With the Super Bowl and Heather’s birthday, we had a lot going on this weekend. Saturday night we had a great meal at our favorite Italian restaurant, Trattorio Aroma, where Heather opened her presents from me, and then we popped into the mall for some kid-free shopping and browsing. It’s amazing how different the mall can be when you don’t have to keep track of your brood zipping to and fro, knocking things off shelves, and constantly saying “I want this!” As a young couple Heather and I would often hang out at the mall after a date, so Saturday brought back pleasant, long dormant memories of more care-free days.

Sunday we all went bowling for the first time as a family. The kids have been playing it on Wii for a couple of months now and wanted to go, since it was super “bowl” weekend, after all. The downside of Wii bowling? Real-life Connor was very upset that he couldn’t bowl as well as Virtual Connor. Despite that, we had a lot of fun, and I actually bowled one of my best games ever: 182. I once broke 200, but that was quite a while ago, so this was a nice surprise.

After picking up some snacks at Wegmans, we finally sat down and watched the game. If you missed the Super Bowl Commercials, you can check them all out here.

My 3 favorites were Bridgestone “Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead,” Pepsi Max “I’m Good,” and Priceline “Negotiator,” with the Asian guy talking like William Shatner. How about you?

As for the game itself, until the 4th Quarter I was pretty bored, but the last 15 minutes were one for the history books. I felt bad for Kurt Warner, who always seems to star in very exciting Super Bowls, but was happy for the Steelers, who were the best team all year. You can’t argue with Big Ben’s skills, scrambling in the pocket, re-setting plays and finding his receivers when it counted. Warner’s red zone interception really was the difference in this game, and marred an otherwise stellar performance. He’s a future Hall of Famer, and I hope he comes back for one more season.

And to cap off Heather’s birthday weekend, she ended up winning the Super Bowl Squares game here at work, with a nice chunk of change to take home. All in all, quite a weekend! Hope yours was too.

–Brian

This turns my stomach. This poor guy. Horrible accident, but he is OK, except for the dislocated elbow joint. Pretty graphic video, watch at your own risk.

My question is this: why were there no spotters? Makes no sense. But at least they brought some barriers out to give him some privacy.

–Brian

Heather and I got last-minute tickets to the Ice Bowl (THANK YOU WGR!) and had a fantastic time. The Ralph was like a giant snowglobe, and even though the game didn’t end the way we wanted (damn you Sidney Crosby!) everyone who was there enjoyed every minute, despite the cold. We all went home happy.

Then, I watched the tape of the event, and realized that the game 73,000+ had just attended was not the same game Bob Costas and NBC presented to the nation. Network TV watchers saw “The Sidney Crosby Show,” the story of a hockey god, who deigned to become mortal just long enough to defeat the Sabres.

Sheesh!

The story was the crowd, the great hockey tradition, and the fact that people – families – came from all over to be a part of it. They came early and stayed late, for the love of the game! Instead, NBC filled the broadcast with pre-recorded vignettes manufacturing the “Legend of Crosby…”

Maybe I’m a little bitter about losing. I’m told CBC did a much better job of presenting the game; Canadians definitely know hockey better than the suits at NBC. Either way, I was happy to be there, and be a part of history: the largest crowd to ever see an NHL game.

–Brian

Is it just me, or did last night’s Super Bowl kind of suck? I was bored by everything but the halftime show. Prince ROCKS “live,” and if you didn’t know that before last night, he certainly proved himself.

As for the game, it was as soggy to watch as the weather, and I wasn’t impressed with many of the much-hyped spots, either. I was surprised at how many I had seen already.

I bet when the media booked their plane fare to “sunny” Miami, they figured it would be SO MUCH BETTER than Detroit was last year; in reality, the Florida experience was obviously much less to their liking.

Since I was born in Detroit I tend to root for it, and last year it was obvious to everyone that they did a phenomenal job as Super Bowl host city. So good a job, in fact, that most sportswriters covering this year’s Super Bowl rated their experience in last year’s frozen Michigan tundra far better. Here’s why:

• People didn’t expect bad weather in Miami, and so didn’t dress appropriately. Most of the media activities were outdoors, and there were a lot of shorts and shirt sleeves in 40 and 50 degree rainy weather. Not pleasant. In Detroit, most of the activities were indoors, so coats weren’t even needed much of the time.
• Miami is a much-traveled tourist destination – the Super Bowl is no big deal to the people there. In Detroit, it was a HUGE deal – and organizers took it very seriously, treating everyone in that famously Midwestern way, with friendliness and courtesy.
• Ya gotta love a domed stadium. Snow? Rain? No problem!
• People who deal with Winter make the most out of Winter. Detroit, like Buffalo, doesn’t shut down when it snows. Folks up here know that if you dress warmly you can actually have fun on a cold Winter day. There’s a lot to do, whether you’re in a city or out in the country, from skiing and skating, to simply walking down the street admiring a crystalline wonderland. Snow is FUN!

And couldn’t CBS have done something about the rain droplets on EVERY camera lens? It’s unbelievable to me that a huge network, producing a worldwide broadcast, being watched by almost 100 million people in 50 countries, can’t keep its cameras from fogging up in the rain. The whole thing looked like a Division 3A college football telecast to me.

But Prince Rocked.

–Brian