Of Dental Appointments and Our First Brush With AI

Friday, May 8, 2026

Our day was full of fun and surprises.

It started with not one but two appointments with the dentist for Jacob and Mary.

For Jacob it was adding some

braces to that bright smile of his

Mary was sad before getting

new rubber bands on her braces

Jacob left ecstatic . . .

. . . as did Mary

After dropping the grandkids off at their respective schools, we opted to treat ourselves to a spot of breakfast.

On the way we passed this always

interesting sight in Camarillo that

had been spruced up for Cinco de Mayo

That was a whole lot of sombreros added to the usual teddy bear collection on display year around.

In the evening, we met at Michael and Vanessa's home for a dinner to again celebrate Laurie's birthday.

"50" made her a bit giddy

After dinner, the conversation with the boys got around to the Civil War, no surprise there.

Jacob wanted to show me some of his current Civil War uniforms after making it clear what other thing he is looking to add to his wardrobe in the next few months.

He even got me into Michael's

Greatcoat and his period correct derby

Laurie was still howling in the background over the "50" candles on her birthday cake.

At this point, Vanessa thought that it would be a good idea to take this photo and let her AI app make it look more "authentic."

Well, that was interesting

Vanessa turned Mary into

a medieval princess . . .

. . . and me into the spokesman for

Fisherman's Friends cough lozenges

Then there was this Sherlock Holmes

version of us

I'm saying that Jacob is Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade, I'm Dr. John Watson and Michael is the Great Detective himself.

As for Mrs. Hudson . . . va, Va, VAVOOM!

In yesterday's post, I mentioned one of the two new European major football leagues trying to put the pieces back together of the now defunct 16 team European League of Football.

We discussed the American Football League of Europe's new eight team circuit yesterday with two teams in Germany and one club each in Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Today we address this other

major American football league

EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ALLIANCE

Frankfort Galaxy

Munich Ravens

Nordic Storm (Copenhagen)

Paris Musketeers

Prague Lions

Raiders Tirol (Innsbruck)

The EFA will only operate with six teams in 2026 with clubs in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France and again, two in Germany.

I don't think that each team having a team in Paris is the best idea but only time will tell.

On Saturday, we'll be at Buena H.S. in Ventura for the Ventura County Youth Track Conference's Varsity Finals.

Jacob qualified in five events and will compete in all of them tomorrow. His events will be the Long Jump, 400 Meters Dash, 800 Meters Run, the 4 x 100 Meters Relay and the 4 x 400 Meters Relay.

He'll be a busy young man as usual on another Spring Saturday.

It's been a good week.