Something about a Saturday

I don't know why, but whenever I don't have anything to do on a Saturday night, I feel compelled to blog. It's been watching the NHL All-Star skills competition and then Miracle and listening to the Express game against Cincinnati.


1) I am never playing any more of my music for my mother ever again.


2) Albert Nobbs is one horrible movie. Glenn Close is a great actress, but her performance was like the shining diamond in a filed of cow dung.


3) Brought Firefly sweet tea vodka instead of the Jeremiah Weed. We'll see how they compare...


4) Royal Rumble is Sunday night. If I had to pick my top 5, I go Chris Jericho, Wade Barrett, Undertaker (in a surprise return), Randy Orton, and Sheamus. This is assuming no one competing in another match (ie Cena) are in the Rumble as well.


5) In other matches, I pick Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, and a no-contest between Kane and Cena.

6) The cranberry orange walnut bread from Breadsmith is simply one of the best sweets I have ever tasted. The crunch of the nut, the tanginess of the orange, the sweetness of the cranberries. Just great.


7) I wish I could have my goatee back! Maybe there's a way, I don't know.


8) Guess CI and I have taken this thing public!

9) It's a little scary how the years are going past. I'm thinking more of my parents here.

10) One week till hell...

Song pick: "Colder Weather" Zac Brown Band

It's set

Giants vs Patriots in the Super Bowl. FML.

Utterly miserable

1) I would bet everything in my possession that the Patriots will win the Super Bowl over the Giants. I am so friggin' upset right now.

2) I officially HATE Big Blue.

3) What happens to the Rangers every time they play in Montreal? It's like Alabama playing a high school team in Tuscaloosa.

4) I never signed up for this. No one makes a conscious, logical, reasonable choice to become a devoted, loyal fan of certain teams because it will lead to a happy life. For the most part, it has led to misery, frustration, and aggravation. Yet, it is like cancer, I cannot get it out of me.

5) I am more and more convinced I will never see any of my teams win a title again and the teams I hate the most (Braves, Phillies, Cubs, Yankees, Giants, Cowboys, Patriots, Bulls, Devils, Flyers) will win at the least every four years. Let's look at the numbers since 1986, shall we.


Exhibit A

Finals/WS/SB tally in my active life time

Hated teams: 30

My teams: 4

Exhibit B

Title tally in my active lifetime

Hated teams: 22

My teams: 1

More travel? Here we go...NOLA! Part 3

So at 6 AM, we had to wake up. I wanted to stay laying in bed, but those planes don't really wait around. So I packed up most of my stuff, while Nicole and Catherine packed up all of theirs. At 7:30, the cab arrived to take them to the airport. Catherine and I shared a quick goodbye kiss, she got in the car, and I watched it slowly roll down Esplanade St and out of sight.

I headed back upstairs to the tiniest exercise room I've ever seen. I did 10 minutes on both the treadmill and the bike. I had to use the bathroom and it ws at this point I realized there was no toilet paper in the room. I mean, when a maid is cleaning the room, I would think restocking toilet paper should be somewhere on the checklist. I did get some delivered, thankfully! I then showered with my music blasting and the bathroom door wide open. I proceeded to eat the first quarter of the muffuletta and I actually enjoyed it, in spite of the olives.

So I walked down to the river and sat on the bench for maybe an hour while playing music and reading some of Mr. Nee. I then went into the St. Louis Cathedral. Though I'm not Catholic, I was very impressed with the paining on the ceiling as well as the statues. They also display flags of every country that Louisiana has ever been governed by. I said a quick prayer in the prayer room and headed next door to the Cabildo museum. This is basically the building that displays the history of Louisiana. I snuck into the back of a group of high school students and walked through a few rooms with them. I think the highlight for me was the Sala Capitular. This room, which is maybe the size of an average living room, has Napoleon's death mask and is also the site where President Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase and where the Louisana Supreme Court met for 50 years. I also checked out some war memorabilia and a rock 'n roll exhibit.

Right outside in Jackson Square, was a 9-piece band playing some R&B. I sat down at a nearby bench and just enjoyed it for a while. I was getting pretty hungry by now, so I headed back towards the river to the Dumaine St streetcar stop (#3 of 9 stops). I waited no less than 20 minutes. And the annoying part was after 5 minutes, a train passed me going in the opposite direction. So I knew it had two stops to go before it would turn around, pick me up, and take me to the CBD. Yet, the car just wasn't moving. It got so ridiculous, I called the RTA and asked what was going on. Eventually, the car came and I walked into Emeril's at the corner of Julia and Tchoupitoulas just after 12 pm.

It wasn’t very crowded, though I wouldn’t expect that for a weekday lunch. The hostess asked my last name and I told her. That led to both my waiters (although I could have called one “the apprentice”, he looked like he had skipped middle school for the day) calling me Mr. Bartolo. Can’t say I minded that.

They served me two different types of rolls, one at a time. I believe one was made with corn flour and one with sweet potato flour, thought I didn’t hear the waiter very clearly. Both tasted hot and fresh. I knew my appetizer would be BBQ shrimp. For $10, I got five shrimp in a classic brown gravy sprinkled with green onions, accompanied by a petite rosemary biscuit. Great flavor on the shrimp. My only complaint was I didn’t have more biscuits to soak up that sauce. I wasn’t as sure about choosing my entrée. I thought about the chicken and waffles, or just a Creole burger with remoulade and homemade pickles. In the end, I took my waiter’s tip and went with the Andouille crusted drum. Now when I first saw it on the menu, I figured it was a chicken drumstick. So I figured how is a drumstick ever going to fill me? Turns out a drum is actually a redfish. It came on a bed of shoestring potatoes with a Meuniere sauce (Brown butter with lemon and herbs) and summer squash. It was certainly a different lunch for me, but I really enjoyed the crispiness of the potatoes to go with the flaky fish. It was a pretty small portion, but I enjoyed it. I suppose I would order it again. But it was dessert that I came for. For the first time since I visited Vegas with my parents, I got to enjoy a piece of banana cream pie and this piece was all mine! The graham cracker crust, three layers of sliced bananas mixed in pudding, fresh whipped cream, caramel sauce, crisp chocolate shavings, and a dusting of powdered sugar. Eight dollars for a taste of pure heaven.

A happy man, I skipped the streetcar and walked back up Tchoupitoulas and then through Decatur St back to the hotel. This was a street I hadn’t traveled down before and I saw some interesting things. I passed the Jean Lafitte site as well a statue dedicated to the founder of New Orleans. I also saw Tipitina’s, which I hear is a very cool jazz club. Right after I crossed Canal St, I got a text from Catherine. Even though they had checked out earlier and explained to the clerk that I would be leaving later, he did not relay that message on to the women working the following shift. And so they called Catherine’s house thinking she and Nicole didn’t check out because my stuff was still in the room. So I hurried back through the French Market and I made it to the hotel in about 15 minutes. I walked in, turned right to the front desk, and the ladies see me coming, and go “Room Three-Twelve?!” Thankfully, I was able to explain the situation and I left the room for good around 2.

That led to maybe an hour of waiting downstairs for the 3 pm Airport Shuttle without a whole lot for me to do. I walked into Fauborg and jumped on the internet, but I rather would have been on my way. The van arrived about 15 minutes late, but I still got to the airport in plenty of time. I took a smooth 2.5 hour flight back to Chicago, during which I finished the last quarter of my muffuleta along with some Sprite. I guess I arrived at 7:45 pm. Thankfully, it was still about 40 degrees, so the climate change wasn’t too shocking on me. Mom picked me up right after she finished work and we got home at 9. I wish I was back in the creepy room.

More travel? Here we go...NOLA! Part 2

Thursday was our one full day together in New Orleans. I was up by 7:45, Nicole woke up maybe an hour later, and we got Catherine out of bed around maybe 9:15. I realize I get ready way too quick and I have to have some patience when waiting for ladies to get ready to go anywhere. We were all out the door by maybe 10:20 a.m. I think in those preceeding 2.5 hours, I did some writing, printed some maps out downstairs, and took a quick walk around the block. Our first stop had to be Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and cafe au lait. I guess that was the one thing I treated for. The donuts themselves tasted amazing. They were soft inside and crispy outside and unlike many donuts and beignets that I've had, they didn't taste very heavy. And with all the powdered sugar, that made them taste even better. As for the cafe au lait (half coffee, half hot milk), well, it was so-so, but still a little too bitter for me. So I took Nicole's advice and threw a bunch of the extra powdered sugar along with some of the granulated sugar right into the cup. I'm sure I used a good half cup of sugar! But that was the only way I was going to drink the thing!

We took the streetcar down to Julia St, thought we had to wait 15 minutes for it to come. And we probably could have walked that distance in not much more than 15 minutes anyway! In any event, we checked out the Central Business District with the Civil War Museum and the Lee Circle with a very tall statue of Robert E. Lee. The museum had a lot of old war artifacts. It was basically one big room, wasn't the best, but it was a decent way to kill an hour.

We walked back up Magazine Street because I heard there was some nice places to shop and possibly eat. Well, apparently we were walking in the wrong section, it was mostly businesses and parking lots. Nicole gave up on it a little bit too early (we should have kept going to Canal St)and we turned east down Podyras Street towards the river. So we went shopping at the Riverwalk Marketplace and it was a cool place. The first thing we found was this memorabilia shop with all kinds of unique merchandise like paintings of Republican presidents shooting pool and paintings of Democrat presidents playing poker. They had the sports heritage banners, statues of animals, personalized photos, newspaper clipping collections on different subjects, etc. It was just a cool place to walk around and explore.

We walked around the mall and got a couple of shrimp po' boys at the food court. They weren't the best, it was a food court after all, but it hit the spot. And thank God they came with tartar sauce and not mayonnaise! We checked out some fine souvenir shops and I have to admit I came close to buying a fedora. But in all fairness, when would I really wear it? The girls stopped for some fudge. Of course, Catherine had a thing for the peanut butter/chocolate fudge, what a shock that was...I stopped into a food store and brought a packet of seasoning for BBQ shrimp. I haven't made it yet, but we'll see how they turn out. Of course, buying shrimp isn't exactly cheap either. We also stopped in this retro shop and it had artifacts from the 1900's. Lots of 60's and 80's music gear, old TV show merchandise, Who's on First posters, Hulkamania t-shirts, a Partridge Family bus. It was like stepping into a time machine.

By the middle of the afternoon, we were starting to feel a little bit tired and we took the streetcar back to the hotel. I headed straight into the creepy room, took of my shoes, laid down on the bed, and turned on my Ipod. Within five minutes, Catherine tells me we're heading back out! So it was more shopping, this time in the French Quarter. We stopped at Central Grocery for some muffuletas that we planned to save for dinner. I think by this point, I was on autopilot. We went to Bourbon St and we each drank a hurricane and Nicole and I "sang" Happy Birthday to Catherine. It was okay, it tasted like a twisted Hawaiian Punch, but I preferred the sweetness of the grenade. Now I figured that was about it for the night. Not quite. We walked back to Jackson Square and into Cafe Beignet for another order of beignets! These were bigger than the ones at Cafe Du Monde too. They tasted good, but I noticed they were heavier than the ones we'd had earlier that morning. But I didn't think too much of it at the time. Plus Catherine was giving way too much love to this cat that was hanging around the Cafe patio...

After a few more stops (I can't remember, the hurricane was getting to me a little bit, probably because I drank it so quickly), we got back to room for the Rangers game against Florida. Actually, the hurricane was really getting to Nicole. She said she didn't like it, yet, she kept drinking it too! I would have offered to help. Anyway, we were all on the couch watching the Rangers and I realized about midway through the first period that I was experiencing some bad stomach cramps. During both intermissions, I actually went in my room and laid down, even falling sound asleep during the second break. Eventually, I felt better, but I decided to skip the muffuletta. I felt much better when Gaborik scored in OT to give the Rangers the win. And right after that, we all got to watch the final episode of 24/7. Stellar. I think I shut up the whole time while I listened to the girls gawk over Del Zotto, Lundqvist, and Girardi.

So I really wasn't feeling too great about the whole thing as I went to bed. But for the second straight night, I was blessed with some company in bed. We kissed, went to bed, woke up around 4, and...

More travel? Here we go...NOLA! Part 1

So I was supposed to fly nonstop from Chicago to New Orleans at 2:25 on Wednesday. Accordingly, I checked in for my flight online 24 hours prior and found out that the 7:00 am flight had been cancelled. Even worse, that was the only one of the three flights that was a large plane and not an American Eagle. So all those passengers wound up on my flight. That resulted in my plane being booked at 65/65. After some quick replanning, I decided to change my schedule. First, I took all of Wednesday off from work instead of just half the day. I woke up at 3:30 am and caught a seat on the 6 AM flight. I was a little disconcerted by the 300-pound woman sitting in front of me who saw fit to lean her seat back before we even took off. But anyway. I did see a Jets fan and offered my sympathies. We were ready to leave the gate, but there was a fuel leak and we had to get a new plane. That delayed us maybe an hour and fifteen minutes. So we had to board a new plane. And as I walked through the first class section, there was Jet guy! I figured they upgraded him to first class out of sympathy. Anyway, I got to Dallas and it just served to shorten my layover, so no problem there. I wolfed down a steak taco and a chicken taco at Urban tacos before boarding the 12:05 plane to New Orleans. There were maybe ten open seats, so it wasn't that hard. And considering I was going to take a 2:30 plane out of Chicago initially, I landed about 3 hours sooner that what I had planned.

As I stepped into the terminal, I had to make sure I wasn't in Detroit. There were mobs of people sporting Univ. of Michigan attire. They had just beaten Virginia Tech in a bowl game the night before. I felt some trepidation as I waited for my bag. Since it was taken at the gate and had to connect to a second light, it just didn't sit well with me. Eventually, it arrived and I headed to the Airport shuttle desk. The lady called me "Honey" at least three times and "Darlin'" I think twice. I sat down right behind the driver's seat and noticed a good-looking athletic blonde sitting across from me. I recognized her from the Dallas flight, she was across from me then. We chatted and I found out she was Rebecca Bennett, and she does news report and podcasts for K-Love Radio. So that led to talks about travel, church, and so on.

Now there were 15 people on the bus and we had no idea who was getting dropped off when. When the driver said "De La Monnie" I pumped my fist and couldn't help but laugh with Rebecca and Gene, an older guy from Iowa who sat between us.

So I arrived at the hotel somewhere around 2:15. Catherine came downstairs and we shared a hug before heading upstairs. This is a really old hotel, doesn't have much size, it's more about the location right on the border of the French Quarter and Fauborg while the Riverfront streetcar line begins less than a block away. I gave Nicole a hug when I saw her too and after I unpacked my stuff, we all headed straight to the French Market. There were tons of t-shirts (Mostly Saints and trashy stuff), records, hats, jewelry, and so on. For my first drink, I went with a rum spiced cider for six bucks. It's a good drink to warm up with, but the rum added a sour taste that I wasn't in love with. We continued to stroll down Decatur St and I saw Cafe Du Monde, St. Luois Cathedral, Jackson Square, the Cabildo, the Presbytere, and the Jackson St Brewery. Still saw loads of Va Tech and Michigan gear. We headed back to Room 312 to clean up.

Around 5:45, we left to walk to Irene's, a very popular Italian restaurant near our hotel. Nicole said she knew where she was going, so I left my maps behind. I shouldn't have. We wound up on Bourbon St and when we asked a cop for directions, he pointed us in the wrong direction. So it was a 6 pm reservation and we arrived maybe 20 minutes late. But the maitre'd and the owner all greeted us warmly, asked our names, and shook our hands. Catherine started with some escargot and one glass of Sauvignon Blanc. I knew I was getting an entree and a dessert, so I opted for iced tea. And the complimentary bruschetta was awesome. Melted mozzarella, fresh tomato sauce, soft and crispy bread. That's the way it should be! I ordered a duck with a raspberry and pancetta glaze with glazed nuts along with a mashed sweet potatoes and fresh spinach. I enjoyed the crisp skin and I also liked that the duck wasn't too greasy. The sweet potato had a very nice rich flavor too. Catherine went with the roast chicken and Nicole took some veal marsala. For dessert, Nicole got bread pudding, Catherine got a chocolate truffle, and I went with a Creole cheesecake with a Grand Marnier glaze. I liked mine, but wasn't exactly blown away.

So we asked for the check and I figured I would have to throw in maybe 40-45 bucks. Our waiter, Rob, informed us that the check was already picked up. It turned out Nicole's mom made the reservation and also picked up the bill. I was kicking myself! I wished I had some Pinot Noir or Merlot! No, just boring iced tea. But in truth, it was a great gesture.

From there, we went over to Bourbon St, it must have been 8:30 by now. Our first stop was the Tropical Isle for a grenade. Catherine had warmed me about this drink, about how potent it was. We split a large one on the rocks. It came in a tall light, green glass that looked like an actual grenade. The recipe is kept secret, but I hear it's a blend of melon liquer, gin, rum, vodka, and grain liquor, all served in equal parts. Amazingly, it tasted very sweet. I could have probably drank another with no problem. I did opt for an Abita Amber beer, a local brew that I enjoyed. At one point, I had to use the men's room. On my way over there I passed by this machine on the wall, it looked like a typical gumball machine. Except there wasn't any candy in this particular machine. I looked at the sign and it said "grenade flavored condoms". Moving on...

Bourbon St has its own dangerous charm to it. There are just things there that can't be found anywhere else. Lots of performers standing totally still, painted from head to toe. One of them was colored totally silver, had a really long beard. And he was sitting prone, looking down, kind of sad I thought. Then I looked again, there was a long purple balloon sticking out from where it shouldn't have been. Just another one of those OMG sights. And I also liked that we could walk by the clubs and hear live blands playing everything from classic rock to blues to country. It's a cool area to be in, thought I think I would pass on Mardi Gras and New Year's Eve.

So we got back to the hotel around 10. I knew I was sleeping in the creepy room. There was room for nothing except a bed, a tiny nightstand, and an old TV hanging from the ceiling. There wasn't even enough space on the floor for me to open my suitcase completely, there wasn't even a lock on the door. And the doors fold open, kind of like a bedroom closet. Not the most ideal situation, but hey, there was a bed at least! I was probably in bed by midnight, though I had some company by around 4 AM...

SOJ

8-8 finish. Two three game losing streaks. Ten points to make and I'm done with this team for eight months.

1) Mark Sanchez is Browning Nagle with better pieces around him.

2) Eric Smith, goodbye.

3) Wayne Hunter, see above.

4) Brian Schottenheimer, see above and it goes double for him.

5) Matthew Mulligan is the hands down worst tight end I have ever seen.

6) Free agents: Burress (goodbye), Brunell (goodbye), Folk (goodbye), Leonhard (Would give a cheap 1-year deal), O'Connell (goodbye), Pool (goodbye), Pouha (Would bring him back), Strickland (goodbye), Bryan Thomas (Would bring back for a year), Tomlinson (retiring), Rob Turner (OL depth, must bring back-2 years maybe).

7) How can this defense allow a 21 play, 13 minute drive to a Miami offense without Jake Long and Reggie Bush and had Matt Moore, Daniel Thomas, Davone Bess, and Anthony Fasano?

8) I tried to defend Santonio Holmes all season long. After his teammates said he quit today, he is the biggest disgrace for a captain that I can imagine.

9) 43 years and counting for this franchise. 17 for the Rangers (the only title I can remember), 26 for the Mets, 39 for the Knicks. Plus Greg Norman in golf, I'm not going to even start that list.

10) F U to the Giants fans and double to the Patriots.