The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  Only one Game this screening Week as the WNBA came back from All-Star Weekend, and Minnesota beat visiting Toronto Tuesday, 100-93.  I have to admit I was wrong about Olivia Miles.  Not only did I underestimate how the team can basically set and forget the Point Guard position for at least the next five seasons, I didn't know she would be such a fucking showstopper.  Just take a look at this:

Olivia Miles goes between the legs on a drop pass to Kayla McBride for 3

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— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 7:41 PM

I'm still scared that Awa Fam will be better than her in two or three seasons, but right now, I'm buying the ticket and enjoying the ride.

Lynx have won eight in a row and still lead the W.  But look at the margins of victory: 6, 5, 4, 9, 8, 3, 10 and 7.  If you're a dominant team, you stomp the hell out of your opponents.  Is anyone bothered that the Lynx aren't doing that?  They held a 14-Point lead three Minutes into the Fourth Quarter and the Tempo still managed to cut it to three with eighty Seconds left.  And while Minnesota is currently best in Net Rating, the Lynx currently lag behind Golden State in Defensive Rating and trail Indiana and Las Vegas in Offensive Rating.  I'm a pessimist; I seek out reasons Minnesota teams fail because they invariably do.

They finish a home-and-home with Toronto by playing in Canada tonight/Thursday night.  They then host The Indiana Fever, the team with the most toxic fanbase and social media army of any North American sports team, Sunday afternoon to start a four-Game homestand.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  Went 4-2 over the past Week, and now the speculation, such as it is, is whether the Twins might be buyers this season.  We'll believe it when we see it, but, and this might be me being too slow on the uptake, The American League is pathetic this Year.  There are two runaway very good teams in the AL, Tampa and the Yankees (and neither of them are above .600).  The third-best squad is the White Sox.  The Twinks are only three Games behind them, and only a half-Game behind Houston for American League Wild Card 2.  They could not make a move and be in the thick of things, so even trading for an anonymous Bullpen arm could improve their chances disproportionately.

By the way, last/Tuesday night they were shut out by Kansas City, who are in last in The American League Central Division, at home, 4-0.  The winning Pitcher?  Randy Dobnak, former Twins Pitcher who infamously was an Uber driver before finally getting a toehold in the majors.  Happy he's back, but losing to Dobnak doesn't make the Twinks look good, no offense to him.

After finishing up with the Royals this/Thursday afternoon, they travel to Seattle to play a three-Game series vs. the Mariners this weekend, then visit Kansas City for a trio starting Tuesday.

#-3: United FC (Last Week: -3).  Technically they didn't lose Saturday night at home versus Vancouver.  But I watched that 0-0 Tie in-person, and I swear there was a big loser: The sport of soccer.  It was a dreary, listless affair.  If there were scoring chances, I scantly remember them.  They tabulate xG at the Match, and I swear the Loons finished with .07 xG while the Whitecaps finished with .06 xG, an indication of how moribund the Game was.  And now I look at ESPN and they say MNUFC led (or trailed, considering they didn't score what they were expected to score) in xG, 1.1-.44 (while meanwhile, the club's website has Vancouver with .6 xG -- man, Expected Goals is an unreliable fucking statistic, and it doesn't help if people can't agree what the goddamn number is, come on!).  The only other thing that sticks out is Referee Lorenzo Hernandez, three Yellow Cards issued notwithstanding, largely swallowed his whistle and allowed both teams to play and/or scratch and claw.

United FC remains in the ninth and final playoff spot in the West.  They host San Diego FC Saturday night before Major League Soccer, barely back from their World Cup-induced two-Month break, plunge into Leagues Cup play, hosting FC Juarez of Liga MX.

Ruined Showers; Times Before And At The Very Start Of Supergirl

So I still don't know when they're coming back.  That's good in the sense that I still have the house to myself and I still have the opportunity to go through my things (even though I probably won't).  The bad news is is that I was hoping they would come home to at least a semi-clean house, but that won't happen till they, well, come home.  In the meantime it's still hotter than hell outside so I have taken a shower in both the upstairs (Monday) and downstairs (last/Tuesday night) bathrooms, thus "ruining" their cleanliness.  They might be coming home to bathrooms as dirty as they were before ****e* came to clean it on Sunday.  And sure, she last came over in February, so everything needed a cleaning, but still.

---

So I also sated my OCD/principles and watched Supergirl again last/Tuesday night, and this time I was able to get to the theater in time to see it from the start.  I timed the beginning of the movie to the point of the movie where I came in last week -- four minutes.  I missed the first four minutes of the movie.  If only I had gotten my ass out off the toilet just four minutes earlier, I wouldn't've needed to subject myself to this again.  However, one thing is irking me.  I timed the preview time, i.e. the listed showtime to the time when Supergirl actually started.  Backdating four minutes, the preview time of the film last week was 20 or 25 minutes.  When I went last/Tuesday night, 25 minutes had passed from the listed showtime and, I swear, they were still in previews.  So does the preview time change from week to week?  I though preview times shortened the longer a movie runs in theaters because fewer and fewer people pay for tickets to see it and therefore it doesn't make sense to show trailers of upcoming films for fewer and fewer eyeballs.  You mean to tell me that if I were running as late as I was last week to watch Supergirl this week, I would've made it to the start??  (Oh, by the way, last week I also watched Toy Story 5, and even though I was running 20-5 minutes late again, I got to my seat just as that film was about to begin.  To avoid getting bored by trailers, I will keep skirting preview times.)  

On the bright side, it wasn't a chore to see it a second time.  Knowing the general outline of what was going to happen next helped me understand the plot of the movie better.  Sure, it's not as if Supergirl is a deep film, but you know how confusing mass-market movies are these days.  And it wasn't the worst thing in the world to see.  I give it a, oh, B-/C+.

RIP, Smarter Than Staci

This happened about a month ago, and I feel bad I haven't blog posted about it till now.  It keeps slipping my mind, but I haven't given this enough respect, because it truly was an important part of my workday.

So when I started working back there, and I began to stay till 4:30, one of my former co-workers turned me on to KS95's "Smarter Than Staci," a long-time trivia segment of Staci & Hutch, which was the afternoon drivetime show on that radio station.  My ex-co-worker and a few of the others also working in the back always dropped what they were doing to play.  It consisted of two rounds of five questions usually read by Hutch.  The first round was played by a caller; the second usually by Staci or, if she wasn't available, another KS95 personality.  In the segment before, the answer to the first question is given.  Up until the end, the caller was able to ask for a replacement question if they didn't know the answer to one of the questions; Staci and/or the KS95 personality playing in the second round didn't get those privileges.  And even with those twin advantages, a lot of the times Staci won/the caller lost.

Not to toot my own horn, but I got enough of the trivia questions right that I cultivated a reputation for being, um, smart.  (Booksmart, yes, but when the question was about, like, reality show TV, I was completely useless.)  Whenever we got a question right, we would bump fists.  A good day was when we got all the questions right; I called it "running the table."  (Well, I guess everyone who knows the phrase would call it "running the table.")  And when we did not do well -- honestly, I was the one answering most of the questions, right or wrong -- the others picked me up and encouraged me.

It was a fun way to end the day, or, if I was working late, a late afternoon break that was fun.  I always looked forward to it and, frankly, to see if I could flex my intellectual superiority.  And it was a chance to at least talk for a bit with my co-workers, something I don't always do, especially when I'm busy.  "Smarter Than Staci" became a focal point, that thing you always do at work.

Unfortunately, Staci & Hutch was cancelled, and Staci and Hutch were fired from KS95, a month ago.  (I think the radio station has developed a reputation for just outright cutting personalities from their airwaves without warning -- that's not good for KS95.)  I don't know what replaced it -- honestly, I didn't listen to the afternoon drive show beyond trivia -- but I doubt whoever replaced them was going to continue doing trivia at 4:30.  And so, once we learned that that brief respite in the day was done and gone, I haven't listened to the radio we all used to listen to the questions since.  And with that, a little rosy piece of my workday went away.

Oh, well.  At least I don't feel compelled to drop everything and listen to the radio now.  I don't even feel compelled to stick around past 4:30 if I get my work done by then.  Nah, that's just coping; I still feel sad about "Smarter Than Staci" not being a thing anymore.

Addendum To: Where The Fuck Is She?

So I texted ****e* around 2.  She texted around 2:15 she'll be there in half an hour.  She suggested I leave with the door unlocked so she can just go in and start cleaning.  I thought about that, especially when she said she was taking at shit at a quarter to 3, but I decided to wait because she lives about 40 minutes away.

But then it's 3:30, and I haven't seen her and I haven't heard from her.  I asked for an ETA.  She says she's 27 minutes away.  So at 3:45 I really did say fuck this, shut the door but kept it unlocked, and just fuckin' left for Clear Lake.  ****e* said she would've gotten there earlier if she had known I was going down to Iowa, but I thought I made that clear when she initially postponed on Thursday.

Whatever.  I checked in with her at a gas station at 4:15.  I said my piece about the mix-up and that was that.  ****e* said she got there at 4.  Going to the The Day The Music Died Memorial took a lot longer than I thought, three hours as opposed to two.  And I don't like gravel roads, and I hated the humidity while I walked from the parking lot to the gravesite.  But I got there, a shrine embedded right in the middle of a cornfield.  Wish I could've stayed longer, but it was hot and it was getting late.

The nearest gas station to the memorial had 88 gas for $2.78-9/gal., 12-3 cents cheaper than I can get it here.  Still had to gas up before dropping off the rental (and by the way, I wanted to pre-pay so I could send the car back as close to the full line without going over, so I could save myself some money.  But six bucks brought me up short, goddammit, so I had to put my credit card to make sure it did go past the full line).  Anyway, after eating at Taco Bell and freaking out because one of the water leak pucks went off, I finally got home to see ****e* cleaning away.  (I think a hose in the boiler room overflowed because she was using hot water to wash out the kitchen sink.  Is that normal?)  And, per usual, she left everything spotless.  There were marks in the upstairs toilet I couldn't rub out, but she did.  Finally, she let me touch and even bite into her new tits.  She stopped me when I dropped my pants to start touching myself to her, though.  Oh, well.  Can't win them all.  And she's one hell of a cleaning lady, so I will once again tolerate her aloofness and tardiness next time.

Where The Fuck Is She?

OK, this is kind of pissing me off.  ****e* was supposed to tell me when she'll get here as soon as she wakes up, but she told me "early afternoon."  Well, it's past noon now.  I texted her, and I haven't heard back.  I have a rental car I need to use the fuck out of, and right now I am going to Clear Lake in the middle of the hot afternoon, plus there is an Extreme Heat Warning, both here and there.  I have half a mind to just say fuck her and leave.  I can't believe I'm being treated like this!  Well, actually, I can -- they're strippers.  But still, this is annoying as fuck.

Right Idea, Wrong Time

I should get a rental car and just go on roadtrips one weekend a year.  This has been fun.  Went up north on Friday, out east yesterday/Saturday and, hopefully, down through Iowa today/Sunday.  Now, I wish I had the foresight to not pick a weekend where gas prices are above four bucks a gallon because I will need to fill up the car I have a second time before bringing it in.  But yes, I can blame Trump for that.

Changing Plans (Stripper, Stillwater)

So right around this time I was supposed to see *****y at her cottage for a wank session.  Then, I would switch out of my porno pants and spend a couple hours around Stillwater close by.  Then, I would go home and nap before the Loons Match.

But nooooooooo, my stripper girlfriend changed plans again.  Instead of 1, which is when she wanted me to come over, she now wants me to come over a bit past 5, which is when her son goes to work.  Well, shit, why in the hell didn't you just say 5?  Your son doesn't know when he's working until the day before?  And of course this fucks up all my plans.  If I want to still hang out in Stillwater -- and I guess I do -- I now have to do it before getting jerked off by *****y, and then I can't come home because I might as well just hang out on that side of the Twin Cities and go down to St. Paul.  Weird to be doing something out in public after getting an HJ.  Oh, well.

Hanging all over this is the weather.  It's supposed to get hot starting today, but it's been cloudy all day.  That and, you know, meeting *****y when she first wanted me to cum over would lead me to going out and walking outdoors around Stillwater for an hour or two.  But not only will I not do that now, I might not do that at all because the Sun is supposed to come out later this afternoon.  I might be spending my time in Stillwater indoors, which may or may not be fun.

Random passive-aggressive lash-out: Sweat to fucking God, if that immature incel reacts to anything I say that he even remotely thinks questions his so-called superiority on the rules of football, I will say something.  Probably won't scream or completely insult him.  But I am too old for this shit, and I do not know if I can keep being stepped on by some twenty-something prick who believes he's got a ticket to move up in the industry he's wanted to work in since seeing SportsCenter for the first time without coming back on him.  Just saying that I cannot be complicit in my debasement for much longer.  Jesus, what a fucking goddamn asshole he was/is. ...

Is She Coming?

So ****e* became unreliable again.  She was supposed to cum yesterday/Thursday to work on the house, but she said she just got up, then she was moving slow, then her ex dropped off her kids, and then she said she was just not feeling good.

Whatever.  She now said that she's coming Sunday.  She said she no longer works weekends, but frankly, she needs to make this up to me.  After all, she promised she'd be here yesterday/Thursday.  But I have plans to make a run to Clear Lake, Iowa and see the The Day The Music Died Memorial.  It'll take 2 1/2 hours to get there, and it'll be hot as hell Sunday.  On top of that, she said she'll be here at noon.  It would be best for me to go down there as soon as I wake up to attempt to avoid the heat, but now I have to wait and answer any questions she might have and leave in the afternoon.  And what do I do if she's late?

And yet, because of this fuck-up, I am even more determined to go down there and see it.  Doesn't matter that I won't be back up here until it's 8 or so.  That's what I wanted to do Sunday, and I'll fucking do it even though ****e* basically fucked up my plans.  Shit, it might be good at this point that she doesn't cum.  Dammit, so fucking unreliable. ...

The Time Where I Almost Fucking Lost It Watching The World Cup

So I made the mistake of going to downtown to catch the last Matches of Group G almost a month ago.  I heard downtown was dead because it was dangerous (which of course is bullshit), plus there were no Twins or Lynx Games whose crowds I would have to worry about, so I thought I would have a good time digesting both Matches in relative peace.

I found a table where I would be able to see two TVs, each showing one of the Games.  One was farther from my vantage point than the other, but that was fine, or so I thought.  Shortly after I sat down, this group of three people sat at the table next to me.  That was OK, even though they got a little loud.  One guy ordered a round of shots and another guy was wondering if he could eat, and then I got a bit concerned.

Then, this fucking group grew like metastatic cancer.  A fourth dude came, then another group of some number, then another, then another.  They started blocking my view of the TV further from my eyesight, which was Egypt-Iran, the better of the two Matches going on simultaneously.  (That finished 1-all; in the other Game, Belgium routed New Zealand, 5-1.)  They of course started getting really loud, which only worsened when this same motherfucker who bought the first round of shots decided he was a bigshot and ordered a couple more rounds with even more shots.

As bad as that was, I really started to boil inside when they invaded my personal space which, in this specific environment, was my table.  The group got so big that a couple of them began standing inbetween my table and theirs, and their clothes and, for all I know, their body fat pushed up against and hovered over the side of my table.  I was already upset that I couldn't hear or see the World Cup Games I was there to see, so that shit really put me on red.

Then, some guy who probably was not part of their group (I'll get to why I say that in a bit) put his glass of water on my table.  The other end of this short table I was sitting at, but this was My.  Fucking.  Table.  And this asshole just walked away without it.  This was my red line.  This was the point where I lost it, or I had to do something while knowing I couldn't yell or punch someone.  I saw him talking to his group around the other side of the pillar against which my table was at.  I just grabbed the glass of water, went up to this dude, and said, "Hey, this is your water," then sat back down.  And he probably thought I was crazy and/or an asshole, but he, I guess, was puzzled enough to find another place to put the glass of water and then forget about it.  But at least that goddamn cup wasn't at my table.

As for these fuckers to the left of me, which seriously grew to about 20 or even two dozen people, it didn't get any better.  They got even louder and rowdier, and they even started pushing up against my table.  But hey, at least they got into the Eqypt-Iran Match like I was.  The only thing I can think as to why they seemed to be so OK with getting sorta close to me, and this is a complete guess, is that, and I was able to hear this with little difficulty because they were talking so fucking loud, they were in town for a conference of Asian journalists.  They were all Asian, as, of course, am I and, even though I didn't have that good of a look at him, the shit who left his water at my table.  They may have thought we were all a part of this conference in downtown Minneapolis.  I find it kind of funny since I have a degree in journalism.  I am out of the industry, way out.  And while looking at these drunk and dumb fucks ruin my night, it crossed my mind how many of these young, over-confident shits will wash out of the industry like I did.  From those who are able to carve out a career, I wonder how many of them will become "insiders" whose egos will be so big they'll become insufferable pricks who fall in love with the smell of their own shit.  Then again, they're Asian.  They might not be allowed to get that big.

Thinking/Wishing all of these journalists-to-be will fail was the only socially-acceptable way I could get back at these assholes that ruined my World Cup viewing.  Good luck in journalism.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  So the big (and obvious) news is Napheesa Collier is back!  And she decided to come back yesterday/Wednesday afternoon, in Seattle, for the Storm's annual camp Game.  Kind of delicious that Queen Phee came back to crush the hopes of a bunch of girls rooting for the other team, no?  She did, scoring 24 Points and grabbing ten Rebounds in only 22 Minutes, helping the Lynx complete a 3-0 Week and extending their winning streak to seven.  And they have The Best Record In The WNBA by 2 1/2 Games over, of all squads, Golden State.  (By the way, The Western Conference has the best four records in the W -- Minnesota, Golden State, Las Vegas, and Dallas.  The Eastern Conference then has the next-best four records -- Indiana, Atlanta, New York and Washington.  And the Mystics lead ninth-place Portland by 3 1/2 Games.  The clubs in the eight playoff sports are separately.)

My only issue is that the Lynx beat the Storm only by ten.  They swept their short two-Game series in Seattle, also beating the Storm Monday, but only by three.  Yesterday/Wednesday was the only double-digit victory the Lynx have had in this current winning streak.  Sure, many people think the Lynx is dominant, but if so, why can't they blow away teams by 35, like Indiana did last/Wednesday night over The Bastard Orland Miracle?

The All-Star Break has come.  Olivia Miles, Courtney Williams and Natasha Howard are participating in The All-Star Game.  Then, on Tuesday, play resumes as Minnesota hosts Toronto.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  Not a great return from their All-Star Break.  It began Friday beating the Cubs at Wrigley, 5-2, and they defeating the Guardians in Cleveland yesterday/Wednesday, 10-6, but they lost the four Matches inbetween.  And since The Trade Deadline is coming in less than two weeks, every Loss is giving the Pohlads a great excuse to conduct yet another fire sale.  Why can't this fucking team just move to Nashville or something?

They finish up their series versus Cleveland this/Thursday afternoon.  They host the (Sacramento) Athletics for a trio this weekend.  Then, Kansas City comes to town of a three-Game set starting on Tuesday.

#-3: United FC (Re-Entry!).  Forgot that with the World Cup now over, Major League Soccer is back from their one-Day-short-of-two-Months World Cup Break.  And they resumed play by losing at Sporting Kansas City, the worst team in the Western Conference, 2-1 last/Wednesday night.  They currently sit ninth in the West, and I'm scared that the long, long break will mean they will nosedive the rest of the Year.

At home vs. Vancouver Saturday.

I Have To See Supergirl Again Because I Took A Shit For Too Long

I have this -- I think I've spoken about this before -- OCD thing whereby if I don't see a movie from the beginning, I will, most likely, pay another ticket to see it again so I can be sure to see it from the beginning.  Now, that is kind of a problem if I don't drop everything and make a concerted effort to get to the theater in time to make sure I see that film from the beginning.  But until last/Tuesday night, the last movie whose start I missed was Equalizer 3.

Well, I missed the start of Supergirl.  And what I really hate about myself is that I planned on getting there in plenty of time, and everything that I needed to happen so I could get there in plenty of time happened.  I was given a shift where, if I had a normal shift, I would get out at 3:30.  I never have a normal shift at work, but I only had to stay a little longer, till 3:45.  The listed showtime is 3:50, and they have so many trailers that I knew I had plenty of time to get there.  And I didn't want to get there so early that I would start looking at my watch to see how long after the listed showtime will the damn thing actually start.  I've grown to hate trailers, so, after I punched out at work, I went to the bathroom.  Nature called.

And that's where I fucked myself.  By the time I got done relieving myself, I looked at my watch and saw that it was, oh, around 4:05.  The theater is close to work, but it still took me about ten minutes.  And even though I was able to get a ticket, the guy giving me my ticket said I missed the first 5-10 minutes.

Goddammit!  I lollygagged.  I didn't look at my watch.  Seeing how much time I thought I had when I clocked out made me overestimate how much time I really had.  I was doomscrolling as I was pooping, proving once again that looking at your phone promotes brain rot.  And, sorry to get too graphic, I did have to go.  I picked up a limited time honey brown butter bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, a sausage burrito, and a coffee from McDonald's on the way to work, and that lubricated my excretory system.  It was the second time I had to void waste during my workday, and so when you need to do #2, you can't just say you're done if there's more you need to force out of your body.  Maybe I shouldn't've eaten any breakfast at all.  That would mean I wouldn't need to doo-doo, and I could've just gone to the theater instead.  But nope, I had this great plan laid out before me, and I just tossed it to the side.

And what really makes me hate myself?  Sorry, I don't think Supergirl's that good.  Now, please don't get this twisted.  There are a lot of Republicans and incels who hate this movie for culture war/rage bait reasons, which are not legitimate reasons.  I thought the movie was kind of rote and, um, boring.  But my OCD compels me to buy another ticket so I can see this mediocre flick again in its entirety.

I plan on seeing Toy Story 5 after work today/Wednesday.  I was hoping the showtimes for that movie and Supergirl would line up in such a way so that I could get to the theater super early, buy my ticket to Toy Story 5, and sneak in to see the start of Supergirl, then go see Toy Story 5 from the start.  But unless I get there in the afternoon, that can't happen.  Welp, that means I need to see Supergirl again either Tuesday or next Wednesday.  That's when the price of tickets are the cheapest at the theater I go to.  I may have OCD, but I also know a bargain when I see one.  And hell, I might change my mind and not see this C+ movie from the beginning anyway.  But I could've just avoided all this mess if I would've  taken advantage of the time I had and shit quicker.  So disappointed in myself.

Is Mother Dying? Is She Lying About It?

The damndest thing, I got two voicemails yesterday/Monday that were left for Mother.  It's from the same phone number -- a cancer center, where they were talking about schedule surgery.  Surgery??  Cancer?!?!

OK, I try to avoid talking to Mother as often as I can; hell, there's an insurance bill that came yesterday/Monday that I haven't told her about yet.  I am keeping that a secret because I was hoping that me just texting her that I received these two VMs would be enough for her to take it from there.  But no, she calls me.  She asks me to text her the voicemails, which I had no idea you could do, but I did.  She said she would listen to the VMs and then get back to me.

And she did get call me back ... and supposedly after listening to the voicemails, Mother said not to worry about it, they dialed the wrong phone number.  On the one hand, phew!  On the other hand, I call shenanigans.  How much time do you need to determine a VM -- left for me, by the way, and not her -- that is scheduling surgery is BS?  Wouldn't having surgery be something foremost in your head, so that if you get information that the place you're having said surgery is looking for you, you would immediately go, "Oh!  What's their number??  I need to get in touch with them ... and oh, by the way, I have cancer!"

Well, Mother didn't do that.  So ... is she lying?  Does she really have ... cancer?

Maybe I Like Zynga Poker Again

I've been relegated, like, four times over the past five-to-six weeks.  It was getting to the point where it is unfair, and I thought about just deleting my account after Zynga Poker gets pushed out (or claims they will get pushed out) in the fall.

Well, I got on a holy roll just now and was promoted automatically not once, not twice, but thrice.  I was at Pro I, fell all the way down to Elite II, and now I am at, I think, Elite V, almost where I was.  It's as if Zynga Poker took pity on me and wanted me to stick around, so they just allowed me to win.

Downside is I spent 45 minutes to an entire hour doing this.  Talk about a timesuck.  That's how they get you.  Don't mind it, but that's how they get you.

Sleeping Like Normal People Might Be A Thing I Do Now

I could have stayed up to watch the Matt Damon/Noah Kahan rerun of Saturday Night Live, but the cold open was him acting as Brett Kavanaugh having a beer with Colin Jost's Pete Hegseth and Aziz Ansari's Kash Patel, and ... well, I know they aim for parody, but I just did not want to see them, so I didn't see it.

So, after doomscrolling, I shut my eyes.  That was around 11:30.  And I woke up around 7.  I was fully energized and also a tad upset I didn't get to the things I wanted to do last night.  But I had time to do them this morning -- watering the plants, watering the lawn, going out for groceries (in particular a banana; I had time to eat cereal for breakfast!), doing the dishes and, now, doing the laundry.

And I'm pooped.  But I still have time to blog post for the day, then go out to get some pop and maybe some ginger beer and/or ale), then go home and nap before The World Cup Final.  Maybe sleeping like normal people is not only a thing I do now, but something I like to do.

How Did Draining The Water Heater Go?

Well, I haven't burned the house down and I have hot water, so I don't think I've fucked up severely!

But the problem is I don't know if I did it right.  See, as I drained the water, I didn't see any dirty water.  I was initially putting this supposedly bad water in buckets to note how dirty it was, but the first few bucketfuls were completely clear.  That's when I decided to take out a garden hose from the shed, attach it to the short leader hose I also found in the shed, connect them (with a bit of difficulty; I sprayed some water all over the floor, dammit), and laid the other end in the floor drain in the laundry room.

I think I waited half an hour before it appeared as though the water from the hose slowed to a trickle.  I also checked where the garden hose connected to the leader hose, which I put in a bucket to collect the water coming out of the poor connection.  That seemed to also slow to a trickle, and that Internet tells me that means the water heater is completely empty.  So, I began flushing it by opening up the water valve for between five and 20 seconds and then shutting it off.  That start and stop is supposed to rustle up any sediment that settled in the bottom of the tank of the water heater so it could be sucked out of the drain plug.

At first, the water was dirty -- well, not brown like I was afraid it would be, but not as clear as the water that was taken out of the heater.  So I dumped the first bucket in the front yard while I took out a second bucket in which to continue to drain the tank.  Once in a while I would open and shut the water valve.  And the water continued to be dirty.  What it didn't appear to do, I'm afraid, is get better.  I kept dumping out bucket after bucket for, I believe, 45 minutes.  And while I could trick myself into thinking it was getting clearer, it was not getting clear.

I didn't know what to do.  I Googled and the damn AI said that this flushing method should take no more than 15 minutes.  Then why in the hell was I still getting brown-ish water after flushing for damn near 45 minutes?  Could it be the buckets I'm using making it look not clear?  They buckets aren't clear.  They're white; maybe that's the issue?

I stopped at a quarter to 11, about 2 1/2 hours after I started this ordeal.  Not because I was done, but because I indeed did not know what to do.  I closed the drain plug and opened up the water valve all the way.  After dumping the last bucket and wrapping up the garden hose I used, I saw that all the faucets I left open while doing this gravity drain was gushing out water and not air.  I didn't think that took a long time, however, so I kind of wonder whether I emptied the whole tank after all.

Oh, well.  It's all over.  Maybe I don't have to do this maintenance every year like I thought I needed to.  Me spilling water everywhere, because of the bad connection of the hoses and because of spilling hoses and the filled buckets on the floor, is something I don't want to revisit.  But I have just extended the life of the water heater -- maybe?

Water-Centered Plans Ruined By Sleep

Before draining (or attempting to drain) my water heater, I wanted to do three things last night: Shower, wash dishes, and wash clothes.  But I fell asleep around 10:30 and woke up around 4:30, and since I really want to do this this morning/right now, I can't do any of those three things.  Not showering sucks the most; I got sweaty again due to the hot weather yesterday/Friday, and I fell asleep on my sheets without wearing a shirt, so I know that the sheet has absorbed all my sweat, but I don't want to wash it, so I'm just going to continue to sleep on it until I just can't take it anymore, which could be up to two months.

Well, I'm sticking to my plan of draining this thing this morning, so I'm going to do it now.  Like I already said, wish me luck.

I think I have read up on the Internet enough that, tomorrow, I will attempt to drain my water heater.  It is an attempt to get the dirty water out of it and to extend its lifespan.  And hopefully I won't fuck it up.

Wish me luck, and if you're so inclined, pray for me.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -2).  I understand that they ran the table this screening Week.  I know they've won four in a row.  And I see that they remain tops in the league.  I also see that in Monday's Win over Phoenix, Kayla McBride and Olivia Miles combined to score 70 Points.  But as herculean an effort that was, they still beat a team that currently sits at 6-18 only by four Points.  They toughed out a five-Point victory over New York Saturday afternoon and, in their annual camp Game, they beat Los Angeles by nine.  These are only single-digit Wins, and frankly, I would be a lot happier thinking the club's a juggernaut if they were blowing other squads away by 15-20 Points.  (Winning all those Games at home helps a lot; can't help but think that if the Lynx played on the road, they easily could have gone 0-3.)  But that hasn't happened, at least not lately, and that scares me.  Napheesa Collier can't come back fast enough, because I fear that other teams in the W are catching up with the Lynx.

They complete a four-Game homestand hosting Bridget Carlton and The Portland Fire (again) Saturday night.  They then play two Games in Seattle, Monday night and Wednesday afternoon in the Storm's annual camp Game.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -1).  A 2-2 Week.  But they have won their last five series, including, in this screening Week, Cleveland and Anaheim, both at home.  They also are, technically, tied with Seattle for the final American League Wild Card spot.  And they've done while still being a Game below .500.  It speaks to 1) how ass the AL is and 2) how easy it is to be lulled back into supporting a poverty franchise that has continually slapped the state in the face with its steadfast commitment to parsimony and its refusal to take meaningful steps (i.e., spend money) to field a championship team.  Look -- they sold the farm last Year and they can still make the playoffs this Year!  These guys know what they're doing!

They start the second half of their season on the road -- at the Cubs for three beginning tomorrow/Friday, then in Cleveland for four starting Monday.

Yardwork (Water)

Went to bed around 3, woke up just about at 8 exact.  This is my second and final day off, and I was hoping I would sleep in, but alas, I did set aside some time over these past couple days to work around the house, so if my body says I need to be up at a time like everyone else, well, so be it.

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I wanted to take another crack at adjusting the sprinkler heads so that they wouldn't shoot so much water onto the pavement.  I thought all I needed to do was to take this key, shove it into the hole in each sprinkler, and crank it counter-clockwise.  But I tried that before and it didn't work, and I don't think it worked this morning.  I think the instructions said I had to use my off-palm to crank the top of the sprinkler head all the way to the right, and I can't do that.  It's hard to do when they're all moving.  So maybe there's nothing I can do.

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That's important because the sprinklers alongside the boundary with one of my neighbors sprayed that neighbor's driveway and, because they were parked there, the cars, too.  I was hoping the water wouldn't spray the cars, but it did.  Then, as luck would have it, someone came out to drive away from their home.  They must have seen the front door all went from the sprinklers.  So maybe, even though there's nothing I can do, I have to do something to not piss off my neighbor.  Maybe not run the sprinklers at all?

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Last time I ran them, on Sunday, I saw a huge pool behind one of the sprinkler heads in the backyard.  That's one of the things I wanted to investigate in my two days off.  So when I ran the cycle through, I found the culprit: One of the other sprinkler heads is loose or leaking or something, because water is just gushing out of it from every which way.  So now that needs to be fixed.  But how?

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OK, not a blurb about yardwork, but it is about water.  I am now committed to trying to maintain the water heater.  And I am going to do it this weekend.  We have garden hoses to attach to the water heater, but they are all, like, 25 or 50 feet.  I am more comfortable using a short one so I can dump the water into a bucket and then take it outside.  (I'm worried about leaks in the hoses, plus I need to see how dirty the water in the heater is.)  This morning I saw in the shed that we have a three-foot hose, but that only has two female ends, so I can only flush the water heater.  I want one to attach to the, what, temperature and pressure (or T&P) switch so I can see if that works, and so I need a hose with a male end.  I went to The Home Depot to buy one, and there was one that was six feet long, but attached to that is an adapter.  So I just realized: Why do I need to buy a hose when I can just buy an adapter and attach that to the small hose we already have.  So now I need to find a place that has that adapter.  So maybe I won't maintain the water heater this weekend after all.