If I wasn't the assistant coach of Ryder's soccer team, the Jedis, I'd actually have a photo of him playing soccer. Instead I pace the sideline and the practice field like Vince Lombardi yelling orders to a half dozen 4- and 5-year olds. Being an assistant coach comes with some serious responsibilities and taking photos isn't one of them. Maybe I'll use my authority to designate a team photographer.
Speaking of soccer, or should I say, football, a co-worker just emailed me this info: Bars in the Veltins-Arena, a major football ground in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are interconnected by a 5 km long beer pipeline. It is the favorite method for distributing beer in such large stadiums, because the bars have to overcome big differences between demands during various stages of a match; this allows them to be supplied by a central tank. Brilliant. The Germans get it right occasionally.
Speaking of beer, I've arranged a weekly cyclocross practice on Wednesday mornings at Prospect Park in Redlands from 7 to 8 AM, or whenever you puke. The course is about a mile and takes about 4 painful minutes to complete a lap. It's also a good course for a mountain bike, so if you don't own a CX bike, you have no good excuse for not coming out. We've done it two weeks in a row already and including dog walkers no one has died yet.
