Closer, more and more closer

The title stolen from a song whose name I cannot remember. I know it will come back soon ... just did ... Music, Music, Music about putting money into a juke box called Nickleodeon.

With our new found ability to watch live TV with no buffering, I have been watching more hockey and some football (yes football and I do not mean soccer). I am watching Tottenham Hotspur and Everton and saw something hilarious. There are a few collisions between the two teams' players. Everton 27 was involved in one of them and went down in agony from an injuty (or maybe a dive?). The medics came out and the player eventually got up, started to walk off the field, and received a yellow card. Talk about adding just desserts for what was either a dive or something 27 did that warranted the card regardless of the outcome ...

Reminded me of what I noticed in the World Cup last year. Players would drop down on the field in agony, looking for a card for the opponents. The referee happens to run through the section of the ground where the action happened. Ref pays no attention to the drama on the field and the "harmed" player, gets up and resumes play. FIFA claims they have done something to eliminate these childish antics and, maybe they have? Reminds me of the best follow-up to a supposed injury from a dive ... once the yellow card goes out, there is a miraculous recovery from the player that was fouled. What a wonderful game this is indeed. Like hockey in Habs town, football is not a sport, it's a religion.

Ok ... now this is something. Everton is in the midst of an attack. Their player is maybe 30 feet from the opponent's goal, and readies to kick. Wait a minute, there's two balls sitting on the field. Say what ... which one to kick. Player chooses one and misses. I wonder what would have happened had he scored ... interesting. This reminds me of a story I read in a book written by Ron Luciano, a well-known umpire from MLB. He was doing the plate at a game and there was a high fly ball to right field. When this happens, it is the plate umpire's job to move towards third base. Ron starts and somehow a ball falls out of his ball bag. One of the defenders picks up the ball and throws to second base to put out a runner from first. The umpire watching second pumps the runner out. What a quandary. I do not remember what the fix was, but coulkd imagine the runner was put back on first.

Big news from my first born ... Ben James Abbey. He has been working for Sada (see here if interested in what they do) for many years, a strategic partner of Google. He has always excelled at what he does and recently received a promotion from head of sales for Canada as head of sales for North America. This is a big deal for my "little boy" and is the start of yet another chapter in this little cherub's life. This just in from their CEO ...

Over his working years, he has had many challenging jobs and, once in a while, found himself employed somewhere where his talents were not really realized and appreciated. The last few employs he has had have been (some of) the most rewarding. This is a far cry from one of his previous engagements where all the owner of the company could say was Let's go for a beer ..."

Besides all the advantages of living on the bay/ocean, we have found one that entertains us to no end. It is the din of young people frolicking in Playa Madera having the time of their lives. This is the one and only one noise in Z that we never get tired of. Listen to the audio track of this closely and you can hear yelps and screams of joy as these little cherubs enjoy the experiences of Xmas weekend and what H2O can do entertain them ...

Though nowhere as loud as the chickadees (credit to Ed Sullivan) that screamed when the Beatles played, these children getting all they can out of water and waves is a close second. It was such an exhibition of joy and acceptance when they sang I Want to Hold Your Hand (see here) in 1964, as one of their first appearances with Eddy and Topo Gigio, the Italian puppet that gained worldwide recognition from many Sunday evening appearances on the show.

I made some soup from leftover veggies. I added some grated cheese, curry, salt, and pepper. I call it Meinz 57 ... five ingredients and seven minutes to make start to finish. We both had a quick taste of it and approved it for human consumption.

Dominique spent most of the day working on condo business, and was pleased to get so much accomplished. I helped her, as always, with a few technical issues, and she completed her work and did not once threaten to jump off a bridge. She went up to Ranae's for happy hour and returned for the dinner festivities which involved leftover meatloaf, a stir fry, and air fryer french fries. Whenever I think of that dish, I always remember one of my kids calling them what sounded like srench sries every time it was mentioned. I loved so many of their ways for example ... Ben called milk moant, Naomi wondered if she was despoasta do something. I once knew someone whose child said he was freezing when he was hungry and hungry when he was cold.

I may watch the Senators again and hopefully they will have put ALL their bad habits to bed. Maybe they will play three periods and carefully find a way to not have the puck in their end 50 of the 60 minutes in the game.

This just in ... hopefully you are not too late. The Senators are having a pre-boxing day giveaway. Here's what you have to do ...

1. Park yourself well into the Senators end
2. Stand ready to receive your free giveaway
3. The puck will be delivered free of charge to your stick

They played 2+ periods tonight of hockey and won in overtime. Their three biggest problems tonight were giving the puck away, giving the puck away and, did I mention ... giving the ouck away. Maybe they were confused by the penguin on their opponents' jerseys. Maybe they thought that was a clone of Yoopee waiting for a giveaway.