Monday, March 28, 2011

Hi everybody!

Guess what?  K-man and I got hired for another year!!  YAY!

You know what that means?  YOU still have a year to come and visit us in New Orleans.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Update (with a side of makeup).

Sorry for the lack of posts peeps.  Here's why:  I volunteered to take over a colleague's class who had to have emergency surgery. So that means I'm now teaching 18 credits. Wow, one more class has made me crazier than a chicken with it's head cut off*.  The moral of the story? I no longer have time to post.  Things WILL pick up after April, I swear.  Don't give up on me.  I'll post when I can.


Now, the side of makeup.  I *lurv* the new Clinique Chubby Sticks.

I got the color "fuller fig," honestly though, I think all of them would be flattering.  Here's why I love this product:  it is a perfect mix of lip balm, lip gloss, and lipstick.  It is moisturizing, has a sheen, and a hint of color.  Very flattering and easy to use.  FYI: it also works great as a cream blush (I CANNOT be the first to discover this).  Seriously.  Go buy this now.



*In New Orleans on fat Tuesday there are "marching clubs" (comprised entirely of men) that go out in the morning asking neighbors for gumbo ingredients (okra, sausage, etc).  The key ingredient is a live chicken. The men then go to a yard/field, get drunk, and the game is to set the chicken loose.  Whoever catches the chicken wins and gets to cook the gumbo. How's that for tradition?

Monday, March 14, 2011

Oh yeah!

Happy Pi Day everybody!

It worked out nicely this year because this is the first day of trigonometry in 3 of my classes. I got to talk about Pi all day!

My husband's geekiness makes me laugh.

He asked me to use the Googler to find the origin of the idiom "sticks out like a sore thumb." Within the info I came across another delightful idiom with the same meaning: "shows up like a mustard pot in a coal scuttle." I'm totally going to start saying it.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

New Orleanians have serious stamina.

Finally. Here's my Mardi Gras post.

First, let me say New Orleanians are serious about carnival season. These people party for a literal month before Ash Wednesday. 60+ parades, parties, and picnics. All events include alcohol and a lot of food. Carnival is a commitment. After the big parades, 400 city workers come out to clean the streets and prep for the next parade. I have no idea how many people it takes to clean the French Quarter. I cannot believe the city is still partying by Fat Tuesday.  Here are some pictures from the Monday before Mardi Gras.  Monday is called Lundi Gras.

First, we decided to be a little touristy and go to Acme Oyster house for lunch.  Here's a car in the parking lot.
Then, we went down to the French Quarter to go to the Lundi Gras celebration on the river walk. The royalty for the Zulu Krewe is unveiled at this celebration.  There is also a ton of crafts, food, beer, live music, and amazing fireworks. This is definitely where all the locals were.




Then we walked down to St. Charles to watch the Krewe of Proteus parade.  It was such a different feeling from the parade we went to in uptown (closer to neighborhoods).  Downtown was completely overtaken by tourists.  There was this weird mix of people:  To my right was a family with a small daughter trying to catch stuffed animals and such.  To the left was a group of drunk 20 year olds wearing t-shirts with a delightful photograph of a fully nude woman with something precious in her mouth. We still had fun though.  Here are some of the floats. Disclaimer: some of them kind of suck; it's really hard to get good pictures in a crowd of thousands :)




Wednesday, March 9, 2011

I saw my first New Orleans celebrity on Fat Tuesday.


I saw him coming out of a gym in Metairie. He's here for HBO's Treme. I haven't watched it because I don't get HBO, but I hear it's good.

He's played a number of compassionate characters. Unfortunately, I will never see him as anyone but the tragic character he played in "Dancer in the Dark". This movie ripped my heart out and stomped on it. Heart-breaking.

(do not read this as "this movie was terrible," it was absolutely fantastic. If you ever decide to watch it, have tissues on hand)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Happy Mardi Gras Everybody!

For now, I'll leave you with this.


We went down to the French Quarter last night for Lundi Gras. I will post fun pictures soon.

Note: This is seriously a city-wide holiday here. Everything is closed; restaurants, grocery stores, even the post office.

Monday, March 7, 2011

The Oatmeal.

Here is the latest Oatmeal comic; an ode to Sriracha.


See the FULL comic here.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Update.

The good:

Josh Ritter was awesome! Seriously, if you get a chance, go see him. This was his first time playing New Orleans and he was excited. Between every song he kept telling us how unreal and exciting it was to not only play New Orleans but for his first time to be at Tipitina's. The show was absolutely fantastic. During the second song he stepped back and let the crowd sing the chorus and I was completely shocked-- the majority of the crowd knew every word. I think Josh was as surprised as I was because he stepped back from the mic and (I'm pretty sure) said "F*ck me!" with a huge smile on his face. After that, his energy level sky-rocketed and the crowd felt it. It turned out the crowd knew every word to every song. Why did I think I was the only Ritter fan in New Orleans? He showed his roots with an Idaho state flag draped across the front of his keyboard :) Excellent show, it was a blast. I would post a picture of the band but I'm unsure about the legality of it.



On Thursday night (yes, a school night) we went to the parades put on by the Krewes: Babylon, Chaos, and Muses. They all ran down St. Charles. One of my Yelp friends has a condo on the route so we hung out with them and 30 other people to watch the parades. This is a picture of my friend's wine purse:
Keep'n it classy.  Yes.  I am jealous.


Krewe of Muses is awesome! It's the only Krewe run completely by women. This is quite a feat seeing as there are about 60 Krewes total in New Orleans. Their big throw are bedazzled high-healed shoes. It is quite rare and special to get one, so that's what everyone wanted. I didn't get one but a couple of people next to me did. Parades here are different. Instead of candy they throw stuffed animals (nice stuffed animals), balls, yoyos, frisbees, beer, and, of course, beads. The funnest thing for me is watching the kids. Most of their parents have made "parade ladders" for them to be able to see the parades better. Parade ladders are ladders with wheels so you can drag them to the route that have seats attached to the top of them for two kids to sit on. Here's a picture of the most ingenious one I saw:

The picture sort of sucks, but the ladders had dryer vent tubes attached to either side which led to a huge bin where the kids could drop their goodies. So smart.

Here's a picture of the opening float:

Now, the bad news:
Here are the weather warnings for today:
Thunderstorm advisory.
Flash flood advisory.
Tornado advisory.

Our big parade Endymion got postponed to run on Sunday with another krewe, Bacchus.  That wouldn't be so bad, but the route has changed.  This means our restaurant event won't work because the restaurant is no longer on the parade route.  I actually feel really bad for the restaurant because they have to refund everyone's money. So now I don't know if I want to go.  Here's why:  Endymion and Bacchus are called the "super krewes."  A million people known for getting rowdy were expected to attend each parade.  Put them together, and you can expect (with overlap) 1.5 million people.  Now, observing a million rowdy people from our nice, controlled, restaurant event is one thing.  Being in the mix on the street with 1.5 million rowdy people trying to get a view of the parades is quite another. This year has the highest expected turnout in years because Mardi Gras is so late it falls during a lot of spring breaks.  One can expect the crowds to be a big Frat party--not my idea of a good time.

We're waffling.  I'll let you know if we decide to take part in any of the craziness, tomorrow or otherwise.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

OK. Now it's official :)

Now I'm officially Yelp elite. Take a look at my profile, I now have a little badge next to my picture.