Need a physio

This is a really short post tonight - I'm in agony as I quickly type. I've done something to my neck/shoulder muscles and have pain ripping across on side of my chest and collar bone area. Deb is currently googling physios for tmrw morning cause I am not getting any relief despite heat packs and nurofen. It bloody hurts !!

Not much again this week to report. I worked all week and the highlight was Skippys (Happy Hour) at the Emb. I tried my hand at some new food including toothpick bites. They were very popular and I got great feedback...and empty plates back into the kitchen.

Next weekend is a long weekend here. We are off to Gettysburg which is in Pennsylvania. Just doing a day trip and will be touring the very famous battlefields where the civil war was brought to an end. Stay tuned for that post. We will head up to Philadelphia another weekend which I am really keen to see.


We have booked tickets to see Boy George and Culture Club in two weeks and I am in the process of booking tickets to see KISS that same weekend. They are touring and playing in full costume and makeup. I can't wait !!!

I groaning in agony so will finish up. My last pic is me at Costco exploring the kids Halloween costumes. I'm thinking I can squeeze into this one if I really tried.

Doggles

It has been a quiet week given I've been working. The days are long with early starts to ensure the dogs get a walk. Cricket runs with us twice a week but somehow that's not enough as he's taken to digging a hole around the side. I'm sure it's him and not Macey. I've moved some wooden sleepers over the first hole but he moved to another place to dig. I've now covered that so I'll see what his next move his. Maybe he's trying to play chess with me or something?

 

I went to Costco today to scout out some prices for Happy Hour food.  It's always a trip of adventures when I go to Costco. I managed to nick the huge bag of frozen peas at the checkout so peas went everywhere. I think everyone noticed before me. I bought them anyway, only lost about a cupful but the floor will be pretty yucky once the peas melt and get stood on. And then I was loading the car and noticed the lady opposite me had parked really really badly - she just pulled in on an angle and there must have only been an inch to the next car. I saw here trying to move it slowly but eventually she come over and asked me for help. Directions or driving?? She asked me to park her car. OK, I jumped in and shit myself to see an old man sitting in the back seat. I said g'day but he said nothing. Another 'Weekend At Bernies' flashback. Anyway, quick reverse and straighten and the car was parked away nicely. I noticed 'Bernie' get out of the car and slowly walk away with his walking stick. 

DOGGLES - sunnies for dogs !!

On the way home I saw this car with a dog hanging out the window. I had to get a photo. After two sets of lights and a slight wrong turn by me, I finally caught the car and snapped this photo. CHECK THIS OUT !!! 

A friend commented 'Doggles' on my Facebook post so I googled and bugger me, Doggles are indeed sunglasses for dogs. 

I can't imagine Cricket or Macey wearing Doggles.


We met our friends for the weekly Saturday morning brekky run. We really enjoy catching up with them and love what we learn from them. We have decided to do a 'Turkey 10k Run' on Thanksgiving (25 Nov). There are such races all over so we are going to pick one and do it. There appears to be no turkey stunts and antics so it's just about burning calories in preparation for the 'carb coma' of Thanksgiving. It's sounds like our Xmas Day but bigger. I'm very excited about it - the eating that is, not so much the 10k run.

It was a bit wet today so we decided to take the dogs for a quick drive and run in the park for something different. It doesn't take much for cabin fever to grow here. There is a community hall thing near the park and a big group were having a picnic. Cricket decided he wanted 'in' on the action so off he went and next thing there was a bit of excitement amongst the group as he was under the table, around their legs and generally saying hello as he does best. I tried calling him back but he was there in the thick of it. God I hope he didn't steal any food. They seemed surprised more than anything.

We bought Macey a thunder coat to help her with the stress of thunder storms. It's nice and tight-like to make her feel like she's being hugged. It seems to settle her a bit and I thought I might buy one given it's makes her look like a skinny chick.

You may recall I saw a coyote last week. Well yesterday we took the dogs walking and then swimming as usual. We'd been there about 15mins and then a dog starts barking up the hillside about 100m away. It was like a younger dog bark. It just kept barking and barking and we couldn't see any walkers who might have a dog. I'm sure it would have been a coyote, maybe a mother protecting pups?? So we left and it was barking for quite a while as we walked into the distance. I will have to be careful where I walk now as I don't want our dogs to get into a fight with one.

We lost internet on Friday morning. I thought it would be an outage in the area but it was still down Friday night. I was able to run some diagnostics online on their website and then got help from the online chat person. They had to send a tech out but he didn't come until today (Sunday). Poor Deb was having technology 'withdrawals'. The tech came today and it turned out that our line was cut - we don't have underground cabling here. It runs from our house up to the house behind us. He said it was clean cut and he suspects tree-trimmers may have done it. Thankfully, we are back in communique' and the world is in balance again.


Something very exciting this week was the purchase of a little Nespresso machine. I decided the coffee machine I bought last month was never going to satisfy my desire for espresso (as it only made brewed coffee like Starbucks). So I bought a little Citi-z and I felt like I was in heaven yesterday having my first cup. There is a little machine in the kitchen at work so I'll take some pods to work and can enjoy a good cup there too.

Well not much else to say. A couple of pics from the dogs swimming yesterday. Cricket looked cute with his front leg bent at the ready. 

 

Coyotes and Farthings

So this week featured dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant, a coyote sighting, the high wheel (penny farthing) race and my first ride home from work. Penny Farthing is not a common term in the US - they like to call them High Wheels.

My working adventure is not panning out as planned. Having trouble getting access to the system so with no computer, no work. Dogs are happy cause I'm home until they get it sorted. Deb's work mates are happy to as I have cooked some cakes this week while I was home. But I was able to ride home from the city after work one day. Took me 90 mins for about 25k. It took about 25mins to get through the city due to heaps of traffic lights to stop at. The bikers here ride through red lights all the time, while they avoid traffic, they just ride through lights anyway. It was a long slight incline all the way home so it was quite hard work, especially on the mtb. I was close to home and as usual, a group of deer were on the front lawn nearby - gave me a fright but they were not phased.

I was walking the dogs the other day and they were running together in the forest as usual. I keep an eye on them and when I glanced over, I noticed another dog running up behind them. It was a coyote, looked just like the one in the picture. I called for the dogs as they had not seen it - the coyote rang away thankfully. I had been told there were some coyote in the forest park so I wasn't as scared as I thought. The website said they are unlikely to attack and to keep a distance from them. I worry though that the dogs would run up to it to play and a fight might start. Hopefully we won't see one anymore. They usually come out at night so not sure why it was out during the day.

Friends from home gave us a voucher for a lovely Italian restaurant as a farewell gift. We went with our two good friends and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The food was excellent, the service was spot on and we really enjoyed the night out. We took some food porn pics to show our friends at home. Deb had a lamb rack and I had slow braised beef ravioli. We had entrees and dessert and were totally stuffed at the end. 

Next week is restaurant week here in DC. It happens twice a year. Restaurants offer 3 course dinner and/or lunch for around $35 and it's a great way to check out a restaurant for a great price. I'm not sure we'll get out this week but we'll see. 

And I discovered Root Beer is NOT ginger beer. My mate B tried to convince me it was made from ginger root. I said no, I don’t think so. Anyway, I bought a dozen in a pack (it was only $1.99 so what does that tell you!!) and tried some. Nope, it’s definitely not ginger. It’s actually sarsaparilla favoured as I suspected. I like sars but this is a bit blah tasting - cough mixture is a great taste match I reckon. So I now have 11 cans of root beer in the basement waiting for some aussie sucker to come and drink it. But I did taste a better bottle of root beer at the Frederick bike race and it was more pleasant to drink. So I must have bought the home brand version at Safeway or something. 

We went to a town called Frederick again, we were there about a month or so ago. We took our friends as they had not been and also it was the annual high wheel (penny farthing) race. It was a stinking bloody hot day - high 30's or over 100 on the old scale. We were just dripping with sweat and exploring all the air-conditioned shops. The high wheel race was awesome, I loved it. Those big bikes are just such a strange design. I've never really looked at one and watching the people ride them was so interesting. Despite the heat, many riders were dressed in period costume which was heavy and hot., some of the pants were wool. They had some riders from London competing and I would really love to ride this little event next year. I will make some enquiries about it but I would need to borrow a bike. I don't want to buy one. They only had about 4 women racing so it would good to add to the numbers. Deb has visions of us packing this big-wheeled bike in our removal in 3 years time !!  I couldn't help get my moustache painted on and Batman made an appearance.  Check out the short video in the blog post before this one for a quick look.

We've been watching some Olympics. The Aussies haven't done too well in the pool but well done the girls in those non-traditional sports. Great to see. 

I had my first session with the PT at the gym today. Was fairly good, but will see how the body responds tomorrow. 

Quiet finish to the weekend. Hot again and a week of temps in the 30s again. We walked the dogs this morning and both were hot and stuffed. Poor Macey had a lay down so took the chance to capture the moment.

 

Frederick High Wheel Race

Here's a short video of the high wheel race at Frederick. Crank the music up and remember, we're putting the band back together, we're on a mission from God !!

Weekly blog update will come tomorrow.

Back to Work

Started a 3 month block of work this week so not much play time was had. I did manage to take one day off as I haven't got computer access yet so I went and visited that stinky corpse flower again - it bloomed early in the week. By the time I got there though, it was starting to close again and as I write this on the weekend, it has fallen over. So it doesn't bloom long and for something that happens every 3-6 years, I can see what this is a rare and spectacular thing to see. My mate B went the day before me. There is a live camera feed on the flower so I text B when I was there. He was in the city shopping. He told me to wave at the camera and he took a screen shot on his phone. Check me out in the bottom right hand side waving my arms. He was laughing in the shops and I felt like a complete dick - but as you can tell, no-one was noticing anything !  I had wished I took my batman mask - how funny that would have been.

A real popular thing in DC and in the US really is food trucks. They are everywhere and see every kind of food you can imagine. There is a website that allows you to follow your favourite food truck each day too - as they move around. Here's a pic of the trucks in the city at lunchtime. I don't frequent them but the smell of the food is fantastic. 

I went for my first session with a trainer at the gym. She was good, older like me and runs/rides and is a running coach. She seems quite compatible with Deb and I. But the cost for a 1 hour session is expensive so we are no likely to do regular training with her. I managed to survive the first session which was more an assessment of my fitness and abilities. I seemed to do ok and look forward to getting back into the gym along with running and riding again. I did notice that I was about the youngest person in the gym beside the trainers? It was a Saturday morning so maybe the young ones were still in bed? I saw our neighbour on the treadmill too - not sure if she was more shocked than me. 

It was game day again on Sunday. We went to the afternoon game with our good friends and I was thrilled the Nats WON against the San Francisco Giants !!  This is only the second time I've seen them win. It was 1-0 and it was a home run that scored the run. Wow, there is really nothing like a home run. It's like a 6 in cricket but on steroids. Today there was a classic catch in the outfield where the catcher crashed into the padded wall and some great pitching at lightning speeds. For info, the pitching speed is about 95mph which is about 152kmh. The mid-game President's race is always a favourite - such a stupid, funny and unique thing to do. My mate's favourite player, young superstar Bryce Harper, didn't play today. We had a $5 wager that Bryce would hit a home run - something my mate assures me every game we go to. He is a great player for a young fella but I've yet to see him hit any home runs. Anyway, he didn't play today so that $5 stays tucked in a pocket in my wallet for next time.

 

I started reading a book on a short history of America. I wanted to get an overview to help me understand things better when we travel around. I think I will know more about US history than Australian history but I guess I have the perfect opportunity to learn.

Well, not an exciting week to blog about but there were some good times as usual. The pics below show the dogs enjoying their nightly carrot treat as I cut veggies for dinner. They have taken some getting used to, especially for Cricket, but now they hang around when I start preparing dinner waiting for their carrot. And the other pic is this beautiful BMW. It was an i8 - it's electric. It looked very sharp and swish, unlike the usual BMW style. 

 

So I learnt something this week..the President carries 'the football' and also carries 'the biscuit' = the bag with the gadgets to release a nuke when he's mobile and the plastic card that has the launch codes. Watched a political chat show discussing Trump carrying the football and biscuit. OMG, it was like a scary horror movie but you usually thank god the movie is not real…but this is a possibility. Apparently when he got his security briefings this week, he asked the flunky many questions about launching nukes. Maybe we have something worse than guns to worry about here?

Stinky corpse flower

The highlights for this week are:

• stinky corpse flower
• joined the gym
• library of congress
• cooked at the Amb residence for a bbq
• the first 'laddie' fashion review

I went with my friends to see this stinky corpse flower thing. The stinky corpse flower is blooming at the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory. It is the first bloom of this particular plant, which is six years old. It takes quite a while to create enough energy for a bloom as spectacular as this one! There is a live video feed on it so you can watch it from home - well just watch it like the photo looks, until it blooms.

The magic of the titan arum comes from its great size - it is largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. When it went on display, the plant was around 3.5 feet tall. Referred to as the corpse flower or stinky plant, its putrid smell is most potent during peak bloom at night into the early morning. The odor is often compared to the stench of rotting flesh. The inflorescence also generates heat, which allows the stench to travel further. This combination of heat and smell efficiently attracts pollinators, such as carrion beetles and flies, from across long distances.

The titan arum does not have an annual blooming cycle. The plant blooms only when sufficient energy is accumulated, making time between flowering unpredictable, spanning from a few years to more than a decade. It requires very special conditions, including warm day and night temperatures and high humidity, making botanic gardens well suited to support this strange plant outside of its natural range. This plant is native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and first became known to science in 1878.

So we are checking the video feed several times a day to see when it blooms - we're then going to go down and have a look...and a smell. Standby for next week's blog, hopefully it will have bloomed.

My friends also took me to the Library of Congress. It is quite beautiful. You can view the library floor from the top and see people working, reading, researching. The roof reminds me of the Vatican. It is the nation's first established cultural institution and the largest library in the world with millions of times including books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. But I have to wonder if there are any DC Comic books in there with Batman??

  

I got a phone call through the week asking me if I would cook a small bbq for the Amb at his residence. The staff are all on leave and they couldn't find anyone so yep, they were reaching for the last cookie in the jar = me. I said yes as surely a bbq couldn't be that hard. There was enough meat for a small army, thank god as I needed to cut up a sausage or two to check they were cooked. I hate cooking kebabs so they were a little over-done. Nearly lost a snag off the plate but caught it in time. Dessert was fun. I was trying to be creative with the lemon tart and berries and ice cream - how do you plate them to look masterchef'y.  I ended up googling images my phone to get some ideas. I didn't get a final picture but here was my picture text for Deb. asking her for ideas...she didn't reply. Note to self, don't call her as friend on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'.

So I had the plumber visit this week. The hose tap outside has been leaking slowly. The landlord organised him to come last Tuesday - he didn't show did he. So I called again to ask when he'd be back. The landlord said that he came on Wed but no-one was home and there were dogs out the back. I said what? Of course I wasn't home Wed, I was expecting him Tuesday!! Anyway, he was to come back this week. So he came as expected this time. Goes out the back, pulls the hose off the tap, does some magic and in his little latin accent says ' Yeh, the tap leek'. OMG, no shit sherlock - really, that's why I called you here. Do you have washers etc, can you fix it now?  Oh no, he had no such thing in his truck. He'd have to go buy stuff and come back another day. My eyes are rolling and rolling and rolling by now.

So he comes back the next day with a buddy. They have decided to replace the whole tap fixture. So I'm sitting inside and they're doing god knows what outside. One went inside the house stairway which is behind the tap. I see a square chunk of wall cut away in the stairway that gives them access to the tap outside. I run away as if I've seen something bad. I hope they know what they're doing. Jibber jibber ola ala ola speedy gonzales….can’t understand a word they say. I walked past 20 minutes later and there's a second square hole in the wall. Hmmm, I'm glad this is not my house, run away again. Later on he pops up and after a strained conversation, I decipher that he needs matching paint for the wall as they patched the holes. Yeah, in the garage there's a bunch of tins. Anyway, an hour later, they fixed the tap, patched the holes, painted and cleaned up. Crikey, I'm amazed. The tap leak has actually stopped and the wall hasn't fallen over. Touching wood right now.

This week the Democrats had their convention which is where they all get together and formally confirm their presidential nominee. It was Hillary of course. It was quite spectacular to watch, so positive and uplifting. Compared to Trump's circus, this was a rockshow. Bill Clinton gave a speech and how funny the next day an article appeared covering what he wore !!  He's going to be the first 'laddie' so he best get used to fashion reviews. 

He's what he review said. Note that he wore a Shinola watch. You may recall Deb's Shinola watch purchase in Detroit so she felt somewhat cool knowing Bill wears one too. But Bill's was half the price so he clearly got a Pres discount !!

Bills's stately-but-approachable appearance and middle-of-the-road fashion choices make him a terrific candidate for the supporting role of first spouse of the United States. (He was also the 42nd president of the United States.) He may lack current first lady Michelle Obama’s upper arm strength, but he makes up for it with a nice head of hair.

We’ve yet to read an interview with the person who styled Bill’s silver locks for last night’s DNC appearance, or even see a brief in Women’s Wear Daily or GQ crediting the designers who dressed him for the occasion. Did he buy his suit online, like Melania Trump’s Net-a-Porter-purchased Roksanda last week? Did he go to a store? Work directly with a designer? We just don’t know, which means it’s going to be really difficult for this particular navy suit to sell out, as so many of the dresses worn by Michelle Obama have over the past eight years. Was it Hickey Freeman? Hart Schaffner Marx? Again, we just don’t know.

Here’s what we do know: Clinton’s suit was navy blue, and he wore a tonal cobalt tie in a shade similar to the Christian Siriano dress Michelle Obama wore the night before. (Some noted then that the dress matched the stage’s background. Clinton’s tie did too!) The suit had three buttons, a notch lapel, and full-cut trousers that broke substantially over his shiny black dress shoes. One might have even called it a “pantsuit.”

The LA Times’ Adam Tschorn noted that although we don’t know who made this suit, “if you stare at it long enough, a subtle tone-on-tone stripe becomes apparent.” Clinton accessorized with a watch Tschorn identified as a 47mm blue-faced Runwell watch by Shinola—a $550 Detroit-made timepiece. (It’s apparently patriotic enough for Clinton, although the FTC has its doubts.) The potential first gentleman also adorned his lapel with a Hillary campaign button. For jewelry, he wore his wedding ring.

As a fashion moment, it might have been a little underwhelming, but as a historical one, it was not. Clinton’s look stated clearly: I’m with her.


The weekend was quiet, had our usual Sat morning run with the local ladies. We seem to be getting more new faces each week and hopefully we'll get a good posse together. I seem to struggle in the humidity. I usually carry a little water bottle cause it's such a sweat fest. We are gaining some Amercian friends on Facebook now so we feel pretty chuffed with that. 

We joined the local gym today. We figure it's time. It seems good, not too busy and very friendly. Different to home, it's a really natural genuine friendly. I hope to have Lara Croft guns by Xmas so I can shovel that bloody snow and not have a heart attack.

I start work this week, a three month block but the third month is taken with 3 weeks leave. So I have to get out of bed in the morning and I need to find somewhere to nap during the day. I've become accustomed to a certain lifestyle lately. The dogs will be shocked to spend the whole day outside on their own. 

Anyway, enough for this blog. A couple of random pics to finish with. Can't believe August is here. Note the deer pic - there is a family of deer that frequent our street, a couple were there in the morning as we went for a run.

when are we going for walk?

researching the next road trip

Slugging, Sam and Shoe'fie's

It’s been a great few days of sport but before I get into that, let me tell you about this ‘slugging’. This morning we met a lady for a run. She lives about half an hour out of DC and either gets the bus in to the city or ‘slugs’ it in? We looked at her with frowny faces and said ‘slug’?  She proceeds to explain this concept and we were quite entrigued that this exists. It’s been around for about 40 years apparently and is very much alive and slugging today. I found this info on google.

Slugging is a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in the Washington, DC area sometimes referred to as "Instant Carpooling" or "Casual Carpooling".   It's unique because people commuting into the city stop to pickup other passengers even though they are total strangers! However, slugging is a very organized system with its own set of rules, proper etiquette, and specific pickup and drop-off locations.  It has thousands of vehicles at its disposal, moves thousands of commuters daily, and the best part, it’s FREE! Not only is it free, but it gets people to and from work faster than the typical bus, metro, or train.  I think you'll find that it is the most efficient, cost-effective form of commuting in the nation.

The system of slugging is quite simple. They have High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes here = you need minimum 3 people in your car to use a certain quicker highway lane. A car needing additional passengers to meet the required 3- person HOV minimum pulls up to one of the known slug lines. The driver usually positions the car so that the slugs are on the passenger side. The driver either displays a sign with the destination or simply lowers the passenger window, to call out the destination, such as Pentagon, L'Enfant Plaza of 14th & New York. The slugs first in line for that particular destination then hop into the car, normally confirming the destination, and off they go. (I’m laughing as I read this, it’s just incredible and I’d love to see this in action !! )

No money is exchanged because of the mutual benefit: the car driver needs riders just as much as the slugs need a ride. Each party needs the other in order to survive. Normally, there is no conversation unless initiated by the driver; usually the only words exchanged are "Thank you" as the driver drops off the slugs at the destination.

There doesn’t need to be any discussion about the destination , such as giving directions, because the drop-off points are generally understood. "Rosslyn" means the Metro station in Rosslyn, not at some other point along the way. The "Pentagon" means the curb along Fern Street, not the North Parking Lot. However, there are a few places where the destination drop-off point is not understood; in these cases, the slug must state where he or she wishes to be dropped off. For example, at "Tackett’s Mill," the driver usually asks "New or Old Lot?" because the driver will take you to either. And there is Crystal City, where drivers drop off slugs anywhere between 12th Street and 23rd streets.

Apparently our friend said the term ‘slug’ came from the busdrivers because cars would pull up next to the bus lanes to pick up people (steal bus passengers) so they called them slugs. While slugs used to be a term for counterfeit coins in the early days (to pay for bus fares), it has taken on the more derogatory meaning now I think. I have never heard of this concept but it just fascinated me. It seems way too friendly, helpful and smart to be true. But here it is. Maybe it’s in Australia, I don’t know but there you have it – slugging. It seems to be safe and very popular but we were both thinking of safety. As Deb and I walked away, Deb said she nearly asked the girl had she not heard of Ivan Milat? Thankfully her inner voice worked today.

So enough of slugging, lets talk sport. The Citi Open tennis tournament is on this week. It would be equivalent to the Brisbane or Sydney International at home. Best things is the tennis centre is 5 minutes from home. So my Aussie mate Bob and I grabbed some tickets and headed out for a full day and night of tennis. Sam Stosur, Bernard Tomic, James ‘Ducky’ Duckworth’ were playing along with a few other Aussies. There was little shade but we managed to score a seat in the shade for most of the afternoon. It’s a small tournament and tennis centre which makes it very personal to watch – so close to the action. The games were excellent, really good tennis. Deb arrived after work as we were all excited to see Sam Stosur. We managed to watch Tomic warming up (Bob wished him good luck) and Guiccioni and Sam Groth. Big guys. The night drew on and the games went for ages so Sam’s game-start was getting later and later. We watched Ducky play and get flogged by the US #1 seed and then watched Tomic beat his US opponent. Bob and I are pretty vocal supporters but we were clearly lonely wolves in the stands. I yelled out to Bernie to ‘get your Aussie on mate’ – to which Bob and Deb looked at me and said what the hell does that mean??  Who cares, it’s better than Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi !!  So I’ve created a cool Aussie chant – get your aussie on mate !

Anyway it got to 10pm and we decided to leave - had a 5am start next day for a run. I would have stayed otherwise.So Sam had still not started. She would be a while (1045 as it turned out). Bob stayed, the tennis die-hard that he is. He saw Sam warming up in the gym and was mesmerized by her muscles. She’s one toned chick. He watched her play for 15 minutes but had to get home himself. He managed to take some good photos and I am very disappointed not to see her play. I could go another day on the weekend but the temps here will be up around 38c so sitting the hot direct sun is not appealing. I'll wait for next year.

So back to our running friend this morning, she taught us a new word - shoe'fie. Apparently this is what runners do ! So our shoe'fie is below.

A shoe'fie

Get your Aussie ON !!

Today, Bob and I followed up our big day/night of tennis and went to our regular baseball game. Nats played LA Dodgers today who are high on the ladder and in reputation. Nat lost Tuesday, flogged them last night but lost today 6-3 (games are played 3 or 4 days in a row). Crikey, I just can't seem to see them win (except for that one time with extra time). I am clearly a jinx to this team when I watch them live.

Another hot day so a cold cider went down well. It was also 'camp' day = lots of kids summer camp groups come to the game (no it wasn't gay day, not that kinda camp). It was like being at a school sport carnival with lots of different coloured shirts grouped around the stadium. And they were LOUD. It was great, kids really know how to get into the game. Baseball is such a good experience for kids.

And of course, the Republican convention is on and Trump has made a prized dick of himself, as well as his wife and other supporters. The convention has been a lot of speakers basically telling supporters to hate Clinton more than Trump. There is not one shred of decent leadership or strategy stated - just negative slander. Let's see what the democrats bring next week.