Brandon's Birthday!

Kristin and I went to Sacramento today for my nephew Brandon's 3rd birthday party. He was a "King for the day" and had a balloon girl there to make animals and hats. Brandon seemed to enjoy the attention and had a number of friends and neighbor kids there for the day.


Russ got a Nutron hat (see below) which looked great...


It was really nice to see everyone and watch the kids play and have fun.

World Cup Finals

Well the two teams are decided for the World Cup - Italy & France. I would not have expected this given how these teams played early on, and the whole thing seems to hinge on a few plays or calls that were made or not made. Many great teams were knocked out by a lucky (or unlucky) bounce or bad call. In the end though these teams found a way to win the matches they had to and now will play on Sunday for the 2006 World Cup.

I have really enjoyed watching some/most of these games and can see now what all the fuss is about. While I have no interest in playing soccer (as I know I would be terrible - i.e. not good with my feet) I have greatly enjoyed watching these games and the emotion they instill in their respective countries.

Raffi visits today

Kristin's dad Raffi arrived late last night from NYC and visited us on the way to Santa Cruz and then the desert for Burning Man. It was great to see him and we ended up going to Santa Cruz as well to have a BBQ at Aaron and Pam's place. I stopped off and played some disc golf before heading over to their house, and we had a wonderful time seeing everyone before the 4th of July holiday.

England & Brazil Out

Both England and Brazil were eliminated from the World Cup today. I was sort of surprised that these teams did not manage to advance, but then again both have not been playing their best soccer in this tournament (or so the announcers said). England has looked spotty, but found a way to win and so I figured that they would do the same against Portugal. But once Beckham went out of the match, that seemed to take the spirit out of the team and that was it.

Brazil looked truly awesome against Japan and France had seemed shaky at times - so it was a shock to see how the Brazil team played today. They were just tentative and did not seem like there was a sense of urgency until the very end, and by that time it was too late. The France's team captain Zinedine Zidane played superb and was the reason that France advanced.