Fuzzy Super Bowl XLVI Memories

After waking up incredibly early for 7am mass and running into my little brother there, with both of us wondering why the other was up so early on a Sunday morning, I made it back to my place to put some finishing touches on preparing the house for the big game.

The night before, with most of the work done, my wife and I marvelled at our house's cleanliness and wondered why we only get it this clean before we know people are coming to totally trash the joint.  I got home from church, and crawled back in bed with the girl and the kitten for a bit, until she got up for work.  Then I woke up, brewed some coffee and flipped on the stereo to shuffle some Velvet Underground, The Who, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, and a few others while I finished dishes, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming up the joint.

I moved the extra couch into the living room to provide the stadium seating, and just sat around enjoying the clean house and the music.  It was past 1pm, and I was going to flip the basketball game on as soon as anyone got there, but I was just enjoying the music, the coffee, and the clean house too much to part with it before I had to.  Nick finally showed, we cracked a few Molsons, and we turned it on, and it was pretty lopsided in MSU's favor.  Ken, his nephew, and brother-in-law showed up and brought the huge meat and cheese tray, and some hard ciders, and mike showed up with some more beer and dip.  The party was officially on.

I had Mike and Jeff help a friend of mine with his resume over a Sierra Nevada Ruthless (Rye IPA) and after that I just kind of popped into floating host mode, going around and talking to everyone.  I bounced around for a while, had a couple Founders Dirty Bastards, and then went back with Mike and Jeff and had a ceremonial run on the Arcadia Shipwreck Porter.  Then we jumped into the Atwater Vanilla Java Porter that I had loved and talked up so much.  Only this time, At-Water once again lived up to their name and it tasted like flavored watery crap.  I usually hate every beer they make, but this WAS good for the first two batches I had, and I'm hoping they haven't ruined it for good.  Only time will tell.  I made some guacamole, and bounced around a bit more, had some of Jen's enchilladas, made a store run with Jen and Jeff to get more enchillada materials, and came back with New England finishing up a long drive shortly before halftime.

The score was 10-9 at the time.  I was barely watching the game, and I couldn't really care less about Madonna and whoever those other people were, so I don't know if the halftime show was good or not.  Also, I can honestly say I don't remember a single commercial from last night either, and I don't think that all can be blamed on 6.6%, 8.5%, and 12.0% ABV beers.  I just wasn't engaged by the game, and it didn't seem like anyone else was either.  There was no cheering for TDs, no laughing at commercials, and not a lot of craziness going on at all. 

I think the majority wanted the Pats to win, but I think everyone figured the G-men would win, and whatever happened just brought out very little reaction across the board.  I spent more time in conversations than the game.  I would put my watch total for the thing at maybe 20­±5 minutes.  It was just more engaging for me to be talking to people, getting things for them, showing them where things are, and just trying to be Mr. Hostman than sitting in a chair watching a game I didn't care too much about.  I mean, did New Yorkers and New Englanders need any more reason to puff themselves up than they already do?  I didn't think so.  Either way, one of them was going to become even more intolerable. 

Most of the second half, I spent realizing that my head was a little fuzzy and I started rehydrating and getting some absorbent food in me.  Before I knew it, I'm looking at the clock, and just before 10:00pm, the whole thing's over.  This had to be one of the faster Super Bowls ever.  Also, my entire house was empty by 10:30pm.  Nobody lingered or spent the night, and the house wasn't even all that messy.  It was pretty incredible. 

I spent most of my lunch break trying to tally calories from my memory bank of the night instead of actually eating food (because I was still full), and I blasted way past that 2,500 average they quote for the average Super Bowl consumption by a person.  I'm looking at something more like 5,000-6,000 and probably over 2,500 just for the drinks.

Brent vs. the January

I would write about the Winteräufe and show you pictures of that, but it was incredibly uneventful (8K, 46:55).  This sorry excuse for winter melted all the ice and snow sculptures from last weekend.  The only thing left of it was a few ice cubes on the ground and some snow plowed in an alleyway.  Quite a bit different from last year when it was all still up and being awesome.

Last Year

This winter is pathetic.  I'm really hating it.  Besides, I'm slower than all these people as it is.  The only advantage I had was the winter when a good chunk of them are "Sissy Skinner" (NOT the senior women's tennis olympian) and stay indoors on their treadmills, and now that's gone.



You know what's also gone?  "Yep, you guessed it....Frank Stallone."

Just kidding, January's gone.  So it's time to check in on me and see if I'm completely slacking off here.

The Ones of the Twelves


1) Pick 12 things of social importance that I've had limited exposure to, but decided I didn't like and immerse myself in each of them for 1 month. 


Westerns - I know I'll lose a stamp or two on the man card for admitting it, but I was pretty sure I didn't like westerns, not even the Eastwood ones.  Westerns were always something that my Dad and Uncle Bob watched that kept me from watching real television.  They were boring, and usually just a bunch of guys riding ponies around in the wilderness until they have to kill a bunch of Native Americans or other cowboys to get some sort of reward or loot they didn't earn.

So I spent my January immersing myself within this genre of film that not only was an American staple, but seems to come back in spurts for a couple years in each decade.  So I went out and watched everything from early 1900s westerns to John Wayne westerns to 80's westerns, and beyond.

The Verdict:  It's not a genre I can continue to dismiss.  While I can still say fairly reasonably that 75% of the time I don't like them, some of the 25% I have liked have been well worth the hours spent.  However, I still haven't met a John Wayne movie I like.  I still never really jumped into the Eastwood movies, but I figured they'd be around and now that the door's been opened enough, I will see them.

Brent Approved:  High Noon, Tombstone, Westworld, Magnificent Seven, Young Guns, and True Grit

2)  Learn 12 new recipes (1/month)
That stuffed peppers recipe that I kind of concocted out of nothing is pretty much perfect, fast, and easy. Let's not forget delicious. Definitely will do that again. Other than that, I don't think I tried another new one. I know I spent about a bag of potatoes and flour trying to perfect the pierogies, and ended up with 100+ in the freezer. They must have been delicious. They've mysteriously disappeared already.

3)  Do 12 home improvements (1/month).
We got a window box/tv stand in the bay window made for the living room and it's allowed us to get rid of a lot of clutter in here.  Normally I'd be sitting and typing this while thinking I should straighten up the living room, but now it all has a place and it stays there.  I even got our stereo hooked up to everything, which has never happened until now.  We also put up a lot of our friends photos and wedding photos around the place, and it's just so much more alive in here.  I feel surrounded by good memories.  I think it counts as at least one, even though it's not the one I planned for this month.

4)  Try 12 new restaurants (1/month).
Maybe this barely counts, but I ate at the White Horse.  Now, I've cut my teeth on drinking there several times in my life, but I couldn't say I've ever eaten there.  That probably has something to do with the voice in my head that only talks about Taco Bell when he's been drinking.  Now I've finally tried their famous Black and Blue burger, and it's kind of fighting for my hometown burger affection with the Torch.  It's also been a while since I drank there and they've really stepped up their selection.  Other than that, we're still stuck in our rut, but when that rut is a delicious Thai restaurant where everything on the menu is delightful, it's hard to complain.

Trying to point to the White Horse window behind me

Enjoy the Super Bowl, everyone.  I have enough food and beer to take care of a small army, and I haven't even seen what everyone else will be bringing.  I don't it think will break 20+ people in here like the last two years, but we'll see.  I'm at 12 confirmed, and with the MSU/UM b-ball game on at 1:00pm, I fear for us and the extra 5 hours of drinking.