I have stayed out late a lot, especially lately.  And even though I endeavor to do things once I get home, I am usually too tired.  Well, I often eat and/or drink, and that makes me too tired to do things I should do -- the laundry, the dishes, my stuff, you know, the usual things I complain about.

And today is one of those nights.  I was going to go to sleep and blog post something in the morning because I didn't have anything to write about.  Well, I do now ... and now that I've done it, as pithy as it is, I am going to try and sleep.

So I'm eating spaghetti (seconds, but I think I'm in a phase where I don't like leftovers).  The only things I've accomplished are making spaghetti, fixing the sprinkler head (maybe I'll blog post about that), and doing this blog post.

I'm eating at a dinner table filled with my stuff -- letters, receipts, etc.  There's a bunch of my shit in the basement.  I have clothes I've organized into piles but haven't put away.  And even though they haven't given me a date (yet), Mother said they'd return in August, and it's August.

Maybe, just maybe, I should do something about my stuff.  Or, maybe I won't.

Back to eating my spaghetti, and to scrolling.  Hey, the Lynx won!

I was afraid The Third Department was going to be hell since one of my co-workers was taking the rest of the week off, and it was.  Goddamn, I didn't leave last/Thursday night until 7:15 -- that's a 10:45 day.  I'm glad I got to the pizza place (in a gas station very close by me) before they closed.  But it might be just as bad today/Friday because there are a half-dozen tests coming in.  There were only supposed to be two yesterday/Thursday but that became six, goddammit.

Since I got home much later than I was hoping, all the things I thought I wanted to do I just didn't do -- not just because I got home so late, but also because I was so tired.  At least I have enough energy to blog post this complaint.

I was going to blog post about how I'm getting fucked by my health insurance card, but my mind is so tired right now that I don't have the mental capabilities of going through my thoughts.  What I really, really want to do right now is sleep ... which isn't something I'm getting right now because my evenings in which I would use to catch up on rest I am instead watching the World Cup.  Oh God ... the headache I'm feeling right now is a sign I need to go to sleep.  So that's what I'm going to do now, and my well thought-out blog posts I'll blog post another day.

I was going to blog post about me deciding to attend the Women's PGA Championship at Hazeltine (tl;dr in case I don't ever get back around to talking about it: I'm glad I went) or the time Friday I went downtown just to watch the World Cup and a growing party just fucking got in my way.  But before I left for Hazeltine yesterday/Sunday I juice half a lemon and got 35 mL out of it.  That meant I had to drink two cocktails, and since I got back so late I had only till 9:30 p.m. (I juiced them around 11:30 a.m. and I think you have up to ten hours before the juice starts to taste bleh) to use them, and I realized while watching Red Sox-Yankees on NBC that it was past 9, so I made and downed a lemon drop martini and then quickly followed that up with a between the sheets, and not only do I have a pounding headache, I think I may have poisoned myself.

So, to summarize, that is what I'm blog posting about ... while also providing a possible cause of death in case I don't wake up in the morning.

World Cup-Pilled

Man, I am so balls deep in the World Cup I can't stay up that late.  Like now -- I'm so tired at 2 in the morning that I care barely stay awake to do this blog post.  This tiredness creeping earlier and earlier into my night is somewhat disconcerting.  But hey, if it means a more restful rest, I'm all for it!

Is It Worth Dealing With Traffic?

I am at to this library that's not close but close enough.  But I have to use the highway to get there.

While driving here, I see the traffic on the highway coming back completely backed up.  There are road crews that are doing something that requires shutting down the left-most lane.

Thing is, I see all this and have chances to take exits that get me home right away without getting stuck in all that.  I didn't take them.  I didn't turn around.  I figure I can just go on Google Maps and they'll find a way of getting me home.  But if not, I am driving the old minivan and will be stuck on the highway for a while, looks like.

So why am I going to the library?  Well, to blog post on my day off.  But also to sharpen my pencils.  This is the only public place I know close to me that has a public pencil sharpener.  I'm going to see Ohtani and the Dodgers play tonight/Wednesday night and I need to sharpen my pencils to score the Game.  That is enough for me to drive out here and sit in traffic on the way back.  Or am I being foolish?

Isn't Shohei Ohtani Ruining My Plans?

I have today/Wednesday off.  I have had this day planned off for some time.  I had changed it to going to the dentist's in case I needed to go back a second time this month to fill in all the cavities, but I didn't, so I reverted back to my original reason for taking that day off: To at least catch one full day of World Cup Matches that wouldn't short-staff my co-workers.  (Turns out work has been very light since last week, for some strange reason, so that reason is pretty much moot.  Also, I was going to take the whole week off, plus the back half of last week off, in anticipation of being hired for The Special Olympics, but that didn't happen.)

That was before I remembered that The Los Angeles Dodgers, my baseball team when I was out there for college, was in town and, in fact, in town for a three-Game series Monday through today.  I was going to skip it because hey, it's the World Cup, something I won't see for another four Years (well, at least the Men's; the Women's comes up next summer).  But then I checked the pitching matchup: Today, Shohei Ohtani pitches.  I know Ohtani is probably awesome to watch when he's just batting.  But he's a unicorn in that he's in the Lineup even when he's the Starting Pitcher.  His continued success doing both makes him, according to a growing chorus of baseball experts and fans, The Best Baseball Player In History.  Yes, even better than Babe Ruth.  For that reason alone, I think I need to see him do both in person.  It might be more than four Years before he comes to Target Field and does this again, if he ever does.  And, and this is relatively minor, but Joe Ryan is hurling for the Twins.  Great matchup.

I just convinced myself that going to the Twins Game tonight/Wednesday is the right thing to do.  But I wanted to blog post that I have altered my long-held plan to just plop my butt at a pub to watch soccer all day.  So, in that sense I've, well, usurped myself.  This is not the reason I was taking today off.  And I have to note that the Twins Game is badly timed.  The tripleheader of World Cup Matches are at 2, 5 and 8.  The baseball Game's at 6:40.  Plus, parking might be a bear because of Ohtani pitching.  So the plan I have now -- going downtown early to (hopefully) find parking and pay (ugh), watching the 2 o'clock Matches, then doing ... um, something and then heading to the ballpark relatively early -- has a lot of downtime that can't be filled by watching soccer Games in their entirety, which is something I really, really want to do.  It might not make sense to go downtown early to watch soccer.  So, taking that into account, why take off work?  Why not just go from work to the baseball Game?  If work is light again today/Wednesday, I could even stop at home and change, or even nap.

Eh, whatever.  I have the day off.  I'm going to see Ohtani pitch and hit, and whatever else I have the energy to do, I'll do.

The Last-Ever Meal At Peter's Grill

I started this blog post just with the title.  It was July 3, 2013.

The place closed for good July 29, I think.  I had never been there, but after 99 years, a place that had a solid connection with Old Minneapolis was going to close, and I felt the need to connect to it.  And sure, maybe the irony of being a first-timer to Peter's Grill on its last day was too much for me to resist, but I went and, after a long wait where all the servers were too busy helping others and, I guess, trying to rectify the death of an institution that was a part of their lives for so, so long.

And I think I hesitated to write this blog post for so long because ... well, I eventually forgot.  But I remember taking a picture of my meal, and I wanted to, for the first time, post a picture I took myself in the blog post, but I never learned how to upload a photo onto Blogger.  And then I think I began hesitating as to whether I wanted to put a picture I took myself onto WAF for identity reasons.  Whatever the reason, I don't know where that photo is now; the ones on my cellphone go back only to 2014.

I remember sitting at the bar and I was told that all the food was gone by the time I got there.  I may have played the woe-is-me card because someone, and it very well could have been the owner, heard my sob story, went to the kitchen (and I could see into it from my barstool), and took what appeared to be a prepared dish.  I don't think it was going to be given to a customer; I got the impression that one of the workers prepared it for him or herself, either because they were hungry over their busy day or they wanted something to take home to eat and/or remember Peter's Grill by.  And this guy, presumably the owner, took that and gave it to me.  It was a tuna sandwich.  Can't say I was blown away, but it was, and is, important to me that I had a piece of Peter's Grill before it shut down.

But assuming that tuna sandwich was for someone else, I feel bad.  Sorry.

It was packed in there.  Which raises the usual issue that if it were packed before it closed, the restaurant wouldn't have had to close, now, would it?  But hey, it's a downtown restaurant, and those are vanishing by the minute because it's so hard to make money when you cater mostly to people coming to and from work.

I just read that the owner blamed food trucks for permanently crippling his business.  Well, this is also ironic, but as I have heard, there are no more food trucks in either downtown since the pandemic.  So many companies decided their employees could work from home during COVID that food trucks determined there was no longer money to be made downtown, either.  Maybe that has changed since we're now six years beyond the pandemic.  But I haven't heard of a glut of food trucks invading downtown Minneapolis every lunch hour.

You know, I assumed I would have more to say about the death of Peter's Grill.  Well, shelving this blog post for 13 years shortens the story, I guess.

You know, the big drawback to going out all these days is my disincentive to brush my teeth.  Sure, I have plenty of time after I get home to do that, but I'm tired and there are other things I need to do.  For example, I got home from gorging myself at the Kickoff To Summer At The (Minnesota State) Fair, and I had to buy chocolates online, then I had to watch intently the last episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and then I had to blog post, so now I'm too tired and I have to go to bed!  When will I ever have the time to brush my teeth?

My God, I am so tired.  And I have been tired around this time of night (which is after midnight) for the past week or so.  What's causing this?  Spring forward got implemented a month ago, and sometimes I react negatively with changes at work, so I don't think my recent inability to stay up has anything to do with that.  But what is it?  I don't know.  All I know is I am too tired to blog post anything more than what you are seeing right now.

Giving The Van A Little Love, I Guess

I now think I remember what I was going to originally blog post about yesterday/Saturday afternoon.

So I brought in my parents' minivan last week.  I have no idea what maintenance Father did or did not have on it before my folks left, so I just assumed I should not trust him and asked for an oil change and a tire rotation.  This was also the time to find out if there's anything more to the exhaust smoke I saw coming out the passenger side of the van earlier in the year.  And finally, if there was anything else the mechanics saw, let me know; I might get it fixed.

Well, they never said anything about the oil looking fresh, so they changed the oil and rotated the tires.  The exhaust was something; they showed me that there is a hole in the muffler.  But this is one of those cases where one thing could lead to another.  They could replace the muffler for a grand, but they would then have to disassemble the whole exhaust system, and the mechanic was afraid some other part that is closer to the front of the car would get loose or break off, and that would mean, at the very least, three more thousand dollars.  That is one repair that I will not have fixed.

But, while looking around, the mechanic saw that the stabilizer link, whatever that is, on the passenger-side front tire was broken.  To level with you all, the mechanic(s) described its, uh, brokenness in vague and relatively benign terms -- "You'll feel it bounce over bumpy roads," one of them said.  He made it sound like it wasn't worth fixing, frankly.  He gave me the same advice, and in the same tone, when he advised me not to fix the muffler.  But honestly, I felt a little guilty saying no over the muffler -- not to the mechanics, but to the car.  Yes, I'm treating the minivan like it's a living creature.  But I feel guilty that I won't fix what appears to be a major issue because it's just too damn expensive.  And in exchange, I want to "make it up to the car," and throw some money at some repairs to make it run better.  And the van still runs well.  I think it'd make it up north, even though I dare not do it.  I think having a second car around is a good idea, and I will spend some money for its upkeep, just not a few thousand dollars in one heap.  Several hundreds dollars, though?  I said yes, even against what seems to be the advice of the mechanics who spent only half an hour switching out these stabilizer links or whatever.

Am I a fool?  Sure.  But I want to let my car that I still care for it, even a little.

I Continue To Miss Soccer Goals

I've started my day on Apple TV watching the MLS Toronto-Colorado Match while thinking up what I want to blog post about.  And with the Rapids up 2-0 and this being, well, soccer, I let my attention wander, both to my phone and also to this laptop.

I have spoken before about missing Goals because I was looking at my phone.  Well, Toronto scored while I was looking at my lap (specifically theoretical high-speed rail networks in the Midwest), then they tied it up while I was looking at my The Athletic app.  And I'll be goddamned: That is when I finally got the inspiration to blog post, and as I started this blog post, TFC scored again to take a 3-2 lead.

This would have been a sensational Game to pay attention to.  Instead, I saw none of the three Goals of this comeback, and right now, I want to kill myself.

An Easy Day Turned Into A Busy Night

I did one of the main chores I wanted to do on my birthday: Rake the roof.  I did that after I took a hard nap, so I was energized going into the evening, where I wanted to watch the World Baseball Classic title Game (won by Venezuela, 3-2 over the Americans) while working on my bracket.

There was one other thing I wanted to do: Clear the back deck of the half-foot of snow.  I was going to do it during the WBC, but I wanted to wait until it stopped flurrying.  Then, I got caught up on the close Game, plus I was really crunching the data on the bracket.  Then the Game got really interesting, so I decided I would shovel after the Game was over.

But gosh darnit, right after the trophy ceremony, my sister called.  And of course I had to talk to her for an hour about stuff.  Just then I remembered I had to do something else: Send out an important e-mail that had to be sent today/Wednesday or else my alumni association was going to get pissed.  That's when I had to end my phone call with my sis.  But then, instead of immediately going out to shovel, I went back to number-crunching for my bracket.  I finally got out to shovel around midnight.

Thankfully, sending out the e-mail was easy.  But I still need to think about my bracket, and I finally got around to blog posting this.  And I am tired, and I should go.  Peace.

I'm scared about trying to use the snowblower tomorrow.  I'm sure I've said that on this blog before.  I probably was scared then, and I'm scared now.

The enormity of the snow -- I just went out at 2 in the morning to shovel the stoop and the top part of my driveway; even though I didn't measure, I eyeballed 4 inches, give or take an inch -- makes me afraid what I'll do if I can't get the blower to start.  But I checked the snowblower last night, and everything was set where it wasn't supposed to.  By that I mean that the choke was on, the, uh, speed thing was all the way fast, and most worryingly, the gas was on when it should be off.  The entire carburetor had to be replaced in the last summer, and I think it was because the gas switch was on for a long time, thus flooding the carb.  I think that Father tried to run it once before my parents left for Las Vegas and just didn't put all the settings back.  But I looked at the snowblower a couple times before last night and I didn't see anything wrong with it.  In fact, I know I looked at the gas switch and though it was turned off.  So if the snowblower doesn't work again, it's probably because it wasn't "put back" properly, and it'll serve me right that I failed to check.

We'll see in the morning.  Or afternoon.  OK, whenever I wake up. 

I Hate It When I Panic, And I Really Hate It When I Don't Have To Panic

I wasn't in a good frame of mind when I came home last/Tuesday night after the Timberwolves Game (which they won, even though they finally took the lead on The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies just before halfway through the Third Quarter).  Naturally I checked the thermostat first thing when I got home.  And the thermostat was blank.

Ah, so the batteries ran out.  Well, Father bought a huge stash of AA batteries, so I replaced them.  But the thermostat still didn't work.  Oh, no.  The thermostat we have is just a programmable one.  It also has been there as far as I can remember.  It's been so long since it's been replaced, it makes sense that the damn thing just conked out.

Unfortunately, I suddenly realized I was in the lurch.  You can't really go without a thermostat, can you?  Well, I should take that back; if it were not too long ago, when the temperature was below freezing all day, not having the ability to heat the house with the help of a thermostat would be dangerous.  But we are, thankfully, having a mild (if not necessarily a heat) wave with temps punching into the fifties most days this week.  I have been told that you don't want to let the ambient temperature of the house drop below 60 degrees.  That would happen if it were below freezing, but probably not now when it's much warmer than that.

That would give me time.  To do what ... well, that's what I have been doing the next couple hours.  I ran into a YouTube video whereby you could hack the furnace on using this special two-way wire that does the work of a thermostat, including stopping when it reaches a certain temp.  But my main concern, obviously, is getting a new thermostat.  I tried looking for the exact type of thermostat, but that thing is damn old, so it's not in stock at any hardware store.  It's plentiful online, but that obviously would take time to get shipped, and as much as I think the house could survive without regular heat because of the milder temps, I don't know how long I want to tempt that.

Unfortunately, the thermostats that I could just go and buy are way, way different from the one that's in the house now.  First of all, I see these smart thermostats and they are way too smart for me.  Then, as I fell further down the rabbit hole of learning about the world of thermostats, I saw that the wiring pattern behind the thermostat is very, very important to note and even take a photo of.  Each brand and maybe even each model of thermostat will or might have a different configuration of the ends of the wires being plugged into its socket.  Moreover, the configuration of how the sockets are arranged vary by brand and even by model.  So if I bought one of these things off the shelf, I would have to unscrew the wires, unscrew the mounting plate, put the new mounting plate in (while making sure it's level), then carefully matching up the wires to its socket in the new configuration.  And I'm supposed to make sure the HVAC is completely unplugged while I do this, and I don't know how the hell to do that.  I was going to just wing it and do this intricate wiring work without shutting the power off to the HVAC.  Hey, I'm a big boy now, right?

Ultimately, though, I decided I was too chickenshit to do that.  My dumb ass was sure to get electrocuted.  And then I went on Amazon, saw this particular brand of thermostat, and then saw that magic word: "Prime."  If I sign up -- and, of course, it's only a free trial! -- I can get this same brand of thermostat delivered in two days.  I think the house can go without heat for two days in this weather, right?  So I signed up to get it this Friday.  I just have to remember to cancel Amazon Prime in 30 days because Amazon is the devil.  I just had to dance with him because otherwise I would have no heat.

With that bought ... well, why don't I try new batteries in the old thermostat again?  There are plenty down there, and maybe I just got two bad ones or something.  So I took that old thermostat downstairs, found two other "new" batteries, put them in ... and the display was back on.  Jesus fucking Christ, did I pick two new batteries that just didn't fucking work?  Or is this thermostat being so flighty that it just decided to work then and there?

So I have heat now, and it seems to be working fine.  I thought about cancelling delivery of the new/old thermostat and Amazon Prime.  But remembering how panicked I was, I'm keeping it.  This is a prime example where it's smart to have a back-up.  Of course, I have to remember that I have a back-up thermometer.  If this one conks out for real, there's a good chance I will forget I bought a replacement.  Where would I even put this one once it comes in?  Well, that's not the worst problem to have.

---

I told you at the start of this blog post that I was not in a good frame of mind.  That's because of the car.  I'm scaring myself into thinking it's way too low on oil.  I have checked, or tried to check, the level a few times over the past week or so, but the goddamn thing is so hard to read.  I have a dipstick that has a plastic orange end.  It's hard to read when there's clear, new oil, and it's also a bitch to decipher because it seemingly has oil above the full dot and below the empty dot, and then it's completely drenched in oil on one side of the dipstick but completely dry on the other.

I checked the oil level before driving out of downtown after the Wolves Game.  The dipstick was how I described it above, and it wasn't the first time it looked like this.  So is my car completely tapped out of oil?  I can't believe that; I got an oil change about 2 1/2 months ago, and I don't think it's leaking oil.  And what if I have overfilled it, which is something I am scared as hell I have done if I fully believe what I saw on my dipstick these past few times, acted as if my engine was empty, but got suckered because it was in fact full, or even more than full?

I am in a bind.  Or, I have put myself in a bind of my own delusions.  I have blog posted before that I might be scaring myself into thinking I am about to do catastrophic damage to my car by doing and/or not doing something when the best thing I could do is just chill and drive.  Maybe that's the case here, and I should just relax ... no, fuck no, I need to take this into the dealership.  Maybe they can figure out how much oil is in my car without charging me for an oil change, or something.  And then they can teach me how to fuckin' read the oil level on their shitty dipstick.

And I am changing my mind on that, maybe.  I am leaning toward putting in just a little more oil.  Maybe that'll be the thing that finally gives me the results I want to see on the dipstick.  But what if I overfill it?  I've seen so many fucking disaster films.  Man, why do I have a car?  Why do I even drive?  It's just one more burden you're placing on yourself.

Deep breaths, trying to take deep breaths. ...

I have a self-imposed rule that my blog posts now (I made this rule up several years ago) have to be at least eight hours apart so that my latest blog post has some shelf life atop the Wailing And Failing homepage.  Well, my last blog post is almost eight hours ago, but I'm tired right now and I don't want to wait the 10-15 minutes before it reaches eight hours, so I'm just going to blog about being meta and then go to bed.

Sensitive Content?

My last blog post, my weekly Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey, was given a warning by Blogger.  Why?  Sensitive content.  Sensitive content?

I have had this warning from time to time before.  It has been a while, but for that while, several of my blog posts were flagged.  I had somewhat of an idea that it had to do with my descriptions of encounters I've had with my stripper girlfriends, but I wasn't quite sure. To be free of the warning, I re-did some of the blog posts to edit out the graphic (or what I think were the graphic) words, then submitted them to Blogger again for a review.  I think a couple of my blog posts were cleared and allowed to publish freely.  I don't know about the rest of them.  And honestly, there have been more than several where I thought I would circle back to them to see what was "wrong" with them, but then I just forgot.

So I was reviewing my WMNSS, and then I looked at the warning note.  I don't know whether the action taken by Blogger changed or if I just didn't read it close enough, but when I saw the warning icon, I thought my offending blog post was de-published, and I had to clean up the language so I could get it posted.  But now that I read the community note, yesterday's blog post was published, but put behind a warning interstitial webpage that it contains "sensitive content."  Well, shoot, if that's the action Blogger is taking, hell, I'm not gonna change a damn thing.  I don't think that's censorship, and besides, why would I be worried about the number of pageviews I have?  I don't have any!

Now I think all those flagged blog posts in the past weren't taken down but just put behind warnings.  Why then did I go out of my way to clean up the language in some of those blog posts when I slaved over the precise words I wanted to use?  Because of my oversight, I think I censored myself, and that's just dumb of me.

Have I Said Already I'm Addicted To My Phone?

So right now I am avoiding social media like the plague.  I'm doing that because I don't want to hear the score of the Lynx Game from yesterday/Sunday afternoon.  I have this bad, bad feeling that they lost at home to Phoenix, and I don't want to hear bad news right now, especially since both the Vikings and the Twins won yesterday/Sunday afternoon.

I have not watched the sports portion of the news (haven't in a while, actually), but that's easily avoidable.  What is hard to avoid is picking up my phone.  That's how I get my news and my sports scores -- Yahoo! Sports, Apple News, Bluesky and Twitter.  I may have said this before, but it is now instinctive for me to just pick up my phone, at all times of the day and night and for any situation, and look.  I've become an addict, and I probably am one of hundreds of millions.

The only way for me to not do that is if I assiduously want to avoid inadvertently looking at something ... such as a sports score.  Damn, that is hard to do.  I was watching the Chiefs-Giants SNF Game, and I know that when there are stoppages in play, I would just pick up my phone and start scrolling.  I was able to resist, but the pull was undeniable, even if I knew that that was the most surefire way I would avoid knowing if the Lynx lost.  One upside to that is that I paid attention to the football Game, and I want to go back to doing that instead of mindlessly looking through my cellphone.  As hard as it is to break away, knowing there is a boogeyman if I fall into temptation is a hell of a way to stay away from my cell.

Now, at some point I have to learn about the Lynx Game, if only because I have The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey to do tomorrow/Tuesday night.  But I think it's best for me to learn about it during The Common Man Progrum during work.  That way, if I found out they lost, I'll be distracted by work.  (Have I said the same thing on here before when it came to Timberwolves playoff Games?)  And hey, if I learn that the Lynx won, the day at work is that much brighter!

But I'll wait till then.  And I will hope to Buddha I avoid learning the news through my phone before then.

I Miss Soccer Goals

So a pretty important Liga MX playoff Semifinal was on last/Sunday night between two of the big clubs in that league, Club America and Cruz Azul.  I came home in time to catch most of the Second Half.  When I tuned in, Cruz Azul was up 1-0.  That's important because, for this league at this stage of their postseason, they have the two squads play a home-and-home.  The most Goals scored in aggregate wins the series.  (When I started watching, that 1-0 scoreline was also the aggregate score; the two XI's finished scoreless in their first Match mid-week.)  If the two teams score the same number of Goals, the team that finished higher in the regular season (who is always the team that hosts the second Game of this two-Leg series) advances.

Hell of a Match, by the way.  Cruz Azul scores again to go up, on the road, 2-0 and 2-0 on aggregate.  But America was awarded a Penalty Kick, which they slotted.  Then, a header to a header went top shelf.  Club America tied it, but they went ahead because they got more Points than sworn rival Cruz Azul during the regular season.  That's how the Match ended, and that is how America advanced to the two-legged Final this Week against Toluca.

Oh, did I mention that I missed that Game-tying/series-winning Goal?  I like soccer, I really do.  If I didn't, I wouldn't be a season-ticketholder for MNUFC.  Hell, yesterday/Sunday afternoon I went to see a Match with the Loons' reserve squad, MNUFC2, for the first time ever.  They lost, but the 2's play about ten minutes north of me, and everything is obviously cheaper because this is minor league soccer, so I should go to a few Games over the summer.  Anyway, I like it.  But sometimes, the sport gets a little, you know, boring.

I should blog post at some point about me being addicted to social media and my phone.  Anyway, during a slow spot in the Match, I naturally picked up my cell and went through my Facebook.  I saw that a Playboy Playmate I am Facebook friends with put up a video of her son graduating from college.  I then wanted to know what last name he took.  He has the same last name as his mother, which is the name she used when she posed, which (and I hope my logic is sound here) she never married the person with whom she has her child, and in fact neither she nor the son have much contact with the son's biological father.  I find that intently interesting, and no, I am under no illusions I will ever meet her.

So while I was thinking about all that, America scored that Match-tying/series-winning Goal.  It is not the first time I was looking at my phone when I missed a Goal, let alone an important one such as that.  But I hate it.  And I keep telling myself I will watch a Match straight through, without distracting myself, and I keep failing.  But dammit, I will not look at my cell for both Legs of the Final (if Thursday's First Leg is not broadcast on Univision, then definitely Sunday night's Second Leg).  If I hate missing soccer Goals, I have to stop doing the things that make me miss soccer Goals, you know?