Currently burning up my iPhone: Slate’s Slow Burn podcast, a series investigating the Watergate break in and its aftermath, focusing mainly on the details people have forgotten or never knew about. I’m three episodes in and it’s riveting, maddening, angry-making stuff. And so, so relevant in today’s jaded, diluted media cycle. To wit: The break-in happened in June of 1972. Nixon was re-elected in a landslide victory in November, after months of nightly news reporting, congressional hearings, and FBI investigations. The American public didn’t care until the beginning of the following year, when the burglars were sentenced to long stays in prison and one of them ratted out the White House in a letter to the judge.

Our bathroom project is currently stalled. I bought a huge roll of underlayment for the floor heat system three weeks ago, but it isn’t enough to cover the whole thing, so I’ve got to go back and get more. I was across the bay last Saturday and they’re closed on Sundays. The tile is sitting in a warehouse waiting for me, but I can’t lift anything over 10 lbs and they’re understaffed on weekends, so I can’t ask the showroom women to help me. GAAAAAHHH.

The blood thinners I’ve been on for weeks appear to be working. my brachial artery is still numb above my wrist up to my elbow but there’s little to no pain on a daily basis. I’ve got a numb spot on my right wrist, but the rest of that side is fine. When I go in for the next CAT scan, however, I’m going to ask them to take a look at my right knee, which is still numb since before chemo started.

 

Date posted: February 8, 2018 | Filed under bathroom, house, politics | Leave a Comment »

How happy am I that the Eagles won the Super Bowl and the Patriots didn’t? Very happy.

Finn played soccer on Saturday and the coach put her in at goalie for the first half. I was initially worried, thinking that she might get bored and distracted if the majority of the play was far away from her and then suddenly right on top of her, but she did really well. The coach gave her five minutes of good advice, told her what to look for and how to set herself up, and she listened to every word. She was focused for the whole game, stopped multiple shots on goal, and by the half her team was up 4-0. The smile on her face as she walked off the field made my heart explode with pride. For the second half she played defense and did well, but I think I’ve got to work on ball-handling skills and her aggressiveness on taking shots. She treats the ball very gingerly and needs to get comfortable with hitting it hard and knowing where she wants it to go.

Afterwards we celebrated with a donut and then headed over the bridge to Easton for Zachary’s birthday, a Nerf dart war themed party held at the YMCA. The staff set up a room with obstacles and the kids chose weapons from a bucket of Zachary’s collection (Rob went a little crazy with buying and upgrading the Nerf gun collection; Zachary probably has 15 guns in various sizes and shapes) and they threw the kids in there for a half an hour to duke it out. By the time the staff blew the whistle the floor was covered in Nerf darts and jammed weapons. LJ and I loaded magazines and cleared jams and got things ready for the post-pizza rematch and I spent most of the second half in the room with the kids, fixing and loading guns for the kids. I might have taken a shot or twelve while I was there too…

Afterward, we went back to Karean’s house and let the kids play downstairs while the adults chatted over wine and snacks. By the time we got on the road, it was 8PM and Finn was beat.

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A few months ago I switched DSLRs with Jen so that she would have the best one we own. The D90 I have is still a very good camera, but I haven’t used it much because I was shooting the Fuji almost exclusively in 2017. I charged it up today to carry it with me this week. When I turned it on, I got an error on the LCD reading r09, which means various things according to the Internet. It won’t autofocus or trip the shutter, which means something is wrong with the autofocus system. Either I have to clean the contacts on the lens and the body, swap lenses, format the memory card, reset the whole camera, or sacrifice a live chicken. None of the solutions online helped, so it might be that I’ve got to bring it in for servicing.

Date posted: February 5, 2018 | Filed under finn, friends, general, photography | Leave a Comment »

I posted another expanded story on Curbside Classic sunday morning.

Date posted: February 4, 2018 | Filed under cars, shortlinks | Leave a Comment »

Clutch is a Maryland band that’s been around since I was in college. I stumbled across the video for Electric Worry and quickly remembered why they were on heavy rotation in all the dive bars I frequented in those days. I will add this to my “Driving Real Fast” playlist.

Date posted: February 2, 2018 | Filed under music | Leave a Comment »