the unlikely orange

one more day. the superbowl is tomorrow! woot woot! today's steeler of the day is my favorite football player of all time, mr. hines ward . one writer says he is the epitome of a football player , another suggests that he might be a master of cheap hits. for a little video tribute, click here .

only 2 more days until the big dance. i'm sure they'll be a right offensive tackle trying to dance with today's player of the day, james harrison . for a great piece about how deebo has overcome many obstacles to be where he is today, check out the ny times article here .

a friend passed this quote on to me yesterday via email, and it really resonated with me, in terms of what i've been thinking about as i've shoveled concrete and mortar and moved cinderblock. "A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his mind is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist. " St. Thomas Aquinas grace and peace, greg.

only three more days. today's steelers star is big ben roethlisberger . click here for an interesting article about how both ben and cardinal's quarterback kurt warner are men of faith. does God care about sports?

it is early wedesday morning, and there's not much to say this morning other than my body is letting me know that its not used to this. i'm having a great time and am really enjoying building relationships with the people on the team and the hondurans that we have the priviledge to work with, like these guys, augusto and william. hasta luego!

four more. today is troy polamalu . the flowin' somoan. the long-haired safety is all over the field. early in his career when a sportcaster mispronounced his last name, a pittsburgh band decided to do a clever song about it. funny stuff. check it out here . or for his great nike commercial, click here .

the countdown has made it to one hand. 5 little piggies left. c'mon piggies, get movin'. today's player of the day is willie parker , aka fast willie parker. while he isn't the bruising back that the bus was, face it, the man is fast. real fast. to read the legend of willie parker (and its really a great story), click here .

hi all. just wanted you to know that i'm still doing well, although a bit tired tonight. its only monday and i can't even wait for the superbowl. i've been wearing a different steelers shirt everyday, and i took my terrible towel with me to the worksite. so here is my terrible towel traveling picture. if you want to read about the details of the trip, you can read them here .

tick...tock...tick...tock...tick...tock...six more days. today's feature is on santonio holmes, the ohio state product who has become quite the threat for the steelers as a quick receiver and punt returner. every night i fall asleep imagining that i am a wide reciever for the steelers. and just before i surrender to the night of sleep, i make a diving catch in the end zone. to see santonio making that exact catch, click here .

this morning, while i sit under the egg-blue sky of honduras, serenaded by birds in a different tongue, i am thinking only of the fact that it is my son's 4th birthday today. while i had the chance to celebrate with him last week, i am certainly feeling a bit of father's guilt this morning at not being with him on his day. time is flying, you know. its like my dad told me last week, "you know greg, he's now a quarter of the way to getting his driver's license." so, i'm trying to enjoy each moment as it comes to me. i'm trying to cherish the soft curve of his little calf, and his tiny little toenails. i'm trying to cherish the warmth of his hand when we cross the street and the joy in his face when i get in his bed with him to read some bedtime stories. i'm trying to lock pictures and feelings in my mind of the way he dances, the way he tries to rhyme words, and the way he sometimes comes and cuddles up with me on the couch and says, ...

one week from today that steelers will be in the big dance. the bowl that is super. the pinnacle event of their profession. if ever a week will feel like a year, it will be this week. 7 days away, today's player is lamarr woodley , the young outside linebacker for the steelers. click here to see lamarr literally run over a would-be blocker and eat a quarterback for a snack. as the t-shirt says: guns don't kill people; lamarr woodley kills people.

8 more days, now. a week and change. today's player is heath miller , the tough pass-catching tight end for the steelers. click here for a short video of miller catching a touchdown pass in the playoffs this year. its only a few seconds long, and isn't the best quality, but it will give you a sense of the energy in heinz field.

tomorrow i leave for honduras . that's right. tomorrow. honduras. for a week. many of you probably didn't know that, but its true. i leave bright and early tomorrow morning with a dozen or so folks from my church, and we'll be in honduras for a week helping out an institution down there called the lamb institute . its going to be a great week of sharing hope and joy with whoever we meet, and probably learning a great deal about contentment and real happiness from the same. i look forward to working with my hands, enjoying the weather, meeting up with eric, enjoying some honduran food, and building some deeper relationships with the people i'm traveling with. but there is one little thing.... when i signed up to go on this trip, i looked at my calendar and saw that it was relatively clear, and that was that. it wasn't until later that it occured to me that the trip was right around playoff/superbowl time (i know, i know. you thought i was a better fan t...

9 more days. today's featured player is inside linebacker james farrior , number 51. click here to read a great story contrasting the quiet captain of the steelers defense with the perpetually annoying ray lewis of the baltimore purple browns.

10 long excruciating days remain until the big game. as they days crawl by, we'll be counting them here at agentorangerecords. each day we'll feature a picture of a key steelers player, and link to a story about them. today we begin with clutch kicker jeff reed . click here to read a story about the colorful character who is money when it comes to big time kicks.

dear coach tomlin, i've been meaning to write this letter for some time, and now seems like the right moment to stop putting it off and make it happen. ironically, its a letter i've been meaning to write, but ultimately one that you inspired. leave it to you, coach, to surprise me. it seems you've been surprising me all along. in fact, the first time i ever heard your name it was a surprise. the every-twenty-minute-update on the sports talk radio show that i listen to in the car blared through my automobile speakers: the steelers have interviewed mike tomlin for their head coaching vacancy... mike who? i was surprised. this job has got to go to whis or grimm, right? i remembered the rooney rule and thought that this was just a token. but then, much to my surprise (again), those very same car speakers delivered another message to me: the pittsburgh steelers will name mike tomlin as their new head coach. i think i nearly veered off the parkway in complete shock...

we celebrated part 1 of jackson's 4th birthday this weekend. since we have grandparents coming from different places and at different times, we often have to split it into 2 separate celebrations. so this weekend my mom and dad and sister were in town and we had the chance to celebrate with jack, who had wanted a shark cake, as you can see. shannon is amazing with this stuff, and i just had to share with the all of you her creativity and ability to make something out of whatever she's working with. i love that gift that she has. the coolest part is that the bottom part of the cake (the ocean) was just some regular confetti cake or something, but the cake inside the shark was blood red. it was awesome. jack had a great birthday party, and enjoyed his gifts and his cake very much. his real birthday is this coming weekend and i simply cannot believe that he is going to be 4. my dad put it this way: he is 1/4 of the way to driving. wow. when he said that i had to excu...

a conversation in our house last night that demonstrates my own failures in parenting: shannon: jack, do you know who is going to be the new president tomorrow? jack: i don't know. shannon: yeah, we are getting a new president tomorrow. do you remember his name? jack: polamalu?

well it is monday at 2pm (thank goodness today is a holiday), and i have finally calmed down enough to gather a few thoughts for this space. the main thing that i'd really like to say is THE STEELERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!! sorry about the all caps. that's unusual for me, but i just can't help it right now. i am so excited. some thoughts about the game: -hines got hurt. he says its just a sprain and that he will be fine in two weeks. but for this hines ward fan it was hard to see. still though, he was able to reach 1,000 recieving yards in the playoffs and pick up a couple of key first downs. and he was able to channel his inner blocking beast to limas sweed who lit up corey ivy. get better, hines. we're going to need you. -phil simms is a steeler hater. at one point when the ravens were losing 13-7 he said the following, and i quote: the ravens have the steelers right where they want them. really, simms? really? the ravens want to be losi...

i know, i know...some of you are saying, "another steelers post? geesh." but you're going to have to deal with it for at least one more day, and, if all goes well, another 15 days. actually, i've been wavering quite a bit this week about whether or not the steelers would be able to pull off the victory. i am a nervous steelers fan - i always have been - and i tend to err on the side of low expectations so that i won't be too disappointed (because i seriously get WAY too into this). and so one day this week i would be feeling a steeler victory and then the next minute i'd read something about the ravens defense or flacco's cool-under-pressure persona, and i'd begin to doubt again. its been that kind of week. but here we are on sunday and i've finally landed on the side of the steelers. i believe the steelers win 24-16. here's why: -the game is at heinz field -the steelers are more experienced at this -the steelers don't want to lose another...

twenty eight and a half hours until kickoff. time is excruciatingly slow right now. but if you want something to munch on until gametime, try these:

want to read a funny story about an awkward moment that's probably never that far away from any of us? check this out. warning: you will laugh. i'm thinking they should make a romantic comedy out of this. could be called "love stinks." any other suggestions?

i wrote a couple of days ago about shaq, and here i find myself writing about a different kind of shack. i finished the very popular novel this week, and just thought i would offer my two cents on it, although the world probably doesn't need my two cents as this book has been the center of a great deal of discussion and even controversey. still, just for kicks and grins, and for my own ability to process, i thought i'd give a few reactions. ****spoiler alert: i am making no attempt here to guard the plot in any way, so if you plan on reading the book at some point and don't want to know yet what happens, i would recommend that you not read this. i wasn't exactly sure what to expect as i began reading the shack, having heard so much hype about it, but what i soon discovered was a captivating story about a man and his pain, after losing his young daughter to a kidnapping and murder. in the places where this book was a story about a man and a family working through ...

i've literally had at least 4 people email this to me, so i figured i should put it up here. looks like the poor little rat bird got ran over by a steelersmobile headed for tampa. let's hope that the game resembles this picture closely.

guess who is the most hated man in baltimore ?

hey friends.... sorry i've been a bit absent. there's a few reasons for that which you probably don't really care to know, so i'll spare you. i want to write soon about the book i just finished, but in the meantime, as an american with croatian heritage, a man who carries with me a "-vich" at the end of my last name everywhere i go, i thought this was funny. i saw this story on espn and then found it here . apparently, the great shaquille o'neal, star of the nba, wants to be a -vich (or -vic), too. he wants his new nickname to be shaqovic. c'mon, shaq. you can't be croatian or any other slavic ethnicity, because your last name is clearly irish. geesh. everyone's on the bandwagonovich. just as a fun footnote to this, when i was a child, since it was a bit difficult to say 'grandma milinovich,' i referred to my dad's mom as 'grandma vich.' for the rest of my life that's what i've called her and how i've ...

the pittsburgh steelers are going to the afc championship game. there is much you could read/listen to/watch to gather information about their big win yesterday over the san diego chargers, and i really can't possibly have much to add to all the noise, but i thought i would post some of my favorite pictures from the game. these two pictures are from santonio holmes' punt return for a td, which was cause for a sigh of relief from me and steeler fans around the world. it tied the game up at 7-7, and sort of reset the game. it was a nice run by santy with a quick move and a beautiful leap over a weak tackle attempt by a san diego charger. ben, coming off his concussion, was the subject of so much doubt and naysaying by steeler nation. i'm so tired of the haters. would you please just sit down and be quiet now? please? ben is a top notch quarterback and a fearless leader. there is no way - NO WAY - that you don't want this guy leading your football team. great ga...

this is how much my wife loves me. steelers cupcakes, baby. i am a blessed man.

with the steelers upcoming playoff game, i thought i would share with you some of my fanaticism. some of you have seen this side of me, but many of you have not, so i thought it would be a way to literally let you into my home, and into my steelers passion. it is about 5 minutes long, but the soundtrack, in my humble opinion, makes it worth it. enjoy. and don't shake your head in disgust too much. go stillers!

"a new song" multimedia collage on hardback book board gregory a. milinovich in reading luci shaw's breath for the bones , i came across this quote from eugene peterson, and i really love it: there's a long tradition in the Christian life, most developed in eastern orthodoxy, of honoring beauty as a witness to God and a call to prayer. Beauty is never only what our senses report to us but always also a sign of what's just beyond our senses--an innerness and depth. there's more to beauty than we can account for empirically. in that more and beyond, we discern God. artists who wake up our jaded senses and help us attend to these matters are gospel evangelists. i have always thought of beauty as a call to prayer, not so much in an theologically descriptive way, but in a real pragmatic way: when i see or hear or smell or discover something beautiful, i am immediately drawn to the Creator. beauty moves me. and, as one who plays with paper in ways that surprise me ...

we're supposed to get snow here today. here's hoping for a snow day! i love snow days!

congratulations, james harrison. you've just won the defensive player of the year award in the national football league. now go out there for three more games and show them why they voted for you, you beast.

it's kinda long, but if you want to read a very funny year-end review of 2008, check this out . or if you are more visual than verbal, check out this year in pictures ...beautiful and haunting at times. or, if you'd like to see the top 50 websites of 2008, navigate over here. you can also see the top ten new year's resolutions. maybe you're more interested in what was invented in 2008. you'll want to see this. you can also check out you tube's top videos of the year . in my searching i even found a top ten list of top ten lists . now i'm getting confused. this just in: start working on your top ten things of 2009 right now. here's my top ten for 2009 so far (subject to change): 10. eating deviled eggs. 9. watching alabama lose the sugar bowl. 8. cuddling with my son. 7. talking about pacemakers with shannon's uncle. 6. cleaning up bits off wrapping paper. 5. writing about candy canes. 4. trying to figure out what those "G" comme...

further evidence that the world is bound and determined to frustrate me into submission: the candy cane. well, not the candy cane itself so much as its confounding wrapper. that's right, i believe that the candy cane industry is out to get me. think about it. why a cane, do you think? couldn't it just as easily be a candy stick? i mean, you could fancy up the name a bit: a candy log? a candy finger? a candy stem? a candy baton? candy barber poles? even a candy club would be better because it would be straight. that little shepherd's crook curve is the bane of my christmas snacking existence. it is the weapon of mass frustration used indiscriminately by the candy cane industry who, in my humble opinion, is made up by the dregs of society. these are people and corporations who continue to trick the world into buying curved candy when straight candy would do just fine. why is the curve such a problem, you ask? it's simple: the wrapper. have you ever remov...