No Labor Pains

"On the stereo, listen as we go
Nothing's gonna stop me now
California here we come
Right back where we started from"
--California, Phantom Planet

And what a lovely Labor Day weekend in the O.C. it was (though my recap comes a day late), including plenty of time with family and friends, a little soccer and relaxation galore. The important points:

Friday - Left work early in order to enjoy a two-hour drive across town to Fullerton (curse you, Labor Day traffic) for Eric's game against UCLA. Santa Clara went up 2-0 on two first-half PK's and then grabbed a late winner after the Bruins had managed to tie it up in the second stanza. Chatted with Eric for a bit and then drove down to San Clemente, where the family awaited. Got to the hotel and headed out for dinner at Cassano's, down by the pier. Lovely food, lovely company and to bed at a decent hour sometime thereafter...

Saturday - Up for complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel (unlike the continental breakfast at my hotel in San Jose, which I assumed was complimentary and then came with a nice little $13 price tag) and then back to the room for a fantasy draft with Michael (Tim's league - he's been very excited about this thing). I know I'll only care about it for about two weeks, so I might as well share my thoughts on the team while I'm still interested.

QB - Daunte Culpepper, Drew Bledsoe, Kyle Boller
Daunte's better than Peyton, in my estimation, and Bledsoe will be better than people think. I'm really not sure why I took Boller, to be honest.
RB - Fred Taylor, DeShaun Foster, Michael Bennett, Chester Taylor, LaBrandon Toefield
A little bit of injury potential with those first two, so I'm covering Taylor with Toefield, and the second Taylor could be okay if Jamal Lewis is rusty coming back from that whole jail thing. Bennett misses week one, but should be the main back in Minnesota.
WR - Torry Holt, Nate Burleson, Muhsin Muhammad, Eddie Kennison, Keenan McCardell
Torry's a lock, Burleson will let me double up with Daunte, Muhsin is great (but Kyle Orton?), Kennison was an accidental pick but is still KC's number one, and I needed a Charger, so Keenan's the man.
TE - Dallas Clark
Can't go wrong with a Peyton Manning target, right?
K - David Akers
Killed for me last year, he's solid.
DEF - Chargers
Who else would I pick, come on?

Other Saturday activities included a little trip to a used bookstore, some good lunch at a Berge's-esque sandwich place, watching USC be USC against Hawaii (more to come on that ridiculous offense) and then heading up to Angel Stadium for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim against the Seattle Mariners of Washington. Got hooked up with some amazing seats through Fox (fourth row behind home plate, the first seats outside the net area) and thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite the Angels' losing effort. Ichiro was raking, going 3-for-5 and coming up with the game-winning RBI. Too much fun watching that guy hit (and Suss got some great photos as well; his whole Ansel Adams act at family holidays over the years is starting to pay off, I think).

Sunday - Breakfast again (free again), a lot of reading ("Life of Pi," a Side recommendation and a very enjoyable read), and then church at San Clemente Pres, where Mike B played guitar in the big service and a dude spoke about marinated steak. Mmmmm, marinated steak. Got to have a wonderful post-church lunch at the Bautistas' beach house, sandwiches and burritos and hot dogs (and of course, steak) with Bob and Cathie, Mike and Suzy and Joel and Kristi. Good times. Suss and I then headed up to soccer game number two (Santa Clara vs. Cal State Fullerton) and Michael and Mom headed home. The Broncos came through again, scoring in the last five minutes to eke out a 1-0 victory. They're No. 6 in the country this week, according to Soccer America, so that doesn't suck. Back up to LC and then off to Bel Air with Darren, where I took communion for the second time that day (in two different counties) and saw my second Stryker sister (Kimmy or Kimmie, how is that spelled, I wonder?), which was also a treat. Enjoyed a Baja Fresh dinner, which had me breaking tradition to order fajitas, something I definitely enjoyed. I think it's been years since I ordered anything but a baja burrito with chicken, so it took a little bit for me to break the mold and do something different. After dinner, we went over to LCPC (my first time in Harris Hall Congdon room in forever) to see Mike, Billy and Ross, who were recording music with all the fun equipment down there. Hung out with John and Mike a bit later before heading back to the beach.

Monday - Absolutely nothing. How nice is that. Watched parts of the UCLA-SDSU and USA-Mexico games, the season finale of Entourage and a few other random Tivo selections, got more reading done and enjoyed that sunshine, but pretty much took it as easy as I've been able to at any point in a very long time. Wonderful.

So the few sports-related thoughts I carry out of the weekend, non-fantasy related:
- Has there ever been a better offense in the history of college football than this year's USC version? I know it was just one game and I know it was just Hawaii, but still, WOW. There have been better rushing teams: the mid-80's Oklahoma option squads, the mid-90's Nebraska Tommie Frazier teams, probably the old Army teams with Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard, and probably a few others. There may have been better passing teams, like Houston's run-and-shoot squads featuring Andre Ware and David Klingler, some of the many BYU teams (Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer?), Florida's fun-and-gun with Danny Wuerffel, the vaunted Cade McNown-Freddie Mitchell-Brian Poli-Dixon offenses of the late 90's, and probably some other really cool ones I don't know anything about. But has there ever been a unit with so many weapons? So brilliantly able to combine the run and the pass? They've got lottery picks (I know the NFL Draft doesn't have a lottery, but you know what I mean) at quarterback, first- and second-string tailback, wide receiver and all over the offensive line. When your backup tailback ran for 1105 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago, your fifth (sixth?) receiver is the top freshman at his position in the country, your backup quarterback is capable of starting anywhere else in the country, your offensive line brings back everybody plus an All-American who missed last season--well, you get the picture: this team is ridiculously talented, unbelievably deep, and boasts more weapons than any offense I can recall. I'm looking forward to doing our show out there next Friday, but I'm seriously dreading December 3--the final game of the regular season, and UCLA's death knell.

The Bruins actually looked pretty good themselves, at least offensively, where Drew Olson, Maurice Drew, Chris Markey and Marcedes Lewis all were stellar. The problem is that we still can't tackle (Justin London, I'm looking at you) and we still get run over. But hey, a win is a win, even if it's just San Diego State. Rice at the Rose Bowl this weekend, look out.

I love the USA-Mexico rivalry, not only because we've dominated it lately (at least here on our soil), but because the two teams genuinely hate each other, from the coaches on down. A sample of the comments following Saturday's 2-0 US victory:
Rcardo LaVolpe, Head Coach, Mexico: "The U.S. is a small team. They play like my sister, my aunt and my grandmother." Dude, your team just got beat, 2-0. That's like 55-0 in football. How can you talk like that? A lot of confidence in your guys, saying that a team consisting of the female members of your family would be capable of a 2-0 defeat of your squad. Can't imagine why there's so much controversy surrounding this idiot.
Bruce Arena, the American coach, was far more tactful in his post-match assessment, asserting only that it was "nice to qualify against our rivals."
Landon Donovan, however, held nothing back: "They suck. I'm so happy. After we got that first goal they were never in the game. Hopefully that will shut them up for the next three or four years."
I love it.

Also got to watch a selection from the F.A. Archive on Fox Soccer Channel, the 1999 F.A. Cup Semi-Final replay between rivals Manchester United and Arsenal. It was Man U's best squad (the one that eventually won the treble: Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup) and a very formidable Arsenal side, making for some tremendous football. David Beckham scored on a dipping shot from well outside the box to open the scoring in the 17th minute and the Red Devils never looked like surrendering a goal in the first half. Arsenal picked it up a bit after the break, however, and equalized on a Dennis Bergkamp deflected shot in minute 69. Great chances both ways, but after Roy Keane got sent off, it looked like United would just have to hope for a draw and penalty kicks. In injury time, Philip Neville took down Ray Parlour in the box and Bergkamp stepped up to take the resulting penalty. The Great Dane, Peter Schmeichel, came up huge and stopped what would certainly have been the match-winner, forcing two periods of added time (30 total minutes). After a scoreless first 15, Ryan Giggs--a second-half substitute--scored one of the greatest goals in the history of the competition on a ridiculous run that started within his own half, proceeded through five Arsenal defenders, and ended with a rocket that went over David Seaman's head (yes, the Arsenal keeper's name was David Seaman) and into the net. Great stuff, even though it happened six years ago. And yes, it makes me feel old to think that I was finishing up my senior year of college when that happened.

New Nickel Creek is tremendous, especially tracks 3 ("Jealous of the Moon") and 5 ("Tomorrow is a Long Time," Bob Dylan cover). Just got it last night, so I haven't gotten all the way through, but I'm a big fan already.

Ahh, it feels nice to have been able to write again this morning, even though it was menial details of a weekend that nobody but me cares anything about. I'm hoping for some time Friday, because we've got a short day (which also hopefully means some beach in the afternoon), so until then, at least...