Celebrating Euro 2008
by Roger on Jun.29, 2008, under Football, Life, Natalia
Today was a pretty exciting day for Spain. They won the UEFA Euro 2008 Championship. They had not won a major tournament since 44 years ago when they hosted the Euro Championship and beat the then USSR in the final. Such was the excitement that even our 9 month old daughter Natalia got into a festive mood by lifting her own version of the trophy just like Iker Casillas.
ATM adventures
by Roger on Jun.20, 2008, under Life
This morning Lisa and I needed to go to an ATM to get some deposits done. Nothing unusual there, however, when we got into the ATM there was a person leaving and another person was ahead of us trying to use the ATM but looking a bit puzzled. It turns out there was a card waiting to be retrieved from the machine and the guy was trying to figure out what to do. We thought that if we waited long enough the ATM would take it again and keep it. But that did not happen and the beeping started to become annoying so we (all that were present) decided to take the card out. Everybody was concerned as to what to do with the card and how to get it back to its owner. We looked at the card and the name on it was “Law Offices of …”. At that point the attitude was totally different and everyone in that ATM booth almost unanimously lost any sympathy for the guy who’d left the card. It was very interesting to watch and makes you realize how ‘popular’ lawyers are with the rest of the world. The attitude went from “poor guy forgot his card” to “I guess the lawyer is way too important to waste his time getting the card out of the machine”. Eventually we all did our business at the ATM and left the card there in case the owner remembered to come back and get it. I don’t know if the guy did or did not but I couldn’t help but wonder why lawyers are so unpopular?
IMPORTANT CAVEAT: This of course excludes all our wonderful lawyer friends, who are so great they could (and perhaps should) teach classes on how to be a nice, thoughtful, caring lawyer.
Amateur soccer can be exciting
by Roger on May.29, 2008, under Life
I went to watch an MLS game tonight between the New England Revolution and DC United. I’m not a big fan of MLS since I don’t like the pace or the style of play but having said that, they are making an effort to try and make it a good league. DC United signed Marcelo Gallardo who became one of my favorite players when he was playing for River Plate in the 90s. In that sense it was nice to get to see him play, even if he’s not at the top of his game anymore.
The game ended in a 2-2 draw which isn’t bad considering DC United was up 2 nil before the Revolution came back to tie it late in the game. Gallardo showed some flashes of the great player he once was, he still has the vision for the game but lacks the finesse and accuracy that made him so great.
I can see the effort on the part of the MLS to bring good players to improve the overall quality of the game but I think it’s turning out to be like the North American Soccer League of the 70s where super stars came to retire much like they do now in the Asian and Middle Eastern leagues.
Overall, it’s still a pretty fun family outing.
