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  • ODDS and ENDS – Euro 2020/21, Summer Camp, Sleep!

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Again, I will be talking about Euro 2020/21. As of this moment, Switzerland just got bounced by Spain, and Italy and Belgium just started. Though I was completely wrong about Sweden last week, I still hold that the final will be Belgium against England. Yes, over the Fourth of July Weekend, I will be rooting for England.

    Finally, some good news with Summer Camp, as it has taken up my whole week. The pediatrician’s office got the revised vaccination form to me today; a whole day earlier than they said. The weight taken off, not only my shoulders, but my wife’s shoulders, is enormous! The kid will get to go to summer day camp! She gets to be around kids again! We all get a break from each other! I feel like I won the lottery!

    One last thing. After my wife’s birthday, which was in the middle of June, I decided that I would do another thirty days of no alcohol. I did it last year as a sort of detox and reset on getting healthy. I was told that when you stop drinking you begin to notice changes such as, the ability to sleep through the night, your complexation clears up, you become more focus, and relaxed, and you lose weight. When I did it last year, I noticed none of those benefits. Nothing. I couldn’t sleep, I had a bad complexation, I was foggy, not relaxed, and I put on weight. Sure, it was the middle of the pandemic, but I thought I would have got something. This time around, I can report that I am, in fact, sleeping better, and through the night. As for the other benefits, again, nothing. Seems to be that I might have to do this five more times before I start seeing all the benefits at once.

  • Summer Day Camp Anxiety Continues!

    Okay, it’s feeling like two steps forward and one step back over here.

    I was informed yesterday that the kid was lacking two vaccines which she needs to be cleared for camp. I called our pediatrician’s office, and was able to get an appointment today for the kid to get the vaccines. That all went according to plan.

    We made it to the doctor’s office, got in right away, the nurse was awesome and gave the shot to the kid without any panic or tears. All good.

    Now, to verify that the kid has received the shots, I just need a vaccination form signed by the kid’s doc for verification… which will take three business days… And Monday’s a holiday. And the camp starts on Tuesday, 9am.

    Ung…

    I was given the, “we’ll do our best to rush it.” The is no reason for me not to trust the staff at the pediatrician’s office. They have been great with everything we have ever needed in the past six years. I need to trust them.

    And I have been in work situations before where the most honest answer I could give was, “I will do my best.” Most of the time, I still got yelled at by the client, so I don’t want to be the guy who browbeats his way into getting what he wants.

    Sure, worst case here is that she misses the first day of camp… But, I don’t want to disappoint my kid.

  • Summer Day Camp Anxiety

    This is the first Summer that we are dealing with sending the kid to day camp. All the pre-schools that our daughter has been in were all year, so there really wasn’t a “Summer” time, as the school never really came to an end. Now that we have finished Kindergarten and are going into First Grade, that means real Summer Camps.

    I will admit that I started this whole process way too late. But, I do have the kid in a day camp that starts next week, which is a relief. But we live in the time of COVID, which means a crap ton of hoops to jump through.

    There was quite a stack of forms that needed to be filled out. They were a stack of online forms, but it still did take me an afternoon to fill everything out. And I am still fill out stuff. And I just found out that she has two vaccines that she hasn’t received yet and needs for camp. Her yearly physical is in August, but now we have to go to the doctor’s office and get them. And then resubmit all the forms!

    And then there’s daily lunches that I need to send with her. I don’t know why this is giving me so much anxiety, but it is. The place is a nut free camp, not surprised or upset about that, but as I look back on what I have been feeding the kid over the past year, nuts shows up in about half of the stuff. And I also feel that I need to be really creative when it comes to her food.

    This is our daughter’s first chance to be around kids her age for about six hours a day, and I just want it to go right. I want her to have fun, and make friends, and learn stuff, and… be a kid with kids. She hasn’t had that in over a year and I desperately want her to have that again. Just to have Summer fun.

  • England v Germany; Final Thoughts

    I would like to claim that I called the match. That might not be accurate, but I don’t care. Sterling scored again, and Harry Kane found the back of the nest as well. 2-0 was a pretty solid win for England over a German team that had two very good chances to at least tie the match.

    I have my money on Sweden beating Ukraine later today, which, no offense to anyone, does give England a pretty good chance to make it to the final. Okay, I’m calling an England v Belgium final. There you have it.

    Anyway, that was fun, and that’s what watching football over the summer should be like.

  • England v Germany and Euro 2020/21 In General

    Today at noon, in Wembley Stadium, England will play Germany in the knockout round of Euro 2020/21. I’m pretty excited about this. I will also be pretty excited if Harry Kane shows up in a dramatic way today. I don’t need him to score all the goals. He can assist Sterling all day, and I’ll be happy with that result.

    I’m almost on the level of excitement as if I were watching the World Cup. I don’t know a whole lot about the teams, outside of England, but I’m enjoying the drama of the matches. Switzerland defeating France was exciting. The same thing with Belgium knocking out Portugal. There’s even part of me that hopes Italy does well, but I know that’s a long shot.

    I’m a little surprised at how much I have gotten into international football. I’ve started reading up on Premier League trade rumors, keeping an eye on qualifying matches for the World Cup, and in a weird way, I’m really looking forward to season two of Ted Lasso. (It’s all connected.) Either way, I’m enjoying myself, and that all that matters.