Even my mother’s looking for cooler activities. An Ohio native, she’s been thinking about ice skating since I got into hockey. But as a boomer who hasn’t skated in years, she’s afraid she’ll hurt herself. “Easy enough,” I said. “Wear hockey gear.” And to my surprise, she agreed. She’ll be suited up and on the ice with us for a Friday-night practice July 18—and you better believe there’ll be pictures. Thought you had a good excuse for not getting off the couch and onto the ice, the field or the court? Yeah, not so much.
Ma gets her athletic reflexes warmed up playing Mario Kart with Stage Manager J.
And just this Friday, our boss, editorial director Pam Daniel, tasked us with disposing of all the press samples she’d received this past editorial season. Of course, by “press samples” I mean “bottles of wine.” And by “disposing of” I mean “guzzling.”
A serene setting for a Friday-night wine tasting.
Actually, it was a lovely wine tasting party in her bayfront back yard. Funny how having to rely on the air conditioning all day makes you even more determined to spend time outside. And what could be more Sarasota than a bunch of grammar nerds and foodies sipping Chablis and eating sliders, watching the thunderstorms roll in from the bay and naming the snook that swim around the underwater lights?
(The evil cackle 10 seconds into that video is cameraman CCB, obviously on his way to becoming a professional photojournalist.)
Bad ideas abound at the Slap Shot Party.
In that cultural vein, we’ll forego the fireworks this Friday to rest up for the weekend’s other activities: Early Saturday morning I’m off for a romantic stay in Daytona with CCB…and three of his coworkers. In a Winnebago. At a Nascar race. Yeah, I don’t know why, either. (Say it with me, now: hot dogs and beer!) My Stetson soccer team ran a concession stand at the Daytona 500 a few times. I…don’t know what else to say about that. Let’s go…cars?