PLAYOFFS!!

The 'Skins have made the playoffs. Highly improbable 4 weeks ago. But it happened. Off to Seattle to take on the Seahawks, who managed to lose to the measly Falcons (HAHAHA!). One step at a time.

NFL Network

Tonight's simulcast of the NFL Network could utterly backfire on the NFL. Instead of opening the eyes of the football world and fans nationwide, and compelling them to demand this channel from their cable providers - I see an opposite result. As anyone who has watched a game on the NFL Network will tell you, the play-by-play is horrible. No, horrible is too nice. Think "fingernails-on-chalkboard" painful.

The simulcast will make the broadcast available nationwide - to hundreds of millions of more people than could have seen the game (and associated broadcast deficiencies). Those who have been thinking they'd like this thing called the NFL Network will get a preview - free. And they'll realize they'd probably never watch it again - and most definitely wouldn't pay good money to watch it. With NFL history on display, and a network that will underwhelm even a granny in Iowa, the NFL Network may have just doomed itself to failure.

Everyday Criminal

Long story short - tonight we had Christmas with Angela's Mom's side of the family - around 15-20 grandkids (of which we are included), a few great-grands, and all the aunts/uncles/cousins/etc.

We left early to get Mia to bed and realized we hadn't garnered the appropriate keys to enter Angela's folks' home. So, stuck in the driveway, 30 minutes away from the keys and 60 minutes late from Mia's bedtime, I took on the mindset of "I can't be stuck in this car for another 45 minutes."

Only two doors in their house don't have deadbolts - one leading to the garage, and one leading from the garage into the house. For all you wannabe house enterers out there, the Ann Taylor credit card does not (!) work to open doors. But, the Safeway frequent shopper/discount card works wonderfully. If only car doors opened so easily.

As an aside, Smokey the dog just looked on in quiet, cold confusion as to what I was doing. He won't tell anyone....

Christmas time is here

No, "Peanuts" doesn't mark the beginning of the Christmas season. Only one masterpiece can accomplish that: Handel's Messiah. I have put off listening to it for the last few weeks, and now with one week (plus a day) to go, it was time to break out the violins and harpsichord. Blissful baroque.

Power Lunch

Bowl of chili, cup of tuna salad (protein in a cup!), and a bottle of super-duper antioxidant drink which probably cost me $3.50. It tastes like I'm drinking a peach. Mmmmm.

Mia says: "Mitt! Mitt!"

No, she's not stumping for Romney. She's in love with her kitten mittens. And with her expanding love of the English language (and her amazing ability to vocalize said language), she walks around the house saying, "Mitt, mitt, meow-meow-meow!!"

Dog knows not her time...

This one hits a little closer to home. While I was away at college, my parents obtained a small dog. A poodle, in fact. Not a toy poodle, not a put-my-foot-hair-in-a-bow poodle, or anything like that. Just a sweet, small dog. [I say "obtained" because I don't remember the exact circumstance, but she was a gift from a family and my parents weren't exactly soliciting for a dog at the time.]

This dog, Charlotte, had many quirks. She would "sing" whenever music played. She would "SING" when you sang "Old Macdonald Had a Farm." She would lick your arm up and down until it was sticky and you had to take a bath. Actually, she'd lick you anywhere you had open skin.

Soon, she became my grandmother's companion. Mimi was living alone, and Charlotte provided that friendship, companionship, and sense of responsibility that everyone craves. Charlotte was faithful, always obedient, and for the last few years slept at Mimi's feet.

So this quick and incomplete eulogy is all to say - after the fam (including Charlotte) returned home from visiting us over Thanksgiving, Charlotte sadly passed away. She had developed a cough/choke while at our house, and a check-up at the vet revealed nothing serious. Unfortunately, it was. Whether it could have been prevented, we don't (and will never) know. But we will miss Charlotte, her wacky ways, and her sweet love.

Yo, peeps!!

I'm always learning. It's the "college of life" as my Dad would say.

Example: Pronounce the word - bonhomie. Seriously, right now - say it out loud - bonhomie.

I would have said, "bon-home-y." Yes, laugh out loud at me. Maybe it's just my ghetto self, but I seriously would have pronounced a hard "h" and a long "o" and "e." Instead, it's supposed to be pronounced like, "bahn-uh-mee." Like bigamy (only different).

Anyway, here's the real scoop: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bonhomie

Man knows not his time...

...in a purely selfish perspective, this stinks for the Redskins.

In a purely eternal perspective, let us hope his newfound maturity included a realization of his need for a renewing of the inner man.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112700538.html?hpid=topnews

God's Perfect Timing

My parents, sister, and grandmother were planning to come visit for Thanksgiving and then called Tuesday to say the trip was off. As can be expected, we were definitely bummed. Then, we got a call on Wednesday, saying the trip was back on, and they'd be driving up on Thursday.

We decided to delay our Thanksgiving dinner until Friday so we could all enjoy it 1) fresh and 2) together.

Needless to say, when the power went out on Thursday at 2:30pm (right in the middle of when we would have been cooking), we were quite grateful that my family's trip was delayed a day and we were only planning on Progresso soup and cheese toast for dinner. The power was restored around 6ish, I believe.

I feel for those in our area who missed out on being able to complete their Thanksgiving meals, and I'm grateful that ours went without a hitch on Friday. Having our family in town was the greatest thing we could have asked for, and words can't describe how happy I was that my grandmother could travel with them and see our home, our neighborhood, and especially our little girl.

Amelia was enthralled with "Aunt Abby" as usual, and she would hear the door open and say "Pa" for Grandpa coming in from outside. At night, when I'm putting her to bed, she usually says "Mama Mama Mama" and I let her know that Mama loves her and says "Goodnight." Now, Amelia would say "Mama," then "Aaaa" (for Abby), "Pa" (for Grandpa), and then start back with "Mama." She wants to make sure that everyone still loves her. Don't worry, we do.

"We didn't start the fire..."

And hopefully it will burn on and on and on.

Our oven died. Yesterday, to be exact. We cooked some salmon on broil, and then I hit "bake" and "350." Timer dings, and rolls are mushy. No fire. Hmmmmm.... Broiler works, oven doesn't.

Quick google search indicates I likely have a bad "igniter." Call to the appliance place, pick up the last one, install it (after a few frustrating minutes, realized I could take the entire burner assembly off), and BOOOM (thanks, John Madden), it's a burnin'.

I had to splice a wire (wire doesn't seem to be the right word) - and only had plastic wire nuts. Hopefully it won't melt!

Just a little bit of fun...

...with "Photo Booth"

Did you know...

...that Godiva chocolates is owned by the Campbell Soup Co. ? I thought my last truffle tasted a bit...tomatoey....

Amelia and I trekked out to the mall one day last week, partly because I had some shopping to do but mostly because it was too cold and rainy to do our routine outdoor activities, and we both needed a change of scenery!

Our first stop? The mall's indoor PLAYGROUND! Because we got there a little early (15 minutes before all the stores opened) we were the first and only ones there, so for a few minutes, Amelia had the place to herself. I took advantage of the opportunity to get some pictures. =D


Amelia LOVES cars! She spent about 15 minutes crawling around, climbing up and down, and playing on this one.



You can't really see them in this picture, but there are three big slides on this "airplane." It's definitely a favorite!

Amelia attempts to climb up one of the airplane slides -- it's no small feat in socks!


~posted by Ang

Just a few laughs

Hopes this doesn't violate any copyright laws....

Our Little Bumblebee

Our church does a "Trunk or Treat" every year on Halloween --a sort of fall festival for families. Though we don't celebrate Halloween, we enjoy participating in the Trunk or Treat and, this year, dressing Amelia up as a little bumblebee. :-) She had such a fun time (mostly because she was outside where she could really spot the airplanes!). This year there were circus swings, which Mia was very excited about! The swing looked a little big for her, but she rode in it like a champ and loved it!

The "10-Second Rule"

I think the 10-second rule should be extended to 15 seconds for a piece of fruit. Surely something in fruit is so healthy as to counteract any dirt on the ground.

And definitely it should be 30 seconds for chocolate. Very few things can keep chocolate from being good for you.

I like...

popcorn and Counting Crows, especially on a rainy day when I'm reviewing lots and lots of documents.

The long 'waited pics

Here they are. Sorry, but some you'll have to rotate on your own. =) Obviously, not all of these are from the beach, but I think you'll enjoy them just the same. And yes, she's getting cuter every day (and very polite - her "Thank you" is almost flawless!).

Daily Pic - 10-23-07