Friday open thread: Coming up for air

Hi there! It’s the third Friday of the World Cup, which means an off day as the group stages came to an end yesterday. The knockouts are set, and we all have today to rest, relax, and recharge before that all starts in earnest tomorrow. You know, reconnect with your families, take showers, eat real food not bar food - all the things you do normally that you haven’t done in the last two-plus weeks.

I’m also resting and recharging from an awesome vacation - the lovely mrs. pdb and I went to Atlanta last weekend for the Timbers/Atlanta United match, and then went up to New York to see David Bowie Is at the Brooklyn Museum, which was extraordinary. It was a look at his life and career through, essentially, his stuff - he opened up his archive of his life’s work several years ago, and let the Victoria & Albert Museum use his costumes, notes, lyrics, artwork and other items from his past to put together an exhibit tracing his life.

It was a pretty amazing and emotional look at a unique, trailblazing individual and his art, and it was well worth the exhaustion of flying from ATL-NYC one afternoon and back to ATL the next afternoon, before flying home yesterday (NOTE: Flying three times in three days is not as glamorous as it sounds). We also got to see a taping of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was a lot of fun because I’d never been to a TV show taping before.

So that’s my question to you: Have you done anything really fun and cool lately, whether it’s a vacation, something close to home? Something that you’ve been really excited about that you finally got to do? Or do you have something like that you’re looking forward to?

Also, since it’s an open thread, it’s, y’know, open. How’s the World Cup been for you so far? Any favorites in the knockouts? What are you up to this weekend? I’ll be doing a whole lot of not-flying, which makes me happy.