Happy Birthday, Dad

My parents did a great job of teaching us kids to respect our elders. In fact, being a bit competitive, I have to do one better. Not just respect our elders -- but give them everything in our power.

So today for my dad's 84th birthday, I gave him a Packer victory over the Vikings. As much as it hurt my purple pride to do so, I figured, heck, the old man deserves it.

Certainly I am his favorite child for doing this. Not that I would do this for personal gain.

I mean, I would have loved nothing better than to actually keep the lead we built at halftime and give our rookie quarterback some confidence. But I knew Dad really wanted a special gift wrapped in green and gold so my boys had to lay down for the No. 1 team in the NFL. Just this once.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

He did tell me tonight he appreciated it -- knowing I have such powers. And I told him his birthday was sort of my lucky day, too. Even though the score didn't go the way I wanted to, the numbers matched up just enough for the "pool" fairy to give me $75. Whoot! (That pays for one of our tickets from our excursion to the Dome earlier this season anyway. Ha.)

As a post-game note: I was encouraged by our rookie Christian Ponder. I would love to see the Vikings move out of the "QB Retirement Home" mentality and actually let a young quarterback help the team grow. If we're having a losing season (not if), let him make his mistakes and learn from them so we can move forward -- instead of our constant "green" efforts to recycle old, washed up quarterbacks.

I am not a fair-weather fan so I am in this for the long haul no matter what the players, coach and front office do. I'm just a little tired of the re-runs. I'll keep watching, though.. sitting in my game day gear and biting my purple nails.

Here's hoping I'll actually have something to celebrate long before I turn 84!

Happy Birthday, Dad!