Let's Go Steelers!

Well, those of you that are football fans know that the playoff game was yesterday between the Ravens and the Steelers. Let's just say, this is town loves them some Steelers! Miguel was "lucky" enough to go to the game. I decided that taking pictures of the process of getting ready for the game would be fun - Enjoy!

Step One - out of the shower - on go the under armour pants and wool socks.

Step Two - Add the under armour shirt

Step Three - Yep - you guessed it - Snowboarding pants on top of the under armour - let me just tell you, this California Surfer boy can't take the cold!

Step Four - Top layer number two - the Official UPMC required shirt.

Step Five - third top layer - a North Face vest.

Step 6 - the last top layer - a ski jacket!

And finally - ski gloves! Let me just add that when he got to the game he added a ski cap and a scarf along with multiple hand and foot warmers provided by the team.

If you watched the game and were watching closely, you may have caught a glimpse of my hubby on the sidelines. It was when the clock was at 1:20 left in the fourth quarter - he was all bundled up in the orange jacket, a black scarf around his next and part of his face and his ski cap. We tivo'd it so we got to see it in slo-mo, pretty cool, huh?

He took some pics at the game also - I'll post those in another post.

It's COLD!

Well, I don't have any pictures to post for November/December because my digital cam wasn't working. BUT, I will try to be better about pics for the rest of our stay in Pitt. I was in Los Angeles last week and it was 82 degrees. I flew into Pitt on Friday - landing in the evening at a chilly 1 degree - yep you read that right - IT WAS ONE DEGREE! I parked at the airport when I left (one week ago) and found that my car was not only covered in snow but that an enormous CHUNK of ice was stuck to my windshield. It took me a good 20 minutes to warm up the car and scrape away at the chunk! I was in tears literally because my fingers were FROZEN! Yes I had gloves (I do live in Pittsburgh - I am a little prepared), however, leather doesn't really cut it in ONE DEGREE WEATHER!

Today it is a little warmer - I think it's about 20 degrees today. The city is gearing up for the Steelers vs Ravens game today. A number of the businesses are closing early today so that everyone can watch - all I have to say is: "What the F is that all about????" Those of us that couldn't care less about Football are gonna be bored! I'm just hopeful that Costco is still going to be open and I'll have my run of the store because all the Pittsburghers will be at home watching football, drinking too much beer and eating WAY TOO MANY NACHOS!

Miguel will be at the game today with the medical team. He was there last weekend as well and although it's super exciting - he's gonna freeze!

Here are some pics of the snow today:

This is the view from the side of the driveway down the hill. I'm not sure how many inches we got overnight but it let up this morning a bit. Miguel was outside shoveling snow for over an hour! I was wondering what he was doing cause the weather didn't seem like it was going to get better but he said it wasn't going to snow anymore. My reply was: "OK weatherman!" Needless to say, an hour later it was snowing again and it really hasn't let up yet! It's not really sticking though so all his efforts were not in vain.


This is how our kitties stay warm in the house. There is a heating vent right underneath this cabinet. They used to wedge themselves under the cabinet to stay warm, when they first started doing this, we couldn't find them then we saw their little legs sticking out from underneath. Miguel had the great idea to empty out the bottom cabinet and put their beds in them - now they stay warm and comfy!

Miguel in Action

One Sunday afternoon, Miguel had to cover the Carnegie Mellon Football game that was being televised on ESPN. I was able to go with him and it was a gorgeous day outside (still in the Fall). I got some great pictures of the fall colors:

Here are some pictures of the game - Miguel is on the sidelines in the red shirt:

There was an injury so Miguel had to go onto the field and assess the situation. The player ended up being fine.

Fall in Pittsburgh

Okay, so Fall was something I was really looking forward to - partially because the hot, humid weather in the summer was unbearable and partially because I love the fall colors and seeing the beautiful trees, of which Pittsburgh has many. I signed Miguel and I up for what was called a "Fall Foliage Cruise". It was about a 6 hour cruise along the Monongaheela and Ohio Rivers where the foliage is supposed to be really amazing. The first problem was, it was super cold the morning we left and we couldn't even go out of the deck to see most of the foliage but luckily it warmed up a little later and we did get some good pics. The second problem was - we were stuck on this cruise ship for 6 hours with nothing to do but watch really bad entertainment and play bingo - yikes it was torturous! Anyhow, I learned my lesson - better to either have your own boat to enjoy the sites or just go on a driving tour.

Despite the not-so-fun cruise, the foliage was very amazing - here are some pics:

This is the top of the boat - there was plenty of space on the top deck to sit and enjoy the scenery but as you can see, not too many people wanted to brave the cold!

A marina along the Ohio River.
Some of the trees along the riverside.

More riverside views.

Panthers Football Game (Pitt vs Rutgers)

Well, one of the "perks" of Miguel's program is we get to go to sporting event occasionally. The best so far has been the Panther's football games - we get to sit in a box which is quite luxurious so if you are not a full on football fan (like me), you at least are comfy, warm or cool depending on outdoor conditions and have a fully stocked fridge with sodas, beer and water.

I am the first to admit I know nothing about football and generally am not interested in the sport but seeing this game was the first time I had ever been on the verge of tears at a sporting event. Basically this is how it went down - in the middle of the game (I can't remember the exact period/quarter/whatever) but the quarterback was injured pretty seriously. We saw him go down and expected in no time he'd be back up. Well, that wasn't the case, the trainers went out to the field to see what was going on and when they realized it was more serious, they called the MD's on the field. When a few minutes had passed, the entire U Pitt football team came together, knelt down on one knee and faced the injured player. It was unbelievable! A few more minutes passed and then the Rutgers team followed suit. I seriously thought I was going to break out sobbing but I had to compose myself in front of Miguel's coworkers. Eventually, they brought out a stretcher to remove the player from the field but not one of the other players got up off their knee:

After the player was put on the stretcher, and being wheeled off the field, the entire stadium went crazy, clapping and "cheering". This was an incredible experience that I will never forget.

October 2008 Halloween

Well, I got lucky in October and my replacement at my job in Beverly Hills quit. So I was asked to travel to our Bev Hills office to work - yippee! I spent Halloween with Christine & Jesse - my neighbors from Playa del Rey. We had spent the previous 2 Halloweens with them and we always had pumpkin carving contests so that's what we did this time too! Here are our pumpkins:

Sorry for the poor photography - I took better pics with my camera phone but wasn't able to download them. Needless to say, we had a good time - the only thing missing was Miguel but he judged our pumpkin carving contest from Pittsburgh (I won but he didn't know which one was mine beforehand so no bias!)