family, soccer and snobs
we had Mike, Amy and Fiona here for a visit last week which was great. Candlepin bowling (check), seafood dinner (check), The Office marathon (check), Amy painting dragonflies, a turtle and a cute cow jumping over the moon on the nursery walls (check), teaching Fiona how to roll a ball along the floor with her nose (check). So it was a pretty complete visit I’d say.

The World Cup starts this Friday and I’m just tickled pink about that. I’ve cleared out the TiVo and set recording options for all the games. I just need to find and print out a group bracket type thingy to record the scores on but that should be easy enough. The plan is to record the 3 games every day and watch them during the evening, although it’s likely I’ll only watch 2 of 3 each day. It’s a true tossup to say if the US will advance from the group stage. My brain says that they won’t but most of the rest of me can be convinced that they will. At any given moment I can make an argument one way or the other, so obviously I’m conflicted. I do feel that they’ll play well and make a good impression either way.

An important social marker among we provincial New Englanders is pronunciation of place names. A slight mistake in saying Peabody, Billerica or Cataumet and it’s instantly revealed that you ain’t from ‘round these parts. While I’m usually insulated from ridicule due to my local roots, I ran into Sesachacha Pond here at work and it stopped me dead in my tracks. I’ve only recently mastered this beast after hearing it said for about a week. Place your best guess on pronunciation below.