Soccer Tournament!

Last weekend, my friends Jason and Beto came up to me at my soccer game and said that they had put together a 7v7 tournament for this Saturday, and were in need of women. I agreed to play, so today I woke up, walked the dog, munched on some cereal, and pedaled over to the Gilman fields! I was playing on Beto's team; he and his good friends are Mexican, so they called the team Mexican Ajax. They were all really good at both English and Spanish and they really enjoyed teasing me. There was a guy named Miguel that I had a lot of fun playing with. He was really good at playing, and he was really nice and helpful about giving me tips as to how I can improve my play. All of the people on the team were really jovial, and at the end Beto asked me if I'd be interested if he put together another team. My reply was "of course!!" Miguel also asked me for my email so that he could tell me about a pickup game that he plays in twice a week so that I can go to that and get better! It was funny because when I first met him, he told me he lived in Newark, which is a little south of Berkeley. Then he asked where I lived, and when I said at the top of the hill in North Berkeley, he started asking about road names. He knew the area really well, so I was confused...I asked if he had ever lived in Berkeley and he shook his head no. He tried to explain why he knew the roads so well, but I couldn't understand him. Later that night, in the email about pickup games, he told me that he knew the roads in the area so well because one of his jobs is a flower delivery man. No wonder!

My ultimate team was practicing on a nearby field, so during the lunch break, I pedaled over to say "hi" and run around with them for a while. It was nice to see them again, since I couldn't play in the last two league night games because of my swim class!

At the end of the tournament, I hung around for a while talking to the guys, and then I headed over to Pam's. We walked over to Viks and had a lovely Indian lunch. After lunch, we pedaled over to my house to take Navi for a nice walk. I had a headache, so we decided we'd drive Navi to the beach and stop at Target to get some coffee on the way. Once we got to target, I remembered that Navi still had advantix drying on her fur, so I decided to take her on a walk around Target and go to the pet store instead. We bought her a few treats at the pet store, got coffee at Target, and headed home to use the grill pan I bought at Williams-Sonoma on Friday! We made chipotle pork burgers which were good, but I don't think I would make them again. We also grilled corn on the grill pan, which came out amazingly well. We ate the corn with honey ancho-chile butter which Pam is now addicted to! We also had a wonderful salad. After dinner, both Pam and I were pretty exhausted so she headed home and I fell asleep before 9:30!!!