Countdown to ConCaCaf

In two hours we're going to head out on our soccer match odyssey.  Never been to the stadium and never been to an Austin FC game.  I did get to see the Sounders game in Seattle which they won, thanks to me.  I know this will be fun and suspect that even in the midst of SxSW it won't be too bad where we're going.  Typically I'd never go near Austin during any kind of festival but this is kind of on the northern edge of the city so we don't have to go near downtown.  And we're paying, exorbitantly, for parking with a 7 minute walk remaining into and back from the stadium so it shouldn't be too bad.  

I expect it will be a good game and expect Austin will win.  They will be focused and won't take it for granted having lost last week to what is essentially the same team.  

I've watched every game Austin FC has ever played so this is pretty fun for me.  I'm still learning the game (even though I played) and realize in retrospect how much American football I learned watching hour after hour every season for decades.  I'm just beginning to predict patterns of plays and projecting potential scores that others see routinely.  

It will be cold but we have our Austin FC scarves and will be bundled up.  

The Ides of Zoe

Tomorrow, Zoe turns 13. She was born on the ides of March 2010. A few years ago I joined a medical trial during which time she was to take Rapamycin, a drug mostly used to prevent organ transplant rejection in humans. There has been some clinical indication that Rapamycin may increase the longevity and quality of life and Zoe is part of a test for that. Which means she may have been given a placebo. I think I'll never know but I religiously gave her the weekly pills and she gets a full physical at Texas A&M every six months to see how she is doing.

I don't have a lot to compare as I kind of suck at keeping track of such things but she seems to be in pretty good health for 13. It doesn't hurt that we go every morning for a mile and a half walk up and down hills. Same walk every day. She makes sure I do it. And I keep her only slightly over weight. She is not a puppy and I can definitely tell the small differences but she gallops down the trail after falling behind chasing some good smell or other. And runs up and down the dozen or so stairs without any kind of real difference from four or so years ago when we started the daily walk.

Today is her last day of not being a teenager.





That is, by the way , her 'is it dinner time yet or maybe can I just have a treat until dinner?' look.

Frequently effective.