Where to drink in San Diego

BrianNo Comments

My friend Andy and I were in San Diego this week for a business trip. We both like beer, and it’s always fun to see what another town has to offer. Portland has such a good beer community that I’m always expecting something inferior everywhere else.

We happened to be in town during San Diego Beer Week. A nice coincidence, for sure. We ended up going to three places:

  • Blind Lady Ale House, in Normal Heights
  • Small Bar, in University Heights
  • Toronado Bar, in North Park

I have to say that all three were equally awesome, and completely different from each other. Blind Lady felt like it could have been the Lucky Lab or similar in Portland, so it felt the most at home. Small Bar had a classic college pub feel, and Toronado had a great dive bar feel. All three had excellent beer selections. At least a couple dozen choices at each.

Google for their locations. Good times await.

End of the season

BrianNo Comments

I’m sitting in the car right now at Newberg High School, watching Joe’s soccer practice. This is one of the last few practices of this 2009 fall soccer season, Joe’s first year of Classic — competitive — soccer. It’s early November, we’ve just made the daylight saving time switch, and it’s really getting dark early. We’ll be done with practice tonight by 5:30 … and it will be very dark then. Coach Kofi generally runs a long practice, but not tonight.

This team has been fun to watch. They are a mid-level team in their league. When they are playing well, they are close to unstoppable. Several times this season, though, they have played flat and gotten beat by teams that weren’t necessarily better. Kofi is an excellent coach, but I don’t see the team reach their potential every time they play. I think they could have won a few more games, but who knows.

Joe has had a wonderful time this year … some ups and downs for sure, but mostly ups.

Oops, Joe just sat down to tie his shoes in the middle of a drill. I tied his shoes; my fault. As a coach myself, I cannot stand it when kids come to practice with untied shoes. Bugger.

Joe has some wonderful athletic gifts: he’s pretty fast, has a strong leg, and has a good sense of space. He struggles, however, with toughness and aggressiveness.

He’s an interesting kid to watch on the field. Flashes of greatness mixed with periods where he doesn’t have a lot of success. Most of the time, the breakdown is a lack of aggressiveness. I find myself yelling things like “be strong!” and “go in hard!” when he’s playing. I know if he plays tougher he will have better results.

The team heads to Hood River tomorrow for the first game in the season-ending President’s Cup tournament. They lost to Hood River 4-1 early in the season, but we were shorthanded that day. We’ll have a full squad tomorrow, and I like our chances. I’ll miss the game due to conflicts with Sam’s and Ben’s games tomorrow. Again, bugger.

I don’t expect them to win this tournament, but it would be very exciting for them to do well. Looking forward to a strong finish. And I hope Joe plays well. I know that winning isn’t his primary motivator. Playing well and getting some praise (and some ice cream afterwards) means everything.