Mine kicked off unexpectedly when we welcomed the newest member of the family, Es99. She was born three weeks early, but she and Mrs Bk97 are doing great. Everyone is home from the hospital now and Cf98 was delighted to meet her new little sister. Last night was Es99's first night at home and she only woke us up twice for feeding, so we're so far staving off sleep deprivation (famous last words...)
Heh, I made the same joke to my wife and she mostly rolled her eyes. I think we're done after 2, though. We're not too keen on being outnumbered in coverage
Interesting. I went to a $160/head dinner up in far northern NC. It was an odd mix of blue haired elites and redneck royalty. I got placed at a redneck royalty table. It was a mom, her adult son who was a 3-percenter marine, his wife, and their four friends. The mom's father owns 43 apartment buildings, she owns a pool company, and the son is the heir apparent. I sat next to the son, who was throwing back $1,500/bottle cask-strength bourbon like it was water. Sure, he was a right-wing gun nut, but one of his friends was clearly gay and he didn't mind talking to me - so he wasn't overtly prejudiced. So it was a pleasant, but really weird Saturday night.
Went to a very nice classic guitar concert at the National Gallery of Art yesterday. Performer was JIJI and she played all compositions by women for Women's History Month. She was born in Seoul, came to the U.S. as a teen on a music scholarship. Most recently taught at ASU but is moving to IU. She played wonderfully and and had great explanations of the pieces she was going to play.
I've stocked the fridge with tons of low-effort meals since I figured we'll be periodically busy with the new baby. A couple meats for smoking (trout and some top beef round), a corned beef that we planned to have on Friday until a drastic change in plans, and other various things. I think tonight I'll make tacos...that sounds good.
Had ribeye steaks for dinner on the barbie. Pretty good but mine was a bit crispy on the outside. Leftover steak will be be transformed into Mongolian beef tonight
I used to go hunting most weekends as a kid with my uncles and grandpa. Haven’t gone really since my grandpa died in early 2000s, as it was mainly a way to hang out with him. Seems sort of bizarre to me now
still having 18th century poultices in the mix for chest colds when I was a kid. That didn't survive the move to the US, you won't be surprised to hear.
snow is my favorite part of winter. even after living in snow country for 30+ year i think of it as a novelty since we didnt grow up w/ it in Bay Area.
i love the quite stllness of the falling snow as well as just the soft beauty of when there is lots of it on the ground.
i also really enjoy shoveling snow as a throwback form of exercise. since it gets me outside in the snow for longer.
Yes to all of this. When I lived in Anchorage I used to like to go out and shovel after dark with my boombox playing classical music. To this day if it's going to snow I will wait until it starts to go for a run. There's just something about snow. Unfortunately, DC has not had much over the last years.
Netherlands. We spent most of our time in Utrecht, which is a fabulous city to relax in. Tons of parks and walking paths along the miles of canals, surprisingly good food, great cafes, many pubs with excellent beer (that pairs perfectly with all sorts of little Dutch snacks/appetizers like bitterballen). Amsterdam had some great food and museums, but large sections of it were a little too touristy. And we even went out to the countryside in Meppel where my wife had family back in the 1700s-1800s, and we managed to find some gravestones of those family members. Utrecht just barely beats Sydney, which was a much more uptempo vacation because there was so much to do in our short time there (it was only a 5-day work trip).
Sabbatical I took from the workaday world of tech/finance for 20 weeks. North Africa, Middle East, Turkey for the most part. Got a somewhat new perspective on life.
I think in terms of how much more I enjoyed it than I was expecting, it was when we did a little roadtrip in the southwest from Phoenix to Albuquerque, not that we spent any time in Phoenix. (I was expecting to enjoy it but it was much better than I had hoped)... but truth be told, I've enjoyed most of them with the possible exception of a family trip to Scotland in 1993 when my mother was working through her unresolved anger at her father (who had died first of her parents, but the '93 visit was her first time in the homeland since her mother had died)
Watched Sing Street recently - a John Carney movie about a high school kid in 1980s Belfast who starts a band to impress a girl he likes. Music was not quite as good as in Once or Begin Again, IMO, but story and characters very well done and well acted. More endearing than those other movies. It sort of brings to bear something I see in my kids - that adults have these complex and layered emotions, but young people have much simpler emotions and perhaps as a result of that, much purer and more intense feelings. Very good movie, would recommend.
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with David Letterman; Bono and the Edge go back to Dublin and hang out for a while, re-write some songs (adding lyrics to Sunday Bloody Sunday for example) and hang out in pubs. David Letterman tags along. On Disney+ - I think I liked the music more than the actual film.
[WBC] USA's Trea Turner mashes an 8th inning come-from-behind granny to beat Venezuela. US' fearsome lineup then dismantled Cuba 14-2 to advance to the finals vs the winner of the Mexico/Japan semifinal.
WBC is so, so much more interesting to watch than spring training. That USA-Venezuela game was an absolute classic! That said it is being held back a bit by the MLB and the media:
—MLB needs to level this up a bit in the hype Dept. Make it all in one place, and rotate it around so it is not just in the USA. In particular they should hold the whole thing in Tokyo one year.
—Every time some guy hurts himself, the media has a major case of confirmation bias and just blasts out stories about it. On Saturday I saw more stories about Altuve getting hurt than about the results of the game! That in turn leads to absurd amounts of parent club restrictions, especially and most notably on US pitchers. I understand guys get hurt here and there in the WBC, but guys also get hurt all the time in Spring Training (look at NYY this year for example) and there are no stories blasted about the dangers of spring training. The media just needs to be aware that they are feeding into this narrative which I don’t think is even true that people get hurt more in the WBC than in Spring Training.
It's such a bummer it's being played in Miami this year. I had been going to WBC every time except the first 2006 games which I couldn't attend while at Cal.
One of the benefits of joining the LIV Bonesaw Tour is that they don't mind if you take a piss just off the tee box on live TV - isn't that right Sergio Garcia?
For the first time in what seems like forever, Red Bull's Max Verstappen didn't win a Formula 1 grand prix. Instead, his teammate did. Sergio Perez, who started in pole position, was quickly overtaken by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso but then quickly retook the lead and never let it go. Perez went on to win the Saudi Arabi GP after fighting off a tenacious Alonso and hard-charging Verstappen.
Verstappen, who seems to start from pole position in every race, actually started from 15th on the grid due to a mechanical failure during qualifying. The last driver to win a GP from 15th was ironically Fernando Alonso back in 2008, so things weren't looking great for the Dutchman early on. However, some expert driving, along with a car that seems like it's in a different league than the rest, allowed Verstappen to slowly slice through the traffic and reach the podium in second place.
really the only interesting thing about that race was how quickly Verstappen was able to make up the places. That Red Bull is so much faster than the Mercedes that Hamilton didn't even bother contesting Verstappen's overtake. I think it's interesting that the Aston Martin is just fast enough to hang on the Red Bull with DRS enabled, might make for some interesting races later on.
Yup. I hope the process doesn't get too strung out and we miss the venue of March Madness when all eyes are on college basketball...I mean to make the announcement.
I come from a different perspective. I'm already downplaying expectations by assuming that the hire will be underwhelming for many reasons, not the least of which is that Carol Christ can't be bothered. She's probably sipping hot chocolate on her wraparound porch.
In Cal's Saturday scrimmage both Ott and Stredick ran for over 100 yards. Assuming Cardwell is in the mix that will give us a three-headed rushing attack with Jackson as another threat.
DBD Logistics
I'll be gone starting Friday to mid-April in Peru. I've set up the DBD, but y'all will need to seed the topics.
Enjoy! Sounds like a great vacation.
Enjoy some nice pisco sours while eating alpaca and Guinea pig.
eat all the quinoa!
And to drink, Peru!
bon voyage!
Have fun!
Enjoy!!!
What is something that you suck at but want to be sorta good at eventually
Marriage
it is not clear how one goes about this even after 25 yrs of trying!
Probably having a partner that doesn’t completely suck at being a human helps.
Love means, you never have to say you're sorry...that the other person sucks at being human.
Golf.
12v electrical work
Speaking Cantonese.
Speaking Italian.
Drawing
Guitar and languages
So much in my life I'm very mid at - good enough to be a hobbyist but not good enough to be "good" at
- Golf
- Snowboarding
- Cycling
- Running
no basketball? C'mon bro
Maybe he's really good at basketball, so he can't put it on the sucky list.
Making beer.
Gwyneth Paltrow does a... uh... a thing
https://fandomwire.com/gwyneth-paltrow-uses-ozone-enema-200m-rich-marvel-star-roasted-for-admitting-she-inserts-ozone-in-her-ahole-for-rectal-ozone-therapy/
She must be amazing in the bedroom.
Well....she was really good in the Royal Tenenbaums
Weekend
Mine kicked off unexpectedly when we welcomed the newest member of the family, Es99. She was born three weeks early, but she and Mrs Bk97 are doing great. Everyone is home from the hospital now and Cf98 was delighted to meet her new little sister. Last night was Es99's first night at home and she only woke us up twice for feeding, so we're so far staving off sleep deprivation (famous last words...)
Congrats!!!
You went from a double team defensive strategy to a man-to-man strategy.
Heh, I made the same joke to my wife and she mostly rolled her eyes. I think we're done after 2, though. We're not too keen on being outnumbered in coverage
From what I hear, the Syracuse match-up zone can be very effective.
So no Fm100 it sounds like.
Mazel tov!
Congratulations, enjoy, and good luck!
congratulations!
Best wishes to you and your family.
Congratulations!!!
Congrats!!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!!
Interesting. I went to a $160/head dinner up in far northern NC. It was an odd mix of blue haired elites and redneck royalty. I got placed at a redneck royalty table. It was a mom, her adult son who was a 3-percenter marine, his wife, and their four friends. The mom's father owns 43 apartment buildings, she owns a pool company, and the son is the heir apparent. I sat next to the son, who was throwing back $1,500/bottle cask-strength bourbon like it was water. Sure, he was a right-wing gun nut, but one of his friends was clearly gay and he didn't mind talking to me - so he wasn't overtly prejudiced. So it was a pleasant, but really weird Saturday night.
https://www.caskers.com/george-t-stagg-2018-kentucky-straight-bourbon-whiskey/
Went to a very nice classic guitar concert at the National Gallery of Art yesterday. Performer was JIJI and she played all compositions by women for Women's History Month. She was born in Seoul, came to the U.S. as a teen on a music scholarship. Most recently taught at ASU but is moving to IU. She played wonderfully and and had great explanations of the pieces she was going to play.
Redeye home from Santiago. Caught a couple of unexpected upgrades so it was a bit more pleasant than expected.
WHAT'S FOR DINNER?
Lemongrass coconut chicken
https://nomnompaleo.com/post/137755902728/pressure-cooker-lemongrass-coconut-chicken
I've stocked the fridge with tons of low-effort meals since I figured we'll be periodically busy with the new baby. A couple meats for smoking (trout and some top beef round), a corned beef that we planned to have on Friday until a drastic change in plans, and other various things. I think tonight I'll make tacos...that sounds good.
Congrats on the new baby! Now try to get some sleep.
Impressed with everyone who consistently know what is for dinner before dinner time. This is not an adulting strength for our house.
taking the Amtrak at 500p from New Rochelle to New Carrollton, the stop before DC.
not sure what food i will find. i guess i should pack myself something ...
Teriyaki turkey tenderloins with roasted broccoli.
Sausages with homemade sauerkraut
"How we coming on those sausages, Charlie?"
"Two minutes Turkish"
I found some soup in my freezer last night. Sausage and white bean with spinach.
Had ribeye steaks for dinner on the barbie. Pretty good but mine was a bit crispy on the outside. Leftover steak will be be transformed into Mongolian beef tonight
Something you grew up with but didn't find out until later that it was unusual
Does being poor count?
That's not unusual.
Unfortunately, that is probably true.
I used to go hunting most weekends as a kid with my uncles and grandpa. Haven’t gone really since my grandpa died in early 2000s, as it was mainly a way to hang out with him. Seems sort of bizarre to me now
still having 18th century poultices in the mix for chest colds when I was a kid. That didn't survive the move to the US, you won't be surprised to hear.
Midwesternisms like calling the evening meal “supper” or saying “EYE-talian.”
A positive thing about cold climate
I don't have to mow the lawn from October through April.
This!
You've probably got a pretty good hockey team.
https://www.uscho.com/ncaa/mens-division-i-ncaa-tournament/
Snow is beautiful
snow is my favorite part of winter. even after living in snow country for 30+ year i think of it as a novelty since we didnt grow up w/ it in Bay Area.
i love the quite stllness of the falling snow as well as just the soft beauty of when there is lots of it on the ground.
i also really enjoy shoveling snow as a throwback form of exercise. since it gets me outside in the snow for longer.
Yes to all of this. When I lived in Anchorage I used to like to go out and shovel after dark with my boombox playing classical music. To this day if it's going to snow I will wait until it starts to go for a run. There's just something about snow. Unfortunately, DC has not had much over the last years.
Sprinklers have been off since December
You get to wear layers.
Had some heavy jackets that finally saw some action this winter.
Dress nicely
Not much fire risk, or less than drought prone areas.
Your favorite vacation
Netherlands. We spent most of our time in Utrecht, which is a fabulous city to relax in. Tons of parks and walking paths along the miles of canals, surprisingly good food, great cafes, many pubs with excellent beer (that pairs perfectly with all sorts of little Dutch snacks/appetizers like bitterballen). Amsterdam had some great food and museums, but large sections of it were a little too touristy. And we even went out to the countryside in Meppel where my wife had family back in the 1700s-1800s, and we managed to find some gravestones of those family members. Utrecht just barely beats Sydney, which was a much more uptempo vacation because there was so much to do in our short time there (it was only a 5-day work trip).
Paris. Will be there again in three weeks. Italy is great and my native Finland. Have had nice trips to Hawaii and Mexico as well.
Least favorite is El Cerrito.
Sabbatical I took from the workaday world of tech/finance for 20 weeks. North Africa, Middle East, Turkey for the most part. Got a somewhat new perspective on life.
In no particular order ~
Antarctica - nature in the raw
South Africa - endless wildlife sightings
Turkey - wish I’d paid attention in western civilization class
Skiing (international): Ortisei, Italy and Niseko, Japan
Tahiti: Bora Bora and Moorea - honeymoon 💙💛
I think in terms of how much more I enjoyed it than I was expecting, it was when we did a little roadtrip in the southwest from Phoenix to Albuquerque, not that we spent any time in Phoenix. (I was expecting to enjoy it but it was much better than I had hoped)... but truth be told, I've enjoyed most of them with the possible exception of a family trip to Scotland in 1993 when my mother was working through her unresolved anger at her father (who had died first of her parents, but the '93 visit was her first time in the homeland since her mother had died)
International: 20-day honeymoon to Portugal, Germany & Austria
Domestic: 7 days driving tour of 6 New England states
My favorite vacation spot is probably Hawaii.
My favorite vacation of my life? That’s a tough one.
Top 5:
1. Peru/Inca trail hike through REI.
2. 10 days in Barcelona followed by a 12 day Mediterranean cruise.
3. Hawaiian honeymoon.
4. 14 day Panama Canal cruise.
5. 3 days in Denali and 7 day Alaskan cruise.
I'm going to Peru on Friday. I'll be gone for 15 days hiking in the Amazon + Inca trail hiking.
some people would get in trouble ranking their honeymoon as anything but #1.
Luckily, my now wife was with me on all those trips and would probably agree with the top 3 in that order.
Peru was her bucket list trip and I got that for her as a Christmas present.
Barcelona/euro cruise was her first time ever traveling out of the country and we had an amazing time.
Sounds great!
Galapagos
I don't think three months in Thailand on covid exile really counts so my favorite trips have been:
- 2.5 weeks in India in 2005
- 2 weeks in Spain in 2010
- 1 week in Niseko Japan for snowboarding
Independent thought
A long article about the slippery boundaries between independent thought, reasonable skepticism, and conspiratorial thinking: https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/by-theory-possessed/articles/the-monster-discloses-himself
DBD AV CLUB
Watched Sing Street recently - a John Carney movie about a high school kid in 1980s Belfast who starts a band to impress a girl he likes. Music was not quite as good as in Once or Begin Again, IMO, but story and characters very well done and well acted. More endearing than those other movies. It sort of brings to bear something I see in my kids - that adults have these complex and layered emotions, but young people have much simpler emotions and perhaps as a result of that, much purer and more intense feelings. Very good movie, would recommend.
I finally started the first season of Perry Mason on HBO and I am all in. I really like this show.
Gritty, edgy...not your Mama's Raymond Burr version.
Mr Chit! I'm sure you were as bummed as I was about Lance Reddick's passing.
Devastated. Just horrible news my friend.
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with David Letterman; Bono and the Edge go back to Dublin and hang out for a while, re-write some songs (adding lyrics to Sunday Bloody Sunday for example) and hang out in pubs. David Letterman tags along. On Disney+ - I think I liked the music more than the actual film.
what...?
What is so confusing here?
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
[CNN] Fulton County prosecutors are considering throwing the RICO act at Trump
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/20/politics/georgia-racketeering-conspiracy-trump-willis/index.html
Just so long as he ends up in prison. Or put another way, just so long as his ass is grass.
Tennessee decides it wants to emulate Joseph Goebbels
https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/status/1637872544895123457
Crowd management barricades going up in Manhattan ahead of Trump indictment
https://twitter.com/rawsalerts/status/1637832101356617728
We gonna perp walk Trump or what?
I'd like to see that very, very much.
But I think it's more likely that Trump surrenders himself just to avoid that spectacle.
McCarthy pushes back against Trump’s calls for protests: ‘We want calmness out there’
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/19/mccarthy-trump-protests-calmness-00087795
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
[WBB] Stanford is first #1 seed to not make Sweet 16 since 2009 https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/35901390/top-seeded-stanford-falls-ole-miss-short-sweet-16
Hallelujah!
ESPN misses EWU beating the 11.5 point spread
https://twitter.com/BSSportsbook/status/1637547064643993601
March Madness
Farleigh-Dickinson becomes the second 16th seed to beat a #1. However, they then lose to FAU
https://twitter.com/FDUKnightsMBB/status/1636926864173195266
St. Mary's fades away against UCONN after holding the lead for virtually the entire first half.
Rick Pitino offered St. John's coaching job: Hall of Fame coach mulling proposal to leave Iona for Red Storm
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/rick-pitino-offered-st-johns-coaching-job-hall-of-fame-coach-mulling-proposal-to-leave-iona-for-red-storm/
And he accepts.
The portal is open...quicker the better.
PRO
[WBC] USA's Trea Turner mashes an 8th inning come-from-behind granny to beat Venezuela. US' fearsome lineup then dismantled Cuba 14-2 to advance to the finals vs the winner of the Mexico/Japan semifinal.
https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1637277115975360512
Btw, tonight’s game should be good. Watching Arozarena hit against Sasaki should be a treat!
Yup. Tuning in at 4pm
I like both teams, but I feel like I have to root for Mexico as the (heavy) underdog here.
Runs Scored / Runs Against for Japan in tourney so far is an otherworldly 47/11
The level of competition and the unbalanced Pools are an issue. It didn't help that South Korea was really terrible this year.
That said, I'm so excited to see what Sasaki can do.
WBC is so, so much more interesting to watch than spring training. That USA-Venezuela game was an absolute classic! That said it is being held back a bit by the MLB and the media:
—MLB needs to level this up a bit in the hype Dept. Make it all in one place, and rotate it around so it is not just in the USA. In particular they should hold the whole thing in Tokyo one year.
—Every time some guy hurts himself, the media has a major case of confirmation bias and just blasts out stories about it. On Saturday I saw more stories about Altuve getting hurt than about the results of the game! That in turn leads to absurd amounts of parent club restrictions, especially and most notably on US pitchers. I understand guys get hurt here and there in the WBC, but guys also get hurt all the time in Spring Training (look at NYY this year for example) and there are no stories blasted about the dangers of spring training. The media just needs to be aware that they are feeding into this narrative which I don’t think is even true that people get hurt more in the WBC than in Spring Training.
It's such a bummer it's being played in Miami this year. I had been going to WBC every time except the first 2006 games which I couldn't attend while at Cal.
Djocovid to miss Miami Open because he's not vaxxed.
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/35886664/novak-djokovic-miss-miami-open-vaccine-status
Since when does Florida care about vaccinations
It doesn't, but the U.S. still does. At least for the time being.
It's a bit hard to understand the logic here. None of the fans in the stands are required to be vaccinated, but players are?
So basically he's out for the US Open if nothing changes?
Josh Williams got angry that he got DQd. What'd he do?
https://twitter.com/NASCARONFOX/status/1637220939535380480
One of the benefits of joining the LIV Bonesaw Tour is that they don't mind if you take a piss just off the tee box on live TV - isn't that right Sergio Garcia?
https://twitter.com/NotProfMcCarthy/status/1637199918258606080
Flyers face-off, up by one with 7 seconds to go. You can probably relax, right?
https://www.nhl.com/video/necas-aho-lead-canes-comeback/t-277350912/c-16035315
[F1] Another 1-2 finish for Red Bull in a rather dull Saudi Arabia GP
https://www.thedrive.com/news/sergio-perez-holds-off-verstappen-alonso-to-win-f1-saudi-arabia-gp
For the first time in what seems like forever, Red Bull's Max Verstappen didn't win a Formula 1 grand prix. Instead, his teammate did. Sergio Perez, who started in pole position, was quickly overtaken by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso but then quickly retook the lead and never let it go. Perez went on to win the Saudi Arabi GP after fighting off a tenacious Alonso and hard-charging Verstappen.
Verstappen, who seems to start from pole position in every race, actually started from 15th on the grid due to a mechanical failure during qualifying. The last driver to win a GP from 15th was ironically Fernando Alonso back in 2008, so things weren't looking great for the Dutchman early on. However, some expert driving, along with a car that seems like it's in a different league than the rest, allowed Verstappen to slowly slice through the traffic and reach the podium in second place.
really the only interesting thing about that race was how quickly Verstappen was able to make up the places. That Red Bull is so much faster than the Mercedes that Hamilton didn't even bother contesting Verstappen's overtake. I think it's interesting that the Aston Martin is just fast enough to hang on the Red Bull with DRS enabled, might make for some interesting races later on.
Neither Max nor his dad looked too happy with second.
CAL
Go Bears!!!
Never saw this posted, or maybe just missed it, but Kuany Kuany is in the portal.
Cal Women's Gym headed to Pittsburgh
https://www.ncaa.com/live-updates/gymnastics-women/nc/live-updates-2023-ncaa-womens-gymnastics-championship
Hopefully today is the day for a new MBB Head Coaching hire…
Yup. I hope the process doesn't get too strung out and we miss the venue of March Madness when all eyes are on college basketball...I mean to make the announcement.
I am trying my best to stay positive and believe the donors are driving this bus…the alternative (Knowlton in charge) is too terrifying.
I come from a different perspective. I'm already downplaying expectations by assuming that the hire will be underwhelming for many reasons, not the least of which is that Carol Christ can't be bothered. She's probably sipping hot chocolate on her wraparound porch.
In Cal's Saturday scrimmage both Ott and Stredick ran for over 100 yards. Assuming Cardwell is in the mix that will give us a three-headed rushing attack with Jackson as another threat.
GET STREDICK THE DAMN BALL!
And the guy from Clemson