Chief in my heart today

is the Patriots' win over the Ravens in the AFC Championships.  I seriously didn't think the Pats would get past the Ravens, even before the game.  But miracle by miracle the win happened (although it took some screw-ups by the Ravens for the Patriots to win), and now on to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

The NFC didn't go the way I hoped.  I was so hoping the 49ners would beat the Giants since I really dislike Giants quarterback Eli Manning.  Mainly because I am just not fond of the Manning family in general though I respect them as superb players and athletes.  But the Giants prevailed, prompting a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl in which the Giants won at the last minute.  I hope that doesn't happen this time around. 

Over the past few years I have become a football geek.  I have NFL Network on my FIOS and watch it regularly.  Alone of most of the people I know I knew that if the Ravens and the 49ners won their conferences it would be the first matchup of brothers as head coaches in NFL history (the Harbaughs).  I know the QBs of almost all the AFC teams, am aware of who has the highest picks in this year's draft, and on and on.  I know that Rex Ryan is the coach of the Jets and that his brother Rob is the defensive coordinator of the Cowboys. 

Drew Bledsoe

I don't think I was ever much interested in football most of my life.  About the only time I got interested was whenever the Pats got into the Super Bowl--which was rare.  1986 and 1996 were the first two.  However, when Drew Bledsoe became the QB for the Pats, for some reason I got interested.  Not because I was a particular fan of Bledsoe, but something clicked. 

Tedy Bruschi

Then came the infamous hit to Bledsoe in 2001 that took him out for the season, and Tom Brady took over and never looked back.  I was saddened that Bledsoe was brushed aside after shepherding the team for several years, and I really have never quite taken to Brady as much as everybody else has.  Yes, the man is a QB for the ages but maybe he's too pretty (lol), too photogenic.

No, the player I really love still is Tedy Bruschi, the great former linebacker for the Pats.  I have a photo on my refrigerator of him with Tom Brady.  Most people who see the picture think it's because Brady is in the photo.  Nope.  When I saw the photo at a sports memorabilia kiosk at Providence Place Mall, it was mine!  I so rarely saw 8x10's with Bruschi that I had to have it.  Just something about him that piques my interest.

So, to turn this back to art, while I was home watching the game (and before I went to my mom in law's to play Scrabble), I did work on some collages that had been previously done that I wasn't happy with. 

One collage that I'd rejected is this one.  Try as I might I just couldn't get enthusiastic about it.  Well, it's gone to  Collage Heaven.  I took it apart and scrubbed down the canvas for future use.  It just wasn't working and I just wasn't happy at all.

However, I had better luck with a second collage that I worked on. 

This collage looked like this earlier:

I loved the textures and the colors, but thought it was really, really bland.  So, I played around with it a bit, and came up with a new version.

I like it better now.  The two additional elements added seem to give it a little more interest.  Maybe.  Now that I look at it again, I'm again not so sure.  Guess it'll have to sit a while longer.

It feels good to be working.  I have not done anything with the board book since Saturday, except gather materials.  Today I'll get back to it.