A few things happened either before or while we were traveling that deserve a few words. Youth Sports The Friday before we left, St P’s had an assembly for the two girls basketball teams that made it to the City finals including L’s team. She still refused to hold the trophy. I laughed. It was a nice way to end the season. That was also Semi State Friday for Indiana football, featuring Cathedral’s rematch with Center Grove.
November 2022 Beatles - 48 Gang of Youths - 33 Congotronics International - 31 John Mellencamp - 29 Pearl Jam - 26 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
What follows is an epic, old school breakdown of our Thanksgiving week trip to Italy. I spent almost all day Sunday working on it, so I hope it is coherent and interesting. I’ve broken it into sections so you can read in chunks or skip around as you like. Departure/Chicago The trip began a little ominously. I woke up feeling terrible last Saturday morning. All three girls had been sick over the previous few weeks, one with a stomach bug, but it seemed like I had avoided all their germs.
Chart Week: November 20, 1982 Song: “Heartbreaker” - Dionne Warwick Chart Position: #28, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 for two weeks in January 1983. Dionne Warwick has had an amazing career. Hits upon hits, all kinds of notable and interesting personality quirks, a side-career that kept her in the public eye, becoming Twitter famous, and most recently the subject of a bizarre yet endearing Saturday Night Live parody.
Chart Week: November 23, 1985 Song: “Separate Lives” - Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin Chart Position: #3, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 the week of November 30. (Note: To tide you over during our Thanksgiving vacation, I’ve scheduled a couple posts to drop while we are away. I’m hoping all goes well and they appear on time and have the appropriate media files attached. If something goes wrong, please forgive me.
I’ve pretty casually mentioned a couple times that our family had a trip to Italy planned. The time for that trip has arrived. Tomorrow morning we will drive up to Chicago, hop on a flight to Paris, and hopefully end up in Rome by early afternoon Sunday. Over the next seven days we will be exploring Rome, Florence, and Venice. We have lots of cool stuff planned that I will, of course, tell you all about it after our return.
L’s team came up short in the City championship game Thursday. It was a tough, defensive matchup between two teams that knew what their opponent was trying to do. The difference was St O got to the basket more than we did, and hit a couple big threes to stretch out a lead on their way to a 30–20 win. It was 4–4 after one, and we were down 10–8 at halftime.
Five Decembers - James Kestrel I cheaped out when I bought my Kindle and got the one that has “special offers,” a euphemism for constant advertising on its sleep screen. All so I could save $50 or whatever. This book was often featured in those ads late last summer. I’ve found a lot of the books that Amazon pushes are crap, so I discounted it. Until I saw it land on a best mysteries of the year so far list.
Nothing like a (very) late game on a Tuesday night to get the real college hoops season started! First, although I got many texts asking this question, I should clarify that I did not go to the KU-Duke game last night. This is the first non-Covid Champions Classic game played in Indy I have not attended. The first two times friends came up with tickets and went with me.
Two down, one to go. L’s team won their CYO A League City basketball semifinal 35–20 Monday night. It wasn’t as easy as the final score makes it look, though. When she woke up Monday her left knee was still swollen and sore from whatever happened to it Saturday. She had already taped it up and was hobbling around when I came down for breakfast, saying it still hurt and was difficult to move.
FNL Regional Friday in Indiana with teams fighting to make the final four in their respective classes. For the second time this year Cathedral traveled out west to Brownsburg, where they lost their only game of the season, 42–35, back in August. They trailed by 21 much of that game and only a furious, fourth quarter comeback made it close. The wind was blowing again Friday and that had a huge effect on the game.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “October Passed Me By” - girl in red DAMMIT! I meant to include this last week. I guess it still applies. “Honey” - Romero I just learned that this song is a couple years old, but it appears on Romero’s first full-length album that was just released, so it’s getting a second round of love from the music blogs. It’s a terrific little scorcher, and they are from Australia, so what’s not to like?
What’s going on with the Colts right now is so strange I had to take a day off, cut the grass, and think about it before I put any thoughts into a text file.[1] Quick refresher if you’re not up to date on your NFL news: The Colts have had their standard terrible start to the season. They benched quarterback Matt Ryan, allegedly for the remainder of the season, two weeks ago in favor of Sam Ehlinger, a sixth-round draft pick who began the year as the third-string QB.
A lot of youth basketball last week. I’ll try not to stretch this out too long, but you know how I get when I am typing about hoops. L’s St P’s team visited the undefeated, first place squad last Tuesday night. St B’s was 5–0 and their closest game was an eleven-point win. Their average margin of victory was 21. They are coached by a former NFL player and they are from the south side of Indy, so we figured they would be tough.
An unexpectedly long weekend. And not just because of the time change. Flu Both M and C got the flu and stayed home Thursday and Friday. They tested negative for Covid and had all the classic flu symptoms. I don’t think either has ever had the true flu before, and were a little overwhelmed by how it kicks your ass. They were still dragging a bit on Sunday but trending back towards normal.
A few links have stacked up, and I have a few posts lined up for the coming week, so might as well share them on a Sunday. Most of these are music-related, which seems ideal for a weekend. Tennessee’s win over Alabama was spectacular.[1] The images of the orange-clad Volunteer fans taking over the field after the winning field goal sailed through the uprights will be one of the lasting images of this college football season.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “How Far We’ve Come” - The Big Pink This big, positive track is a good thing to listen to in the heart of the political season. There’s a lot going wrong in the world, and I tend to think we’re heading a very bad direction in so many different aspects of life. But in other ways, we’ve really come a long way. Silver linings and whatnot… “The Politics of Dancing” - Re-Flex I heard this on the way to school this morning and it also seemed appropriate.
Your defending national champion Kansas Jayhawks play their first exhibition game tonight. Seems like some hoop thoughts are in order. KU and the NCAA The saga continues its glacial slide towards a resolution. Wednesday KU announced that it was imposing various penalties, ranging from Bill Self and Kurtis Townsend being suspended for four games (reflecting an NCAA mandate for being found guilty of a Level 1 violation), to recruiting limitations, to reducing scholarships.
A light month thanks to reading The Stand and being out-of-town for a week. Movies, Series, Shows Halloween Baking Championship I have two episodes left, so no final grade yet. Interesting that the baker that seemed to be clearly the best took herself out of the competition early by taking an unnecessary risk. Incomplete The Patient I watched the first two episodes of this one night and then never got back to it.
I had a really good week in Washington, D.C. with L and her classmates. It wasn’t all great, but we avoided the major issues that often plague these trips. We did A LOT. I took some notes along the way, but I think the best way to share the experience is just to list everywhere we went and add a thought or two as necessary. Monday: Flew into Baltimore and drove directly to Arlington National Cemetery.