N FaiLure

When the NFL announced that the Pro Bowl would be played outside of Hawaii for the first time in years, and would be played in Miami, I thought that it would be a very cool experience. Boy was I mistaken. OK, I can't say it was all bad, actually for the most part we really had a good day and a good time yesterday.

We started out the day in our normal busy manner. First my son had a hockey game at 10:00 and my daughter had a birthday party to go to at 12:15. As I was taking my son to the game, Brenda was making her famous macaroni and cheese, and marinating the burgers and pineapples for our Hawaiian burgers at the tailgate. After the game, I picked up the two girls and dropped them at the birthday party. I got back home and noticed that the tire on the van was almost flat. I rushed my son through his bath that he was taking as I was loading up the van. We then went to Publix to get some onions, swiss cheese, and fix-a-flat. Two out of three I guess ain't bad when you're in a rush, but this Publix didn't carry fix-a-flat, or any automotive stuff for that matter. We then went to CVS, thankfully they had the fix-a-flat. We got back home and used the can, then hopped in the van to go to the gas station to finish filling the tire up with air. The first station we went to had their air out of order. We then had to go to Mobil who charges $0.75 for air (quarters only). I had two quarters and had to go inside to get a third. Of course (since I was already late), the lady could not open the cash register without someone buying something, so I had to wait. The first guy bought a carton of smokes with a debit card so she couldn't open the register. The next lady was getting random items, then the cashier asked me why I needed the quarter, I said for air, she used her remote then told me to go on outside because it was on.

I then picked up the girls, and my sister, brother-in-law and nephew and we were on our way, and only about 20 minutes or so later than we originally planned. We were meeting Eric and Karen at the parking lot, and Eric was calling me freaking out because of the amount of traffic he was already enduring at 1:30, so we all thought the parking lot would be full by the time we got there. It turns out that was the original "surge" and the parking lot didn't actually fill up until close to 4:30 or so.

We "tailgated" for a while. I made the above mentioned Hawaiian burgers, and everyone really enjoyed them. I think it may be something I will try again. We decided to walk in to the stadium around 4:30 so we could spend some time enjoying the atmosphere around the game. As we walked up to the gate, we first went through 4 different layers of "security." The first layer was someone verifying we had tickets for the game. We then went through the "Disney World" maze to get to the next layer of security who verified we didn't have any outside drinks, and directed us to the next layer of security, which was the "pat down," from there we arrived at the fourth layer of security which was the bag check. At the bag check they then informed us that the backpack my son was carrying (the same one we bring to all of the Dolphin games) was not allowed in the stadium. I then had to go backwards through the security, back to the car to put the backpack away, then back through the same four layers of security, bitching at each one of them to let them know they should tell people not to bring backpacks into the stadium. We took some pictures, but didn't really participate in the "activities" because the lines were too long. I'm glad we spent our time tailgating instead of going inside immediately upon arrival. As fun as the atmosphere was, there really wasn't the need to spend hours inside there.

We decided to go into the stadium around 6:30. Once we got in and as we were walking to our seats, we passed the designated driver stands that were handing out free soda coupons for anyone over 21 and putting your name and whatnot on their form. We got the coupon then made our way closer to the seats and saw another one of the designated driver tables, so we filled it out again and got another coupon. Considering sodas were $6.00 each, we just saved $24.00. When we got inside some teeny bopper Jonas Brother wanna be band was playing. They were pretty pathetic, turns out, they were also the ones singing the National Anthem. At least there was a F-18 flyover after the anthem. That was cool as always.

I know the NFL All-Star game is meaningless, and usually a snore fest, and this one lived up to those expectations. Starting off, when the players were announced, instead of running out of the tunnel in the normal fashion, each player strolled casually through the line to their respective benches. The most excitement was when the Dolphins players were announced, then again when the Jets and Patriots players were booed, oh, and the mascots, that was about it for the night. The remainder of the night just seemed to be people on the football field trying not to get hurt or exert any energy whatsoever. The halftime show was a marching band out of Daytona, and I think they brought the most physicality to the field. We left at the end of the third quarter.

I know the pro-bowl will be back in Hawaii next year and I say let them have it. As interesting as it was to be part of the "history" the game itself is quite boring, and the fact that the Super Bowl teams did not participate made it even more so.

On an unrelated matter, the scumbags who stole Brenda's purse last year are back and are trying to change the addresses not only at the old bank, but also at the new back. Somehow they called the new bank, got an ATM card and withdrew money out of our account on Friday. We put even more protections into place, but these assholes are like cockroaches and they will not die. One of the addresses they changed our accounts to is 12124 NE 5th AVE, Miami FL 33161. I would think nobody actually lives there, but if they are going there to pick up the mail, someone should be waiting for them.