(tap tap) Is this thing on?

I'm just starting to recover from our trip to New Orleans last weekend for the first weekend of Mardi Gras and the Saints' first Super Bowl game. I've always said that, if the Saints ever made it, I'd spend Super Bowl weekend back at home.

We made it down in time for back-to-back parades Saturday morning, the second of which normally runs on Sunday (they decided to move up a day for some reason, can't imagine why). Things were a bit more subdued than normal; everyone was in a Black & Gold stupor, even the people on the floats. My favorite part of the first one was when a float went by with an empty spot where a rider should be. A sign saying "Gone to Miami!" was hanging at that spot. Steven Seagal was in the second parade, and there was a camera there. Sweet Pea and I may end up on his TV show (my wife said the camera zoomed in on us while we were at the float).

Sweet Pea wasn't feeling good that night, so mom took her and Lil Bit to the hotel. We tried to convince them to come out, but they wouldn't. They should have; a friend invited us to a prime spot and we cleaned up.

My old church decided there was no point in having service Sunday night, so they held a Super Bowl party instead. Large screen, large crowd (some of which I grew up with), lots of food and inflatables for the kids. Everybody was in the mood for the game; Sweet Pea and Little Man had been listening to and singing Saints songs for weeks, and even Lil Bit was saying "Who Dat say gonna beat them Saints - not Santa Claus!"

Needless to say, there was lots of celebrating going on when the game ended. Someone popped in a CD of Saints songs and we all began second-lining around the church. I'll never forget the look on my kids' faces - they didn't know what was going on, but they thought it was cool.

One of the local sporting goods places opened after the game to sell championship apparel. We went, and so did thousands of others. It turned into a huge victory parade and party, with singing, dancing, hugging and hollering. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get into the store, but it was well worth it for the atmosphere.

Here's a picture my wife took near the end (but not at the end) of the line. If you look, you can see the back of the store in the distance.











Who Dat.