Monday, July 23, 2007

HP7

The media blackout has been lifted.

All who care to read, have read.

We can discuss freely now.

We mourn the passing of.... the series. We have all enjoyed the books. We would queue up once again if another is written.

We look forward to the movies.

FYI to Warner Bros. We would gladly pay double if you doubled the length of the last movie. Make a "director's cut". Get it all in. We'll pay. We all would. We stood in line late into the night and bought over 8 million books in under 24 hours. We'd pay. Really.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Basketball Fun - Midwest Version

The children went off to Camp Aunt Sharon Part Deux.

So we decided to go to a Monarchs game. Which really isn't all that unusual for us. Except this one wasn't exactly at Arco Arena.

It was in Minneapolis. Against the Lynx.

The Target Center is the Lynx's home court. Except Prince was having a concert the next night and Friday was needed for set up. So the game was shuffled off to Williams Arena at The University of Minnesota. Which was built in 1928 before Central Air Conditioning was invented. Holy cow, it was hot.

But we had GREAT seats! We ordered "behind the Visitor's bench". This is what we got:

Most excellent position behind the bench. We talked to Koz and Krista before the game. (and fans listening at home heard there were Season Ticket holders in the arena! US!) We kept up the chatter. We cheered when everyone else was quiet. We never felt the need to cheer when everyone else did. Sometimes all you heard was the two of us. Towards the end of the game we talked a bit with Linda Frohlich and Kristin Haynie. Kristin asked us where we were from and couldn't believe it when we said "Elk Grove". Surely she was expecting something a little bit more Minnesotan.

It was a hot game. Both teams had to fight the heat. We were hot sitting. I can only imagine how it was running up and down the court.

The court is raised. We were worried someone might go flying off the edge. No one did.



Every season ticket holder should road trip. Sure... it would be easy to go to LA for a game. About as easy to go to Seattle. But going someplace unexpected like Minneapolis gives you a very different perspective. At first we were a bit disappointed that the game had been moved. But we really enjoyed how close we were to the action. Our Row C seats are going to seem like they're in the nose bleeders now!






Monarchs 85
Lynx 80

Tahoe - Summer 2007

It was almost anti-climatic.

We came down into the Tahoe basin to see clear blue water and clear blue sky.

Fire? Smoke? Not that we could see.



If you look very carefully you can see the burn area.



So we just went sailing....







Basketball Fun

So Kaitlyn went off to be a Counselor-In-Training at Camp Alive Now! and we had an extra ticket to the Monarchs game on June 23 (against the Shock). Of course Emma wanted to invite Kaelin. And of course we did. Because they are BFF's!!!!


We ate dinner at the Skyline Restaurant like we often do. We had barely sat our behinds down in our seats when Emma and Kaelin were asked to participate in the ball exchange before the game. Of COURSE they do!



Kim Smith handed a ball to Kaelin. Linda Frolich handed a ball to Emma. They were THRILLED. The balls were not autographed. I think it would be VERY COOL if the players autographed the balls before they handed them out. But they don't. Nor does getting a ball and t-shirt get you into the autograph line after the game. But Dad was the hero of the night and scored two of the coveted autograph tickets. They waited in line and got their autographs.























Two team favorites. DeMaya Walker and Yolanda Griffith were the designated autographers of the evening.




They were THRILLED!

On Thinking

I'm not naming names....

I have come under criticism for accusing people of "drinking the Kool-Aid". The criticism comes, obviously, from those who, in my estimation, are swimming in the stuff.

As I was sitting in a lovely first class seat on a flight home I mused about the concept. The origins of the phrase. Why it is used. Ultimately, I mused on why people are so willing to consume what is given to them without thinking if it is the best for them or not.

Maybe it's in religion. I can't begin to count the number of times I've been told that "the Bible does/doesn't say that". Of course it leaves me wondering what Bible those folks are reading. I find it ironic that some of the best Bible scholars I know are Atheists. They know the Bible. The strict Bible Literalists all too often (although not always) cite what they've been told from the pulpit. Their pastor knows more than they do and so they trust in what he (it's always "he") tells them. They do little if any independent study. They don't do any independent thinking on what is being preached.

Maybe it's in politics. We all know how I feel about the current administration. But it still boggles my mind that the President can loudly proclaim "Mission Accomplished" in 2003 and there are people who don't see the problem with us still being "in the mission" FOUR years later with no end in sight. How can they reconcile these two contradictory messages? Alone. Forget the rest of the bull.... He said we were done. Why are we still there? If I pose the question "was he lying then or lying now?", well... that's just unpatriotic (still) and unsupportive of the troops. But whatever is said by The Government is believed without question.

Maybe it's at work. All signs point to fiscal problems that could very well bankrupt the company. Enron is the poster child for this. Warning signs ignored. Whistleblowers punished. But I'm watching some dots being connected at a couple of different companies. (not naming names....) I see their PR problems. Do they? Maybe they do. Maybe they are ok with it. Maybe they don't. I see decisions that were bad decisions two years ago coming back to haunt them. I see daily decisions being made that portends a really expensive implosion. I also see those same people who have been told "Danger Will Robinson" feeling (and very possibly truly being) completely blindsided when it's above the fold news. No one told us. How did this happen? What went wrong?

It makes me crazy.

I have a hard time believing that I have some sort of special power to see around the corner, to connect the dots and see the Big Picture. I don't actually possess a crystal ball.

My mother never let us have Kool-Aid. Maybe that's it? I don't know. I don't actually enjoy being right. At least not all the time. If I'm right about some of the situations I see brewing, it's not going to be fun being right. It's going to be sad.

I just don't understand the unwillingness to think for oneself even when (and maybe especially when) authority speaks.

But for now... I'm just handing out the Kool-Aid.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Low Friends in High Places

Yea.... I'm not really surprised.

I don't think W would know The Right Thing if it bit him in the ass.

So OF COURSE he commutes Scooter Libby's sentence.

For the record... Not a single West Wing staffer was ever sentenced to prison in the Clinton White House.

It must be nice to be King.

Sadly, no one elected him King.

Could be argued whether or not he was elected to anything, of course.

Idiot.

Hopefully the Democrats don't squander this gift....

Right vs. Left

Brains. Not politics.

And I'm not even sure if it's a left/right brain thing....

Sometimes someone will say something or I will observe something and the Big Picture will be quickly clear to me. They'll draw a picture, metaphorically or allegorically, and I know what they mean.

I, generally speaking, hang out with like minded people.

Sometimes I'll encounter someone for whom that is a completely foreign concept. Not just in one instance, but repeatedly. They obviously don't see the world the same way as I do.

Today at the grocery store something similar happened. Several of us (myself, the checker and another customer) were joking around using irony and another person could not see the humor. He insisted on the literal interpretation of what we were saying. And it. was. not. funny.

I consider myself a logical, connect the dots type of person. But irony is one of my best friends. I use metaphors and allegories to explain a point. This gets me in trouble a lot.

We were not talking about that!
No....that's a metaphor. It's an EXAMPLE.
But what does it have to do with what we are talking about?
It's a metaphor for what we are talking about. It's something similar. An illustration of my point using a different set of circumstances.
I'm lost. I have no idea what you're talking about.
Apparently.

Irony is often mistaken for sarcasm. Don't get me wrong. I'm all about the sarcasm. But simply pointing out the irony of a situation does not sarcasm make.

It seems that one must be wired to get irony, metaphors and allegories. Some folks can't see the gaps. They can't make the leap and see the connections.

It makes conversation difficult because they are like different languages. Quite frustrating too.

huh

Last night someone asked my 11 and 15 year old daughters if I was their sister.

They were aghast.

*I* am amused.

The Mr. is wondering if they thought he was my father....