It's very odd, this feeling of sheer and undiluted joy you get when your football club completes a momentous victory. I'm reading the match report to Chelsea's 2-nil victory over Turks Besiktas, avenging our earlier loss to them and sending us into the knockout rounds of the Champions League on top of our qualifying group. A resolute performance capped by two late goals by JFH and Wayne Bridge. The quote of the night came from defender Wayne Bridge, on his first Chelsea goal: "I didn't know what to do once I'd scored - I don't get many so it was nice to get that one". This more than makes up for our underwhelming draw over the weekend against cellar dwellers Leeds United.

Music sounds better. Food tastes better. Birds sing. Okay, i'll cut it out now.

Back to earth ... we took our new housemate Cobi to a veterinary oncologist yesterday. She had some lumps removed from her lips a few weeks ago, and the histopath came back as lymphosarcoma. She seems fine thankfully, active and happy. The oncologist recommended removing a few new lumps from her back, and sending them for more definitive immunohistochemistry (staining for CD3 cell-surface antigens to identify the specific lymphoma cell type). So she had that done yesterday, and has a few new staples on her side from the surgery. We decided against giving her a complete staging exam (including painful bone marrow sampling, and more anesthesia). We probably won't put her through chemo either ... at her age, we think it's best to let her have fun in the time she has left. And as she seems fine now, hopefully she can have a while yet. She's been very good since arriving about a month ago ... she waits patiently at the window when we go out, doesn't do any nasty business in the house, and is generally a lot of fun. She gets a little jealous when i give Veronica a hug or a kiss, though. And she's so protective of Veronica that Cobi will bark at me or give me a nip if i make sudden moves toward V.

Been on a several divergent musical kicks lately. Picked up a Best Of album by The Spencer Davis Group after dropping off Cobi yesterday, mainly to get the kickass "Gimme Some Lovin'". It's all terrif though ... apparently Steve Winwood was cool before descending into schlock like "Roll With It". Also been completing my Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd (strip me of my indie cred if you will, but Dark Side Of The Moon is enthralling), Led Zeppelin, and Talking Heads backcatalogs as well. I managed to find a Stones song, "Backstreet Girl", i remember hearing from Sean Cavanaugh way back when. The reason i remember it is that i was interested to learn that the Shed Seven song "Out By My Side" is a complete rip-off of the aforementioned Stones tune. It's not like it's an rare Stones song either ... couldn't they find something a little more obscure to copy? I don't have my copy of A Maximum High handy, so i can't check if perchance the Sheds give writing credits to Jagger and Richards. I also finally managed to check out Nick Drake's work ... wow. Awesome folk rock that predates bands like Belle & Sebastian by about 30 years. I also ... umm, *cough* ... got my hands on ... well, erm ... Iron Maiden's Live After Death. A really fantastic summary of the heavy metal icons' work in the early eighties. As for more recent music ... nothing much to report.

Been alternating between FIFA 2004 and Rainbow Six 3 in the Xbox. My preparations for the next SMFA Cup are coming along nicely. Gary and i discussed potentially rotating squads, so Sean and i can't take advantage of the superior squads of Manchester United and Chelsea. I'll have to practice with some other sides to handle that possibility. Rainbow Six is quite good ... there's a certain perverse thrill in storming a room from two directions. It's no cakewalk ... i've made it about halfway through the game, but i have trouble completing missions without taking significant damage to either myself or members of my team. Still have to give our as-yet unopened copy of Mario Kart Double Dash a whirl, as well as get back to Viewtiful Joe, SSX 3, and perhaps even Winning Eleven 6. This winter is shaping up to be even more video-laden than last, when i was simultaneously occupied with Splinter Cell, FIFA 2003, Metroid Prime, and Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

i can't stop smiling, and i don't know why i'd want to anyway
so many times before i could hardly even force one to my face