Illustrious Relatives

 

Today I worked on campus. I walked with my colleague and had leftover picnic food for lunch. It was not a particularly noteworthy day, but I did get a laugh when Travalon texted about one of the kids he works with, and spellcheck changed her name to an indigenous language of Mexico. Which reminds me - I have texted the word "beandzdzdz" to Tiffy so many times that now my phone suggests it if I start typing b-e-a.

I did forget to blog about the Packers game yesterday. We were taping it, and so was Tiffy, so we were trying to avoid any mention of it. However, we found out they were down to the Saints 17-0 at halftime, so then we said, "Good thing we're out enjoying this beautiful weather instead of watching that!" But while Tiffy and I were in the maze, someone texted her: "Amazing comeback!" So then Travalon and I were really looking forward to watching the game. We fast-forwarded over the first half, since who wants to watch that? The third quarter wasn't any better; the Saints' quarterback got injured, and their backup quarterback couldn't get any offense going, but we did nothing either, so it was 17-0 at the start of the fourth quarter. Even that seemed to start poorly, and Travalon and I were asking each other, "Did we misunderstand? How could they have won?" They got a lot of stupid penalties, but finally they got a field goal. Then they got a touchdown! And a two-point conversion! (That's important.) And another touchdown! We thought they must have forced a turnover to get the ball back so quickly, but they just shut the Saints down that fast every time they got the ball. Then the Saints were driving, and all they needed was a field goal to win... but they missed! The Packers could take a knee and win by one point! It's good to see such a young team not lose faith and just keep trying until they succeed. Of course, last week they had a double-digit lead going into the fourth quarter and still lost, so it was heartening to see them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat after seeing them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. (Stole that line from Tiffy's dad.)

Here is the icon we got yesterday. I asked Travalon which one he liked best, and he said this one.

And here is a photo of Tiffy and me in the corn maze, taken by Travalon.

I was wearing my Mars Cheese Castle T-shirt, and a woman saw it and asked, "Do you work at the Mars Cheese Castle?" I said, "No, I just got the shirt because it's tie-dyed with a castle and Saturn on it," and she said, "My mom works at the Mars Cheese Castle." I asked which section, since there is a bar and grill, an ice cream counter, a bakery, a gift shop, and a liquor store, as well as an extensive cheese section. She said, "In the cheese section," and at first I didn't think anything of it, but later Tiffy and I were joking about how if you said, "My mom works at the Mars Cheese Castle!" and someone asked you in what section but you were lying, you'd say, "The, uh, CHEESE section! Yeah, that's it!" Then again, why would anyone lie about that? Can you imagine a situation where that would have cachet?

Person One: "My sister is the Supreme Court Justice of the State of Maine!" (Based on a true story starring my neighbor.)

Person Two: "My cousin is the mayor of Lahaina in Maui!" (also based on an allegedly true story)

Person Three: "My mom works at the Mars Cheese Castle!" (apparently also based on a true story)

Persons One and Two: "Stop! (or in Richmond, Illinois, Stob!) We can't compete!"

Famous Hat