a99kitten's Musings

I have been hosting a Superbowl party for about 10+ years? I used to go to parties but then noticed that I had less and less football loving friends. What. The. Heck?

I love being a hostess even though I fly around like a crazed bird the day of getting ready. And this morning is no different…

So…what is the deal with a helium shortage?? I LOVE balloons!! Someone better get on that. Hello Mr. President? You have to chime in on a host of things you really have no business being involved in (plus pretty sure there are things you SHOULD be focusing on…but I digress…) so get on THIS!!

Anyway, I scored the LAST of the red and gold balloons at my local store. And the last of their helium. The lady said she would add Hi-Float to them to get them to stay up longer but if I didn’t take them yesterday, the helium and probably the balloons would be gone. OK. Well…this morning they are pretty much all dead :( My 49ers balloons are fine but about 20 of the red and all 24 of the gold are floating…on the floor. :( :(

Called around to all the other stores on the coast first thing this AM – no helium. At all. What the F^($@(#$&(@#$. Oh well. I’ll get creative with the red and gold that I have.

Was hoping I’d get some love from all-powerful Balloon God but no such luck. Well..he (or she) better be giving all of their God-like karma and energy to the 49ers to win today. Then it’s OK :)

Then..apparently my washing machine is leaking a little. I think it’s just a little anyway. Small puddle in laundry room after I did a load of towels last night. So I’m trying another small load this AM to see. Fingers crossed. I need the washing machine to wash Storm’s beds and towels. He is having a little incontinence issue while he sleeps. Just a little but enough to where you need to wash everything. It started yesterday. So I am very stressed although supposedly it’s not uncommon in older dogs. But this makes a husky mom very stressed. At least we have hard wood and stone floors everywhere so it’s just towels and doggie beds to wash. Storm just said “thanks for sharing that with people mom..”

Pre-heating the oven now to start the mac and cheese which I will then move to the slow cooker to keep warm for the game.

Then I need to make the sour cream and onion dip because ALL football parties requires sour cream and onion dip with Ruffles. Also, need to go buy more Ruffles as a 1/2 bag went mysteriously missing last night….damn gnomes.

Need to get ice so I can chill the bottles of bubbly and sodas. Water is in the fridge. And milk. I’ll put on coffee for you and I think I even have some tea laying around. But if people want beer then it’s BYOB. I don’t drink beer so there is no sense is trying to have me pick any out.

Then I have to prepare the shrimp and sausage for the jambalaya. I’ll make close to game time and let simmer on super low for half time enjoyment. I’ve never made jambalaya so let’s see how this goes. But it seemed right since the game is in NO :)

A friend is picking up my boneless Buffalo wings because you can’t make those at home. And I don’t like bones. And frankly, Chili’s has some of the best boneless wings EVER. And I haven’t had them in 3 years or longer. So I ordered 2 party trays of those!!! YUMYUMYUM. Apparently boneless wings are made from leftover breast meat (and not the butt meat that Bud(?) commercial told us they were years ago!)

And then right before kick-off I will add some browned pine nuts, sesame seeds and red pepper to my poke which has been marinating in the fridge all night. I was trying to think of a San Francisco food and all I could come up with was Rice A Roni (which I LOVE) but seemed silly since I had jambalaya already! So I thought fresh fish (even though a Hawaiian dish) would have to work.

Oh well..I’ll drink NorCal sparkling from Chandon or Ferrar :) (but a bottle of Dom is chilling in case we win!)

I’ve put out my Niners blanket. Moved my Montana signed football down to the living room. Bought all 49ers, red and gold tableware. Have my Niners gnome out and ready to cheer since he always went to all of the games with me :)

This is a big deal. I’ve read a lot of whining (in comments sections for news stories made by fans of LOSING teams) how this SuperBowl is soooo boring. Whatever. The 49ers are one of the premiere teams in the league who lost their mojo but came back strong last year and again this year. Get over it. I still have parties and enjoy the game when my team isn’t in it. If you are whining, then you are not really a football fan are you? Plus the Harbowl adds some fun story to it. And Ray Lewis…well…I don’t necessarily like or dislike the guy but come on dude….you do play on a TEAM. Oh well…

GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (turning on NFL Channel for ALL DAY coverage right now!)

I am rooting for the NFC in the ProBowl as usual (49ers!!) and yet rooting for the Patriots (AFC) in the Super Bowl because I just can’t root for NY Giants (NFC) after they beat my Niners last week.

Plus Tom Brady said his idol growing up was Joe Montana today at the press conference.I will cut him a teeny-tiny bit of slack for that statement. (have read that before but I understood the words comin’ from his mouth today.)

Sports loyalties are tough work. (And this doesn’t even include the fantasy football loyalties through the season. Sheesh.)

But my Super Bowl party theme next week is still “The Superbowl the 49ers should have been in!” :)

YAY!!!!

I have been a 49er fan since I moved to California. That was back in the Joe Montana days! My old boss would give me tickets for the games. He was a HUGE 49er and Montana fan as well. As a hedge fund manager, a lot of brokers, traders, etc would float tickets his way. So when he got extra or he couldn’t go, he would give them to me. So I was spoiled :)  I remember back then trying to get him season tickets and it was impossible.  Understand, this was back before the Internet (yes, I am that ancient) so no online ticket scalpers err…brokers. There were ticket broker offices where I would go sometimes (the one in Palo Alto by Hobee’s) but no one was selling their seat rights. And there was a looooong waiting list for season tickets with the 49ers in those days.

The one good thing an ex-boyfriend ever did for me was give me a signed Montana football for Christmas. He was a douche – trust me. But it was a great gift. I have it on display in a special case in my office.

After Joe left and Steve Young came in as our starter, I was bummed about Joe but was still a 49er fan. And we still played well! But with Eddie D forced out and Steve Young retired, we started to lose and then lose more than win. I admit I did lose my fervor. I still loved the old 49ers but the current 49ers were meh.

I did always root for them to win and followed their drafts and win/loss record but hadn’t been to a game in years. And I remember thinking as we got worse that we should buy season tickets now as I bet people released some between the 49ers being so bad and the economy tanking but never did. But I was so into Fantasy football that it was more fun to stay home and watch the RedZone Channel and the NFL season ticket! Plus we traveled back and forth to Tahoe pretty much every weekend. Then throw in trying to convince a Charger fan husband (who still hasn’t gotten over the beat down the 49ers gave the Chargers in the 1995 Superbowl) that we should have 49ers season tickets  – not an easy sell.

We got tickets to the MNF game against the Steelers. And we had a GREAT time! It helps to go early and tailgate. You get to relax and have fun with friends and then watch the game. So that reignited my bug.

BUT, now that our schedules are more flexible I did it! I bought season tickets!!! Husband said if I really wanted them, we should. YAY!!! Paid for them today! We are going to see how many times we actually go and make sure we love it. If so, we will look into buying rights to better seats. I think our seats now are actually pretty good but I would like to be in the Lower Box (spoiled by the tickets we have bought for games this season.) Plus I *think* that might help us for the new stadium!

But I SO EXCITED!!!!! Squeeeee!

Now let’s hope the 49ers beat the Saints!!!! Have my tickets and parking pass in hand for necessary tailgating for Saturday! GO NINERS!

Tim Tebow won again today. In overtime after tying it up in the 4th quarter. Late in the 4th quarter. You just can not not like watching the Broncos play. I was jumping up and down and yelling in my living room! And I wasn’t even a Broncos fan. Just a Tebow fan.

It’s funny how a lot of announcers are now on the Tebow bandwagon. I mean I guess there are only so many weeks you can diss him even when he leads his team to wins. But these are the same announcers who have been so, so mean to him. Before the draft. After he went in the first round and everyone said that Josh McDaniels was a fool for doing it. After seeing him in the combine and declaring he would never make it as an NFL QB. And even after wins.

Now I’m not saying he does it all himself. He is part of a team. And he is the one always reminding people of that when the put a microphone in his face. He NEVER makes it about himself. He has a great defense. He has good running backs (including him!) BUT…you have to say, not much had changed (in terms of personnel) on the team that was 1 and 4 with Kyle Orton as QB. Tebow makes a difference. Maybe not always with his arm. But with his running, his leadership qualities. His outlook. His belief that they can do it. And his belief in his team. And their belief in him.

And yes, his belief in God probably helps a lot too. It’s not tangible. And you don’t have to necessarily believe. But it makes him a better QB, a better leader and that effects him and his team. You saw it when he led the Gators and you see it again now. Real leaders have an intangible quality that make people want to believe, want to follow. It’s a special quality that a lot of people don’t actually have.

And really, isn’t that what religion is supposed to be about anyway? Believing in yourself and others? Belief that you can do anything that you set your mind to and work hard for? You don’t have to be a devout Christian to believe those things.

That’s why I simply do not understand why people bag on him so much for his beliefs. I mean, we could put Tim Tebow on the covers of sports magazines and TV shows and talk about his belief in his team and outlook on life and how football isn’t his entire life and the charities he supports. But nah, let’s talk about how great Michael Vick – a convicted felon – is. Or Ben Roethlisberger – an alleged rapist who is either guilty of it or, at least, of VERY bad judgement. Or any of the other thugs that play in professional sports (guns, drugs, violence, etc.) They are much better to talk about and hold up as role models and heroes to kids. Of course there is always the morally bankrupt putz Tiger Woods to look up to as well. yeah…

I’m not very religious. But I think it’s better to believe in something than nothing. And is it so bad to have a guy doing well at something that he enjoys doing and thanking his team, fans and yes, God, for it? And frankly, it’s rather funny to watch the entire Fox Sports desk just stumble over their words not being able to explain it after the DEN/CHI game today. They just shrugged and said “Who knows. But he keeps winning. He just keeps winning.”

Who knows how it plays out over the long term. I just want to keep rooting for him. It’s fun. And that’s why I watch football. To the nay-sayers I say you should try #tebowing a little….or at least lighten up.

p.s See…I was blogging about him back in 2009 too :) https://a99kitten.com/?p=1681  and  https://a99kitten.com/?p=1094  #stalker

I remember watching the 2001 season Superbowl (so in early 2002.) It was still freshly post-9/11. I remember that it was the Patriots who were playing in it and Tom Brady came up as a back-up QB who was a 6th round draft pick. And he was from the Bay Area – a local boy (his high school is a couple blocks from our office!) Cinderella story. I remember being SO happy a team named the Patriots were there with such a story and screaming at every play and score and knew they were going to win the Super Bowl. It was just right. It was exactly what should have happened that year.

This was pre-fantasy football for me. so I was pretty much only a 49ers and Bucs fan. I thought Joe Montana was the only quarterback in the world :) So for me to care at all about a different team was a big deal.

I was never really a Patriots fan before or after that. Not really a fan of Belichick. And I way prefer Peyton Manning or Drew Brees. BUT, this year Brees was taken in the draft and Peyton is out with injury (hopefully not career-ending). So I took Brady.

10 years later I will root for Brady again. Still debating buying his jersey for the FF year. But I do still request he cut his dang hair. :)

I love that :)

This year I am in 2 fantasy leagues – my standard work one ($25 buy-in) and then a free one with some fellow FF lovers on twitter. I am the only girl in that league so I need to do well! I also think I am the only person a) on the West Coast and b) not working in finance (and probably running spreadsheets and charts on player stats!) I do however bring awesome huskies and Star Wars to the league – “Never Tell Me Odds! :)

I am the Commish of my work league even though I said I would not do it again. My excitement for football overtook the frustration of being the Commish. I banned Michael Vick from our league so no one was allowed to draft him unless they wanted to give me $100 per week to donate to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Last year I made the mistake of only charging $5 per week thinking people would GET THE POINT and be smart enough to not use him. Wrong. Well, most people figured it out. Just not 1. That person was not invited back to the league this year. Extreme dog lover is the Commish. Michael Vick she hates and said not to use. Michael Vick you pick-up off the bench. Simple that math is.

My work team draft went OK. I really didn’t do enough football research this year. I think I say that every year though. But I basically went after people I already knew. I didn’t look for the “hot new rookie”. My team is the “Running Huskies”:)

QB: Tom Brady (Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees were already taken…I don’t think I can buy his jersey tho…cannot root for the PATS! ARGH! But maybe if he cuts his hair…)
WRs: DeSean Jackson, Dwayne Bowe, Stevie Johnson, Malcolm Floyd and Plaxico Burress. Yes, I can totally give Plax another chance since he only shot himself and hasn’t yet displayed sociopathic tendencies.
RBs: Arian Foster, Matt Forte, Pierre Thomas and Jonathan Stewart. Arian Foster was my 1st round draft pick. And he’s injured. Awesome. GAH!
TE: Dallas Clark (this is the jersey I should buy since I try and get him every year!)
K: Adam Vinatieri
DEF: Baltimore

My twitter team was an auction-style draft which I had never done before. That was a bit crazy and I am definitely not so sure about my team – yikes. Team name “Let the Wookiee Win”:

QBs (you use 2 each game! Wha??): Matt Schaub and Alex Smith (yeah…that’s what was left in my budget)
WRs: Larry Fitzgerald, Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Johnny Knox and Robert Meachem. So 1 super star anyway.
RBs: Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, Beanie Wells and Pierre Thomas
TE: Dallas Clark (yes again!) and Brandon Pettigrew
K: David Akers
DEF: PIT and STL.

I need a back-up QB to play during the BYE weeks but I have a few weeks. I need to monitor the BYE weeks on that league for sure. Plus the scoring on that team is totally different than my league that I am used to so I hope I do OK there!!

Stressed about Arian Foster being injured, Matt Forte is grumpy about his contract and Dallas Clark will not have Peyton Manning throwing to him. Great. Sonof^%$&@^%#$@#$

I also have a 3rd team to manage. We needed a 10th in our work league and I had to fill the spot. So I am in for double I guess. I seriously need more football lovin’ friends. Maybe I’ll play that team like a “take lots of crazy chances” team. I named it Shadowtrooper. I had to create another email address and login for yahoo which is a PITA since I will now have to log out of Yahoo with my normal login to check and change that team.

PLUS, I took over the Survivor commish job since last year’s commish apparently forgot? But we have 6 people in that – winner take all. I took CLE for the 1st week. I hope that wasn’t stupid. First week is always supposed to be the safe “sure thing” pick which would have probably been NE (2 people took them) although I think SD had the biggest point spread. But SD never seems to be a sure thing. And NE playing MIA is a big rivalry so got crazy and picked CLE (playing CIN so…)

And this year I did not create a weekly picks pool. Being the commish of that sucks frankly. Too much work collecting and paying out and reminding people. A friend of mine in Florida invited me to join his and you pay the full amount for the year up front and then each week there is a pay out along with a final payout at the end of the year. So all I have to do is pay once and make my picks weekly. Done! Yay! Although this pool is a spread pool which I have never done so that is way, way harder!

So yay!! Football season is now here and I have a lot of games to play! I would really love having enough football friends where we do the draft together, order pizza, yell at our picks getting taken by each other – like they show on the ESPN commercials! I think that would be way more fun. But oh well.

My Sundays are officially booked! And no, I do not have a gambling problem… ;)

So Bernie Madoff steals (a lot of) money and is hated by everyone. People are happy when they think of him suffering in jail for the rest of his life. An old man in jail for the “rest” of his life. People spit on the thought of him an say ha!

Other “white collar” criminals get the same hatred. The same anger directed towards them For stealing money. Horrible = yes. But not the worst crime in the world.

Michael Vick and his new $100million dollar contract. PLUS endorsements. Applauded. “Yay – he triumphed and overcame hardship and troubles.” Hardship? Troubles caused by HIM. Scientific fact that purposeful animal cruelty leads to violence against humans. Other sports starts accused of assaulting, raping, whatever? Forgiven. As long as their team wins, the “masses” are placated.

I love football. But this is BS.

Society is F’ed up.

I receive a lot of HR newsletters. Super fun reading (no, not really.) And most of them just annoy me due to the ridiculous one-sided nature of court cases, decisions and public opinion about the evil bosses and owners of the world out to screw over the little guy. Pfft. Anyway, I just read this story:

http://www.hrmorning.com/big-sticking-point-in-nfl-lockout-workers-comp-benefits/

So NFL players can file Workers Comp claims in the beyond-bankrupt State of California if they’ve played ONE game here and been injured. WTH? Our Workers Comp system is already bogged down by corruption and “oversight”. But now players, who in some cases already exhausted WC benefits in other states, can make a claim here. Just because they hurt their widdle knee when they were playing in a game, that they picked as their chosen career even knowing it can be dangerous, and already fought to receive numerous other guaranteed benefits from their teams/owners.

Look, someone gets seriously injured and gets cut from their team and salary or can’t play for a year (although pretty sure players still get paid by the team in injury cases) – I understand the desperation of wanting to make sure your family is cared for. But there are other things you need to do and put in place for your own protection. Like SAVINGS and not buying a Rolex for you and 10- closest pals. You chose a career where one bad play and it could end. So you need to be responsible for putting protections in place for yourself and family. Not game the system which is exactly and absolutely what this is.

No. No. No. But of course, our bloated no-longer Golden State of California says Yes. Yes. Yes. And apparently Michigan too (big surprise…)

That’s it. I’m totally on Team Owner now. I need a t-shirt.

ARGH!

P.S. And a big FU to the illegal immigrants who come here ILLEGALLY, then LIE on their applications and then claim WC too. Double-ARGH!

http://www.hrmorning.com/illegal-immigrants-can-get-workers-comp-benefits-too-court-rules/

Reading about the chaos at this weekend’s preseason “Battle of the Bay” game between the 49ers and Raiders makes me angry. I think a start to a solution is to ban alcohol at the games. Except for maybe the private boxes where any stupidity can be contained. Does that sound wrong? Maybe to someone. And probably classist. But I am a 100% acknowledged classist so no big surprise. But my sense of classism is more geared towards ghetto, tacky, rude, etc. It’s not how much money you have. It’s how you act. How you treat others.

Most of these fights (and stabbings, shootings, etc) are caused by drunk jerks (probably a few that aren’t even drunk but I guess more are.) You take a person who is already a jerk and then let him drink non-stop from 8am when tail-gating begins and wonder why they become belligerent? Can most people have a beer and watch the game and have fun? Of course. But guess what – all you need is 1 (or 15) drunk jackasses to seriously hurt people.

Going to a sporting event should NOT be dangerous. You should be able to go to a game wearing whatever the heck team jersey you want and not have to worry about someone punching you. Or worse. That is ridiculous.

And you don’t need alcohol to have fun at the game. You can tailgate or watch from the stands and be sober and still have it be fun. If you can’t, then you have bigger problems to address. If you want to get stupid drunk while watching the game, then stay home and watch it on TV.

I always hate when you have to make rules to conform to the lowest common denominator because these are usually the people that I think don’t even deserve to breathe. But I’m fairly harsh that way. The world is over-populated anyway so let’s lose the a-holes first. And then the world is a better place anyway. Win-Win. Makes sense to me. But my rant is digressing to a different rant.

For public safety – yeah – I would support banning alcohol in the parking lots/tailgating, sold at the stadiums, etc. Will that ever happen? After hell has its own sea of glaciers. But maybe someone should try it as a test. How much could the stadium lose? Who knows. But how much does it cost to have in-stadium police stations (Philadelphia and Tampa Bay do that I know of – probably more.) And all of the extra police needed to control thuggish crowds.

Ghetto fans, gang-bangers and just plain drunk jerks are always going to be around. Certain teams do seem to attract more of a thug crowd (looking right at you Oakland) but all cities/teams have them. For all sports. Look at all of the stupidity that occurs when teams win OR lose championship games. “F Yeah – our team won/lost – now let’s loot and set fire to stuff!!” Now, all of those people probably aren’t drunk (just insanely stupid or plain criminal) but my guess is a good chunk are somewhat inebriated. So you can either have an entire police force at a silly game to attempt to keep peace or you can try taking away something that is contributing to the mayhem. Do I blame alcohol? *Absolutely not.* Fact: people are responsible for their own condition. Plenty of people can have a drink or 2 or even tons and still be perfectly sane (and probably just vomit or fall asleep.) I blame stupidity, jerkishness and a Lord of the Flies mentality.

Some people argue that these people aren’t real fans of the teams so why penalize the fans. Well, they are fans. Are they fans of the team for the “right” reasons? Probably not. Oakland has had a thug, gangster reputation for a long time. LA gangs LOVE their merchandise so then display their devotion to the team. They are liked because they were seen as the thug team. Great reason. Of course now they are just the crap team. But with the same “Black Hole” Orc fans.

I have been to probably 7-10 49ers games. And about 15 or so Giants games. The thing I always liked about them was that the SF crowd definitely seemed to be nicer. I went to the SF/Oakland World Series games and the difference in crowds and atmosphere between seeing them in Oakland and seeing them in SF (including the “earthquake game”) was vast. Now, I am definitely not saying SF doesn’t have thug fans. I know they do. But you couldn’t pay me to see another game or concert in Oakland. Not worth it. I don’t ever want feel so unsafe for simply being in attendance at a game or anything else.

Stories came out after the game that the 49ers will be cutting tail-gating hours. That might help a little but it’s still going to be 4 hours or so. So 4 hours of drinking and then game time drinking is more than enough for mayhem. And some of the players (49ers) came out and said how the violence worries them since their families are also in the stands. Frank Gore came out and said “it’s just game.” So if the people getting paid to play this game want you losers to knock it off, pretty sure by being thugs you are showing the rest of us just how big of ghetto losers you are. Sadly, it never seems to be you who gets beat up, shot, stabbed, etc.

The owner of the 49ers also said he has requested that the Battle of the Bay game be discontinued. This is a very good idea. It’s a dumb preseason game anyway. I hope the NFL agrees. If not, then they can pony up for the National Guard unit to come in and keep the peace at the next one.

I just took down all of the balloons from my Super Bowl party. Boo :( I love balloons! But more boo is that it means football is over for the season. I used to have the Pro Bowl to ease it out but no longer since they changed the schedule and put that on the week before the Super Bowl (genius…) So now my football season ends with a Super Bowl bang. I’m sad.

My fantasy team sucked this year. I almost made it into the play-offs. But that’s like almost winning Miss Congeniality at the beauty pageant. 10 teams in our league and 6 go to play-offs. I think I was 7. Whee! Meh. I was commissioner (have been for the past couple years) and I had one simple rule. You are not allowed to draft Michael Vick. He is off limits in my league. Don’t like it? Go play somewhere else. I’ll try not to cry over the loss of your team. So what happens? 2 different teams draft him at different points in the season. One of them the week they are playing me! Hellllooooooo. But both of those team managers had the good sense to realize their egregious error and not actually play him on game day.

Then the next genius to draft him (yes…a 3rd manager…what is wrong with you people?) does so on the weekend I was away in Florida dealing with the death of my little brother. I had other things on my mind than dealing with ass clowns so I didn’t do anything. I wish I did. The guy even sends a note saying how he will donate $5 to my favorite animal charity (I set that price last year…it will go up next year to $100) but it was worth the price to have the points. Hahaha. Yeah – that’s what he said. To me. One of the biggest dog/animal lovers he will ever know and the commissioner of the league. OK. Forever banned from my league. Seriously. Idget.

I did OK in the weekly picks. I think I won twice. Maybe 3 times but I think twice and tied another is correct. So I think I basically even out there? I am also the commissioner there and that is giant hassle as I have to collect the winnings each week and dole them out. I need to come up with a better system next year OR people pay a commissioner fee (other friends of mine who are league commissioners say their buy-in is paid by all the players for doing all of the accounting and work – wth?? I am being cheesed!)

Then we did the play-off/SuperBowl picks. Everyone had NE or ATL winning the Super Bowl. I had NE and GB in the Super Bowl as did one other person. We rule :) It came down to us and so we split the pot. My general personality is to let that money ride and winner take all. However, several years ago when PIT was the wild card 6th seed in the play-offs, that no one saw coming, they played Seattle in the SB. The pool was down to me and this same friend. I had SEA to win the SB and he had more points from previous play-off games (no one had PIT even going to the SB that year much like GB this year) so if SEA lost, he would win. He offered to just split the pot and said no – let it ride. Doh. I was not making that same mistake this year. Cash in hand is better than cash not in hand :)

Then we had Super Bowl Squares (no, we do not have any gambling problems, why do you ask?) I won the first quarter and Angelus won 3rd quarter. So I was even with my win there (versus the squares I bought) and Angelus will get some good treats with his winnings (that he will share with Storm!)

My Super Bowl party was super fun. It was a gorgeous day on the coast, all the windows and doors open, sun shining (and then beautifully setting), a super fun game and good friends. I made yummy food and people brought yummy stuff. We had bubbly flowing (I like that my friends go with the bubbly flow and don’t demand Bud!) One of my best friends, who knows me so well, brought food for the the buddies! Their own Super Bowl treats – giant ham bones! They got to eat them that night! Plus she bought other treats for them and me – a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Rose. Tasty!

Another friend brought a treat bag that I just took apart tonight – it’s filled with a bottle of Chandon Blanc de Noirs and Moet Chandon Imperial. Tasty X 2! Plus a bunch of Belgian truffles from Brugge (having just returned from Belgium and Romania that afternoon and coming over to watch the game.

And another friend brought a bottle of Prosecco that I can’t wait to try. It’s from the Famiglia Zonin and called DOC. When I saw the label I thought it said DOG and was like – WHOA! Best Prosecco ever! :) But not DOG – it’s DOC. But still excited to try it :)

So all in all a decent football season. I love the game and truly hope there is no strike. That will suck. What the heck will I do with my Sundays..and Mondays…and sometimes Thursdays from September through January??? :(

And now…well….time to stress about March Madness to take my mind off missing football :)