And they've all left

Just saw the last two cars of visitors off. The day started by getting up at 3AM to deliver people to the airport, then I came home to sleep late and after some puttering around with breakfast we set up my new counter-top dishwasher for its inaugural run. Then the cars got packed and goodbyes said and my place is all mine again. As I said to them: I love my family when they visit and I love them when they leave. Now I have five days of actual vacation to get all the 12th Night sewing done. But first, some flat-out vegetating.

Almost forgot the bowl game

Imagine me, if you will, attending a live college football bowl game. But UCLA (the Maine brother's alma mater) was playing in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco yesterday, and so my brother sprung for tickets for those of us who wanted to go. I may not be big on football, but I like family outings, so it was the three brothers, the nephew, and me. Due purely to geography, UCLA fans greatly outnumbered Florida State fans, although as it happened the Florida fans walked away with the bragging rights. It was, all in all, rather fun screaming the cheers and jumping up to see the exciting plays. Very disappointing that the halftime show did not include the marching band. (Perhaps because Florida doesn't seem to have sent one (the lack being supplied by canned snippets of their fight music), but still it would have been nice if UCLA could have done a show.) Instead we got the official UCLA juggler (yes, juggler) and a mediocre country-rap group from Florida (who, if I followed the announcer correctly, was related to one of the FSU players). The stadium (AT&T park) was quite cold, although only occasionally windy, and I was glad of the fur-lined medieval coat I brought. I've never been in the stadium before and I was surprised at how cozy and intimate it was.