It's pretty sad that it wasn't until last week that i realized that summer 2004 was in full swing. Probably the last proof i needed that the days of lazy summer afternoons, free of travails or other such headaches, are gone for me. Hello, adulthood.

The offseason wheelings and dealings of Chelsea should've warned me of the time of year, but for some reason i didn't connect the two. The Blues' summer moves are now 99% finalized, with the signings of Marseilles hitman Didier Drogba and Benfica wildcard Tiago Mendes all but done. It's a bit worrisome that new coach José Mourinho appears to be gambling on talent unproven in the fast and physical English Premier League. Particularly at striker, where we've let our primary goal scorer of late, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, depart to Boro and brought on Mateja Kezman, a scoring machine in the Dutch Eredivisie, and Didier Drogba, last season's French League 1 footballer of the year. Can they adapt to the English game? If not, we're left with the talented but erratic Eidur Gudjohnsen and the as yet unimpressive Adrian Mutu. It doesn't help that the man making these bets, Mourinho, is entering his first season in England and may not be the best predictor of success in the EPL. At any rate, his confidence and stubborness as well as his insistence on establishing a definite pecking order in the squad gives me hope. Michael and i will get to see a fleshed out Chelsea squad next week.

On Friday night V and i had Gary and Leah over to hang and play some Mario Kart: Double Dash. I kept my temper in check despite further evidence of a conspiracy to defeat me, and yet managed to come away with 15 wins to Gary's 10. Take that, Schumacher.

Saturday morning V had to go to work at 6am, so the 5:15 alarm scared the s#@t out of me. Once i'd grabbed some more shuteye, i met her for breakfast at Stacks then headed home for some video diversions. I'm really missing the excitement of Ninja Gaiden ... the Hurricane expansion pack comes out on Xbox Live on August 2, so in the meantime i've reverted to Winning Eleven 7 International. I'm not so keen on the new mechanics of the Master League, so i updated Chelsea's roster and have been playing a club league season. If it's any indication, Kezman is the third leading scorer in the league and Robben is a constant threat on the left wing. Fingers crossed ...

That evening V took an extended disco nap before heading to Rocket in the city with Gary and Leah, so i managed to watch S.W.A.T. on HBO. I hadn't marked my calendar or anything, but i figured it might be a decent action flick. As decent action it passed muster, but as a flick it proved hopelessly wanting. So many lousy film clichés on display. I might've gone 2 for 2 in crappy movies that evening had i noticed that Bad Boys II was on Cinemax immediately after. Instead, i played some more WE7 and hit the hay.

Marcus and Javier invited us for a park bbq on Sunday afternoon, so we popped over to Berkeley to pick them up, bought some marinated carne asada at a Mexican market on San Pablo, and drove to a park in the Oakland hills. It was a relaxing summer activity with great food and a short excursion on an off limits trail over a hill to, what else, see what was on the other side. We got home at 7:30pm and chilled for the evening, watching Subterranean on MTV2 and retiring early at 11pm.

Now i'm at work preparing a poster for the AAPM meeting next week in Pittsburgh. Hard to concentrate when i'm more excited about seeing the new face of Chelsea take on Celtic and Roma. Go you blues!