A new blog

My wife has created a Young Family blog. I think she has done a wonderful job with it. I encourage you to check it out (the link is on the left side of The Joe Rankings Blog). I think blogging is taking over the world.

Just a couple of items I'd like to post today:

1. Jessica won the Wine and Cheese Plate! The Wine and Cheese Plate is a big glass platter that I received at a white elephant gift exchange a few years ago. We pass it around to the winner of the annual NCAA Tournament prediction contest. The first two years, my little brother Ryan was victorious. I won it last year, and the plate has been in our office closet the whole time. Now my wife won it this year (I came in second place). I am happy that The Plate will remain in our home. I am just interested in seeing if Jessica will prominently display the Plate now that she is the owner of it. We'll have to see. In any case, I'll try to take a picture of Jessica with the plate, and we'll see if I can't get it posted on our family blog. Congratulations, Jessica.

2. I also want to post here about why I didn't win the darn Wine and Cheese Plate. It is because I originally had UCLA going to the Final Four, but then I switched it at the last second because I have a long-standing policy of always picking BYU into the Sweet 16 due to my undying loyalty to my favorite team. I am not ashamed. One of these days BYU will actually win a first round game and justify my policy.

3. I am very excited for college football season this year. I know predictions are much too premature, but I think Utah and BYU will both have stellar seasons, and I think the Rivalry Game in November will be another classic. Jessica and I will not be buying season tickets this year...we have other financial goals this year that take precedence, but the fact that BYU has a lame home schedule also played a factor in my decision. We might try and go to some Utah home games...I mean, I can get a ticket for free as a student, plus discounts on additional tickets.

4. I am somewhat ashamed (but not really) that I am now a soccer fan. I couldn't really care less about Real Salt Lake or the MLS. But European and international soccer is actually quite fun to follow. I can't say I know all the rules or that I would even want to sit down and watch a non-World Cup game. But I like watching highlights of soccer goals. Honestly, there are very few highlights that can rival a soccer goal. Some goals I can watch over and over again and not get bored. What other highlights can you say the same about? Maybe a really good alley-oop dunk? Maybe a hard hit in a football game? Maybe.

My favorite soccer teams: obviously, the United States went it comes to the international game. I root for Fulham in the Premiere League. The Premier League is the top division of English soccer, comprised of twenty teams. Every year, the bottom three teams in the standings get demoted to the next-lower league (called the Champions League), while the top three teams from the Champion League get promoted to the Premiere League. Right now, Fulham is in second-to-last place with only four matches remaining. It will take a miracle for them to survive, but I am still hopeful after their 2-0 road victory over Reading yesterday. If they get demoted, I will still root for Fulham in the lower division. But my new favorite Premiere League team would be Aston Villa (my ancestral home).

Every European country has their own league, and the champions from every country qualify for the UEFA Champions League. It is a competition that pits all the champions from all the countries to determine which team is the best. Really, there is nothing quite like this. They changed the format about a decade ago to allow second- and third-placed teams from power countries (England, Spain, and Italy), but it is still intriguing. Right now, they are down to the semifinals. Three of the teams (Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool) are from England, while Barcelona also qualified. Since I can't stand the top English teams (the three teams I mentioned along with Arsenal), I will be rooting for Barcelona to win the Champions League this year.