@copper.hat sorry to hear your daughter could not join you... enjoy your BBW. I gather you are in the west coast. I already had may fare share of all ethnic foods. My missus and I decided to celebrate with friends in Houston TX this weekend. Here is something rather corny for the 4th

a BBW is something else.

houston is a good place to spend the 4th.

san antonio and el paso are also good options

@leslietownes, not bad at all, specially if feasts with good dim sum and then Indian food on the 4th, follows by another BBQ in a few minutes.

we'll be having a vegetarian soup but i did have a cheeseburger yesterday.

Any Basketball Fans? Anyone follow NBA Basketball in the US? @robjohn, too bad no CA team made it far in this year's Playoffs. Guess who's going to the NBA Championship Game? Anyone?

the warriors really fell apart this year. it is an annual tradition.

@leslietownes :(

i haven't seen them live since the 1990s when they really were terrible.

Guess which team I'm proud of, for earning a long overdue appearance (and ultimate win) in this years NBA Championship Game?

i think most of the audience left at halftime.

Yikes!

Clue: Who is the Eastern Conference Champions this year!!! ;D

the bucks?

@leslietownes Woo HOO!! Fear the Deer!!

they deserved it.

@leslietownes Yes. It's been a long time in the making.

the warriors should have made it, but nobody is perfect.

i met don nelson (1990s warriors coach) and manut bol (extremely tall player) once, they were both really kind people.

manut bol was 7'6"

@leslietownes I bet. Wow, that's tall! Taller than tall!

i bet i never meet a taller person.

he did a lot of humanitarian work for his native sudan. i met him at a charitable event.

i don't have a photo because i don't think you could fit both him and another person in a single photo.

@leslietownes It's amazing. I've always got a soft-spot for humanitarian folks.

one of my mentors in grad school was an insane fan of the NBA. he had a bookcase full of books and DVDs about michael jordan.

i gave him david halberstam's 'the breaks of the game' about the trail blazers in the late 70s. a really good book.

basketball is a very deep game but you need to talk to real fans to understand it. it isn't self-explanatory.

i think the college game is more exciting in the US. same with football. the games matter more.

@leslietownes Ahh, yes. The Bucks from the 70's had Kareem Abdul Jabaar (Sp?) Indeed, your last sentence says it all!

imagine watching some of those legendary UCLA teams.

on the football side i saw marshawn lynch play in college. he was playing a completely different game than everyone else on the field. it was amazing.

i don't think i've ever seen a more talented football player. maybe jerry rice.

@leslietownes I agree, particularly with College Basketball. I'm still a diehard Packers fan. But Wilson, in Seattle, came directly from the Univ. of Wisconsin/Badgers.

@OliverDiaz Thanks! I think we are doing burgers tonight. It will be 80F there which is waaaay outside my comfort zone. Nothing compared to TX heat, of course.

copper i will be there in 8 hours. i just need to zip up I-5.

85 here in long beach right now. the AC hasn't shut off in hours.

i'll stay away from the typo :-) unusual for me...

my daughter went out to eat some ice cream. she gets that about once every four months. we always go to a store because we don't want her to know that you can buy it like any other kind of grocery item and have it at home.

:-) that's funny.

we also haven't told her about disneyland. she's never learning about disneyland.

fair enough!

what's that suspiciously fireworks-like sound? nothing at all. maybe a factory somewhere blew up.

heading out, enjoy!!!

cheers.

@leslietownes Smart! Too many parents waste money on kids to young to remember the visit!!

that's exactly it. and it gets more expensive every year.

it's about a 20 minute drive from here but we are holding firm.

my wife's parents used disneyland as free child care. they'd just drop off their children in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day. that strikes me as negligent.

@leslietownes Yup, but especially these days!

earlier generations had no idea how to raise children.

my mom's dad was a state policeman and he would confiscate weapons and bring them home. my mom took some brass knuckles to school for a show-and-tell. she also had several disabled firearms.

i don't think they let police keep the weapons they confiscate anymore.

there's a funny photo of my mom, maybe 5 years old, holding a thompson submachine gun.

@leslietownes I had a mentor in mathematical Logic in Grad School, Washington University St. Louis. And he was a life-long fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. Had a place in CA, as well, when he followed the old St. Louis Cardinals in Football. I took a class with him and three other students, over a summer. Weed spend three hours studying, one night a week, when we'd break to catch up with the Cardinals' progress. At the end, the game went without interruption, and he dished out icecream.

they're the arizona cardinals now. it's very funny how franchises don't change their names.

so you have the LA lakers (from minnesota) and, even more hilariously, the utah jazz.

He never had less than four flavors. And he insisted. So when I said: I'll have a scoop of Strawberry, I'd get three scoops.

strawberry is the best flavor of ice cream.

@leslietownes I know! It gets crazy!

my daughter said she wanted "blueberry cake ice cream." i don't think that exists. it certainly doesn't exist at the store she was going to. i do like the creativity of dreaming it up and wanting it.

And with Football, look at the migration of the Rams!

St. Louis, LA.... I can't keep track!

or the raiders. oakland, los angeles, oakland, las vegas?

@leslietownes I know! Has anybody seen Skully/Skull Patrol lately? Devoted fan of the Raiders?

i don't acknowledge the extistence of non-oakland raiders

go Pats!

@leslietownes Good for you!!

my mom loves the patriots.

@EM4 Patriots??

@amWhy yep :)

i said "but they always cheat." she doesn't care.

One season at a time. I'm still relishing the "Fear the deer" climate, as the Milwaukee Bucks meets the Phoenix Sun Bathers.

i support the bucks in this endeavor. they are right to fear the deer.

@EM4 My sister termed you former quarterback from "DeflateGate": Boo Hoo Brady.

heheheh

but he is in Tampa now.

@EM4 But alas, you are rid of him. I wish the Pats the best.

it is sport politics.

we are on building process LOL.

@EM4 Indeed. Perhaps when he goes throwing Vince Lombardi (Packer coach) trophies while boating, Brady will slip overboard and be snatched by an alligator! ;D

I hope not LOL.

its impressive he got 7 rings now.