beach bums
Summer is just moving along isn’t it? Heading to the shore on Saturday for a week. We’re really looking forward to it. I have been working hard on my mini-golf game so that I can successfully defend my title.

Lots of soccer news to catch up on. The Revs won 2-0 on the road against Kansas City. Great win to remain undefeated. They’ll face DC on the road this Saturday, not an easy match. Overshadowing MLS right now for me however is the Under-20 World Championship currently being held in the Netherlands. The US were drawn into a very tough group with Argentina, Germany and Egypt. Their first game was on Saturday against Argentina who has won 3 of the last 5 Youth Championships and knocked the US out in the last tournament. Well the Yanks managed a 1-0 victory which is just fantastic. Then they tied Germany 0-0 on Tuesday night to remain tied for tops in the group. Even bigger than getting good results against these soccer standard-bearers is the style with which the US youngsters have played. In both games, the US was clearly the superior team over 90 minutes. The creativity, confidence and skill on the ball that the next generation has been showing is just unprecedented in the US game. A win or tie against a listless Egypt team this Saturday will see the US through to the knockout phases where the boys could really make some hay.

If anyone is looking for gift ideas, I’d be game for some British Royal Navy Imperial Rum. It only goes for about $6,000 for the 4.54 liter bottle. I know there's a joke in here about the "impeccable taste of imperialism" or about ingesting "the power that subdued lesser peoples across the globe" but I just can't tease it out.

In celebration of our 3rd year of marriage, Reen and I made a long anticipated visit to Blue Ginger on Wednesday night. That meant a healthy 90 minutes in the car each way, which is quite a bit for a Wednesday evening. When all was said and done we had a very good meal. But saying that feels like a bit of a disappointment. I guess we were expecting to really be blown away, like we were when we ate at Morimoto in Philly. The restaurant space itself along with the food were very good, but not exceptional. The service was very good and we got to see a fair bit of the celebrity chef as he visited around the dining room. In all, it's the kind of place where you’d head to have a really nice dinner, but perhaps not worth 3 hours in the car on a weeknight. I’d be curious to hear from other folks about their impressions. Maybe we just didn’t order well. Who knows.