So this has been another one of those “Really? I mean Really..?” days on a number of levels, more time at the doctors and an irritation over someone else deadbeat decisions. But first the now usual first-of-the-month view, it’s very green out there now and now I just need the weather to come together and everything will be awesome.

Todays “Really..?” question is: how much of a deadbeat do you have to be to get a collection call from a non-profit? More to the point to be such a dead beat that you give someone elses number to that non-profit…

So this week I got a collection call from the YMCA of Snohomish County for a little over $100. They have referred the account to a collection agency and my name was nowhere associated with the account, but somehow my cell number was.

The account rep I spoke to sent me a copy of the letter they were sent (dated Jan-3) and it had a very interesting “interpretation” of what was going on, the account rep also let me know how my number because associated with the account and has been removed. Just pay your damn bills.

To close, here is a picture of the greenbelt when I was working on the house yesterday. This really is turning into a spectacular summer, and to cap to all there is a weekend of great music coming up.

Here are a few more pictures from downtown Everett yesterday.

Finally for now, a 1st generation Miata. Nothing too special, there are a few of them around, only this one is powered by an LS3 Corvette engine, somewhere around 425hp if it’s stock… Almost 4 times the original power output.

A typical bank holiday, this morning I spent too much time and money at a packed Lowes and Home Depot, they were both mobbed this morning and my patience was running thin. Actually it was time well spent and I’m happy with the results.

This afternoon was more fun as I caught a part of the Seattle International Film Festival (and plans for a couple of more this week). It was documentary about the New York Times and it’s transition into the new media age through the eyes of a couple of journalists. One very new media savvy, and the second was not so much. Really interesting movie in how things are changing in the world.

There is a lot of good stuff in SIFF this year, I’ve tickets for a few more over the next couple of weeks, including an invite to the closing party. It’s been fun and I’m looking forward to catching a few more films before it closes.

This is the Memorial Day weekend, the first public holiday for most in the US since New Years Day. It’s sort of seen as the start of summer, in Everett on Memorial Day weekend is the annual “Cruzin to Colby” car show. It is a classic piece of Americana that’s not seen elsewhere in the world, they were expecting over 600 cars to take part today and tomorrow. It is rather spectacular with some very modified cars along side some beautifully restored classics.

Two years go Manchester United played Barcelona in the Stadio Olympico in Rome for the Champions League title. Barcelona won 2-0. This year the same two teams, fittingly the Premier League and La Liga champions, met at Wembley in the Champions League final.

It was a good final, immeasurably better than last years when Inter played very defensive football to defeat Bayern Munich. Barcelona and United both came to play, both came to win, but it was men verses boys in the end. And of course Messi scored the goal that gave Barcelona the lead.

United started well and took the game to Barcelona, who of course just absorbed the pressure for the first ten minutes. A repeat of the last time these teams met in the final. Then Barcelona started to play, found their rhythm with the short passes and started dominating the game and the differences in style became clear.

The breakdown of a Barcelona attack would be followed by a long ball being played over the Barcelona midfield in an attempt to find a United forward. Barcelona would retake possession and the whole tiki-taka process would begin again. Barcelona were pretty to watch and United responded to the pressure, but they were playing the best club side in the world.

In the 27^th minute Barcelona went ahead. Xavi, crossed to Pedro on the right. Messi made a run taking the defence with him and created the space for Pedro to put the ball past Van der Sar. Well worked goal, but the lead did not last long as Rooney and Giggs (who looked offside when the ball was played) worked a well weighted 1-2 that led to a wonderful first time shot from Rooney that left the keeper no chance.

The rest of the afternoon was all about Barcelona and following the script Messi was in the middle of nearly everything. Inevitably he scored, ten minutes after the break he picked up a square pass from Iniesta, a couple of touches put him clear in the middle of the penalty area and calmly shot across his body to put United down 2-1 and that was it.

Messi worked hard, perhaps his biggest contribution was to stretch United’s defence every time he had the ball, opening space for others to make use of. This space gave David Villa the opportunity to make it 3-1.

The rest of the game was more the same with Barcelona making United’s play look very basic at times. This was a final graced by two good teams, it’s just one was so much better than the other. Barcelona play a beautiful possession style with imagination, and the final was a great advert for the game.

Seattle was playing in Salt Lake last night and I joined a few others at the Irishman in Everett.

Real Salt Lake had not been defeated at home for over two years and have only given up a couple of goals this year. The game was played in the rain, I’m not sure Seattle have had a fully dry game so far this year. Sigi changed a few things around. Montero did not start. Sigi said it was down to his lack of production, he’s being paid to score and has not been troubling opposing keepers over the last few weeks.

It was not a pretty game, and as ever Seattle did it the hard way. Salt Lake are a very defensive side and as Seattle misses Zakuani, they certainly miss Javier Morales who had his ankle broken a few weeks ago.

The game was very stale until almost an hour in when defender Jamison Olave was dismissed for fouling forward Mike Fucito on a clear scoring chance. Fucito pulled a great move to spin Olave around an create a chance for himself. The Salt Lake defender had no real choice but to bring him down and there was no question about the sending off. Up to that point Olave had been very effective in shutting Jaqua and Fucito down.

Seattle had a lot of luck tonight. Keller had to have a great game to keep them in it, including a top drawer reaction tip onto the crossbar from a Will Johnson shot.

The first goal came from Patrick Ianni, he managed to get the tap in during a goal mouth scramble from a Wahl corner. Over the last few games Seattle have looked better on set pieces than they did previously and it paid off tonight.

With 7 minutes to play Lamar Neagle made it 2-0 and scored his first league goal with a beautiful curling shot into the top corner. It gave RSL keeper Rimaldo no chance. Again Wahl was the provider, this time from open play.

Seattle did not do it the easy was as the home side were relentless for he last ten minutes. They pulled a goal back through Nelson Gonzalez and forced a number of good stops from Keller and his defence in injury time to hold onto the three points. This was a good win, Seattle is still not firing on all cylinders, there is no question they miss the speed of Zakuani and OBW, but this was a step in the right direction. Fucito has stepped up and is fun to watch.

At the other end Keller is making his defence look better than they are. As a unit they are failing to shut down teams, a lesser keeper would struggle. They are going to miss him next year.

Yeah I’m up at 3.30 jetlagged and unable to sleep, but it does feel good to be home.

Last night I met a couple of friend in a bar in Stockholm for a couple off drinks and the usual exchange of war stories. They are here on a different program it is always reassuring to know we all have issues and perhaps the grass is not always greener on the other program.

This is one of the things I’m going to miss in the future, the engineers don’t go to that many places around the world, it is not that big a community and it’s always fun to catch up in a bar somewhere. I will miss occasional lunches and dinners with friends and catching up with the latest gossip.  That’s heading on on a tangent that is better saved for another time.

We are sitting in a bar, it’s about 7pm and we are nursing our $12 beers. Of note are the significant number of stereotypical blonde Scandinavian women around us. For at least one of my friends all we need to add a little leather to the scene and it pretty much ticks all his boxes.

We got chatting to a couple of the young ladies on the table next to us, they both worked in Stockholm and had visited the US recently on what was mostly a shopping trip to NY.  With the weakness of the dollar they said this is becoming fairly common. Not for designer stuff, but for regular day-to-day wear like jeans and sneakers. They said they saved enough money to pay for the trip and with more left over, but once again I digress

They had quite a few questions about America after their experience as beautiful Swedish blondes in NY. Now it’s not like there is a lot of common ground, what ever happened to them in New York was probably very different from my interactions as a 42 year old with grey hair and a gut , but beer number 2 had arrived and we had no other plans for the next hour or two.

One thing they were puzzled about was shoes, women’s shoes in particular and how many pairs Americans own. I’ve lived with women who owned over 50 pairs of shoes, so while I could add much to the conversation, I certainly had an opinion.

To finish setting the scene Katja and Dina were exactly how you’ve pictured them. Very cute, funny and very blonde. I think it’s safe to say we were happy that there is truth in the blonde Nordic goddess stereotype and Rod especially was rather mesmerized by them.

For them the strangest experience occurred in a shoe store in NY, there was a woman in there buying 5 pairs of totally pointless high heeled shoes and dropping close to two grand in the process. They were just astounded that someone would buy so many “Stoopid shoes for so much money! That makes no seeense to me. Und they wear them out on the street, it’s so painful to look at”

While I don’t have very strong opinions on footwear generally, I have found that part of the initial impression of someone, especially women, is based on the shoes they are wearing.

In part this comes from spending too many nights out with people who love impractical footwear and whine constantly about it when we are out. You may think it makes you look hot, and yes I’d be willing to do a footrub afterwards but stop the fucking whining, you chose to wear them. I am more convinced that ever that women dress up for other women, not men.

Before you dismiss this “shoes as a window into the soul” thing, just pause for a moment because I think there is something too this.
When you buy a pair of shoes you have to make a lot of decisions about style, comfort, practicality, cost, colour and so on. People make statements with their shoes, unconsciously perhaps, but there is certainly a statement about personality in there somewhere.

My theory was largely dismissed over beer, but I stand by it and we decided to field test it. We were siting in the bar and someone was discretely pointed out and I was asked my first impression. The “it” was a very attractive young lady, well dressed with what Dina saw as trendy clothes. So far, so good, but then it goes wrong. Her shoes were a really ugly green and even though I’m almost colour blind even I could they did not match what she was wearing.

What’s more there was a giant silver buckle on them.

So she is someone who likes to look good, but the shoes were an odd colour and the buckle way too big. The front of the shoe looked very comfortable and practical, the back was narrow and high and together it was not a particularly good and a look not helped by the bloody huge buckle. And yet she almost certainly feels they look awesome.

These were shoes worn by someone desperate to be seen as trendsetting, yet unhappy. Something was clearly wrong. I’m not saying you’d come home one day to find bunnies boiling on the stove, but it would be a concern in the back of the mind every time you opened the door.

I looked around at my companions and saw a couple of them nodding in agreement. While I was not exactly showered with accolades, I think they were visibly impressed. I’m onto something here.

We then started expanding the theory. Knowing someone owns dozens of pairs of shoes means additional alarm bells are rung in my head. If you are so sure that you need a pair of shoes that are just right for every outfit and 15 spares just in case the brown is not perfect under a certain light, you are OCD. But that’s a theory to discuss on another day.

Stockholm was fun, has some good bars and has a lot of very interesting people. A fun night.

I have a new definition of disgusting – going into an aircraft toilet towards the end of an intercontinental flight barefoot… Thankfully she was not sitting next to me.

Next big question. The business class toilets on SAS have windows and the view is spectacular. The windows are fitted with blinds, are people really worried about someone is looking in at 36,000 feet.

Looking back a couple of years ago I know how unhappy and self destructive I had become, I understand why and an working hard everyday to be the person I deserve and enjoy the incredible ride life can be.

There is stuff in the background that contributed, but it was down to me and I own that.

Yesterday was a great day. I completed a very positive audit, I’d taken a wander through a small Baltic coastal town that was absolutely stunning, I’d spent a couple of hours in a new town laughing with friends in a bar.

Life does not get much better than this.

And to top it all off I slept like the dead last night, something long overdue.

Compared to last Friday it’s night and day difference, yeah I’ve got to deal with the doctors again when I get home, but it was a great day.

It’s not like an epiphany or anything, I’m doing the things I need to and feel so much better about my today and tomorrow. I really am getting back to the person I want to be and every day I find some thing else that makes realize my life is heading in the correct direction.

I’m glad that I listened to the hints to change and am embracing life once again. There are going to be stumbles, setbacks but the direction is right and I know that makes me so much better off than others.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve done so much. I’ve seen an incredibly uplifting movie, I’ve been called creative, met my editor, I’ve cried, laughed, I’ve had deep and meaningful conversations with friends, talked football with dad, brought my niece presents, tasted fresh chocolate, had people get upset with me and make up afterwards, enjoyed live music, art galleries, laughed at my doctors bedside manner, got snuggles from cats, had a someone cute laugh at my jokes and spent time enjoying the beauty of nature.

This is what living is about, and I am a very lucky man.

We finished the production assessment in Linkoping, it all went very well in the end. A very worthwhile trip.

It’s a 240KM drive from Linkoping to the hotel at Stockholm airport for the flight home tomorrow morning, we left about 2:30 and the weather was generally beautiful, but when it rained oh my it came down. We decided to stop and see a little of the country on the drive, stop for something to eat and these are some of the results.

A little stereotypical Scandinavia if you like. This really is a great part of the world, friendly people, great scenery, good food and some very dramatic skies.