Power has been out for a few hours. Wheeled the generator to side of house and plugged into panel. First time since we remodeled in 2018. It worked! House has electricity. Alas not enough for heat so we’ll make a fire.

Just paid into omg.lol, where I’ll be mistersugar again.

Cutting our Austin trip a day short to beat the arctic bomb cyclone. Weather here was cold and gray, but we enjoyed the warmth of family and visits to coffee shops, a brewery, and food trucks. Yesterday’s drive to Fredericksburg was nice, saw Nick’s AirBnB, shopped on Main St.

On this rainy day in Austin, I chilled at the house; went for coffee at Radio; bought a sweatshirt at the UT co-op; bowled three games at Westgate Lanes (Oliver & I had a blast); and now at house laughing with the little ones and my dad, who flew in from Rhode Island.

I have been let into Post.news, so I’m mistersugar over there. Let’s see where this goes. I don’t feel the excitement I did when I joined Twitter in 2007, or the satisfaction I get in backing and using Micro.blog, but I believe in online community so I can’t give up.

Watching World Cup final in cold Austin air at Meanwhile Brewing Company.

Fun first day in Austin visiting brother and his family. From airport to Meanwhile Brewing Company for tacos & last 15 minutes of the Croatia-Morocco match; an hour at Urban Air (nephews at party), later ceviche at Salt Traders & the Trail of Lights in Zilker Park.

Played pickup soccer this morning in the cold (about 34ºF). The guys from Morocco and Algeria were quite excited about today’s World Cup match. Me, too. And I’m jazzed because I scored a beautiful goal just before I had to leave to get home for work.

Sunday pickup soccer this morning was fun. A few of the guys are from Morocco, so there were smiles even before we got started.

Upgraded MarsEdit to v5 (always happy to pay fo this great tool); trying micropost feature here.

Bummer for USA. For next game I have donned my Socceroos jersey I picked up in Australia in 2018.

selfie in Australia jersey

My latest blog post reflects my chagrined surprise about the richness of the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. Humans are amazing, and šljivovica is worth celebrating.

Warm cinnamon rolls a great way to start the week.

cinnamon rolls

I have a pan of cinnamon rolls in the fridge ready for baking in the morning. Planning to start the week strong.

My Serbian friend came over for dinner tonight. I made chicken shawarma (NYTimes recipe) and we sipped Yebiga rakija, both the Bela and Prva varieties, which we liked very much. Was nice to catch up with good conversation.

Whoa that could have been an astounding end to the Portugal-Ghana match! I had just taken this cherry pie out of the oven and looked back at the television.

cherry pie

I’m home alone for the holiday, family up in Cleveland while I stay back to keep an eye on the house construction. Gives me time to play soccer, watch World Cup. Have wanted to see Whiplash for years, just watched. Intense and great!

Just booked flights for me and my son to visit family in Austin in December. That means I’ll be watching the World Cup final there. Maybe @pratik @manton or others can tell where the watch party will be. (May reach out for other fun father-son activities for Oliver; he’s 12.)

World Cup time! I played soccer with the guys this morning, even scored a couple of goals, made some good runs, passed well. Now I’m showered, dressed, have coffee in hand, and a big screen to watch the action.

I gave up hope on getting back into my Twitter account, so I created a new handle, but in the process of doing that, I found a way into my original account (2FA bug or limitation?). Whew. So now I have the ability to zap my account if and when it comes to that. Hope not.