1) So the bad news was we didn't get to see the new Ant Man this morning. Why? Turns out that the big screen projection at our local theater has been non-functional since last week. They thought they fixed it a few days ago but no. They don't expect it to be running again until next week. Yet there was no word of this online.

However our loss is your gain. Why? Because -- baby bunny!



As we walked back home we stopped to pick up a pot of sunflowers on sale since Mike had been wanting some and I don't expect there will be many available much longer, as nurseries and garden centers start clearing out inventory in July.



Then Mike spotted this wee thing hiding near the lake. It was about the size of my palm. It was completely frozen but as we also stilled (except for the camera) it seemed to decide this walking pot of sunflowers was no threat.



Or perhaps it decided that it was more hungry than scared as it began munching.



We haven't seen rabbits around for a while, though this is largely due to fewer walks given the heat. I was hopeful that the weather would be good this morning since we were leaving early and it was breezy, with a temperature drop after yesterday's thunderstorms.



However this was mostly true in the shade rather than the heat. Maybe the bunny was not just hiding but enjoying the shade of the bushes this morning.



So this was a treat, seeing a baby which we've only done once before in all our years here.

2) Uruguay vs France I think the announcer excitement level goes up with each round of the tournament. Then again, Uruguay played today, likely the best hope for Latin teams left.

France was certainly taking them seriously, and the two teams seemed to get the idea that this was a battle. I couldn't believe how, when at 16 minutes in and two players were trying to keep the ball out of the French corner, that the French player literally punched the Uruguayan player in the small of the back. It was just one of many attacks in the first 15 minutes though the others were more typical fouls. I'm surprised it took until 32 minutes in for a yellow card to be given, and that because the Uruguayan's player shirt got pulled and torn rather than for someone being hit.

Of course that free kick turned into nothing so the game went on back and forth. A lot of the early play seemed to be in front of the French goal and France had to stop some goal shots, such as at 35 minutes in. France didn't seem to be moving enough players forward fast enough, with their play largely stalled in centerfield.

Then we had another yellow card at 39 minutes and France's first real shot on goal -- and there it was, though because of a bad Uruguayan header rather than the French set piece. I wonder if this tournament will also lead in most own goals?

Uruguay had another chance at 41 minutes but the first shot was bad and the rebound stopped by the goalie. Then the goalie stopped the free kick charge as well from a good Uruguayan header, and was in the way to prevent a rebound kick.

The second goal at 60 minutes actually took me by surprise, perhaps because I expected the goalie to get it, which he did but badly. So I guess the overall message of the match was that on the occasions when France got the ball it was able to make something of those opportunities even if Uruguay continued to have a lot of possession (see the failed goal kick at 63 minutes). So the free kick at 88 minutes had at least one of the Uruguayan players in the wall crying, even though the kick resulted in nothing. But it seemed clear they were done regardless of the added time and their own free kick at 89 minutes, they weren't going to tie.

3) Brazil vs Belgium I was 20 minutes into the game when the announcer confirmed what I suspected earlier today, that we have a record number of own goals this year. Is it perhaps because we have more free kicks than usual and thus more occasions of clustering around the goal? (Although quite a few of these have come from corner kicks, as this first one was). We've had good coverage of play around the goals for years so I can't imagine it's that they're simply being spotted more often. I'm not sure why it would be the case.

The Telemundo announcers credited it to bad luck because Brasil was doing the right thing, marking well, and yet the ball bounced off Fernandino's elbow into the goal. When Neymar went off to the side for some calf treatment 27 minutes in, I wondered if we might actually see him miss the game. By 30 minutes maybe he'd prefer to. That run towards goal by Belgium was a mess all around -- they weren't outrun but there was a bad stolen pass and terrible marking and there you have it. I started having flashbacks to the quarterfinals last Cup

At least there were the blocked kicks at 40 and 41 minutes before the half. It only took a few more minutes after the half when we had the yellow card against Belgium. The announcers debated why the ref didn't call a penalty kick at 54 minutes when Neymar was taken down at the Belgian goal. They said that the video replay was done in real time rather than slowed down as the TV does, which is what made one of the commentators correct himself and say that it was definitely a penalty given where the ball was. They disagreed with the ref's decision not to even review it.

That said, the problem with a game full of fouls is exactly that constant video replays will grind things to a halt. Unless the penalties for fouls are a lot higher, it makes sense that teams will keep trying to push their luck in the hopes that it won't be called.

When Brazil finally got its goal, it was a thing of beauty though, the sort of play the team is known from when they're at their best, creating those opportunities. Of course it was very late for them to get it, at 77 minutes. I don't watch Neymar play during the usual season but the way he plays balls through the feet of other players (including that near goal at 78 minutes) makes me understand why he's considered a great player. Another missed opportunity at 80 minutes though, and then more charges but no goal.

A yellow card at 84 minutes in which I imagine Fernandinho thought it well worth holding off another possible Belgian goal. More charges, more lost opportunities even as Belgium was on defense, but it wasn't enough, even after that other near goal at 93 minutes. So that was it, the final Latino team is out.

4) Nabbed this meme from blueswan. I think it's no coincidence that this goes back 14 years since that was the boom year for LJ content. My very first entry was actually a month later in August. Posting in reverse chronological order.

14 years ago (more or less): My introductory post in which I wasn't quite sure what my content would be, with an offline friend being the only commenter. She's long left LJ for Facebook, whereas I see my shift from LJ to Dreamwidth as a continuous account, in part because of the platform style but also because all that content is in fact here.

10 years ago (more or less): A discussion about music and also gendered tastes in writing. What's most interesting to me is that this was during the year or two in which I was maintaining an account at Insane Journal and so I have responses to the post from there, Dreamwidth and LJ compiled.

5 years ago (more or less): Also just back from a trip, though we have much less birdy news to impart these days :( It's been years now since we've had a nest, something I attribute largely to climate change.

2 years ago (more or less): I had just become sucked into Miss Fisher, and apparently this was pre-Image Shack policy change because my photos for this post have disappeared. I was sure it was much longer than that, but maybe it was a Google Photos embedding problem.

12 months ago (more or less): I'd finished up a season of House of Cards, we had just gotten the Buffy board game, and I was complaining about how we can't get the series recordings on PBS anymore because of a change in titling – which I was also angry about today because I don't think we've got a recording setup for the next season of The Tunnel. Also, I remember these issues as if it were yesterday, amazing that it was a year ago already.

6 months ago (more or less): Also just back from a trip with a bunch of photos from the Rose Parade, along with some complaints about some of Sue Grafton's more recent work.

5) Because I've been busy sorting photos, I thought I'd do the same meme but with images this time.



14 years ago (more or less): One of my close friends and I are born in the same year, so we've celebrated some major milestones together. This month in 2004 we went on a cruise, and this is a photo of fish in the Grand Cayman.




10 years ago (more or less): In May, I think, I went to a work conference in Hawaii. And on the beach of the hotel I found the following spelled out. Naturally I assumed the creator was a Buffyverse fan.



5 years ago (more or less): We went on a driving trip to Canada, and Mike got to fulfill a longtime wish, to see a baseball game from the hotel in the Rogers Center. And I recall wishing I could one day see a World Cup game that way. Too bad the 2026 games won't be using that venue!



2 years ago (more or less: We were again traveling, this time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so here's a photo of the falls.



12 months ago (more or less): It doesn't look like we took any photos in July of last year, but in May I went to Whedoncon in L.A. This photo was from a trip down near San Juan Capistrano where some friends and I went after.



6 months ago (more or less): I already linked my Rose Parade photos above which was back on January 1. If I go back the previous week, here's a photo from the L.A. Museum of Art of some platters I quite liked.