Ignore for know the fact that the next Copa America is in Hugo Chavez land. The American soccer blogs are a twitter with the news from Sunil Gulati that the US is expecting a formal invitation to the 2007 edition of the Copa America. I, along with everyone else, want to see our team take part in the competition. The American player needs more high level competition, in games against quality opponents with real pride on the line if we want to avoid another World Cup like the last one. Plus, we can see if we need to add South America to the list of continents where Landon Donovan doesn't play well.

I'll chalk this up to living on my own a bit, but I was always somewhat skeptical of the dates they put on food. This lead to adventurous cooking experiences, and food in the fridge that eventually resembled a 7th grade science fair. On the other hand, Staci religiously follows the dates printed on food packaging. Even if the milk or whatever looks and smells fine, she's not going to overrule the date based on impirical data gathered by yours truly.

Business Week has an article to help you sort out what the dates mean, and how to interpet them - we'll see if we can reach some sort of compromise at the Merida house.

The dates, for one, mean quite different things. For instance, "sell by" is more a guide for the store to know how long it can display a product for sale. The "best before" or "best if used by" date refers to a quality or flavor of the food. "Use by" works more like an expiration date, similar to that on medicines, and taking them after the date is not recommended.

Its gonna be a long afternoon when for no reason you get a corey hart song stuck in your head