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  • ODDS and ENDS: Stupid Victorious Tottenham, Paint Swatches, and Fuzzy Brain

    ODDS and ENDS: Stupid Victorious Tottenham, Paint Swatches, and Fuzzy Brain

    (Don’t know where I’m going cuz I don’t know where I been…)

    Well, stupid Tottenham Hotspur went and won the Europa League. I am very happy about this development. Happy that this team won a trophy. Happy that Son hoisted that trophy in the air. Happy that Tottenham has qualified for the Champions League next season by winning the Europa League. What I am annoyed about is that I, and the collective Spurs fan base, had to got through this whole shit season in the Premier League. 17th place?!?! It’s the worst that you can do without being relegated. And yet, somehow, Spurs won a trophy and gets to play in the Champions League. So, I really shouldn’t complain because it is true that the team accomplished its two goals; win a trophy and qualify for the Champions League. But, I’m still going to complain. #COYS

    You know what I’m doing this Memorial Day Weekend?!? Me and the wife are going to Home Depot to look at paint swatches and try to figure out what color to paint the living room. And this color needs to define who we are for the next ten years. See, the last time we painted the living room was right before the kid was born. At that time, we thought a blue-ish gray was the color that played to our strengths. This time around, not so sure. I believe that we are going to paint all of our trim white, while most of our furniture will also be white, or a natural wood color. Maybe a blue? A green? Odds are that I will go with what color the wife picks out. She’s much better at this stuff than me.

    And to end with, I want to say that this morning… I have had the fuzziest brain fog. Not so fuzzy that I couldn’t function, but more like walking through sand. Everything felt slow, or better yet, I felt slow. I got an okay amount of sleep, so I don’t think this is because I’m tired. I would hate to think that this is what getting older will feel like. OR, maybe all of this is due to gray skies? Maybe it’s mood. The lighting has affected me. The gray muted tones are making me want to go back to bed, or at least curl up on the couch. Or maybe it’s Friday, and I don’t feel like doing a damn thing.

    Oh, and seriously, WTF is up with the AI suggested image this week…

  • Earworm Thursday – “Yeyo” by Esquivel

    I love this song! It always puts me in a better mood, and I know I want this song played at my funeral.

    My best friend from high school, who has always had much better taste in music than me, found a greatest hits album of Esquivel, and we just loved the hell out of it. To this day, I am still surprised that Esquivel isn’t more renowned. His stuff is great.

  • Tottenham Won the Europa League

    Busy…

    Spurs won the Europa League!

  • Summer Summer Summer

    My kid has started counting down the days until Summer vacation. (She has 17 days left.) Schools about to be out forever, and the sweaters and coats are being packed away for another season. She is talking about swimming and vacations, and going to the beach all the time now. The start of Summer is so close, yet still far away for her, but the idea of Summer seems infinite – long hot days, and then cool evenings sitting on the couch in air conditioning.

    I try not plan too much of her Summer. We’ll do some trips to museums, and we’ll hit up the local community pool. The kid has told me that she wants to work on her soccer skills, and I think I can convince her to go hiking. What I would really like to do is put her to work on a few home improvement projects around here. I would like to paint the living room, and I think I could make that a life lesson that she needs to learn.

    You know, I enjoyed my time as a kid, and to be honest, if I had a choice of going back and being a kid again, I would not take it. I like being an adult. BUT! If there is one feeling I could relive one more time, it would be that feeling on the last day of school, when the bell rings for the final time, and you are free to go forth on your Summer vacation. That felling of weight being lifted, of freedom, excitement, possibility… That! If I could just grasp that feeling once more.

    I do get the next best thing, which is seeing my daughter live it.

  • Visiting a Farmer’s Market

    We’ve been going a little stir-crazy in the City of late. Due to an awful illness that ran through the family over consecutive weekends, school soccer matches, and unbreakable playdate commitments, we haven’t left New York City in close to two months. We were all getting the itch to leave the confines of the Five Boroughs. Finally, this past weekend, we put our collective foot down, and decided that this Sunday, we were getting in the car and driving out of town.

    So, we went to the Farmer’s Market in downtown Beacon, NY.

    I like visiting Beacon, for many reasons. First of all, it’s just far enough away from the City to make the drive feel like you are getting out. The town is beautiful along the Hudson River, and about twenty years ago, when I first visited the place with my soon to be wife, we both thought that this would be a great place to live. (Until we found out that homes there go for like $500k to million. And that was back in 2008!) Though living there really isn’t an option anymore, it is a place that we still enjoy visiting. Oh, and they have a rather cool disc golf course in town.

    I should have taken pictures, but I didn’t think of it.

    There is a very simple pleasure of going to one of these farmer’s markets. We’ve done the ones in Tarrytown, and Cold Springs, not to mention the big one in Union Square, as well as a smaller one in Harlem. I’m never sure what I am expecting when we go to these, but I have it in my head that I will find something that will inspire me to cook a huge meal. And that sometimes happens, but the wife is way better at looking at produce, and then thinking up all the things she will be able to make.

    What ends up happening is that the kid buys some little piece of jewelry, and I buy mushrooms, while the wife goes and finds stuff for us to eat, like risotto balls, and homemade doughnuts.

    It took us about an hour to dive up there. We walked around and shopped for an hour, and then took an hour to drive back to the City. We take the lazy way home, driving down 9D, which takes along the Hudson the whole way, but also cuts through forests, and goes up and down the steeper hills of the valley.

    This was the day trip that we all needed. We weren’t gone too long, and we didn’t go too far way. Just enough to feel like we got away for a bit.