I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

Thank you City Hall fold for helping us to bring Major League Soccer to Portland. Just so you know, we’re all really excited about it. We have a massive underground presence here. Not that you’d know it from the sad lack of soccer bars in this town. The funny thing about that is that ballers like to drink. With a bit of love, you’ll have a well-supported locale. But enough about that.

woohoo! It’s no longer an unslayable dragon! I just finished my first ever bicycle ride from Beaverton to home on the Portland eastside. It was about 17.5 miles. Here’s a link to basically the same route, thank you bycycle.org. Instead of staying on Tillamook, I cruised up at 60th to Sacramento and rode along the nice Alameda Ridge.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

Woohoo! Great game tonite, beautiful day. The Timbers faced MLS’s Toronto in a post-season friendly, and what fun it was. The Moist crew showed up in force, and the Army was bitchin tonite…they were loud. The beginning of the game was distressing, as Toronto looked to be outclassing the Timbers pretty well. But the defense was solid, and Timbers snapped a sweet goal chipping the Toronto keeper to open it up.

Caught the Galaxy vs Pachuca match tonite for the SuperLiga final. Painful painful first half. Got there late, just in time for an own-goal and the team to fall apart. But halftime was near. I got a dos equis and got tense with some soccer buddies. Half two was amazing. Both teams had a ton of chances. Tough to say who got the better of it, but then we were in for a surprise.

Hi Dave. I’d email you but amazingly I don’t have your address. Weird. Anyway, I always forget to mention this when I see you, but I’d comment on your blog but I am not going to register. I’ve registered for enough crap and I’m not gonna put my crap into your system and wait for you to generate a password and email it to me and then click on a link to verify and then leave my f’ing comment.

Alright, beerdrinker got a shiny new red iPod Nano for xmas from my mom. It totally rocks. It synchs with my iCal and address book (surprise! yay me!), it plays music, it’s tiny, and it sounds good. Pretty much kicking my Zen Micro to the curb. The only thing it doesn’t have is a voice recorder…and that is a bummer. But what I’m really stoked about is the Nike+ addon. (Disclaimer: I am a Nike employee.

Well, GPSD had its championships this weekend, my team Top Hammer GDST (Green Dawn Soccer Team) played Ninja for the Men’s open D-1 championship. It was an excellent game, our squad played well and hard. An unlucky break early in the game led to an own goal to put us down 0-1, which is how the game finished, despite some very strong midfield play, and good showing for our defense and offense despite the freezing conditions.

We got a squad (Moist) in at the brand spankin new futsal jointin SE Portland for this season. In fact, our team had the honor of winning the very first league futsal game ever at the new arena. It was a bit of a blowout at 28-2. Not very nice, I think a few guys had some frustrations to unleash after our men’s team was crushed by PSU the day before.

holy crap, two days without soccer! In a row. It’s not my fault, I suppose they’re giving the teams a quick breather before jumping into the quarter-finals. Yesterday I travelled for someodd 24 hours from Hamburg back to happy Portland town. Nice to be home, but I miss the adventure some. Now I have to mow the lawn and go back to work and watch the games on tv with maybe 20 people instead of tens of thousands.

I arrive Friday late afternoon. We drink coffee at his house and ride the train to the city. My card is not working so I have no money. We drink beer on the train, many people do. Often there are little stores conveniently located to sell one a bottle of beer. Not many cans here. We walk around and have what appears to be lebanese food, similar to a doner. Which is not too different than gyros bot more cabbage and sometimes different bread.

I predict Germany will be the winner of the world cup this year. And here is my proof. Word on the street is that Brazil is favored and I accept that. But is their probability better than 50% to win? I think not. Thus, we must say that a team other than Brazil should win. Looking at the field, Germany seems to be the strongest and carry the greatest odds.

Heads up, I’m just posting these as I have time and in whatever order I feel like. If you’re hoping for up-to-the-minute scores, check out FIFA’s website. Lunched with Nina’s family, had the white asparagus so popular here for the first time. It was really good and made my piss smell different that regular asparagus. Then off to Lasser’s for sone BBQ with some friends and to watch Germany play Ecuador.

Okay…they’re late, but these are my predictions from this round on. 1/8 —— Germany v Sweden – Germany Argentina v Mex – Argentina Eng v Ecu – Eng Por v Hol – Hol Bra v Ghana – Brazil Ita v Aus – Italy Spa v Fra – Spain Ukr v Switz – Switerland 1/4 ——— Ger v Arg – Germany Bra v Spa – Brazil Switz v Ita – Switzerland

On the way to the Fan Fest downtown Hamburg I saw a woman jogging in a turquoise Ramones T-shirt. Something was about to happen. Tobi started singing ‘yellow — yellow — yellowred’ and I joined it. Just a made-up song for the game, early in the second half. But that described it. Four red cards, all of them double yellows, and I felt mostly ridiculous. In fact, there were a couple red cards I felt would be deserved, but they didn’t get raised.

so, you may have noticed by now that I’m not talking about German beer that much. Well, it’s there and it’s good and there’s a lot of it. Not necessarily in me at the moment but passing through. Lots of Pilseners. Beck’s Gold has been really popular with the circles I’m running with, as well as Radlers which are some sort of lemon/beer mix. I enjoyed a nice Koenig Pilsener last night when I got back from Berlin in time to watch the extra time in the Argentina/Mexico game.

Today I was mistaken for a Swede for the first time. Watching them play England, I’d noticed the mullet was more popular on their side. Still sporting it. After watching the early games (Mexico v Portugal and Angola v Iran) with Tobi, Flo and I cruised down to the Hamburg Fan Fest. Much larger than the ones at Cologne and Hannover, there was a great festival atmosphere with food offered from each of the 32 countries.

Came across two bloggers tracking the World Cup as well, I’m sure there are more so as I come across them, I will update this. Bunco Parade and A Pretty Move. Jack Bog is keeping up on it too, and having a pool for the next rounds (link is on the sidebar). Update1: I like 11 devils too and I’m excited to hear what Zach’s secret mission is. And Shawn Levy’s blog.

Monday, second game ticket. Probably the last, Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia. In their first game against Tunisia the Saudis played remarkably well. They are certainly capable of applying pressure up front and occasionally pull together some really pretty soccer. This was true against the Ukraine as well, nearly scoring on several occasions. Unfortunately, the defense, quite porous against Tunisia and rarely winning in the air, remained weak. A keeper error placed the ball in a dangerous area, which Ukraine capitalized on.

Just found out I got a ticket for Czech vs. Italy. I’m excited, it’ll be a great game, but a little sad not to see the US game live. Watch for me, I’ll be in the US jersey with the US towel. btw, I may not be saying much about beer, I’m way behind on writing so it’s just World Cup adventures so far. oboy, what an awesome game this will be!

The fellow from Ghana summed it up painfully sweet: “I can’t root for the US, you don’t have any songs!” So our merry band of wanderers did what we could with what we had. Three letters and a movie. For the most part we spent the day shouting U-S-A U-S-A over the roar of ee-tahl-ya ee-tahl-ya until our throats were hoarse, moistened only by sweet German lager. Then we realized that We have a fight song.

the winter olympics are over. I wasn’t very excited coming into it, honestly. Mainly because there’s alway always always too much ice skating. Way too much. This time was way better. I can dig speed skating, I love the skiing, the snowboarders do cool stuff, curling is a fun twist and a some ice skating is tolerable. I got into it. Kinda. But anyway, good coverage this time whatever network you were!

So, I’ve gotten back into skiing this winter. After a long hiatus. I’ve tried to get into it a couple times in the past, but it just didn’t take. Back in the day (very young beerdrinker through high school beer drinker), I skied a fair amount. Then college happened, and my K2 4500s just sat, and then they disappeared. I scored my dad’s old skis but operative is old. Though the Pre’s are pretty sweet with the Look bindings.

Yay ladies! You kick ass! I love looking at the little school comparisons…everyone you play is like 10x your size. And you bust their chops. Drop a line if you ever want to setup a scrimmage…my men are down. Y’all outclass us, but I think it’d be a fun match. Update: I heard on NPR that there’ll be a celebration at Pioneer Square today (Friday) around noon (or slightly before). Way to go ladies…keep on smilin’!

My men’s team won the D-2 championship on Sunday (at the same time, the Pilots were showing UCLA a thing or two. This is pretty much the recap I sent the squad (I only mentioned goals, but we had a kickass game, and our opponents played with class…it was a good game). Goals were tough to come by in the first half, and the sides withdrew 0-0. The second half, GDST opened flat, but didn’t allow

Soccer may actually get played over here on the Olympics TV broadcasts—prezzo has coopted their story as a massive photo-op, using it in campaign ads and speeches. Unfortunately, the team isn’t that happy about it. I’m amazed about a few things in this article. First, it’s awfully political for SI. Second, it’s awfully long for a soccer article in SI. Third, it mentions Beaverton, OR, which means that the Beav will likely get two mentions in two weeks since I hear that the winner of lady’s fencing is from there too.

Last night I went and saw Portland’s beloved Timbers, an A-league soccer team, kick the crap out of the Earthquakes, one of the top MLS teams. For about 20 minutes. That’s when a horribly biased or incompetent officiating staff booked the Timbers with a red card, while simultaneously giving the Earthquakes a free goal in the form of a penalty kick…only me, Dave, and Beckham miss those. But anyway, we were rocking the quakes in terms of possession, position, shots, and similar, up until the bogus booking, and then even after that, we held a strong showing.

My men’s soccer season has started back up. Our first game was Tuesday. Much fun was had, we played against Nike’s Swoosh team and fairly dominated the game. We won most 50-50 balls, were faster, and, in the end, we scored more. One of my goals this winter was to come out of it not in worse shape than I started it, which is what normally happens when I sit on my ass for 4 months.

He’s going pro, to play with DC United next year. And so continues the media’s facination with speculating on the very young. Good luck, Freddy, make a good thing of it.

So, more women’s world cup action in Portland today. Very exciting, very cool, very much ignored by the city. How sad it is that we couldn’t muster up any of those quaint neighborhood flags like for the Greek Festival (so crowded as to suck) and the marathon (to each his/her own). But instead, it seems nearly ignored, relegated to the back pages. Oh, well, I’m jacked for it. Today China plays Canada and Germany plays Russia (pretty sure on those).

Some weekends end up totally devoted to soccer, and, happily, this was one. From my coed indoor game friday night (we won, though we were a lady short! woohoo!) to coaching the kiddies saturday morning (they’re looking up) to playing outdoor on Sunday to watching the ladies play world class soccer in P-town. What a treat it is to have women’s World Cup soccer here. Yesterday we had two matches, the first between Australia and Ghana, and the second between Russia and China.

The women’s World Cup is coming to Portland. Pre-release tix are available at fifa’s site, just follow links. The password is breakfast4. Oh, soccer by the way. I have to say that women’s soccer is really fun to watch (playing isn’t an option for me). The games are smart and accessible, the plays tend to be extremely crisp and smooth, the action exciting and real. Often I prefer watching women’s soccer to men’s, mainly for those reasons.

$90,000/year for 1,000 years. That’s what it would take to gross what recent high schooler LeBron James will be pulling in over the next five years in his Nike endorsement. Put on top of that his salary and other endorsements, and this kid is pretty much guaranteed 1/10 of a billion dollars before he’s 25. Straight from crib to MTV Cribs. For playing basketball and having his picture taken. The fun part is that he’s never even played a professional game.

Overall, it was a fantastic time. By game six, I was exhausted. My legs had grown heavy like McFly. Muscles all over my body were sore. The pulled hamstring had bruised up nicely. My kicks had lost their accuracy, and when I executed a sliding tackle I was happier staying on the ground. But I got up and played. Just like the rest of the team. Sluggish, maybe. Tired and sore yes. We gave it the last bit we had, and walked off the field having lost, but with our heads held as high as our necks would hold them.

The Oregon Classic soccer tournament was this weekend, so three days of exhausting fun in the sun (despite the meteorologist predictions) were lined up for poor injured me. I played anyway, despite my better judgement. It started Saturday: I’m not gonna play at all today. Then why’d I’d suit up? So I could jump in the first game and play some ball. After that game, which I played about half of, I played the entirety of the remaining five games in the tournament. Two games Saturday, three Sunday, and one on Monday. Ibuprofen was my friend, though I’m cold turkey today to assess where I’m at.

I hadn’t played in a soccer tournament since high school. What fun it was! Total immersion, it was like a vacation without going anywhere. Generally we’d have about two hours between games, during which we’d watch other games, eat tacos, refluidate, and have a beer or two. Every now and then someone would heckle a referee for no apparent reason. The team was put together by my friend Ben, and consisted of players from three different area pickup games, so a lot of us didn’t know each other at all. It kinda showed, especially in our first game, but we improved dramatically after that, and actually place 4th (of eight teams) in the 3rd division.

Like a cork on water, I followed the latest installment in the Man vs. Machine saga. Following shortly on the heels of Fox’s special of similar name (M vs M, that is), Kasparov and Deep Junior, a chess machine of Israeli origin, squared off in New York. The match was to consist of six games. And it did. The prize for each was some odd hundred thousands of dollars depending whether you win or lose, plus Kasparov got aroung half a million just for showing up.

In which grown men race old cars with pigs in their arms. A thing of beauty, the Pig-n-Ford of Tillamook County, I’ve only seen videos of it on televsion, and pictures on the internet. A lucky man I am, having a friend Jamie Dixson, who is a great Pig-n-Ford competitor, and a good man. Perhaps I can convince him to offer up a few comments on the Pig-n-Ford. Perhaps, I can obtain an interview.