Happy Thanksgiving 2025

Happy Turkey Day, everybuddy!

We made it.  The Holiday season starts in earnest.  My mom is making a dinner in North Austin, and we'll be there this evening.  Rumor has it she got three kinds of pie, which I am excited about, but for me it's about turkey, Jamie's stuffing (she's been working on it for several days), potatoes and whatever greens are on the table.  

I love me a Thanksgiving dinner.

Thankful for so much this year.  

As always, Jamie is first up.  Especially as she's taken care of me for *months* as I have this busted foot, so I can't drive, and for a while couldn't cook or clean.  She's done *everything*.  So, thanks, Jamie!  But she's also just Jamie, and that ain't bad.  So thankful for every day before and every day to come.

Thankful for a new gig I kind of love.

Thankful for my pals near and far.  Some of you I know mostly online, and some I barely text with but we get to hang out in person.  But a guy needs to count himself rich with how many people he can call a buddy.

Thankful for parents and family!  We are a small family, but we are mighty.  And the niece and nephew are growing up strong and smart.

I've got my health, if you don't count this foot.  Jamie's had a good year, and our parents are doing well.

This year we also adopted Emmylou, and she's been a delight every day.  Good dog.

just look at that cutie-patootie

And, if I may, I'm thankful for a lot of silly things, too.  Hey, I got two superhero movies I'd always dreamed of this year.  Not grateful for my bad financial management when it came to Superman merchandise, but here we are.

And if you you read to the end here, thanks!

Now get out there and eat your favorite foods and get a slice of pecan pie.  (And I say it "peh-cahn").

League Lagniappe (Week of November 23rd)

Hey, y'all...

I'm gonna try to bring back something I did at the media site, which was the Signal Watch Rewind, over a decade ago.  

It's just a regular collection of a bunch of junk in small bits you can just scroll through and see if you care or not.  I'll include YouTube clips, links off to other sites, and maybe other things that haven't fired off a full post, but I kinda want to share.

Like...  

Animal I didn't know exists:  The Binturong

Those @#$%ers Stopped Making Pennies

Today I had to tell my co-workers, who did not see the news on social media, that the United States has discontinued the penny.*

Look, the world has a lot of problems, and apparently it costs $0.04 to make a penny, which is why they stopped, but..  dang, man.  It feels like we should have been consulted.

The penny is a huge part of culture here in the United States.  Now what the @#$% am I supposed to pick up and all the day have good luck?  Riddle me THAT, US Mint.  

What will the name now mean when we meet a Penny?  We might as well call women "Doubloon".   

What giant coin will Batman have in the Batcave?  A NICKEL?  Like a common nickel hoarder?   

Are we supposed to read the Dime Saver?  Offer a quarter for your thoughts?  At gas station cash registers, are we to give a Sacagawea dollar, take a Sacagawea dollar?   

This is bullshit.  I would have been happier had they said "no more dimes and nickels.  A penny is now a dime.  Everyone round up."  

*Thanks, Nathan!

One Week and Counting Since I Posted the Only Review of the Lacey Chabert Ornament

This year Hallmark is offering an actual Lacey Chabert Porcelain Ornament.

Maybe the ornament is a little weird, but so is Hallmark.  And as long as they make ornaments for pretty much any other media franchise under the sun, it makes sense that eventually they'd want to float a trial balloon of what they have to offer from their own networks.  And what Hallmark has leaned into of late is "Hallmark Stars" - of which Chabert is a bit singular.

And so it seems, rather than go all in on, say, the entire cast of Three Wisest Men, they've decided to go with one of their biggest stars who has more than a decade with the channel.  

So why the review?  

Foot Follow Up

I've already posted this elsewhere, but for the next few weeks it will be the biggest thing happening in my life.  

So, here's the post on how we got here.  And the picture above is what they showed me shortly after I came out of sedation at the Texas Orthopedic Surgery Center.  

This is kind of what happens when you enthusiastically agree with your doctor that the ideal outcome of surgery is that you never, ever want for your foot to break again.  You wake up with a titanium screw put into your foot that will mean your pinky toe shall ne'er bend again.  

In my head, this was going to be an inch-long screw.  For scale, I wear a 14 wide.  Apparently, and in no way does this surprise me, they learned my bones are very dense and so my surgery took longer than expected.

Surgery was Thursday November 6th, and it's now Sunday, November 9th.  

Does it hurt?  Not like you'd think.  If I have it up, there's a low ache between a 2 and 4.  Nothing I can't sleep through, and I can say that here on day four, it hurts less, and I'm only taking a real pain killer before I go to sleep.  Aside from that, I'm sticking to HEB brand acetaminophen.  I find if I take real pain killers I just fall asleep or can't remember proper nouns.  

If I move around or put my foot at an angle where the surgery site has weight on it, yeah, I can feel it, but I'm not weeping.  I've got crutches, so I can sort of lurch around.  I've been upstairs for a shower and will do so again today.  Back to work Monday/ tomorrow

Anyway, they say I should be back to normal (whatever that is) within 6 weeks.  So that literally puts me at the week of Christmas for walking around just fine.  Which would be nice.  But it does mean I am unsure what holiday decorating will look like this year, and shopping is going to be all-Amazon-all-the-time.  No holiday strolls for me.  

Anyway, yeah, it's going to be a nice, long slog to get through the holidays wherein I am sure people will be losing their shit with me for not keeping up.

Dodgers Win World Series in 10 innings in Game 7

After the Cubs lost out to the Brewers in the NLDS, I wasn't sure if I'd stick with MLB through the post-season (but I always do these days).  

As a Cubs guy, I mostly follow National League, but was vaguely aware the Blue Jays, over in the American League, were having a great season.  I was also aware the Dodgers had loaded themselves up with talent valued the highest in the MLB and some of the best players plucked from Japan on their roster.  

You can choose to be jealous of other teams having Shohei Ohtani or enjoy watching one of the best to ever do it get to do his thing.  And that's true now of Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound as well.  But the team came in at a highly respectable .574 entering the playoffs in a competitive NL West.  

I busted my foot

my fracture is further toward the toe, my skin is not invisible and I have fewer radiating concentric rings

So, a while back I was walking Emmylou and noticed my foot was hurting.  But, look, I am aware I have some mild arthritis - which I've had for a decade at least, so sometimes things just start hurting for a while.  If I adjust this or that, it gets better.  But if I do something really repetitive, like push-ups, my wrist will start yelling at me.  

Anyway, I assumed this was that, and I would just get some new shoes and Dr. Scholl's inserts and all would be well.  Well, not so much.  

I woke up one morning and my foot was just hollering at me, which is not a great sign as I am a fellow who prefers to sleep horizontally and had barely used my feet all night.  

Immediately, I got online and got an appointment with my Primary Care doctor, and that appointment was a week out.  After a ten minute visit, I got an appointment for an x-ray so she could get a look and direct me to an orthopedic doctor.  That x-ray was *supposed* to be two weeks out, but I fixed it and it but a mere week out.  

30 Years With Jamie

 

Jamie's 30th Birthday in San Diego

I met Jamie in fall of 1993 during a party off-campus at Trinity University in San Antonio.  We didn't start dating for about two years after that.  

When we met, both Jamie and I were college freshmen, me at University of Texas, and Jamie at Trinity.  My friends Denise and Madi, chums from high school and fellow Longhorns, drove us down for the evening as it was a Saturday in the dorms and we had no plans.  I called my brother in San Antonio and he knew of a party and knew Denise and Madi.  

No sooner had we arrived than I had enjoyed my first Goldschlager and Jagermeister.  Out of the crowd, other high school pal Erica appeared and introduced me to her suite-mate, Jamie, and my memory is that Jamie stepped in front of me and I got hit by that thunderbolt you read about but think is nonsense, something I'd say was a ridiculous bit of fiction had it not been my exact experience.  

It is very odd to have a moment that is going to change the entire trajectory of your life occur, but this was that.  

Immediately, I became acutely aware of my state, and that whatever tools I had for navigating speaking to this girl were nowhere to be found.  I was going to have to just bumble my way through.

Cubs 2025 Season Ends

Well, dang.

The Chicago Cubs made it to the 2025 National League Division Series versus the Milwaukee Brewers - something that hadn't really occurred before.  We lost two games, then won two games, but lost the fifth game in Milwaukee.  

But I'm calling it a great season.  

We started with the Tokyo Series, and then played lights out through the All-Star Game.  The back half of the season was more uneven, but we pulled out of a nose dive to make the play-offs.

Our Wild Card round was against San Diego, and I wasn't sure how we'd do, but the answer was "just fine".   I guess we had never played the Brewers before in the NLDS, so that's neat.  And we did pretty good against a team who had a lot more rest than the Cubs did coming in.

The team this year was so much fun to watch, which, really, is all you can ask for.  Pete Crow-Armstrong (PCA to fans), and my guy Seiya Suzuki, were in a weird pairing as the two outfielders wound up with dozens of home runs each, often keeping up with one another in the homerun count.  Pete would get one, then Seiya would get one the same game or the next.  Crow-Armstrong wound up with 31, and Suzuki ended up with 32 - not exactly Roger Maris, but pretty good!  

Dansby Swanson was phenomenal as Short Stop, and we got lucky with Michael Busch at first base.  Work horses Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ produced consistently all season on offense and defense.  Kyle Tucker was solid as both a fielder and at bat.  Carson Kelly delivered as both catcher and at bat, too.  And having Justin Turner in the dugout and playing sometimes was really cool.

Pitching could be spotty.  We lost Steele immediately.  Imanaga suffered an injury that he didn't fully recover from.  And the rest of the rotation was up and down and unpredictable.  But, hey, they got us where they got us.

Anyway, great season, Cubs!  Would have been fun to have made the NLCS, but I'll take a 3-2 game NLDS series against a team as good as the Brewers are this year.  

WNBA Finals: Las Vegas Aces Sweep in Four

Well, that was fun.

I mean, the whole thing.  Deciding to put down the money for the WNBA package on YouTube/ YouTubeTV, trying to pick a team, failing to do so, learning about the WNBA, figuring out the hype about A'ja Wilson was not just hype.  Figuring out who the stars were.  Figuring out who the villains were, Alyssa Thomas.  

On October 10th, 2025, the Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury in four games to win the 2025 WNBA Finals.

TL;DR: WNBA, The Fever's Insane Season and Collier Calls Out the Commish

Collier ponders coming for the Queen

Growing up, I watched mostly NBA basketball.  It was the era of The Lakers and Celtics when I started.  The Pistons were my team for a couple of years just to annoy Lakers fans, but I loved the Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was my favorite player), and eventually the Spurs and Suns.  I also watched the NFL on and off there for a while.  

But over the years, I've been more than happy to get into different sports.  I came very late to baseball, and y'all know I now watch a considerable amount of Cubs. I've watched Major League Soccer and National Women's Soccer League, and very much wish Austin had a women's NWLS team.

I recall the early days on the WNBA and feeling it was generally a great idea. Austin was a town where women's collegiate basketball was more important than men's as the University of Texas women's team generally did very well, and everyone likes a winner.  And I always thought it was dumb that American players had no pro league (of their own).

Flash forward to the 00's when we lived in Phoenix, and I liked going to see The Mercury.  It was inexpensive, the fans were nuts, and the play was solid.  I was there when Taurasi showed up to much fanfare, and then showed why Phoenix was so excited to get her.

But...  TV coverage of WNBA has always been spotty at best.  And when something isn't easily accessible, you kind of lose track of it.  And WNBA got back-burnered by ESPN.  You might be flipping channels on a weekend afternoon and see a game, but not much else.  And it never got mixed in with the Sports Center level coverage.  Because why talk about a whole league when you can make up stories about what's happening in football in the off-season.

Suspect Identified in the Yogurt Shop Murders

Over on the media review wing of League of Melbotis, The Signal Watch, we recently discussed the HBO documentary The Yogurt Shop Murders.  Before continuing here, I'd recommend jumping over to that post to get the context, if you're unfamiliar with unsolved murder of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas in 1991.  

It is, and has been, a haunting tragedy that seemed to have no end to it.  I expected that I'd go to my grave with the crime unsolved. 

However, on Friday, September 26th, the Austin Police Department announced that they had a suspect in the case.  Apparently they have DNA evidence and ballistics evidence, which is very promising, obviously.

And if the Golden State Killer can be identified through similar means decades on, it sure seems possible to do the same here.  

The problem is that the APD and investigators have announced their momentous discovery on the tail of the release of the HBO documentary that both embarrassed them, and called into question any motive for coming forward *now* with an answer.  It seems terribly convenient that APD and Travis County prosecutors suddenly have an answer, and that the named perpetrator is not around to poke any holes in their story.  

That said - follow the science on this one - as should have happened all along.  A DNA lab is unlikely to just make things up that would discredit them forever.  And - it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense that a monster like Brashers committed the crime than four teenage boys with no motive, and no prior or subsequent penchant for violence.

I just finished reading about another series of horrors in Austin, The Midnight Assassin, a non-fiction book covering a series of murders by a possible serial killer in Austin the 1880's.  And, yes, it's a real reminder that no one knows what they're doing, and we're all making it up as we go along, complete with our personal baggage as we come to solving a complex puzzle.  

Some folks are just wired to skip over the reality of what they're looking at and want to start using the crime to punish people they already don't like.  In a town where not much happens, like late-20th Century Austin, that included police and prosecutors targeting four young men, mostly for being punk kids.   

I tend to believe that they got it right or they wouldn't go public.  If there were opportunity they got it wrong, man, would that get people fired.  And the science of how they sort this out with DNA is our best chance at a definitive answer.  

On Monday we'll get more details, and I hope they can also definitively place the suspect in Austin at the time.  

Pixies (with Spoon) at Moody Amphitheater September 5, 2025

 

About a month ago, SimonUK told me he had a loose ticket for The Pixies at Austin's Moody Amphitheater.  I said "why, yes, I'll go."  And, indeed, I did. 

September 5, 2025, I found myself in Section 105, Row J, Seat 14.

I was surprised to learn that Spoon was supporting.  

Jamie's Latest Blog Post

Jamie finally returned to her blog and put up a post catching you up on what's been going on with us for the past couple of years.  

Shooting at North Austin Target

It's possible you've seen the news about the three people killed at a Target store yesterday in Austin.  I'm well aware of that location as it was my primary Target store when I was in college 3 decades ago, and then in the years immediately following college when Jamie and I lived in an apartment just north of campus.

I haven't had much reason to be in that part of town in a few years, or in that Target in decades.  

The crime is horrifying, but no longer shocking.  The perpetrator had run ins with law-enforcement for years and had been placed on mental-health holds, but wasn't necessarily this kind of threat.  That we need better support for these types of mental health recidivist cases is wildly evident, but no one will lift a finger to pay for what needs doing.  I cannot imagine much will change despite the fatalities of good people going about their day, including a 4-year-old child, her grandfather and a 24-year-old store employee.

The shooter was caught, after assaulting others.  

Expect the Texas lege to find some way that the policies they've set the past several decades in which they've had a one-party system controlling the state are the fault of the minority party.

Introducing: Emmylou

Y'all meet Emmylou.  

After taking some time since we lost Andre, we decided to head to the Austin Humane Society, where we adopted Scout and Jeff the Cat, and we walked out the door with a small friend who will be with us for the next 15 years, I'd guess.

Central Texas Flood - July 4th Weekend, 2025

It's difficult to know what to say about what has occurred here in Central Texas over the last week.  

For reasons that I cannot sort, we tend to get weather events on holidays.  You'll hear about Memorial Day floods, Halloween floods, etc..  This one happened on July 4th, 2025.  It is by far the most devastating flood in this area of which I am aware, and it's going to haunt this area for decades to come.

For years, the areas west of Austin have been starved for rain.  The ongoing drought has been of tremendous concern both west of Austin and locally and is a regular topic during weather reports (for more on Austin weather, I recommend KXAN).  This area is booming with unregulated growth by developers who will be long gone when we're out of water, so it's an issue.  The climate here is essentially scrub-desert.  Our native trees grow wide and knotty, and cactus and mesquite fight for space where soil is found between limestone outcrops.  Much of Central Texas and the Hill Country sit atop a thin layer of soil, which - in turn- rests on top of rock, which forms the lovely rolling hills you see in West Austin and beyond (thus the name of the area).  From the Balcones Escarpment, the hills extend for miles and miles before you hit the flat lands of West Texas - just prior to the mountains.

Chicago Trip 2025

Jamie and I hadn't been outside of Texas since 2019.  

When COVID hit, we went into lockdown the same day as everyone else in March of 2020, but took a lot longer to step away from safety protocols.  Add in that my employment has been... a ride since COVID hit, and circumstances have made it difficult to think ahead or plan a vacation.  

We took some local AirBNB trips and we went to San Antonio, but we hadn't really gone anywhere in years.

But on June 13th we flew out mid-day, and returned early in the evening of June 17th.  A short trip, but travelling for us is an ordeal.  Jamie has to schedule dialysis at a local clinic, and we don't tend to have long days of just moving around.

For a first trip out of town in a while, we chose something we knew, and something I was desperate to do - get back to Chicago and take in a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  And a good year for it!  Cubs are several games at the top of the the National League Central right now, with Pete Crow-Armstrong a superstar in the making, and Seiya Suzuki also on a hitting streak.  We have a third baseman in Matt Shaw, and our defense is sometimes better than our relatively solid offense.

Friday

Happy Pride Month

 

Hey!  Happy Pride Month!

Here at League of Melbotis, we want to take a moment to say we support and defend adults and children alike as they seek their path to happiness and a healthy life.  And we certainly believe ideologies celebrated and laws made to keep people from enjoying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have no place in this world.  There's a name for that sort of law-making.

It's not hard to respect people and love our neighbors.  I cannot imagine working against my friends, co-workers and neighbors for whom this month is a celebration.  

I hope this Pride Month is full of joy for all of you.  And if you're headed for the comments to complain about people *making* you see their lifestyle, grow the fuck up, snowflake!  You can value other people enough  - especially strangers - that you can take a moment to celebrate a world that curves towards freedoms and liberties for all people.  Or go sit with your hate and what it says about how sad and small you want the world to be.

WNBA, NWSL and Cubs - Summertime Sports

Kayla Thornton of the Golden State Valkyries

I don't really think of myself as a "sports guy", but it is true that I watch *a lot* of sports.  Apparently I am that guy, in my way.

Cubs Baseball

PCA bringing the Mariah Carey magic

The Chicago Cubs have had a good spring, and as we roll into summer, if injuries don't diminish the roster too much, we could be quite good this season.  While acquired talent like the Astros' Kyle Tucker have been huge boons to the team, our returning roster is looking better and happier than the past two or three seasons.  Pete Crow-Armstrong in Center Field is batting like crazy, Seiya Suzuki is batting a reliable .262 and has at least 13 home runs.  Both of our catchers, Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly, can hit, so it doesn't matter who is in on any given game day. Seiya also looks to be the lead for .RBI's across MLB at the moment.

I know the season is a grind, but it's fun while it's fun.  

Today is Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

It is true.  On April 28th, 2000, Jamie and I exchanged vows in front of family and friends in a lovely ceremony in South Austin.  

It was a whole thing.

The pics, by the way, are my scans I did real fast on my phone which is about 5 generations behind.  Be kind.  The pictures were shot on film.  This was in ye olden daze.

I don't know what to tell you about 25 years of marriage.  I recommend it if you can work it out.  It helps to marry someone with whom you get along pretty darn well.  There's a tip for you kids.

Cubs Baseball Has Wildest Game

I love a box score that tells an insane story.  

I was not watching yesterday, just checking the score online, and things were getting nuts.  So while I worked on some things, I noted that the game was going bananas and tuned in.

But that box score couldn't tell the whole story.  From @OptaSTATS

Condensed game from Marquee Network below:

Kylie Minogue at the Moody Center - April 17, 2025

Now that's how you command an audience

I was aware of Kylie Minogue when she covered The Locomotion (by Carol King, natch!), way back circa 1987.  I figured she was one of a thousand flash-in-the-pan pop starlets, especially as, much like Tiffany covering I Think We're Alone Now, the song was already in the zeitgeist.  

I can't say I thought much about Kylie again until she popped up as The Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge, at which point I began formulating the idea that Kylie is a good idea, indeed.

a stunningly good argument for absinthe

And then, of course, with the release of her album, Fever, she dropped the single Can't Get You Out Of My Head, and America was finally given a real look at Minogue - including a 2002 appearance on SNL (that is not currently on YouTube, which is a shame).  

I turned 50

look at me, enjoying time with Jamie at a ball game while my dad photobombs us

Well, I turned 50 this weekend.

I always acknowledge my birthday at the media review branch of League of Melbotis by finding a song and lyrics that seem to articulate the way we're feeling at the time.  I have a playlist if you want to jam out to my vibes the past several years.  

It's been a wild few years, to be honest.  But that's just life as an adult, I think.  I try to be zen about it all.  Things are tough sometimes, but we have a great family support system, and that does a lot to keep you going.  I've refocused.  You keep moving.

To celebrate my birthday, I managed to pull together family that was in town (Dug and K live elsewhere, but more details on that shortly) and we all did one of my favorite things.  We went to a baseball game.  We watched the Round Rock Express triumph over the Oklahoma City Comets on a windy, sunny day.  

Jamie's Birthday

Today is Jamie's birthday.  

I met Jamie when we were both 18 and starting college, although I was at the big university 90 minutes up the road, and she was at the smaller college in San Antonio.  I'd come down to partake in a party at a house off-campus where my brother and his pals would be, and Jamie was the randomly assigned roommate of a pal from high school.

I *did* try to ask her out that fall, but she wasn't feeling well and dating was off the table.  Fair enough.  Fortunately, a couple years later she let me know she *was* now open to dating, and I signed up immediately.  This fall, it'll have been thirty years.  

Which means we've spent our adult lives together.

But that's the thing.  She's still as new to me today as she was when we first went out, and I still want her company even more.  Working from home has spoiled me completely - my one-day-per-week in the office is a drag.  I still want to impress her and see if I can make her laugh, and make dinner for her and be there for her.  Because she's the best.  She is maybe not someone who is loud or incredibly demonstrative with her love, but she has a lot of it.

She's always my biggest supporter (sometimes taking me by surprise as my hype-man when I was playing it cool), and always my best counsel.  I think the past decade, I've gotten really good at listening to her as the person who knows when I'm on to something and when I'm just spinning my wheels.  You need a Jamie to keep you honest, team.

We're now old enough that everyone has put up with something in their lives, health-wise or in their personal history.  But Jamie has dealt with her own challenges since she was 17, and she's done it with a strength and grace I envy.  It is very hard to explain all the challenges, scares and bad-days she's had, and she still gets up and lives every day.  

This is a milestone birthday, and it means the world to me that I get to spend it with her.  

Happy birthday, baby.  I love you.

SEC Champions! UT Women's Basketball Game - 03/02/2025

your geniuses at work

On Sunday, March 2, we headed to the University of Texas campus to catch the UT Women’s Basketball team play in the final game of the year. I thought I was being a smart boy and bought tickets for my parents, Jamie and myself. 

This week is my mom’s birthday, and my parents are both alumnae of the University of Florida, who we were playing. I called to surprise them, and they informed me they’d already purchased tickets to the same game. This is how things work at my house. 

Steanso, The Niece and Yours Truly

So, Sunday afternoon my mom and cousin met up with me and Jamie, and then Steanso's family.  We had seats in separate sections, but it worked out.

Phantogram at ACL Live - Austin, TX 01/24/2025

Went to go see Phantogram downtown Austin this evening.  Attended with Steanso and Frank.

I've been into Phantogram since hearing When I'm Small as the music to a trailer for a comic book years ago.  I've seen them once before at The Mohawk.

I've dug their progression over the years, including experiments like Big Grams.

Anyway, they put on a solid 90+ minute set that was all rockin', minimal talkin' at a sold out ACL Live.

If I can find a set list, I'll post it.  But they definitely played all my favorite songs, so what else can you ask for?

Oh, here we go - set list found by our man on the InterWebs, JimD!

Frank had never seen them, and really didn't know them, but I think he dug them a lot.  

Hilariously, the bass was so hard during one song I could feel the air moving around my legs.  It was a great show and the crowd was super into it.  

By the way, these pics aren't great because I'm 6'5" and stood at the back so other folks could see.  

Here's some quick video I grabbed that isn't any good.

Link 1

Link 2

Also, this signs was accurate:

late edit:  supporting act was GLU out of LA.  One-man act, former Queens of the Stone Age member, sorta a meld of alt-rock and hip-hop that had some tracks that were pretty dang good.  

Andre Crosses the Rainbow Bridge

during Christmas this year

Just over three years ago, we adopted a very large dog.

We'd been going through a rescue that specializes in Golden Retrievers, and got something we thought was a mix.  A 110+ pound mix of Golden Retriever and... something.  Our new boi swiftly got healthier and was now a 120+ pound mix.  And, as it would turn out, not a Golden at all, but a Great Pyrenees mix with a dollop of Pit Bull.  

But because the rescue thought he was a gigantic Golden, they'd named him Andre the Giant.  When given a chance to rename him, we figured he'd just been given a new name, and he sure seemed like an Andre.  

In the end, his breed explained a lot.  As a Golden, he'd had a hard time getting adopted out because he would bark at people who came to meet him, which could be intimidating.  But, Pyrs are sheep guard dogs, and they bark at people entering their territory.  We didn't have that problem - he came to meet us at our house - and it was kind of love at first sight, but when we thought he was a Golden, his behavior was super odd.  

When he didn't want to do something badly enough, or he got scared, he would sploot - just go to ground and dare you to move him.  He didn't want to be in the backyard at all, even with us, and he was very confused by things Goldens love, like toys, pleasing people, and following commands - which is not a thing Pyrs care about at all.  

A Night at The Austin Symphony - The New World

So, back during covid lockdown, I spent a lot of time watching YouTube.  And, as some may remember, during the first days of lockdown in March of 2020, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma offered up a song of comfort with Dvořák's "Coming Home".  

At the time, this was the thing that wrecked me as I realized how we were all in this together, for a long time to come.  But, I also realized I didn't really know anything about Dvořák, or this song, which we've all heard out there somewhere.  But if Ma picked Dvořák, I thought it was worth looking into.  

There's a pretty great explainer here from 2020 (hopefully the link doesn't die).  And one from NPR on the full symphony.  

I learned it's the second movement of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From The New World", written circa 1893.  You will know this symphony - it's been used in movies, television, etc... in bits and pieces. 

Longhorns Surprisingly Good Season Ends at the Cotton Bowl - and Year One in the SEC

A few years ago, my alma mater, former employer and preferred college sports program - the University of Texas - announced that they were leaving the Big 12 Conference for the SEC.  I hated this decision then, and I hate it now.  In fact, it's fair to say the past fifteen years have seen me come to really dislike the "business" of college football, including NIL deals and the way the tail is now wagging the dog on college campuses - even as I totally get that there are people who will genuinely believe universities only exist so we can have football.*

My beef with the move to the SEC stemmed from my belief this was shortsighted and only benefited one of the many NCAA sports in which the university competes, while also punishing the athletes, who now had to travel across the continent every time the Longhorns had a match, meet or game.  Which is fine if you only play on Saturdays in the Fall semester, but sports like Volleyball, Soccer, Tennis, Swimming, etc... would have to *also* travel like this, and be in their Econ 302 class by 10:00 AM the following day.  Despite whatever money Quinn Ewers made this year from Dr. Pepper, these athletes are still students.