This is a bittersweet time of year when it is exciting to see how the football teams have done over the season, and try to figure out who is going to the playoffs and then on to the Superbowl. But it's sad because the season is coming to an end.

Denver started out with a lot of wins, but haven't won a game in several weeks, including today, although the game isn't over. The Saints were doing really good, undefeated until the last couple of weeks, but today they were beaten by Tampa Bay, which has only won 3 games all season. As Shannon Sharpe (aka The Mouth from the South) said today: "Saints. What'd you learn from last week's loss? Ya learned how to lose."

The second-worst time of year is the days between the playoffs and the Super Bowl, but the worst, worst is after the Super Bowl and we are in the bleak months until the pre-season starts up in August or so.

It's illegal for anybody but the NFL to use the words 'Super Bowl' so any other reference to it has be close enough so we know what they mean without them saying it. Even the television networks tap-dance around in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the NFL.

Here are a couple of this year's euphemisms:
The Big Game
Ultimate Football Weekend

You'll see more of these in the food ads as the big day nears, where they urge us to stock up for that special day. To me, Super Bowl (or whatever) Sunday is at least as important as other holidays like New Year's Eve, and I think the Monday after the big game should be a national holiday.

Our friends at AllRecipes.com think they have it figured out. They say Super Bowl and put a Registered Trademark at the end of it, and go on their merry way. If it was that easy everyone else would do it.

Here is a recipe I found while browsing their selections:

Doctor Pepper I (supposed to taste like Dr. Pepper)
1 cup beer
1 fluid ounce amaretto liqueur
1/4 fluid ounce 151 proof rum

Fill a pint glass half full of beer.
Pour the amaretto into a standard shot glass. Carefully pour the 151 proof rum on top of the amaretto so that it floats.
Carefully light the shot on fire by touching with open flame. Drop the lit shot into the half full glass of beer and slam.

There is another recipe that is beer, rum and grenadine, called The Red Headed Step Child.

I don't do that much drinking, and I don't think I'll try these, but one never knows, given the right ingredients and the prospect of those bleak days in between...



This is taken in Colorado last month. The thing on the left is a half-size cinder block. The thing on the right is the holder for clothesline with a measuring cup inverted on it to keep the snow out. Makes a fine snow gauge.