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A few months ago I made some predictions about Ted Lasso’s final season. Spoilers abound in this post so if you haven’t finished the series yet skedaddle. Were my predictions correct? No, possibly, no, yes but not for that reason, half of it, not really but kinda, halfway, and YES!
Prediction: Keeley ends up leaving her PR firm and returning to Richmond to work.
Result: No. Rebecca saves her PR firm, but she never stopped working for Richmond to begin with.
Prediction: Keely and Roy break up but reunite by the end of the season.
Result: Possibly? They broke up, and they did reunite but not as close as they were. I’m grumpy about this, because I’d rather have sacrificed the stupid Jack storyline to have Roy realize he had to some work on himself earlier in the season.
Prediction: Sam and Rebecca’s past relationship is leaked to the press. (Nate digging up dirt by Rupert’s request?)
Result: No thank goodness. Sam & Rebecca are thankfully over.
Prediction: Richmond defeats West Ham because Nate is too much in his own head trying to beat Ted.
Result: Yes but not for that reason.They lost the first game, but won the more important match. Nate had already left by that time, but Rupert was the one who was too much in his own head.
Prediction: Nathan is fired from West Ham after the loss and tries to return to Richmond in his prior role as equipment manager.
Result: Halfway correct and I’m pissed. Nate quit on his own in a scene we weren’t shown for some bizarre reason. He was invited to return to Richmond as the assistant to the equipment manager. It was the love of a good woman who set him straight, and the Nate/Jade trope of “just keep pursing the woman who’s not interested in you and you’ll end up together” was gross.
Prediction: Rebecca and Ted do not hook up, but end up very good friends. She buys a soccer team in the US so Ted can continue to coach soccer but be closer to his son.
Result: Halfway correct and I’m glad. I was very shocked by the sheer number of Rebecca/Ted shippers out there. Platonic relationships between men and women can and do exist, and honestly if they hooked up it would have given Mike Pence more validation for his workplace misogyny. They did not hook up. Ted does return to be closer to Henry, a paternal tug that he gave no shits about in seasons 1 and 2 but his ex-wife having a boyfriend and a guilt trip (literally) by Ted’s mom drove our coach away from his chosen family back home to Kansas.
Predication: But Coach Beard stays in England to work for Richmond’s new head coach, Roy Kent.
Result: YES. The Kent/Beard pairing is a match made in heaven.
What pissed me off a lot in this final season was many of the scenes that should have been pivotal ended up being off-screen. In some cases, the scene would just stop right before it got good and we’d be back to maudlin Ted.
After 2 years of Rebecca dropping Truth Bombs on Ted, I wanted to see Ted have the uncomfortable conversation about returning to Kansas. I wanted to see Nate tell Rupert he was quitting West Ham. I wanted to see Sam’s restaurant thrive despite Afuko’s hired food blogger and rival restaurant.
I wasn’t into Ted Lasso because it was Prestige Television. I didn’t want to have to fill in the blanks myself a la “was Tony Soprano killed?” I came in for a sitcom that had heart. The writing team (and honestly, a lot of this smacked of Season 3 showrunner Jason Sudeikis working out his own marital/family issues through writing) painted these characters into these strange corners and decided not to show us how they got out.
Ted was our least favorite character this season. He seemed cold and robotic in the finale. People were so sad about him leaving and he was all, ‘okey dokey.’ I’m glad the rest of the characters found their way (although thanks to the really strange editing choices people out there believe it was Ted’s dream on the flight home, even though Brendan Hunt says it was not a dream) while Ted is ostensibly unemployed, coaching youth soccer, and probably too much into his ex-wife’s life.
I give Season 3 a B- and the finale an A because it did hit me in all of the sentimental places. I would 100% watch a spinoff about the team.
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Happy Friday, which is also National Rotisserie Chicken Day, National Rocky Road Day, and the first of TNP’s alternating “Summer Fridays” off for staff. Mom & I hit the Ocean City boardwalk today and I’m filled with pizza, iced coffee, and fudge. Chocolate Walnut fudge, not Rocky Road fudge because I didn’t know about the National Day this afternoon. If I did, I would have bought it, because I’m nothing if not committed to this Friday National Day bit.
It’s also somebody’s birthday. I don’t remember who and Facebook isn’t helping, meaning it’s someone from a very old job or even back from school. All I remember is today is somebody’s birthday, so if it’s you, happy birthday! I remembered your birthday. I just don’t remember your name.
When I got home, I lucked out and managed to catch the Mister Softee truck. I had a medium chocolate cone with chocolate jimmies, as always. I love being an adult.
Here’s the Friday 5! This week’s theme is Do you feel a draft? Yes I do, because it hit 94 degrees this afternoon and the AC has been trying to catch up all day.
- Where do you frequently go for a breath of fresh air?
In the language of my South Jersey people, down the shore. We’re anywhere from 50-90 minutes away from amazing beaches and boardwalks. Take me to the shore! - In what way are you running against the wind?
Fitness. I have to go back to the gym. I have to. I can’t afford not to. But it seems like so much effort for so little immediate return. - What item on your to-do list this weekend do you expect to be a breeze?
I need to buy a new garden hose nozzle because the old one cracked. They’re sold everywhere. No biggie. I’m back to using the garden hose because my rain barrel is completely empty. It’s thundering out so hopefully I can get back onto the reclaimed rainwater wagon. - What would you like to have completed by the end of August?
I am slowly working on tidying up the garage, which has been in shambles for almost 2 years. I’m a big “everything in its place” person, but I need to establish where the places should be. I’m working for a half-hour at a time triaging things (drill bits, garden supplies, rags, adhesives, car things) into larger boxes. Then I’ll figure out where the contents of each box should go. - What recent events in your life are worthiest of trumpeting?
I started A Thing at work last month and was pretty unsure about it. Yesterday, a member wrote a very positive post about The Thing I Did and it gave me ALL of the warm fuzzies. So the worries that I forgot to do my job after a week off were unfounded as always. I also learned to put air in my tires with an air compressor thingy-doo. Going to the gas station and putting quarters into the air machine with the weird dinging sound was daunting. This is niiiiiiiiiiice.
Other than the scintillating hose chore, this weekend we’re going to the movies for the first time since 2019. (Don’t get excited, it’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.) I do not believe Covid is over, but I do believe the worst is very far behind us and it’s so nice to be on this side of the worst.
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Rabbit Rabbit! Happy June, my favorite month of the entire year. I love the long sunny days and the warm weather. I love the end of the school year and taking the laptop outside in the mornings to work.
A few years ago, my MIL bought us this wrought-iron R sign and I had no idea what to do with it so I hung it on a hook and forgot about it.
Last week I decided to actually do something with it. We had some flat wooden bed slats for a long-gone IKEA bed in the garage. We also have eight half-full cans of wood stain from past projects. (Our fatal flaw: we can’t decide on one shade of stain so none of our wood matches from room to room.) We have a nail gun and a scary table saw. And I had a frightening amount of confidence.
The plan: Assemble some slats into a sign, screw the R to the wood, and put it into the ivy bed in front of the house.
And for the most part, that’s what I did! I disassembled the slats from the cloth them together. I measured and cut five of them to be give about 3/4″ space around the R. I cut two of them shorter so I could nail them to the back of the five boards to hold them together. Newer slats appear to be curved; ours were flat. I stained them with Varithane Golden Oak and let them dry completely. Then I sprayed each slat and the stakes with Olympic WaterGuard spray and let them dry for a day.
Letting everything dry out completely eliminated my usual desire to rush through the project, messing it up. The next day, I used the nail gun to assemble it from the back and then screwed the metal R to the front of it.
Regret #1 – before nailing I must have bumped into the third slats and moved it slightly because it doesn’t line up perfectly with the others.
Regret #2 – not buying a small pack of small black screws. We have so many screws in the garage that I couldn’t justify buying more. Instead I used small silver screws and colored them black with a Sharpie.
Regret #3 – not taking the time to stain the stakes – I thought they’d be invisible but I didn’t drive the sign down far enough to hide them completely. Hopefully the ivy will do its thing and cover them.
The total project time was less than an hour, but it was spread out over 3 days to accommodate drying time and a trip to Home Depot for 1 1/4″ nails, the waterproofing spray, and the wooden stakes.
I love the sign but most of all I love that I did it myself, from sketching out the project to using power tools I’m not comfortable with.
I’m on the lookout for my next easy DIY project.
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