We had the best time this morning, I took off work and Andrea Reiley Wren Bailey and Larry and I met at the My Way Tavern for two awesome simultaneous games: US vs Algeria, and England vs Slovenia. These were the games that determined who got through the group stage for Group C – it’s nail-biting time for the World Cup! The place exploded when Donovan gave us all a rush scoring in the 91st minute. Man I love that man. Still shopping for a jersey…

• mexico 1-1 south africa        the refs stole a goal from mexico – NO HE DIDN’T, know the rules dummy!
  http://getpublished.news-leader.com/wordpress/blog/2010/06/11/world-cup-south-africa-vs-mexico-offsides-for-dummies-and-espn-announcers/
• uruguay 0-0 france
• south korea 2-0 greece        s korea was on FIRE!  greece on their heels
• argentina 1-0 nigeria        nigerian goalie is AWESOME, argentinians big and strong
• england 1-1 us                us was energetic, england was ok too – green is a dead man
• algeria 0-1 slovania
• serbia 0-1 ghana
• germany 4-0 australia        ROBBED by a totally ridiculous red card from the mexican ref, most calls were TOTALLY BAD
• netherlands 2-0 denmark        holland in orange looking really good
• japan 1-0 camaroon            japan hard working, camaroon too but frustrated
• italy 1-1 paraguay            at first i had the teams confused – paraguay was energetic!
• new zealand 1-1 slovakia    gorgeous nz cross+header at 93 minutes!
• portugal 0-0 ivory coast    c.ronaldo looking good – yellow carded!, ivory coast getting some shots on goal
• brazil 2-1 n.korea            brazil not as effective as you’d think
• hoduras 0-1 chile            missed most of it
• spain 0-1 swiss                HOLY CRAP!  swiss strikers showtime!  spain hammered over and over, hit post 2-3 times, couldn’t get it in!
• swiss striker ROLLED into the net, another followed it in – spain defender came up with cut face
• germany 0-1 serbia            klose red-carded, germany was screwed
• s.africa –
• us 2-2 slovania                TOTAL $#*$ ROBBERY!  no one even knows why us goal 3 was denied!!  US WAS ON FIRE!
• uruguay 1-0 mexico            mexico the better strikers, uruguay scored and played defense
• france 1-2 s.africa            france, the disgrace of the 2010 world cup, AS I PREDICTED – zidane’s shame lives on
• argentina 2-0 greece        greece sucks – altho their one lone striker had impressive moments!
• nigeria 2-2 s korea            awesome game, well played by nigeria but not enough to go on – going to miss that goalie
• us vs algeria                do or die!  algeria came out shooting first, tense – then us got upper hand, scored – DENIED ‘offsides’ bah!
  then chaos at the net at 91st minute, Donovan follows up to SCORE!!!  win 1-0, US GOES THRU!!
• england vs slovenia            england scores first half, keeps game muted after that – not stellar but ENGLAND GOES THRU!  AMAZING!!

We went camping this weekend – even though it was 95 degrees! But we avoided the heat – we brought the inflatable boat and spent all our time in Lake Jordan.

I did my best pirate impression and kept the girls on the run – including Sparrow (Wren), Calypso (Scarlett), Starfish (Savanah), Spongebob and Patrick (Olivia and her friend), and my arch-enemy, Rat (Reiley). We rafted, they rafted, we captured, they walked the plank, they stowed away, they abandoned ship, they stole our oars, they captured the treasure from us, they buried the treasure, they swam right past us with it without giving it away. They did a fine job of keeping Captain Jack (Richard) and me baffled as to the whereabouts of the rare and valuable green sword for most of the time at sea. Scurvy little sea scum rats!

We had a nice campfire with dogs burgers corn beans and smores, classic. Cameron drew the lucky straw and came with us, he was a darling. And the new tent is fantastic.

It was a compact and fun trip, and we made it back in time to relax, watch more World Cup (go US!), and celebrate Father’s day. What a life. :>

The family made another trek to Florida for a long weekend of fun.
The plan was to fly into Tampa Thursday night, get a hotel, and hit Busch Gardens Africa all day Friday. Instead, it was heavy rain that hit BG all day Friday, not us. We had already paid for the hotel so we stayed there Thursday night. We had booked “blind” via hotwire.com, and ended up at a Hyatt, not bad. It was a nice little suite room with an HDTV.
Dan and Bailey came to pick us up Friday morning, and I talked everyone into a lunch adventure. The iPhone is great when it comes to exploring new places, and I had dialed up an interesting-sounding “raw and vegan” restaurant for us to try that was only 4 miles away. It was called the Grass Root. The menu was overwhelming, and I was feeling like having some fun, so we ordered a little bit of everything. We chose the “Peace za Pi” as our raw-food adventure, and it was a great call. The cheese-like base of blended cashews was delicious under a bed of garlic, avacado, red peppers, and some very yummy green goodness. We also ordered a BBQ unsteak sandwich, sprout subs and rollups, a garlic noodle dish, and guac and tortilla. Dan loved the dried vegetables and ordered extra to go. All in all, delish!
After eating we headed down to Fort Myers, where Val was having trouble with some plumbing. She had installed a new faucet in the kitchen, and it was leaking all over. She couldn’t get to the shutoff valve in the garage without stepping away from the faucet – it wasn’t a one-man job. We helped her tighten things up, and headed to Ma and Pa’s, where (as usual) Ma was waiting with food for us. Some yummy lentil burgers, to be exact.
Over the weekend, we managed to get in…

• shopping for Ma for some small rugs for her high-traffic areas
• an excellent 75th birthday party for Ma hosted by Tammy and Di – Ma and Pa, Phyllis Schultz, the Behrns-Millers, the Millers, Niki, Bobby, Corey and his girlfriend Aleea, Tam & Di, Roger and Toni… Maui, Di’s adorable dog, provided entertainment, swimming, doing laps around the house, and showing off commands like “left”, “right”, “through” (she weaved between Di’s legs while Di walked), “peek”, etc. etc… ONE SMART DOG! :>
• Pie Theft II – The Second Generation – imported into iMovie, edited, muted, titles added, background music added, sound effects added, exported to DVD and YouTube – Wren Bailey and Reiley did all the heavy lifting, nice job girls!
• Installed Ma’s less-old washing machine, replacing her leaking old washing machine, but couldn’t convince her to throw the old one out, *sigh*
• Dinner at Ma’s of a delicious Thai soup that she and Val spent hours prepping; and her famous apple pie, too!
• Saw “Percy Jackson – The Lightning Thief” (which we all agreed was a letdown)
• At various points, picked up Moe’s and groceries for spaghetti for the gang – man Fort Myers is congested this time of year!
• Dan drove us by our old house, honking to annoy and embarrass me
• Wren and I had a (quick!) swim in the 60-degree pool

Most excellent!