I Said Yes...

Here's the link to his blog post about it :) 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sitting with Blake, in Louisiana, watching the Macy's parade and listening to "Alice's Restaurant" on dve.com.

It's a great start to one of my favorite days.

(we'll be spending the day at both his Uncle Myron's house for his Dad's side of the family and his Grandmothers house for his Mom's side. The food....lord the food!

Boycott BP...

for the 11 men dead, for the ruined oceans, for the destroyed beaches and wetlands, for the fish, dolphins, turtles, birds and other assorted sea life that is drowning in oil.

Boycott BP for the lies and cover-ups and denial of the devastation that is happening.

BP brands to boycott include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, and Wild Bean Cafe, Safeway gas.

"Louisiana isn't the only place that has shrimp” said BP rep Randy Prescott.
Give him a ring and tell him what you think (713) 323-4093
his email is randy.prescott@bp.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Boycott-BP/119101198107726

Who Dat!?!

from Blake's site: www.EvertimeRealms.com


We Believe

They’ve been called a lot of things in 43 years. Everything from the ‘Aints to the Bless You Boys. Today, they’re being called something for the first time.

Champions.

Two weeks ago, I blogged about the New Orleans Saints bringing home the first NFC Championship in franchise history, and while we all had hopes for the Super Bowl, I was the sort to not really voice them for fear of jinxing the whole thing. But a lot of other people were a lot more vocal than I was, and yesterday, Drew Brees and the boys took it all home for a city that has totally fallen in love with them.

Perhaps best of all is the fact that it was truly a clean win. No controversial calls, no questionable flags, nothing that the armchair pundits can point at and try to claim that the refs screwed up or cheated or did anything to “take” the trophy away from Manning and the Colts. It wasn’t taken from them. It was earned by the Saints, through a series of good play calling, fundamental excellence, and — let’s be honest here — some of the gutsiest moves I have ever seen in a football game. Just seconds into the second half, when a surprise onside kick left the Colts (and the rest of the world) stunned, someone at our Super Bowl party screamed, “You can DO THAT on a kickoff?”

I’m not ashamed to admit, that was me.

Tomorrow the city of New Orleans is throwing a victory parade for our boys, with floats donated by the five biggest Mardi Gras Krewes who are going to use them again next weekend. My sister Heather (who was at the game, damn her) is in Disney World right now watching a parade in Brees’ honor, while over 20,000 Saints fans are swarming Louis Armstrong International Airport to watch the rest of the team get off the plane back home.

That’s not a typo. Over TWENTY. THOUSAND.

When I finally went to bed at 1 a.m., the TV news was still showing the party on Bourbon Street. And when I woke up at 5 a.m. to go to work, there were still people out there. Many of the revelers, no doubt, walked down the road to camp out for a spot at the parade. Half the city didn’t come in to work today, including a lot of teachers at my school. But that was okay. Out of my 80 students, I had 28 absent.

We’re partying.

Tomorrow the work begins. Not necessarily for the Saints — they deserve a long break — but for the rest of us. For the past week, the eyes of the world have been on New Orleans. Governor Bobby Jindal said during an interview last night that the assembled media of the world have been given packets outlining the positive things that have been happening in Louisiana. This is our chance to convince people to come here — not just with their tourist dollars, but with their businesses. With their jobs. This is a chance to make a quantum leap in the progress we’ve been making ever since that bitch of a storm a few years ago.

But that’s on us. Our boys got us there. So thank you, Sean Peyton, Drew Brees, Pierre Thomas, Garrett Hartley, and all the rest. Thank you for putting yourselves — and us — in the spotlight. And don’t even think about next year yet. Enjoy this moment until the time comes to really think about it. Don’t worry about tomorrow yet. Don’t worry about the free agency and the draft, spring training or the pre-season. Don’t worry about 16 more games that count and don’t even think about 45. For now, 44 is all ours, and nobody will ever take that away from us. For the next few months, just just celebrate the fact that you’ve done something no other Saints team in history has done.

For the next few months, just celebrate.

And leave the hard work to all of us.

Popping in to say Im still alive, and Blake muses on the Saints...

I'm spending lots of time on the couch, just staying still.
Thank God for my laptop, books, and ON DEMAND.

I technically can go back to work on Feb 1st, but we will see whats up with that since I can't lift anything heavier than 15lbs till March 1st.
I am allowed to fly so I will be going to visit my dad in Las Vegas on Valentines Day, Blake will be joining me and Im sure he's anxious to see me in person and make sure that yes, I am ok.

I saw my surgeon today for my followup appointment and he told me that the biopsy of my gall bladder came back reporting that parts of it were gangrenous...yes, gangrenous.
So I'm glad that it isn't inside of me anymore, you know.

And that's about it from me.

Blake wrote a lovely piece on his blog/site about being a native Louisianian and being a Saints fan and the fact that the Saints are headed to the Big Dance...

From www.EvertimeRealms.com

I am not, as most people who know me will tell you, much of a sports fan. I don’t follow teams, I can barely recognize most players, and I will never understand how a baseball game can have more runs than hits in a single game. I mean, that’s just physics, people.

But for several years now, there has been an exception. The New Orleans Saints. Having grown up in southern Louisiana, just minutes from New Orleans, the Saints have always been a part of my life, through the leanest of years to the greatest. And for most of my youth, while I hoped the team would win, I was never particularly passionate about it. What I was passionate about, as always, were stories. Stories of heroes and villains, success and triumph, faith and redemption. And while there were some sports stories I enjoyed (I still rank Field of Dreams along my all-time favorite movies), it was hard to get into it as it was happening.

Then Katrina happened.

I don’t know if I can explain to you how Katrina changed things. I don’t know if you can understand if you haven’t been through something like it yourself. And I don’t mean that in any sort of elitist, “You just don’t get it” way. I mean I don’t know if it’s physically possible to comprehend what it’s like to be part of a community that’s suffered that kind of devestation unless it happens to you. The people of New York knew it after 9/11. The people of San Diego felt it after the earthquake. And us? Katrina nearly destroyed us.

Nearly.

I like stories about faith, and here’s something I believe: cities have spirits. Maybe not a living, conscious spirit like a soul, but the collective power and energy of a city is something real. And the spirit of a city resides wherever the people of that city choose to place it. The people of New Orleans, after Katrina, chose to give their spirit to the Saints. The rest of that season, of course, was a disaster, but the next season something changed. Sean Peyton took over the team. He brought in Drew Brees. And when the team returned to the dome for the first time since the storm, facing the Atlanta Falcolns, something happened.

The earth shook.

Part of it was a dome full of football-hungry fans thirsting for blood on their home turf. But more than that, we had an entire city — an entire region of the country — that desperately needed something to believe in. Millions of people had been through absolute hell, millions were still struggling to get back on their feet. And even if it was just for one night, millions of people needed something to put their heart into besides their own troubles. And in case you don’t remember… that night… the Saints brought it. It was perhaps the most important game in franchise history.

Until last night.

The boys in black and gold went on to the NFC Championship game that year, and lost hard to the Chicago Bears. The next few seasons were roller coasters, up and down. This year, they started 13-0, but when they dropped the last three games of the regular season, those naysayers who had discounted them since the beginning of the season acted as though it was evidence that the Saints weren’t for real. Then they faced Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, the man many in the media seemed to have preordained would get one more Super Bowl ring before he retired (again). And for most of the game, he had a damn good chance. Had the overtime coin toss not gone the Saints’ way, I may be writing a very different blog post today.

But it did.

Sean Peyton and Drew Brees both dedicated the win to the people of New Orleans. Although neither of them are natives of the city, they’ve become intrinsically linked to the spirit the people gave them. Peyton, Brees, Reggie Bush, Deuce McAllister (maybe just honorary at this point, but still)… they’ve been embraced by New Orleans and they’ve given of themselves both on and off the field. They’ve become the keepers of spirit of the city. As they rose, the city has begun to rise with them.

They have made us believe.

Saints fans have the greatest dilemma they’ve ever faced this week: do we buy the sure-thing NFC Champs t-shirts, or wait for the Super Bowl Champ shirts that are dangling so tantalizingly close? I’m not arrogant enough to claim the big dance in two weeks is a lock. But I also think that anyone who thinks the Colts have it wrapped up haven’t paid the slightest bit of attention to this team, to what they’ve done, and to what they mean. And even if they don’t win, I don’t think there’s any way this city could be prouder of them, of who they are, of what they’ve meant to us and what they’ve done.

Sometimes you just need something to believe in.

So you do. You believe in Santa Claus. You believe in fairy tales. You believe in the Easter Bunny, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, even when you can’t make up your mind about Toledo.

And you believe in the New Orleans Saints.

A Love Story In Pictures: New Years in NOLA Edition.

You know that Noon thing I talked about before?

It ended up being 500pm.

The flight out of Chicago to New Orleans was delayed because the engine stalled at the gate. And the next two airplanes that were going to take us here to NO were delayed or redirected to another airport because of snow.

All in all I spent around 12 hours in airports or on airplanes.

But United did give me a $150.00 travel certificate for my trouble, since the whole damn delay started with a mechanical failure.


Hellooooo Vegas in February getting $150.00 easier to do :)

Is it noon yet?

'Cause thats when I get off the plane in New Orleans and start my Christmas.

Itinerary (#24)

Pittsburgh (PIT) to Chicago (ORD) 12/26/09 Departing 7:18am Arriving 8:04 AM

Chicago (ORD) to New Orleans (MSY) Departing 9:35AM Arriving 12:00PM


Is it December 26th yet?

What I Did On My Summer Vacation...A Love Story In Pictures.

I'm not as good with words as Blake is, so check his blog for the story of our summer vacation www.EvertimeRealms.com