November Update

What a busy month, so much for updating this more frequently. Plenty going on down here in South FL - and other places. A couple of big things in the five weeks that the Phillies have reigned as World Champions (World Ph*cking Champions!), so here's a quick recap what Jen and I have been up to:

• The job. As of today, my company officially merged with Allied Waste, which means the clock is ticking on my time at Republic. I don't worry as much as Jen does about this, since I'm on two fairly important projects now (I spent the first two full weeks of Nov out in Scottsdale, AZ for the merger - traveling can really be tiring). Still it's somewhat unsettling to have the full responsibilities of being a "grown up" and staring at yet another job change.
  
• Speaking of travel, we got to head to Philly for my cousin Corey's wedding - pictures here. It was a great weekend and wonderful wedding, even though we got there late because the bride's brother-in-law (uh, I guess that makes him my cousin in law) Mark took us the slowest way possible from Cherry Hill to Camden. Otherwise though, great ceremony, fun reception, some good food, and plenty of drinks. It is the Irish side of the family. Congrats Corey and Eric - and their adorable boy Cameron!
• Also that weekend, we had quite a Friday night in Philly. I arrived early, and after eventually making my way to Jeff's, he and I met up with Lehman, Caniz, and Rick for happy hour... you can probably guess how this went (click the wedding pics above and look at the first few for a glimpse). Poor Jen - she had an earlier flight and because of some work stuff, she had to take the later one - which of course got delayed because of the weather. So she didn't get there until 1am, so you can imagine the freak show she walked into. Oh yea, Martin is drinking again, I remember why we used to get in so much trouble down here. Great time fellas, it was nice to come home and not have to juggle a while bunch of conflicting plans and just head out for an old-fashioned night out at home. Good times.
  
• Thanksgiving in Florida... what another fun, tiring, eventful weekend. It was a weekend of firsts - first holiday in our new house, first "real" holiday being married, first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner, first Shady Banks Turkey Bowl, first swim in the canal, first FL high school football game (Jen's HS is #2 in the nation). Heck, even first wedding for Sari. See below for all the details.
  
• The Turkey Bowl was a success - unless you were Trevor or Mike and had to nurse a weekend warrior injury on Friday. At one point (once the Opre brothers showed up) we had 13 guys out there. In the end, we took an OT W/tie, giving those guys the last two possessions to make up a 5-3 deficit. They did. Oh well. Jen hosted the ladies with Mimosas, and they got to cheerlead for some of the game, even being impressed with some of our "athletic ability". Obviously the gals haven't been around top-quality athletes in some time. Still, it was a TON of fun, and we're going to figure out how to have a monthly football game here. To top it off, the first swim from our dock took place after a few post-game beverages; I've been itching to hop in the canal but just haven't done so yet. Now that the ice is broken, I'll be in our "temporary pool" much more often. For the record, the water is brackish, almost freshwater, and warm, and the bottom is just coarse sand and not the Jersey Shore muck I'm used to.
  
• Dinner was at our house; Luke and Lyn got a last minute trip to Europe that left Thanksgiving night, so we scrambled a bit and pulled off one heck of a meal. Jen was QUITE the Betty Crocker in the kitchen; I was pretty darn impressed. We only had 7 of us for dinner, but it was quite a bit of fun. Mike was in charge of the turkey fryer, Grandpa brought the desserts (well, there were a bunch of desserts there from the Turkey Bowl), our friends Sam and Julie took care of some of the sides, but Jen was the hostess with the mostess. I took care of the "entertaining", limping around to fill everyone's drink. We had a great time, even Grandpa had plenty to eat and drink, and (as the pictures show) the Sambuca took quite a hit. A great first holiday in the Sharpe house!
  
• Saturday night we had Sari's wedding, preceded by Florida-FSU fiasc, er I mean, game. I was sporting the old school CMU #86, which vaguely resembles FSU's jerseys. It didn't help. They got spanked. As the game wound down, we got dressed, I pimped it out in the tux (black tie wedding), and we headed to the Ritz-Carlton. It was quite a place (an understatement) - the pics are at the end of the Thanksgiving link. Congrats to Sari and Michael and we'll see you guys out in LA one of these days soon! Oh yea, quick post-script, Fred and I got dressed in the tuxes on Sunday and had bloody marys (and a few other drinks) around Fort Lauderdale. I can't imagine what everyone was thinking (other than what the F is wrong with these fools in tuxes and flip flops), it's just too bad there was no 1pm Eagles game at the Parrot. Oh yea, and I helped Fred take his boat out too - even piloting it from his Dad's place to the ramp around the corner. It's not a big deal for most guys down here, but when you're in a tux, you've had a few drinks the day after a long Saturday night, and it's your 2nd or 3rd time behind the helm in about 5 years, you tend to worry about things such as ramming into something or sinking the damn thing. It was fun to be behind the wheel though - Jen and I definitely need a boat someday soon!
  

And NFL 2008 Begins...

Does it get any better than the last two weeks? Seriously... first, I got to head to Cleveland for the Cowboys-Browns fiasco (if you're a cleveland fan). Ray and Tammy were great hosts for Guido and I, despite our Pac Man sign. Pre-Sunday, we actually were somewhat calm (all things considered), I even got to spend a few hours cleaning out the damn luxery van that has become a mobile tailgating Browns helmet (complete with a tap out the back, kudos to the Ardires). Of course, knowing Ray, Mark, and I, Sunday pretty much blew our semi-responsibleness out of the water (and to be honest, we weren't all that responsible the first two nights; Colby made Mark pull a Mr. Mom all Saturday when he showed up at 3am early Saturday morning) Sunday however was pretty much perfect. First, the Browns fans can tailgate, and they have possibly the best location in America, on a pier on Lake Erie (we were on the middle one, about 50 yards from the point). I'm actually surprised I didn't end up in the water, either by choice or by a drunken Cleveland fan. Dad is never allowed here, he'll be doing backflips off the van, Thornton Mellon style. The game itself was a surgical operation by the Cowboys; it was never close after the coin flip, thanks to an efficient offense, a swarming defense, and butterfingers galore by the Cleveland WRs, particularly Braylon Edwards. Note to Philly fans: don't believe the comparisons to the Dog Pound. I walked around with a TO jersey pretty much unimpeded all game. Two Browns fans threw some popcorn at some point (good job by them using the right props), but apparently they missed Physics in high school, since they wasted most of their $5 bucket hitting other Browns fans with wind-blown Orville Redenbauchers. A good verbal dismissal had other Browns fans offering their cell phones for me to call security on their fellow fans. This would NEVER happen in Philly, even if they were throwing grenades from 10 rows back and taking out families. Rest good, Eagles fans - you're still the soccer hooligans of North America, and it's not even close. Oh yea... and instead of going home after the 4pm game, we hit downtown Cleveland, then somehow made our way to the local bar by Ray's house. I don't know what time we got home, but I do know that Ray waking me up at 4:30 am for my flight home was one of the 10 most "please just let me sleep" moments of my life. I don't know how I made the flight, I just know that those flights (yea, a layover in ATL) suuuuuuucked. I felt "ok" sometime Wednesday afternoon.

Next, the Iggles come to Dallas for a MNF tilt. The only buzzkill about this is that I can't be at the Parrot starting some shit with the Eagles fans (believe it or not, this will be the first fall i've missed a cowboys - eagles game since i moved down) but I'll prob show up next week for the steelers-eagles game with TO on my back, to make up for lost time. Anyways, got to see the game at a place called Sneakers in Jacksonville Beach (b/c of work) and, ain't the world a small place, the guy I was sitting next to at the bar was a Eustace grad, class of '88. Obviously the cream rises to the top of the bar scene. It was a hell of an entertaining game, the best I've seen in quite a long time. Donovan, work on Handoffs 101 in Lehigh next year, and hey rookie WR - get ACROSS the goal line before you decide to do your best Leon Lett. (yea, I'm scared that the 'Boys passed on DeSean TWICE, and he's got two 100 yard games already)

Penn State is rolling through their early season schedule. I know... Syracuse, Temple, etc... but they look good. I'm not saying they are BCS Championship bound, but they have a team here, and after USC undressed the Ohio State Bills on prime time, the Big Ten is theirs for the taking. Just don't poop the bed JoePa, and try and keep enough guys out of jail to finish the season. Bring on the Buckeyes, the Badgers, and those embarrassing Wolverines.

Don't look now, but the Phils are bringing back the '07 magic. A half game back for all you ****sucking Mets fans, and tied with the Brew Crew for the wild card (Note: since I don't actually know a Brewers fan, I can't badmouth them; plus they have racing sausage, so we can tolerate them for now, on the off chance the Mets don't smoke the late season pole again). Since the 'Boys are on Autopilot now and this MNF summit is resolved, I can concentrate on the Phils and their run to October, especially since they will be in FL next weekend. Damn, and I said I was going to behave that weekend too.

Being that I am traveling this week and next, I need to get to bed or to work so I can actually pull off my training class tomorrow. It's nice to go to bed with a W like that dancing in your head though. Nice game Iggles fans - I'm trying to work a ticket to the last game of the year from Lefever, so bring your snowballs Christmas weekend, I'll be the a-hole in the blue 81 jersey smelling like spiced rum and apple cider. Hopefully, wearing the "Phils '08 WS Champs" hat...