Bank holiday Monday

We relaxed today.  I went into work to do some telephone work.  In my drive to get fitter, I took a slight detour and I think that my fitness levels may be improving.  After work when home I found that my wife was not as well as she had hoped.  She rested, I ironed and helped her prepare some food that she had cooked.  But I forgot to do it properly.  Fortunately she and my son helped salvage the food.

I also got to go for a walk with my daughter as well as watching Star Wars Rebels with my son.  He loves watching the Simpsons but took time to not watch that and instead spend some time with me.  Rebels is a kids cartoon, but there was a reason cited in one of the episodes we watched as to why stormtroopers cannot shoot properly.  And we had a slight disagreement about how The Clone Wars ended.  I was right, but he will not accept that. All in all, it was a good end to the weekend, so long as my wife is better tomorrow.  

The US right and cucks

I have had an interesting debate with a US lady who supports Trump on Twitter.  Sadly, it resulted in her using her second account to try and troll me.  While I understand that she was annoyed with a poster who I had mostly supported (there were a few posts which I felt were racist and I did point out that I considered them to be unacceptable), it was interesting when she turned her attention to me.  Needless to say, she tried to be more annoying than me, and as my wife said, she was doomed.  My children later agreed with this.

What is fascinating, are the terms that she tried to use to insult me.

One was calling me a beta male.  I actually do not want to be an alpha male.  I associate such a term with a lot of negative issues.  Needless to say, one is heart disease.  There are other issues associated with it.  Growing up, I was given mixed messages about what a man should be.  People would tell me that women wanted kind caring men, but growing up, they were not the men they went for.  Or rather I should say, that alpha males attracted a sort of female and like other boys growing up, we assumed that all women and girls wanted that.        

The other insults were when she called me a Cuck.  What makes this more interesting is the way that one or two prominent Trump supporters are in effect cuckolded.    

One is Roger Stone, who initially denied such things took place, and then later admitted it.  I have no issue with someone being open about the relationship they have with their wife especially when there is no double standards.  

And the other, allegedly is Jerry Fallwell Jr.  Now if this is true, it can be argued that double standards apply here.      

But the term Cuck is one which refers to a man allowing his wife to have coitus with other men.  When it comes to those who support Trump, what do they think of Melania Trump and if she has allowed Trump to have affairs with Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels and of course, they way he tried it on with the women he had taken furniture shopping.  Is Melania Trump a Cuck or is the behaviour of Donald Trump acceptable as he is an Alpha Male and therefore, something that Melania should not be judged over?

And so she passes

My wife and children took me down to the funeral of my step-mother.  The journey was a little stressful as my wife had thought that the funeral was at 1500 rather than at 1400 but we got there in time.  The older of my two younger brothers was already there and my youngest arrived soon after me.

Being in effect her children, we were the coffin bearers and while I was asked to be at the front as I was the oldest, as my two brothers look taller than me (I insist that I am the tallest, but others think that my little brothers are taller) they are at the front.  It was strange to be so close to so many people as I am used to more social distancing in my job, but I had to comply.

Meeting my aunts and uncles was interesting.  As I have not seen my father in a long period of time, I have not seen them.  One of my brothers is a lot more engaged with them and he had gone to the wake before the funeral where there were more people.  We did talk about my father who was not able to come to the funeral.  When he had seen the body of his wife, he was in a lot of pain from the journey from his nursing home in the taxi and on the wheel chair and my youngest brother who has not seen him in some time said that he looked very different to how he remembered him.  One uncle said that when he had moved in with us when I was younger, that he could not stay as my father drove him mad, and seeing how he had driven so many others away in a way made me feel less guilty about not seeing him since my children were very small.  But my brothers have said that there is little point in me contacting him as he does not seem to recognise them any more and they do not think that he will remember me.

I still feel guilty that my step-mother did not get to see my children as she was very kind of heart.  To be fair, anyone who was able to stay with my father so long had to have a heart of gold.  Her sister was there with her own children who talked about how much she meant to them.  I did speak, but I did not really say much, other than how kind she was and how I was grateful for the love and kindness that she showed my brothers.

Anyway, may she rest in peace.  

Does Earth Day matter in our house

My son is annoyed with me.  He left the television on and left it, again.  I posted this image with the message on social media.  He was not pleased.  I have done so about my daughter in the past, and her behaviour has changed.  I hope the same happens with him.

My wife and I went out for date night tonight, though my son not clearing up his bedroom as promised meant that the start was not as good as I liked.

Arsenal won the Community Shield, and I listened to how it went to penalties on the radio before we left for it.  I hope to watch the highlights tomorrow possibly.

Bigger, not smaller

I weighed myself today,  I have put on weight. I suspect it is because I am no longer cycling to my second job on a Wednesday.  The image for this post is due to an observation made at work last week.

I have been walking more, but not as much as I would like,  I have tried to walk with my daughter or cycle with my son, but both have resisted this.  So I am going to have to try harder by myself now.

The Sleepover

Our family film tonight has been The Sleepover. And it has been more acceptable than Muriels Wedding, and while not as good, as a family film, it is one that has been acceptable to all of us.

Obviously it is not realistic, I mean, a brother and sister spending so much time together and not arguing?  As a fun brainless comedy it is a good film.  Not one that I will be watching again and I am glad we watched it on Netflix rather than paying for it at the cinema.  I would not have been happy to have paid for it.

But it was great for us all to watch it as a family.

In other news, the keyboard on my computer failed today and I have had to buy a keyboard to use my laptop.  I had been intending to cycle to my Wednesday job but did not because of Storm Francis, I decided against cycling into work and worked from home.

Cooking with my daughter was fun.  I forgot to tell her to take the sausages out of the oven and they were a tad overdone, so the kids at at McDonalds.  I am cooking with he kids on alternate Wednesday’s when possible.  This showed why I need to practice more.

Aldeburgh And our August day trip

Today we went to Aldeburgh for a change of scenery.

We had breakfast in Hall Farm near Dedham and then went to the coast where we did a bit of shopping and went for a walk.  The weather was lovely and the view over the North Sea was amazing.

Later we went out for dinner and just had a quiet day overall with two friends coming over afterwards.

Dementia And The Living Years

My Stepmother died today.

I had not seen her in many years, not because of anything to do with her, but instead, because of my father.

After my parents divorced, I lost contact with my father.  He did not make contact with me, despite having contact with my brothers, and I was happy to not contact him either.  She was his third wife, the second leaving him soon after marriage because of the way he was.  I had taken the kids to see him and her, but it did not go well.  My wife was not keen on me taking them again, though if I had in the last few years, they could have got to know her and would have challenged him on his bigotry and intolerance.  Considering how that applied to their  other though, it may have been a good thing not to do so.

She had cared for my two younger brothers when they had gone, though my father also drove my youngest brother away as well.  She looked after him despite her failing health and was not able to care for him last week when we were on holiday.  He now has dementia and had to go into a home, the older of my two younger brothers keeping an eye on him despite being several hundred miles away.  He had to go into a home when her own health failed, but despite optimism that she would come out, she did not.

I wish I had spoken to her and thanked her for looking after him before she died.  My issues with my father should not have influenced how I acted to her.  But that is too late.

I have to decide now if I reconcile with my father.  Or try to.  He had not changed before his diagnosis of dementia according to my brother who was seeing him.  But, is he still the person who I do not want to see?  I owe him lots.  He taught me about maths, taught me how to cycle, and by being a violent and lazy father, taught me what not to do with my children.

I do not know what to do, but dementia is taking him away from the world and if I do want to make contact, I guess the sooner the better.

The Darksaber

My son is very happy.  He now owns a darksaber.  He saw it on Star Wars Rebels and we have both watched it make a brief appearance on The Mandalorian.  He had bought some lightsabers on Amazon before and was disappointed when they broke within 48 hours, but when he saw this, he knew what he wanted to spend the last of his Christmas and Birthday money on...

Muriel's Wedding

Today we watched Muriel's Wedding.  We had intended to watch a film on Sunday evening but the kids did not want to and promised to watch something as a family on Wednesday.  Today the argument was about which Wednesday but they did agree to watch Muriel’s Wedding.  The thing is that my wife and I forgot how traumatic it is in parts.  The kids left after a particularly savage occurrence and missed how the film was a lot more happy afterwards.  But my wife and I loved it, just as we did when we were younger.  I hope that our children do not identify with it the way we did, and I guess that may be one of the reasons it did not mean as much to them.  Also my wife and I watched it when we were at university, something that the children will not attend for a few years, if at all.  

Genesect & Pokémon GO

Time for that update on Pokémon GO.

I am in the market for the following in a lucky trade.  Those in bold are what I am most interested in.

Absol
Axew
Azelf
Bastiodon/Shieldon
Burmy
Carnivine
Chatot
Cryogonal
Duskull
Geodude (normal form)
Goldeen
Gothitelle
Heatmor
Meowth (Alola & Galarian Form)
Nosepass
Pachirisu
Pansage/Simisage
Panpour/Simipour
Probopass
Relicanth
Rotom
Sigilyph
Throh
Uxie
Victini
Woobat
Yamask

In addition to this, I am also interested in certain legendary Pokémon but as I have the non-shiny forms of all of them (so far), I am not too fussed about them for now.  Saying that, I am hopeful that I will get a shiny Genesect.  But considering that I never caught a Shiny Rayquaza, or many other legendary versions, I suspect that I will miss out on this as well.  However, I have been able to take this Pokémon down with two or three accounts.  Today in a battle with two accounts, I lost three Pokémon, but later fighting with two others, I lost four.  I am hopeful that with the smaller numbers needed for this, that I will be able to catch a shiny one.

Lust and the American right

I do not know how those on the right wing of American politics decided that a man, who was on his third wife was a more moral candidate than a woman who stuck by her adulterous husband.  This being a man who had bragged about sexual assault.  Fine, he said that this was ‘locker room talk’ but no locker room talk I have heard involved men or boys bragging about the girls/women they forced themselves on.

Now many may argue that these women let him grab them, but many victims of rape and sexual assault have talked about how they froze, the hashtag #IjustFroze.

Of course since then, it has come to light that that same man paid hush money to two women who he engaged in adultery with.  Well, so the allegations say.  And while many have been vocal about judging Stormy Daniels for having sex with him on Twitter, they seem to let him off when it comes to him having sex with her.

There are other things that I do not understand, the acceptance of Brett Kavanaugh, despite the overwhelming evidence that he lied under oath about his drinking.  The allegations that he had sexually assaulted a woman can never be proven without an admission from him, but why lie about his drinking if he was innocent.

One day, someone may be able to explain the faith they have in an adulterous president on his third wife.  And I hope I meet hem online soon.

Day eleven in Devon. Goodbye.

At home now.  My wife intended that we had an early start and I have to admit I was sceptical about if this would happen, but she was amazing and not only ensured we left early, but reorganised the boot and drove past Stonehenge before letting me drive the rest of the way.

Getting back, all is unpacked and I am about to return to the ironing that I have to do for work tomorrow, both for me and my wife.  My daughter has found that her plant has died, though she insists it is not her fault, though she accepts the blame for leaving her keys there!  I have promised to buy both her and my son a plant each and to reward the one who keeps it alive the longest.  I think it will be a short competition but I hope they prove me wrong!

Day ten in Devon. The Royal George.

Almost our last day, in fact, our last full day in Devon.  We returned to South Milton so that my wife and son could browse the market there while my daughter and I went for a walk about town.

After that it was back to Appledore to eat at The Royal George, so good, we had to return.  This is one of the better places that we have eaten.  Not the best as that was The Five Bells Inn where we ate on our second day in Devon.  However, I would say that this was the second best place that we have eaten at this holiday, better than Britannia By The Beach.

Anyway we are now preparing for our trip on the road home tomorrow.

Day nine in Devon. South Molton.

Today was spent doing a bit of shopping.  I had gone for my morning walk which I noted that I was finding a lot easier.  I am not sure if this was because it was cooler when I walked, or if I am getting fitter.  Sadly, my stomach is not showing any improvement on this front.

My son got yet more sweets (eating them impaired his appetite this evening) while my wife and daughter bought other things.  My daughter bought some earrings which my wife had her eye on.  So after lunchtime we went back later for her to get some others.

At lunch though, we went to get our pottery.  Mine was the worst, which I expected, my wife was amazing with her work, but the kids had produced works to be proud of as well.  While there my wife got us some chips which we ate at Crow Point.  It is down a roll road, but was quite peaceful and I would like to return one day.  But that is for another time.

Day eight in Devon. Appledore.

Today was another relaxing day, though affected by rain at times.  My walk took me on my usual route for parts of it, and near to a Pokéstop that I had nominated earlier in the week.  This time on my walk, I went exploring in a different way and found what is best described as a lair.  I suspect that it was made by kids as opposed to teenagers as there was no litter there.

Later in the day we had lunch in Appledore at a restaurant which our hosts had recommended to us.  Sadly, I was too full to appreciate it, but did enjoy some fresh mackerel while my daughter and wife enjoyed the view of the estuary.  She drove there and I drove back.  Afterwards we popped to Westward Ho!  At the time it had started to rain so lots of people were leaving it, and while I understand that kids love it, the charm it offered was wasted on me and my wife.  Though some of the houses at Silford which overlooked it looked amazing.

My wife and daughter got bored (my son has been entertaining himself with his iPhone) and put some makeup on me, one taking one side and the other having access to the other.  I have yet to get a view on which was better though!

Day seven in Devon. Pottery

Today was a day spent pottering about.

It was meant to be a rainy day so my wife booked some time painting pottery.  However, it was a very hot and sunny day instead.  We got some takeaway chips from a highly recommended chippy near it.  We were glad about this as there appeared to be little social distancing in it, though they were very COVID aware in the takeaway part.

Painting pottery was fun, the kids were great as was my wife.  I failed to match them and later, when they painted a second time, I got my book out and started to read instead.

We had a drive afterwards as my wife found a place that sold hoppers.  They were okay and done in a Sri Lankan style.  To be fair, with the clients who they served, they needed to tone things down as Sri Lankan food is quite hot!

Day six in Devon. Valley of rocks.

Today, after breakfast outside, the kids and I went for a walk in the Valley of Rocks.  My wife was tired and rested in the car, and I honestly expected my son to do the same, but he got wind of my emergency supply of chocolate fingers and joined my daughter and I.  It was quite foggy and while my daughter wanted to walk down to the beach, with the poor visibility, there would have been little point.  So we went up instead.  I was impressed with the stamina of both children.  They walked faster than me and while both did so with vigour, my son has not been that active and I expected him to flag.  Instead, he powered on impressing me.  My daughter overcame her fear of heights as we climbed up the path and while we managed to walk out of the fog, it was a bit scary at times.

Over an hour later, we returned to the car where my wife had been reading.  We looked about for places to have lunch but decided to return to Barnstaple as social distancing was not as evident where we were.

Later I played throw and catch with the kids, and while me daughter was resting, a rabbit hopped about behind her.  After dinner, it was a few games, and now it is time for bed,

Day Five in Devon. Art and rain.

 It rained today though not until after we had breakfast outside.  Due to this, my daughter and I had a changed walk which involved walking around the farmhouse.  Afterwards we all played a quiz before heading off to Bideford to visit an art gallery.

M favourite was the rice exhibition where the artist had signified different things with different grains of rice.  Being an NHS worker, I was represented in one pile.

I did go for another walk when we returned and got back for dinner which our hosts made in a wood fired oven.

Day four in Devon. No goats.

The kids were disappointed today that I did not meet, or get attacked by a feral goat.

We had a great breakfast to start.  My daughter has not eaten pork since she saw the pigs yesterday.  My son has yet to visit them.  So he, my wife and I had bacon which she declined.  Our muffins had been freshly made along with our bread.

After breakfast, my daughter and I attempted the walk to the nearby village.  Unlike yesterday, we made it and found the pub that we later ate at.  We took a slight diversion on the way back.  Yesterday we disagreed about how to get back when we came to a fork.  She was right, but today, we took the other fork.  There was a lot of up and she rested on a bench before we headed back after making a half hearted attempt to move on.

Once back at the farm, we rested, and then all of us went out for lunch before we went for a drive.  We had been hoping to get to an isolated beach, but while we found beaches, they had people there and due to my concerns about COVID19, we did not go there.  We did find the Valley of Rocks where I went climbing.  I suspected that wildlife was going to be present but did not see any.  It was only later that the children told me about the feral goats that live here.

We had an okay but expensive dinner nearby and now it is time for bed.

Day Three in Devon

It is our third day in Devon and we have moved from the southern half to the north.  Breakfast was very civilised and followed by packing.  I really must remember not to pack such a large suitcase when we go on holiday next.  My wife drove while I directed, the journey essentially being from around Ottery St Mary to Barnstaple.  Our Sat-Nav wanted us to take the M5 for part of the journey, but we ignored that.  My wife did not like not obeying the Sat-Nav but trusted me and we made good time without getting caught in traffic.  I am sure that she would have preferred to have driven on wider roads, but that is not always an option here.

Anyway, we are relaxed now.  We have eaten, our hosts kindly agreeing to feed us.  After we got here, my daughter and I went for a walk, though we visited the two pigs as they were being fed.  My daughter has found it hard to eat meat afterwards though!  The walk took us to a nearby village and she coped with it far better than I did.  We returned before making it to our destination which was a local pub, part of the reason being that she had lost her phone (again), which we found as we guessed that she must have lost it when she rolled down a hill.  If all goes well, I may try the route tomorrow morning.  But that depends on what time I get up.  Today, despite going to bed at a decent time, I woke up late (for me) And the walk today took a lot out of me.

I missed out on a lot of Pokémon community day, but spending time with the family was more important and more enjoyable.  Anyway, have to go as we are about to have another game of Articulate.

Day Two in Devon. Our return to Beesands and Britannia at the Beach.

Today was meant to be better, but it ended really well.  After breakfast we relaxed before driving to Beesands for lunch.  We have been there before and while there are places closer, this has a memorable place in the hearts of my wife and I.  I am not too sure about how much the children remember about being here in the past, but my wife remembers this for good and not so good reasons.  I love the fish here, so we drove there.

It was after we encountered the first blockage in the road that I started to think that there might be a better route there.  Our Sat-Nav had decided to take us on a direct but challenging route.  I took a different route and realised when we ended up part of a convoy of cars that the algorithms must be similar, and wrong.  When we finally ended up there, it was busy.  Social distancing was taking place, which was just as well for the man in a wheelchair that we saw along with a woman pulling along her oxygen cylinder.  But while the day had started sunny and promising, it started to rain.  It was just spotting for lunch and we drove back along the coast, ignoring the Sat-Nav for a while.  Sadly due to a wrong turn we did not get to walk about in Ottery St Mary.

What we did do was to go for dinner after I had my evening walk.  While there, my cool daughter and awesome son played articulate.  Dinner though was amazing and while my wife too tired to go, we all enjoyed being there.

Day one in Devon

We are resting after a long day.  We set off in the morning but had to turn around as I had forgotten a few things.  After that slight delay it was a trip on The Road To Hell, which was not as bad as we expected.  My wife did the first part of the drive and we swapped round after taking a break at a Costa drive through in Bagshot.  

I drove most of the rest of the way.  We had a few more stops to stretch our legs and eat the lunch that had been provided for us, as well as to stock up on driving snacks.  Driving past Salisbury was an experience as there has been an accident at Stonehenge.  This meant that I got to see the stones from a distance and gained more of an appreciation of how big they are compared to us humans.

We got some final supplies in Exeter before my wife drove us on the final stretch.  Which meant retracing our steps.  But we have arrived.  She had booked dinner and we ate in the sun, me having a beer while she had a shandy with a trace of alcohol in it.  Dinner was great and the kids, who on the whole have been great for most of they day enjoyed the game we played while eating.

After dinner, my daughter and I went for a walk, the photo being one of several that were taken by the two of us.  

Anyway, now to rest and hopefully to enjoy the first proper day of our holiday tomorrow. 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Our journey has begun.  Right now, we are at my parents in law resting before the long drive to Devon.  We have looked at the route, but are not sure where we will be stopping for rest, food and drink yet.  A lot will depend on traffic as well as the time we leave.

When I woke up this morning we watched he end of Star Wars, Episode Nine, The Rise of Skywalker.  I have posted about this earlier in the year, but now I feel free to discuss the film more.

It was well directed with better acting than the prequels and tugs on the heart strings well.  But while it appeals to the boy inside me who sided with the rebels/terrorist scum, it has made lots of errors.  Examples of this are how Finn and Jannah are rescued from a falling Star Destroyer, or how only a few knew the way to the planet of  Exegol, but there were loads of people there already.  In fact, there are so many errors and issues, it amazes me that people focused on the lesbian kiss instead!  But, despite the many issues, it is still a good film.  Not up to the standards of the original three, or even Solo and Rogue One.  But it is probably my sixth favourite Star Wars film.  Considering there are eleven, that is not saying much, but seeing Wedge Antilles in the final battle made the child in me sing for joy.

We did get to see my mother.  My wife had to stay in the car as it was full of our luggage and it was great to briefly see my youngest brother.  The visit was much briefer than I would have liked but my son claimed that his sister was mean to him 75%.  While he later said it was only 50% of the time, my Mum made things worse when she asked my daughter to be nicer to him.  Worse, I had asked her to get him to justify the maths behind his statement, but she decided to ignore me and upset my daughter so we left early.

We have eaten, been watered and I watched THAT interview with my father-in-law.

So, to bed soon for our journey tomorrow...

Don Peyote

This is a very interesting film.  One which is strange, but I think makes sense of why some people like conspiracy theories.

Warren does drugs, I presume because he likes them and because reality is not what he wants.  And he is obsessed with conspiracy theories.  Conspiracy theories that attempt redefine/explain reality.  The film is an interesting chart looking at his path to madness/clarity and most of the time, this is like one of the more eclectic films that I watched in the past.  I say ‘like’ as it has tackled issues I had not looked at before.

When it comes to the family, my son and I prepared he car for our trip.  We aim to start the first leg tomorrow and hopefully will see my mother before staying over at my parents-in-law.  My daughter is ecstatic as she found her phone (finally) and as I type, is going through two months of messages.  I did try to interest her in the latest interview by Trump, but she was convinced it was a spoof.  To be fair, my wife did as well later. 

To rain or not to rain

In summary I went to the dump today in preparation for our trip to Devon later in the week.  Afterwards, we went to Brightlingsea were we shared a beach hut before it started to rain.

We got to spend a bit of time there taking in the sun and the view before it started to rain.  So we packed and left and then it stopped.  We stalked an ice cream van and drove home as the sun not only came out, but shone and it was like it had not rained at all.

I watched an episode of Rebels with my son, my daughter joining us as well before we had some friends round,  I do get nervous with people round as while I am at work, I am rarely within two metres of anyone and often, I am wearing PPE when doing so.  But it was nice to see them and have human contact.  We did have a discussion about the recent allegations of rape in parliament and the existence of the gagging order preventing the culprit from being named.  While we all agreed that rape and sexual assault are wrong we had some disagreements as to if the culture that makes some men feel that they have to right to molest others has changed or not.

I have been blocked again on Twitter despite being polite.  It was an interesting discussion but the person who blocked me kept responding on tweet with a deluge of tweets and then would get annoyed if we had not answered every point that he had raised in an attempt to avoid the points that I and others had made.

That is it for now, though my daughter is still having to cope without her phone,

Little Women

I have finished most of my work today.  I have had to into work to complete reams of paperwork that I really should have completed over the last two months or so.  Cycling there and back today after doing it yesterday was a bit more tiring than normal as I have not done this on two consecutive days for a while.  But the more I can do the better.

Later on we went to visit two friends who had put on a socially distanced film showing in their back garden.  While my son did not watch it, we watched Little Women.  My wife and daughter loved the book and loved the film as well.  I watched bits while I was going through my e-mails and while I found the beginning of it hard going as there were so many characters.  But I did get into the film and would love to watch it again another time.

Watching how Scarlet Fever was an issue then did make me think about how COVID19 is to portrayed in fiction in the future.

Anyway, other than a few odds and ends, my holiday has now started and I can look forwards to our trip to Devon.  Not sure how my daughter will cope though as she has no phone still.

Arsenal and the 14th FA Cup

We won!  An amazing game.  I admit to thinking that we were doomed once Chelski scored, but we did really well.  Our defence was outdone by a run from midfield but we changed our tactics and thanks to a dodgy second yellow card, Chelski were down to ten men and were punished.

It was strange watching it in an empty stadium but I am getting used to it.  And it was great to see the reaction of Ian Wright when we scored, along with the sickly feeling Cashly tried to hide.

Needless to say, I am going to be unbearable when back at work.  I had gone in yesterday to finish my paperwork and will need to do so today to complete it.  It was annoying that we finished below The Scum, again, but at least for this season, I can keep asking the three supporters when they last won a trophy.

My son congratulated me at the end of the game, my daughter watching it with me.  My wife was unaware we had got to the final, despite me telling her several times, an indication of how much she tunes me out when it comes to foot ball.