Arsenal Highlight Series

It's been a while since I last remembered to do this, but if you want to see the ones we missed, you can srcoll through the old ones after you watch it. Stay tuned for a Verde FC season wrap up coming soon too.

Donetsk Don't Tell

The Soccer Aspect of this Post
Arsenal continue their amazing run in the Champions League yesterday by beating Shaktar Donetsk 5-1 in London which brings their goal tally in the competition to 14 in three games. Awesome! Not only did they score 5, but they were scored by 5 different people: Song, Nasri, Fabregas, Wilshire, & Chamakh. The goal they conceded, 8 minutes from the end, was scored by Eduardo. He had played for Arsenal for the last few years before leaving this past summer. He suffered a nasty multiple fracture that kept him out of the squad for over a year, so seeing him get goal was nice too.

The Politics Aspect of this Post
In other news, Don't Ask Don't Tell has been in the news lately, & it seems to finally be on its last legs. Dan Choi has re-enlisted & the courts seem to have done their job. We'll see. Of course, the real reason I'm discussing it is because it fit so nicely into the title. And because it will work as a happy transition into a little fun talk about the election. With all of the ballot proposals coming up next month, I thought you might enjoy this little link: Ballotopedia. It's a little wiki that can keep us all up to date on them, including Califoria's attempt to decriminalize weed & Oklahoma's attempt to make English the state's official language, as the elction gets closer. Enjoy... & dn't say I never gave you nuthin'.

Arsenal Highlight Series

I had some problems getting the video from the weekend draw w/ Sunderland to post, but in this video you'll see Lansbury's 1st goal for Arsenal, Robbie Kean score from an off-side position, 2 penalties well taken by Nasri, & then a sweet set piece w/ Arshavin. Enjoy. You can then scroll back for the Sunderland stuff.

The Arsenal Highlight Series

I don't know why I've never done this before, but better late than never I suppose. We'll start today & see how long it lasts. Each week, after an Arsenal FC match, you'll be able to find the official Arsenal highlight footage here. Of course, when they lose 5-0 @ home to Chelsea, we may accidentally forget to post that week. I'm not going to bore you w/ some bullshit Youtube, fan-edited reel set to some shit-ass Euro-trance stuff though. I'll only be posting once the official stuff is released. After the video plays, you can scroll through the back footage to find the Arsenal highlights from the 1st 3 matches as well. Now, enjoy Arsenal's 4-1 thrashing of Bolton w/ goals from Koscielny, Chamakh, Song, Vela, & Bolton's Elmander. Also, you'll be able to see Gary Cahill's less than red-cardish red-card. don't say I never did anything for you... enjoy!

The Champions League Draw Today

Group A: F.C. Internazionale Milano,* SV Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur FC,** & FC Twente

Group B: Olympique Lyonnais,* SL Benfica,** FC Schalke 04, & Hapoel Tel Aviv FC

Group C: Manchester United,* Valencia CF, Rangers FC,** & Bursaspor 1963

Group D: FC Barcelona,* Panathinaikos, FC Kobenhavn, & Ruben Kazan**

Group E: FC Bayern Munich,* AS Roma,** FC Basel 1893, & CFR Cruj 1907

Group F: Chelsea FC,* Olympique de Marseille, FC Spartak Moscow** & MŠK Žilina

Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid FC,* AFC Ajax,** & AJ Auxerre

Group H: Arsenal FC,* FC Shaktar Donesk,** SC Braga, & FK Partizan

* My pick for the 1st place teams in each group
** My fick for the 2nd place teams in each group

Here's my initial reaction to the draw:

Inter has Group A wrapped up already, but the 2nd place team will be tough. I think both Spurs & Bremen will be too much for Twente though.

Shalke could pip Benfica in Group B, but Tel-Aviv better hope for some lucky home wins if they want to finish anywhere but the bottom of the group.

Like Inter in Group A, Man U have Group C sealed already. Valencia could manage to get past Gers though. These Buraspor people will have a tough go of it... good luck to them upsetting Man U.

In Group D, I'd like to see Ruben Kazan make it out. They had a nice little run last year in the group stage. Maybe this is their year to reach the knock-out stage.

Roma got lucky to fall ass-backwards into a group w/ Basel & Cruj. Otherwise, I wouldn't have picked them to get out of their group.

It looks like Abromovich wasn't able to pull the strings to get an easy group for Chelsea like he usually does. It's nice to see them w/ a bit of competition for a change. They should still roll over everyone in Group F though.

Visions of Ypsi is unofficially the 1st blog to refer to Group G as the "Group of Death." It'll be a tough one for all of the teams. I'm sure Madrid will pull it together, but who knows?

Arsenal have, what looks on paper anyway, their easiest draw in ages. I hope they don't crew it up.

A soccer post for Kristen and evereyone else who loves the soccer posts

Wenger seemed to realize, after the loss @ White Hart Lane, that winning the league wasn't going to happen this year. It's been a long 5 years w/o a trophy; "The Invincibles" won the league in 2004 w/o losing a single match, Arsenal won the FA Cup in 2005, lost in the Champions League final in 2006 after Lehman was sent off, & then lost in the League Cup final in 2007 (a match that ended in a brawl which saw Adebayor, the only person uninvolved get sent off for trying to stop it). Over all, it's been 5 years of blindingly beautiful football w/ absolutely nothing but a few broken legs to show for it.

Since they only have 3 games to go, it's time to start looking ahead to next fall. Of course, I'm doing my part by reading all of the transfer rumors. Here's what I, in my infinite wisdom, think needs to happen.

Sell:
Diaby to some French club where he can dribble, dribble, dribble... lose the ball all he wants
Eboue to Italy where his lack of speed won't be an issue
Almunia to a mid-level club in Spain
Fabianski to some backwater club in Eastern Europe where he'll be forgotten
Eduardo to either Spain or Italy Silvestre is out of contract so he should be released & Wenger can then wash his hands of that putz
Denilsen should go to a club like Reading or Burnley
**There's also a rumor that Arshavin & Fabregas might go to Spain**

Buy:
A new central defender to back up Vermaelen & Gallas like Sakho, Boateng, Hangeland, or Upson
A couple strikers... Chamakh is almost certain on a free from Bordeaux & then someone like Hazzard or Gignac... there's also a pretty common rumor about Higuain coming in from Madrid
A new holding midfielder to replace Denilsen like de Rossi
Clearly a goalie... Joe Hart seems to be the main rumor & he'd be great
Another winger or 2 to replace Eboue/Eduardo/Diaby like Gareth Bale
If Fabregas is sold to Barca, then they'd have plenty of money to pick up Gourcuff who already has a great partnership w/ Chamakh in France... plus he has 2 of the other traits Wenger loves... he's young & caries a French passport... in fact even if Fabregas stays, Wenger should put in a bid for him anyway

I hope Fabregas stays, & in general, w/ Wenger suggesting he'll spend more than normally this summer, the team will certainly be stronger next year. Once Gallas, RVP, Vermaelen, Fabregas, Song, & Arshavin are back from their injuries, the spine of the team will be fantastic & the upgrades can then deepen the squad & push for some trophies again.

11 Arsenal Thoughts... cuz 10 just ain't enough

1) Losing Fabregas to a broken leg is bad luck, but as w/ his previous injury, I think Nasri will be a fine replacement for the rest of the year.
2) Losing Arshavin is rough too, but he's been in relatively bad form lately so it might be OK.
3) Thierry Henry still knows how to play the PR game. He claimed he didn't want to see Arsenal lose & would have rather not even played in the game. He's a class act... even if the hand ball against Ireland has tainted his reputation.
4) I got to use the word "taint"!
5) They looked like ass for 60 minutes against Barcelona the other day, but once they realized they could stick w/ them, the Gunners looked fine. I wonder if that fight back will lead to a stronger 2nd leg in Spain next week. 6) Walcott did more in his 28 minutes on Wednesday than he has for the last few months. If he can keep that up, he's a cinch for South Africa.
7) The remaining fixtures are pretty good. As long as they don't slip up against Tottenham or Man City, things could go well. Man U plays Chelsea tomorrow morning so @ least one of those teams will drop points... here's hoping for a draw!
8) We watched Fever Pitch again the other night. It's even better than I remembred. just be sure to rent the Colin Firth version!
9) I'm going to have to reread the book soon in prep for the World cup.
10) Speaking of soccer books, I just scored a copy of Desmond Morris's The Soccer Tribe from 1981. It still had the insert cor a contest to win tix to the 1982 World Cup. It's a great anthropological look @ the sport.
11) The Gunnersaurus is ridicuous.

Snow Day?

As far as I can remember, the last time we had classes canceled @ EMU due to weather was in December of 2000. I was teaching Eng.121 & sharing an office w/ Annette. It was my very 1st semester as a Lecturer, and while Annette & I were in an office together, I really didn't know her at all. Seeing as it's been almost 10 years, today's snow day came as a bit of a shock, & while I'll have to reshuffle the next couple weeks of class to get us back on track, I think I might be able to actually make good use of the day off. Here are the things I'll do:

1) Blogging: Lately, the blogging has played second fiddle to the rest of my life. I suppose that's the way it should be, but I've tried to keep up a steady pace of 10-12 posts per month over the last 5 years, but that hasn't been happening this year.

2) Reading: I feel as though I've been reading The Savage Detectives since Halloween. It's really good, but it's been really slow going too. I guess confining my "fun" reading to bathroom time & breaks @ Plum Market don't make for fast books. However, recently, around page 350, something resembling a plot appeared so the pace might start picking up. We'll see.

3) Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series: I rented it last week & it's due back on Friday so today'll be a good opportunity to watch it. It looks like it might suck, but in keeping w/ my new-found love of all things Terminator, I feel wee need to watch it.

4) Star Wars: We've been talking about watching the whole saga again, so we may need to start today w/ a viewing of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I think Isaiah wants to watch it.

5) Sledding: I image that @ some point this afternoon, probably while Isaiah is taking his nap, I'll take S & A out for a little while @ Riverside Park.

6) Chili: I'll take the day to slow-cook some chili & fix Coney Dogs for dinner.

7) Arsenal: There's a match this afternoon vs. Liverpool, but it's not on Fox Soccer Channel. I was considering resubscribing to Setanta, chose not to. Today, I'm regretting that decision. If I were in my office, I'd be able to watch it on-line w/ a much better connection than I have @ home... oh well. Who wants to come over & watch Arsenal go down in their 3rd consecutive defeat today?

Burns Night Post #3: Who Would Rabbie Support?

We prepare to celebrate Burns Night tonight, & as always, the celebrations falls during the FA Cup Forth Round matches. Awesomely, Man U has already crashed out of the competition which leaves only Chelsea as a real challenge to Arsenal's sweet run towards the League/Cup double. Of course, Arsenal's 4-2 fight back @ mid-week against Bolton sent them to the top of the league table... granted, a Man U win this afternoon would see Manchester overtake them for a couple days. Still, it's pretty sweet to be top this late in the season.

So in honor of Burns Night & Arsenal's rise to the top, here's what may be the 1st in an new annual tradition... my Burns style poem for the weekend.
Enjoy!

"To a Goon"
Now, if wee Rabbie Burns were still agood
Do’na think that he would be a Chelsea man
For fookin’ fruit & prancin’ doon the road
Is not the way for our fair Burnsie, ken?

And whoot of auld sir Alex’ red Manure?
(He wouldna be a Yankees fan me’thinks.)
Young Rab would ratha cheer the worker, sure,
Than fancy big buck squads with big buck stinks.

Take Merseyside and shove it up yer arse!
Not since the four fair Beatles was it plain.
He’d never been nor would he be a Scouse.
He’d floosh the Reds, wi’ shite, right down the drain.

He’d scoff at Villain ‘tenders to tha crown
Blue Cit’zens, too, wee Rabbie would na take.
Nor lily-white; tha Hotspur, he’d put down.
North London’s got but one fer foock’es sake.

Perhaps the Ayr United or the Killie
Would scratch his home town need for home town sport.
Fair Rabbie was no silly billy Gillie,
He wouldna’ take no silly billy court.

Not Hearts nor Hibs nor Hoops would be his team.
And Rangers only range for gearlie boys.
Though Scotland’s squads would be for him it seems,
They play a pretty plot with ugly noise.

He’d be a true red Gooner don’t ya ken?
Up the Ars’nal; top the table strive.
A club wi’ whom th’hard workin’ lass and men
Can drink and sing and fight and be alive!

A New Soccer Post for the New Year

With Arsenal poised to move into 2nd place (ahead of ManUre) this afternoon (home to Bolton @ 2:45 & I'll be watching it in the office) & the African Cup of Nations starting in Angola on Sunday, I thought a little transfer talk might be in order. I suppose we should do some CAN 2010 updates this month too.

* Man U look set to make some big changes after crashing out of the FA Cup @ home to Leeds United (a Division 1 Side). Ferdinand also seems ready to hang up the boots after an injury hit season (& more roid rumors). Problems @ Old Trafford bring smiles to my face. It's also rumored that Ji Sung Park will be moving East... not all the way back to S. Korea, but over to Birmingham City. He's an odd player & this might be a good move for him.
* Obviously, L'Pool need depth, but the rumors of a mass exodus have been flying. Supposedly Babel, Dossena, Voronin, Lucas, & even Reina are all on the outs. The changes should happen soon if they want to get into the Champions League next year... & if they don, I would imagine Torres & Gerard will be leaving in the summer.
* Chelsea won't be allowed to make any changes after this month for a year & a half, so 1 would expect things to be happening, but Ancelotti claims there won't be any. with Drogba, Essien, Mikel, & Kalou all in Angola, that seems like a risky decision.
* Arsenal's injury hit squad could use a boost, but Wenger pointed out that even w/ RVP, Fabregas, & Bendtner out, they've still scored more goals that any other team. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for André-Pierre Gignac to move in from Toulouse, but that doesn't seem likely. A right back might be a good buy too... & a back up central defender w/ Djourou out & the rumors of Senderos leaving.

EPL Transfer Rumours

Football Rumours

The Telegraph

The Guardian

Sky Sports

Champions League Draw

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
Group B: Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsberg
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympique de Marseille, Wolfsberg
Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL
Group E: Liverpool, Olympique Lyonnais, Fiorentina, Debrecen
Group F: FC Barcelona, Internazional Milan, Dynamo Kyiv, Rubin
Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni
Group H: Arsenal FC, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos FC, Standard Liege

First off, Arsenal lucked out. This is certainly their easiest grop stage in quite a while. I would guess Olympiacos will go through as the #2 team, but AZ might slip through. The other easy group is definitely Group G: Sevilla & Rangers pretty much have a pass to the knock-out round. Man U should breeze through Group B, but the 2nd team is up in the air... it could go to any of them. Of the rest, Groups A, C, & D look the toughest. My prediction is Bayern & Juve, Real Madrid & Marseille, & Chelsea & Atletico, but Bordeaux, AC Milan, & Porto could certainly get through too.

Don't forget... Man U v Arsenal this Saturday @ 12:15... who's coming over for it?

The End of the Invincibles

From 7 May 2003 to 16 October 2004, Arsenal went 49 league matches w/o a loss. The squad of the 03/04 season was dubbed "The Invincibles" since they were the 1st team since Preston North End to go an entire season w/o losing a game... & by the '90s, the season was 16 matches longer than it had been in the 1880s. Their 26 wins & 12 draws that year obviously sent them to the top of the league w/ a line-up that has yet to be matched by any other team... or by Arsenal themselves. Yesterday, Kolo Toure was sold to Man City (where he will join up w/ Adebayor) for a rumored £14m as he became the last of the Invincibles to leave Arsenal.
*"Mad" Jens Lehmann: Goalie, sold to Stuttgart (summer of 2008)
*Sol Campbell: Defender, sold to Portsmouth (summer 2006)
*Ashley Cole: Defender, sold to Chelsea [cash plus Gallas] (summer 2006)
*Lauren: Defender, sold to Portsmouth (January of 2007)
*Freddie Ljungberg: Midfielder, sold to West Ham (summer of 2007)
*Patrick Viera: Midfielder (Captain), sold to Juventus (summer of 2005)
*Gilberto Silva: Midfielder, sold to Panathinaikos (summer of 2008)
*Robert Pires: Midfielder, sold to Villarreal (summer of 2006)
*Thierry Henry: Striker, sold to Barcelona (summer of 2007)
*Dennis Bergkamp: Striker, retired (summer of 2006)

In hindsight, the departure of every one of these players seems to have happened @ the right time. Only Henry (& to a lesser extent, Viera) have had success since they've left... & only Henry's 2nd season in Barcelona was successful. Hopefully, Wenger uses the money they've made this summer well. A new striker & another defender look set to come in & maybe another central midfielder too. We'll see. The current squad is looking strong again though w/ the arrival of Nasri, Ashavin, & Vermaelen over the last year & Eduardo & Rosicky finally fit again after long injury problems. Perhaps this season will finally see the reawakening of the fire power of this fully armed & operational Gunner's team.

L'Hopital

My dad went into the hospital yesterday morning to have his right knee replaced. The surgery went well, & he was up & about a little today. I saw him for a few hours, let him beat me in a game of gin, & watched some Sky Sports w/ him where we learned all about the rumored Adebayor move from Arsenal to Man City. I'm going back tomorrow afternoon w/ the kids so they'll get a chance to say hi too. While the physical therapy people were getting him up & moving, I went down to the hospital cafeteria for a snack... I love hospital cafeterias! I scored perogies, egg noodles w/ sauerkraut, a big salad, a pudding, & a Diet Pepsi for 4 bucks. Awesome! I only get hospital cafeteria food once every year or two, so when I get it... I get it good!

Man U to sign little girl w/ skinned knee & shit

I promised 1 more soccer post so here it is. Not that I'll never write about soccer again, but as far as wrapping up the spring goes, this is it. (I'm sure @ the end of the month I'll need to wrap up my season w/ stats & so forth too, but I don't want to get ahead of myself so here it goes.The Under 9 Panthers finished their spring season in top form w/ 4 wins & 2 draws. Obviously, ensuring that they have fun is my main focus, but seeing as they have gotten more & more competitive as the years have rolled on, these little kids have developed a different goal: namely, winning. W/ 7 minutes to go in their final match, we were losing 5-3 so I asked myself what Arsene Wenger would do if he were allowed to make unlimited substitutions switched things around a bit which enabled them to score 2 more & end w/ a draw. A few were unhappy that they weren't able to tally up another W, but as the ref blew the final whistle, 1 of the kids shouted "All we needed was a draw! All we needed was a draw!" He meant that 14 points was enough to clinch 1st place; he would have been right if the league was actually keeping track of some sort of placement table. Of course, @ U9 they don't but that doesn't stop the kids from paying attention to that stuff. All in all it was a fun season, the kids really developed their passing skills & vision, & a few of them are coming along as goalies too. We even worked on headers for the 1st time, & for fun, I introduced them to the glories of European Cup... an everyone for him/herself game in the penalty area revolving around the grand Libertarian ideology of self-centered individuality... & it's fun too.

In European Footie news, I finished in 3rd place in the Fantasy League, my lowest finish ever. I'll have to come hard next fall to secure my place @ the top of the table. Arsenal will need to do the same thing, but the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo from the Premiership yesterday won't hurt Arsenal's chances. Man U were paid a record-breaking 80 Million pounds for that dude. Unlike every Man U fan around the world though, I'm not going to pretend it's "all good." 80 Mil is a lot of salad, but having a player of his caliber in the league was always good for the league. He'll be hard to replace, but odds are that Sir Alex will look in 1 of 2 directions: a crying little kid (as per the title of the post) or someone like Tom Daley... he looks like Arsenal wunderkind Jack Wilshire, & as an Olympic diver, he'd be able to fill that gaping hole left by Ronaldo @ he top of the D where he so often goes to ground (you can insert your own "Ronaldo Gaping Hole Joke" here... that sort of thing is beneath us here @ Visions of Ypsi). Now, w/o further ado, a little tribute to the FIFA World Footballer of the Year, on his way to Real Madrid: a little 4 minute montage of his more recent dives (after watching it, you can go here to keep abreast of the other Premier League transfers over the summer):

Because you've been dying for this

Here are the links to the Gunner's 50 Greatest Goals" that you've been craving. Maybe they can remind us that Arsenal might be able to actually win something some time in the next few years. * Video 1
* Video 2
* Video 3
* Video 4
Oh, & while we're thinking about the Great Gunners, here's a little pictre of one of the greatest: Nicholas Bendtner. He's by far the worst striker any of the top teams have had in quite a while. In fact, I'm not certain he belongs in the league @ all. Rumors have been circulating that he'll be sold to West Ham... & if that's the case, great... they can have that putz. Here he is coming ouut of a club the other night after they got their shit handed to them by Man U. Why are his papnts falling down? No one knows.

What do these dudes have in common?

Steve Earl Andrew Ridgeley

Roger Daltry

Will Wheaton John Lydon Spike Lee The dude who plays Mr. Eko Nick Hornby Steve Gorman (Black Crowes Drummer) Angus Young
They're our Visions of Ypsi Top 10 Bad Ass Celebrity Arsenal fans. I'm sure they, like me, have a bad case of Arsetimism concerning this afternoon's match... the 2nd leg of the Champion's League Semi-Final @ The Emirates vs Man U... Head on up to Conor O'Niell's @ 2:45 to check out the game!

The 1 Millionth Word!

The wait is over! April 29th is upon us! It is now 12:01 AM GMT so we @ Visions of Ypsi are reading to unveil the word. It's not fantastic, but the fanfare that should go along w/ the 1 millionth word in the English language should more than make up for the seemingly uselessness word. Of course, you'll realize that it's not really useless tomorrow as you cheer for Arsenal in the Champion's League Semi-Final 1st Leg @ Old Trafford. Before wee get to the word, however, let's recap what we've done so far. Last year, The Global Language Monitor claimed that April 29th would see the creation of the 1 millionth word in English. The problematic nature of this claim is multi-faceted, but we'll ignore that for now as we look to the greater glory of English in general & Visions of Ypsi in particular. During the run-p, we coined 3 new terms: "Chimilicious," "Barack-a-lack-a-boom," & "The Westley." Now, w/o further ado, your 1 millionth word: "Arsetimistic." This is the stupid optimism one feels while knowing full-well that Arsenal won't make it past Man U in the Champions League. This is different that naive optimism because one is fully aware that the hope is useless. The game tonight (still on GMT here) will be a futile struggle as Arsenal lose 3-1. The home tie next week will probably end 1-1 sending Man U through on a 4-2 aggregate score-line. That's OK though. We'll remain Arsetimistic & assume Wenger will win the treble next year.

Here's my Arsetemistic starting line-up:
Almunia
Sagna Toure Djourou Gibbs
Song
Walcott Fabregas Nasri
van Persie Adebayor

Adebayor v Villareal 4-7-09

I didn't get a chance to watch the 2nd half yesterday, but after reading about the goal, I searched around a bit to finally find it. I hope it stays up for a while because it's not giving me the option to DL it 7 all the other highlight videos have already been taken down. It's a sweet sweet goal!

Events of the Day

It turns out, "Friend of the Devil" went all the way to the top. Here's the video, but I can't find a video of the interview segment... or the O'Reilly segment. I didn't get to see it today because, while I was actually home & perched in front of my TV, The View was preempted by Obama's speech. I know I should have been more interested in what he had to say, but I just kept hoping it would end so they could get back to The View before The Dead were on.

In other news regarding my inability to see the big picture, 22 people died when a wall collapsed @ a World Cup qualifier in Cote d'Ivore this weekend. I heard about it on Arsenal.com w/ the headline "Tragedy Overshadows Qualifiers" w/ a picture of Kolo Toure (who plays for Ivory Coast & has been captaining Arsenal in Fabregas's stead until he returns from injury). Anyway, I saw the picture & assumed he'd gotten hurt. When I saw what actually happened, the 1st think to go through my head was, "Oh, good... it as just some random people." I'm not proud. Seriously, I'm pretty disturbed by my reaction.

Speaking of reactions, while the rest of the world was enjoying Oberon Day, I was @ Nicola's where I heard this rather one-sided conversation between a woman & her little kid. (By the front of the store, there's a bin of large 4-Square bouncy balls.)
"Hey, look at these balls!
"aren't these great balls?
"Do you like these balls?
"These balls are so soft and squishy!
"Come here and squeeze these balls!
"Don't you just love these balls?
"OOOHHHH, they smell nice too!
"Did you smell the balls?
"Come smell the balls!
"These balls smell so good."

I wanted to shout, "Stop saying balls!!!" but I decided I just had to go to the back of the store and get the Hell out of that situation. That MILF was lovin' balls!

St. Patrick's Day

After I dropped the kids off @ school, we walked down to Sidetrack only to find out they aren't opening this morning until 11:00 (5 minutes from when I type this) so we turner around & went to The Corner for their 4$ all you can eat breakfast buffet (bagels & Lucky Charms). We also tried the Corned Beef Hash. I hadn't eaten any meat since the bite of Haggis on Burns' Night, & it turns out I could have left it that way. It seemed like a towel that had been sitting in a damp tub... I could have rung out the fat w/ my hands. Needless to say, we didn't finish it. Their stout, on the other hand, was great. They've made 3 new ones for today, The Lucky Charms Stout, The Western Imperial Stout & the Roasted Marshmallow Stout.

* The LCS came equipped w/ a few LC marshmallows on top. Stephanie liked it a lot, claiming it was very "stouty," but after I had the WIS, the LCS seemed to lack body & depth. I enjoyed it though once I could taste it.
* The WIS is fantastic!!! Get there today & have a few. It doesn't seem as though they'll keep it long term, but maybe w/ enough begging, we can change their minds. Do yourself a favor & drink 1 or 6.
* The RMS was interesting & a nice novelty, but I wouldn't drink it all the time. It was made by suspending roasted marshmallows over the mash as it was fermenting which then oozed down into the goop. It has a sweet nose & a nice roasted marshmallow finish just as he claimed it would.

The whole time we were there, Isaiah sat in his stroller & ate bagels. He had a good time & even sparked the interest of the younger kids, 1 of which went so far as to snap a few pics of him. He was decked out in his St. Patrick's day attire & I'm sure Stephanie will post a pic of him today... super awesome!

In other St. Patrick's Day news, Arsenal faces Hull City this afternoon @ The Emirates in the FA Cup Quarter Finals. A win will put them through to the Semis against Chelsea @ Wembley. It's been a great week for them, making it through to the Quarter Finals in Europe & hammering Blackburn 4-0, here's to hoping they can keep it up.

Here are some fun Holiday links:

St. Patrick's Day Home Page

The History of St. Patrick's Day from The History Channel

The Guinness Home Page

Murphy's Home Page

The Jameson Homepage

A chick w/ Shamrocks on her titties

A good article about green beer... I like point 2