Newest Man-made Disaster

Dusting off ye olde blog in these troubled times. I started blogging in troubled times following Hurricane Katrina. Here I am again. I helps me to write even if no one reads. 2020 has so far been an odd year. Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year was weird. It started with the Krewe du Vieux ball being moved the day of the parade and ball, due to safety issues. That was later followed with the Krewe of Nyx parade, when a parade goer was killed by falling under a float. I was 1.5 miles and 15 floats away with the Pussyfooters. When it happened, we were stopped in the Garden District. Word was going around about what happened, then the official word came from NOLAready. I decided to walk home, and not complete the parade. 

The next night, the Krewe of Muses and all other parades were postponed due to weather. This isn’t odd, it has happened before, but the decision wasn’t announced until 2 hour before the parades were supposed to rolls. All the marching bands and other on-foot groups usually report to line-up 2 hours before the parade, so they were all dressed and on their way when the word came. Another float related death occurred during mega-parade Endemyion. Then, during Thoth, two riders fell off of floats, but were fine. The next night, two people fell off a balcony while watching a parade. Conspiracy theories relating it to the 2 victims still in the wreckage of the Hard Rock hotel (another fucked up ordeal) were flying.

G and I were sick with an upper respiratory cold in early January. I was happy we were both healthy before Blush Ball and Krewe du Vieux. We got sick again after Mardi Gras was over. I remember feeling it coming on my birthday, the day after Ash Wednesday. My Skeeball team threw me a small party, though I kept my distance so as not to get anyone else sick. I laid low and stayed close to home the following week and a half, so as not to get anyone else sick. We are still dealing with allergies issues due to the annual pollening, but so is everyone else. 

The city is more-or-less shut-down due to the Coronavirus. Museums, bars, festivals, concerts, casinos–any large, public gathering–has been cancelled or postponed. French Quarter Fest has already announced it will be held the first weekend of October. All are waiting for Jazz Fest to make a similar statement. Restuarants can no longer have seated guests, but can do take-out and delivery of food. Even Commander's Palace is doing take-out. Their food is really good, but it is the whole experience of dining there with their amazing wait staff that really makes it. Some restaurants have closed down for good. I was really looking forward to the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Parade which would have been Saturday, and Super Sunday, but both were cancelled, for good reason. A bunch of people gathered on Saturday anyway and were shut down by the NOPD. Today is St. Patrick's Day and normally parties would be every where, but not this year. It is strangely quiet.

I am a pet sitter, and only one of my clients went ahead with her trip. So I have been going downtown, Canal at Magazine Street, since Sunday. Sunday was more or less a typical Sunday. There was some traffic congestion on Camp Street before the turn onto Canal. Tourist were lined up at Ruby Slipper for brunch, and tourists were checking out of their hotels, cabs and Ubers double parked. Monday was much quieter, still a small crowd in front of Ruby Slipper. Today there was no traffic, very few tourist, and Ruby Slipper was doing take-out only. Metered street parking spots were plentiful, a rarity. 

I tried to pick up a few things from the uptown Rouses grocery store Sunday evening, but it was picked clean. Monday, I decided to head the Westbank on a quest for produce and eggs. The Gretna Rouses was a zoo, so I headed on over to Hong Kong market. Plenty of produce, noodles, frozen goods but zero eggs. The lines to check out were long and slow, as people had their carts piled high. (I wasn't worried about toilet paper, we have plenty from my last run to Costco. Can anyone explain the TP hoarding?)

Folks here in South Louisiana are used to preparing for hurricanes, but this is a different animal. We shouldn't have to worry about the water supply or electricity, though people are buying up water anyway. It's familiar. There is no where to evacuate to, unless it's in the middle of nowhere. Every morning comes the update from the city, with the rising numbers of people infected and deaths. So we hunker down.

Marching On

Over the last month since my last post, I've Pussyfooted in 2 parades, marched in another, watched a ton of parades, celebrated my birthday, attended 2 more Mardi Gras Balls, bought a car, ate 2 monstrous corn dogs, went camping and continue to battle the crud. Pshew, no wonder I'm still tired. AND now trying to clear out Mardi Gras stuff to make way for St. Patrick's Day.

First of my new car! A Rav 4 I've named Barry White from Lakeside Toyota. The Rav4 and Honda CRV were my top two picks, both highly rated. My experience at Lakeside Toyota (ask for Mike Chosa) was far superior to the one I had at Royal Honda plus, it's closer to where I live for servicing. I love it!

Our float. From https://www.facebook.com/NewOrleansLocal

This year, the Krewe of SPANK got to march first (after the title and royalty float) in the Krewe du Vieux parade. Our float and throws, especially the Dizneylandrieu Map, were highly coveted and beloved by the media. The weather wasn't bad and the crowds were big but polite this year.
More photos: NewOrleansLocal.com, nola.com, Offbeat.com and NolaDefender.com. We had Loki, a "GoogleGlassHole," with us and he took still photos and video of the parade.

In my previous post I said I was going to Pussyfoot in 3 parade. The first was Carrollton on 2/23 and it was a deluge. I was in denial it would rain, and never imagined it would rain as hard as it did. But we danced on and there were still people along the parade route! Every single piece of clothing I was wearing was soak through. Our new corsets bled pink dye all over everything that wasn't already pink. It was insane. I had been feeling better before this day but after that my cold came back. I dropped out of the Nyx parade and didn't even watch it. It was a cold, damp night and I decided it wasn't a good idea for me to be outside. Plus, the next day was my birthday!

The deluge! But we smiled and danced the whole parade.

The Krewe of Muses parade rolled on my birthday and I watched it over at our good friend's who always have an open house for it. The rest of Mardi Gras was a blur as I recovered from the crud.

It's all down hill to Mardi Gras now

My last post was 1/7 so it's been less than a month since I posted last. Woot! Let's see, what has happened in the last month...

I survived the polar vortex that shut New Orleans, and pretty much the whole state of Louisiana, down. We didn't get any pretty snow just sleet. It was freaking arctic here. I grew up in Florida and have lived here the past 20 years so I'm not accustomed to below freezing temperatures 3 days in a row. A freeze over night is not a big deal because I sleep through it. We were hunkered down like in a hurricane. During all of this I had the crud. I've been sick for 2 weeks now and finally think I'm getting over it.

And even though I was sick as a dog there was no way I'd miss the Pussyfooter's Blush Ball. It's our annual fundraiser which didn't happen last year due to an early Mardi Gras and the Superbowl. I laced up in my new corset, got glammed up and managed to go until about 12:30am. Strangely there are very few pictures of me that I've seen but here are the ones George Long Photography took. We sold out and exceed our fundraising goal, ending up giving METRO $34,000!

That me on the left pointing.

I've also been gearing up for Mardi Gras which is one month away. Looking at this month's calendar, it's full of Pussyfooter dance practices, Krewe of SPANK den days -- where we work on our float, throws and costumes -- and Krewe of Muses events like throw pick-up and float viewing and of course, parades. I'm not riding or Pussyfooting in the Muses this year. It falls on my birthday, so instead I'm going to enjoy the spectacle at my friends' parade party. Of course, I have to stay mum about the themes and throws for Muses and Krewe du Vieux/SPANK but will post after the parades are over. I will Pussyfoot in three parade: Carrollton, Nyx and Orpheus. I can't wait!

Other than that, pet sitting has been slow. I remember that happening this time last year. I'm trying to build up the dog walking side of the biz since that's steadier income. Doing a little design and also doing PR for the Freret Street Festival that will be April 5th. Been shopping for a new set of wheels. Visiting dealerships and test drives is fodder for a whole separate post. Skeeball started back up and we won our first match last week. Yay!

Mardi Gras Madness - Part 4 - Super Bowl

What does the Super Bowl have to do with Mardi Gras? Nothing really except when Mardi Gras parades have to be rescheduled because of the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl fell on the weekend before the weekend prior to Mardi Gras and there are usually parades Friday night through Sunday so it was sandwiched between parades and festivities.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in New Orleans was really REALLY hoping that this year's Super Bowl would include the Saints. A few years ago we finally made it to, then WON, the Super Bowl, so we wanted our return to be in our home town. But alas, that was not to be. Hosting the BIG GAME is a BIG DEAL for the host city and New Orleans has been busy spiffing up the downtown and French Quarter for the game. Road were repaved, new streetcar lines were built*. Homeless were moved.


Personally, I was going to avoid the whole thing. I joked I was going to hunker down at home as if riding out a hurricane. The last time the Super Bowl came to New Orleans, February 2002, it was the first game after 9-11. The area around the Superdome was locked down few days before the game but that was about it. This time, blocks all around the Superdome were locked down a week or more before the game. And there were all these events that didn't happen before. Fan Zones and Fan Experiences. CBS took over Jackson Square and ESPN took over the huge parking lot in the French Quarter both broadcasting from these remote locations. What caught my eye was the FREE concerts along the Mississippi of local, New Orleans bands and artists! This all started happened about the Wednesday before the BIG GAME. Super Bowl Sunday, I broke down and G and I headed down to the CBD to go see what the hoopla was about. It was early and I figured the tourist would be either sleeping their hang overs off or at brunch. But no, there was SF and Ravens fans walking around. But what struck me was how many Saints fans were out and about, wearing the black and gold. You would have thought the Saints were also in the Super Bowl judging by the number of jerseys I saw.

I wasn't really that interested in the game. If I had to root for a team I was going with the Ravens. Went to a pot luck Superbowl party with amazing food and fun folks. The first half of the game was a shut out and the commercials were a bore. Half time with Beyonce, what ever. Third quarter BLACK OUT! Finally things got interesting.

*Loyola Streetcar line - $45 million, took 19 months and goes 9 blocks. Progress!

Mardi Gras Madness - Part 3 - First Weekend of Parades with the Pussyfooters

Here comes the girls!

Technically, Mardi Gras is the last day of Carnival but we use the terms interchangeably. Carnival starts on 12th Night, January 5. The Phoney Phorty Phellows take a streetcar ride, throwing beads and what not to those that come out to see them. I was meeting a friend on the Avenue and was running late, so I missed the first pass and almost missed the second pass. There are parties this night as well as the Krewe of Joan of Arc that marches through the Quarter.

Me, mid-step-turn.

In New Orleans, the majority of parades start 2 weeks prior to Mardi Gras day. I'm in the Pussyfooters, a woman's dance group, and we were invited to perform in two parade the first weekend, Krewe of Cleopatra and Krewe of King Arthur. Both parades are about 5 miles long and took about 3 hours to complete. That's a lot of dancing and marching! But it is so much fun, and it's always a thrill to spy someone you know along the route. What was fun about these two parade is the first one was at night, the second the day, each a different experience. The night parades are more of a blur because you can't see, but even in the daylight, you aren't always sure where you are. The crowds blank out the landmarks and cross streets. It's fun to be able to see the people in the crowd and interact with them.

Here's a bunch of photos on Flickr from the King Arthur parade. We glow in the daylight!
Here's a video of us performing one of our dances in the same parade.
Here's a video of us from the Krewe of Cleopatra parade.

It's such an overload of senses. We have our own music - this year with a live DJ! - then there's the yelling and crowds noises, music from other groups and marching bands. We use hand motions and whistles (you'll hear them in the videos) to alert everyone about an upcoming dance. Sometimes you miss both until you realize everyone around you is dancing so you just jump right in. Like I said earlier, visually it can be a complete blur, but then you spy someone in the crowd you know and they just pop out at you. That's usually when I mess up. LOL And then there's the smells. There are horses and mules in the parade -ugh- but you also catch whiffs of fried chicken, BBQ and boiling crawfish along the route as well. Yum!

St. Charles Avenue in the Lower Garden District.

In front of Gallier Hall downtown. I'm the one in the pink wig. ;-)

Canal Street.

Mardi Gras Madness - Part 2 - Stomper's Ball

I'm a child of the 80s so I love dressing up and dancing to 80s tunes at the 610 Stomper's Ball. This year's theme was "Headbanger's Ball" but I had already got pieces for my Madonna wannabe costume before the theme was announced. Even though the ball was the night before the Krewe du Vieux parade I just couldn't miss it. Before the ball, I got together with some of my girlfriends for last minute primping. That really took me back to high school and college days.

Band reunion! LOL

I love the varieties of 80s wear.

I look like the love child of Madonna and Robert Smith.

Our friend M as Paul Stanley.
She was crowned Queen of the costume contest.
The King was a Freddy Mercury look-alike. LOL

The 610 Stomper's performing their new dance.

Mardi Gras Madness - Part 1 - Krewe du Vieux

For the past few years G and I have been in a subkrewe of Krewe du Vieux (KdV), the Krewe of PAN. Our original subkrewe was suspended (looong story) but we reformed with some of the other members and got conditionally accepted into KdV as Krewe of SPANK. (See what we did there?) KdV doesn't normally accept new subkrewes but we were an exception. G was elected co-captain of SPANK and I secretary. Since being accepted in September, we've been super busy getting by-laws written (ugh) getting incorporated, filling up membership, collecting dues. The unique thing about KdV is each subkrewe comes up with their own theme, decorates their own float, comes up with and/or makes their own throws and costumes. However our float was stolen out of the den (another long story, we have an idea who took it) so we had to improvise. Luckily one of our members had a mule drawn carriage lying around (only in New Orleans, right?) so we used that. All the floats are pulled by mules or people.

The weather was fantastic that evening (never a given) so the crowds were huge but pretty well behaved (also, not a given). We had a blast marching through the Marigny and Quarter accompanied by the Lagniappe Brass band, winging penalty flags at the crowds and handing out other throws. Doug McCash, art critic for the T-P said our penalty flag throws were the best of the parade. Woot!

Here's a few pics, more can be seen here.

Moi with a "Vilma for Mayor" sign.
©Ride Hamilton

Our "float" ©Ride Hamilton

G marching. ©Ride Hamilton

Come on September!

Ugh August. I hate August. Thank gawd it's almost over. A crazy month with the East Coast getting a one-two punch of an earthquake followed by Hurricane Irene. Here in New Orleans we are in a drought, in spite of the fact it rained every freaking day in July, but hardly at all in August. And we are also on day three of a marsh fire burning out of control in NO East. The city was blanketed in smoke today. Makes me cranky, super cranky. So it's time to look back over to some of the good time in August - go to a happy place if you will.

I think it's saying something that I didn't do a post for 08-29-11 the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But I think that was because of all the above distractions. I came across this graphic on Tumblr - very nice.

http://stephanieshift.tumblr.com/post/9555965725

The husband and I always do something to mark this day. One year we drank a nice bottle of wine we bought in CA that we had been saving. This year we went to dinner at Coquette, a wonderful French inspired restaurant in our 'hood.

The annual Rising Tide Conference was this weekend. It just gets better every year. And it's great to see all folks we've met thanks to the blogsphere. I did miss the annual group proclamation of FYYFF. Very cathardic to yell that with a whole room full of people. After the conference I got all pink and sparkly and joined my Pussyfooters sisters for the Mid-Summer Mardi Gras. Something else I can cross off my New Orleans Bucket List. It was fun but dammit was hot. A full day of stuff to remind me why I live here. Sunday I had drinks with a friends who was visiting from out of town and one of them asked me a question along the lines of "have you ever thought of living somewhere else?" Yes of course I've day dreamed about living other places. I was in NYC earlier this month and I was ready to not come home. I think I gave him a look of horror though based on how he back peddled and tried to clarify what he was trying to say. That probably wouldn't have happen two days earlier when I would have yelled "YES and get me the hell out of here."

Grassroots Mardi Gras marching groups opt for spunk and sparkle over pomp and prestige
Published: Thursday, March 03, 2011, 9:00 AM
By John Pope, The Times-Picayune
Article in the T-P about marching groups with great photos of the Pussyfooters and other groups.

NOTE: The Pussyfooter started 10 years ago, before Katrina. :-)

Slide show of photos from the shoot above.

Krewe du Vieux 2011

G and I are in Krewe of PAN and sub-Krewe of Krewe du Vieux and our parade was Saturday. Unlike the huge super-krewe who pay professionals to make their floats and costumes we all do it all ourselves. Our theme this year was "S'il Vous Played" and everyone costumed as a huckster, sham artist, what have you. There were several meter maids, garbage collection agencies, corrupt politicians, card sharks and mimes. The crowds this year were huge! Probably because the weather was mild. It's usually freezing cold for our parade.

I was a fortune teller.

Our float. The hands were motorized.

G as a politician.

A great video of us appears on YouTube:

What I've been up to...

The 610 Stomper's Ball -their theme was 80s and/or prom wear.

My get-up for the Pussyfooter's Blush Ball

One month to Mardi Gras day!

I had all these grand delusion of posting about the building up to Mardi Gras. But I've just been too busy to post! So instead, just enjoy this wonderful video.


Mardi Gras 2010 from Cottage Films on Vimeo.

Party with a Purpose Blush Ball is tomorrow night!

Wow. It's been a VERY busy January gearing up for the Blush Ball. Weekly dance rehearsals, shopping for costume accesssories, creating the decorations to make the big black hole that is the Howlin' Wolf all pink and sparkly and FUN. Sending out email blasts and Tweets. Marketing meetings. Spamming my friends on Facebook. Selling ball tickets and raffle tickets. As usual I have over committed myself. LOL! But the payoff should be worth it. Ticket sales have been very strong. Our goal was "over 60" items for the raffle, we have around 175! And some really amazing stuff too. Gift certificates for restaurants, bars, spas and salons. I personally got gift certificates from Katy Beh Contemporary Jewelry, Lakeside Shopping Center, Finn McCool's and Mid-City Yacht Club plus some tickets to the 610 Stomper's Ball next week (thanks everyone!).

Our goal is to raise $10,000 for Metropolitan Center for Women & Children. We may actually EXCEED that figure. I got to create a BIG fake CHECK to present to Metro.

Big @ss check!

The Pussyfooters colors are pink, orange and silver and they are all about being sparkly. I didn't own anything pink before joining but not I own a TON of stuff. Claire's Boutique is a good source for pink and sparkly. Fake nails, glitter pink lip gloss and eye shadow, pink gloves and sparkly earrings. It's been fun getting in touch with my inner 12 year old girl. LOL. And I've met some great ladies.

Is it pink? check. Does it Sparkle? check.

I'm very exciting, and feeling a little (OK a lot) overwhelmed by tomorrow. A bunch of us are showing up at the venue at 9am to clean and decorate. Then I have to go home, get dressed, go back around 7pm for dress rehearsal. And THEN the party begins! OY! I'm not planning on doing much of anything Sunday. Just relaxing. And trying to wash all the glitter off me.

UPDATE: We raised $14,000 for METRO!

puss·y·foot
1. To move stealthily or cautiously.
2. Informal To act or proceed cautiously or timidly to avoid committing oneself.

Tonight I'm going to my first Pussyfooter's meeting. I'm very excited. The Pussyfooters are an all female dancing/marching group. There are several of these groups in New Orleans. This article does a nice synopsis about the groups.

You don't have to be crazy to live here but it helps.

I survived my trip, but just barely. Day two I went on a rafting trip. The river was running high, fast and very cold due to all the snow melt. We hit a rapid the wrong way and everyone got thrown from the raft except the guide. Two manged to swim to shore, me and another guy got pulled back into the raft. Never been so cold in my life. Scared the shit out of me and I got some lovely bruises. One guy twisted his ankle really bad. But we all were OK and we only lost 3 baseball caps and one paddle.

That white stuff is snow, my friends. Up to our knees in some places.

It's always interesting to travel-you realize just how dysfunctional yet unique New Orleans really is. The first week of my trip was small spent in small, charming mountain towns in the southern half of Colorado. One day were were so high up in the mountains that the snow still hadn't melted. The second week I was in Denver for a conference. Denver is huge and flat. Who knew? It's very clean and there's a good mix of older buildings and new ones. I thought "this is what it's like to live in a town with a robust tax base." I like the funk of New Orleans though, and Denver seems like it tries too hard. My friend and I visited Pearl Street, billed as "unique shops, excellent dining and community minded businesses nestled in a delightful, pedestrian and pet friendly setting." All three blocks of it. Whatever. It pales compared to Magazine Street which is 6 miles long full of shops, restaurants, bars and galleries.

Cute, mountain town of Silverton.

I did have an interesting experience. I have friends in Denver and they picked me up from my downtown hotel and took me to their house for dinner. I was there for about 5 minutes when the power went out. It was a very hot day so we all assumed it was a brownout. But it stayed out. Thankfully they lived within walking distance of some restaurants so we headed out. This was no brownout, traffic lights were also out. My friend pulled up the news on her Blackberry - an electrical substation had exploded and thousands of people were out of power! We were lucky there was an area near by that had power and we were able to have dinner. They took me back to my hotel around 9pm and it was creepy. It was dark, no lights, no traffic lights - very reminiscent of parts of New Orleans after Katrina - plus smoke. Thankfully downtown had power so my hotel wasn't affected.

Getting back to crazy; I come home to extreme heat and humidity, the start of hurricane season and the on-going oil "spill" in the gulf. I won't lie, it was a relief to be away from all the bad news for a while. As well as away from the humidity. But we do find ways to distract ourselves and make it worth it to live here: incredible food, amazing music, copious amount of booze available 24/7, the laissez faire attitude, Mardi Gras, festivals and other crazy things. For example, I just found out today I got accepted into the Pussyfooters, one of the female dance troupes. There are others; Camel Toes Steppers, Bearded Oysters and The Muffalottas. I also play on a Skee Ball team every Thursday. Excuse me, it's a skee ball and drinking league. The guy who formed the league just made this great video. I'm a member of two Mardi Gras krewes, so I get to dress up in costumes and parade through the street with a drink in my hand, throwing stuff at people-it's really a hoot. If you are thinking "grow up" then you don't have the right attitude to live here. Yes, people do have jobs, pay bills, own homes and raise families. We just like to have fun while being all grown up and responsible.

Saints Update

610 Stompers

The Saints have been Superbowl Champions for one month and about 14 hours, 16 minutes. The feel good after glow has not warn off. I heard "Halftime" (aka Get Crunk) for the first time since Mardi Gras at the Big Easy Roller Girls bout Saturday. I had grown sick of the song after hearing it over and over. The 610 Stompers were half time entertainment and did part of their routine to the song. The whole crowd on the New Orleans side jumped up and started singing and dancing along, myself included. My friends and I yelled ourselves hoarse. I hope the fans from Arkansas (the opposing team was the Arkansas Killbillies) were amused by our Stompers and the crowd's reaction.

CityBusiness reports on the "Saintsaintional Impact" the win has had on New Orleans. (Thanks to Humid Being for having the whole article.)

Of course now is the NFL draft and everyone is waiting to see who is staying with the Saints and who is going. A surprise was Scott Fujita signing with the Cleveland Browns. Going from the Superbowl winners to a team who went 5-11 last year. Wow. A surprise since Fujita always talks about how much he loves New Orleans. But of course, money talks louder. Maybe he hopes he can help the Cleveland become a turn around team/city, sort of like NOLA.

Some guy named Mike Polk made two videos, self proclaimed "hastily made Cleveland tourism videos." They are hilarious. I was going to embed them, but the maker's comments are priceless.

Attempt #1
Attempt #2

Lombardi Gras

Some people have started calling this year's carnival season "Lombardi Gras" instead of Mardi Gras because of the black and gold bleed over. The crowds are huge this year. Cell phone service (at least with AT&T) is spotty and even text messages aren't going through. We are definitly back to pre-K levels of crowds.

This has definitely been the best Mardi Gras ever for me. Joining the Krewe of PAN and marching in Krewe du Vieux was amazing. I went to my first Blush ball - fantastic - and my first AMUSEment Muses's ball with the B52s performing - outstanding. I almost had the opportunity to ride in the Muses parade for the first time as a sub. I tried but no too hard to ride. Got to save something to look forward to! In between these experiences was also the first of seeing the Saints win the NFC Championship and the Superbowl. Saturday night we took a break from parades and watched the Superbowl again. I've never watched the Superbowl twice. I've been on such a high for weeks now. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, Mardi Gras will be over. Catholics observe Lent and I'm going to join them in Flexi-lent. No drinking except for my birthday and the St. Patrick's Day parade party we have every year.

The video of Wynton Marsalis "The Spirit of New Orleans" is finally on-line, posted on Facebook by the man himself (or his representatives). So perfect.

I'm paraded and partied out and am ready to get back to "Normal." Of course, like after Katrina, there's a new normal around here. For so long New Orleans, like the Saints, have been looked down upon. New Orleans is back baby! The Who Dat! Nation is alive and well. Ya you rite.

One last New Orleans video, just as perfect as Wynton's but this one is funny and funky. "New Orleans: Love it or Leave it."

The morning after...


We had SO much fun with Krewe du Vieux and all the wonderful people of Krewe of PAN. Can't wait to do it again next year. However, today I am sore all over from walking, dancing and lugging a gym bag full of beads and throws. These photos were taken from a balcony on Royal street by G's cousin. I have a whole host of photos I took here.

The local rag, the T-P has a nice slide show of image from the parade. Our float made the front cover of the paper! Nice! VOO DAT!

Krewe du Vieux gets FIRED UP tonight!

After living in New Orleans for 17 years I am finally participating in my first Mardi Gras parade. G and I were invited to join the Krewe of PAN, a sub-Krewe of Krewe du Vieux, 2 weeks ago by Adrastos and Dr. A. It's been a very busy 2 weeks as we helped with the float (well, we mostly stood around, drank beer and held things when needed), created gris gris bags for throws and ran around town buying throws and parts for our costumes. Our Krewe's theme is VOO DAT and I will be dressed as a Miami Dophin voo doo doll. I'm glad I didn't decide to be a Saintsation cause it's gonna be bone chilling cold tonight! Therefore, you can be guarenteed the parade will move fast like last year. It's been fun getting to know the other krewe members and using our creative juices for some fun stuff. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Hell hath frozen over.

The Saints are going to the Superbowl, first time ever. Everyone has Who dat!! fever. Work isn't getting done. Black and Gold is every where. All everyone can talk about is the Saints. I too am guilty of all of this. I'm sure the Facebook friends of all of us Saints fans are probably sick of all the video postings, fleur de lis and and Who Dat! But the energy here in New Orleans is amazing.

Sports announcers kept saying "Mardi Gras has come early." I hate to tell them technically it's BEEN Mardi Gras since Twelfth Night. But we'll forgive them. Normally this time of year houses are decked out in purple green and gold, like the one below, but there seem fewer than usual this year.

Others have gone black and gold:

And others have mixed it up:
We watched the game at our usual spot, the Rendezvous. I was half deaf by the end of the game from all the hooting and hollering. It was loud in there, I can't even imagine how loud the Dome was. When the winning kick was good, everyone was jumping up and down yelling and hugging each other. We spilled out on the the side walk. Cars were driving by, honking. People were hanging out of their car windows, hi-fiving people standing along the street. We moved down a block to where there was a bigger crowd. People were dancing in the street, traffic was at a stand still. A city bus came by. The driver stopped to high-five people then made the bus "dance" by making it kneel. He finally moved on and a cop car with the lights going pulls up. Over the loud speaker "Stay out of the street please. The sidewalk works much better. The Saints are going to the Superbowl." And this was happening all over the city. This was probably the first night that Bourbon Street was actually full of locals. We have two weeks to bask in this. Going to the Superbowl was the prize. Winning? Would be lagniappe. The Superbowl maybe in Miami, but the party to be at will be the City of New Orleans.

Saints Video: Bourbon Street