Red Nose

Caps Caps Caps!

During the Capitals-Lightning hockey game on April 13, Joe sent the following tweet:

Exactly 10 seconds later, at 2:41 of the second period, Jason Chimera (aka Chim-Dog) scored!

See that black spot in the back of the net? That's the puck.

On April 14, Joe and I went to the extra-special spiffy Season Ticket Holders party at Six Flags. We ate hot dogs and chips, wandered around the park, and I stood in line to get autographs from Mathieu Perrault (Matty P!) and -- you guessed it -- Jason Chimera! As Chimmer was signing my program, I told him about Joe's tweet and his ensuing magical goal. Chimmer says to me, he says, "Tell him to keep tweeting!"

Jason Chimera signs my program!

Last night, at the Capitals-Jets game -- the most important game of the season -- the game that we could clinch the Southeast Division title by winning -- I reminded Joe of Chimmer's request. And so Joe tweeted:

Guess what? At 17:53 of the first period, Jason Chimera scored!

Chimmer celebrates his goal. All those guys in white? Couldn't stop him.

Joe had gone to the bathroom just before the goal, but he did see it on one of the many monitors on the concourse. When I went down during the intermission, I just looked at him in amazement. Joe was just as amazed and said, "I know, right???"

Chimmer's goal was one of five that the Caps scored, and we clinched the division title and the third seed in the playoffs! Do you think Joe will continue his tweeting ways?

Yes. Yes he will.

 

 

Sunday Sundry

Things are better at work, which is good because I didn't get the job in St. Thomas. I decided to relax and not get so bent out of shape about shit I have no control over, for one thing. I'm still getting irritated, but hey, none of this is worth getting my bowels in an uproar (as my Pop used to say). I'm trying to breathe and move instead of getting wound up and stuck. Who knows, it could work.

I did the taxes, filed them, and have already gotten our Maryland refund. Hello, new brakes and shocks! Our federal refund is due mid-week; hello, new stove! I tell you, we are all fancy up in here. I must say, I do like Turbo Tax a lot. I also really like the IRS's "Where's my refund?" feature. Maryland has a similar feature; when I checked it yesterday, it told me that my return had been approved and my refund sent to my bank. Sure enough, there it was! Remember the olden days when you filled out those forms by hand, trusted your arithmetic, sent them off, and then waited and waited and waited? This is better. Who knows, the future could be better yet!

I'm watching news on the blizzard in New England just now. Man! I feel for all my pals in New England. Our last blizzard was Snowmaggedon in 2010; since then the DC area has had a grand total of 13" of snow. Although, as we were clumping toward the train after yet another Caps loss at home, I overheard a meteorologist (that's what he said he was, I swear) say that they were seeing signs that we could get clobbered over President's Day weekend. It makes sense; some of the biggest snowstorms we've ever had in this neck of the woods have been over President's Day. Who knows, it could snow!

It's been a terrible start for my Capitals; they're in last place in the Eastern Conference in fact. But! Last night's game against the Panthers provided a ray of hope -- my boys won 5-0, Ovie scored, and our goalie was brilliant. And the hope? That we can keep it up! Who knows, we might!

We saw "The Quartet" today. I really loved it. Yes, it's kind of another "feel good" British film (although directed by Dustin Hoffman), but the acting is lovely and the story is sweet and the music is beautiful. I love Maggie Smith! And Billy Connolly is terrific too. I hope, when I am old old, that I'll be able to find a place to live that is as nice as the one in this movie. Who knows, it could happen!

 

Family Fun Time!

My sister threw a Super Bowl party last night and I had a blast! It was not a large affair -- just family, a whole lot of good football food, and four (or five?) glasses of wine. For me.

I seldom drink, so those four (or five?) glasses of wine relaxed me quite a bit. We have a lot of fun when we all get together... we crack jokes, share memories, and mostly laugh a lot.

We did have a little bit of business to take of before the game and the food got started. Remember Hurricane Sandy? And how we thought our beach house escaped any damage?

Alas; such is not the case.

For some reason -- probably having to do with the fact that it's a modular home -- all of the duct work for the heating and air conditioning system is in the crawl space under the house. And, to avoid rust in such a humid area, it's made out of thick, thick cardboard (or something close to it).

Yes, friends, we have a paper A/C system.

Such systems do not fare very well in hurricanes where the crawl space fills up with water; neither does the 20 year old compressor. My brother-in-law patched it back together with spit and duct tape, but that lasted all of five seconds and the whole thing basically melted during the next storm.

So we have to replace the whole system, including some decent duct work that runs through the attic.

This is, as you might expect, Not Cheap. In fact, it is damned fucking expensive, and that's for the middle of the road system. So we filed a flood insurance claim, and my sister and brother-in-law braved the cold cold house to meet the insurance adjuster. It looks like everything will go through.

But anyway, we got all that over with early, so that we could enjoy the game. We were a divided family, however. My sister, niece, and brother-in-law were rooting for the 49ers, but the rest of us were rooting for the Ravens. Yes, I am a diehard Redskins fan, but I am also a Maryland gal whose ancestors come from Baltimore and whose son is a dead ringer for Joe Flacco.

What a game! I've got to hand it to the 49ers; they have a way of lulling their opponents into a sense of complacency and then BOOM! Seventeen point in four minutes. Every time Ray Lewis appeared on the TV my sister yelled, "Murderer!" and we all drank some more wine.

But SonnyeBoy Joe Flacco kept his cool and the Ravens defense stood up when they had to and today Charm City is celebrating.

My favorite commercial, by the way, was the "Montanaland" Tide commercial.

And I had a great night's sleep after four glasses of wine; I felt great this morning! I think I was so relaxed from all that lovely white zinfandel and moscato that I didn't grind my teeth at all.

So, lesson learned! Time for a glass of wine!

Hail!

Last night, despite the fact that I was recovering from my latest bout of bronchitis, I went to the biggest football game of this season: Redskins versus Cowboys, for the NFC East Division title.

Or, as they say, all the marbles.

I bundled the hell up too, because Fedex Field is a proper football stadium, meaning that there is no dome to keep out the weather. And last night, at game time, the temperature was pretty much at freezing.

I wore my long johns, two pairs of socks, warm pants, a tank top, a turtleneck, a fleece top, my parka, a wool scarf, a knitted toque, gloves under mittens, and a vintage Gary Clark jersey over everything.

I was glad to be so bundled up, too, especially during the great tailgate party we had. My sister (who invited us to the game) puts on a fantastic tailgate. We set up the cozy tent, first up the little heater, and set out a spread fit for a king: roast beef, cocktail weiners in sauce, two kinds of wings, hot crab dip, hot veggies and cheese, chips and dips, wine, beer, soda, water, and cookies for dessert. There was probably more than that, but that's what I remember.The tailgaters all around us were amazing. There were Redskins Luchadores, there were folks with painted faces, there was loud music playing. Every Cowboys fan that walked past was roundly booed. (Hey, if you're going to walk into a Redskins in enemy regalia, you need to be prepared for that.)

(Note to the independent t-shirt entrepreneur: The Redskins colors are BURGUNDY and gold, not MAROON and gold. Dude. Get it right if you want to charge $20 for a cheesy t-shirt. (My sister was livid.))

Unfortunately, I lost one mitten/glove when I went through the security scan. It was okay, though, because I found that my hands really didn't get very cold! I think the massive crowd raised the ambient temperature by about 10 degrees!

And the GAME! Oh holy dear sweet Jesus, that GAME!! It was, of course, a heartstopper. The Cowboys scored first, but the Redskins tied it up and then pulled away. Once we took the lead, we kept the lead. A tiny finger of concern pressed on my last nerve when the Cowboys pulled within three points late in the fourth quarter, but when Rob Jackson intercepted a Tony Romo pass with three minutes to go I thought, "Holy shit! We're gonna win this game!" The stadium crowd went completely berzerk with that interception (Romo's third, by the way), only to go slightly more berzerk when Alfred Morris scored to ice the game.

The Cowboys fan sitting behind us, after much trash talking, just sat in this seat with head in his hands. My remaining mitten/glove had fallen under my seat (which, I might add, I sat in for about a grand total of 15 minutes during the entire game) and was marinating in a mixture of lemonade, beer, and wine, so I left it there. I have more mittens.

After the wonderful game, there was joyous celebrating at the post-game tailgate. We drank champagne and ate more cookies and hugged each other and high-fived everybody walking by, because our Redskins won the NFC East Championship (first time since 1999) and made the payoffs (first time since 2007).

When I finally got home at 1:00 am, Joe was still up to scoop me up in his arms and dance around the house.

I had a fabulous time! I may have lost my mittens, but I do not care.

Hail to the Redskins! Hail victory!

Oh, and Happy New Year to everyone! Thanks for reading, for commenting, and for being you. May our 2013s be as successful as last night's game.

 

 

 

Ten Things About Football And Me

1. Today the Washington Redskins beat the Cleveland Browns, putting them in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC East. However, because they have the best division record. I am very happy about this, for I did not expect my team to be in this position!

2. I have been a Redskins fan my whole entire life, mostly because it was a good way to get close to my Pop. If I rooted for any other team over the Redskins, his ghost would rise up and smite me. I still remember him explaining the rules to me: "See, you have four downs to go ten yards." Eventually it made sense!

3.  Back in the day, the big quarterback controversy of the Redskins was Sonny Jurgensen versus Billy Kilmer. I liked Sonny. I still do!

4. Some of my favorite Redskins players -- beside Sonny -- include: Art Monk, Dave Butz, Charley Taylor, Darrell Green, John Riggins, Mark Moseley, Chris Cooley, Santana Moss, and Robert Griffin III.

5. Speaking of Art Monk, I once saw him in the dining car on the Amtrak train to Atlanta. Alas, I was too shy to go up and speak to him. I wish I had!

6. When John Riggins broke a tackle on fourth and one and ran for the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XVII, Joe and I cheered so loud we scared SonnyeBoy and made him cry. Poor kid!

7. And then, we swamped the Broncos to win Super Bowl XXII. We had a great Super Bowl party for that one!

8. In 1992, we watched our beloved Redskins win Super Bowl XXVI, beating the Buffalo Bills 37-24.

9. And then the long slide into oblivion began. Twenty years of frustration, playoff losses, and losing seasons. A parade of coaches and quarterbacks marched in and out of Washington. Even Joe Gibbs couldn't fix it. It's been tough to be a Redskins fan these last several years.

10.  I know all of the words to the Redskins Fight Song by heart -- yes, even the middle ones. And boy, it's been fun to sing them the last few weeks!

For All Of It

There is a line in one of Rita Mae Brown's novels (I cannot remember which one right now) where a character, upon being stricken with a fatal heart attack, says, "Thank you God, for all of it."

We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year -- just Joe and me. My cousin's wife passed on hosting the dinner this year because my cousin is in poor health. SonnyeBoy had to work, so he couldn't come home to join us. We're missing my brother-in-law.

Even so, I have so much to be thankful for. Here are a mere ten, in no particular order.

1. I'm thankful that we're both well, for old farts.

2. I'm thankful for Joe's love.

3. I'm thankful for my family -- my brother and sisters and their entire families.

4. I'm thankful that SonnyeBoy got to have a Thanksgiving dinner with his sweetie's family, even if he did have to go to work tonight.

5. I'm thankful that the weather today was about as good as it could possibly be.

6. I'm thankful that dinner was good, especially the pie.

7. I'm thankful that the Redskins won! Against the Cowboys! In Dallas!

8. I'm thankful for swings.

9. I'm thankful for so many friends, from my longtime friends to my circus friends to STC friends to my journaling/blogging/internet friends to my Tribe. Did I leave anyone out? If I did, to you, too.

10. I'm thankful for a clean and orderly basement with a clean bathroom.

So, even though it's not all skittles and beer, even though there are bills to pay and repairs to make and work to do, for this moment, for this day, it's all good.

Thank you God, for all of it.

Let Me Sum Up

Since I last updated, I have continued this absurd fixation with taking care of myself. I have walked every single day -- one day I even got off the subway one stop early and took the longer walk up the hill to my office. I also started walking to the subway after work instead of catching the work shuttle.

I know!

I have also lost a smidgeon more weight.

So now that it actually seems like I might keep this nonsense up, I spent the whopping sum of $2.99 on an iPhone Pedometer app that is pretty cool. It maps your route and tells you how far you walked, in steps and miles, and even shows your route on a map. I really like that feature because it showed our route around the lakes in our neighborhood, something I have not been able to do until now.

You can also track your weight, your measurements, and a whole host of other crap that people who are into that sort of thing like to track. I am tracking my weight, but that's it so far.

Lest you think I am going nuts, I will tell you that I baked an apple pie this afternoon. It is cooling even as I type, and I am planning on eating a nice generous slice of it later on.There is no reason to go berzerk on this stuff. (I did use a Splenda/sugar mix instead of all sugar, so I got that goin' for me.)

Last Sunday, on a complete whim, Joe and I went to a Nats game. We had a great time, even though the Nats lost. I sat next to a quite lively little guy -- maybe 8 years old -- and we had a lovely time conversing about the game.

Baseball is fun this year in Washington! My Pop used to take my sister and me to Senators games back in the 60s -- we got one Coke and a bag of peanuts each while he drank beers through the whole game. Sometimes, when we went to double headers, we got a hot dog! Anyway, even then the Nats (they were nicknamed the Nats back then too -- SeNATors, you see) never made the playoffs. When these present day Nats did, I found out that this is the first time since 1933! My parents were married in 1933!

Also reminding me of the 60s -- okay, the late 60s -- was the demonstration outside my office late last week. Yeah. About a hundred people gathered to protest foreclosures, bailouts, homelessness, and various other issues. There was chanting, there were banners and signs, there were even a couple of arrests. All it lacked was the National Guard and tear gas. I felt a wee twinge of nostalgia.

In other news, SonnyeBoy won yet another traffic safety award. He does not consider this to be a big deal and did not even tell us about it! (He nevah writes; he nevah cawls....)

 

The Best Game You Can Name: Locked Out

As August fades into September and September slides toward October, I usually start getting excited.

Why?

Hockey.

Not this year.

This year the fall appears bleak and gray; the winter looms silent and icy.

The NHL has locked out the players. Neither side wants to budge, with the sticking point being the division of revenues. The players currently receive 57%; the owners want to cut that to 47%. In effect, that's about a 17% pay cut.

Neither side is budging. Both sides have sent letters to the fans expressing the hope that the season will begin soon.

You know what? Players, owners -- just get it done, please. It's my money you're fighting over. I bought season tickets because I love the Caps and I love the game. You all make a lot of money; even the entry level guys make more in a season than I will ever make.

I know. Players have a narrow window in which to make money. They play hard and they train hard. I wouldn't want to take a 17% pay cut and I don't blame them for not wanting to take a 17% pay cut. But surely, for the sake of the game and the fans, couldn't you give a little?

And owners? You guys are even richer than the players. You make money off me, not only from my season ticket purchase, but from every hot dog, beer, and hot pretzel I eat and every jersey, toque, and pair of lucky socks I buy. Surely, for the sake of the game and the sake of the fans, couldn't you give a little too?

Both sides say they want a season. Both sides admit it's the fans who suffer. If you really believe that, then get this collective bargaining agreement done, goddammit.

I want to watch some hockey.

I Ate, I Edited, I Made A Pie

So, the rest of the week happened; it was not as good as Tuesday, but hey, they can't all be winners. It seemed like I was busy busy busy, but it was mostly meetings and seminar pilots. I actually managed to speak up in the meetings I went to, which is unusual for me as I either cannot think of anything worthwhile to say or I can't muster up enough suck-up-ness to spout off about aligning goals and being "all in" and communicating across the business and crap like that.

Anyway!

Olympics! I watched a lot of them, but I curse NBC for putting the best stuff on late, when I'd already fallen asleep on the sofa. Even so, I love the Olympics. How about that women's water polo team? Wow! The Closing Ceremony is on even as I type, and I am quite enjoying it.

The weekend was quite glorious. We met up with the lovely and talented Deb Siobhan on Saturday morning to have lunch with the equally lovely and talented KarenD, who was in town for the weekend. We had a delightful lunch at Facci, a great Italian bistro, and yakked and had a fine old time.

Joe went to work later that afternoon, so I did too. Well, I didn't actually go into work; I had brought it home. I edited about 50 pages of the most boring ass writing that's ever been boringly written in the annals of boredom. So many people have rewritten, reorganized, or reformatted this stuff  -- I am doing the final copyedit -- that it is impossible to do the work with Word's Track Changes on. In fact, it is almost impossible to do it online at all, so I am actually doing the edit on hardcopy with my trusty red pen. I will then enter it online. It's the only way I can do it and stay sane. I'm still bored as all hell, though.

But enough about that. I just succeeded in boring myself again!

So today we read the paper, got groceries, went for a drive out to Jimmie Cone for ice cream (yum!), stopped at the farm stand for corn and tomatoes, and watch the feral kittens play in the backyard.

I made a peach pie, too!

I admit that I cheated a little bit by using that pre-made pie dough. See, I cannot make pie dough to save my life, so rather than frustrate myself I just use this stuff. It's every bit as good as homemade. YES IT IS, shut up!

I did discover that poaching the peaches and then plopping them in ice water really does make the skins peel right off! It's almost magic! And, we managed to wait three hours for the pie to cool off and thicken up completely. It helped that I roasted some chicken, sliced one of the good tomatoes, and cooked up some of the good corn for dinner.

And now that I think about it, peach pie would probably make an excellent breakfast.

 

 

Hockey's Almost Over; It Must Be Summer

Game 6, Eastern Conference Finals. The New Jersey Devils (for whom I am reluctantly rooting) versus the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The winner will face the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final series; the Cup will be awarded by June 13th at the latest.

And then summer will begin.

It's a slow withdrawal, this ending of hockey season. Luckily, So You Think You Have Pants Can Dance has started up again! I watched the premier last night (because there was no hockey on) and I think it's going to be a pretty good season. And, the new season of True Blood starts in June, picking up the nine pm time slot from Game of Thrones.

Yes, there will no shortage of athletic dancing, explicit sex, and bloody violence to keep me going until the fall -- and that's just SYTYCD! (Bah-dum-dum!)

So anyway, people ask me why I'm still watching when my Caps are out of it. Easy -- I love the game. Of course I wish the Caps were playing tonight, but I'll still watch.

Because it's the Cup, as the NHL ad campaign goes.

I love the speed, the skating, the physicality, the strategy, and yes, I admit it, I like a good scrap now and again.

So why root for the Devils? That's easy; because the Rangers beat my team! So naturally I'm going to root for the Other Team.

Hey, I'm even watching the Canadian Hockey League's Memorial Cup games when the NHL Network shows them. This is junior hockey -- kind of the minor leagues of hockey. Many of the players have already been drafted by NHL teams, but they're still completing their educations or refining their skills or both. Tonight the Shawinigan Cataractes are playing the St. John Sea Dogs; the winner of that game will play the London Knights for the Memorial Cup.

But all too soon it will be full summer and hockey will be over until the preseason begins in late September. And then once again I will be in Section 407 of Verizon Center, wearing my red jersey, and hollering "LET"S GO CAPS!"