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One year ago today.
We began our greatest adventure. And it has been a year of great change, joy, loss, happiness, laughter, growth, busy schedules, a graduation, a few hospital visits, warm hugs, travels, trials and triumphs.
And I have a wonderful companion with whom to experience all of those things and more.
Justin and Atticus at Toys R Us
We were going to go swimming today, but storms took that out of the equation. So we went to Toys R Us instead.
We played with trains and Matchbox cars and all sorts of things. Justin and RaDonna had their niece and nephew with them for part of the day, so we all loaded up and visited Whole Foods, too.
Whole Foods, the kinder, gentler grocery store where the grungy alternative kids work, has plenty of healthy foods. And the store is made from a remarkable 143 percent of recyclable materials. They are very proud of this. There’s a poster explaining it by the restrooms. Wood in the store is from old barns. The metal decorations above the butcher area are from a thermonuclear warhead. The light is from the sun. The shopping carts were stolen from a Kroger down the street.
Only some of those are false.
It is a nice concept, though, putting into practice the old saying about one corporation’s garbage is another suburban grocery store’s treasure. Most of the recycled items were in place for the aesthetic, rather than function. It keeps these slivers of wood and steel and aluminum out of the landfill, at least until this store is razed.
We played in the toy area a while. We shopped. We played in the toy area some more.
RaDonna on the slide at Chick-fil-A.
We had a bite to eat at Chick-fil-A. They’ve changed the menu, but they have a sense of humor about it. We played on the Chick-fil-A playground. Or Atticus did. For the first time, perhaps, ever, there was a playground, a kid I was with playing on it and I did not take part. I feel so old.
We went to Target. I drove Atticus around in the shopping cart — not stolen from a Kroger down the street — backwards. He giggled.
Had a great visit, wish we could do it more. Hopefully we’ll get one or two more before Atticus’ birthday this fall when he’ll turn, unbelievably, five.
I understand that Spanish referees are sticklers but, if I may apply mid-20th Century norms to a 21st Century soccer match, this stuff will get you invaded. The talented, entertaining and cliche-driven Germans got four cards in no time flat. Hard fouling, hard living and losing to Serbia, all in one day, is no way for a group favorite to behave.
And then came the US-Slovenia game. My reaction, for which you’ve been dying to hear no doubt, is simply this: Mutter mutter Unyewu, mutter mutter. Mutter mutter, questionable officiating, mutter mutter.
That referee is from Mali, which no doubt sent plenty of people scurrying to Wikipedia to see where that island was. And then they discovered Mali was an African nation. So then those people had to read through the Wikipedia entry to see what it was the United States has ever done to Mali.
And this is the shame of FIFA and its many attendant corruptions. I cannot say that this referee was on the take, but we can certainly see FIFA’s long history of indulgences and sidelong glances at pesky things like ethics and can’t believe too strongly in the credibility of those involved. The best possible explanation will be the old make-up call, that the ref got burned on the play immediately before the set piece, realized it and was intent to make it right.
So it becomes a question of American audiences — nothing FIFA is overly concerned about, granted, but soccer fans in the U.S. must consider this through the eyes of their less enthusiastic friends. In sports which the American fans are looking for context the officials are answerable to someone. Football refs have microphones; the crowd knows the ruling. Baseball’s umpires have hand signals all can easily interpret. Basketball officials must talk to their colleagues on scorer’s row and between that, the scoreboard and the hand signals, a literate fan knows the ruling, correct or not.
In the case of the Mali ref, not even the players on the pitch know what he was thinking.
For American fans, even those that don’t appreciate the import — they understand the attendant bragging rights, celebration, potential for money, potential for new player contracts and so on — it seems odd that one many, with his thoughts his alone, can drive the entire contest.
As for the rest of the game I can only wonder. I know that Oguchi Onyewu has been hurt and is still recovering, but is our depth of field such that we can’t find one more capable defender to put in his place while he struggles? With a talent pool of 300 million we can play with almost anyone in the front 11. But there must be a significant drop off from potential players 12 and 13 otherwise Onyewu wouldn’t feel as bad as he must just now.
This is the other side of the coin. If the 1-1 draw with England was satisfying, the 2-2 draw with Slovenia+Mali is beyond disheartening.
Meanwhile, England drawing Algeria is fun. The Three Lions look as bad as France right now. This can’t be sitting well at home.
I’m sitting well at home. Trying to figure out iTunes. It wants me to watch tutorials and that’s all it will let me do. So I play the tutorials. And then, because they are boring, I leave the room. Maybe the software knows I am not in front of the screen. but, if it knows that the software shouldn’t also know I can intuit programs as they are displayed before me. But iTunes is having none of it.
I wrote tech support. We’ll see what they have to say on the matter.
But only for a short while.
I celebrated by watching television. Do you know what I really like about HD? How the image blocks up and the sound drops out every so often. This is a silly thing to complain about in life, of course. When the signal is clean the shots are beautiful.
Pardon me, I watched Batman Begins tonight.
Turns out there was a problem with the signal. We lost cable, phone and internet for a time tonight. I laughingly complained online. A Charter rep sympathized with me on Twitter. I called the service number and learned it was a repair issue and signal of beautiful, digital opiates would soon return to my grateful eyeballs.
And they beat their repair estimate. So this is hardly something to complain about.
Elsewhere, just World Cup — Argentina vs. Korea, Greece vs. Nigeria and France vs. Mexico. Argentina is entertaining, I enjoy watching Korea. Nigeria is always fun. France is just embarrassing at this point. I love international soccer. It so often conforms to your native perceptions and, when it does, you are pleasantly surprised.
Still editing photographs. There are now 344 found sprinkled on the photo page. That still leaves our last stop on the cruise and one final day in Rome to work through. I hope you enjoy vacation pictures!
Took The Yankee and one of our professors to the airport this morning. They are flying to Asia for a conference. I’m not jealous of the length of time involved in this trip at all.
This happened at the airport: The Yankee can’t check in at the kiosk. She tries another kiosk. I ask to make sure she has a ticket. Sometimes the simplest things can be the trouble, you know? She gave me the “I have a PhD” look and assured me that she does have a ticket.
We meet one of the dozens of people that Delta has hired to stand around and do little of nothing. The very nice manpoints us to a long line waiting to check in. After a while someone else wonders over and asks about the flight. This being an international flight we need to be in an international line. This, apparently, is not such a queue.
The two big red signs hanging above us that say ‘International’ don’t mean anything? I ask.
“No.”
So we moved lines again. Our professor has checked in meanwhile. The Yankee tries to check in curbside, but still no luck. She finally manages to talk her way onto the flight. I’m still not sure if she actually has a ticket, but she’s on the plane nonetheless.
I caught up with our friend Dave at Meehan’s for a delicious turkey burger. One of the things I miss about spending a lot of time in Atlanta is Meehan’s. If we could get that place and Willy’s we’d be set. Anyway, Dave and I watched a World Cup game. I hit the road back home just after missing the rush hour traffic.
Stopped at an antique store on the way, browsed around and picked up this:
See the wonders of the fair inside!
The illustrations inside are great. I looked it up on ebay, discovered I had found myself a narrow deal and bought the book. Now I’m going to scan it, upload it and then send the book to my friend Henry. He was at that fair. He might like that as a memento.
One last bit for the day, featuring Jon Stewart. He has a question or two for the White House.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Ass Quest 2010 | ||||
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That’s the most trusted newsman in America. As LBJ said, when you’ve lost Cronkite, you’ve lost the country. For President Obama, losing Stewart, even if only a little, even if only for a punchline, is bad news indeed.
Tomorrow I become a bachelor again, for a short time anyway.
