Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Looks like you are recovering from your marathon! I agree with them needed the sign, I'm sure you are out in the streets more often then anyone else. As much as I love the coolness to the air, I'm not ready to give up on shorts! Not ready at all for smart wool!

I enjoyed that cold morning too! Kind of a perfect Fall day.

And it looks like terrific weather for the next few days too!

I know what you mean about soccer :) someone somewhere is making a LOT of money from it all. Perhaps too the kids area all inside playing Halo?

ah, soccer. now there's a subject i can rant about.

Okay, I'm clueless. What's up with soccer?

Disclaimer - My own child doesn't play soccer, doesn't want to, and still resents the one week of "soccer camp" I sent her to in first grade (she is 13) just to make sure I wasn't depriving her of an American Institution.

From my armchair it looks like this: Soccer completely eats up children's lives and their parents' lives. It's never less than 3 days a week, and always includes a weekend day too. It is a commitment that takes precedence over every other activity imaginable, including such events as birthday parties of best friends, grandparents' funerals, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to visit Disneyland, for free, meeting the president (ok, I guess we can skip that), and getting a spot on the next space shuttle. And do not even think about skipping soccer for illness.

Allie, would you like to add to the rant?

deep breath...

particularly demanding soccer coaches expect you to play just two days after having your wisdom teeth removed. they scoff at you if you opt to sit out, even though your cheeks look like softballs and your mouth is full of bloody gauze and stitches. just to prove how disgusted they are with your weakness, they will keep you on the bench for the next two games, even though you have healed. the incoming freshman will get more playing time than you if their mom is more involved in the soccer booster club. special privileges are given to the player of the mom who brings pre-game snacks and wears the team colors at all times. bonus points if they have a fleece blanket or sun umbrella with the team logo on it. if you sell the most cookie dough in the team fundraiser (i.e. your mom purchases 100 cases), you will get to pick your jersey first. of course, you will pick jersey #2, since you know that is the lucky number of the uncoordinated, softball-cheeked senior who has had it for the past three years of play. soccer really gets fun when you are benched for an entire game on your birthday because you asked to be excused from a practice (ONE practice) to run for your school at a cross country meet. soccer also helps you to decide which is more fun - soccer or cross country. soccer forces you to stand in front of your coach and cry, because you realize you like cross country much more than soccer, and you would rather RUN in the state cross country meet than SIT at the state soccer game. so then you quit, and you are given a warm welcome into the world of cross country. you develop a love for running, and you never look back...

wow

I hear ya Dale...how about a 'WOW WOW'!

I'm exhausted from reading the scenario

OMG, Allie, it's worse even I thought.

Running rocks. Soccer is a cult.

Quite a shame. My experience with youth soccer dates back a decade when my stepdaughter was playing and none of those issues existed. The worst problem we had was over-enthusiastic parents who yelled themselves hoarse from the sidelines....yes I was one :). Sorry to hear other experiences were not good ones. I'm not completely surprised by the pressure to make practices/games at the varsity level, but at the youth level, most of that was reserved for the "traveling" teams.