Category Archives: TIMBERS!

I have always wanted to see a soccer match with our men’s and women’s teams play together.

Finally! My dream came true.

This match was a fundraiser for children in Ukraine. It was on a Wednesday night and I went back and forth about attending and decided not to.

Except when we were at the match on Saturday I changed my mind and planned to only go to the first half and then hop the bus home.

When Bob heard I planned to attend he wanted to go too so he met me downtown. I’m glad I didn’t leave early.

Tickets were free but a suggested $10 donation. Attendance was over 16,000. Lots of kids. I would say the women’s team fans outnumbered the men’s team fans. During the match they announced they’d raised over $400K but later I saw it was over $500k.

The ref was from Ukraine — first time in history I saw a ref get a standing ovation at the park. hehe.

The players looked like they were having so much fun. They were competitive but also goofing off. They rotated players about every 15 minutes to get everyone in there. (60 minute match). At the end all the players were on the field. Everyone wanted to score — no one helped the goalkeeper.

It was a really fun event. So happy we went.

Uh oh, that guy fell down. Opponents who don’t like Diego Chara are going to be thrilled to find out we have two Charas now.

I wish I had some good news about my tooth.

Overall, the dentist doesn’t think it’s long for this world but since I wasn’t up for shelling out huge bucks for an implant right now, we prepped for a crown. And the crown prep included some minor oral surgery on my gum. The site is still sore.

Meanwhile, I’ve been back and forth to the orthodontist to take wires and brackets on and off. More of the same next week when the crown comes in.

I’m kinda bummed about being constantly afraid of my mouth and constant low grade discomfort and relying on soft food and visiting the gamut of dental practitioners as my part time job.

Hopefully all will go smoothly with the crown and I can get this behind me.

Coach doing media at the half

These photos can mean only one thing: Timbers season starts again soon.

This is the preseason tournament so I saw a match last weekend and a match last night. It was fun to be back at the stadium and seeing some of the new players.

Preseason substitutions. I love seeing all the guys on the field like this.

I know it’s just preseason but I didn’t see anything that made me overly optimistic. I predict that we play just enough great games to keep our hopes up but enough stinkers to keep us at our usual spot in the middle of the table.

Opening match next weekend.

Should it be “more slowly than planned”?

I am elbow deep in revisions and way too slow. I’ll tell everyone to only read the first 5 chapters.

Everything else is falling apart. We’re having a dinner casserole topped with panko and shredded cheese for about the tenth week in a row. My husband doesn’t complain but my waistband does. I have about 200 loose ends I’m trying to tie up. That’s a lie. I have 200 loose ends that I am watching flap in the wind and laughing at because they will flap until they go away or until April.

We started Timbers on Friday and I am too lazy to even get the photos off the camera. These are from last year – obviously because that guy is wearing shorts and open-toed shoes.

It was about 45 degrees and a cold steady rain when we arrived. I wore my heavy coat that soaked more rain than repelled so I sat in a damp coat for 3 hours. Honestly, not complaining. I was so overflowing with joy to be back at the park and watching my beloved team. Especially watching them win 5-1. This is only the second time in the last 4 years that we’ve won a game in March.

Timbers Fan Appreciation Night

Here I am with Vytas who also complimented my earrings and gets a million gold stars. He just joined our team this summer and his full name has about 16 syllables and twice that many vowels. He’s from Lithuania and completely charming. When he arrived he’d never been to the US and every time they did an interview with him he was happily counting off all the things he’d done for the first time since he’d arrived. He is one of my new favorites. The other guy is Wade Hamilton who is the “c” goalkeeper.

Here I am with Zarek Valentin, Darren Mattocks, Fanendo Adi (swoon swoon!) and Taylor Peay. I love all these guys. I wrote Season of Us before Zarek was even on our team. But he used to have a surfer hair thing going and the first time I saw him I said: Zach!

And that concludes my coverage of fan appreciation night.

I had to get yet another crown — the tooth kind. I had the prep two weeks ago and ate half the temporary in less than 24 hours. So for the past two weeks every time I inhaled with my mouth open you had to scrape me off the ceiling because that tooth nubbin was sensitive. I got my tooth installed today and the dentist asked why I didn’t come back to get another one. If I’m going to break them that fast, it didn’t seem worth it. I love my new tooth and eating and drinking hot and cold things without screaming.