the ocean

So my niece and nephew have gotten very into the Olympics, though they seem to have very little idea of what the Olympics actually are. They wanted to have a party for the opening ceremonies, which consisted largely of them doing things other than actually watching the opening ceremonies. They made us all compete in a bracelet-making contest, or as they kept unironically calling it, a "bead off." (The prize for winning the contest was for some reason being tasked with drawing a picture of Lebron James.) They also conducted an Olympics trivia contest, during which they read questions (and occasionally the answers, by accident) off the internet and heartily enjoyed telling us our answers were wrong. And there was also supposed to be a costume component of the evening, but I think we just ran out of time. There was also pizza to be eaten, after all.

The ceremonies themselves I thought were pretty interesting, even though I got almost none of the audio due to the aforementioned activities. It was nice that they really made use of the city, since it's not exactly hideous, and I liked the balloon torch, once I understood the likelihood of it exploding was actually pretty low. I saw the weirdness of, say, the table runway with drag queens, as a feature rather than a bug. And I am surprised to hear myself say this, but it was genuinely very nice to see Celine Dion performing again, particularly from a mighty perch atop the Eiffel Tower. She does a pretty good Edith Piaf impression, to the extent that's anything anyone should actually do.

All in all, it was a pretty grand affair. And I was still asleep by eleven, which is my new late-forties standard for Friday nights.

Last weekend we went to our friends' lake house in Michigan, which was very nice, aside from a tragic Taco Bell drive through incident on our way back. You see, we decided to forego a long, lingering brunch somewhere so that we could ransom the dog from boarding sooner, and settled instead on the joys of an AM crunchwrap. But we forgot that Michigan was an hour ahead of Chicago, and were thus greeted with only nominally "Mexican" delicacies, many of which involved Frito Lay products, instead of breakfast when we got to the drive through. And normally we'd be down, but it still felt like 10 AM to our stomachs. And the lady in the drive through was super sassy with us and we we couldn't back out because there was already someone behind us so we had to spend ten minutes sitting in line and get the stink eye from the aforementioned sassy lady. And then we were so discombobulated that we made a rushed, misguided decision to get Wendy's. I think it's fair to say that nothing worse has ever happened to anyone, ever. 

The rest of the week has been fine. I spent a fair amount of it in the hammock reading, so that's a plus. My new outdoor mold and mildew spray arrived and I went to town on our stonework. I initiated a foot peel. All of this likely to be covered in your next Us Weekly, I am sure.

It's the Fourth of July weekend, or as the Lifetime network calls it, "Fourth of You Lie." I take all my linguistic and cultural cues from them, obviously. 

Really an all around amazing time here. Wednesday night we went to a friend's party, with a great view of all the illegal fireworks that obviously don't exist in the state of Illinois, and a lovely spread of foods I should not eat and liquors that probably no one should drink. Thursday we hosted the family for an afternoon of grilling and wishing it wasn't quite so overcast. Fortunately the skies cleared around 3 and we were able to get out the inflatable wading pool that there is really no reason two men in their forties should own. The kids loved it, and then it slowly emptied itself via a leak we could not find over the following three days. Win, win. 

Friday brought more family adventures with a trip to the Art Institute for the Georgia O'Keefe show. The kids simply insisted. They got to go to the park afterwards, but Ian and I hightailed it for home and our twin chaises on the garage roof deck. Some quality relaxation, particularly since most of our neighbors seem to have fled for the long weekend. Or for legal reasons, perhaps, I should make no assumptions.

Yesterday we had a pool party in the suburbs, and I've reached the age where that is a phrase that makes sense to me. Everyone was really friendly and the sandwiches were bomb. Yes, that's a Vanderpump Rules reference.

Today the dread of returning to work has definitely set in, but we're still trying to make the most of today. Why, I sprayed the front patio for bugs and the rear sidewalk for mold and mildew. And watered all the plants, which I assume is the reason we had a torrential downpour.

Anyway, happy birthday to America, while it lasts.