Raincharm’s Weblog

So we are now poised at the start of the World Cup knockout stage.
Actually, the first game is really almost over, but thanks to the DVR and a little extra rest this AM, the game is just starting for us. S Korea v Uruguay.S Korea is my team, Uruguay Carl’s.

Which brings us to our current statistics. Now I have no thought that this is of interest to anybody outside of our family. But this will memorialize it, and keep Rey in touch (if in fact he has the time to read this).

After the Round-Robin Stage (3 games for each team)
Points: (3 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss)

Rey = 31 Pts, with 8 Wins, 7 Losses, 9 Ties;
Goals for = 27, Goals against = 29, Differential = -2

Carl = 26 Pts, with 7 Wins, 12 Losses, 5 Ties;
Goals for = 15, Goals against = 19, Differential = -4

Jay = 29 Pts, with 8 Wins,  11 Losses, 5 Ties;
Goals for = 29, Goals against = 38, Differential = -9

Ashlan = 42 Pts, with 11 Wins, 4 Losses, 9 Ties;
Goals for = 27, Goals against = 15, Differential = +12

Goal differential, as a whole, doesn’t mean much, but for individual teams it can be the difference between going on or going home. Two teams out of each group of 4 in the Round Robin go on, and tie-breakers are frequently necessary.

Teams that are still alive are: (Pre Post-first game anyway)

Rey: (3) Slovakia, Paraguay, Portugal
Carl: (3) Uruguay, Chile, Japan
Jay: (4 3) South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Spain
Ashlan: (6) USA, Ghana, Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, England

Note that Ashlan will lose at least 2 teams in the first set of knockout games because she plays herself. I will lose one as well when Mexico and Argentina meet.

The number of games per day has also been reduced to a maximum of 2. Entirely watchable.

I stayed home this morning for an hour and watched the Brazil v Portugal.

Then it was off to work.
Calm J today, more or less.
Picky little things – not much big getting done.
Called the insurance lady, we chatted, nicely.
She apologized for sending a letter that got me so upset.
And they offered the $ amount I had thought would be reasonable.

So, I will send off the paperwork tomorrow, but not the keys.
Those will go to the tow truck driver when they come to take the car away. Possibly as early as Monday.

Then for the main event. Glitter and Be Gay. The Seattle Mens and Womens Chorus’ performing together. 400 of them. On risers. It was spectacular. They did Bernstein and Sondheim pieces.

Then back home to finish up the Spain vs Chile game. Today’s games finish the roundrobin portion of the World Cup. I will provide the families totals tomorrow.

This is Calm J. Boring, but calm.

Yesterday – it started so well.
Ashlan started out at a bar/cafe with several other like-minded folks to watch the US Soccer team play Algeria. It was a 7 AM start on the left coast, so I got to see a few minutes before departing for work. I knew it was 0-0 at the half, but then it was into a staff meeting that would take the rest of the game. Near the conclusion of the staff meeting I asked who had the score (let’s be real with all of the electronic gadgets around today), and we heard the score 1-0 US. What we did not know was the dramatic fashion in which the win was achieved.

Ashlan, on the other hand, was fully aware and in the midst of the celebration. She had taken her USA flag, acquired for the Olympics, and the restaurant staff had told her to tie it to the railing of the loft where they were sitting. She arrived at work full of vigor.

And so the day should have been a good one. U.S. win, walk after work, drop Ashlan at the Mariners game (they beat the Cubs), and home to watch more soccer,     and open the mail.

I had not heard from the insurance company since last week. They had provided their idea of the car’s value, and I had countered with my own research into the valuation. There was a package waiting – with a check. The check reflected their original valuation, with no mention of my additional data – accepted or not. No mention of the difference in their assumed mileage and our real mileage. The letter seemed to presume we wanted to keep the car, although they provided some information on how to send them the title, keys, etc.

The package set me off. All of the good of the day left, in an instant. I hate my sometimes explosive anger, but that is me. It resulted in a call to Carl (venting), a call to my insurance adjuster to complain, and an e-mail to the insurance adjuster to complain in a calmer tone, but with more reasons why I was so upset.

I have been exposed to customer service for many years, and write letters to customers on a fairly regular basis. Clarity is important and can save a lot of angst. This letter was missing clarity. I am sure they know what they mean, but they deal with settlements on a daily basis. Most of us – maybe never before. I am sure it is a form letter of sorts – they will continue to get suggestions on how to improve their interactions.

I hope to hear from them tomorrow with revisions to the valuation, and answers to some other questions like, “Why would I send you all of the keys to the car and be left with a 2000 pound broken car sitting in my driveway, and no way to even try to move it?” (More than happy to hand over the keys to the tow truck driver that drags it away.)

Enough complaining. Time for Calm J.

Tranquillo Barnetta – a player for Switzerland.

When his name came up during play yesterday, we had to ask whether the games were really tranquil, and how tranquil we feel.

They have been fun to watch, and I find that I am really disappointed that my own soccer season has ended. We won’t play again until the fall. I feel like I have better ideas on how the game should flow and progress. Now, putting those thoughts into action would be an entirely different subject, but I just feel like I would have better ideas.

Today the games go from 3 in a day to 4 in a day. They are played two at a time. Our DVR can only accommodate one recording at a time apparently, so we can only record 2 of the 4 each day. The others will hopefully be available on ESPN 360 (computer), so not lost. Then there is the problem of actually finding the hours in the day to watch four games, work, commute and sleep.

This is making life a little more stressful, but it is a schedule that we welcomed into our life. Add in the new car purchase (up to the point it is time to test drive), still being behind on work and needing to do a few chores here and there. The stress is adding up. But I want to watch the soccer, so I don’t think that will be the thing to give.

We’ll see how it all goes through the end of the week. Oh – and the Mariners are in town …

This is Father’s day, and so I called my father. This was after I spoke with my son – trying to call his father – who was not in (more later). Since we are separated by a few thousand miles, the phone call was as close as we could get today. Still it was good to talk and catch up on what is going on in there end of the universe. Bridge games that I remember from my very small years still happen. Apparently, however, the players have changed some (this is over a period of more than 40 years afterall), and so have the refreshments. Last night there were no mixed drinks (hard liquor) served and only a handful of beers. More soda and water. Now I remember the bridge nights for their sound, talking, laughing, and general cadence. I also remember the 2 Prize, given to the first person to take a trick with a 2. And I mostly remember that we would get to drink pop the day after the game. We didn’t usually have pop in the house, but they would buy it for mixers, and we would get to imbibe in the leftovers. (Pop only, not the hard stuff.)

My mind also referenced a recent post on my cuzzint Anne’s site and the following comments. This had to do with liking or not liking cottage cheese (it’s in there – really). I noted that I still don’t drink martinis, and it may have started from being given a sample of a martini from my parents (yuck). To which my father told the story of getting cream soda with a lump of ice cream at their Sunday dinners growing up. His father would not have that, but a beer instead. So my dad asked what beer was like, and was allowed a taste, “Yuck.” Unlike my not going for martinis, even in their resurrection as a popular drink, my dad does drink beer.

So – back to the present – Rey called to talk to the non-present dad, and chatted with me instead. Topics ranged from Pillars of the Earth to Chekhov’s Gun to Sofa King the Jones Act and an HL Mencken quote, “An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.” [I have to take notes when I speak with Rey, because his brain moves a lot faster than mine.]

Dad Carl was not at home because he was out with the other child. They are having a day together. First up was Church of Baseball, er softball. They and another father and daughter met at a field and pitched and hit and chased after baseballs. Ashlan claims she threw about 200 pitches to Carl. No report on how many were in the strike zone. But apparently they all got a good workout. Next it was quick rinse and off to the Mariner game. Ashlan acquired two tickets in the second row behind the dugout. These are fantastic seats, and may have the added bonus of padded seats and access to the “club.” We are waiting to find out what this really means. I dropped them at the game, and will be picking them up at the end (I assume).

Yesterday was a different day. It ended with Carl & me at the baseball game (Ms win!), preceded by a walk to the game (7-8 miles), preceded by an afternoon spent looking at car sites comparing cost, size, mileage, etc …, preceded by a morning spent watching soccer, preceded by getting up at 3:30 AM to drive a friend to the airport.

While the others are at the game I am preparing to watch soccer and go through Consumer Reports on the cars I gathered for further consideration yesterday. All for now.

Friday night in the city. Lots of stuff going on, so lots of people heading in. We are with them. Slog on in, not the worst, but certainly not the best.

We finally hit downtown. The goal is to drop Ashlan at Safeco Field for a Mariner game. She is meeting Carl and others. Many others. You may have heard of Ken Griffey Junior. He hit 630 home runs – we have a few of the balls he gave us in our house. He just retired. They are having a bobblehead giveaway tonight – Griffey and Ichiro together. So in addition to those that just like baseball, there are the bobblehead fans.

And, it would appear that many more people have found the new exit that leads directly to the baseball stadium.
No worries, we are not in a huge hurry. Ashlan bails out, and then passes me as I wait for the cars to inch past the stadium. I finally pass her – talking with Carl & Jet (4 year old).

Up onto the viaduct that runs along the Puget Sound downtown. You may know that this structure has basically been condemned, and is scheduled to be replaced – I hope with a tunnel. Our current Mayor is not for this idea – he would rather create gridlock downtown by removing a major bypass route …. but I digress. It is a beautiful early evening. The sun is out, although clouds are gathering in the south. There are many smaller boats on the sound and I am guessing this is associated with some festival. And then I notice – a fire boat in full display. Kind of like a peacock with feathers in 360 degrees around the body as well as the 180 degree fan. A white peacock. (peahen?) I can’t even see the boat at the middle of the sprays. It is quite impressive. For once I am glad for the 10 mph rate of travel.

On to north Seattle, passing my normal exit. My goal is to get a red hat for a fifty-year old friend. I truly detest the black theme for parties. But I fully embrace the red hat society’s goals to not worry about what others think about how you look – go enjoy yourself. The giving of a red had has become a bit of a tradition at work. There are several of us now. But traffic is dense – as expected, and I had even thought of a slight back door approach. However, the back door approach was full of brambles. A bus, construction and fire-truck in the first 500 yards. OK. Dodge right, a cut through, and back to a semi-main road. Which is stopped. I sat in this line attempting to turn onto the main road for several minutes. But I was not in a particular hurry. Found a red had that should do the trick, and browsed the store for a bit. On leaving, the earlier back-up had dissipated, and I headed home.

Almost there – the road clogged again. So, this time I dodged left. I had  enough of sitting in lines. Finally home. Not planning to leave again today.

Mow the back yard, and apply fertilizer with one of those whirlybird hand-held things. It says to water in. By the look of the clouds gathering to the south, I may give mother nature a chance to do the watering for me.

OK – through the first set of games for the 32 teams, our family’s results are

Carl       3 W – 3 L – 2 Ties   / 3 Goals for : 3 Goals against / 11 Points
Rey        1 W – 2 L – 5 Ties  /  4 Goals for : 9 Goals against /  8 Points
Jay        2 W – 4 L – 2 Ties  /  6 Goals for : 8 Goals against /  8 Points
Ashlan 4 W – 1 L – 3 Ties  / 12 Goals for: 5 Goals against / 15 Points

[To get points it is 3 points fora Win, 0 points for a Loss, and 1 point for a tie.]

This is our results from the first 16 games. All 32 teams have played one game.
There have actually been 4 games in the second set now as the teams play through their 4 team groups.

The results above are therefore, not necessarily predictors of which of us will prevail in the end.
Of each of the 8 groups of 4 teams, the top 2 teams of the 4 will advance. So you could have a strong team, but if they are against other strong teams they may not advance, whereas a weaker team in a weak group will. I have all four teams in Group B, so have at least 2 moving forward.

I have also managed to “watch” all of the games so far, although well past their air date for any during the work week. I have only known the outcome of a few ahead of time. It is darn hard to avoid knowing if you are not careful. I did compromise a bit today and allowed Carl to fast forward to the goals in the Argentina 4 – South Korea 1 game. I had heard the score on the way to work this morning. The person I carpooled with had a sports station on….

It’s only a month-long tournament. I am sure the household chores can wait.

Post thought: Don’t know that I mentioned it earlier, but our family drew for random teams – just to add a little something. The “drawing” was done using cards (e.g. Ace – Bracket A) and the alphabet (Spades – first alphabetically within the bracket, Hearts – second, Diamond third, Clubs – forth). Our teams:

I suppose I should be keeping this up better than I have been, but since we arrived back on the left coast it has seemed exceedingly busy. Work has been work, and there has been a lot of it, all of it important and due now ( or worse, yesterday). Priorities are sometimes easy when the due date is now. It seems the time spent in meetings has not allowed me to actually complete anything. I did some work this weekend, but obviously could have done much more. We are also in the midst of narrowing our list of candidates for our GM position. Trying to choose a new boss is a daunting task.

Then there is choosing a new car. I have not made much progress this week – work has been too completely consuming.

Then there is the continual backdrop of soccer – at least when I am home.
The west coast game times are 4:30 AM, 7 AM and 11 AM (more or less).
We have been recording them all. Carl watches them during the morning mostly – and then can’t say anything. I have been trying desperately to remain blissfully ignorant until I can spend my 4-1/2 hours in the evening watching the morning’s games.
And then we do it again the next day.
It is still fun as the teams are new. Some match-ups have been very entertaining, and only a few that I would call dull.

Ashlan catches the evening viewing when she can, but is not making it her only priority. Which is good as she has both soccer games starting tonight and a softball practice. What is kind of funny is that she has never played softball before. Only baseball.

So – back to trying to accomplish a bit more before my head hits the pillow.

It was sunny today. And yes, I did not leave the house until after noon, and after the three soccer games of the day had been digested. World Cup games that is. When I did leave the house, it was to go to a soccer game – with Ashlan. It was a beautiful day. It was not too hot, and just a hint of a breeze. It was our last game of the season, and we don’t play summer on this team. So we gathered at a local pizza spot to chat and celebrate getting through another season.

Also got to see a friend who has been battling breast cancer for the last few months, along with working when she can, raising kids, etc, etc, etc… all those things that are our lives. It was so good to see her, and see how she is fighting this hideous disease. It is inspiring, and reminds me how easy my life can be.

On a completely different note, a question: If you had to buy a car today, and had modest financial resources, what would you purchase. (Modest is $10,000 – $25,000 price range, just to keep it broad but eliminate any over the top suggestions.)

So the post vacation weekend has arrived.
I was not able to roust myself out of bed at 4:30 AM, so we are watching S. Korea vs Greece off of the DVR. This is a very handy piece of equipment for us. Thank goodness it was offered free with the cable. However, it means that I will be watching soccer probably non-stop until about 1:30. Such a trial.

While watching this soccer I will be trying to get a handle on all of those other things that get not done during a vacation.

• Balance the checkbook
• Do other financial balancing associated with
• Answer letters (thanks to those that have sent them to me)
• Read the few periodicals that arrived (well search them for articles to read later)
• Finish the 23 Certificates of Availability that arrived while I was gone, of which I was only able to finish 4 so far at work.
• Unpack (actually, I did that this morning, and Carl did the laundry yesterday)
• Make an appointment for the Prius to get its 90,000 mile service (at 95,000 miles) as well as fixing the pesky floor mat recall. [When I got the recall notice a few weeks ago I decided to wait for the next regular service, to limit the amount of time we are a car down.]
• Look for a new car.
• Mow the lawn – backyard only. We have had so much rain that the grass just grows and grows. If I wait 2 weeks for the sun to shine again, it is really long. That will be squeezed in between games, or after the game. – The sun is shining today.