Blogger Catch-Up

It has been a busy week launching February, so this post is going to be a little bit random with all the things I want to say. You know, with the Super Bowl and Mary and Matthew's visit and our home group and our anniversary and the stinky weather, there is a lot to comment on.

I'll start with a final word on the Steelers win last Sunday in the Super Bowl. The "Steeler Nation" has really enjoyed their victory celebration this week. The city is lovingly calling itself "Sixburgh" and ravenously buying shirts and hats commemorating their sixth Lombardi trophy. There was an amazing parade on Tuesday at noon; and over 350,000 people came downtown to wave their terrible towels and stand outside in 20-degree temperatures with snow whizzing around their heads to watch the parade and hear the speeches and see the trophy itself. This picture, which has been seen all over town, pretty much says it all.

Okay . . . moving on!

Also on Tuesday, we have our home group meeting here at the house in the evenings. Cathy and Larry brought some of the snacks, and they provided orange sections and grapes stuck together on toothpicks in a delicate and attractive arrangement. As we were eating and collecting the toothpicks and orange rinds on our little Stiller plates, we discovered that besides running a successful business, Larry has a hidden creative talent previously used to entertain his children. That talent is creating stick figures from the discarded toothpicks and orange rinds. I had to take a picture of Larry with his creation. The figure was even able to stand by itself. What a feat of engineering! This is the female version, by the way. We hadn't eaten enough oranges to make a companion for her.

Home group is about quality time, too, you know?

As you saw from my earlier post, Opa and Oma celebrated our 9-year wedding anniversary on Monday. We didn't go out on Monday night, though, because our favorite restaurant, Passport Cafe, is closed on Mondays. So we postponed our date until Wednesday evening. In spite of the cold temperatures, we had a lovely dinner with Michael serving us; he is one of our favorites from Sunday brunch. He still introduces himself to us every time. As he pours our water, he says, "Good evening, my name is Michael. I'll be serving you this evening . . . ." And Mark Matera (the owner) stops by to make sure we enjoyed our food. It was a great way to celebrate the beginning of our 10th year.

And finally, I have been wanting to add some more blogger detail about our visit with Mary and Matthew last weekend. I had e-mailed Mary before they came over that Greg and I would really appreciate having a couple of recent photos of them. I love family pictures and have them all over the place. Mary brought us a CD with photos from their wedding on the beach in Clearwater, FL, this summer. I got some prints of these and have been busy framing and putting pictures in an album this week. I just had time to resize a few pix last night and wanted to share a little bit of Mary and Matthew's beautiful day with my blogger buddies. Aren't they a great-looking couple?

That warm sand and beautiful sunset sure looks inviting. Congratulations to the newlyweds!