Things On Tuesday

Things That Suck:

- I have to go in to work this weekend, which is yuckier than chocolate covered pickles. I've never had a chocolate covered pickle, truthfully, but I'm assuming that if I did it would be yucky. Anyway, one piece of our new system is being converted Saturday and being moved over Sunday, so I have to go in to validate that all my parts of it come up okay. We do these parts of the project on the weekends so we're not doing major data moves when lots of people are on the systems. My part will most likely fall on Sunday, and Lee works Saturday, so we pretty much don't get a day off together this go-round.

- All the injuries the Steelers suffered in yesterday's game.

- The economic news so far this week.  

Things That Don't Suck

- Yesterday's game between the Steelers and the Ravens. It was a face-paced, nail-biter of a game.

For the most part, this is the first time that Lee and I have had a "real" football game when our teams played each other. In the 4 previous matchups since we've been together, one or the other of our teams was totally sucking and never really got going enough to make it interesting. Yesterday's 23-20 overtime win for the Steelers was incredible.

We watched the game at The Pub, so of course my mom and I were outnumbered by Ravens fans. Through the whole first half, the place was wild with cheers and jabs at our Black and Gold boys. The second half was a lot more quiet. Mom and I can't scream loud enough to come close to the noise a boatload of Ravens fans can make! For the first half, the gang really was funny, though. Lee and the guys were all yelling themselves out of voices and chest-butting and hand-slapping and hugging while Mom and I cringed in our corner and watched our Steelers with dismay. The second half was MUCH better, for us!. We actually walked out to the back deck for a break, and the Steelers started turning things around while we were out there. We were too superstitious to go back in to our seats for fear of jinxing them!  

Lee is hoarse today, and all squeaky when he talks. Yeah, we were into it : ). The poor guy had to get up at 4 for work today, and it was after 1 when we finally got to bed. Needless to say, he's already zonked out tonight!

- Joe Flacco. I'm a tried and true Steelers fan to the end, but I have to admit my hometown's new quarterback impressed me last night. I didn't LIKE being impressed by him, but I was. He did a great job with his first away game at Heinz field. And yes, I'd probably be much less generous with my praise if the Ravens had won.

- The fact that I took today off work. I put in for a vacation day today back when the football schedule came out. I always know we're in for a wild time when our teams meet, and the last thing I wanted to do is drag myself into the office after just a few hours of shuteye. So I had the day off to lounge around, get some cleaning done, read, make a nice dinner for me and Lee, and exercise early in the afternoon instead of in the evening after work.

- The birthday celebration we had for my Grandma Sunday afternoon. She turned 79, and we took her to a nearby Italian place that my family loves. It was a small group - just me and Lee, my parents, my grandparents, my sister and my niece, but it was wonderful just to get my grandparents out for a while. Grandad doesn't like to go out to eat much. He never was one for restaurants, and became even less interested in them after his stroke. But he agreed to come out for Grandmom's special day, and ended up enjoying himself. The food was incredible, as was the delicious sangria Mom and I had. I came home quite content, full and sleepy, and with enough leftovers for Lee's lunch and my dinner the next day.

This was the first time Lee and I have gone to a restaurant since we started dieting. I have to admit, eating out is one of the things I really miss. I like trying different things I'd never think to make at home, enjoying the atmosphere of a nice restaurant, and most of all not having any mess to clean up!

- Getting back into an old favorite pair of jeans that had gotten way too tight and my leather jacket. That makes me miss the restaurant dining much less.

- My gas and electric bill this month! Yeah, a BILL is actually making it to my "does not suck" list. Back in early summer, the battery in my gas meter expired. The company sent me a notice asking me to schedule a time that they could come in and install a new one, but being both busy and an airhead I forgot and didn't get around to it until late August. It turns out that for all that time they were really overestimating how much cooking was going on here at the ranch! I opened my bill yesterday and saw what I read at first as "122.00." Even that made me happy, since the gas and electric bills are usually quite a bit higher than that. Then I looked closer and realized that it was actually $1.22. They really had to adjust this month's bill to make up for charging for much more gas than we've actually used all summer.

So, a bill that usually taps us out of a few hundred is costing a dollar and change this month - how cool is that?

Things I'm Looking Forward To:

- More fall weather ... this is my favorite time of year.

- Wearing my fall clothes

- The weekend after next, when we have a trip to the cabin to go to a nearby festival planned.