Horses Vs Birds

I confess: I'm not entirely certain who I want to win the Super Bowl. On the one hand, I don't care because the Ravens aren't playing, and I'm not particularly emotionally invested in either team. On the other hand, I usually root for the underdog in Super Bowls not featuring my team, and that would be the Seahawks this year. On the first foot/third hand, the Broncos are my city's team, and I do love me some Peyton Manning. I have several Broncos fans who would be overjoyed at their team winning the Super Bowl for the first time since 1998; I like those people, and I want them to be as happy as I was last year. (I will NEVER be that happy ever again.)

I'm pathetically, hopelessly dead last in the work playoff pool this year after having won it all taking my team in every game for big points. One of the women in the pool didn't even play last week, and I'm STILL behind her!! I plan on letting my dog make my picks for this one. I'll be filming it and will obviously post it here for all to see.

So I guess I'll just cheer for both teams but say that the Broncos will win the Super Bowl this year.

AFC North: A Clusterf*ck of a Division

The first week of NFL football was a complete wreck, at least for fans of the teams of the AFC North. The Ravens were CLOBBERED by the Broncos. I was at that game, and all I could do was laugh. Nothing was going right for us, and Peyton and his receivers were throwing the ball over our defense like they were eighth graders, and our guys were fifth graders. Mile High was a dangerous and hostile place to be if you weren't a Broncos fan.

I was able to take solace in one beautiful fact though: while the Ravens lost to a future hall-of-famer, the Steelers lost to the TENNESSEE TITANS at their home stadium in Pittsburgh! They also lost four of their starters to injuries. It was basically a banner day for a loser who's less of a loser than other losers.

Defeating Mr. Bundchen

Me: "How do you spell Gisele's last name?
Steve: "I don't know because I don't care."

After last year's GLORIOUS Super Bowl loss, Tom Brady's wife Gisele gave some hecklers a piece of her mind about Hubby's team mates' skills...or rather, lack thereof. Brady quickly lost ANY cred he may have once possessed, as he now looked like a whiny Pee-Wee footballer whose helicopter mommy swooped in to yell at the coach and the other kids' parents.

Sorry this post is out of order chronologically. (It should have been posted on Monday after the Ravens' win in Denver.) I found it on my phone while posting something else online, and after checking my post list for the blog, realized it'd been omitted.

EDIT: The geniuses at the Ravens sub-Reddit came up with this great drinking game for today!! Follow the rules all the way to the emergency room.

DEEEEMONNNNN HORRRRSSSEEEE!!

It's tough being a non-Broncos fan in Broncos Country (a.k.a. my work). My boss is a hard-core Broncos fan, and there are other delusional horse-loving dreams scattered through the school.

On Friday, Shawn wore his Steelers jersey (Woodley), because "my boss is cool and doesn't care." (Note: his boss Bob is a Bears fan, hailing from Chicago years ago, but he's been trying to raise his sons, who were born in Denver, to be Broncos fans. It's...been emotionally difficult for him.) One of the Admissions/Academics assistants, Stephanie, wore a long-sleeve Broncos tee shirt on Friday. The seeds of a rivalry had been planted.

When I went to take a picture of the latest Ray & Troy conversation, I noticed this delightfully awesome pic of Peyton Manning riding Demon Horse, presumably to victory. Stephanie told me that she plans on adding more and more Manning stuff on Shawn's door (sparing the white board, of course), until "we take this thing 3D," as she said. I look forward to seeing how ridiculous this gets.

The Broncos are playing the Steelers tonight on Sunday Night Football. As Shawn's potential embarrassment & heartbreak is relevant to my interest, I shall be watching.

Morale Boosting in the Dean's Suite

Tracy is our HR liaison in the dean's office. To maintain a semblance of privacy, facilities put up this cubicle wall by her desk and gave her a white board so she could write notes or leave messages about her comings and goings. My boss Lyndsey thought that using the white board for drawing little pictures was a better use of its services. Soon the drawings grew too elaborate for one small board. (We had a very creative mountain scene with skiers being rescued from avalanches and a Sasquatch; the drawing prior to this one was of mythical creatures ranging from a chupacabra throwing a person off a cliff to a mermaid to the Loch Ness monster to the aforementioned Bigfoot.) Citing "team morale" as a financial justification for my $6 purchase using company funds, I purchased Tracy's cubicle wall a larger white board. The first drawing was of Hogwarts, as Lyndsey is a big Harry Potter fan, but this two-board drawing of football players soon replaced it.

Originally, the drawing was of Peyton Manning (#18) passing to an unnamed offensive player while a red player wearing the #7 (John Elway) got ready to tackle his opponent. However, I pointed out that the number 7 is NOT an acceptable jersey number for a defensive player. Only quarterbacks, kickers, and punters are eligible to wear such a low number. This caused a lively debate between me and the HR Director, Kevin, who seemed to enjoy how riled up the issue made me. When I came in this morning, ALL of the players were wearing Elway's #7...so I changed all the numbers to those my favorite Ravens players wear. You'll see Joe Flacco (#5) passing to Anquan Boldin (#81) while defensive players Ray Lewis (#52), Terrell Suggs (#55, miraculously healed from his Achilles heel surgery), and Ed Reed (#20) prepare to tackle the veteran wide receiver. Needless to say, Kevin had a good laugh and then changed all the numbers back again.

I even snuck in a little Tebow burn while I was at it.