Week in Review – July 5th, 2026

“Happy Semiquincentennial”

I wonder why spellcheck hasn’t been updated to include “Semiquincentennial”?

The usual early alarm woke me on Monday morning so that Diana would be ready for the 8am pickleball clinic.

Monday was upset day at the World Cup – Brazil barely squeaked past Japan, Germany was ousted by Paraguay, and the Dutch lost to Morocco. Sinner avoided a first round loss at Wimbledon in five sets and Djokovic looked a bit rocky for a while, losing the second set.

I forgot to mention a story about the Japanese fans from last week. They clean up the stadium before they leave – picking up all the trash and mess. The team did the same in the locker room – leaving it spotless with all towels neatly folded by the door.

Japanese clean up

We read and listened to albums in the afternoon. Joe Jackson always goes over well with McD. The chickpea wraps made another appearance for lunch – we split one as they are so filling.

Diana was back to play pickleball with some friends later in the afternoon.

I watched France easily dispose of Sweden on Tuesday. They really do look like the strongest team by quite a bit. Diana played some more pickleball while I was doing that.

We picked a new table for trivia in the evening. This one had the “American Weiner” painting:

A take off on “American Gothic” by Grant Wood. I had always thought it was a farmer and his wife, and read today that it’s his daughter.

Vacations led to a small team again – Jack, Aidan and Kyle on the youngster squad, me, Kenny and Alex (after jiujitsu) on the old folks contingent. We did well – in first place with 86 points before the final question. The second place team had 85 points. Here’s the final question:

Put these in order from largest to smallest:

The theme was “Flys”.

How many years did Marty McFly travel back in time in the original “Back to the Future” movie?

How many Philadelphia Flyers team members are in the hockey Hall of Fame?

How many episodes of “In Living Color” was J. Lo in the Fly girls?

How many days does a fruit fly live?

How confident do you feel about your ability to put these in order? Aidan and I wanted to bet zero, not confident at all. The group consensus was to bet 14, meaning we would be second if the third place team didn’t get it right.

The correct order is:

J. Lo Fly girl – 62

Fruit fly life – 50

Mary McFly back in time – 30

Philly Flyers HOF – 14

We did not get that order correct and ended up in second place. A good showing from a small team.

Diana was busy on Wednesday morning – a walk in the park with Kara followed by yoga, and then her annual doctor appointment. She got a good report.

She got a new nickname at the blood draw lab. The first draw on Tuesday had one vial that didn’t work and she had to go back on Wednesday morning. Struggling to pronounce Campagna, the ladies decided that she was going to be Mrs. Champagne going forward. Little did they know that was a perfect nickname.

I got excited thinking that the English were going to be eliminated from the World Cup by Congo. The very annoying Harry Kane spoiled that late in the game, and they live to play another game. We’ll see how they do later today against Mexico in Mexico City.

We decided to pass on the gathering of the large Krewe to watch the USMNT World Cup game at Tchoup yard on Wednesday evening. Too loud, crowded and noisy with very salty food. It sounds like the group found a good seating area and had a good time.

Thursday was haircut day for me. Diana dropped me off and then met me for lunch. We were looking forward to Mayas but it is only open for lunch on the weekend. Juan’s Flying Burrito to the rescue with our usuals – Luau quesadilla for me and modified Superbowl for McD.

I watched a bit of Wimbledon after lunch, and was happy to see Tiafoe win in four sets. Unfortunately, he was eliminated yesterday.

We were invited over to Michael and Laurie’s house for the first time on Friday evening. They live very close to Denny and Anne. The excuse for getting together was to review our recommendations for their visit to San Sebastian in a week. We had a very pleasant evening.

I enjoyed watching the tall ships sailing into New York harbor on TV on Saturday, July 4th. It was nice that we had the chance to see them up close in New Orleans.

The sailors up in the rigging on this one made me a wee bit queasy.

Thom was home alone and so we invited him to join us for our second annual 4th of July visit to Toups’ Meatery.

The restaurant was very quiet and we had amazing service from Dave, starting with a cheese board and a foie gras torchon. Dave explained the cheeses and accoutrements beautifully.

I had a glass of Grenache and Thom a Cab Franc – both were delicious. Then it was time for the wagyu burgers. I think you can tell that Thom was quite happy with his:

Diana and I split one and it was just as good, if not better, than we remembered.

This was such a good experience. Thanks to Dave, Toups’ and Thom for a lovely brunch.

We headed home and changed into our pool gear for a trip back over to Michael and Laurie’s home. Kenny, Kara and Thom joined and we had a very pleasant few hours telling stories in and around the pool.

Diana played tennis with the girls this morning and since then we’ve been watching tennis and listening to the thunder roll through. I also spent some frustrating time trying to manage the synching of my various Apple devices with iCloud. I don’t want my iPad to synch and it seems impossible to stop it.

My first book this week was Mendell Station by J B Hwang. I didn’t love this book. The story about training as a postal delivery person was interesting and I enjoyed reading about San Francisco neighborhoods that I know a little bit. The story was too choppy along the timeline and a bit convoluted overall. Here’s an online summary:

“A tender debut that follows a woman who, after her best friend’s death, loses her faith and quits her job to join the postal service, quickly becoming an ‘essential worker’ as the city shuts down.

It’s January 2020, and Miriam is already getting a sense that the world might be ending. First, she learns that her best friend, Esther, has died. Then her faith in God-in everything, really-follows suit. Her job teaching Scripture at a private Christian school suddenly seems untenable, so she quits. Thankfully, the postal service is hiring.

While Miriam finds comfort in her route, the mail truck can hardly outpace the memory of her lost friend and eroded faith. She finds herself composing letters to Esther that she will never deliver, reflecting on their shared childhoods and deep understanding of each other’s difficult families.

Mendell Station depicts one woman’s deliverance through the peculiar rhythms of work, and the beauty found in small details and gestures, those quotidian labors of love.”

I’m about half way through “John of John” by Douglas Stuart. This is much better than my last book. Stuart wrote “Shuggie Bain” – an excellent book but so depressing and grim. “John of John” is a bit lighter so far, but there is definitely some darkness lurking.

I’m enjoying the Scottish island setting with the crofting and weaving occupations. I’ll have much more to report next week. Here are a couple of the reviews:

“Douglas Stuart brilliantly weaved a layered, compelling and yet so intimate a story of identity, what it means to belong, and the courage to claim your own truth.”—Oprah Winfrey

“One of 2026’s literary triumphs.”—Boston Globe

Local piano wizard, Jon Cleary, an import from England, hosts a weekly radio show on Jazz FM in the UK. I haven’t found a way to listen to it yet, but he makes a playlist of the songs he played available. Lonnie Johnson had a good song and I attempted to get some background from him via Google.

The first result made me chuckle:

Those Super Soakers were the bane of my existence in our California pool.

Here’s one from Charlie Gabriel of the Preservation Hall band. What’s interesting about Charlie? He’s 93 years old and still playing. I heard him play live last year and he is amazing.