Oh, by the way...

In 2011, it was my goal to post something to my blog once every day for the entire calendar year.  But at some point, I realised that I was posting for the sake of posting.

In 2012, I realised that I wanted my blog to have a direction.  So I pondered.  And pondered.  And pondered.

Wedding blanket finished this summer

In 2013, I decided that I would just blog when the mood struck.  When I had a book review to share, I would.  When I had an exceptional recipe that I was excited about, I would let you know.  When I finished a knitting/cross-stitch project and I wanted to show it off, by all means...

But I wouldn't feel pressured.  I wanted my blog to be something people WANTED to read -- not something that was a chore to read.  And I decided I'd ease back into blog writing.  We're into September, and I figure an average of one post every four months should give you plenty of time to catch up.

Let's catch up on a few things that have happened this year, shall we?

I had hip surgery where the surgeon went in and cut some extra bone off of the joint.  The rehab is going really well.  In fact, the surgeon says I'm MONTHS ahead of schedule!  For the first time in YEARS, I'm walking without either a cane or crutches!

I got reunited with a friend I'd lost touch with several years ago.  She's local, and we just happened to run into each other on the sidewalk outside of work one day when I was walking to lunch and she was walking to a parking garage to pick up her car.

I got accepted to a doctoral program in my field; it was my second time applying.

I quit my job so I can go back to being a full-time student.

I just joined three fantasy football teams, each with a different format (not that I'm excited about football season or anything).

But that's pretty much all I've had going since the last time I wrote.  

Like I said...  I'll just pop in and write when I have something to say.

See you again in another four months!

The Autumn Wind

On Sundays (and some Saturday evenings), I usually glued to Race Day, the two-hour pre-race show on SPEED Channel.  But today, I switched over to FOX NFL Sunday, the one-hour Sunday football show.  Howie Long is one of the panelists, and he was a Raider for 13 years.  I knew that every national pre-game show would have a segment on Al Davis, but I particularly wanted to catch what Howie had to say about Mr. Davis.

But it was actually what Terry Bradshaw (the former Steelers quarterback who won four Super Bowls) said that was more poignant.  When Bradshaw (who my mom would leave her husband for in a New York minute) retired, he had returned to his Louisiana ranch, and he got a call from Mr. Davis one day.  They talked for a bit, and Davis asked how he was doing financially.  Bradshaw said he "was okay - nothing coming in, nothing going out."  And Davis told him, "If you ever need ANYTHING, you give me a call and let me know."  And he and other panelists commented about how such offers wouldn't be made in this day and age.  Davis valued loyalty above all else, and if he saw something in you that warranted his loyalty, you had it forever.

Now, for those of you who don't know your football history, this is huge.  For the owner of the Raiders to make a gesture like that to someone from the Steelers organisation is no small thing.  The Steelers are the team who benefited from the play known as the Immaculate Reception.  In fact, Bradshaw said that one time (before the call), he happened to sit at a table near Davis, and he didn't say hi to Davis because of the history between the Raiders and Steelers, but Davis waved him over and they shared a meal together.

One thing Howie Long said that I think is important, though, is also something that makes me sad.  Although I have no illusions that the Raiders will take the big prize this season, I do think this season is a turning point.  And it saddens me that our fearless leader won't be able to see the ship righting itself.  And I hope his death won't mean that everything falls apart.

In closing, "The Autumn Wind," the unofficial anthem of the Raiders.  It's often played at our home games:

The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.

A Sad Day for Raider Nation

I had another blog topic prepared for today, but I've just learnt of the passing of Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders.

While I sometimes disagreed with his decisions (firing Jon Gruden?  Seriously?  benching Marcus Allen for two seasons?  Really?), I had mad respect for him.  He is the only man who has played every role in the NFL.  Scout, assistant coach, coach, general manager, commissioner, and owner.  When he was an assistant coach in college, he recruited the first black quarterback in the PAC-10.  As a coach, Davis was the first to start recruiting from black colleges.  And as an owner, he was the first to sign a black head coach (shout-out to Art Shell!), a Latino coach, and a female CEO.

He wanted his team to be internationally (not just nationally) recognised.  This vision came from him growing up Brooklyn and admiring how ubiquitous the Yankee pinstripes were.  A guy I worked for when I taught once remarked that "no matter where I go, I find you people (Raiders fans) everywhere!  I can't get away from you!"

Davis coined the catchphrases "Just Win, Baby," "Commitment to Excellence," and "Pride and Poise."  While the Raiders have had their ups and downs and for the past decade, the organisation as a whole has become a recognisable icon and not only among football fans.  ESPN's show "30 for 30" showcased the impact that the Raiders have had on the hip-hop industry, for instance.

Raider Nation has lost a great leader, visionary, and competitor.  This is truly a sad day for Raider Nation.

Tired

I have things to do.

My mom needs me to write a short note for a thing she's putting together for my Grandma's 90th birthday luncheon.  I'm happy to do this, but I'm just mentally and emotionally exhausted.

A friend of mine has a huge job interview coming up, and I've been doing all I can to try to prep her for it.  I hope it works out.

I still have medical issues going on, and it's exhausting me.

Also, this weekend was heart-attack inducing sports-wise.  Don't these people know I need a little less excitement in my life right now????

Sports: A Blessing and a Curse

I'm sure you know by now that I love sports.  A lot.

I particularly love this time of year.  Baseball, football, NASCAR are all going, and hockey is just around the corner.  And for the past week, the tennis US Open has been going.  It's so exciting!

But that's where the curse comes in.  I can only watch so much at a time!  On any given weekend, there are usually two NASCAR races (usually one on Saturday afternoon and one Sunday afternoon), and now there are college football games on Saturday and pro games on Sunday.  This weekend, there was all tennis 'round the clock, more so than usual because of all the rain delays (thank you, NY weather).

This time of year is also so full of optimism.  Raider Nation likes to tell ourselves that every year is going to be The Year because the year before was a rebuilding year.  (We've currently been rebuilding for so long now, we should have a freaking mansion.)  Everyone is undefeated, and even if you drop the first game, well, hey - it's just the FIRST game.  There are still fifteen to go!

And this is the weekend NASCAR set the Chase field, which means we know which drivers have a chance to win the championship.  Again with the optimism.  I love it!  Of course, that came with a flipside, too.  With the good, I had to take the bad - a driver I hate won this weekend, and two guys I hate got into the Chase.  Boo.

And speaking of weird sports goings-on - well, I don't want to tempt the universe by naming things specifically, but some odd things were happening this week.  It made me wonder if I had landed in a parallel universe!  That whole blessing/curse thing CAN go too far, you know!

Wednesday Weigh-In

This week I lost 0.8 pounds, bringing my total since I decided to start tracking to 4.2 pounds lost.  It's not bad since I stopped working out about a month ago when I got the MR arthrogram (aka: the big-ass needle in my hip with the crap injected into my joint) and then started physiotherapy soon thereafter.  Although some would say that physio is like working out, so there you go.

Most of mine has been through eating better, except this past week, which has been stress eating, which is to say "Not eating much at all, except weird food combos."  (Don't ask.)

I was going to lighten things up today and show off something I knitted recently, but since tomorrow is recipe day and Friday is list day, I'll give one more update today, show off my knitting Saturday, and give an update on Sunday.  (That's the plan, anyway, barring some unforeseen event between now and then.)

Today, as planned, I worked on my bedroom.  I focused on the storage boxes under my bed.  I condensed four storages boxes down to two, which may not be as impressive as it sounds since the two that are empty are the smaller ones (about 2/3rds the size of the larger ones).  I filled a bag for recycling, I filled a bag for shredding, and I have a smallish-sized box of things that can be donated or are ready for a potential yard sale.

The bookshelf in my bedroom has three shelves of books that are ALL books I've been trying to get rid of.  So if I have this yard sale, they will all be on the lawn.  So that's done.  Next up is the closest and weeding through clothes.  I don't know if I have energy for that today, since today was kind of emotional.  The stuff under the bed was mostly pictures and newspapers and magazines of EVENTS.

At point I just burst out laughing (Ria and Diana will probably be the only ones who get this).  I'm picking out newspapers and magazines one by one to see if there are any I can part with.  John Ritter's death.  Christopher Reeve's death.  George Brett's retirement.  Wayne Gretzky's retirement.  Obama's win.  Johnny Cash's death.  John-John Kennedy's death.  Papers from September 12 and 13th.  Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle win at Kansas Speedway - wait, WHAT?  Yeah, recycle.

I also discovered a lot of pictures.  You remember back when we took our film to CVS or Eckerd and got it developed?  Yeah, pictures.  Felix when he was a little kitten, looking terrified of everything.  Oscar drinking out of a cup on the coffee table.  New Dog sleeping with his hedgehog on my bed in Missouri.  Mom's wedding and reception.  A friend's wedding I went to in Boston.  The boy I nannied for in Missouri, who passed away from Huntington's Disease when he was 10 years old.

I'm glad I had duplicates, because I set aside some pictures to mail to some folks.  I think they will be pleased to get them.  As much as I like digital cameras (and, yes, I know I can print off the pics), it was fun to flip through all these and laugh and cry.

A Day of Racing (the non-spoiler edition)

As per usual, my day today was spent watching a LOT of racing.  Since I didn't get to sleep until about 3:00 a.m., I didn't get up in time to watch the F-1 race in Monaco.  But I heard the results, and now I'm kind of glad because it would have ticked me off.

Then, on to Indianapolis for the Indy 500.  There was only one goal here - DO NOT LET DANICA WIN.  Fortunately, I had many allies in this goal.  I was sure that as long as we worked together, we could achieve this goal.  We almost won before the race even started -- on Bump Day.  Danica's car had problems in technical inspection and missed her spot in qualifying.  Then the skies opened up, and they thought she wouldn't be able to qualify.  Unfortunately, it stopped raining, they were able to get the track dried off, and she qualified for the race.  So now it was time to make sure that she didn't win.  Preferrably, she didn't even do well.

One of the things that pisses me off about IRL racing is that the cars can be forty seconds behind the leader and still be in something like tenth place AND on the lead lap.  In NASCAR, if you're forty seconds back, you're at least one lap back (if not two), and you are most definitely NOT in tenth place.  (You're probably something like 20-something place.)

Another things that I've grown to dislike about IRL is that when Dario Franchitti is interviewed, if his wife (Ashley Judd) is around, they will actually frame the shot to centre it around her.  Yesterday, they were doing the post-race interview of Dario.  Ashley was standing in the background talking to some people, and the camera MOVED so that Ashley was in the centre of the shot and Dario was now on the right third of the shot.  And then Ashley started posing.  Stabbity stabbity stabbity.

As soon as that race ended, it was on to Charlotte for two hours of pre-race coverage before the NASCAR race started.  Then the race itself, which took about 5.5 hours.  As the race drew to an end, I figured I wasn't going to be happy with who won because of the guys in the top ten positions, there were about two or three that I liked - not great odds!  So then it became a game of "who do I dislike the least."

The best part is some of my friends and my Mom play a game where we pick a driver we think will do well in the race.  I picked a totally illogical pick because I "had a feeling."  And he ended up having a really decent night!  In fact, he finished better than all the other picks, which were completely logical and made much more sense!

After all that helping people drive, I am exhausted!  Off to bed I go!

Ignore this post

This post won't make sense to anyone except one other person.

But in an attempt to kill..  uh... well, several birds with one stone:

JOEY, WILL YOU MARRY ME?

A Royal Weekend

My "Boys in Blue" are back in business!

Last season, the Kansas City Royals "earned" the distinction of never getting above .500 for the season.  (For you non-sports fans, that means at no point during the season had we won more games than we had lost.  Talk about your dubious distinctions.)

This year, we did pretty well in pre-season.  Hopes are high for the season (at least, for the Royals).  The problem is that we're a small market team.  We can scout and nurture GREAT players, but we can't keep them.  We've lost Johnny Damon (two-time World Series champion), Carlos Beltran (five time All-Star), and Zack Greinke (Cy Young winner who once went 38 innings in a row without giving up a run).

Zack, before he defected to the Brewers

What did we do in our opening weekend?  We dropped the first game.  We won the next two.  The fourth game was important.  The L.A. Angels would either tie-up the four-game weekend series or the Royals would take it.

After giving me several near heart attacks, the good guys finally put me out of my misery after 13 innings.  It was an offensive slugfest for nine innings... and then NOTHING until the bottom of the 13th when Mike Treanor (my new hero) hit a three-run homer.  Sweet!

The Harlem Globetrotters

When I was a little girl, I wanted nothing more than to see the Harlem Globetrotters.  How fortuitous and or serendipitous it was then that they always rolled into my hometown the week of my week of my birthday.  Surely this was destiny!

Every year, I begged my mom, "Please!  Harlem Globetrotters!"  And every year, it was explained to me that the show was only good if you could afford to get the seats in the very front, and we just couldn't - not on a teacher's salary.

But I was a relentless child.  "Harlem Globetrotters are coming again this year!  ON MY BIRTHDAY!"  And, of course, the answer was always the same.

I don't remember how, but a few years ago, Galen, one of the guys on my mom's bowling team found out about my childhood dream.  And he now also teases my mom about this.  How could she never fulfil such a simple dream?  Every time I go back for Christmas, he asks me when the Globetrotters will be there, and I supply the dates, and we give poor Mom a hard time.  I'm surprised a bowling "accident" hasn't happened by now.

Tuesday of this week, I called Mom, elated.  "GUESS WHO WAS JUST ON TV!"

"Who?"  "THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS!!!  They were on the midday news!"

"That's great!  You got to see them!  Now you can shut up about it!"
"No, Mom.  It doesn't count.  It wasn't a game."
"Oh."
"Well, I'll buy you a ticket."
"To WHAT?" (I DO know her, after all)
"To SOMETHING!" She dies laughing.  (See?  I told you I know her!)

Of course, I had to call her tonight to give her a hard time.

Me: Guess what I COULD be doing tonight?
Mom: What?
Me:  Seeing the Harlem Globetrotters.  But I'm not.  Because my mom didn't buy me tickets for my birthday. AGAIN.
Mom:  That's true.  I didn't.
Me:  Wouldn't it have been easier to have just done that once?
Mom: Yes, it would have had I know you have bugged me FOR THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS!  Next time I have a kid and they say "You'll regret this," I'll know what they mean!

So then I got to laughing.  I told her that my poor kids will be dragged to the Harlem Globetrotters year after year and will probably hate every second of it.  "MooooooooOOOOOOOmmmmm!!!  Do we HAFTA go AGAIN?  WHY?????  I don't WANNA!  They're STOOPID!"

Mrs. Tennison and The "Just About" Debate, Part II

So, once again, I get slaughtered in the "Just About" debate.  Sigh.

It's okay.  Y'all are entitled to your wrong opinions.  :P

Today has been a mixed day.  NASCAR is back in full swing, but today's race meant Danica time, and I wasn't that thrilled with most of the Top Five finishers, with the lone exception being the guy who is now the Nationwide points leader.

Mom started working a doll fair today.  It's a three-day fair where everyone who has a table is selling something to do with dolls.  As most of you know, she makes American Girl doll clothes and accessories (the accessories are mostly doll bed sheets since AG sells doll bed, but no sheets.  Poor dolls!).  She called me from the fair, which was odd, so I ran to the phone.  (If you've ever been with me when Mom calls, you know she has a rather special ringtone.)  She asked if I remembered when I was in school.  Now, think about this for a second.  Is this anything that most people in their mid-30s who haven't suffered brain damage have forgotten?

Me: Uh, yes.
Mom: Do you remember being in [the gifted programme I was in.]
Me: Yes, Mother.
Mom: Do you remember Mrs. Tennison?
Me: Uh-huh.
Mom: Well, she's here.
Me: Mrs. Tennison is there?  Oh, wow! I remember her!  She was mean!
Mom: She was???
Me: Yeah.  Well, not mean, just, you know... not the warm fuzzy type.
Mom: Do you want to talk to her?
Me: Let me make sure I have the right person.  Is she kind of short and overweight?  And black hair?  And glasses?  And a big nose?  with a mole?
Mom: I don't see a mole.  But maybe it got cancerous and she had it removed.

Anyway, I got to talk to Mrs. Tennison for about ten minutes, and it was really lovely.  I didn't ask her about her mole, though.  That seemed rude.  She told me when I came back to town, I should look her up in the phone book and come visit her.  I just might.  I really enjoyed her class, and [the gifted programme] was always a respite from the rest of the school.

We were bussed to [the gifted programme] every Wednesday (each school in the district went on different days).  It was a special programme where we didn't do regular classes.  We got to do Logic (instead of Maths) and play with these things called computers (this WAS the mid-80s, remember) and had Creative Writing (instead of English) and every one else was either a nerd or a geek, too.  Going back to my regular school on Thursday was SUCH a letdown.

I really may look up Mrs. Tennison come December.

Friday Night Lights - An Era Ends

Don't worry, NBC-viewers; this is a spoiler-free zone.

As EW astutely put it in their most recent issue, FNL has cranked out five outstanding seasons (four, if you don't count Season Two).  I'm paraphrasing, although they DID include the quip about Season Two (no, really - the second season was awful).

This was a show that wasn't just about football.  It was about family and relationships.  It was about what's right and what's wrong with people and with the world at large.  Although it was set largely in a high school, there was nothing 90210 about it.  While these kids struggled with crushes and how to ask the girl/guy out, they also (at times) had the weight of the world on their shoulders.  It had the right combination of comedy and drama.  It had beautiful scenery, but it wasn't about the Austin landscape (which doubled as the Dillon, Texas, setting).

And the way it was shot, it felt so real.  Kyle Chandler's and Connie Britton's Emmy nominations were long deserved and the Emmy wins for casting and writing are much deserved.

This was quality television, and I shall miss it dearly.  (Although since I have every episode either on DVD or on my TiVo, I shall drop in the residents of Dillon often.)

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

Winter X Games

(Otherwise known as the period of time during which I shouldn't call my mom unless it's during a commercial.)

This is the period of time during which my mom and I start speaking our special language. We start speaking of backflip heel-clickers, McTwists, and Michalchuks.

We discuss which is cooler - the superpipe, the boarder cross, or speed and style events.

We argue over who (if anyone) will dethrone Shaun White.

Mostly, though, we like to have fun watching the athletes compete for the fun of it. Sure, they have sponsors to please, they would all love to win, and they trained hard to get where they are. But you'll also see ALL of them cheer each other on. You'll see the most sportmanship at the X games than at any other sporting event I've ever watched, and they're really there just to have fun and represent their respective sports.

What's not to love?

WBC

Forgive me for being remiss in not mentioning this in a more timely manner.

Congratulations to Japan for winning the World Baseball Classic.

And Korea, congrats for taking second. We'll get 'em next time.