Ahh, Chicago.

Great pizza.

Good schmoozing with friends and cousins of the husband.

Great football parties. Not-so-great football game results. For me, anyway. I was the only Saints fan at the cousins' home. What'd I expect? Jeffrey's right, anyhow. They did beat Atlanta twice, and, as Jack Nicholson said in Mars Attacks, "that ain't bad".

Nice cold ride into downtown on the el and an even colder walk to the Navy Pier. Kick-butt hands-on building at the Children's Museum there. Took in one of the last rides until Memorial Day of the free holiday trolley that took us to the department store formerly known as Marshall Field's - the Federated department store chain that has taken it over is a dirty word in the City of Big Shoulders. The little guy had enjoyed being in the snow up until that day in downtown. There was more than enough of it falling from the sky.

Today -

Dan is in Pasadena.

We are in the sunny cold of New Orleans, after watching our plane be de-iced at O'Hare. The de-icer had to jostle for position with that perennial favorite, the Gate Gourmet supplies truck.
On getting all our stuff in the car and high-tailing it home, I caught James Booker on the radio doing "Ain't Nobody's Business", and Bobby Lounge doing one of my personal faves, "Slime Weasel".

We're off to our neighbors to see if we can catch Dan and his dad in the stands at the Rose Bowl. I think Michigan's band just played "Springtime for Hitler" in their halftime performance. I really do need a drink, and my neighbors' keggerator might just be able to provide one.

I love this town.

Happy New Year, all!

Update, 1-2: Michael has some nifty ideas for bowl games sponsored by the folks who help perpetuate disasters. I now think "Springtime For Hitler" ought to have been performed at halftime in the Superdome. Where the heck's Nokia gone as the Sugar Bowl sponsor? Text messaging on cell phones was the only way anybody could get through to the outside world during 8-29 and its immediate aftermath. I'd think that Nokia would be boosted even more financially by sponsoring a sporting event in a recovering city such as this. Somestates can go jump.