Weddings, World Cup, and War

Last weekend my cousin Laura got married in Greensboro, so I headed down to NC to celebrate with family. Mike and a very pregnant Kendra joined us in Cary both before and after the wedding, and it was good to visit with them some. Bill and Kathy also made it up from Georgia, and Bob and Marcia from S. Carolina-- so while not everyone could make it, we had a nice mini family reunion!





The 2010 World Cup keeps chugging along, with Ghana and Uruguay currently in extra time to determine who goes on to the semifinals. I had four teams that I wanted to do well going into the tournament, and while all 4 of them advanced from their respective groups (Chile, Mexico, USA, and Portugal), none made it to the quarterfinals. I think my new favorite is now Netherlands, although I guess if Spain wins, I won't be upset. For those who are curious, I'm NOT cheering for Argentina, Germany, or Uruguay- so that really only leaves Paraguay (and Ghana, depending on who wins). I've loved watching the games on Univision-- the announcers are 3x better than those drab englishmen on ESPN/ABC. I hope to host a barbque watch party here next Sunday for the final. Since Brasil is now "derrota", I'm predicting Argentina vs Holland in the championship game.

Finally, today another ironic news report hit the American press- evidently the Republican Party Chariman was caught on video saying that the war in Afghanistan is "war of Obama's choosing". I think that's a fairly ridiculous statement, and regardless of how you feel about the US military's actions over the past 8 years, I think it is an amazing stretch to say that Obama somehow chose the war in Afghanistan. Certainly he has not gotten the USA out, and has chosen to remain- and even augment troop levels- but remember the Afghanistan campaigns were inherited.