Giants Win - 17 years in the making.

THAT was nothing like I had ever experienced. What an amazing game and an amazing weekend.

We are still in shock.

And no longer have voices.

So, there's nothing left to do but smile.

I'm going to the Super Bowl

Somehow, I'm going to the Super Bowl.

I got the call last night, asking if I wanted to accompany my cousin Kyle to the game. I don't know the full back story, but it appears that my extended family have the rights to two tickets given the longevity of their Giants season tickets.

No idea where the seats will be, but as long as they are inside the stadium, it doesn't matter!

My uncles, who normally go to the games at The Meadowlands, are not going to Glendale. One of their sons (my cousin), however is going. My other uncle's sons passed on the other ticket, and it appears that I am next in line.

It certainly doesn't hurt that my cousin goes to Bentley College, is of legal drinking age, and that we can simply travel together out of Logan.

So for much of last night after 10pm, I scrambled to book travel. Quite amazingly, I was able to use frequent flier miles and hotel points to cover everything for both of us. I still can't believe I was able to swing that, since hotels around and airfares to Phoenix for Super Bowl weekend are understandably absurd. It would have been gut-wrenching to stomach $500 a night for a crappy Ramada Inn.

It has been a surreal month for me in regards to watching football. Add one more to that pile.

Led Zeppelin

When I think of the biggest bands in Rock history, way at the top of my list is Led Zeppelin. It would probably be atop most music fans' lists.

But, I may have discovered another sign of my age.

I was bowling at King's with Chris, Ryan, and Jamen on Saturday. (aside - props to Jamen for winning both games, but my second-place finish with three strikes and 144 pins during the first game was one of my best performances. I usually hang around 100, so I'll attribute my score to practice playing Wii bowling).

One of the songs that came on was "Ramble On," by Led Zeppelin. When the part of the song about Lord of the Rings came on (T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair. But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, her, her....yeah), I made a comment about it.

Not one of them - all in their late 20's - had any idea what I was talking about. They had never heard "Ramble On," and when I pressed them, asking if any could name another Led Zeppelin song, not one of them could.

Stairway to Heaven? Black Dog? Rock and Roll?

I don't get it. No, I didn't grow up when Zeppelin was releasing original albums. But, in high school - HIGH SCHOOL - I loved Zeppelin, as did many of my friends. It was kind of a given.

I graduated twenty years after Led Zeppelin IV. They weren't exactly the band of the moment. They were (and are) simply timeless.

Is Zeppelin really not gaining new fans? Is 30 the cutoff age, where they are irrelevant to people under 30?

The ultimate drive to work

Since purchasing my Digital SLR camera a few months ago, I haven't used my 3 1/2 year old Sony Cybershot camera all that much, even though it's advantages of being super small and relatively powerful (5 MegaPixels) lend to throwing it in my pocket when I'm leaving for the day.

Now that we're well into coat weather here in Boston, I have more pockets to carry stuff. This morning, I decided to carry my camera with me to document some relatively interesting components of my day, and not worry about staging a full-out DSLR photo shoot. Point, click, done.

Usually, somebody along my drive to work irritates me for double-parking, blocking an intersection, or simply being a general prick. Forget pedestrians - my sworn enemy while driving.

Nonetheless, today's drive was uneventful for one main reason - my amazing good fortune.

This has never happened before, but I drove from the Berkeley St. I-93 underpass at the Southie / South End border, all the way to this intersection - Charlesgate & Comm Ave - without hitting a single red light. I'm still amazed. The lights on both Berkeley and Comm Ave must be in sync quite well, and I must have hit all of them at the exact perfect time. No idiots walked out in front of me, no buses impeded my lane, no delivery trucks blocked two full lanes of traffic (one on each side - it happens too much), and the FedEx truck army from Southie didn't stop my progress.

Blue skies smiling at me today!

Regifting something that's already mine

I completely understand regifting items. I have done it myself, as it's a pretty common practice. Smart. Economical. Environmentally-friendly.

Today, for one of my belated birthday presents, my parents regifted me a gift card they already gave me last month.

Sure, they gave me a few unique gifts that were not already technically mine (a BBQ utensil kit and a digital remote meat thermometer, both from Brookstone), but I couldn't help but dwell on what was included in the birthday card.

Last month, I happened to be in the area, so I spent an overnight with my parents. In the kitchen, they keep a small drawer for random mailings I still receive here, over ten years after having moved out for good. It's kind of funny that a few schools still think I'm college shopping.

My mother also throws newspaper clippings in there that happen to relate to our recent topics of conversation. I happen to mention my summer herb garden, there's an herb clipping. I mention something about poker? Poker clipping. Any time they see my high school mentioned in the paper - in whatever context - clipping.

Last month, I found a random $50 gift card for the local mall. The story behind that card was that my father bought it for a service technician at his car dealership for being particularly helpful, but by the time he tried to give it to him, he had taken another job.

Since this card had little value outside of Rockland County, NY, I left it in the drawer and said that I would pick it up during Thanksgiving.

For some odd reason, immediately before opening my birthday card, I happened to open my mail drawer and ask where the gift card was.

Little did I know that I was already holding it. For the second time.

Regifting something that's already mine. I didn't think it was possible.

I'm assuming that for Christmas, I will be given my high school yearbook. Thanks, Dad.

Two No-Hitters

I have been going to MLB games since 1980 or 1981. Let's say I have been to an average of 5 games every season, and let's say it's 27 seasons. That's 135 games total.

The odds are very low to have seen one no-hitter out of 135 games.

But now, I have seen TWO.

It's well documented that I am from New York originally. The Yankees are my team. I try to put it into perspective with Sox fans who live here and question my allegiance to them while living in Boston. I ask them if they would suddenly become fans of the Yankees if they moved to New york, and then usually it makes sense to them.

I gotta admit, six innings into the game, 8-0 Sox, no-hitter brewing, I absolutely became a fan of the game over a fan of any particular team. Three innings of yelling and screaming for the no-hitter did indeed coincide with cheering for the Sox to win, but truly I just waned to no-hitter. I pledged that if hit #1 came, I'd be done aligning myself with the rest of the crowd there.

But it never came, and it was awfully fun to witness history and to be cheering along with everyone else at Fenway (for me, that NEVER happens).

The other no hitter I witnessed was back in 1997 in Pittsburgh when the Pirates still played in Three Rivers Stadium.

It was fireworks night, they had an extremely rare sellout crowd (we scalped tickets), and the Pirates needed 10 innings before they put up any runs. But when they did, the place went crazy. Two pitchers combined for the no-no, but Francisco Cordova indeed pitched the full nine innings of the regular game. The Pirates just could not score a run to support the effort. It was bizarre. Finally a walk-off three-tun homer in the bottom of the 10th sealed the no-hitter.

I Touch Myself

Something last night left me speechless. That is rare.

I live in a fish bowl. Well, not exactly...but the density of homes here in Southie permits for easy access to what's happening within neighbors' dwellings.

Last night, I finished watching TV in the living room, and went to drop my glass off in the sink before heading to bed.

My kitchen was dark, and I didn't turn the light on because the trip there was supposed to be a quick one.

Right when I turned to corner to walk toward my sink, I could not help but notice what was going on in the kitchen next door. There is a window above my sink, and their window is about five feet beyond mine.

Their kitchen lights were on, and sitting there in a chair next to laundry piles on their kitchen table was a lady, off in her own special happy place, performing an act.

Let's just say....her headlights were showing, and she was double-clicking her mouse.