Monday-Morning Reflections

Willie's chili was delicious, as always.  Our son has a different approach to chili, making it from scratch and using sausage instead of hamburger.  I asked him last year what seasoning he uses in his recipe, but I can't remember what he told me.

Willie chili served as a main dish for yesterday's Super Bowl party, as did two pizzas from that pizza shop on Bridge Street which I knew as Hayworth's Bakery during my formative years. 

Bill likes brick oven pizza, and since the men were the principals preparing the feast, he picked out what he wanted, ordered it and brought it home.  Of course, chicken wings were on the menu as were chips, cookies, candies, nuts and a fruit pie from Schwan's.  

I decided to add a pan of naked taquitos, preferring naked to smothered in cheese, salsa and sour cream because of the other high-calory items.

Well, it turns out my contribution had no calories at all.  I put the pan in the oven at the same time as the Brazilian cheese bread niblets (turns out Liam and I were the only niblers on the niblets).  

The cheese bread didn't require quite as much time as the taquitos, so I left the oven on and put the cheese bread pan on the food island. 

About an hour later, Bill told me he thought my tacquitos were done.

Ooooooooooooops!

He brought them out to me for inspection, and I agreed----hard as rocks and dark brown. More than likely Liam would not even gulp down a sample.  They went in the garbage.

We had food aplenty.  Plus, we didn't really eat like pigs. We simply grazed for four hours. 

One reason Bill didn't eat that much (at least during the Super Bowl party) was that he slept during the whole second half.  Ya save on calories when you do that. 

To say the Super Bowl was flat in our minds might be an understatement.  We did get pretty excited and maybe a bit misty-eyed when Lady Gaga sang the "National Anthem."

And, it was pretty neat seeing all those Most Valuable Players, most of whom took very careful steps after being introduced, indicating that the 12-hour Aleve might not be doing its thing.  

Bill and I could identify.   

I even commented that those MVPs of 30 years ago looked just as old as those who had won the title during that first decade.  A few of the early MVP's were smart enough to stay home and wave at the camera. 

Just after the National Anthem, a former student Niki, who lives in San Francisco, told on Facebook how the fighter jets that flew over the stadium followed a direct path over her home. 

"The Blue Angels just buzzed our houses on the way back from the stadium. Cool!" she wrote.  "They were so low that I can smell their exhaust as it drifts overhead."

Our living room audience was impressed.  

After the game got started, however, the living room remained pretty quiet except for Foster's snarls at Liam.  Seems when there's company, Foster likes to remind folks that he's the boss over possible hand-outs, chew toys and affection. 

Liam spent a good share of his time under the chair for Bill's desk.  That's his new hide-out when life gets dicey for the rather sensitive pup who's starting to tower over Foster.  Size means nothing though when you're a sensitive soul, and Foster can keep him pretty intimidated.

Our crowd of three remained fairly passive even during the much touted halftime in a game that was beginning to look like a direct reversal of the Denver-Seattle Super Bowl two years ago.  Denver was dominating the Panthers, and the NFL's MVP Cam Newton wasn't looking so good.  

"Is it just me or our television or is the sound bad?" I finally asked Willie and Debbie as performers kept bouncing around on the stage. Willie suggested that it's always bad with the Super Bowl halftime.

To which I said it seems like they'd figure out a solution to that since millions are watching on TV as opposed to 70,000 in the stadium.  I saw a nod of approval.

It was soon after the halftime show had ended when Bill returned from taking Liam on his potty run, sat on the couch next to the bookcase and nodded off for that whole second half.  

He did not snore, which would have been noticeable in the quietude of our fan base. 

During the second half, the Denver defense continued to shine while Cam Newton did not. The game was far from being a nailbiter like we had watched the night before when the ZAGS defeated Pepperdine.  

Had it been a nail biter,  we probably would have awakened Bill and told him he was missing some real excitement.  No need. 

Denver won.  

Cam Newton, whom until yesterday I had viewed as an exemplary, impressive quarterback, disappointed me with his juvenile pouting.    

I remembered how he talked about the importance of leadership in his pre-game interview.  Guess that's only important when you're winning in some people's minds. 

With today a school day, Willie and Debbie didn't hang around too long after the game. By the way, when Bill awakened, I asked him how he enjoyed the game.  He just grinned and nodded that it was okay. 

Eventually, Foster got off his high horse with Liam and quit snarling.  That might have been when I took Liam out to the garage to beddy bye. 

All in all, we enjoyed a tasty meal and some delicious fruit pie.  It's often wise to have plenty to eat when the action isn't going so well on the TV. 

But then again, at least it offered a one-day break from the ongoing ad nauseum of this year's political campaigns.

And, that is a good thing. 

Happy Monday.  Hat's off to Lady Gaga.  Her "National Anthem" was pretty cool. Congratulations to Thunder and the Denver fans.