My sister invited me to the last Browns game of the season. I finally got to meet the person who has been giving her all the tickets. The best part of this story is that the Cleveland Browns won, and that is the first time that I have been at the new stadium for a game that they have won.

I would like to spend a minute describing the cold. The picture above is of my sister holding a beer upside down. The beer is quite obviously frozen, as any beer that we would have would be, because it was below freezing outside. I do not know exactly how cold it was, but at one point I think someone said that it was 12 degrees. I do not know if this is something everyone is aware of, but when you find out the temperature in Cleveland you are only getting half the story. Due to lake effect and wind chill you do not know how cold it really is until you take those two things into account. The stadium is right next to the lake, and I have to imagine that with those two things counted in it was probably well into the negatives.

I met the nice young woman who has been supplying the tickets for me this year. I got to go to the pre-season game against the Detroit Lions and this game. She was really nice, and it turns out that she will probably be able to do this same thing next year. That is very promising, because I would definitely enjoy going to more games.

The women were bundled up much better than I was. I think they were each wearing like 3 coats each. It was nice being there for the Browns actually winning for a change. We went out to eat afterwards. It was a nice way to bring in the new year. Maybe it’s a sign that this year will be better than the last. My sister took all these photos with her iPhone, because I was running a bit late to the game and forgot my camera. The pictures came out really well though, and that is good.

I said there would be a part two, because I still had another present left for Eddy. That present has come all the way from Japan and I was finally able to give it to him. Thus concluding Christmas on my part, and ensuring that the kids got the one thing that they really wanted, which is good, because they really only got one thing for Christmas this year.

The toy passed through customs and made it to Jo’s door on Tuesday, so really it did not spend that long in customs. I had no idea it was even that close to being delivered, because while I got an update that it was entering customs on the USPS website I did not receive the same sort of notice when it left customs and started heading from Chicago to here. Jo called me when he got the notice that the delivery had been missed, and we decided to meet in Cuyahoga Falls.

We met in the parking lot and moved it from the trunk of his car to the trunk of mine. We went inside and ate. I brought the kids with me. We ate and then parted ways. I went to GameStop, because I wanted to trade in more games, because I have been trading in a great deal of games lately. The guys inside know me and when I told them about the gift they wanted me to go ahead and give it to him there in the GameStop. He was shocked. I wish I had a picture of his expression. Mouth agape and just pure joy.

We brought it home and we assembled it without any problems. The only thing I actually had to do to help really was get the batteries, because they were not included. He was wearing it. He is still wearing it. He has been wearing it every day. I don’t mind as long as he doesn’t take it outside and break it or lose it. I have warned him that people will try and steal it. That seems to be a theme for Akron and I want him to be aware of it. This was a good Christmas.