so what the hell happened at the US Open?

A cascade of events and misunderstandings and poor judgment on the part of Serena, her coach, and the umpire led to Serena being penalized a point, then a game, to put Osaka up 5-3 in the second set. Osaka won, but the crowd was so pro-Serena that they were booing the ump and the organizers during the trophy ceremony. The boos were not directed at Osaka, but of course, it's not the environment you'd want to have when you win your first Slam. She's 20 years old, and she looked sad and embarrassed.

I'm sorry, Flea. I hope they get the structural problems worked out so your work in rescuing the books won't be for naught.

I'm reminded why I would not be good at a particular career. Salesperson, waiter...teacher. Because I assume saying "No, fuck YOU, you entitled little shit," is not generally a recommended strategy.

Yep. That's why our of four generations of teachers, I'm the person hanging out in higher ed admin, far far from the wee little ones. I remember being a kid surrounded by kids, and some of them were/are a**holes.

Lisah, I just saw your post, thank you for sharing. I am still fighting off the sick (and still trying to do a whole bunch of things, the two might be related) but we finally have HPF back after 5 days camping in the woods. I missed her so much.

Timelies all!

sj, I'm dealing with my own threenager at the moment. On the upside, he didn't come into our room until 8 this morning. (which beats 5:30, which he did the last two mornings) On the downside, he had a meltdown in the restaurant tonight, followed a little later by him shrieking at the top of his lungs.

Osaka won, but the crowd was so pro-Serena that they were booing the ump and the organizers during the trophy ceremony.

Oof, that sounds awful for her.

In other news, I was out playing trombone in an especially ridiculous outfit, and who was in the audience, but the intimidating coworker mentioned earlier this week! So that was fun?

Thanks, Dana!

We're off to see a community theater production of "In the Heights" tonight. I hope it's good!

I had recorded the match and just got a chance to watch the end. It was horrible for both Serena and Osaka. Serena was so warm and comforting to her. Man. That was tough.

Busy day! Up early doing chores including driving into town 12 miles away to go to the dump which is near the top of a ski mountain. Then shopped for food stuff because my brother was visiting from Florida. Had a bunch of family over socializing for about 5 hours in my chilly house. Finally gave up and put portable heaters on for them. (the wimps) Then my niece wanted to go hiking on a mushroom seeking mission with a identification book looking for edibles with her 8 yo son. That was fun. Founds tons of shroons, but held off on eating them pending gaining expertise. The coral mushrooms were clearly edible though, but we left them. The dogs smooshed a lot of them because if we were closely examining the ground clearly that meant they should jump around.

Lots of phone calls and texts in between because my SIL was getting her appendix removed but apparently it was a busy hospital day because there were several people in the queue before her. But they had her morphined up and pretty much napping while waiting. My son Bobby was updating me.

So now I am wiped out!

It's been pouring here all day with more heavy rain forecast tomorrow (our backyard is a damn swamp right now), so I hope the books at flea's library are safe and dry.

And it's in the 60s, which is a crime against all warm weather-loving people like me. But rainy + 60s means I made chili for dinner, which was tasty. My chili recipe uses 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, which I completely forgot to buy. After rummaging in the pantry, I came up with a jar of mild salsa to make up for the lack of canned tomatoes.

I am here to tell you that mild salsa actually works in chili. Which makes sense, because salsa is tomatoes and onions and peppers and spices. Chili crisis averted! Though in the future I'll go back to the canned tomatoes.

And we watched Wreck-It Ralph like the grownups we are. (We had never seen it, and the trailer for the sequel looks great, so we wanted to watch Wreck-It Ralph before the sequel comes out later this year.) (Like the grownups we are.)