Thursday morning started with a good rush of productivity on the work front, and prep for moderating another webinar in a series I’ve been doing with colleagues around the country.
This series began with a bit of a technical train wreck (noted many, many blogs ago) where the speaker got kicked out of the GoToMeeting and couldn’t get back in. Since then I’ve always been a little nervous before doing one of these, but fortunately this one, and the others, have all gone really smoothly and have been well attended.
So there’s a feather in my cap. Not that I have been wearing caps. Maybe I’ll start after another month without a haircut. Don’t know if I’ll put any feathers in it, though. It’s a bit foppish.
Beyond that, the main highlight of the day came when I heard a giant thud at our front door. Amelia and I were downstairs when it happened and went immediately to investigate. It was a rather large box and immediately I was regretting bringing Amelia to the front door with me.
“It’s the basketball hoop!” she shouted.
Indeed, this is the much anticipated adjustable basketball hoop that Grandma and Pop Pop Liddell ordered for us as an Easter gift for the kids. It is awesome, but admittedly, this was a moment in the afternoon where my energy level was at a low and I was slogging through some last bits of work. Had I been a bit more clever, I would have gone to the door myself and bought myself some time by telling Amelia that the delivery had been socks I ordered from Amazon.
I feel like that could have at least been in the realm of half truth, because while I haven’t actually ordered socks from Amazon, I fully intend to. I’m at a point where at least 80 percent of my socks have holes in them. I really wish I was exaggerating that number for the sake of humor.
Anyway, the sock fib could have at least given me a little time to gather my forces before jumping into hoop assembly. What really happened was I spent about 15 minutes lamely trying to say, “Let me just finish a few things and then I’ll put it together,” while Amelia said “Can we PLLEEEEEAAAAASE put up the basketball hoop now, dad? Now, dad? Now, dad?” on a continuous loop.
With a mighty sigh, I finally relented. It was, after all, a super nice afternoon and what I was doing could be put on hold for a little bit. So we gathered up some tools and got to it.
Amelia was a big help, and loved pitching in, so it wound up being lots of fun for me too. It was cool working on a project with my little girl.
We got it all put together and the kids were thrilled. Amelia literally sunk the very first shot she took on the new hoop.
So we all took turns shooting some hoops, and ordered some take out from a great local restaurant we like (thank you, North Side Tavern). We had some dinner and the kids went back to playing basketball for a while, until it started getting dark and cold.
Meanwhile, my phone was buzzing with friends talking about the NFL draft, which I had completely forgotten about. I admit, my interest in the draft in general has drifted over the years and this I was totally checked out. But hey, it’s what passes for sports these days, so I was at least mildly interested in who my Green Bay Packers would draft.
By the way, I actually do get to say “my Green Bay Packers” because I own a share of stock in the team. That’s right, I’m an NFL owner. Jerry Jones and I are pretty much the same… except for all the money and every discernible character and personality trait.
So in spite of my hope for a big, fast wide receiver, the Packers spun some heads by drafting a quarterback in the first round. I don’t know much about the guy, but for my friends and me, usually one of the most important things is the nickname we’ll assign to the new player. With Jordan Love, the first thing that came to mind was the admittedly obscure character of “Captain Love” from The Mask of Zorro.
But upon further reflection, the real way to to go is “Lovie,” from Gilligan’s Island. Added bonus is we get to say the name in that Jim Backus/Thurston Howell III voice.
Now we jut have to hope there is actually an NFL season. Fingers crossed.
