Month: May 2016 (Page 1 of 2)

Weekend Notes

We had a very solid, if slightly less hectic than usual, Memorial Day weekend.

L and I kicked it off Friday with her class field trip to [Conner Prairie]. This is the one field trip I’ve done with all three girls. As always, it was a lot of fun. The forecast has us worried we would get wet, but the storms never popped up and while it was warm, it never got super hot like it did for M and I four years ago.


Normally Memorial Day weekend is a lake weekend for us. This year S was on-call all weekend, which meant we couldn’t cut out of town. Well, we could have, but she would have had to drive back every morning to round on babies. Figured it was easier to stay home.

We did get some water time, though. Some friends have a new boat on the big, suburban lake that is about 15 minutes from us. We spent Sunday with them. We got on the water early, getting wet for the first time around 10:00.

M and C both tubed with their friends. M tried to water ski! I’ve only tried to water ski once in my life, and that was sometime in the early 80s. So I had no tips for her. And our hosts forgot to tell her that if you don’t get up, let go of the rope. So she got drug face-first for a bit until she realized she needed to drop the rope. It was good for her. We were just thrilled that she made the attempt. She’s come a long way with being daring enough to try new things over the past few summers.


Sunday also featured a very weird 30 minutes or so. During that span, I received two text messages. One brought exceptionally good news for a relative who has been waiting for good news for a long time. The other brought terrible, unexpected news for a very good friend. I got them both on the boat, so was feeling elation and excitement after the first message, and was stunned and saddened by the second.

Yesterday we began trying to get things together for our trip to Boston, which begins Thursday. It was in the 90s in Boston last week, but will only be in the 60s–70s during our visit. So it’s been a bit of a challenge to figure out what clothes to pack.

The girls are very excited. They will get to spend time with their one-year-old cousin and see their aunt and uncle’s new house. If the weather cooperates we plan on doing a lot of the traditional walking-tour stuff that Boston offers. We have duck boat tickets. I’m going to a Red Sox game. And we’re spending two days on Cape Cod. This will be my third trip to Boston, but first chance to spend time in the city. I’m pretty excited, too.

But first we have to get through the last two days of school. Today is field day and tomorrow is early dismissal at 1:00. Pretty much a total waste, but I guess we have to get to 180 days so the state is happy. C has her final softball game tonight and the girls will go to their first swim team practice tomorrow night and have their intra-squad meet the day after we get back from Boston. Straight into summer activities!

⦿ Wednesday Links

I can’t seem to sit down and knock out a couple of the ideas I have for longer posts. I have a few projects around the house. I spend some time each day on my sports coordinator activities. And, let’s face it, I’m an epically lazy person; I can put shit off with the best of them.

So rather than finish one of those ideas this morning, I’ll take care of something else I have not done in far too long: share links!


Let’s kick it off with some heavier, political links. Both of these pieces look at how the traditional political boundaries of the past 100-or-so years are blurring, and what that may mean for the near future.

The rise of national socialism: Why Austria’s revolution is not over

How young ‘liberal’ Americans could become racist right-wingers


This is over a month old, so a lot of you have probably read it. But it is one of the best long-form sports pieces I’ve ever read. Wright Thompson on what the hell happened to Tiger Woods.

The Secret History of Tiger Woods


Ever wonder where Fremulon came from? The Hollywood Reporter looked into where the names of some of the most popular production companies came from. No Sit, Ubu, sit, though.

41 Hollywood Producers Explain the Weird, Personal Origins of Their Company Names


I’ve recently become an occasional poster to Instagram.[1] Which made this piece strike a little close to home. I’ll try to keep it in mind on our next trip.

Instagram Is Ruining Vacation


I love things like this, which show how our modern conveniences sometimes have unexpected consequences for innocent folks. At least I love them as long as they never directly affect me.

How an internet mapping glitch turned a random Kansas farm into a digital hell


Joe Posnanski ranked the top 100 Olympians of all time. Because of course he did.


Journey was my first ever favorite group. Man, did I love them from 1981 until 1986 or so. The grunge years turned me into a big-time hater, and that hate has never really softened. I’ll listen to some of their late 70s jams,[2] but that’s it. But my history with the band meant I enjoyed reading this effort to show that they really weren’t a bad band at all.

In an album-oriented rock era, Journey became an outstanding singles band


And finally, The Atlantic dipped into its archives to look back on some of the best photos of 1986. There is much goodness here.

Only in ’86
Only in ’86

  1. Find me at d_brann  ↩
  2. “Wheel In The Sky” is pretty great.  ↩

I Will Never Understand People

They’re the worst.

Two stories of awful people I’ve encountered recently.


A couple weeks back I was at the grocery store. I rounded one aisle and turned into the next. A woman – probably 45–50ish – was looking at some items on the shelf. She had her cart parked so that the entire aisle was blocked. The way she was facing, she should have been able to see me clearly; it’s not like I’m a small dude. I waited patiently for a moment or two, but she made no move to either take a step back or move her cart so I could pass. After waiting an additional few seconds, I cleared my throat and very politely said, “Excuse me, please.”

Her response? No quick, unnecessary apology and adjustment of her cart to the side of the aisle she was on, as 99% of sane people do when you say excuse me at a grocery store. No, this woman sighed deeply and moved her cart the absolute minimum necessary to allow me to pass. Apparently I was putting her out by making a polite request to not stand and watch her select between brands of tortilla chips.

If you know me, you know I’m non-confrontational by nature. But this was so ridiculous I almost said something to her. I even paused for a second as I passed to see if she would look at me, hoping a witty and scathing comment would come to mind. You know I have to be pretty fired up to almost  say something to a complete stranger that is rude!


That was annoying and inconsiderate, but our next terrible person tops her.

Our drive from school takes us along a fairly busy stretch of road that expands to a five-lane highway briefly. In this stretch, there are some businesses set to the side, with a small street for access between them and the barrier to the highway.

As we passed this area yesterday, I noticed there was a car stopped in the middle of that side street. Both the driver and driver-side rear door were open, and an older gentleman was standing on the side of the car. He looked vaguely like my father-in-law, so I took a second glance. I noticed something odd about his posture. I took a third glance and WHOA!

This dude was standing in the middle of the street, facing a busy highway, with his dick out pissing in the street! I don’t know if he was making some kind of political statement, if he was suffering from a disease or condition that caused him to make socially inappropriate decisions, or he just couldn’t hold it until he got to the McDonald’s or gas station that were 500 feet down the road.

I’ve seen plenty of people pissing in the trees on the side of the highway, backs to the road. But this was a first, with a guy just letting it flow for anyone to see. Thank goodness the girls were busy arguing about something in the backseats and didn’t notice!

Friday Playlist

Finally back to mixed media. Our Spotify playlist features some fine tunes for your listening pleasure and our vid is a (very) old-school jam that is sure to brighten your day.

 

“Save Me” – Fernando. A pretty fabulous rootsy track from the Argentina-born, Portland-based artist. REM alum Peter Buck helped out on his latest album, and this track.

“The Only One” – the boy i used to be. These cats are from Portsmouth, England, UK. This song sounds equally British (a little Madchester, a little Shoegaze) and California (the jangly main riff).

“Anxious Animal” – Syvia. I’ve been listening to – and loving – this song for about a month, but just finally spun Syvia’s entire EP earlier this week. It’s fabulous, and very reminiscent of early (and great) Metric. There’s a little Mic Fleetwood in the drums, too.

“Fill In The Blank” – Car Seat Headrest. This song has been out for a month or so, but the album just hit (digitally) today. I’m listening to it right now. I may think there’s a better song than this when I’m done, but it’s still a pretty good introduction to the band.

 

“Ride Your Pony” – Lee Dorsey

My main man Erick R shared this vid last Friday. It’s pretty much 1000% great. From the song itself, to the dancing, to the rather muted response from the crowd, to the fact there are five (5!!!) guys holding saxophones on the stage. 

Spring Sports

You know what you all need? You all need a damned spring sports update, that’s what you need!

Kickball

This was our first season with two kickballers. Which made for all kinds of scheduling fun, believe me. Fortunately, thanks to having friends on both teams, the girls always got to all of their games, even if S or I couldn’t be there.

M had her best season yet. She was very excited that, since no St. P’s sixth graders were playing this spring, they put all the fifth graders on one team. It wasn’t really an A team – their division had quite an assortment of talent – but she liked to think she was finally on an A team.

The night of M’s first game, I was keeping score at C’s game. The coach who was giving M a ride was supposed to call me when they got back to her house. When she called, we were in the middle of an inning, having a discussion with the umpire about the run rule, so I let it go to voicemail. About 10 seconds later, my phone rings again. This time it was M’s head coach. Why would she be calling right after the other coach called? I had a moment of panic as I swiped to answer, worried that M was hurt.

“Hey, this is K. I was just calling to let you know…that M had the best game of her life tonight!”

My heart leaped, dropped, then leaped again. The coach went on to tell me that M kicked the ball over the outfielders’ heads twice and made three great defensive plays. Afterward, M told her coach, “I wish my dad was here to see it!”

Yep, it was a little tough keeping score the next half inning.

M continued to have a great season. She kicked better, and harder, than she’s ever kicked before. She often played Suicide, the spot next to the pitcher that has to be ready to field hard-kicked balls quickly. She threw out girls at first from deep down the third base line. She even caught a few popups, which she had never done before.

Her team did well. As I said, their division was rather interesting. There was one team that was almost all sixth graders. Another team had mostly fourth graders. M’s team lost just two games, both to the mostly sixth grade team, both times by two runs. In the second game they had a five run lead with two innings to play and let it get away. Their best kicker came up in the last inning with the bases loaded, and two outs, and made her only infield out of the year to end the game. Those two games were a lot of fun to watch. Where C’s games often took as long as 90 minutes, these two were both done in about 35 minutes. When the girls understand how to play defense to changes everything.

Then they also beat the poor team with fourth graders by 52 runs one night. In just five innings.

But the girls had fun. And I think Meghan enjoyed it more than every since she contributed so much more than in the past.

C had a good season, too. The third graders are mixed with fourth graders in the spring, so the games aren’t complete disasters as they learn how to play, and she got three of the best St. P’s fourth graders on her team. When they won, they won big. I think they run-ruled three different teams. But when they lost, it was always in frustrating manner. They lost four games, all by one or two runs, every time falling behind/losing in the last inning.

C’s performance fit her personality perfectly. Offensively, she was really good. She can kick the crap out of the ball, then fly down the line. Her problem was she often popped the ball up and the defense would catch it. But when she got on base, she almost always scored, as her coach usually had her kick right before the fourth grader who usually kicked 2–3 home runs a game.

In the field, C was kind of a spazz. If the ball was kicked to her, she was never sure what to do with it. Throw it to first? To the pitcher? To the nearest base? You could see her panicking as she faked herself out by considering every option. Then, after she got rid of the ball, she would turn, flip her hair, and act like nothing happened. Like I said, kind of spazz. Most of the first-year players struggle with that part of the game, so she was not alone.

She finished off her season well. In her last at bat of the year, she came up with the bases loaded, kicked the shit out of the ball, and got a grand slam. The first official B girl kickball home run![1]

My favorite part about that kick was her previous time on base, she scored from first and clearly missed touching third. I was keeping score and stand right behind third base. After the next pitch, I called her over and whispered, “Nice running! Make sure you touch the bases, though. You missed third.” She nodded and got back in order. She most definitely did not touch third on her grand slam, but luckily neither the other team, their scorekeeper, nor the umpire noticed.

Soccer

L is again in the U8 league, again often playing against bigger kids. And she’s had another good year personally. But there was some turnover on her team’s roster. The two kids she played best with decided to play baseball and softball this spring, so for the first time in three seasons she was without them. The good side of that was they were replaced by St. P’s kids; seven of the eight on the team are first graders together. That meant there was a lot of silliness during games. And losing those two good players hurt the team. L had only lost one soccer game in her life coming into this season. With one game left to play, they’ve lost at least four times this year. Last year she and those other kids worked really well together. One would draw the defense and pass away to an open teammate. I’m not sure this year’s team has made more than five intentional passes all season. They all just put their heads down and barrel toward the goal.

She’s continued her goal-scoring. She has scored at least two in every game. One game she had 7 or 8. She is still really good at controlling the ball and at taking it away and then getting it up the field. But the second graders seem a little bigger this spring than they were in the fall, and her entire team has struggled at times to match up physically. Last Sunday they were getting shoved all over the place. L scored two goals but no one else could get close to the box.

After that game, during the handshake line, we noticed the other coach said something to L. We asked her what afterward and she said “She asked me where I went to school.” Was the coach just interested? Did she recognize L from somewhere? Or was she recruiting? I was taking pictures during the line and had to laugh when I was editing them because there is a series where that coach is clearly talking to L while she’s shaking other kids’ hands.

Softball

C is in her second season of softball. As expected, with the move up to kids pitch, it’s been a struggle. She can still hit the ball pretty well when she makes contact. But that contact part has been tough.

It’s not necessarily because of the speed of the pitches. I think it has more to do with the wildness that comes with kids pitch. One pitch is over your head, the next bounces home, then the third is right down the middle. I think C has had a hard time staying locked in when so many pitches aren’t worth considering. If you get to ball four, the coach comes in to pitch. All but one of her hits this year have come off the coach. She’s also got in a bad habit of bailing out on any pitch that is close to inside. She’s been called out on strikes several times this year when she’s had her front foot out of the batter’s box as she stepped away from the pitch.

On defense she’s spent most of her time in the outfield, so she hasn’t seen a lot of action. She’s complained to me about that, but when she’s been given a chance to play third or shortstop, she’s not always paid the closest attention to the game and let a few balls get by her.

Compounding all this is her team’s record: they haven’t won a game yet. A week ago they tied, with C standing on third with the winning run and one out but unable to get home. We had hit the time limit and it was about to start pouring, so we ended the game knotted up at 9–9. One lousy hit and C scores the winning run. She was excited about the possibility.

“Dad! I could have won the game!”

Monday she got a hit and stole second. She was standing there, not really paying attention, and missed a chance to steal third.[2] After another passed ball she took off. Most teams don’t try to throw out the runner but this catcher pounced on the ball and made a really good throw to third. C was two steps away from the base but saw the third baseman reaching for the throw, so she turned around and ran all the way back to second. At least she’s fast.

She’s not been thrilled with this season. She’s not getting hits, she doesn’t like the long innings in the outfield, there’s only one St. P’s girl on her team, and losing sucks. She’s already told us she doesn’t want to play again. She wants to continue to run cross country in the fall, start track next spring, and do kickball both seasons. We’re fine with her sticking to CYO sports with their three-week seasons. But wish we wouldn’t have invested in a nice helmet for her before this season began. Oh well…


  1. M, as you may recall, had a “home run” last year when she bunted, the Suicide booted the ball 20 feet behind home plate, and M circled the bases before the defense could retrieve it.  ↩
  2. In this league, you can steal but only if the ball gets by the catcher.  ↩

Ten

Well, well, well, we now have two double-digit kids in the house! C turns the big 1–0 today.

A birthday divisible by five means you get a big party in our family, and C cashed that in on Saturday. She had five friends over for the requisite pizza, cupcakes, and then a very special spa evening.

After a week of thorough cleaning and a couple well-placed tarps on the floor and against an especially grungy garage door, our garage was magically transformed into a nail salon and spa. C and her five buddies put on robes and flip-flops (which they all got to take home), drank Mocktails in fancy glasses, and read Teenie Bopper magazines while S, one of C’s aunts, and M all took turns giving them foot baths and massages and then painted their toe and finger nails.[1] It was a pretty hilarious site, especially since a couple of the girls invited aren’t very girly. One mom told me earlier in the week that she couldn’t wait to see how we got her daughter to sit still and get her toenails painted. That kid ended up having a great time, although she probably enjoyed the girly stuff a little less than the other girls.


The girls also pleased us immensely by spending a good portion of the night trashing Justin Bieber. They all had balloons and began writing things like “I Hate Justin McButt” on them. Not the most lady-like behavior but I approve of their disdain.


C is right in that sweet spot where I don’t have to change much what I say about her in my birthday posts. She’s still our most emotional kid. She is the big dreamer of the three, to the point where she works things up in her head and if they don’t happen exactly the way she wants them to, it turns into a disaster. She’s the sweetest of our girls, but also the most frustrating. She operates on a completely different kind of joy than her sisters. No one giggles more, or more genuinely, than her. And her special blend of silliness just kills you when she’s wound up. She has 1000 different interests and struggles to stick with one for a long time, which reminds me of myself at her age. We laugh when people who haven’t known her for long say, “She’s your quiet one, right?” I suppose she is, but that’s just because she’s the most reserved in public.

I’ll be honest, she’s the kid I worry about most. Her impulse control has always been an issue. She gets herself worked up over minor setbacks. She also lets her frustrations get in the way of success. I fear how she’s going to deal with peer pressure later in life.

She’s our fashionista, our artist, our Buddy the Elf who stays up until the wee hours working on “projects” when she should be sleeping.

She drives us crazy with her mood swings and the messes she leaves in her wake. But she melts our hearts with her many thoughtful gestures. It’s hard to believe she’s been with us for ten whole years now.


  1. As house photographer I was busy taking pictures and occasionally keeping water from getting on extension cords.  ↩

The Twelfth Man

I had a very busy Friday; I left the house with the girls in the morning and didn’t return until after school. Then I had to dive right into the yard work as C’s birthday party was Saturday and we had a softball game plus bad weather to work around.

So apologies for not sharing any music Friday.

To kick off this week, I thought I’d share this mini-movie of the scenes before a recent Tyne-Wear Derby: the rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland in the British Premier League. Although I’m sure things are indeed very tense at these matches, I think the rather magnificent editing has added a little extra sense of menace to that day’s affairs.

As I watch, though, I think how different our sports in America are. After pretty much every NFL weekend we see videos of a couple drunk dudes fighting in the stands or parking lot. And there are plenty of incidents at baseball, basketball, hockey, and other events. But here it almost always is focused on the individual. It can be annoying to run into a group of fans of your rival at a game – especially if it’s after the game and you lost – but is there ever a scene like any of these? At our worst, sometimes people are throwing ice and cups and bottles from the safety of a group at another group. But we don’t have masses of people being kept from law enforcement from charging each other.

I did not enjoy watching Villanova fans celebrate around me in Louisville a month ago, but none of them threatened me, or the KU people around me, in any way. They just cheered their team and they fellow fans.

Even if the editing does exaggerate the actual threat posed to anyone in the midst of these pregame rallies, it’s still a pretty amazing little film.

 

 

April Books

Yikes, I forgot to share my April books. Which is kind of understandable, as it was just a two-book month. A beast followed by a palate cleanser.


My Struggle, Book 2: A Man In Love – Karl Ove Knausgaard. My feelings about this mirror my feelings about Book 1: I keep wondering why I’m enjoying it so much. Why am I spending three-plus weeks to wade through Scandinavian navel-gazing? Something about it is compelling, that’s for sure. And I think it’s the little moments of brilliance that are popping up. They are frequent enough to make the slog worth it.

This volume very much revolved around his relationship with his second wife. As with the first book, there is always the sense he is sharing a little too much about her issues with the rest of the world. But there is also the question of how much of his books are pure memoir, how much are fiction, and where the separating point between the two lies.

I did especially enjoy the opening section of the book, a nearly 70-page breakdown of Knausgaard taking his young children to a birthday party. There was a lot of truth in that section.


I Don’t Care If We Never Get Back – Ben Blatt and Eric Brewster. And then this delightful little book by two Harvard Lampoon alums about their efforts to see 30 Major League Baseball games in 30 big league cities in 30 days. All by car.

Blatt was the baseball nut who hoped to break into the game using analytics. Brewster was his buddy who didn’t really care for baseball, but thought the idea of the trip was an interesting diversion between graduation and entering the real world of adulthood. Following a path carved out by an algorithm Blatt wrote, they began in New York on June 1, 2013. In Denver, they slept through a game after not accounting for a time zone change. A rainout cost them the chance of knocking out a Cubs-Sox two-fear in Chicago. Twice they had to completely revamp their plans in order to make it work. They also had to run into the lucky break of Toronto playing a day game on Canada Day – July 1 – that would allow them to finish before the end of their 30th day.

Along the way they had adventures, pissed each other off, got pulled over, lost a hood-mounted GoPro, and Brewster pulled an epic prank on Blatt involving the Indians TV announcer.

What started off as a silly book became one that was laugh-out-loud funny and often poignant. I think every baseball fan at some point has thought about doing a summer road trip that squeezed in as many games in as many towns as possible. While that idea once held some romance, after reading this book I’m glad I never tried to pull it off.

LVS Weekend #1

Last weekend was a very important one on the family calendar: the opening of the Local Vacation Spot (LVS for you newbies) and the putting-in of the boat. These weekends are often good for a laugh or two, as S and I bump up against our many limitations in mechanical knowledge and ability.

I’m happy to say the weekend was an almost complete success. We picked the boat up and got it down to the lake without incident. We got the boat into the water faster than we ever have before. It started right up and ran just fine as I took it back to the dock. And we brought in enough fuel to ensure we didn’t run dry on our one trip around the lake later in the day.[1] Oh, and the house was still standing and fully operational. We went entirely too long without coming down to check on it and I was a little nervous about what we might find.

Now the weather was not great. We dodged showers off-and-on Saturday. But there were enough breaks so I could get the yard mowed and S and family got our new solar lights installed on path down to the water. After some steadier rain rolled by, the sun burst forth just in time for us to load all our guests onto the boat and take it for a leisurely lap. I do enjoy the rare days we’re out in the boat and A) not many other people are on the water and B) there isn’t much wind so the lake is nice and calm. I like these days because you can go fast!

We also had a most excellent fire that I lit around noon to drive away the bugs and was still going strong when we scurried inside to avoid a downpour around 10:00 that evening. A lot of limbs, big and small, had fallen since our last visit sometime last fall.

Sunday was a complete washout, but that allowed us to get the house all cleaned up and ready to go for the summer.

There was one surprise that greeted us, though. As I approached our dock for the first time, I saw a goose swimming toward me rather intently, honking away. Then I saw there was another goose sitting in the mulch bed on the edge of our property, about 10 feet from our boat slip. Yep, we have a Mother Goose of our own!

She was not thrilled when we came down to pick up sticks, open up the shed, or when I mowed within about 20 feet of her. She also did not enjoy me pulling the boat into the dock a little later. She stretched her neck out as long as it would reach, low to the ground, and followed every movement of the person closest to her. She looked like a damn snake. But she remained on her nest.

Mother Goose
Mother Goose

Later in the day I went down to check on her and caught her away from the nest. I was able to get within about 10 feet or so. I saw four or five large eggs in the nest she scraped out of the mulch. When we took our lap on the boat and checked out some other coves, we came across a family of ducks and ducklings, and two geese with their goslings. ’Tis the season and all.

Sunday, when it came time to cover up the boat before we left, I decided I needed a little barrier between me and Mama. So I took one of our porch chairs and placed it between the edge of the boat where we would be attaching the cover and the nest. Homegirl hated me getting that close. She popped up and hissed, but never made a move toward me. I kept one eye on her the entire time we were snapping the cover on, but she just did her weird, snake-neck thing.

Because of sports and birthdays and school and S’s schedule, we won’t be down for a weekend for at least three more weeks. Hopefully between now and then there is a successful hatching and the geese decide to move to the opposite side of our cove, where there are two unoccupied houses. I don’t think they’re going to enjoy it when we start having people down in early June.


  1. The gas station at our marina does not open until Memorial Day weekend, so you have to bring your own gas in until then. The perils of being on a very small lake.  ↩
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