So Sunday is the big Steelers vs. Browns game and it's annoying enough that it's NOT on a channel anyone but the wealthy can afford (c'mon, I don't even have cable, let alone the NFL ticket -- I'd need a 2nd job and, frankly, this one sucks up most of my time), but I just realized that Sunday is the day my Mother is having our Thanksgiving dinner.

You see, I have a wonderful mother who knows what it's like have to run from house to house on holidays, so we celebrate the "big" holidays early -- we have Christmas on Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving the weekend before Thanksgiving. All of my brothers and my sister have their own families and in-laws, so by having the holiday on a different day, my mother gets to have us all there at the same time. It's nice because we don't have to stuff ourselves with two meals on turkey day or rush from the Turkey Trot 10K to my parents, to his parents. Normally, the whole thing works out really well.

Except this year, because Buffalo is on the road and the stupid, stupid NFL thinks we care (so the Steelers game will not be televised on CBS).

The one good thing about this Sunday's situation is that we know Mom will be home cooking all morning & afternoon, so we may as well leave her our couple of little helpers and go down to the local bar and watch a few hours of the game before we have to be back at Mom's for dinner at 3 p.m.

With any luck, the Steelers will be so far ahead by then, it won't matter if we have to leave in the 3rd quarter, right?