fit the Boy, and he turned around and said, "Hey Boy! Do you think this will fit you?" I couldn't believe it!

We kindof walked around until the game started, and then we went into the Pyramid. Long Beach doesn't have a football team anymore, so Homecoming is for their basketball team. The team started off badly, and at one point was down 24 points! Somehow they chipped away at the difference, and finally came back and got ahead of Weber State right before the end of the game. With seconds to go, they were still up 3 points, and a guy from Weber State team hit a 3 pointer to tie up the game! He went down on the floor and pulled back his fist, like "YEAH!"

So we went into overtime, and somehow CSULB pulled out and won. That was good, because it was their homecoming and all. It was an exciting game.

I almost forgot, one of the most exiting things about the night was that they honored some prior coaches at halftime, and especially Coach Jerry Tarkanian! He is one of our favorite coaches since he was at UNLV and they called the arena the "Shark Tank" after "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian! He looks very old now, but it was such a nice surprise to see him there!

The next day K went to work early, and I carpooled to go to the Girl's game in San Bernadino. On the way there, I heard more about girls who may be quitting the team. The coach told me a long time ago this would happen. If we were winning, everyone would be happy. But you go up a level and start losing, and parents get unhappy. IMHO most of these girls in question are not that strong anyway. They played fine when we were a bracket lower, but they never stepped up their game to the higher level. It will hurt if the best girls leave, but we're not going anywhere. The girl has been on this team since the beginning, and will stay with this coach. This is a club team that is affordable, so we'll be staying unless the whole team disbands.

The game itself couldn't have been closer. We were playing a team in the same bracket from a different area, and we seemed pretty closely matched. The first half the action was in front of OUR goal much too often. The second half, we spent more time in front of their goal, but we just couldn't score. We were tied 0-0.

So we went into the kickoff phase, which I haven't seen since my son played AYSO many years ago. One by one the 5 girls from each team took their kicks, and every kick went in for both teams. So we went to the second phase, where the second five girls kick. Our second kicker kicked it right to the goalie and they made their next kick, so that was it. We lost 6-7, but the girls seemed OK with it. They had played well and come very far (round of 32), so they seemed pretty happy in the end.

Now it's basketball season!

Tough Soccer Season

This has been a tough season for the Girl's little (U12) soccer team. Last year they placed first in their bracket, so they moved up a bracket. So all season they played tougher teams, and they tried and tried, but only won one game. They tied 3 or 4, and lost the rest.

After the game last weekend, we had to confront the Girl about her drama on the field, when she has trouble breathing and drops to the ground when she's frustrated. It never happens if they're winning. It's a lot of drama, and the coach is good about it, but it happens way too often. We felt that she needs to communicate with her coach more or something, but she needs to find a better way to handle her feelings.

Saturday they needed to beat the "worst" team in the bracket to move up a spot, but instead we gave them their first win of the season. So we ended up in the same bottom spot as this other team, and will have to move (with them) back down a bracket. To me, this is not the worst thing in the world as they'll be more likely to win, and it's definitely more fun to win.

But there are people who feel that's not the point, and the Girl sure took it pretty hard. She was crying at the end of that game.

Then Sunday League Cup started, and they played 2 games. First of all, the air quality was not good because of the fires. We played in Burbank, and at 8 am we could see a brown cloud in the valley below us. I could smell the fire in the air, so I advised the girl to hit her inhaler even tho she didn't think she needs it anymore.

Secondly, I noticed a lot of grumbling from different parents. We have 16 players now, and it's good to have a good bench, but parents don't like to see their kids on the bench. One parent said that the coach is too negative, and that her daughter hasn't improved this season. So it's the coach's fault her daughter isn't improving?

Anyway, in the first game The Girl scored! It was so exciting. But then the other team tied the score. Darn.

We came back for a game at 2, and the field was now inside the brown cloud. It was also very hot. The sky looked a bit yellow, and one mother took her daughter home. We asked the refs about it, but they'd just reffed another game, so they thought it was fine. One mother asked the refs if the girls could take a water break during the game because of the weather, but the other team said no.

Why? I don't know, but they didn't seem very nice. I think they scored first with a big kick over the goalie's head from practically midfield. Then we scored and it was tied. During the second half, I went to sit in a spot of shade under a tree at the end of the field. A man was sitting there with 3 little girls, and were just hanging out for the day watching soccer games.

I was taping the game for K, and just chatting with this man when a lady from the other team walked up to the line judge near me, and pointed at us. She told him to tell us to move, as we were with the other team and were shouting instructions to the girls.

The man got his back up about this, and said, "You're one to talk! You're over there coaching from the sideline!" Truly, I hadn't even noticed her before, but clearly he had.

I was annoyed, and told the line judge, "He isn't even WITH our team! He's just over there watching a game!" as I stomped off. During all this, the ref called a handball against the other team in front of their goal, and darned if we didn't score again!

I told the coach, "You should slow the game down! Substitute a lot! (like the other coach did to us yesterday)" He told me to take it easy, as I'd already caused enough trouble for the day. (he was kidding) I laughed and noted that I'd even gotten an innocent person in trouble! And I wasn't even trying!

Anyway, the Girl's team won, and it felt really good to win. Everyone felt a lot better.

After the game I went back over to the man, and he told me his name was Mark. He was glad our team won too.

You might remember that last year the Girl's team placed first in their bracket (which was why they moved up a level), but then lost two games the next day. They went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows the very next day, and that felt really bad.

I think I preferred it the way it happened this year.

Language differences

Lately I've been thinking about language and how we use it. We noticed our next door neighbors seemed to be taking everything out of their house, and K remarked to them that they seemed to be doing a lot of work.

She nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, we replaced the house." I think this was a language gap, but I kindof liked it. We put everything in a new place - we replaced it!

Then I was listening to the TV news coverage when the fires broke out in Montecito.

Why do people say things in a complicated way when a simple word would do just as nicely? One man said they were going to "Effectuate" a plan, instead of just saying they would put a plan into effect. Then he said that another man had "endured the implications of this fire." when the fire had burned down his house! I thought that was a colorful, if not specific, way to put it.

Then the Fire Chief was the master of understatement. Reporters asked him to describe the character of the area for people outside California, and he said it was the "Riviera" of the area, with lots of homes in the hills. The reporter pressed on, asking if he could characterize the community, and the Chief said, "It's very nice."

By that he meant very expensive homes in an extremely expensive area near the ocean, with many homes in Spanish style motifs.

Election Day Fire

Election day was such a beautiful day in southern Cal. Nice and sunny, not too hot, with a slight brisk breeze in the air.

I drove to my polling spot to see how crowded it was, having seen long, long lines on TV. But it looked as it usually does - there were cars on the street, but still plenty of parking.

So I went in, and there was NO line! So I cast my vote and was on my way.

For dinner, I decided to make meatloaf. I got the idea to make it in a muffin tin, so it would come out in serving sizes. I put it on the top rack, and a cookie sheet with potatoes and the meatloaf that wouldn't fit in the muffin tin underneath.

When I went to remove it, I didn't realize that the muffin tin had been dripping oil onto the cookie sheet below, so I removed the cookie sheet first and shut the door. Then the Girl said, "Mommy! Mommy! Look!" and I looked at the oven, and it was smoking like crazy. So I opened the door to take out the muffin tin, and a fire flared up and threatened to leap out at me! So I quickly shut the door again.

Then, for what seemed like 20 minutes but was really only about 2, we ran around trying to figure out what to do. I thought shutting the door would cut off the oxygen supply, but the sucker kept burning! It kept dripping and burning and dripping and burning! I had visions of the meatloaf turning into charcoal, let alone the house!

The house quickly filled up with smoke as we ran around. The Girl ran for the door, and K kept opening the cupboards looking for salt or something to throw on the fire. We tried one of our fire extinguishers, but found it was out of whatever it needs to work. We went and got the second one and tested it in the front yard, and found it was charged.

When we returned to the oven, the fire was luckily out. Luckily, because whatever we had thrown into the oven would no doubt have created a BIG mess!

We were airing out the house all night.

In the evening I was watching the election returns, and it was hard to tell what was going to happen. Obama was ahead in electoral votes, but a lot of states were really close. The TV commentator kept saying that they wouldn't make a prediction until they felt certain what the electoral votes were over 270 for either party.

Then, at 8pm our time, he looked up and said, "That's it. It's 11pm Eastern time, and the polls have just closed on the West coast. We can now predict that Obama will get California's 55 electoral votes (and some others I can't remember), and we project that Obama is the next President of the United States."

Wow. Even tho he wasn't the candidate I had wanted originally, in the end I was proud of our country. I'm old enough to remember the struggles of the 60's, and it was so great to see how far we've come as a nation. I'm once again proud to be an American (United Statesian?), and I have more hope for the future than I've had in a very long time.

Looking at the numbers, however, I realize that for nearly half the country, the result is a disappointment. I know what it's like to feel like that, and to have the media act like it's what EVERYONE wanted. Last election they declared a "mandate" when it was nothing of the sort. So for those who are disappointed, I hope that Obama will prove to them that a good choice was made in the end.

Let's hope.