Archive for January, 2009

As a devout Pittsburgh Steelers fan I am excited and elated that we are in the Super Bowl again. The mid-day trips to a Steelers bar, the endless barbequing, and incessant yelling have all paid off. I’ve been on this ride for 21 weeks and I always knew they had a good chance but with the toughest schedule in football I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

When you proudly support your team you pretty much are the team to the people around you. Monday mornings bring out the “Monday morning quarterback” in all of us and the Steelers are often front and center. Talking about close, tense games has become commonplace for me, though it hasn’t gotten any easier watching the games. If the game is on TV then I stay home where I can yell, swear, and throw things at the tv, what else can a superfan do? Living in Northern California, I haven’t had a lot of luck with our other teams so for me, this is pure joy. I have noticed a lot of anti-Steelers sentiment lately, as we try to become the only team to win 6 titles, something 49er fans don’t want to see happen.

This year I feel an obligation to throw the best Super Bowl party I can. My team is in the big game so it is only fitting. I’m going to go back home and have a party with my brother and my nephews. I look forward to spending time with my family and friends as we gather to watch the big game. For my nephews, who are 5 and 6, this will be the first time they have had a Super Bowl party. I’m taking them grocery shopping in the morning to get the supplies and I’m going to let them pick out what they want to eat which is surely a naïve uncle mistake. I want this to be a memorable experience for them. As an uncle who lives far away, I want to be part of as many “firsts” as I can with them.

I hope everyone has a great Superbowl XLIII, go Steelers!

We all have buried treasure somewhere. Hiding in our kitchen cabinets and under our bathroom sinks are wonderful things we forgot we ever had. Let’s dig them up and put them to use!

Gourmet food
Most kitchens in America have special gourmet gifts they received, stuck on a high shelf or hidden behind the pancake mix. Or something they bought on a whim which still hasn’t been used. Maybe it’s a ‘cake mix in a box’ left over from a long forgotten gift basket, or special raspberry dessert topping you bought for last year’s Valentine’s Day.

Unearth your hidden goodies and enjoy them - don’t keep them cooped-up in your cupboards!  Make the cake, bake the cookies, or break out the fancy assorted crackers. Go ahead - find a way to use that special dessert topping this weekend (doesn’t everything taste good on top of pound cake?). 

If it’s something you’d rather not eat, take the goodies into work, or serve them at your church’s coffee hour. Just bring them out of the cupboard so they can be enjoyed.

Bath stuff
Lurking underneath every bathroom sink are spa products which either haven’t been opened, or are half used. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and use them up. Or re-gift them to someone else. You’ll free up space in your cabinet and make the world a sweeter smelling place.

Once upon a time, the die hard NFL fan who couldn’t afford the outrageous (corporate) ticket prices for the Super Bowl had an alternative. The alternative was Las Vegas. For years, Las Vegas held Super Bowl parties at almost every casino. For paid admission, you got to watch the game usually on stadium size monitors, all you can eat stadium food and best of all some parties were Open Bar. Oh those were the days. 

Today, those parties are almost non-existent due to the NFL threatening lawsuits on casinos for charging for an event that is free. This was a rude awakening in 2004 when my friends and I were in a cab after landing in Las Vegas and our cab driver told us “The NFL sent lawyers to shut down the parties!” We were not quite sure whether this was rumor or fact.  This would be our 4th year going to the party and we had been waiting for this day since the end of the last Super Bowl.

At the hotel, we jumped out of the cab and headed immediately to the concierge where they told us “We will not be having a party this year.” We tried to find other parties but received the same disappointing news from every place. 

So since that year, my friends and I have joined the masses in watching Super Bowl from a TV in one of our living rooms. Its not Vegas but we still have fun; and maybe, all those years in Vegas, wasn’t about being in Vegas that made it fun, but rather just us getting together to celebrate the biggest Sunday in sports.

Americans have accumulated so many things, that we’ve forgotten what we have.  Here’s some ideas on putting to use what’s already yours:

Instead of buying something new, why not dig up the things you already have, but forgot about?
 
Take some time to go through your closets, drawers, cabinets and garage. You’ll be amazed at what you forgot you had:

Clothes
Something always gets pushed to the back of the closet or drawer, and is forgotten about.  The key is to entirely empty out all your drawers and closets to uncover the buried treasures. 

Take it a step further. Invite a friend over to help put together a few new outfits. Take photos of the new outfits, then tape the photos inside your closet. You’ll have instantly available ideas for new outfits, and you’ll put to use what you already have.

Unfinished projects
Doesn’t everyone have an unfinished project – or two? It could be the half knitted sweater you started last fall or the unassembled bookcase in the garage. Get started again. Take an hour and see how much you can get done. When you’ll finally finished you’ll have a great feeling of completion – and you’ll have created something new.

Boardgames and puzzles
Declare a “game night” at home. Pop some popcorn and settle in to work on a long-forgotten puzzle or play a boardgame. Invite over friends. You’ll have a blast!

Most of America stopped working; eating; talking today to watch with pride this historic occasion in our nation’s capital. What an incredible sight – seeing over 1.5 million, possibly even 2 million people sharing in the peaceful transition of power from one President to another.

There were so many special moments: some moving, some humorous but mostly reverent: To name but a few…

Pastor Warren in his Inaugural Invocation spoke of inclusiveness and of the historic nature of this occasion:

“Today we celebrate the hinge point of history in the inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States, a land of unequal possibility where the son of an African immigrant can rise to highest leadership,”

Aretha Franklin’s velvet voice delivering a gorgeous rendering of ‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee’ with such majesty – oh that hat – just fabulous!

Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriella Montero played a beautiful piece composed by John Williams – easy on the ears, enjoyed by all.

The Inaugural Poem by Elizabeth Alexander, a Pulitzer Prize finalist – a  moving poem talking not only about love but of national resolve:

‘We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.’And of course Chief Justice Roberts – his first inauguration swearing in – stumbling slightly in the beginning of the oath, thus creating a bit of a muddle with the word faithfully. But it all worked out and we now have our 44th president of this great country.

I hope you watched with your friends, co-workers or family. Today was truly an historic event. Something we should all feel proud to have witnessed and been a part of.