drum roll please

Look what I found this morning:

Isn’t that a lovely gift from dmauldin53?

I don’t normally accept nominations for these awards but they had such nice things to say about me and asked me very politely to accept it.  I was powerless to refuse.  You should take a minute to read this and that and pretty much everything else at the Mauldin Family blog.  It’s a whole lot of awesome.

…..

Versatile Blogger Rules  (If you choose to obey them)

• Display the Award Certificate on your website
• Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented your award
• Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers
• Drop them a comment to tip them off after you’ve linked them in the post
• Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

…..

• Will do.  Should have already been done but was experiencing technical difficulties with my dashboard saving the new image widget.  So, for now it is prominently displayed in this post and I’ll get it posted next to my other award as soon as my dashboard starts cooperating again.  Done!
• Done (that’s this post) and done (x3).
• Each of my nominations has inspired me in one way or another (from tackling various topics, to working with both words and pictures, to posting in multiple languages).  They are all versatile without a doubt.
  – 1. http://fortyoneteen.wordpress.com/about/
  – 2. http://cherispeak.wordpress.com/about/
  – 3. http://winedrinkingmummy.wordpress.com/about/
  – 4. http://jodileasplace.wordpress.com/about-me/
  – 5. http://purnimodo.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/john-lennon-jyoti-singh-pandey-mass-hysteria-and-why-no-soul-in-this-world-is-asking-for-it/
  – 6. http://sarahneeve.wordpress.com/about-2/
  – 7. http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/quick-guide/
  – 8. http://asurfeitofpalfreys.wordpress.com/about/
  – 9. http://gooseyanne.wordpress.com/about/
  -10. http://writewhatyouknowdotorg.wordpress.com/about/
  -11. http://elappleby.wordpress.com/about/
  -12. http://thefoodiefarmer.wordpress.com/about/
  -13. http://hayleyslilworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/new-year-new-blog/
  -14. http://hopethehappyhugger.wordpress.com/about/
  -15. http://oceanphoenix.net/about/
  • Will do x15 – you’ll just have to take my word for it.
  • 7 “interesting” things:
    – 1. I support two football (soccer) clubs: Manchester United and LA Galaxy.
    – 2. I was in fact a proffesional DJ for a few years.  It wasn’t my only source of income but I did get paid to spin, so that counts, right?
    – 3. I have made it to the top of Mt. Whitney twice.  I was 10 years old the first time.
    – 4. When I refer to “my truck” in any of my posts I’m talking about a 1996 Mazda B2300.  It’s a little two door pick-up and has over 200,000 miles on it.  I got it used in 1999 with only 10,500 miles on it.  We’ve covered some ground together.
    – 5. I learned how to dance secretly as a surprise for my then girlfriend, a dance teacher, and then worked it out so that she had to cover one of my lessons without knowing who she was about to teach.  That night I proposed.
    – 6. In Junior High I was on the school’s Mathletes team.  We competed in several math related competitions around the state and always did very well.
    – 7. I am an Eagle Scout.

And when your team lets you down…

throw a coin at the opposing team… ?!  Okay, we’ll come back to that.

Sunday was derby day in Manchester: United vs. City.  Blue hosting Red.  2nd against 1st in the early league standings.  So, pretty much epic on all fronts. 

Last year City won both derby matches, including a victory of monumental proportions away to United at Old Trafford that could be argued handed them the league, since they ended level on points but ahead on goal difference at the end of the season.  (My heart still hurts a little thinking about that game.)

To continue on my theme of not really doing a full review of anything, here are my comments on the game:

Wayne Rooney was immense.  Showing up at the right time for the second goal.  Creating good space for himself on the first goal.  His vision, his tracking back, and every other aspect of his game were spot on (except for a few passes that didn’t come off quite as he (and the rest of us) had hoped they would.)  He was the man of the match, without a doubt.  His 10 derby goals are a testament for what he has meant to United and what he will continue to mean for the Red Devils.

That’s kind of all I want to say… but, since that doesn’t seem like enough, here are some extra tidbits:

It was good to have Valencia back on the right side, and I hope with some more game time he’ll get in a few better crosses in the coming games.  Ashley Young had a great game and it’s not often I find myself saying that.  I have a bit of a man crush on Robin van Persie.  And, if it wasn’t him, then it would probably be Rafael.  It’s too bad that someone didn’t step in front of Yaya Toure’s shot because if that hadn’t resulted in a goal, David De Gea’s two saves right before that would have been contenders for save of the year.  Zaboleta’s goal was fantastic.  There isn’t much I like about Samir Nasri, but I find myself strangely fond of his right foot this morning.

Okay, that pretty much wraps that up.

What?  Really?  Okay fine…  The officiating:  Yes, Smalling handled the ball.  Yes, Evra should have been awarded a PK.  I still think Young was offside.  Yes, the ref should have given Toure the advantage when he was on a breakaway rather than halting the play to hand Rooney a yellow card.  It pretty much all evened out.  Pretty sure the game would have ended with the 3 points going to United even if all of the above had been called “correctly.”  Argue with me if you want.

Okay, now, that pretty much wraps it up.

Wait, what?  Oh, yeah, I guess I should explain the title of this post.  You are correct, my team didn’t let me down.  So, what am I talking about?  In the 92nd minute, after Robin van Persie had scored the winner for United, a City fan threw a coin out of the stands that struck Rio Ferdinand in the face, opening a gash that forced him to come off the pitch to get the blood cleaned up.

I’m fairly passionate when it comes to football (soccer).  I will readily admit that I am a fan in the true sense of the word (fanatic) when it comes to my two teams: Los Angeles Galaxy and Manchester United.  But never at any point when I’ve experienced a frustrating and demoralizing loss (including a certain derby last season already mentioned above) did I think, “Hey, I’m very upset and I just happen to have this coin in my pocket, maybe I should throw it.”

Who does that?

withdrawal

So… I know it’s still November but I’m already going through NaNoWriMo withdrawals.  I had that challenge and goal to work on for three straight weeks… 24 days of posting at least once a day… 50,000+ words to create and compile in context together…  And it was a lot of fun.  But, now?  My novel is done.

Sure, I need to spend some time editing it.  That will happen.  Sure, I have another story I’m in the middle of that I could continue working on.  That will happen too.  But, this morning I’m feeling sad because I don’t have anything new to write about the characters I created for NaNoWriMo.  I miss them.  Seeing them again just for editing isn’t going to appease me either.

In other news, I was cut off by a bus this morning on my commute in to work.  There wasn’t even a good reason for it.  He was in the far right lane and I was coming up from behind him on the left.  There was no one in front of him.  Suddenly, he is in my lane, without any blinker usage, of course, and I’m slamming on my brakes to drop from the 55 I was going to the 30 he was going.  It wasn’t the closest call I’ve had, but I really need to find my sign and get it off my truck before my commuter lifestyle becomes the end of me.

In other, other news, Manchester United won again this weekend to move them to the top of the league standings again.  They waited until QPR scored first to really get going, as has been our standard operating procedure this season, but I was never really worried about this game.  It wasn’t going to be another Norwich situation.

I have no Los Angeles Galaxy update because they didn’t play this week.  There next game is the MLS Cup, on Saturday, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.  I’ve got my tickets.  I’ll be there, jersey on, scarf around my shoulders, chanting, yelling, jumping.  I’ll be that twelfth man.

two losses and a victory all the same

Both of my teams lost this weekend…

Manchester United fell to the resolute defending of Norwich City and one great attacking move that we were unable to stop.  At this point I might try and rale against our defense to say they should have done better… but, it was a really well taken goal.  We needed to do better on the other end of the pitch where we had plenty of possession but weren’t creating all that many chances.  It was a game missing that bit of extra inspiration and impetus that Wayne Rooney provides. 

It’s still early in the season.  Though I don’t like surrendering top spot to City, we have plenty of time to regain the pinnacle.  I’m already salivating over the derby next month.  Come on you Red Devils!

So, that was one loss.  It hurt.  I was depressed, but these things happen.  United are still in second… and we have a habit of dropping points away to lower table teams.  The Christmas season is coming and I’m sure we will go on a tear like we normally do.  I’m not worried.

….

As understanding as I was about United’s loss, as much as it hurt, as much as I was depressed about it, all of those feels were nothing compared to watching the Los Angeles Galaxy get completely trounced for 80 minutes or so against the Seattle Sounders.

We got a little lucky with the PK call and that sort of calmed the game down for a bit.  But, Seattle played with heart, with passion, with crisp passing, and great interplay that made the Galaxy look like the local kids down at the park on the weekend kicking the ball about.  It was sad and ugly and it physically hurt me to watch.

But, through some miracle (and some questionable at times officiating) Seattle didn’t score enough to go ahead on the aggregate score and the Galaxy advance to the MLS Cup to face the Houston Dynamo for the second year in a row.  A repeat of last year’s final, but somehow I doubt the game will be anything like it was a year ago.

I waiting (somewhat impatiently) for tickets to go on sale… but, I’ll be there to root on the Galaxy.  This is LA!

 

 

Forgiveness

Apparently NaNoWriMo is a word sucking beast that leaves me bereft of time, energy, and um, um, um, (what’s the word I’m looking for?), oh yeah, … words.  It has devoured all of my resources this month and I’m just now realizing how woeful I’ve been at posting anything other than NaNoWriMo updates.

The end is in sight though.  Hopefully next week I’ll get my little story wrapped up and then I can go back to posting about soccer, my commuter lifestyle, answering the weekly writing challenges and how I still can’t find the sign on my truck that says, “Please, please cut me off.” 

In fact, I think I’ve got a new sign on my truck that I need to find as well.  This one says, “I’d love it if you would share my lane with me.  Come on over.”  I have to deal with this sort of nonsense on a daily basis.  No joke.  Daily.

I should do a quick shout out to the Los Angeles Galaxy for their commanding victory over Seattle Sounders in leg 1 of the Western Conference Finals.  As leaky as our defense has been this year we can pretty much count on scoring at least one in leg 2, and I doubt we’ll concede three.  Finals, here we come!  This is LA!

Chicharito.  Need I say more?  Glory, glory Manchester United.  Now, if we could just figure out how to play well before we go two goals behind…

In conclusion, without further adieu, I humbly ask for forgiveness for pursuing my first ever NaNoWriMo challenge in detriment of my normal posting behavior.  I promise that normal service will resume shortly.