I think I was able to fix the two sprinkler heads I wanted to work on this weekend so that they arc on my lawn and not our house or the neighbor's driveway.  (Unfortunately, there is still the possibility that wind could push the water from those sprinklers onto the driveway, like it did yesterday/Sunday afternoon.  I don't know if that can be helped.  What I needed to make sure was that those two sprinklers didn't arc beyond grass, and I think I accomplished that.)

But after getting a wood pallet from work home, I ... didn't do much of anything.  Sure, I've done some laundry, but that was yesterday/Sunday morning.  I still haven't really done anything with my stuff because I've been busy doing yardwork.  And I could, for example, work on my fantasy football draft, but now I'm too tired to do anything.

Damn, I feel like such a lazy failure.

Never-Ending Tea

I continued my World Cup-watching sojourn around the cities last/Thursday night at this new Mediterranean place for Switzerland-Algeria.  I saw it was a restaurant that was going to show Matches.  Unfortunately, that is not quite the case.

First of all, as I peered into the restaurant right after parking, their TV was not tuned to that.  Instead, their TV(s) was/were being used for their menu.  I don't know if the owners of the restaurant also own the Yemeni coffee place right next to it, but they were showing the Game on their outdoor patio.  Sold.  Plus, I heard good things about this place, so this was a good time to try it out and try something I've never tried before.

Well, the victuals and libations were great but the atmosphere wasn't.  Well, the Match-watching wasn't.  For some damn reason, the TV was using a stick or a streamer that tuned in to not Fox Sports 1 or Telemundo but the Arabic feed for BeIn, which I guess holds the rights to the World Cup in the Arab world.  Why they just didn't bleepin' get satellite is beyond me, because this feed or stick or streamer or television set had this nasty habit of cutting out and reverting to audio every five minutes, and the only way to restore the picture was to use the remote control and hit a button.  The first time this happened the people on the patio watching the Game were scrambling, and by the time we got the video feed back, Switzerland scored what eventually became the Match-winner.  I was going to stay the whole Match, but I was done after the First Half.  Well, the mosquitos biting me didn't help, either.

The problem with watching World Cup Games in restaurants and pubs is that I feel compelled to give them business by buying food and drink.  So I have bought a lot of food and drink, including yesterday/Thursday.  I got out of work at a very decent time, so I had the chance to see Portugal-Croatia in its entirety, and I decided to go to this Mexican place to see the whole thing.  And since I was staying for two hours, I bought a plate of barbacoa chilaquiles with a Corona before the First Half, then a cup of esquites with a Coke for the Second Half.  I got so damn full after that, but I was determined to try out this new place and challenge my palate with "ethnic" food and drink.

And, of course, my stomach is distended because of it.  I settled for Dubai chocolate cake, which has been a cliche for two years now, but it was good.  So was the Adeni tea that I had ... er, am still having.  As of press time, I'm still not done with the cup.  It's a medium-sized cup, something akin to a medium from Caribou.  And while I sometimes need to finish up the mochas that evening, the only times I haven't finished drinks like that is when I forgot, and then I have to drink quick in the morning.

That is not necessarily the case with this.  My stomach might have been telling me it couldn't, um, stomach any more liquids after eating at the Mexican place.  Also, I have to say that Adeni team was damn hot.  I got it early in the First Half, and even as the Game went to Halftime, the cup was hot to the touch.  The hot and humid weather can't explain that.  But I got home to drink this tea while watching from my bedroom for the Second Half.  I tried to drink it all because it was only warm at this point.  But by God, I couldn't get done with this.  Swear to God this is a bottomless cup of Adeni tea.  If this were a a mocha from Caribou, chances are I could finish it.  But there was still more, and still more, and still more, no matter how much I drank.

Finally, I remembered that I juiced the other half-lemon before going to the Mexican restaurant, so I needed to make myself a cocktail (a sidecar) to use the lemon juice.  So that means I have tea left over.  Oh, and I still have coffee from work yesterday/Thursday left over, too.  And I still need to drink my sidecar, but right now I am sipping only because I am damn full.

I checked the World Cup schedule for next week.  Since we're getting into the really important Games, the number of them obviously dwindles, and they'll be played in the afternoons when I'm working.  USMNT is playing Monday night.  Other than that, I do not need to go out and eat and drink to watch soccer the rest of next week until next Saturday.  Maybe I will stop eating and drinking so much then.  And hopefully I will have drank all the tea by then, too.

Can't Believe I'm Talking About The Jynx Game For The Third Time, But ...

... remind me to never buy a ticket to this team until they win a championship again.  I had a great seat, but then I had a great seat to see a chokejob up close.  Goddamn, I'm still so fucking mad.  Just glad af that the ticket was free.

Hooters Ain't The Only One

I swear there has been a rash of restaurant closings this year that I lament.  They don't hurt as much as Hooters, of course.  And honestly, I have been trying to come up with a list, but can't think of too many.  I've already talked about the Taco Bell that was near me.  (By the way, nothing has gone in in its place yet.  Taco Bell disappeared, furnishings and signage and all, in a day, but that place has remained empty for weeks now.  The hell?)

The one that comes to mind right now is the local Subway.  When I was in high school, the place where it was, located at a strip mall not too far away from the high school, was the place to be, sad as it might seem now.  But it was dependable and good enough, and so that's where we all went (and for me, to get those stamps you lick and stick on those cards in order to get a free sub).

What the owners of that place more than several years ago was move to an even bigger place across the street.  That's investment, and I love that.  It was clean, and I was treated well every time I went there.  Unfortunately, it was empty too much of the time.  I wanted to go there more often, but there are so many other places to eat out, both in the fast food and the fancy lanes.  I tried to support them whenever I had the urge to, but it wasn't enough.  A few weeks ago, when I drove by during the day, I didn't see their "OPEN" light on and there was no car outside.  And maybe last week, all the Subway signage was taken down.  I feel sad because it feels as though the owner took a risk based on previous success, but whether it was the bigger size of the restaurant, the new location, something else, or all of the above, it, well, backfired.

And even though it's not my responsibility because I can't eat out every single day or else I'll go broke, I worry about the places I eat out at going under.  There's that speakeasy I haven't been to since March Madness.  It's expensive to go there, but I still want it to be around when I want to go there.  And there's a mom-and-pop panaderia close by me.  Their pastries and croissants and baked goods are fantastic, and the layout looks lush and wonderful, and I barely see anyone whenever I go there.  I hate to come across it one day and see it gone.  But again, I'm not made out of money.  What can I do?

I blame Trump.  Seriously, with all the shit he's done in order to line his pockets, I think it's sensible to blame his corrupt ass.

So I went to the dentist yesterday/Tuesday.  And goddammit, I have another cavity for which I need to go in again.  Well, it looks like all those days I was frozen in terror when this corrupt and installed Republican government took over our city, and all those times I got home from work so tired, caused me to not feel like brushing my teeth ... nah, who am I kidding, I just didn't floss and brush my teeth as often as I should have.  I definitely will get back into the habit ... nah, who am I kidding, I'll be as half-ass about it as I've always been.  I know I should do it daily (actually they recommend twice daily), but teeth brushing has never been something I do as a routine.  As with other matters of hygiene, for that matter.

Forgot Shower Strainer

Right now I'm bothered (admittedly from other things too) that I failed to put a strainer in the master bathroom shower.  I had swapped out the one that was there and put that in the master bathroom sink, and I was going to toss the one that was in the master bathroom sink because it was getting all clogged up.  Somehow, I forgot to grab a new one (or an old one -- get this, My Father takes the time to unclog strainers in order to re-use them.  Yes, it saves money, and I put one of those cleaned ones in the shower, but I feel like this is a First World privilege that we should indulge in -- don't scrape shit off of a strainer, they're only two bucks apiece!), and worse than that, I put the plastic strainer that goes on top of the strainer back where it was, as if I had already put that second strainer back in.

Worst of all is I don't remember how long ago this all was.  I think, though, that it had to have been at least a month, and possibly it's been longer than that.  Lord knows how much of my hair and dead skin was able to get through that's currently clogging up the pipes.  Dammit, man, how could I forget something like that?  I had an entire process I needed to do, and I just stopped halfway through it.  What the hell was I thinking?

Her Mistakes Are Actually Ours

Work is kind of wonky the last two weeks of the year, as I believe it is in many other places.  The workload lessens because it's the holidays, but there are less people also because it's the holidays.  I always make the mistake of believing that because of the work, things will be lighter.  Not so.  Because there are so many people who are taking the week off, the remaining few have to take care of the work, as meager as it may be, by themselves.  So, all in all, it's a wash, and so I had a full day.

The Third Department by itself still has its moments even if it's been easier since the winter.  I thought I got pretty much everything done at a reasonable time.  However, while I was digging through a crate of work so I could put a folder where it needed to be, I pulled out a specimen that needed to go into testing.  It was held up because one person in our laboratory specifically needed to do something for it.  I remember touching this first on Friday.  I put a Post-It note saying that the person taking care of this on Saturday needs to speak to her about this.  But as I was leaving work yesterday/Monday, I see that these forms for this specimen weren't taken care of.  Instead, the person who was going to do this on Saturday wrote a note on the same Post-It saying that the person would be in on Monday, presumably indicating that she wasn't there on Saturday.  Well, this person was there yesterday/Monday, but I didn't fucking know that this wasn't taken care of, and by the time I saw these forms, the person I needed to speak to left for the day.  Goddammit.

Sure, I guess I'm responsible because I should have looked through everything before the end of the day.  But I'm gonna say it: I'm really peeved that this person just shoved this specimen, which should have gone into testing well before yesterday/Monday, back into the file where I couldn't see it.  She should know working the same position I am that you are just too damn busy with everything new that's coming in, from both e-mails and the lab.  Why would I need to look through a file for work?  What she should have done (and this is just coming from me) was to flag it -- put it on top of the crate or even my desk.  That way I know that this is a special case (which it is) that I need to pay special attention to.  I remember specifically throwing that test on her desk when I left on Friday.

No, it's not her fault.  But this points to something else that's troubling: I have seen her make mistakes in this job she shouldn't be making.  Another thing I noticed during work yesterday/Monday is that she doesn't keep track of the calls she makes.  One of our jobs is to retrieve information, and we are supposed to document what we have done to retrieve that info (calls and e-mails) so that, if someone else needs to step in and pick up the trail, we can do so easily.  Twice during work I saw there are literal forms that the lab needs to get.  I know through another program we use that my co-worker did make a call.  But we have other software to which we are supposed to document that we have called this place and/or we e-mailed this person.  That way we know what has happened and can avoid doing something twice.  That gets a bit more difficult to do if she doesn't state in this program what she has done.

She is the one who got hired over the summer, so I want to think that she just forgot.  Hell, I make mistakes in The Third Department all the time, still.  But I'm sure she was trained that she needs to document what she's done.  And yet, putting these two issues together, is there a possibility that she wasn't trained to document her trail, and didn't understand that these forms are important enough that she should have laid it on my desk so I could see it first thing in the morning?  If so, that's a failure in training, and that is why it sucked that my former supervisor moved on.  She could've used so much more seasoning, and my supervisor knew all the ins and outs of working that position.  I wonder what, if anything, she didn't teach her before she left, let alone what my colleague has now forgotten because my former supe isn't around to reinforce what she taught her.

And this will get worse now that my boss is leaving.  He, frankly, doesn't know much about this position.  But he was at least in a position of authority to find out, and he did the best he could answering all of our questions, including hers.  With him gone, I'm not sure our new boss (whoever he or she will be) will know how to fix any mistakes she makes.  That person might not even have the time to care.  And so I can see a case where my co-worker will continue to make mistakes because we couldn't or didn't step and tell her what she needs to do.

I/We have till New Year's Eve to tell my/our boss to tell her what she needs to do, and then we are all off on our own.  Don't know if it's going to be enough.  My frustration over seeing something that could have and should have been done already may very well continue unabated.

You Know, I Don't Think My Folks Are Leaving Anytime Soon

So Mother is about halfway through her physical therapy.  She's doing really well; she barely uses her cane, doesn't use her walker anymore (at least as far as I can tell), and she frequently is able to just walk.  What PT is honing in on now is perfecting everything -- getting her knee straight at rest, giving her knee maximum flexion when needed, and walking as perfectly as possible by strengthening all the muscles that need to be strengthened.

My thought before Mother got her knee replaced would be that once she is fully healed and cleared to fly on planes, my parents would take off like bats out of hell and winter out West.  They hate the winters here.  I know that, if they had their way, they wouldn't be in town now because the cold is settling in and the snow could come any day now.  In fact, I want to think that they're beginning to look at ticket prices and packing.  Assuming the doctor giving Mother the all-clear is a given, they could be ready before her final check-in with her doctor and leave the next day.  Makes sense, wouldn't it?

Something else has come up, however: Father's dentures are now failing.  It is now tough for him to eat solid foods.  Apparently he is going out of his way to avoid using the parts of his "teeth" that hurt him.  In fact, I think my sister said parts of his dentures are infected, and that scares me; I have heard of many, many bad things happening to people that stem from infected gums.

So Father has a dental appointment next week.  The hope is that it's not that serious and he can find someone who can fix his dentures where they winter.  But apparently he needs to have his mouth scanned, and if that turns up something more serious, there's a chance the dentist recommend him get immediate, invasive care.  And that would mean he stays put.

My sister speculated that a serious operation and recovery could take several months.  Oy -- knowing my luck, that means they're not leaving the house, are they?

Checking In On How I'm Doing In Fantasy Football And ... Eesh

I was doing so, so good in fantasy football to start the year.  But then the goddamn bye weeks came and I have gone into sort of a tailspin.

I am part of three fantasy football leagues.  Ironically, I am doing the worst in the one I am commissioner for.  It is also the only one of the three where we auction, which is the format that is the most involved and, because I was the only one who fuckin' showed up for the auction, the league where I basically got to pick my own team.  And now, my own team sucks.

That's not as bad as the team in another league where I started out, like, 4-0.  I think I've lost five-of-six since then.  The absolute lowest of the low came this week, where I had three guys going in Sunday's late Games with a good chance of overcoming the deficit I had ... and I didn't.  What's worse is that I had on the bench Jayden Higgins, a Wide Receiver for The Houston Texans, who put up enough fantasy football points that, if I had put him in for either a WR or a player in one of the Flex Positions, I would have won.  That's the game of fantasy sports for you, but goddammit, I hate that.

This is the league I gamble in.  I went from cruising into the winners' bracket to fighting for my fucking fantasy football playoff life.  And that really sucks.

Disappointing Son Didn't Do What He Said He Would Do!

So Mother had surgery Tuesday.  Sister went with her.  They had to stay at a hotel overnight and be seen by a nurse who was also at the hotel tending to Mother and another patient.  Never heard that before. Anyway, that meant that Tuesday night offered up a situation I dread: Being alone with Father.

Dinner was fine because it was quiet.  He brought up stocks.  His portfolio is doing blockbuster.  Me ... I work and am tired all the time, so I'm not doing as well.  He asked me what companies I have.  I don't remember.

What I hoped he wouldn't bring up he brought up after dinner.  Of course he said, "Hey, every night you take a shower, right?"  And while trying to hide my frustration that he would belittle me with this same bullshit again, I go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure."  "You brush your teeth too, right?" he replied, and I can't fucking believe he asked me if I brush my teeth every night.  I don't, but that's none of his goddamn business.

Just there and then, while I was also yeah-yeah-ing as to whether I brush my teeth, I resolved to leave the house.  Since I worked early I came home early, and that gave me the opportunity to exercise.  I then thought I wouldn't because I didn't want to leave My Fucking Father at home.  He's healthy, and as you can see he's as goddamn insufferable as ever.  But My Fucking Parents have pretty much been attached at the hip.  My Fucking Mother has taken girls' trips in the past, but Tuesday was the first time they've been away from each other longer than a trip to the grocery store.  I hate this fucker, but I would be sick to my stomach if I worked out only to come back and see him dead on the floor in front of his computer.  And yet, after he used the opportunity of being alone together to infantilize and lecture me once again about proper fucking hygiene, I decided that fear didn't fucking matter to me.

"I think I'm going to work out later," I said.

"OK," he said.

---

And then I didn't.  The downside to attempting to work out after I started out my day so early is that I might want to catch up on sleep instead.  That was a possibility; I allowed myself a chance to rest once I got done eating at 5.  And I woke up at around 7:30, way too late to go out and work out.

I was curious about whether My Fucking Father could tell.  So I just moseyed out to the top of the stairs and looked at the front door.  It was all locked.  I told My Fucking Father I was going out later.  He may have forgotten.  Or, he could tell I was asleep and knew I wouldn't be going out after all.  And knowing how his negative, derisive mind works, he knew I wasn't going to do what I said I would do.

I have to admit that pisses me off, and I am as angry at myself as I am at him.  He has seen me fail to come through on things I said I would do all my life.  This is a small thing, and again, maybe he just locked the door out of habit and totally forgot about what I said after dinner.  But this one galls me, and I think it's because I lashed out after he insulted me over stupid habits he shouldn't be concerning himself with.  It was I who wanted to, in a really vague sense, "prove him wrong" (even though exercising has nothing to do with getting back at him for asking if I shower and brush my teeth, I know) and then I absolutely did not do it.

I have known for a long, long time that My Fucking Father had dreams for me when I was born.  That's the problem when you ascribe to your progeny your dreams for them; they don't come through for you because they're not their fucking dreams, they're yours.  So yeah, I have a feeling My Fucking Father was disappointed in me just because I didn't exercise like I said I would.  But I am just as disappointed in him as a father, and probably moreso.

I Should Try Getting Off Of Social Media

Well, ever since the Jynx lost in Game 2 on Tuesday I was dreading the worst.  And I knew that if I came across bad news, I would do so while scrolling through Twitter or Bluesky.  So I did my best to stay off of them.  I think I've blog posted before that the urge to look was strong, so strong that I think I'm addicted to it.  But, I did.

And you know what?  I didn't feel bad.  The feeling that I was missing out on something was still there, believe me.  But that subsided since I started my self-ban.  Moreover, I was able to concentrate more on watching TV.  I have complained about missing key plays (such as Goals in soccer) because I would always take even a short lull in play to pick up my phone and start looking.  Yesterday/Sunday, knowing I wanted to say away from all things Jynx, I just curled up in my bed and watched the NFL ... well, when I wasn't passed out and taking naps.  Those are good ways to note doomscroll, too.  But all day I went without checking social media, and I felt alright.

Alas, since I do The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey, at some point I had to learn about what happened.  I was going to wait till today/Monday to hear any montage from The Common Man Progrum to tell me.  When I reached for my phone to see how charged it was, a notification from The Athletic app told me what I had feared, indeed the worst-case scenario: Minnesota indeed lost Games 3 and 4 and were summarily eliminated from the WNBA Playoffs.  My full autopsy on this abortion of a season will go up on Tuesday, but suffice it to say, this is one of the all-time chokejobs in Minnesota sports history.

With that seal broken, I declared the self-ban broken, and I went back on Twitter and Bluesky again.  This time I knew full well that not only did I want to see a reason as to how the Jynx fucked up this championship run, I wanted to see tweets and skeets reflecting my hate of this failure of a team -- "Yeah, anonymous person whom I don't even know could be a Russian bot -- insult all of those worthless players!  You dumb motherfuckers fucking SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!"  And then I saw the litany of tweets and skeets about what Trump did and said, and all the ICE raids happening in the country, and all the rude and mean things Republicans said and did over the weekend ... and then I remember that whenever I go on social media, I get very upset and angry.  In fact, social media is engineered to get you upset and angry.  And then I remembered how I felt since Tuesday, when I just didn't go on social media.  Sure, the urge to see what I was missing out was there.  But I was a hell of a lot less upset and angry.  And now, come to think of it, being clued into what I'm missing out on isn't worth the rage that boils inside me whenever I scroll.

I liked how I felt when I wasn't constantly going through social media.  And maybe this will cost me being a more attuned sports fan and American citizen, but I don't know if I want to do it anymore.  Maybe these past few days of being clueless is actually beneficial to my soul ... and maybe I should stay off of it, permanently, for my health and mental well-being.

Don't Ever Be A Sports Fan

Ever since the Jynx choked Tuesday and lost home-court advantage, I have been in a bad mood.  Well, moreso than usual, and that includes the meddling, I-know-what's-best-for-you bullshit I've been dealing with from My Fucking Parents for the last goddamn month.  But I'm upset, and I shouldn't.  Why?  Because it's fucking sports.

Yes, I'm a fan.  But it's not as if these players know who the hell I am.  And I could easily ignore what's going on with the Lynx and live my life in peace.  Instead, I allow this to affect my attitude, my behavior, and my day.  If you step back and think, that is both reckless and stupid.

I have married that seething anger with a fear in anticipation for today.  Game 3 is tonight, and if the Jynx lose and go one Loss away from being eliminated in a season where they were far and away the best team (that we don't celebrate teams for being the best over the course of the regular season is purely an American thing; if this were any soccer league elsewhere in the world, there would be trophies raised and parades on the street for the Lynx already, but that's a blog post for another time) ... man, I will hate the man I will become.  And then I will hate myself further for allowing myself to have my life influenced by the results of a sports team.

These are the times when I curse myself for loving sports so much.  Because if and when my teams lose, the pain and anger that well up inside me -- which is often venerated as a characteristic of "a true fan" -- is something I can't shake for a long time.  You can say that it's worth it when they win a championship, but this is Minnesota -- we don't win championships here.  So it's all just pain and anger.  And I stepped into this realm, and I am too stubborn and/or stupid to step out of it.

I guess you're going to have to save me by winning, Lynx.  See how pathetic that sounds, asking a bunch of people who don't know you from Adam to win so I can feel better?  Don't ever be a sports fan.

Don't Send A Man To Do A Woman's Job

Got home from last night's U. S. Open Cup Semifinal, where the Loons gave up the goddamn motherfucking Game-winning Goal to Austin in the goddamn motherfucking final Minute in Extra Time.  They had home-pitch advantage through the Final two Weeks from now, but like every goddamn motherfucking Minnesota sports team, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  Oh, and the Twinks got beat by the Yankees.  Again.

This was about to be a horrific local sports night, compounded when I heard on the radio on my way home that the Lynx were trailing after three Quarters by 14 Points at Golden State.  But imagine my surprise when, before I hit the shower, I checked my phone again and saw that the Lynx beat the Valkyries, 75-74!!!  I was about get real down on them, but shit, those women don't get rattled a lot!  Maybe they will win it all after all.  They're the only team to have swept their First Round series; every other series is going the maximum three Games, being played either tonight or tomorrow night.  The rest the Lynx get, and that their upcoming opponent won't get, should play a big factor in the Semifinal.

And once again, the Lynx act like queens while the male sports teams in town act like a bunch of fuckin' chumps.  Never, ever send a man to do a woman's job.

The Most Cursed Business Address In Town

So I came home from exercising tonight/Sunday night.  (Aside: This finished up a long, yet productive day for me.  I filled in for work yesterday/Sunday, then I donated my golf clubs, no questions asked, then I went to an industrial complex to drop off all my old glasses but they were closed because it was an early Sunday evening, then I went to my storage unit to drop off the rest of the stuff I need to hide from my folks, then I ate dinner at Taco Bell, then I exercised for the first time in a while.  I put a hell of a lot of miles on my car, and I was afraid I would be too run down to even do all of this, but I made it.  And frankly, giving away the golf clubs and glasses lifted a burden off my shoulders.  Maybe I'll blog post more about my feelings about that later.)  Oh, yeah ... so I take a left at this intersection to get home from the community center.  But shortly after I finish the left, there are train tracks, and sometimes, and especially around 10 p.m. on a Sunday night, a train comes through, and it'll take a while for it to pass.

That happened, so what I do is drive to the next left, where I pass under the elevated train track.  (Sometimes I wonder it would take less time just to wait, but I am a man in motion, or a shark.)  On my way, I see this business to my left, right next to the gas station at this intersection.  It has signage for a restaurant.  This is different signage from the last time I drove past it.  In fact, this piece of real estate has gone through, and I am not kidding you, at least four different restaurant concepts.  It served hoagies a, long, long time ago; it advertised, so I went there to use a coupon (it was an NFL Playoff weekend, I remember that), and the guy fucked up my change and so I vowed never to go back there again), it went halal, and it was Vietnamese before it became Mexican, which is its current identity.

I am 100% sure that the Mexican restaurant, and no offense to the owners of it, will fail, and this building will undergo yet another transformation.  It will fail because I don't know of a worse place to have a restaurant in my hometown.  We have a couple of main drags in our city, but the street this is on is not one of them.  It's quiet and mainly residential when there isn't a park.  It's really dark.  There is no active business close by beside the gas station (even though there are active businesses up and down the street).  Finally, I don't know how often cars drive down this road, and you need some foot traffic to at least let people know there is a spot here who want to feed you Mexican food.

That footprint should be a small park, or housing, or just a parking lot.  Anything besides a money pit into which people chasing the American Dream throw their hard-earned savings.  And yet people continue to buy the property and try to make it succeed on their terms.  Well, OK -- good luck!

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: United FC (Re-Entry!).  The only squad not to lose this Week were the Loons, so they take the top spot for this Week's WMNSS.  Not to say this was the greatest Week this franchise has had.  It started out nearly perfect with a 3-1 home Win over The Houston Dynamo, a kind of performance (of a great team on paper crushing a much-less-great team when it counts) that you don't see a whole late around the Twin Cities; see all the way below.

It was a different story on Saturday in Harrison, N. J.  The New York Red Bulls took the lead in the 11th Minute courtesy of Emil Forsberg, Kelvin Yeboah tied it up in the 32nd, the near-revelatory Anthony Markanich gave MNUFC the go-ahead Goal just before Halftime ... but dammit, United FC once again blew a lead, allowing NYRB's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (he played at Bayern Munich last season) to level things in the 90th.  The Red Bulls had a 3-on-1 breakaway brewing when the Lead Official blew the Match over, which got the NYRB Head Coach real pissed, storming the pitch to ask him why.

I still think the Loons are a cut below Vancouver and San Diego out west, but they are comfortably third in the conference as of right now.  But they have the busiest screening Week I think I've ever seen for this XI.  On the 4th of July, they're at FC Dallas for a Major League Soccer Game.  They then come home for back-to-back Matches, something I have never seen before.  Well, the one on Monday is just a Friendly versus Holstein Kiel, which got relegated to Bundesliga 2.  The next night, they host The Chicago Fire in the Quarterfinals of the U. S. Open Cup.  I'm pretty sure the minor leaguers, the ones who play for MNUFC2, will be playing Monday and the regulars Tuesday.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  A 3-3 screening Week is a veritable hot streak for a Twins club that remains in freefall.  While they split a four-Game set vs. Seattle at home, they lost a series at Detroit, which finished up with Tigers Ace Tarik Skubal carving up Twinks hitting to the tune of 13 Strikeouts and only one Hit.  And then, just last/Tuesday night, the Marlins beat the Twinks in Miami, 2-0.  Joe Ryan, the only Starting Pitcher really worth a damn in the Rotation right now, allowed only one Run over seven Innings, and it still wasn't enough because the Offense is shorting out again.  And nothing is going to be done to improve this team/franchise/organization.

After completing the trio in Miami, they come home for a long homestand.  They start with the Bay Rays over Independence Weekend followed by the Cubs for three starting on Tuesday.

#-Infinity: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  Yeah, I don't care what they did this past Week, and I don't give a shit that they still have the best record in the W.  I spent $68 to go to Target Center last/Tuesday night for the Commissioner's Cup Final.  The Jynx, who won last Year's Final in Brooklyn over New York, was poised to be the first team to ever go back-to-back, and thus earn the half-million dollar team payday, in this tournament's short history.  They were facing Indiana, a team scuffling around .500 and who, by the way, announced that Caitlin Clark would not be playing because of her groin.

This was supposed to be fucking money in the bank.  Otherwise, I wouldn't've gone.  And everything was coming up Millhouse after one Quarter with Minnesota up by eight.  And then, goddamn motherfucker, that team couldn't shoot worth shit.  The Fever finished the Half on an 18-0 run and didn't look back, upsetting -- and remember, they didn't have Great White Hope Caitlin Clark playing at all -- by 15 goddamn Points.  Fifteen!!!  I am livid that I had to witness this fuckin' humiliation with my own eyes.  I had to leave with three Minutes left in the Game because I didn't want these bandwagon fans taking over Target Center and celebrating their team at mid-court with that big joke check they give people who hit the jackpot at a slot machine, glorying over the fact that they beat the Jynx at their house without Caitlin Clark.

And worst of all, I just wasted $68 on that bullshit.  That's money I can't ever get back.  Right now, come to think of it, I am beyond livid.  It will be a long time before I pay good money to see this team again, not after getting fuckin' burned by this atrocity when I knew, I knew!, they were going to win.  I hate myself for trusting a Minnesota team to come through.  Fuckin' A, they never do.  They never do.

Oh, I have to preview their upcoming schedule.  They are in the middle of a five-Game homestand, but all of those Games are being played over eight Days, including tomorrow/Thursday, Saturday and, to take advantage of the holiday I guess, Sunday too.  This abject offensive failure might have knock-on effects because they don't have to figure out what the fuck went wrong.  We could see this team spiral.  If so, you heard it here first.  Goddamn, watching that sucked so goddamn much. ...

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?

Yeah, things continue not to be where I want them to be.  I was able to take half of the things I want back in storage back in to storage yesterday/Sunday afternoon, but I wanted to keep the other half just in case.  That "just in case" is working through my papers, one last time, just in case I have the wherewithal to recycle some of the stuff.  But that would require having time, and I just spent my time reconciling my monthly expense list, washing the rest of my clothes and sending out a pretty important e-mail.  I might be able to do it tomorrow/Monday, but I think I am going to the Helmet concert then.  I might have time Tuesday.  Or, I might decide to just pack up the other half on Tuesday.  Sigh.

Wow, That's A Lot Of Sample!

First time this has ever happened.  OK, so I went to a taste test yesterday where I was supposed to taste ... you know, I think I'm sworn to secrecy.  Anyway, I always make it a deal whereby I eat it all.  I've always been told to at least eat three bites of something before answering the questionnaire that comprises the taste test.  But dammit, one of the reasons I do these things is to eat.  And since it was the Chinese/Lunar New Year, I was too frozen to eat anything until then because I was afraid I would eat something taboo.  Yesterday evening I no longer cared about that.  I was hungry!

So I didn't necessarily take my time, but I ate it all.  But for first time ever doing a taste test, I was given three variations of the same food.  And they were each big honking pieces.  I thought I could still eat them all -- you know, I wanted to make sure of what I was tasting -- but as I reached my final piece, I heard the person heading the taste test to finish up.  And then she came over and told me to hurry up -- "We are about to finish up," is what I think she was pretty much saying.  But I'm not done!  So I hurriedly stuffed the last pieces in my mouth.  Another person picked up my tray and said to me, "You know, I would do the same thing."  He gets it!

The taste test comprised two servings of the same three things, so there was a second and final serving of a taste test that is half an hour long, and to be fair, I don't remember the last time I've been to a taste test that short.  Still, I was determined to eat it all.  Shocked I was, then, that the next serving, also three plates, each had two ... things on them!  There are six things!  Now, normally I would just eat them all, but now I know somebody's watching me, plus we're supposed to be done in half a hour, plus (and I didn't think this would happen), I was getting full!  I took two bites, one from each end, of each of the (really) six things in order to answer the questionnaire, and just out of spite, I started to go back and take a fifth bite.  I was unable to take a fifth bite from the third plate before it was taken away, with most of the food I was given still left uneaten.

Honestly, I feel like I failed.  It's been more than a year since I've done a taste test, so maybe I'm not familiar with how it usually goes.  Maybe this experiment was different.  But a combination of the short session time, the huge heaping of food, me not being as hunger as I thought I was, and a proctor who was, shall we say, moving things along meant that for the first time ever, I have not eaten everything given to me in this type of food research study.  And I'm ashamed.

#IStandWithTheMedia No More

At least not political reporting on the national level.  I know I have stuck my neck out for journalism time and again.  But at least when it comes to this presidential cycle, I can't do it any longer.  A significant chunk of reporting has failed, fucking failed, when democracy is being threatened.  Either I have seen the light or something has changed, but I'm convinced now that beltway reporting is ruined beyond measure.

When did it change for me?  Over the summer, over the subject of Biden dropping out of the race.  That remains a huge sore spot for me; I still think he would beat Trump, even though I see the breath of fresh air Harris has become in stepping in his place.  But even though forces behind the move may have been the final straw (and that hasn't really been sussed out ... which would be the responsibility of Washington reporting), beltway "journalists" did a lot of heavy lifting.  It really started with the debate, where Trump railroaded the moderators and the debate format and caught Biden looking ... well, I guess it all depends on how you look at it, but apparently the money forces in the Democratic party saw it and decided he needed to go.  And that was all the political reporting focused on -- Biden is too old, he might have dementia, "some people" say he's not up to the job of being President even now, oh, no, what is America gonna do???

I had thought, for a long time, that reporting had the important duty to tell what those in real power (in this case, senior Democratic strategists and, well, rich Democrats) are thinking.  But this, at least to me, went beyond reporting.  It was tipping the scales.  I had worried that national political publications were hellbent on reporting not on the stakes of America and American democracy, but on the horse race between Republicans and Democrats.  And the focus on whether other people think Biden is the Democratic candidate was one the beltway press hammered home, non-stop, to the detriment of covering vital topics -- such as Trump's own mental fitness for the job, and even (I would say especially) Trump lying in the debate.  They can cower behind the (possible, maybe probable) fact that Nancy Pelosi, George Clooney and others wanted Biden gone and they are just reporting that.  Those people in power might have moved to push Biden out because Washington reporters were relentless in talking about Biden's age, like a puppy to a chew toy, never mind ample evidence that Trump and Republicans have plans to turn the United States into a dictatorship.

That's when my feelings turned.  It has been cemented by this bullshit from The New York Times and The Washington Post and other reporting companies not to publish information a foreign country (in this case Iran) that hacked into Republican servers gave to the newspapers.  Those same fucking rags are the ones that gleefully published private information from Democratic servers that Russia -- helping Trump, who asked Russia to help him -- gave them eight years ago.  These reporters were gleeful in reporting every stupid thing about Clinton and her campaign.  But when the same goddamn thing happens with Republican secrets ... they have fucking standards now?  Honestly, they could say they they learned from 2016 that they failed then and are doing better now.  But as far as I know, not one publisher or editor-in-chief from any of those publications has said that.  I don't know if they've said anything.  That means that they and their reporters are either scared that Trump and Republicans will find their personal information and harass or even try to kill them -- to which I say I am sorry, but fuckin' A, our democracy is at stake, at some point you sack up and you publish the information anyway because that's the fair thing to do -- or they need to hype up a horse race that may or may not be true so that people continue to read their papers and websites -- to which I say, fuck you, that's not your goddamn job.

Yeah, I'm done.  I hate how the profession I got my degree from has curdled into a combination of public relations and empty-calorie snark.  It's supposed to be a noble job, one that involves serious people and a lot of humility.  When it comes to national politics, I no longer see it.  And it has gotten so bad that I no longer give it a pass.  I do believe people in a democracy have a responsibility to find and educate themselves on facts and real stories about things that affect all of us.  But it's been beyond time for Washington-area political "journalists" to dig for and publish that information to the people.  Instead, over the past several months, it has refused to publish important stories and to report on drivel.

A serious segment of journalism is beyond broken.  Ignore it.  Ignore it all.  And vote Democrat.

Fuck This Excel Test

As part of my, uh, reactivation with my temp agency, I had to do two tests, one a speed-typing one, the other an Excel one.  I have done these before.  I think I do alright with the typing (even though I think I'm getting slower because I'm getting older).  But the Excel is one is always tricky.  I think I do alright when it comes to basic spreadsheet stuff.  But the assessments I have always taken for these in the past have tripped me up.  I have had a correct rate of 50%, give or take.

Leading up these tests I tried to find cheat videos.  But the ones I found had little to do with any of the tasks I had to figure out how to do.  But I had to get these tests done, so I just did them now while I'm here at the library.  And, suffice it to say, it sucked fucking big time.  The worst ones I had no clue how to do, even though I'm pressed to ever figure out a time when anyone in The Real World would need to, for example, text wrap a cell.  The one that kills me, however, is the one where I was asked to copy the date in one cell and paste it in the next cell.  I know how to do that, but as I tried copying-and-pasting, I got the two strikes against me that will tell the temp agency that I got this simple question wrong.

Well, fuck this shit.  I'm going to be offered temp data entry jobs that fifteen bucks an hour because of this goddamn Excel test.