Beatle Mania

A groom's cake by Sucre

Dos Jefes

Just a few pictures from a bar further down Joseph Street. A typical evening there involves a Jazz band, cigar smoke, and drinking straight rum :)

I Am Thankful For...

• Getting a raise at work
• Seeing Bob Dylan live in concert
• The NFL ending their lockout
• The Saints dropping Reggie Bush
• Catching up with Zach at The Rum House with Brie
• Re-runs of Sex & the City after a long day at work!

Bob Dylan!!

A few months back I found out that Bob Dylan was going to be performing at the Lakefront Arena and boy was I excited!! Then a couple of weeks ago Brie surprised me by saying that she had bought us tickets!! So Tuesday night we drove out to the arena and settled into our seats to see Mr. Dylan himself! Leon Russell opened for the show but neither of us knew who he was.

As you can see, Bob was wearing a black suit (there were red stripes down the side of his pants, and his lapel was red as well) while his band sported matching gray suits. He did not play as many song that I knew as I would have liked, but it was fun none-the-less. He rocked out on the piano, guitar, and of course his famous harmonica!

I have always said that I wanted to see Bob Dylan in concert and now I finally have :) Woo hoo!!

New Fulfillment Manager

Due to a swift change of events at work last week I was asked to step up and be the "Fulfillment Manager". I basically started learning the parts of the job that I did not already know throughout last week, then signed the papers today officially beginning my salaried position. In short I am now managing the packaging and distribution of the Internet, store, and wholesale orders, ordering all necessary supplies to get the job done, keeping inventory, and planning for the holidays. I am excited to be able to take charge of some aspects I did not feel I previously had any say in. Things have been kind of crazy with new wholesale clients, but I think I have been keeping up! Wish me luck!

The Big Easy Rollergirls

Saturday evening I experienced my first ever roller derby! The Big Easy Rollergirls faced off against the Dixie Derby Girls from Huntsville, AL. I have seen the movie Whip It, but other than that I had no clue what the sport was about. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about it to learn the rules.

We were rooting for the gals in black and gold (duh!)

There was definitely some pushing and shoving going on but nothing too nasty in nature. All of the players have cool nicknames designed to intimidate like Bang Crosby, Coalminer's Slaughter, Joan Cougar Menstrualcramp, and Deb U Taunt. It was definitely an experience!

There were multiple Elvises running around tossing out candy and plastic cups! Here is Military Elvis.

The half-time entertainment was provided by the Rebirth Rollers. They had some smooth moves on their skates!

They were skating backwards in slow-motion! Skills!

While I am not sure that I understand the sport completely, it was something fun to watch! The Big Easy Rollergirls beat the Alabama gals 130-93!!

Termite Tent

Every once-n-a while I will see a house covered in what appears to be a large circus tent. At first I had no idea what was going on, then someone filled me in--this is how they fumigate houses! Weird. This picture is of a huge building/house thing across the block from my house.

I read about the process on this site.

Busy Bee

It has been a hectic week in my world! Things are changing around at work some (I will write more about that soon) and I have just been trying to keep up. To unwind some this evening I am going to take a fairly lengthy, moderately hot shower then curl up and watch Just Go With It (Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston movie that just came out) and hopefully enjoy a few good chuckles. The weekend seems so far away...

I Need Football

A few pals and I watched the women's World Cup on Sunday (unfortunately the US women lost to Japan in a nail biting sudden-death-style finish) and the whole gathering together and rooting for the same team made me miss football season tremendously! I looked forward to Sundays all fall knowing that for a few hours everyone would come together and put all other tasks aside to watch their Saints play. The NFL better figure out their contract situations soon because there are going to be a lot of unhappy people come August if there is no season.

10 Day Forecast

I think there is a chance of rain in my future!

New Reality Show Obsession

I have fallen in love with the new reality show "Ice Loves Coco" on E! Hehe! They are the cutest odd couple and are so fun to watch! Before watching their show I had only seen Ice T on Law & Order SVU and I have seen pictures of Coco on a celebrity gossip web page I frequent, but I did not really know much about them. I hope that they don't fall victim to the reality show curse and split up!

Frowny Face For Netflix

I am none too pleased with Netflix's recent announcement to up their prices drastically. The package I currently have allows me to watch instant streaming shows and movies as well as have one DVD out at a time for a monthly charge of $10.98. That seems reasonable for the amount of programs I watch. But now Netflix is splitting the package so that you have to pay $7.99 a month for instant streaming and another $7.99 for one DVD out at a time. So now, with tax I am looking at approximately $17.50 a month. That is an increase of around 60% in one swoop! Sigh. I am not sure what I am going to do. The price change does not go into effect until September 1st so I have a few weeks to mull it over. But let it be known, I am unhappy about this!!!

Might Need Stitches

Brie has been working on her special effects make-up skills a lot recently, making herself look bruised, cut, and all shot up. I never know what I will come home to see on her! Today though she asked if I would be a model for her skills. So I volunteered my leg!

See, a nice, relatively unscathed calf:

She used a pre-made transfer that went on kind of like a fake tattoo. She put it on with the paper side up then coated the paper with water until the transfer let loose and was stuck on me!

There are lots of tools to the trade! Spray bottles of glue and alcohol, sponges, paint brushes and more.

To give the cut a little more character she plucked at it with a needle-looking thing. It made it look like the "skin" was ragged and torn some.

"Bloody" q-tips

Adding some shiny "blood"

Looks pretty gnarly huh?

Being an ornery daughter I text my mom a picture of my leg when it was done and told her that I had fallen off of Brie's bike. I played it up for a while complaining about how bad it hurt and saying I might need to get stitches. A mean joke I know, but all in fun...she did not laugh. Oops! Sorry again mom, no real harm done, a little rubbing alcohol made it all go away!!

Titleless

The finale to possibly the longest week EVER was a deep, 10 hour slumber! It was so nice to sleep in before starting my Saturday, which turned out to be a rather productive day I might add! I washed some blankets and sheets, completely re-arranged my room (tried a different set up from any of the layouts I have done in the past), went by the bank, sold a few things at Buffalo Exchange, took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, returned a dress to Target that I decided I didn't really need, stopped by Verizon to pick up some screen protectors, and cleaned my bathroom. Not too shabby! Now I am watching Tremors and preparing to call it a night! Tomorrow I plan on relaxing and taking it easy :)

Happy Birthday America

To avoid loosing too many hours from my paycheck, I picked up a shift at the Magazine Street store on Monday. So my 4th started with 6 1/2 hours at Sucre! It wasn't so bad. I have not worked behind the counter since last October so I was a little out of the groove, but it all worked out. After putting in my hours I headed home, changed out of my sugar-coated clothes and went to a crawfish boil with Brie! After socializing for a few hours and getting our fill of mud bugs (I could eat them every day and never get tired of them!) I went home and basically crashed. My desire for laziness and sleep outweighed my wanting to see fireworks. So I was lame and hung out at the house. I did step outside when I heard explosions nearby but I couldn't really see much because of trees and buildings. Later I was talked into making a Creole Creamery run with Andrew and AV. Then it was back to bed for me! Happy Birthday America! I enjoyed crawfish and ice cream in your honor :)

Tubing Time

On Sunday I got my tubing on with some pals on the Bogue Chitto River. Daniel, Brie, AV, Blake, Evan and I road tripped to the north shore (drove over Lake Pontchartrain) for the day. We went to an outfit called Wayne's World Canoeing and Tubing. It was pretty cool; you pay $15 for a tube ($5 for a tube that holds your cooler) then they drive you in an old school bus up river where you hop in and float leisurely around bends and turns for hours. There were little "beaches" along the way you could stop at if you needed a break. The weather was great, not too hot. My only major complaint about the day would have to be the surprises underwater. Slamming into a submerged tree/log is no fun and equates to over half a dozen bruises on my legs. I had one particularly rough encounter early on where I hit a hidden chunk of wood with my lower back. The bruise has been very colorful to watch! We were lazy and floated for about 6 hours before heading back to the city. It was a long day, but a fun day!

Slacker

I know I have been slacking on the blogging recently. What can I say, I have been busy/lazy! I promise to type up some interesting posts soon, but until then you get to be jealous of my delicious dinner! Edamame with a colbyjack grilled cheese. After 10.5 hours at work today it was a quick and easy fix. Yum!

Gelato Truck: A Hot Mess

Friday I went on my maiden gelato truck voyage. I have driven the truck to the repair shop but I have never been to an event before. A lady, who happens to be an investor in Sucre, booked the truck for the employees at her business as a nice summer treat.

Most people would assume taking a big, colorful truck filled with cool sweets around town would be fun and enjoyable. Wrong. This was possibly the most miserable task I have ever done for Sucre.

I went along with another gal from one of the stores who has taken the truck out before, so she drove. We quickly realized that the brakes were not so reliable so we detoured by a Pep Boys to get brake fluid. Being ladies with no formal training in gelato truck maintenance, we popped the hood and stood there looking for the brake fluid holder. This was noticed by an older gentleman who came to our rescue and attempted to chat us up. Once the brakes were functioning we were on our way to our destination in Metairie.

The "air conditioning" in the truck is a pitiful joke. We had the sliding windows open but in 93 degree weather that did not really help much. Since this was an investor we were advised to take special care in our appearance. No shorts, no skirts, no cleavage, no open-toed shoes. Jeans, Sucre shirt, clean look. With these instructions I wore my nice jeans, cute slip on shoes, my white Sucre shirt and a white tank top underneath to make sure I was covered. OMG I was burning up!! With little to no air flow I was sweating, err glistening, like a pig!

To add to the fun there was a horribly foul smell coming from the truck that patrons were noticing as well. We deduced that it must be the tank that holds water for the truck. Gross.

So we have unbelievable heat, lack of AC, uncomfortable clothes and a nasty smell. But that is not all that made this trip less than fun. Upon attempting to wrangle myself into this death trap I ripped my jeans and cut my leg on a random piece of metal. That just pissed me off. I have not had these jeans long and I was considering them my "nice" jeans (i.e. not raggedy at the bottoms, not stained from work, etc.) But now they have a nice little slit in them on the knee cap. Grrrr.

While I had my battles with the elements and the truck itself, the people we were serving were super nice and the actual work part was not complicated at all. I guess I now know a little more about what to expect should I be asked to take this thing out for another spin. Here are a few pictures from our adventure. Enjoy!

The truck parked and ready to serve up some treats!

Don't be fooled, this is not a smile of happiness, rather one of heat-induced delirium.

Look at all of those yummy flavors!

Tubs of gelato and sorbet

My ripped jeans. You can't see my bloody knee but it is in there.