Behind on everything except for an obvious weather observation

[danceswithwords]

I'm back from the family reunion. The TiVO runneth over and I was sitting right in the middle of a swarm of infants and toddlers on the flight from Atlanta to San Francisco, and in my experience, children that age can handle about 3.5 hours max of an afternoon flight before things start getting hairy. That flight is 4.5 hours. I was counting on having a little online time because, quite frankly, I thought I'd need to hide more than I did, but I mostly had a lovely time with my family.

So, bullet points:

• It was effing HOT in Birmingham--in the 90s with very high humidity. I just cannot handle that kind of weather anymore. My mom hired a photographer to take some family pictures out in the side yard, and just ten minutes out there was a sweaty, mosquito-plagued nightmare.


• My cousin's two adolescent sons are monsters. I guess that's what happens when your parenting style involves lots of "Boys! Stop that! Oh, hell, whatever, I'm too busy spending money to pay attention to this." The younger one is actually fairly pleasant when he's not with his older brother, but wow, what a case study in what happens when children have never faced any consequences for anything.


• My one uncle and the mother of my cousins got divorced when my cousins were in high school, and a few years later he married a woman that we all privately agreed looked creepily like her. We love her; she is wonderful; it was just kind of... striking. But now it doesn't matter because my ex-aunt--who we have always continued to include in all of our family stuff, because she's family--and my current aunt have discovered for themselves how much alike they are and refer to each other as "wife in law," and that is way more creepy. Ah, blended families.


• My other cousin's 3-year-old is so, so smart; she's a little frightening.


• I had hip, delicious food in Birmingham!!!!! It was crazy. Despite my skepticism about what seemed like some over-the-top flavor combinations on the menu, Flip Burger Bar was fantastic. (The menu on the site is only a sample menu.) I had the turkey burger with smoked gouda, smoked mayo (I don't even know what that is), and a dried cranberry-scallion relish. I am not a big fan of the combination of cranberry and turkey, and I was also afraid that the smoky flavor would be too overpowering, but what I got was a moist, delicious, nicely proportioned turkey burger, and the combination of smoky and sweet was deliciously balanced. The fried sides were a little greasy, but hot and fresh. My father, who hates flavor, ordered a plain burger and plain fries and they accommodated him with a smile. The Korean burger was apparently delicious. We were seated at two tables; I heard from the other table that the milkshakes were also yummy, even though they seem pretty gimmicky to me. I expect that the franchise will be expanding across the Southeast; as long as they keep an eye on quality, they'll do well.


• I love my dog walker. He takes such good care of Murphy when I'm gone. It's amazing, and rare, to be able to trust someone that much. I came home to a happy, healthy, excited dog.
  
  
• It was lovely to watch some of the matches with my dad and brother. Also kind of weird, because I can remember when we were watching World Cup games on obscure channels 8 hours to a day after they'd been played, and that was if we were lucky.


• Obviously, part of me hoped the US would continue to advance. Another part of me really wanted an African team to advance. And then the US played the only African team to make it into the round of 16. As it turned out, Ghana played a hell of a game on Saturday, and all of the US team's weaknesses came to the fore--the gaps in the defense and the fact that our offense could mostly not get a ball in the goal. I'm glad that the game was decided on merit, and not on bad officiating, because there has been so much more interest in the World Cup this year here, and I want that to continue, and to spill over into other soccer.


• Speaking of officiating, FIFA absolutely HAS to do something after this cup. There is a way to let officials review footage without stopping play; they need to do that, because 100% live refereeing has failed. It will be a disaster if there's a bad call in the quarterfinals, semifinals, or final game that actually decides a game--and that is entirely possible.


• One of the FIFA referees--he reffed the Brazil/Chile match today--looks disturbingly like Hugh Dillon. It's distracting.


• There have been some good matches and some slaughters so far in the Round of 16. Slovakia impressed me in their group match against Italy; they were a fierce and able team, and there was no shame in losing to the Netherlands, who are looking really good this year. Germany is looking really good, and if I was a member of the English team, I'd be re-entering the country surreptitiously while wearing a cartoon disguise. Argentina has also been a machine. And Brazil just plays such beautiful soccer. They don't get mad, or stressed, or complacent; they just get out there and play the game. This Cup has reaffirmed my preference for teams that don't do theatrics. Italy, I was looking at you, until you got stomped!


• I have been getting a kick out of the World Cup coverage from Best Week Ever, particularly US Beats Algeria, Advances in World Cup, Saves Me From Murdering Soccer's Family (from last week) and NY Post Goes There with World Cup Headline (from, you know). Sigh!

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Day 05 - A show you hate

This is surprisingly easy, since it's hard to hate a show, as opposed to really disliking a show and stopping watching said show. But I hate CSI Miami. Its very existence is an insult to me, personally. The original CSI was the template for the other shows, and I watched the original CSI from the beginning because while it was a formulaic procedural, it built its plots on the way that the weirdness of people and the randomness of life could sometimes intersect to create death. But CSI Miami is all about how the victims deserve it, and the lab techs get to stand in judgment on them, despite the fact that the lab techs are apparently all awful people. My biggest storytelling pet peeve in this world is a show telling you something while it shows something else. CSI Miami is the worst example of this phenomenon that I have ever seen. And that's not even getting into David Caruso's "performance."

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I am also completely behind on DW/LJ, but hope to catch up in the next day.



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