The longest blog ever including the last Asshat of 2007 and the first glog of 2008

Okay, the first order of business today, we will start with the obituary of Norman Miller, Lynn's dad. The primary reason for posting this is that I work with Lynn and one or two of you out there may have wanted to read this. The secondary reason for posting this is that I had no idea of just how fascinating of a man Norman Miller really was. I wish I would have had the honor of meeting him.

 

Norman Miller, 86, died peacefully Jan. 1, 2008. He was born in Green Bay, on March 11, 1921. Except for his time in college and service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Norman lived his entire life in Green Bay, a city he loved and helped shape. As the founder and President of Management Enterprises, which develops commercial properties, he engineered the building of the first Shopko store, as well as Beacon Center and numerous Bellin Health clinics and other facilities. Turning blueprints into bricks and mortar was his profession, but building bridges was his passion. Not bridges that span rivers, but bridges that span the differences between people. His entire life was dedicated to that often elusive end - building consensus, finding common ground. In a 2006, Press-Gazette interview he said, "I have a desire to bring people together in peace." That desire was already evident in 1940, when as a 20-year old sophomore at Northwestern University he traveled to Washington D.C. and audaciously talked his way into private meetings with U.S. Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter, seeking their support for a weeklong symposium on discrimination. In 1960, after Vince Lombardi complained to him that he was having difficulty recruiting black players because they couldn't find a place to live in Green Bay, Norman helped organize a volunteer commission which played a critical role in getting open housing legislation passed. Upon the death of his older brother, Louis, he established and endowed the Norman and Louis Miller Lecture Series at St. Norbert College for the sole purpose of "promoting unity and communication among different cultures and religions." In the last 14 years that series has brought luminaries like Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel and Pulitzer Prize winning historians Arthur Scheslinger and David Halberstam to town. His desire to find solutions was so unrelenting that his wife of 64 wonderful years ruefully noted that he'd often lie awake at night worrying about how to solve the latest crisis in the Middle East. At his death, he was still working on that one.


His public service really began as Ensign Norman Miller on the USS Sarasota during World War II. He was awarded two bronze stars for his role in the invasions of Okinawa and Ie Shima and also participated in the surrender of Japanese forces in Korea and China in 1945.


Norman had a large impact on health care in Brown County. In 1960, he was elected Board Chairman of St. Mary's Hospital and later served as the Chairman of the Board of Bellin Hospital. The Brown County Medical Society honored him for his contributions to the advancement of health care in the county. Norman also served the community in numerous capacities, including Director of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, President of Cnesses Israel Synagogue, Chairman of the Jewish Welfare Fund, member of the Board of Visitors of UWGB, member of the Board of the Green Bay Symphony and Wells Fargo Bank.


He is survived by his wife, Shirlyn; his children, William (Kathy) Ann Arbor, Mich.; Lynn Cullen, Pittsburgh, Penn.; Susan Nuetzel (Eric), St. Louis; seven grandchildren, Arlie and Leah Nuetzel and Sam, Bess, Eva, Louis and Hank Miller. Also survived by loving nieces and nephews.


He was preceded in death by his parents, William I. and Ida Miller; brothers, Eugene and Louis; and sisters, Dorothy and Florence.


The family wishes to extend special heartfelt thank-yous to George Kerwin and the staff at Bellin Hospital; his loving caregivers Sherry Robokoff, Marlene Palmer and Shirley Martin; as well as the wonderful staff at Unity Hospice.


In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Cnesses Israel Synagogue, Bellin College of Nursing or Unity Hospice.


Gathering time with family and friends will be held at Cnesses Israel Synagogue, 222 S. Baird, on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008, from 9:30 a.m. until the service at 11 a.m. with Rabbi Shaina Bacharach officiating. Interment in Cnesses Israel Cemetery. Online condolences for the Miller family may be expressed at www.schauer-schumacherfuneralhome.com

 

 

This will be the first official glog of the year, as Pittsburgh will be playing host to Jacksonville in the first round of the NFL playoffs this evening, and as luck would have it, I don't have to work. That in and of itself is a little bit of a story and since I have time to spin a yarn, now is as good a time as any. My part time gig has been closed for the last couple of weeks, seeing as how we rely somewhat on a student population in order to make some shiny coins, Christmas break was a good time for us to close and get some maintainance done. I could have stuck around and made some money doing that, but I decided to take some time and go home to be with the family. I had the vacation time at the radio station, so I went ahead and used a couple of days, leaving me with only about two weeks that I didn't use this year. Over the course of the 7 or so years that I have been full time at the radio station and thus eligible for vacation time, I probably have better than 3 months of time that I didn't use. Color me stupid, but I would rather work more often than not, the only problem being we can't stockpile vacation days, at the end of the year if they aren't used, they are lost. Anyway, back to the non work story. While we were closed, we did open briefly on Monday for employees to pick up their checks. I managed to just sneak in before the door locked Monday afternoon and grabbed mine and went to check the schedule but one wasn't made. Apparently the afternoon kitchen manager didn't bother making one for this week, as we weren't going to be open until Wednesday and that would just be Wednesday night. We would go back to being open all day on Thursday. I asked if I was needed Wednesday night, since I was back and all but was told not to come in until Thursday. Cool enough, I had stuff I wanted to do when I got back into town anyway. I show up Thursday night to see that once again I am not working, and the schedule, what was made of it, was just for Friday night, where again I wasn't scheduled. I went in Friday and see that I am not scheduled for this evening either. This is what we call a mixed blessing, it is nice to get the time off and sort of ease my way back into the two job schedule, but it sucks because I am not making coin. Anyway, the lack of work means I get to glog this evening, which is a treat for you that I am sure you have been looking forward to.

 

I do have some updates to get out of the way as well as getting caught up on old business (quick, some one get me Robert's Rules of Order and we will call this meeting to session) and that will happen right about now.

Small change meter update, another .14 to the kitty, and as we have now pretty much closed in on the two year anniversary of the change meter the total is $33.69. Retirement does indeed creep closer and closer.

Another update of a different variety, the import update. A brief recap for those that don't know (as there are some new contacts to the page, be sure to check out their content as like I always say, their pages are probably more interesting than mine) this is not my first delve into the realm of blogging. My first was on Yahoo when they offered a service called 360 (which while still open will be closing soon in a theater near you) that for the most part was a very blogging friendly service that I had become quite comfortable with. About halfway through my stay there, something happened to the account, it may have been hacked or it may have been a technical guffaw on Yahoo's part, I am not sure which. In any event, after about a month of fighting with Yahoo, they allowed me to reset the account with a new password (part of the problem was my password wouldn't work). I am not sure if this was out of the goodness of their heart or the fact that I offered to rip their blogging service on the radio for them, as I know such companies just love negative publicity, but in any event I got the account back, but with some problems. People who visited the page but were not logged into Yahoo could not access the material prior to the passwrod change. It was a small glitch and one I did not worry all that much about, as I didn't think people would be going back a year plus to read my ramblings if they didn't know the page was already there. That being said, Yahoo decided that they wanted to change the platform for their blogging and in the course of getting ready to do a changeover, they would no longer be fixing bugs on the 360 platform. Given the number of bugs that it had (after 2 plus years, it was still in its beta stage) and the possiblility that it would be linked to a Myspace type platform known as Mash that Yahoo was trying out (for the record I am on the books as not liking Myspace, the page layout hurts my eyes and make me think I am going to start having seizures from looking at them), I went looking for a new place to blog, preferably one where I could maintain all of my previous content as well as add new stuff to it. Thus my trip to Multiply was born, as they offered the ability to import all of that content that was previously on 360 without going through the dreaded copy/paste option, the only bad part being that comments wouldn't be imported, a minor inconvenience to be sure, but the import option was probably the final selling point on Multiply versus other blogging options out there (Typepad, Blogspot, etc.). This is where the technical guffaw reared its ugly head, as the content that I had made prior to the password change was not able to be imported to this page. I did manage to go back and grab a significant amount of it, but there is still months worth of stuff back there that I didn't get to. In a way it was good, I was able to reread what I had previously said, and for those that know me, that is an important thing as I like to be as consistent in my opinions as possible and have no problem being called out when I am wrong, so if was a nice stroll through memory lane for me. Still it also causes problems, especially for those on the contact list, as every time I copied and pasted one of the missing blogs, it shows up as an update on their screen, so if I grabbed a serious amount of material, I could very easily flood their update screen, and for those that have a serious number of contacts, that is problematic at best, a pain in the ass at worst.

So then, why the update you may ask? Well over vacation I was considering the process of the copy/paste thing and getting caught up on all of my old material when I realized (too late for some) that 360 was like an old girlfriend that I didn't want to get rid of. Sure, I could rationalize why I was doing what I was doing, some people here hadn't seen or read that content yet, or getting all of my "intellectual property" under one internet roof, but at the end of the day, it was like hanging on to an old girlfriend, trying as much as possible to not cut ties in hopes that the relationship wasn't over. Well guess what? The relationship is over and the sooner I accept that fact, the happier I will be, so this just in, there will be no more imports by me from 360. To the one or two of you that are disappointed by this decision, I apologize, to the majority of you that got sick of seing that many updates, rest assured you will see no more.

Okay, a brief spell check update here, I will be back momentarily.

Back and sorry about the interruption. I had to reread some of the stuff above because I am typing in wordpad and will copy/paste this over when I am done. The problem was that I picked a font that didn't recognize some of the keyboard characters and only used capital letters. Well, I got tired of not having such things as quotation marks, so I changed the font, but that wiped out all of the capital letters that I ignored given I was typing in all caps anyway. Hopefully I didn't miss too many of the mistakes, but I wanted to at least do a slight proofreading, as I expect this will be a very long blog, as if you couldn't tell that already.

I have some Christmas wrapup that I haven't delved into yet. Nothing too serious, just stuff that happened over the vacation and upon getting back that I haven't talked about yet on the page. First, as I mentioned in the previous entry, I did get Sims 2 from Rich for Christmas, which means my Christmas list entry would need to be modified a little bit. I was looking forward to the blond with the cheesesteak, maybe next year. We exchanged gifts on Wednesday, after I found out I wasn't working. He got me the game and a coffee mug with my name on it, I got him a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 for his PC, though when I left his place, he was still having problems getting it to run. I haven't had such problems with Sims 2, it runs slow, but that may just be beacuse I have so much stuff running in the background, the book says for optimal performance I should shut everything down, but I haven't done that yet when playing, which may be why it is running slower than it should. I have barely gotten into the game itself, just created a Sim and bought a house, that is it. No good Sim sex to report, yet I have a feeling my Sim will end up hooking up this year much sooner than I will. I also got each of his daughters a $20 gift card for Target (I had no idea what to get them) and for his wife I got her a daily Sodoku desk calendar and a copy of Alan Alda's biography, as she is the more avid reader of the two.

The trip home over the holidays was good, but I think I got out just about the right time. There is only so much family time I can take before it becomes too much gossip for me, and too little enjoying of just being home. It actually started on Christmas Eve, when it was my impression that the family getogether was going to take place in the early morning. I was working that morning, I had an air shift until noon, so I figured that I would be missing the family thing. My mom asked if I wanted in the gift exchange for the following year (we draw names and buy that person a gift for Christmas Eve) if I missed the party this year. Of course I would want in it, Christmas Eve is one of the few times that a large portion of my family is under one roof, and I definitely want to be part of it whenever possible. Since for Christmas Eve this year, I had my mom's name, I went and got her some stuff online from Pogo so at least some of her Christmas Eve gift would be there even if I couldn't (I also got her one of the downloadable games from Pogo, but I got that on disk, so that had to wait until I saw her). As it turns out, we didn't have the shindig until evening after all, so I did get to be there (thus the large number of photos I posted), and I had a pretty good time. Good food, good laughs (my family can be pretty funny when they are all together, I am probably the least funny of the group) and all in all a pretty good time was had by me at least. The only problem was with the drawing on names for next year. My mom and her husband opted not to join in. I don't know if this was just pettiness on their part over the changing of the time for the Christmas Eve party, or if they really plan on going to Arizona next year to spend time with her husband's family instead, but it was sort of a downer on the evening that otherwise went pretty well. For the record, I didn't partake in their perceived boycott amd put my name in anyway.

I got to spend some time with relatives on Christmas day as well, which was nice. Melanie was back from Texas, and her and I are of like minds when it comes to spending time with the family, just spend enough time that you don't get caught up in all of the drama that can take place. I have no desire to hear about who is pissed at who on vacation, or whose life is screwed up and usually after a few days, that tends to be a topic of conversation. It is a conversation that I just let go in one ear and out the other. The rest of the time home I did some more visiting as well as eating home cooked food, which is always a plus. We only ate out once or twice the entire week, though I did pass on one such occasion, opting instead to just lay around and be lazy instead of getting dressed to go out and eat at some local italian restaurant.

One time we did eat out was on my way back to Pittsburgh when we stopped at a local diner called Dobros. It is not much to look at, and I wouldn't trust them with making anything too complicated, but since everyone wanted to stop, who was I to argue. I ended up getting a chicken sandwich and potato skins with cheese and bacon. Normally, this would be potato skins with cheese melted on them, and bacon bits across the top and a side of sour cream for dipping, but not there, instead it came with a side of cheese whiz and bacon bits spinkled on it and you had to apply the chesse to the skins yourself and they came with no sour cream. The only reason I mention this is because it started the great lottery ticket escapade of 2007 for me. Like many places in Pennsylvania, they had in the diner a machine that you can buy instant lottery tickets from. While waiting for our food to come out, I bought 3 $2 tickets, one of which ended up winning $20. A nice profit if I do say so myself. I went ahead later on and bought another $2 ticket and it won $4. Now for me, anything under double digits, I just file away and use for more tickets at some later date. Well, after getting back to Pittsburgh, I eventually took my tickets in, cashing the the $20 and getting two more tickets with the other. The two tickets resulted in winning a free ticket, so I cashed that in and again won $4. Over the course of the next couple of days, this process would repeat itself, cash it in, win one or two more tickets. Finally, one day on my way to the Waterfront (where I would get the Steven Colbert book) I stopped and cashed in the last $4 ticket I had, again getting two tickets, one of which ended up winning $100, a big improvement over trading cashing in one or two at a time.

Okay, enough with the Chrstmas stuff, we have other things that need gotten to as well, including the last Asshat of 2007. I was asked if I would pick an Asshat of the year, I haven't really decided one way or the other on that or what the stipulations would involve in picking a yearly Asshat. Would it be limited to only Asshat winners, a best of the Asshats if you will, or would it be a body of work covering the entire year. I haven't decided yet, though the lazy portion of me would rather not do one at all, it just seems like work. Anyway, we do have one more weekly winner left, and that goes to Lynne Spears. For those that are unfamiliar, she is the mom of those two bright young females known as Brittany and Jamie Lynne. Brittany's idiocy is well founded and need not be redocumented here. Jamie Lynne's major claim to fame is that as well as having a show on Nickelodeon, she is also 15 years old and pregnant. With all of this unfolding, mother Lynne was still set to release a book on of all things, parenting. That in and of itself would have been Asshat worthy, but alas the book deal fell through. You would think maybe the publisher had a change of heart and decided that this Mother of the Year candidate shouldn't be offering any sort of parental advice, but no, that is not the reason the book deal fell through. Seems whereas some parents would be looking to counsel their young daughter with child, Lynne saw what the Ferengi would call an opportunity. Rather than offer sage parenting advice to her daughter about sex and its consequences and what Jamie Lynne should do now that she is with child, mom saw her daughter's pants around her ankles as a chance to pimp her daughter's pregnancy out, selling the story and photos of her daughter to a celebrity rag, OK magazine, for a cool million dollars. That is above and beyond what is requied for Asshatdom and it constitutes a winning effort from Lynne Spears to close the book on 2007.

I should mention, just as the change meter, Asshats, fantasy updates and other things are semi regular features of the page, I am leaning toward adding a new one, simply called Blunt Force Trauma. The name comes from my own personal metaphor of what truth is, that being that truth can hurt you but all in all it doesn't kill you, it may leave a mark, but it is more like being hit with a blunt object rather that something that can cut you, thus the name Blunt Force Trauma. What the actual feature will be in basically a rant of what I believe the truth to be. Unlike Asshats, which are real people doing real things and I am just arbitrarily picking out that which is most worthy of the coveted Asshat crown, this will be more opinion than fact, and I already have an idea for the first one, it is just a matter of the proverbial pen to paper so to speak. Unlike the Asshat or change meter, which are just portions of blogs, this will be an separate feature and run independent of other entries. It wil make more sense once I write one, but just wanted to give you all a heads up for what is to come. Today is just my ramblings and the upcoming glog, of which we are still hours away from, kickoff isn't for a couple of hours yet.

I am a little bummed about the Pitt basketball team. They lost their first game of the year the other night, I think their record right now is around 11-1, and they are still ranked in the top 20 in the country, but after losing Mike Cook for the season against Duke, they lost staring point guard Levance Fields for 8-12 weeks with a fracture in his foot in a loss to Dayton. While they came back and beat Lafayette in their next game, starting the Big East schedule without two of your best players makes for a intriguing season. If they play .500 ball in league, I think they will still make the NCAA tournament, based on their 11-1 start and the win against Duke, but it will be interesting to see if they can remain competitive once conference play begins.

Okay, another spell check break. Well that and a "get up and make a sandwich break" .

Okay, I am back again. I would ask if you missed me, but it probably just gave you time to catch up on all of the reading I have laid out to this point. I realize this may end up being my longest blog entry ever. I would bestow some sort of award on myself, but that just seems a little egotictical, and I will save being egotistical for a time when it is a little more warranted.

We finished the office pool at work in picking NFL games during the regular season. I finished tied for 3rd in my group, posting a record of 164-92 in picking games, a winning percentage of about 64.1%. Because there are so many people in the office pool, we have two different groups in Yahoo, so I don't know if I won anything or not. If I finished tied for third overall, then I may win something, if someone in the other group did better, then I will not.

Fantasy hockey I have crept back into the top 6, which is where I need to be to make the playoffs, though I am a game under .500 at 55-56-19. Speaking of hockey, it is not often I get to commend NBC for their hockey coverage, usually I am quite critical of it, but they did a good job of promoting the Winter Classic, and it showed in the ratings, which were the highest in the states in 10 years. Mind you they were still small numbers by comparison with other TV sports here, but it hopefully means NBC will try to build something off of it. The Winter Classic is something started by the NHL last year, where one game out of the season is played outdoors as opposed to a normal indoor rink. This year featured Pittsburgh at Buffalo playing at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, where the NFL's Buffalo Bills normally play. The result was hockey that was memorable even if it wasn't as crisp from a purist standpoint as what one would be accustomed to watching the indoor game. A hockey game being played outside while it is snowing in front of 75,000+ people is a spectacle that is unsusal for hockey to say the least. NBC did a good job promoting the contest, actually running commercials for it and bringing it up in while covering other sports, like their NFL Sunday night games. The game lived up to its billing to, while it wasn't the best played game ever, stoppages to clear the ice of snow helped to keep the game somewhat sluggish, a national telecast that went to a shootout before one of the league's best known players, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal, made the game about as good as NBC could have expected from a TV perspective. Now I just hope they continue to promote the sport throughout their regular season coverage that starts soon and maybe they will be laying the groundwork for hockey to at least be a relevant sport here in the states, as opposed to a Canada - only fascination.

Break time again, I need to fetch some iced tea from the corner store for tonight's football game, which is now about an hour away.

The Pogo badges were a pain in the ass this week. I hate when both challenges take a large amount of time and this week both did. There was Jungle Gin in which you had to accrue 1500 gin points. Lucky for me I was playing 700 point matches and I won the first game and scored over 1000 points, making the badge much easier than it had any right to be. Mind you, I shut off the knocking option, so the only way to go out was with a gin, playing a 700 point game with knocking would take forever. The Stellar Sweeper badge was a pain also, clearing 2000 squares with only left clicks. Mind you, I usually play that game on hard level, simply because it is the only way for me to make any damage in moving up in rank at this point. For my personal challenge, I played First Class Solitaire, where you had to play 999 cards on the foundation stacks, the only good thing that came from that is I am closer to getting the level 20 game award badge as well, as I achieved level 19 while fetching that badge. I have no premium badges to work on right now, so all of my work in there is done for the time being. I have tinkered a little bit, doing a couple of word search puzzles as well, but I need to complete 30 puzzles for a badge, and I only have 4 done and I really don't want to stare at little letters on the computer screen, looking for something that makes sense, that is your job if you have read this far into the blog.

I have knocked out a few surveys as well, I am up to $1.85 in there, but I haven't sent in the one they mailed to me yet, which means I have probably waited too long. Maybe I will do it tomorrow while I am at the radio station, but I doubt I will get credit for it even if I get it done and sent in.

Okay, the first game is over, Seattle beat Washington 35-14, so we are definitely getting closer to kickoff of the game that I will be glogging this evening. I know, it is what you have been waiting for. For the record, I don't expect Pittsburgh to win, but I hope the game is at least decent. Jacksonville has already beaten Pittsburgh in the regular season, a 29-22 win here in Pittsburgh, yet here they are again in Pittsburgh as a rematch of sorts. Pittsburgh finished the regular season with a 10-6 record, while Jacksonville finished with an 11-5 mark. The reason that the game is here as opposed to Jacksonville is that Pittsburgh enters the playoffs as a division winner, while Jacksonville had to earn a wild card berth. The NFL seeds its division winners 1 through 4 with the top two seeds getting a bye in the first round, and the 5th and 6th seeds are the two division teams with the best records that didn't win their division. Pittsburgh is the #4 seed, the division winner with the worst record while Jacksonville is the #5, the wild card team with the best record. Barring some unforseen set of circumstances, this will be Pittsburgh's only home playoff game this year, even with a win tonight, they would definitely on the road in round 2 and probably on the road for the conference final as well, but that would be putting the cart well before the horse.

Anyway, kickoff is about to take place, hopefully I did a good job with my pregame synopsis. And hopefully the phone doesn't ring during the game. The last thing I would want is to be called away in the middle of the game now that I have sat down to watch it.

Well, the Faith Hill intro is over, which is fine with me, I am not a big fan of it to be honest. Ever since Hank Williams Jr used to do it on Monday Night Football, NBC has been trying to one up them, using Pink last year and Faith Hill this year and neither intro was all that impressive. I would rather just focus on the sport than on what name they can get to sing the network intro for the game.

Okay, I am going to assume they just shot off a bunch of fireworks prior to the game, otherwise that was an isolated batch of thunder I just heard and when I went on my errand to the corner store, it seemed much too cold for such a thing. It was drizzling, but it was also cold, much colder than what was called for this evening when they said the temp was to be in the 40s, more like the 30s. Mind you, they are calling for 60 degrees on Monday, which is way out of sorts for Jan. weather in Pittsburgh, but as an advocate for the removal of all snow from the Pittsburgh landscape, I will take it.

Okay, we are underway from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and the kickoff is brought out by Pittsburgh to their own 21 yard line.

On 3rd and 4, Ben Roethlisberger finds Hines Ward for a big gain of 31 yards and the first first down of the game. The next play results in a penalty on John Henderson for a horse collar tackle of the quarterback and it is another 15 yards and a first down for Pittsburgh.

Two more passes to Hines Ward and Pittsburgh has their third first down of the opening drive. This is an impressive start so far, and on first down, Najeh Davenport runs up the middle for yet another first down, it is first and goal from the 8.

A pass by Ben Roethlisberger to the backup tight end, Matt Spaeth goes for 7 yards but the ball comes out, The ruling on the field is down by contact, but Jacksonville is challenging the call, so we have our first stoppage of play. I will go on the record as saying Spaeth's knee was down, that is what it looked like from my vantage point, but what do I know, I am only watching the game, not officiating it.

And I am correct, Jacksonville loses a timeout for wasting everyone's time with the challenge. Pittsburgh is 2nd and goal from the 1. A run gets about half a yard, leaving 3rd and inches for Pittsburgh. On 3rd and goal, Davenport pushes the ball in from less than a yard out and Pittsburgh has the games first score, a touchdown and the early lead, 7-0.

The break in the action after the score will allow me to open the Sportsline window on the game.

Well that was fast, Pittsburgh kicks off to Jacksonville and Maurice Jones Drew returns the kick all the way to the Pittsburgh 1 yard line , a 96 yard return. On first down, Fred Taylor punches the ball over from one yard out and all of that work Pittsburgh put in in the first drive is wasted as Jacksonville ties the game in less than 20 seconds, its now 7-7.

Jacksonville kicks off again, and Pittsburgh brings it out to their own 28 to start their second possession of the game.

Two plays and Pittsburgh picks up a first down, a Daveport run for 6 and a Roethlisberger pass to Gary Russel for 4. This is a good time for me to light the cinnamon candle on my desk, as the Pirttsburgh drive stalls and we will see our first punt of the game. The punt is fielded and very little on the return for Jacksonville, as they will take over possession of the ball at their own 7 yard line, or 92 yards further downfield than where they started their first drive.

A commercial to remind us that Jay Leno is back, minus writers, who are still on strike. After watching Leno's show with writers, their absense might be a blessing in disguise, as he was unfunny with them so even if he is unfunny without them, it is just the same old, same old.

Okay, Jacksonville with the ball. It will be interesting to see how the defense plays, the last time Jacksonville played Pittsburgh, they rushed for over 200 yards. On 3rd and 2, its a Maurice Jones Drew run getting just enough for the first down, Jacksonville's first of the game. 5 of the 10 yards were compliments of a penalty on Pittsburgh, offsides on the defense.

On first down, Jacksonville uses a timeout, that is their second of the first half, after losing one on the failed challenge. That may come back as an issue if they are driving late in the first half, knowing they only have one remaining.

Jacksonville runs the ball, Jones Drew for 2 yards. That is why they called timeout? Seems wasted to me. Second down and David Garrard scrambles for 12 and a first down.

Garrad completes his first pass attempt, a pass to tight end Mercedes Lewis for another first down, and Jacksonville is very much out from under their own goalposts now.

On 3rd down and 8 yards to go, Garrad's pass attempt is batted down at the line of scrimmage and Pittsburgh should get the ball back on a punt. The punt goes into the end zone for a touchback, Pittsburgh will take over on their own 20 yard line and the score remains 7-7 in the first quarter.

So, how am I doing on my longest blog ever? Just curious to see if you made it this far. I did, but I kinda had to be here.

First down and Roethlisberger finds Heath Miller for 11 yards and another first down. Pittsburgh has moved the ball respectably in the first quarter, but only have a tie score to show for it.

The first quater has come to a close with a tie score, 7-7. This is about the time Lee would make a nancyball comment, but I saw pictures of him at the driving range, and if ever there was a sport, besides cricket, that would qualify as nancyball, it would be golf. The hardest thing they do is get dressed in the morning, and given some of the outfits golfers put together, I would say they must be color blind.

Start of the second quarter and Pittsburgh is faced with a third and 8 and Paul Spicer gets a sack for Jacksonville. Pass blocking has been a problem for Pittsburgh this year, Roethlisberger has been sacked the second most times in a season in Steeler history. Only Cliff Stoudt was sacked more times in one year.

Jacksonville takes over after a punt and on first down Garrard is sacked for a 13 yard loss. Second down and another minus 2 on a run and it is thrid and way long, 25 for a first down. Garrad finds Reggie Williams on a pass but it is well short of a first down and Pittsburgh will get the ball back again.

Pittbsurgh will take over possession at their own 16 yard line. On third and 10, Roethlisberger throws a pass that is deflected in the secondary but falls into Hines Wards hands and he takes it for 32 yards and a first down. Two plays later, Roethlisberger is picked off by Rasheed Mathis and the interception is returned for a touchdown. After the extra point, Jacksonville has a 14-7 lead in the second quarter. That has to be disheartening. So far Pittsburgh's defense has played very well, but a 96 yard kickoff return and an interception return for a TD and they find themselves in the hole despite doing everything  right on defense to this point. By the same token, Jacksonville has done nothing yet on offense and they lead. If they figure out the Pittsburgh defense, it could make for a long day for the Pittsburgh faithful.

Pittsburgh will again take over from their own 20 yard line. First down and Davenport loses 5 yards on a run. Second down and Roethlisberger again finds Rasheed Mathis, who happens to play for the other team and his second interception gets deep into Pittsburgh territory. Pittsburgh is challenging the ruling on the field. I am starting to hate the challenge rule in the NFL. Teams are throwing flags not because they know a call was blown on the field, but rather just hoping one was blown. All it does is slow down the game and usually the ruling on the play stands. I don't see this call being overturned anymore than the previous challenge. Well, the challenge is upheld, the return is nullified, though the interception stands, so Jacksonville has the ball, on 46 yard line instead of inside the 25.

On 3rd and 7 from the 43, Garrad find Jones Drew and he goes the rest of the way for the touchdown. This is what I meant, if Jacsonville can get their offense going, it could be a long day after getting a lead with almost no offense at all. The TD pass makes it Jacksonville 21 Pittsburgh 7.

Okay, I just saw a preview for "The Orphanage" which was called during the preview, this year's "Pan's Labyrinth". Just how many people saw "Pan's Labyrinth", like 5? Really, I can think of a better way to market a movie than saying it is this years version of a movie very few people saw, unless they plan on having no one see this picture as well, in which case the comparison would be accurate.

Pittsburgh with the ball again, and first down Najeh Davenport has another negative run, for minus three. Second down and Roethlisberger drops back and is sacked, Pittsburgh is moving in the wrong direction here, it is 3rd and 16 now. Check that, Roethlisberger is sacked again, and momentum is all kinda Jacksonville now.

Jacksonville has the ball first and 10 at their own 45. Two runs by Fred Taylor nets a first down and Jacksonville is again on Pittsburgh's side of the field.

Two more runs, one by Taylor and one by Jones Drew and it is another Jacksonville first down. Jacksonville has driven to the Pittsburgh 29 so far.

Pittsburgh holds on a third and 12 situation, so look for Josh Scobee to come on to try the field goal. From 46 yards, Scobee misses the attempt, the score remains 21-7 and Pittsburgh should consider themselves lucky in that regard.

Two minute warning of the first half and Pittsburgh trails 21-7 with a second down at their own 41 yard line. The last time these teams met, Pittsburgh did rally back from down 15, 22-7, but they ended up losing the game anyway, 29-22, so they have the ability to come back from this deficit against Jacksonville, but since the first drive, they have done very little on offense to inspire confidence that they will.

A commercial for the new Knight Rider. With The Bionic Woman, American Gladiators and Knight Rider, NBC is fast becoming the network where shows go to die a second death, as if one wasn't bad enough. Somewhere, someone should be pitching them The Dukes of Hazzard, they will air it.

On third and 4 Roethlisberger finds Najeh Davenport who gets some extra yards to keep the Pittsburgh drive alive, with a first down at the Jacksonville 27.

The clock is approaching 1 minute remaining and Roethlisberger does the almost impossible, he throws an interception to a defensive lineman, thus making it 3 interceptions in the first half and ending the Steeler threat. Jacksonville will run out the remaining time and go to the lockerroom with a 21-7 lead, and will get the ball back to start the second half. This is a good time for me to do another spell check, so if you excuse me, off to proof reading I go.

Okay, the spell checking is done and the second half is underway. I am thinking some mourishment may be in the offing for me, just not sure what to make yet.

The second play of the second half and David Garrard throws his first interception of the game, a pass that James Farrior pulls in and Pittsburgh will have good field position on their first possession of the second half.

Since that 10 yard run by Najeh Davenport, I don't think he has gotten more than 2 yards on any carry, as he had another negative run on first down. Roethlisberger finds Heath Miller on 2nd and 11 and gets a first down. Another 2nd down, 2nd and 9 and Roethlisberger finds Santonio Holmes for his first catch of the game and another first down.

Two plays net one yard and Pittsburgh has 3rd and 9 from the 15 yard line of Jacksonville. Davenport catches a pass well short of the first down and Pittsburgh will try a field goal from 28 yards out. Its good and the lead is cut to 21-10.

Jacksonville bobbles the short kickoff and it goes out of bounds at their own 20, where they will take over with their second possession of the second half.

I have opted for the cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. Just something to tide me over until the game ends.

Jacksonville gets a first down on 3rd and 2, Garrard scrambles out to the 39 yard line.

Pittsburgh takes a stupid penalty, grabbing the facemask, the flagrant 15 yard variety, and Jacksonville is past midfield with a first down.

Maurice Jones Drew gets his second TD of the game, this on a 10 yard run and Pittsburgh's defense gives up an 82 yard drive for a score and the score is now 28-10 and the prospects of Pittsburgh winning this game are quickly diminishing. At least my bagel with cream cheese is yummy, so my time glogging this game isn't a total waste. And hey there are only a little less than 20 minutes of game time left, so we may be approaching the end of this exercise in blogging and for you this exercise of reading alot of nothing.

Pittsburgh has managed only 29 yards rushing to this point in the game, and throwing hasn't been much of an option either, with three interceptions.

On 3rd and 8 Pittsburgh tries the throwing option and it works, Heath Miller makes the catch for a first down.

Pittsburgh is running a no huddle offense, given the time left and needing 19 points to take the lead, hurrying seems like a sound strategy.

Pittsburgh has driven from their own 31 to the Jacksonville 36 so far on this drive, mostly on throws by Roethlisberger. Still the drive has hit a lull, Pittsburgh is stuck with a second and 16 after a false start penalty. Check that, it is another sack, so it is now 3rd and 26 instead. A pass to Hines Ward gets 16 of it back, but it also ends the third quarter, so with just 15 minutes left, Pittsburgh will face 4th and 10 and they still trail Jacksonville 28-10.

Check that, it was 4th and 12, but Roethlisberger beats an all out blitz, finding Santonio Holmes who goes the distance and with the extra point it is 28-17 with 14:53 remaining. The question is can the defense get the ball back, they were less than stellar the last time Jacksonville had the ball and Jacksonville has two running backs in Taylor and Jones Drew that can grind some serious time off of the clock.

Jacksonville gets the ball on the kickoff and will start outside their own 30 yard line. After the first kick return by Jones Drew, Pittsburgh has intentionally kicked away from him, usually kicking short which leaves Jacksonville with better field position, but keeps them from busting a big return.

First down and Jacksonville goes play action but the pass falls incomplete, which is good for Pittsburgh as it stops the clock. Second down and another incomplete pass, this drive is exactly what Jacksonville didn't need to do. Third down and a sack of Garrard ends the drive, taking very little time off of the clock, much to Pittsburgh's benefit. Pittsburgh gets the ball back on a punt with 14:14 remaining, the drive by Jacksonville taking all of 39 seconds of game time.

A promo for a new NBC show, Lipstick Jungle. Yeah, that will play with the NFL crowd, good call there.

First down and Pittsburgh gets 12 yards on a pass to Hines Ward. Third down and 3 yards to go and Hines Ward again making the catch, he has all of Pittsburgh's yards this drive so far and it is another first down.

Second and 10 and Roethlisberger finds Heath Miller for yet another first down, Pittsburgh is down to the Jacksonville 28. They can get away with a field goal here, but they need to score some points, whether it be a field goal or a touchdown.

A pass to Cedric Wilson gets Pittsburgh a first down at the Jacksonville 15 yard line. On second and 10, Roethlisberger throws his second touchdown pass, this one to Heath Miller. Pittsburgh went for 2 pts, but a conversion was called back due to a holding penalty and a second attempt from ten yards further back comes up short, so the score is 28-23, meaning Pittsburgh will need another touchdown to take the lead. Had the penalty not occurred, Pittsburgh would have only been down three and could have gotten away with tying with a field goal, that is no longer an option for them, so the holding call was very important.

There is still 10:25 left in the 4th quarter, so they have picked up 13 points in less than 5 minutes.

Jacksonville starts their next drive on their own 24 but a holding call on first down pushes them back another 10 yards. A run by Taylor gets 5 and on second down, Garrard throws his second interception of the half and it is returned by Ike Taylor to the Jacksonville 16 yard line. With 8:50 left in the game, Pittsburgh is 16 yards from taking the lead here.

1 st and 10 and a throw to the fullback Davis gets 8 yards, a run on second down leaves just third and inches for Pittsburgh. A quarterback sneak by Roethlisberger gets the first down at the 5 yard line for Pittsburgh.

A pass to Hines Ward gets 4 yards, Pittsburgh second and goal from the 1. Two incomplete passes and it is 4th and goal from the 1. Pass interference on the defense gives Pittsburgh another first down otherwise the drive would have stalled, instead Pittsburgh gets four more cracks from the 1 yard line. On first down Najeh Davenport gets his second one yard TD run of the game and with a failed two point converstion, Pittsburgh now leads 29-28, having scored 19 points so far in the 4th quarter. Maybe this glog wasn't an exercise in futility after all.

Jacksonville takes over possession after a kickoff return on their own 22 yard line. There is 6:16 left in the game, so Pittsburgh's comeback took less than 9 minutes.

First down and a false start penalty pushes Jacksonville back five yards. The last drive by Jacksonville also started with a penalty, and it lead to an interception trying to get the yards back. First down and a pass to Fred Taylor only gets 2 yards. An incomplete pass brings up third and 13 but Garrard finds Dennis Northcutt for the Jacksonville first down and to keep the drive alive.

Two plays later, Jacksonville has another third and long, third and 7. The thing is, even if Pittsburgh gets the ball back, they haven't run the ball all that well, so taking time off of the clock is not a given for Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh sacks David Garrard on third and 7 thus pretty much ending the Jacksonville drive. Jacksonville punts the ball away and Pittsburgh will take over on their own 22 yard line with 3:43 remaining in the game. Pittsburgh will need to get a couple of first downs here to grind out the clock. On first down Najeh Davenport gets 5 yards, possibly his longest run since the first quarter. Second down and Davenport loses a yard and Jacksonville uses their first of three second half timeouts leaving Pittsburgh with a third and 6. If Pittsburgh converts, Jacksonville wil be forced to use their timeouts to get the ball back, if not then they can still hold the remaining two timeouts, knowing the clock also stops at the 2 minute warning.

A run by Roethlisberger gets a couple, but is well short of the first down marker. Jacksonville takes their second timeout and Pittsburgh will punt here, holding a one point lead with less than 2:50 remaining in the game.

The punt return gives Jacksonville the ball at their own 49, meaning they need about 20 or so yards to be in field goal range.

This is interesting, a pass thrown by Garrard to Ernest Wilford is ruled incomplete and Jacksonville is challenging the call. If they blow this, there goes their last timeout, leaving only the two minute stoppage left. The ruling stands and Jacksonville loses their last timeout. 2nd and 10 and Reggie Williams catches a pass for 8 yards. The clock ticks down to 2 minutes remaining, the score remains 29-28.

3rd and 2, and the pass falls incomplete bringing up 4th and 2. Mind you, Jacksonville is only about ten yards out of field goal range so a conversion here and the game is still in doubt. Garrad calls a quarterback draw and gets 32 yards and a first down at the Steeler 10 yard line. Talk about an epic collapse on defense, we just witnessed it. Now Pittsburgh has to burn their timeouts in case Jacksonville scores here as they will need to get the ball back.

A first down run loses 2 yards. 2nd and 12 and Jones Drew drives to the 8 yard line, leaving 3rd and 7. Pittsburgh uses their last timeout. On 3rd and 7 Jacksonville gets 6 leaving 4th and 1 from the 2. Jacksonville takes a delay of game penalty, running the clock down to 40 seconds left. Scobee is on to try a 25 yard feild goal. The kick is good, Jacksonville retakes the lead 31-29 with 37 seconds left in the game.

This has been an entertaing game.

With 29 secods left, Pittsburgh gets the ball on their own 29 yard line and no timeouts remaining.

1st and 10 for Pittsburgh and Roethlisberger is sacked and fumbles the football, ending any hopes that they may have in coming back again in this game. David Garrard takes a knee and the clock runs out and your final from Pittsburgh is Jacksonville 31 Pittsburgh 29.

And not only is that a final of the game, it is a final of my longest blog ever.