{"id":17470,"date":"2026-08-03T08:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T12:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=17470"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:50:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T12:50:49","slug":"weekend-notes-188","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/weekend-notes-188\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another weekend that, honestly, not much exciting happened in our lives.<\/p>\n

Most of the weekend was dreary, from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon. We got a decent downpour overnight into Saturday morning, enough that the pool cover pump was completely submerged when I tossed it out Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Later in the day we got absolutely pounded, with flash flood warnings dotting all of central Indiana. Our tornado sirens went off around 5:30 when radar indicated rotation near downtown Indy. We never got any true severe storms here, just torrential rain that lasted nearly an hour. I had to run out and grab dinner in the midst of this, and got soaked in the 10 second run from the car into the pizza place. Despite the pool cover being completely drained when this storm began, our pump was again completely submerged about 15 minutes into it, then took several hours to finally get all the water off again. I had to get the sprinklers out the week we returned from vacation, but three storms over the past week have ensured I won\u2019t have to do that again for a while.<\/p>\n

I also set a new low in the Old Man part of my life. Sunday morning around 2:30 I got up to use the bathroom. When I got back into bed I attempted to roll onto my left side to get comfortable. However, for some reason my hips did not want to rotate with my upper body. This tension caused my back to seize up. Yes, I somehow managed to wreck my back by turning over in bed. Honestly I might be 75 and just not remember the first 20 years of my life.<\/p>\n

I had spasms off and on all day Sunday, so was largely useless. Thankfully it drizzled all morning so there was no need for me to do anything other than listen to American Top 40<\/em> and read. I also napped.<\/p>\n

Thankfully my back loosened up just enough so that I could make burgers when we hosted my in-laws for dinner.<\/p>\n

M went to Cincinnati for about 30 hours, returning after the storms passed Saturday. She got to see most of her roommates for the first time in months and confirmed her room survived her being gone.<\/p>\n

Like I said, a pretty boring weekend.<\/p>\n

\n

College Visit #3<\/h3>\n

Friday L and I went down to Bloomington to tour IU. When we were on campus last fall for homecoming she complained that the campus was too big. Which is a fair complaint: IU\u2019s campus is massive. While she went in genuinely interested in learning more about IU, it still felt like it had a lot of ground to make up on UC.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there was anything special about the informational presentation or our tour guide. But L came away really liking IU. To the point where she was stressing a little about her decision a little.<\/p>\n

As we ate lunch we talked through the things she did and did not like about each school. A big factor was she realized she actually loves IU\u2019s campus. How could you not; IU might be the ideal big state school campus. Its size is still a concern, but seeing that the three buildings she would most likely take classes in – the political science, foreign language, and public policy centers – are all pretty close to each other made her realize you don\u2019t have to cross the entire campus every day. We also drove over to the apartment complex where C will live this year and she was impressed by how nice it is.<\/p>\n

L\u2019s ultimate goal is law school. Both of her godparents are attorneys who went to IU and they suggested that IU would give her a better shot at getting into higher tier law schools than UC would. I think she\u2019s going to get great grades no matter where she goes, so I\u2019m not convinced her undergrad school will make a huge difference in where she lands for law school. She\u2019s talked about going away for that part of her life, anyway. If she was dead-set on IU for law school, it would absolutely make more sense to stay there for undergrad.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s really impressed with UC\u2019s co-op program, though, something IU does not have. She has no interest in the greek system, so M\u2019s experience in a house will have no impact.<\/p>\n

It may well come down to what kind of scholarship money the schools throw at her. IU offered M twice as much as UC, but she loved UC and chose it. L has slightly better grades and test scores than M did, so hopefully each school will offer her a little more than her big sister got.<\/p>\n

Luckily she has a sister at each school who can answer some of her questions. And she can visit both once the school year begins. We\u2019re going to try to go to a UC football game in September so she can compare that to the two IU games she\u2019s been to.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

We were scheduled to drive to Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon and take a campus tour tomorrow. However, early last week L decided she wasn\u2019t as interested in being a Badger as she was a month ago. I encouraged her to pick some schools to visit her sisters hadn\u2019t been to and was excited that Wisconsin was on her list. It\u2019s kind of a bummer she changed her mind, but it\u2019s her choice, and I\u2019m not mad about not<\/em> spending 10+ hours in the car the next couple days. And we did visit Colorado State so she added one new campus.<\/p>\n

Unless something changed, I think I am done with college visits as a parent. At least until\/if L wants help looking at law schools in a few years.<\/p>\n

\n

A Good Show<\/h3>\n

As I noted in my July Media post, Friday evening S and I watched a big chunk of a new series. Then we wrapped it up Saturday evening. I liked it enough that it deserves a bigger blurb than it would receive when I drop my August Media post in a month.<\/p>\n

We watched Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles<\/em> on AppleTV+. I thought it was terrific. Not quite at the level of Shrinking<\/em> or the early seasons of either Ted Lasso<\/em> or The Bear<\/em>, but aside from those, as enjoyable a TV-watching experience as I\u2019ve had recently.<\/p>\n

I loved all the characters. Susie the cosplaying roommate was especially excellent. But Nick Offerman, to me, stole the show. There was definitely some Ron Swanson is his portrayal of Jinx. However, his former pro wrestler and recovering addict had a lot more depth than his classic Parks & Recreation character. I\u2019ve seen enough interviews with Offerman to know this probably more closely reflects who he is than Swanson did.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed how the show dealt with some pretty tough issues. Infidelity, inappropriate relationships, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, abortion, single motherhood, drug addiction, being honest to your partner, the choices young parents in difficult financial situations are forced to make, gender double standards, and so on. Perhaps this wasn\u2019t the deepest exploration of each of these topics, but it treated each of them with respect for the characters going through them.<\/p>\n

I thought the show was very funny, and often quite touching.<\/p>\n

Elephant in the room number one: you get to see Elle Fanning\u2019s boobs a lot. Like way more than you expect going in even being warned you will see them often. What is surprising is how often they are displayed in the act of breastfeeding, or sometimes unsuccessfully attempting to breastfeed. This had to have set a record for most screen time for lactating breasts. I don\u2019t mention that because it was uncomfortable to watch or anything. I just wondered how Fanning was presented with this.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Margo is topless A LOT throughout the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time you\u2019ll have a screaming baby trying to latch on, and we\u2019ll rig up something so you can squirt milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Elephant in the room number two: Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman both look amazing. Like so good you have to mention it. Pfeiffer is 68. Kidman is 59. Even in 2026, when age can be altered in so many ways, they both look better than seems reasonable. Of course, when you are gorgeous to begin with that helps a lot.<\/p>\n

Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles<\/em> isn\u2019t a perfect show. It is, though, filled with heart and mostly really well written. The characters are well defined. There is a fantastic and amazing cameo in the final episode that will please a lot of folks with similar past TV loves to my own.<\/p>\n

In short, it might have been the perfect show to get us through a weekend when there was not much on TV.<\/p>\n

\n

Baseball<\/h3>\n

I guess the Dodgers broke baseball again by trading for Tarik Skubal? It doesn\u2019t seem like they traded all that much for him, so I don\u2019t understand why any other contending team didn\u2019t trade slightly more to keep him away from the Dodgers, if not help their own cause.<\/p>\n

If the Dodgers re-sign him for $500 million this offseason, now THAT will be a sign they\u2019ve broken baseball. But trading three decent but not elite prospects for (hopefully) four months of Skubal is far from a move that only the Dodgers could make.<\/p>\n

And I still hold way less animus for the Dodgers and their wild spending than I ever held for the Yankees back when the \u201cbroke\u201d baseball 25-ish years ago.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
    \n
  1. M isn\u2019t sure this is a good idea. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to suck.\u201d \u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Another weekend that, honestly, not much exciting happened in our lives. Most of the weekend was dreary, from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon. We got a decent downpour overnight into Saturday morning, enough that the pool cover pump was completely submerged when I tossed it out Saturday morning. Later in the day we got absolutely pounded, with flash flood warnings dotting all of central Indiana. Our tornado sirens went off around 5:30 when radar indicated rotation near downtown Indy. We never got any true severe storms here, just torrential rain that lasted nearly an hour. I had to run out and grab dinner in the midst of this, and got soaked in the 10 second run from the car into the pizza place. Despite the pool cover being completely drained when this storm began, our pump was again completely submerged about 15 minutes into it, then took several hours to finally get all the water off again. I had to get the sprinklers out the week we returned from vacation, but three storms over the past week have ensured I won\u2019t have to do that again for a while. I also set a new low in the Old Man part of my life. Sunday morning around 2:30 I got up to use the bathroom. When I got back into bed I attempted to roll onto my left side to get comfortable. However, for some reason my hips did not want to rotate with my upper body. This tension caused my back to seize up. Yes, I somehow managed to wreck my back by turning over in bed. Honestly I might be 75 and just not remember the first 20 years of my life. I had spasms off and on all day Sunday, so was largely useless. Thankfully it drizzled all morning so there was no need for me to do anything other than listen to American Top 40 and read. I also napped. Thankfully my back loosened up just enough so that I could make burgers when we hosted my in-laws for dinner. M went to Cincinnati for about 30 hours, returning after the storms passed Saturday. She got to see most of her roommates for the first time in months and confirmed her room survived her being gone. Like I said, a pretty boring weekend. College Visit #3 Friday L and I went down to Bloomington to tour IU. When we were on campus last fall for homecoming she complained that the campus was too big. Which is a fair complaint: IU\u2019s campus is massive. While she went in genuinely interested in learning more about IU, it still felt like it had a lot of ground to make up on UC. I don\u2019t think there was anything special about the informational presentation or our tour guide. But L came away really liking IU. To the point where she was stressing a little about her decision a little. As we ate lunch we talked through the things she did and did not like about each school. A big factor was she realized she actually loves IU\u2019s campus. How could you not; IU might be the ideal big state school campus. Its size is still a concern, but seeing that the three buildings she would most likely take classes in – the political science, foreign language, and public policy centers – are all pretty close to each other made her realize you don\u2019t have to cross the entire campus every day. We also drove over to the apartment complex where C will live this year and she was impressed by how nice it is. L\u2019s ultimate goal is law school. Both of her godparents are attorneys who went to IU and they suggested that IU would give her a better shot at getting into higher tier law schools than UC would. I think she\u2019s going to get great grades no matter where she goes, so I\u2019m not convinced her undergrad school will make a huge difference in where she lands for law school. She\u2019s talked about going away for that part of her life, anyway. If she was dead-set on IU for law school, it would absolutely make more sense to stay there for undergrad. She\u2019s really impressed with UC\u2019s co-op program, though, something IU does not have. She has no interest in the greek system, so M\u2019s experience in a house will have no impact. It may well come down to what kind of scholarship money the schools throw at her. IU offered M twice as much as UC, but she loved UC and chose it. L has slightly better grades and test scores than M did, so hopefully each school will offer her a little more than her big sister got. Luckily she has a sister at each school who can answer some of her questions. And she can visit both once the school year begins. We\u2019re going to try to go to a UC football game in September so she can compare that to the two IU games she\u2019s been to.[1] We were scheduled to drive to Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon and take a campus tour tomorrow. However, early last week L decided she wasn\u2019t as interested in being a Badger as she was a month ago. I encouraged her to pick some schools to visit her sisters hadn\u2019t been to and was excited that Wisconsin was on her list. It\u2019s kind of a bummer she changed her mind, but it\u2019s her choice, and I\u2019m not mad about not spending 10+ hours in the car the next couple days. And we did visit Colorado State so she added one new campus. Unless something changed, I think I am done with college visits as a parent. At least until\/if L wants help looking at law schools in a few years. A Good Show As I noted in my July Media post, Friday evening S and I watched a big chunk of a new series. Then we wrapped it up Saturday evening. I liked it enough that it deserves a bigger blurb than it would receive when I drop my August Media post in a month. We watched Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles on AppleTV+. I thought it was terrific. Not quite at the level of Shrinking or the early seasons of either Ted Lasso or The Bear, but aside from those, as enjoyable a TV-watching experience as I\u2019ve had recently. I loved all the characters. Susie the cosplaying roommate was especially excellent. But Nick Offerman, to me, stole the show. There was definitely some Ron Swanson is his portrayal of Jinx. However, his former pro wrestler and recovering addict had a lot more depth than his classic Parks & Recreation character. I\u2019ve seen enough interviews with Offerman to know this probably more closely reflects who he is than Swanson did. I enjoyed how the show dealt with some pretty tough issues. Infidelity, inappropriate relationships, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, abortion, single motherhood, drug addiction, being honest to your partner, the choices young parents in difficult financial situations are forced to make, gender double standards, and so on. Perhaps this wasn\u2019t the deepest exploration of each of these topics, but it treated each of them with respect for the characters going through them. I thought the show was very funny, and often quite touching. Elephant in the room number one: you get to see Elle Fanning\u2019s boobs a lot. Like way more than you expect going in even being warned you will see them often. What is surprising is how often they are displayed in the act of breastfeeding, or sometimes unsuccessfully attempting to breastfeed. This had to have set a record for most screen time for lactating breasts. I don\u2019t mention that because it was uncomfortable to watch or anything. I just wondered how Fanning was presented with this. \u201cSo, Margo is topless A LOT throughout the series.\u201d \u201cNo problem.\u201d \u201cMost of the time you\u2019ll have a screaming baby trying to latch on, and we\u2019ll rig up something so you can squirt milk.\u201d \u201cExcuse me?\u201d Elephant in the room number two: Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman both look amazing. Like so good you have to mention it. Pfeiffer is 68. Kidman is 59. Even in 2026, when age can be altered in so many ways, they both look better than seems reasonable. Of course, when you are gorgeous to begin with that helps a lot. Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles isn\u2019t a perfect show. It is, though, filled with heart and mostly really well written. The characters are well defined. There is a fantastic and amazing cameo in the final episode that will please a lot of folks with similar past TV loves to my own. In short, it might have been the perfect show to get us through a weekend when there was not much on TV. Baseball I guess the Dodgers broke baseball again by trading for Tarik Skubal? It doesn\u2019t seem like they traded all that much for him, so I don\u2019t understand why any other contending team didn\u2019t trade slightly more to keep him away from the Dodgers, if not help their own cause. If the Dodgers re-sign him for $500 million this offseason, now THAT will be a sign they\u2019ve broken baseball. But trading three decent but not elite prospects for (hopefully) four months of Skubal is far from a move that only the Dodgers could make. And I still hold way less animus for the Dodgers and their wild spending than I ever held for the Yankees back when the \u201cbroke\u201d baseball 25-ish years ago. M isn\u2019t sure this is a good idea. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to suck.\u201d \u00a0\u21a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,33,26,27,14,28,15],"class_list":["post-17470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-baseball","tag-college","tag-family","tag-media","tag-parenting","tag-tv","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17470"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17472,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17470\/revisions\/17472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}