Bureaucratic nightmare

By: Melissa | March 21st, 2008

Many years ago, I told my co-workers I was only going to work in a paperless office. From that moment on, I would keep zero paper copies of everything but anything I needed I would only make available electronically. And every year, right before tax time, I have a giant pile of bills and receipts taunting me and driving me crazy until I organize them, input them into the stupid bookkeeping program, call the accountant, then cry into my lone bottle of 2buckchuck as I send every penny I’ve saved to the IRS. Its a horrible and vicious cycle that I may be able to break if I either go get myself married or maybe turn my house into a church.

There isn’t a tremendous amount of Earthquakes news today but I figure I may as well post because A) it’s Friday (yay!) and B) it’s an opportunity for me to vent my frustrations about tax time. Steve Pastorino at US Soccer Players has an interesting comparison between the new Quakes’ roster and a few of the previous MLS expansion sides. His conclusion is, no expansion team was able to build a potent roster in one off-season and its doubtful the Quakes will be the exception. He also thinks that its unlikely the Quakes will be able to pick up a good player in the coming transfer window to fill in any holes.

In-season help is not necessarily available within the league. No MLS general manager will cut Doyle any slack when it comes to trades. History suggests that USL-1 won’t help. There are fewer Brian Chings and Maykel Galindos left in USL-1, and plenty of players like Leighton O’Brien, Melvin Tarley and Tiger Fitzpatrick whose play does not translate to the MLS level.

Hmmm, not a promising synopsis of our future options. But I do think that we still have quite a bit of allocation money left to hand out and – well - the Bay Area has some of the best weather in the country. Certainly that counts for something… right? And after seeing Jamil Walker sub in on Wednesday, I’m still crossing my fingers another top heavy MLS club has yet to unload some of its excess weight (*cough* Chicago *cough*). Anyhoo, its a good article that brings up stuff to think about and I know Quakes fans appreciate the attention from the soccer media.

Joe Cannon updated his blog yesterday and its another great read. He brought up loads of great stuff to talk about but possibly my favorite is his comments on Jay Hernandez. Joe says: “He doesn’t snore, hog the TV, or use any closet space, and goes to bed almost as late as I do. Not a bad roommate I must say. Oh, did I mention he is also Major League Soccer’s #1 coolest player. Just ask him.” I already knew he was the coolest player in MLS – especially after seeing him wander around inside Kezar Pub with the biggest grin on his face while taking a bazillion pictures of every Quakes fan in the bar who talked to him. Thats good times right there for our left back.

Lastly, I want all five of you who read this blog to take a long hard look at the following picture.

Now here’s the deal. Most people out there in the worlds of celebrity gossip and pointy football are giving these two all sorts of grief over their relationship which is apparently some kind of evil voodoo curse on professional sports in Texas. But after seeing this picture, don’t you get the sense that Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo might just be the funnest people to hang out with? Sure, I wouldn’t expect to spend hours discussing Kant or string theory, but I bet I’d have a great time drinking a few beers, eating some delicious bbq, and having a couple of laughs over that whole chicken of the sea fiasco.