Mistakes happen...

Have you ever wondered what would happen
if you washed AND dried a "Dry-clean only" sweater?

To explain myself a little bit...I didn't realize

it was in the load of laundry

until I pulled it out of the dryer.

America's WNT earns #1 ranking

So with all the hoopla over Posh Spice's husband David and his upcoming move to LA, I though I'd take a quick second to mention some other football news that may have escaped your attention.

It's the WNT, or the Women's National Team, and they're good. Very good. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to call them elite and the benchmark against which other nations are compared.

While the men's team continue to suffer from inconsistency, especially in big games with lots of pressure played away from home [like a certain local basketball team here in Charlottesville], the women continue to get better and better. They recently reclaimed the #1 spot in FIFA's international rankings following a tremendous weekend. The team won its 5th Algarve Cup recently and they seem poised to make a strong run towards yet another World Cup title.

The WNT has built a solid program that has consistently performed at the highest levels for almost 2 decades, and they deserve more attention and credit than is normally paid to them. But that lack of attention, in my opinion, makes them that much better: when you hear about them, it's about the right reasons and not the other issues that so often dominate professional sports [agents, fights, contract dispute, ridiculous contracts, etc]. Hats off to them on a well-deserved victory that will hopefully lead to even greater things this fall.

But I thought you said 'quotidian' meant...

...daily? It does. It's French [that's the masculine-sounding language that they speak on the other side of the ocean]. It means 'daily' [not daly], as in something that occurs each day. You might have a quotidian cup of coffee, and then you might ask to be given your daily bread.

So the name 'quotidian' that appears in our blog's title, then, is a not-so-subtle attempt at irony.

See, we won't really ever post to this thing each day. I'd like to say that it's because we're too busy or that we can't spare the time, but honestly our lives just aren't that interesting enough to share each day. It may be the easy way out of writing a blog, but we're trying to go for quality, not quantity.

So, mes amis, that would explain the absence [the dearth, perhaps?] of posts on this 'daily' blog. Et voila.*

*yes, there should be an accent on the 'a' in there; I'm not savvy enough to know how to make zee wittle axe-ants on zee werds.

Glory, glory: Spurs win

Despite the best efforts of the guys over at Eponymous and Ad Homonym, I've never really followed the Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club. It's not that I like the trendy teams of Man U or Chelsea, but I've just never found myself drawn to follow the Spurs for no real reason that I can put my finger on [a classic case of 'it's not you, it's me'].
However I did enjoy their game today against West Ham. Down 2-0, they rallied to pull even 2-2 in the 2nd half. A stunning West Ham goal by Zamora late in the game seemed to clinch a desperate 3-2 win for West Ham. And then...depending on whom you like, came either tragedy or a legendary comeback. A beautiful free kick goal with time expiring by Berbatov tied the game 3-3 with just 4 minutes left. West Ham, who were dying for a win, pushed too many men forward on a corner to defend a Spurs' counterattack. With seconds remaining Canadian Paul Scalteri easily placed a deflection from the West Ham keeper into an open net from 8 yards out, sealing not only a thrilling 4-3 rally but also West Ham's fate.

This was one of those classic English Premier League games, filled with world-class goals [free kicks by Berbatov and Tevez that literally made it by inches], hard challenges, inspired attacks, and excellent defending. There was even a red card for those who like that aspect of the game. Don't let the unusually-high score fool you; the defenders & keepers in this match were fantastic. The 2 goals off free kicks were unstoppable, and West Ham's 1st goal by Noble was one of the best 1-2 combos you'll see this month. Only the Canadian's winning goal was off of a keeper error. Some of the goals were truly spectacular.

As a background story West Ham was desperate to win this game to move out of the bottom of the standings. One of the unique aspects to the EPL is that at the end of the season the bottom three teams are relegated to the next lowest level of competition, called the Football League Championship. Since there are only 20 teams* in the EPL, the competition to avoid relegation is fierce. As these three teams are relegated down, so are three teams from the Football League Championship promoted to take their place. It's an interesting structure, one that creates unbelievable pressure on players, managers and owners. Unlike in America, the worst teams don't get the #1 pick in the next year's draft to help them out; the worst teams are removed from the competition and need to win there the next year just to get right back where they started. Add into all of this the diminished fan support for a non-EPL team and the superstars who'll quickly depart so they can remain in the EPL [thus saving their endorsement deals and name recognition] and you can see why relegation is often the kiss of death for some organizations.

All in all this was a fun and enjoyable match to watch, not only because of the abundance of goals but the fact that since I'm technically on spring break, I have nothing pressing for tomorrow, thus I could enjoy a rare Sunday off from work. I was just lucky that this game fell at the right time for me to enjoy.

Side note- will this game push me over into the Spurs' Cville cheering section? If they play as well as this game again it'll be hard not to support them....Though I do feel some allegiance to the Americans playing in the EPL and I want to support their teams as well...more on that later.

*Here are the current teams in the EPL: Arsenal | Aston Villa | Blackburn Rovers | Bolton Wanderers | Charlton Athletic | Chelsea | Everton | Fulham | Liverpool | Manchester City | Manchester United | Middlesbrough | Newcastle United | Portsmouth | Reading | Sheffield United | Tottenham Hotspur | Watford | West Ham United | Wigan Athletic

Cville Yuppies

We feel like yuppies today. We got up this morning and went to the Bluegrass Grill (in Charlottesville's "Warehouse District") for breakfast with our friend Montana and her mom. They were in town doing wedding planning. Then we walked off some of our yummy breakfast on the downtown mall. Next, we headed to the downtown ACAC and worked out with the other yuppies in the new facility. We drank smoothies on the way home and then walked Bailey down to Pen Park. There were tons of families there today, enjoying the nice weather. We're ready for Spring! So are the crocuses: