Happy Pride Month

 

Hey!  Happy Pride Month!

Here at League of Melbotis, we want to take a moment to say we support and defend adults and children alike as they seek their path to happiness and a healthy life.  And we certainly believe ideologies celebrated and laws made to keep people from enjoying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have no place in this world.  There's a name for that sort of law-making.

It's not hard to respect people and love our neighbors.  I cannot imagine working against my friends, co-workers and neighbors for whom this month is a celebration.  

I hope this Pride Month is full of joy for all of you.  And if you're headed for the comments to complain about people *making* you see their lifestyle, grow the fuck up, snowflake!  You can value other people enough  - especially strangers - that you can take a moment to celebrate a world that curves towards freedoms and liberties for all people.  Or go sit with your hate and what it says about how sad and small you want the world to be.

WNBA, NWSL and Cubs - Summertime Sports

Kayla Thornton of the Golden State Valkyries

I don't really think of myself as a "sports guy", but it is true that I watch *a lot* of sports.  Apparently I am that guy, in my way.

Cubs Baseball

PCA bringing the Mariah Carey magic

The Chicago Cubs have had a good spring, and as we roll into summer, if injuries don't diminish the roster too much, we could be quite good this season.  While acquired talent like the Astros' Kyle Tucker have been huge boons to the team, our returning roster is looking better and happier than the past two or three seasons.  Pete Crow-Armstrong in Center Field is batting like crazy, Seiya Suzuki is batting a reliable .262 and has at least 13 home runs.  Both of our catchers, Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly, can hit, so it doesn't matter who is in on any given game day. Seiya also looks to be the lead for .RBI's across MLB at the moment.

I know the season is a grind, but it's fun while it's fun.  

Today is Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

It is true.  On April 28th, 2000, Jamie and I exchanged vows in front of family and friends in a lovely ceremony in South Austin.  

It was a whole thing.

The pics, by the way, are my scans I did real fast on my phone which is about 5 generations behind.  Be kind.  The pictures were shot on film.  This was in ye olden daze.

I don't know what to tell you about 25 years of marriage.  I recommend it if you can work it out.  It helps to marry someone with whom you get along pretty darn well.  There's a tip for you kids.

Cubs Baseball Has Wildest Game

I love a box score that tells an insane story.  

I was not watching yesterday, just checking the score online, and things were getting nuts.  So while I worked on some things, I noted that the game was going bananas and tuned in.

But that box score couldn't tell the whole story.  From @OptaSTATS

Condensed game from Marquee Network below:

Kylie Minogue at the Moody Center - April 17, 2025

Now that's how you command an audience

I was aware of Kylie Minogue when she covered The Locomotion (by Carol King, natch!), way back circa 1987.  I figured she was one of a thousand flash-in-the-pan pop starlets, especially as, much like Tiffany covering I Think We're Alone Now, the song was already in the zeitgeist.  

I can't say I thought much about Kylie again until she popped up as The Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge, at which point I began formulating the idea that Kylie is a good idea, indeed.

a stunningly good argument for absinthe

And then, of course, with the release of her album, Fever, she dropped the single Can't Get You Out Of My Head, and America was finally given a real look at Minogue - including a 2002 appearance on SNL (that is not currently on YouTube, which is a shame).  

I turned 50

look at me, enjoying time with Jamie at a ball game while my dad photobombs us

Well, I turned 50 this weekend.

I always acknowledge my birthday at the media review branch of League of Melbotis by finding a song and lyrics that seem to articulate the way we're feeling at the time.  I have a playlist if you want to jam out to my vibes the past several years.  

It's been a wild few years, to be honest.  But that's just life as an adult, I think.  I try to be zen about it all.  Things are tough sometimes, but we have a great family support system, and that does a lot to keep you going.  I've refocused.  You keep moving.

To celebrate my birthday, I managed to pull together family that was in town (Dug and K live elsewhere, but more details on that shortly) and we all did one of my favorite things.  We went to a baseball game.  We watched the Round Rock Express triumph over the Oklahoma City Comets on a windy, sunny day.  

Jamie's Birthday

Today is Jamie's birthday.  

I met Jamie when we were both 18 and starting college, although I was at the big university 90 minutes up the road, and she was at the smaller college in San Antonio.  I'd come down to partake in a party at a house off-campus where my brother and his pals would be, and Jamie was the randomly assigned roommate of a pal from high school.

I *did* try to ask her out that fall, but she wasn't feeling well and dating was off the table.  Fair enough.  Fortunately, a couple years later she let me know she *was* now open to dating, and I signed up immediately.  This fall, it'll have been thirty years.  

Which means we've spent our adult lives together.

But that's the thing.  She's still as new to me today as she was when we first went out, and I still want her company even more.  Working from home has spoiled me completely - my one-day-per-week in the office is a drag.  I still want to impress her and see if I can make her laugh, and make dinner for her and be there for her.  Because she's the best.  She is maybe not someone who is loud or incredibly demonstrative with her love, but she has a lot of it.

She's always my biggest supporter (sometimes taking me by surprise as my hype-man when I was playing it cool), and always my best counsel.  I think the past decade, I've gotten really good at listening to her as the person who knows when I'm on to something and when I'm just spinning my wheels.  You need a Jamie to keep you honest, team.

We're now old enough that everyone has put up with something in their lives, health-wise or in their personal history.  But Jamie has dealt with her own challenges since she was 17, and she's done it with a strength and grace I envy.  It is very hard to explain all the challenges, scares and bad-days she's had, and she still gets up and lives every day.  

This is a milestone birthday, and it means the world to me that I get to spend it with her.  

Happy birthday, baby.  I love you.