Fitness Update
A belated review of my fitness activity in April-through-June. You can read about the first quarter of the year (and L’s ED visit) here. I exercised 73% of the days in those three months, which I was hoping to beat in Q2. Which I did. Barely. Officially I was at 73.3% in Q1. This past quarter I was at 73.6%. May was my best month of the year, but then a couple travel weekends, pool issues, and a heat wave in June made that my worst month of the year. The good news is I’ve locked in this month and…
On Malcolm
Celebrity deaths that are somehow connected to your childhood always hit a little harder. But, man, the news that Malcom-Jamal Warner drowned while on vacation in Costa Rica had an extra big wallop to it. Part of it was the circumstances. Pretty much every person who reads this has been on a vacation with a loved one and gone for a swim. Thus while incredibly tragic, Warner’s death had an everyday quality to it. Bigger was that Warner was one of the few heroes of my late childhood who was roughly my age.[1] Almost everything he was going through…
Weekend Notes
Once again this weekend notes piece will involve more than what went on from Friday to Sunday. I’ll start with a focus on the actual weekend, though. WNBA All Star Game The best players in the league were all in Indy over the weekend for Saturday’s All Star Game. While that was exciting, it was tempered a bit by Caitlin Clark getting injured again Tuesday and not participating in either the 3-point contest Friday or playing in the All Star Game Saturday. She did “coach” her team, though. The biggest point of this section is that L got to go…
Friday Playlist
This week’s playlist is dominated by the ladies. “Pool Hopping” – illuminati hotties Yeah, pool hopping sounds great and all, until every pool you jump into is 95°. “Jealous Boy” – The Bug Club A suggestion from brother-in-music E$. I’ve been trying to figure out who this group sounds like for a couple weeks but can’t quite pin it down. So I stopped worrying about it and focus on enjoying the song. “davina mccall” – Wet Leg I somehow completely missed their new album dropping last week. It has an 86 on Album of the Year, so I need to…
Reader’s Notebook, 7/17/25
This week has gone a little off the rails. We are expecting a contractor at the house shortly, which was planned. Had another very much unplanned visit on Tuesday that ended up costing us the equivalent of a nice vacation. More about those next week, probably. I had planned on saving my latest RN post for after I finish my current book. I’ll go ahead and post what I have to get some content up for my loyal readers. The Barn – Wright Thompson One of the most difficult books I’ve ever read. Thompson dives deep into the 1955 murder…
Tuesday Links
Bruce Springsteen’s Tracks II set came out a few weeks ago. I’m not a big enough fan to wade through all the songs, but I did sample the ones highlighted in the various articles that dropped at the same time. Naturally, Steven Hyden had the best of the bunch. Another Side of Bruce Springsteen At some point I lost touch with Joe Posnanski, I believe it was when he took all his posts behind a paywall and stopped writing regularly for any commercial sites. Thankfully I was forwarded this piece and see that it looks like his site is free…
Weekend Notes
We had a great weekend highlighted by some visitors, both local and from KC, and lots of basketball. But first we need to jump back and review C’s trip to Bloomington for orientation. Orientation We got up bright and early to make check-in at 9:00 AM last Monday. Thank goodness the I–69 extension is finally complete after a decade of work. Once you get out of the Indy construction it is a breeze to get to B-town. No more stoplights every two miles! For the first 90 minutes we were together, but then separated for the rest of the day.…
Friday Playlist
Between the holiday weekend and me spending mornings watching the Tour de France, I’ve been a little slower on getting through the music this week. I think I can still come up with a few decent ones to share with y’all. “Summertime” – The Sundays Pure pop genius. “Paint A Picture” – The Hives Yes, it is those Hives, back for more nonsense. “Stay Out Of Place” – Idlewild Speaking of bands that first broke out in the early part of the new millennium, these Scots are also back with new music. No where near their best, but I will…
Greatest Songs Of The Century (So Far)
It’s been 12 years since I’ve updated my Favorite Songs of All Time list. Which seems like a crime for someone like me: a music freak with lots of free time and a blog. I’ve thought about it a lot, trust me. I’ve reached the point in my life, though, where the return on that process doesn’t seem to justify the effort that would go into it. Streaming has messed with my head too, and I just don’t listen to the old songs as often as I used to, so I think I’m worried I would need to scrap big…
Holiday Weekend Notes
C and I are off to Bloomington early Monday morning for her IU orientation, thus the Sunday evening post. Our holiday weekend was a little less chaotic than in recent years, so I’ll throw in some other stuff that happened over the past week as well. Holiday Weekend Our Fourth was fairly laid back, at least compared to recent years. We only had 15 relatives over, and just two of the young nephews were here so the pool was all theirs. I have a new Blackstone griddle and used it to cook burgers, brats, and hot dogs. I thought they…