Another Attempt at Consistency

Good afternoon readers!

I'm going to try to keep this post short and sweet, but I just wanted to give a brief update on what's been going on in my life instead of all the sports posts lately.

First of all, I added a new feature called "Monday Morning Striker." To better keep track of our soccer season, and to get more consistent posts out of me other than the Top Fives, I decided to put up an unofficial match report after our games. It will include some personal commentary on ow I'm doing as I try to work my way back in shape after my first real leg injury of my 24-year amateur career in soccer. At the end of last season I suffered a 2nd degree ankle sprain (maybe even worse, I only went to see the trainer with the Chicago Fire a couple of times so I don't know for sure) and I'm just now getting into the swing of things. I'll also keep track of all of our teams goals and our record as we try to improve on last season and move up from the 1st Division to the Open Division. So if you look at the post just before this one, you'll see the report from yesterday's game. You can also click here and find the back dated reports from the first three match days of the season.

In other news, Mrs. Sizemore and I skipped town this weekend and went with my friend Julie from work to her Aunt's lake house in Beverly Shores, Indiana. It was a little chilly, but very relaxing. When we got in Friday night we just sat around and had a few drinks. Julie and her boyfriend, Lucho, had never played "Asshole" before, so we taught them that. As the night wore on and Mrs. Sizemore had a few too many Coronas, the song "The Heart of Rock and Roll" by Huey Lewis and the News came on the old iPod. I was singing along because I love that song, and since I hadn't heard in quite some time, I screwed up and came in a verse too early with the "...in Cleveland..." line. Mrs. Sizemore immediately started arguing that those weren't the words and the following line was uttered:

"If they say the word Cleveland in this song I promise I will become a Cleveland Indians fan."

Sure enough, in the last refrain, that's exactly what they say. Before going to bed, she sat at the kitchen counter with her head in her hands crying. There is now one less member of Red Sox Nation. Thank God.

Saturday morning we woke up and she didn't remember her losing bet the night before, but Julie and Lucho confirmed my story as we ate breakfast. The weather was just nice enough that we decided to get on the bikes. Mrs. Sizemore had still not been up on the bike for real, so we took her out on the back roads where there wasn't any cars. She did well for her first time and I think she went along way to get over her fears of crashing. Julie and Lucho road her aunt and uncle's bikes, which we thought were just going to be huffy 10-speeds. Apparently her uncle has been known to go all out from time to time. I realized this fully when I noticed the bike was a Trek Madone 5.0. Not exactly Lance Armstrong's Madone 6.9 or whatever the hell he is riding these days, but still a $2,800 bike. I hopped on and took it for a little test spin. Nice. Smoothest ride I've ever felt; I couldn't even tell if there was a chain on the bike it was so easy to pedal.