Musings on a rainy afternoon

Many years ago, I wrote a blog entry in which I opined that you could glean a great many lessons from the movie Animal House. Many of those lessons come from or at the expense of the hapless freshman, Flounder. Stephen Furst, the actor who played Flounder, died yesterday, so I was thinking a bit about him and the movie. Lines like "You fucked up, you trusted us," come to my mind frequently. R.I.P., Mr. Furst.

Furst, by the way, was not quite two months younger than I am. People my age are dying all the time. Reminders of my mortality occur all too often these days. Well, to be accurate, they've always been available; I'm just much more sensitive to them now.

Growing up, Father's Day was always a holiday I tried to forget, because when you don't have a father and wish all the time that you did, this is a rough day.

Today, I'm very lucky that Sarah and Scott remember the day and try to see me on it, as they will later today.

I am a fortunate man indeed. I would be wise never to forget that.

The acorn doesn't fall very far from the Christmas tree

I have a pretty sick sense of humor, though I do try to contain it here on the blog.  It's no surprise, then, that Scott's humor can turn rather odd.  Tonight, he showed me two gifts he had wrapped for me.

In the first, he was simply being silly.

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No, for those wondering, "Scooter" is not a nickname of his; he was just having fun here.

On the second gift, he started out being too lazy to repeat the full first tag, and then the family sense of humor surfaced.

I laughed so hard when I saw this that I almost pulled a rib.

That's my boy.

Winning while losing

Yesterday, Sarah and Scott came over to spend the Father's Day evening with me.  As we used to do frequently, Sarah and I played backgammon, and Scott and I played pool.

Both beat me soundly.

If you know me at all well, you understand that I'm a very competitive person.  I play most games with the goal of winning.  (I say "most" only because there are a few board games I play entirely to be social.)  I always try to win at both backgammon and pool.

Losing to my kids, though, didn't bother me much.  Simply getting to play with them was a big treat.  More importantly, they are the only two people in the world that I wouldn't mind being better than I am at everything.  I always wish the best for my kids, even when that means me losing to them at games.

Having said all of that, I'm still myself, so when we next play, I intend to beat each of them soundly.

No point in making it easy for them.

Renewing acquaintances

Mobile World Congress wrapped up today, so though I spent some time there, I also took advantage of being in Barcelona to renew a few acquaintances.

For lunch, I strolled through the Boqueria Market, a treat for anyone who likes food.

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In the course of my brief tour of the market, I passed by the stand where Scott once bought more gummi products than I knew existed.

Across the street from the market is a place I did not visit, an "erotic museum."  The only aspect of it externally visible was rather more sad than erotic:  a woman tasked with the unenviable job of portraying Marilyn Monroe while standing on a balcony and entreating passersby to enter the shop.

I kept my distance and felt only sad for her.

From the profane I now take us to the sacred, one of my all-time favorite churches, Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.  The exterior is breathtaking and mesmerizing, weirder and yet more powerful the longer you study it.

They've finished a great deal more of it since I was last here, and supposedly they are on track to complete the construction by 2026.  I do hope to see it then, and I encourage you to visit it at any time.

The inside is grand, humbling, and holy, a feeling that I could not escape as I sat in the quiet area today and contemplated the things that are troubling me.

When I was finished in the cathedral, I indulged in further sentiment and stopped at Farggi, a shop across the street where Scott and I had grabbed a snack during our visit here.

Dinner gave me a chance to renew my acquaintance with the food of the Adria brothers, Alber and his far more famous brother, Ferran, at their Mexican restaurant, Nino Viejo.  The setting was amazingly informal,

but the food was as fantastic as you'd expect from these two.  My pork and pineapple taco, for example, tasted rich and tangy and was entirely delicious.

Tomorrow, I head to London.

Sunday, sleepy Sunday

I finally fell asleep around two a.m. Barcelona time.  I got up in the mid-morning to try the hotel's breakfast, then slept until the early evening.  I clearly needed the rest.

After work and final unpacking and writing down expenses and so on, I showered and went walking in search of dinner.  Had I done this at ten-thirty local time in Raleigh, I would have been out of luck or seeking fast food.  In Barcelona, though, dinner is just getting into full swing at that hour.  I ended up at one of the restaurants on the square I can see from my hotel window, where I enjoyed jamon iberico and pan con tomate

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as starters (there's way less ham there than it appears, because they so thinly slice the meat) and a chicken paella as a main.

I ate all the ham, a third of the bread, and a third of the paella, but these were the smallest portions I could order.

Eating alone as a sixty-year-old man, I am practically invisible.  I thus was privy--whether I wanted to be or not--to intimate details from people at all the tables around me.  All spoke English, all were in town for Mobile World Congress (MWC, which is also the reason I am here), and all were discussing their various indiscretions or plans to commit indiscretions.  I was quite amazed at the amount of information people were willing to share, though I expect they also thought I did not speak English.

No one was discussing a fact that is likely to make all of our lives worse:  the metro and bus workers have chosen to strike during MWC.  Oh, boy.

MWC's effects have spread to my small hotel, where the bandwidth has gone from quite good as hotels go (yesterday) to positively painful (this evening).  I have no real choices here, but wow is my hotel overloaded.

Taking a brief stroll on La Rambla after dinner, I couldn't help but recall the night when Scott and I walked its length and then walked, at my insistence, all the way back to our hotel.  The journey proved to be way longer than I had thought, and we spent much of it joking about how long it was taking, even as we were both suffering a bit.  I worried that I never gave Scott enough time or enough love, and that now I won't have the chance to make it up to him--can we really ever make up anything to anyone?--and so I fell into a bit of melancholy.  I love my son very much, and I do miss him.  I hope we get the chance for many more good times together.

It's going on two a.m. here, so it's time for more sleep.  Tomorrow, I do work email and hit the show floor!

Weirdest gift wrapping yet? Or clever reuse?

For the past many years, Rana has constructed reusable gift wrapping from bits of blankets and other pieces of cloth.  This year, we presented Scott with a present in a particularly intriguing creation of hers.  Rather than attempt to describe it, I'll let you see it.

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Yes, that is a complete pocket assembly from a pair of cargo shorts, the type of pants Scott most prefers.  The main pocket is a perfect fit for one video game, and the small outer pocket will hold folded money--two of Scott's favorite gifts.

Now, the question before the house is this:  Is this an extremely clever reuse of an existing item, or is this the weirdest wrapping creation yet?  Or both?

You decide.

Scott graduates

Earlier today, after a week that contained a few related activities, Scott graduated with honors with a B.S. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University.  He worked very hard for four years to earn his diploma.  He already has accepted a job offer.

I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but I am incredibly proud of him.  (He's slouching a bit, because he's actually a little taller than I am.)

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I am an incredibly lucky man to have such a wonderful son.  As I have said since he was born, I have the best son in the world.

At the risk of embarrassing him, I will say here what I tell him every chance I get:

I love you, Scott, and I am so very proud of you.

Scott, the Great Pirate Neckbeard

Earlier tonight, Scott and other seniors put on a fascinating and fun show, Posters and Pies, about their senior projects.  After brief presentations on all the projects, we then got to see them up close--and eat pizza and pie.  I am very proud of Scott and his teammates and the very cool augmented reality project they did.

After the event finished, however, Scott decided he was done with most--but not all--of the beard he had been growing.  This decision led to a neckbeard...

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...which in turn led to Scott's debut as The Great Pirate Neckbeard in the upcoming romance, Pirate.

The adoring fan in the background is his roommate, George.

Despite his cover model status on this soon-to-be-a-bestseller novel, Scott was not done.  Oh, no.

First, he posed in several different shots for neckbeard fans everywhere.

This one, the view from below, also known as "what the hell is on his neck?", is particularly striking.

"What," Scott says, "you don't like the neckbeard?"

"Are you sure?"

"Well, okay then, how do you feel about the reduced neckbeard?"

"Or perhaps you would prefer the checkerboard?"

Oh, yes, he is most definitely my son!

Well played, Scott.  Well played.

Yes, of course I asked Scott's permission before posting these photos.

This year's Christmas tree, naked and dressed

As long-time readers know, we have a tradition of getting trees that are on the large side and then covering them with lots of lights and ornaments.  This year, we once again followed that tradition.

We bought the tree this past Sunday.  Even with its branches still riding high, it was a lovely sight in our house.

Earlier tonight, we had our annual tree-trimming gathering, at which each year we eat and adorn the tree.  Both Sarah and Scott were able to attend, which made the evening a great treat. 

The result is, if I may say so myself, striking. 

We own so many ornaments that we aren't even close to having hung them all. 

To give you a sense of scale, I asked Scott, who's around 5'10" or 5'11" tall, to stand beside the tree. 

Yup, it's a big tree, and now it's a properly dressed one.

I do love Christmas time. 

The North Carolina Democratic Party's unfortunate letter

Today, a letter to Scott from the North Carolina Democratic Party arrived at our house.  Scott had said previously that he wasn't interested in these political mailings and so we should just recycle them.  I always open envelopes before recycling them and their contents to make sure nothing inside contains sensitive personal information.  If something does, I shred that piece. 

This is the letter that awaited me.  The red is my addition.  I recommend carefully reading the first large paragraph and then the circled paragraph. 

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Exactly what kind of shit is this?  As a lifelong Democrat and a strong advocate of voting (ref., for example, my recent entry urging everyone to vote), I am appalled at my party stooping to tactics that amount to blackmail.  Really?

Ms. Keever, I don't know you, and I don't know your organization's policies, but if I were in your shoes, I would be embarrassed to have my name on this offensive correspondence.  I do know that I am embarrassed on behalf of all Democrats that this communication exists. 

I am one hundred percent in favor of encouraging people to vote, but this letter simply goes too far.  Had I received this letter at Scott's age, I might have refused to vote for any Democrats just on principle. 

I hope this is the last letter of this sort the NCDP ever sends.

The State Fair report, 2014

Long-time readers of this blog know that our family goes to the North Carolina State Fair for the food.  Sure, we like walking around, we love looking at the various animals, and some of us even go on a ride now and again, but most of all we're there to sample the Fair's many food offerings.  A few years ago, I came up with a new, expensive but ultimately less fattening system:  fast for about 18 hours ahead of time, buy everything I want to sample, and take one or at most two bites, then share it with others.  This approach has let me try a ton of stuff at the Fair and not gain any weight from doing so.  (Standing and walking around the Fair for five hours also helps, of course.)

This year's outing began with the traditional pretzel dog.

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Equally traditional and from the same vendor is Sarah's start-of-Fair pretzel, which she models here--and lets me eat a bite of.

A Diet Coke is, of course (there was no Coke Zero on offer), the walking-around beverage of choice.

A new vendor, Big Daddy's, contributed Scott's traditional turkey leg, which he also gives me a bite of,

and this rather tasty brisket sandwich.

I didn't eat anything from this vendor, but I loved the name, Bacon Ray's, so much, that I had to share its image with you.

At our next stop, this fryer was in heavy action at times, though here it is hosting only a few dough-covered goodies.

Those goodies included the Twinx, a surprisingly tasty concoction you build by stuffing a Twix candy bar inside a Twinkie, wrapping that in bacon, deep-frying the whole thing, and coating it in sugar.

It really was tasty, though one bite was plenty for me.  My nibble of the equally deep-fried and sugar-coated fried Oreos was also good.

A bite of a salty ham biscuit served as an excellent palate cleanser after all the sweets.

One of our non-food traditions is a visit to see the bears.  Yes, they're captive in small rooms, and yes, they're probably sad, but sometimes they are amazing to behold, as this lax bear was. 

A relaxed bear on a tire swing is a very cool sight indeed.

I'm not a chicken fan, but we always check them out, and I always find some amazing ones.  For example, the mere name "Bufflaced Polish" cracks me up, and their heads are equally entertaining. 

The cinnamon-sugar mini-donuts are another Fair staple, and they are yummy indeed.

McBride's Concessions, a Fair vendor that's been around for years, switched in 2014 to handmade onion rings using a recipe from the mother of one of the owners and a housemade dipping sauce.

The sauce was okay, but the onion rings were great, among the best I've tasted.

Scott's polish sausage hoagie with peppers, onions, and cheese was everything it should be.

So, too, were the fried bologna-and-cheese sandwich (don't hate until you taste it)

and the grilled cheese on white bread.

Oh, yeah, the bread is indeed that soaked with butter.

Did I mention giant pumpkins and watermelons?

Always a crowd-pleaser, and just kind of amazing in that "wow, people do anything and everything" sort of way. 

I forgot to take a picture of the cherry vanilla N.C. State ice cream I sampled.  I love that ice cream, and I get it only once a year at the Fair.

As we were wandering away from the ice cream, we ran cross these two fine hot dogs. 

Someday, the Motorized Hot Dog Throne of Doom will exist!

Back on the food front, another of the Fair's new offerings, the deep-fried Bananas Foster, met with mixed reviews, with banana-lovers enjoying it and banana-haters finding it disgusting. 

I thought it was pretty tasty, but I do enjoy bananas.

By the time we reached the deep-fried cupcakes, which Sarah models here,

many folks were done in, but not all of us.  Those who tried them found them basically to be fried dough, okay but no better.

All of us agreed that as disturbing as the phrase "WALK AWAY NUT SUNDAE" was, the face in the ice cream cone above it was creepier.

Sarah, Ben, and Ronnie,

as well as others in our group, rode the swings and had a grand time doing so.  I always find the ceiling of the swings to be a little trippy.

The "WIGGLE WURM":  friendly, or creepy?

I'm going with creepy.

This gentleman doesn't seem to be very happy to be at work,

but if I ever need a porn-star name, I could do a lot worse than "Jumbo Long Dogs."

A blooming onion

and a classic grilled hot dog with cheese

brought the Fair food odyssey to a close.

As we were leaving, we caught the nightly fireworks show, which was particularly gorgeous this year.  Gina took a lot of great photographs of the show, so to wrap up this huge entry, let me leave you with just a small sample of those lovely shots.