Numb Thumb

You may as well just paste the big L on my forehead now. I just bought Super Mario for Wii and Rick and I played for the first time last night. Well, my left thumb is completely numb this morning. I recall the same thing happening when I first played Mario Cart. When the kids were little, they would go to bed and Rick and I would stay up all hours of the night and play Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. But this is so much better since we can both play at the same time. I have to say that Rick is not much of a team player. He is always pushing me around and seldom breaks my bubble when I die. If he does manage to break my bubble he almost always dies in the process. He needs a bit more practice. Not tonight, though. It's ladies long program tonight. And those skaters are amazing.

Good Riddance

I honestly thought that once Lauren was skating in college that there would be less drama. Silly me. With girls comes drama. End of story. Last week a girl on the skating team quit. Three weeks before Nationals. Just up and quit. That leaves the team with no alternate since the only alternate we had is now skating the drama queen's spot. She was obviously not a team player and always one to blame someone else for things that went wrong during a skate. That's not to say she was always wrong but there are more diplomatic ways of handling such issues. Diplomacy was not one of her finer traits. The girls seem to skate well under pressure so providing no one gets injured between now and March 5, IllinoiSkating should still kick some butt at Nationals. And to the girl who quit I say this - Don't let the rink door hit you in the ass!

Onto the next rant......

Tiger Woods shut up already! I am sick and tired of his drama too. My Grandma Rose used to tell us girls if you don't want to get pregnant keep your legs crossed. So in the spirit of Grandma Rose I say to Tiger - Keep your dick in you pants!

We had a great weekend including attending Barb's 40th birthday party. Of course it was supposed to be a surprise but surprises are so hard to pull off. I found out during the party that each day when her kids would get up in the morning Barb was drilling them about the possibility of an upcoming party. Really? Shame on you Barb. Check out the pics.

Barb's 40th birthday Feb. 2010

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?"