Sunday at Home Alone! The Little Lady Is Working. PLAYOFF FOOTBALL!!

See, the story goes like this. She has to work really early in the morning. Overtime tacked onto the regular 12-hour Sunday shift at the hospital. 4 a.m. to 7 p.m.!

I told one of the boys early in the week, who is a huge Viking's fan, we have the house to ourselves. Ravens at Dolphins, Philly at the Vikes, and for all you real hard cores, the Under Armor All American High School Game so we can peek at the next list of Saturday big timers.

What a great day! Pizza, beer, cigarettes, and football. Heck with it, I am not even going to feed the dog I think to myself as I roll over in bed to look at the clock. It says 6 a.m....no, its O.K. still time to sleep.

Then, as I lay in bed thinking about getting up and starting some coffee, I hear keys. I hear that damn squeaky door. I hear footsteps, and the sign of sure doom...my guard dog is not barking. Even the kids get barks from the dog, but not her. Damn it. This can only mean one thing...it's over. All over.

I hide my emotional pain (I'm actually quite good at this now) and give her a welcome home kiss as she crawls in bed next to me.

I pretend that I was just awakened by her presence and sleepily ask her, "what happened at work, why are you home so early?"

She happily tells me that it was, "very slow at the hospital, so I wanted to come home and spend the afternoon with you."

I'm going to be honest with you all now. Please don't judge me. I love Sunday face paint, cheerleaders with short skirts, and football vulgarity just as much, if not more then the next guy.

Where I come from, Sunday is called "no shower Sunday" to signify the fact that we only care about football and nothing else. No yard work, no honey do's, no shopping, no phone calls (only texts back and forth to the friend that is in pain because his team's defense can't stop the 3rd-and-short)!

Our only focus on this day is football. Everything else takes a back seat.

But I love her and for that I must give up my "Man Day," but there is a positive in all of this. I get to go with her to Borders for coffee and to look for a book about some guy who loved and lost and....ah, whatever!

The dog got fed. I was forced to take a shower. Manhood in tow, here we go. Thank goodness for my DVR. And just so you know...my phone will be off today. I am going to pretend that I am still sleeping.