U.S. Side's Prayers Answered!

In the Confederations Cup tournament underway in South Africa, the U.S. had no business shutting out the Egyptians let alone advancing to the semi-finals. After the first two games of the group stage, the red, white and blue clad Americans found themselves as the bottom shelf team of Group B. No wins, and having scored a single goal while giving up six. Back to the drawing board.

This is what the Americans needed in their game against the Egyptians on Father's Day to advance to the medal round of what is a tune-up tournament for the World Cup next year:

1. A win against Egypt who had earlier shut out the Italians 1-0.
2. More than a win, a win by at least 3 goals to overtake the Egyptians on the goals scored differential tie-breaker.
3. A loss by the Italians against the Brazilians.
4. More than a loss, a loss of 3-0 or a loss where the Italians are out scored by 4 or more points.

On this Father's Day, the Americans did exactly what they needed to win. My treat to myself was a little bit of time to watch not only the U.S. versus Egypt match, but also the equally important match between two of the world's most elite teams, Brazil and Italy.

The most fitting end was the goal by Clint Dempsey to make the score 3-0. The announcers of the game mercilessly hounded the play of Dempsey, pointing out every misplay of the midfielder. Even almost begging for Dempsey to be subbed out. I thought this hounding was somewhat unnecessary. Then in the 71st minute, what would be the semi-final berth clinching goal was scored on a thread-the-needle header by #8. There would be no more calls for the removal of Dempsey from the game after this goal.

Now it was score board watching time. Since the Brazil - Italy match was a few minutes ahead, the Americans knew exactly their position relative to making it into the semi-finals. With the final score locked in as 3-0 Brazil, the U.S. knew all they needed to do was to protect their 3-0 lead to advance to the medal round. This would be the most improbable of outcomes. Happy Father's Day!

Here come the red-hot Spaniards now. With no one giving the Americans a chance to win, their only hope is probably to play for a scoreless tie and rely on penalty kicks. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Incredible Surfing Trick

Don't Try This at Home

Got this off YouTube. His name is Josh Womack. He was originally drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2002 in the second round (pick #69) right out of Crawford High School in San Diego.

This is the same draft that produced current major leaguers B.J. Upton (#2), Zack Greinke (#6), Prince Fielder (#7), Jeff Francis (#9), Jeremy Hermida (#11), Joe Saunders (#12), Khalil Greene (#13), Scott Kazmir (#15), Nick Swisher (#16), Cole Hamels (#17), James Loney (#19), Jeff Franccoeur (#23), Joe Blanton (#24), Matt Cain (#25), Micah Owings (#50), Jon Lester (#57), Jonathan Broxton (#60), and Fred Lewis (#66) all before Josh. Seems that this was a loaded draft at least in the first few rounds.

After Josh these players were picked: Curtis Granderson (#80), Josh Johnson (#113), John Maine (#166), Scott Olen (#173), Joel Zumaya (#320), Dana Eveland (#469), Jacoby Ellsbury (#674), and Brad Ziegler (#938) who are also current major leaguers. In all, there were 1482 players selected over 50 rounds, but I'm guessing that only Josh Womack knows this trick:

Conversation With Ryan

Ryan who's 5 yrs old made a special card and insisted on placing a family picture in the middle.

Ryan: Mom, you make sure you keep this and look at it to remember us when we're gone.

Mom: Where are you going?

Ryan: Well, Mom, one of these days Naomi, Ethan and I will be living in another house...not together...I'll have my house and Naomi will have her house and Ethan will have his house. Because one of these days we'll find a girl to marry and live in a different house with.

Mom: Naomi, too?

Ryan: Naomi will find a boy to marry....someone who's not taken. I'd marry you, but you're taken.

Mom: Who's got me?

Ryan: Casey.

(pause)

Ryan: Maybe I'll marry Naomi because she helps me...she helps me take care of the guinea pig.

Mom: Brothers and sisters don't marry each other...they find other special people.

Ryan: Oh.

Swim Season is Here!

Swim season is underway once again for the Ygnacio Wood Seahorses of Concord, California. Naomi and Ethan are swimming once again and Ryan could make an appearance when he is ready.

Ethan's been working on his dives. That's him below starting his leg of a recent free relay race.



Ethan's favorite stroke is the breast stroke.



Naomi's been making strides too swimming this year with the 9 and 10 year olds. This is the first age group where the swimmers have to swim two lengths of the pool (50 yards) in their races. Here's Naomi going out in a recent 50 yard free style race:



Here she is going for the finish in the same 50 yard free style race:



However, perhaps the best part of recreational swimming is the time spent with friends. There are not many activities around that involve the participation of kids 4 years old up to 18 years old at the same event.

Planting Trees for the City

Our Boy Scout den volunteered to help plant trees for the City of Concord this past week. It made for a hectic day since it was on what was also the last day of school this past Wednesday.

The kids got in a photo-op with Laura Hoffmeister, the mayor.



In case you were wondering, here's what was on the flag behind us in the picture above.



Yes, the City of Concord has been designated as a Tree City. What does this mean? Here's what the Tree City web site says:

The Tree City USA® program, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters, provides direction, technical assistance, public attention, and national recognition for urban and community forestry programs in thousands of towns and cities that more than 120 million Americans call home.

Basically, I guess this means that we care about our trees.

Scout Day with the A's

This past weekend was Scout Day at the A's game. Just Ethan and I went last year, but this year the entire family participated. The highlight of the game for the scouts is a chance to walk around the field before the start of the game.

Naomi: Wow, the pitcher's mound really is "moundy." I could get hurt if I fell off that.



Ethan: We even had our very own flag, but for some reason it was not on a pole. Here we are with our fearless Den leader Louis.



Here's the last out of the game that was won by the A's over the Orioles 3-0.

Mr. Steinbrecher

The first word association for Mr. Steinbrecher is girls' basketball coach for most of us from Sand Point, but he really is more than that. This is borne out by reading the CaringBridge web site set up to allow us keep in touch with the Steinbrechers in their battle with cancer.

My image of Mr. Steinbrecher on the basketball court was someone who was a battler. If someone would've asked me, "Can you pick out the former football player on the court?" This would be easy if Mr. Steinbrecher was on the court. His play was not pretty, but it was usually very efficient, very no nonsense. He moved like a blocking tackle. If he got established in the low block, he was not going to be moved.

It is amazing what he has endured against this very aggressive cancer. Most people would've given up long ago.

Below is a copy of their posting from May 9 that mentions Yuki and Hillary's visit to Minnesota to see the Steinbrechers. There really are so many of us pulling for Roger and Noreen. Please keep them in your thoughts.

Saturday, May 9, 2009 4:18 PM, CDT
Hello Everyone!
We had 2 very long days in Rochester on Thurs. & Friday. Chemo on Thurs. went well and we went back to the hotel and Roger slept the rest of the day. Friday we tried to sleep in but the room was very warm and with the windows open we heard the sirens all night. Not a great night's sleep. We met with 4 of Roger's surgeons that afternoon. We would have liked more encouraging news but that wasn't to be. There is reconstructive cosmetic surgery that could be done for Roger's lips & face but with so much cancer all over his face and neck they feel that nothing would heal properly and would be very stressful for him so they are leaving things as they are. Not sure if the chemo is helping right now or not but it is the course we are on for the time being. My thoughts are that we will contact those surgeons in a year or so when we beat this cancer and schedule reconstructive surgery then! We had a wonderful visit with Yuki K. and Hillary S. (both were Roger's basketball girls and my music students from Sand Point, AK back in the 80's.) They flew down just to visit. It was Great!! Talk about uplifting! It meant a lot. We looked at new pictures of the island, old photos , old yearbooks and got caught up on everybody. Roger slept the whole next day after they left. Thanks you two. We are spending this weekend in the cities near the girls for Mother's Day. Nothing special planned, just being together. Have a great Mother's Day everyone and enjoy each and every day! Love, Roger and Noreen

Aleutian Tweeters and Bloggers

Perhaps on a per capita basis, there are as many tweeters and bloggers in the Aleutians as any place on earth. AlaskaPen provides links to many of these sites under its Rants page. The total population of the Western Aleutians and the Aleutians East Borough that covers most of the Aleutians has a population of about 7500. On AlaskaPen's list there are about 20 tweeters and bloggers in this area (with most based out of Unalaska). This calculates to about one tweeter or blogger for every 375 people. Not bad.