January 6, 2007
After 15 seasons and one of the winningest careers in the NFL, Coach Bill Cowher, Mr. Chintastic, announced Friday that he will not be returning as the Steeler’s coach next season. He added that he is not retiring, that he is far from burnt out on coaching.
Awww well, all good things must come to an end. Thanks for the ride Coach and best of luck to you wherever you land.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time for the next installment of the Matt-saga.
Tim called me yesterday morning and said I needed to call Matt because Matt had just called him. He was crying so bad that Tim couldn’t understand anything he said. Of course I called right away and found Matt in that exact same condition. I tried to calm him down. I wasn’t really successful, but eventually I pieced together enough of the sobbed out story to learn that he had gone to see his fiance, Ashley, and tell her that he was coming home for a while. We knew there was talk of him moving in with Ashley’s family….turns out it was more like living with Ashley and he told her he just wasn’t ready to live with her (hoorah for my kid!). Ash flipped out on him and said that if he wasn’t ready for that then he wasn’t ready for a relationship. Then she basically ended it.
We were already concerned that Matt is dealing with depression so I feared this blow could be a really bad thing for him, that he might not be able to handle it. I called Tim back and explained everything to him. He called Matt and made plans to pick him up after work and take him to dinner. We both worried ourselves sick all day.
When Tim showed up, he found Matt in much better spirits. Seems he was able to talk to Ashley again and help her to understand why he needs to move home for a while and that it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love her or that they won’t see each other. He told Tim she is okay with it. Thank goodness. And you know what? I am so proud of my kid. He stuck to his guns and is doing what’s best for him. He didn’t give in to Ashley’s emotional blackmail.
November 19, 2006
Big Ben and the boys took a beating in Cleveland, but dished out some hard-played football themselves and managed to come from behind to win 24 - 20. They still have to face the undefeated Ravens twice. Depending on what they do in those meetings, Pittsburgh is still very much in the running for a wild card spot. And we all know what they can do with that.
November 13, 2006
Oh yeah, uh-huh….that’s right! The boys in Black & Gold sent ‘em packing back to New Orleans yesterday. Joey Porter’s pregame round of finger-pointing at teammates he felt weren’t pulling their weight seems to have jarred the team back into action. Porter’s teammates were hurt, embarassed and ticked off following his little rant. Rather than fall apart (even more) they harnessed all that emotion and played yesterday like the Super Bowl Champions they are. ‘Bout time.
*GLOATING*
October 15, 2006
STEELERS, 45 - CHIEFS, 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And to my friends in Michigan….Lions and Tigers….and they’re winning….oh my! Not a bad week in the Motor City at all.
October 9, 2006
Did someone forget to tell the Steelers football season has started? I mean, come on! How can you go from winning the Super Bowl to not winning any games? Yes, I know they lost the Bus and Ben has had a rough couple of months ("experts" now claim he may be suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome or something similar), but still…. Maybe it’s just me, but I think Cowher’s a different coach this year. It’s kind of like he’s won the big one, so now he isn’t as hungry for it. I can understand giving Ben a chance to get it together and letting the guys gel as a team, but when they are consistantly doing this poorly game after game, it’s time to make some changes. Whatever the problem, yesterday was another disappointing loss.
September 19, 2006
Ben’s face pretty much says it all concerning last night’s game.
Jaguars, 9 ~ Steelers, 0
September 1, 2006
My butt’s been dragging. I’m lethargic, unfocused, mopey, directionless, feeling blue. When I saw the doctor a couple of weeks ago I asked him about depression. He didn’t jump on that bandwagon. No happy pills for me he said till we got some blood tests run to rule out other causes. Hmph….I just want to feel better, but okay, if we must.
I got the results back today. Thyroid, good. Kidneys, good. Liver, good. Cholesterol, suprisingly good (high runs in the family) at 167. Triglicerides, fine. Healthy as a horse. However, it turns out I seem to be pretty anemic. What do you know? I have to go give more blood tomorrow so they can test for my actual iron levels and I have a prescription for a megadose of said mineral.
At least I know why I can’t motivate my butt to do much of anything lately.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh yeah, and the boys in black and gold lost. Poo. First winless preseason in 19 years. I’m not putting much stock in it, though. Cowher played all the backup people to see what they can do. It isn’t like it was the starting team out there the whole time losing. Regular season play will tell.
August 31, 2006
Steeler football time, that is. In honor of tonight’s game and all Steeler fans everywhere…..
A Steelers fan, a Browns fan and a Titans fan were all in Saudi Arabia,
sharing a smuggled crate of booze. All of a sudden the Saudi police rushed
in and arrested them. The mere possession of alcohol is a severe offense in
Saudi Arabia, so for the terrible crime of actually being caught consuming
the booze, they were sentenced to death!
However, with the help of very good lawyers, they were able to successfully
appeal their sentence down to life imprisonment. By a stroke of luck, it was
a Saudi national holiday the day their trial fi nished, and the extremely
benevolent Sheik decided they could be released after receiving just 20
lashes each of the whip. As they were preparing for their punishment, the
Sheik suddenly said, "It’s my first wife’s birthday today, and she has asked
me to allow each of you one wish before your whipping."
The Titans fan was first in line (he had drunk the least), so he thought
about this for a while and then said, "Please tie a pillow to my back." This
was done, but the pillow only lasted 10 lashes before the whip went through.
The Titans fan had to be carried away bleeding and crying with pain when the
punishment was done.
The Browns fan was next up (he almost finished an entire fifth by himself),
and after watching the scene, said "All Right! Please fix two pillows on my
back." But even two pillows could only take 15 lashes before the whip went
through again, sending the Browns fan out crying like a little girl.
Th e Steelers fan was the last one up (he had finished off the crate), but
before he could say anything, the Sheik turned to him and said, "You support
the greatest team in the world, your team has some of the best and most
loyal football fans in the world. For this, you may have two wishes!"
"Thanks, your most Royal highness," the Steelers fan replies. "In
recognition of your kindness, my first wish is that you give me not 20, but
100 lashes."
"Not only are you an honorable, handsome and powerful man, you are also very
brave," the Sheik says with an admiring look on his face. "If 100 lashes is
what you desire, then so be it. And your second wish? What is it to be?" the
Sheik asks.
"Tie the Browns fan to my back."
HERE WE GO Steelers…HERE WE GO.
August 1, 2006
It’s hot enough to fry an egg out there! Yesterday’s "official" temperature was 89 degrees, but the thermometer outside my kitchen window was registering 94 degrees in the shade mid-afternoon. Today they are actually predicting a high of 92-94 degrees. Add to that humidity that is as high as it can get without being rain and you’ve got the picture.
Saw on the news this morning that the Chicago Bears canceled their daytime practice yesterday and moved it to the evening hours. Seems prudent. You won’t find prudence here in Latrobe at Steelers training camp. Nope, the news was full of hulking young players this morning saying that they welcomed the heat because it weeded out the weak. Under these conditions, they say, you can tell who really wants it, who has the drive and the focus to work through it, who you want on your team. Obviously, it won’t be the 300 lb. hulk who keels over dead of heat stroke. I love me some Pittsburgh football, but Coach…enough is enough!
Try to keep cool today, people. I’ll be in the pool. When I’m not in the air conditioning.
July 20, 2006
RESPONSIBLE "PET" OWNERSHIP No, I’m not going to lecture you on making sure Fido has plenty of fresh water and shade during the these dog-days of summer (though, it’s a good idea) or tell you not to bring him along when you run errands and then leave him in the car. I only have good, caring readers and I know you’d never do that.
What I am going to lecture on is the danger of keeping exotic pets. I grew up with a father who was in the PA Game Commission for over 30 years. I have lived on a Game Commission pheasant farm and on a privately owned wildlife preserve. Dad was also an official measurer for Boone and Crockett, the organization that scores big game trophies. I’ve had a lot of experiences and learned a lot about animals over the years. One of the most important lessons I learned from Dad, was that wild animals are wild animals. They do not make good pets.
I don’t care how long you have had the animal or how gentle and tame you think it is. Eventually, it’s wild instincts will kick in and override any "taming." The problem is, when it happens it may be an instinct that is more bothersome than anything or it may be something that puts you or the animal in danger.
I bring this whole subject up because there’s been a story in the local news this week. A really horrible, tragic story. A story that shouldn’t have happened. In Pennsylvania it is illegal to keep wolves or wolf hybrids without the proper license. Yet, there are people who keep the hybrids, claiming them to be wonderful pets. They skirt around the law by not calling them hybrids to the authorities and licensing them as dogs, which takes jurisdiction away from the Game Commission. Even though their hands were officially tied, both the Game Commission and the county’s humane officer had been monitoring a local woman who kept a pack of hybrids in an enclosure at her home. Monday, the woman was found dead in the enclosure. The body was in bad shape. An autopsy showed the animals had indeed killed her. Experts think one of the animals may have decided to challenge her place as pack leader. Read the whole story here.
STEELERS NEWS For those of you waiting paitently for news of Steeler’s quarterback Ben Roethlisberger following his nasty motorcycle accident earlier this summer….Ben is doing fine. He recently filmed his role in "The Mr. Right Now" music video for a local country band, The Poverty Neck Hillbillies. The video is expected to be released on August 1 and will air on Country Music Television (CMT).
An odd Steelers fact…18 former players have died since 2000. That means of the NFL players from the 1970s and ’80s who have died since 2000, more than one in five were Steelers. Could it be due to steroid use that helped build the hulks that populated the offensive and defensive lines? Could it be the weight issue? Those guys had to be huge and immovable. Of course, not all the deaths were heart related. There were accidents, a suicide and one former player died in a car crash following a high-speed police chase. Just a weird co-inky-dink, I guess.
Steeler training camp begins here in Latrobe at St. Vincent College on July 28. Woot!
ORGANIZATION=BETTER OFF FINANCIALLY Sarah over at Mommy, Are The Toys On Sale? wonders if we’d be better off financially if we were better organized. She offers pictures from around her own home as evidence that not knowing what’s in the pantry, under the sink, or in the medicine cabinet costs us lots of extra money, in that, we buy duplicates of what we already have because we don’t know we have it. Yikes! I think she’s been poking around in my house. I’m sooooo guilty of that. I believe I’ve found today’s project.
Blinkie courtesy of LilMsGlitter.
