Well, the Ravens lost to the Patriots on Saturday afternoon, which is kind of a bummer. I think I’m more surprised they made it this far and played as well as they did based on their regular season performance, but it was a great game and they didn’t fold up and blow away. Events kept me from the rest of the divisional playoff games, but I read the highlights from the Packers/Cowboys game and wish I’d seen it.

We took in the game in our neighbors’ basement media room with the kids being watched by a babysitter upstairs. That was a very comfortable arrangement. The girl who watched them is the daughter of a woman who will be giving Finn piano lessons shortly. We know her from the church across the street; she was one of Finn’s counselors during summer camp a couple of years ago. Our hope is that Finn finds the piano interesting and takes to the lessons. This is a child who is always humming bits of music to herself, something I think she gets from her old man (the earworm bug). She can listen to the score of a movie playing over the end credits and identify its sections by scene (“this is the part where Toothless meets Hiccup”) so her musical retention and comprehension is as strong as her reading comprehension.

So, remember when my sister contacted me about missingmoney.com? I sent my information in a few weeks before Thanksgiving and everything went silent for a while. Last week I got a check from Maryland with no explanation, no note, or idea of what happened. But hey, free money!