It’s the time of the year when I can watch tons of cute college boys with huge muscles in really tight uniforms (thank you, Under Armour for that,) run and jump around doing all kinds of agility moves. It also gives me the chance to really scope out and do some scouting of my own for MY 2012 hottest NFL draft picks. Because let’s be honest; I’m not really looking for the next best quarterback or linebacker that’s going to take a team by storm in his rookie year.

I’m looking for the next Tom Brady, Chad Ochocinco or Clay Matthews. I’m looking for hotness and an ass that those tight football pants will perfectly hug.

No one will ever replace my Clay, but I’m going to need some backups to drool over while the Packers aren’t playing.

Yes, I’m referring to the 2012 NFL Combine.

It took me a while to really understand the reason behind the Combine. I mean, if you’re good, you’re good. Right? Here’s my comparison:

If you excel in high school and get really good grades, colleges are going to keep a closer eye on you come application time. But you still need to wake up early on a Saturday and take the dreaded SAT. Based on your score, it shows colleges your technical thinking skills and how well you can take a test. So if you do really well, it’s just the cherry on top of the sundae.

The Combine is the SAT of professional football. These guys are obviously good, but they need to wake up early on a Saturday, and do a bunch of televised physically challenging drills ON TOP of a written test and a bunch of interviews all while potential NFL scouts watch their every move. No pressure at all.

So while these young guys are experiencing some of the most intense pressure they’ve ever been under, and the scouts are watching every move these guys make because their draft decisions can impact their teams’ future, I’m staring at glutes, pecs and biceps.

Happy viewing everyone! Here’s to a great weekend.

Even as a little girl, my favorite school holiday was Valentines Day. Every year, I would get an old shoebox, bedazzle it with pink sequins and red glitter and cut a hole in the top to use as my own personal “mailbox.” I would make valentines out to each of my classmates, and put special messages in the ones addressed to the cute boys in my class.

I loved dumping out my mailbox when I got home to find suckers and Hershey kisses taped to The Little Mermaid, Barbie, Gem and Care Bears themed valentines from the girls, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and GI Joe from the boys.

I love cutting hearts out of red construction paper and gluing doilies to the back.

I love conversation candy hearts.

I love the colors pink, red, white and purple.

I love flowers.

I love LOVE.

Ready to puke yet? I’m a sap. I can’t help myself. Well, for those of you who hate the holiday, I want to add a little humor to your day. My coworkers and I came across this site called WTF, Pintertest? Here, you will find the craziest of the cray pins. And in here, I found the CRAZIEST Valentines Day gifts. The types of gifts that make you say WTF?! For example,

Who wouldn’t LOVE a 5ft long bear? Oh, and it’s ONLY $99. For kids, maybe. But for grown women? Either don’t spend the $99 at all, or spend it on something a tad bit more practical. I need to take a Claritin just to watch this video. Hello, dust allergy city!

Or how about this sexy lingerie? Wait… what?? Nothing says sexy like looking like you’re wearing a colored maxi pad.  I would really like to know how this thing stays in place. It’s just wrong. So wrong. But this is for real. You can actually buy this. And the scary thing is, there are people out there RIGHT NOW probably wearing this under their clothes, or worse, to the beach.

Now, I’ve heard of edible underwear before, but beef jerky underwear? How romantic. All I can think of while looking at this is, It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.

You’ll find more if you go on the site, but these were three of my favorites.

And in case you’re not completely in the Valentines Day spirit yet, I have a little something something for you… Hell yes, Michael Bolton. Because after all, love IS a wonderful thing.

I dare you NOT to sing along and clap your hands to arguably, one of the most awful songs of the 90s….

J Laz, this one’s for you…

Now imagine a world where you have SO many beauty products that you don’t know what to do with, that you actually need to give them away!

Sound wonderful, doesn’t it? Well, if you have a rocking blog called All Lacquered Up like my friend Michelle, it’s a total reality. I could only imagine…

Her nail polish focused beauty blog allows her to get connected with some top beauty brands. And she’s nice enough to share her swag. Not only does she share it, she hosts an annual private party to her personal, blogger and Twitter friends and sells all of the samples she received throughout the year and donates all of the proceeds to a charity.

This year, all of the money raised went to Friends of the Cleveland Kennel and Second Hand Mutts, two wonderful organizations that provide shelter and a second chance at a good life for animals in need.

So I’m buying make up and my money goes to animals?? I immediately sprinted to the ATM.

This was my first year attending. With that being said, I made some pretty amateur moves. A) I didn’t bring NEARLY enough money, B) I didn’t bring a shopping bag, C) I waited to be the last person in the room (of about 25 other ladies) to go through all of the stuff. Lessons learned. I will be fully prepared for battle next year.

I snapped a few pictures just to prove that this actually happened, and swimming in a sea of makeup, beauty products and nail polish wasn’t a dream.

Table 1: Nail Polish galore

Table 2: Liners, Glosses & Hair Stuff

Table 3: MAC, n MORE!

I would say Lisa’s face pretty much sums up how all of us felt.

So for $20 (because that was all I allowed myself to spend,) I got four awesome MAC products! Two lip glosses, bronzer and some blush.

SCORE!

I’m not kidding when I say some girls’ bags had $200 worth of stuff in them. But I couldn’t be happier to walk away with my four amazing products!

So, yes, this would be my Heaven. And Michelle gets to live it everyday. Lucky (and a very generous) girl. And because of our crazy makeup obsessions, Michelle raised $1300 to go to the dogs. Way to go Michelle and ladies!

And lots and lots of Sunday Lifetime movie marathons.

OK, let’s be real, people. None of this will happen. But he does owe me a nice dinner or two.

What kind of blogger girlfriend to a football fanatic would I be if I didn’t give a quick recap of the Super Bowl?

I donned my favorite pair of elastic stretch “eating pants” and made and ate a ton of food. Spinach dip, pizza dip, buffalo chicken dip (yeah lots of dips) and more. I maybe had a few pudding shots and beers, too.

Being a marketer, I love watching all of the ads to see what the brands have come up with. I’m enamored with the whole psychology aspect of advertising, and why brands serve the ads they serve to influence buyers’ decisions the way that they do.

For example, you’d better believe that I’m going straight to H&M after work today to purchase my boyfriend some white briefs. I mean………..

Ummm Yeah…..

But don’t hate on me for being too superficial, folks. All of the men in the room were basically licking the TV screen when this ad came on:

Understandably. She’s hot.

Besides all of the companies and brands selling sex to get consumers to look their way, there were a lot of funny ones, too. Lots of dogs. Lots and lots of dogs.

My personal favorite was the Volkswagen spot. That St. Bernard had some SERIOUS will power.

I would love to sit in on some of the board meetings when some of the ideas for these commercials are finalized. The good, the bad and the ugly.

The one thing  that the Super Bowl should give us is a pee/stretch break very similar to the 7th Inning Stretch in baseball. Because seriously, WHEN ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PEE?? I can’t get up during the plays (well yes, I could, but I don’t want to look like a loser in front of everybody for not being into the game.) And I certainly can’t get up during commercial breaks! Risking a bladder infection in the name of football and advertising is just not worth it.

Now onto the halftime show…
So what did we all think?

Well, at 53 years old, she’s a fox and can move better than I could ever hope to. When ‘Like a Prayer’ started, I got chills.

About the lip singing… I was in show choir and musical theater throughout my high school career. (Don’t judge.) And to jump, dance and rock out all while keeping the lung capacity to belt out an acceptable-sounding tune is REALLY difficult to do. Although I always appreciate live vocals, and would have liked to hear her actually sing, I still have mad love for the woman and I think the performance was spectacular. Everyone’s a critic when it comes to halftime shows.

I am, however going to throw out that if I could spend just ONE day where Nicki Minaj isn’t featured in a song, video or performance, that would be a fantastic day for me. I’m over it. It’s great everyone wants to feature her, but if you ask me, she hurts a lot of songs by being featured in them rather than adding any type of value. She doesn’t need to be in every song!!

And last but not least, who didn’t love Betty White’s congratulatory speech to the Giants? Hehe!

We ALL can dream, can’t we? It will happen in my lifetime. And this city will be on a six month-long party status.

So there’s my Super Bowl recap, and I just realized that I didn’t include a single thought about the actual game itself. Go figure.

Oh, and by the way, in case anyone’s counting, 58 days until the Indians Home Opener, and 38 days until March Madness begins.

Questions, questions! But the most important question of all; What FOOD are you indulging in?

The Big Guy and I like to be Crash Test Dummies for Super Bowl snacks every year. We test out some recipes before the Big Day, and if they’re good enough, we post them here for you to enjoy. We really hate testing out and trying all this food, but someone’s gotta do it. Right?

Last year, we went with Buffalo Chicken Dip, Pizza Squares, Football Cupcake Cake, Pumpernickel Spinach Dip, and my personal favorite, Chili Cheese Dog Nachos.

Yes, we made each one. Yes, we tested them out. And yes, my pants didn’t fit by Super Bowl Sunday.

I tried to raise the bar this year by finding some unique ides. I think I have some good ones for you.

First up:

Last Bite of Chipotle Dip. You know how you get to the last bite of your delicious Burrito Bowl and you have a sad moment because you realize your time together is almost over? And why is it always the best tasting bite? Well, we came up with a dip that tastes like the last time, EVERY time.

We followed this recipe, and combined this recipe for the rice, added some shredded cheese and fresh cilantro for garnish. I made this for Stephen and his buddies for the AFC/NFC Championship weekend, and apparently, it was gone within five minutes.

Next up:

Oven Baked Chili Cheese Coneys. These were so easy and sooo good!

Follow this recipe for bubbly, cheesy hot diggity goodness!

Other recipes that look too good to pass up:

Pulled Pork Parfaits

Photo courtesy of Neale Johantgen (@ho9sier) taken from Miller Park

Individual Seven Layer Dips

Cheddar bacon Ranch Pull Apart Bread

Pizza Dip

Are you drooling yet? Happy Super Bowl weekend. We will be celebrating allllllll weekend, I’m sure. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the fattening but wonderful foods, remember one of Bethenny’s rules: TASTE everything, EAT nothing. You’ll be happy the next day that you didn’t overdo it.

]]> http://sportsstolemyman.com/2012/02/02/gameday-yums/feed/ 2 http://sportsstolemyman.com/2012/01/30/bueller-is-back-in-a-c-rv/ http://sportsstolemyman.com/2012/01/30/bueller-is-back-in-a-c-rv/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:50:35 +0000 Jennifer Spike http://sportsstolemyman.com/?p=1822 Only SIX more days until I get to eat tasty not-so-good-for-me snacks, drink a lot of beer, watch fantastic commercials and Madonna!

Oh, and I guess that whole Patriots vs Jets thing in between the rest of this awesomeness is important to some people, I suppose.

If this is a forecast of what the Super Bowl commercials are going to bring us this year, I’m super pumped!

I thought companies paid millions in ad space to wow people with their commercials on Super Bowl Sunday itself. Not sure why Honda decided to release it early. Nonetheless, I’m excited for this and others!

Stay tuned for recipes ideas from yours truly for the big day! I came across some pretty neat ones this year!

Yes, I thought so. I’m going to be so rich.

And if he counteracts me with a Pinterest-blocking app, I’ll break up with him.

I, for one, am very proud of myself because I watched both games. I could have run home to catch the Kardashians last night, but I stayed to watch the overtime. And that, my friends, is a first. I got a little confident in my spectating skills at one point and even went so far as to tweet out what I THOUGHT was an interception.

The ‘interception’ was actually the Kyle Williams FUMBLE that pretty much spoon fed the Giants a field goal to win the game.

My friend Mason quickly corrected me, although the damage had been done. I looked like an idiot.

(Fumble vs interception…. I need to work on that one.)

Jokes aside, I’d like to go back to last night’s fumble and discuss the tweets following it. (Any 49ers fans reading this, I would look away. -Yes, I’m talking to you, Molly. So sorry, girl.)

OK, that had to sting for any 49ers fan. Once this happened, it was all over. I, for one, had no allegiance to either team. I just decided that yesterday morning, I would root for the Giants. No reason in particular. That’s just how I roll.

When I got home, I decided to do a Twitter search just to see what people were saying about the game. I scrolled down my feed in disgust.

Get the picture? And there are more where these came from. OK, so let me get on my soapbox here for a minute. It’s perfectly understandable and acceptable for fans to be upset with Williams. The man gets paid very well to catch balls and hold onto them. But death threats to a man and his family are plain crossing the line.

The thing I love about Twitter is that it gives fans the opportunity to interact with athletes and celebrities, but how far is too far? In my eyes, this is just crossing the line. Sure losing the AFC Championship and losing a spot in the Super Bowl totally sucks, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a game, people. I get that emotions fly, and I’m very certain that the majority of these tweets weren’t entirely sober, but come on.

Is it too much to ask to put some brain cells to use before hitting that ‘send’ button?

These people need a serious reality check. And while they’re at it, they need to revisit a 4th grade English class because based on some of these tweets, their basic grammar skills are atrocious.

I will repeat myself. IT’S JUST A GAME.

My wish for these people is that they wake up to a slew of nasty messages back and are forced to deactivate their accounts. Ignorant cowards.

Now excuse me while I go and try to regain my faith in humanity.

Happy Monday, folks. And to all you social media practitioners out there, please allow yourself a moment to think before sending out something stupid.

Words are weapons and they can hurt.

Besides stuffing my face with bad food, the Halftime Show and funny commercials, the Super Bowl is meaningless to me now. All of football is. Without Clay’s dimples, impressive posterior, huge muscles and golden locks, it’s just not worth it.

The last 24 hours have been really rough for me.

Just staring out the window… yearning for just one more Packers game so that I can pause an instant replay that gets just the perfect angle of his butt. Or watch his Predator move every time he successfully sacks a quarterback. Oh, Clay, I already miss you.

Somehow, I will pull myself out of this. But like Mariah Carey says… “Love takes time to heal when you’re hurting so much.”

I’ve made a slideshow of him to get myself through the next few days. Yes, it’s  five minutes long of 30 of my favorite pictures. Don’t judge.

Then again, I’ve heard that a clean break is the best way to go. Either way, until next season, Clay. Until next season. XOXO

This is agony.

Oh, how time passes and things change…

Now the ‘cozy’ weather has turned into a Winter Weather Advisory, the Bears’ season sucked and the Broncos are in the Playoffs.

I will be shopping and going to dinner this weekend, because I’ve done my research and planned accordingly for this weekend. I will, once again, be boyfriendless. Here’s this weekend’s schedule for you to reference: