Tottenham 2 - 3 Bolton

Those no talent ___ clowns did it again! We can never beat these guys at the own place.

In typical Spurs fashion, they love to get your hopes up just to squash them. I've watched them play enough to know what to expect after the first 5 - 10 minutes of play. Today was no exception, and after a few minutes played I knew we were going to lose or at most get a draw. I watched Spurs fall behind 0-2 and couldn't take it any more. I changed the channel to the Villa game (which was much more exciting).

Literally five minutes later I returned to the office and saw that Spurs had scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to level the score. Excited, I turned the game back hoping to see Tottenham, who obviously had the momentum, possibly get the draw or even steal a winner. Of course, as soon as they had raised my hopes they gave up another goal on a set piece. Being only 1 goal down I was forced to watch it to the end and see us lose again. The thing that frustrates me is that before this game Bolton had averaged only about .75 goals a game at home...we gave up 3.

We play our arch-rivals next, "Woolrich Wanderers". I don't expect much from that game. However, if we don't get some serious pointage in the 3-4 games following the derby, we're in SERIOUS trouble. We can't be down at the bottom with 5 games to go because our schedule is too difficult.

To add insult to injury, the recent return of Defoe has been put on hold. Of course, he's scored some great goals since returning but broke a bone in his foot in TRAINING yesterday. I hear Keane might be available. Keane used to play for Leeds, which is ironic because we could become the next Leeds if we get relegated.

The StrengthWheel

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Tottenham 3 - 1 Stoke City

Talk about a huge victory! In what both sides were calling a "must win game", Spurs dominated all aspects and most importantly, the scoreboard. Although the season is still far from over, tonight we put some distance between ourselves and at least one other candidate for relegation in Stoke.

It's been a long time since I've been impressed with the way Spurs have played, but tonight they put on a clinic in the first half. The movement on and off the ball was spectacular. After 24 minutes we were already up 3-0! If you didn't know what was going on in the league you would have thought Tottenham were challenging for the title. Things settled down in the second half and Stoke got one back, but Spurs thoroughly outclassed them in the end.

Modric had a huge game. He essentially setup 2 of the 3 goals. He was by far the player of the game for us. Quite honestly though, when I look at the game everyone played well including Cudicini, our newest signing from Chelsea. Hopefully this is the beginning of a run that will steer us clear from danger. If we continue the form we showed tonight in the league, we could potentially win 4 out of the next 5 league matches (the schedule is very favorable in the short-term) and be all but a few points away from safety with 10 matches to go.

Cardboard Box Fun

Why play with anything else when there's a box around? At first Julia wanted to push it, but then we put her inside it and took it for a spin. She loved it.

It's pretty simple really...in a child's mind, a cardboard box = hours of entertainment.

More Power!!!

I've been talking about buying one for awhile now...and I finally have one! Check this out: $100 at Home Depot. It's a 10 inch, 14 amp, Ryobi. I read some reviews and you can't beat this "bang for the buck". It's big enough to cut a 4 x 4, and I had a hard time coming up with something larger I'd need a mitre saw to cut. At any rate, I can burn through 3 of these bad boys for the same cost as a nicer one. Next up...crown molding throughout the entire house!

I used its "frickin laser beam" to make my first successful cuts (below). One would think that the builders would have centered the outlet...but I guess not. I was able to move it over enough though. In case you're wondering, yes, I'm very proud of myself.

Choking the Chicken

The mighty cockerels almost choked last night…hence the highly distasteful (yet creatively funny) topic title.

"With five minutes to go it was looking like the most embarrassing night of my life in football," said Harry Redknapp, Tottenham’s manager. Long story short, we began last night’s Carling Cup semi-final second-leg game with a seemingly insurmountable 3 goal lead against lower-division Burnley. Due to injuries and a large lead, many backups and youngsters started the game. Most notably, our young goalie Alnwick got his first start in a Tottenham jersey.

Sheltie and I turned on the game, and settled in for a comfortable 90 minutes of “running out the clock”. Unfortunately, it was a cold, rainy, and muddy night away from home…and on a pitch that looked like it doubled as a prairie dog sanctuary. I then realized that my DVR had recorded the game for a puzzling 3 hours. A sudden sense of dread filled me. Why would this game be recorded for 3 hours unless it went to extra time and/or penalty kicks?

About 30 minutes in we gave up a free kick about 25 yards out. Our young goalie, literally swimming in his over-sized wet jersey, strategically positioned himself on the far side of the goal leaving a gaping hole. The only thing he didn’t do was put up a sign and an arrow that said “shoot it here”. The bending free kick went in the open goal, and all Alnwick could do was flap his arms wildly in the air as if demonstrating why humans can’t fly.

Stacey later joined us, and so I unwisely opened my mouth and said the one thing you never want to say while watching sports: “if Burnley score again…” Of course, shortly thereafter, the “comment curse” delivered and they scored again. My heart sank because I knew that if they scored one more goal they would knock us out on a tie-breaker.

With 2 minutes left in the game our keeper, in very much “Robinson-esque” way, dropped a cross after colliding with two of our own defenders. Result: goal. The referee blew the whistle to end regular time. As things currently stood, we had to score in extra-time or be eliminated in a humiliating way on par with our “3 goal halftime lead only to lose 4-3 to Man City debacle in the past”.

Actually, Harry, it was 2 minutes to go on the clock. After a few neat, one-touch passes, “Pav” knocked home a centering pass from the wing which deflected off of the goalie’s glove and into the net, saving “massive face” for everyone associated with the club (fans included). There’s never a dull moment with this club… At least now we’ll get pummeled in the final by a better team (United), instead of adding more misery to an already dire season. Then again, that’s what we thought about the final last year and we actually pulled off the win.

403...Represent!

I'm coming up on my 2 year mark at work in 2 months...yes, it's very exciting. The exciting part about the 2 year mark is that I will now qualify for 3% employer matching on contributions to a 403b retirement account. In simple terms, I can contribute as much as I want to the plan through an automatic payroll deduction and Focus will match, dollar for dollar, up to 3% of my annual salary.

I've been talking to a fellow co-worker (and a fellow veteran) in the office that has been doing this for a few years. Apparently, your cash fund (portfolio money fund - where your deposits go before you tell them where to invest it) guarantees 3% a year to keep up with inflation.

So let me get this straight...if I contribute (save) $1,000 a year to this plan, Focus will pay me an additional $1,000 and this fund will pay me an additional $30, guaranteed? That's a 103% return on my money with ZERO market risk...even if I just save and don't invest it. That's as close to free money as you can get. This is a no brainer people.

Doggone!

Naming a dog is hard. I spent all afternoon at work scouring the internet for a good name to call Quincey. I just can't see myself yelling "Quincey" across the park this summer. So, here's my list. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them...I need help.

In alphabetical order:

- Chase (he's a sheepdog, after all)
- Chester (Disney's "The Kid" - he dreams of owning a dog named Chester)
- Gizmo (he has the same colorings as this character from Gremlins)
- Shadow (he follows me around everywhere)

If you like any of those choices, let me know. Or better yet, give me some of your own ideas...

Tottenham 1 - 1 Portsmouth

Well, that was a much better performance. Of course, somehow Spurs always find a way to disappoint. Anyway, we're now officially out of the relegation zone on goal difference. Strike up the band!

For those of you who don't know...Tottenham and Portsmouth like to trade managers and players between themselves. Our current manager Harry Redknapp and forward Defoe used to manage/play for Portsmouth this season. Sol Campbell (aka Judas) used to play for Spurs before he suddenly moved to our arch-rivals Arsenal and now wears a Portsmouth jersey. Point being, all this familiarity added more drama to the already important league game.

It was a wide-open game. We out shot them 29-12. If it weren't for some spectacular saves by James we would have tonked them. Basically we dominated the game. However, 30 minutes in Roman got tackled hard from behind. So hard, that I heard the tackle on television. He had to come off on a stretcher and I hope his ankle isn't broken. Then, right before halftime, our captain King had to come off with a hamstring injury. Did I mention that our goalie has a strained groin? It's so bad that he doesn't even take the kicks anymore. Problem is, we don't have anyone else. He's our best option even though he's injured.

So, after dominating the game and not scoring, the game was perfectly setup for...a goal on a deflection. The ball grazed the bottom of Bale's foot and instead of stopping it or slowing down, it merely re-directed the shot perfectly an inch inside the post. All of a sudden we were down 0-1 and wounded. The commentator said that "we'll get to see what Tottenham are made of now", and to that end we fought well. Defoe finally scored, and had a pretty good game otherwise. However, I was left with a feeling of disappointment when the late winner was sent wide. It was just Bent and the goalie James...and although completely unmarked, Bent sent his header from 5 feet away (aka a "sitter") "wide right".

There were a lot of good things to take from this game. In typical Spurs style though, they seem to excite to only to disappoint either through a dominating performance and then injury or letting in a goal, or coming back to almost win it but falling incomprehensibly short. As one podcast said this week, "we're all serving our life-sentence at White Heart Lane". We can't leave even if we wanted to.

Ice Skating

We went ice-skating at Sertich with Headwaters Saturday night. It was a really good time. Although I skated a lot in college, I hadn't gone ice skating in over five years. I guess since Stacey and I mainly lived in California and Hawaii before moving back to a state that actually has a winter, we never really thought about going ice skating together. The good news is that nobody in our group fell the entire night! Amazing, really. At one point we stopped for a photo-op...and I captured this great shot of Stacey. It's a great picture of Stacey and I particularly like the fact that she is the only one in focus.

Wingsuit Base Jumping

This is sick! I've always wanted to visit Norway, the "homeland", and this video shows why. It's beautiful. Oh, and maybe I'll try out a wingsuit while I'm there too!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Getting Worried

I’m really getting worried that Spurs may go down this year…or, if not, it’s going to be a real nail-biter and it’s going to go down to the wire. If you take the average number of points that it took to avoid relegation over the past 7 seasons, the magic number has been 37.

After 21 of 38 games, Spurs have 20 points. If you project our current points per game through the end of the season, that means we'll end up with 36 points. Also, if you look at our remaining games we have some very difficult opponents at the end of the season. Our last 10 matches we will play Villa, Chelsea, United, Everton, and end with Liverpool. Additionally, Newcastle (our bogey team) and some difficult away games round out that list.

If the results go the same way as they did in the first half of the season against our remaining teams, we’ll end up with 18 more points for a total of 38. If I project what I think will happen in our remaining 17 games, I come up with 38 points too.

What does this all mean? We’re officially in a relegation fight and we really have no margin for error. Unless we perform better then expected (or as the past has proven), we could very easily get relegated. It’s time to push the panic button.

Thank You

Dear Dad and Mom Johnson:

1) Thank You

2) Thank You

3) Thank You

4) Thank You

5) Thank You

6) Thank You

7) Thank You

8) Thank You

9) Thank You

10) Thank You

You'll have to use a secret decoder ring to decipher this message. :)

Happy Anniversary

Happy 32nd Anniversary Dad and Mom (a few days late)! It will always be remembered as the anniversary when you passed a guy with a pet llama. Careful - they spit!

Does WHL Serve Coca-Cola?

"Less than a classic"...are the words the commentator used to describe the match between Wigan and Tottenham this morning. I love it when the English make their point indirectly. "Well, I wouldn't say it was the BEST game I've ever seen!"

Here's the problem with Spurs (and I why debated even wasting my time watching this game). They played for over an hour and a half against Wigan and couldn't even muster ONE legitimate shot on goal despite the return of Defoe. Sure, the official stats show there were 2 shots on goal, but I'm pretty sure the goalie could have sat in a lawn chair the whole game. They weren't shots. Spurs can't score. Gone are the days when it was end to end action. Now, the entire game stalls at midfield. Of course, in typical Tottenham and relegation form fashion, they held the opposition to nothing until the very last minute of the game. 90th minute, corner kick, header, goal, bottom 3 of the table. This is not the team nor organization that it was advertised to be.

The announcer ended the game with his own classic: "At the start of the season Spurs were supposed to be challenging for a top 4 spot and the Champions League. Right now, they're on track for a top 4 spot in the Champion...ship.

Daddy's Girl

...on a rocking horse made by my grandpa. These photos were taken 30 years apart:

iToonage

I spent last night sampling/downloading music while Stacey was at Bible study. That’s right…although I had the BCS National Championship game on the television I probably spent 2-3 hours solely “surfing” iTunes. iTunes (ok, digital music) is pretty amazing when you think about the entire process/package and how it all works. Alas, I disgress.

Remember back in the day when you heard someone say they like all kinds of music? At first, I thought this was just a teenager-like way of being non-committal and trying to please everyone. Well, maybe I’m still in high school on the music front. After I finished downloading the next round of songs I’ll be listening to over the next few months I realized that my music tastes vary greatly.

I’ve heard that revealing what’s playing on your iPod is supposed to be very personal (i.e. it probably makes people feel vulnerable). It’s probably true…but I’m probably more willing to be embarrassed for the sake of self-realization. I’m not sure what these songs say about me (other than I like variety), so I tried to group them and figured we could decide for ourselves.

Britney – Bebo Norman (Christian pop with a message, 102.7 material)
Whatever You’re Doing – Sanctus Real (Christian, but the cool kind)
Love is Here – Over and Underneath (Christian alternative)
By Your Side – Over and Underneath (Christian alternative)
Forever – Chris Brown (r&b dance mix)
Shake It – Metro Station (alternative dance mix, with a hint of 80s)
Everything – Michael Buble (adult pop vocal, 106.3 and VH1 material)
Love Story – Taylor Swift (teen country-pop crossover love song)
White Horse – Taylor Swift (country ballad)
Fall For You – Secondhand Serenade (alternative)
You Found Me – The Fray (alternative/pop)
Gives You Hell – All American Rejects (alternative)

Right, it’s much clearer now…I guess I like alternative music with some soul and an edge and that has a touch of teenie-bopper sappiness with a funky dance beat and Christian lyrics. Oh snap!!! All hail DC Talk!!! I’m going to cry now.

FA, Carling, and Defoe

With all my Villa posting lately, I wanted to assure the one reader who may care (but probably not) that I haven't forgotten about Spurs.

On Friday Spurs beat Wigan 3-1 in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. It was a slow start, but in the second half Spurs put it together and banged three past the opposition. The celebration was cut short though when we drew Manchester United in the next round.

Today we hosted the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final against Championship-side Burnley. Of course, I mis-read what day the game was being played (I thought it was tomorrow) and saw the final score at work today. I frickin' hate that...it's one of my pet peeves, finding out the score of a game I wanted to watch when I got home. After 45 minutes of a very entertaining game, we were halfway to Burnley down 0-1 on an away goal. However, our fortunes turned quickly, and in the span of 20 minutes we put 4 past the lower division side. We've basically all but ensured we'll be heading back to Wembley Stadium to defend our current Carling Cup title. It should be a cracking game. Unfortunately, the final is probably also going to be against Manchester United...which at face value seems like a loss. However, that's what we thought last year when facing Chelsea. That's the beauty of a one-off game - despite the fact that United are the current World, European, and English champions, Spurs could still beat them in this one game.

Additionally, it was announced that Jermain Defoe is coming back to Tottenham to join his old manager and old team. Old is relative, considering Redknapp was his manager at Portsmouth less than 3 months ago and he was a Spurs player about a year ago. Personally, I'm very glad he's back. Not only do I think he'll be a great addition, but he previously left Tottenham out of necessity and not because he wanted wanted to stop playing for the club. He's loved by the fans and I'm glad he'll finally get the chance to be our number 1 choice at forward.

Considering Spurs will be facing Matt's Ukraining club in February in the UEFA Cup, and Villa in the next round if they both win...and that they'll be fighting a relegation battle as well as playing in the Carling Cup final, the first 5 months of 2009 are going to be very entertaining.

Hurricane Julia

We've been hit by a category 5 one-year old.

Newest Member of the Family

A week ago we "borrowed" him from my parents. He passed his trial period with flying colors and now has earned the right to sleep at the side of my bed (on the floor) and meet me at the door when I come home.

Background

For those of you who aren't aware, he was originally my grandma's (on my Dad's side) dog. I believe my parents got him for my grandma shortly before she had to move into assisted living a few years ago. My grandma had originally named him "Prince", but my parents changed his name to "Quincy" when he came to live with them. Naturally, I called him "the dog formerly known as Prince". Now that he's living with us though, I'm trying to come up with a name (or nickname) that I can call him besides "Quincy". Any ideas?

About the Breed

The name Sheltie is actually short for Shetland Sheepdog (a herder). The Shetland Islands are a Scottish archipelago off the northeast coast of Scotland. According to wikipedia, "the Shetland Sheepdog is an outstanding companion dog and is intensely loyal. It is lively, intelligent, trainable, and willing to please and obey. Shelties are loving, loyal, and affectionate with their family, but are naturally aloof with strangers. The herding instinct is strong in many Shelties. They love to chase and herd things, including squirrels, ducks, and children. Shelties love to run in wide-open areas. Shelties are very good with children. Shelties also are very smart, making them highly trainable. According to Dr. Stanley Coren, an expert on animal intelligence, the Shetland Sheepdog is one of the brightest dogs, ranking 6th out of 132 breeds tested. His research found that an average Sheltie could understand a new command in less than 5 repetitions and would obey a command the first time it was given 95% of the time or better."

The Family

Stacey is getting used to him, but I think it's safe to say that Julia loves having him around. She calls him "da-da", and likes to point at him and walk or crawl across the room just to pet him. A few days ago we told her to "give Quincy lovies", and she lowered her head so that it was resting on his head (her way of giving him a hug). This morning she let out a squeal when her outstretched arm and finger met up with Quincy's wet nose.

Kitty doesn't seem to mind him at all. If anything, I think she has come around us more since he's been at our house (instead of diving under the bed). They frequently sit or walk close to each other...however, I doubt they'll ever be BFFs.

My Take

Basically, I think he's the perfect dog for us. I've wanted a dog for awhile now since I grew up with them. With a 1-year old though, training and house-breaking a new puppy wasn't feasible. In the past I've thought that he would be a great dog to borrow and take on a hike, etc. However, I never really saw much of him when I visited my parents because a certain Yorkshire Terrier kept him walking on eggshells, especially when food or Julia were the center of attention. Basically, the terrier would ambush Quincy simply for getting too close. The fault completely lies on the Yorkshire side...but the English and the Scots never did quite get along, so it's not surprising.

He's submissive, so he's great with Julia and will listen to my commands. He's small enough to be a great house dog yet large enough that I can eventually take him to the park or jogging/hiking this summer. His personality is great, and he loves attention yet isn't "all up in my grill" when I don't want him to be (he'll come and go when told). So far he won't bark unless there is someone or something outside, making him a good home security system.

I've already enjoyed learning/seeing some of his personality quirks...like how he snorts/sneezes repetitively in excitement when I ask him if he wants to go outside. Alluding to the breed's intelligence, the funniest moment so far has been him learning to get into his cage when we're leaving the house. After only a time or two, he's learned. This weekend I took a small doggie treat and had him follow me into the basement. I told him to "kennel" while holding the treat in my hand and he practically bent the backside of the cage because he went flying into it with a NHL caliber body-slam caused by "treat euphoria". What a spaz.

Eat Fresh

I strolled over to our neighborhood Subway this weekend for some five-dollar foot long action. I went inside and halfway through my sandwich order I realized that the guy making my sandwich was named "Jared".

I know, it took every ounce of strength in my body not to laugh...or to make some smart-arse comment like, "can I get extra pickles, JARED?"