A Weekend with The League - Godzilla at the Mall, The League Takes in Culture

End of October is always a nostalgic time for us at League HQ.  Jamie and I started dating in late October, just before Halloween, and as the season goes into full swing, we recall shopping malls in Fall.

Not really, but on Friday I saw on my Godzilla socials (and, yes, they exist!) that the Haas Racing team was in town for the F1 races at Circuit of the Americas (COTA, for the locals).  This year, Haas is partially sponsored by whomever is promoting Godzilla Minus Zero, the movie dropping on November 6th.  

Anyway, as some sort of cross-promo, they had set up a former Haas car outside of JC Penney's at Barton Creek Square, which, incidentally, is where we'll be seeing Godzilla Minus Zero.   They also had a 6 foot replica of our best pal.  And, most importantly, it was free to come gawk like a yokel.

A'ja 5x MVP, WNBA Play-Offs, Baseball in October

A'ja Wilson Earns 5th WNBA Most Valuable Player award

A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces just won the 2026 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player award.  

I may have come (back) into the WNBA as a fan of what I saw in Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark as that narrative played out, but I pretty quickly clocked who this A'ja Wilson person was when I'd see other teams play the Aces and listen to postgame.  

And by the end of last season, I was a convert.  I own two WNBA items - a general Golden State Valkyries shirt and a Las Vegas Aces shirt with Wilson's number on the back.

So, five MVP titles seems like a lot, right?  

WNBA Play-Offs, Cubs End the Season, Tour of Austin Books & Comics

Aces into the Semi-Finals

If you're not watching the WNBA Play-Offs, you're missing some amazing basketball.  

It's not entirely a shock that the play-offs are going how they are.  The final 8 teams that made the playoffs were all very evenly matched, stats-wise.  Whatever happened between last season and this season to spread the talent around the W paid off.

New York, an 8 seed, knocked out #1 seed, Minnesota Lynx in just two games in the first round (sorry, Jilly).  The veteran leadership on the Liberty seemed to really pay off, and despite looking like a juggernaut most of the regular season, in the last three weeks before the play-offs, the Lynx suddenly looked sluggish.  No idea what happened, but I bet coach Cheryl Reeves was losing her mind.

Dallas and Golden State played into OT, with Dallas Wings' Arike Ogunbowale scoring something like 45 points entirely on her own as they won with 108 points.   I was expecting Golden State to just put them to bed, and not so much.

Maybe more obvious was Atlanta taking the Mystics out in two games - the Atlanta Dream may well be in the Finals.  That is a team that has just improved all season.

Catch-Up - Nooming It, Cubs in the Playoffs (MLB), WNBA Playoffs are Nigh

Cubs Clinch a Playoffs Spot

Noom With a View

Well, the weight-loss thing continues.  Slower, but happening.

As my PA Nurse has shared, your body adjusts to what you're doing, and it starts to try to slow you down a bit as it sorts out how many calories are coming in versus what is expended.  I think there's also a percentage thing that I could do the math on, but here's the idea:

I am some percentage lighter than I was, and so my loss may be, percentage wise, keeping pace.  

20 Years Back in Austin

Well.  

Twenty years we've been back in Austin.

September 16th, 2006, we made it back to Austin.

September 19th, 2006, we closed on our house.

September 21, 2006, we were in the house.

In the late 90's, I had come to know Jack Kirby's Fourth World, really loving Mister Miracle, super escape artist, and his warrior wife, Big Barda.  And, yes, of course circa 2001 I'd read The Escapist by Michael Chabon (still a favorite) and understood what Chabon was doing.  But for me it was Mister Miracle (and Orion in other circumstances) and King Kirby - that material which no doubt helped inspire Chabon's book.  

And, man, did those Mister Miracle comics feel like an outlet while we were in Phoenix.  Trapped by geography, shackled by circumstance, with everyone certain you'll detonate any moment?  I still consider our return to Austin a great escape.

Our story:  Some will recall the dot-com-bust economy kind of cratered the Austin tech scene in 2001, which led to Jamie losing her job.  In April of 2002, Jamie headed out to the greater Phoenix area for an opportunity and a new life of adventure.  I was trailing behind, spending the next few months closing down my job at UT Austin and packing up our house (down in the 78704 when that area was affordable).  

9/11 at 25

25 years ago, Jamie and I were at Las Vegas's famed Luxor hotel - the pyramid with the huge beam of light at night  - when we got a call from my brother telling us to turn on the television.

I've shared this story before, I won't repeat it, but after watching the towers fall on TV, we were stranded in Vegas for a few days before we were able to get out.  

In the years since, people not yet born, or who were children at the time, have lived in a world where they see their elders taking a thing *very seriously*.  This, they find perplexing.  Tragedies happen every day.  Mass murder, earthquakes...  Why this?  Why are we fixated on a few thousand people dying and monuments to America's economic dominance collapsing?  

The Admiral has a Landmark Birthday

we're still punk rock

The Pater Familias had a birthday this last weekend.  Big, round number.  

The family got together, had some dinner, had some time together.  It was all very good.

What to get a guy like my dad?  It's always impossible to know.  He got a leatherette computer bag from me as he does do some volunteer work that requires a computer and I want to make sure he's lugging his laptop safely.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to The Old Man.