MouseVille Chronicles, a South African Classic on sale and my new Hero

So we're back from "not so sunny" Southern California after a spring break vacation, wife, daughter, daughter's BFF and myself. All in all it was a great trip, weather notwithstanding, Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, Santa Monica beach and pier all included plus an unscheduled stop in East LA just for excitement .

Among the high points were seeing a two and a half day old giraffe at the Zoo, bonding with Otis the Hippo, BFFs' maniacal laughter when frightened by rides,takeout from the legendary SoCal institution In'n Out Burger (double/double animal style), daughter getting one on one time with Pluto and getting my picture taken with Sully. The girls are the perfect age to enjoy the Mouseville experience, old enough to be comfortable with doing "little kid" things but not so old as to be jaded.

The low points were rare but breakfast at Denny's and the fact that it took us longer to get from LAX to our hotel than it did to fly from Seattle to LAX are certainly under consideration. This was our second trip to Disney with daughter and I doubt it will be our last.

On the wine end the economic slowdown in California is certainly a boon to the consumer, supermarkets routinely have solid everyday drinking wines on for $5-$7 a bottle and a dozen Sierra Nevada Pale Ale could be had for $11.99 .

Back here in the land of monopoly there is a nice deal on at the BCLDB this month with venerable South African claret KWV Roodeberg, CSPC#7817 on sale for $11.99 a bottle. Roodeberg was, for many years, the flagship red wine of the Paarl empire and it is still a great example of South African red wine, a warm climate red made with Cabernet and Pinotage that has lots of berry and spice in the nose, a touch of mineral and chocolate in the mouth and is damn good value at $11.99, even at $13.99 its' regular price.




As for my new hero, in a recent new York Times article Chicago's uber chef Charlie Trotter make this observation:

“You know the old adage that the customer’s always right?” he said. “Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right. And that is why you must seize the control of the circumstance and dominate every last detail: to guarantee that they’re going to have a far better time than they ever would have had if they tried to control it themselves.”

Words to live by mes amis, words to live by.

Off to MouseVille

Spring break is upon us and it's time to hit the road. The long gray winter of our discontent will soon be shrugged off as we head to "The happiest place on Earth", that's right folks we're off to Disneyland .

This is our second sojourn to MouseVille and promises to be just as good, or better, than round one in the fall of 2007. This trip will not be confined to Anaheim however as we will venture further south to San Diego for a trip to what many believe is the best zoo in North America and, time and weather permitting, may very well include a day at one of SoCal's legendary beaches, most likely Huntington.

Daughter has already called out "It's a Small World" followed by "Pirates of the Caribbean" for the first two stops in MouseVille and she has acknowledged that she owes me a flight on "Soaring over California" .

Those things plus a pilgrimage to "In 'n Out Burger" for a Double/Double animal style and a Neapolitan shake are all that's on this trip's bucket list for me but I'll keep you posted.

Funky Monkeys Season ends

Yesterday was the final game of the 2010-11 U12 girls soccer season for our beloved Funky Monkeys . It was a season that had more moral victories than the other silly kind but it ended on a high note as the girls played a very solid game and emerged as well deserved 2-0 winners.

Our game was originally scheduled for 12:45 but with last week's snow wiping out a round of "Cup Games" we got shuffled down to 8:15 am on the turf at Van Tech. Strangely daughter prefers the early morning games and if I didn't work nights I probably would as well. Anyway it was a beautiful morning and a close fought match, the opposition Dunbar 99 Dynomites had most of the territorial play in the first half but some good work by our keeper kept the sheet blank .

For a while it looked like the result would be 0-0 but around the middle of the second half daughter struck the opening goal off a well placed corner, hard to really call it a set piece but the ball did go high into the middle of the box and daughter did settle it nicely before striking a nice shot high to the near post to make it 1-0 Monkeys.

The goal seemed to take a bit of the edge off the Dunbar attack with most of the play taking place near the mid field mark, then amazingly with less than five minutes to go the FM's scored a second goal, and it was a real goal . By that I mean that the girls moved the ball quickly up field from middle over to the right side where daughter, again the catalyst, calming beat one defender and having drawn a second defender to her slotted a perfect pass to left middle for Victoria to calmly run in on alone, and onside, before knocking one home from just around the 10 meter mark . While I horrified the players on the bench with a post goal "Shakira shake" I noticed daughter shaking her head . When the game ended I asked why and she said "I blew it, if Vic hadn't scored I'd have had the first goal of the year and the last " - and they wonder about those arcane sports records.

The day continued to a perfect conclusion as we joined up with "across the street" neighbours to dine at former downstairs neighbours for a "family dinner" ending with ice cream cake for daughter's recently passed 12th birthday (Sponge and Patrick Star on the cake) .

The game also, in all likelihood, marked the end of my coaching career as I've decided that it's time for someone else to step up . I love the games and don't mind the practices but the six month time commitment, and sleep deprivation on many Sundays, is just more than I'm willing to go through for another year.