Clint Dempsey in a Fulham shirt?

Clubcall.com is reporting that Fulham has worked out a deal for Clint Dempsey. That's 3 Americans (Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra, Dempsey) and four former MLS players (McBride, Simon Elliot - Columbus Crew, Carlos Bocanegra - Chicago Fire, Dempsey - NE Revolution) on Fulham's squad. And they're competitive!

Fulham 2, Arsenal 1

Fulham got their first win over Arsenal in 40 years yesterday. It was a really fast paced and competetive match, with a little bit of everything, including a Brian McBride goal, and a beautiful free kick goal from Arsenal's Robbie Van Persie. I watched the game last evening after my own game (a 5-3 win, I think... whatever, we won), staying up a bit too late probably... but it was well worth it. Probably the best Premiership game I've watched this year, and not just because of the result.

I also had a really great hamburger last night, a result of a short article I read in GQ which gave me an idea; A Los Angeles establishment is making hamburgers out of 28 day dry aged steak trim meat. Because I have access to things like 28 day wet aged steak meat trim (my source doesn't do dry aging), I thought I'd give it a shot myself. Using ground trim meat off steaks that end up in places like St. Elmo's makes for a fantastic* and tender burger that really just melts in the mouth.

I don't eat red meat very often, so when I do I like to use those calories on something really worth it. I'm quite happy at how my ground beef trim turned out. And I got 5 pounds of it for $7.34.

I'd recommend you try it yourself, but you don't have THE POWER!!! I mean, I don't know where you'd get it. And so I guess this post is kind of like one of those cooking shows where they eat really great things and you sit in your living room eating frozen pizza.

You're welcome.

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*There's that word again. When spoken, I don't flair my arms around or anything, Debbie.

a song by the cars

You might think from looking at the complete mess this page has become that I don't have any idea how to put together a website. And you'd be right. But I have recently (like a minute ago) revamped the old ridehorsey.com site. Check it out if you're bored, it's got like two minutes of content. One if you read fast.

In other news... hmm. I'm buying a suit this weekend. Or having one bought for me as a Christmas gift. I haven't had a suit since I lost anywhere from 40-50 pounds, so I'm probably a little more excited than I should be. I'm working on dressing well. I must be getting old.

Phone Call. Ok, later.

reminds me of surfing, chickens, cartoons, van halen

This is why MLS is the best professional sports league in America. The RSL fans have a Thanksgiving Day pickup soccer game, and the league's leading scorer comes out and plays. Does that happen anywhere else?

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Deerhoof's (Deerhooves?) new album leaked a week or two ago. If you're not familiar with Deerhoof, think of the band in Kill Bill 1, but with more of a cartoonish, yet rockin' bend. And if you can handle a Tiny-Sounding Japaneseish Woman delivering your ROCK, check it out. The new album starts strongly, but tapers off at the end. Oh well. Still recommended, whenever that comes out.

In a previous life I would have offered up a song, but I've decided to keep my piracy a one-man effort.

As I sat in my living room last evening, it occured to me that I've still got some 400 or so cds in my cabinets. There was a time in my life when 75% of my money went to record stores and Best Buy, but these days I rarely visit either of those places. I am a music pirate, and I haven't paid for more than 3 cds in the past two years. And one of those was a gift.

But now I'm wondering if I should get rid of my old cds. I very rarely listen to them, they take up a ton of space, and perhaps someone else would enjoy them more than myself. I occasionaly go through moments where I consider purging everything I own, so maybe the feeling will pass. But you might want to keep an eye out for lists of cds I'm dumping.

Speaking of things I have too many of, let me tell you about my magazine addiction. I currently have subscriptions to Esquire, GQ, Harpers, The Atlantic, Men's Vogue, McSweeney's... and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others. On my recent trip to Vegas I purchased 6 magazines. For a 3 day trip.

I regularly buy Outside, Men's Health, Men's Journal Adventure Life, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Explorer, Bicycling... you get the idea. I picture myself as an adventurous traveler and sportsman, even though most my adventure comes through watching shows on the Travel Channel.

The main problem in having this many magazines is that in no way do I have the time to actually read them. I find myself scheduling time to finish a magazine... I can't bring myself to throw them away until I'm sure I've devoured everything I have any interest in whatsoever.

So yesterday I scheduled 5 hours of television-less reading time. I was only distracted twice; Once to visit Meijer to buy bread bowls (600 calories - didn't look at the label before I bought), and once to set the tivo to record Dwell - a television show about a magazine.

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Saturday my friend Brent was in town for a few hours (HELLO STALKERS) so we headed over to Brugge for lunch/dinner and a beer. Good food as usual; a truly masculine experience (EDIT). Perhaps I should find another place in town to eat, but where else can I get great beer, fried food that I'll happily (and without guilt) consume, and soccer on the television? If anyone knows of any other options, let me know.

Thanks to Jim (previously of 11am Air Raid and currently of Hoosier Beer Geek) for turning my attention toward Brugge. It has truly become one of my favorite things about living here.

So.. Yup. That's that. Planning another trip to Vegas in March... it's not that it's one of my favorite places to go, it's just that nowhere is as easy to visit with a group of guys. Anyone have any recommendations apart from girls, gambling, and gulping? The bicycling looked nice last time I was out. Or maybe you can recommend somewhere other than Vegas for a group of guys to visit? Somewhere that doesn't involve camping or hiking, although I'm quite fond of both.

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While I don't wish harm to anyone, this made me sort of smile, just a little bit. Think Hummer will be using that picture in their next ad?

The comments over at IndyStar are amazing.

you can take this however you want

And in Iraq today,

denmark

Alright, I sorta stole this link or whatever from a friend's friend's livejournal... but it's crazy.

So there's a hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark where each room was decorated by an artist... it's the Hotel Fox. I suppose this hotel is a little odd for a number of reasons, the artist designed rooms being the first.

From watching a short film about the hotel, I've learned that the whole thing was put together by Volkswagen as a sort of launching pad for their Fox car (not available stateside)... anyway, the whole thing is part of something called "Project Fox".

Check out a sample of the rooms.







How this functions as a car advert, I'm not sure. But! It's pretty damn cool, nevertheless.

i just changed templates

Switching templates when you've put in a decent amount on work on the old one is a bad idea.

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There are few things as entertaining as listening to a coworker mourn the loss of playstation 3s and nintendo wiis as shown at smash my ps3 and smash my .

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I passed my old high school yesterday. There's at least one kid there driving a 3 series BMW... how does a kid driving a 3 series BMW ever learn to appreciate anything? This is why the terrorists hate us. This is why I hate us.

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Why is it that the people most opinionated on foreign policy have never left their state? Do you honestly think the average Iranian or Iraqi or Chinese person hates America? My guess is they're too busy getting on with life to worry about it.

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I'd imagine the hardest part about being a terrorist dispatched to America is to resolve the difference between the people you see everyday just going on with life and wanting to kill them. Then again, I've never been a terrorist. Though I do hate kids in BMWs.

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How is it possible that I'm still getting 20 erectile disfunction emails a day in my work email box? Shouldn't someone be in charge of cleaning this crap up? Shouldn't I? It is my job, isn't it?

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Did you know that when you grow a mustache it always feels like something's in it? I spend whole days trying to get the mustache out of my mustache.

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Spending Thanksgiving without your family just sort of sucks. Instead I'm going to spend it with James Bond, I guess.

hmmnmmn

Just got back last evening from a weekend family funeral... after listening to various stories and memories, I was able to tie them all together and organise them into what I thought was a respectful, reverant, and even humorous eulogy. I was quite happy to be able to put together something he was deserving of. So there. My uncle read it, which made it even easier to put together.

I had just read a story in Esquire about how to write a respectful and accurate eulogy, actually, so I tried to keep that in mind.

Fulham lost Saturday.

My backup bike is at the shop getting converted to fixed gear. The damage: ~$180. Ouch.

Why is it that I find myself spending the whole week waiting for Saturday soccer games and food and beer at Brugge? I need a friend to come out and join me. Saturday afternoon drunkish is really great.

I'll be going to Vegas again in March 10-20ish, on a bachelor party of monster proportions... gotta start saving money now. And I'm already starting to plot out next years' vacations. Whatever gets you through, right?

Dear Readers, where are you going on vacation next?

that tsucked

My soccer team, the Southside Tsunami, lost its second game last night by the scored of 9-7. In our league, each player is only allowed to score twice; at that point any goals scored by that player would not count. In addition, each team must field two woman at all times, and teams that are short a woman must play minus a player. Oh, and goals scored by women count as two goals.

So while we were leading 7-6 late in the game, a goal by an opposing female costs us the game.

What I'm wondering is what exactly the thinking is as far as the man short thing... basically they're saying that a gal doesn't really count as a player, right? But then to make matters worse, they count gal goals for two...

In our league, just like many other coed leagues I've played in, there are always a few stronger female players than male players per team.. it doesn't make sense. I'm offended.

Mainly because we lost.

Now, I've played on a lot of really horrible teams before, so just being competitive is fun. So I'm not really complaining about the team, or the loss... if I need anything to complain about I can complain about the two strained groin muscles I have today.

Unfortunately, the line "I need a groin massage" doesn't really get my anywhere, so instead I tried various forms of stretches combined with sit-ups and god knows what else. Yesterday evening I was slightly worried that I was going to have trouble walking today. Instead, I feel pretty decent.

After last weeks game, my playstation skills took a hit: It was quite painful to lift my legs up onto the coffee table. We can't have that.

With any luck that won't be the case this time... I'll see how it goes tonight.

my new favorite dead old german

I have been playing soccer for a large portion of my life, and in the past 15 years of that time, I have worn only one brand of soccer shoe. That brand is Adidas.

I do not wear the latest and greatest Adidas, of course. Given my choice in a money is no object situation, I'd still choose Adidas Sambas for indoor, and Adidas Copas for outdoor. And now it's time to pay tribute to the man who invented all shoes, Adolf (Adi) Dassler, who also happens to be My New Favorite German.

Adi Dassler was born in a small town outside of Berlin in 1641 to American and Japanese immigrant parents. Adi grew up without many material things, as his parents beet farm was not very successful.

One day while tending to the beet trees, Adi stubbed his toe on a root. Realizing this was a common problem for most beet farmers, he ran off to the local kangaroo tanner and bought seven pelts. He then invented the world's most famous soccer shoe, the Copa Mundial.

After inventing the Copa Mundial, Adi decided to name his new shoe company after his favorite poet, Luther Van Brigglesteinenson. The Lutvanbrigtenson Copa Mundial made it's debut and the 1643 Whatshouldwecallclothesforthefeet convention, where it was strongly outsold by a new invention called "toe socks". The convention was not without it's benefits, though, as it was determined by vote that clothes for the feet were to be called "shoes". The other choices were "Racooners" and "Television".

Adi was unfazed by his convention failure, and immediately went back to his farm to hang himself. After several failed attempts, he invented shoe laces.

Adi Dassler died the next day.

wowie zowie

I'm not sure if it's a function of Firefox, or what, really, but anytime I start to type something into the subject box for a new post, it brings up the most recent things I've ever typed in that box that starts with the same letter. For example, if I type the letter "b" into the title box, I get the following choices in a drop down box:

back to bear lodge
because bike posts generate a ton of comments
begging for wellwishes
bikedog! bikeydog! dikeybog! bog! superdogbike!
birds are singing
bonus

There are a few reasons this is a great feature, the main one being that I don't repeat myself. This post was almost titled "bikedog! bikeydog! dikeybog! bog! superdogbike!"

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When I moved to Indianapolis some 6 years ago (frightening), I never bothered to find a new dentist. Instead, I took Fridays off work, drove all the way back to Illinois, and saw my old dentist. He has been my dentist my entire life; In fact I can remember him telling me that cookie monster was in my ear. That's quite a long-term relationship. But the last time I saw him, he told me to find a dentist closer to home (Indianapolis home). He also told me that cookie monster had moved to somewhere more spacious.

That was probably two to three years ago, and I still haven't bothered to find a new dentist. I did find cookie monster's new place, and it's very nice.

Now, maybe it's a little gross that I haven't been to the dentist in two or three years. I've always been of the opinion that you don't bother with anything health related until either it nearly kills you or it scares the crap out of you. This is the same approach my father took, and when he finally did go see a doctor, he ended up dead. Well, eventually, anyway. So...

Yeah. I probably should find a dentist. While on vacation my tooth chipped (yet again) and to be honest that doesn't bother me in the least bit, except now every time I eat it feels like I'm missing a tooth. Prior to that it hurt a lot and I was trying all sort of home what-do-we-have-that-might-make-this-feel-better remedies, like aspirin and tooth spray and gum (gum really doesn't work, by the way, but it's great if you're the sort of person who likes to poke things that hurt). I tried jabbing it with the pointy end of one of those floss tools. In a previous life I was the sort of person who believed in bloodletting.

What am I going to do? Nothing.

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I had some sort of point when I started writing today, but I seem to have forgotten it now.

Ah, yes.

Nevermind.

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Did you know that Shift + Delete key permanently deletes an item from your Outlook mailbox without having to go into your deleted items and deleting it again? I just learned something. Now I'm sharing. There, it wasn't a total waste of time, was it?

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I'm running a new blogger version, or something, and it allows me to put labels at the end of my posts. So some day when you're like "what did he write about superdogbike?" you can find it by label, I guess. I really don't know how it works, but it makes me feel like I'm doing important work that someone might want to use for reference sometime in the future. And so, here's some labels.

it's going to be cold and rainy, so you might as well watch the mls cup final

Ah yes, the MLS cup... such a lovely ring to it, right? While I rarely get excited about MLS games (I mean... whatever), I'm pretty excited to see the final. We've got Houston and Dwayne "I scored on stupid Chelsea and I'm Canadian" DeRosario and World Cup Benchwarmer Brian "The Man Who Could Be Brian McBride-ish" Ching versus Taylor "Tyler Whatever" Twellman*, Steve "Mike knew a guy who was friends with him" Ralston*, Clint "we is hungry" Dempsey, and Pat "Screech" Noonan*.

It all adds up to a game that should be pretty entertaining. I caught the DC/NE semifinal while I was in Vegas, and the best part may have been the Bruce Arena/Eric Wynalda announcing tandem. It's nice when the announcers know what they're doing. Anyway, the game was pretty entertaining for a 1-0 match, so we'll see how it goes. I feel like I should be meeting up with people to watch this somewhere, so if anyone's interested in that idea, leave a comment.

But before all that, I'll spend part of Saturday catching the Fulham / Pompy match. Somehow Portsmouth (Pompy) are sitting at fourth in the table right now, so it should prove to be an entertaining and competitive match. It's a road game for Fulham, which last year meant automatic defeat. It's nice to not have to expect that this year.

So in any case, for those of you who don't watch soccer regularly, you might tune in the MLS final Sunday at 3:30 PM ET on ABC. I know that there's football on, but honestly, how fucking boring is that. It's like 3 hours of commercials with a bunch of bad announcing thrown in. Sounds like naptime to me.

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*All these guys are out of St. Louis, too. Like Nelly. And Chingy. And Yogi Berra. And Bono. And The Beatles.

let's not forget fulham

First off, Freddy Adu: Is he or isn't he? If this hype is like any other bit of US Soccer Hype™, the answer is he isn't. Perhaps Freddy, Oguchi Onyewu, and Eddie Johnson can start their own premiership team. Don't forget to call Clint Dempsey, guys.

By the way, Dempsey is going to Fulham.

Ah, Fulham. I wouldn't want anyone to think I'd quit following the Cottagers, so it's about time I comment on their early season success. Now you might think that ninth place is hardly anything to brag about, especially when the team finished in 10th last season, but this seems to be a much stronger Fulham side. They win close games, are capable of coming fron behind to claim victory, and unlike last year, they've actually won games on the road.

When Jimmy Bullard went down early in the season, I figured Fulham were going to have a tough go of it. Instead they've insert Carlos Bocanegra in midfield (yes, Carlos Bocanegra) and enjoyed quite a bit of success. Last weeks' victory was probably due to a bit of luck.

Here's hoping the luck keeps up, Brian McBride continues to be productive, and that Fulham continues to play productive football.

What about Real Salt Lake, you ask... well the season ended and then... blah.

I don't think any RSL fans read this blog. And why would they?

victory

For those of you who were wondering (like Scot), soccer went pretty well. I'm on a team with a bunch of Lilly employees, I think, and everyone seems generally pleasant and friendly, and I can't remember any of their names.

I played most of last evening's game, as we only had one sub, and was only responsible for 2-3 defensive mishaps that led to opponent goals. Considering they scored 6 total goals (to our 8), perhaps I should rethink how my personal effort went. I'll just say I'm a bit slow to react these days.

But I did feel generally pretty good about my effort... I'm nowhere near fit (or quick), but I've still got my soccersense, so to speak, and my passes were as accurate as I think I could have expect after a year or so layoff. I had a couple of early shots, but then got the vibe that I was being too greedy. I'm not a shoot first kind of guy anyway; I can only recall scoring two goals in 20 years of playing, and both were in one meaningless indoor game way back when. Considering that the league only allows each player two goals per game (in order to curb ballhoggery and one-player dominance), I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to put a bit more effort into putting shots on goal.

Next week I think I'll run a bit more. I'd call my running effort half-assed at best. But we won. So good enough.

Today I have a strange pain coming from my right groin-ish area, which I attribute to the fact that we were given no warm up or stretching time. I'm sure it'll wear off tomorrow or the next day. Or never. I sort of refuse to be injured, it reminds me of old people.

i'm registurd

Hey! It's election day!

Despite my previous thought that I should just vote democrat across the board to punish anyone at all associated with the president, instead I am debating if I'm going to vote at all. If anyone wants to let me know what important issue I should be voting on and will be missing out on if I just act apathetic and ungrateful for my FREEDOMEZ, please let me know.

Freedomez is a registered trademark of ridehorsey.com.

I live in Perry township.

Vegas was pretty blah. The three of us did spend $200 on dinner, and even that was just so-so. But if you're going to eat at Smith and Wollensky, skip the whipped potatoes. They are a $11 waste of money. The T-bone is as big as both your hands spread out, though. Maybe bigger.

Remind me to never fly United ever ever again. I've never had a positive United experience that I can remember... just a bunch of passable or horrible experiences. Perhaps that's the case with all air travel. I hate airplanes and airports and the whole process. Yuck. Is there anyone on the ballot pushing for nationwide highspeed rail? I'd even be ok with my tax money going to that.

Soccer starts tomorrow, as far as I know anyway, and I look forward to dying on astroturf. Nothing makes me more sweaty than running. It's really gross, actually, but I enjoy that my opponents have to deal with sweaty me banging against them. This is my public reminder to foul more. That's how the pros do it.

Alright. Election, Vegas, Soccer... I think that covers it so far.

this post rocks like the video at the end of it

Hmm. I'm finally going to Vegas Saturday on that trip I won in the canoe race. We have no plans, except to eat and In and Out Burger. In and Out Burger better be fucking good, if it's just like Steak n' Shake or something I'm going to punch the West Coast right in the ear.

Last time I was in Vegas we ate a Fatburger, because Ice Cube mentioned Fatburger in that "I gotta say it was a good day" song and we're hard, just like Ice Cube.

Fatburger wasn't very good, but it did have a jukebox playing oldies, and I recall a black man dancing. We then ventured outside and saw a souvenir t-shirt that read "EAT SHIT AND DIE. LAS VEGAS." I wonder if it's still on sale... might make a nice pajama shirt.

Gina's bike came off layaway and into our house last night. I think it ended up being like $900 altogether. Maybe I should have my head looked at.

She then attempted the spinervals training dvd I have and got about 75% through at light effort. Then I did the whole thing at full effort and tried not to vomit. I regretted eating the Papa Murphy's pizza (which is really good, by the way) because vomitting pizza would be pretty horrible.

Humans abuse their power while horses use theirs only for good. I'd rather be a horse.

Anyway. It's thursday.