Birthday Party - Steeler Blues

What can I say? That was a TOUGH game to watch. I really felt like the Steelers still could pull something off until they kicked a filed goal on 4th and goal from the 1. I know that Mr. Easterbrook will jump on that decision in his column this week. You can count on it. I told Shena when they did it, despite that moron Phil Simm's saying "this is a good decision to go for the field goal," it wasn't. It killed Pittsburgh's momentum. Other than that, I think the coaching was good, the Patriots just didn't make any mistakes, and Pittsburgh made too many, on both sides of the ball. I am disappointed because with the season they had, anything less than a Super Bowl victory is a let down. They HAD to win it all to have the year feel complete. If they had been 10-6 or 11-5, a trip to the AFC Championship would have been exciting, but this result is incredibly disappointing.

The good thing about the game, though, was my family was there supporting me. We all had our Steelers stuff on. Shena wore my "Big Ben" t-shirt and her Steelers pajama bottoms, Cade wore his gray Steelers t-shirt and Kelson wore his Bettis jersey. They helped me get over the game pretty quick by being so dang cute. Kelson was so tired by the end of the game he was being pretty silly and goofy. Making funny faces and giggling at everything. They cheered me up pretty good.

I turned 30 on Wednesday. Some people apologized, other's made fun of me. But I really don't think of it as a big deal. I guess I know that the life insurance underwriters figure I still have 49 or more good years ahead of me...so I'm still not "over the hill." Check back in twenty years, I might change my tune then. But as far as I'm concerned, it's just now getting good. I am done with school, will start making more money and get to watch my kids get older and more mature. I'm looking forward to my thirties.

Shena made me a Steelers football cake that Cade was dying to get his hands on for a day or so (from the time she made it to the time we cut it). He LOVES birthday parties, doesn't matter who's it is. He just likes the candles and the singing and the presents. He and Kelson helped me blow out my candles after the song, and they didn't even get much spit on it.

I've been sworn to secrecy by Marcos to not reveal where we ate as a family on my Birthday night. He was embarrassed when I told him where we had gone and that the staff had sung "Happy Birthday" to me. I honestly didn't care...I would eat there again...it's just not the kind of place you would think of to go and eat at on your birthday. Presents were great though, money a shirt and a Steelers antennae topper. I recommend giving money or some kind of equivalent for ANY occasion (especially if I'm the one getting the gift).

On Friday, Shena surprised me with dinner with our friends at Carrabba's. She said she wanted to take me out for dinner. I asked her at some point during the week if she wanted it to be just us or should we invite somebody. She said, "no, let's just go the two of us." So I was expecting this romantic quiet dinner. Instead we walked into a noisy party with Ed & DeeDee Plummer, Munsey & Teresa Slack, Clyde & Ashley Ward and Leesa Lundrigan. It was quite a surprise because I really did think it was just going to be the two of us, but when we got to the restaurant, I was following Shena and the hostess to our table looking off to my right when suddenly Shena stopped and said, go on, sit down, and I looked back looking for a table for two, but I didn't see one anywhere. It took me a second or two to figure out I was looking at Teresa & Munsey at a long table. I think the flash of her camera brought me out of my stupor. It was a cool surprise. After dinner, the wart's went home to relieve their babysitter, but the rest of us came to the house to play games. Leesa picked up Gordon at their house (he had a tennis match during dinner) and Sherman and Susan Williams came by after a while also. We had a good time until about 11:00, just hanging out and talking. We played Cranium and had some good laughs with that game. We also had some cake and ice cream (Shena made a Steelers "Big Ben" jersey cake this time...secretly at mom's house). Of course Cade & Kelson helped me blow out the candles again...and Shena insisted on putting 30 candles on the cake. After we got them pulled out the cake looked REALLY authentic because all the holes in in made the jersey look like it was "mesh" like the pros wear!

By the time the night was over, we had all invited ourselves over to Plummer's the next night to play more games. The Slack's and us already had babysitters lined up (ours was the Plummers) for Saturday night since we were supposed to be having the Navigon Awards Banquet, but it was canceled because they were calling for a "wintry mix." Unfortunately, Munsey wasn't feeling well on Saturday and even though Teresa really wanted to come by, she didn't feel comfortable driving in the questionable weather to make it to the Plummers. We still went over, however, with the Lundrigans and again played games and hung out and talked until about 10:00 or so. The Slack's felt badly that they couldn't make it, but I'm sure they will be included next time we have a get together.

We also spent part of the day Saturday at the mall. I bought a new pair of basketball shoes for $40 with part of my birthday money. For some reason, I tend to think most of the $125 basketball shoes are ugly, and these happened to be "last year's model", so they were on sale from the $75 they were regularly. Luckily I could care less how my shoes look when I'm playing church ball. WHEN I'll get to play again is another question. My back has been all messed up since our game night Friday night. I was sitting on the floor and for some reason my back didn't like that much. I had set an appointment with Dr. Ross at Guilford College Family Practice earlier in the week to get a routine physical (it's been at least 11 years), so I took the chance to ask him about it then. He has me going to physical therapy tomorrow and if that doesn't seem to help much, he said we may do an MRI. I had an x-ray taken last year and it didn't show anything, so the radiologist suggested an MRI if my back kept bothering me. The bad thing is that it is pretty inconsistent. It hurts off and on, and I can't seem to pick out a specific movement that causes it to hurt.

He also told me to take a Prilosec (sp?) everyday to help me control the heartburn I've been having and told me not to worry about a pain I've been having every now and again right under my ribs (same place both sides). He thought it was just some cartlidge that might be pulled. Said to heat it when it hurt. The lab stuff would take a couple of days and he said he would drop me a letter then to let me know what the results were.

As I mentioned, the weather was kinda bad this last week. We got snow on Wednesday, but not enough to cause any major problems in Greensboro (some bad stuff in Raleigh though, people stuck overnight in schools and grocery stores). We also got some more stuff on Friday and Saturday. Plus it has been VERY cold. Temperatures in the 20's with wind chills to make it feel like it was in the teens. The wind seems to cut here in the south when it blows cold like that.

YESTERDAY:

Weather: Hi 41 Low 12, mostly Sunny, but WINDY

LAST NIGHT:

Sleep: 8 hours, but I was up every hour and a half to roll over...which is painful, so it wakes me up completely and takes me several minutes to get back to sleep...NOT FUN.

TODAY:

Breakfast: None (typical, but especially since the doctor's office asked me to fast for the blood tests)

Lunch: Wendy's - Bacon Classic, no tom, no onion - bowl of chili with saltines, coke - love that option to get something besides fries! I wasn't in the mood for them. - I didn't get to eat lunch until 2:00, so I was pretty dang hungry

Dinner: Corn tortillas and cheese, A&W, chocolate milkshake (home made) for dessert - since I ate lunch so late, I wasn't real hungry. Shena made Grandma Bullock taco salad (crushed dorito's covered with meat, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa) - but I wasn't in the mood.