The benefit of a young child's short memory is that everything seems new. "This is the first time I've ever seen fireworks!", Sour Cream insists. Okay then!
47 thoughts on “July 5, 2013: Fireworks”
Hello, I must be going.
My Uncle Paul did, indeed, pass away Wednesday morning. That's okay. As Ecclesiastes and The Byrds tell us, there is a season for everything, including death. We got Mom there in time to see him for about forty-five minutes before he died, so that was good. He passed very quietly and peacefully, which is what we would all want.
The funeral will be Saturday morning, with a prayer service this evening. So, we came home yesterday so I could do a few things here (including a wedding yesterday afternoon). We'll be leaving again this morning, picking up my parents, and heading back to Yankton. We'll be back in town Saturday evening, so I can do Sunday services. Fortunately, I had most things done for Sunday before all this happened, so that was one less worry.
Socal, many thanks for picking up Minor Details the last couple of days. If you'd like to do it for a few more, you are sure welcome to, as I won't be back at it until Monday morning (for Sunday's games). The birthday list will continue to show up, but for the next few days it will be simply a cut-and-paste from last year. Of course, it largely is anyway, but I usually try to update it. Thus, if you know that someone has been traded/retired/died/something else, please simply put a note in the comments.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot. Since I wasn't around for the last few Twins games, I'm assuming they didn't actually happen. See you Monday!
If you're interested, here is a eulogy of sorts I wrote for my uncle.
sorry for your family's loss, jeff. sounds like he lived a full and happy life.
Thanks for sharing--it sounds like you have some great memories of your time with him. And good luck with learning the guitar!
Sorry for your loss, MofC. Really liked the eulogy - must have been a great guy.
ditto. Best wishes to your family and his. The guitar thing will be a nice tribute and way to remember.
out of curiosity, what kind of guitar is it?
It was a long time coming, but Jon Bois's third installment of Tim Tebow's CFL adventures has been published.
Last time I wanted a book. Now I want a movie. The flashbacks to Belichek are awesome.
Hello from the Homeland. So far we are having a very relaxing visit with family & friends.
Yesterday morning my dad and I dropped by Rod Oistad to say Happy Birthday; Rod was one of the starting pitchers on UM's '56 championship team. He mentioned that he was a a Redhawk's game last week and chatted with the U's scout who was also there. He mentioned this exchange:
scout: The kids nowdays pitch in front of 20,000 in the tournament.
Rod: We pitched in front of 12,000 back in the day.
scout: You did not!
Rod: Five games for a total of 12,000.
scout: *evil eye and forehead slap*
I'm keeping tabs on the Djokovic-Del Potro matchtracker here while I'm at the museum. It seems pretty evenly matched. I hope I can catch the end when I get home.
The way it's going, I'm predicting a long five-set match.
I'd be OK with that. I'm pulling for Andy Murray. Not because of the whole "British guy to win Wimbeldon" thing, but he seems like a decent guy, especially with how gracefully he handled losing to Federer last year and a few other interviews I've seen.
And onto the fifth set.
Longest semi-final in Wimbledon history. Four hours, 43 minutes.
Since Djoker and DelPo are probably my two favorite men's players, that was pretty fun to watch.
Huge trade victory for the locals: Kings get Greivis Vasquez in sign-and-trade for Tyreke Evans. Pelicans also unload rim-protector Robin Lopez in the deal (to Portland) and get back the rights to Jeff Withey.
Vasquez will provide a huge improvement at the point for the Kings, while subtracting Evans provides an immediate improvement to their ball movement. Kings might even be competitive this coming season (Cousins, Jason Thompson/Pat Patterson, ?? (Salmons), Ben McLemore, Vasquez).
I'm not exactly sure what New Orleans thinks it is doing. Not only did they trade their top pick (rights to Noel) for a PG (Jrue Holiday), they unloaded their starting center (Lopez) and PG (Vasquez), while adding Evans, who will come off the bench (Eric Gordon should start at 2-guard). They must really think that Anthony Davis is the man.
Looks like they will have a starting lineup of Holiday, Gordon, Aminu(??), Ryan Anderson and Davis. Ugh.
Hopefully that will make the Blazers less likely to make a spite offer to Pekovic.
apparently, New Orleans need(s) to dump salary to accomplish both the Jrue Holiday deal and the Evans signing.
This just seems like a shiny object affliction for the Pelicans. basketball-reference is not impressed by Holiday (99 ORtg, 107 DRtg in his "breakout" season this year; Vasquez rated 105 and 112, respectively, so much better offensively and about as much worse defensively).
Holiday is basically a league-average 3pt shooter, and has lower True Shooting pct, eFG pct, and assist pct than Vasquez, albeit with a lower turnover pct. He is 4 years younger than Vasquez, but whereas Vasquez has improved significantly every year in some key offensive peripherals, Holiday has not. These deals just seem odd from New Orleans' perspective.
I can't imagine Kirilenko coming back for the minimum, of course. But he's got to find a place where he fits under the cap and in the rotation. I would think that most teams would rather have Paul Millsap, and that someone will be star-struck by Josh Smith. On the other hand, after those two, guys who can swing between the 3 and the 4 are pretty rare in this market. Surely Kirilenko can get a nice 2-3 year deal somewhere for around the $10m/year that he turned down from the Wolves.
I haven't heard any buzz about it, jussign him?l thinking from ch, but the sign and trade idea for Martin to be able to resign AK would be great. Now that SA is out of the picture, maybe the Wolves Have time to shed salary to straight soon him
did you tap a new keg today, cheaps?
Holy cats, sorry about that. My phone is at fault. Anyway, the s&t idea for Martin to be able to outright sign AK is great.
Did I miss something? I don't get it. If you want a meat-related nickname, how about T-Bone?
httpv://youtu.be/E5ibSvOWAMg
a lot of small town bars in Minnesota/Wisconsin have Meat Raffles. Thielbar is from a small town called Randolph.
Last summer we were in the TC area for my nephews wedding, we ate lunch one day at a pub/grill in Coon Rapids and they were having a meat raffle. First time my wife & I had ever seen such a thing. Thought it was odd.
Hoopshype claims that Andre Igoudala has agreed to an offer from Golden State: 4/$48M. Somehow, they are getting Utah to take Andris Biedrins's salary and other junk (the corpse of Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush, and a future 1st-round pick) for essentially nothing in return, plus they have to renounce their rights to Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry (supposedly, they could still offer Jack the midlevel exemption).
I love Iguodala's athleticism and defensive ability, but he seems like an odd fit, given the development of both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes.
The wife made orzo with homemade pesto (garden basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, and some parmesan cheese, in the Vitamix blender). Very good.
Vitamix rools!
And pesto -- numnumnum!
Got out and did 31 miles today (Farmington/Avon/Simsbury/Weatogue/Bloomfield) - at 113 miles for the week so far (not bad, target was 55 miles). Legs are a little spent.
Was quite hot - 93F and road was hot also - went thru 3 bottles of water (thank you to Tower View Pizza for the icewater).
On The Grill
Hebrew National all-beef dogs (longer than the bun, Hiyo!). Fancy pack of mushrooms sauteed with chopped onion. Claussen pickle spears, diced. Grainy Dijon mustard. Corn on the cob brushed with olive oil and Celtic salt. Whole wheat buns (couldn't find the New England style, a first-world-problem).
Of course, even food cooked on a gas grill gives off aromas — all food does. But food grilled over a charcoal flame has a special one: guaiacol.
Guaiacol is an aroma compound produced when you use heat to break down lignin, the resin responsible for holding strands of cellulose together to form wood. “It has a smoky, spicy, bacony aroma,” says Sacks. “In fact, the flavor that most people associate with bacon is largely degraded lignin.”
Translation: Cooking over charcoal makes your food taste like bacon. Let me repeat that: blah blah charcoal blah blah BACON.
So if you have two identical steaks, cooked at identical temperatures, for the same amount of time, where the only difference is that one is cooked over charcoal and one is cooked over gas, what will be the end result? The charcoal-cooked steak will taste more like bacon.
Case closed.
From LEN3:
Twins assistant GM Rob Antony said Miguel Sano is battling arm fatigue. He did not start for Class AA New Britain last night and will not start today. Another factor is that Sano is headed for a busy weekend next week when he heads for New York for the All-Star Futures Game.
Wild sign Matt Cooke for 3 years. Blech, I really dislike his game and hate how many cheap shots he's been responsible for. I hope they find a way to maximize his hockey skills and minimize the other crap.
he is one bad hit from being suspended for a long time because of his reputation.
I dislike this signing, and I REALLY dislike its a 3 year deal.
Hello, I must be going.
My Uncle Paul did, indeed, pass away Wednesday morning. That's okay. As Ecclesiastes and The Byrds tell us, there is a season for everything, including death. We got Mom there in time to see him for about forty-five minutes before he died, so that was good. He passed very quietly and peacefully, which is what we would all want.
The funeral will be Saturday morning, with a prayer service this evening. So, we came home yesterday so I could do a few things here (including a wedding yesterday afternoon). We'll be leaving again this morning, picking up my parents, and heading back to Yankton. We'll be back in town Saturday evening, so I can do Sunday services. Fortunately, I had most things done for Sunday before all this happened, so that was one less worry.
Socal, many thanks for picking up Minor Details the last couple of days. If you'd like to do it for a few more, you are sure welcome to, as I won't be back at it until Monday morning (for Sunday's games). The birthday list will continue to show up, but for the next few days it will be simply a cut-and-paste from last year. Of course, it largely is anyway, but I usually try to update it. Thus, if you know that someone has been traded/retired/died/something else, please simply put a note in the comments.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot. Since I wasn't around for the last few Twins games, I'm assuming they didn't actually happen. See you Monday!
If you're interested, here is a eulogy of sorts I wrote for my uncle.
sorry for your family's loss, jeff. sounds like he lived a full and happy life.
Thanks for sharing--it sounds like you have some great memories of your time with him. And good luck with learning the guitar!
Sorry for your loss, MofC. Really liked the eulogy - must have been a great guy.
ditto. Best wishes to your family and his. The guitar thing will be a nice tribute and way to remember.
out of curiosity, what kind of guitar is it?
It was a long time coming, but Jon Bois's third installment of Tim Tebow's CFL adventures has been published.
Last time I wanted a book. Now I want a movie. The flashbacks to Belichek are awesome.
Hello from the Homeland. So far we are having a very relaxing visit with family & friends.
Yesterday morning my dad and I dropped by Rod Oistad to say Happy Birthday; Rod was one of the starting pitchers on UM's '56 championship team. He mentioned that he was a a Redhawk's game last week and chatted with the U's scout who was also there. He mentioned this exchange:
scout: The kids nowdays pitch in front of 20,000 in the tournament.
Rod: We pitched in front of 12,000 back in the day.
scout: You did not!
Rod: Five games for a total of 12,000.
scout: *evil eye and forehead slap*
I'm keeping tabs on the Djokovic-Del Potro matchtracker here while I'm at the museum. It seems pretty evenly matched. I hope I can catch the end when I get home.
The way it's going, I'm predicting a long five-set match.
I'd be OK with that. I'm pulling for Andy Murray. Not because of the whole "British guy to win Wimbeldon" thing, but he seems like a decent guy, especially with how gracefully he handled losing to Federer last year and a few other interviews I've seen.
And onto the fifth set.
Longest semi-final in Wimbledon history. Four hours, 43 minutes.
Since Djoker and DelPo are probably my two favorite men's players, that was pretty fun to watch.
Huge trade victory for the locals: Kings get Greivis Vasquez in sign-and-trade for Tyreke Evans. Pelicans also unload rim-protector Robin Lopez in the deal (to Portland) and get back the rights to Jeff Withey.
Vasquez will provide a huge improvement at the point for the Kings, while subtracting Evans provides an immediate improvement to their ball movement. Kings might even be competitive this coming season (Cousins, Jason Thompson/Pat Patterson, ?? (Salmons), Ben McLemore, Vasquez).
I'm not exactly sure what New Orleans thinks it is doing. Not only did they trade their top pick (rights to Noel) for a PG (Jrue Holiday), they unloaded their starting center (Lopez) and PG (Vasquez), while adding Evans, who will come off the bench (Eric Gordon should start at 2-guard). They must really think that Anthony Davis is the man.
Looks like they will have a starting lineup of Holiday, Gordon, Aminu(??), Ryan Anderson and Davis. Ugh.
Hopefully that will make the Blazers less likely to make a spite offer to Pekovic.
apparently, New Orleans need(s) to dump salary to accomplish both the Jrue Holiday deal and the Evans signing.
This just seems like a shiny object affliction for the Pelicans. basketball-reference is not impressed by Holiday (99 ORtg, 107 DRtg in his "breakout" season this year; Vasquez rated 105 and 112, respectively, so much better offensively and about as much worse defensively).
Holiday is basically a league-average 3pt shooter, and has lower True Shooting pct, eFG pct, and assist pct than Vasquez, albeit with a lower turnover pct. He is 4 years younger than Vasquez, but whereas Vasquez has improved significantly every year in some key offensive peripherals, Holiday has not. These deals just seem odd from New Orleans' perspective.
also, a huge door has apparently closed on AK47 with the Belinelli signing in San Antonio.
I can't imagine Kirilenko coming back for the minimum, of course. But he's got to find a place where he fits under the cap and in the rotation. I would think that most teams would rather have Paul Millsap, and that someone will be star-struck by Josh Smith. On the other hand, after those two, guys who can swing between the 3 and the 4 are pretty rare in this market. Surely Kirilenko can get a nice 2-3 year deal somewhere for around the $10m/year that he turned down from the Wolves.
I haven't heard any buzz about it, jussign him?l thinking from ch, but the sign and trade idea for Martin to be able to resign AK would be great. Now that SA is out of the picture, maybe the Wolves Have time to shed salary to straight soon him
did you tap a new keg today, cheaps?
Holy cats, sorry about that. My phone is at fault. Anyway, the s&t idea for Martin to be able to outright sign AK is great.
Teh rifding phone.
Woot! Baseball! (Continental) America Flag!
Minnesota Twins Need to Start Seeking Offers for Justin Morneau
Holy Hip Replacement, Batman!
httpv://youtu.be/RVeo6QMcbW4
that was pretty cool. I'd think that baserunners would steal a lot on her, however.
That's a balk.
yup.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHPqCA-mpsc
He'd a had something going there if he could of Eephus'd it.
I think one of the dudes said she 'changed it up'. Har!
Caleb Thielbar will now be called 'Meat Raffle'
Did I miss something? I don't get it. If you want a meat-related nickname, how about T-Bone?
httpv://youtu.be/E5ibSvOWAMg
a lot of small town bars in Minnesota/Wisconsin have Meat Raffles. Thielbar is from a small town called Randolph.
Last summer we were in the TC area for my nephews wedding, we ate lunch one day at a pub/grill in Coon Rapids and they were having a meat raffle. First time my wife & I had ever seen such a thing. Thought it was odd.
Hoopshype claims that Andre Igoudala has agreed to an offer from Golden State: 4/$48M. Somehow, they are getting Utah to take Andris Biedrins's salary and other junk (the corpse of Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush, and a future 1st-round pick) for essentially nothing in return, plus they have to renounce their rights to Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry (supposedly, they could still offer Jack the midlevel exemption).
I love Iguodala's athleticism and defensive ability, but he seems like an odd fit, given the development of both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes.
The wife made orzo with homemade pesto (garden basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, and some parmesan cheese, in the Vitamix blender). Very good.
Vitamix rools!
And pesto -- numnumnum!
Got out and did 31 miles today (Farmington/Avon/Simsbury/Weatogue/Bloomfield) - at 113 miles for the week so far (not bad, target was 55 miles). Legs are a little spent.
Was quite hot - 93F and road was hot also - went thru 3 bottles of water (thank you to Tower View Pizza for the icewater).
On The Grill
Hebrew National all-beef dogs (longer than the bun, Hiyo!). Fancy pack of mushrooms sauteed with chopped onion. Claussen pickle spears, diced. Grainy Dijon mustard. Corn on the cob brushed with olive oil and Celtic salt. Whole wheat buns (couldn't find the New England style, a first-world-problem).
apropos: charcoal >>> gas
From LEN3:
The Twins may be stuck with this for a while.
When do they next play the White Sox?
Not before the All-Star break.
Wild sign Matt Cooke for 3 years. Blech, I really dislike his game and hate how many cheap shots he's been responsible for. I hope they find a way to maximize his hockey skills and minimize the other crap.
he is one bad hit from being suspended for a long time because of his reputation.
I dislike this signing, and I REALLY dislike its a 3 year deal.