It all started with Joe...

 ...Montana.
It wasn't a team logo/mascot, like a Cowboy or a Colt.
It wasn't because my Dad liked the team, or my brother or anyone I knew at the time.
It wasn't because they had the best record of wins vs losses, although I certainly got in on the golden years of the 49ers, thank goodness.
It wasn't because they were close, geographically speaking.

It was the quarterback with MONTANA emblazoned across the back of his jersey. 
I love the 49ers because of Joe Montana.

Heck, I loved Joe Montana, himself!  Who wouldn't?  (Here's your door, TOASTBA...)
He was classy, intense, smart, fun to watch because he was so good at what he did, and let's not forget that dimple on his chin underneath a smile that took away the need for flash photography. 
It was great to be from Montana and for Montana. 

I think it was the second year we were married, Wayland surprised me with a #16 MONTANA jersey for Christmas!  How cool is that?! I've worn the poor thing almost out, trying to summon luck for my beloved 49ers every year.  This year, it may have worked.  The Niners are in the playoffs! 

I've been wearing my Joe all week.  ALL week.  Take it off when I go to town or go for a run, but around here, it's the Joe.  I'm wearing it as I type this.

Today is the big game against the Saints at home in San Francisco, and the Saints are heavily favored to the point of polite condescension from all the ESPN and FOX sportscasters about the Niners.

They're nicely talking about our D, grudgingly admitting they're a force, but still betting for the Saints. They can only speak of Drew Brees, Mr. QB of the Year. They already have the Saints breezing through this game to play Green Bay next weekend.

There's no indication, however, that God will favor the Saints this year, even with their heavenly association by team name, because everyone knows the Broncos have that corner on the market with Tebow. (Eyes rolling, here, but grinning.)

I'm hoping the Niners make Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long choke on their peanut M&Ms today and retract all the Saint-ly predictions they've been making.

Hey, it could happen!

The 49ers have a yell that they've been doing this season; it was started by their new coach, Jim Harbaugh, after they won their third game of the season.  He yells, "WHO'S got it better than us?!?!"  and the players holler back, "NO-BODY!!!"  It's been implemented in this house, too.  I'll be doing dishes or something equally ordinary and think to yell, "WHO'S got it better than us?!!?" and little voices from around the house will holler back, "NO-BODY!"  

That's right.

NOBODY'S got it better than us!

Go Niners!

(The Broncos are playing the Patriots tonight, too. Looking forward to the TOASTBA comments after THAT game.  Last week, I called the Broncos to win by 14, against all the intelligent, realistic, logical reasons not to.  Their own fans were betting against them. They only won by 7, but still...

This weekend, I've gotta say I think they'll lose by the same margin.  Sorry!  I'm not feeling the love...or the hope, frankly.  We'll see.) 

I can't fold paper.

It's true.
It's too mechanical for me.

(My friend Traci is laughing out loud, right this minute, because she knows this to be true...)

I wanted to make origami cranes to hang in my windows in January, because I think they're cool and also...there's nothing to celebrate until we get to Bobby Burns birthday!  I bought the origami paper, printed off the directions from the computer, went to a quiet corner and carefully started following the steps, reading them out loud to make sure I got it correct.  (You know, folding from right to left is tough....for someone who can't find her right leg during yoga.)

I had some cool little triangle-y shapes, but when it came to folding the legs out, there were none.  NONE, I tell you.  I could fold it over and make it look like a Kermit-thee-Frog (sic) face, but I want cranes, not a Muppet.  Waaaaaahhhhh!

I can't put specific LEGO structures together, either.  Even with the directions.  Some sadistic, vengeful person bought my son a Pirates of the Caribbean LEGO set for Christmas; it makes a little castle, two carriages and I don't know what all.  All the parts are specific.  The carriages ONLY go together a certain, special way.  I don't have a clue what that way might be, even WITH the instructions laying in front of me. 

It makes me want to throw the whole thing against the wall after struggling with miniscule parts for 40 minutes and coming up with....a one-wheeled carriage. 

My kids don't ask me to help with anything anymore.
They wait for their father to come home and then rush him with projects like opening the secret drawer on the magic box, rebuilding LEGO structures, putting together Barbie outfits...

I don't know where the short circuit is, because I think I am trainable.  I can learn a crane if someone shows me.  I can make gingerbread houses that stand up and have square corners and everything, as long as I don't have to look at a diagram.  But hand me a step-by-step chart for making Jello blocks and I'm lost.  Was that hot water first? 

*sigh*

Anyone else mechanically challenged?
Is there anyone who knows how to fold an origami crane that would like to sit beside me and teach me?  I still want those cranes!

Found this photo from family vacation in August, when I was looking for a different profile pic for FB.
I don't know what it is about black and white pictures, but some are almost haunting even though the subject matter and the setting is not...we're all happy, here, and it's a beautiful day, but I think it must be the trees and dappled light that gives it an odd quality.

Anyway, I've found that if I put pictures here, I can always find them and when I have the blog printed out in book format again, it's rather like a scrapbook.  That's all...no other significance to the post!  :)

Shoop-Shupe!

(I'm terrible at coming up with titles for posts...)

So, one of my *GREAT DISCOVERIES* this fall has been a singer named Ryan Shupe and his group The Rubberband. 

I KNOW!  Just the name of the band indicates that it's going to be good, don't you think?

They play some sort of bright, fun, modern blue-grassy-country-poppy music that I can't seem to define for the life of me.  Maybe it's Roy Clark meets Huey Lewis, then throws in a little Five For Fighting and Alan Jackson. And a marching band, on one song.  It's very awkward to juxtapose all those elements and still come out with something good.  Somehow, this little band managed to!  I think they started out primarily bluegrass, but then were having so much fun with it that they just kept going.

For instance, they sing  The Corn Dog Song. 
I'm not joking.
And it's accidentally really good.
They sing a song that makes fun of themselves, Banjo Boy, that basically says they want to make it big, drive limos, have chicks...but they play the banjo, so that's probably not gonna happen.  It ends with the Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
There's a song, Oh, How I Miss You, that the lead singer wrote for his wife while he was on the road, thinking it would be nice and tender, but it ended up being sort of a party song with mariachi horns and a marching band feel, complete with drums and all.  You can't help but dance, when it's on in the background! (Okay, I can't help but dance...I'm sure many other people have resisted that urge quite successfully.  My world vs. the rest of the world sort of thing...)
And the song, Hey, Hey, Hey...?  Well, let's just say that if you're listening with headphones on, the people around you are going to get the fright of their life when you're humming along then holler "HEY!....mmmm....STAY!.....mmmmm, mmmm,mmmm...HEY! HEY! HEY!".  It's a great running song. Trust me.  Not so cool on trains, but great for running. 

But the song that caught me first, that's become sort of my theme song this year, is Dream Big.  I'm going to try to attach it to this post and if it works, I want you to listen with your eyes closed.  (Of course, I can't TELL if you close your eyes, but play along, okay?) Listen twice, if you need to. 



Dream Big

(This link will take you to Opendrive....hit the download button and it'll pop up a little player for you!  You can actually probably save it to your computer, if you like it.  I hope you do.)

"It only hurts for a little while...

...that's what they tell me; that's what they say."

It was a song on the radio when I was a kid.  I have no idea who originally recorded it, but I sing it in my head when I do yoga.

Yoga is the perfect place to apply the saying, "That which does not kill you makes you stronger."
I've been doing some, lately, and it's one of the hardest strength training I've ever encountered.  But it's the very best, too!  It's more interesting than doing plain old push ups and crunches, and I've found muscles I didn't know I had in places I'm surprised they exist...truly.  For instance, when I was trying to contort into a pose that the video instructor seemingly effortlessly glided into, I got a charlie-horse cramp in the muscles of my ribs.  I KNOW; I didn't have any idea there were any of significance, there, but I'm telling you...they ARE there and they don't like it when I go from the one-legged downward dog into whatever twisty pose I was attempting. 

My thought process, when doing yoga, goes something like this:

"This isn't so bad (during warm-ups)!  Maybe I was just a big baby last time...yeah, that's it."

"Right leg?  Which is my right leg?" (because on video, it's a mirror-image of what I'm supposed to do...I get all messed up)

"Breathe in?  or out?  Good grief!  I'm still working on finding my right leg...I'll breathe when I get that done, lady!" (I talk to the instructors, under the breaths I'm not remembering to take...)

"Cat pose, crane pose, fish pose, dog pose....how about a dead turtle pose?  THAT I can do."

"I want to die, but it feels good, but I want to die, but it feels good, but oh man, I really want to die..." (I say that more frequently than anything else. It's the theme of yoga.)

"Cramp! AAAAHHHOOOWWIIEEE!"

"HOW can those people on the video be smiling and serene?! WHY are they not sweating and rolling their eyes?! WHERE do they get those great outfits?!"

"Love cool down yoga!  We should do more of the cool down yoga...it's sorta dead turtle-ish..."

"Well. Now.  That wasn't so bad.  And I feel so strong! And I can breathe, now!  Yeah!"

That's the 50 or so minutes, all condensed for you.  It would be more amusing if you had the video of me doing the video, but you get the idea. 

I can tell you, it doesn't look like THIS:

Hurts just to look at it, doesn't it?

I'm seeing results, already, though, and that's what keeps me coming back.  And I love feeling strong...love it!  I like that I can do the yoga exercise without the interference of the yoga mind junk.  Even if it did have that mantra-stuff, I'm afraid I'm contrary enough to be thinking "You all can take your inner third eye and shove it, because I'm praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that I'll live through this experience with minimal damage to the surroundings and/or my physical being!"  Seriously.  It WILL bring you closer to God.  I pray to get through it, pray in thanksgiving when it's over, pray I can find the Aleve quickly...

I'm still running, but it's fun to have something different to work on.
Stay tuned, because next week, you get the report on my other new exercise endeavor...