Date night and spending time with others

The weekend began on Friday evening with Jeannie and I going on our first date since the birth of Seva.  We went to dinner at Audrey Claire, then drove to PPL Park to catch the second half of Crystal Palace at Philadelphia Union, then we drove over the Commodore Barry Bridge into South Jersey to hit up the WIF (Water Ice Factory) in Magnolia before heading back to pick-up Seva and go home.

The highlight yesterday was visiting Jeannie's friend, Sam, who had a small gathering at his home on Lincoln Drive.  Besides Jeannie, Seva, and me, there were only 4 others, so it was a pretty low-key event.  The weather was pretty nice, as it was on Friday too, so we sat on the deck out back.  I asked Sam's partner, Shin, a lot of questions about his native Tokyo.  And Jeannie and Sam reminisced quite a bit about their days in their international MBA program.

Before going to the gathering at Sam's, I found out from my friend Ronald that he will be visiting Philadelphia for one day in March 2015.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him.

Today was a day of rest.  I didn't set foot out of the apartment all day.  I watered the plants, drank coffee, gave myself a haircut, took a shower, spent time with Jeannie's friend Veronica who came over for a short visit before she had to leave for PHL, read my book, talked on the phone with my sister, spent time with Jeannie's dad who was here for the day giving us a hand around the apartment, watched the movie Superbad on Comedy Central, ate a great dinner prepared by Jeannie and her dad (shrimp with garlic, cod, rice with coconut milk, and lentils), and spent a lot of fun time with Seva at the end of the night.

Well, Jeannie just passed by and she's getting ready to go to bed.  Since I want the chance to spend time with her before she falls asleep, I'm going to wrap this up now and head up too.  Good night, dear readers.

Saw Philadelphia Union vs. Crystal Palace at PPL Park, section 131, row M, seats 7 and 8, for $38.00 each, with Jeannie.

Critique of U.S. Men's National Team elimination from the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Three criticisms of the United States Men's National Team performance today against the Belgium Men's National Team and overall in the 2014 FIFA World Cup:

1. After his initial quick goal against Ghana, U.S. captain Clint Dempsey was largely ineffective.
2. U.S. forward Jermaine Jones was slow as molasses, beaten on runs and breakaways time after time.  And he was on the ground constantly today.  We need to replace him with someone stronger, more resilient, more able to absorb blows but continue to stay on his feet.  Oh, and someone fast as lightning.
3. U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley -- for all the talk about his "crisp" passing -- did not deliver.  His ball-handling was off.  His passes were certainly not crisp.  We need to replace him with someone with poise, with good vision, and most importantly with that "quarterback" skill and mentality (to use an analogy with American football) that is so valuable to any successful sports team.

Three classes of people who will be happy that the United States Men's National Team lost today:

1. United States social/cultural conservatives who hate the social/cultural liberals that love soccer.
2. Americans of Latin American descent who, out of some combination of anti-nationalism and racism, hate the U.S. men's national team.
3. Most people in the rest of the world.

Short Post for a Late Night

I just got off the phone with my sister Jess, so I don't have much time to post this before midnight.  So I'll keep it short.

Seva has been smiling socially more and more.  She definitely recognizes Jeannie and me when she sees us.  I don't really have any point of reference, but I've been very impressed with the strength of Seva's legs.  She can stand up straight, with just a little reinforcement, more for balance than anything else.  She also strongly prefers to be held rather than left to sit alone; I wonder if this is a precursor or indication of her level of attachment to Jeannie and me.  I guess we'll find out over time.

A stray mother cat recently gave birth to kittens in our small strip of backyard.  It's a slim, mostly gray tabby cat with four kittens.  The mother cat picked a little cove under a small tree-like weed growing against the gray wooden-slat wall at the back of our property.  For the past few days, I periodically peer over the edge of the wall surrounding our sunken patio to check on the status of the mother cat and her kittens.

Costa Rica played England to a 0-0 draw today.  And thus, Costa Rica won their group.  By doing so, they're now scheduled to play the runner-up of another group, Greece, in the first game of the next round.  Jess just told me that game is scheduled to be played this coming Sunday afternoon.  I'll certainly be watching.

I've been making very slow progress with my latest book, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.  The book is chock-filled with many interesting and flavorful details.  The writing is exquisite and top-notch.  But perhaps my attention span, though probably longer than many my age and younger, is still shorter than required for this type of book.  I blame my generation and the culture I live in (as I type this with my tongue in cheek).

Finally, just for posterity's sake, I just want to reiterate that I love Rocky & the Baby very much.  I still love petting the Baby and playing with Rocky.  I love when they "talk" to me by meowing.  I love observing them when they're napping peacefully.  I love that they've been my companions since February 2005.  I love them so much and I'm so thankful that they're a part of my life and I'm a (very major) part of theirs.

Sorry for the Delay

We haven't had internet access at home for about three weeks, thus the delay since my last post.  I got sick of Comcast repeatedly trying to raise their rates for cable and internet without offering any additional service.  Why would anyone in their right mind pay more money for the same amount of the same thing?  The only exception to the obvious answer is if you are paying for a limited (or more to the point, diminishing) commodity, which of course cable and internet are not.  So, we switched to DirecTV and Verizon FiOS.  And so far, we're happy.

So, what can I say about the last three weeks?  On Sunday, June 8th, Jeannie and I got confirmed at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.  Archbishop Charles Chaput conducted the confirmation.  Just before it was my turn, I bowed slightly before the cathedra (throne, or chair, where the archbishop was sitting).  After the archbishop confirmed me, he shook my hand, to which I said, "Thank you, Your Excellency.  May God bless you."  Jeannie was confirmed right after me.  It was a very nice ceremony, though it lasted a very long time due to the large number of mostly children receiving their confirmation.  Afterwards, knowing that it was too late to go home and cook dinner, Jeannie, Seva and I went to dinner at Asia on the Parkway.  It was a beautiful evening, so we dined al fresco.  Mentioning Seva reminds me that she slept through the entire ceremony; that in itself was a blessing.

But the spotlight was on Seva just one week later, on Sunday, June 15th, when she was baptized by Father Ed at our church, St. Charles Borromeo.  Once again, though, even with the spotlight on her, Seva did a great job of maintaining grace under pressure.  Father Ed gave a warning to us that the baptismal water was cold, which initially shocked Seva, but only five minutes later she was sound asleep.  It was pretty funny.  Also funny was Father Ed's comment to us afterward, saying something to the effect of "you've run out of sacraments."  It's true that we've made a nice run on sacraments in the past few months: our marriage, Jeannie's first communion, our confirmation, and Seva's baptism.  I guess we get to be regular parishioners now.

The other recent event that's been exciting has been the 2014 FIFA World Cup.  I could go on and on about the World Cup matches so far, but I'll avoid that temptation for now.  All I'll say is that I've very much enjoyed watching the matches.

Saw Ireland vs. Costa Rica at PPL Park, section 119, row J, seat 3 for $40.00 with Jess, Mita, and Eric.

I love big boobs

Today I have no agenda of what to write.  As I'm typing this I'm waiting for a large pizza to be delivered from Gusto, so I'll just type from the top of my head until that gets here.

Before I finished typing the first sentence of this paragraph (which I just deleted), the pizza got here.  So I ate and now I'm back.

Right now the MLS All-Star Game is on.  It's the MLS All-Stars vs. AS Roma, who's up 1-0 in about the 40th minute.  This year I've gotten much more into watching soccer (futbol).  Once the college basketball season ended, and especially once the NBA season was over, I really started watching lots of soccer: MLS games, CONCACAF Gold Cup games, and probably a couple Liga MX games.  Although there's not always a lot of scoring, I like that the ball is constantly in motion.  That's why I prefer soccer to baseball.  It's also why I predict that by the year 2020 the MLS will be just as popular as MLB.  My reasoning?  In this fast-paced, ADHD, short-attention-span culture, people will become more and more bored by the slow pace of baseball.  I believe that eventually MLS will be America's summer sport, not MLB.

On the topic of constant motion, I need to start doing cardio.  If I'm lucky I get to the gym about twice per week and I only lift weights.  Recently, perhaps due to diet, perhaps due to a largely sedentary lifestyle, perhaps due to age, or perhaps due to a lack of cardio in my diet, I've noticed that I've gained a few pounds.  How did I notice?  The waistline of my dress pants has been a little tight lately.  An idea came to mind the other day: I'd like to do interval sprints with Jeannie.  My idea is to go to a nearby city block where there's a baseball field and a recreation center, then do a 2x4 relay, that is 2 people (Jeannie and I, of course) for 4 laps each (thus, 8 laps total) around the city block.  I haven't proposed the idea to Jeannie yet.  She flies in to PHL tonight at 12:13am after spending a week with her biological mother in Houston.  I'll share my idea with her and see if she's up for it.

So I'm happy that Jeannie will be home.  She's a really sweet girl with a great heart.  She's also very patient with me, which is something I know is necessary in a partner for me.  We get along pretty well and have a lot of similar interests, especially traveling.  And at the risk of sounding too much like a guy, I love that she has big breasts.  I don't think I've ever admitted it out loud to any one, but for as long as I can remember, I always wanted a girlfriend with big breasts.  I would periodically have arguments in my head, where I felt guilty for thinking that I was being too superficial or objectifying, but then I would think to myself that I love big breasts and I want to be with a girl with big breasts.  Most importantly, though, I wondered when I was with other girls (either previous girlfriends or girls I was dating) if I was "settling" for a girl who was nice or attractive, but whether I would always long for or wonder what it would be like to be with a girl with big breasts.  And I think it was that fear of possible regret or even the temptation of cheating (just to feel what it would be like to touch, kiss, suck, and grab big breasts) that would often win out in those internal arguments.  I've always noticed girls with big breasts in public and they're the girls I'm attracted to.  It's been a blessing being with Jeannie.  As I said, she's a quality girl in so many ways and besides that I truly think she's a good fit for me, precisely because she's so caring, so loving, and so patient with me.  Those are the things that matter most, so I know I'm with a good girl.  But the fact that she has DD-cup breasts really seals the deal for me.  I don't care how that sounds, because I admit that, for me at least, it is a fact.  And all these things are what led me to ask Father Ed this past Saturday about what I need to think about and prepare to get married to Jeannie, hopefully some day not too far in the future, God willing.

Facebook status update

Iverson is to Besiktas as Beckham is to L.A. Galaxy.