Tag Archives: Brazil

Did you see the game?

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Yesterday’s incomparable Women’s NCAA Basketball Final? 🏀

This is not a debriefing. We have professionals for post-game analysis. This is just to say that if you can watch a recording, or the top plays on your favorite sports’ station, do it!

I have been watching women’s NCAA basketball for many years now. One of our family members played against Diana Taurasi in an AAU Tournament in Coronado, California, and scored against her, too! I have spent holiday weekends at AAU tournaments for the love of the game.

Iowa and South Carolina both played exceptional games. Team stars Clark and Cardoso lit up the stadium. The game was so good that bench players poured in points as well. 6’7” Brazilian player, Kamilla Cardoso, and American player, Caitlin Clark of Iowa, record-setting three-point shooter, brought different styles of play to today’s game. Who did you most enjoy watching on the court yesterday?

For me, it is important to see the teams coached by women win. Thanks to Dawn Staley and Lisa Bluder we watched two women’s teams coached by women in the 2024 NCAA Women’s Final! Once women are the head coaches of men’s teams, I will relax on this point, but as our brilliant US Women’s Soccer Team keeps reminding us, sexism is alive and well in sports ⚽️

Did you call the winner of this game? I did not! Who do you most look forward to watching in the WNBA?

He’s got hops!

Friends from Buy Nothing

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You would never know what an effort I have put into giving away unused and underutilized possessions in this home!

At least the exercise equipment is colorful. Some of it is merely aspirational at this point, and will find a new home in our basement. (The basement was waterproofed during the pandemic, but not finished, so it is not a comfortable place to spend time.)

We bought this home twenty years ago. It was built in 1955, and the race car curtains hanging in the boys’ bedroom were definitely from that era. They looked worn, but I couldn’t just toss them. Today they hang in a Volkswagen Microbus sporting 1950s decor.

Curtains from the 1950s?

Parting with my beloved Frye boots was possibly an overhasty move. But they no longer fit comfortably. Since I never have used curlers, I was surprised to find an unused set in the closet: They appeared dated, yet were also quickly claimed.

Conair Curlers Lurking in the Closet

The best gift I received from Buy Nothing, the best possible gift, has been the gift of friendship with a young family. They will move back to their home country in a few months, and we will sorely miss them!

When people ask how we met, the answer is always “through Buy Nothing!” When they first arrived to an empty apartment, they realized that they did not have the IKEA tool necessary to assemble their toddler’s bed. Our house is decorated with a mix of antiques from grandparents and consignment shops, along with “Early IKEA,” purchased twenty plus years ago from the IKEA in Tustin, California.

From the IKEA tool, and a follow up thank you via the Messenger app, a tentative friendship began. I mentioned that I was studying Portuguese when my friend, Anita, said they were here from Brazil. We have no grandchildren, and they have no family in the US, so our intergenerational friendship has grown. We enjoy visits from Caio when his parents are busy. Our basement holds tubs of Duplos, Tinker Toys, Playmobil, and K’Nex, and our bookshelves are full of Dr. Seuss books.

Caio with Tinker Toys

Our friends have had a new family member since their arrival! I had so much fun baking a child’s birthday cake, and bringing out my Tupperware “Cake Taker” for the first time in years for George’s first birthday. He is a little boy now ❤️

Hoje vai ser um bom dia

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Studying Brazilian Portuguese is one of my pastimes. More correctly, one of my passions. I’ll have to ask a Brazilian friend how to spell “Puanhol,” i.e., Portuguese mixed with Spanish. Our family speaks a lot of “Swinglish.” (Can you guess which two languages we casually blend?) I’m also working on Latin American Spanish. The city of Oaxaca de Juarez has a hold on our hearts, and we plan to return. Our son and daughter-in-law were engaged in Oaxaca last year 💞

The other day, my phone presented me with a silent challenge: It opened to my translation app, indicating that I should say something in Portuguese to be translated into English: Portuguese 🧿 English. So my first words of the day were “Hoje vai ser um bom dia.” 😃 “Today will be a good day.”

It’s time for my evening lesson now. But like many people learning a language online, I don’t speak enough of any of the languages I am trying to learn. Speaking into the microphone is one way to speak more.

What language(s) are you studying? What have you learned or spoken in your new language today?

I am the one wearing an ACL brace in the photo below.

Hierve el Agua, Oaxaca de Juarez