gg

(That's "good game" in online talk.)

Yesterday, Jeremy and I attended the Steelers vs. Redskins game at FedEx field (a "closing gift" from our load officer--I guess if you're going to give them $500k+ in interest over 30 years, it's the least they can do...) We had a great time! After Jeremy got in the "football spirit" by playing a round of Madden with Stephin (who'd been here since Tuesday), we drove out to Warrenton to drop off our future NFL star, Jeremiah, at Grandma/Grandpa's and then headed out to Landover, MD!

I tell ya, 2-3 hours before the game is the best time to arrive--we hit very little traffic (other than at the Woodrow Wilson bridge, where there seems to be traffic at any hour of the day [we hit it again coming home at 1:30 a.m.]) and had a wide choice of parking spots near the stadium (if you go to fedex field, and have a permit parking pass, get off at 15B, not 17B--there was ZERO traffic getting in, and out, even though Redskins Rd was a parking lot... crazy...) We settled on a spot amongst fellow citizens of the Steeler Nation! We parked, put together our baby charcoal grill (it's so cute, yes it is, so cuuuuuute!) lit the bag of charcoal, and sat back to relax.... Twenty minutes later, we were cookin' brats, burgers, and sweet potatoes, sipping bee--ars (mike's for me), and just chillin'. Good times, good times.

Around 7:20, we packed up our foods, doused the coals, pocketed a few beverages, and headed in. Oh, did I mention we had "club level" seats??? Yes, we did--and that is the ONLY way to watch a football game, IMHO. Here's the view from our seats (it was actually better than this, but you get the idea...)
They were sweet--in the middle of a bunch of die hard Redskin fans, but hey... we made enough noise to drown 'em out. :-) And the nice thing about club level (and besides the fact that our seats were cushioned, too...) is the lack of gum, vomit, and who knows what else all over the floors. In fact, they had granite tile floors (freshly cleaned), air conditioning, leather lounge chairs, big screens all over, and all sorts of restaurants to chose from (though they all mostly sold the same thing...) Yes, it was good times.

The highlight of the evening had to be winning the game, though. It was a pretty boring 3 quarters.... Neither team really did anything exciting (touchdown and field goal for Washington, 3 field goals for Pittsburgh.) Even Big Ben couldn't deliver--Batch seemed to have the best game, quarterback wise. However, once each team had it's 3rd-stringers in there, that's when it got exciting. After a tough possession, Steelers finally kicked their 4th FG to lead by 2. But there was still a minute 30 left on the clock. The Redskins could have easily won that--and they should have, as they had multiple opportunities to--they were in FG range with 30 seconds left on the clock! But throw in an incomplete pass, a couple of penalties, and they were backed on to the 42 yard line with no timeouts left on 3rd and 25 (I think... all I remember is that it didn't really matter at that point...) with 13 seconds left. Interception by Steelers=Steeler victory!

Heh, the silly skins fan next to me kept saying, "Yeah, they're going for it on 4th down cuz they've got "guts" (he used a different word, rhymes with "calls")" He left before I could tell him that it looked like they got their, ahem, "guts" handed back to them... ;-) But its all good (not very lady like, anyways....) We were friendly with each other (us and the skins fans). Besides, most of them weren't there for the game, but for the real "talent"--the Redskin cheerleaders. :-) At least, the guy behind us felt he needed to point that out everytime they came on, "See, here comes the REAL talent! Yeah, baby!" Ohhhhhhh kay.....

Ah yes, good times.