Football and Marathon

This morning Marye and I cycled into downtown Minneapolis and arrived at The Local just before 7:30am. We watched a dramatic match between Arsenal and Manchester United. Although I prefer to sleep longer on Saturday mornings, the level of play and atmosphere were worthwhile. Then we ate at Hell's Kitchen. I had the bison bison benedict.

Now I'm surfing the world wide web. I looked at the Olympic trials marathon results. Ryan Hall had an incredible day in a race full of talent. Huge props to Jason Lehmkhule in 5th place. NBC showed a half hour of race coverage at 1pm. Wankers.

Surly Darkness

Marye and I cycled to the Blue Nile last Tuesday evening for the purpose of sampling the Surly Darkness, a Russian Imperial Stout. First we ate dinner with our fingers, using the Ethiopian injera bread as utensils. We saw Tim S. and his girlfriend, also there for dinner & Surly. My co-worker John met us there too. I enjoyed 2 of the Darkness and 1 Bell's Batch 8000, which can best be described as an Imperial Witbier. Whoa.

MIAC

Last Saturday we watched the MIAC cross country championships at Como Park in St. Paul. The weather was sunny and about 50 degrees. Macalester was hosting the meet and several of us volunteered to help with the race. But only two of us were assigned the most prestigious duty: assistant starting official. Tim was at one end of the starting line and I was at the other. When the start blew his whistle, we raised a yellow flag and verified all the runners were set. Then we lowered the yellow flag and raised the white flag. Peace dudes. Then the gun sounded and the ground rumbled.

I don't know any of the runners, but it's always fun to watch a cross country race in late October. A Bethel runner went out fast, followed by a Johnnie. Then the Johnnie took the lead and proceeded to annihilate the field. I've never seen a lead like that open so early, and get bigger. I think he won by 53 seconds. St. John's won the team race. Macalester was 8th; I imagine the men are a little disappointed.

After the meet we gathered at Tim's house for the soup cook-off. There were five entries: Tunisian chili, Oma's tomato soup, southwest chicken tortilla soup, beer cheese soup, and the Liz Connor's special pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese tortellini soup. God damn. It was a feast. There was also bread and scotcheroos. And I brought a growler of the remaining Witbier. So full. Need a bigger stomach. Then we played the phrase-pictionary-telephone game. Always good times. Next year I'm having a steak cook-off at my house ; )