Findlay’s Ben Roethlisberger sat out Monday night’s game against the Ravens and the Steelers still almost won with Dennis Dixon.  Before I continue further, it was pretty evident to most if not every football fan that Dixon has a future in this league.  He can definitely win some games, even if he played a major role in the the deciding field goal giving Baltimore the win in overtime.

Now as far as what was said before and after the game, I’m not sure if I completely agree with Hines Ward’s decision to vent his frustrations through the media.  Keep in mind Ward has been one of my favorite football players over the years mainly because he’s not the biggest receiver but you could certainly make an argument that he’s one of the toughest.  He is a competitor, and he does all sorts of dirty work to make his offense better and that includes when he doesn’t have the ball.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Hines has battled through tough injuries to play before.  There’s no doubt that other athletes do the same.  Heck, I’m reading Theoren Fleury’s biography right now and it pretty much says in there that he wanted to score 50 goals in a season so badly that there was no way he wasn’t playing late in the year.  No matter how much pain he felt, he just put on a smiling face to his confused doctor and eventually the doctors and coaches let him play because Fleury refused to have them believe that he was actually injured even though the diagnosis seemed so clearly obvious.

So I get the frustration of seeing another warrior, a fellow teammate, sit out a crucial game with heavy playoff implications against a bitter rival.

Thing is, Ward chose to talk about not just a random quarterback, but one who’s helped him to two Super Bowls.  Roethlisberger’s the guy who has maintained his loyalty in distributing the ball, even as more athletic guys came through the years, like a Plaxico Burress, and then a Santonio Holmes and now, Mike Wallace.

Ward should be a little more grateful to Big Ben for his continued stay atop the game’s elite receivers.  I’m sure Ward works hard in the offseason, but Big Ben deserves SOME credit.

So considering that this isn’t Roethlisberger’s first rodeo to have a concussion, bigger priorities have to come to light.  I mean, you only need to look at the majority of NFL retirees.  They’re not in good shape, and they used to be the kings of the world.

Does Roethlisberger really want to risk being in the same state as Kyle Turley these days?  Uh… I’m sure he’ll pass on that.  When there’s talk of possibly being mentally damaged from the game, that’s pretty scary stuff.  This isn’t a short-term injury here that we’re talking about.

So Hines… as much as I love you as a player, be a good teammate and support your healing teammate and your head coach too.  Even if Mike Tomlin didn’t do a great job communicating to the team who would be the team’s starting QB against Baltimore, don’t let that get out to the public.

What happens in the Steelers’ house should STAY in the Steelers’ house.

So as another Thanksgiving passes in Toledo and yes, I know it’s already passed, it’s time for me to reflect on what makes me so thankful.

Just to preface this, I earned the nickname “Grateful Howie” when I first came because of how grateful I was to get this job in Toledo after spending two-and-a-half years in Zanesville, Ohio.  People here were like, “How can someone possibly be so thankful to be in Toledo?”

Well, let’s just say my life experiences have given me a different sense of perspective. (more…)

There are some jobs that don’t take holidays off. News if one of them. So, today I spent Thanksgiving with my news family.

I must admit, working on holidays is not as bad as it sounds. I didn’t come in until the afternoon, so I was able to spent the morning with my husband and son. Then I came to work and spent the evening with my other family – the Fox Toledo News staff. Newsrooms, in my opinion, are very tight knit communities. So, spending Thanksgiving together is only natural.

The boss had a lovely turkey dinner catered in. (Very good! Thanks chef Chuck Gerber!) We all ate around the conference table, so it was very ‘traditional’ family-like. Shaun Hegarty’s wife and daughter even joined us. I didn’t feel I was missing anything at all by being at work. Of course, the worst part was, we all had work to do and couldn’t take a nap to sleep off our turkey hangovers.

Page 5

Chapter 3:   What a Crazy Day  (Years Ago)

This will be the last day I ever speak to Paula again.  All she does is make me feel like crap.  She doesn’t care about how I feel.  She knows how important this is to me, but all she wants to talk about is her next lover whether it’s Kevin, Mike, Bill ,Ted, John, Harry, Matt or Dave.

“Lee, are you ok in there?” asked my roommate Yolanda.

“Yes Yolanda I’m fine, I just need to be alone for a moment,” I shouted back as I opened to the next page of my journal.

Dear Journal,

Another day, another minute, another hour.  I come to you because I don’t know where else to turn.  My mother thinks I’m annoying, my friends think I’m  crazy.  I need help I really do.  Gray Jackson, Gray Jackson, Gray Jackson. Why can’t I get him out of my head?  Why is this happening to me?  Every time I try to talk to Paula her responses were always callous, and blunt, and so hurtful that sometimes I wanted to stop being her friend.  He doesn’t call, he doesn’t e-mail.  Why doesn’t he feel the same way I feel about him? He’ll never talk to me! He’ll never be with me ever! I want to die.

Yolanda knocks on my door.

“What!” I yelled furiously.

She opened the door and walked right in.

“Well if you’re going to be rude about it, then maybe I should hang up on the bloody jerk, and tell him your not here,” she said.

“What?” I calmly asked this time.

“The phone, it’s for you. It’s some guy, I don’t know who it is,” she said shrugging her shoulders, as she handed me the phone.

“I’m sorry Yolanda, I’m not feeling very well today,” I apologized as she left, shutting the door behind her.

“Hello?” I said in a hush tone.

“Hello. LeeAnne? This is Gray.  How are you?”

I sat there stunned, with my mouth wide open. Gray has never called me, the last time I spoke to him was eight months ago after a class reunion, and he asked me for my phone number then but had never used it.

“Hi…uh, Gray. I didn’t expect to hear from you.  How are you doing?” I asked sitting up straight in my bed.

“I’m good, how about yourself?” he replied

“Oh I’m good, just a little stressed, due to this paper I’m working on for one of my classes,” I lied.

“What class is it for?”

Think stupid, think fast. “Uh, it’s for History 101,” now why did I say that, I already graduated from undergrad?

We talked for more than an hour, he told me about his job playing basketball and being drafted by the Miami Heat.  I talked to him about law school and my new job as a legal assistant at Kings and Spalding, a firm here in Washington DC.

“Well I will be in DC next week. Maybe you can take me around and show me why DC is our nations greatest Capitol.” Gray said jokingly.

“Of course, just give me a call anytime I’ll be around,” I replied excitement tripping my voice.

“All right then I’ll see you soon,” his voice dropped to a seductive whisper.

“Ok then, I’ll talk to you soon,” I said

“Bye.”

After we hung up I felt a lot better, I looked at the entry I just made in my journal and threw it on the floor.  I began to think and hope that maybe one day we will be together after-all.

I put the phone on its base and went in search of Yolanda.  I found her sitting on the couch watching television.

“Thanks Yolanda,” I said guiltily, “I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier.”

“You know Lee you get so worked up over this chum and it’s driving me up a wall,” Yolanda fussed at me.

“I know Yolanda, it shouldn’t have happened,” I plopped down on the couch next to her watching the reflection of the television bounce off the walls.

“You can bet your arse it wont ‘appen again, o next time I’ll tell Mr. Jackson of your fancy,” she said.

I love her accent.  Yolanda Patterson is a foreign exchange student from Westchester, England and one of my best friends. We met our sophomore year and hit it off right away, half the time I didn’t understand her wry British humor, but being her roommate was more than interesting.

———————————————————————

Riiiiiiing!!

I rolled over onto my back with an exhausted groan; I’m off today, who could be calling so early. Glancing at the clock on my side table, it blinked its red eyes at me 9:48, it wasn’t that early after all. I just hope it’s not my job calling. I don’t want to go in today, Yolanda and I had been out until four in the morning club hopping, I’m really not fit to work.

“Hello” I was still groggy.

“Hey Lee it’s Gray!  Guess where I am?”

I know he’s not here in Washington, he’s not due in until Sunday and it’s Saturday.

“How’s Miami? Hot?”  Darn I’m so stupid, now why would I ask if Miami is hot? Why couldn’t I come up with something more intelligent?

“Nope I’m not going there until Monday, My flight arrived in DC last night, and I’m calling to see if you want to go out and grab something to eat?” he said.

This is happening way too fast, he’s really in DC. My hair isn’t done; my apartment is a mess; there’s no food.  What am I going to do?

“Uh yeah, I guess we can do that,” I replied.

“Great, so where do you live? ”

“5555 17^th Street NW.” – oh well.

“Ok cool, I’ll have my driver swing by.  I’ll see you in a bit,” he said and then hung up.

————–

Tune in next week

My favorite holiday is tomorrow!!!

I feel like most people’s favorite holiday is Christmas… although I do like that holiday, and even more what it represents, it comes second to Thanksgiving for me.

While Christmas is heart-warming, what with all the giving & receiving, and dispursing of holiday cheer, (I LOVE Christmas Carols!!!) it can also be quite nerve-racking!! Traffic is ridiculous!! And on the road too! What did you think I was referring to? Shopping cart traffic, of course!! And I get some serious shopping cart rage, I admit. The whole gift-giving process just gets too stressful… I’ve pretty much resorted to online shopping altogether.

Now with Thanksgiving, being that I don’t host it, I just get to show up! And it’s all about the food! And I don’t mind baking the night before and bringing more food to the table either!! For me, it’s just a guiltless day of gorging myself with food, being lazy and watching TV and catching up with family I don’t see nearly enough.

I can’t wait!

I love planning the menu. This year, for the first time ever, my parents are coming over. Usually I work or we have friends over and catch up with the family for Christmas. So this’ll be a special treat.

While I know a few people who choose to go the tofurkey route, for me, it’s the traditional big bird. I often go for the bargain frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but since I’ve waited this long to buy one, I think I’ll spring for the fresh, non-frozen turkey. Thawing takes time or a big sink full of water, after all, and mine would be guarded by cats.

The side dish menu is always my big dilemma. I enjoy and know how to cook a lot of different things, so the hard part is narrowing the list to a manageable number of items so that I can get them all done at just the right time.

This year I’m going with cranberry-apple sauce (to be made a day ahead), mashed potatoes, oven roasted vegetables (probably sweet potato chunks with squash and maybe home-grown brussel sprouts), and finally dressing made with celery, onions and sage. I’ll probably whip up some gravy, too. Mom has volunteered to bring the pies. Pumpkin and pecan, unless she changes her mind about which kinds to make. I’ll have some whipped cream handy.

I hope you have plans to spend Thanksgiving with people you care about, be they family or your sweetheart or close friends. Be thankful that it’s a holiday without gift giving expectations and a holiday with great side dishes. Enjoy.

Last week the FOX Toledo Stormtracker Weather team issued their official Winter Weather outlook.  Click here  to view the official prediction.  You can also simply go to the weather page of foxtoledo.com to view a week long series the team put together while researching our impending winter. 

As part of our series, Weathercasters Bruce Slusher and Larry Whatley traveled over the National Weather Service office located at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport.  Their team of forecasters discussed their winter outlook with Larry and Bruce and we included it in our week long series.  That outlook was officially issued October 15th and is now available for review.  To check out the National Weather Services 2009-2010 winter weather outlook and compare it to ours you can do so by clicking here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can’t believe this, but my sister Laura is getting married on December 5th. The date is quickly arriving and as her older sister, I’m starting to get emotional.

Don’t get me wrong I am super happy for her.. I’m just wondering where the time has gone?!

It seems like yesterday we were growing up at home and spending every day together in some form.

As far as sisters go, I’d say Laura and I are very similar. We look a lot alike, and frequently get asked “Are you guys twins?” Laura is actually three years younger than me…

When it comes to everything from the way we talk… to our interests… we have so much in common.

To keep a very long story short, Laura is marrying one of my great friends from college, Brad. He lived with my husband during our time at BGSU, and I lived next door. Laura met Brad then.

Eventually there was a spark, and before anyone knew it they had solidified their relationship. I actually found out on facebook that it was official. Here’s to social networking, huh?

Anyways, I have been working on her speech for a while now, so my sister has been on my mind a lot.

I’ll make sure to put a couple of pictures up from the big day after it happens.

Brad and Laura are getting married in our hometown, Kirtland…

Best wishes to them, I am so happy, proud, and honored to be apart of the big day!!!

I’ve posted this on my facebook page and expressed those words and people think I’m getting married.  Well that’s not what I’m talking about and for now this is better than marriage: I know when my braces are coming off!

Yes the date has been set for next month and I won’t tell you exactly when it is although several people do know…let’s just see if you’ll notice.

All I’m going to say is they’re coming off in December! WHOOO…HOOO!