Category Archives: doing it wrong

Wow. Germany v. Brazil.

What can you say? After the 3rd goal I said, I don’t understand what’s happening. I thought I was watching a replay or some sort punked version of World Cup. Then the TV showed a lady in Brazil colors making a “I don’t understand what’s happening face.”

I wasn’t alone.

Having watched my team get humiliated on the pitch, I feel for Brazil. I was glad I was Team Germany.

Argentina v. Netherlands

Historically, I’ve been a Netherlands fan but I haven’t been enjoying them lately and I wasn’t sad to see them go out. I can’t even imagine what that 3rd place match is going to look like.

I’m still Team Germany but I wouldn’t be unhappy to see Argentina raising the trophy. Let’s hope for a good match and no PK final.

Remember the dramatic baby raccoon rescue in our backyard?

This morning I saw a mama and three fuzzy baby raccoons on the way to the park-n-ride. They were waddling across a busy street so I didn’t have high hopes for the family but hopefully I’m wrong. (Edited to add: every time I read a previous post I find a typo or bit that doesn’t make sense because I do everything in a hurry. I always think I should fix but rarely do. In this case I need to point out that the raccoons were not on their way to the park-n-ride. They were crossing the street. I was going to the park-n-ride.

And my final note, today I was answer lady at the bus stop. One lady came up to ask me a question and then argued with me when I answered her. I finally said: I don’t know what you’re asking me. And she told me she thought her bus was coming soon. Lady: an express bus comes about every 7 minutes until 6:30pm. That’s not a daring assumption you’re making. (I know I shouldn’t be mean. If you don’t normally take the bus, it’s easy to panic. But don’t argue with me.)

I’m successfully finding things I’m not looking for today.

I came across these when I was trying to find a greeting card. I did 15 seconds of research and am going to say they’re from 1998.

Only 4 games left! Last night we were getting ready to go to the neighbors for dinner but it was too early so I sat down and found myself watching Houston play New York. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here watching soccer,” I said.

My team played at 8pm and for the first time I skipped it because we were out front makes things explode. I was pretty excited about our selections but compared to other fireworks going off in the neighborhood, we were piddly. I can’t believe regular people can buy that stuff and shoot it off in the front yard. Must have been the $699.99 Big Bang. It was still fun and we had a great time shooting our flaming balls.

I checked my team’s score at around the 55th minute and it was 0-0. When I went to bed I saw it was 2-2 and figured I’d watch the 2nd half.

The World Cup games today were Argentina v. Belgium and Netherlands v. Costa Rica.

I liked the Argentina game. I thought Belgium played great, they just couldn’t get any scoring together against Argentina.

I don’t know what to tell you about Netherlands. It used to be one of my favorite teams but I didn’t love the way they played in the final in the last World Cup and I’m not loving the way they’re playing now. They hit the ground really easy. And that thing where they spin around. I’ve never been tackled while I was running really fast and kicking a ball but it’s hard for me to imagine that I would roll over and over like a hot dog on a stick. I really wanted to see Costa Rica go through. Couldn’t we have one surprise in the semis?

No. I have to watch Germany play Brazil on Tuesday and Argentina play Netherlands on Wednesday. Either of these would make great final matches.

After all that soccer I watched most of the second half of the Timbers game on my DVR. Then I went back and watched the end of the Brazil v. Columbia match that I turned off in a snit fit the other day so I could see the end.

Then I was finished with soccer. No soccer tomorrow. I’m going to sleep in and have a lazy-ish day.

I thought the Germany v. France game was the second game and Brazil v. Columbia was the morning game. I decided to sacrifice the Brazil game because I had so many errands to take care of. Then I checked the schedule and Germany was first. I scrapped all my plans except for the 9am dash to fireworks lane.

I have lived here 20 years and I have never been to a major fireworks seller. I’ve been to a few stands but never the ginormous hangars filled with everything but grenade launchers. Maybe they do have grenade launchers and I don’t know what they look like.

I should add that I grew up in Southern California where depending on where you live you can have either tiny “safe and sane” fireworks or nothing. I still can’t get over how much of this stuff there is.

First we went to Black Jack because that is the destination brand. We were there at 9:02am and it was like Macy’s a half hour before closing on Christmas Eve. People were stacking shopping carts full of this stuff. Bob said there was already stuff out of stock.

You can’t tell but the Big Bang costs $699.99.

We’re total noobs and had no idea what to buy so we left and went next door to the warehouse which was much less crowded but no less overwhelming. I had a very nice young man come over to help me. Clearly he’d been partaking of something else legal in Washington because he enthusiastically told me about the awesome colors and varieties of whatever I was looking at. If we could figure out a way to combine fireworks and pot we’d be billionaires. (Probably, someone has already done it.)

We bought some fountain somethings and some variety something that the kid said was a good choice. I’ll try to take photos.

Last year on the 4th there was a spontaneous party with the neighbors out front and I think there has been some slightly more organizing going on. I don’t know because I’m not on Facebook and I’ve been stuffing my face with World Cup for two weeks. I made a pie and a salad to bring and Bob has grilling stuff.

So back to the games: Germany in another nail biter. I had to watch it delayed so I turned off all my electronic devices and hoped the phone wouldn’t ring until I found out the result. I only watched part of the Brazil v. Columbia game. It was choppy and I wasn’t enjoying it and decided to do some chores instead. I gave up at the 70th minute. I guess I missed the best part. It’s like that Doctor Who with the vicious angels that only move when you aren’t looking.

Two big games tomorrow and then only 4 games left.

On the way home I saw a sign at a pizza type place that said: Do you want to watch the soccer championship series?

That’s almost good enough to make a special trip back to take a photo. Maybe this weekend I can get up early and do it. It’s in a terribly inconvenient location.

Ugh. What a couple of long days. I’ve been getting up even earlier so I can leave at 6am and be at the office before 7am so I can start early and take a long lunch.

These games going into extra time are killing me.

All the Round of 16 games I’ve seen (I didn’t get to see them all) have been nail biters. My poor nails.

Germany went through, whew. USA did not. Total heartbreaker bummer. They played their hearts out and Tim Howard is a national hero.

I’m behind on everything in the world. The commute home tonight was insane. I walked out of the office at 4:30 and didn’t get home until after 6pm. The good part is that everyone on the bus, including the driver, were great sports and laughing. I’ve never been on a bus that full. This is Vancouver transit, not Tokyo.

A big guy sat down next to me and said: you won the lottery.

I said: So did you.

Does that sound snotty? I meant to be funny but later I worried that I might have sounded snotty. He laughed.

Two rest days (World Cup) I know that means for players but I need rest, too. I’m hoping I can get caught up at the office. Then two huge games Friday and Saturday plus a Timbers away game on Friday night. Being in love with soccer is a curse sometimes.

In other news, my shoulder is feeling about 95% pain free thanks to Saint Melonie of Vancouver Yoga Center. She worked on me on Friday and then in class last night there was a lot of focus on my problem area (shoulder blades) and there were huge stretches of time today where I felt completely fine. I have a whole new appreciation for people who suffer from chronic pain, and for being pain free. I’m still doing tons of self-care and homework to keep it up.

I’m also dying to work on the hedge but resisting the urge because that’s how I got into this mess.