What's everyone up to right now?

[Clueless Morgan]

Just bought my mom's Christmas present.

I am so on top of it this year.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Savoring a fine evening with the Thena after last night in Austin and spending today in a funny visit to the zoo. Pictures of this last bit sometime soon ...

[Fireball]

Spent most of the afternoon on the 2nd/3rd floor wiring and insulation project.  Northwest wall on the 3rd floor and about half of the west wall in my 2nd floor study have now been extended inward to make the 2x4 wall studs into 2x6's, to make room for extra insulation.  Still racing against the clock as it's almost cold enough to snow, but because things are steadily moving along a bit every day I'm not in as much of a panic as I was 2 weeks ago.  As long as I have some building materials to work with, things should be okay.

And after a busy afternoon of scrambling around in a tiny half-attic and travelling up and down ladders with wood and power tools, I went out and had a cup of coffee and some ice cream.

You're making me bummed that I haven't finished my bathroom remodel yet...

Nor have I caulked the new trim around my office closet.

I'm such a slacker...

As much as you have going on in your life, you should cut yourself some slack. Shit, my youngest brother went through chemo and radiation for laryngeal cancer and the treatment damn near killed him. Lighten up on yourself!

[Astreja]

Brewing mead -- or more exactly, waiting for the hot mixture of spring water and honey to cool down so that I can continue the brewing, as I don't want to commit yeasticide.

---

Spent most of the afternoon on the 2nd/3rd floor wiring and insulation project.  Northwest wall on the 3rd floor and about half of the west wall in my 2nd floor study have now been extended inward to make the 2x4 wall studs into 2x6's, to make room for extra insulation.  Still racing against the clock as it's almost cold enough to snow, but because things are steadily moving along a bit every day I'm not in as much of a panic as I was 2 weeks ago.  As long as I have some building materials to work with, things should be okay.

And after a busy afternoon of scrambling around in a tiny half-attic and travelling up and down ladders with wood and power tools, I went out and had a cup of coffee and some ice cream.

You're making me bummed that I haven't finished my bathroom remodel yet...

Nor have I caulked the new trim around my office closet.

I'm such a slacker...

Make sure you wear disposable gloves when you do the caulking.  I'm still wearing construction adhesive from yesterday because I was upstairs and the box of gloves was downstairs.

[c172]

Learning that the USMNT is out of qualification for the World Cup.

[KevinM1]

Watching hockey

---

Learning that the USMNT is out of qualification for the World Cup.

Well, that kills a lot of momentum for the sport here.

[c172]

Yeah. Weird time for this to happen, IMHO. Seattle Sounders are still getting crowds over 40,000 and expansion Atlanta United have the new single-match MLS record at 70,425. But then New England Revolution have trouble cracking 10,000 a lot of the time. Hoping this doesn't cause them issues.

[KevinM1]

Yeah. Weird time for this to happen, IMHO. Seattle Sounders are still getting crowds over 40,000 and expansion Atlanta United have the new single-match MLS record at 70,425. But then New England Revolution have trouble cracking 10,000 a lot of the time. Hoping this doesn't cause them issues.

Well, as a New Englaner (I dunno if you're also from around here, so please forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know), I can explain the Revs' lack of attendance (in no particular order):

From February to October (and potentially later) the region is typically gripped by Red Sox fever. I'm not joking when I say the Sox are the region's unofficial religion.

Under Jay Heaps, the Revs have been a dumpster fire. Between the Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins, New England sports fans are both accustomed to (and demanding of) success and have plenty of other sports options to keep themselves occupied. Why care about the Revs when the Sox are in the midst of battling the Yankees for the division lead? Or when the Patriots are preparing to defend their 5th championship? Or when the Celtics sign Gordon Heyward and trade for Kyrie Irving? Or when a Bruins team coming off a season where they made the playoffs has an infusion of exciting, young NHL caliber talent to go along with a proven veteran core? All of these things happened while the Revs were shitting the bed.

While Robert Kraft - owner of the New England Patriots - owns the Revs, he doesn't give a shit about them. He wants to build a dedicated arena for them somewhere in Boston (they currently use Gilette Stadium in Foxboro), but mostly as a way to make a concert/special event venue rather than for the team's well-being. The Patriots are definitely his primary concern.

Local sports news media all but ignores them. Whether it's print, radio, or TV, they're buried as the last story.

[Astreja]

Finished mixing up the mead and siphoning it into a small carboy. About 5 months from now I can bottle it, and 2 weeks after that the residual yeast will have carbonated it.

Also wandered over to my trading account to see how everything's doing. All is well. (I subscribe to the "buy shares of exchange-traded funds, then leave them the fuck alone!" school of investing.)

[Clueless Morgan]

You're making me bummed that I haven't finished my bathroom remodel yet...

Nor have I caulked the new trim around my office closet.

I'm such a slacker...

As much as you have going on in your life, you should cut yourself some slack. Shit, my youngest brother went through chemo and radiation for laryngeal cancer and the treatment damn near killed him. Lighten up on yourself!

Thanks

I also am still on the hunt for a vanity I'm willing to pay for so there's a good reason I haven't finished the bathroom yet aside from the cancer thing.  (I only have the floor, wall base, vanity and toilet to go and it should all happen at once.)

The office closet trim can wait - it doesn't look terrible, it just looks unfinished if you stare at it for a couple minutes.  I can live with that for a while before it'll really start to bug me.  That's definitely a post-treatment project.

Learning that the USMNT is out of qualification for the World Cup.

Not surprised, the men's side sucks.

Learning that the USMNT is out of qualification for the World Cup.

Well, that kills a lot of momentum for the sport here.

Enter: USWNT



I keep telling y'all: watch and support your women's teams!

Well, as a New Englaner (I dunno if you're also from around here, so please forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know), I can explain the Revs' lack of attendance (in no particular order):

From February to October (and potentially later) the region is typically gripped by Red Sox fever.  I'm not joking when I say the Sox are the region's unofficial religion.

Under Jay Heaps, the Revs have been a dumpster fire.  Between the Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins, New England sports fans are both accustomed to (and demanding of) success and have plenty of other sports options to keep themselves occupied.  Why care about the Revs when the Sox are in the midst of battling the Yankees for the division lead?  Or when the Patriots are preparing to defend their 5th championship?  Or when the Celtics sign Gordon Heyward and trade for Kyrie Irving?  Or when a Bruins team coming off a season where they made the playoffs has an infusion of exciting, young NHL caliber talent to go along with a proven veteran core?  All of these things happened while the Revs were shitting the bed.

While Robert Kraft - owner of the New England Patriots - owns the Revs, he doesn't give a shit about them.  He wants to build a dedicated arena for them somewhere in Boston (they currently use Gilette Stadium in Foxboro), but mostly as a way to make a concert/special event venue rather than for the team's well-being.  The Patriots are definitely his primary concern.

Local sports news media all but ignores them.  Whether it's print, radio, or TV, they're buried as the last story.

Portland doesn't have an American Football team - our professional sports here are basketball and soccer, minor league hockey and our college football teams.  We had a minor league baseball team who lost their stadium to the Timbers when the Timbers went pro-league, so now we have the Hillsboro Hops (I seriously don't understand why people enjoy baseball, it's the most dull sport...).  If you go to the stores around here, you see Duck and Beaver gear, Timbers stuff and Blazers jerseys, you don't even get Thorns fan gear and they're a highly ranked, very popular team with extremely well attended games. Maybe they don't give up the licensing rights to their merchandise like the other teams do for stores in the area to sell their stuff. I'd personally be more willing to buy something if I run across it at the store than if I have to make a concerted effort to go into the stadium where I'm already inclined to think everything is marked up 50 times.