The Return
I'm back from darkest Iowegia. It turned out having internet access at my hotel didn't matter. I had no time to myself regardless. Quite a whirlwind weekend. I don't know why I thought putting my kids in a hotel with a swimming pool was going to give me any time for anything else when we had a spare moment.
The occasion was my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's actually from Ottumwa, rather than Des Moines. But Ottumwa isn't big enough to accommodate the crazy-wild partying of my family when they get together for serious geriatric joviality.
Anyway, we got to see lots of relatives we haven't seen in years. The kids got to meet many of them for the first time. Very worth the effort.
While starting the big birthday dinner we had some of the younger cousins with the sharpest eyes keeping an eye on the television in the bar to keep us updated on the Notre Dame / USC game. I love being from a Catholic family where booze & football are as welcome as mom & apple pie in family gatherings.
On that note, I'll offer the anecdotal oberservation that new coach Charlie Weiss has certainly recaptured Notre Dame's traditional position of reverence within the American Catholic family. Even my cousin who graduated from USC was pulling hard for Notre Dame. Classic though the ending was, a Notre Dame win would have been counted as a gift to Grandma on her 90th in a way ESPN Classic can't quite capture.
Still, turning too the far less important sport of baseball, if the White Sox win tonight (they're currently up 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning) that would be even better. My late grandfather was a lifelong White Sox fan, and his better half remains one today. If the Sox make it to the World Series, my uncle has promised to take her to one of the games. Go Sox!
The occasion was my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's actually from Ottumwa, rather than Des Moines. But Ottumwa isn't big enough to accommodate the crazy-wild partying of my family when they get together for serious geriatric joviality.
Anyway, we got to see lots of relatives we haven't seen in years. The kids got to meet many of them for the first time. Very worth the effort.
While starting the big birthday dinner we had some of the younger cousins with the sharpest eyes keeping an eye on the television in the bar to keep us updated on the Notre Dame / USC game. I love being from a Catholic family where booze & football are as welcome as mom & apple pie in family gatherings.
On that note, I'll offer the anecdotal oberservation that new coach Charlie Weiss has certainly recaptured Notre Dame's traditional position of reverence within the American Catholic family. Even my cousin who graduated from USC was pulling hard for Notre Dame. Classic though the ending was, a Notre Dame win would have been counted as a gift to Grandma on her 90th in a way ESPN Classic can't quite capture.
Still, turning too the far less important sport of baseball, if the White Sox win tonight (they're currently up 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning) that would be even better. My late grandfather was a lifelong White Sox fan, and his better half remains one today. If the Sox make it to the World Series, my uncle has promised to take her to one of the games. Go Sox!
Posted by Doug Williams on
Sunday October 16, 2005 at 9:20pm
