Brett - My Man Crush - Favre

After 6a, I had such a busy mind that I could never really get back to sleep. I laid there tossing and turning until just before 7a when I finally rolled out of bed and headed downstairs. Although, if it wasn’t for the time change it would’ve been 8am. As it was, it still felt early. While prepping the coffee, I set it and stove clocks back an hour. The other clocks were automatically reset to reflect EST. I sipped coffee while sinking my teeth into a couple work matters begging my attention. Nothing too overwhelming, though. Because it was Sunday I didn’t do any sit-ups or push-ups. I took Frankie out back around 730a. It was sunny but also frosty – only 21 degrees. Come 830a I completed a stretch routine then dressed for a run. I re-penned Frankie before heading out. I didn’t want to risk her getting in to anything. I wore a thick winter wicking shirt and pullover fleece, ear covers, gloves, and sun glasses. By the time I headed out it was near 30 degrees. Like I do most Sunday’s, I ran just three miles. I felt really good. Mindy still wasn’t up when I retuned home. It was close to 920a. Mindy got up somewhere close to 10a. Said she received a Facebook invite from our CBC friend Stella. I offered to make us an omelet. At first Mindy declined but quickly reconsidered. She begged off for a quick shower while I cooked the omelet. I filled the omelet with last week’s leftover taco meat and Saturday’s sausage links as well as sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheese. I then topped it off with more cheese, tomatoes and onions. It looked fabulous! I left it covered in the pan waiting on Mindy to finish her ‘quick’ shower. After ten minutes I decided to go ahead and eat my half. It was even better than it looked. Mindy came down 15 -20 minutes later. I shared that I had already eaten. She admitted taking far longer than originally planned. I didn’t mind, but just didn’t want her to be sore at me for eating without her. She was fine. Mindy planned a trip to the grocery as well as Target, I think. Me, I planned to work in the yard, and more importantly, leaf management. I knew Kenny was at church, but hoped he’d be back soon enough that I could borrow his Billy Goat again. I headed out to the yard around 11am. The first thing I did was use my gas blower to blow the leaves from the deck and surrounding flower beds. Easier said than done. The shrubs and plants hugging the deck do a good job of holding the heavy leaf fall. I worked at it for about 30 minutes blowing the leaves away from the deck area and into the yard for easy pick-up later with the Billy Goat. I walked over to see if Kenny was home yet. He Wasn’t. Plan B. I drug my tarp around the front and started trimming the shrubs for winter and pulling up spent flowers. I ended up doing what I often wait until early spring to do - fully clearing the beds of all the spent growth, and then trimming back the English Ivy. I spent about 90 minutes cutting and gathering all of that. In the process, I discovered that at least four of our burning bushes – a couple on each side – have been ringed again by small rodents. In all likelihood, they’ll need replaced next spring.  The same thing happened about 5 or 6 years ago too. I was told that I need to be diligent about keeping the English Ivy cut back away from the shrubs trunks. I was a little irritated because I trim it constantly. But it grows vigorously during summer and obviously I didn’t keep up well enough. Spilt milk now! Kenny eventually arrived home and came out back and offered up the Billy Goat! Hell yes! I was already tired after dragging the second tarp full of debris to the compost pile. The Billy Goat made the rest of the work seem almost easy. I ran the Billy Goat for an hour sucking up the leaves out back and the nout front, where I blew them from the yard into the street along the curb. The Billy Goat made quick work of them all. As an expression of gratitude, I sucked up the remaining leaves in Kenny’s yard too, and then the leaves in our new neighbor, Trena’s yard. She came out while Kenny and I were talking and offered up cold Bud Light’s. I thanked her but refused the beer. We chatted for a while. Kenny took over the Billy Goat to gather the last of leaves in his yard. I was one achy, dirty dude. I put away all my yard tools then headed inside for a much needed shower. Inside, I asked Mindy if she knew how the Vikings were doing. She said they were ahead earlier, but were now behind 14-10. Not a minute later she said it was 21-10 after the Vikings fumbled the 2nd half kick-off and the Cardinals took it in for an easy score. I took a shower and got dressed in my Sunday best. It was just ahead of 4pm. I checked Vikings score again online. Now they were behind 24-10 with only 4 minutes to go. Reading through the play-by-play, I saw the Vikings failed to score two times from inside the 5 yard line (once on the 2 and the other on the 1). Not good! I watched the box score via Yahoo until we needed to leave for Sunday dinner. The Vikings scored a quick TD to bring the score to 24-17 with just over 3 minutes still to go. They then held the Cardinals to a three and out, getting the ball back with 2 minutes to go. It was almost time to leave, but I stayed glued to the PC screen hoping for a miracle but half expecting the worst. They quickly managed their way into the redzone again, and just before we needed to depart scored the tying TD. We left for dinner with the score tied 24-24. We arrived at Sunday dinner earlier than usual. I took Frankie out back knowing almost for certain that she'd need to go. She did. Others arrived while Frankie and I walked around the back yard. While gathered in the living room, Mindy checked the Vikings score via her Droid2, although promising not to let me down if they lost. She hollered that they won in OT 27-24. Wahoo! In reality, I would've known either way. Had they lost, she wouldn't have shared. Dinner was served around 530p. The menu included two types of lasagna (meat and vegetable) chicken, salad, corn, and rolls. I had a piece of both lasagnas and salad. It was scrumptious. I didn't over eat. After dinner I retired to the lower level to catch some of the 4pm football game. The kids played in the lower level too, but in the adjacent room. I watched the Eagles and Michael Vick play the Colts. It was a close game. After about 15 minutes, I headed upstairs to be sociable. It was another 20 minutes or so before dessert was served. I learned that sister-in-law Jodi will be running in the 3.1 mile turkey trot this coming weekend. Can't be sure, but thought she said it would be her first outdoor run of this kind. Good for you, Jodi! Dessert was ready. Gloria made fudge on behalf of Jacob, Larry, Bella, and Mia. Somehow or another, I missed the cut again! I passed on the fudge opting instead for the homemade chocolate chip cookies. They were good. We gathered our things shortly after dessert and headed for home. It was 715p and already dark. Once home we took Frankie and headed down to the neighbors for a brief visit. Believe it or not, we haven't hung out that much lately. I forgot that Ben & Ryan were going to be there. Haven't seen them since the Roger Waters show. While visiting, we watched the exciting finish of the Colts/Eagles game. Eagles won. Then, CBS threw in bonus coverage of the last few minutes of the Raiders/ Chiefs. The Raiders were trailing as we joined but tied it just before the clock expired sending the game into OT. The Raiders won in dramatic fashion. After a relatively short visit, we headed home around 8pm. Mindy had the kids get themselves ready for bed while I read about the Vikings victory online, and also took care of a couple lingering work matters. We joined the SNF game already underway around 840p. It was the Packers/Cowboys. I was rooting for the Cowboys, but only because I needed/wanted the Packers to lose. I was determined to stay up through halftime in hopes of catching highlights of the Vikings dramatic win. I wasn't disappointed, but the highlights were brief. Mindy & I were both really tired. After all, it was really one hour later.