Ehlana:
Super Bowl Sunday – where do I start this
update?
Let’s be nice and begin with the
non-football news.
First up, our girls’ night sleepover
wrapped up this morning with an interesting group of girls with Uncle Adam for
Tai Chi; a busy breakfast and get-ready-for-church blast of fun after that; and
then a fun morning that included Sunday school and some sidelines entertainment
revolving around fathers surviving the weekend without their wives around to
help with the kids. The weather today
has been awesome for the start of February; there has been a lot of sunshine;
and the temperature climbed into the mid-sixties! That had everything to do with why Ethan and
I spent a lot of the afternoon outdoors; we had our best friends and cousins
with us for some or all of that time; and I was okay with missing out on most
of the afternoon football-related entertainment going on as part of the
pre-game shows that I don’t find at all interesting – just as I think that red
carpet shows ahead of awards shows are ridiculous.
That brings me up to dinnertime and the football
game, and while we’ve missed out on the buffet at the Inn; our Super Bowl party
meal included a lot of food options including pizzeria pizza and other dishes
that were obviously provided by the fathers in our collective families. Our favorite Moms made it home in time for
dinner, but while they had fun with teasing their husbands about the food
choices for the day – and weekend; they didn’t have a problem with the break
from cooking and cleaning. Naomi and I
were among the girls that were happy to enjoy that meal while talking with our
Moms; and we could do that because most of the guys were either busy watching
football or in the lounge playing video games.
The sunroom was set up for watching chick flicks too; so our
non-football fun continued.
I suppose that it’s time to annoy all
future football fans reading this journal update with my Super Bowl
report. Ethan might cover the actual
football news related to the game between Kansas City and San Francisco, but I
won’t be doing that; and don’t care which team wins. I also won’t get into a commentary about team
names that seems to be an annual issue for some people – not because I can’t
sympathize with that perspective; but because we have far-more-serious problems
in the world than the names given to sports teams decades or centuries
ago. I’m also not against sports. I love playing quite a few of them; and I
like watching some professional sports too, but I have a problem with the
business side of professional or even some amateur sports and how exploitative
and wasteful they have become.
My feelings on this aren’t unique, and this
point of view has been covered often-enough that I don’t need to write a rant
on it; so I won’t. I can report that our
family business has as little to do with the Super Bowl – or other major
sporting events, and while I’d like that to be zero involvement; that actually
isn’t possible; since we do own businesses worldwide that are affected by
sports – even if that’s just through people staying at our hotels, visiting our
restaurants; or through other connections.
We don’t support any professional sporting events, though; we don’t buy
those insanely-priced commercial time slots; and we don’t bid on contracts for
anything related to the Super Bowl. I’d
love to see that be true for everyone, since boycotting everything that pays
for these elitist events would really change things for the better – and I’m
not talking about trying to end championship games in any sport. I just think it’s far-past-time to have
everyone remember that sports are meant to be fun as well as challenging and
entertaining; not a means to make a lot of money – especially for the richest
people that certainly don’t need the money; but I mean that for the players and
anyone else that exploits sports to try and get rich.
I’m on the verge of a rant anyway, so I’ll
stop now. The football game hasn’t
really impacted my personal life – other than we’re having fun doing other
things with our family and friends while the boys are busy with football and
video gaming. This update for me is
coming between chick flicks, and I should get back to the fun anyway; so I’ll
wrap this up and do that. We really have
had an awesome day and weekend – whether here at home or away on a spa weekend;
so getting to stay up late on a school night is just a bonus!
This is Ehlana Proctor; live from the
hidden home of the Magi of the Light!
***
Ethan:
Ehlana’s update is done already, but that’s
because I’ve waited until after the game and coming up to bed to write my
report for the day. She’s also covered
the highlights for everything else; so I’ll just add my two-cents-worth; and
then get some sleep.
I haven’t paid much attention to football
this season at all, and wasn’t really supporting either team today, but can
report that Kansas City had more fans at our house – and likely in our town –
than San Francisco did today. Maybe I’d
be better off to write about the video gaming in the lounge, since I spent more
time at that – and helping to keep Zack entertained and distracted, but the
Super Bowl will be the top news story at school tomorrow; so all guys are
required to know the important details.
During the first half of the game, San Francisco got the early,
three-point lead. Kansas City came back
with a touchdown and field goal next; and then San Francisco came back with a
touchdown to tie things up at ten-to-ten heading into the half-time show.
I may be glad by tomorrow morning that my
friends are supposed to be too-young to find Shakira’s half-time show
more-interesting than the football; and I’ll leave it to the older guys to
offer any commentary that would be inappropriate and weird for me.
It’s a bonus that I won’t get into trouble
with Naomi for that sort of thing too! ;^)
I am not going to comment on the music
either – other than to admit that my personal taste in music – or my playlists –
does not include any Shakira music. Okay,
at our age, that might be weird anyway – especially for a guy, but I still
prefer different music that either tells stories or has thoughtful messages.
Getting back to the game; San Francisco
opened the second-half of the game with another field goal to take the lead
again; which practically made it seem as though the game was as choreographed
as the half-time show. Sure, that sounds
unlikely – and probably is, but it was still convenient; and likely kept fans
watching the game. I couldn’t really get
excited about the game, so playing video games was more-fun for me, but we were
still watching the game too; even if I didn’t really care about the following
interception and touchdown that gave San Francisco the ten-point lead heading
toward the end of the third-quarter.
Football fans know that ten points isn’t a
huge deal, but that didn’t keep the commentators from starting to talk up the
Kansas City team. That sounded good, and
even better when Kansas City got the next touchdown, but my thoughts about the
game being theatre continued because that score came after a timely penalty
that helped Kansas City out a lot. The
fans had what they wanted with another potential comeback; and ensured keeping
the audience for the rest of those very expensive commercials – I mean for the
rest of the game! ;^)
The Super Bowl drama continued when San Francisco
couldn’t do anything on their next possession; Kansas City got the ball back
with five minutes to go; and the chance to take the lead with another
touchdown. They didn’t use up enough
time, though, so there were more chances for advertisements – a lot of them –
as San Francisco had the chance for yet another comeback. Would four lead changes be enough – or would
we get to have five or six of them?
Three minutes of football needed to be dragged out endlessly to make
time for those commercials; so our video gaming could continue. I’m too-cynical for my age, so it was
definitely my perspective that colored the wrap up, but then I can’t say much
about the game-ending drama; since Kansas City stopped San Francisco again;
earned another quick touchdown; and that eleven-point lead wasn’t likely going
to be overcome. Sure, San Francisco
still needed to keep fighting to the end.
That didn’t take long, since they gave up an interception with less than
a minute to go; and then their coach pointlessly dragged the game out by taking
his remaining team time-outs; and didn’t even manage to get a final possession
when Kansas City was still able to run out the clock to seal the thirty-one to
twenty win.
The celebration that ensued included all of
the expected commentary about Kansas City winning their second Super Bowl fifty
years after the first one, but then that just reminded me that it was also a
perfect ending to the ‘show’ – at least for the fans of the team.
It’s time for me to put my football
theories away for another year, though; so let’s wrap this up and I’ll go get
some sleep.
The video gaming ended soon after the game;
our guests headed home; and Ehlana and I helped Mom and Dad with the clean-up
before getting ready for bed. That took
a while, so we’re up late for a school night, but then we also didn’t use any
time phasing tonight either; so we’ll be okay tomorrow. This has been a really good weekend; we’re
all happy; and our start to the new month is a good sign as we head toward the
next big holiday of the year – Valentine’s Day.
I’d better start working on that for Naomi
soon! ;^)
Stay tuned – I’m sure that the fun will
continue for us – even when we’ll still have lots of work and study time to go
along with the holiday-themed fun and the rest of the adventures we’ll have
ahead of us.
May the Magi Force be with you!
