Hiya,
Went to the knee doc this week and am scheduled for replacement on December 14th. Fingers crossed it'll go as well as round one. Will have to dig up my recap to remember what to expect when your expecting (a new knee)
Something I remembered about the States after seeing it in a crowd shot at a football game this week...dudes are wearing dresses. I saw it more than a bunch in Seattle, mainly in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but also at some rock and roll shows too. And it doesn't seem like it was just on a dare cause they the dresses they were choosing fit them. I'd say that I saw as many guys wearing dresses as I did ladies some nights. It is jarring to see someone wearing a dress from the back, and then you get up close and it is a dude with a finely manicured 3 day growth. I get the shock value, and perhaps they are more comfortable, but you can put this old man in the thumbs down category. To be fair, too many members of my age/race cohort continue to wear cargo shorts
Something I have noticed in Taiwan these last two weeks in my neighborhood is there is a pack of bony white chicks new to town. Our neighborhood has the international schools so there is a high concentration of foreigners here. I see these white chicks pushing their strollers or doing yoga together in the park and have yet to figure out what the deal is. A couple years ago, there was an influx of older Dutch ladies (and men, but as a stay at home dad, see mostly the women) roaming about and learned that there was a big wind power project starting and the Dutch were the ones brought in for their expertise. I seem to be the only one noticing all the new young women in town (I know), and have not got to the bottom of this yet, but I will not rest until I do.
We had Thanksgiving at our place this year. Other than the first year we were here, we have always gone away for the long weekend to some beachy place for a few days. It was nice to spend it at home with friends. Forgot how to make mashed potatoes but they are surprisingly easy and really should make them more often cause they were effin' delicious. Made my mom's macaroni and cheese, which has always been a staple of our family's Thanksgiving dinner table. I heard some take by a football player this week where he was getting angry that mac-n-cheese is now part of every T-giving table, and was a topic by the talking heads to discuss in detail, but it has always been a part of mine and of all the other dishes on the table, it is the one that I look forward to the most. Mom's recipe is incredibly easy, but the resulting goodness is universally loved. Here is a picture of the recipe written in her distinctive cursive and it brings back all the good memories of her for me.
It is best with the extra sharp Cracker Barrel cheese, but if you can't find that brand, make sure it is extra sharp as that is the key. And I always like it better when the sprinkle of breadcrumbs is generous. Both The Boy and I suggest using Italian bread crumbs as it pushes it over the top. You are welcome in advance.
Our table was a lovely collection of people and as we are in an international community, had an global flavor with representatives from New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and The Philippines. We had the lady that cleans our place stay over that night to help with things, and while she was uncomfortable sitting at the table, I would have been more uncomfortable if she didn't and it was a pleasure to have her sit down with us. It is what the pilgrims would have done with the Indians before they sent them back into the kitchen to clean up our mess.
Now that we have residences in Seattle and Taipei, a project that I am slowly working on is editing my clothes and household items. There will come a day when we depart this place and want that container going back to the States to be lean as we don't have a ton of space in Seattle to handle two apartments worth of accumulated crap. This week, took aim at the pants part of my closet. I had dress slacks from the Nordstrom days in there that were well worn before we moved. Since I don't see me wearing dress pants regularly ever again, they got to go in the donation box. There were some fat pants hanging and if I ever get that fat again, I will not forgive myself, and some skinny pants there is no chance of ever getting closed again. I was able to cut my inventory by at least half and feel good about doing that. What occurred to me in this process is that my pants are like a basketball team. You have your starting 5 and a couple of high rotation bench guys. Then there is the rest of the bench that only get playing time in special situations or blowouts.
Then occurred to me that a better analogy is that your friends are like a basketball team (I had a lot of pants to try on so there was time for my mind to wander). For me, I have my starting 5 and 2-3 heavy rotation players. Ones that I always think of first when looking to make dinner plans or party guestlists. Then there are those that have special skills, like going to music shows or talking about obscure sports. And there are a few at the end of the bench that are being developed to be future stars, and a couple of old timers that are hanging on cause they have a history with the team and bloated contracts that cannot be dealt. I have outright released a couple in the past that played a lot of minutes for conduct detrimental to the team, and recently had to bench one of my starters from the opening line-up for some outrageous decisions to send a message. This analogy is a work in progress, but I hope I am somewhere on your team.
There has been a lot of baseball activities for yours truly. Hanging with the kids is so great as they provide endless entertainment. We were in the batting cage the other night and while picking up the baseballs, I ask them if they have mid-term exams this week. One kid said his are next week and then added that if he failed every single one of them, he'd still have a 3.3 GPA. I wouldn't blink if that was a kid in Seattle public school, but for this place, it was stunning to hear as there is a ton of pressure on these kids to get 4.0s. Not just from their parents, but from the other kids...I didn't have to push mine hardly at all cause they got enough peer pressure to keep them in line. During our batting cage conversation, one kid offered that the highest possible is a 4.8 and that some kids are lobbying for it to go up to 5 something. The 3.3 kid replied that 3.3 is a good GPA for an athlete and couldn't resist telling him that 'you're a baseball player, not an athlete.'
The one sad thing about baseball is that they don't call me Coach Imbro. It is the one thing that I have always wanted to be called in life and think at this point that I would deserve it. Have coached forever. Obviously a ton of baseball. I coached a very successful soccer team for several years and have even had stints coaching volleyball, basketball and badminton. Have coached both boys and girls. Odds are that I've been the coach of one of your kids at some point. I was even the coach of our beer league softball team for a decade and know that I not only coached the parent, but the son as well. You would think that after all of these years spent coaching, the dedication of molding minds and developing skills, the sweat and blood I have poured out in the arena that people...someone...anyone would call me Coach Imbro.
But you fuck one goat...
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