It Wasn't Meant to Be

Yea, yea, we lost. Tough loss to our arch rivals. I refuse to jump on the bash Jay Cutler band wagon. But if you want to bash Lovie, I'm in. This guy has been notorious during his time with the Bears for calling time outs at all the wrong times. And then to lose a yard after the time out, great play calling Lovie! The officiating effed us a little too. But I am not blaming them either. The better team won. Period. Difficult to admit, but true. We really thought they might do it in the 4th quarter with Hanie. Why Collins was ever put in is beyond me. This guy has never done anything good. Not in training camp, preseason or regular season. Hanie should have gotten the shot first. Then maybe, just maybe, we may have had a chance. All water under the bridge now. And after being a life long Cubs fan I will not say, "Maybe next year."

Tailgate was a blast though. And sharing the experience with Lauren was awesome. When Lauren goes to the games with us her and I always take a walk through the parking lot to check out other tailgates. And boy was there a lot to see Sunday. A bloody mary bong, the burning of a foam cheese head, the drum corps and some other things we didn't get a chance to see. For example: rumor in the parking lot was someone had a life sized stuffed bear sitting in a lawn chair with a life size Packer dummy on his knees in front of the bear performing a certain sex act! And if that wasn't enough, apparently there was another life size Bear player standing behind the stuffed bear holding a dollar and waiting his turn. Beautiful. I just wish we could have found that. We had lots of visitors at our tailgate. That's the advantage of parking in the same spot each game. Everyone knows where we are. I saw my friend Tony who was on the news last week. And my seat mates, Paul and Tooch, stopped by with some of their friends. We also met a guy who flew from Albuquerque (how about that, Col) and a couple of guys from Toronto that didn't even have tickets but were hoping to scalp some for not too much money. Not sure how that worked out for them. And there were plenty of cheese heads. Not much you can do about that. All in all, it was a great season and we look forward to Pittsburgh kicking the crap out of Green Bay in the Superbowl.

As Ready as I'll Ever Be

Tonight we are going out with the Roseland gang. Thank God. It will be welcome distraction from waiting for the big game tomorrow. All the tailgate food is made. Cocktail shrimp and buffalo chicken dip for snacks (along with the usual mixed nuts and anchovies for Ron and Rick, yuk!), sausage and pepper sandwiches and cheesy potatoes for dinner. The car is loaded up with the grill and tables and lap blankets, a must for the cold weather. But something tells me we won't be sitting much tomorrow to use the lap blankets. I even have all my clothes ready for the morning. Two pairs of long underwear, jeans, two pairs of thick socks, two thermal underwear shirts, my vintage Ditka sweater and my big grey wool sweater. My big down Eddie Bauer coat, two pairs of gloves, two scarves, my Bears hat, Ugg boots and plenty of hand warmers. Oh, and liquor. Plenty of liquor and few flasks to sneak into the game. We are leaving the house at 9:15am. I would pass on the Superbowl if we could just beat the Pack tomorrow. God willing.

B E A R D O W N !

Now This Is Customer Service

I needed to order a baby gift for the guy who sits next to me at the Bears game who just had his first baby. He too is a season ticket holder and a great guy. His son Jake was born on January 7th. Since then, I have seen "Tooch" at the Seahawks game on January 9th and I will see him again Sunday. And I still have not sent a gift for his baby. I have to sit next to him for the rest of my life and need to maintain a good relationship. So, in somewhat of a small panic, early this morning I went online and found exactly what I was looking for. The perfect Bears sleeper and 2 Bears pacifiers. I paid extra for 2 day shipping not realizing it was 2 business days and the gift would not arrive prior to Sunday's game. Having seen my gift note and being able to put 2+2 together, this was the email I received from the Customer Service department at Baby Fans:

Michelle,

I wanted to send a quick email to let you know we upgraded your package to overnight delivery. We saw your gift note and 2-day air would not have made the package arrive until Monday (it is 2 business days)

Although our company lost money on this order due to the high FedEx overnight fees, we did not want your little Bears fan to go without an outfit for the big game on Sunday.

Thanks and Go Bears!

Take care,
Todd Wilson
Baby Fans Inc.

Tell your friends about us or write a review.... www.facebook.com/babyfans

So I am telling my friends and family and anyone who reads the blog to shop at Baby Fans for all their favorite team baby clothing needs. They have NFL, MLB, College, NASCAR, everything. Not to mention the best customer service I have experienced in a long, long time! And someday I really will get a facebook page!

B E A R D O W N !

I'm Taking it as a Sign

When I am home during the day I NEVER have the TV on. I basically hate TV, except for sports and news. Imagine my surprise when I turned on the afternoon news yesterday for my mom only to see my friend Tony from our Bears tailgates on the news. I immediately hit record on the Tivo. They were interviewing him regarding ticket prices for the game on Sunday. He, like us, would never sell his tickets. It doesn't matter that we could easily get a grand per ticket, enough to pay for our tickets for the entire season. It doesn't matter that the temps will be in the teens and we are expecting snow. It doesn't matter that parking will cost $101, not $100, $101. It just doesn't matter. The only thing that would keep us from going to that game is some sort of natural disaster. Let's hope the Gods are on our side!

B E A R D O W N !

Super Fan Eddie in all his Glory

The fans were crazy Sunday! I can't even imagine what the game will be like this Sunday. I am so excited I feel like a kid at Christmas. I know I will have a hard time sleeping all week. Nutso, I know. But I have been to so many losing games and seasons that this is too sweet for words. Tickets in our section (130) are going for $900-$4500 apiece! Whether they sell for that or not is another story. I wouldn't sell our tickets for a million dollars.

The big news of the week is Lauren is going to be able to go to the game. Her skating team has practice every Sunday afternoon. The coach gave the team the option of skating on Friday morning @ 5am or their usual Sunday afternoon practice. Not many wanted to skate Friday because during "syllabus week" Thursday night is a big night at the bars. The team voted and three times came up tied. Then one of the skaters got up and gave a speech that if something is that important to a teammate it should be important to the entire team. Another vote and Lauren won, unanimously! I really do love those girls! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and Rick and I are thrilled to share it with Lauren. So it will be me, Rick, Lauren and Ron, not my brother Bob. Although Bobby is probably still holding out hope that the phone will ring and it will be his favorite sister inviting him to the game. NOT! Love you bro.

B E A R D O W N !

What Stinks?

This was taken back in September when we beat the Packers at Soldier Field. I just had to dig it up and share it now. BEAR DOWN!

Millennium Park Flash Mob

Wow! Check this out. Turns out there was a flash mob in Millennium Park and Lauren was part of it. There are a few hundred people total but only about 25 actually dancing on the ice. Lauren is front row, all the way right on the ice in the video. So much fun and really interesting to see the reactions of bystanders.

Another bonus was getting to see some old skating friends from way back in the day. I'm talking Darien Dynamites and Chicago Jazz days dating back to 1998. And all the girls are grown up. Really makes me feel old. One is teaching 3rd grade in the city and another will graduate rom Loyola this spring with a business degree. Lauren is the only one still skating competitively. Lots of good times with these parents. I even shared officer duties with one of the moms several years ago. We shared many laughs over the trials and tribulations of the business of a team.

Later we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner with Lauren and Sam. Indeed we had everything I previously mentioned: oysters - yum, sushi - yum yum, lobster - triple yum, and a lovely pinot noir. Capped off by some of the best Key Lime Pie you'll ever have. It was our last night with Lauren as she heads back to U. of I. today, a week earlier than non-skaters, for skating boot camp. The name says it all. She will be skating insane hours this week along with intense off ice conditioning. The big competitions are right around the corner and IllinoiSkating will be ready. I-L-L - I-N-I!

Tree in the Closet

I bought a new pre-lit tree this Christmas season in an effort to make my decorating a little easier. But the reality is, pre-lit or not, an artificial tree is a huge pain in the ass. For an artificial tree to look half way decent it must have a lot of tips. And each and every one of those tips need straightening/shaping. So the pre-lit thing doesn't save a whole lot of time since once the tree is up and shaped, putting on the lights doesn't take that long at all. Here's where the plan was devised. I decorated my entire tree with plastic ornaments. That's right, plastic. Therefore when Christmas was over I could just shove the decorated tree into the closet in my family room. But first the closet would need a serious cleaning out and a few shelves removed. Then with a little help from GOAA (God of all Assistants, she made me call her that!) Karla and Robert Mondavi and Ernest and Julio Gallo, I jammed that tree right through the closet door and into position in the corner. Only one problem; once the tree was in position I was stuck on the floor of the closet in the corner behind the tree! Escaping was neither easy or pretty. So this year, as soon as the roasting pan is cleaned from the Thanksgiving turkey, out comes the tree. Voila! Christmas in minutes. Or maybe I will want to have a little Christmas in July. Just slide that puppy out and pour the eggnog. Might be hard finding eggnog in July though.

Heading to Millennium Park today with Lauren and Sammi to go skating. Skating with Lauren is absolutely no fun because she makes us all look like incompetent fools. I'm really just going to have dinner at Shaw's! Yummy. Oysters, wine, sushi, a little lobster. What more could you ask for?