Meeting up with Lance proved to be more than a great time with an old friend ... it let me pick his indie-addled brain about cool new music as well. He raved about The Wrens, so i downloaded their latest album The Meadowlands. And whaddaya know, Lance hits another home run.

A good insight into my current musical moods is the tracklistings of a bunch of mix cds i burned recently. As much as i've enjoyed them, Veronica's Car Songs 1-6 mix cds have occupied my cd changer for a little too long, so i set about replacing them with a new crop of mixes. Here's the contents of Indie Mix 2 - Moody:

1. New Order, "Such A Good Thing"
2. South, "Paint The Silence"
3. Doves, "Pounding"
4. Moose, "Pretend We Never Met"
5. Pale Fountains, "You'll Start A War"
6. Brendan Benson, "Metarie (Wellfed Version)"
7. Coldplay, "Green Eyes"
8. Yo La Tengo, "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House"
9. Broken Social Scene, "Alive In 85"
10. Lilys, "Perception Room"
11. Spoon, "Back To The Life"
12. Cat Power, "He War"
13. The Kills, "Fried My Little Brains"
14. Read Yellow, "Read Yellow"
15. At The Drive-In, "Sleepwalk Capsules"
16. The Boxer Rebellion, "Watermelon"
17. The Rain Band, "Knee Deep And Down"

Chelsea are going to be the death of me. I awaited Sunday's showdown with Manchester United with baited breath. Seriously, i could barely sleep Saturday night, and Sunday i woke up with only thoughts of the Blue/Red battle in my head. Thanks to loose-lipped Jeremy, i was tipped off to the result before heading off to Mad Dog In The Fog for the replay. Michael and i had a quick spot of bangers, mash, and beans while the Arsenal/Fulham match played out to a nil-nil draw. Because of that, the winner of my match goes top of the table ... how's that for drama? Of course i already knew the result, but i would've found out well before the final whistle in the replay as a couple of Chelsea fans in the pub were chanting "Top of the table!" Michael and i enjoyed the match anyway. We enjoyed hanging out with Susan, Scott, Mike, and Sarah too, but i won't make the transitive leap and say Susan enjoyed the match seeing as she was wearing a red scarf. The result? A 1-nil victory for new table-toppers Chelsea, on the strength of a Frank Lampard penalty given for a Roy Keane challenge on Joe Cole. The United fans seem to be up in arms about whether a penalty was warranted. Let's get the facts straight: Keane tackled Cole FROM BEHIND and IN THE BOX. This equals penalty. I've heard the following arguments: 1) Keane got the ball first. Perhaps. But he also took Cole down with a knee in the back. Can't do that, regardless of whether you touched the ball. 2) Cole didn't have control of the ball. Again, perhaps. But he could've regained control if Keane hadn't brought him down. 3) The silliest of the lot is Alex Ferguson's claim that Cole was heading away from goal. What compass is Fergie using to judge that? And moreover, what the hell does that matter? Let me restate: Keane tackled Cole FROM BEHIND and IN THE BOX.

The match didn't showcase the prettiest football i've ever seen, but it was decent. Chelsea deserved the win in my (albeit biased) opinion. Chelsea created a number of good scoring chances, while i can only think of one or two genuine opportunities created by United. Our defense had a couple of miscues early on that might've resulted in errant goals, but once Terry, Gallas, and co. gelled United had a tough time setting up decent shots on goal. Their midfield looked horrible. They'd better put Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting lineup, as he was the only player who seemed to offer any inventive solutions for cracking the Chelsea defense. Diego Forlan and Quinton Fortune certainly weren't going to.

Thanksgiving was a low-key affair spent at my uncle's parents house in Burlingame. Lots of good food ... the stuffing in particular was awesome. I managed to get up at 6:30 the next morning to drive down to the Great Mall in Milpitas, where i picked up two blazers and a shirt at a serious day-after-Thanksgiving discount. Veronica and i managed to see a late showing of Elf on Friday night as well. A nice warm fuzzy Christmas movie, but featuring a great comic performance by Will Ferrell as a four year-old trapped in a 35 year-old's body. As Veronica was at work Saturday, i got to hang with Cobi and play a lot of FIFA 2004 and new purchase Rainbow Six 3. RS3 isn't quite the mesmerising affair that Splinter Cell was, but it's worthwhile nonetheless. It offers the experience of controlling a team of anti-terrorism commandos on various hostage rescue missions. Not bad at all.