Source: http://www.pamrentz.com/tag/world-cup/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:09:31+00:00

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This game wasn’t pleasant to watch. I had my phone and looked at twitter and youtube clips of kittens playing the piano before I realized I could be doing something else and I moved on. Ending up 3rd or 4th in the World isn’t bad from a big picture perspective but neither team had anything to celebrate.
Yay! My team won. About an hour after the match I was up to my elbows in everyday life stuff and I looked up and thought: we won!
Great game. No major controversies. Both teams played their hearts out. Great goal from Götze. The only bad part was having to watch sad Argentines suffer through the second place ceremony. I don’t know a better way of doing it but it seems mean to make a losing team stand around and watch the celebrating people lose their minds.
Phew. My team won. I am not familiar with this feeling. They won in 1990 which I saw. And Euro Cup in 1996 which I did not see. Could you even watch Euro cup games in this country in 1996?
Having watched my team get humiliated on the pitch, I feel for Brazil. I was glad I was Team Germany.
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.
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.
FIFA World Cup Games 57 and 58 and 4th of July!!
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 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.
Posted in doing it wrong	| Tagged soccer, World Cup	| Comments Off on FIFA World Cup Games 57 and 58 and 4th of July!!
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.
This is Ishi Pishi Road.
This is the view from Ishi Pishi Road. Would you speed in the middle of the night on this road?
The part where they crashed is narrow and winding but they were by houses and not on a cliff.
This morning I watched Mexico and Netherlands. I was slightly Netherlands leaning. Finally, in orange! But once Mexico held the lead for awhile, I was rooting for them. I don’t think you could watch the goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa without falling a little in love with him. Another heartbreaker in the end and Big Orange goes to the next round.
I half-watched Greece and Costa Rica but it was mostly boring and choppy with some rolling around. By the end I wanted both teams to lose. Costa Rica led forever but then lost it and Greece equalized in stoppage time which meant it was going into an overtime round. I turned off the TV and Bob told me that Costa Rica went through.
Big Germany game tomorrow and USA on Tuesday and then 2 rest days to get me through until the weekend. We’re getting down to the real nail-biting now.
Finally, I’m going to tell about the car accident in Orleans. But first, World Cup action.
Thursday was, thank the maker, the last day of group play. Germany v. USA.
My gateway into soccer was via the German National Team and they are still my favorites which causes a lot of heartburn when they have to play against the USA. I wanted a good game, leaning Germany with the option of changing my mind if the party called for it.
Fortunately, it all worked out. Germany won and both teams went through to the next round. Whew!
Yesterday was a “rest day” but only from World Cup. I had a Timbers game to go to and it was awful. Terrible to watch and we lost. No need to go into details.
Then this morning 9am I was ready for Brazil and Chile. And there were stretches where I thought I was re-living last night’s game. Choppy and terrible to watch. Chile played their hearts out. Penalty kicks are awful and seemingly designed to make 1 man feel horrible. But Brazil goes through.
Tomorrow Netherlands v Mexico. That should be a great match.
Now, to finally tell the Orleans story. Relevant to the story: Orleans is in a rural area in the Six Rivers National Forest. My folks have a little trailer separate from the house and that’s where I stay when I visit.
I woke up in the middle of the night because of a weird noise — a high pitched humming sort of like a chainsaw. I got up and looked out the windows and didn’t see anything. Then I heard voices and I came to the most obvious conclusion: that there was marauding youth gang out murdering people with chainsaws.
I looked toward the house and the lights were on. I wondered how I should best prepare.
Then I saw my parents’ car go screaming out of the driveway.
It’s hard to tell but there’s a boulder and we think the car lost control and hit the boulder and then flipped. The whole scene didn’t make sense so we’re not clear what happened. Also, Ishi Pishi Road is the last road you would want to drive like a maniac on. I will try to post photos of it tomorrow. It’s very narrow and winding.
I ran to the house and went inside and the dog was there wagging his tail.
I then assumed that someone in my family must have keeled over and they were rushing to town (2 hour drive). My sister was visiting too, but neither of our spouses. I went from room to room looking for clues.
Why did they leave me? The dog wagged his tail. I didn’t think they’d leave the dog to the murderous youth gang.
I couldn’t come up with a scenario where the strange noise and disappearance of my family were connected. I knew I couldn’t sleep so I fretting on the couch and then searched for clues and then asked the dog why they left us there in regular intervals.
I finally went to the trailer to put on my shoes so I could feel like I was doing something productive and the car came back.
Here’s what happened. A car went too fast and flipped and started a fire. Fires in the middle of the forest in June are extremely hazardous. They’d seen the flames from their window and hurried to see what was happening. There were neighbors and other people helping to do fire fighting stuff in the hopes the fire wouldn’t spread.
There were young people in the car. One broke his leg. Allegedly there were illegal substances (plural!) found at the scene.
Mission accomplished, they were able to keep the fire under control until the volunteer fire department got there. And it looked terrible. But no one was hurt. Well, the guy with the broken leg was hurt. But no one died.
And my family promised to wake me up next time there’s an emergency.
Boy, that Uruguay team has some tight shirts. Not complaining. At least not about the shirts.
I started a sheet I was going to tick off every time I saw an Uruguayan rolling around on the ground. Except I only had about 2 marks on my sheet and already I’d seen Italian players rolling around on the ground, too.
Get off the ground you big fat crybabies. You are grown men who are also very well paid.
And speaking of grown men. WHO BITES PEOPLE? Luis Suarez needs to be banned forever and Uruguay should have punishment, too. What incentive is there not to cheat if the team isn’t punished as well? I can’t even believe this really happened since he was already busted for biting opposing players TWO other times.
How many chances would you get if you bit people at your job? How about if you were annoyed with someone talking on their cellphone at Target so you took a little chomp? I’m guessing criminal charges. Not a fine roughly equal to a week’s salary and you can’t shop at Target for 4 months.
I love that Italy has a player named Marco Parolo. I love Italy but they weren’t playing like they wanted it. But that doesn’t matter because biters don’t deserve to go through. Doesn’t matter. Italy goes home and biters go through.
Since the other match was so boring in the first half I decided to save my other hour for the Japan v. Columbia match and I watched about 10 minutes and then got distracted with work. I know this is hard to believe but it was easier to follow WC when it wasn’t blasted live from every orifice. If you couldn’t duck out from work you just had to wait until you got home.
It’s possible to save and watch later but I feel like I should know what’s going on when it’s happening. So I run into the room where it’s on but I don’t actually watch the match. It’s not an ideal set up.
Meanwhile, remember when I asked whether there was a website that says what the proper word is for nationals?
Via a completely random article I was reading I learned that the word for this is: demonym which is great already. I’m not sure how much I trust Wikipedia (to be honest, I don’t believe anything I read online anymore but that’s a topic for another day) but there are lists for countries, states, cities. Entertain the kids for hours.
Also, and this is probably not the last time I will say this, but if you are not watching Orphan Black, you need to remedy STAT. Binge on the first 2 seasons. It just gets better and better.
It’s drizzling right now and the air is cool and refreshing and smells so amazing I would like to dunk my head in it.
Remember the rubberband ball from 2010?
Stay tuned to see what it looks like now.
I didn’t have time to watch a full match today. Monday is my long day and I guess technically I wasn’t required to go to exercise class, but I decided to prioritize after all the chip eating and sitting on the couch I did over the weekend.
I only watched the first half of the Croatia v. Mexico game and Murphy’s Law: if I pick only one half to watch, if will be the less eventful half. Sounds like the second half was off the hook. I’ll have to check the highlights reel later. I loved the purple goalie outfit.
Netherlands finally wore orange and I missed it. Bet I’ll get another chance.
During the Iran v. Argentina game I thought the commentator said something about how this player “moves like Jagger” as in a reference to the song and I thought it was sort of strange but also funny. But then I kept hearing it. There’s an Iranian player named Ashkan Dejagah. When Forvo says it it doesn’t sound quite like Jagger. But during the broadcast with the crowd noise you can understand how my delicate ears misheard.
Here’s the rubberband ball 2014. It’s very heavy and would hurt if it bopped you in the head.
Finally, I can’t believe I forgot about this Jezebel has been doing World Cup thighlights. Enjoy!
I never say this but look at the comments, too. More photos. Batch two.

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