Still Don’t Get It

I know this is nigh on bordering hypocritical, as a baseball fan, but I still do not understand why soccer is so beloved around the world. I’ve been giving it a shot over the past couple weeks with the Word Cup ongoing in Qatar. It seems, at least at this world class level, that is more a game of keep away than trying to score continually. I know, in making this statement, that I’ve stepped on some very sensitive toes who are leaping to defend toothier beloved “beautiful game”. It just seems that most of the game is one side passing the ball back and forth around midfield and then a couple of halfhearted attempt to penetrate. Sorry and yes, I do realize how boring baseball is. Also.

It's been a boring couple of days here at the casa. I should qualify that by saying life with my Favorite Panamanian is never boring in the strictest sense. It’s just that nothing of note has happened and we’ve been homebodies except for the odd errand or shopping expedition (her not me). I managed to scare the hell out of myself but I’m not sure that qualifies as true relief. I somehow froze my keyboard with some sort of unintended keystroke. I didn’t know what the hell happened other than while everything on the computer was working but I couldn’t type anything. I immediately thought of my daughter’s repeated encouragements to get my computer’s screen repaired and thought this is what had caused it. I had images of weeks without the computer and this would be a big deal since all the bills are paid this way. I frantically went through my usual procedures of turning the computer on and off with no results. I was on the verge of activating the emergency IT team (son, daughter, Wingman, ABFA) when I noticed a small message stating “unlock keyboard?”. Yep, I had somehow locked myself out of my own keyboard. Since I’m typing this I obviously figured it out.

Last night’s First Friday Family Facetime call relieved that ennui although we were witnesses to the first ever, official “time out” for BR3. I’ve written before that she is a feisty one who likes to buck authority just to see the resultant reaction. During the call she crossed a line with her dad that even her remarkable amount of charm was incapable of rescuing her from. Her dad told her to stop hitting the BRS, so she stopped looked directly at him, turned around and hit her again (like I said, feisty). This resulted in that first ever, official, time out. It was not well received. I tried to cheer my son up, because we all know while discipline is necessary it can be heartbreaking, by telling him her teenage years will be fun. (that was probably the beer talking)

And She Looks Like Such an Angel

I snuck out for a second movie on Thursday seeing The Menu. This promised to be a lot of fun as it supposedly poked a serious amount of fun at the super-rich and their bone deep pretentiousness; talk about a target rich environment. While there was a lot of that, it really didn’t deliver. Ralph Fiennes and especially Anya Taylor-Jones do deliver superbly but it turns out to be in a fairly silly effort. Fiennes portrays a psychotic, world class chef who invites a group of the super-rich to his private island for food and murder. The super-rich were appropriately horrible but I think even they would have fought harder than they do. Death isn’t something meekly accepted, even by a-holes. Worth seeing though for Taylor-Jones and Fiennes.

Three movies fell in my A-Z effort, all keepers, Cold Light of Day (panned by critics but I liked it), Cold Pursuit (Neeson as a vengeful snowplow driver, sneakily funny throughout), and Collateral (might be Cruise’s best performance, he does ominous well).

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                     

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course