Two Inches

Many of you think I jest when I talk about DC and snow. This is a news story from this weekend. If you read the article, one would think we're expecting six inches or a foot, perhaps two feet! Alas, two inches.

DC Gets Ready For Snow
Area Prepares For Possible Snow

Read the full story.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We wish all of you a blessed Christmas and New Year!

Hat Trick Win

Photo by Kate McGovern
www.offwingopinion.com
Okay, we saw the Dallas Stars almost beat the Washington Capitals in DC this evening. It was almost fun. It was almost a great game.

FINE...

It was a competitive game. The Stars came back from a 4-1 deficit to almost tie the game at the end. The final score was 4-3 Caps.

Is it really asking TOO MUCH for Washington to lose ONE game? Last year, we had an 11-game season ticket package. Out of 11 games, I think they won three or four. This year, we have no season tickets, but have bought three individual games. They've won all three ("hat trick win"). So, again, would it really be too much to ask? I guess so.

Of celebrity note: Pat Sajack and what seemed like his two sons, or a son and his friend were sitting two rows and a few seats down from us. During the second intermission, Verizon Center posts text messages on the jumbo-tran. We sent in: "Pat S., if you are at the game, who's tending the wheel?" We did see him smile at the post.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. First, we spent most of Thanksgiving day with our good friends in Maryland. We flew to Minneapolis in the evening to spend a long weekend with my sister and her husband in their new house; my parents and my brother and his wife. We had Thanksgiving dinner all over on Friday with all of them and my sister's in-laws.

On Saturday, we went to Wisconsin to see my new step-niece, Gracie Marin born in October and step-nephew, Ryan Vincent born in August. I also got to see my Uncle. It was a special visit all the way around!

On Sunday, we went to the church that I grew up in. It was fun to see old friends. We also went to my brother-in-law's restaurant. It was delicious. He made special appetizers, a crab cake with two skewered shrimp with a mango salsa and steamed mussels. My main entree was one of the specials for the evening, penne pasta with shrimp and artichokes in a light cream garlic sauce. He also made special desserts, chocolate mousse, turtle brownie, chocolate crème brûlée and a cranberry/pear cobbler with ice cream.

Despite the Packer loss on Monday, it was fun to watch the game with my sister.

It was a memorable Thanksgiving!

She took the spoon....She took the spoon!

This was my refrain, horrified that I utilized the wrong utensil at our recent Anniversary dinner at Le Paradou. We celebrated at a very lovely, French restaurant that neither of us had been to before. We splurged on the 6-course tasting menu.

My major faux pas came with the 4th course, which was lumps of lobster in a wonderful sauce. The server had placed both a new fork and a spoon for this course. I confidently chose the spoon while Brian opted for the fork. As they cleared our setting and replaced the silver for the next course, much to my horror, the spoon was replaced!

Well, having survived that french table setting, we did have a lovely dinner. Here were all of the courses (#3 and 6 are the restaurant description).

The starter was a single rock shrimp in a tasty sauce

1. Diced Scallops in another delicious sauce, Served in an egg shell - it was gorgeous
2. Two Oysters in a cream sauce
3. Carpaccio of Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraîche and ‘Osetra’ Caviar
4. Lumps of Lobster served with enough sauce to warrant a spoon!
5. Squab served with an asparagus sauce and truffle
6. Stuffed Quail with Pistachios, Celeriac and ‘Cèpes’ Mushrooms with Chervil

Dessert was a chocolate ‘Crème Brûlée’ with a Coconut Ice Cream (and one additional flavor, I'm forgetting)
A small plate of nine different sweets and a cappuccino topped the evening

They knew we were celebrating our Anniversary, so during the dessert course, they brought out a white rectangle shaped plate that had spelled ochocolateoalate, Happy Anniversary, with a small, lit candle.

It was a real treat.

Technically

Photo by Jim Biever
(Packers.com)
Okay, so technically speaking, I didn't see any of the Packers' scores yesterday. I did see the last few minutes of the game and highlights of most of the TDs, but not the live game. The Packers are 3-4, which seems nearly respectable from where they started. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my husband has reminded me that when I don't watch, they win.

Also, the Cheeseheads FFootball is going to pull off their first win of the season! Long time in coming. It seems like I found the right combination to win this week. In FFootball, it has everything to do with individuals and very little to do with teams. Here's the line-up for this week:
P. Manning (IND) QB
D. Rhodes (IND) RB
T. Henry (TEN) RB
T. Houshmandzadeh (CIN) WR
M. Colston (NO) WR
M. Harrison (IND) WR
H. Miller (PIT) TE
A. Vinatieri (IND) K
Minnesota Vikings DEF

To round it out, the Dallas Stars won on Saturday and Brian's favorite Gibbs' driver, Tony Stewart had a strong win in Atlanta on Sunday. It was a good sports weekend; maybe they were helping me celebrate my birthday!

...but later is now!

One of my first birthday presents from Brian was to have two photographs of the Eiffel Tower beautifully framed. They are black and white photos, one taken during the day, one at night. Now, as spectacular as they are, Brian was even more surprised that I guessed what it was with this clue: "you have it, but you cannot use it." I guessed correctly. Alas, that was the last year that I actually received any real clues.

So, at dinner the night before my birthday I asked for a clue and he said we weren't going to be able to do what he'd planned because of the rain. A couple of additional targeted questions almost had me guessing correctly, so much so that there was almost a little white lie, because I was getting a little too close.

At about 12:01 a.m. on my birthday, I told him it was my birthday and I should be able to know what the present was. He said that I should wait until later because I had a lot of time left on my birthday. My prompt response was, "but later is now!" I did opt to wait. Although, I found out a little earlier than had been planned due to a BlackBerry phone mishap!

Anyway, as you can tell, my birthday present is a hot air balloon ride some time when it's not raining!

Congratulations!

Congratulations on the safe arrival of my step-niece, Grace (Gracie) Marin!

Guilty

It's true. I transported bagels across state lines. Maybe it was the undeniable wafting of the onion or garlic. Perhaps it was the scent of cinnamon raisin, 9-grain honey or whole wheat. However, I was once again a successful bagel courier, much to the delight of two little girls who were anxiously awaiting Ess-a-Bagel!

Santa Barbara

Instead of complaining about sports this weekend, I will tell you about our fabulous weekend in Santa Barbara, CA.

We stayed at the lovely Four Seasons The Biltmore, quite a treat. I had attended a meeting at the hotel during the end of the week. On Friday afternoon, we visited Mission Santa Barbara and we both had massages at the spa. We had dinner at a little restaurant called, Cava. We recommend trying the zarzuela - a mediterranean seafood stew with shrimp, clams, scallops, mussels & white fish.

On Saturday, we began with a very tasty breakfast at Jeannine's Bakery - Montecito. We spent most of the day exploring the Santa Ynez Mountains. The scenery was beautiful and the climate was surprisingly arid. I didn't expect desert-like vegetation so close to the ocean. Lunch was New Mexican fare at Zia Cafe. We sat outside and had fun people-watching. We also drove and walked up and down State Street several times and walked the wharf. Dinner was at Kai Sushi Shabu-Shabu. We had sushi and beef sukiyaki. Although, the shabu-shabu looked very delicious.

Bye

Yes, my FFootball team has yet to see a win. Week #6 is an interesting one for the Cheeseheads. In the league that I play in, each team has 17 players. On any given week, we play nine and bench eight. My record includes two blow-out loses, a tie and losses by one and two points. In at least a couple of games, the players on my bench actually scored more than the players I started. So, my point, with a good share of my players playing for either Indianapolis or Green Bay, I have seven players that have a bye this week. For several weeks, FFootball commissioner, Craig, has been giving me a hard time about having seven players on a bye at the same time. At this point, what do I have to lose by starting some players that have seen the pine more than the ball. We'll see if this forced strategy works this week.

The Cheeseheads FFootball line-up for this week:
R. Grossman (CHI) QB
C. Portis (WAS) RB
R. Bush (NO) RB
T. Houshmandzadeh (CIN) WR
M. Colston (NO) WR
L. Coles (NYJ) WR
H. Miller (PIT) TE
J. Carney (NO) K
Seattle Seahawks DEF

Deen-oh

One of the great pleasures in life is to be able to see regularly some of our friends that have kids. This week, I had the pleasure of having dinner with Juliette and Evie. Sometimes, when I get a call, it's Juliette and she asks, "are you coming over for 'deen-oh'?" Usual activities include playing, reading books and of course mandatory bedtime hugs & kisses. On this particular evening, Juliette wanted to read to me, "The Ugly 'W'egetables" a very endearing book by Grace Lin about a neighborhood that comes together to share flowers and ugly vegetables soup, and the young gardener learns that regardless of appearances, everything has its own beauty and purpose.

Caps Game

This is how close we were at the game! Here's a picture of team introductions at the home opener. Only Brian can capture the essence of some of these moments. Check out a few more of his pictures from the game.

Week #5

Green Bay seems to play two different games. Most of this year's stats will show a pretty close game in the first half. The second half is where the Packers seem to let the game get away. Defense seems to break down. Favre has been off a little today. A few passes going askew. One bright note is running back Noah Herron.

This is the Cheeseheads FFootball line-up for week #5.
P. Manning (IND) QB
C. Portis (WAS) RB
D. Rhodes (IND) RB
M. Harrison (IND) WR
M. Colston (NO) WR
L. Coles (NYJ) WR
H. Miller (PIT) TE
A. Vinatieri (IND) K
KC Chiefs DEF

A couple of FFootball observations so far. First of all, for the second week in a row, Vinatieri was de-activated less than an hour before the game. Also, who knew that underdog Tennessee would be beating Indianapolis?

Alexanders the Great

We went to the first Caps home game on Saturday night. Very fun! It helps, too, that they won the game, beating the defending Stanley Cup champs, Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 5-2. It was the game of the Alexanders. Alexander Semin had a hat trick and Alexander Ovechkin had two goals. Honorable mention goes to Brian Pothier and Chris Clark who both had three assists. Instead of a season ticket package, I've decided to buy fewer games, but better seats. Last night, we had great third row seats. Look for a post with some of B's outstanding photos.

Stars vs. Avs

As I described earlier, the sports trifecta is truly complete with the start of the NHL regular season. Opening night features my team, the Dallas Stars vs. Colorado Avalanche. It's a repeat game from the play-off series that ended the '05-'06 season for the Stars. Yes, I admit it's hard to cheer for a team that's from shhhhh, "Dallas." So, why am I a Stars fan? As a young girl, I grew up watching (and listening via radio) to the Minnesota North Stars. My 11th and 12th birthdays were spent at the Met Center watching a North Stars game, and being able to name all of the team's players. Maybe it's the green and gold that does it for me!

Delay by Shoe

There are no shortages of black tie events in DC. From time to time, staff is needed to fill seats at a charity dinner. Tonight was one of those nights and I drew the short straw. So, after determining that either of the two "little black dresses" that every girl must have in the back of their closet would work, I set out yesterday to find shoes. Going to my favorite shoe warehouse, Off Broadway Shoes, I actually found three pairs including the shoes for tonight's event. After getting my loot home, I pulled out the shoe box only to find that I had grabbed a wrong box and had a duplicate pair of shoes. Of course, the one that I was missing was the pair that I needed tonight. The store did not open until 10 a.m. this morning. Thankfully, it's on the way to the office. The office got a good chuckle out of my delayed arrival due to black tie shoe mishap.

Loser

My Fantasy Football team is 0-3-1. I'm a loser! As the fantasy football "league commissioner" said, close only counts in horseshoes and grenades. So my 1 point loss in this week's game was disappointing. That makes two losses of 2 points and 1 point. Very brutal.

Nearly as brutal as last night's Green Bay game. First half not too bad; second half...ummm, there's not a word to describe how bad the second half was. Dropped and tipped balls are killing the offense, and there's no way to expect them to keep up with the failure of the defense. How we still have Ahmad Carroll and Al Harris, I will never understand. Did the defense stop a punt or kick-off under 40 yards? If there were any bright spots, a 54-yard field goal by Rayner and rookie Greg Jennings has great potential.

UPDATE: Okay, as I was checking a stat, I noticed that Ahmad Carroll was put on waivers today. I guess I wasn't the only one thinking the same thing!

Sports Trifecta

The confluence of sports comes together in September: NFL regular season, NASCAR final chase to the Nextel Cup and NHL pre-season. There are never enough screens to monitor them all!

In case you're at all interested, this is my starting line-up for Cheeseheads this week.

P. Manning (IND) QB
R. Bush (NO) RB
D. Rhodes (IND) RB
M. Harrison (IND) WR
D. Driver (GB) WR
L. Coles (NYJ) WR
H. Miller (PIT) TE
R. Gould (CHI) K
Seattle Seahawks DEF

UPDATE (Packers vs. Lions): Win #1! Favre scores #400, #401 and #402. This week's observation concludes that it is not realistic to expect Packer offense to score and then negate it by weak Packer Defense. Defense must come up with bigger stops and get better on not allowing so much yardage on first and 10. The offensive line looked better; Favre was not sacked this week. Running backs must hang on to the ball, thankfully their late half fumbles did not result in points, but that was lucky.

UPDATE (FFootball Cheeseheads): As I mentioned last week, the final FFootball score/ratings aren't final until Tuesday. However, it's not a good sign when your eight benched players have scored more fantasy points than your nine starters.

Observation

I wasn't able to watch the game on Sunday; however, DIRECTV® has NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ SuperFan, which offers commercial-free game replays, showing every play, in 30 minutes or less. It's a neat feature. Anyway, it allowed me to watch the plays of the game. Among many things, I noticed there was a substantial number of dropped balls. Way too many. Rookies, yes, but if this team has any chance of turning itself around, they need to step up their game.

On another note, I received my annual notice of my Green Bay Packers season ticket waiting list. I moved up to #56,267 from #57,027. I guess that means I have approximately 74.035526315789473684210526315789 years before I'm eligible for my season tickets.