I’ve been in Chicago since Friday spending time with Brother Todd and his wife P.W. before they move across the pond to Swizzerland. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for us because we’re at once very excited for this new opportunity for them (and to have a home base for European excursions) but also quite sad. One of the best features of moving back to Madison from Seattle was being only a few short hours away from my brothers. Now one is about five hours away in Minneapolis and the other is moving to Europe. We can’t complain since it’s only a matter of time before something (most likely my first teaching job) will move us from southern Wisconsin. But still. As a general rule, it’s better to have your loved ones close as opposed to far.

The Internet has done some amazing work to shrink the globe though through things like Skype, email blogs, and web cams. And we’ll be seeing them in Spain in May and back in the U.S. in July, so it’s not forever. But still. Sobering.

I’ve been working out regularly since August but that’s come to a screeching halt over the past few weeks, with excercise being supplanted by lots of fried food and booze. Amy wants to go on a detox diet for a month and that’s probably not a bad idea. I think it’s a bad sign when my sweat smells like Spaten lager.

Martin Jol sacked in favor of Juande Ramos the same weekend the Arse goes top of the table. Dark days indeed.

I’m not sure how I feel about the Ramos appointment. If the Spurs board continues to make personnel decisions, I don’t see how swapping managers will change much. Martin Jol has done a good job with the squad but he was a dead man walking from the start of the season. Is Ramos going to get things done? I guess it depends on the players the man can attract to the club. If he can bring in Spanish internationals like Benetiz has, that’s good—but I’m not convinced he can.

I did not watch any footie this weekend and missed some remarkable results. Chelski putting five past the Sky Blues? And I was gobsmacked that the ESPN Play of the Day during a crazy college football weekend turned out to be Rooney’s back heel in Man Ure’s destruction of Boro. The league is an interesting beast this time ’round, and the run-up to the holiday fixture fest will be enthralling.

Hey! The Chicago Fire not only made the play-offs by playing the shorts off the Galaxy in the final league game of the season, they nabbed a 1-0 win over DC in the first leg of the post-season. That probably won’t be good enough to get out of RFK next Thursday but it’s far better than going in level or down.

And the other games didn’t go according to plan either. Dallas over Houston? KC over Chivas? That’s the lower seed knocking off the upper in three of the four games. Fascinating stuff. I’ll have to tune in next week to check out some of these games as well.

Current Mood: Unsettled |
Currently Listening To – Wilco – “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”