Disconnected

A good friend recently told me, “Your blog sucks.”

I took a small amount of umbrage.

“It’s stale,” he said. “I demand new content.”

I had to agree.

I’m in one of those stupid cycles where nothing is quite interesting enough for a blog post. I’m not getting out much for obvious reasons and home life is fairly rote (except for the parts that aren’t).

Because I loathe blog posts about a lack of posting, here’s a quick overview of the past several days.

• We coordinated with our friend to throw a surprise birthday party for our friend (and her husband) T. It wasn’t so much a surprise as it was a foregone conclusion that T would be showing up to see all his friends and celebrate living to 40 years old. I knew the surprise part was long ago blown when T asked me what he could bring for what was supposed to be a two-family cookout, I told him beer, and he showed up with 48 cold ones. There was a day when T and I could sit and drink a case of beer apiece, but that day is long gone. Nonetheless, it was a nice time and we did manage to surprise him a little, because…
• Daly was there. You might remember me writing about out buddy who did three tours overseas and is finally back in the States (read about it on The Daly Briefing). Daly managed to to drive up from Hotlanta to celebrate T’s birthday with us. That much was a surprise, at least. Or, at least, that is what I’m choosing to believe.
• I needed a quick menu to serve 20-25 people. I decided on grilled sliders, soy ginger chicken, grilled lime pork tenderloin, burger beans, and sweet potato salad. Blood and his wife brought homemade salsa, cookies, and ice cream pie. Everything turned out pretty well (the sliders and sweet potato salad both hit home runs). The buddy who lamented the state of this blog left early so he could…
• Go to Boston to see several of our other buddies and go to the Phish show at Fenway. I spent most of my Sunday night looking at pictures of the band and green monster via my buddy’s phone while following the end of a major poker tournament on the other side of America. My late arrival to the World Series of Poker has me feeling pretty disconnected from everything. One of the few pros I can call a friend managed to go deep and win about $800,000. Would’ve like to have been there for that. Good thing I wasn’t though, because…
• About 3am Sunday, my wife took Dos to the ER on the advice of the pediatricians’ office. Nearly eight hours later, she emerged with no real answers. The kid was throwing up pretty dramatically for a very long time. Dehydration was the biggest fear, but they tested for everything under the sun (because, hey, somebody is going to pay for it, right?). Those test results will come back this afternoon and I expect Dos to be pronounced healthy and from Planet Krypton. Thanks to everyone who has asked after him. Your friendship and concern were heartwarming.
• Because both Dos and the wife needed sleep, the boy and I spent the day together. We hung out at the pool and then I took him to see “Up.” The quick review I posted to Twitter said the following: “Charming, creative, occasionally touching, but will appeal more to adults than kids. Liked it, but easily not in Top 5 Pixar features.” And that’s pretty much the truth. The reviews for the movie have been glowing, and that’s to be expected. It’s impossible to dislike any Pixar film because the people behind them do their jobs so well. The unfortunate thing for Pixar is that it competes against itself. The new films are not judged against other films in the industry, but against against the near-perfect “The Incredibles” et al. There was nothing particularly wrong with “Up” and that is evidenced by the fact it has made nearly $70 million already. Just don’t expect an instant classic.