Over at Working Stiffs, I'm subbing for Will today. Since there was a little football game going on during the time I would normally write my blog post, I simply made it a diary of the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, the ending didn't turn out the way I'd hoped, but if you can stand to see a grown woman cry, come on over and check it out.

Steeler mania is rocking my brain this week, and since it's my day to blog at Working Stiffs , what else would I possibly write about?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are Super Bowl bound yet again. The thrill never gets old. Possibly because the Steelers know how build tension and create drama better than most thriller writers. We never seem to play some boring old blow-out game. Never mind that minutes before halftime, the score last night was Steelers 24-Jets 0. Like a good mystery/suspense/thriller writer, they had to throw in a twist at the midpoint by letting the Jets get a momentum shifting field goal. Then came the second half. The Jets scraped and clawed their way back into the game and the Steelers seemed content to let them. Just to keep us fans on the edge of our seats. One never falls asleep in front of the TV during a Steelers game. I’ve learned a lot about writing a good page-turner by watching Steelers football games over the years. Never mind that about half of my gray hairs can be directly attributed to this team I affectionately refer to as “the Cardiac Kids.” The big lesson is keep the fan—or reader—guessi...

Those of us in the Pittsburgh area LOVE our Steelers. So when someone makes accusations as severe as rape against our star quarterback, we get a little concerned. But the way these charges have been filed raise questions that won't be answered any time soon. We're talking about it over at Working Stiffs today.

I’m not going to whine about the weather today. I’m letting my pictures do all the whining for me. No, these are not black and white photographs. They simply show the complete dearth of color in my world right now. It’s snowing. Again. This is my view from my bedroom window. And this is my view from my kitchen window. This is what I see as I wash dishes. This is a tighter shot, showing my bird feeder. I’ll have you know, THESE cardinals are Pittsburgh Steelers fans. In this one, I’m standing on my front porch, looking out across the snow-covered road. This is what is known as good writing weather.

I love the Pittsburgh Steelers , but I’d be the first to admit that there were moments this season when I’d have laughed hysterically at the notion of this team going to the Super Bowl. Fast Willie Parker wasn’t able to get up a good head of steam. Big Ben spent an awful lot of time on his back after being sacked for the umpteenth time. Yeah, our defense was incredible, but there were just too many squeaky wins in the last minutes of the game. And what Steelers fan can forget the horror of seeing Ben being driven off Heinz Field on a stretcher. The “thumbs up” he gave as he disappeared into the tunnel helped, but how much abuse can one guy take? In the case of Ben Roethlisberger, apparently a lot. The game against the Chargers was a thing of beauty. It was also the game where I finally thought, Super Bowl? Hmm. Maybe. Just maybe… The Steelers finally seemed to be clicking on all cylinders. EVERYONE looked good all at the same time. Maybe we were peaking at the precise moment we needed ...

The problem with Christmas falling on a Thursday is that now I don’t know what day it is. Wednesday was Friday. Thursday was Sunday. Yesterday? I don’t know what yesterday was. I’m not sure about today either. Besides the confusion over the day of the week, I’m confused over time of the year. A few days back, it was three degrees in the morning and didn’t climb out of the teens. Today, it’s 66 degrees outside, flirting with 70. Is it any wonder I’m confused? At least the heat wave has given me an opportunity to walk off some of those cookies. And I may not know for sure what day of the week yesterday was, but Hubby and I took advantage of it and ventured out to buy our new TV. Just in time. The last few times we turned on the old one, we had to turn it on about ten times before it STAYED on. Here’s a picture of the new set. (Yeah, I'm still on an Alias Smith and Jones kick.) I find myself standing in front of it, just staring at it. Reminds me of getting new eye glasses and suddenl...

I tend to get cranky when I don’t write for more than a few days. And I mean “write” as in creating a story. Not just blogging or updating my Facebook status. Working on a nonfiction article will do in a pinch, especially if it’s one that might produce income and therefore support my writing habit. Let me just say…I’M CRANKY. I put the novel on hold a couple of weeks ago so that I could work on the short story that’s due the end of February. Then I had to put the short story on hold to spend all my computer hours working on the 2009 Pennwriters Conference . I’m Conference Coordinator in case you’ve missed my earlier posts on the topic. Registration opens January 2nd. That’s less than two weeks away. There is sooo much I wanted to have done by this point. None of it is. My list of agents and editors seems to be in constant flux. Someone drops out. Someone new offers to come. And I still have some voids in the editors department. I wanted to have a fair grasp on workshops by now. I’m a b...

Well, not really. But right now I do. Yesterday’s game (Steelers vs. Jets) sucked. Maybe not so much if you happen to be a Jets fan, but as a hardcore Steelers fan… I’m not usually a bad loser. Heck, I’m a writer. I’m used to rejection. It’s just that the guys have lulled me into a false sense of security. We’ve been pulling games out of the hat in the second half this season. So when we were down by ten points early on, I didn’t worry. We were 7-2 and knew how to win. They were 1-8 and only knew how to lose. When we started moving the ball, I felt confident. When we took the lead by a measly three points, I felt assured of victory. However, that 100 yard in penalties nagged at the back of my brain. The fact is a team cannot win when they give the other team 100 yards by being stupid. We shouldn’t have won that game yesterday. And we didn’t. I’m thinking of my dad today. I learned to love football from him. But I didn’t develop my love of the Steelers from him. Dad HATED the Steelers. ...

Mom made it through yesterday’s surgery. My brother and I set up camp in the tenth floor waiting room of Allegheny General…a room I’ve become much too familiar with. He read a David Baldacci novel ( Last Man Standing ) between naps. I read Laura Lippman’s The Last Place . When we noticed the common theme of our reading choices, we agreed that we hoped this was also the LAST hip surgery Mom would need. The prognosis is good. Dr. Ray doesn’t think she will dislocate again, though being a smart man, he admits to making no promises. She shouldn’t need the brace anymore, but will be on a walker for another six weeks. We can live with that. She will be in the hospital until the end of the week. After that it’s anybody’s guess. I had an interesting drive home. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in the city on a night when the Steelers were playing Monday Night Football before or not. I rather think not. Perhaps last night’s festivities were kicked up because of the presence of the Steelers’ A...