Our Weekend

We spent the weekend attacking our guest bedroom, which has been piled high with boxes since I moved in. It was hard work but lots of fun going through boxes and finding things I hadn't seen since I moved home from Japan three years ago! While sorting through my stuff Danny found my Ab Roller, which I think every woman between the ages of 20 and 40 has owned. Guys apparently aren't as familiar with the Ab Roller. When I walked into the living room I found Danny like this.
He was asking "Is this how you use it? I don't feel anything in my abs." It was too funny not to take a picture and share with the world.

Sunday evening Danny facilitated a baby dedication at Refuge, our church's Sunday night worship service. He was asked to be Honorary Uncle for baby AJ, so he held the baby during the dedication and then led a prayer of blessing.
Everyone enjoyed teasing the newlywed who has had little experience holding a baby. After a little squirming from both the baby and Danny, they bonded and Danny got a sweet smile from the little one.
Congrats to the proud parents of all the babies dedicated this weekend! If you need babysitting, call us because my husband could use some practice before we even think about having little ones of our own. No, Grace, not yet.

Speaking of, while watching SportsCenter last night we came up with the name for our first child: Dallas A. Cal Fitelson.

Happy Birthday Danny!

My handsome new husband had his 32nd birthday yesterday, September 13. Instead of having people over or going out to dinner he chose to have a quiet night at home. It felt great after all the running around of the past few weeks!

The cake may seem a little large for two people, but there's a reason I went all out. While planning our wedding and tasting many different flavors of cake we decided on our favorite: marble cake with Kahlua filling. It's divine. I didn't think everyone would like Kahlua as much as we did, and Danny thought it might be too scandalous to serve at the wedding, so we opted to have only the top tier of the cake made out of marble cake with Kahlua filling. It was going to be a special cake tier just for us and the bridal party. Of course on the actual wedding day, the reception was so hectic that we didn't get to taste any cake (except the little bit we shoved in each other's mouths). We have no idea what happened to our special Kahlua cake. It was probably served to the seniors the next day at the Community Center.

So, for Danny's birthday, I went back to our wedding baker and had them make a birthday cake just for Danny with the marble cake and Kahlua filling. They also did all the A's decorations (that decal on top is edible!) and he was really surprised. I was very glad the A's won yesterday! It would have been awkward if they played awful and he came home saying "Our season's over, I don't want to talk about baseball for the rest of the year" as he does every time they lose. Since they won, the decorations and the yummy cake were a hit and we finally got to enjoy our wedding cake. Now we need people to come over and help us eat it!

As a funny side note, Danny's youth group found out his birthday was this week so at youth group on Tuesday night they sang "Happy Birthday" and had him blow out a candle. The catch was that the candle was an "Over the Hill" candle that played the death march, and it wasn't on top of a cake but a port wine cheese ball.

Are You Ready For Some (fantasy) Football?

"My two favorite days of the year are Christmas and fantasy football draft day." -- The Daddy, 2006 Commissioner of the "Buncha Crazed Dogs" Fantasy Football League

Last week marked the 10th year that I have taken place in a fantasy football draft. All ten of these years I have been in a league with Brent and The Daddy. For a few years while I was living in Fresno, Brent, The Daddy and I took part in a league with guys who lived in Oakland, Fresno, L.A. and Hawaii. This year, the league is comprised entirely of Bay Area residents: Icy J, GuruWoo, Castro, the Rhoads Bowl (he lives in Santa Cruz, but close enough), D Roth, Brent's brother Todd, and Paul Fig who hosted the draft in his garage. This was probably the first draft that I have been a part of where all the owners were present and nobody had to call in or send their picks in via a chat room.

Ours is a "keeper league" where everyone gets to keep 2 of their players from the previous year and then the rest go back into the pot, along with any rookies like Reggie Bush. The aforementioned Bush went #1 overall to Rhoads, who is banking on him becoming a superstar. I protected Larry Johnson and Cadillac Williams and got Anquan Boldin with the 4th pick overall. Overall, I was happy with the team I ended up with, but feel that Castro with his core of Ronnie Brown, Clinton Portis, Larry Fitzgerald, Torry Holt and Antonio Gates has the strongest team.

Why do I "waste my time" on fantasy football you may ask? Well, first and foremost I do it for the camraderie. Nothing beats snickering at your friend after he has unknowingly drafted a player who is already injured and out for the season.

Here is a list of my Top 5 favorite moments from previous drafts:

5. 2006 -- P Fig leans back a little *too far* on his chair and goes down to the delight and guffaws of all the other owners

4. 1998 -- When Maddy inherited Hulk's team, it was so bad he had to protect the fantasy monster Vincent "Ultimate" Brisby and world-reknowned A Pupunu

3. 1997 -- GuruWoo offers Maddy this post-draft doozy of a trade: "I'll give you some J Pathon for Randy Moss!"

2. 2002 -- Brent, ever the gangsta, writes "C Peezy" on the board meaning "Clinton Portis". Two rounds later, my friend KC who is from Fresno and entirely unaware of Oaktown slang, tries to draft Portis thinking "C Peezy" was the name of a real guy in the NFL.

1. 1998 -- "I'll take Eddie George". Dan Fig thinks he is getting a steal when one of the best RB's in football at the time slips to the 15th round. Oh, what's that? Paul got him in the first round? My bad.

City Folk

For Labor Day weekend Danny and I attended the Labor Day Youth Rally at Daybreak Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I have been a camper or volunteer at Labor Day since my freshman year at high school, so to me this weekend is more like a family reunion than a youth rally. It's a highlight of my year every year.

Usually adult volunteers have to bring their own tent and camp out for the weekend, but since I've been single in past years I could always sweet talk my way into a spot in the cabins with the high school girls. This year I had the joy of teaming with Danny as small group leaders and we had to move up into the ranks of real adults. That means no cabin for me and our first camping experience as a couple!

In preparation for camping, Danny bought a tent at a garagle sale and then purchased an air mattress so we could be rested enough to lead small group discussions. The only problem was that the tent could barely sleep two people and the air mattress was queen-sized. Can you tell we're not accustomed to camping? Yes, my husband, the Eagle Scout, is just a city boy at heart. We set up the tent and then realized how tiny it looked next to the other multi-room canvas palaces. We had a good chuckle, but Danny was so proud of his purchase and claimed we had "the cutest" tent. The real hysteria came when we tried to blow up the queen-size air mattress in the 4 by 5 foot tent. As the mattress swelled I was trying to be supportive and encouraging of my husband's efforts, but when the mattress literally popped out the door I lost it and doubled over in laughter.



Eve Medina, my former roommate and best bud, witnessed the entire event and between wiping her eyes from all the laughing managed to snap a few pictures. Even though Danny loved our cute tent and we were trying not to bruise his ego, Eve and I went to her truck and brought down her tent which actually did hold our comfy air mattress. Danny was a good sport and didn't let my rejection of the "cute" tent hurt his feelings. We had to let the air out of the mattress just to unwedge it from the little tent and move it into the larger one! We kept both tents up, one to sleep in and one for our luggage, and we quite enjoyed our little Fitelson neighborhood of tent city. Once again, what would I do without Eve Medina?

The entire weekend was a great experience. I think Danny and I made a great team leading a small group together, and we got to play and worship in the fresh mountain air with some of our favorite people!