D's Notebook

Tag: parenting (Page 1 of 73)

Weekend Notes

June 9, 2025 /

Pacers

Well, the Thunder showed up Sunday evening. As has been routine in these playoffs, the Pacers missed a ton of open looks early as they fell behind. The difference in game two was that I don’t think it would have mattered. OKC was absolutely locked in from the beginning and once they took the lead on a 10–0 run the result was never in doubt. The 42–21 run in the second quarter was too much for the Pacers Devil Magic to overcome.

What amazes me most about the Thunder’s D is how it is actually good defense. With one exception, they don’t foul a ton. They are just in your shirt through effort, speed, and talent. They refuse to let you get by, doing so because they move their feet faster than you move yours. They get their chests into you and leave their hands off, saving those to swipe at the ball rather than grab and hold like so many other teams do. Which makes it even tougher because you can’t complain to the refs in hopes of getting some calls to ease their pressure.

As I said, there’s one exception, and that is Alex Caruso. That dude fouls 15 times on every play. His hands are always on whoever he is guarding, wrapping them up, pulling them, etc. The Thunder might not be in the Finals had the refs called him even occasionally for how he beat up Nikola Jokic in the Denver series.[1]

That wouldn’t have made a difference last night, either. The Thunder were better and more focused while the Pacers missed their chance to stay close early then let OKC’s pressure get most of them sped up.

Tyrese Haliburton was a little passive early. Which brings me to my complaint about the announcers, especially Richard Jefferson. He kept ranting about how Hali needed to be more aggressive, take more shots, insert himself into the action. Which I agree with a little bit. At the same time I wondered if Jefferson had watched the Pacers/Hali at all during the regular season. That is never their game. Hali gets on hot streaks but it almost always happens in the second half. Not because he’s passive, but more because he’s a pass-first point guard and the Pacers spend first halves spreading the ball, getting everyone involved, breaking down the defense, and then Hali pounces when they get tired and either over-help or get lazy. I agree the Pacers need to play a little out of character if they want to win this series. But you can’t be something you’re not. Hali taking 35 shots is not a recipe for winning in OKC. Still, he probably needs to take more than three shots by the mid-point of the second quarter.

The Pacers lost far more because most of the other players stunk Sunday, regardless of what Hali did.

My other big takeaway: SGA is incredible. That dude hits shots that just don’t make sense all night long. Like from a physics standpoint. He’s not a small dude at 6’6”, but he is so wiry you don’t expect him to have the strength to hit turn-around, fade-away jumpers from 20-feet after putting three moves on his defender. It’s outrageous.

Thankfully the refs have yet to bail him out with the weak calls he tends to draw in the regular season. The Pacers have also done a nice job of being physical with him up until he throws his foul-drawing moves at them. I like that they’ve let both teams be physical without it ever getting out of hand. Let’s hope that continues and SGA isn’t shooting 15 free throws a night the rest of the series.

Bummer of a game, but the series is tied coming back to Indy, which is the best the Pacers could have hoped for. Just as the Thunder have bounced back from each of their playoff losses, so too have the Pacers. They’ll have the crowd the next two games, along with the comforts of home. They need to find a way to better attack the Thunder and withstand their pressure if they want to go back to Oklahoma with a chance to still win the title.

French Open

I was an occasional watcher of the French Open over the past two weeks, but Saturday I watched every minute of the fantastic Coco Gauff – Aryna Sabalenka final. It was an intense and entertaining match. Just like when they played in the US Open final two years ago, Sabalenka was dominant early before Coco righted herself and stole the match. One of the things I found most fascinating about the match was that the older, more experienced player was the one who lost her shit while the younger one played almost without emotion. It’s like Coco knew Sabalenka would crack if she could stay in the match long enough. She just keeps living up to the crazy hype that accompanied her arrival on the scene seven years ago.

I was in-and-out for the mens match Sunday. I was passing through the room when Jannik Sinner was sitting on three match points, so I turned the TV off and went outside to deal with a pool issue. Several hours later when I glanced at ESPN I was amazed to see that Carlos Alcaraz had come back and won. HOW?!?!?! And he won the closing tiebreak 10–2??? Holy shit! An NBA writer said that was like opening an overtime period with seven straight alley-oop dunks.

Pool

I thought I was having one pool issue late last week. It turned out to not be an issue, but rather a sign that a much bigger one was slowly presenting itself.

The bottom of our pool started looking green last week. Slowly, in the corners of the deep end, but getting bigger each day, and spreading to an area in the shallow end, too. I assumed it was green algae, something I’ve never had, so took a water sample to the pool store and got a diagnosis. They put me on a 36-hour schedule of intense sanitization to kill off the algae.

By Sunday the green was still there, but seemed contained a bit. So I decided to vacuum all the crap on the bottom of the pool out into the yard, bypassing the filter in hopes I could kick it back on and the water would return to normal quickly. As I vacuumed I thought it was strange the “algae” seemed very thick and heavy. And still very green. Shouldn’t all those chemicals have killed it, and shouldn’t it be kind of light and amorphous? I vacuumed it all out, backwashed my filter, and kicked things back on. Green material immediately started pouring out of the return jets. There were already large deposits on the pool floor. WTF???

I killed the system and decided to scoop out whatever was in the bottom of the pool for a closer look. That wasn’t algae. Instead it was the glass media we use in our filter. I had no idea it was green. Had I known that I would have realized a week earlier something in our filter was slowly failing and allowing the glass to return to the pool with the filtered water. And that failure was getting bigger each day. And I shot a couple hundred bucks of brand new filtering media into our grass.

It also should have been a clue that despite these fields of green on the pool floor getting larger, the water was remaining clear.

I texted back-and-forth with our pool guy, who seemed confused by what was going on until I sent him pictures of the glass I had removed from the pool. That’s when he confirmed something in the filter has failed. He’s going to do his best to get here today to take a look, then hopefully it’s a quick/easy/cheap fix that doesn’t involve ordering parts that take a week to get here or, God forbid, replacing the entire filter.

We’ve been pretty lucky with our pool over the six seasons we’ve had it. Eventually, though, they are like boats and become money pits. We already knew this was likely the last season for our current liner. Looks like that won’t be the only cash we’ll be pouring into the system this year.

Grad Parties

Saturday was C’s biggest day of grad parties of the year. She had seven on her calendar.

She began the day heading 45 minutes south to a co-party by two of her closest friends. When she returned home S and I joined her for the next four. The first was 35 minutes east of our house. The second 10 minutes west of that one. The third 15 minutes back east. Then the fourth was back near our home. We did quick pop-ins at the first two. We aimed to do the same at the third, but as there weren’t many people there we felt kind of bad and spent more time chatting with the parents than we expected to. They are nice, that was fine, but it meant we only had 15 minutes or so at our last one, which was the one S and I wanted to go to most. We hustled home and then C realized she didn’t have time to make the next one, so we called it a night and ordered sushi. Had we known that was the case, we would have stayed longer at that last party. There were a bunch of families we love from St P’s there, all of whom sent their kids to different high schools so we don’t get to see them very much.

After dinner C was off to one more grad party and then a normal party. She has one or two more on her calendar later this month, but the bulk of her friends are now out of the way.

  1. Listening to Bill Simmons’ pod while taking L to the dentist this morning, he made this same point: Caruso is a hack and it is inexplicable how/why he gets away with it.  ↩

Weekend Notes, Part 1

May 27, 2025 /

Another super busy weekend, not to mention some big news that lead in to the weekend. Because of that, I’ll probably split this into two posts, the second coming tomorrow.

Our school year officially ended on Friday with L’s last final. She just had one exam in her first period, so I called her out at 10:30. She had some girlfriends over in the afternoon and some young men joined them later on. They swam, ate pizza, hung out around the fire pit, and an encouragingly large number of them kept coming inside to check on the Pacers game. Good kids.

Most of our weekend was dominating by preparing for C’s graduation party, which we were hosting on Memorial Day. She was sharing the gathering with two of her friends, so S was doing a lot of coordination with the other moms to make sure all the food and drink was covered. My job was to clean the house and make sure the pool, which had been temperamental last week, was in good shape for L’s group to swim on Friday and then just to look pretty for Monday. Oh, and we squeezed in an afternoon of swimming for all the local nephews on Saturday. I’m pleased to say with a big assist from my pool guy, the water was clear and ready-to-go all weekend. Who knew a six ounce squirt of the right chemical could totally clear up 25,000 gallons of water?

Grad Party

As soon as the bridal shower we hosted a week ago wrapped, we started eyeing the forecast for Memorial Day. It was a roller coaster. One day it would say low 60s and rain, the next clear and 70. And so on. By Friday it had steadied to at least be dry, if cloudy, and in the upper 60s. Then we woke Monday morning to a perfect day. Not many clouds. It pushed into the low 70s. Other than some periodic breezes that played havoc with the picture boards and flower vases on each table, we had zero weather complaints. It could have been pouring like at M’s combined party two years ago. Or 90 and everyone fighting for shade. Today dawned much cooler with clouds and occasional sprinkles. We timed it right.

My sister-in-law the chef provided most of the food and it was incredible, as always.

As far as we know all the kids got along and there weren’t any hurt feelings, misunderstandings, etc. There was a rumor that a girl C does not get along with might show up, as she is friendly with one of the other graduates. When they heard this, both M and L said they were going to kick her ass if she showed up. Which is pretty funny because neither of them have ever been in a fight. It sure would have made for an interesting story! Fortunately this girl was smart enough to stay away. I think she knew the real person she needed to fear was S, who definitely holds grudges against people who cause her kids pain.

With two other grad families here, it was weird to see total strangers casually stroll into our backyard.

Anyway, it was a good day. C’s core group hung out and swam for a couple hours after the party before clearing out. S and I got most of the stuff outside broken down and the inside cleaned up before 9:00. It made for a long day. It was worth it.

With that our family is done, directly, with grad season activities. It started way back in March, prepping for spring break, the stress of that week in Florida, then prom, finals week, C’s last days on campus, graduation weekend, and now her party. We still have plenty of parties on our calendar for the next month, but those will be as guests dropping it to say hello, share a card, and then escape.

Indy 500

Sunday was, of course, race day here in Indy. We did what all Indy residents who don’t go to the race do: watched the local news all morning to follow the goings-on at the track, the traffic trying to get to the Speedway, and the radar to make sure any rain stayed away. All morning the weather people noted that while there was a lot of rain in Illinois, they expected it to fade by the time it reached Indy. Ooops.

For some reason they put the drivers in their cars and then had them sit in them doing nothing for nearly 45 minutes because light showers had passed over part of the track and they wanted to make sure the surface was dry before starting. Somehow with 350,000 people crammed into the facility they couldn’t tell it was raining and let the drivers chill somewhere other than their cramped cockpits while it passed.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, the race sold out early, so for only the sixth time ever IMS waived the local TV blackout. It happened last year thanks to severe storms that delayed the race for hours, but this was the first time the race had been shown live, at its traditional time, in nearly a decade. I do kind of miss the Indy tradition of listening to the radio broadcast, but it is fun to watch live and not have to wait for the evening replay.

This was also the first time Fox showed the race. As you would expected, they thoroughly Fox-ed it up. At C’s party I talked to our neighbor, who went to the race for 67 straight years before finally calling it quits last year. I was glad as someone who watches exactly one race a year that my complaints matched his.

We couldn’t understand why they were talking to pace car driver Michael Strahan live while he was trying to lead the cars out to begin the race. It was clearly a distraction as the guy in the passenger seat kept giving him hand motions encouraging Strahan to go faster. Never mind that the pace car’s whole job is to, you know, get the cars up to race speed. Talking to him was more important in Fox’s eyes.

OK, they’re paying Tom Brady a bazillion dollars to be an announcer. So I get why they had to shoehorn him into coverage. But people here HATE Tom Brady. Tone deaf much? And while they had Peyton Manning do a voice over for a feature, he never appeared. What a stupid miss.

Noted race fans and Indianapolis legends Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez called the drivers to their cars. Utterly baffling.

Worse were the misses during the race. Multiple times something big would happen and Fox would completely miss it. Ryan Hunter-Reay was leading the race when he pitted. The cameras cut away to show action on the track, as you do, and like a minute later they showed Hunter-Reay still in the pits, apparently stalled out. As soon as his pitstop lasted more than 10 seconds they should have been back on him.

The biggest miss of the day, though, was missing the fucking end of the race. As Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson came out of turn four and raced to the finish, the cameras cut away to show a car half a lap back crashed into the wall. Now, this was important as it forced the yellow caution flag to come out, freezing the cars in position. But while showing this crumpled car in the back stretch, Palou crossed the line for the biggest win of his career. And Fox didn’t show it. As the cherry on top, once they switched back to live and showed Palou in his victory lap and celebration, they never went back and showed what caused the wreck that forced the race to end under caution or explained why a wreck on the opposite side of the track forced the lead cars to finish under yellow.

Fox has covered Nascar for years, so they understand how to broadcast auto racing. But if a dummy like me, who again watches one race a year, can pick out all these errors, I would imagine most real race fans were like my neighbor and disgusted with how the race was presented to them.

Fox is always going to Fox.

Long Weekend Notes

May 20, 2025 /

We are in it.

Grad season has arrived. That and some other activities kept us very busy over the past few days. Let’s go day-by-day.

Friday

We lucked out and just missed the bad storms that rolled through our area Friday evening. We had our fingers crossed a little extra harder than normal because we had two fridges full of catered food for our Saturday activities. We did get heavy rain and high winds. But the power stayed on, thankfully.

The worst storms in Indiana passed about an hour south of us, including a tornado that was on the ground for about an hour. It was the first time in a while I’ve spent several hours watching severe storm coverage on TV, something that always gets the Kansan in me fired up. Foreshadowing!

We actually had two rounds of storms so I was able to pump the water off our pool between them. We have so much pollen in the air right now that the water after round one looked more like pea soup than rain water. Disgusting.

I was about to head to bed a little after 11:00 when I noticed the sky to the east lighting up. I checked the radar but there was nothing on it. The lightning kept getting more intense and, five minutes later, there was a massive red blob on the radar. Thankfully it was moving away from us. The storms were supposed to be over but there was so much energy left in the environment that this one blew up out of nowhere. Spring in the Midwest.

Saturday

Big day. First off, it was C’s 19th birthday. In classic middle child fashion, it fell on a day when we had to focus on something else. She celebrated by getting up pretty early (for her) to hustle down to the Southside of Indy for the grad party of one of her best friends.

The something else was hosting a bridal shower for our old neighbors, whose oldest daughter is getting married in August. Their youngest daughter leaves for six weeks in England next week and mom and dad will both left the country for a week on Monday, so this was the one weekend that worked. C was a good sport about it, plus they brought her a special cake.

M had “moved” into her new Cincinnati apartment for the summer on Thursday. I put “moved” in quotes because she just took a few things as the girl she’s subleasing from left all her furniture. She drove home Saturday morning as she is a bridesmaid in the wedding and was going to help run the game portion of the shower.

We had about 50 people over and spent all morning and early afternoon prepping for them. While the storms passing took the heat and humidity with them – it was downright nasty Thursday and Friday afternoons – they did leave strong winds in their wake. We had a big canopy over the tables and had to ratchet it down with six buckets full of water to keep it from blowing away. The entire day was a challenge to secure items so they wouldn’t get tossed, flipped, or otherwise ejected from their proper spot.

The shower itself went well, at least from our perspective. It was also a nice practice run for us since we are hosting a graduation party for C and two friends on Memorial Day. We now know we need to make a sign for the driveway so people don’t try to park in our yard or block our narrow street and instead use the parking lot at the YMCA next door. Like the invitation clearly stated but which no one seemed to read.

Sunday

To start the day, I went over to the Y with L to rebound for her first true shooting session in over three months. She’s been shooting a little, mostly form shooting, but was just cleared to shoot jump shots last week. Her form was crap and she got winded quickly, but I liked that when she made shots, they were ripping through the net. This was a nice milestone almost exactly 90 days after her surgery.

Our big event of this day came in the evening: C’s baccalaureate mass. Parking was a mess, as always. The CHS gym was crowded, muggy, and uncomfortable. Also as always. And the mass was too long. Again, as always.

One of the speakers noted that this class arrived on campus during the second year of Covid. At their orientation mass, they sat on the football field, socially distanced from each other, with masks on. Sunday we were crowded into a gym together again.

After Mass we took the girls to Portillo’s – C’s choice for her belated birthday dinner – then came home for delayed birthday cake.

I was about to go to bed when I saw a blurb about a tornado near where one of my college buddies lives in Texas. I fired up the YouTube weather geek network and found instead of the Texas storm – he was fine – they were focused on a massive, angry storm that was barreling towards the part of Kansas where I was born and my grandparents lived. So I spent the next hour watching storm trackers and storm chasers as a big tornado roared across fields and, eventually, a small, unincorporated town.

Monday

Graduation day!

L and I kicked it off by going to an early PT session. She was officially cleared to begin some light jogging, working up to actual running next week. Still a couple more milestones to pass but getting back on the court is a little closer every day.

Graduation was, for the first time I believe, held at a new suburban events center. M’s two years ago was outdoors on the CHS baseball field, on a sunny, warm day. Weather didn’t matter Monday since we were indoors. But it was a perfectly pleasant evening. And the venue was nice, with ample parking and plenty of room inside for families.

The ceremony was pretty much like every graduation ceremony. A little long but still checking in just under two hours. So glad we sent our girls to a school where classes are under 300 kids.[1] The big suburban districts around us often have classes of 1000 kids or more. Even chopping them into two graduation nights makes for a long evening of listening to names.

Afterwards we had C’s grandparents over for cake. She opened her first grade time capsule that was sealed up 11 years ago. The highlight was finding her Daisy Scout vest in it. A picture of her and her friends in their vests from first grade had just hit my Time Hop yesterday.

M had to jump in her car and make a late drive back to Cincy as she starts her summer internship this morning.

On top of all that, over the weekend I watched a decent amount of Indy 500 qualifying – which had some real drama this year[2] – a little of the PGA, plenty of the NBA playoffs and the Royals-Cardinals series. Also in there I managed to let the pool chemistry get bad and I’m fighting to get the water clear again in time for L to have friends over Friday and so it looks decent for our grad party next week. I hate the first couple weeks of each pool season. It seems like something always goes wrong and I’m in a battle with something in the water.

  1. M’s class was 250-ish, C’s 275, L’s started right at 300, which is as big as CHS will let them get.  ↩
  2. As a bonus news dropped Friday that the race will be sold out and, in a rare occurrence, will be shown live on TV in Indiana.  ↩

Weekend Notes

May 12, 2025 /

Well that was a fantastic weekend! Belated Happy Mothers Days to all the moms out there. I hope you had as good of weekends as we did.

Visitors

Our good friends Dave and Maureen visited from KC over the weekend. The reason for their trip, other than hanging out at blog headquarters, was so Dave and I could watch Bob Mould play some rock ’n’ roll Saturday night. Maureen was nice enough to share her Mother’s Day weekend with us old men. I’m comfortable speaking for us all in saying that we had a terrific time together.

Friday evening we took them to Harry & Izzy’s for shrimp cocktail and steak/fish. I tried to get us into St. Elmo’s downtown, but with it being Grand Prix weekend they were already totally booked when I checked a few weeks back. H&I gets you 90% of the St. E’s experience, and as it is 10 minutes from our house, a little easier to get to. The shrimp never disappoints. As I get older I can tolerate the horseradish a little less. Sigh.

Saturday we did brunch at one of our favorite spots then did a tour of the city, including getting out to walk around/have a beer on funky Mass Ave. Maureen is an IU alum so she spent some time in Indy back in the day and was familiar with the bones of the city, although a lot has changed since she returned to Missouri in 1993.

Saturday night Dave and I went to the show with another local buddy. More on that in a moment. The wives drank wine, watched a movie, and chatted. You should not be surprised that two short, opinionated, Irish women got along famously. We should get them to run for office.

For Mother’s Day, Dave and I whipped up a spread for the ladies (and our girls) that was well received. Then we enjoyed the gorgeous weather by sitting outside for their final few hours in town.

All-in-all a terrific visit. Our many mutual friends who read this should be excited to know that the ladies came up with all kinds of fun plans for when we all are empty nesters in a few years.[1]

Bob Mould

Wow I’ve never been to a show quite like what the 65-year-old punk/indie rock legend put on Saturday.

It was at the Hi-Fi, a very small club in the quirky Fountain Square area just south of downtown. Capacity is 500 people and it’s honestly not much bigger than our swimming pool. The place was jam-packed with people who, from the looks of it, mostly went waaaaay back with Bob. Dave and I were some of the youngest people there.

What made the show unique is how Bob and his band played. They took the stage, he said a few words of greeting, and then ripped into the songs and never really stopped. Six-straight songs without a break of any kind. Then a quick swig of water and right back to it. About an hour into the show he paused for about 30 seconds to thank the opening band then introduce his bassist and drummer, then into the next song. I believe one other time he made a few quick comments but other than that, zero banter, and generally straight from one song to the next. For an hour and 25 minutes or so. With nary a ballad in the setlist. Just an absolute blowtorch of a show. Bob is a large man in his mid–60s. But he is up there shouting and screaming and playing insanely loud guitar without interruption. There wasn’t even an encore. Just 27 songs with maybe two or three collected minutes of breaks between. Super impressive. And super entertaining.

Despite our hopes that as it was the next-to-last stop on the tour he might throw a few surprises at us (Sugar songs!), he stuck to the rigid list he’s been playing all tour. The only minor disappointment on the night.

Last Day of School

Friday was C’s final day of normal high school classes. She has to go back tomorrow to take one test but otherwise is done. I was a little surprised she wasn’t more excited when she got home Friday afternoon. Over the course of the weekend I realized I think she’s a little emotional about the moment. Not that she loved high school all that much, but rather the weight of everything that is happening is coming down on her. And as our sensitive, anxious, ADHD kid, that means she’s not jumping for joy at being done with CHS.

L has one more week of regular classes and then finals next week before she is done. C’s graduation is a week from today then her party will be on Memorial Day. You are all welcome to join us!

Pool

The pool is open. The water warmed up the quickest it’s ever gotten to a reasonable temperature, reaching 80 early Sunday morning after starting in the low 60s. That’s what some good, bright, May sunshine will do for you. Some of the nephews came over and swam Sunday afternoon. The water was getting cloudy Sunday evening so I’m already in the early struggles of getting the chemistry to a good baseline.

New Pope

Hey, we got a Pope from Chicago! I’m pleased that he’s already on record basically calling our vice president a liar. Although he better watch out; Pope Francis didn’t survive 24 hours after meeting with J.D.

Just like when Francis was elected, M was the first person to let me know the process was complete. She came running down Thursday afternoon and yelled, “There’s a new pope!” I guess she’s my go-to source for pope news.

Pacers

I missed most of Friday’s game three as we were out eating with the V’s. By the time we got home the Pacers were down around 20, and while I guess they made a run to cut it to seven at one point, Dave and I decided to watch the end of the Royals walk-off win instead. Good choice.

And then came Sunday’s game four.

When I was 12 or 13, I went to the old NAIA tournament in Kansas City.[2] The night we went was in the quarter- or maybe semi-finals, and Ft. Hays State, where my parents went to school, was playing. The Tigers were an NAIA power at the time, winning back-to-back titles in 1984–85, and a ton of folks had made the four-hour drive to KC for the tournament. They filled most of Kemper Arena that night. Anyway, I vividly recall a guy wearing a shirt with the old, iron-on letters that said “Ft. Hays Basketball Is Orgasmic.” I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but still found it to be very funny.

That might be the best way to describe Sunday night’s game four. Or at least the second quarter. And just for Pacers fans, obviously. That was one of the most thorough ass-whoopings I’ve seen in an NBA playoff game. Although the Pacers kind of did the same thing to the Knicks last year in game seven at MSG.

The Pacers were clearly the best team from the start. A bigger deal Sunday since the Cavaliers began the game with all their normal starters on the court. Indiana led by 15 at the end of the first quarter. Early in the second quarter Bennedict Mathurin got ejected for “striking De’Andre Hunter in the sternum with a closed fist.” It was some typical bullshit all around: Mathurin for taking the swipe, which was far closer to a love tap than a punch, Hunter for somehow not also getting tossed for responding with way more force than Mathurin used in his initial “punch,” and the refs for looking at the replay for five minutes and somehow coming to that conclusion.

Anyway, it was a dicey moment. Would the Pacers be able to hang on without one of their most important bench players?

They only outscored the Cavs 42–16 in that quarter, so I guess they weathered the storm. I’m not sure what the right nature analogy is, but it was either a tornado, hurricane, avalanche or tidal wave that blew Cleveland off the court. It was breathtaking. Or even orgasmic if you’re into that kind of thing.

I normally get somewhere from antsy to upset when a team continues to press when they get up by 20–25 points. At least at L’s games. But the Pacers were pressing up 40 late in the second quarter and I loved every second of it. They ripped the hearts and souls out of the Cavs in that quarter, and at the risk of jinxing the final series outcome, I don’t see any way Cleveland can recover. The Pacers are the better, more cohesive team right now. Donovan Mitchell sat out the second half with an ankle injury. Darius Garland played but is clearly still hobbled.[3] Crazy things can happen in sports so you don’t want to get ahead of yourself. But the craziness in this series seems to be that the #1 seed in the East will get run out of the playoffs in round two.

Also, Cleveland remains a cursed sports city. One of the best regular season teams in league history and they’ve been decimated by injuries and bad luck for the past week. Folks in northeast Ohio probably saw this coming.

  1. There are a lot of you, including D&M, who are reaching that point this year. Two more years for us.  ↩
  2. I know there is still an NAIA tournament, but this was back when a lot of schools that are currently in NCAA D2 were still NAIA programs and you would see some genuinely good ball with a fair amount of players who would reach the NBA.  ↩
  3. Props to him for falling down, completely on his own, when he tried to cut on his bad toe, rolling into T.J. McConnell, and somehow drawing a foul on McConnell despite traveling and initiating the contact. The refs have not done a great job in this series.  ↩

Weekend Notes

May 5, 2025 /

A week after prom and before four consecutive weeks where we will be very busy, it was a nice, boring, lazy weekend.

Weather

There’s no delicate way to say this: our weather was ass most of the weekend. It rained Friday night into Saturday, then off-and-on the rest of the weekend. The temps slowly dropped from the 70s into the 40s. Sunday was dark and dreary and misty and generally ugly. It felt more like January in Portland, not Indianapolis the first weekend of May.

Fortunately spring will come drifting back over the next couple days. Our landscaping guys are due here this week to clean everything up and lay new mulch. And the pool guys will be here Friday to get it started up for the season. Spring is undefeated, folks.[1]
That crappy weather meant we didn’t do a whole hell of a lot over the weekend. So more notes about sports than anything else. With one exception…

Moving Back

Thursday S and I drove down to Cincinnati to move M out of her sorority house. It was kind of an interesting trip.

We knew we would be driving into rain, but had no idea we’d spend about 20 minutes driving through a series of near-severe storms with torrential rains. The second round was the worst. Visibility was basically down to zero on the interstate, which is always fun. Even with folks using their hazard lights we were basically crawling, hoping we didn’t hit someone or run off the road. Then I came up on some fool who refused to put their hazards on. We were still in the midst of the storm when a few other fools went blowing past us at normal speeds while the rest of us were maybe going 25 MPH.

We made it to campus safely and had to dodge graduation traffic to find a parking space. Then we had to hustle to get our cars full of M’s stuff before the storms rolled into Cincy. We were parked roughly a block from her house, down a rather large hill. So there was a lot of running up the hill, then walking back down it and its multiple sets of old, concrete steps with arms full of crap. If you know our oldest daughter, it won’t be a surprise that she was moving much slower than we wanted her too, then being overly dramatic about how hard she was working.

Thankfully we got the cars loaded and her checked out of her house just before the rain hit. We went to one of her favorite spots just off campus for her final UC lunch of the academic year. Luckily the storms were going around the city, so it was just a steady rain we waited out while eating. We made it back home in normal time and filled up our bonus room with everything we moved back for the next two weeks before she returns to Cincy for her summer internship. Luckily we won’t have to move everything back right away. She’s sub-leasing from a friend who left all her furniture, so will mostly take clothes for the summer. Now in August, when she moves into the apartment she’ll have the next two years, we will need to rent a truck to get all her furniture down. I’m sure that will be a real joy. And we get to move C to Bloomington at about the same time. Are there people you can pay to do this for you?

Anyway, good to have M home for a few weeks. Her grades aren’t official yet but she’s pretty sure she got straight A’s again this semester. She’s halfway done with college! Actually more because the fall semester of her senior year she will likely be doing a co-op and not taking any classes.

Pacers

DAMN, that’s how you start a series!

The Pacers went into Cleveland, built up a big first half lead, weathered a bunch of Cavaliers runs, and ended up winning by nine after making some huge plays on both ends late.

Now, Cleveland was without Darius Garland, who was a late scratch because of a lingering injury. The Pacers shot the lights out and the Cavs had one of their worst 3-point nights of the year.

But 1–0 and stealing home court advantage is all the matters.

Another game that showed what a great combination of talent this squad is. People who don’t see them every night have a hard time getting it. They’re not an NBA title contender. But they are a team that can steal any seven game series because they know who they are and never get rattled. Tyrese Haliburton was absolute ass on defense much of the night, then somehow forced two huge stops late. Always a wild ride with him.

Local TV broadcasts of games ends when the conferences semifinals begin, so I was forced to watch the TNT feed. Which was fine. Mega props to Greg Anthony for saying, when the Pacers challenged an offensive foul on Myles Turner late in the game, “I like the challenge but I don’t think they are going to win it.” I forgot what wild stuff he says sometimes since he was in announcer purgatory for a few years.

Also, a broader NBA observation, I LOVE how NBA series between evenly matched teams swing. I haven’t watched a ton of ball outside Pacers games, little bits and pieces of each series, but am still deep into The Ringer’s NBA pods, so I hear the breakdowns after each game. It is so fun how team A will win a game comfortably, the series seems under their control, and two nights later team B has made some huge adjustments and are right back in it. The Clippers really should have won their series against Denver. Detroit probably should have upset the Knicks. The Rockets-Warriors series was crazy. I think Pacers-Cavs is headed down that same path, with two of the best offenses in the league taking turns dropping 15–3 runs on each other for another 4–6 games. It’s a league where coaches can scheme around anything but it often comes down to which team gets the hottest from behind the 3-point arc.

Fever

It’s opening week for the WNBA. ESPN showed the Fever’s final exhibition game Sunday, a matchup with the Brazilian national team in Iowa City. You can’t take too much away from the game since this was far from Brazil’s full Olympic squad – one of their best players in yesterday’s lineup is an 18-year-old who will be a freshman at South Carolina this fall – but it was cool to see all the new Fever players. They’ve added a ton of size, but it is athletic, rangy, perimeter size rather than more post players to backup Aliyah Boston. DeWanna Bonner seems like the perfect Den Mom for a mostly very young team, and was a delightful in-game interview. Loathe as I am to give a Missouri alum credit, Sophie Cunningham adds a level of toughness and versatility that was missing last year. And she might have the most “don’t look at it when your wife and kids are around” Instagram account in the league. Not that I looked.

Caitlin Clark missed Friday’s exhibition game with a minor leg injury, and played limited minutes Sunday, but her range looked deeper than a year ago and the experienced players the Fever brought in already understand how to run to spots where she will get them the ball. Kelsey Mitchell will get a little overlooked because of the new talent, but she looked to still be the steady scoring threat who is an ideal partner for Clark. Lexie Hull’s 3-point shot still looks locked in after whatever mechanical adjustment she made in the middle of last season.

As an added bonus, second round draft pick Makayla Timpson might be an absolute steal. I’m not sure if she will be a huge contributor this season. But with so many of the league’s rosters in flux because of the CBA expiring after this season, having a player with her skills on her salary could be massive in the Fever building a team that contends for years to come.

Racing

I actually watched parts of two car races Sunday. That’s how annoying the weather was and how limited the TV offerings were in the afternoon. It is May, I guess.

I watched the back halves of both the Indy Car Grand Prix race in Alabama and then the F1 race in Miami. It was hilarious how, since both races were won by large margins, each broadcast focused on “races within the race” further back in the pack. The F1 broadcast was almost exclusively about the two Ferrari cars and the bickering involved in their team trying to figure out if they should pass each other or not. Such weird drama.

Hey, we actually watched multiple horse races Saturday, keeping the NBC coverage of the Kentucky Derby on for hours, so this might have been the most “watching cars/animals chase each other around a track” weekend of my life!

  1. I just checked my notes and it appears that summer, fall, and winter are also undefeated. Wild if true.  ↩

Prom Weekend Notes

April 28, 2025 /

Another very busy weekend for us, mostly revolving around C’s senior prom.

We kicked off the weekend by going across the street to watch the #1 high school volleyball team in the state, FHS, play our local squad. “What a weird way to spend a Friday night,” you might say to yourself. True, true. We have good friends with a senior on FHS and we’ve been meaning to see him play for a couple years. We couldn’t turn down a chance when he was literally across the street.

After a sluggish opening set in which they had to come from behind to win, FHS trounced the school our property taxes support in the next two sets for an easy win.

NFL Draft

You all know I hate the NFL draft. So many words wasted setting up and breaking down an event when Sure Things routinely bust, and No Names routinely become All Pros. It’s all a crapshoot, but we break it down in more detail than we do the policies of people running for office. “Maybe if we focused more attention on…”

The Colts did ok. They got their tight end in Tyler Warren. Will any of the quarterbacks be good enough to get him the ball, and will the offensive line, which they didn’t do much to improve, be able to protect whoever is taking the snaps?

There was another big story from the draft. But since I didn’t watch a minute of it, I can’t really get into the lunacy of how this story was treated by people inside the NFL media and, bizarrely, by the most attention hungry near 80 year old in the world.

I think the whole Shedeur Sanders thing is weird because I listened to exactly two podcast segments previewing the draft and in both of them there was a clear indication that he was slipping, for whatever reason. One previewer flat out said he would not be a first round pick. And once Sanders didn’t go early, I think there were a lot of teams that might have admired his skill and potential but had no interest in bringing all the drama that would come with picking him into their quarterback room. Especially since, at that point, he’s probably starting as QB3. All I know is he didn’t look that good against KU and neither of the two DBs who basically shut down the CU passing attack, two short passes that turned into long gains excepted, didn’t get picked. Where’s the outrage in that, I ask you????

Prom

OK, onto the biggie.

I missed the fun of C’s junior prom as I was in Cincinnati with L for basketball. Which is where I would have been again this year had L not had surgery. Or, more likely, I would have spent part of the weekend in Cincy but been back in Indy Saturday evening. I’m not sure I would have survived missing two prom nights in a row.[1] Anyway, I was indeed here this year.

On balance it was a good night. C went with a buddy, as did most of the folks in her group of 11. We hosted them before prom for pictures and food, put them on a bus for the event downtown, then had them dropped here afterward. After changing they went to a big post-prom party about a mile from our house. I collected the girls from the bash at 1:45. All of them were able to walk on their own and other than being VERY chatty in the seven minute ride home, seemed no worse for the wear. One of the girls even noted how we had a “fun” conversation when I was driving them around Siesta Key a few weeks ago. I appreciated the self awareness and humor.

Picking up from the party was a scene, man. It was in a very fancy neighborhood. One P. Manning used to live a couple blocks from the host’s home when he was still a Colt. When I pulled onto their narrow street, there were cars parked unevenly on each side. It’s basically a one-lane road, so this made it extremely stressful driving through. In the dark. With drunk kids stumbling around. There was one gap that I could not have had more than a couple inches on each side as I squeezed S’s Telluride through it. I made it. Somehow.

So I’m almost to the house, C knows I’m coming and is supposed to be rounding up the girls spending the night at our house, and I see this kid on the side of the street. He looks at me and kind of waves his arms to get me to stop. I come to a halt, roll down the passenger window, and he leans in:

“Hey Mr. B. Do you want me to go get C for you?”

It was the younger brother of one of M’s best friends. I thought that was hilarious. It was pitch dark, I was driving my wife’s car, and he somehow identified me. Apparently he does not drink, which could have been a factor. I texted his dad Sunday morning to both pass along my thanks and tell him how impressed I was.

I think I got C and her crew right in time. Big packs of kids were wandering the streets. Car alarms were going off. Kids were parked up on very nice lawns. I guess there had been a late flood of students who were not invited and had just been turned out. We didn’t hear about the cops coming, but it would not have surprised me if they showed up shortly after we left.

The kids had great weather for pictures. The prom itself was apparently pretty fun. C’s group all got along, which given they are all a little flakey/squirrelly, was a minor upset. Last year her date, again just a friend, acted like an asshole to her all night. This year she and her date seemed to get along fine.

Just two bummers on the day. Like last year, she had a meltdown when getting her hair done earlier in the day. I didn’t have to experience either episode directly, just had to be the target of S venting after. We agreed that at some point we are going to suggest that when she’s ready, C should elope rather than go through all the stress of a wedding day. If getting her hair done to hang out with friends for a few hours cranks up her anxiety, I can’t imagine what prepping for a wedding will do to her.

The second bummer was Sunday morning, when I came downstairs, I found the large box of Jimmy John’s that had been leftover from the pre-prom part of the night had been taken out of the fridge by the girls and left on the counter all night. There was about $60 of sandwiches in there, and I planned on getting into them on Sunday. I wasn’t willing to play the food poison lottery so, not without anger, tossed the box into our trash dumpster.

I guess the important thing is we survived prom weekend and C, other than being totally wiped out Sunday, seemed happy with how things went.

Another item, and a big one, checked off of her senior year list.

Pacers

When we got back from volleyball Friday the Pacers-Bucks game had just gone to halftime, with the ‘Cers leading by 10.[2] They hit the first shot of the second half to go up a dozen and then the bottom fell out. Horrible shots, terrible passes, curious coaching decisions, Bennedict Mathurin losing his mind momentarily when the game was still close. Tyrese Haliburton letting his home state crowd get in his head. OK, Giannis and Gary Trent, Jr. were going off. Trent hit nine 3’s. NINE. But the Pacers had the game in control and totally fell apart all on their own. Still, up 2–1 in the series.

That set up a pivotal game last night. Which I did not watch, for three reasons. 1) I was operating on about four hours of sleep. 2) I had to get up extra early Monday to take L to PT. Most importantly, 3) Tip off was at 9:30 PM Eastern. WTF????

Apparently I didn’t miss much. Dame Lillard blew out his achilles early. When he went down, so did the Bucks’ chances, as the Pacers played terrific ball for another easy win.

Three-one with the series coming back to Indy and Dame done for the series. Both sad and indicative of the world we live in that the first 20 minutes of Bill Simmons’ podcast Monday morning were about where Giannis plays next year.

  1. L also had a game the night of M’s junior prom, but it was in town so we did pictures and stuff and then hustled over to watch hoops. Not sure how we avoided a conflict M’s senior year.  ↩
  2. I’m not sure who decided this ‘Cers thing needed to happen, but I hate it, and only used it here so I could bitch about it.  ↩

Easter Weekend Notes

April 21, 2025 /

As it is Easter Monday, our holiday weekend continues. Or at least it does for C and L, who have the day off. Might as well keep to the normal blog schedule, though. Let’s run through the days rather than individual events.

Friday

A lot of work and errands to get ready for the holiday weekend. L had a PT session. M and her boyfriend arrived from Cincinnati late afternoon. I made a pretty kickass mess of grilled steak, chicken, and restaurant-style beans for Chipotle-like bowls for dinner.

Saturday

We awoke around 5:30 AM to the sound of roaring winds and loud thunder. I looked at my phone and it just said severe thunderstorm warning so I put my head back down. We probably should have moved to the basement. I don’t know what the official winds were in our area, but they reached nearly 90 MPH at the airport. It was insanely loud, followed by rain pummeling our west facing windows. About 15 minutes later we heard that deep, low hum you hate to hear in storms that was followed by the sky lighting up with greens and blues. A transformer was popping off somewhere near our house. I nervously watched our night light and smoke detector indicator, but both just blinked then stayed on. We avoided the outage! I went back to sleep.

Fast forward a few hours. We’re finishing up our morning routines and ready to get to work on more Easter prep. A couple houses there was a crew working with chainsaws to cut up a tree that had snapped in the storm. A firetruck had gone that direction a little earlier so we assumed there was a live line, too. We heard a loud crack and then our power cut out. We’re guessing as they were taking down the tree, the line that leads to our house got snagged and broke. The joys of living in old Indianapolis where all the power lines are still above ground and pass through dozens of mature trees to reach each house.

We ended up being without power for just over five hours. At least it was a cool, cloudy, if slightly muggy day. And at least we were picking up the food for Sunday late in the afternoon and it wasn’t already in the fridge, with the clock ticking on whether it would spoil.

In the midst of the power outage was game one of the Pacers-Bucks series. I went old school and pulled out a radio and listened to most of it that way. The Pacers beat that ass for the first 30+ minutes. Gainbridge was roaring.[1] When our power came back on and I was able to watch was the exact moment they decided to blow a healthy chunk of their 28 point lead. They held on to get the comfortable win. Like Milwaukee did in game one last year. And now Dame Lillard might be coming back at some point in the series? Better get game two tomorrow.

We took the girls plus one out for a hibachi dinner. We normally go to this little hole-in-the-wall local spot that is very good and pretty quick. This time we tried Benihana, which we had never been to before, because we had a gift certificate. Meh. MUCH more expensive than the local spot, much slower, and the food wasn’t as good. It made us appreciate our local spot, which has all kinds of quirks, even more.

Joining us at our table was a trio that were dressed for their prom. They were sweating it a bit because despite being seated at 6:30, our chef didn’t start cooking for us until about 7:30. S was closer to them and got more of the story but I think they were able to eat and get out in plenty of time to make it before their entrance window closed, although they had to hustle through their meal.

Anyway, it was a pretty dorky looking dude and two pretty cute girls. We think they were all going as friends, but I wanted to give him props for overachieving. Times two even!

Easter Sunday

We had been stressing all week because we were expecting to have a larger group than our already large holiday gatherings, and the forecast was not looking promising. More rain was expected, right around our noon start for Easter dinner. The young ones were expecting an Easter egg hunt, too. We weren’t sure how that was going to work if we had to do it in the house. The aunts sent A LOT of eggs for the girls to hide. We have a big house, but I’m not sure we had enough hiding spots for them all.

Thankfully it ended up being a nearly perfect day. Some people ate outside. We had pulled all the outdoor furniture out of storage Saturday and were able to use it. Hell, if the pool was ready kids could have jumped in. The egg hunt came off without a hitch, outside as was ideal. This wasn’t good but one of S’s siblings came down with a stomach bug so his family stayed away, which made us a little less crowded.

After all the prep and stress it ended up being a nice day all around. The final guests filtered out around 4:00, M and her boyfriend headed back to Cincy shortly after, and our house was quiet again. Sometimes that’s the best part of the holiday gatherings, the chance to exhale and relax.

Monday

L and I had to get up early today as she had a 7:30 PT appointment today. News had just broke that Pope Francis had died. That reminded me of when he was elected in March 2013 and that news broke just as I was picking the girls up from school. As the white smoke was blowing in Rome, we had a sudden snow squall in Indy, which seemed appropriate. And then M came running out of school yelling “There’s a new pope! We don’t know who it is but there’s a new one! It’s eight o’clock in Rome!” Right after we got back from PT she texted the whole family to let us know Francis had died. Some things never change.

As for PT, it is going well. Her therapist is impressed with where L started and how she’s progressed through three sessions. She was supposed to ease out of the boot last week, but as she only went to school one day that plan kind of got blown up. At the session Friday her therapist told her it was fine to officially ditch it. After nearly six months in a boot or cast at school, she’s finally back to two shoes again. Thursday was the first time since November she wore khakis to school.

  1. The radio play-by-play guy referred to Gainbridge as “the world’s greatest basketball arena.” Gainbridge is a great place to watch a game, but doesn’t Madison Square Garden have a version of this saying locked down? And there are probably 10, 20, 30 college arenas that are better than any NBA arena. Come on, man.  ↩

Weekend Notes

April 14, 2025 /

A pretty chill weekend, at least for me. We knocked out a bunch of yard stuff over the past few days. I installed some new exterior lighting with a huge assist from a friend. S and I ripped out some dead plants and replaced them with new ones. Our lawn crew came for the first time on Friday. If not for all the washed-out mulch from the storms of two weeks ago, our front yard would look like a million dollars. Saturday I pulled out the pressure washer and blasted six months of crap off of the pool cover. We won’t open the pool for another three weeks, but at least that collected layer of dirt, tree debris, pollen, worms, etc is gone.

In other words, my friends, we are deep into spring. Last week was unseasonably cool and this week was predicted to be the same. Then, magically, every day’s forecast got nudged a few degrees higher yesterday. It won’t be as warm as friends and family in Kansas City and Denver have been experiencing, but I also won’t be wearing a coat to the gym in the morning.[1]

On to the other stuff we should cover.

The Masters

RORY!!!!!!

Fucking finally!!! In typical Rory fashion, it was not easy. Or, rather, for two-plus days it was very easy and then the last two hours threw everything about the Rory McIlroy experience at us. Wait, let me correct myself. Two holes into Sunday’s final round I was ready to turn it off as he had already blown his lead and trailed Bryson DeChambeau.

I’m glad I stayed tuned. That might have been the best Masters Sunday ever. You had a popular star racing to a historic win, only to fall apart, get it back together, fall apart again, and figure it out in the tournament’s biggest moment. You had multiple people making runs. The last two hours were engrossing, exhausting, and exhilarating.

A four-shot lead and the tournament was seemingly over as Rory stepped to his third shot on the 13th. Which he proceeded to, inexplicably, shank into the water. That was a mistake I would make. There is no way a PGA golfer with a three-shot lead on the back nine of a major should ever make.

Over the next five-plus holes he added another horrific approach shot and missed four short, makable putts. Make any of those putts and he wins in regulation. He also threw in two of the best shots of his entire career, hell two of the best shots you’ll ever see on the back nine of a major, and had either of them been hit at simply an A level rather than A+, could have cost him the tournament.

Thursday Rory trailed Justin Rose by seven strokes at the end of play. Sunday when Rory got to –14 Rose was seven shots behind him. Then Rose began a miraculous run through the last nine holes, briefly taking the lead, capped by a 30-foot bomb on 18 to get to –11. When is where Rory finished when he pulled his par put to win ever-so-slightly.

It seems especially cruel to begin a playoff on the 18th hole. Especially in this case, where Rory had just gagged the tournament away when all he had to do was finish the hole in four shots. He looked shellshocked. I would have been shaking uncontrollably, barely able to grip the club. Instead he piped his drive into the perfect spot, then answered a terrific Rose approach with an even better one, his ball trickling to three feet. This time he nailed the putt and 11 years of chasing golf’s Grand Slam was over. Fourteen years after a meltdown on the back nine cost him a chance to win the Masters as a 21-year-old, he had finally grabbed his green jacket.

That was one of the realest moments of celebration and relief you will ever see.

I, like so many people, love Rory because he has a wonderful game when he’s on, as good as anyone who has ever played. But, like Phil Mickleson, he has these remarkable breakdowns in the biggest moments. Phil’s were generally because of hubris and stupidity. Rory’s seemed more relatable because they were often inexplicable or maybe mental? Any one who has ever tried to play golf understands that kind of failure more than Phil’s.

I also love Rory because he is one of the most thoughtful, honest, emotionally available athletes in any sport. He has been the conscious of the sport over the past five years as so many of his contemporaries have taken the Saudi money and fled the PGA. Notably to some of us, he also approaches life in general from a different perspective than 90–95% of other pro golfers. I wouldn’t say he’s a bleeding heart liberal, but he’s called out politicians like our current president for their hate and lack of empathy.[2] He does not fall into that convenient conservatism so many golfers adopt because they hate taxes or just grew up around the privileged at country clubs and can’t see any other perspective. Rory’s parents were working class. He grew up playing on muni courses. He, for the most part, seems to have never forgotten that.

Good for Rory for (finally) grabbing the Masters jacket he’s been chasing for so long. And thank goodness he did. I’m not sure he could have recovered had Rose won the playoff. Now, maybe, he goes on a run where those mental blocks that have plagued him fade and he wins a whole mess of majors over the next few years and ends up right where we thought he would he when he won four before he was 25.

Oh, as always, one of the great things about Masters week is Chris Vernon’s updates on Thursday and Friday. These never get old.

Pacers

Some end to the season for the Pacers. Thursday they had to rally to beat the Cavaliers B-team. In doing so they clinched the #4 spot in the Eastern Conference. Sunday their own mostly B-team came from 21 down to again beat the scrub Cavs in double overtime and clinch the franchise’s first 50-win season since 2013–14. Since mid-December, when they were floundering a bit, the Pacers are 39–17, the 4th best record in the NBA over that span.

Not really significant, but Johnny Furphy scored 17 and 15 in the final two games of the season. He was expected to be a full-time G-Leaguer this year. Thanks to a lot of injuries early, he got more minutes than expected and ended up playing more NBA games than G-League ones. It’s fun to hear the Pacers TV guys get fired up every time he enters a game. Oh, and he murdered Goga Bitadze Friday.

It’s been a weird second half of the season. Over the last 4–6 weeks the Pacers have had a ton of bizarre wins. There was a stretch in March where almost every game involved some crazy comeback or insane shots in the closing seconds.

In other words, I’m not sure if this team is quite as good as their record indicates. Or, on the other hand, maybe they’re a team that never gets down on themselves and are comfortable in difficult situations. Throw in the experience from last year’s conference finals run, and perhaps they are a super dangerous team?

They get a quick test. For the second straight year, they open with Milwaukee. Last year it was a 3–6 matchup, the Bucks owning home court. But Giannis did not play and Dame Lillard got injured during the series. This year Giannis is healthy (for now) but Dame is (likely) out for the playoffs. The Bucks are also less deep and a year older than a year ago. And a potential game seven would be in Indy. The fun part is these teams hate each other, so it should be an intense, physical series.

For all the flukiness, the Pacers also finally seem healthy and have their rotation locked in. Pacers in seven. I hope.

PT

L started physical therapy on Friday. If you’ve ever been to PT, you know these initial visits are filled with questions, tests, taking baseline measurements, etc. before you finally do some work. L’s therapist was impressed with the condition of her foot. In one measure, it was actually more flexible than her right foot, which the therapist attributed to tracing the alphabet with her toes since having her cast removed. The clearest difference was in the strength between the two, which we knew. When L had her cast removed she almost screamed at how skinny her left leg had gotten. I told her some of that was just from compression, not necessarily muscle loss. But she does have some work to do to get her strength back on that side.

She will begin weaning herself out of the boot this week, starting the day in a shoe then switching back to the boot after a few hours. The therapist didn’t make any promises, but when she heard CHS begins summer workouts in June, she acted like that might be a reasonable goal to be fully active for. That’s eight weeks away, which would be sixteen weeks after surgery, so right on schedule.

The best news is L’s only pain was in the incision line while doing her PT, nothing inside the foot where the bone was removed and tendon re-attached. She was sore Saturday, but otherwise seemed ok. We went out and shot some non-jumping shots for about 20 minutes.

So she’s on the right path.

It was both nice and a bummer to get a message from her AAU coach Saturday saying how much he missed her, both on and off the court. His daughter texted L directly and said the same thing. Their team had a rough weekend, although they had to play with a few replacement players thanks to spring breaks. Not that L is the best player on the team. But she is definitely a glue girl both during games and when the team is hanging out that they are missing. I think that was a little ego boost for L. It’s good to be missed.

Mom’s Day

S drove down to Cincinnati Saturday for M’s sorority mom’s day. It was a pretty low key and nice day. S got to meet some of M’s friends. And her boyfriend. Who she is bringing home next weekend for Easter. Oh boy…

  1. Last Monday and Tuesday the windchill was in the 20’s on my walks across the street, requiring me to fully bundle up in multiple layers with a hat and gloves. This morning I wore a hoodie but just had shorts on my lower half.  ↩
  2. He’s also met with our current president, which he’s taken some heat for. While he’s no supporter, he’s also never let his disagreements get in the way of honoring the office. I guess. That was during the 2017–21 term; I believe Rory has kept his distance this year.  ↩

Spring Break 2025

April 7, 2025 /

Home after a nearly perfect week in Siesta Key, FL for C’s senior spring break. This might have been the easiest spring break we’ve ever had. In nearly every way you can assess it, things went as well, or even better, as we could have hoped for.

We were on one of the B Team breaks for C’s class. The largest group trip was to a resort in Cancun. After doing the huge, overseas, resort trip two years ago with M’s class, C was not interested in all the drama that came with it. Plus she’s less social than M, so did not feel the need to be in the midst of the big gathering.[1]

There were somewhere between 40–50 of her classmates in Siesta, roughly 30 of those in our loose group that stayed in a series of resorts and condos that were all clustered together in the center of the Key. Three of C’s friends stayed with us. Or, rather, we had two rooms at the Sarasota Surf and Racquet Club, one for S, L, and I, and the other for C and her friends. I have to admit this arrangement made me nervous in the weeks leading up to the trip. C’s room was not only separate from ours, but in a completely different building.

C and her roommates did great. As far as we know, there weren’t any incidents, they didn’t annoy any of their neighbors, and no one got arrested. Seems like a success.

There was one bummer for the week, but it wasn’t related to C or her friends. L was all fired up that she would be running around close to normal since she was in a walking boot rather than a cast. Her first night trying to hang with friends quashed those thoughts. Turns out when you don’t put any weight on your foot for five weeks, you aren’t immediately able to walk normally again. Plus strolling around in an aircast is not comfortable at all, at least at first. She was too slow and sore and ended up coming home early upset because she couldn’t keep up with the group. She largely spent the rest of the week with us. I felt sorry for her but she kept insisting she was fine, and told us her perfect break is getting up early, reading all day, and then going to bed early. I think some of that was deflecting, but it is true she’s not really into the party scene yet. Fortunately one of her best friends from middle school who goes to Bishop Chatard was just down the beach and insisted L come out with her a couple nights.

That was an interesting aspect of our week. While there was a decent number of Cathedral families there, Siesta Key is where Chatard’s seniors almost all come each year, staying right in same area we were. There wasn’t a ton of interaction among the seniors that we saw, but the younger kids were definitely crossing lines. And we saw tons of St P’s families.

Speaking of St P’s, early in the week I saw this older dude, shaved head, sitting near us without his shirt on, showing off his impressive tattoos. I pointed him out to L and said “Hey, that looks like Mr. H!” the principal at St P’s the first four or five years we had kids there. There were always rumors that he had a bunch of tattoos from when he lived in Japan, and that he always wore long sleeved shirts so the kids didn’t see them. Making this comparison funnier was that the dude was vaping.

Well, next day we got a text from another St P’s/CHS parent that said “OMG! I just saw Mr. H on the beach and he was vaping!” It was him!

Turned out he was staying in our complex with one of his kids and some grandkids. He walked around all week without a shirt on and we caught him vaping any time the little ones weren’t around. Later someone said he stays there every year. Kind of crazy to pick a spring break spot where you know tons of families from the school you used to run always go. Especially since we didn’t see him interact with a single person outside his family.

The weather was nearly perfect all week. It only rained once, and that was a downpour Saturday night just after we returned from dinner. Otherwise hot, sunny, and breezy every day. Just what you want from spring break.

Most nights we ended up hosting a dinner in our room for C, her roommates, and then any friends who were tagging along. There was a Taco Tuesday dinner on the beach for most of the CHS families at the complex next door.

Our only big outing was Wednesday when most of the CHS crew went on a sunset cruise together. Here’s where there was an obvious difference between C’s trip and M’s. In the Dominican Republic two years ago, kids were getting WASTED on the afternoon booze cruise. The drinking age there is 18, and the kids were openly killing rum punch as soon as the bartender handed it to them. S had to help a couple kids out who were in really bad shape.

But in Florida the kids obviously couldn’t drink openly, and you weren’t allowed to bring anything onto the boat. We did end up buying C and her roommates a round of daiquiris, as did most of the other parents. A bartender told us they hadn’t sold this many daiquiris in weeks, which made all us parents laugh out loud. There was a line of parents buying 4–5 drinks each and no questioning about where they were going. Our kids all behaved. Only a few of them had more than one drink, but several got on the boat with quite a few in them from the beach. But there were no incidents.

Late in the two hour cruise S, L and I were downstairs where it was less crowded. C came down to check in and got a text from a friend upstairs that the bartenders were carding kids. S ran up to check and it turned out they were just taking the drinks from kids who couldn’t produce an ID. Again, hilarious. They sold drinks and made tips for 90 minutes and then in the last half hour made kids dump them out before we got back to the dock. Fair enough.

C had a drink and wasn’t being very careful about hiding it. The downstairs bartender came over and asked for her ID. Again, when C couldn’t show her one, the bartender politely took the drink and that was that. Seems like they were chill because the kids were being chill.

The last time we went to Siesta Key the police were pretty hardcore on the beach. We know a couple Indy kids who got arrested that year. We only saw one group of kids get hassled last week, and those were idiot sophomores from the other Catholic school who had a case of beer sitting in the midst of their circle in broad daylight. The deputies hassled them for a while, then took the beer and told the kids to disperse. As far as we know no kids were arrested in our little area all week.

The travel part of the week was about as easy as you could imagine this time of year. We flew out of Indy in the afternoon and there were no lines. I had to wait less than five minutes to pick up our rental in Sarasota. We also had an afternoon return flight. When I walked by the rental counter after turning in our van, there were lines similar to our visit three years ago, when people were stuck waiting for hours and we eventually bailed and ordered an Uber. There was literally no one in front of us to drop bags or in the TSA Pre line. Our flight was delayed 15 minutes, but we ended up landing right on time. I’m a little nervous that this means our next trip will be plagued with issues.

We missed some big weather at home. Wednesday there were tornado warnings in Indy. After our sunset cruise we had the girls back to our room for an evening snack and many of them were either getting texts or calls from their parents back home, who were all in their basements. That was followed by massive rain, which continued into the weekend. We ended up getting over 6” of rain in our part of town over four days. No issues at our house. The sump pump kept pumping and if the power went off, it was only briefly. Just some limbs down in the yard to throw into the trash dumpster. Everything is super green, though, and trees and plants are starting to bud/flower.

So pretty awesome we are going to have hard freezes the next two nights.

One of the best things about the week is that we got to spend time with the parents of one of M’s best friends, who we hung with in the Dominican two years ago. Their middle daughter and C are casual friends, so we don’t get to see them as much as we did with the older sisters. We tried to avoid what was going on in the world while we were relaxing, but they have the same perspective on things as we do, and also have three daughters, so the dad and I especially spent a lot of time talking about the state of things and what it means for our girls as they become adults. The dad also drives a Rivian, so we talked about cool cars, too. It’s a shame their third daughter is two years younger than L and we won’t get to travel with them again in their senior years.

We always enjoy going to Publix when in Florida. We did make three trips there over the course of the week. That was even with ordering some stuff ahead of time, that we picked up on our way to the resort Friday, and having an Instacart order from Costco get delivered that night as well. That all went fairly well. Some of the fruit and vegetables were crap, a big reason I’m usually fine going to the store on my own. All our bread was also moldy in about a day. We figured they take the stuff off the shelf that’s about to expire and save it for delivery orders.

We didn’t spend a ton of time in the car, but did have to run girls somewhere, pick up food, etc each day. On our drive from the airport we found a cool, old school hip hop and R&B station. It played almost exclusively songs from the ‘90s. We kept it glued to that station and enjoyed it throughout the week. Despite spending just a little time in the car, we managed to hear “Poison,” “Hey Ya!” and “Don’t Walk Away” four times each. Not that I’m complaining.

So we survived the middle kid’s spring break. She and her friends lean to the Good Kid side of the spectrum, but you never know when you go away, there are lots of kids around, and alcohol is involved. We are thankful they all respected us and their parents enough to keep the nonsense to a minimum.

The seniors have just five weeks of classes left, with two shorter weeks in there because of Easter. Prom, National Honor Society, graduation activities, and grad party season are all right around the corner. The next two-plus months are going to be busy, but fly by quickly.

  1. Since Covid our spring breaks have been: Anna Maria, Siesta Key, Punta Caña, Anna Maria, Siesta Key. We are NOT going to the DR again next year, but will likely be out of the country.  ↩

Freedom!

March 27, 2025 /

A quick kid update.

L had her cast taken off this morning. Everything looked great. No swelling, no pain. The doctor said the incision and tendon anchor in her foot all seemed fine. When he had her rotate her foot inward, an action that triggered her pain pre-surgery, she could do so without limitation or pain.

She will be in a boot for the next six weeks and can finally put weight on it again. He wants her to keep the crutches handy for now, but she can transition away from them as she feels comfortable. She can take the boot off and get in the pool next week if she wants.

Biggest of all, she can take normal showers again! For the past five weeks she’s had to put a waterproof covering over her cast, then sit on a stool and be assisted by S to clean up. And, of course, her left leg hasn’t been cleaned since the morning of her surgery. When the cast came off today, she made a face from the odor. Not sure how the nurse kept a straight face. I ignored her invitation to come over and take a whiff.[1]

She’ll begin physical therapy soon after we return from spring break. There will be at least six weeks of that. The doc said that assuming she progresses as he expects, she’ll be able to start non-contact activities in early June.

The kid has been through a lot the last five months. With a few understandable meltdowns excepted, she’s done terrific dealing with it all. Better things are ahead, fingers crossed.

Also, Monday was the CHS basketball banquet. It’s a pretty chill affair. The team and families gather at school and there is cake and cookies, a slide show from the season, and the coaches talk. There were also awards, three selected by coaches, two voted on by players. Last year L won the Rising Irish award as best underclassman, selected by the coaches. Monday she won the Team Choice award for being a great teammate and leader, respecting coaches/referees/opponents, and for upholding Holy Cross values. Basically normal L stuff. Her teammates voted on this one, so I thought it was great that they recognized how she did her best to still be part of the team even when she was unable to play.

I am obviously hoping that she can return to form and be a contributing player next season. But stuff like this, which reflects more who she is as a person than an athlete, makes me prouder than anything she does on the court.

  1. Classes were dismissed early today because of a water main break. First thing she did was get in the tub to thoroughly scrub that leg.  ↩

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