I have a new nickname at work... Little One. At first I didn't think it would stick, like so many of the previous ones. It actually works in two ways.

a) There are two Alex's at the store and I'm the younger/smaller one
b) I'm the newest full timer so I'll take this over rookie

and to be honest I kind of like this one. I don't mind responding to pages for Little One.

PS thanks Angie for the pictures of Chicago I used earlier

Never visit Italy

So far I've avoided posting about the World Cup. Mostly because I was busy either working or actually watching games, but also a little because I know a large portion of my friends don't even really care about soccer.

I can't, however, hold this in.

Italian soccer! The players, the fans, the style in general... I'm fed up. They should all be ashamed of themselves. It makes me physically ill to watch them play and sitting here now remembering this morning's game makes me want to throw up. (for those of you who don't know, this morning an Italian player took a dive in the penalty box in the 93rd minute forcing a PK giving Italy the win after being fairly well dominated all game by Australia) Even typing that just now hurt. I'm really at a loss for words. how do they keep getting away with it? Why isn't there more outrage? Did you know that when Italy was knocked out of the World Cup 4 years ago the man who scored that goal... he played for an Italian club team. I say played because his team boss promptly fired him for "insulting Italian soccer and the nation." This poor guy, all he did was play his heart out for South Korea, the host country! And he got fired!

Ok ranting over. I know it's not fair to hold this against an entire nation, but I will... at least for a little while.