"Aye, There's the rub!"

The above title does not refer to the TV series with Kiefer Sutherland. Today marks 24 years  ago that my favorite Red-Head and I tied the knot. It's funny how on that day in 1984, we got 6 inches of the wet, white stuff in the Minneapolis area. This year has been similar with winter/crappy weather really having a death grip on the upper midwest.

It was a 4 hour trip driving back from Bemidji on Monday. In between conversation with Laurel, the physician with whom I carpooled to and from the Spanish for Health Professionals event, I did think back to just how much my wife and I have been through in 24 years. We have seen and experienced a great deal together. Yet, at the same time it is mind-blowing just how fast 24 years have gone by.

My wife and I are both a bit thicker compared to 24 years ago-I don't think anybody is going to want to see us modeling any Speedo bathing suits, yet I think compared to a lot of other people in our age group, we both look pretty good, even if a I do say so myself.

As I look back on the past 24 years, there are a few things I would have done differently. Two things I would not change is marrying my RedHead and having a couple of kids with her.

This year, it's going to be a pretty sedate anniversary. Money is a bit tight, so any major trips are out. I am hoping to do some kind of trip with her next year for our Silver Anniversary.

365 days to plot a suprise. The clock is ticking. To be continued....

I have just enough time to leave a quick note.

The good news is that  this  immersion camp in Spanish for Medical Professionals has been just great. I have been able to really work on real-world scenarios and vocabulary that will help me with my phone triage job. The instructors have just been great. The food up here has been REALLY good. They have kept us busy, but I think a good kind of busy.

The bad news: in the past 24 hours we have gotten over a foot of snow in this part of northwest Minnesota. That's right, not just a dusting, but an entire foot of snow, and it is still snowing a bit outside. There has been some talk that we might get over 20 inches. Good thing we are all here at camp, because driving to and from anywhere would be too bloody hazerdous.

Time to go study some more Spanish.

Hasta la Vista!

It's no secret that there has been a tremendous amount of immigration from the Hispanic world to The USA, and not just places like California and Texas; even here in the Gopher State, there has been a major influx of Hispanic immigration in the past 10 years(When you consider how different the climate is in Minnesota compared to Mexico, that tells you just HOW bad these immigrants want to improve their lives). Now you can get into the whole immigration dabate, but the bottom line is that they are here, and they are accessing the health care system. A growing number of my calls at work are coming from Latino clients about their sick kids, and these parents have varying levels of English fluency. On my job, I need to access a phone translation service to run interference for me so that I can best triage these sick kids and direct the parents on what they should be doing, and that can be anything from calling 911 to giving homecare advice-and everything in between.

Over the years, I have picked up more than a little Spanish. I had one year of college Spanish back when I went to Wartburg College in Iowa, many years ago. While I was a medic in the US Air Force in San Antonio, Texas, that is where I really improved on my Spanish from trial and error. We have a lot of servicemen married to women from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain...and South Florida. Many of these gals could not speak much English, so they were happy when I tried to practice. I also picked up more than a litte Spanish getting my soccer fix listening to Andres Cantor when he was doing soccer games at Univision. Back in the 80's, If I wanted to watch any soccer, Spanish language TV was many times my only source to watch the game.

Over the years, I think I have reached a conversational level of Spanish. The thing is, when you are on the phone with a Spanish Language caller, you really cannot have any margin for error in making a mistake in comprehension or giving care advice in Spanish. That's why even though I can understand a helluva lot of what my Hispanic callers are saying, I have to use the phone translation service.

With all of that in mind, I saw a chance to take a course in Medical Spanish for Health Professionals through Concordia Language Villages. I am going to be there Friday-Monday, which means that I will not able to blog for a couple of days. My goal for work in 2008 has been to really get serious about improving my Spanish to the point where I won't need to use the translation service. Now that I have a more regular schedule at work, I think it is  a good goal to shoot for.

Since the weather is going to suck for the next few days, it's just as well that I have this course to go to. The only downer is that I will miss our Metropolis "Blue-Grey" game, which in the past has been an intrasquad game. This year, our coach, Denny  Rowlands, has decided to borrow a page from the Australian Rugby League version of the State of Origin series and divide the team into native Minnesotans verssus members of our teams who are not Native Minnesotans. I saw the rosters, and it looks like it should be a VERY competitive match. I'm sorry I am going to miss that and the end of spring season social. I also have my Tivo set up this weekend to record London Irish-Toulouse and Saracens-Munster in the Heineken Cup and the Super 14 match between the  Natal Sharks and the New South Wales Waratahs-a match with huge playoff implications in the  Super 14 series.

Hasta Luego!

Well, I ended up car-pooling-sort of-to the game in Green Bay this past Saturday: My wife ended up coming with me. Seeing as my bride of almost 24 years(will be offically 24 next Tuesday, the 29th) had yet to even see me play rugby, it was a good excuse for a road trip. I have some pictures in this link to my facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?page=3&aid=2002423&id=1022643106

It was a little over a 4 hour drive to Green Bay. We ended up playing the game in Pulaski, just outside of Green Bay, because their regular field was a bit waterlogged. We lucked out in that there was no rain on Saturday, but the field was still pretty muddy and heavy. We ended up with kind of a mixed squad, with mostly B squad players, a handful of Old Boys, and a few A squaders. In spite of the muddy conditions, the game ended up being a try-fest. We won 44-36. Green Bay had quite a few players who did not make it into that game, so we played a mini game of two 15 minute halves and won that 20-5. I played the first half in both games.

It was a tough, but fair game. I got my bell rung a bit between getting a really sharp stiff arm from Green Bay's man of the match, their #8. He had red-hair cut into a Mohawk style and ran really hard. He broke a bunch of tackles on some nice runs. As I said, he gave me a really hard stiff arm, and then a few minutes later, I took a good blow to the head during a scrum, and after two such hits in less than a couple of minutes, it had me seeing stars-literally. I hollered over the sideline to see if our coach, Denny, could sub me out. "Can you make it another 5 minutes? It's almost half time and I'll sub you out then." I made it...a little rubbery-legged, but I made it. For me, it was a strange game. Two weeks previous, I had played 80 minutes, but between missing some training last week and having to short sleep on a couple of days, it REALLY affected me on Saturday: I was really knackered after the first half. I was able to recover enough to play the first half of the mini game. In the first game, I played Loose(on the left) Head prop. In the second game, I played tight-head(on the right) prop.

There was one scary point in the game, our hooker, "Squirrel", fell really awkardly out of a maul and hit head to ground really, really hard. His neck was hurting him in a big way. Up to that point, he was playing a super game. A few of our backs had been out partying the night before-and it showed with a number of knock ons and dropped balls that normally would not have happened with some of these guys when they come to the pitch with their A-game.

The games were played in a good spirit of sportsmanship. We had a really good time at the Green Bay team bar after the game. I made it a point to search out the Mohawked number 8 who had played so well against us and still had my head a little wooly. I came to find out that this young man had played with the US under 19 National team about 3-4 years earlier and was now working as a prison guard in the maximum security prison that is near Green Bay. You normally don't expect to find a player with those qualifications playing on a Divsion III side. Now I did not feel so bad about being left for road kill after trying to tackle this guy.

My wife had a good time at the game and the social. It was fun to have her along, too. The one thing about all of the driving, it gave us a LOT of time to catch up on things and just talk. I have to say though, that putting in about 9+ hours of driving and playing rugby left me really beat on Sunday.

One other good thing from the trip, was being able to stop at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, to get some birthday gifts for my brother in law, Michael. I should explain a couple of things as background to this stop: 1 I am a Minnesota Vikings fan. 2 Being a Vikings fan means to hate the Packers. 3 For me to actually buy Michael something at the Packer Fan Shop is a testament to how much I like my brother in law. Making that purchase would be like my exchange student Rodrigo, a Sporting Lisbon fan, buying Benifca merchandise, or my friend Jean-Paul, a Marseille fan, buying Paris SG merchandise.  I will say this about the Packers, that they are a really well-run organization-particularly when compared to the woeful managment that the Vikings have had the last (roughly) 30 years.

All in all, it was a great Saturday, and it was fun to finish off the spring season with another win by the Killer B's. I was talking with my brother today, and now he is thinking of wanting to try to play rugby this fall season. This mid-life crisis stuff is catching.

I am still looking for somebody with whom I can car pool to Green Bay for our last competitive rugby game this spring season. I would prefer not to drive along because gas is getting expensive(although at$ 3.22 a gallon, my British and Aussie Friends on the Blogosphere would kill to have gas prices like that), and it's an almost 5 hour drive, and that's just a LONG trip to drive alone. Who knows, maybe somebody will turn up on Friday...but right now it's not good. I told my wife that I really wanted to make this game, because next week, the intrasquad "Blue-Grey" game will take place, but I will miss it, because I have a Spanish for Medical Professionals class up in Bemidji, Minnesota.

With so many things up in the air in my life(Impending grandfatherhood, working as a camp nurse at French camp in August), I don't know how many games, if any, I will be able to play in during the fall  season.(which goes August-October here in the upper midwest) Bottom line: This game in Green Bay may very well be my last stand at strapping it up with my mates and playing in 2008.

I have not been to Green Bay since I was a little, little kid-so I am curious to see it.  The forcast is for rain and temps in the mid 50's, so not too bad on the weather front.  To be continued...

Our Portuguese exchange student, Rodrigo, has played rugby for 10 years. The other day, he got a taste of playing rugby in the snow, as the U-19 Plymouth Panthers Rugby Club lost to Minnetonka 19-10.       Rodrigo scored all 10 points off a nice try, a conversion and a converted penalty.

After the game, he remarked that he did not ever remember playing in such poor conditions, or being so cold during a game-and feeling so beat up and sore. Allthough he was not always geting hit, he was dishing out tackles, as well, like the shot below(Minnetonka had a very large and physical group of forwards) On Monday morning
Rodrigo had a really, really tough time getting up. His legs and both forearms were red/purple from playing in the cold conditions and the physical nature of the play. He is glad to be able to play rugby while he is here in the USA, but at times, it's a bit frustrating because he is so far ahead of the curve compared to his teamates-many of whom have played only for a year or two, at the most. Even in the miserable conditions, it was clear that the young man from Lisbon has serious game. If he can come back to the US for university studies, he would be quite a find at fly-half for some team. The other good part of this experience playing with a club here in the US, is it is also allowing him to meet other kids who go to different high schools-he is the only kid from Cooper on this club. Most of the kids are from Wayzata, with some from Osseo, Maple Grove, Armstrong and Benilde-St. Margarets.

Things can only look up. The weather in the Twin Cities will be better this week. It will be interesting to see what Rodrigo will be able to do with a dry pitch and a fast track to work with.

Well, rugby practice for Metropolis got cancelled, as did Rodrigo's practice with Plymouth. We are getting more of the white stuff as I am writing this. We should get anywhere from 3-6 inches of snow from tonight to tomorrow afternoon. http://www.startribune.com/local/17458154.html

Luckily for Metropolis, they have a game in Omaha, where the weather is scheduled to be partly sunny and in the mid-forties at Kickoff Time on Saturday. Compared to Minneapolis, that's downright tropical-although the track will probably be a bit slick as it looks like Eastern Nebraska is getting rain tomorrow(Friday).

Plymouth cancelled their game untill Sunday, when our weather should be more decent.

I know that in places like Lapland, Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic, ice and snow are disappearing faster than Marie Osmond's ass on Dancing with the Stars, but here in the Upper Midwest, winter still seems to have a death grip on us.

All I know is that with this cold, damp weather, my joints are more sore and aching today than after either of the two games I've played in the last couple of weeks. Too bad I will have to miss out on the Omaha trip-but am looking forward to next weekend at Green Bay.

With my wife, daughter and exchange student out of town this past weekend, it really contributed to a virtual rugby orgy this past weekend.

My friend Jacques came over to the house to catch the 1:30 AM kick off of a Super 14 Match with the Hurricanes and the Sharks. We had some beer, Pot-stickers and my son Ian picked up some White Castle Hamburgers.(the apple really does not fall far from the tree) The match was kind of mediocre, and the refereeing was even more appalling than the wet, slick conditions in New Zealand. In the end, neither team deserved to win, and a 13-13 tie was a fair result. The game was notable for Epi Taione's vicious head-butt during a maul that got him red-carded and given a six match suspension http://www.planetrugby.com/Story/0,18259,3824_3399109,00.html(My friend on the Blogosphere, Total Flanker has a video of it at : http://totalflanker.blogspot.com/2008/04/irish-tongan-in-hot-wateragain.html )

Later on Saturday, I had my game down in Rochester, which I already wrote about. When I got back home on Saturday evening, I watched some Heineken Cup matches that I had Tivo'd: London Irish-Perpignan and Gloucester-Munster. The former was the much better game. On Sunday, I watched Toulouse dismantle Cardiff. The second half was a clinic for what makes French rugby so much fun to watch: It was a nice day in Southwest France, Toulouse wanted to play ball in hand-and Les Toulousains were really feeling it on Sunday. I missed Ospreys getting beat by Saracens-that's the one match that really suprised me, because Ospreys made up the bulk of the Welsh team that just won the 6Nations grand slam. I think that in the Semifinals that Munster will beat Saracens, and I think Toulouse will beat London Irish. A Munster-Toulouse final in Cardiff would have a lot of rugby fans salivating like Pavlov's dog.

In a non-rugby related closing note, my favorite soccer team, Liverpool knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League by winning a compelling and dramatic match 4-2 at Anfield Road. You can say what you want about Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez, but when his teams are in European competition, they are money.(He has won a UEFA Cup with Valencia and the Champions Cup 3 years ago and runner-up last year with Liverpool) You have to feel bad for Arsenal. They play a beautiful, flowing game that is really fun to watch-but for all of their flair, Arsene Wenger's men have rien,nada, zilch to show for it the last 3 years. In European Cup soccer, just like in the Rugby World Cup, defensive tactics seem to trump spectacle.

Our Metropolis B team, nicknamed "The Killer B's" last year after a number of impressive wins in the spring  and fall season made a road trip down to Rochester. Our numbers were light because of the A squad being in Atlanta for playoffs today needing a full 20 man roster, and some of the people who played last week had some commitements and could not make the trip to south east Minnesota.  There were 14 of us-which meant that only did we have no bench for subsitutes, we were going to have to borrow a spare Rochester player during the game.(two different players each played halves for us at Wing)

We ended up winning 20-10 on a very sunny day with temperatures around 60 degrees. The pitch, though a bit uneven, was dry and the footing was much better than I anticipated.  I was not sure about going 80 minutes, but I did not have any choice-actually, non of us "gray beards", who played on Saturday, had any choice but to suck it up and play 80 minutes. Our front pack once again was dominant.(This pic was actually from last week against Madison) Not only were we blowing away their scrum, but our hooker, "Squirrel" was masterful at taking advantage of our drive to poach balls -even on Rochester's scrum. In the first half, they were getting very demoralized about constantly losing possession on their own put in on the scrums. Our front pack's proudest moments were getting a pushover try off a 5 meter scrum-the drive was impressive, if I do say so myself. We also had a scrum where we just broke apart their scrum and put their entire front pack on their backs. We essentially blitzed them 20-0 in the first half and hung on during the second half as our legs were becoming more lead-like on the sunny day. After Rochester scored their second try, our player/coach, Mark Dalton, settled us down, and we just played smart rugby and held possession to close the game out.

We had a great time at Rochester's team bar, "Cathy's Place"-lot's of ribald songs, and great conversation-they were really a very congenial group of people. I had a very good time talking with one of Rochester's flankers, a Doctor from India doing his residency at the Mayo Clinic, and his Lebanese friend. We ended up making quite a day of it down in Rochester.

I won't be able to make the road trip to Omaha next week, because I have to work. I am looking forward to the road trip to Green Bay in two weeks time. For me, it will be my last game of the spring season.

Still, playing a lot in two wins(maybe more than I wanted to play today-I am going to be really sore on Sunday) and being able to more than hold my own at Prop has made me feel good about suiting up for the spring season.

One of the joys of living in the Upper Midwest is that in March and April, the weather conditions can be really variable-that's a Minnesota Nice way of saying our weather can seriously suck. 

Witness the evening of March 31st, through the wee hours of April First. By the time the wet, white stuff had settled on terra firma, nine and a half inches of it had settled where I live in New Hope, Minnesota. For my readers who are aghast that such snowfall can happen so late in the spring(and why one would think of living in such a place), that is not the latest I have seen.

On April 29, 1984-the day my lovely Red-Head and I tied the knot, we got SIX inches that day. THAT is the latest that I have seen it snow in the Minneapolis area with my own eyes.

The good news on April Fools Tuesday, was that the weather was in the mid forties with brilliant sunshine today- so a good chunk of the snowfall from 24 hours ago is now gone. I have not checked to see how badly Rochester, Minnesota got hit. Normally I would not care THAT much about the weather in South East Minnesota. The only people I know that way are my son's girlfriend's Andrea's mom and step-dad live in Eyota, not that far from Rochester. The reason I am curious about the snow accumulation around the home of the Mayo Clinic is that my  Metropolis Rugby Club B squad is scheduled to play there this Saturday, and I am really looking forward to playing-even if the conditions will probably be wet, chilly and muddy.(Thank God for Under Armour) It will make it a forward's game, and as a prop, that part I don't mind. The only thing that is kind of a drag is that scrumming can be kind of an adventure in muddy conditions when you are in the front row.

My Portuguese exchange student Rodrigo found out today that it was NOT an April fools joke that his Plymouth Panther's Rugby Football club had practice. Outside. On the Snow. I admit it, I laughed at his discomfort in playing on the white stuff. We Minnesotans secretly love the visible discomfort of people from more sunny and temperate climates who have the misfortune of being here when our weather turns cold, snowy-or both. (I don't know if any of my readers from Great Britain take the same delight when visitors from places like Greece, Italy, Spain and France complain about the lack of sunshine)

Gotta love Minnesota in the Spring.