Weekend Notes

Plenty happened over the weekend that requires at least a quick blurb or two.

HS Basketball

This was an evaluation weekend, when college coaches can come in and watch teams play, so CHS participated in one of the big, local events. Two games Friday, two Saturday.

The team went 3–1. They won two overtimes games, one in doubt OT. They crushed one team. And got hammered pretty good in the fourth game.[1] Other than that easy win, they were all against solid competition. Three of the games were against 3A programs that have all been good in recent years. The final game against a pretty good 4A program that we may play in a tournament over the holidays. Good competition.

You can still see our girls struggling to figure out their new post player and how to run the offense. They’ll get there. We still don’t have a consistent shooter. We are really going to miss having a pure point guard that you can’t take the ball away from. I’ve told L that is her path to more minutes, getting stronger with the ball.

She played ok. Had some nice moments in the overtime win Friday. Didn’t do much in the game we got pounded in. I was not able to go to the games Saturday and, naturally, she hit consecutive 3’s in the game we won in double OT. I yelled at her when she got home, saying now I can’t go to games again if she wants to keeping hitting 3’s.

This is the last week of summer ball and then we can start working more on some individual stuff.

Celebrations

Saturday was my birthday. How did I celebrate? By prepping for and hosting a surprise 50th party for a friend of ours. His wife had reached out to us a while back about having the party here. His birthday isn’t until July 1, so she targeted this coming weekend. But we will be at a wedding in Colorado, so she suggested last Saturday, not knowing that was my birthday. I didn’t care and she felt bad when she figured it out…about three weeks later. 😂 Again, I literally did not care so it worked out. And it was good cover to get him here, as he thought they were just coming over to have dinner with S and I for my birthday.

We had 40ish people over, which was a little awkward because we only knew a few of them. And a lot of them are pastors and elders in the church where he is a pastor. So we had to watch our language and keep the alcohol hidden until later in the evening. He was surprised, though, and the party turned out to be pretty nice. The weather was perfect allowing us to spread out on the pool deck. His wife ordered catering from Qdoba making the food easy. We just spent the day getting stuff set up, the house clean, etc. And then about an hour Sunday cleaning up. We did have a lot more fun when most of the church folks filtered out and I busted out the good cooler and we shared a couple beers to celebrate our birthdays.

Sunday evening we had S’s dad and stepmom over for a Father’s Day dinner. We were able to sit outside until the rain moved in. Thankfully, once again, the heavy storms were about an hour south of us and we just had hours of steady showers. There were tornadoes in the exact location where they were last Wednesday. That area might be cursed!

Traveller Update

M FaceTimed me early Saturday, my time, to wish me a happy birthday. I was literally five minutes out of bed and she had her roommates say happy birthday as well. I’m sure they appreciated by bed head and swollen eyes.

They were in Florence at the time, taking a break from the heat in their rental. Which, thankfully, had air conditioning.

They are in the midst of a week off from classes. The first three days were in Florence (after flying into Pisa). They are now in Rome until this Thursday. Then they will spend the weekend in Amalfi. Should be an amazing time, if they don’t melt.

A week ago, when I was in Chicago, they were in Nice and Monaco, which M said was her favorite weekend destination of her trip so far. I bet Italy surpasses it.

Other Sports

I missed the USMNT’s win Friday against Australia while watching basketball. That night I was watching another game and looking forward to seeing highlights at halftime. Fox, the network that crams USMNT content into every nook and cranny available, did not do any real highlights of the game at all. I was floored. They showed each of the US goals in slow motion replays while going to commercials. But not proper breakdown of the game, with high level replays that gave you an idea of the ebb and flow of the contest. If Fox can’t overshare US highlights, what are we doing?

The Fever lost twice to Atlanta since I last wrote about them. Both times the Fever turned close games into losses by failing to play defense for a quarter (or more). Saturday they gave up a 13–0 run in the third period and never recovered.

Even when I wasn’t playing golf – which I haven’t in three years now – watching the US Open was part of my Father’s Day weekend routine. We were so busy this week I wasn’t able to ever lock in. I did see Dustin Johnson have a wonderfully US Open experience Thursday, going bunker-bunker-bunker-over the green-two putt. That’s why the fans love this tournament!

Apparently Wyndham Clark played great for three days then nearly fell apart yesterday but held on to win his second Open. A lot of people I follow seem annoyed by him. Since I don’t follow golf closely at the moment I don’t really have an opinion. I think his first name is kind of dumb; I guess that’s an opinion. But my name probably sounds dumb to some people, and he didn’t choose it, so I can’t really hold that against him.