My God, it's Beautiful

"I said 39 times that I love you
to the beauty I had found"
                -- The White Stripes

It started, as so many stories start, with a passing comment from Deb on the commute into work.  "What did you order from UPS?"
"Nothing I can remember, why?"
"I'm signed up for this thing where UPS lets me know when we have a package coming and I got a notice saying that there is something on the way."
"Huh.  I don't remember ordering anything."  (note, we both know that this in no way means that I didn't order something)

Later that day.  "I talked to Dan and he ordered something to come to our house so that has to be what it is."  Whew.  Mystery resolved.

Cut to yesterday afternoon.  I had a dentist appointment, came home and there was a box on the dining room table for me.  I ask Deb, "did you open it?"  "Does it look opened?"  "You should have opened it."  "I'm not opening a box that has your name on it."  So I opened it.  And this is what was inside:

It is a thing of beauty.  It is a treasure.  It is our, the TSAVFL's, Stanley Cup.  We have Erin to thank for this.  I have decided that when this season is over, I will send this to the winner, who will be able to serve as its custodian until the next TSAVFL champion receives it and so forth.  It is to be celebrated.  Drink with it, pose it in places, do what you will with this Super Awesome symbol which proves, for that season, that YOU, future TSAVFL champion, YOU HAVE INDEED MADE IT THROUGH THAT YEAR AND IT DID NOT KILL YOU.

Erin, I cannot thank you enough.  This is one of life's few Perfect Things.

I believe that NBC may be actively conspiring to make the TSAVFL draft as difficult as humanly possible.  I do not know why they are doing this but there is no other way to read the upcoming DVR description of next Monday's episode which, if I am reading this correctly (and I was stoned at the time so let us take that into consideration), gives me the impression that it is BOTH the end of the auditions AND the beginning of the battles.  HOW IN THE HELL IS THIS POSSIBLE?   Is BIG NETWORK afraid of the TSAVFL?  THANKS OBAMA.

So friends, we must gather in the comments to figure out a draft time/schedule.  Gina M and Ed are travelling and we have the usual West Coast/East Coast time differences.  The honor system as ever is deployed so that if and when the battles start we are bound to DVR/tape delay until after we are able to draft.

Tuesday would probably be too soon to process the final team picks and draft lists for those of us who watch Monday on delay.  But temptation is usually SO HARD to put off until the weekend.  It is a quandary.

I would suggest finding a time between Wednesday March 11th and Friday the 13th but let us discuss below and see what restrictions folks have.

A final note, Deb is hard at work on both her draft list and her Rainbow Connection team name.  This is a conversation we had on our commute:
Deb:  So have you decided what your spirit animal is?
Me:  What?
Deb:  FOR THE VOICE.  Your spirit animal!  For the team name!  Like Gabriel Wolfchild!
Me:  Hmm.  How about Scallop Oysterheart?
Deb (slightly irritated):  You're just hungry.  And oysters don't have hearts.

IT'S DRAFT TIME PEOPLE!!!  WHO'S EXCITED?

I hope your spirit animal is easier to find than mine (and remind me one day to tell my spirit animal story),
Pat