Newcastle owner Mike Ashley drinking a beer

Arsenal 2 - Newcastle 0. As most of you already know, it is actually illegal to drink alcohol within sight of the pitch as football match in the UK.

And now it appears that Ashley may face legal consequences for his actions - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/newcastle/2660366/Newcastle-owner-Mike-Ashley-faces-possible-Police-action-over-pint---Football.html (Updated 9-2-08).

Xuxa

Well, we have discovered why I love Brazil... because before I was born my mom watched Xuxa! But this isn't what I'm writing about... I have discovered Xuxa on my own, and am making great progress with my Portuguese. The songs are catchy AND educational!!!!! Here, try watching some of these.

This one features the cobra, chapeu, and palito



This one is Xuxa's version of happy birthday. It is great! Feliz Anaversario is the official way, but people really just say Parabens (congratulations)!



This third one is the best story, feturing a mother duck who looses her ducklings! :o



This final one is about who knows what, but it is called Ilarie... super catchy!

AC Millan News

• In the Uefa cup, Milan have been drawn first against FC Zurich
• Brocchi has been permanently sold to Lazio
• Kaka wants to be ready for the second game of the season

Just a reminder...

I'd just like to remind you a few days in advance that September 2 is Alexandre Pato's 19th birthday. This way you'll have time to plan your parties!

Just Stuff

Here are some funny things I found... Most of them, I don't know what they say....

This is a Milan "devil" teaching the Juve and Inter animals something about being champions...

Inter... No thank you!

That's a Juve Logo... on the toilet seat!!!!!!

An Inter smily... crying!

If you are anit Juventus... try http://www.antijuve.com/ !

A Milan Bart Devil poking the Inter Bart with his pronged stick thing....! HAHA!

Now... this is somewhat disturbing....

Bart Simpson could not possibly be a Juventus fan, right?

Then why is he saying "Forza Juve!?"

AC Milan News

In random AC Milan news:

• Ricky Kaka says he isn't leaving!



• Boca Juniors (Argentina) has tied Milan in the race for the most international titles... :(



• Alberto Paloschi (Milan's other 18 year old striker) has been 1/2 sold to Parma



• Massimo Oddo (a defender) has been loaned to Bayern Munich. I am sad now, because he wanted to play for Milan since he was a boy. But he says he will be back.



• Milan have signed Senderos on a 1 year loan deal



• Milan's first game is on Sunday against Bologna.

Champions League Draw

Today at 9:00 AM Pacific time, the UEFA Champions League Draw was held in Monaco. I watched it live on Uefa.com (you can do the same for the UEFA cup draw tommorow at 4am). The UEFA Club Footballer of the year award was given out. Chelsea (FC) won the awards for best goalie, defender, and midfiielder (Cech, Terry, and Lampard respectivley), but Manchester United's forward, Cristiano Ronaldo won the overall award. I was proud, because I had the luck to be the first person to write that down on the Wikipedia article! It was a great feeling!

Anyway, in addition to doing the draw and the award, they gave 100 million Swiss Francs to some charity that Zidane is an ambassador for. Coolness...

I was hoping Fiorentina would have a tougher spot...

The draw was as follows:

Group A
Chelsea (England)
AS Roma (Italy)
Bordeaux (France)
Today in Sports
CFR Cluj (Romania)

Group B
Inter Milan (Italy)
Werder Bremen (Germany)
Panathinaikos (Greece)
Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)

Group C
FC Barcelona (Spain)
Sporting (Portugal)
FC Basel (Switzerland)
Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)

Group D
Liverpool (England)
PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Marseille (France)
Atletico Madrid (Spain)

Group E
Manchester United (England)
Villarreal (Spain)
Celtic (Scotland)
Aalborg (Denmark)

Group F
Lyon (France)
Bayern Munich (Germany)
Steaua Bucharest (Romania)
Fiorentina (Italy)

Group G
Arsenal (England)
FC Porto (Portugal)
Fenerbahce (Turkey)
Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine)

Group H
Real Madrid (Spain)
Juventus (Italy)
Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia)
BATE (Belarus)

Alexandre Pato Gets an Award in his home Town

Sorry, this is really old, but I just saw it now. This is a video of Alexandre Pato (AC Milan's 18 year old striker, my favorite player) going to his hometown, which he was nick-named after, Pato Branco. He received the award, and tried to walk around town with his old friends, but was frequently accosted by over eager fans.



The video features his mom, fiancee, Pato Branco's mayor, and a little fan girl.

What I've Been Listening to Lately

Work keys and house keys

For the last three years I have had my own set of work keys (for my classroom, for a random door in the school I work at, and for some cabinets in my classroom). During that time, I have kept my work keys on the same keychain as my house keys and car keys. This makes for a rather large keychain, and is generally just a pain in the neck. This school year I decided to start a new system and to keep two separate keychains. Not only do I not have one gigantic keychain anymore, but this also serves to symbolize my newfound goal of keeping greater distance between my home and work lives. My co-worker Don even gave me a nice, shiny, new Toyota Trucks keychain (even though my pickup is a Nissan...) Unfortunately, however, today is my second day back at work, and I have already lost my work keys. I wonder where they are?

Back to work

Today summer vacation ended and I had to go back to work. All the teachers and staff at my job have a week of meetings before the students start to arrive on September 3. During today's meeting, we learned about the following exciting new concepts - loose coupling, the need to deromanticize leadership and teaching, and the PELP Coherence Framework. Later in the week, our agenda says that we will have some Polarity Management.

Sheva to Milan!!!

This summer has been full of rumors of Milan and Chelsea players switching between the two teams. (Kaka to Chelsea, Drogba to Milan, Pirlo to Chelsea, Ivanovic to Milan). However, the only rumor that made me happy was that Andriy Shevchenko was coming back to Milan! From 1999 to 2006 Sheva played for Milan. He won a Champions League, Scudetto, Supercoppa Italiana, Coppa Italia, and UEFA Super cup. Also, he was Serie A top scorer twice, and he was European Footballer of the Year in 2004. He came in 3rd for the FIFA world player of the year in that same year. In addition, he is the 4th highest scorer in European club competitions (Inazaghi is the first) and AC Milan's second highest scorer of all time.

He only moved to Chelsea in 2006 because his wife wanted to, and he still was in close contact with the team. He talks on the phone with Kaka on a regular basis, and even attended Maldini's 40th birthday party in June. Everyone is really happy that he's back, and Galliani ( Milan's presindent, kind of) mentioned that he shouldn't have left, but now he knows that Milan is his home. Even though this signing is mostly the result of Silvio Berlusconi (you know... Milan's owner and Italy's Prime Minister?) wanting him back, fans, players, and everyone is happy. Yay!

What I have been listening to lately #15

"Lights Out" by Santogold

The most hated man in all of Toronto?/Olympic Update #2

Igor Kenk (pictured below) may be the most hated man in all of Toronto, Canada. For years he has operated a bike shop in Toronto, but this summer police discovered that he was the mastermind of a massive bicycle-theft operation - they uncovered more than 2,000 bikes hidden in various storage facilities and garages throughout the city.

Here is one of the many garages in which Igor Kenk and his henchmen hid their stolen bicycles.

Here are some Toronto police officers taking a coffee break during their investigation.

By the way, Maris Strombergs of Latvia did win the gold medal as expected in the men's BMX competition yesterday. The woman who won, Anne-Caroline Chausson, is from France. Her closest competitor, Shanaze Reade from the UK, wiped out near the end.

Olympics Update #1

The men's and women's finals of the BMX competitions were rained out yesterday and have been rescheduled for today. The number one male rider in the world is Maris Strombergs, from Latvia. I don't know anything about women's BMX.

In other news, the women's softball gold medal went to Japan in a shocking upset of the seemingly invincible US team. The US team had won 22 straight games going back to 2000, and they had already beaten Japan in these Olympic games. Softball (along with baseball) was recently voted out of the Olympics and can't possibly return until 2016.

The Japanese players celebrate.

The US players left their shoes at home plate.

This guy totally stole the wheel off this woman's bicycle

Watch below as the man completely rips this woman off:

And no one even lifted a finger to help her. What is this country coming to?

Cedar River - duct tape has many uses

You can use duct tape to try to repair a canoe or at least to keep the fiberglass from cutting open your finger while you're rowing. You can also use duct tape as a bandage after you've cut yourself.


On the left is where we wiped out - the current took us straight into the tree and we flipped over on our side.










After we dragged the boat out of the river, the folks in the background told us we had done better than the last canoe - their boat had gotten stuck up against the tree and they had needed help dragging it out.

Canada wins its first gold medal

Canada won its first gold medal of the 2008 Summer Olympics today when Carol Huynh of Hazelton, B.C. defeated Japanese wrestler Chiharu Icho to win the 48 kg gold medal. For more details, click on the links below: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080816.wolymfcanmedal16/BNStory/Front/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/beijing-games/story.html?id=726713

(Note: 48 kilograms is equal to 105.5 pounds.)

Schweini & Poldi- BFF's

Apparently, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski, Germany and Bayern Munich teammates (soccer), are best friends forever. Everyone on the internet thinks this is positively adorable, so I have found many pictures and YouTube videos of them together for your enjoyment! Enjoy!

My favorite athletes from the 2008 Summer Olympics #1

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are only a few days old, but already some athletes have clearly stood out. Here's just a few who have caught our eye:

Ara Abrahamian (above): This Swedish Greco-Roman wrestler refused his bronze medal in protest of what he thought was "corrupt" officiating. Contrary to what the US media has been reporting, he did not throw down his medal, but laid it gently on the ground, as can be seen from this photo. He also has promised to quit the sport. For more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2559292/Swedish-wrestler-Ara-Abrahamian-vows-to-quit-after-throwing-away-Olympic-medal.html

Ejegayehu Dibaba (below left) finished 14th in the women's 10,000 meters. Her sister, Tirunesh (right), finished first. She also has another sister and a cousin who race.






Kayoko Fukushi (below) finished 11th in the women's 10,000 meters. She appeared to be trying very hard. Earlier this year, in the Osaka marathon, she set out on a blistering pace only to completely collapse at the end. For more information on that race, click here: http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/01/sports-news-addition.html
Note: The picture below is not from the Olympics - she didn'y come close to winning a medal.




















Lovieanne Jung plays for the US women's softball team. She won a gold medal in softball at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and her boyfriend, Jon Garland, currently pitches for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

What I have been reading lately #6

I just finished reading John Albert's Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates. It has everything - baseball, punk rock and heavy metal, amusing stories about junkies. The book is similar to The Bad News Bears, except, of course, without Walter Matthau.

Cougar Mountain - Military Road Trail

On the left is a black and yellow slug we saw while hiking on the Military Road Trail on Cougar Mountain. Below is a rather large bees' nest we saw hanging from the branch of a tree. One time a few years ago in a public park in Seattle we saw some kids wacking a bees nest with a stick. After that, we decided to leave.

What I have been listening to lately #14

One of my favorites...

Driving to and from Wallace Falls

When my dad and I went to Wallace Falls to hike, we saw several things along the way that caught our interest, such as signs advertising a reptile zoo, a roadside chapel, and buffalo jerky.

On the way back, we made sure to visit them all.

First, we pulled over at the roadside stand selling buffalo and salmon jerky and cherries. We bought cherries and some $10 buffalo jerky that was pretty good. But not $10 good.


Next, we passed a bakery we saw along the way, in favor of searching the almost deserted route two for slurpees! We were hot and tired, and something warm and baked didn't sound good. Here began our search for red (cherry?) slurpees!

Next, we stopped at a little place along the road. There was a parking lot and a tiny little chapel, about the size of a garden shed. The sign said "Pause, Rest, Worship.... (No Facilities)." We went in, read some passages, and took pictures of ourselves "preaching." Cute!

Our next stop was at a place called a Reptile Zoo. I honestly didn't believe that it was a real zoo! Along a highway like this is not the kind of place you expect animals except cows, horses, and sheep to live. We went up and it was a real reptile zoo. A really cool one! We saw lots of large lizards, huge snakes, alligators, and we got to touch the tortoises! We have plans to get a tortoise as a pet now (and a trampoline, but not as a pet).











To end it all off, we wanted to get our slurpees. My dad had visions of himself worshipping with a slurpee in hand, but we weren't able to find one! We looked at Chevron, Circle K, and Shell without success. Finally, after much frustration, AM/PM had a wide selection of Icees! I had cherry mixed with coke and my dad had straight cherry. We returned home munching on pretzles and beef jerky and drinking slurpees! Yay!