Thanks to the many of you who have sent me links and forwarded emails over the past 24 hours about the Seattle Sounders FC upcoming open try-outs. I know you recall my glory days of high school soccer. So do I. They were glorious.

Like Gordon Bombay (played by Emilio Estevez) lacing up his old skates in The Mighty Ducks after a pep talk from his mentor Hans, it's time for me to strap on the old shinguards and cleats again and hit the field.

According to the Sounders FC Web site, the new MLS team will host open tryouts in three Washington cities during the month of November. The tryouts will be filmed for a reality-TV series that will air on the local NBC affiliate, King 5, in late January 2009. A minimum of three finalists from each market will take part in a one-hour tryout in Seattle. The winner will be awarded a spot on the 2009 Sounders FC roster.

The Tukwila tryouts are November 15, which gives me approximately three weeks to get in shape. Mentally I'm ready, and getting back my touch on the ball is just like riding a bicycle. Getting in soccer shape by then... well... I'm going to try and run around Green Lake once without stopping. Does that give you a benchmark?

Dad brings up a good point that while I'll see some old friends and have fun playing at a high-level again, I might be a little injury-prone. What's an ACL good for anyway, I say.

NO MATTER WHAT I am going to Tukwila on November 15. Whether I go to the tryouts or check out the newly renovated Southcenter Mall is still up in the air.

After sparring with incumbent Christine Gregoire in several debates and earning an endorsement from The Seattle Times, Sound Politics reports that Dino Rossi is DOMINATING online.

Dino Rossi's Web site drew 52,000 visits in September versus only 4,500 visits to Gregoire's.

Editor's note: WIB shamelessly supports Rossi and even his car salesman-like commercials. Dino is the Italian uncle Paolo never had.

I'm a little sad today.

My LONG-time friend, Anna (aka Dorkis), lost her father on Saturday morning.

Anna and I attended the same schools from the second grade and through undergrad. It's a unique thing because we coincidentally crossed city lines a few times over to go to our elementary and high schools -- St. Vincent's and Stadium, respectively -- and we chose the same college -- Western. Of course, you tend to think alike by the end of high school, so perhaps the college choice isn't that surprising.

Since graduating from Western, Anna has committed her life to her faith and now works at the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. (We can see at this point how Anna is a MUCH better Catholic than I am.)

Anna wrote a beautiful, simple note about her father's passing and I encourage you to read it on her blog. Feel free to leave a comment there or drop her a line on Facebook even if you don't know her. I'm sure she'd appreciate the support.

dealer that will

I'm posting from my new, old Macbook Pro!

Now, you may be wondering one of two things:

1. "Why do you say 'new, old Macbook Pro,' Paolo?"

Good question. I actually bought the last model of the Macbook Pro brand new. It's like the 2009 cars just hit the lot, so I took the price break to buy a 2008 model. To avoid any confusion in the future, I'll just call this Macbook Pro the "Gray Lady" because she's older, wiser and gray. It's also a nod to the NY Times, of course.

2. "Why are you dressed like a gangster in your bedroom?"

That, too, is a good question. I am visually trying to depict just how thuggish this computer really is. I mean, it's like Ice Cube-N.W.A. thuggish. The computer can say the N-word if it wants to. Also, sometimes I just like to dress like a gangster, especially when listening to 2Pac and riding through the Central District, or when I'm procrastinating to do homework. The latter is the case tonight.

In the interest of maintaining my GPA, I'll stop here and close by saying that after a lot of years of mostly crappy experiences, especially through the 1990s, Apple's finally got a good product line-up across the board, and that's reflected in today's Apple earnings announcement.

Picture me rollin' with the Gray Lady.

I just became friends with one of my distant cousins (?), Nicola, on Facebook. Through him I found a ton of Mottola's!!!

Antonia, Dalila, Alberto, Gino, Alessandro, Alessio, Angelo, Ann, Christian, Christopher, Elisa, Enrico, Fabio, Federica, Floriano, Francesca, Francesco, Gabriela, Gabriele, Gianluca, Giorgio, Giovanni, Giulia, Ivano, Jaclyn, Joe, Joey, Jordan, Joseph, Judy, Luca, Luciano, Lucio, Marcela, Maria, Marie, Mike, Paride, Pasquale, Pierluigi, Pietro, Robert, Sara, Sean, Stephanie, Tommy, Vince...

My peoples!