Super Bowl Wrap-Up

Not yet a week later, so I’d call this wrap-up supremely timely. Particularly since I had to trudge to work and back twice in the shin-deep snow yesterday, and today the snow turned into rivers and lakes of slushy mess. Oh, the fun walking commute.

• Geaux Saints!! After the first quarter, I thought the game might be a blow-out by the Colts. I thought wrong. Was it just me, or did the whole team-of-destiny thing seem completely legit this season? I have heard tons of football analysts say even after the fact that the Saints were not as good as the Colts or the Vikings, but guess what? They won. Sour grapes, people.
• Also being dogged by the analysts: Peyton Manning. Apparently he is now disqualified from top-5-QBs-of-all-time contention. And, yes, he threw an interception at the worst possible time, and it lost the game for the Colts, but games are 60 minutes long. The defense could have helped get the Saints off the field. The coaches could have not decided to kick a 51-yard field goal. The receivers could have caught the ball when it was easy to catch. And that’s not even counting the DESTINY that was on the other side of the field.
• Yes, I love Peyton Manning. Hey, he gives good commercial!
• Friend Cupcake and I played the awesome bingo game I created. Turns out the Super Bowl producers decided not to show any girlfriends or celebrities in the stands and no scenes from Miami. And the announcers didn’t even mention Archie Manning. What the what?! No one won the game. But Friend Cupcake lost less than I did.
• Unrelated, but guess who’s getting a new computer this weekend? I’ll give you a hint: I’ve had to restart 5 times to write these few paragraphs AND experienced a brief encounter with the dreaded blue screen.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Hey, look at me! I’m writing a weekly wrap-up! During the week!

I know, I know, I’m an amazing blogger.

Anyhoo, let’s wrap-up.

Football-related:

• Full disclosure first: This is a really difficult season for me to care about. Why? Because my team (the Bucs) are 1-10. Last year this time I knew every team in the league’s records. I knew who was in position for a wild card playoff slot. I knew all of the top players and who was struggling and all that jazz. This year I’m like, uh, now are the Steelers like 7-4? Or 4-7? Or maybe they decided to sit out this year? Dunno. So anyway,  football depresses me. A lot. So I haven’t been writing as much.
• That said, holy cowza did the Saints win on Monday! I did not see that coming. I mean, a win sure. But a trouncing of the Pats? Who knew. It seems like the Saints are set for a straight shot to the Super Bowl, but I guess the Vikings will probably have something to say about that. I still think that a NFC Championship with Saints vs. Vikings, followed by the winner playing the Colts will be the most awesomely awesome end-of-postseason possible. (Because the Bucs can’t make it, obvi.) Can you imagine Brees and the city of New Orleans vs. Brett Favre? And either one of them vs. Peyton Manning?!?!
  If the Super Bowl turns out to be the Cardinals vs. the Chargers I am seriously canceling my NFL fandom.
• I watched the MNF game on my computer. It was live-streaming from Australia. Fun fact: In Australia, Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s. And instead of saying the burger is topped with “lettuce,” they say it is topped with “salad.” Fascinating.
• Who loves the new Peyton Manning commercial? I do! I know I’m supposed to have jaded feelings about him and say how he’s so overexposed, and I’m so over him. But I can’t.  I’m sorry. I love everything he does.
  (“It’s a football.” “Who told you?!” Priceless.)

Non-football:

• Happy birthday to Friend Cupcake, on whose behalf I made delicious chocolate chip cookies last night because I am just that thoughtful. However, I just ate one of said cookies, and it cut the top of my mouth. A leetle crunchy, those. Sorry, Friend Cupcake.
• So You Think You Can Dance:
  1) The final 3 had better be Jakob, Ellenore, and Russell.

  2) Yay for a dance that I loved finally! Care of Ellenore and Jakob, whom I hope will “coincidentally” pick each other as partners every week, like Katee and Josh did. The dance is Sonya Tayeh, and it’s weird awesome and amazing (just like Ellenore and Jakob, respectively).

  3) Why would anyone give their kid a name that ends in a double-e? It basically ensures that your kid will be a perpetual toddler. Case in point: Mollee.

  4) Who else applauds every time Anya or Pasha shows up in the audience? And who else started shrieking when they saw (an uncredited) Katee helping one of the choreographers a few weeks ago? Everyone did? I thought so!

  5) New idea: Every time the judges give a critique, show the choreographer’s reaction. Especially when the choreographer is Spencer, the new Broadway guy.

  6) Newer idea: Every time the judges give a critique of any dance, show Spencer, the new Broadway guy.

  

  Newest Idea: After every dance, show Spencer in a bikini!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Ok! Back for another wrap-up, only two short weeks after the last… (Oops.)

Anyway, Paris and Brussels and Bruges were tres, tres awesome. And now for some football. With vacation photo accompaniment.

• Last week’s Game of the Week was, predictably, a bust. This week’s was won by the New Orleans Saints, and quite handily at that. Looks like the Saints are the cream of the NFL crop this year, and there have even been comparisons to the late ’90s “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams. That’s a nice comparison for them, methinks.

• Brett Favre’s Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers again. This time in Green Bay. Congrats, Tiffani! I wonder if the NFC championship game will come down to the Vikings vs. the aforementioned Saints? Hmm. That would be a good game.

• I just read this headline, and I love it: Falcons Place Fudge on IR (see article here)
  I wonder if they will sign Chocolate Chip Cookie to take his place? Or, wait! They should get this guy.

 

Non-football:

• I saw the Italian-American Idol while abroad (It’s called X-Factor Italy, I think.), and my very favorite contestant was Damiano. Because he was funny and sang well and didn’t take it too seriously. Toooootes the Anoop of the show. But dude was voted off the night I saw the show! Over this trio of sisters who wore, like, heinously ill-fitting dresses. Ridiculous. (Thank you to my Italian friend for translating Damiano’s witty repartee for me as we watched.)
• I ate more cheese over the 4 days I was in Paris than I have probably in the past 6 months. It was delicious.

• Who watches So You Think You Can Dance? Ok, now who thinks that kicking off two of the three tappers was a huge crock? I mean, Philip’s dance was bad, sure, but Bianca was better than her partner AND she did a tap to “Tootsie Roll” (Dip, baby dip). The judges compared Channing to a sack of potatoes, and she didn’t even make the bottom two? I only have two words for that. What. Ever.
• All right, that’s all I got. But here’s a lovely souvenir for you all. Please enjoy.

FifG Weekly Wrap-Up. At Week’s End.

You know what I’ve learned this football season? It’s hard to write for two blogs!
I mean, I love FifG, and I love Chicks in the Huddle, but I also love sitting around and watching television, and darned if the new TV season hasn’t put a crimp in the whole “writing regularly” thing.

So I’m going to really try to keep up with at least 2 posts a week here. But don’t quote me on that.

Anyhoo, in football updates:

• The 49ers are apparently not like the new 90210 at all, because the Falcons blew them out of the water last week. Clearly they are more new-Melrose. I have to say,  Melrose is another one I never watched the first time around, but in the case of that show, I have absolutely no desire to watch it on SOAPnet, and I cannot stand the new version. Like, it’s not only trashy, but it’s incredibly boring, too. If I remember correctly, the original series bore the same criticism and Heather Locklear turned it around, so maybe that will happen for the new show, too. But I’m already over it, so it doesn’t matter to me either way.
• Did you guys see the FOX cartoon where the big joke is that Jessica Simpson is fat? I watched it live last Sunday, and I was honestly completely shocked and offended by it. And I’m pretty jaded to gossip stuff. But I was like, whoa, that’s totally out of line! Make fun of the sucky Cowboys! What does Jess have to do with it? Anyway, she got an apology, but something tells me there is some serious binging/over-exercising going on in that girl’s household. She makes me feel sad.
• The Denver Broncos were supposed to be terrible this year, after giving away Cutler and all sorts of passive aggressive b.s. with wide receiver Brandon Marshall, but they are good! What the heck?! I went to school in Colorado and generally support the Broncos, but I have to say that my inner Buccaneer is angry that they rose above the mess that they were supposed to share with us. I have no kids yet, but I think this means I’m going to be one of those moms who loves her kids’ friends, but will totally turn on them if anything bad happens to her own kid. Those moms freak me out. I should probably get a handle on this now. Go Broncos!

Ok, I'll be happy for the Broncos. But their throwback uniforms are still ugly.

• Ochocinco. I like to say that. Or type it, I guess.

Non-football update:

• I was going to mention this a couple of weeks ago, but then I never actually wrote an update. So, I have a long list of reasons that I hate living in NY, but I have a longer list of reasons that I love it. Here’s one of the latter: Friend Kevin and I went to see stand-up a couple of weeks ago at the place where he takes improv comedy classes, and the comedians were all naked. I insisted we sit in the very, very back row. It was uncomfortable. But a good story, right? Naked comedy! All of the participants (like 6 guys and 2 girls) were in really good shape, which I assume is why they decided to do it in the first place, and everyone was really funny–which I think is rare. So anyway, if you’re visiting the city and want a place to take your folks here‘s some info.

• I’m going to be in Paris a week from today. Tra la! Technically, I will be one country away from the Bucs vs. Pats game in London, but I’ll still probably miss it. Anyone want a souvenir?
  
• When you go abroad, do you need to buy a converter or just an adapter? I don’t travel abroad much. Clearly.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Ok, this is way delayed. Please excuse the lateness, especially considering it’s almost next week, and really I can barely remember what happened this week. Here’s the latest-ish:

• FifG Game of the Week winner: The Minnesota Vikings. Sorry Detroit Lions fans, but that’s one more game to the losing streak. On a positive note, many experts (including FifG, because, yes, FifG is an expert) believe that the Lions just might beat the Redskins. As for the Vikings, seems like they played a miserable first half and turned it up in the second half. Congrats to Percy Harvin, aka FifG’s third fantasy wide receiver, on his first NFL touchdown.
• We have had a request here to talk about Mark Sanchez, so this week’s Game of the Week will be the Titans v. the Jets. Should be a great game. Not entirely sure how it’s related to pop culture, but I’ll think about it and get back to you.
• My Buccies suckie. Boo.
• Lots of upsets this week: Bengals over Packers. Texans over Titans. Jets over Patriots. Giants over brand-new-stadium Cowboys. It’s too early to tell if the losing teams are bad, the winning teams are good, or if there was just a lot of bad/good luck going around, but that’s why football is so awesome. You just never know from year to year what you’re going to get, so you can stay invested. Why else is football awesome? Lots of reasons! Here is one.
• Many of you have been asking (via search terms), and, yes, Jon Gruden is married. According to his memoir (which, yes, FifG read in full) Jon is married to his college sweetheart, Cindy.
  Sorry, ladies.  But please know that as adorable as he is, Jon seems like the type of husband who would require a good deal of patience.

 

Jon Gruden is married to football AND to his wife.

Non-football notes:

• Try Martha Stewart’s pumpkin cupcake recipe. It is seriously easy, and very delicious! (Though it’s totally ok to buy the cream cheese frosting pre-made, because really, who can tell?
• I’m currently on jury duty for the first time (the court has wireless), and it has been revelatory, to say the least. I would go into the frustrations further, but I don’t feel it would be polite to speak ill of one’s wireless provider whilst it’s being provided. Maybe later.
• Wireless is awesome.