The Usual Shenanigans

It's a good day. Why is it a good day? Anyone who knows me, knows that Monday is not my favorite day of the week, but I make an exception every once in a while. Like today. Here's why. Let's start with Saturday. It started not so wonderfully - it rained, sometimes poured, for the entire Homecoming game. But we won. Happiness and elation though, later in the day after Iwas dry and warm again, when Notre Dame took it to Michigan.

Liz and I had decided, based on the weather radar map, that we weren't going to the Indians game. Of course, watching the little on TV that we did, it didn't rain at all. Stupid weather channel. But we had a good time at home anyway, ordered some Mama Roberto's, had a visit from Bridget and Kaylee, went and got some Coldstone. Mmmm Coldstone. Proceeded to watch OSU get embarassed by USC. I'm not an Ohio State fan, but there are two teams that I will absolutely root against, USC and Michigan. I am a fan of whoever those two teams are playing any given Saturday. Oh well. The Indians lost, btw.

Yesterday, was Mason's first birthday party. The pictures will speak for themselves. And let's just say, my nephews are very very similar in their love of cake.
Getting close to the downward spiral at this point....
And there it is. That's the money shot. What's even funnier, is that he kept doing this. To heck with these hands, let's cut out the middle man. Seriously, you do not want to get in between Mason and his food. Trust me.See what I mean? Even with a fork, Elliott can't stay neat with cake. So we had some cake shenanigans. More was to come though...

Onto THE game. That's right Steelers-Browns v. 1 2008. Ellie decided that we needed to "get our game face on". Need I say more?
Yep, game face = eye black strips and powder puff hair. And it was all downhill from there...

Note the intensity on Ellie's face. Click the picture to make it bigger for full effect.Check out that stiff arm. Yeah, we're that crazy. But look how cute we can be.
Yeah, crazy game day shenanigans, that's just how we roll. But the main reason that today is a good day... STEELERS WIN!!! It may not have been pretty, and I'm sure that I'm going to hear about how the Browns were robbed, and some elaborate conspiracy theory that would have had the Browns winning when I go to work later, but the bottom line is, Steelers win the 10th straight game against the Browns. Woot!

And because this is a knitting blog. I'll show you my knitting from yesterday. I started yet another Christmas present. So this will probably be the only photo you see of it until after it's gifted. It's using Hill Country Yarn's Superfine Superwash sock yarn in "Salmon".
And because I couldn't be knitting something orange while the the Steelers were playing the Browns, I pulled out the long neglected November Ruffle. Perfect football knitting. Got several inches done on it, and have several more to go before I get to the ruffle part.
Here's a pic trying to convey the scope of the piece. Doesn't really do it though. Oh well, when it's done and off the needles you'll understand.
See, 11.5 inches done. I think I have to get to 15 before the ruffle?! Have to dig out the pattern to be sure.
Don't you just love the tweedy effect? Can you tell I do? And the lusciousness of the alpaca....

The End is Near...

So near I can almost taste it. Ew, the end of 2-a-days does not taste good. It tastes of rotting pads, sweat, and mildewy gloves. Seriously bad. Everyone always asks me how I can stand to deal with the feet for my job, I don't have an issue with the feet. But the gloves... Yuck. I mean, if one of the guys hurts his thumb or hand or whatever and I have to palpate after they've taken it out of the glove, my hands and fingers reek of the gloves for at least 3 hand washings. It's so gross. But anyway, today is the last day of doubles!!! They scrimmage tomorrow night, under the lights (insert ooh's and aah's), and start school on Monday! So glad that it's almost over.

Can't say that my birthday was great - but I worked all day and didn't do anything afterwards, so considering that, it was good. Ellie came over with mini DQ ice cream cakes and a Hungry Howie's bacon cheddar cheeseburger pizza (so bad, but sooo good), and a promise of paying for my passport when I get around to applying for it as my present. Received a very cool digital photo frame that you can have a slideshow of your pictures on from Charlie, Rachel and Charlie 4, very excited to play with it this weekend. Charlie 4 called and sang "Happy Birthday" to me - so cute. Then he proceeded to talk very excitedly, but I'm not sure what about. He was very excited about the pre-schools he went to visit, and the fact that he went pee on the potty. So cute, breaks my heart that I don't get to see him more often. The Indians beat the Tigers - yay! Taped "So you think you can Dance?" and will watch that tonight before the finale. So all in all, not the worst birthday.

Knitting. Hmm, haven't gotten much done lately. Exhaustion has prevented most knitting capabilities. I've got about 8 inches of Mason's blanket done, and yesterday I got a few inches of the Peapod back done while at Knitting on the Square. Bought myself a birthday present while there, Interweave Press' Favorite Socks, I've been looking at it for a while, and it was on sale yesterday, and it was my birthday.... No socks until Peapod is done! Two of the ladies who were there knitting were working on baby blankets form the same book that Baby Sarah's blanket is from, and they both assured me that they work up very fast and are wonderful.

My camera is still broken. Geek Squad will look at it for $25 and then tell me what's wrong and how much it will cost - can we say rip off? Kodak.com says that the minimum it would cost to fix is $80 plus at least $50 to ship. Hmmmm, a new camera is looking better and better. Biggest paycheck of the year comes next week too.... We'll see.

Rainy Day Boredom

So it's raining. Amend that, it's thundering, which means that somewhere there is lightning. Which means that football cannot practice. Which means that I have spent the last hour getting caught up on my paperwork (surprisingly a whole bunch of injury reports for yesterday, surprising because we still haven't started hitting yet), and now I'm bored. Amazingly, there are no football players in my training room at the moment. So what else do I have to do but blog a little.

Not much to talk about. Made it to the festival Sunday night. Not too many people there because it rained. But Bridget, Chris and Kaylee came out. They had driven down to Dublin for the Irish Fest but it got shut down due to the rain down there so they come home early. Paul, Peggy and Elliott also came. I can't believe how big little man is getting! It's only been a few weeks since I've seen him, but he looks bigger and his face is starting to change. He's starting to lose that infant-ness of his face. Anyway, didn't win any money at the money jar - for the second year running. I'm starting to get a bit discouraged. But the ribs were really good, as always. And yay! Steelers beat the Saints in the first game of the year. Never mind if the starters only played one series, they still scored and the starters for the Saints didn't.

Finished the front of Peapod. Yippee! Cast on and started the ribbing for the back. Cast on for Mason's blanket on Sunday. I'd forgotten how fast worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles can go. It's been a long time since I've knit with anything bigger than size 2. But I'm really liking how it's coming out so far. Can't post any pics because my brother reads the blog and I like for gifts to be somewhat of a surprise. Plan on getting new yarn for Baby Jersey's blanket this week. (If a name has been chosen for Baby Jersey, could a Jerseyan please let me know, I feel bad continuing to just refer to her as Baby Jersey).

And here comes the weather warning... fun, flash flood warning. So maybe no practice at all today.....

It's too early..

Good Morning! And it definitely is morning. There's nothing better than an 8am football practice on a Saturday morning. No wait, it's better when you know it's going to get to 90 degrees on the field before 10am. Who doesn't love August in NE Ohio? We'll see how today goes, they get to add shoulder pads today. I have a feeling that I'll have at least one kid puking - as he's done both days already - hy should today be any different? Most of my order was delivered yesterday - yay!!!! Not too much of the stuff I was really hoping to get of course. All my tape came, which is great and all, but I've got plenty left over from last year. I need bandaids and blister pads. Hopefully the rest will come early in the week.

Made some headway with Peapod last night. Made it through the fourth repeat and half of the fifth. I forgot how fast it can go when you're decreasing and only working on half the number of stitches. I vow to finish the left front - evil evil evil left front - tonight. And move on to the easy peasy back section. Realized that I made an oops. Due to the lack of directions, and the fact that most of the time I'm an idiot (just ask my family they'll agree), the seven stitches that were supposed to be happily sitting on a stitch marker for almost the whole piece were actually knitted up as I went. I'm not really thinking that this is a huge deal. It was supposed to be knitted up after and then sewed to the edge, so I think I saved myself some sewing - which is good because it's definitely not one of my fortes. Those stitches are now happily sitting on the marker, due the decreases that had to take place. Maybe I'm just in denial, but I think it'll be okay. And if it's not, then this little cardigan is going to be burned in effigy. No wait, the yarn is way too nice to be burned. Maybe I'll burn the pages of the book that don't contain good directions. Yeah, that'll work.

A Black Black Day

It is a black, black day in my world today. This weekend, as you all know, was the NFL draft. So far as I can tell my beloved Steelers did alright. Who can really tell for sure at this point, but they always pick very smartly. But the reason that today is a day of mourning, is that somehow, beyond my comprehension, the Browns were able to finagle 2 first round picks. And who did they choose with that second pick??? None other than Brady Quinn, former quarterback to Notre Dame. This is unacceptable. I would have been fine with Brady going anywhere but to Cleveland.

Wait a minute, don't I live in Cleveland?? I'm sure you're all asking how a girl born and raised in Cleveland is a Steelers fan. Simple, my dad is originally from Pittsburgh, and we were not permitted to live in his house and be Browns fans. So why do I not want to see Brady in Cleveland? Most people will assume that it's because I don't want my team to have to compete against him, that I'm afraid that he'll beat the Steelers. Not so. I don't want him in Cleveland because they don't have anything that resembles an NFL offensive line, which means that poor Brady is in for a beating, every Sunday. So in two years time, he'll be injured and burnt out and will never reach his full potential.

Now, why do I care so much about Brady Quinn? Simple, I am also a huge Notre Dame fan. So I want the boys who graduate from ND to do well.

So today is a black black day. And come The first Sunday of September, my Steelers are going to have a field day with poor Brady, if he starts, and run him into the ground. So sad.