Today is Fish Day. On Fish Day about 50,000 people, most of them drunk and shirtless (and these are not the type of people who should go shirtless) invade our town. The parade is on at the moment. I can hear the sirens in the distance. M and the boys went with some neighbors, but I, luckily, ditched the experience. We’ll see what I can avoid later. Some of the guys with whom I play basketball are getting drunk, starting at 5PM, but I’m not sure if I’ll attend that get together or not. We’ll see.

The last few days have been busy. On Wednesday night we took the boys to the Brewers/Diamondbacks game. The air was thick, sultry, so we sweated through the first seven innings before going home. I had fun. My interest in baseball has been renewed over the last couple of years. I like the pace of the game, the flow, the mix of intellectual strategy and specific athleticism. I wouldn’t mind going to a game by myself sometime.

On Thursday we hit Discovery World and Festa Italiana. I like the aquarium at Discovery World. We walked through all the ship and fish exhibits, then hit the upper floors for the industrial design exhibits or whatever they’re meant to be. The upper floors suck, honestly. I think Briggs and Stratton and the other companies who funded the exhibits are trying to raise awareness of engineering and other industrial skills, but my God, that crap is boring. They have a huge punch press that spits out a template for a plastic airplane. I could print that shit off my home computer.

We walked across the lawn to Festa Italiana afterwards. A friend of mine from work snagged us tickets, so we didn’t have to pay admission. Yay! I thought the gig was ok. Apparently retirement homes get free tickets because old people were everywhere. At one point T said, “What is this, wheelchairfest?” I laughed. I wanted to say, “good one, but don’t say it so close to the people in the wheelchairs.” Then again, it’s not like they could have caught him had he ran. We ate some panini and pizza (remarkably hard to find pizza at Festa Italia, believe or not, I think Palmero’s must have exclusive sponsorship rights or something), then let the kids play in the fountain. Here’s some film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSfU2lSy5E0

Some drama at work distracted me a bit while hanging out with the kids, but I guess I was ok. I talked through the issues with people around the office. I suppose it’s not entirely unheard of to be pissed off about work now and then. What do I expect? Yesterday Paul and I talked at the coffee shop for a while, in between meetings, before I wrapped up at work and drove home. Last night I had the kids on my own, most of the night, while M attended a school parent group meeting/get together. The kids and their friends spazzed out in the yard and in the back field while I read under the gazebo and checked on the Brew game (they lost). I was kind of wired by the time M returned home and everyone fell asleep so I cleaned the kitchen and living room before crashing on the front porch. I may start cleaning again now. A couple brief thoughts:

1) I’m discovering I have way more friends than I might have thought. That’s a good thing.

2) I’m reading Jonathan Lethem’s “You Don’t’ Love Me Yet.” Paul told me he only read thirty pages before giving up. I was surprised.

3) I listened to the new Dolorean yesterday. The disc sounded pretty good. Maybe I’ll put it on while I’m cleaning.