A Conspiracy Unmasked

For the past three weeks, European soccer teams have clashed in titanic duels for the coveted prize of being named UEFA European Champion. In other news, Turkey is apparently considered part of Europe, despite being known as Asia Minor in New Testament times, but I digress. All of the previous weeks' labors culminated in the final match of the tournament today, to be shown at 2:30 PM on our local ABC affiliate. We saw about twenty minutes of the game before our cable went out, the casualty of a summer thunderstorm. Since Sandi and I have followed the tournament from its opening match, this was a calamitous turn of events.

You might be saying to yourself at this point, 'Self, where is this conspiracy Phil is talking about?' I would respond by telling you to stop ending sentences with prepositions. Anyway, I had turned on the television in the bedroom to listen for the game's return, while Sandi relaxed with a video game in the living room. An hour after the outage began, we still had no picture. Curious, I flipped to another station, which had returned. I found that every station except the one carrying the match was available to us. I can only surmise that someone did not want us to see the final. Who could be responsible for such a thing? I personally blame the vengeful spirit of President Millard Fillmore, but that is only my opinion. Fortunately for us, ESPN Classic is showing a replay of the match tomorrow afternoon, so Mr. Fillmore (or whoever) will not get the last laugh.

Sandi failed to mention our belated anniversary celebration in yesterday's post. Due to Ranger's obedience class on Monday, we did not have the chance to do anything particularly special. We amended that yesterday afternoon with a trip to Sandi's most favoritest restaurant on the planet -- the Olive Garden. I sometimes have a hard time remembering it has been eight years since our wedding. On the other hand, I frequently forget that computers no longer come with floppy drives, so who can expect me to track time?

We have yet to finish painting the nursery, but we are making progress. We plan on getting the rest of the work completed this Friday. For now, I am watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a thoroughly confusing film whose plot is only distinguishable from the protagonist's fantasies when things switch from ludicrous to bonzo bananas haywire. Have a great week, everybody!