Back in Chicagoland

Well, instead of going to see Big Al Carson and his blues band at the Funky Pirate in New Orleans last night, I walked along the Mississippi River in the evening and had crawfish etouffe with seafood gumbo while watching tugboats zip on by. I went back to my hotel room and watched "ER" on TV and turned in for the night. Friday morning it was early to rise, check out of the Hilton and board a plane headed back to Chicago. It was a very uneventful trip back, and despite the lure of The Big Easy, it was good to be back in Chi-Town.

It took a few hours for "vacation fever" to subside and the realities and responsibilities to settle back in. I'm taking a project management class for my Master's degree coursework, and that will be the main focus of my concentration in the time I have to myself this weekend. In the meanwhile, I've enjoyed the hugs from the rugrats and spending time with them talking and playing video games. We had dinner at Chili's...my last gasp of carbohydrates before I return to Dr. Atkins' plan.

On the way home from Chili's the boys insisted that I play the Ramones..."We Want The Airwaves" in particular. It was 9½ years ago when I last used to play that as my theme song for the "All Alternative Friday Night" on KFMG in Des Moines. It was something about the time of day and it being a Friday night that brought back some fond memories as the boys played air guitar and air drums. They liked their souveniers from N'awlens...t-shirts, plush lobster toys and various doodads from Macromedia.