End Of Summer: Wiffle, Washington, And Cal Ripken, Jr.

It has been a crazy week at Kasa Kolbeck with family visiting from the Pacific Northwest for Dane's memorial Wiffleball tournament at Redwing Farm in West (By God) Virginia and the cramming of the very last of the summer fun . The picture above is our crazy, wonderful Wiffle family, some of whom were good friends of Dane's, many of whom I don't know very well but love them  because they gave Dane so much.

Other prominent features of the past seven days include:

Walking another 500 miles in DC: I always forget how incredible DC is until I go down there. We did a big loop that included the Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the National Museum of Natural History. Heads-up: apparently, the Nation's Front Lawn is getting a major facelift, including installing irrigation systems, so it is torn up and fenced off. Still pretty cool. We need to figure out how to make it an easy day trip that is affordable so we can get down there more. #SpendingMoneyLikeWeGotIt

Finally catching our neighborhood ice cream truck: Although this may not seem like much, our neighborhood ice cream truck sells SOFT SERVE. Delicious soft serve for reasonable prices out of an old utility truck that would be scary if he were not selling the aforementioned delicious soft serve. I have made a batch of brownies nearly every night, and those crumbled on some soft serve is THE BUSINESS.

This:

The 20th anniversary celebration of Cal's 2,131st game in a row, breaking Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" record. The Orioles celebrated by losing to the Rays 11-2 in one of the worst games I have seen in a long time, but Cal was there to throw out the first pitch, and damnit if he didn't stay until the top of the 7th, even as the Orioles played a seriously crappy game.

And this:

#CityForever

I'll also be damned if I'm not the parent of a 10th grader now. There was cursing on the morning of this day, so there were no proper pictures, but I had to mark it somehow. This is The Teenager and her friend walking towards the Castle on the Hill on the first day. I have probably been more vocal than I should be with The Teenager about how much I hate public school and am going to try to tone it down this year (so far I am failing miserably because there is still so much fun stuff to do, and she is locked in school 8 hours a day and that #HazTheDumb. But I digress). Tenth grade. Jesus.

I do actually have all of these brilliant blog posts lined up but things are a bit chaotic right now. September is our lockdown mode for all things financial, scholarly, and work-related, so hopefully I can dig deep and get some real writing done. I swear to god there is a pizza crust recipe coming, too. It will happen.

How did you spend your last week of summer (according to back-to-school commercials)?

Friday Links: ADHD Edition

A map of Chicago on a building in Chicago. Very Inception-y.

It's Friday!

Funny how even though I work at home and every day is basically the same (so much so that I often lose track in the summer of the day and date) that "Friday" still has a magical ring. Mostly it means we stay away from the grocery store for two days until everyone else goes back to work.

But I digress.

This week was gone in a flash, with one new writing client firing up and the HVAC in our new house winding down. Balance in all things, right?

I have felt pulled in many different directions, scattered, this week. I feel like there are things I need to get completely finished with (like processing the end of my yoga teacher training and organizing a scrapbook of sorts of our three-week roadtrip), but I cannot gather myself together enough to focus on those things. This results in some epic time-wasting on the computer.

Here are just a few of the things I found interesting in my travels around the interwebs this week. I figure if I put them here maybe A) I will remember they exist, and B) someone else might get something out of it. 

A handstand tutorial: Okay, it's not very yogic to strive for a particular asana, but I cannot help myself. In Georgia I had a bit of a handstand practice and have lost it since moving to Maryland. It is perspective-shifting to be upside down, and it makes me feel strong and centered. I have been revisiting this practice periodically and found this tutorial to work with. Good stuff.

A video on writing: Ta-Nehisi Coates is a Baltimore native who wrote and spoke so eloquently during the Baltimore riots/unrest/whatever last spring. Here he talks about his process of becoming a writer. As a writer, I find these sorts of interviews/chats tremendously helpful, especially from people I admire. I appreciate hearing about the struggle.

A better way to watch the Republican debate: Bad Lip Reading strikes again with this video of the Republican debate. I am looking forward to many of these as we slog through the next 15 months of political idiocy.

A tomato sauce recipe with no peeling of tomatoes: Grating with a box grater is the shortcut. I am not sure about this recipe for canning (and don't really love this cook), but I need to find something soon, as it is TIME TO CAN.

UPDATE: Used the box grater Saturday morning to remove tomato skins without blanching and fuss, and it worked amazingly well. Put up nine jars of tomatoes for some sunshine in the winter.

This weekend for us features standup paddleboard yoga, an Orioles game, and some housecleaning before guests arrive. What's on tap for you?