O.M.G. That's all I can say.

The best football game I've ever been to and just one heck of a great time tailgating. We rolled into the lot around 9:45, well ahead of the 2:00 start. Because of the crowds though, we were all going to head into the game around 1:00 to make sure we didn't miss the player introductions.







Benny "The Drunk" and Andy

The whole spread

Bundled Maria and Chris

First the tailgate: despite the change in starting time, the menu remained the same except for two notable alcoholic changes: Bahama Mama mix and Mai Tai mix, neither of which I brought (knowing what a bad idea it would be). The food was pretty darn good, as usual, and no one was left hungry. Our neighbors had some jambalaya that was pretty good as well. The two huge bottles that you can see in the pictures are the two mixes that Andy and Benny basically drank themselves. As you might expect, taking in that much alcohol (they had rum in them already and then they added MORE rum) did not do good things to their systems. Benny not only got sick in his seat at the game, he also passed out by the colonnades for most of the second quarter. He also missed most of the tailgate afterwards by passing out in the car.



On the plus side, my three-pepper chili turned out great (and was much easier to prepare...see below) and Mr. Heater was cranking away keeping us toasty warm. Everyone agreed that even on medium, you had to move away from it after staying in front of it for a while. Nice to have. Plus it's a chick magnet for cold women who are walking by......better than a puppy!!



On to the game. While the Bears dominated the first half, the last drive before half-time by the Saints which ended in a touchdown and which cut the score to 16-7, really seemed to change momentum in favor of the Saints. Apparently the Saints made better second half adjustments too, because they dominated us during the third quarter. At the end of three quarters, we were only up 18-14 and the game was VERY MUCH up for grabs. Then, in a four minute span, we scored a touchdown, caused a fumble and scored another touchdown and the game was really over. Four minutes, that's all. Wow. If you went to the bathroom and/or to get a beer during that four minutes, you basically missed the whole game!!



Now for some gloating.......you knew it was coming though didn't you?......Big Joe goes 9-1 in the playoffs with both wins this weekend. Damn!!!!



On a small side note, my chili was so much easier to make because of a purchase I made at Target of the Vidalia Chopping Wizard. After gutting and quartering the the peppers, I let the Chopping Wizard take over and what normally takes me about 45 minutes, took only about 10. It was pretty amazing. It handled chopping the sweet onion without a tear too!