Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today with friends, family, loved ones, and their respective peculiar dates. Here in Canada, we already celebrated back in October (approximately two days after Canadian Christmas) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a good old-fashioned American style Thanksgiving complete with football, sweet potato pie, and the traditional post-meal vow to eat nothing but fruit and vegetables for the next two days.
My day went something like this:
Watched the first game of the NFL triple-header. A great game marred by yet another ridiculous rule that saw the Houston Texans awarded a touchdown on a run that should have been blown dead at mid-field. Usually, all scoring plays are reviewed but because the opposing team’s coach threw a challenge flag on a “non-reviewable play” (even though all scoring plays ARE automatically reviewed), his team was penalized 15 yards AND the play was not reviewed. Why the hell not? Out of spite? I understand the need to penalize a coach for delay of game but his team is already losing 15 yards. By not reviewing a play that, in all other circumstances MUST be reviewed undermines the very point of having a replay system in place.
As much as I would love to lay the blame for the Lions’ loss on that bizarre rule, I have to give discredit where discredit is due. With the ball deep in Houston territory, the Lions coach calls two successive running plays, and then goes for the field goal…on third down! There wasn’t even an attempt to try and get the first down. Of course, the Lions ended up missing the field goal – and the Texans promptly marched down the field and kicked their own field goal. This one was good.
My buddies Ivon and Rob arrived for the second game of the double-header:
Ivon was in high spirits despite the fact that his team, The Running Dead, are a longshot to make our fantasy football league’s playoffs (for the second year in a row). There’s still faint hope but he’ll need to win his last two games – and hope some other teams suffer a loss or two. I’m rooting for him of course. It would be a pleasure to beat him in the post-season.
In keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, Rob baked a sweet potato pie. We served it up with our main course:
While we were at the butcher, I made the mistake of asking Akemi her thoughts on how many wings I should pick up per guy. She suggested five.
I ended up closer to 25. Had a hard time getting them to crisp up, roasting them in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes, then raising the temperature to 500, then switching the oven to broil, then raising the rack to its uppermost level which finally succeeded…in setting fire to the parchment paper beneath the wings.
In the end, the wings were unimpressive. But that sweet potato pie! My oh my! THAT was the highlight of the night:
We watched the second game of the double-header pitting the Dallas Cowboys against the Washington Redskins. Now either the Cowboys are VERY predictable or Rob and Ivon somehow managed to travel in time to watch the game in the future, and then return to the present in order to accurately predict that: a) The Cowboys would get blown out early and, b) Romo would engineer a comeback that would fall short by c) exactly three points!
It’s tough to be a Cowboys fan and, while I would normally sympathize with Rob, my Snow Monkeys are playing his Landsharks in fantasy football league play this weekend with a playoff berth on the line, so it was very hard to feel that sorry for him. Especially after the third game of the triple-header.
BUT before we took in the New York Jets/New England Patriots game, we had a little dessert compliments of Akemi:
While the first two games were entertaining and fairly close (in the end), the third game was an unwatchable disaster – unless you’re a Patriots fan or enjoy watching those old football follies collections NFL Films used to put out. Oh, the hapless Jets, bumbling and fumbling their way through a nationally televised stinker. At one point, Jets QB Mark Sanchez scrambled upfield – directly into the backside of one of his own offensive lineman, dropped, lost the football, and the Patriots defense ran it in for a touchdown.
(http://cinemagr.am/show/52952401)
It would have been downright hilarious if not for the fact that Rob was playing the Patriots D.
My buddy Lawren was a late arrival. By that point, the overall mood had already soured. My Snow Monkeys season was in jeopardy! Rob’s precious Cowboys had lost! One of Ivon’s starting WR’s had been lost to injury! And Akemi was disappointed her mousse didn’t turn out fluffier! Lawren, oblivious, ate reheated wings.
We ended the night by sending him off with some leftovers. Well, ALL the leftovers.
Thank you to everyone who forwarded me pics of their Thanksgiving feasts (check ’em out in the comments section). If YOU happen to have an leftover, you know were to send ’em!
Today’s entry is dedicated to Janet.
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