So my nephew turns three in a couple of weeks...

And what he really wants for his birthday is a full sized dump truck he can drive around. Or firetruck. Or cement truck. Or any kind of truck really.

Mental post-it for me... Get him something with wheels. Definitely wheels.

Father's Day

We were lucky, in that my brother brought his whole family to lunch for Father's Day yesterday. It has been a while since I spoke to my sister-in-law. The girls took my parent's dog out and tired him out just running around, as B quite seriously told me "Max doesn't know what Fetch means!" Well, no, he has barely mastered "Sit" - and only shows off his "Sit" when there are treats - or the hopes of treats.

But after my brother and family left to go to the town pool (brrr... I doubt it was very warm! the town pool is outside and it has now been open for only two days), my dad turned on golf, as he usually does and watched the kid from Ireland kick ass on the course.

But my mom and I got to talking (as you do) and wondered about sports, sports aficionados, and fans. We had been reading about the riots in Vancouver (because four sections of the newspaper had full color photos of the Bruins on their front page - above the fold), and the Stanley Cup Final.

We wondered about fans of various teams rioting. You never hear of tennis fans rioting, or fans of golf. No equestrian arts fans ever rampaged through a city because their pick didn't get the big prize. People barely know archery IS a sport, and swimming doesn't seem to bring out the caveman in people (swimmers, however, are just as likely to rampage on behalf of a team they root for as anyone else). No, rioting seems to be the just for fans of team sports.

My S-I-L has a memory of hockey players from her childhood, which sort of tints the way she sees hockey in general. She had a friend growing up that had a couple of older brothers - both of whom played hockey. She was maybe early teens at this point, so the boys were probably eighteen/nineteen. The boys took my S-I-L and her friend to a rock concert one night, and parked in the city. When they got back to their car after the concert, they'd been parked in. The boys swore and inched their way around the car parking them in. Then, they parked at the gas station on the corner, told the girls in the back seat to NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR NO MATTER WHAT, took golf clubs from the trunk of the car and went to put the beat down on the car blocking them in. The girls sat there with the doors locked, the radio on, and they could hear the damage being done.

So hockey players. That really made an impression (and not a good one!).