Philadelphia Independence

I'm covering Philadelphia soccer now. I'm covering the Independence for the Examiner.com and the Union for 90:00 magazine. Here is the most recent Independence game recap. Here's a Union recap

Sarah's new venture

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http://yogavlog.blogspot.com/


Here's a picture of a tiny bird:

Beer(s) of the day(z)

Sarah and I took Maksim to my parents' houses this weekend. We wanted to take him swimming because he hasn't done that yet. And we figured we needed to take him to New York. In less than three months, he has seen PA, NJ, DE, and now NY. MD will occur over Labor Day and there's a chance of a WA trip in early December. We'll have him in all 50 soon enough. Oh, and Maks is a big fan of swimming. So that's good news.

Sarah has been digging stouts lately. We don't drink as much since we are responsible for taking care of a baby, so when we drink, we prefer something a little different. This weekend we hit up Total Wine and built a six-pack of 22s. Included in the 6 pack were a Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout and a Well's Banana Bread Ale. Both were good. The STCBS smells super sweet and most people sitting near it go, "Do you smell that?" to which I replied, yeah it's the beer. I liked it a lot. 5 of 5 Netflix stars. Didn't make me feel like I was in a Puerto Rican rain forest. The Banana Bread beer was also dope. Pretty light, and it did make me think I was in a Puerto Rican rain forest. 5 of 5 Netflix stars.


Here's a picture of a guy getting knocked over by a water cannon

When you stick a pencil in a glass of water it appears to bend. (A story about the history of music in NEPA)

In the days before Wikipedia, a group of pseudo-intellectuals sat around discussing science fiction movies. An ashtray filled with four forgotten lit cigarettes sat on a table that sat in a back room of a diner that was located in an old city in a part of the country you probably have never been to. The conversation was strained because there was no quick way to tell the other that their f-in a$$ had fallen off due to uncontrollable laughter at a joke, most likely their own. In fact in these days there wasn't much laughing because everything didn't need to be funny. The ashtray confirms this as it began to wish that the owners of the cigarette would remember their habit. A song came on the radio. It was one of those songs that doesn't distract the players in this story from interupting their conversation. So it is safe to say this song was not performed by Smashmouth or Chumbawumba. A waitress came for their order.

What can I getcha?

-I'll have a glass of water and 3 pieces of toast, please. And one cup of coffee.

-Make that two coffees. And two waters. No toast for me.

-Coffee and uh, what kind of soup do you have?

Chicken noodle and italian wedding.

-Oh, forget the soup. I'll just have some coffee and a brownie. (This guy decides to wink at the waitress and the waitress ignores it completely).

-Can I order a Spanish omelete? And an orange juice and some Root Beer please?

Any side?

-Oh, maybe just some toast. Lightly toasted. If its burned I'll flip out.

Ok. Anything else? Oh I forgot you, honey.

-I'LL HAVE A BURGER, MEDIUM, AND A SIDE OF COLE SLAW PLEASE.

Everyone stopped what they were doing. All of a sudden everyone noticed that song that had been playing so quietly before.

Dan lied about liking death metal (aka Achievement)

Dan used to live in a prison cell. He didn't do anything bad, it's just that the prison ran out of money. It wasn't profitable to keep all the criminals locked up anymore, so the prison was forced to shut down. All the criminals went home to commit more phony crimes. Like siphoning gas from the neighbor's Hyundai and swearing loudly at the television while Jeopardy is on. Life is perfect, crimes don't exist. The closed prison was purchased by a crooked landlord and the cells were transformed into apartments. Dan rented one years back.

I visited Dan in that cell once. We had made plans to go see a concert and he suggested that I stop by his place before we went so we could drink a bunch of beers that he didn't need to smuggle into the prison, since it wasn't really a prison. I was hesitant, but I said ok. I showed up at his cell around 6 or 7. He was excited to have company because he just found out that a neighbor down the way hung (or is it hanged) himself (or is it thyself). This was a regular thing evidently and it was starting to depress Dan. I told him that it was a shame, but he shouldn't be too sad about it. We were going to a pretty great concert after all. I think it was an Oil Dragon concert. We loved that band. He quickly forgot the suicide and he started pounding Coors Originals. After about an hour I looked at my watch and realized that we would need to leave soon if we wanted to see the opening bands. I think the opening bands included The Transylmaniacs and The Invisible Gas Mask Theory, who we really wanted to see because we both heard great things. I said, "Dan, we got to leave NOW". He looked at his watch and nodded his head while opening another Coors Original. "We got time for one more beer". Police sirens weren't heard in the distance.

We never made it to the concert that night. Turns out Dan wasn't in the mood for going to see a couple of bands. After about another hour of drinking and talking about life I left. I went to a diner on the other side of town that sat on top of an abandoned cemetary. One day it stopped being profitable to bury the dead, so the cemetary was forced to sell land to developers. I ordered a grilled cheese with french fries and a chocolate milk shake. It was pretty good. Which is generally how I remember most things to be.

Birthday

Today is my birthday. Everybody gets pitchforks.

I am 30 today. I am ecstatic. Sarah got me a pretty great running watch. This will help with marathon training. Since getting rid of the gym membership, I have continued to run but I have no way of knowing how far I am actually running. I have a general idea because a solid year on a treadmill has given me a basic understanding of my pace, but it will be nice to not have to estimate. I have to figure out a way to calibrate the watch. Perhaps I will ask Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga? Yes, Lady Gaga. She is making the marathon mix tape because it is hard not to relate to songs about boys eating your heart on a subway.

The songs from The Fame Monster that make the marathon mix tape:

Bad Romance (4:54)
Alejandro (4:34)...Not really that good of a song, but I like making fun of it.
Monster (4:09)


Oh, Maksim got me a great Philadelphia Union pin for my pin collection. This collection is kept on a Natty Light wrist band that is wrapped around my truck's stick shifter. Other pins so far include one for Richmond, VA and the Irish flag. Great collection if you ask me. It only costs $5 to view this exhibit.

He also got me a soccer referee book, so now I can give out proper yellow and red cards whenever needed. The homemade cards that I was using were bunk.

Beach House

Another CD that was purchased with borrowed money was Beach House's "Teen Dream". I heard them once or twice driving around in my truck on WXPN. I think that radio station had them as an artist of the month, one month. A mental note was made that if I ever get back into music, I would check out a cd. I was a little disappointed after the first listen, so I decided to leave the disc alone for a while. A day later, I am hooked. The whole album is perfect for my marathon mix tape. The music fits my running style perfectly (spacey and slow) so I am sure not to qualify for Boston if I listen to these songs on repeat. The band sounds My Bloody Valentine-y at times, while the vocals bring Nico to mind. pretty good combo. It's tough to separate the album into separate tracks for a mix tape, but I was able to eliminate a couple of songs. The team and a sub remaining:

Zebra: 4:48
Silver Soul: 4:58
Norway: 3:54
Walk in the Park: 5:22
Used to Be: 3:58
10 Mile Stereo: 5:03


The cd was cool because it came with two discs. One disc, wrapped in a blue zebra cd sleeve contained music, while the other, wrapped in a pink zebra cd sleeve contained a DVD.