Watching the World Cup in a Hotel Room

 I just spent a week visiting California.

As I stated in an earlier post my Mom's best friend is visiting from France, and one of the things we wanted to do was take her to some of her favorite places in California: Cambria, Hearst Castle, Solvang, and Santa Barbara.

I've also mentioned in previous posts that I'm a bit of a sports dunce.  If sports could be made sentimental in anyway, I'd be more inclined to watch.  I'm always up for going to a baseball game thanks to going to Anaheim Angel games as a kid.

With my Mom's friend Patou being here I've watched a few of the semi-final games to catch up a little. A few years back I tried getting into Soccer by watching the Salt Lake Real games on television.  It didn't stick, though I made a valiant effort. I have to say the team logo and merchandise is sweet. The female team logo is totally Gryffindor meats Utah.  I wonder if I went to a live game if that would help.

Anywho . . .

Earlier in the trip I couldn't watch the Belgium vs France game since we were visiting Cambria that afternoon, but it was fun telling Patou that France was advancing to the finals.

Sunday was our head back travel day.  Drive from Solvang to Las Vegas, stay the night, then come home Monday night.  Thankfully the game was at 8 am, so it was possible to watch the game and then the awards before hotel checkout.

The game was really good.  6 goals in total.  As I've learned watching soccer, * cough* football, that's a lot of points for a game.  I heard so many variations of "Ooh La La" from Patou during the match that it was pretty amusing.  Usually I don't root for a team when watching sports, which is probably another reason I struggle watching games, but it was a lot of fun rooting for the French team.  And sure enough they won.  Patou was overjoyed.

So overjoyed was Patou that she wrote about it on a deli chalk board.

Then there was check out.  So many people must have been watching the game because everyone seemed to be leave around 11 am.

We got a late start getting back due to the deli and grabbing another pastry in Solvang.  Word to the wise: Never visit Solvang on a diet.  We drove through Baker around 11 pm.  The giant thermometer read 106, and that's at night.  Late night I-15 construction got us to the hotel after 1:00 am.  Three lanes narrowed to one.  The next day it was 108 in St. George during our stop.

Suddenly the mid-nineties doesn't feel so bad.

Stay hydrated.

Fireworks, A Personal Fly Over, World Cup, and Movies

 

Fireworks

My Mom's best friend from France, Patou (who my Mom and I stayed with in 2016), is visiting for the month.  She flew in a week ago.  We've been taking her on little adventures.  It's so hot!  That's limited some of the things we've done.  But we've taken her to Colonial Days, the movies, Sundance, Gardner Village, and other dodads.

It's nice that she came during the 4th of July celebrations, regardless of the heat.  There's always something going on celebrating the history of this Country.  We didn't go to any major firework show.  Instead my Dad gave my brother Michael and I some money to step out and buy some while dinner was cooking, and we came back with a little stash.

Stadium of Fire, a grand firework/performance show in Provo, was taking place, and before the start of their show there's a flyover with jets from Hill Air Force Base.  Before the jets headed over to Provo they did a couple pass overs around our house.  It was amazing!  Their second circle around came by the left side of our house with a tight turn to out right, the jets low to the ground.  It seemed like the turn happened only a couple blocks away as we saw the top part of the four jets facing us, cockpits and pilots clearly visible.  I'm not describing this well.  They felt closer than any airshow I've been to.  And the rush of sound!  Completely tight circling around us before heading north and then south again.  Definitely something I've never experienced before and probably never will again.  Our own private flyover, close and personal, more amazing than any simple fly over I've experienced at events.  And no, I'm not over exaggerating. I just feel a great lack in writing to express the magnitude of the experience.

Everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods set of fireworks, ground and safe aerials. This year our neighborhood put all of our fireworks in a pile, neighbors down the street bringing lawn chairs, everyone gathered on various lawns, as we put on our own private, but humble firework show.  It was fun.  There were some great fireworks exploding right overhead, and there were some duds, but that's what you get when you buy mystery firework packs.  Several blocks away, in the distance, there are some people who put on a really nice firework show, like a grand final in bunches.  We can see their show through the trees.  Always amazes me.  And someone was shooting fireworks off the top of the mountains!  Pretty sure that's illegal as fire risk is high this year, but it was interesting to see tiny fireworks explode at the top, so minuscule.

World Cup

I've been pretty ambivalent to the World Cup.

I didn't know it was in Russia until I got a drink from McDonald's a couple weeks back and saw the World Cup logo.

With the USA not making the tournament I haven't had much interest in watching, but now that Patou is with us we've been watching the games, and I've been getting into the matches. (Shock/horror).  France against Belgium this coming week?!  That's going to be interesting, though I won't be able to see the match.  Patou doesn't care which one wins as they're both French speaking.  Personally, though I'm a sports dunce and haven't been watching, with what I've seen so far I think Belgium might advance.  We'll see!  And I was really impressed with Croatia during their match with Russia.  I didn't watch England during their match yesterday because there was a family activity I was at, which was really nice.

Movies

I haven't been movie reviewing lately because I haven't really been going to the movies!!  It's strange.  I finally saw the Han Solo movie, which was the film I saw this last week, and I've got quite a few opinions developing.  I'm letting my thoughts stew a little.  Still feeling burned over The Last Jedi.  Stewing only made my opinions worse with that movie.  There are movies I missed in the theater that are out on Blu-ray, and though I have them, I still haven't seen any of those films.  This must be some weird phase I'm going though.

I was going to write more random stuff, but my mind is drawing a blank.  Have a great week!

(BTW, I had to write this post out twice, as the first draft got highlighted white, and blogger doesn't have a way of getting rid of highlight unless you change the color.  Can't there be a "none" option?  really frustrating.  Oh well.)

Quidditch World Cup vs the Fútbol World Cup

 The FIFA fútbol, aka football, aka soccer (because we Americans are weird) World Cup ended this last Sunday, and it's been a crazy month.

(And for the record I believe Soccer in the States should be called Football, and American Football should be called Grid Iron, but that's just my two cents.)

Anyway, Spain not surviving the group round was a total shock.  That game they played with the Netherlands was tragic.

And the USA making it to round 16, kicking out Portugal, was such a pleasant suprise!  And it put Tim Howard on the map.  (He's a total Time Lord BTW, in case you were wondering :0)

And then Argentina and Germany played their final match.  My brother Robbie, who lived in Argentina for two years serving a mission, was so focused on the game: curled up in a ball, pillow to his chest, eyes glued . . . I'm only half exaggerating.

Robbie: This game is going to be so intense!
Steven: I'm rooting for Germany.
Robbie: Shush! Shush your mouth!

* Later *

 
(Steven catching the last minute of the game) 

Steven: Robbie.. Are you ok?
Robbie: ... *Looks left, then right* ...
Me: Robbie?
Robbie: Yeah.. I'm just super bummed.

Poor kid.

Germany won.  They played a great game.  Germany played many great games, including beating us in Group G, earning 7 points to our 4.

But still . . .

 This happened, coldness between Manuel Neuer and Lionel Messi, the Golden Glove Winner and Golden Ball winner, respectively.

Meanwhile, over in the magical land of Hogwarts, aka Pottermore.com, the Quidditch World cup was underway.  Quidditch World Cup 2014!!  And we even got the last match in real time via instant posting on the site.

The top 4 teams was USA, Japan, Bulgaria, and Brazil.  We took 3rd and 4th with Japan, meanwhile Bulgaria and Brazil went for first and second.

Ginny Weasley Potter is the Daily Prophet sport reporter. You can read all her commentary under the Daily Prophet tab on Pottermore, all 23 entrees between all the countries.  Honestly, it's a lot of fun.

Rita Skeeter, that ol' snoop, provided the gossip, which was hilarious!  If you want to know what modern-day Harry and friends are up to, you need to wander over to the Daily Prophet.

Worth it!

 And just so you know, us Muggles can play Quidditch, too . . . 

And yes, they run around with a broom between their legs.

There's A LOT of teams around the US that play.  And you can even support the USQ (United States Quidditch) team by buying your very own USQ jersey.

I want one!!

It's a very cool design.

Getting Into the Fifa World Cup Spirit, from a Nerds Point of View

 I'm a bit of a nerd.

For the longest time I thought I was more geek then nerd (I know many people think they're about the same, but this isn't the blog post for that), but after conversations with my family I've realized I was in nerd-denial.

I am a nerd.

Bona fide.  100%.  Classic textbook.

In short, if I had a choice of going to a sports game vs. spending several hours in a library or bookstore, I'd choose the books.

(Unless it's baseball, in that case bring on the hot dogs and Cracker Jacks.)

That being said, I've been trying to branch out a little.  See if I might like sports beyond the Olympics, Ice Skating, or occasional minor league baseball game, so I picked a sport to try a couple months ago, Soccer, thanks to the Real Salt Lake team who are quite popular here.

It's interesting, but I'm not quite hooked yet.  As far as I can tell people run back and forth trying to make a single point.  2 points in a professional game is really good.  Just running back and forth.  (You can fast forward a game and get the gist.)  I know!!  Not giving the experience what it's worth!  Not giving soccer a true try.

I've heard that seeing a game in person is a lot better then watching it on TV.  That's surely the case for baseball.  I want to catch at least one live Real Salt Lake game this season before making my assessment on soccer, then I'll try out another sport.  Salt Lake Jazz?  Maybe.

(I just Googled "Salt Lake Jazz" to add a link, but discovered a Jazz music festival in Salt Lake this July instead.  I love jazz.)

Anyway, enter the Fifa World Cup!

I've watched most of the games so far.  Accomplishment.  (Granted, some of the games were fast forwarded, but I did go back to watch goals and referee calls.)

When I wrote on Twitter, "Just finished watching the #WorldCup2014 game between Brazil and Croatia. Congrats to Brazil. Still thinking about that yellow card . . ." a few days ago, my brother Steven wrote:

"Still shocked that you are still watching..."

Then Robbie wrote: "Impressed."

Come on, this isn't any stranger then my Dad getting into NASCAR!

Though, gotta admit, watching cars spin off the track is pretty fun.

But I was suddenly reminded of this picture.

Place: Bee's baseball game in Salt Lake.

What: Robbie and Michael playing their Nintendo DS's instead of watching, and being quite proud of the fact.

When: Many moons ago, aka years.

I asked Robbie yesterday if he wanted to watch the Argentina team, and he declined!  Choosing to watch a Star Trek marathon instead!  (It did make me nostalgic over Star Trek Voyager, and a realization that I should watch all of Deep Space Nine.)

That being said, I am actually enjoying the World Cup.  Fast forwarding aside.

The game between The Netherlands and Spain was really good.  Sad Japan lost their game.  Happy Argentina won theirs.

And the USA game is about to start!  They're playing Ghana.  (I'll be watching that tonight.)

June 22nd is Portugal

June 26 is Germany.

So far the jury's still out, but I'm giving Soccer a fair chance, and learning a little something along the way :0)