Monday, February 06, 2006
Superbowl Sunday
I decided to stay home for the Superbowl rather than go to a friend's house, because I thought it would be easier to manage my kids while watching the game instead of risking watching the game somewhere where it was not recorded (meaning TiVo), and where I might have to tell my mostly non-football watching friends to shut up so I could watch the game. Perhaps it wouldn't have been necessary, but I didn't feel like going out anyway. Plus I wanted to buffer at least 30 minutes or so of the game, so I could fast-forward through play challenges, announcer chatter, and commercial re-runs during the second half of the game.
An hour before the game I embarked on a three mile walk, so as to better earn, or at least feel less bad about, my impending three hours of sloth. Turned out they weren't that slothful, but they were calorie-intensive (on the intake side, unfortunately), so it was good that I burned off 100 or so of the 2000 calories I took in.
The kickoff of Superbowl XL was at 1523 Pacific, and I began to watch from just that point on my recording. In the previous two weeks I avoided almost all of the pre-game hype, and for the last few years I haven't started watching until the official kickoff time, which actually turns out to be the official time of the coin toss for initial possession, but that doesn't annoy me unduly. I decided to be purple in my choice of game day comestibles (pardon the stupidly flowery language, but it's late and I'm tired), purple being a compromise between my so-called red state and blue state sensibilities. So I would have beer and peanuts as a snack, but they would be Trader Joe's honey-roasted peanuts, and the beer would be Chimay Blue. Halfway through the game I had to start dinner, which was another good reason to pause the game and let more precious buffer accrue. Dinner would also be purple, as I had steak, but it was Steak au Poivre and fresh artichokes. I cheated on the potatoes, as they were a frozen new potato package I also got from Trader Joe's. But it was pretty good. It was my first attempt at Steak au Poivre, and I must say it turned out pretty well. It was also fairly easy, although the de-glazing of the pan and reducing the sauce requires attention. Sadly, I couldn't get the cognac to light in the pan, which annoyed my twin girls no end. Dessert was also from Trader Joe's, this time in the form of a house-branded cheesecake. It too was good. But cheesecake has to be pretty bad for me to find it irredemable.
The big game itself was enjoyable, if pretty sloppy. I wanted the Steelers to win, but didn't have much stake in it, my affinity for the Steelers being mostly residue from my '70s childhood in Arizona. We had no team of our own, and the Steelers were dominant that decade, so they became My Team. This hardened when my stepfather announced his love of the evil Cowboys. It was only a friendly rivalry, or as close to a friendly rivalry as a Steeler and Cowboy fan can have, at any rate, because I love my stepfather a great deal. What I'm trying to get across is that the rivalry wasn't some sort of surrogation of some larger emnity. In fact I regard my stepfather as more of a father to me in many ways than is my biological father. That's a story for another time. But we were talking about the game, I think. Anyway, it was sloppy and it was disappointing that Jerome Bettis didn't score a touchdown, but it was cool that he got a ring. He is alleged to be both a very nice guy and a decent human being.
Oh, and there were commercials. None of them made much impression on me, but I remember that a couple were funny. ¶ 00:00
An hour before the game I embarked on a three mile walk, so as to better earn, or at least feel less bad about, my impending three hours of sloth. Turned out they weren't that slothful, but they were calorie-intensive (on the intake side, unfortunately), so it was good that I burned off 100 or so of the 2000 calories I took in.
The kickoff of Superbowl XL was at 1523 Pacific, and I began to watch from just that point on my recording. In the previous two weeks I avoided almost all of the pre-game hype, and for the last few years I haven't started watching until the official kickoff time, which actually turns out to be the official time of the coin toss for initial possession, but that doesn't annoy me unduly. I decided to be purple in my choice of game day comestibles (pardon the stupidly flowery language, but it's late and I'm tired), purple being a compromise between my so-called red state and blue state sensibilities. So I would have beer and peanuts as a snack, but they would be Trader Joe's honey-roasted peanuts, and the beer would be Chimay Blue. Halfway through the game I had to start dinner, which was another good reason to pause the game and let more precious buffer accrue. Dinner would also be purple, as I had steak, but it was Steak au Poivre and fresh artichokes. I cheated on the potatoes, as they were a frozen new potato package I also got from Trader Joe's. But it was pretty good. It was my first attempt at Steak au Poivre, and I must say it turned out pretty well. It was also fairly easy, although the de-glazing of the pan and reducing the sauce requires attention. Sadly, I couldn't get the cognac to light in the pan, which annoyed my twin girls no end. Dessert was also from Trader Joe's, this time in the form of a house-branded cheesecake. It too was good. But cheesecake has to be pretty bad for me to find it irredemable.
The big game itself was enjoyable, if pretty sloppy. I wanted the Steelers to win, but didn't have much stake in it, my affinity for the Steelers being mostly residue from my '70s childhood in Arizona. We had no team of our own, and the Steelers were dominant that decade, so they became My Team. This hardened when my stepfather announced his love of the evil Cowboys. It was only a friendly rivalry, or as close to a friendly rivalry as a Steeler and Cowboy fan can have, at any rate, because I love my stepfather a great deal. What I'm trying to get across is that the rivalry wasn't some sort of surrogation of some larger emnity. In fact I regard my stepfather as more of a father to me in many ways than is my biological father. That's a story for another time. But we were talking about the game, I think. Anyway, it was sloppy and it was disappointing that Jerome Bettis didn't score a touchdown, but it was cool that he got a ring. He is alleged to be both a very nice guy and a decent human being.
Oh, and there were commercials. None of them made much impression on me, but I remember that a couple were funny. ¶ 00:00
