New Year and New Contract

My older sister Dana came to visit us December 26th through 30th. The weather was snowy, but not as snowy as Minnesota was getting at the time. She had to travel through some seriously adverse conditions to get to the airport, but the flights were on time! One of Minnesota's cities, Duluth, accumulated 24 inches of snow over the weekend.

While Dana was here in Pittsburgh we went to the last Steelers home game versus the Ravens, ate many fine meals, including Pittsburgh's famous Primanti Bros., rode the Incline to the top of Mt. Washington, bowled, went to a comedy club, saw a movie, and much more.

We rode to the top of the incline at night so the pictures are a little blurry but below is Dana and Tuff standing at the top with Pittsburgh in the background.


Tuff wanted to pose with the Incline operator.


On our ride down. It was really cold and the Incline cars do not have heaters.


Dana just couldn't help herself with all the Steelers gear and had to try on the old helmet look.


Below we are seated at a booth at Hyde Park Steak House near the stadium. It was packed with Steelers fans right after the game.


Pictured below is the famous Primanti Bros. sandwich. They stuff the sandwich with coleslaw and french fries, and your choice of meat. There are now several shops around Pittsburgh and its suburbs but we visited its original shop located in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, founded in 1933.



Tuff posed next to a mural painting inside the shop of several famous Pittsburgh people, including his teammate Troy Polamalu.


Most of you know the Steeler's season ended yesterday. What a roller coaster season. Tuff had a team meeting today and afterward the GM talked with Tuff and asked him to sign a one year contract. They would like Tuff to come back and compete for a roster spot next season.

As usual, the one year contract does not mean that Tuff is guaranteed another year with the Steelers. It just means that the Steelers have his rights until they release him, which can be before the contract is up; it could be any day really. So for now we will plan on starting off-season training in Pittsburgh mid March.

Other exciting news is that my brother Derek and sister-in-law Marianne found out the genders of their twins due in May. They are both boys and identical twins. Derek says that Soren (their one-year-old son) needed brothers. Marianne disagrees! Derek also says that they have 3/5 a hoop team and half a golf team now with the news of two more boys. He coaches both these sports.