"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

Kevin Payne leaving DC United for Toronto FC.

Wow. There have been times that I loved what Kevin Payne did for the club and times that I thought he was driving it into the ground, but he is probably, more than anyone but a handful of the original players, the single, historic face and character of the club. It will be a tremendously different place without him.

First off, a link to some photos of recent events.

Not many, sadly, but a few from the birthday visit my nephews and their mums paid me in March, and then some photos from the trip The Teacher and I took to see a little of Philadelphia and to visit the aforementioned nephews and their mums on Easter weekend.

So, because there is too much to explain, let me sum up.

Things are going very well with The Teacher and me. I don't think it's giving anything away to say that we are both thoroughly in love with each other. We spend more time together, at this point, than apart, and we have yet to run into any "hitches or vexations" as they say in the Land of Green Ginger. Well, one or two small hitches, perhaps, but nothing serious. We've gone from marvelling at how much we have in common to noticing the important ways we are different and rejoicing that (at least so far) we are not finding any that pose problems. Mostly we do a lot of rejoicing, as both of us have found, to one extent or another, that we find the other to be, no someone who wants to change or "improve" us (a deadly danger), but someone who makes *us* want to change, or at least to be the best person we can be. I find myself less nervous, less prone to anger, more generous, more patient now that she is part of my life. More than the number of books we've both read or movies we've both loved or ideas we've both been moved by, we find places we want to go or experiences we want to share. And the simple but ineffable pleasure of being with someone who loves you as you are and cares deeply about you... it's such a very nice place to be.

We had a very nice trip to Philadelphia, where she had lived for several years. There's a great deal more to see than we saw, so I for one would love to go back. We spent a couple of days visiting my sister The Deacon and her family in New Jersey. They quite liked The Teacher, and the feeling was mutual. We got back just in time to race around cooking a Passover dinner for some friends, which went quite well, on the whole, even it it started a little late (only 8 pm this time, really!) We've been to a couple of DC United games, to the movies (to see Jane Eyre, which we both liked--I felt it did rather well at capturing the book), and we've started to plan all sorts of things to do together, including several trips and expeditions. I've introduced her to some of my favourite restaurants and to some telly (Slings and Arrows was a big hit! thank you again Christy!)

I should wrap up, as I need to get home and make dinner for my sweetie (who does the washing up, a very nice bargain for me, I think!)

I've finished several books and books on tape lately; no time to review them now, but hopefully I will later on.

The Zimmerman Telegram and The First Salute, by Barbara Tuchman (10/50 and 11/50)
Unnatural Death and The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers (12/50 and 13/50) re-reads
A Cluster of Separate Sparks by Joan Aiken (14/50) re-read
China Road by Rob Gifford (15/50)

Books "in progress":

The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 by Dan Van der Dat
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
Red Branch by Morgan Llewellyn
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

Even with United's new acquisitions (a midfielder from Montenegro and a Colombian striker who's scored 6 goals in his last two seasons), we couldn't manage to score *or* keep Seattle from scoring a stoppage-time goal.

The officials weren't helping--one of our guys was pulled down in the box and nary a word said. Fouls were flying thick and fast as nothing was getting called, so the tackles kept getting more and more violent until it looked as if the center had totally lost control.

But they weren't to blame for our failure to generate more than a handful of serious scoring chances. They weren't to blame for the way most of our players can't play through any sort of tackle. They weren't to blame for our inability to stop skilled players from scoring on us almost at will.

There needs to be a serious shake-up.

Glasgow Rangers pull out of US tour

They must have finally checked on what happens when SPL teams play United. :-D

Packed up my 20mm SCW guys and mailed them off to a nice fellow in California in exchange for a nice bundle on PayPal. Ka-ching!

DC whupped up on NJ last night (2-0--it's as 'whup' as we get right now until some of the older more broken players retire and the younger ones get more experience...)

Playing ASL tomorrow, having dinner and a movie with friends, and taping the USMNT game against Honduras to watch Sunday morning.

Sunday probably consists of aforementioned WCQ, maybe a trip to the farmers' market, another attempt to clean the flat, and a test of Polemos ECW.

Hopefully Monday I will get another game of Battlefront with Basileus Frankos if he has recovered from his minor surgery.

Finished a game of The Burning Blue with vikingcat, about to start another (Guilford Courthouse) with him.

I was standing all by myself Saturday at the match, feeling pretty lonely. redactrice doesn't come to games with me any more, of course. Neither does soccer_fox :-(. My buddy Justin was out of town. Even Shouty Man and his daughter (a ManU/Liverpool family feud that sits next to me with whom I chat) were absent, leaving my row almost as empty as my soccer family. :-/

I do know a fair number of people in the supporters' club, but they're all sitting in the club section, about a quarter of the stadium away from where N and I got seats together a couple of years ago.

Watching United is still fun (though it was a bit nerve wracking this week), but it's a lot less fun without a companion.

As, in fact, most things are. :-/

The Cat's Meow

As we awaited D.C. United to open the final stage of practice -- you know, the stretching and messing around session, where no secrets are revealed -- a scruffy, black and white cat dashed through the media room in the RFK basement. (For dramatic writing purposes, we were hoping it was a black cat, which would have finally explained DCU's problems this year.)

There used to be several felines living inside the tunnels (aka dungeons), but most were chased away a few years ago. Now, the rats rule the house.

"There are some big rats down here," said one of the authors of behindthebadge.com

You'd think the cats would take care of the rats. But in RFK's case, the rats are bigger than the cats.

from Steven Goff's "Soccer Insider" in the WaPo