A busy day, a fun lunch in Seattle, a little fun exercise this afternoon and finished off with dodging the rain for an hour or two wacking some weeds and finishing the clean up started last weekend around and under the deck in the greenbelt behind the house.

Now I was a little upset by what I found, and knew there were a couple of bottles left in the thicker stuff that I left until I could get to them without drawing too much blood. Well today was that day. Today I’m even more pissed off, that people feel it’s OK to throw empty wine bottles off the back of the deck. This is a picture of the rubbish I picked up from under and around the deck today (the white packages are the used diapers).

Well today I discovered another pile of bottles, another one broken down there. And most upsetting of all was more used diapers hiding right at the edge of the deck. That’s just poor form. Open a dictionary, look up White Trash and I’ll let you decide whose picture you’ll find there. While this is upsetting, I know the final laugh is going to come on spectacular summer evenings on my deck.

I have no idea what possesses anyone to think that kicking empty wine bottles, let alone used baby diapers, off the deck is acceptable. The pictures that show the state of the house are else where on this site, it’s quite the body of work that’s being put together here.

There was a lot of change over the F1 off-season. New tires, rear wings, aero regulations, more power for the stewards and of course politics by the truckload. However last night all that mattered for nothing and the cars ran in anger for the first time.

Discovery-one, not much changed. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull is the class of the field. If his maturity can match the speed of the car then he looks like he will be hard to beat. Not only did he win, he won in style. Vettel took pole by a huge margin, led from green light to checker flag.

Discovery-two, the new regs made a difference. The Drag Reduction System (RDS, or the “flappy rear wing”) is interesting and seemed to allow cars to have a decent run at each other under braking. The purist in me has issues with this, I think you need to earn the place and this aids the overtaking driver. However, in reality, it was awfully fun to watch cars overtake each other.

Hamilton had a great race; he had some undertray problems at the end, but was quick enough to hold a relatively untroubled second place. After the really poor showing in testing over the last 6 weeks McLaren have put in a huge amount of work, simplified a few things and found a lot of time.

Clearly this weekend Vettel was the class of the field.

Third place and maybe the best performance of the weekend was Vitaly Petrov in the very, very sexy looking Lotus-Renault.  Kept away from the drama and stayed in front of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Ferrari looked to be close to Red Bull in testing and have to come away from the weekend disappointed with their performance with Massa unable to do better than eighth. However it was nothing compared to Mercedes race, Schumacher could not even make the final qualifying session and was out qualified by Rosberg. Neither car finished, Schumacher got a puncture early on and eventually retired, while Barrichello’s Williams took out Nico Rosberg.

Another team that looked good on the track was Sauber. New driver Sergio Perez made it a one-stop race, the only driver to do so. The tactic paid off when he finished seventh, one place in front of Japanese driver Kobayashi. Unfortunately the Saubers were later disqualified for technical infringements over the wings.

Lots of overtaking, clearly Vettel was the class of the field, and by some margin too. The circus arrives in Malaysia in a couple of weeks, a very different style of track. Some teams obviously have catching up to do; it’s going to be a busy two weeks for the teams.

I think not…

Another immensely entertaining game at Royal Brougham Park (or Qwest as some insist on calling it), the result was not great, but if Seattle continues to play like they have in the first three games then it’s going to be a great season.

You can pretty much substitute what I had to say after the LA and NYRB games here and be close. Chances, misses and great goal keeping would all be included in what I had to say.

Seattle were ultimately denied by some great goal keeping by Tally Hall, the reflex save to the goal keepers right from White (I think) in the first half was top class. Settle tried the tactic of shooting form outside, then inside and Hall seemed the equal of that idea. It’s difficult to over estimate how masterful the experienced Houston keeper was tonight.

Houston scored first, and rather against the run of play it must be said. Geoff Cameron beat Keller after some good build up play.

Erik Friberg seemed to be part of every Sounders play tonight, he worked tirelessly. Covering back when he needed, probing forward and supporting the attack when he could. A very impressive performance.

Jaqua finally made it onto the pitch, he replaced the largely ineffective White at 61 minutes. His presence was felt immediately with a run at goal. Just being on the field seems to open up Montero’s game. The center backs now had two top class threats to take care of and it seems to create a little more space just in front of the defence.

There is more on the good news front. Zakuani looked close to his best, lots of great runs and scored the first Seattle goal of the year. It came from a badly cleared corner that fell to Zakuani, who neatly put it away. It came during a period of solid Seattle play and the stadium erupted, the spell had been broken and we were back in this one.

Yes there are worries. primarily Montero not scoring again, I think the introduction of Jaqua opened up a little more space and he had a couple of good attempts saved tonight. It will come for Montero, and when it does I think the floodgates will open. He’s too good, but I’m sure the European teams that have looked at him over the last year have noticed the dry spell that goes back into last season.

Seattle has been in all three games so far this year. A little luck and they could be on 7 points rather than the one. Lots of football left to play over the next 7 months.

One thing I’ve discovered over the last few years, there are many ways for people to be unhappy, but happiness a far narrower path to follow.

This is an emotional time of year, and lets be fair the last 18 months has been brutal at times. I made some tough choices and today I’m more content than ever with where I am. There is more to go, but the trend is in the correct direction and I believe the hardest part is done.

Over the last few years Mums illness and passing has so overshadowed everything else, and to this day really gives everything else some much-needed perspective. Every day I there is something else I miss about her not being there. Having said that I do know it’s OK to miss mum, not to would be unnatural, but it’s how I deal with the emotions that come with it that is the important part.

So what are the traits that have kept me on this narrow path, and to be clear it’s a path that I’ve stepped off on occasion, but with practice and not a little help I’ve become more sure about where I’m walking every day.

Ancient Greek author and historian Thucydide (yeah, I’ve been doing some esoteric reading recently) said “The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage.”

To be free, and in this context I mean free to make the right choices in life. It does not matter how tough the moment, I choose my response and that choice manes I accept the consequences. It does take courage to be happy, to be true to ourselves and take responsibility for our choices.

Maybe the biggest discovery personally is that being happy requires a certain level of consistent personal growth, challenge and excitement. I have found the whole process of learning, in what ever form, to have become really important to how I feel about a day.

There are a number f partially formed thoughts here, I’ll probably get round to expanding on them overtime. I’ve a lot to think about and feel lucky to have some great people to help me, and today I am happy.

I have been out of the office in meetings over the last couple of days, it’s been nice to spend a little time outside in this weather. This was the view from the car park at the partners, blue sky, white clouds and mountain on the horizon. I like this.

A couple of days in the sun has reminded that the summer is on the way. And maybe more important what a great summer it’s going to be.

I’ve said it before, work has been tough and we are in the midst of some significant changes in responsibility between partners and ourselves. It’s causing significant work and there are a couple of processes that can only be describe as fluid. Lets just say every day offers a great learning experience.

I’ve talked a couple of times about reducing stress, at this time there is a certain amount of powering through and that is tempered by some looking forward to it all calming down.

As I said, this is going to be a spectacular summer. A few fun trips and spending time with my family and friends. It’s full of possibility, full of plans and everything is coming together, I love that.

I was in Lowes last night picking up a couple of things and saw these… This really is going to be a great summer.

Compared to yesterday I felt so much better today, it’s amazing how good not being hungover felt. Not quite good enough to actually buy beer, but well enough to at least peruse the beer aisle in Top Food in Snohomish. I had to drop some paperwork off with my lawyer and then stopped by the post office to pick up some mail certified mail.

It turns out the mail came from the credit union. I’ll leave you to guess who has not provided proof of insurance on the car she drives her kids around in. Another WTF moment that just reinforces why I left.

Last night was a full moon, and I swear the cats were a little more restless at night than usual. For rather elderly animals they seems to have found reserves of energy from somewhere. A lot of the pictures over the last three months have been taken with my iPhone, and while this picture taken yesterday evneing of the moon is not that spectacular, it’s done a decent job overall.

It seems like there should be a lot to be excited about for tonight’s game in New York. For Red Bull it’s the season opener in a stadium that only opened last year, for a team that won it’s conference (OK, a weak conference, but they still won) last year (and is hotly tipped to repeat that), has Thierry Henry and one of the brightest and most exciting young American strikers in Juan Agudelo.

Despite all this, the 25,000-seat stadium looks maybe 2/3 full. That’s not a good sign, especially as there are no other New York teams playing in the city tonight (NBA or NHL).

RB have a very nice passing game, Dane Richard has great pace and vision in his distribution, I think everything going forward for the Red Bull goes through him. The home team’s game is based on controlling the ball, passing from the back to the front and looking for openings. It’s an interesting contrast to the more open, faster Sounders game.

For most of the first half there were big periods of time where Seattle struggled to win possession and when they do get it, lack the imagination to really do much. Not sure if it’s the midfield missing something or NYRB doing a really good job at shutting them down.

When Seattle had the ball, and it happened more and more towards the end of the first half, they really started to open up the RB defence. Fernandez is having a good game and is happy to run with the ball and is doing a wonderful job at getting behind the RB defence.

Ozzie Alonso looks solid, but not getting the time on the ball that he did on Tuesday against LA. His influence on the game is limited when he’s being closely taken out of the game like this.

Red Bull had a penalty awarded 10 minutes in when John Kennedy Hurtado miss times his tackle and took down Agudelo in the box. Henry put it to Keller’s right at just the right height. Keller guessed correctly and got a solid hand to the kick to turn it wide. There have been some questions about maybe this being a year too far for Keller asked on the blogs and forums over the last few days. The penalty stop was largely down to experience, and Keller has not lost that.

Both teams had chances, Red Bull perhaps the better (especially the penalty), but somehow it was 0-0 at half time in what had been a tremendously entertaining half.

The game was a little quieter after the break, but again both teams had chances to go ahead. It took a wonderful individual effort from Juan Agudelo to break the tie and put Red Bull 1-0 up with a little over 20 minutes to play. It’s his first goal in the MLS and he had to take on Gonzales and Hurtardo to score it. It’s the first time I’ve seen Agudelo play; he’s only 18, has a played for the full US national team and looked very impressive on the ball.

The final real chance of the game, and perhaps Seattles best chance of the night, was a free kick taken by Montero from maybe 30 yards out in stoppage time. It was a beautiful dipping shot that the keeper could only parry. There were three Seattle players in the box, the ball fell to Nagle who snatched at it and managed to put it over the bar from 6 yards out.

Ignoring the result, there were few negatives for Seattle.

Gonzales, the left back was beaten with ease at times. As he did Tuesday night he looked a step or two slower than last year. He had no issues with the physical side of the game (though he was physically beat on the goal), but he seems to struggle defending against speed.

Montero did a decent job of finding space, but the service to him was typically to feet rather than space. His style does not fit a classic center forward; he’s not a target man and seemed far more effective and found space better when playing just behind White

This game was being shown around the world in 50 countries, and was a great advert for the style of football played in the MLS. So far both Seattle games have been good, entertaining games. However, if Seattle wishes to be thought of as one of the elite teams this season, these are they game they need to win.

It could be argued that they have been slightly hard done by in the two games so far this year, certainly the schedule has not been kind. But the reality is they have not scored yet and that was always the worry going into the year. Loosing Nkufo is a blow there, and the team have until April 15^th to find a replacement, that’s when the MLS transfer window closes until the summer.

It’s another tough game next, this time against Houston at RBP on Friday night. I hope we see the first goal of the year to go along with three points.

I got a lot done outside the house, not everything I wanted too, but the weather was beautiful and it seemed a shame to be inside. It’s been an emotional couple of days, in part it’s that time of year, and in part there are more discoveries about that house and what someone thinks is acceptable. At least I know the court stuff is going my way.

One of the things I did get round to doing was taking care of the trash that seems to have been thrown off the deck at some point. I spoke to one of the nehbours while I was out there and learned some of what went on in my house while I was not here last August and September. There were maybe two dozen beer cans and bottles either thrown off the deck and 12 bottles of wine, including one that had smashed on a rock when it was thrown off the deck. Out of everything that I pulled out of the greenbelt the mot disturbing was a couple of used diapers. Only a couple of people in my ex’s circle have babies, and I believe one is better than that.

This is fucking disgusting, really who throws used beer cans, let alone diapers off the deck? Or perhaps more to the point, who allows their friends to do that? The second part is easier to answer than the first.

Here is one of the loads I found, this was maybe half of what I pulled out and put in the recycling. It turns out my ex and her “boyfriend” (some one elses words, not mine) spent a few summer evenings sitting on the deck getting trashed. So once again I get to deal with more hypocrisy. I know I’ve never drunk bud-light, so it makes sense. I think I’ve shown rather comprehensively already that some people are trash, and here is more proof.

Thank you all for your support, email and messages. This is  tough week and I appreciate it.