My man and I just unintentionally got into a Duolingo battle to win the family scoreboard for the week, simply by coincidence. We both happened to do a lesson, and also happened to see how the score had changed for the other.
In the last seconds of the timer, he passed me up and got first place. I had a 30-point lead on him, but he eeked it out, nonetheless, by completing half a legendary round with bonus right before the time ran out for the day. So, even though he hadn’t finished the lesson, he’d gotten halfway through it, and it gave him the first 40 points for today and the next 40 points for tomorrow’s scoreboard. Ridiculous.
It was a fun little event.
I love this man.
Even though we have really been passing each other off lately, I remember that I love him despite it all, and even because of most of it.
Thank you, God, for our idiocy and nerdiness. Thank you for, even after all this time, giving me someone who can enjoy this adventure so well with me. Thank you for all of it. Also, please, heal all my mosquito bites, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Well, there was a free performance by Houston Grand Opera tonight. The main parts were all played by HGO Studio members, which was quite cool. The whole thing was at an outdoor theatre in the middle of a park by the zoo. Shows and performances there are usually really great, and the opera was no exception. Though I had already seen this opera multiple times, La Traviata, and I had seen this exact production – though with more names, since this one used only the local studio folks who are working on improving themselves for their professional careers – it was still quite impressive.
Firstly, the performers were good. Bigger, though, was the fact that HGO actually brought 18-wheeler truckloads of sets and costumes just for these two performances (last night and tonight). They put a graded stage on top of the stage, then put their set on top of it. I’m not entirely sure they didn’t bring their own supertitles screen that hung up above the stage. And they also had two monitors on the sides of the stage, though out front, so I could see them clearly, but only could just see that they were video of the conductor, as opera usually has for the performers on stage. And, lastly, we got to sit right up front, only a few rows away from the stage. We could see each person and each costume and each bull skeleton clearly. It was great.
Even though we had two life flight helicopters fly over and some ghetto-sounding fancy boom box party that was taking place nearby in the park, it was still enjoyable. Oh! We also had a small incident of sorts…(?)
There is an area of theatre seating in front of the stage there and lots of people sit there (we were there tonight), and then there is the sound booth in a concrete little building at the back of the seating, and then there is a massive hill upon which loads more people sit for performances, picnic style or in lawn chairs on one half or the other.
Now, just at the end of the first intermission, two guys were standing atop the sound booth, one shouting out to the hill. It was quite weird, and we couldn’t understand what the guy was shouting, but it seemed very soapbox-like. Everyone had quieted down for the show to start, and the guy was still shouting. No one white knew what to do about it, and everyone was just starting to wonder what could be appropriately done. All of a sudden, a deep and powerful male voice yells from Hill Left, “Boy! Sit yo’ ass down!” And just about everyone clapped and cheered. The guy then did shut up and sit down, and I chuckled massively to myself at the whole scenario. Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. 😛 And I was also quite glad that it was handled without any violence or police. I had started to wonder if one or both would be imminent. But the kind man had both the courage and the ability to shout the men down and to let the show go on. 😛
Anyway, it and the boom box were both silly, but the show was still great. So, yay!
Thank you, God, for this lovely blessing. Please, bring my man home safely and healed even more from his poker night tonight. Heal us both wholly. Thank you for this life and these beautiful opportunities. Help us to seize them and pursue them fully, fulfilling your will as we become and be our best selves. In your name, I pray in gratitude. Amen.
P.S. I sent this to my man to show him how they, too, we’re playing poker! 😛 He laughed at it. And me. Haha
A hard lesson I have now learned? Make sure the person in charge of the budget is fully comfortable in saying, “No,” when the answer needs to be, ‘No,’ no matter how good something sounds.
God, guide us, please. In your name, we pray. Amen.
Sometimes, things don’t feel like they’re getting close. It doesn’t feel right now like I am getting closer and closer to completing my course. It not only feels like I’ll be cutting it close to my self-given deadline. It feels more like cutting… it almost hurts like actual cuts, not having more done already, not progressing faster… failing so much… it just hurts…
I send a friend of mine a photo of the baseball game from our seats for the night. My man’s brother let us have his seats for the night, since he is out of town, and w w roughy my brother and sister-in-law with us. They are great seats. But it is also a professional baseball game, and this particular friend loves the Astros.
I snap the photo and send it.
Then I do a double take back to the message. On the message screen is two photos. Apparently the last messaging we had done on there (versus WhatsApp) was when I had been asking why he wasn’t at our gym social yet, and he had responded with a photo of the baseball game… a photo that looks almost identical to the one I have just sent him.
Hang on a tic…!
Are we in the same section as his tickets?!
I quickly show the photos to my man and start to look around. It seems his photo is slightly more to the right. My brother points out that it is also a touch higher up. I look to the implicated seats. I do not see him, though. As we pinpoint our exact guess – one row up, one section to the right, seat nine or ten – I notice that my phone is buzzing in my man’s hand while he swipes back and forth between the images.
After my man details for me why he thinks the photo was taken where he thinks it was taken, I open the new messages to see a photo of a television screen showing the game. The friend is watching at home. Ugh! I thought he had season tickets, though! I tell him as much. Only for the weekend games, he says. Ah, I see. I tell him how I was looking for him. He asks if we are on a certain same level. Uh, duh. Did you not see those two nearly identical photos?! I say that in a nicer way, and I tell him my man’s specific guess for where the friend’s weekend-only seats are located.
He is blown away. They are actually three rows higher than ours, not just one, but the section is the one right next to ours and the seats are nine, ten, and eleven. My man was almost spot-on.
But we’re not nerds. ;P
And we were all three very into this tiny game of comparison. Again, though, we’re not nerds or anything. Haha 😛
So, that was cool! Also, the Astros won, quite impressively. They had, I believe, four doubles in a row in one inning, giving three runs just from those. Then, the fourth run that inning was stolen, perhaps? I know one run was, but not sure if it was that inning or the first inning. If it was the first one, then, I believe, there was yet another double that inning. Nonetheless, it was a lot of doubles to have in a single game, let alone in one inning. And the pitcher wasn’t messing up. They just were somehow hitting them. It was really cool and bizarre.
Okay, I looked it up! I remembered correctly! It was four runs batted in from doubles, with a total of five doubles in a row in the inning!
It was totally cool to see. Each one was played very well by both teams, which helped to make it all so impressive. I’m really glad we got to attend and see this game.
Also, one player did the whole jumping into a wall thing to catch what was very nearly going to be a home run for the visiting team, and he caught the ball. He slammed backward into the wall a bit, and then pitched forward and fell to the ground, but he kept a good and clear hold on the ball, securing the out. It was absolutely impressive.
Thank you, God, for this lovely night out for us all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.
Post-a-day 2023
Credit goes to MLB’s website for photo and video, as shown on each.
I slept in until noon today, actually sleeping for a change. Granted, we went to bed around two something, so I actually only got just over nine hours of sleep. However, it was real sleep this time, only interrupted briefly by a need to use the bathroom a couple times. I fell right back asleep after each, which is huge. I knew I was tired, but didn’t know if this sinus infection would let me sleep. I am grateful that it has lessened enough to let me sleep. I pray for good sleep tonight, too.
Thank you, God, for sleep last night. Please, grant me good and healing sleep tonight. Heal me, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Well, we drove three+ hours each way today instead of flying half as much to go visit my grandmother for Mother’s Day weekend. The weather was just too spotty and unreliable, so we drove. The up side is that we got to bring the dog with us. The down side is that my man didn’t get the extra three hours of cross-country flight time he would have gotten if we’d flown. But it was also cheaper driving…
Nonetheless, plans changed, but it still worked out well. We got to stop at Costco for flowers and a hot dog and slice of pizza. Always a good thing on our list. And then we had a great lunch out with my mom and grandma (and the dog), a good time just the two of us with the dog waking around town a bit, and then a good time relaxing st my grandma’s before we all headed back out to go home. All in all, it was a very good day, and I am grateful for it.
Thank you, God, for the family and the love and the safety of today. Please, keep us always safe, that we pursue and fulfill your will by being our best selves. In your name, I pray. Amen.
I felt like I was truly in “Christmas Vacation” yesterday, when I poured myself a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal. You see, this bag of cereal has been open for months, truly. And it has been not just open but not even clipped shut the past month and a half, at least. Basically, there was no way I was expecting anything other than stale, slightly squishy and likely no-crunch cereal when I went to bite into this cereal. No way. This is Houston, Texas. We don’t have non-stale cereal that has been opened more than a couple weeks at most, and that’s with a good, tight roll and bag clip.
No, there was just about zero chance this cereal would be anything more than slightly-satisfying stale stuff.
And yet, as I bit down on the first two pieces, just to have a sample before eating it with (almond) milk, I was shocked with a genuine, solid, and real CRUNCH!
My immediate thought was, It’s that non-nutritive cereal varnish! No joke.
Not sure of what that means? Well, do read:
“Oh, the Crunch enhancer? Yeah, it’s a non-nutritive cereal varnish. It’s semi-permiable. It’s not osmotic. What it does is it coats and seals the flake, prevents the milk from penetrating it.”
Still lost as to where I’ve gained this bizarrely unique information about cereal? Allow me:
Clark: I went ahead and I put a 7500-dollar deposit down on it.
Bill: You're the last true family man.
Mr. Shirley, approaching: Mark!
Clark, sipping: Mmh. Clark.
[silence]
Clark: That's Bill, sir.
[silence]
Mr. Shirley: Are you the one who was working on that non-nutritive cereal varnish?
Clark: Yes, sir.
Mr. Shirley: I’ve gotta give a speech to a trade group. I'd like to mention it. Write up a brief summary and have it to me by the end of the day.
Clark: My pleasure.
Mr. Shirley: Layman's terms! None of that inside bullshit jargon that nobody understands.
Clark: Yes, sir.
[Shirley starts to leave]
Clark: Oh, Mr. Shirley… Ah, we got your Christmas card the other day, and my family and I are very flattered that you remembered us.
[silence]
Associate: Corporate cards.
[silence]
Mr. Shirley: Don't forget that report, Bill.
Clark: Yes, sir. Thank you. Merry Christmas…
Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christma— Kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass.
Happy Hanukkah.
My own personal serving of cereal with an almost-definite non-nutritive cereal varnish that worked wonders! 😛
Happy almost Christmas in July! ‘Tis the season, ne?! 😛
Well, I’m much improved in terms of how I physically feel, but I still have some sickness my body is having to fight, something nasal. My head and body don’t ache, and I have an appetite and quite decent energy compared to yesterday. But my throat is still sore, true to an overnight nasal drip kind of sick.
But I was well enough to attend the opera tonight, and I even made it most of the way through the opera before my body decided it was going to start needing to cough at decreasing increments of time, just about immediately. Fortunately, my mom had just given me a throat spray that was sitting in my pocket, and I was able to help suppress most of the coughs with that during the remainder of the performance. So, we enjoyed the show and didn’t seem to cause any disturbance for ourselves or anyone around us either.
Now, the question is whether I’ll be able to sleep… God, help me sleep tonight that I be healed tomorrow. In your name, I pray. Amen.
hannah ananas 