Yesterday we journeyed north for Tdub’s birthday. We went bowling, which was pretty fun and then back to the house for pizza and cake. I won our game of bowling, which tells you how bad we all were. The party was Zelda-themed, complete with a demonstration of Tdub defeating a boss with an OP sword. JDub made a very delicious, and beautiful, chocolate cake. S and I picked up GG on the way and then dropped her home afterwards. We drove by the old house and it was for sale.

In just a few weeks we will celebrate our 7th year here in the almost country, and I can say confidently that I would never want to live in the burbs again. The old house looked a little better than when we lived there, but I looked it up on Zillow and not a lot had changed. They put in a new front door, a new fence and some new light fixtures. They had painted the walls a light gray, but mostly it had the same problems it had while we were there. The real estate market being what it is, they stand to make a tidy profit, but they’ll have to put that back into a new house with a higher interest rate than we had back in 2017. I definitely didn’t look at it and miss it. We lived there 17 years, and I just felt glad I wasn’t still calling it home.

This evening we’ll watch the Chiefs and 49ers in the Superbowl. I’m not sure there are many combinations that could be less attractive for Bengals fans, but this one is definitely up there. It’s better than seeing anyone else from our division there, but that’s about it. I’m not sure who to root for. I suppose I will just find myself rooting for one or the other as the game goes along.

I’m trying my hand at making focaccia bread today. It’s funny to think how far bread has come since I was a kid. It’s not like other bread did not exist, but it’s more like they were not mainstream and there was no internet for recipe-sharing. When I was growing up in Ohio, you had white bread. Then wheat bread became a thing as a healthier alternative and English muffins. Even when I worked at the bakery in the early 90’s, it was still basically white, wheat, rye, Italian and French. (And I suspect the the Italians and French would be angry that we even labeled those breads as such). Then in the mid-nineties bagels were all the rage and bagel shops popped up everywhere. Next other breads like sourdough, crusty French and focaccia came along. Breads in paper bags rather than plastic with a twist tie! Oh my. Now you have everything. Naan, artisan breads and bao buns. Just go to Pinterest and look it up. While the internet can sometimes be a poison pill, it can also be a miracle. Anyway, I made focaccia with Italian herbs, tomato, kalamata olives and parmesan. It’s very tasty, and will be our 2024 Superbowl snack.

Later: And the Chiefs have won. Again. The game was actually very good and went to overtime. I can’t wait for healthy Joe Burrow to be back. At least we know he has the ability to beat Mahomes. In the meantime, it’s almost spring and that means baseball!