Sunday, April 5, 2009

Italian Teams out of Champions League

Champions League play resumes this week with the first round of play in the round of eight.


Teams that are no longer in Champions League:
  1. Inter (no more Zlatan)
  2. Juventus (no more ADP, Gigi, Gio, or Camoranesi)
  3. Real Madrid (no more Raul, Capi, Iker, or Sergio Ramos)
  4. Roma (no more Panooch, Protz, Mexes, or Mirko)
  5. Olympique Lyonnais (no more Fabi)
  6. I forgot who six through eight are.

Teams that are still in Champions League:

  1. Manchester United (ugh)
  2. Chelsea (hate HAAAAAATE)
  3. Porto (who?)
  4. Barca (shrug)
  5. Arsenal (ground zero for futbol halfwits)
  6. Villareal (yawn)
  7. Liverpool (Yay! sez The Man)
  8. Bayern Munich (where Looca plays)



Hmmm. Loooca. Also possibly a halfwit, and probably the world's leading producer of dorkalicious. And yet......




According to The Spoiler on April 1, Loooca is quoted thusly:


“If we bring the Champions League trophy back to Munich, I promise: I will walk naked through the Marienplatz!”



So who are you rooting for?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Slave to the List

That's it, people. I've been working hard all day, and I hereby quit. I am not going to finish the to-do list unless I give up every joy life has to offer. Here are some things that are not going to get done today:

  1. I am not going to clear off the dining room table. Dirtbunny regulars will remember that the dining room table is where Bunny dumps her detritus. Right now, it is loaded with papers from Uncle Sam, the contents of my commuting bag, various knitting projects, my glasses (probably, at least I hope that's where they are or else I am screwed), today's paper (unread), The Man's peacoat (not hung up, ever), Kirby's breakfast dish from the oncologist (they don't carry his special anti-itch food, so I have to pack it for him every morning), and Bunny's handbag, which itself contains puhlenty of junk and needs to be cleaned out.
  2. Clean the bedroom. All I really have left to do is finish making the bed. I changed the sheets today but I hate making the bed. The mattress is heavy and I have to lift it to tuck in the covers properly. Yes, I'm sure you're all very surprised to hear that Bunny has to have the bedcovers done just so. When the maid changes the sheets, we rip it all out and start over again. Imagonna let The Man do this when he gets home.
  3. Loooca. OK. He wasn't really on the list, but being realistic, I'm not leaving the house for the rest of the day, so it doesn't really matter where he is. I am not going to run into him, so it is not his lucky day.
  4. I am not going to finish up the Bayern match from two weeks ago. The DVR is very busy recording World Cup qualifiers and I don't want to eff up the recordings. Plus Massi wasn't playing and Looca was injured, so no eye candy except Michael Rensing, and the team they were playing was dreadful, so few strikes on the goal and therefore very little camera time for Mikey.
  5. I am not going to clean the kitchen counters. I did that once already, but then I made lunch and now they're a mess again. Fuck it.
  6. Order new yarn. Yeah. I downloaded last week's bank transactions this morning and so there will be no spending of money on yarn until I get paid again, even thought it was going to be really cheap sock yarn. It can wait.
  7. Switch over to the new month's parking pass. That would require leaving the house to go down to the end of the driveway. Not going to happen.
  8. Blog about knitting and new yarn acquisitions. That would be the natural result of clearing off the dining room table, so no.
  9. Make "coral and jade" for dinner. It requires gingerroot, and we're all out. I'll send The Man out for it when he also goes to ...
  10. Pick up the dry cleaning. They're The Man's shirts. Let The Man pick them up. I've never been much of a wifey, and it frightens him when I try to be one now.
  11. Wash the bathroom rugs. I'll get them into the wash, but I can't cross them off the list until they are dry, folded, and in the linen closet. The dryer is slooooow, so I just can't see staying up late enough to see this one through to the end.
  12. Wash the towels. Same deal. They're in the wash now, but whether they'll end the day dry, folded, and put away is doubtful.
  13. Soak and cook black beans. I've got dinners going for the next two days. Them beans can wait. I don't even like them very much anyway.

Here's one thing on the list that I WILL finish today:

  1. Clean Kirby's ears and put medicine on his feet.

He hates it, but I'm not going to put that one off any more.

So, the plan for the rest of the evening:

  1. Pack bag for work tomorrow.
  2. Pack Kirby's breakfast.
  3. Make dinner.
  4. Eat dinner.
  5. Knit on something, but not on the potholder, cuz that's too hard.
  6. Fold the sheets when they're dry and put them away.
  7. Take Yarn Bandit out to water the bushes before he waters the leg of my coffee table again.
  8. Make brownies.
  9. Eat brownies.
  10. Take a shower, finally. Working at home is AWESOME! There's no one here to notice how bad my hair looks.
  11. Boss The Man around and assign him chores to do (he loves that, and that's how he knows that I'm awake).
  12. Watch some futbol, but not the Azzurri, even though they are playing RIGHT NOW! because the cable provider is not running their game against the Hibernians until 1 am, so that game is for tomorrow after work. DON'T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS. I WANT TO SEE FOR MYSELF.
  13. Look at pictures of Mikey on the Interwebs for a few minutes, then log off the laptop.
  14. Mess with Kirby's ears and feet, because it needs to be done.
  15. Daydream about ADP until The Man gets home.
  16. Go to bed early. Daydream about ADP until I fall asleep.

And that's enough. Bunny over and out.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Time for a Dirtbunny Update

ISSUE NUMBER 1:



On Monday, Bunny's Special Sweetheart starts his radiation therapy, and today he is getting a whole big-ass diagnostic panel worked up. He will be going to the vet every Monday through Friday for the next four weeks. The Dirtbunny veterinary shuttle service can hardly wait.






Doesn't he have the cutest dog butt ever? I hope his side effects aren't going to be too bad.



ISSUE NUMBER 2:


The pipes, they are leaking:


But now we have a shiny new non-corroded trap and the Bunny kitchen is back in business.


ISSUE NUMBER 3:


The gravel between the paving stones in Dirtbunny's 1.8 billion dollar yard are more interesting than anything on The Mall except the Lincoln Memorial. So says Nephew Peter (age FIVE!), and So Say We All. For a while, these were the most important items in the universe:






There they sit, on the retaining wall, forgotten perhaps by some, but forever memorialized here on the interwebs




ISSUE NUMBERS 4 and 5:


----four----spring has sprung-ish, as evidenced by our lovely crocuses, which were not here on Sunday when the gravel was so very important.




--five--and as lovely as the crocuses are in this photo, they are outshined/outshone/outshane (OK, not "outshane," not really) by what is next to them.


There are not many reasons good enough to entice Dirtbunny to go to Maryland. For this, however, I would even go to Rockville, Maryland. Fortunately, Jesus is not asking that of me (Thanks, JC!) What are they? They are TICKETS, people. Glorious, wonderful futbol tickets for A.C. Milan & Chelsea (booo) in Baltimore in July. This is my big chance! With any luck, either The Man or Dirtbunny will be carrying Andrea Pirlo's love child by August. (The Man probably has a better shot, despite the mutual heterosexuality. Bunny doesn't make a good first impression. She's more of an acquired taste.)



Ooooh, here he is, ole Sleepy himself with our boy ADP. What? Is he not doing it for you? OK, you have two choices. You can wait, and he'll grow on you, I promise. Or, you can look for pictures of him in his European-style-not-exactly-a-speedo-swimsuit, and when you find them, you'll probably change your mind.




ISSUE NUMBER 6:




New yarn yesterday, posed here next to the almost-done dog bed.




It's the March sock club sock, designed by our friend Yarn Harlot. The pattern looks fussy, and that had better not be embroidery I see there. Guess what the name of the colorway is (or "colourway," if you are Canadian).





It's "Gertrude Skein." Hahahahahahahahahahaha







hahahahaha






[*still laughing*]




whew




ISSUE NUMBER 7:


I have changed my mind. Nicki is back in. I just love him too much to let him go, despite his rather serious flaws. But he can't come to training camp. I've decided to loan him out to God's Team, JC United, where he can play with Ricki Kaka. Let him go out and do some good, just leave the gay alone. I'm not going to his Monday convert-the-gay meetings, but he's invited to my Thursday night meetings, where we have wine, women, The Man, yarn, song, farting, beagles, futbol, take-out food, curse words, fellowship, and (often) an 8 o'clock phone call from the Old Folks.



ISSUE NUMBER 8:


Speaking of FC Dirtbunny, here's two new call-ups:




Luca Toni, Azzurri striker, and Franck Ribery, French midfielder, who are currently teammates on Bayern Munich. Also, best friends and possibly lovers.


Action sequence! Look out!







Haha. Bunny is drole.



So these guys are the other Odd Couple. (We'll talk about the Original Odd Couple some other time.) Looooca is a huge, largely immobile, uncoordinated, gorgeous, goal-scoring machine (for Bayern, anyway. He's not so much with the scoring when he's in the Azzurri kit). His job is to stand in the box with his hand up in the air, holler for the ball, and wait for someone to give him the ball, which he then heads into the goal, and when he's not offside, it actually counts as a goal. He can't make plays. He can't run. He can't dribble. He can't handle the ball. He can flop. He is an excellent flopper. Also, he can dive, to the extent that diving is different from flopping.


Franck is short and, umm, not so handsome. He can score goals all by himself, and he does, but he is also the one who gives Looooca the ball and makes Looooca look like an athlete. Franck can make plays. Franck can run. Franck can dribble. Franck can handle the ball. Franck gets fouled--a lot--and does not flop. Nor does he dive. Which is not to say that he doesn't have a little attitude problem. Word is, during winter training camp in Abu Dhabi or Dubai or somewhere, he stole the team bus and wrecked it, which was way cool----I mean, which was horribly immature and not at all what one would expect from a professional.


Franck and Loooca even get injured together and hang out in the stands together.




Whatever Franck's sellin', Loooca's not buyin'. Even in that Elmer Fudd hat with the cellphone plastered to his ear and douche-ily ignoring the pal right next to him tryin' to talk to him, Loooca brings the hot. Dirtbunny's midfield is rather weak right now (see issue number 9) and Loooca can't function without brilliance in the midfield, so he'll probably sit on the bench with me for a while, and we'll talk about hats.




And moustaches.




And tanning booths. And flopping in a more convincing manner. By the way, Hi there, Mr. Kaladze!


ISSUE NUMBER 9:




And how exactly is FC Dirtbunny doing, anyway?


Not so good. Our injury list is growing. Currently broken are Rino, Deco, Cesc, and Camoranesicamoranesicamoranesi. That leaves Franck alone in the midfield. Loooca is useless without a midfield. Gio is semi-broken but toughing it out in a zorro mask post-surgery. We need more at fullback and we need an architect. We need some subs, especially at goal since Gigi tends to be accident-prone. Fortunately, FC Dirtbunny has infinite funds. Also, league play is on hiatus for world cup qualifiers, so it's a good time for rebuilding.




ISSUE NUMBER 10:

Football is suffering.




[Capi (broken and stone-faced) and Sleepy (suspended and weeping) after the loss that bounced gli Azzurri out of the Euros unconscionably early last summer]

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Nicki is out

Nicki Legrottaglie has been broken for about a month. The Bianconeri have missed him. Dirtbunny has missed him. Nicki has been promoting his new book. It turns out that, like Ricky Kaka, Nicki belongs to Jesus. You know what I mean. You know exactly what I mean.

There is room on FC Dirtbunny for people who belong to Jesus. There is room in this world for people who belong to Jesus. It's OK to belong to Jesus.

It is not OK to refuse tolerance to the gay. Dirtbunny is gay-friendly and so is her football club. We love the gay. Not so much do we love the gay-haters.

Nicki's weird-ass comments and beliefs about the gay are not compatible with the Dirtbunny world-view. Love ya, babe, and love your game, but you're off the team--ooops, I mean side.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

It's time

ADP: Please, Dirtbunny. What do I have to do?

Dirtbunny: Shhhhh. We don't want The Man to know.

ADP: But Dirtbunny, he figured it out a month ago.

Dirtbunny: No. He still thinks it's Gigi.

ADP: You are fooling yourself Dirtbunny. He knows.

Dirtbunny: No.

ADP: Dirtbunny, please, he knows. Everyone knows.

Dirtbunny: Hmm.

ADP: There is no point in pretending any longer.

Dirtbunny: Hmmm

ADP: I don't want to live a lie. Please. You must.

Dirtbunny: [says nothing--playing hard to get]

ADP: Bunny. Come on.

Dirtbunny: OK [hates to lose]

ADP: That's my girl. I was beginning to worry.

Dirtbunny: Oh, Alessa, you know I love you best. You're in. You always have been.

ADP: Do I have to play every minute of every game? Sometimes I just want to sit next to you.

Dirtbunny: Shhhh. We'll work something out.





Thursday, March 12, 2009

Working through it



1. I still don't want to talk about the Bianconeri. There was no Bianconerijoy this week. And no Zlatanjoy. And no Merenguejoy. There is still the slim possibility for some Fabijoy. We'll see tonight when The Man gets home.




2. I finished everything on my to-do list so I came home early, liberated The Boys to the yard, where they both peed and pooped (Kirby is not a frequent pooper, so that was a surprise), and then they both had an unusually long sniff at the folding chairs on the 1.8 billion dollar deck. Seldom do they care about those chairs. I wondered. I pondered. And then--Eureka!--those chairs must still smell like the Old Folks' butts, which spent a few hours in them this weekend.




3. Now that you have been updated on the dogpoop situation, I have some other fabulous news for you. Because the weather was so nice last weekend (they're calling for snow tonight and tomorrow), I was out on the deck a lot and I got my first sunburn of 2009! Not a big one, but a sunburn just the same. The Calabrian forebears did not pass their olive complexions on to me (but thanks for all the extra hair--not). I am already recovered and am now duly reminded about the hat and the sun umbrella that I need even when it's overcast. Jeez.




4. Speaking of Calabrians, here's a bonus for ya.






Hasn't broken Bunny's heart.






Yet.









Maybe because he's broken.










I have a grey fringed scarf just like that!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009