Day 207

Back to reality. It was such a mail-in week of work last week, but it came at a good time. It was so great to see so many of my family and friends. As you know, Thanksgiving is always going to be a tough holiday for my family, but I will say that this year, the sadness was less than I expected. Last year was the first one plus the stone-setting, that was obviously rough for all of us. They say that it gets a little easier every day or every year for that matter. I don't disagree. I never forget the feeling though. Apologies in advance to coo-zon Steve who this weekend told me that I describe every meal I have ever had. Thanksgiving dinner is always over at my Uncle Kenny and Aunt Linda's out in Waite Hill. They have 15 acres in a very quiet, peaceful neighborhood. Over the past 10 years or so, I have equated Thanksgiving with their house and Aunt Linda's wonderful cooking skill. While the food filled me up, my Cabernet flowing, and watching the growing number of great-grandchildren running around, I was only disappointed in one thing. I have never attended a Dery family function in which there wasn't chopped liver. Until now. A family meal isn't a family meal without it. It was replaced with hummus and pita? come on now. I just buried about 15 shrimp instead. Then there is the desert. My cousin Debbie came strong last year with a chocolate trifle desert that was unreal. I was hoping for a repeat performance we I got it. the you have the hi-jinks which is giving my nephew Jace one body slam after another in the basement. The best is that our one and a half year old niece Reese wanted to join in on the fun as well. Steve and I took turns slamming them on the couch while they laughed and jumped up for more every time. As usual, the fun ended when Steve slammed me and the wood on the arm of Uncle Kenny's 25 year old couch sounded like it snapped. KD had the whole thing on video, but the look on his face said it all. Overall, it was another nice Thanksgiving meal with the family.

I haven't gone out drinking once here since I moved back here. This week, I did twice. Wednesday night I was at Moxie for a drink and then Sushi Rock with Gregg and Rafal. I figured we would run into a lot of people, but it turned out not to be that way, which was fine. I still had a good time. The best was that we were driving to Sushi Rock about to role in and one of them said, "here we are, three fathers about to role in to a bar." So strange. Gregg has a daughter and another one on the way and Rafal has a daughter as well. We have come a long way since the days when I was both of their big brothers in the high school fraternity and we were drinking cases of Keystone Light. Friday night, MD and I met Steve, Coo-zons Katy and Julie, Ags, and a few others at the Claddaugh Irish Pub at Legacy. I ran into a bunch of randoms there including a guy I know from Chicago who was in town with his girlfriend. It was a classic Chicago moment as he said "I know we are not at a bar in a strip mall are we?" That is Cleveland for you. Nevertheless, it was a great time. I really felt old a couple of times when I was talking to two girls, Lindsay and Mallie, that I went to high school with who were 2 grades below me. They started showing me pictures of their kids and Mallie is pregnant with #2. Lindsay was the littlest thing when we were younger (still is). She went to camp with me and I have known her since she was 9. Now she is showing me pictures of her son. I was floored.

Then there is Saturday night. Leah and I started out at dinner with the kids, Mom, MD, and Grandmom at Brio, then stopped by Les' to celebrate his 60th birthday. Les was my father's best friend. We used to say they shared the same immature brain. They brought out Les a big cake and he gave a little speech to everyone and in it he said how much he missed dad, which was so nice. The kids were having a lot of fun playing with the other various young kids running around this house. Leah and I left as we were having a few people over to watch the big event of my weekend, Kansas vs. Florida in college basketball. The game tipped off at 11 PM EST which is ridiculously late, but I would have waited up until 3 AM for this game. It lived up to all of the hype. My Jayhawks, a 6 point underdog, came out smokin, playing great defense, and showing swagger they have yet to show this season and upset the defending National Champion and #1 Florida Gators 82-80 in overtime. The game had March intensity and a tournament feel. Sean and I were in full freak out mode, yelling and screaming, and drinking beers like water. MD enjoyed the game thoroughly. Then there were the girls. Leah was watching, but clearly wanted the game to end so she could go to sleep. Nancy, Sean's wife, was spotted peep a People magazine. In an effort to keep Nancy at the house and awake, Leah at halftime pulled out the Rummy Q game and that took up a solid 35 minutes or so. Meanwhile, KU blew a 4 point lea with 14 seconds to go as Florida forced OT. Sean and I of course thought it was over. But behind the clutch play of stud Freshman Darrell Arthur, KU weathered the storm and knocked odd the Mighty Gators.

Lastly, Rafal, Mom, Leah, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Linda, and I attended the Browns/Bengals game yesterday. All I can say is wow. Yet another bottom-feeder performance by my sad excuse for a football team. Time for Randy Lerner to man up and sell this team. He has done a pathetic job running this organization. From the top to the bottom, we are the laughingstock of the NFL. The Browns were shut out by the Bengals 30-0 in a game that could have been worse. You know what is even more sad? The Bengals had the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL. You know how many teams there are in the league? 32. That is right, they had the worst defense in the league and the Browns still couldn't score. Steve and I decided that we may have to bring a camera in and videotape Uncle Kenny and make a documentary about him watching his beloved Browns. I give him a ton of credit. He cares and loves this team unconditionally. No matter how bad we are. But we are all lemmings. We waste our time and money on this bad product year after year and we deserve better. Looks like its house cleaning time once again GM Phil Savage looks like he isn't assertive enough with his coach Romeo Crennel. Crennel has no control over his team as there is a ton of infighting, including right in plain sight on the sidelines yesterday. Big mouth WR Braylon Edwards, who called out his own safety Brian Russell as a cheap-shot artist earlier in the week (where he was wrong and Crennel did nothing about) got into a heated sideline exchange with our minor-league QB Charlie Frye. Yet, Crennel inexplicably did nothing about this either and sent Braylon right back out there the rest of the game. Romeo is a nice guy. And we all know where nice guys finish. The season is spiraling out of control and the organization continues to sink to new lows every week. How sad. Maybe MD has been right all of these years. They aren't worth our time anymore.

Song of the Day: "The 6th Sense" by Common