Golden boy for a day

Just wanted to wish my little brother Justin a happy 31st birthday! For those who don’t know what a “golden birthday” is, use the day of the month you were born: he was born on January 31st, so he’s celebrating his golden birthday at age 31 today. My birthday is October 19th, so mine was when I turned 19.

I was going to say that he’s as old as someone can get before reaching their golden birthday, but if you were born on February 29th and Leap Year happens once every four years, you probably won’t get to celebrate yours because you’ll be dead. So… yeah. Like I said, happy birthday, Justin!

TODAY, WE FIGHT FOR OUR— *cough* *cough*

I had a bit of a cough earlier today, so I got a Halls cough drop and saw some writing on the wrapper when I opened it up. Apparently, Halls now has “A PEP TALK IN EVERY DROP”, which provides such inspiring messages as “Put your game face on” and “Be unstoppable.”

This one also had “Let’s hear your battle cry.” On a cough drop. You’re supposed to give a battle cry while trying not to cough. Riiiiiight…

They’re sold out of FAIL?

It’s nice to know there are other people on the lookout for products like “Your Single” clothing: failblog.org

And as a special bonus, I clicked on the link to see the website again and it has a note saying:

“This item is currently out of stock
Please check your local store for availability.”

Sooooo… yay for them taking it off the Internet, but boo that they’re still willing to sell it in stores? Or maybe they’re bluffing and already got rid of all the shirts, but don’t want to admit it. Either way, I feel like we achieved a small victory today. I think it’s safe to start telling girls I’m single again.

Extreme weather

It was a bit chilly when I headed out the front door this morning. Like -6 degrees chilly. At 9:20, so the air had already had time to warm up from -18 last night. Still, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do when his soccer game is scheduled for 10:00. (Thankfully, my car started after such a cold night, which also allowed me to do what I hadta do.)

Yep, it was game #2 of the season and I was ready to play the first half again. I’ll probably wait a few more weeks before playing a full game since I want to work my way back slowly. A full game minus time for substitutions, of course. Even if I was at full-strength, I ain’t that crazy.

So I was back on the field, felt another weird tweak or two when I moved the wrong way, but I felt better running around this time. I also felt better after the game—a few hours later, I could walk up and down the stairs without a severe limp. I think I had the right idea last week. My left quad hurt a lot; so did my right knee. The patellar tendon is connected to the quadriceps, so instead of having a sore right quad, the pressure ended up over the front of my kneecap instead. Regardless, they both feel better than last week, so that probably means my body is getting used to playing again.

[As a side-note, the game was tied 0-0 at halftime and we ended up losing 2-1. Obviously, I was the difference-maker. Obviously.]

This afternoon, I watched NBC’s World of Adventure Sports. Fortunately, the segment on the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge ran first. (Not surprisingly, that portion of the show was sponsored in part by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority.) Not so fortunately, Justin’s TV time was minimal at best. Damn.

It focused on each section of the race, brutal conditions on the course (aside from all the heat and sand, one day on the kayaks was cancelled due to winds over 30 knots), the winning team from Australia and a former Olympian who was racing with one of the other U.S. teams. The winning team, well, they finished first in every section of the race for their fourth consecutive overall victory of the Adventure Challenge, so you can’t really blame NBC for showing a lot of footage of them. As for the Olympian, she seemed cool, but she wasn’t racing with us, so meh…

Toward the end of the segment, it showed a quick flash of WEDALI signing out at the finish line and then a clip of the Olympian again. As she stood there, I looked to her right and my eyes got really big: “That guy looks just like me!” Then Molly, Justin’s wife, came onscreen and gave the Olympian a hug. I’ll have to take another look, but if the guy had #13 on his team vest, it means my little brother and I look a lot more similar than I thought. If you ignore the eight inch height and big weight difference, that is.