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?"