Yesterday was the first day of football season, and I had my dad over to watch the Eagles/Lions game, as we do every year. This year, my daughter, S. has become more invested in the games since her teacher has vowed not to assign homework in cases where the Eagles win. Way to get the kids involved in the outcome. I like it. I sat on the couch, my dad on one end, me on the other, with S. in between and tried to explain the rules. “The team with the ball get four tries to make it ten yards. That’s the first number at the bottom of the screen, the try they’re on. The second number is how many yards they have left to get to ten yards. If the team on defense stops them three times without the team with the ball getting ten yards, the team with the ball can either go for it and turn the ball over where they’re tackled if they don’t make it, or they can punt the ball to the other team.” I’m not sure it makes sense to her yet. But I’m sure she’ll pick it up soon enough. I’m happy enough to have her sit with us because my son, M., can’t sit still for that long, and my wife brought him down to the basement where we placed our old TV and had him watch something on Amazon Prime to keep him occupied and out of our hair.


As usual, I picked up a good whisky for my dad and I to share while watching the game. It’s sort of a ritual for us, watching and whisky. And I always want to have something top notch for the first game so I nabbed a bottle of Nikka From the Barrel for tasting, which lived up to the hype. Usually I don’t buy Japanese whiskies simply because I don’t find that they’re good value for money purchases. For example most 12 Year Scotches go for between $45 and $70 while Yamazaki 12 is now retailing for $150, and that’s simply outlandish if you ask me, but Nikka From the Barrel won the 2018 Whisky of the Year in Whisky Advocate and though the price has gone up from $65 to $73, I figured the splurge for the first game of the season was worth it. Nikka From the Barrel had a nice blend of savory flavors, on the nose, you get smoke and salt as well as toffee and vanilla. And when it hits the palate, you’ve got a nice hit of oak along with stone fruits and honey (it reminds me of a mix between Islay and Highland Scotch with a little single pot still Irish in the mix), and the finish is nice and long with spice and licorice. My dad brought over a bottle of Suntory Toki as a point of comparison, and though the Nikka was obviously a stronger, more complex whisky, the Suntory surprisingly held its own with a fairly similar savory note on the nose but a much lighter palate predominated by vanilla and pear and a rather shorter finish. So, overall, a good day with the whisky tasting.

As for our team, The Eagles, despite the win, they do have me a little nervous. Once the offense got firing on all cylinders, they looked great. AJ Brown is the kind of receiver we’ve needed for years, someone with speed, good hands, and the bulk to fight off the corners and safeties. But I’d like to see our QB Hurts spreading the ball around a little bit more given how good his tight end Dallas Goedert (just looked that up for spelling purposes and had no idea that it was spelled that way despite having seen it on the back of his shirt for two years) and our other prime-time receiver Devonte Smith are. And Hurts is running a little too much to be safe for his prospects of seeing week 17. But really what was hurting was the run defense that looked as porous as cheese cloth. I’m hoping it’s just that they didn’t play much together during preseason and that they’ll begin to coalesce as the weeks go on, but they better do something quick because I doubt they’re going to be able to show up on Monday night against the Vikings and get away with the same level of play. The Vikings are just going to run all over you. Anyway, given our schedule is difficult this year, it’s a good thing they didn’t fall to the Lions as that was already a must-win game in my eyes.


After the game, my wife made spaghetti carbonara for dinner, and I watched AFV with the kids. I hate AFV, but I like sitting with my kids and I didn’t feel like doing much else so I lounged and watched this insipid programming while my kids lapped it up. Then, it was bedtime, and after brushing teeth, we came into my room so I could read to them. We’ve been reading a book called Pax by Sara Pennypacker and we’re about midway through, and although I’m enjoying the book, the kids were amped up, and whenever they get like that, it’s always difficult to settle into reading, so I tickled them for a while (I don’t know why it is that children find tickling fun, but my kids always beg me to tickle them when I’m done reading), and after that, my daughter asked if she could braid my hair, and I said yes, so I lay down and let her braid my hair. The whole time she kept comment on how soft my hair was, and then she said, “It doesn’t even matter that its thinning.” And I was like, what? My hair’s not thinning, and she said, “It is, right here and here,” pointing. But it’s okay, she reassured me, I could use minoxidil. Thanks, kid. That helps. Helps a lot. Tell me, when you look at that picture of the braid, does it look thin? Actually, it looks like a powdered wig. But aside from that, thinning? I don’t think so, but jury’s out, I suppose. But I like the Hamilton look. Had to take the braid out this morning, but I liked it. Might be a lock I’ll rock more often. At least until I decide to finally cut it.

I’m excited that we’re coming up on autumn, that football season is here, that soon enough it’ll be sweater weather. We went to Home Goods two weekends back, and they had their Halloween décor out, and we picked up a few things, a pillow with a black cat on it for M. since his sister got a pillow last year; a skull soap dispenser for the bathroom (my choice); a box that looks like a spell book for S., and my wife selected Halloween-themed salt and pepper shakers. Usually, I do a horror movie marathon in October, because I love horror movies, but this year I figure that with everyone else starting in on the Halloween stuff in late-August, there’s really no reason for me not to start, so I’ve been watching some old favorites, like Jennifer’s Body and reassessing the Fear Street trilogy, which I watched last year for the first time when it came out and thought was good, but wasn’t as over the moon on as other people (I’m going to say the rewatch makes me appreciate it a lot more, but I still strongly favor the 1978 entry). And I figured also that I need to finally get around to watching The Walking Dead (I’ve seen the first three seasons but stopped way back when and never got back around to it). And all the while, watching, I burn my pumpkin-scented Village Candle. Yes, indeed, this is my favorite time of year, this last third largely because of football and then Halloween followed by my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

And now, of course, it’s getting time to head up and pick the kids up from school. I’m sure S. will be happy that she doesn’t have homework, but I’m happy too, because then I don’t have to listen to her complain about having to do homework and then get called over when she doesn’t understand something to explain it, and then, because she’s tired from school, have her not listen to a work I’m saying because really she just wants me to tell her the answer and not explain the process, and when I tell her I’m not going to give her the answer because she needs to learn the process, watch her stomp up the stairs. Isn’t the school year fun? Yeah, I say that now but working from home while trying to keep them preoccupied while they were home for the summer was no picnic, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. It’s the journey, right? Not the destination? It’s what I’m always trying to tell them, so I should maybe contextualize things that way myself.