Wow

Apparently 90,000 people were without power from the bad storms last night. My 'hood wasn't one of the ones affected; one of the benefits of living in a good 'hood, I guess! The power grid is always reliable, so the Chads and Trixies aren't made peevish.

I snapped a ton of pix of the sky after the storm, as it was surreal. Here's one...

The sky was actually yellow-orange, btw. It wasn't just the sunset; it was some weird storm-induced diffraction of light. Really weird stuff. And lightning every now and then. Wild skies.

Header

Many thanks to Corvina for the fab header redesign for the blog. It looks way sharper than what I had before!

Can You Drink from the World Cup?

Lordy, after the US's nail-biting squeaker of a win yesterday (seriously, that was one crazily intense game), to Italy's amazing/stunning defeat at the hands of the plucky Slovakia team, I don't know how much more drama I can take! There have been some incredibly exciting matches of late. So, who advances to the elimination rounds? (it's not done, yet) My favorites are in italics...

1. Uruguay
2. Mexico
3. Argentina
4. South Korea
5. United States
6. England
7. Germany
8. Ghana
9. Paraguay
10. Slovakia
11. Netherlands
12. Japan
    

There are a few more matches to sew up the remaining teams, as the remaining groups sort it out until the final 16 are reached. This afternoon, I'm watching doomed Cameroon (going nowhere, statistically) go up against Holland, just to watch them play again; they were a good team, but just didn't have it when they needed it. I also want to see the Dutch play again. For all of the talk of how great they are, I haven't been so impressed. I like watching the World Cup on the front end, sussing out the teams, seeing who the good teams are, versus the floppers and foulers. I really wanted to see more African teams advance (and I'm in a pickle with the US having to go up against Ghana Saturday -- I was really wanting Ghana to go further, but up against the US, I have to root for the US, because the US is such an underdog in soccer, and Ghana is a very, very good team that would totally stick it to the US if we're not careful).

Tomorrow has Portugal v. Brazil (10 a.m. EST) and Chile v. Spain (2:30 p.m. EST), among some other games. Both of those should be fucking sweet, if those teams play well. Normally I wouldn't root for Portugal, but going up against Number 1 Brazil, I totally am. Get'em!

Except that if Brazil manages to spank Portugal, AND Ivory Coast manages to clobber North Korea, then Ivory Coast could miraculously advance. The odds are very long for this, but I would like to see another African nation advance to the final 16.

Better Living Through Chemistry?

Still haven't gotten the test results back for Exene (or haven't heard, anyway). The meds she's on at the moment seem to have finally made a dent in whatever the hell she's got going on. She particularly liked the steroid (big shock; I said she'd be quaffing beers and getting a mullet in no time), and yesterday was the first day she'd been without a fever in five weeks. We'll see how the meds continue to work, and what happens when she's off them. Weird shit.

She's got a promising lead on a good job downtown, which, if/when this clicks (I don't want to jinx it; lord knows I don't want to), it'll make everything infinitely easier. Fucking FINALLY -- an end to the financial stalemate and a way forward.

We had some wicked storms pass through here last night. Even tornado warnings, which are rarities. The klaxon for the tornado warning really sounds like some crazy calliope, and when it sounded, B1 asked what it was, and I told him it was an Evil Clown Warning Siren, and he said "No, Daddy, it's a TORNADO SIREN." (in that classic little kid "My Dad is an Idiot" tone of voice).

I really need to record that klaxon. It is the most dreadful-sounding thing. I'll give it credit, however -- it's impossible to ignore, even if it really does make you think some insane clown is going to go after you.

I snapped a bunch of pix of the skies last night. The sunset was particularly cool, owing to a skyful of lightning and this swatch of sunlight at the horizon. Lots of people were on their balconies and roofs, snapping photographs at the incendiary sky. I just missed capturing a lightning stroke (it was just out of the frame of one of my sunset shots).

Oh, I scissored my left index finger last night -- I was cutting something and got distracted by SYTYCD for a second and cut my finger -- a nice, v-shaped slice. D'oh! My editing finger! Oh, noooooo! ; )