when in rome...(don't expect good pizza)

I returned home last night from 3 days in Rome just in time to catch the second half of U of R and GW on the internet, and i have to say that there really is nothing quite like college basketball this time of year, still probably #1 on the American sports depth chart for me. I also managed to stay completely isolated from the champions league proceedings of the week, and was eager to see my highlights.

Its a good thing it wasn't summer because I like to take my computer outside on my balcony and watch stuff out there, and I'm pretty sure I would have thrown the old lenovo off if I had been last night. I wanted to do hang fabianski up from my coat hanger Ala harry and marv and list out all the things i was gonna do to him in home alone 1 before the south ben shovel slayer comes in and saves the day, (smash his face with an iron, bite of each of his little fingers one by one...)

*Home alone sidenote courtesy of jon szuchy: Try to not think about the home alone theme song when you hear the seat-belt on/off sign on a flight now, go on, I dare you. its literally impossible and i'm sure i will think of it every time i fly for the rest of my life now, thank you jon.*

But back to the game, I know there are purists out there who will say that the second goal was a fair enough to allow, and they may be right. But I'm sorry, that's not the kind of bullshit you want deciding the champions league, especially when the ref was actually in sol campbell's way, and as hypocritical as it seems, you just can't allow that type of shit under the circumstances. is that ref just trying to create a new controversy so people forget about the ireland france thing? sheesh.

but i guess i can be happy enough that this happened in the first and not the second leg, and that rosicky is starting to look like his old self again.

Flying with Italians is annoying enough, with their undisputed title of loudest collective nation ever, and their requisite applause and bravos after the plane successfully lands, but this flight to rome had the most non-nonchalant italian ever, unbuckling getting up out of his seat before we were even off the runway, probably still going like 100mph to get his jacket out of the overhead compartment, prompting a "PLEASE SIT DOWN SIR!" on the intercom.

some other highlights from my rome trip:

token pissed off man gesticulating wildly and really getting into a police officers face for writing him a traffic ticket for just leaving his car on the street.

the coliseum

best gelato ever (mango)

the pantheon

lowlight:
2 real scraggly looking folks having sex on a park bench.

and since all you prognosticators are hung up on your europa league teams, i'll go ahead and throw my hat into the mix and say that Villa (who truly have been the 4th best team this year) will find a way to sneak into 4th place.