What happened was, we had some friends over for the Sunday football games, and the day turned out very pleasantly in a bunch of ways; herewith an illustrated narrative.
Football · Oh my goodness gracious, that Indy-Steelers game was something. It turned out that our party was solidly packed with Pittsburgh fans and, despite the wildly-randomized happenstances of the last five minutes, they won the game fair and square. For my money, the defining play was the Colts’ late fourth-down gamble; they knew the rush was coming and had to be prepared for it and they still got slaughtered. It looked to me like three of them were blocking Polamalu; when Manning went down there were like five white shirts around him. If Indy can’t handle that Steelers defensive front, who can?
Give the Steelers credit too for thinking; for coming out with an all-aerial attack featuring repeated strikes to that eight-foot-tall rookie tight end whom I’d never heard of and whose name I’ve already forgotten. The Colts’ surprise lasted long enough to give Pittsburgh a fourteen-point head start, which turned out to be (barely) enough.
And like Roethlisberger said after the game, Bettis doesn’t fumble much and he doesn’t tackle much, but that desperation ankle-grab won’t be forgotten soon. Jerome better send him flowers.
Beans · I got up and started doing lunch prep sometime in the last quarter, but then had to put it on hold to catch the denouement. Even so, it was fine; to complement Lauren’s signature beef stew I tried making Malaysian-style Sambhal green beans, and they came out great. A little bit of work: you chop ’em and boil ’em and dry ’em and stir-fry ’em at the last minute with some shallots and garlic, then glaze ’em with oyster and fish and chili sauce plus a bit of cornstarch. Mmm, spicy and tasty.
Sunshine · Our quest for the rain record is still in effect but the sun came out and stayed out during the game, so after lunch I said “How about a walk” and we went for a lazy amble around the neighborhood. On the way down the front walk I got this year’s first picture of our much-photographed magnolia (above), just shadowbranches but there are lots of buds.
Main Street in Vancouver is trying furiously to gentrify itself, but its grubby history is pushing back; here’s a house a block off Main that I bet is torn down in favor of chi-chi condos within five years.
Sex · Well, there are signs of Spring, and we all know what young men’s fancy turns to thoughts of; and mine too. Even given that, I thought this stump remnant embedded in the grass was coming it a bit high; I suspect it’s due for censorship before too long.
