My season ticket rep sent me the pertinent info:

General Public sales start at 10 a.m PDT on April 17.

As a season ticket holder, I can buy tickets already, so for any of you who are DEFINITELY going, I'd be happy to help out.

since they won't let me publish a message under 75 words, I think I'll say...

VILLA VILLA VILLA! VILLA VILLA VILLA! VILLA VILLA VILLA! VILLA VILLA VILLA! VILLA VILLA VILLA! VILLA VILLA VILLA!

Kirsten wrote what many of us were thinking when we heard the news that Chelsea had decided spending 13.3 million Euros on a manager should only get you about three-fourths of a season.

Andre Villas-Boas seems made for Aston Villa.

The problem is that, with finances being what they are at the moment, and with so much turnover in the last few years, Villa probably isn't going to be in the market for a new manager unless they manage to get themselves relegated.

Which means we shouldn't sell the idea of Villa hiring Villas Boas as much as we should sell Chelsea on the idea of hiring Alex McLeish.

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Sorry for the delay guys with the update, but I bring good news.

Basically Delph showed his class once more in the game vs Brighton. His tackling was spot on (I know I can't believe it either).

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There is a protest scheduled Saturday at Villa Park.

From what ive read, this seems to be an issue that has divided Villa fans. I was just curious to what everyones views were on this as well as the controversy around McLeish (will he or wont he take the England job, he is basically a shoo-in).

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Last night's game against Birmingham was a pretty hard one to take, we played well for the first 30 minutes, got battered 1-4, and now Simon Grayson has been sacked. In the mix of all that Fabian Delph played again, so apologises for not getting straight to him, but at the moment everything is confusing at Elland Road. And to make it even worse it was BIRMINGHAM...so you lot should hate this too.

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I've decided to do a little series of articles for you Villa supporters about the progress of Fabian Delph while he is on loan at Leeds United. I'll hopefully be on SB Nation myself soon enough when my Leeds blog gets added, but enough of me and back to Delph.

His return to the club comes at a time of desperation and disgust from some Leeds fans. We've had enough of Ken Bates and his ownership of the club, and having Delph back was a little breath of fresh air. His homecoming is earlier expected, in his own words he said he thought he might be back one day and well now he is.

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Logos in American sports are fairly literal.  Teams called the Wildcats have a logo of a wildcat.  Soccer crests are less literal.  This is probably because, especially in England,  a lot of these teams were founded in the late 1800s and early 1900s and their nicknames have a unique background.

No part of Aston Villa Football Club infers a lion, but the Villa crest has a lion right in the middle.  And there's been a lion in the crest since the earliest version I could find.  (According to the Villa sites, it's the Rampant Lion of Scotland, there because of the influence of William McGregor and George Ramsay.)

Some crests, don't make much sense.  And thanks to the magic that is Wikipedia, here are some amusing ones.

This all started off for me, when I found the crest of FC Avenir Beggen, a third division club from Luxembourg.

That does appear to be a gnome humping a football.

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I'll say this: for all of our differences, Seattle and Portland are eerily similar. First, both cities were clearly designed by Easterners, and IMO, Seattle WREAKS of Boston. My girlfriend thought it looked like DC. I think that, if Portland wasn't divided by a river, and if half of our "downtown" buildings weren't on the other side of said river, the panoramas would, again, be eerily similar. It makes sense to say that similarity breeds rivalry.

Anyway, I went in with an open mind, all prejudices aside, and came back with a mixed bag of thoughts

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I seek the infinite wisdom of our Seattle friends on this blog:

My infinitely-patient fiancee agreed to come with me to see Thin Lizzy (my all-time favorite band) open for Judas Priest at the WaMu on the 29th. We're literally going to see the original drummer, Brian Downey, the 2nd original lead guitar (after Eric Bell quit, they changed from a 3-piece to a 4), Scott Gorham, and a bunch of mercenaries play 9 songs - then we're leaving.  It's all a bit nuts, but seeing Lizzy is on my bucket list, and they're not getting any younger. Plus, I get to rock my Villa jersey with 77 LYNOTT on the back. Yeah, baby!

As much as I'd love to support a good Brummie boy and stick around for Judas Priest, it's just not happening, especially if we have to sit through BLS first. Instead, we're going out to dinner! I have my heart set on Olivar (Loire/Catalan fusion? Yes please!), but know very little about how to get there. We're staying at the W, and rather than drive, we'd rather cab or bus. Are cabs plentiful? The restaurant is by the Harvard Exit Theater (no clue)...is there anything to do up there, or are we better off going out elsewhere after dinner? I really appreciate any and all advice.

Cheers.

Now to sort out the playoff picture for Euro 2012 qualification. Keep in mind that one runner-up out of the nine will not advance to the playoffs. Because most groups have six teams while others have five, to make it fair the second-place teams in a group of six have their points against the last-place teams subtracted from their points total. Again full standings here.

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