The Who Dat Nation

I am officially a Saints fan. I'm still a Bears fan but unless they are playing each other I will root for the Saints. What an incredible experience to be in New Orleans for the Saints big win in Super Bowl XLIV. The city was out of control, in a good way. We watched the game at Marc's house and dined on craw fish bread and shrimp soup courtesy of Chef Marc. Delish! When we headed back downtown we couldn't get within 7 blocks of the hotel by car. We were staying about 3 blocks from the French Quarter in the Central Business District. Well, let me tell you, the entire downtown area, the Quarter, the CBD, the Warehouse District, was wall to wall cars and people. All celebrating the time of their lives. Eventually we ditched the taxi and walked the remaining 7 blocks. Never once did we see or hear of anything bad happening. No burning garbage cans, no gunfire, no overturned cars. Just a joyful crowd of New Orleanians. What a sensational thing to happen for such a terrific city. New Orleans needed that victory and they deserved it too. Good for them.

Aside from the Super Bowl, we also took in some local parades that lead up to Mardi Gras. I was all consumed with the parades. They throw you free shit! And lots of it. Yeah, most of it is crap but it sure is fun vying for the treasures with fellow parade goers. Marc warned me that my competitive spirit would take over when the beads started flying. I landed lots and lots of beads (in spite of popular belief, you do not have to show anything to get beads!), including some glass beads which apparently is a good haul. I will actually wear those beads. I also got a stuffed purple monkey, a Krewe of Carrollton go cup (which I left at Marc's, damn!) and some black and gold beads with a fleur-de-lis pendant. According to Marc and Ashley we did well our first time out.

And the food.......the best there is. Had to eat at Drago TWICE. Dined at Mr. B.'s Bistro with Mashley and took in the famous Brennan's for breakfast one morning. We did lots of gambling at the conveniently located Harrah's. No, we didn't win but we had a helluva good time and scored a couple of "free" t-shirts!

Our last night was the Super Bowl Victory Parade. Right in front of our hotel. The parade began at 5 but we were far down the parade route and knew it would be quite awhile before they reached us. So I stood on the street starting at 4:45 while Rick gambled away more money at the casino. Rick showed up around 6 as did Mashley. Although Mashley was just across the street from us there were so many people and barricades that we couldn't actually meet up and watch the parade together. Rick and I had a front row seat, or maybe it's a stand. Hmmm. The parade got to us finally around 8 and I was so cold! But when those floats were rounding the corner toward us and the crowd began to whoop and holler it didn't matter. My biggest score from all the parades was catching a strand of beads from Drew Brees himself. Followed by a great picture of Drew proving what a great spot we had on the route. Check out all our NOLA pics.

Super Bowl in NOLA 2-2010

And a few pics of Midwestern Sectionals.

IllinoiSkating Mids Cedar Rapids 1-2010

The Worst Saturday Morning Movie Ever

I know, I know, it's Friday night. I have an early flight in the morning and have no business being up this late watching the worst movie ever. Death Race. End of story.

Who dat?

Geaux Saints!

Off to New Orleans this weekend to visit Marc. And watch the Super Bowl with all those crazy cajuns. And eat lots of grilled oysters and Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. New Orleans is absolutely the craziest place I have ever been. I can't imagine what it will be like this time with it being Mardi Gras and the Saints in the Super Bowl. Win or lose there will be a parade for the Saints on Tuesday at 5 and apparently our hotel is one block off the parade route. Totally pumped. I went to the parade in '86 when the Bears won the Super Bowl and it was insane. It was about 20 below, if I remember right, and our boss let Nancy and I leave work to go to the parade. Hell, we were 20, we didn't give a damn about the cold! And on our way back to the office that day we bought some $10 Super Bowl XX t-shirts from a vendor on the street. I was so pumped because I bargained with the man enough that he finally gave in and gave us two shirts for $8! See, I've always been like this. I hate paying full price for anything. Back to New Orleans...Very excited to see Marc and Ashley, even more excited to spend 5 days with my honey. Did I mention we were staying across the street from the casino? BONUS! We are gamblers at heart, can't even help it. Finally, possibly in the plans are Dragos and Brennan's and Mr. B's Bistro.

Last weekend we were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the 2010 Midwestern and Pacific Synchronized Team Skating Sectional Championships with my mom. There was a terrible flood there in 2008. Much like the situation in New Orleans with Katrina, the levees on the river broke and entire neighborhoods flooded. When we drove through the lower lying areas it reminded us so much of New Orleans with the boarded up houses and the spray paint on the outside of the houses indicating if the house had been inspected. Block after block there would be one to two houses on each block that were inhabited. Everything else was boarded up and mostly for sale. Locals told us of many families that just moved clean out of town after the flood. Very sad. But on a brighter note, University of Illinois took 4th and therefore qualified for Nationals in March. While their competition was tough, they had an outstanding skate. They scored 2 points higher than they did at Nationals last year. I know 2 points doesn't seem like much to the average Joe but in skating it's HUGE.

In closing I will simply say "Who dat?"

Catching Up

After an absolutely fabulous week in Puerto Vallarta with Lauren and three of her college friends I finally managed to take my Christmas decorations down. I am certain this was the longest I have ever had them up. But our vacation was so great that we have decided to go to Puerto Vallarta every year after Christmas. It is the perfect time to get away. And I don't give a shit if the Christmas decorations stay up all year. I tend to overstress about crap like that but I will get over it. Here's all the pics including way too many of the iguana that lives near the pool. I did not take all those iguana pictures, fyi.

Puerto Vallarta

And just for fun, here is IllinoiSkating at MidAmerica in Fraser, MI. While it was not their best skate they still managed a bronze medal. Next weekend is Midwestern Sectionals (the qualifier for Nationals) where they will need a great skate. I adore the music this year. I adored the music last year, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49eW4CdSDeQ

Finally, She Be Wild won the Eclipse award for best 2 year old filly! For those of you who are unaware, the Eclipse Awards are the Academy Awards of horse racing. A huge honor for She Be Wild and Nancy. Congrats to my BFF! All the times we have shared at various barns over the years, who could have imagined we would be here today.

WTF

Yesterday was Sophia's 6th birthday and since I will not be with my family for Christmas, I went to visit her yesterday with birthday gifts in tow. Actually only one gift. It was a bit more than I usually spend but she really wanted the Barbie Pet Vet Care Center. She was thrilled upon opening it but not me. I had to put it together. Not too difficult a task except for all the decals that need to be applied. Side bar - I thought my days of putting toys together were over then along comes Sophia and Audball. Oh well, so much for that! Once I finished the assembly process I began to put all the little accessories in their proper spots in the Care Center only to discover that we were missing the plastic scissors and the dental mirror. I promptly phoned the hotline where I was immediately connected to a live human being. SHOCKING! But even more shocking was what I was told regarding the missing items. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I am missing a couple of items from the Barbie Pet Vet Care Center.
Carlos: Oh, yes, we are aware of that.
Me: What?
Carlos: Because this is a new item this year, production has been slow on certain accessories. So many of the Centers are missing items.
Me: You mean to tell me that Mattel knowingly put this product on the shelf without these accessories?
Carlos: Yes, sir (he did actually call me sir which I corrected immediately! I realize I have a deep voice - thanks mom - but c'mon!) but if you give me your name and address we will ship them to you, free of charge, (oh thanks) as soon as they become available.
Me: And when might that be?
Carlos: Well, we just ordered them yesterday.
Me: OK, but when might that be?
Carlos: I have no idea, but as soon as we get them we will ship them to you.

What the fuck. That's a crock of shit if I ever heard one.

IllinoiSkating Takes the Bronze at Porter Synchro Classic

These girls just keep getting better. A bronze medal for the Collegiate team (Lauren's team) and a pewter for Open Collegiate at the 14th Annual Dr. Porter Synchronized Skating Classic in Ann Arbor. Pretty impressive and the season is young. I cannot begin to tell you how hard these girls work and how dedicated they are. It's inspiring to say the least. Here's to many good things for IllinoiSkating this year! Cheers!

OUCH!

As if my Dad dying wasn't enough. The night before his funeral as Lauren was driving home from U. of I., she hit a deer on the highway going 70mph. This is the result. $6800 in damage, but my baby was fine, not a scratch. The only casualty aside from the Jeep was her cell phone. When Rick and I showed up at the accident scene I just about collapsed. Apparently when she hit the deer her hood flew up and blocked her visibility, at which point she ran off the road just missing a slew of trees and a huge guard rail. It had been such an emotional week but when I saw that Lauren was OK, I lost it. In her effort to calm me down, Lauren simply said, "It's OK Mom. Grandpa was watching out for me." At that point, I realized that my Dad will always be with us, in the best of times and the worst. Thanks Dad. I miss you.