Pretty excited

I'm pretty excited for a number of reasons today. First, I'm back on the blog world. But I told you it'd be sparse, so I'll be back and forth until we're living in a house in Arizona. Haven't signed a rental agreement yet, however...

My second reason for excitement is the announcement of my Open Sky Shop! Open Sky is such a cool concept. If you're unfamiliar with the service it provides, check out its About Page. Basically I'm going to provide you with links to items I talk about and love, so you can find and buy them on my site directly! This is also going to include give-aways... with one coming up pretty soon :) I was sent a runner's tank top to try out, but it unfortunately doesn't fit me, I think my chest is too big for their sizing :( Nevertheless, it's still a neat product, so stay tuned for that one. Though, I don't think I'll be kicking that off until I move.

Tentatively, my shop is set to open August 10, so keep checking back for the grand unveiling! And also, go learn about Open Sky and all the neat people already using it (like NLF Linebacker Shaun Phillips)!!

Ok exciting item No. 3, my last day of work is FRIDAY. I don't know if this is exciting or not. I'm excited for a change in scenery and the chance to try something new. I'm not excited about being unemployed. I've been scouring the Internet for sports jobs down in Phoenix and have literally sent my resume to over 40 companies. But then again, if it doesn't work out, I'm still seriously considering getting my master's in French Comparative Literature and being a TA for undergrad French classes.

Because our big move is so quickly approaching, J.D. and I made the 12-hour trek down to Arizona last weekend in search of housing.

We saw some neat things:

Closets big enough for cartwheels... Are you shocked that J.D. has more clothes than I do and claimed the walk-in closet for himself?!

Some weird things:

Apartment washer/dryer tucked away in a garage crevice.

Backyard putting green!

Received free baseball tickets:

DARN YOU DIAMONDBACKS FOR TRADING MY FAVORITE PLAYER THE DAY AFTER WE LEFT!!! Now I won't get to see Danny Haren play in Arizona when I move there :(

We ate breakfast at a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives (video about Over Easy's feature on the show):

Caramel iced coffee with a splash of lowfat milk... one of the few times I haven't drank nonfat milk.

J.D.'s Reese's Pieces pancakes! Oh man those were good... I may have snuck several bites :)

My egg white, spinach, asparagus and ham custom omelet!

Overall we have a good idea of where we want to live. We picked out five houses, two almost perfect for us. The top two, however, have already been applied for. So on to the next in line, I suppose. We hope to hear back by the end of the week!!!!

Wish us luck :) We'll need it with all the packing to be done this week...

I'm also trying to get creative with meals. We can't really buy anything new, since we're trying to clean out the fridge/freezer. So last night I opened up some frozen eggplant cutlets, plopped them atop whole wheat spaghetti and made my own marinara sauce with frozen veggies and ripped up some mozzarella balls. It was kind of tasty for being a weird amalgamation of items :)

Thanks again for all your well-wishings on the move and also my new short hair! It's going to be so much easier to care for in the desert. I would know, since it was 108º the final day of house hunting.

I ♥ you people!!

Taco Tuesday

Last night was one of the more enjoyable nights I've had living in Stockton! Does that ever happen to anyone else -- you seem to go out, do more and make more friends right before leaving?!

It happened when I worked for the AVP and left. It happened literally the final two weeks I lived in France. And now it's happening in Stockton! I'm someone who struggles at meeting new people and going out and enjoying new cities/places at first. But once I'm out of my shell, it comes much easier for me. My goal in Phoenix is to start loving life and meeting people right away!!

Anyways, back to last night. A couple of friends from work were planning on meeting up at Windmill Cove, an island-ish bar and grill located right of the Delta draining into the San Francisco Bay. The easiest way to get there from where we live is by boat down the river. It would have been a five minute drive. Except, none of us has a boat.

So instead we drove 20ish minutes to get there. And immediately started having the time of our lives! There were two live bands, a DJ, beach volleyball courts and all-you-can-eat tacos for $7.50! Greatest and cheapest dinner I've had in a LONG time. I went nuts and had about five mini tacos :) You had your choice of crunchy or soft shells filled with either shredded chicken or ground beef. After getting the tacos then a line formed by the condiments area, where you could add hot sauce, pico de gallo salsa, gaucamole, sour cream, cheese, lettuce and olives. I sampled a little bit of everything and was in heaven.

Then upstairs where the band was playing I tried one of their famous house mai tais. Strongest drink I've ever had. It was composed of four different rums, more alcohol, more alcohol on top of that, a little bit of orange juice and then the bartender floated white rum on top. My first sip was pretty hard to get through. Eventually I got there and enjoyed it. One was enough for me, the lightweight :)

We saw a really interesting mix of people there too. People watching in Stockton is one of my favorite activities. For example, we saw tons of women dressed super cute and fairly young, who when they turned around to our horror were in their 50s-60s and dressed like their teens! Think of that one leathery scene from There's Something About Mary... Then we saw a chick wearing a denim onesie with a bright pink... um... body thong underneath it? I saw a girl wearing a full on rainbow outfit, a woman wearing socks under her sandals, dude with beer guts flapping in the wind, and then some. Free music and flowing alcohol really brings out the city's finest :)

This is the entrance to the place, grassy area for dining downstairs, grill inside and bar on the upstairs patio.

And oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I CHOPPED MY HAIR yesterday morning. I knew I wanted a change; something easy I could manage in the 100º + heat I'll be living in down in Arizona. I walked in with these two pictures:

(Source)

(Source)

And came out with this:

The mai tai in hand helped me cope a little bit. It's nothing like what I asked, and a good two inches shorter than she said she was going to cut it. Worst of all is that I can't even put it in a ponytail!!! Nor a half pony or anything. I don't know what to do with this :( It's shorter than anything I've ever had and I don't think it looks good for my face structure. Another downside is that my hair grows at a sloth's pace. It takes forever to grow out. So I'm stuck with this mess for a little bit. Oh well.

We still enjoyed our evening though! As did the rest of our crew.

I love the summer!!! It's my favorite season of the year :)

Weekend in SF

Over the weekend I got one last chance to make the short drive over to my parents' house before our big move! As mentioned in my previous post, I purchased two really good tickets to the Giants game back in May for J.D.'s birthday. He's a HUGE New York Mets fan and this was the only local roadtrip the Mets took this season. Of course I had to take J.D. to see his favorite team! And I joined him in cheering on the visitor because I hate the Giants (you can only root for one team in the Bay and I chose the Oakland A's a looooong time ago!) and I think the Mets' third baseman is pretty attractive.

Creepy shot, I know, but we were close! We were this close to the field:

Really awesome seats! The day's festivities began with a San Francisco baseball tradition, garlic fries.

And then we were in the mood to split some nachos (does this sound like Midwest Trip déjà vu all over again?!).

And in true SF style, we shared a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae. Surprisingly enough, Sunday happened to be national ice cream day! Maybe I knew that, subliminally.

They were really good seats. We got to catch all the action in the bullpen, super up close. Close enough to have five people around us leaving with foul balls. Close enough to hear this douchebag kid get chewed out by the bullpen catcher. That was pretty entertaining.

We got to see frickin' K-Rod, whose nickname, I think, should be Blown Save Rod. Honestly. The guy's a joke. I hated him with the Angels and he's still living up to that as a Met.

And also, starting pitcher Johan Santana warm up before the first pitch.

Can't you tell we had fun? And can you guess which team won by our faces?? :)

The night before we got to cooking at my parents' house. I've been craving homemade mac'n'cheese for a reallllly long time, so we got everything together to make some seafood mac'n'cheese. If you want the recipe, you'll have to steal it from here.

Just kidding, I got it from this website. It was fairly simple and took under an hour to prep and bake. And it tasted amazing! I'd suggest making it in an oven-safe pan, so as to limit your time spent washing dishes after the meal.

I cooked it in this iron pan and it went right into the oven and later broiler. We topped the entire think with panko crumbs and while mixing up the cheese, also threw in some yellow onions. And oh, the beauty of cooking with wine is drinking it during and after!

It was so good! We also had a spinach salad, some grilled corn on the cob and steak, cooked up by my sister's friends. The entire meal was enjoyed out in the backyard with candlelight and pool light ambiance. A perfect summer evening shared by family and friends!

Two days left until we make our drive down to Arizona in search of housing!!! It's coming up sooooo fast!

What I've been up to

Wow, she's still blogging.... :)

First I'd like to thank you ALL for the sweet comments about the move and my boyfriend's (hope that clears up some confusion haha) new job. I'm down for meet-ups now that I'll be closer to some of you :)  Or you know, you can always come to me!

Since J.D. was offered the job, we've been doing a lot of running around like decapitated chickens. He obviously accepted first of all. We both turned in our resignation notices. We scheduled a visit next week to go house hunting -- best part about that trip is staying in a SPA/RESORT FOR DIRT CHEAP since it's Phoenix's low season afterall!! And today is really our only free day from work, so we've been cleaning the house, doing laundry, donating items we don't want to Goodwill, boxing things up and posting to Craigslist like it's my job.

Got 10 offers for this little guy in two minutes of posting! Thank God we won't have to cart him on a 12-hour drive.

But speaking of jobs, I've kind of come to a conclusion about what I will do in the meantime. I applied for a job in athletics I'm still waiting to hear back from, but am ready to accept the fact that I'm not getting an interview there. As SOON as we have an address, I'm going to Arizona's Dept. of Public Safety and getting finger printed/background checked so that I can be a substitute teacher. I feel like I could teach any HS subject: English, AP history, US history, World history, French, biology, algebra, etc. I did pretty well in all those subjects and even went on to study some in college. Subbing would be a pretty neat way to get benefits and also a paycheck until I find a career.

But I'm also toying with the idea of finishing my master's at Arizona State. I mean, they provide fully-funded TAships to many of their grad students! How sweet is that?!?!? Obtain a master's AND get paid for it?!?! Sign me up.

My only problem is trying to decide which program of study I'd apply for. French Comparative Literature? English? Education? Communications? Luckily I have until January to figure it out.

So with all this craziness going on, we've been going out to eat often. And at the same time, trying to use everything in the fridge. That being said, I got the itch to use my frozen bananas again in attempt to make some banana soft serve. And guess what, you all were RIGHT about cutting the banana up before freezing. Not only did it stay white, but it also blended pretty consistently! The only problem I'll have to tweak is that I wanted to prep the night before. It gets way too hard in the freezer, but turns to mush in the fridge. So if I make it again, I'll have to stick to day-of preparation.

This time I blended up some frozen bananas with raspberries. It was tart and creamy and delicious! I then put it in a nice little parfait with CHOCOLATE OVERNIGHT OATS! You know, just regular overnight oats and milk snazzed up with a little chocolate syrup ;)

Ready for some more breakfast photos??

This morning I made a honey Greek yogurt parfait with lowfat granola, cherries and pineapple. It was yummy and hit the spot :) The perfect start to a day of boxing and moving preparation!

And now we're off to my parents' house because tomorrow night we're going to a Giants/Mets baseball game in San Francisco! J.D.'s favorite team is the Mets, so for his birthday two months ago I bought him third-row tickets to the only series the Mets play in California this year! What a nice girlfriend, right?! :) I just love David Wright. I wish our seats were on the third base side......

(Source)

Once we get to their house, we've got all the fixin's to make seafood mac'n'cheese! I'm pretty stoked for this meal; we've had a box of elbow macaroni hiding in the pantry for MONTHS. It's about time we put it to some use!

Have a good weekend, everyone! And sorry in advance again, but my posts will continue to be pretty sparse until August. Two more weeks!! Eeeek :)

Cheers!

Last night J.D. and I had sort of impromptu celebratory tapas dinner downtown.

Why??

Oh it's no big deal really, except WE'RE MOVING HERE IN TWO WEEKS!!!

(Source)

Yep, he got and accepted the job at the NCAA radio Internet company in Arizona. Now it's on me to find a new job as well, especially since I turned in my two weeks' notice today.

So back to the food.

We started off with a crostini sampler that included a bleu cheese-apple-bacon bite, honey-fig-goat cheese and finally, avocado-tomato-shrimp. All that was paired next to a caprese salad split by two. Our third shared plate was a heaping pile of fried calamari and marinara sauce. Obviously devoured before photographed :)

While the lighting was not conducive to photography, we devoured a chocolate raspberry brandy torte. It was slathered in marshmallow cream. Oh my goodness!!!

A glass of Blue Moon (for him) and pinot grigio (for me) topped off the evening. And there may or may not have been a trip to frozen yogurt later. I'm just saying.

The party (in my mouth) continued into the morning. I'd been craving an egg breakfast sandwich, but haven't been waking up early enough to make one before work. Today was the perfect day, since I had time to kill before Woodstock's final post-neutering check-up. He's healing juuust fine by the way!

My smiley face breakfast consisted of a whole wheat bagel thin, fried egg, Canadian bacon, almond pesto and spinach. I also enjoyed a freshly-cut pineapple, Tuscan melon and cherries.

Now there is a lot to do in the next few weeks. So just to prepare you in advance, I'm going to be stressed/all over the place/MIA. Now you're ready :) I can't believe I'm going to be a resident of a state other than California for the first time in 25 years!!!

Anyone in Arizona want to be my friend?? How about get me a job in sports??? :) Kthanksbye.

Such a mess :)

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time -- any of the three I've used since 2007 that is! -- you know how much of a mess I can be! So I'm going to preface this with a little bit of a throwback: Senior Mosts.

Remember in high school yearbooks how there was always that "Senior Mosts" section?? I wish I had a copy of mine to scan and post here for you all. But, I was voted Biggest Klutz/Spazz in high school. And you could have certainly guessed that yesterday.

Feeling extra motivated to get in some cross training since I hadn't ran in quite a while, I made sure to prepare/eat dinner extra early before Woodstock's puppy training class at PetSmart. Which by the way, he only has one more left before his final exam and graduation :) By the time class was over, I knew I'd have close to an hour of sunlight -- plenty of time to get in a good bike ride! I even set a bike date with a friend to ensure I wouldn't skip it.

Except, I haven't used my bike in almost a year now. And my front tire is completely out of air. Within the first five minutes of taking it out, I knew it sounded rubbery and squeaky and the tire was to blame. So instead, I figured I'd wing it and ride to the closest 7-11 to pump it full of air. Self-conscious of the hideous sound it made the entire way. But, when I arrived at 7-11, the AIR PUMP WAS OUT OF ORDER!!! So now here I am two miles from home with a bike that barely moves and not much sun remaining.

So guess what I did?

Yep, I took my bike for a run. I tried to jog my bike back home, holding the handlebars and running to the side. Which trust me, didn't last very long. It was more like interval training really ;) Or, like I'm practicing to make a bobsled team or something. I've gotten really good at the side push, if anyone's looking for a bobsled pusher.

Anyways, I reached my house 20 minutes later and felt completely destroyed. No more sun meant no more working out outside for me. And then it hit me: AT&T's On Demand section has workouts!

Luckily for me, this month they're previewing Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred. I've heard plenty of people brag about how awesome it is online, so I gave it a go. I tried one of her kickboxing-inspired videos On Demand before and loved how I felt after. However, I do find her pretty intense, intimidating and actually kinda creepy.

But the woman knows her stuff!! I was utterly exhausted after only 30 minutes of hardcore workouts. She constantly stresses no let up and by the end, I was grateful for the break.

The 30-Day Shred is definitely something I'm going to be looking into in the future!

I mean, look how sweaty and gross I was after??? I cheated in having a ton of water before this picture :)

After my super sweaty workout, this waited for me :)

Remember those Island Way fruit cup sorbets I talked about before?!?! Well J.D.'s parents were kind enough to pick up some more at Costco for us!!! YAY! I was surprised to find they've changed up some of the flavors. As usual there is a coconut shell filled with coconut sorbet and a mini half pineapple filled with pineapple sorbet. New to the mix this time around was a lemon shell filled with pomegranate sorbet (pictured above) and an orange shell filled with mango passion sorbet. Guys, passion fruit is one of my FAVORITE flavors!! It's sooooooo good and tropical feeling!

And now I'm going to backpedal a bit here. Back to last night's dinner! I set to work making all the fixings for a mini buffet bar thing.

Because I just cooked up a large container of carnitas!

And then put all the separate portions on my plate: spinach, sweet potato chunks, carnitas topped with a bit of cheese, olives and grilled peppers/onions, chips/salsa and brown rice.

But then, I didn't know what to do with this plate! So I mixed it all together and made a tasty fiesta salad :)

And the rest is history.

Oh yeah, I INHALED some more of that banana bread, slathered in cream cheese this morning along with an iced roobios vanilla latte. Home made coffee house meals are the best :)

Were you voted something crazy by your peers in your senior yearbook?? :)

I leave you, now, with something obvious.

Something exciting IS coming!

I've deemed myself fit to begin HALF MARATHON TRAINING this week!! Eeeek! I'm so nervous about it, especially since I don't know which half I'm running yet, but I figure it's good to start now and maintain the training if I run a later race. The Rock 'n' Roll Arizona half/marathon is in January, so maybe if I'm located there, I'll sign up for that? Or if I stay in Stockton, there's a half marathon on Nov. 14 I'd also love to sign up for! Plenty of options :)

Without further ado, here's my Week No. 1 training plan (keeping in mind, I was consistently running 6-7 miles during my Sunday long runs prior to being sick). I'm using the Runner's World Smart Coach iPhone application, for the sake of convenience.

• Monday 7/12: cross train
• Tuesday 7/13: 2 mi, easy run
• Wednesday 7/14: cross train/rest
• Thursday 7/15: 5 mi, tempo run
• Friday 7/16: 2 mi, easy run
• Saturday 7/17: rest
• Sunday 7/18: 7 mi, long run
• Total miles: 16

That's it! Now that I've posted my plans, I expect you all to hold me accountable for this schedule :) Unless of course, I'm sick or injured.

Originally this morning I had hoped to wake up at 6 a.m. and get in a quick run to acclimate my body back into running. Except, I'm so NOT a morning person. My alarm went off and for lack of sleep, I felt like a zombie. I felt dizzy and hot and gross. So I opted to skip it, although I've felt fantastic all throughout the day. My cough is on its way out, I believe! Oh well, maybe I don't need to "ease back" into running and instead just go for it! We'll see :)

Now, how about that BERRY BANANA BREAD recipe I promised you all earlier!! (Oh, that reminds me! I'm glad you all LOVED the pizza sticks! They're so much fun and would probably be GREAT for parties. Tasted just as good as they looked too!).

MONIQUE'S BERRY BANANA BREAD (adapted from Betty Crocker):

• 3/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 1 c mashed bananas (2 medium)
• 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 c Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt 1 T almond butter
• 3/4 c chocolate chips 2 T chocolate syrup
• 1 c halved cherries 1/2 c cherries, 1/2 c raspberries
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches, or 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches, with shortening; lightly flour.

2. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon, until well mixed. Beat in bananas, sour cream and eggs. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips, cherries and nuts. Pour into pan(s).

3. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (if bread becomes too brown, cover loosely with aluminum foil about 10 minutes before end of bake time). Cool 15 minutes. Loosen sides of loaf from pan(s); remove from pan(s) to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

*NOTE HERE, for some reason, mine wasn't even close to being ready after 45 mins. Nor did it start to brown until the 55th minute. Maybe it's because I switched out the sour cream for Greek yogurt, but I found that the perfect time for my brad was about 62 minutes. All I'm saying, is just check the middle of the loaf with a toothpick often, to ensure you don't have the same problem!

Now if you'll enjoy berry banana bread pictures from my breakfast :) I clearly had too much fun making ridiculous shapes on the top. And also drizzling almond butter over the whole thing!

It really is delicious though! I suggest you make it if you're looking for a way to get rid of some extra bananas!

And now, I'll leave you with another one of my favorite songs at the moment. I'm glad you're all learning loads about my musical taste over here :)

3/4	cup sugar
1/2	cup butter or margarine, softened
1	cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium)
1/2	cup sour cream
2	eggs
2 1/4	cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	teaspoon baking soda
1/2	teaspoon salt
3/4	cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1	cup halved red and green candied cherries
1/2	cup chopped nuts

Recipe Sunday!

I had another busy day of whipping things up in the kitchen yesterday. It all started with an idea for dinner; I received a pizza sticks pan and cutter from Williams-Sonoma from my mom for Christmas. I love it, it's so much more fun to assemble than a regular ol' pizza ;) Last night the craving hit me again for some pizza sticks.

At the grocery store the day prior, we picked up pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, olives and tomatoes for the sticks. I knew of three different kinds we could make: pepperoni and cheese, margherita and perhaps pesto olive and tomato sticks! I had plenty of basil, olive oil, parm and garlic, but alas, no pine nuts.

Well kids, it turns out you don't need pine nuts to make pesto! I had no idea :) Into my food processor went the following combination of ingredients:

ALMOND PESTO

• 1 c fresh basil leaves
• 3 T grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c sliced almonds
• 1 T marinated garlic
• 1/4 c olive oil

All you have to do is mix it all together in a food processor/blender until smooth! Or chunky if you prefer it that way. I do.... because that's as fine as my little processor will allow me haha.

I guess I could have added salt and pepper, but I knew this was going to be a topping for my pizza, so I didn't bother. To my amazement, it came out nearly the same as pine nut pesto!!! There are subtle differences in the flavors each nut brings to the table, but this truly was a fantastic substitution.

Now on to the pizza. While I prepped the sauce and toppings, J.D. set to work on the dough. We actually cheated and bought a pack of powdered dough for under $1. All he had to do was put it in a big mixing bowl and add water! But J.D. being the gourmet aficionado that he is spruced it up with Tuscan seasonings and garlic salt into the dough mixture.

Then out came the dough into the pans. I put sauce, cheese and pepperoni on his two slices, olives, pesto and tomatoes on my two sticks, while the fifth stick in the center remained ours to share. That one's the margherita pizza with sauce, cheese, tomatoes and basil.

As the pizzas cooked I had my heart set on tackling a large Tuscan melon, which very much resembles cantaloupe. I've always loved melon, but the idea of cutting one of those up with a giant knife always worries me. No worries here, though, as I halved it and then put the majority in the fridge with a few slices to gnaw on for an after-dinner snack. The only thing that let me down, however, was the fact that the melon's not quite ripe. Even though it had been sitting on the counter for three days at that point. You could even smell the fruit's juices from outside of the skin, so I'm puzzled. Maybe another day in the fridge is all that stands between me and melon perfection.

One final item remained before the pizzas were ready. Wine selection! My fav, fav, favorite winery probably ever is Napa Valley's Coppola Winery -- yes, owned by Francis Ford Coppola! I've had the fortune of visiting that winery in the past few years :) Anyways, all his selections can be found for fairly cheap in pretty much any Northern California grocery store. To go with our sticks we chose a Coppola Zin. And to switch it up, poured it into ENORMOUS stemless glasses. I don't know if these glasses are for red or white wine, but I heart them :) I might have to read up some more on appropriate wine vessels I suppose.

Finally, the pizzas were ready for consumption!

While my hands were dirty, Mr. Fox took these pictures for me ;) Ain't he a cutie?!

And now, I present to you, pizza sticks and Tuscan melon! SALUTE!

I have to admit, I could only finish 1.5 of my sticks. The final pesto pizza stick awaits in my fridge for a late afternoon snack... or something like that :)

After dinner I took the puppy on a mile walk roundtrip to the dog park near our house. Again, he walked the entire way!!! He's becoming a good little walker :) And it tires him out right before bed, which makes me happy. Just before going to sleep, I got the baking itch. So maybe if you're lucky I'll post my adapted recipe for BERRY BANANA BREAD a little later.

Until then, I'm going to leave you with this song that's been stuck in my head for weeks. My boss gave me their CD and I've been jamming to it ever since. Love the Dirty Heads! So much that I even loaded the CD into my iPhone yesterday :) I don't know, it just reminds me of being back in Santa Barbara, rocking out to Bob Marley, Pepper and Jack Johnson (fun fact, JJ went to UCSB and sings about it in "Bubble Toes").

Enjoy! (While I try to enjoy a World Cup victory by ESPAÑA! But, my No. 1 pick in the last WC finished second.... poor Frenchies.....)