Really fun soccer tournament weekend for our 12 year-old's newly formed 90+ Project team. They won the group portion with 1 win and 2 draws, then absolutely rocked the tournament final rematch 5-1 to win the championship!

Almost started off this post with my second straight "absolutely wild" openings, but instead I'm going meta. The reason for this madness? Gonzaga has 8 scholarship players currently because the NCAA elegibility environment is such a complete joke, and of course the two killer LATE European defections over the summer. I kind of feel like we need soccer style contracts and transfer fees to protect schools at all levels.

Absolutely wild! Just discovered that Netflix cancelled the Starting 5 documentary after season 2 because its ratings declined from the first season. Completely bonkers since most of the stuff I read considered season 2 superior, and they missed out on the Knicks winning it all. Complete fail from Netflix in every way. In some alternate timeline Jalen Brunson and Wemby were two of the five and the documentary team look like geniuses again.

My podcast consumption has been way down in August, but I have been listening to a fair amount of anime soundtracks and title songs.

Took a quick stroll around campus and it's so hot and muggy right now. Bike commuting home tomorrow afternoon like I've been contemplating could be painful.

Just saw the unfortunate news about Hayden Panettiere's untimely death, and I can't help but reflect on how rare it is for child and teen actors to come through the entertainment industry unscathed. This issue is also top of mind given that The Dangers in my Heart manga is wrapping up with Anna Yamada's acting and modeling career seemingly poised to get the full idol treatment post middle school, and all I feel is dread.

The Dangers in My Heart spinoff manga The Dangers in My Heart: The Romantic Comedy Won't Start featuring Kyotaro's big sister, Kana, is pretty adorable. It has a ton of unique potential between Kana's band and twenty-something life in general, so I really hope it has enough popularity to continue on well beyond the end of the original series.

Pleased to see on social media that I'm not alone in my Alice Chilton/Tanya Reynolds Ted Lasso admiration. Can't wait to see the new coaching braintrust dynamic now that Beard is back on board as well.

Ted Lasso S4E2: Curiouser and Curiouser! 👍👍 Assistant coach Alice Chilton is already my favorite season 4 casting addition by a mile, but the combative twin defenders are 2a and 2b!

Finally decided to replace the battery and screen (I've had a growing horizontal band of black pixels for about a year now) on my iPhone 11. Hopefully I can finally get a new iPhone in the next year or so, but definitely want this one to be in good shape to pass down to one of the girls.

Discovered last night that The Dangers in My Heart is leaving Hulu at the end of today so stayed up late and binged the first 12 episodes. Loved it, but bummed out that I couldn't spread out my viewing enjoyment over a couple of weeks.

Romero to Atleti is go. Phew!

The Dangers in My Heart S1E1 I Was Stolen Away 👍👍 It starts out edgier than I expected, but it's still pretty cute and funny (that cat fight scene!😹), and I can see the potential.

My home office is a ridiculous mess. Need to make some progress on that today.

Smoky weather is starting to get to me even though I'm staying inside most of the time. Feel pretty crappy after a quick errand over to the in-laws.

Ted Lasso S4E1 - Home 👍👍
I'm pretty happy with the way they set up Ted's next act. Makes complete sense that he came back to KC and ended up being a good dad with a ridiculously underwhelming job.

Going to try out some mono white and possibly Azorius Sentry control decks this week. I always got punished by that card in limited, but I think it's pretty decent in constructed where you have lots of options to deal with the token it creates.

Fruits Basket S1E20 I Can't Believe You Picked It Up 👍
Hiro is such a little punk; it's wildly uncomfortable to have a character actively attacking and abusing Tohru's kind and gentle qualities the moment they enter the show. Hats off to Momiji for fully understanding the Hiro-Kisa dynamic and saving the day!

We know at least one person who lost their home in the Old Trails fire already and I'm sure there are probably more based on the estimate of several hundred lost structures. So tragic.

Very eerie day with the nearby wildfire smoke blocking the sun and casting a dirty yellow tinge on everything. Our house isn't in any immediate danger, but we're sandwiched between two evacuation zones and I still feel pretty uneasy. At least there isn't much wind today and we have power.

Mary's birthday didn't go quite as planned because of the fire danger, but it still turned out pretty good. Houston made a delicious chocolate cake for her with raspberry filling, Nathan gave her a really cool handcrafted wooden teaspoon, and she absolutely loved the gift the girls and I made for her! We had to immediately hang it up on the wall tonight!

All of our birthday plans for Mary got cancelled because of the nearby wildfire evacuations. We're not in immediate danger ourselves, but there's no way we can leave our pets to go out to dinner right now with so much evacuation traffic clogging the only routes back to our house.