My Life's Ingredients

Soooo... NFL Season has kicked off ... and with the girls getting more and more into the sport my interest to actually WATCH games is coming back, too (I was in a "meh" state since the girls were born in 2011). Queue the annual question/discussion/debate... Usually starts with me telling people I like (American) Football and have been into the sport since 1991 (when the Frankfurt Galaxy was formed to play in the WLAF (later NFLE))... Depending on the crowd, I get positive reactions, a blank look or very big enthusiasm. I also got the "that's just Rugby for pussies" (excuse my French), but that is rarely the case, due to the people I surround myself with. From the "positive reaction" to "very big enthusiasm" groups usually comes the question:"What NFL team do you support?" And that's where it gets a bit weird... because my answer so far will be ... "I don't support a team (yet)!" ... .... .....

although this year it’s only the NFL kind. I’ll miss being with “my lads” from the Stirling Clansmen, they had their Returners Training Camp last weekend, usually the first opportunity for me to take photos. On nice days we may take the girls in the “tumbler” up to Stirling next Spring if it’s not too windy. So – it’s back to NFL via Fox Sports Fantasy Football courtesy of Johnny’s league – and the “DC Girls” (that’ll be my team this year!) has already got one W(in) in the column. :) This means reading some blogs about player news etc, my 2 main “go to” guys on the Net are Michael Fabiano of NFL Fantasy Blogs and Gregg Easterbrook’s TMQ on ESPN. Reading in between feeds when I have time. Have to point out that my draft picks were mostly due to help from our friend Scott who was here during "draft evening" and gave hints and tips to both Doug (he's in my division with his own team, the "Wonder Twins". So - if anything is going wrong, Scott's getting the...

First year in UK that I wasn't either at home or in Orlando for Hallowe'en. We were invited to go to Nikki & Dave 2's Halloween bash with proper dressing up etc. :) That's why we only had 1 pumpkin this year, and I used it as an "Offering to the Football Gods" again... have been carving "Miami Dolphins" pumpkins for the last couple of years we've been at home (for DH - for me usually something witchy ;) ) :) So this is in the hope that the Dolphins will win against the Jets today. :) Nikki & Dave 2's party was fun, good to meet up with them, Billy & Anna, the other Dave (Nikki & Dave's flatmate), TD and Stuey again. :) Shame Nikki & Dave B had already plans to go to their Ceroc Halloween Party. Ah well. ;) Lots of fun, a bit of alcohol and all in all a good evening. :) Had my pumpkin with me and left it there in the end. Photos from the evening: Anna & Nikki And to my shame I realise I wasn't ...

The reason we three came down to London in the first place... ;) I'm not particularly a fan of either the Patriots or the Bucs, but I just wanted to take in the atmosphere... goes back to me not having a specific NFL team really. 2 years ago we came down here with Neil and met up with my best friend from Germany, Markus, for the Dolphins v Giants game - the Dolphins of course being Doug's team, and the Giants ... well... I am surprised we've managed to see them live 3 TIMES considering that every single one of them was a snore-fest (even though they made it to SuperBowl XXXV in the 1999/2000 season (after we'd seen them play at Tampa Bay Bucs) and to SuperBowl XLII in 2007/2008 - which is after we saw them in the first of the "International Series" against the Dolphins in London. Anyway... enough of history ... ;) We got up early for breakfast, only to arrive at a 15 mins queue for the breakfast TABLES which would have probably resulted in another 15 mins...

Started early as I had to meet up at 9am with the Browns to catch the train down. :) And after the last problems we had with National Express to London I really wanted to make sure everything is sorted ... Fortunately, Nikki & Dave reserved a table so I was able to go online, keep in touch with DH and check FB etc. Trip was quick and uneventful, and we arrived in London without troubles, put up some money on the Oyster Card and off to the hotel we went (President Hotel at Russell Square). After checking in we decided to go to some of the official shops for NFL merchandise ... and were thoroughly disappointed! The space the shops (Reebok & Footlocker) had set aside for the merchandise was about half my kitchen!!! :o You'd think they'd push the sale a bit more, considering the influx of foreigners coming from America and mainland Europe for the "International Series" game!!! :( Only a couple of jerseys of the main teams (not even all), no kids sizes, no fema...

Face feels puffy. Throat was aching a little when I woke up, but that's gone now, thanks to hot liquid (Chai Latte - courtesy of DH!). Body feels a bit battered though. Think it's still the head cold that's stuck and won't come out. Glands still swollen. Was thinking of going to the gym today but don't want to aggravate and end up with dizzy spells again. So instead I will take it slowly by taking the tree down (ok.. not really TAKING IT EASY but it won't cause my pulse to go up too much IYKWIM). Else? Need to start tidying the master bedroom, and clean the ensuite. So assume I better get out of bed now... ;) Working tomorrow (as asked by boss due to being short staffed) and Tuesday, and the rest of the week will be all in tidying as well... but I hope to manage some crafting as well! Tonight is TV evening for DH - Dolphins are in the play-offs after a 1-15 result in 2007 they are now the AFC East Champs (11-5 so far)!! So from 6pm that's all that's on...

Funny ruling for the fumble recovery and TD from the Steelers D. So no points added, am down 12 points. Means I could do with 2 TDs from Chris Cooley ... or 130 yards Receiving, which he's unlikely to get (6 points per TD, 1 point per 10 Receiving yards). There goes the dream of beating Colin this week... :( But think as the only female in our "league" I am not doing too bad.... ... OMG! DARTS on STV .... DEFINITELY time for beddy boos now!!!

Have been whittling down my subscriptions ... had 155 on it, now only 105. Several are from people who don't blog regularly (Sharon!! Lisa!!! ;) ) and a couple of Flickr photo groups as well, so don't do the sharp intake of breath please. :) Will probably go through them again soon, as I am spending far too much time reading blogs instead of updating my own or - shock horror - actually DO something crafty around here... :) Just saw my Fantasy Football team on NFL.com go up into winning position - currently 103 for my opponent (Colin, one of our Wolves Players) with no further players left to 99 points on my side... and I still have Chris Cooley going, one of the higher ranking TEs this year, although he wasn't too good in the last couple of games. In order to win I only need a TD really... and no negative yardage. :) Might have to think about a new kicker though, as Dan Carpenter doesn't get much work apart from XPs, which just give me 1point each. :o Including some ...

Well... still had to get up early to find the 2 Walking booklets from the Scotsman for my MIL and the cutting plates for my Cuttlebug, which always seem to disappear! :o Then went to Stamper's Grove for a nice Cuttlebug Christmas class. NICE cards and lots of inspirations. Will post pics later today or tomorrow. ;) Then for a "quick" stop (the usual - want to stay for 20 mins and ended up staying for an hour!) at the Inlaws, shopping at Tesco and getting back home with LOTS of time for me to pick my NFL Fantasy team for today (DH was not so lucky, Sky did freeze the picking before the agreed time, so he's not happy and has sent a complaint to them - with SkySports he can actually win stuff - I am just playing against some Wolves players and their friends and it's more fun than anything else really). Now catching up with internet and having NFL on in the background. :) Not totally a Sunday without football of course.

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