Btw,

if anyone feels that running around a soocer-field is not enough I will happily provide opportunities to run, kick, pass, dribble and so forth on days when we do not have games (and that would be any other day except Saturday). Virginia can testify to my diligence in making you all suffer (but getting so much better). And, with the Washington Freedom drills under my belt I am certain you will all positively hate me in no time.... As if that is not enough I would like to treat you all to a picture of the beach(es) on the Cayman Islands (I just went there for diving). For fun I am harrassing you all with a picture of my nephew (yep, THATs a boy in that dress LOL... His Dad, my brother, was a little hmpf-ed at dressing Theo up like this.. Me and Mum (her name is Annika too) laughed pretty hard. The last pic is of Kasper the uber-mascot for the VF's (an honor he is now sharing with Soba :) ).
A btw-btw: if anyone feels like dogsitting I do have a number of trips planned where K can not go :(.
Peace,
A

Practices update and newbies

Hi all,
the practices will be held on SUNDAY March 25th (meet up at 10 am) and THURSDAY March 29th (meet up at 6pm) at the Ellipse in front of the White House. This is you chance to show off yor skills to W, kick the ball at a guard with a huge gun (ok, no dirty thoughts there.... or, wait, was that just me??), have to climb an electric fence in order to retrieve a lost ball/friend etc etc. The location is very inspiring with regards to ball-control skills!
Here's a map of the location. We will be at the "lower left corner" of the Ellipse. Usually there is street parking on the side streets off 17. Good metro stop is Farragut North.
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTExNmIycG51BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEc2VjA2ZwLWJ1dHRvbgRzbGsDbGluaw--#mvt=m&q1=Washington,%20DC&trf=0&lon=-77.037506&lat=38.89424&mag=2

Also, after practice Sunday anyone who has time and wants to hang out is welcome to join us at The Capitol Lounge. A map is located at:
http://www.capitolloungedc.com/location/
And from that page you can also navigate to other pages with menu etc etc.
Btw, I believe we have 5 new ladies to welcome to the team: Mary, Erin, Daniah, Jennifer, and Sharon. So, all the "oldies": BEHAVE!! BE NICE!! Just kidding! I am certain the new peeps will love us and have a great time on and off the soccer-field....

See you all SUNDAY!!!
A

Baltimore Blast!

HELLO Becky!! :) It was great meeting you yesterday and I hope we did not scare you off... Everyone, meet Becky our latest recruit (front right in pic). Be nice to her!!

And, a big thank you to Julie for our very free tickets! You are our bestest friend ever :).

A brief summary:
1. The Blast did not really blast, they more ran around like chickens with their heads no longer attached. Some of them were pretty to look at though, but ball-skills?? Not so much.
2. Cheerleaders... well, I am for once almost at a lack of words. They sparkled, they did some cheering (fortunately VERY far away from where we were seated), not so much jumping around, they brought out the big dice (now how fun wasn't that? LOL), and yeah, that's about it.
3. "The Blast" - the unofficial superhero, saviour of indoor soccer fans, chick-magnet, and all that jazz. Ok, so he was slightly overweight and/or the tights slightly too small. Superhero had a... ahem... "gap" between parts of his outfit. Not so flattering.
4. Sagu!! Say no more!

And last but not least:

5. The FANS!! No soccer-game is complete without fans. I will leave it to someone else to describe the Blast Fanboys and Fangurls....


Now let's back up, the evening started with 10 of us trying to find a place to eat at the Inner Harbour around 5:30/6pm. Not such a brilliant idea. We spent about 40 mins trying to get a table ANYWHERE but had no luck. In the end we had to wander off towards the convention center and a bar with the suspect name of " The Wharf Rat". Carol and Wanda (who happened to be missing during our restaurant search since they were running a bit late) were the ones who actually got to the place first and grabbed a big table. WR turned out to be a pretty cool place with nice beer and food (ok, yeah, Virginia... we should have just gone there right away). To be perfectly honest, I do not in general have a hard time liking any place with a separate beer menu. Ryan, the only girl in the group, of course tried the "3 Lions Ale". It's 7.5%... Another thing that appealed to me was the Robert Burns Poem on the beer menu: "Gude Ale Keeps the Heart Aboon"... Poetry AND beer... WOW! (total detour: I am so proud I have been to the house where RB lived and died... So very cultural of me!).

After having finished our meal and done the ceremonial "how to pay with twenty diffferent credit cards" procedure, we headed to the Mariner arena for the game. Our seats were pretty much front row and we bumped out a whole family (or at least I "think" they were all related) of probably not so prominent citizens when we got there. What's up with stealing other peoples' seats anyway? Just asking. I can not in any way say it was a good game but it was fun to watch. I am pretty sure it would have been even more fun with more beer but I will probably need to test that theory to be sure. The game was played in 4 quarters of 15 minutes each. Each goal was worth 2 points (unless it was an own goal then the "non-scoring but point receiving team" got 3 points. Hey Sagu, here's a hint for you: put your body or at least your foot BEHIND the ball, not above! Who knows, one day you might miss ...) ). There were a couple of good plays, a lot of pulling, pushing, and shoving, some nice shots, and a really nice breakaway ending in a goal.

All in all, it was a good evening. The Femmes may just return to Baltimore for another lesson in how not to play soccer... and maybe some more beers.

Peace,

A