Joel and I both have a hard time saying no.  For him, it's the people lover in him- he wants to make the people around him happy.  For me, it's the kinetic driver in me- I feel worthless unless something is getting accomplished, and I'm always convinced I can do more.  But we both recognize it and have tried to get better about saying no to things, especially when it comes to Sundays.  As with many things, Joel is better at this than me, but we make a concerted effort to spend Sundays together with the pups, especially during football season.  We'll wake up, take the dogs on a run, clean the house/make breakfast, maybe make a Costco run, and then pick a spot in the house to watch football from the morning game all the way to Sunday Night Football, interrupted only by the occasional nap or to check on the crockpot dinner we have cooking.  The early slate of games is great- we have RedZone, so we follow along all the excitement while cheering or yelling depending on how our fantasy teams are doing.  Afternoon slows down a bit, but is still entertaining, especially because this is the time when the Raiders often play.  But I think I love the night game the most.  The focus narrows to two teams playing in one stadium that I'm probably chomping at the bit to get to (or get back to).  With the Steelers being consistently good, we've had plenty of opportunities to go to bed Sunday night dreaming of the day we got to twirl the Terrible Towel with the Pittsburgh faithful.  Lucky for us, we were finally there!  Add in the fact that it was the Sunday Night game and an opportunity for the Steelers to clinch the division, and we knew we were in for a not-terrible time. 

When I found out Joel was taking at least a year off from coaching high school basketball, I was conflicted.  On one hand, I was unbelievably excited to get to spend more time with him.  But on the other hand, I knew he might miss it in spite of the amazing amount of time, energy, and effort it required of him.  Determined to make him miss it a little less, I decided to take advantage of his newfound free time and plan a trip for us to hit up some football, basketball, and hockey games!  Our "Midwest Tour" started in Pittsburgh, where we got to see the home team take on Joel's favorite college squad, the West Virginia Mountaineers.

One shining moment.  That’s what we were going to see on Monday night.  Would UNC win another banner?  Or would Gonzaga cement themselves in the annals of history as the little mid major that could?  The year before, Villanova had defeated UNC in one of the classic national championship games- buzzer beater to down Goliath.  We were hoping for an equally exciting and memorable experience here!