Last night Mike and Amy came over for dinner and football-watching. I hope y'all are sitting down because I cooked AGAIN. I made Gwendaloo, which is my bastardized version of the Indian dish vindaloo.
Amy made rice pudding with pomegranate, which was a delightful, not-too-sweet dessert. We sat in front of the gas fireplace (which is currently on during all waking hours) and watched the SEC lose the national championship. (Kidding, SEC friends, sorta.) Honestly, I didn't care that much who won; I just hoped for a good close game, and that's what we got. I even stayed awake till the end.
Happy Friday! Time to look at some of my favorite things from the past week.
Obviously, the Pirates, especially Tuesday night. Aaron and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings, and we took the bus so we could celebrate/drown sorrows, depending on the outcome. This time, I was the one celebrating, especially when this guy hit two home runs!
Yesterday they lost to the dreaded Cardinals, but there are
more games to be played!
The Blacklist. If you haven't watched this yet, do it. The pilot was action-packed, with a big twist, and the second episode did not disappoint. You can see it on nbc.com.
Check out last week's Gila/Spidey Point Spread Pick 'Em. Even though we both kinda suck overall, I spanked Aaron in Week 4. (Just so we're clear, I didn't literally spank him. That's not how we roll.)
And finally, head on over to Love, Fun and Football, where Erin asked me to do a guest post today, and I'm talking about some of my favorite movies related to -- what else? -- football!
Have a fabulous weekend!
Linking up with Sarah and Lindsey (even though Lindsey handed me my first loss in Blogger Fantasy Football last week)
If you're not from Columbus, you might not know about an event that occurred last Saturday. Ohio State had a home game against Florida A&M, and the game itself was a blowout (76-0). I'm sure some people may have thought "I paid $75 for this?" But from what I've heard, the halftime show was worth every penny.
The Ohio State Marching Band is highly revered by fans. It's known as TBDBITL (The Best Damn Band In The Land). One of their traditions is "Script Ohio," and while I must reiterate that Ohio State is not my #1 school, even I really enjoy Script Ohio. At the end one of the sousaphone players is given the honor of "dotting the i."
From the game we attended a few weeks ago
Last Saturday the Ohio State School for the Blind Marching Band participated in the halftime show. Along with their red-jacketed assistants, this group performed on the same field as "TBDBITL" and spelled out "Ohio" in Braille. Since the "i" in Braille is made up of two dots, two sousaphone players dotted that i. If you haven't seen it, trust me, it's five minutes that you'll be glad you spent watching a YouTube video.
My brain is fuzzy today. Could that have anything to do with the (very) late night I had singing karaoke? All signs point to yes. I love that my friend Kat comes to the neighborhood bar to sing with me. Right about now I love even more that I work from home so I can do my work in pleasures and biscuits (sorry, Kat). Here are the songs I did:
Time After Time (with Kat)
Love is a Battlefield
What's Up (with Kat and Amy)
Lola
Galileo (with Kat)
One of my favorite parts about being home all day:
These two napped together ALL day.
Have you seen any good new shows yet? I still haven't watched Hostages or The Blacklist. Tonight I'm excited for the returns of Modern Family, Criminal Minds and Nashville! And as much as I feel like Law & Order: SVU should probably end, I can't wait to see how Olivia gets herself out of last season's cliffhanger.
Have y'all heard? The Pirates are going to the playoffs for the first time in 21 years!
Aaron often starts a grocery list and sticks it on a cupboard door. Usually it has items like coffee, half and half, eggs, toast (yes, "toast" because there's a certain bread that we only use for toast). On Monday I glanced at it from across the kitchen and only saw one item, which I thought was odd because we had pretty much nothing to eat. Here's what it said:
Another favorite F word
Sunday was the season finale of The Newsroom, which Aaron and I both really enjoy. So last night we finally watched the pilot of Homeland (yeah, I know, we're late to that party). I see some binge watching in my future.
Tomorrow is our neighborhood's garden party. There are empty lots next to our house and several years ago we started a community garden. The lots are now ready to be developed so this was our last growing season. Here are a couple pictures from last year's party:
Salmon encased in salt
Back in April I did a birthday post for my grandma and in it I mentioned that she loves gambling and sports and that years ago she won the newspaper's football contest. This week my mom sent me that article. This was in 1964 - check it out:
That's my aunt and my grandpa in the picture with her. The article starts like this:
"Okay, men, it's time to rally and come to the rescue of the stronger sex. A woman, mind you, has become the first person to win The Times-Mirror football contest and she did it on a week when the closest a man could come was 15 correct out of 20!"
(Grandma Elmo picked 18 of 20 correct; there were both college and pro games on the ballot.)
I could use a little assistance. For the second straight week, I picked less than half of the NFL games correctly against the spread.
Last night we went to the Bengals/Steelers game in Cincinnati. It was a late night, though we stayed with friends there and drove home this morning. Here are some scenes from before and during the game:
1 - Tailgating!
2 - Aaron and two of his best friends, Mike and Mike - and hey! you might recognize them from last week - and their wives Amy and Tracy (and yes, I made a costume change)
3 - I don't know how well you can see that girl's outfit but yes, she's wearing a short skirt and high heels. To go to a football game. (At least they're wedges and not stilettos...)
4 - Proof that we really were at the game. The Steelers lost, but we had a great time!
I also got a glimpse of my blog friend, Erin, who was working at the game but ran up to say hi. We didn't get to talk or take a picture, but it really did happen!
Today's fall TV info is that FOX premieres its Tuesday lineup tonight. Here's the scoop:
8:00 ET - Dads, a new show from Seth MacFarlane (of Family Guy and American Dad, only this one's not animated). Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi star as dudes whose fathers (Martin Mull and Peter Riegert) move in with them. Apparently they're going for an All in the Family vibe here, but I wonder if Carroll O'Connor might be rolling in his grave.
8:30 - Brooklyn Nine-Nine, stars Andy Samberg in a cop show that's actually a comedy (Barney Miller, anyone?). This looks funny and I'll be watching, especially because it also stars Andre Braugher, and I can't WAIT to see him in this comedic role as a police captain who also happens to be gay.
9:00 - New Girl returns.
9:30 - The Mindy Project is back. Both of these are shows that I started out watching but they just didn't stick with me as must-sees.
Last week I made reference to picking games against the spread (and last year I did a post about it here). I had some readers -- OK, one reader -- ask about how that works.
Warning – Math Ahead
**UPDATE: Now that I've typed all this out, I don't know that anyone will really "understand point spreads" after reading it. But read it anyway, pretty please!
First you need to find out what the spreads are for all the games (the spread is also called the line). You can Google "nfl spreads" and you'll find a lot. For our purposes, I'm using ESPN.
There are about five different sources, but they're fairly close. I'd say just make sure to use the same source on each game. Remember: THIS IS ALL JUST FOR FUN. So I've drawn around 5Dimes.eu because that's the one I'm going to use.
So for last night's New England vs. NY Jets game, the line/spread was 11. You see that next to NYJ is +11 and next to NE is -11. That means New England was favored by 11 points. Another way to look at it is that the oddsmakers are saying New England will beat the Jets by at least 11 points.
When Aaron and I picked the game, he picked New England and I picked the Jets because an 11 point spread is pretty big, and it turns out I was right. While New England won, the score was only 13-10. They only won by 3 points, not 11, so I won the game. Another way to look at that (and to freak out my math-challenged friends) is that in our world, the final score was 13-21 in favor of the Jets. Or minus-2 - 10.
The next game shown above is Atlanta vs. St. Louis, and they're putting the line at 7 points, so if I pick Atlanta, they need to win by at least 7. Note that the lines change during the week. All that matters is the spread when you make your pick.
Last week for the first week of the season, here's how Aaron and I fared:
Not great, although since I won last night's game, we're currently even. And we already have a tie! Chicago was favored by 3 over Cincinnati and they actually won by 3, so it didn't matter who we picked.
I'll stress again: THIS IS ALL JUST FOR FUN.
I will not recommend or endorse gambling because bad things can happen, like your roommate who is a gambling addict doesn't pay the rent and gets you evicted. **This didn't happen to me but to someone very close to me who shall remain nameless.
On the other hand, you're all adults so you do what you want. But I know nothing.
Today I'm linking up for the first time with Lindsey for Friday Favorites. Lindsey is also in one of my Fantasy Football leagues, which leads me to one of my Friday Faves for this week: football season!
I'm in three fantasy leagues this year, which may be nuts. One is with Aaron and his high school friends and their wives. I've been in that league since 2007, when I finished dead last (but I redeemed myself by winning the next year). The other two are blogger leagues; one is a traditional head-to-head, the other is a floating salary cap league, which I still don't totally get so that could be interesting.
In case you live in a cave, or just don't care about football (WHAT?!), last night was the NFL season opener. Denver crushed Baltimore, and Peyton Manning lit it up with 7 touchdown passes. And I have Peyton in one of my leagues.
Just to be clear, 46 points is HUGE for one player.
Unfortunately, I did not pick the Broncos to cover the spread in Aaron's and my own little contest (read more about that here).
College football is my number-one-with-a-bullet favorite sport (Aaron's, too). Last week we went to the Ohio State game, and I even painted my nails scarlet and grey. I think today I'll paint them blue and white. Last Saturday was a much better first day of college season than last year's was, for me personally.
Even though I love football season, I'm still quite invested in baseball. The Pirates are leading their division, and this week they reached the 81-win mark, which guarantees that they will not have a losing season, breaking a 20-year streak. This weekend they have a big series against St. Louis. Go Bucs!
Also making my favorites list this week: the weather (it's been absolutely fabulous); the first church choir rehearsal last night; and of course, my new job!
Have a fun, fantastic weekend and enjoy this blast from the past in honor of fantasy football!
