Masters Sunday

OK, my Tim Clark pick wasn't so good. I'm still a bit dumbfounded that Tiger frittered his round away. It is interesting that he's never come from behind in the final round to win a major. I did make a discovery--golf is un-fucking-believable in HD. Maybe CBS just had better/different camera angles this year, but watching today I could see undulations in the greens I didn't remember seeing before. Plus, the colors were spectacular.

To avoid future family confusion, I've got some new names for you: shopper-in-law (s-i-l) will be my wife's sister with the son. Artist-in-law (a-i-l) will be the sister w/o kids. The a-i-l and her husband have been caring for an older biker friend of his who has terminal cancer for the last several months. They were originally going to host easter Sunday, but the sick friend had chemo late last week and has been having a rough weekend, so things got transferred to the s-i-l's house.

She forswore the traditional ham, etc. and made beef stew with...get this...filet mignon. It was some damn good stew. The dynamic between her and our nephew is bizarre. When he's with us (or my wife's other sibs) he's great. With her and/or her one-foot-out-the-door boyfriend he can be a real ass. That whole dynamic will be the topic of another post on another day. But, their antics made things a bit rough for a stretch today. Since I'm still a bit low on energy from my cold and my wife's in its clutches, we only stayed for a few hours.

When we got back, the sociopath in training came over to play with the HB. He was sporting a relatively new black eye (surprisingly the first considering his behavior towards others). When his mom came to fetch him I learned that his dad has begun taking him shooting. The dad's one of those guys who wants to be sure he has plenty of guns around for when "they" (whoever the fuck they are) come to get us. Regardless of what you think of the studies that show that a gun in the home is more likely to kill a family member than a burglar, this kid having access to a firearm is a BAD idea. He's got high mechanical aptitude and will be able to but into any contraption his dad puts together.

A previous neighbor (an interesting guy who built his own plane in his garage) was also a gun owner. When we first came over to visit with the HB he was very upfront with us. He said that he kept a gun by his bedside for protection, but would lock it up every time we came over with the HB. Sure enough, if I came to visit with the HB, he would greet us, politely excuse himself for a couple of minutes, then come back. I still think he was whack for thinking he needed a gun, but I respected his safety with it.

Given that since we've been back from NYC one or both of us have been sick, the wife and I have been doing the separate bedroom thing. Yes, I've been chivalrous enough to give her the nice, cozy, regular waterbed upstairs while I'm in the somewhat less comfortable guest bedroom. But, it gets a better wireless signal, so I can blog more. You can be the judge as to whether that's a good thing or not. It also gives me the opportunity to do some late night reading. Right now I'm in the middle of All the Kings Men. I didn't see either of the film versions, so I didn't go into it with any preconceptions. I will say this: I was surprised at the point of view from which the story is told and how few scenes involve who I thought would be the main character, Willie Starks. I'm about three-quarters done and am enjoying it.