My blog n'at

I have to admit that this has been the most life changing year of my life. Some good, some bad and some mind blowing kickass. Here’s a quick recap as I reflect before tonight’s festivities start. I’m splitting this up into 2 sections because lets be honest, no one will scroll through 12 months.

January
Reflected on the first beer I EVER drank and yes, I kept the bottle. Prepare for the end of my 10+ year employment at ForeSystems/Marconi/Ericsson. Bitched about the weather and yinzers inability to drive in snow plus dumb ass snow removal by my neighbors. Both of those still hold true today. Got ready for an unbelievable run to the Super Bowl

February
Steelers won the Super Bowl and became the first ever 6 time champ thus giving every knock off t-shirt maker starry eyes at the potential of “6 pack” shirts. Punxy Phil said 6 more weeks of winter. I was officially laid off, was interviewed for a Post Gazette story on unemployment moments after i was laid off (that never was published), Pens started to turn it around and the biggest shock of them all… Teaspoon arrived 2 months early making me the happiest and most terrified dad. Came in at 4.1lb, dropped to 3.2lb and would leave at 5 in March.

March
It was the month of Teaspoon. Lushie and I spent every minute we could at the Mercy NICU while he got healthy in an incubator. 28 days later he came home. Also witnessed the stupidity of some Hill District parents who think its a hotel in there and the joke that is unemployment system in PA.

April
Went to my first ever Rugby match and got addicted to watching Claire and the girls kick ass. Missed my first opening day of Pirates baseball since 1984 (watched it on TV with Teaspoon and started a new tradition with my boy). Bought a Wii. Enjoyed the greatest comeback in Pens Playoff hockey that I have witnessed as the Pens turned the series around with 1 fight and the Max Talbot shhhhhhh! Saw Beer Wars the Movie with hundreds of other craft beer fans around the world and baked an incredible beer ham for Easter.

May
Should I Drink That turned 3. Pens defeated Washington and Carolina to earn a second trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for a 2nd year. Bought a Blackberry. Joined Sadie’s Soldiers and took some Great Strides. KDKA reads my “tweet of the day” which I WISH they would bring back. The great personalized jersey debate. Meatshield welcomed his first child (i swear it was the year for kids to be born) and we had a cookout with some family. Bowling league ended and we were the undisputed champs.

June
Teaspoon’s first trip to the ER. Coming out of golf retirement after 3.5 year for a day with Yinz Teamer’s Woy, Lokay and Shireman at Cranberry Highlands. The Clarks release Restless Days after 5 years. Pens win the Stanley Cup in 7 games vs Detroit. Pittsburgh floods… again. Unemployed Utensil makes his first appearance as a way to help me get through not working. My first Father’s day and Pirates waste of talent Ian Snell cant take negative people.

up next… July through December.

This is the best thing about Steeler games in our house, the food. Today I had a craving for a taco salad dip and after a quick trip to Giant Eagle, Lushie whips this bad boy up. I like watching the games and I know our players but don’t try talking about other teams with me cuz I’ll just nod and say “oh yeah, of course!”  I’m not a big football guy but I’m a fan of the festivities. If a guy isn’t on my fantasy team I wont know who you’re talking about. However I will be able to give you some kickass food and serve up the finest craft beers.  Today is Erie Brewing Ol Red Cease n Desist.

I’m in between games of NHL10 so I have to keep this brief before some friends show up.

Go Steelers!

This is in reply to a piece that Jessica Isner wrote titled “Top 10 Reasons Boston Will Dethrone Pittsburgh as Best Sports City in 2010“. Lets address each of her claims as to why Boston will win.

10. Pittsburgh has no MLS team and no NBA team.
Didn’t realize people actually followed MLS and NBA teams still. That’s SO 90′s. We’ve been too busy to notice down here, you know, winning hockey and football titles. Honestly, if not for ESPN would anyone even know the NBA was around? My bet is that if you throw a bunch of “pro” teams at a city eventually one of them will win.

9. The Penguins may be better than the Bruins, but…
But nothing. Penguins are 5-1, Bruins are  2-3.  No Stanley Cup since 1971-72? Wow that’s almost as pathetic as Toronto. suck it.

8. The Charles River trumps all three rivers in Pittsburgh.
Here’s the part that kills me, “The Charles has history, collegiate regattas and celebrity fans.”. Darlin, you may want to check out the Three Rivers Regatta and Head of the Ohio. Since you’re up on history I’m assuming you know about Fort Pitt? right? What a joke. Did you even fact check?

7. Pittsburgh doesn’t have cool celebrity fans.
What does this have to do with best Sports City? Oh well I’ll humor it. If you could fill your seats on your own you wouldn’t need celebs. That’s why we have waiting lists to get into our games.

6. Sam Adams > Iron City.
Iron City? Really? I like Sam and all but I think you need to have a few beers from East End Brewing. You’ll find the emerging craft beer scene here quite impressive. Take off the beer goggles.

5. Boston is a college hockey utopia.
Granted you have a GREAT hockey program up there but you should check your facts. True that Pitt doesn’t have a  Div 1 hockey team but Robert Morris does and look at the score sheet of the last time they played.

4. After much debate, it’s true: BC football is better than Pitt football.
Debate with whom? the mailroom guy?

3. Fan devotion
Steeler Nation would destroy you and Penguins fans would trample your weak and hurdle your dead Bruins fans. no contest.

2. Speaking of the Patriots and the Steelers …
Yeah speaking of, I forget, which city does your football team play in again? Ours is actually IN Pittsburgh so I was just curious.

1. This is a baseball country, and — shocker — the Pirates just don’t cut it.
Its whatever country you want it to be when you’re trying to grasp for hope. Pirates have lost for 17 straight years and the only person this seems like news to is you. Seriously, we don’t even notice anymore.

Who’s that dead sexy guy at the 1:45 mark? I think he’s also mentioned here in today’s Beaver County Times.

I arrived at Station Square shortly after 8am yesterday morning and met up with Stoosh on my way over. The weather couldn’t have been planned more perfect than sunny and temps in the high 70′s/low 80′s. Granted the parade didn’t start until 12pm we wanted to make sure that we had the perfect spot.

Here are some teasers from the day I took with my Nikon and Blackberry:

(click here for the full album on Flickr)

The Penguins displayed once again why they are a top notch organization. The parade was fantastic and players took time to walk along the fences thanking fans. An estimated 375,000 fans showed up for the parade which is roughly 25,000 more than for the Steelers bash in February. Anyone who thinks hockey is a dead sport or is a passing fad needs to spend some time in the City of Champions. For the first time in Professional Sports history a city has a Stanley Cup and Super Bowl Champion in the same year.

Following the parade I met up with Jim and Scott for after parade beverages and grub on the patio of  Palomino’s and then outside 1902 Tavern followed by a quick trip to the new KDKA HD studios which went live today.

It was a great day for hockey!

Mayor Luke and Danny O, fresh off their excellent adventure, are giving the fans and the Steelers a well deserve parade. Some of us can’t make it or aren’t drunk enough to brave the cold have chosen to watch from online.  This is the new media generation folks! Of course it’s online and here’s how you can engulf yourself in coverage while you should be working. I know I bitch about insane coverage but this is online, big difference.

• Watch it online – KDKA, WTAE and WPXI will all have live webfeeds
• Follow on Twitter – Jim Lokay (KDKA) and Tall Cathy (KISS FM) are live blogging or you can use the hash to find out who else is down there.  Pittsburgh new media again proving to be ahead of the game.

Here is my album from the Super Bowl XL parade. It was just as cold then.

cheers!

Don’t look at me, I only had 1 beer all night but I’m sure most of the city today is sleeping in.

I won’t lie, with 1:30 left in the game I thought it was over. I wanted to believe there was a comeback in place but something just didn’t feel right. Then Dime Bag thankfully proved me wrong and life is good again in Steeler Nation.

I don’t think the realization of what happened last night has settled in for me yet. Counting all of the Super Bowls I’ve watched since I was a kid, this was my favorite and I’m not saying that because the Steelers won either. Tight scoring game, blood pressure probably maxing out at 160 with the holding call that resulted in a safety, every series felt dramatic. The game was exhausting to watch and I loved it.

Something was missing for me though. I had more fun celebrating Super Bowl XL due to the fact that was my first time seeing a Steelers Super Bowl win that I wasn’t an infant for. I bought the swag, went to the parade and took part in every celebration I could. This year I was cheering in my house but not to the same level as XL. I’m not really interested in the parade since I’ve already been there before and I may buy some collectibles for Teaspoon’s room but that’ll probably be it. Here is my collection from the Super Bowl XL parade.

I am happy though. Not to the level of burning couches like the idiots in Oakland but pretty high up there. This will be a great morale booster in a city where unemployment is increasing every day and we continue to fight the image of a burned out steel town from the 80′s. 6 Super Bowl titles… saying that just amazes me.

Couple observations from my captain’s chair:

• In my lifetime I have now had 2 aging rockers shove their crotch in front of me without asking. 1) Mick Jagger at the Stones concert at PNC Park a couple years back when we were front row. 2) Bruce Springsteen’s slide into the camera during Super Bowl XLIII half time show.
• I need therapy after that previous statement.
• Glad to see the bailout money to the auto industry will be put to good use… cleaning up the mess from the horrible Super Bowl ads. (*note*  it’s a joke people. like “great there’s a bailout and we still get shitty commercials”. I know that Audi didnt get a bailout.)
• Budweiser, please stop showing us your horses and spend the money on improving your beer.
• Doritos proved that hits to the jewels is still classic.
• Career Builder makes me wanna punch a Koala now and I’m OK with that.
• John Madden is like Harry Carry was. Old and no one cares if you show up drunk to babel about nonsense.
• Why do the Super Bowl hats look like they should belong to Seattle?
• This morning while reading the PG I saw a classic ad from Highmark. Yeah, I dig that.
• You haven’t seen fires burn as brightly and cars tipped over with finesse until you do in HD.

Love’m or hate’m, Steelers are the 6 time champions of the NFL and you’re not

Go Pittsburgh!

Mike Pound shows you that even a Browns fan (I won’t hold that against him) can get ready to watch the Steelers in style.

Come on Mike, you know that black n gold felt good on.

Today I bought my first Terrible Towel in decades. My dad had given me my original one when I was a kid and when he passed in 2006 I gave it to him for the ride upstairs.  Lushie said while at the store that I can’t watch a Super Bowl w/o a towel and dad would have kicked my ass if I did so.

cheers!

** Lushie came to me wanting to rant.  This is it…**

Well as you know,  for the AFC Championship game WTAE decided that “BREAKING NEWS” was not only the score of the Steeler’s game but also a bar tour of the local drunks to get there oh so insightful reactions.  I, of course,  was one of many that complained to WTAE and ABC news that this was abuse of the term “BREAKING NEWS” and was rude to those of us who either did not want to watch the game or recorded the regular shows while we watched the game.  Now after a backlash of complaints WTAE printed an excuse in the Post Gazette later in the week.  Like I said, this was an excuse not an apology, because they planned for this breaking news event, there were reporters at many locations to give a live local reactions.  As commented by WTAE in the paper this was important to the residents of Pittsburgh.

Well here the facts:

1.  The game was televised on a local station.
2.  Anyone that wanted to watch the game or see the score had local access
3.  Breaking news is not and never will be the score of a sporting event.  Breaking news is a tragedy like a fire, accident or missing child.
4.  WTAE stayed in the Breaking News until 11 pm when they started the news with guess what,  THE STEELERS.
5.  Yes the game is important to most Pittsburgh and Pa residents but not everyone. Now forgive me Steeler Nation but some people do not like football and yes some people who live here are fans of other teams.

Well now that I have said that spew here is my next.  Yes, we are all happy that our team is in the Super Bowl.  I will be watching the game in my Steeler clothes, with all the football food, the Terrible Towel and of course my Steelers blanket.  So don’t even think of bashing me for not being a fan and yes I have watched all the games the same way so I am not even a fair weather fan. However,  the constant coverage from the 20 minutes of news on when they landed to what they are eating and the charge sound effects prior to every song on the radio is overboard.  This is a great thing for the city and for us as fans, but it is not the end all be all of our lives.  Life will go on after the Super Bowl and if we don’t win, yes I will be upset.  I will not die if they lose. However, I do believe that some news anchors and radio DJ’s will have to be put on suicide watch. This will make the police work harder to patrol the bridges so maybe it will be good for the city all around, win or lose.

I knew that would get people all riled up when I posted that on twitter and now I will explain because 140 characters isn’t enough space. I’m suffering from over saturation of the media. For the last 2 weeks it has been non stop SNOW SNOW SNOW! COLD! OMG WE’RE GONNA DIE! from all local news stations when the reality is that it’s freaking WINTER. Snow happens. Cold happens. Watching the news you’d think that this was the first time our climate has seen this weather. Now I’m entering into 2 weeks of Steelers coverage with everything from what Ben has for breakfast to every bad yinzer chant that makes filler space DVE. Again, I support the Steelers, it’s the coverage that’s excessive.

The icing on the cake, however, is today. I’ve never watched an inauguration for any president and have no intention of watching this one either. I cant even check email without getting forwards about the event. I get that people are thrilled about today but leave me out of it. I can’t take any more Obamaism.

I got out of the shower today to find on my TV people making out for Obama, some guy passed out in his own puke for Obama (imagine that tailgate party) and some fat guy ripping open his jacket to show his chest on CBS… for Obama.

If you’re excited for today because we have a new president, that’s fantastic. I think this is a historic day and hope that everyone takes a part of it with them. I’m not bitter about the fact McCain didn’t win (which some of you seem to believe) and I’m not spewing hate or whatever you think it is, I’ve just had it with extreme coverage.

cheers!

*gher er er* we aint got no Super Bowl!

keep crying Ray. karma is a bitch and Jesus hates you.

Send you an ecard from Tampa cuz we’re tech like that.

This was the pinnacle of the year for me. I know we still have the Super Bowl coming up but this was THE game. I hate Baltimore as much as I still do Cleveland when it comes to football. Cleveland hasn’t fielded a decent team in years so they’re just around to mock and make us feel good about the world. Baltimore, on the other hand, is filled with jagoffs. They’re like that kid who begs for mercy on the playground and when you let him go he says he’ll kick your ass and runs away. That’s the Ravens.

Next up is the Cardinals and 2 weeks of really bad “Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl” songs mixed in with ones locals have submitted. Really hurts that my XM is on the fritz and I have to get it fixed.

Toss up for me on the game. Larry Fitz is a freakin machine and Kurt Warner is too busy thanking God for every snow flake in the sky. Steelers defense is tight, Ben still makes bad decisions and Steed somehow manages to play. Philly choked once again so there go my dreams of a PA Super Bowl.

cheers!

12:30pm – Penguins vs Rangers (NBC)
My first love is hockey so it’s only fitting that this is how my day starts. Pens (48 points) are barely hanging in the playoff picture while the Rangers (58 points) are dominating the Atlantic. Plus side is that when you think of it in other sports terms, the Pens are only 5 games out of first. Pens are sporting the powder blues which have been a jinx thus far. Come on guys start the day off right!

3:00pm – Eagles vs Cardinals NFC Championship (FOX)
Normally I am anti-everything Philly in sports but for this day our Pennsylvania brothers shall have my support. I want a Philly/Pittsburgh Super Bowl. Reality though, I think the Cardinals are going to win. Prove me wrong Eagles!

6:30pm – Steelers vs Ravens AFC Championship (CBS)
This game worries me. 2 strong defense systems but I think that this will be a mental cluster for Flacco. It’s in Pittsburgh, it’s snowing and Steeler Nation has been drinking since Monday.  I wouldn’t want to play there.

9:00pm – Big Love (HBO)
If you haven’t watched this series yet I suggest you start now. HBO has once again given me more broadcasting crack with Big Love. Big Love is an HBO television drama about a Mormon fundamentalist family in Utah that practices polygamy. The show is about family, drama and whack jobs still living on the compound. Guys, if you think this is just for the ladies, I’d like to point out that there is plenty of Ginnifer Goodwin.