Ya Just Never Know

Ya just never know what you will see while wandering around the French Quarter. Today the weather was absolutely gorgeous out; sunshine, nice breeze, not humid...gorgeous! Cori and I strolled around the Quarter, stopped in a few shops, saw a walking parade, took a ton of pictures, and generally enjoyed the afternoon. We also saw a few interesting sites:

A man dressed as a Transformer.

A man entirely covered in silver paint flipping the bird standing completely still.

A guy in the Krewe of Cork parade wearing a poncho made of wine corks.

An impromptu drumming band. One guy working with real drums, the other using five-gallon buckets.

Saints Shocker

In what I am going to say can only be described as a horrible lack in judgement, the Saints decided to terminate their contract with Jeremy Shockey yesterday. He had played for New Orleans for three seasons and helped them win the Super Bowl last year. However, he has now been released, and I am stuck with a #88 Shockey jersey. Tis a sad day.

Krewe du Vieux

This past Saturday I went to my first ever Mardi Gras parade! Krewe du Vieux (pronouced crew du vew) is the only parade to my knowledge that goes through the French Quarter. It is all man and mule powered--no vehicles pulling the floats--and definitely NOT a kid-friendly event! This year's theme was "25 Years Wasted" (the krewe began in 1986...hey, me too; must have been a good year!) There were a lot of Louisiana-based jokes, as well as jabs at BP, TSA, and other current events. Scattered between the floats and folks in the parade were marching bands.

I'd say it was a decent crowd out! Ha!

Half of the time I couldn't even tell what I was taking a picture of. I was just aiming my phone and clicking... stinks to be short!

The guy in front of me had this classy shirt on:

This was the TSA float; basically playing off of the issue of overly intrusive body searches/scans!

Jicama

The Jicama (pronounced hick-a-muh), or "Mexican Turnip" as it is sometimes called, is one of my new favorite snacks! They are about the size of a softball and while they are not terribly appealing from the outside, they are crisp and delicious on the inside.


Brie introduced me to them and we typically find them at Whole Foods. I have been cutting them in half, slicing into thin strips, then cutting away the outer layer. At $1.29 a pound, they are not very expensive.
They are sweet tasting and remind me of a cross between a potato and an apple. I have read that they are very high in fiber, low in calories, and are almost 90% water. Makes for an interesting snack every once-n-awhile!

The Fly

I had the pleasure of being introduced to "The Fly" on Sunday. It is an area on the levy where folks hang out when the weather is nice. There were tons of people lying out, reading, listening to music, playing with their dogs, throwing frisbees, etc.


Brie, AV, Gabe and I hung out with a few of AV's other friends. Gabe taught me how to throw a football, so we threw that around a bit to work on my technique! There were lots of boats and cargo carriers going up and down the Mississippi. One in particular was showing off and spinning around and spraying water everywhere! It was a fun way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon!

AV the Marathon Champ

This morning AV ran his first ever marathon. The Rock 'n' Roll Mardi Gras Marathon was a 26.2 mile run around the city. Tons of streets were blocked off and closed for the runners as well as stages with live music throughout the course. The weather was gorgeous today; blue skies, mid-60's and not a cloud in sight!

Here is a picture of the course map.

He has been training/running for two years now, but this is the most he has run in one stretch. Brie, Andrew, Gabe and I thought we were going to be able to see him run through City Park, however, he was faster than anticipated and by the time we got there he had already finished! So, while we didn't get the chance to cheer him on from the sidelines, we all went out for brunch afterwards to celebrate!

We did not realize that we had missed him at first, so I took a picture of random runners while we waited!

AV, post race: sore, exhausted, and begging for a Bloody Mary!

The little orange loop thing on his shoe had some sort of tracking device in it so that an accurate time was recorded. He finished in 3:14:48! That averages about 7:40 per mile. He looked it up online and found out he was the 136th person to finish out of over 3,500 participants! Go AV!!

127 Hours

*Seems I like to review movies on here...hope you don't mind!*

Brie & I went to see 127 Hours the other evening, which is now an Oscar nominated film. It is a movie based on the true events surrounding Aron Ralston who went canyoning in Utah in April 2003. He was exploring alone when a boulder became dislodged, crushing his arm and pinning it against the canyon wall. The movie, which stars James Franco, shows Ralston attempting to free himself. However, after a little over five days (127 hours) and no other option in sight, he chose to amputate his arm with the small multi-purpose tool he had with him. Basically the film showed him being resourceful, videotaping his goodbyes to everyone, and hallucinating.

I think the biggest lesson to be learned from this movie is to always let someone know where you are going/what you are doing when embarking on such adventures! Aron had not let anyone know his plans, and therefore no one was searching for him. I have read on-line that he has continued climbing and setting records. He is now married and has a young son.

Is It Spring Yet?

A little of this and a little of that:

I am completely and utterly over cold, dreary weather! Bring on the sun and warmer temperatures. And by "warmer" I mean upper 70's...anything higher and I'll be wishing for the cold again!!

We have been slammed at work this week with Valentine's orders. Some of the messages folks include with their sweets just crack me up! "Boww chicka wowww wowww", "To my hunny bunny", "Hey Hot Stuff"!!

I don't know how, but I have been sucked into watching Teen Mom 2 on MTV. LOL! It is just another "reality" show about teens with babies and the drama they go through with their guys, school, work, etc. Guilty pleasure I suppose.

Perfect Evening

I am curled up in my big comfy bed, I can hear it sprinkling rain outside, there is a peanut butter and raisin sandwich on my night stand beside a tall glass of water and I am about to push "play" on the final episode of season one of Dexter... what a perfect evening!!

Solo Saturday

Living with three (occasionally four) roommates, time at the house by myself is a hard thing to come by. However, today happened to be my lucky day. Evan is in D.C., Nick is in Chicago, Brie is at work, and AV didn't swing by. Sigh. Sometimes I just need the quiet.

I can't say that I did anything terribly exciting today. I slept kind of late until Whitney called to let me know that Tariq (the chef at Sucre) was on Paula Dean's show, so I turned that on for a bit. Plunked around on the computer some, watched an episode of Dexter (yes, I am re-watching them again...don't judge me!), took a shower, decided to adventure out to Bee Sweet Cupcakes down on Magazine Street, watched Transamerica, and am now about to begin reading Russell Brand's My Booky Wook 2!

I picked their King Cake cupcake & the "Drew Brees" to try.

That Time of Year Again

Well, Groundhogs Day rolled around again this year, and I guess that also means I had another birthday. Twenty five times around the sun so far. It has been so frigid cold here recently, and February 2nd was no different. But despite the weather I was able to go out after work with a few friends for dinner and drinks :)

The Mechanic

I have been wanting to see The Mechanic since I saw the first preview. Jason Statham. Ben Foster. Action. New Orleans. Guns. Explosions. Sold! Brie, Andrew and I went to check it out the other night. I liked it. I would see it again. But it was not all that I wanted it to be.

Brie worked on it for two days on the second unit which filmed a bus explosion scene and I know a guy who was an extra in it. I kept looking for things I would recognize throughout the movie, but I think if I saw it again I would notice even more! Overall, not bad.

Austin!!

This past Friday Brie and I said "so long" to NOLA and headed to Austin, Texas for a girl's weekend! We both felt like we needed a little break from the guys we hang out with all the time and neither of us have been to Austin before, so this was our opportunity. What was suppose to be about a nine hour drive turned into twelve due to stopping for lunch, getting stuck in Houston rush hour, pee breaks, and the traffic in Austin. But we made it!

Austin!

Friday night we met up at the new Lucy's location (that is the restaurant that Brie works at in between movie gigs) with her friend Steel, who I have met before, and a guy named Pony--of course that isn't his legal name, but a nickname from the movie The Outsiders... any way... we wandered around a few bars with them and had a fun time taking in the nightlife. A lot of places there have outdoor balconies and large open window areas; it was very nice.

Saturday we headed downtown to see what we could see. AV had written down a list of places for us to check out before we left NOLA (he went to the University of Texas in Austin) so we tried to cross off as many as possible. We stopped by a farmers' market, strolled along 6th street, walked to the Capitol building, and took a ton of pictures! His list also included going to the HUGE Whole Foods since Austin is where that company started. It was overwhelming; so many specialty areas--definitely cool! And we found a bar/restaurant with a big Saints helmet on the roof!

Enjoying a treat in Whole Foods

I think the helmet was made from an old VW

After taking in as much as we could, we headed back home on Sunday. We stopped in Cypress, outside of Houston, and had lunch with Brie's cousin Adrienne and her boyfriend Taylor. Back in the fall they had visited New Orleans and we had all hung out, so it was fun to see them again. The weather was nice all weekend until we got right outside of Baton Rouge then we were in rain the rest of the way. It was a whirl-wind of a trip, but so much fun! Now it is back to the grind of every day life :)