After clearing out the back hallway on Friday night, consisting of moving some bags and then emptying the armoire, sliding it into the kitchen on top of some Nordstrom bags, and finally refilling it, Veronica and i set to masking and applying primer on Saturday morning. We got most of the room done by 4pm, except for the door and two windows. We then halted our efforts to ready for the evening's activities, consisting of a trip to Shoreline to see Nine Inch Nails, Bauhaus, and Peaches. Wonderful show, but deafening. We got home around 12:30am, after waiting for the dirt parking lot to clear enough so we could exit out the curiously little-travelled back route. For some reason, despite walking right past a perfectly good exit on the way from the amphitheater to the parking lot, the concertgoing masses hopped in their cars and all crowded out the way they came in. Weird, but good for us.

I spent the World Cup final catching up with old bioengineering friends at the Phoenix in San Francisco. Max is doing his medical internship at St. Mary's in the city, so he organized a get-together including class of 1996 BEASTs Kathy, Donna, Michelle, Pete, and the two of us, as well as 1997 BEAST Lance. We met at the Phoenix on Valencia in the Mission at 10am, and had breakfast and pints while watching the match. What a match too ... no end to the drama. An iffy penalty only seven minutes in gave France the lead, although the legendary Zinedine Zidane almost flubbed his cheeky chip, hitting the bottom of the bar and luckily for him rebounding over the line. This served to galvanize Italy, who deservedly equalized on a Marco Materazzi header from an Andrea Pirlo corner twelve minutes later. Italy's set pieces were causing the French all kinds of problems, with Luca Toni later being denied another headed goal only by the crossbar. However after halftime, the Italians seemed content to lapse into their defensive shell, with their attacks becoming increasingly infrequent and toothless. France however could not penetrate their rearguard. Into extra time, where Zidane sent a free header speeding into goal but was denied by a brilliant save by Gianluigi Buffon. Then came ... the incident.

I'm sure you've all seen it by now. Some insignificant tussling between Materazzi and Zidane in the 110th minute, some words exchanged, and then Zidane losing his mind and charging headfirst into Materazzi's chest. I've seen headbutts in football where the victim makes much, much more of the incident than it actually was, but this does not fall into that category. This was VIOLENT. Zidane struck the Italian's chest with some serious force. Although this occurred behind the play and the ref didn't see it, the linesman did and notified the ref soon thereafter, forcing him to send off the legend. What a way to end his career ... instead of the dream conclusion on the big stage everyone was expecting, Zizou left in shame and tears. Let's respond to the reaction around footballdom. There is no debating, it was a red card. 10 out of 10. Whether the ref saw it or whether the linesman saw it on a video replay is a separate debate. Zidane absolutely deserved to be sent off. Also, what Materazzi did or said to provoke him is also irrelevant. I can only imagine what kind of trash talking went on, but i have no reason to believe it was any worse than what gets said day in and day out on pitches, fields, diamonds, and courts by professional athletes. Zidane spectacularly and unacceptably lost his cool. Did Materazzi "get Zidane sent off", as France coach Raymond Domenech has suggested? Don't think so ... acting is irrelevant when you get a bald head pounded into your chest. The Italians protested furiously to the officials, but with complete justification. Some message board posters are saying Materazzi should've been sent off as well ... for what? There's nothing in the replay that depicts him doing anything illegal. He didn't dive or act, and he didn't retaliate. His only crime may be knowing the right phrase to get under Zidane's skin. It may have been something in extremely poor taste, perhaps racist or abusive, but again ... athletes deal with and dish out this stuff constantly without going ballistic. Besides, what better way to respond than by denying your rival the World Cup? As opposed to leaving shamed and empty handed. Blaming the Italians is ridiculous ... his supporters may not want to admit it, but Zidane shoulders all of the blame for this.

Did it change the outcome of the match? Who's to say? The French were having more of the ball and were probing the Italian goal in extra time, but neither before nor after the dismissal did they look like scoring. On to penalties, with the French without their best taker in Zidane, and also missing Thierry Henry (inexplicably subbed for Sylvain Wiltord), Patrick Vieira (subbed with an injury), and the mirror-shattering Franck Ribery (who caused Lance to comment to me on his ugliness). The Italians proceeded to make all five of their penalties, meaning that David Trezeguet's miss off the bar on France's second take gave the cup to Italy. Would Zidane have changed the outcome? On paper, no ... he would've made his, but couldn't stop the Italians from converting their tries, and Trezeguet still would've been one France's takers. But in intangibles, you have to wonder if his dismissal weighed on the French during the tense shootout.

At the end of the day, congrats to Italy, deserved winners. While i was thrilled to see the whining Thierry Henry denied football's greatest prize, i am a bit saddened by Zidane's end. A brilliant player who, like it or not, undoubtedly tarnished his legend on the final day of his international career. I'm however happy to report that my kit-wearing jinx was broken, as despite the fact that i had on my Juventus jersey, the Italians nevertheless emerged victorious. Juve will soon learn what punishment they receive for their role in the match-fixing fiasco, with relegation to Serie B looming as a probable outcome for the Italian champions. Strike that, they'll probably not technically be champions either after the tribunal gets done with them.

After fun with friends, football, and Irish breakfast in San Francisco, i brought Veronica lunch and we resumed painting our back room. By early evening priming was completed, and before bedtime we completed one coat of the yellow. I like it, but V isn't a huge fan of the color and is taking some time to warm up to it. I left her to paint on her own for a bit while i drove over to Borders to pick up a Perl book for Veronica, the text for an online class she's taking. While there i also found volumes one, two, and three of the X-Men Complete Age of Apocalypse collection that i'd been looking for, and bought those. I grabbed a pizza and some salads from Whole Paycheck and came home for dinner with V, followed by finishing off the back room's yellow. This week we'll tackle the trim and then shift our focus to the kitchen, which will also be yellowified. I read 50 pages or so of the first Age of Apocalypse compendium in bed while waiting for Veronica to finish her Perl homework, quite interesting. With the maze of overlapping comics it's difficult to know exactly where these stories fit into the X-Men pantheon, but so far they make a compelling saga on their own.