Facie’s Ramblings

I have a handful of thought in my head (and by a handful, I think I mean about 30). So rather than try to pick one topic, I am going to bullet point some. Let's see how many "some" actually ends up being... When the Penguins are done with hockey, so am I. I am not even sure who is still playing and if we are down to the final teams. I think the Rangers are or were in it. But that is all I know. I really like hockey, but as a true Pens fan who watches pretty much every single game, starting in October, once the Pens are done, I typically have had enough. Let the record show that I rarely complained this winter. So many people talked about how hard/bad the winter was. I did not see it that way. I am guessing that is because I drove to work this winter, unlike last winter, when I found myself waiting for the bus in frigid temps quite a bit. Even 5 or 6 minutes in windchills at -5 or even 0 degrees tends to bring you down. So this winter was like a picnic in comparison. I...

I had a pretty good title for this post, but it escapes me, probably because I actually wrote two different posts for what this will end up being. Which is loooong. I was in NC from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning. And man, did we fit a lot into those few days. It started off pretty smoothly. Because flying stresses me out and we had to go through two tunnels, J and I left the house, 30 miles away, about 2.75 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. Even though it took us just under 40 minutes to get there, I still felt nervous, so I decided not to wait for the airport van/shuttle that takes you from a shelter in extended parking to the beginning of the airport. I was afraid the next one might not come for 30 minutes (I did not walk up to a shelter to actually confirm this). After dragging several bags for over 10 minutes, I regretted that decision. Fortunately, we made it through security pretty quickly, although clearly the novices we are at flying, we had a full ...

I am fairly certain at one point, I may have written a blog post with that very title. But I am not willing to take the time to find out. Because the main point of my post is that I don't have time to write blog posts anymore. And, as bad, I am missing out on reading so many of my blogging buddy's posts. I long for the days when I would have read posts from 10 blogs and then the next day I would be all, "Why can't these people write more often?!" The truth is that I could make time for this. But once I got the iPhone, the computer took a backseat. And it is fairly annoying trying to write a blog post from an iPhone. That was my last post, and it took me probably an hour. I could spend that time playing Scramble with Friends. ;-) Anyway, let me just throw out a handful or three of updates, in case any of you still happen by these parts. Work has been going pretty well. The busyness comes and goes. It should pick up soon. But overall I'm still happy there...

Tomorrow the kid starts daycare. I am not even sure that is what it is called when your kid will be 10 in about 2.5 months and headed into fifth grade. As I said on Facebook, it has been almost five years since I had to gather up extra clothes, write my kid's name on things, etc. I am not even sure what the etc. is  because I cannot remember what you are supposed to do when you send your kid off to a child-care facility (which in this case is a church-school)! J is a little apprehensive about it, but I think she is also slightly excited (and by think, I mean hope and pray). It will be a chance to meet some new people who hopefully will be kind-hearted. We are both glad that the place provides breakfast, which means that J can sleep in an extra 10 minutes from what she did the past nine months. The place also provides lunch, most choices which she likes, which also means that she won't have to pack her lunch too often. I still am sad that she has to do this. I am sad that she ...

I really could not think of a good title to this post, and the one above says just about nothing. But I am sure, as usual, once I finish writing this post (which I already wrote in my head early this morning while trying to fall back asleep but most of which I forget), I will have come to no conclusions. Sports are on my mind right now, and I wanted to briefly (for me) touch on what are probably the most-talked-about topics as of late. First you have that jagoff, Lance Armstrong. I was one of the duped ones who wanted to believe this cyclist not only beat cancer but went on to do amazing things in a grueling event many times over. I love feel-good stories. And, as has been noted around these here parts, I like and want to believe the best about people. Further, when Armstrong denied the doping allegations and then went on to sue people who said he did dope, well, how could he have been lying? I don't know why Armstrong chose to, mostly, come clean at this point (or maybe I read...

The Pens are back on the ice! Yes, as many people said, it was billionaires fighting with millionaires, which is pretty sad. And I am still mad that the "everyday people" were out of work or lost business thanks to the stupid lockout. But with the Steelers not in the playoffs this year (and, even worse, the Patriots playing the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game; seriously, who do I root for?), I, and so many others, need hockey to start. I am so looking forward to the puck dropping on Saturday. And Sid staying healthy and being at the top of his. And Geno having a great year. And the power play improving. And Fleury doing some acrobatics while making some monster saves. And Kris Letang's hair. And seeing a Pittsburgh team in the playoffs (and hopefully hoisting a Cup). If only Jordan Stahl were still a 'Guin... The boys are back in town, and I feel fine.

I wanted to get a quick post in, mostly so I could upload a picture of our "Good Things" box that I referenced in my last post. So far, I have managed to find at least one positive thing to put in every day, and some days I have had more than one. Truth be told, I could come up with at least a half dozen if I really wanted to, but I am going for quality, not quantity. A few other things: I wish hockey season would start. I have a glimmer of hope, but it is tiny. Regardless, it was nice to see Team USA beat the Swedes today in the world junior hockey championships. I had never watched a hockey game at 8 a.m. but glad that today changed that. Worth noting is that four of Team USA's members hail from western PA. Equally as nice for me was watching those guys (kids, to me) enthusiastically sing the National Anthem after they had been awarded their gold medals. You just don't see that often. Today we "de-decorated." I feel a little bad about this because no...

As the Christmas season is fully upon us (no denying it now that Turkey Day is out of the way), I am faced with dilemma of not only what to buy for others but also what to tell people to buy for me. A big part of me wishes we could completely take presents out of the equation and focus on what the season is really about (or what it should be, for us Christians). But that won't happen. And besides, I do obtain some joy in buying for others, though that good feeling mostly lies in my shopping for the giving tree at church, where I can feel reasonably secure that whoever is getting my gift wants and needs what I have bought. But most of the rest of us? Do we really need anything? I have lamented about my being under-employed for years and how we sometimes struggle. But I know that compared to so many others, my family and I have it good. We have a roof over our heads, cars that run, closets and drawers full of clothes, food in our kitchen, a new oven to cook that food in, an HD TV (...

When I lie awake at night, often post ideas swim around my head, most of which are pretty good. But when I wake up the next day (or at least when I have the time to sit down and write a post), those great ideas and half-written-in-my-head posts have disappeared. So I just thought I would throw a few things out there. I went to a fashion show today, to support J's school. Considering my near lack of fashion, it is kind of funny, but it was actually a nice time, made better by my winning a small door prize. If nothing else, I was happy to see a pair of medium-length shorts on one of the eight-grade models. Anymore, it seems as if shorts come in two sizes — an inch or two just below the butt or well below the knees, which I guess are not really shorts. Hooray for a happy medium! In case you were wondering, being out of work for three years is kind of like a lifetime. Unfortunately, those few freelance projects over the past few years as well as my share of subbing are just not the...

In honor of Sidney Crosby's second comeback from his concussion-recurrence symptoms, I thought I would share how I came to love hockey. I "discovered" hockey when I was a freshman at Penn State, from 1989 to 1990. Growing up 45 miles east of Pittsburgh, I certainly knew of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they just weren't that good (in fact in the '80s, they were pretty bad), plus hockey was not exactly in vogue back then. The only player I had heard of was Mario Lemieux, but his greatest was not enough to get me interested in hockey prior to my going to college. But Penn State, on the other hand, had a great team in the Icers. They won many games by a touchdown or more, and they were just fun to watch. The sports complex was small, so you could easily see where the puck was at all times, the lack of which has turned off many a would-be fan. Because I was a poor college student, I could not afford to go to many games, so my sophomore year I smartly joined the Hoc...

I love fall. I love the cooler air. The beautiful leaves. The flavors of fall. Oh, how I love thee, pumpkin. Let me count the ways: coffee, creamer, ice cream, cookies, roll, cake, pie, gobs (or bobbs, as I noticed Giant Eagle called them), seeds, soup, bread. I am surely missing some. Yesterday alone, I had pumpkin creamer in my coffee, pumpkin bobbs (I think I can get down with that), and pumpkin roll. Fall also means the pumpkin patch. For the past four years, my mom, Jordan, and I have gone to Reeger's in Indiana County. I look forward to it every October, and I am never disappointed, though I must admit nothing has topped our first corn maze experience. We typically start off at said corn maze, and each year Jordan becomes more and more competitive (hmm, wonder where that comes from), racing to get to the next clue/riddle. This was the muddiest year ever, but still fun. Here she is, all business about figuring out this riddle Nonnie and Jordan, with just one clue/...

Well, another Penguins season has come to a close. What can I say? A few things, actually. Considering the injuries to players, most notably Sidney Crosby, who is arguably the best hockey player in the word, you have to tip your hat to the Pens for making it to Game 7 of the first round. When you are without Crosby and Malkin, the fact that you can win more games than lose (until this series, anyway) really shows that the others stepped up. Kudos and rah-rahs aside, when your team has a 3 to 1 series edge, it is almost inexcusable to go out and lose the next three games and ultimately the series. That is a tough pill to swallow. They needed to win only one of their last three. How could they not do it?! Last night, the Bolts scored only one goal, and the Pens could never get on the board. The Pens definitely played hard; they played their hearts out, which made it all the more frustrating. But if you can't score a single goal in a Game 7, well, you just don't deserve to win...

Wonder how many people will be enticed by that title?! As an aside, for some reason, my blog got 120 hits in a 24-hour period. No idea why. Since I discovered the stats tool thingy, I have averaged close to 500 hits a month; some days I get only a few hits, and other days this blog sees several dozen visitors. But 120 in one day? That is weird. Anyway, I had to share this recent shopping experience. First of all, I am not a fan of shopping. I am what several of my guy friends call a guy's girl; I would much rather watch a sporting event (football and hockey, mostly) than do anything girly. And when it comes to shopping (which, to review, I hate), Kohl's and Target are my two favorite stores because I am very anti-mall (all those stores just overwhelm me) and I can get almost everything I need at those two places anyway. So when I realized I had to buy a new bathing suit (thanks to the super-chlorinated, bathing-suit eating pool where Jordan and I swim), I knew a trip to Koh...

If I were a betting a woman, I would bet that I have used the above post title before. I will try to remember to check before I post this. Here it is, another New Year's Eve. Unlike Barry Manilow, I don't feel the need to make it the best. This night really is just another night for me. My guess is that I have stayed up past midnight only once in the past decade (old-cough-old). Tonight will probably be no exception. I will be going out to dinner with my mom and the kid. We waited until yesterday to make a reservation, so we will be dining at 4:30 (speaking of old). My guess is if we had tried this in the Burgh, we would have been out of luck (we are at Mom's in Indiana County). But the worrier in me likes to be off the roads pretty early anyway. Mom has been in PA since Sunday night, just before midnight. For some reason almost an hour elapsed from the time her plane landed (around 11:50 p.m., not exactly a prime flying time) until her suitcase made it on the luggage...

I don't have any one big thing weighing on my mind, so here are the handful of thoughts swimming around my head. And by a handful, I mean close to a dozen. A deer probably runs in front of my car three or four times a year, right in suburban Pittsburgh. But for some reason, the instant I see a deer (and in yesterday's case, it looked like a fawn), I immediately think dog. Giant dog, usually. I have no idea why; it is not as if I never see deer. As I was driving down a hill near my house this morning, a PennDot worker must have thought it would be amusing to keep switching the "Stop/Slow" sign back and forth, while three other cars were coming up. What a jag-off. C'mon, how hard is your job that you cannot or will not do it correctly? What if I would have started to drive down the hill as soon as I saw the sign switch to "Slow"?! When I voted yesterday, I showed my driver's license, as I always do. I don't understand why everyone should not ha...

I am a big believer in destiny and a little bit of one in karma. Although I am not sure how this works with my religious beliefs, I go with it. (For the record, I considered lighting a candle while at church yesterday for the Pens, but decided not to.) Last year, at the start of the playoffs, I believed and hoped (and, yes, even prayed to some extent) that the Pens could bring home the Cup. The main reason? The 2009 NHL playoff commercial that had various players, including Mario Lemieux, hoisting the Cup. It ended with the quote, "It weighs 35 pounds except when you are lifting it." Seeing the Pens savior Mario holding the Cup, I could not help but picture Sid Crosby doing the same thing. That commercial still gives me chills, more so than this year's playoff commercial. This year, however, I did not have any big feelings. Sure I was thinking the Pens could go all the way. And again, I was hoping. But when the first three seeds were knocked off in the first round, t...

If someone would have told me back in February, when I was relishing the Steelers second Super Bowl victory in three years (and sixth overall), that the Pens would be hoisting the Cup in June, I would have said that person is overly, unrealistically optimistic. And I would have been wrong. Wow. This victory feels better than the Steelers Super Bowl win just over four months ago. Partly because the Steelers had won a Super Bowl just three years before that and it has been 17 years since the Pens hoisted the Cup. Partly because all the statistics pointed to a Detroit win. And partly because I was just not sure the Pens could win in Detroit. But, as I stated recently, I expect life to be fair. And I also believe in karma a little and that sometimes you get what you deserve. So I reasoned that the Pens, who had to suffer through the Red Wings hoisting the Cup on their ice, just might get to do the same in Detroit. I also am big on numbers. Twenty-five years ago this week, Mario was drafted...

Right now I am thinking about the utter smackdown the Red Wings put on my beloved Pens last night, and how just a few days ago I was actually trying to reason with God about the Pens winning the Stanley Cup. I know you are not supposed to pray for a sports victory. Sure, you can pray for whatever you want, but, really, should any of us bother God with a request for a sports victory? Considering that in Catholic grade school my teacher scolded me for praying that I would do well on a test for which I did not study, sports should probably be pretty far down the list. Yet I have managed to do pretty close to that several times now. Here is how it went with the Steelers: I asked God to let the team play the best game they have ever played. I was not asking for them to become super heroes or play at a level they never have, just that they give it their all that day. I figured if that happened, the Steelers would win the Super Bowl. After the Pens won convincingly on Thursday, I tried a simi...

So far 2009 is shaping up to be a good year for Pittsburgh sports. The Steelers started off the year by winning the Super Bowl, a feat which seems like a lifetime ago, for some reason. The Pirates were above .500 for at least a few games, and now the Pens are back in the Eastern Conference Championship game. I am reminded, once again, how great it is to live in da Burgh. But things are not always rosy. A couple of months ago, I read an article in the P-G about a couple who was going through financial difficulties due to a job loss and underemployment. These two said that their mortgage was a month overdue, and the next month, the cable would go. When I read that, it kind of irritated me. I thought why would you pay your cable bill before you pay your mortgage?! A lot of good hundreds of stations are going to do you if you don't have a house to watch them in. So, not surprisingly, I contemplated writing a letter to the editor about that, thinking these people were like so many other...

Most of the time, I prefer my big-time sports events to be on the boring side. I just want my team to be up by several touchdowns or three goals, and then I can relax and enjoy the game without worrying too much about the outcome. But there is also something to be said for a game like last night's Pens-Caps game. It was at once maddening and entertaining (at least the 3rd and OT periods were; I was at choir for most of the first two). My heart stopped probably no fewer than 10 times, and I am sure my blood pressure was up. But it was great! And I just knew (well, was pretty sure) that the Pens were going to pull it out. How could they not win it with so many scoring chances?! And, I am ashamed to admit, I was almost wishing for the Caps goalie to go down. Not with a debilitating injury or something major. I just wanted him to fall flat on his face and not be able to get up until the Pens put the biscuit in. Football will always be my first sports love; nothing can compare to it, an...