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Yep, the American football season in about to start and we haven’t yet got rid of that awful bore, the baseball season. Ugh, it gets so I’m scared to put on the TV lest I catch any of it and go into a boredom-induced coma.

Got our electricity bill for July – $513!!! Yikes.

Oh no, the east coast is suffering a heat index of 115F – call out the national guard, the world is ending. Out in Brawley, its been an actual 115F for a lot of the time, and will be again and stay that way before the summer is out. So do what we do, turn up the a/c, strip down to your undies, and lay in front of a fan.

P.S. Don’t tell me that its ok because it’s a “dry heat” 🙂

No, not my San Diego apartment and its 88F internal temperature. It turns out that the happiest place on earth is – Denmark. I’ve been there for a week and can easily see why although locals were telling me that during the winter months when there is little sunshine, they have a high suicide rate but that doesn’t seem to figure into the assessment.

The USA finished 23rd in the survey; the UK 41st. The bottom two countries were Zimbabwe and Burundi. Click on the image for a pretty map of the results.

The newspaper printed a final article on their Beat the Press competition this weekend. Our subscription ended so I don’t have a scan of the article at the moment. Bottom line is that a Mexican sports writer won the whole thing, and the top member of the public came third. I got the next best public showing, coming in joint fifth with a couple of other sports editors but since no one beat the press, the $100 goes unawarded.

[Back to our regularly scheduled programming]

Sat in the food court over looking the ice rink this evening, a family takes the table next to me, mother, father and three small kids. But before the kids can sit down, the parents bring out the wet naps and wipe down the table. Yeah, the table could do with a wipe. Next they wipe down all the chairs, including seats and frames. Well, they are all wearing shorts. Finally, more wet naps come out and they wipe down the metal railing over which you can watch the action on the ice. I suppose you can’t be too careful in these germ infested hovels.

At my last meeting with the INS I was told that my new card could take “6 weeks or 6 months” to arrive, and to my amazement it came over the weekend. Even more impressively, it is valid for 10 years from the date they mailed it not 10 years from my first approval back in 2004. So I have a shiny new card to show the Border Patrol on my weekly commute and don’t need a new one until 2016. Although, there is a very good chance I’ll be applying for citizenship in October.

2234Today’s paper has the headline that Sanders is leading the competition. Yes, by some miracle I am currently in first place in the newspaper’s Beat the Press competition, with 33 points. There is certainly no way I can win as the only points available to me are if Germany make the final, all other results get me nothing. Now, if its an Italy v Portugal final then maybe I could still win the $100… but its fun to see my name in the headlines out on top.

Some sad news from home in Brawley, Erin’s bird died today. I “inherited” Melanie when I moved into the house 4 years ago and although she was very much Erin’s pet I made sure she got fed, watered and some small amount of attention. I often referred to her as “the forgotten pet” as she’d just sit in her cage quietly most of the time being ignored. She’d come to life when Erin was around, talk and sqawk like crazy for her attention. We had a spell where I thought she was sick a couple of years ago but recently she seemed full of beans so I am quite surprised. She may not have provided the attention and affection that our dogs bring but she enriched our lives in her small way.

In my previous post I wrote that I had 13 points (out of 16) from the World Cup first round. In Saturday’s edition, the newspaper revealed that the leader (a veteran of Beat the Press sports competitions apparantly) had 14 points so I am currently in joint second place.

I got the winners of the first three knockout matches correct (along with everyone else I bet) so I am still in contention. Today’s other match might see that change, I bet I am in the minority for picking Portugal over Holland. But if they win I’ll be moving on ahead for the $100.