Back from the Land of the Dead

Too soon? Anyway, my lovely bride and I have made the journey from the Motor City to the Windy City for the weekend. The wake and funeral went surprisingly well, if that's possible. Jessie in fact did not puke upon the sight of Carmela's body, although it did take her about 5 or 6 hours to be able to get within 10 feet of it. I met the parents of actor Curtis Armstrong. Yeah, that's right: Booger from Revenge of the Nerds (also Charles DeMar from Better Off Dead). It turns out that his grandparents were my mom's godparents. Holla!

For an Italian wake and funeral, there was much less crying than expected, but that might have been because Grandma was 94, so it wasn't like anyone was really shocked. It was nice to see relatives that I only see on the funeral circuit.

In my grandma's obituary, I forgot to mention several things. She basically loved anyone and everyone, with one glaring exception: gypsys. Man did she hate gypsys. You know why? Because gypsys steal children.

Tonight is the IU football season opener at Central Michigan (whose Chippewa nickname was taken off of the NCAA's Native American banned nickname list today: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2149907). I'm pretty pumped about the game, especially since it's going to be on ESPNU (for some unknown reason) and I'll be able to watch it among IU fans at the BW-3 in Lincoln Park. As a diehard IU football fan, I think I'm more pumped up for this season than I was for Antwaan Randle El's senior year (when we finished a nearly solid 5-6). I currently have the ignorance-is-bliss optimism that accompanies a 0-0 record. I have the same thought I have every year: "Man, this could be the year we make it to the Motor City Bowl." I should only be so lucky.

So what the hell is going on in New Orleans? My statement about Andrew's prowess may have to be retracted, as much as that pains me. Leave it to me to open my big yap about how costly Andrew was. Needless to say, I'll be keeping a close eye on the amount of money spent. For more on Andrew, please visit the link to the right.

I do love how the French Quarter was relatively unharmed. Not even Mother Nature can stop drunk chicks from showing their ta-tas for extremely inexpensive plastic beads. Innocent question: will the bars in New Orleans still serve the popular mixed drink, the Hurricane? Personally, I'd add some Everclear, call it a Katrina, and charge twice as much. "A Hurricane will get you drunk, but just one Katrina, and you'll be blacked out for months."