[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6EKTR0p52YxDs03Bprnh7W?si=72423cb62d8a4760) “All The Beauty” - Pete Yorn I like it better when Yorn makes B+ versions of his best songs than when he goes off on odd tangents. This is one of those good ones. “MMA” Hannah Cole When I read that Cole was based in Nashville, I was expecting something that was softer and gentler, closer to indie folk. I was NOT expecting a chugging, mid-90s-esque rocker like this.
I’ve been sitting on several leftover notes from our European vacation. At this point I doubt I’m going to remember anything interesting or important so seems like time to finally purge them from the notebook. Good grief, Europe is expensive! I know this isn’t a news flash or anything. It didn’t help that we were staying in bougie places, in touristy areas, where prices are automatically jacked up. But the baseline certainly is higher than home as well.
Well, July was quite the reading month. I knocked out nine books. NINE BOOKS!!! Three were rather slight things I loaded onto the Kindle for our trip that I won’t bother to include here. This entry includes five of those July books and then the first book of August. Headstone, Purgatory, Green Hell - Ken Bruen Three more gritty, grimy crime novels from Bruen before our time in Ireland. Even though we did not visit Galway, where all his books take place, I was still on the alert for some of his most notable characters to cross our path while in Dublin.
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.
This is not as heavy as I thought it would be a few weeks ago. I didn’t watch nearly as many movies on our flights to/from Europe as I expected to. I had tickets to see The Odyssey last week, but a family snafu nixed that. Finally, I was lazy last week. I had a couple other movies lined up to watch but got sidetracked several evenings and never got around to them.
For the second-straight week I am putting this together and scheduling it on Thursday evening, as I will be out of the house early Friday. Two throw back songs from the mid–90s mixed in with the new stuff, a tribute to a lost troubadour, and a summer classic to round it all out. Happy weekend to all! [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4i8F7Hyr7ohAIOBDkiQXLD?si=6b2905efecb646b5) “Dark Summer” - Ceremony Tom Breihan says that Ceremony are a “California underground institution.
S and I have been cautiously counting down the various financial milestones we are about to check off as parents. Earlier this month we had a mini celebration when we paid CHS tuition for the final time. This is also the last year we will be paying tuition for three kids. As a family that chose to send our kids to private school from K–12, we expect no sympathy for that part of our annual outlay.
It was nice to have a laid back weekend after several weeks of travel and other nonsense. Although a few of us spent time in the car. Unfortunately, I am still sick. Today will be day 14. I guess this is my punishment for going so long without being ill in any way. Last week I tried one batch of antibiotics we had lying around the house. When they didn’t work, our house doc called in a more potent round that I started Sunday.
I have a mega-glut of music after the past month’s travels. That means you will likely get extra-stuffed playlists for at least a few weeks as I work on clearing out that backlog. We’ll kick off this week with three new songs by bands that have been around since (at least) the early Nineties. Then some new songs from more current artists. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/20I8Mmd3wVIvfzOAp6CAEW?si=e7fd43d19998466f) “Keep Looping” - Sugar The latest release from Sugar 2.
Some words to wrap up the World Cup, which was unexpectedly delightful for most of the past month. Sunday’s final was a true snoozer. Poor Spain. The country that was never quite good enough has now won two of the last four World Cups. In each case, though, their opponent abandoned their typical attacks to slow the game down and try to beat the crap out of the Spaniards, hoping to either win 1–0 or get the game to PKs and steal it there.
Four years after our first family vacation to Europe, we again jetted across the pond last week, splitting it between London and Dublin. It was a pretty good trip, although there were two significant bummers and a couple other smaller disappointments that kept this from surpassing either Italy or Hawaii as our #1 ranked family vacation. London Our first stop was London. Last Saturday we flew from Indy to Chicago, then Chicago to Heathrow overnight.
Our travels, holidays, etc have me off my new music game. I’ve been adding tons of music to my library for review, but have struggled to get through it. Fortunately we have something on our calendar that gave me the excuse to include several songs that would not normally make the list. Hopefully I’ll get back in the swing of things in a couple weeks. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/49QdLks2GLkw9HG9wYjwcs?si=8f97a1f5eabb4f46) “Summertime” - The Sundays
Two books that came with recommendation from Brother-In-Books Dave V. Although I would have read one even if he had not suggested it. The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne This one was a surprise. A thoroughly delightful novel about a rather unique Irishman, Cyril Avery. Born in the 1940s to an unwed mother who was banished from her home village by its priest for becoming pregnant, Cyril was immediately given up for adoption after birth and landed with an eccentric couple.
Belgium 4, USA 1 That kind of sucked. And was also totally expected, given our nation’s history in the World Cup. It was certainly one of the biggest examples of Ball Don’t Lie, karmic paybacks I can recall in sports.[1] Don’t need to say much more about that aspect of the game. I’m also not going to spend much time on the horrific performance by the Americans’ back line, which we knew was an issue coming into the tournament and was responsible for the team’s weakest moments over the past month.
In some ways this was our most boring Fourth of July weekend ever. In other ways it was super packed with events. Independence Day We didn’t do a whole hell of a lot for the Fourth. S had a four-day weekend and she mostly used it to prep for our upcoming vacation. As we were between trips we decided not to host a big family gathering. A couple locals came over to swim for a bit Saturday, but I didn’t cook, we didn’t have a house full of people, and I did my best to avoid the heat.
This post hits harder this year, the 250th anniversary of the British Colonies in North America declaring independence from the Kingdom and establishing the United States of America as a free country. As always with these moments, between the cookouts and fireworks and cheesy commemorative t-shirts, it is important to reconcile where we are as a nation with where we should be. This year, in particular, we fall far short of the mythical and unrealistic expectations we Americans have for our country.
A rather spare month. One of these entries was for just one episode. That will happen when you travel a couple weekends and spend more evenings outside on the back porch than inside on the couch. Movies, Shows, Etc. Your Friends & Neighbors, season two The finale was a doozy, setting up all kinds of nonsense for season three. I would not call this show prestige TV, but it is immensely entertaining.
We had a wonderful, long weekend in Colorado, checking a number of boxes along the way. Somehow, despite sleeping poorly Saturday night, I was unable to sleep well last night. Forgive me if this is disjointed, and it may not be as inclusive as my trip summaries were in the past. The primary cause for traveling was the wedding of the daughter of some of our closest friends here. Our friends also happen to be L’s godparents, so I guess this was her god-sister that was getting hitched.
Hopefully this playlist comes together ok. I imagine I’ll schedule this to post on the normal Friday morning time slot. By then we will have left town about 18 hours earlier for a weekend in Colorado. I started putting this together Monday afternoon. Let’s see how it turned out! [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ineOwehm78VuIxVQ0ZIYu?si=293522ce1d3d44da) “Artificial Sunlight” - Les Big Byrd Nothing artificial about the light we’ve been having lately. Genuinely one of the greatest Junes I can recall, weather-wise.
The NBA Draft was once an annual opportunity for a lengthy, rambling post where I pretended to be Bill Simmons or some other national writer. Or at least that’s how my first ever blog post here went. 2026 seemed like a year to jump back into that routine, as a Kansas Jayhawk was poised to be selected at the top of the draft. Alas, this was no ordinary college player, or at least he did not have an ordinary season.